Final Jeopardy: 19th Century Novels (4-29-20)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (4/29/2020) in the category “19th Century Novels” was:
Its first line ends, “the period was so far like the present period…for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only”
3x champ Sarah Jett Rayburn, a writer and stay-at-home mom from Hutto, TX, has now won $54,900. In Game 4, she takes on these two players: Alwin Hui, a consultant from Washington, DC; and Anastasia Plakas, an investigator from Flushing, NY.
Round 1 Categories: Billboard Music Awards – We’d Like to Make a Correction – Spineless Jellyfish – Well-seasoned Vocabulary – Writers’ Middle Names – 4-Letter Words With 3 Vowels
Anastasia found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Writers’ Middle Names” under the $800 clue on the 5th pick of the round. Sarah and Alwin were tied in the lead at $800 and she had half of that. She bet the $1,000 allowance and she was RIGHT.
Cecil Forester & Francis Fitzgerald show
Anastasia finished in the lead with $7,400. Alwin was second with $3,000 and Sarah was last with $1,800.
Round 2 Categories: There She is, Myth Greece – Laying Things N to N – Prequels – 1917 – The Gold Burgs – I’m Just Wild About Harry
Sarah found the first Daily Double in “Myth Greece” under the $1,600 clue on the 4th pick. She was in a $3,000 second place tie with Alwin. They both had $5,600 less than Anastasia’s lead. She bet $2,000 and she was RIGHT.
An early snowbird, this daughter of Zeus had to spend a few months a year in Hades after an unfortunate food choice. show
Alwin got the last Daily Double in “Gold Burgs” under the $1,200 clue. There were 6 clues to go after it. In second place with $12,200, he had $2,800 less than Sarah’s lead. He bet $3,800 and he was RIGHT.
In 1855 a California mining town wisely changed its name from Mud Springs to this, a Spanish name for a legendary gold country. show
Sarah finished in the lead with $17,400. Alwin was next with $16,400 and Anastasia was in third place with $11,000.
TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS “A TALE OF TWO CITIES”?
You can listen to the entire opening passage from Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” in this video. American Book Review ranks a part of that opening at No. 9 on its list of “100 Best First Lines from Novels.” By contrast, it didn’t even make this Top 10 list from Writing Cooperative.
The last line is as famous as the first and has been in Jeopardy! clues more than a few times. Here’s one from 2004: BRITISH LIT ($1000) Dickens novel that ends, “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done…”
Anastasia got it right. She bet it all and doubled her score to $22,000.
Alwin thought it was “The Time Machine.” That cost him $5,601 and left him with $10,799.
Sarah also got it right. She bet $17,000 and won the game with $34,400. Her 4-day total is $89,300. Woo hoo!
A triple stumper from each round:
WE’D LIKE TO MAKE A CORRECTION ($400) Dear Abby stated, “Charlie’s hiccups were cured…through the use of carbon monoxide. It should have read” this– so close!
1917 ($2000) Named for a British foreign minister, this declaration said the British government supported a Jewish homeland in Palestine
2 years ago: NONE of the players got this FJ in “19th Century Americans”
On July 10, 1804 he wrote a letter of goodbye, just in case, to “my dearest Theodosia”; he lived until 1836. show
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Alex could barely keep a straight face when he was reading that Dear Abby “Correction” clue. My daughter and I used to watch Jay Leno read the blooper headlines and laugh hysterically!
By the way VJ, did you know that the conquistador named lope de aguirre tried to take control of el dorado’s kingdom and all that gold? According to what I have seen on the Amazon trail another traveller and conquistador named Francisco Orellena was also looking for the same thing but was lost.
Congrats to.the players on getting final right. And congrats to Sarah on her fourth win. She definitely is looking good for the tournament of champions if she wins her fifth game tomorrow. Also why did alwin go with the time machine ,vj? If I recall the character travelled back to 802,701 a.d. and met the morlocks which obviously has no connection to a tale of two cities where it has our hero Charles evermont or calling himself darnay trying to clear his name from being accused of a crime he did not commit in France. I remember a few lines from that villainess like take this ping to the slaughterhouse and you are born to the wrong family, your home breed must be destroyed.
Whew, reading a lot deeper into the clue than what was there: it talked about a period being much like the current one, so time seems to come into play is an easy connection to make when searching for an answer. While the text only covers the “present” and, indeed, 802,701 AD (solid remembering on that detail), the movie adaptations throw in other periods, so it’s possible he felt like the first line was comparing to one of those periods, or that the novel was taking a classist position off the bat, comparing the Morlocks to the higher class who use the nice sweet Eloi (the lower class) for their own means. From that sense, I get why he might have made that leap. Or maybe he was just stabbing in the dark like people sometimes do in the heat of Jeopardy and went with the “period = time” option. It is a far, far better answer than nothing, than I have ever done on Jeopardy myself.
Yes, it can be easy to focus on the wrong word or phrase in the clue and be led somewhere else, or nowhere.
Sarah, go, go, go!