Final Jeopardy: Communication (3-31-25)
The Final Jeopardy question (3/31/2025) in the category “Communication” was:
Invented by a student in 1824, this system has a total of 64 combinations
6x champ Josh Weikert, a politics professor from Collegeville, PA, accumulated $100,202 in winnings last week. In Game 7, he is up against: Bryce Wargin, a post market surveillance coordinator from Kansas City, MO; and Allison Willard, a paralegal from Weddington, NC.
Round 1 Categories: Florence + the Simple Machine – Country Music History – Rhyme Time – Constitutional Amendments – I Got Me a Car – It’s as Big as a Whale
Bryce found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “It’s as Big as a Whale” under the $600 clue on the 19th pick of the round. He was in last place with $1,600, $2,400 less than Josh’s lead. Bryce made it a true Daily Double and he was RIGHT.
Big in a little place, the 109-foot Gainer Memorial Dam in this state is made of earth & overflows into the Pawtuxet River show
Josh finished in the lead with $7,400. Allison was second with $4,600 and Bryce was last with $3,800. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: Birth of a Nation – 20th Century Novels – Getting Religion – Type “A.B.”: Negative or Positive – Nepo Parents – Oxymorons
Allison found the first Daily Double in “Getting Religion” under the $1,200 clue on the 4th pick of the round. She was in second place with $7,000, $2,400 less than Josh’s lead. Allison bet $2,000 and she was RIGHT.
The spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church bears this title, from Greek for “father” show
Bryce found the last Daily Double in “Birth of a Nation” under the $1,200 clue on the 6th pick of the round. He was in last place with $4,200, $5,200 less than Josh’s lead. Bryce made it a true Daily Double and he was RIGHT.
August 9, 1965: Singapore separates from this country across the Strait of Johore & becomes independent show
Josh finished in the lead with $15,000. Bryce was second with $12,400 and Allison was last with $11,800. All clues were shown.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS BRAILLE?
Louis Braille was a French educator who developed a reading and writing system that eventually became the standard for the visually impaired. Braille was blind himself from the age of 3 due to an accident in his father’s workshop. While a student at France’s Royal Institute for Blind Youth, he became acquainted with the raised dot system of reading invented by Charles Barbier. Braille saw the limitations of Barbier’s phonetic system and, between the ages of 12 and 16, he improved upon it with an alphabet based upon normal spelling.
From The Braille System: “Each braille character or ‘cell’ is made up of 6 dot positions, arranged in a rectangle comprising 2 columns of 3 dots each. A dot may be raised at any of the 6 positions, or any combination. Counting the space, in which no dots are raised, there are 64 such combinations (that is, 2 to the 6th power).”
Allison had no response. She lost $8,700 and finished with $3,100.
Bryce got it right. He bet $6,000 and finished with $15,400.
Josh crossed out semaphore and went with Morse code, losing $9,801. That dropped him down to $5,199 and made Bryce Wargin the new Jeopardy! champ.
2 triple stumpers from BIRTH OF A NATION:
($800) June 25, 1991: Slovenia & this larger part of Yugoslavia declare their independence
($2000) December 24, 1951: This North African nation that had been an Italian colony becomes independent under King Idris I
2 years ago: NONE of the players got this FJ in “20th CENTURY EPONYMS”
A 1940 headline about this included “failure”, “liability when it came to offense” & “stout hearts no match for tanks” show
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Ouch, I immediately said Braille, then changed to ASL. Oh well.
Competitive game, then the challengers started tanking, then they rallied to stay in contention.
Saw that Dustin H film when it was new. Long, but very well done. One very amusing scene still stands out in my mind 55 years later. I bet VJ knows which one.
There were a lot of funny scenes and lines in that film, Howard. I’ll take a wild guess that you’re referring to the bathtub scene. (He looks like a pretty well-growed child, if you ask me) 🤣🤣
I’ve never seen the film yet I guessed he was referring to the bathtub scene as well, VJ lol.
I don’t seem to remember that. I was thinking of the part in which he had to “service” several Indian maidens in a row.
One thing I noticed early in the show that wasn’t edited out. Bryce went all-in on the DD and before it was revealed, Ken said something about him escaping from 3rd place. Which was not possible because of his low total at the time. He hit the DD but was still in third.
I was 3/3 on DD, and got FJ. I don’t really know why, but I did know that it wasn’t Morse code. Then, I just figured, “what else could it be”, and didn’t come up with anything. Of course, just because I couldn’t come up with anything else doesn’t mean that this method is foolproof! I DEF have the “fool” part down!
Just coincidentally, I watched an episode of “Colt .45” on the DVR just before this, and there was a scene set in Mexico, with “telegrafo” on the sign!
I love Colt.45, Jason. Wayde Preston, more than Donald May. I had MeTV+ on last night, half asleep. Saw parts of an episode where this guy bushwacked Chris Colt and stole his clothes. He didn’t look big enough to fit in Colt’s clothes — Wayde Preston was 6’4″! Then later Sugarfoot came on with a Chris Colt guest spot. (I love Sugarfoot and Bronco, too).
On H&I, Colt .45, Lawman, and Cheyenne are back to back to back! I JUST found out today that Bronco spun off Cheyenne, after the star of Cheyenne was being a diva, they brought in Bronco, and, when the diva came back, Bronco got his own show!
All sorts of behind the scenes drama!
I used to watch H&I, mainly for Paladin. Their lineup included Wanted: Dead or Alive & Rawhide at that time, but I never was big on babyface Steve McQueen or Rowdy Yates. Now I watch MeTV+ and INSP for Westerns. You might like the website Western Clippings. They have interviews with all the western girls, with a lot of behind-the-scenes insights. Here’s a photo of Clint Walker with Jayne Mansfield.
Well, the basketball games had finally ended (at least for today). Anyways, I did somewhat above average in today’s game. As for FJ, I went with the Morse Code, but I knew that Samuel Morse came up with that code some years later. In fact, I’m familiar with the Morse Code as I’m more or less proficient at 20 WPM. Actually, I couldn’t think of any form of communication that occurred in that earlier half of the 19th century.
I guessed Morse Code also for the final.