Final Jeopardy: U.S. States (3-3-15)
The Final Jeopardy question (3/3/2015), in the category “U.S. States” was:
It’s the only state name that can be typed using the letters on only one row of the standard keyboard.
New champ Thomas Phillips won $25,601 in yesterday’s match. Today he takes on these two players: Erin Summers, from Reno, NV; and Alvin Chin, from Highland Park, NJ.
Round 1: Thomas found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “State Capitals” under the $600 clue. He was in the lead with $1,800 and the only one with any money. It was the third clue chosen and he had answered the $1,000 and $800 clues correctly. He made it a true Daily Double and he was RIGHT.
3M. show
Thomas finished in the lead with $10,400. Erin was second with $7,200 and Alvin was last with $200.
Round 2: Erin found the first Daily Double in “Geographic Etymology” under the $1,200 clue. She was in second place with $9,200, $2,400 less than Thomas’ lead. She bet $3,800 and she was RIGHT.
Making up 2 Spanish provinces, they get their name from Latin for “Islands of Dogs” & the “dogs” may have been seals. show
Alvin found the last Daily Double in “Drunk History” under the $1,600 clue. In third place with $7,800, he had $8,000 less than Erin’s lead. He bet $7,500 and he was RIGHT.
This U.S. artist’s 1945 marriage to Lee Krasner was a stabilizing factor he needed against his drinking. show
Erin finished in the lead with $23,400. Alvin was next with $16,100 and Thomas was in third place with $8,400. Upon returning from the break, Thomas was given $1,600 on an answer previously deemed wrong*, so he went into Final Jeopardy! with $10,000.
*Oh “No”! $800: A referees 2-word ruling that a boxing match doesn’t count. They were looking for “no contest” and got “no decision” from Thomas.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS ALASKA?
All the letters making up the state name Alaska are on the “home row” of the standard QWERTY keyboard. Using the standard finger placement, the right hand would type the A and S, and left hand L and K. Ohio is the only state you can type with just your right hand in the standard finger placement, and Texas is the only one you can type with just your left hand. Both have keys in more than one row.
Thomas went with Georgia but didn’t quite finish writing it. He lost his $6,101 bet and finished with $3,899.
Alvin got it right. His $16,000 bet brought him up to $32,100.
Erin said she was going for Connecticut although it looked like Kansas to Alex. She lost $9,000 and wound up with $14,400.
Alvin is a tutor. During the chat he talked about his cats, Raleigh and Charlotte. He built them an interlocking labyrinth out of boxes that they can scale almost to the ceiling that he calls the Kitadel.
2 years ago:: ALL of the players got this FJ in “U.S. History”
Congress has passed 11 of these: the first in 1812, the last in 1942. show
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Erin should not have received $200 credit for her answer ‘What is a hen?” to the question “In a fable, a farmer discovers that this bird lays golden eggs”. The answer is “What is a goose?” A female goose is called a goose, not a hen.
There are alternate versions where it is a hen, which is no doubt why her answer was accepted.
This was a fine show from all the contestants, but a less impressive show from whoever it is who has the responsibility to come up with questions for each category. This FJ was like something you’d read in a bathroom trivia book, and the Women Authors category was incredibly depressing. Women have a history of thousands of years of writing, and those we choose as representative are Helen Fielding, Janet Evanovich, and Suzanne Collins? Alice Walker and Muriel Spark are the closest the category came to naming classic women authors, and that’s not very far if one considers that all of them are post-WWII authors. I would have hoped that their choices would have hinted that women have a rich intellectual and literary history, not just that they’re purveyors of mystery novels, YA books, and chick-lit.
That’s a question more suited to Trivial Pursuit, not Jeopardy.
On final Jeopardy Alaska is not the only state abbreviation that can be typed on only one line of a standard keyboard. Wyoming (WY) is the other one.
They werent talking about postal abbreviations though. There’s a whole slew besides AK and WY that would fit.
Wow, I take my hat off to Alvin —to finish the 1st round with $200, to go big on a DD and get it right, and be the only one to get FJ right and win the game. Congrats!
I could kick myself for missing this FJ. I just complicated something very simple.
Yes, he who laughs last… Trebek was audibly chuckling when announcing Alvin’s $200 at the end of the first round, but Alvin took it in good spirits, and turned that one around big time.
If you watched them during the think music, Alvin got this one right away.
My son didn’t get it either. Aside from not really knowing the keyboard too well, I was loudly humming the think music on the phone, knowing darn well he can’t think under those circumstances. (evil grin)
Yeah, I didn’t think it was very nice of Alex to chuckle like that. Watch them during the think music? I was turning my brain’s wheels and trying to visualize the damn keyboard and running states in my head and hyper ventilating ’cause I needed more time, lol! I never learned how to type properly — I only use my 3 middle fingers and I can’t touch type.
i guess even yours truly was too optimistic.
how yesterday was a triple solve – the exception- will remain a mystery to me too. thompson even indirectly in one sentence with literature makes all real authors spin in their graves… a simple clue like today: i guess only alvin uses a computer and/or has a photographic memory. not that you need much of one when the solution is “alaska”.
I found that Final Jeopardy! clue hard!