Final Jeopardy: Transportation (3-27-15)
The Final Jeopardy question (3/27/2015), in the category “Transportation” was:
Incorporated in 1948, this company chose its name from the book of the Hebrew prophet Hosea.
2x champ Jacqueline Hawkins has won $34,101 so far. She’s trying for a third win today and her competitors in the last game of the week are: Eric Swanson, from Charlottesville, VA; and Michael Bilow, from Chicago, IL.
Round 1: Michael found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Remember 2014” under the $400 clue before the first commercial break. He was in second place with $600, $800 less than Eric’s lead. He bet the $1,000 allowance and he was RIGHT.
The Supreme Court ruled that police need a warrant to search these, now a pervasive and insistent part of daily life. show
Michael finished in the lead with $9,200. Eric was second with $6,200 and Jacqueline was last with $1,800.
Round 2: Eric found the first Daily Double in “Authors & Their Works” under the $1,600 clue. He was in second place with $9,800, $1,400 less than Michael’s lead. He bet $5,000 and he was RIGHT.
O, by the way, Willa Cather took the title of this 1913 novel from a Walt Whitman poem. show
Michael found the last Daily Double in “Big Words” under the $2,000 clue. In the lead with $14,800, $400 more than Eric in second place. He bet $7,000 and he was RIGHT.
This synonym for “gigantic” was in use more than 200 years before a 1912 event put a new spin on it. show
Michael finished in the lead with $28,600. Eric was next with $20,800 and Jacqueline was in third place with $2,200. After the break, Jacqueline was awarded $4,000 on a clue previously judged wrong, so she went into the final with $6,200.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
On its website, the company says this about its name: “EL AL owes its name to David Remez, the first Minister of Transport, who based the name on a passage from the book of Hosea.”
The Jewish Daily Forward sheds a lot more light on the actual passage in the Book of Hosea, as well as the meaning: “…when the newly established State of Israel launched, in September 1948, its national airline with a single airplane, a four-engine C-54 military transport repainted in blue-and-white with a Star of David on the tail, it turned to the Bible for a name and found el al, meaning “upwards” or “to the sky.” … The Hebrew words occur in the seventh verse of Chapter 11 of the book of Hosea, V’ami tlu’im l’meshuvati, v’el al yikra’uhu yaḥad lo yeromem. In the King James Bible, this difficult verse is translated as, “And my people are bent to backsliding from me; although they called them to [el] the most High [al], none at all would exalt him.”
Jacqueline drew a blank. She bet and lost it all.
Eric thought it was Amtrak. He lost his $14,599 bet and finished with $6,201.
Michael came up with Greyhound. That cost him $16,199 but he won the match with the $12,401 he had left.
Michael is a PhD student in computer science. During the chat, a business he ran holding chess tournaments was brought up. Alex put him on the spot, wanting to know how good he was at the game. Michael put his best rank at 1280 and said it wasn’t that great.
2 years ago:: TWO of the players got this FJ in “State Mottos”:
On a state seal since 1850, this one-word motto is found in a story about Archimedes. show
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My guess was Amtrak too, because ‘Am’ means people is Hebrew and Hosea names one of his children Lo-Amni (not my people). I have never heard of that airline, so I was stumped.
I can see how you thought that. And Hosea’s wife was Gomer. Go has to do with transportation, too. LOL.
LOL! (GO — that actually would be a cool name for a transportation company.)
I’m starting to think that I’m a jinx. Every time I think an FJ answer is obvious, either nobody or only one person will get the correct answer. This time when the clue came up on the screen, I even said out loud to myself, “This is so easy!”
Other than that, this was a very fun game. I like it when the contestants are mostly able to clear the board between them. I cringe in empathy at wrong answers and triple-stumpers, especially if I end up answering more questions than they do.
What a great game, albeit an fj triple stumper. C’mon dudes, 1948… Hebrew…, but great performances up until that “brain-freeze”
And the name of the “that poet” had to come up again —the J! writers have a fascination with him, it seems
Yes, LOL, Walt Whitman’s appearance didn’t escape me but, I thought, at least he’s not the answer. 🙂
Allah Akbar
i am embarrassed for all 3 players today for missing such an obvious answer. just let’s go with the usual, basic deduction that is jacob’s favorite:
1948 >hebrew>transportation. PLEASE NAME THE MOST RECOGNIZED AND WORLD FAMOUS TRANSPORTATION COMPANY OF ISRAEL !!!
yesterday was already a shock, but for today there is no excuse. fwiw i apologize to all friends of israel. running that airline under the circumstances we have is a MAJOR accomplishment. ElAl is the target of pretty much every arab nation , not to mention other haters of israel. yet the safety record is exemplary.
the irony is that the 2 clues that asked even for a shred of knowledge produced 1 right answer out of possible 6. when you look at the week we have 8/15 for fj or 53.33 %, terrific, right? WRONG.
the most unimportant clue is what all 3 got. you can be mad at me as you want, vj, but you said yourself you missed “hebrew” in the clue. that indicates to me that had you seen it, you would have gotten the answer.
despite this disastrous end to the week i would be remiss in not saying: despite it all it’s just a game … HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYBODY – SHABBAT SHALOM!
I am not mad at you at all. I just think you are wrong that if I had processed the word Hebrew in the clue, I would have gotten it. Certainly not in 30 seconds and that’s what counts.
Or more like 22 seconds, really: just in case there are aspiring contestants. But, yes, great point!
i just wonder:
category: transportation
clue: having 4 official languages (none of them english)the name of this european country’s (transportation) company is still “english”. (transportation is the category).
would anyone have guessed SWITZERLAND????
Hey, I got that! Maybe I’m not totally hopeless…
The question was a company incorporated in 1948 based on the Hebrew prophet Hosea. Granted, 1948, Hebrew prophet is a telling clue, with the answer being ElAl. I was thinking of a US company, being after WWII, which country would be booming economically. That’s what makes final jeopardy so interesting. Obvious to some, but not to all.
I wonder what Alex would’ve said had everyone got it right. I also wonder if that big of a total after DJ! has ever happened in Season 31’s regular play games. Can’t wait 2 C the comments! Peace!
Nice to see you here.