Final Jeopardy: World Cities (4-30-15)
The Final Jeopardy question (4/30/2015), in the category “World Cities” was:
According to the U.N. statistics, it is the most populous city in the Americas not attached to the mainland.
5x champ Greg Seroka has now won $133,200, more than either Alex Jacob or Kerry Greene had on their 5th wins. But will he win a 6th game against these two players: Robert Sale, from Washington, D.C.; and Valerie Braun, from Cincinnati, OH?
Alex began the show with a loving message to his wife, Jean, on their 25th wedding anniversary.
Round 1: Greg found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Advertising Icons” under the $800 clue, with one clue left to go. He was in the lead with $9,400, $6,200 more than Robert in second place. He bet $3,000 and he was RIGHT.
Appropriately, a brainstorming session produced the little girl under an umbrella for this brand. show
Greg finished in the lead with $12,400. Robert was second with $4,200 and Valerie was last with $400.
Round 2: Valerie found the first Daily Double in “6-Letter Crossword Clues” under the $1,600 clue on the 4th pick of the round. She was in third place with $1,600, $10,800 less than Greg’s lead. She bet the $2,000 allowance and she thought it was “Prince.” That was WRONG.
Tom Canty at the start of a Twain novel. show
Robert found the last Daily Double in “The Human Body” under the $1,600 clue. In second place with $12,200, he was now only $4,200 behind Greg. He bet $6,000 and thought it was the small intestine. That was WRONG.
The endometrium is the tissue that lines this organ. show
Greg finished in the lead with $18,800, his third runaway. Robert was next with $6,200 and Valerie was in third place with $4,000.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS HAVANA, CUBA?
Here is a detail from page 7 of Table 8 from the U.N.’s 2013 Demographic Yearbook which gives the population of all world capitals and cities having a population of over 100,000. This list goes by “city proper” and makes Havana the most populous city not attached to the mainland in North America.
Stanley in the Falkland Islands, with a population of 2,115, appears to be the smallest in the Americas on the list. (We have no idea why it is even on there.)
Valerie got it right. Her $2,500 bet brought her up to $6,500.
Robert thought it was New York City. That cost him $1,801 and he finished with $4,399.
Greg wrote down Victoria, B.C. He lost $1,200 on that but won his 6th match with the remaining $17,600. His 6-day total is $150,800.
During today’s chat, Greg showed his good luck charm – a souvenir pen he bought when he got the call from Jeopardy! He said it doesn’t work at all — for writing, Alex assumed, since it’s working pretty good for winning.
2 years ago:: ALL of the players got this FJ in “Science”
For a 1953 paper Odile Crick drew the diagram showing the structure of this. show
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OK, I had some extra time and found a table on the U.N. statistics site that shows Havana having a larger population than any other city not attached to the mainland, including Santo Domingo.
I put a detail from the table and a link to it in the info segment.
One woman’s thorough is another man’s pedantic.
hahaha .
lol. I wasn’t too thorough in finding out why they put a bunch of cities on that list with populations of less than 100,000 though I included that info just in case they ever decide to pose an opposite clue 🙂
Per the actual wikipedia pages for the various cities:
Santo Domingo: 965,040 people in the city proper, the cities of americas page includes metro area.
Manhattan Island: 1,636,268 people (NYC has a much larger population, but most of it is on the mainland. I’m not convinced that being an island in a river estuary counts as not being on the mainland, but even so…)
Havana: 2.1 million people in the city proper.
Looks like their question writers had it right after all 🙂
@Eric, see I told you we were going by wikipedia. (Just kidding)
@Mike, I put in the links to the pages you referenced. Also, I checked further into that Americas page I linked to in the post — it is just plain wrong because they have the population of the entire province of Santo Domingo listed on that page.
Since the cluewriters referenced the U.N., I was hoping someone might know where that info from the U.N. could be found online. I couldn’t find it.
Out-wikied, lol.
LOL — in all seriousness, the info in wikipedia is from 2010, and I’m sure the U.N. has more recent statistics, though it probably still comes out to Havana if the U.N. makes that distinction (even though the clue does not).
Anyhow, the big dilemma for me today is having a lot of work to do when what I really want to do is shop :):) — I’ll have to explore that U.N. link some other time.
Boy, did I have a bad feeling when Alex brought up Greg’s good luck charm today but the Trebek jinx didn’t kick in.
Greetings everyone! (From “the paradise city, where the grass is green & the girls are pretty” – not!). Boy, did I need a vacation — so home I went for 2 weeks. Nice to read everyone’s comments.
Before I left, Alex Jacob was kicking derrières; I come back to find Greg following suit — 6 days running. Congrats , Greg!
Missed FJ big time — spun my wheels for too long and came up empty. 🙂
Same here about the Trebek jinx – glad the luck charm cancel it. 🙂
Hey Cece! Glad to see you back and hope your vacation was great :):)
My 14-year old granddaughter got that Mark Twain DD because we recently watched the movie with Mark Lester in the dual role, and she got the Twelfth Night clue because they are currently studying that in school. :):)
Paradise City. LOL!
Wow, a very smart 14-year old girl. 🙂
I thought Trebek’s message to his wife was so sweet — awwwww.
Yes, I had a nice vacation, trying to keep up with my festive, non-stop people. They make me feel like an old lady, and I’m in my thirties, lol!
Paradise City – I have you to thank for the lyrics; love the song. :):)
Not me for the song — the Jeopardy clue and they have G&R to thank for the material. ha ha. I bet you can samba with the best of them :):)
Yes it’s nice when Trebek remembers his family’s occasions (like his mom’s bday, too).
btw, Greg’s score today puts him at the top of the TOC list whether he wins tomorrow or not
@Anna
I know. But the contention is that the clue would have been clearer if it say Western Hemisphere.
@Eric
I don’t think New York is acceptable because the Bronx is not on an island. So the city is attached to the mainland.
@VJ – Yeah, saw that Greg surpassed Alex Jacob’s total— very nice. Wouldn’t it be great if they kept getting contestants like Greg, Alex, Kristin… one after another, to keep the games exciting?
Re the Triple Stumper clue on the CotD page: “WHAT IS THE WOODPECKER”?
“(Since 2008, there is a $50,000 reward…” — now you tell me? I could’ve spent a couple of days in the Amazonas looking for the damn bird and make a video, lol!
Right?? That is SO funny. I only found that out because I was curious if they had declared the bird extinct since the time of the clue. Then I pictured people either out searching for one to collect that reward, or making ivory bill disguises for normal woodpeckers.
LOL!!
On that note, I’m signing off. If I don’t get some sleep soon, I’m gonna start hallucinating and seeing one flying around in my place. :):)
Another very poorly worded and vague Final Jeopardy, two days in a row now.
Here are the 4 other clues in “6-Letter Crossword Clues” today:
$400 – To this first name belong the spoils
$800 – Croatia’s capital
$1200 – Where to harbor your yacht
$2000 – Destiny, Turkish style
Robert got the first two, Valerie got the yacht one and Greg got the last one.
Not attached to WHAT mainland? The mainland of the continental USA? I find this wording so confusing. Havana is definitely attached to the mainland of Cuba. I thought it would be MANHATTAN Island since it’s AN ISLAND. An island isn’t attached to the mainland.
the “mainland of cuba”…cuba is an island.
north,central,south america and the caribbean are ALL part of the americas.
alaska, antigua, nicaragua all the way to cape horn make up the americas’ the didtinction between north,central,south america is arbitray. it is ONE continent, geographically speaking. since the caribbean islands are all volcanic, chances are that billions of years ago they were linked to the -probably- central part of america, the continent.cuba was maybe linked with the southern part of north america.but they are all “the americas”.
Did they use the word CONTINENT in the clue? I think it would’ve gone better for me if they had said, “the continental mainland.” It’s the wording of the clue — I believe that MANHATTAN island fits as a correct solution to the way this was worded. I do know that Canada, the continental USA, and S. America, plus the Caribbean and Antilles are “The Americas.” I do know that Cuba is an island — I’ve travelled the Caribbean. No problem there. But, hey, doris s — I appreciate your taking the time!
Can anyone explain why the networks insist on interrupting Jeopardy with these protests and other things?
It would be nice to enjoy the show.
Well, setting aside other values, they were important enough to cause an attendance-less Major League Baseball game. For much more, see the post, “Orioles to play in Empty Ballpark…” in the (real world of) Sports section.
I saw that….or when the President is speaking about something, or if there is a car chase, or a helicopter is flying for whatever reason no one in the media seems to know. There’s always something to interrupt a show–important or not.
A few times vj was stuck finishing her recap because Jeopardy in her area was interrupted. We all chipped in from our different locations to help fill in the gaps.
C’est la vie!
Down here, the weird thing is that Jeopardy comes on in between two news broadcasts, so they repeat everything on the 5 pm news that they just interrupted the show with!
Lol. Never a doubt.
See, Eric you were correct. Congrats.
I preferred what you stated about the Western Hemisphere. Become a Jeopardy clue writer. 🙂 🙂
Americas imply North and South America continents imo.
Thank you. Yes, western hemisphere is way less ambiguous.
Not to burst the bubble, but there are parts of Europe in the Western Hemisphere. Madrid, for example, is in the Western Hemisphere and it has a larger population.
Great point, in a way, but I’m not sure it affects the correct response. I think Madrid is on a peninsula, seemingly making it a no better answer than NYC.
I hope no one wants to figure out the population of western London. I guess there is no way this is not a mess.
It wasn’t Western Hemisphere, it was “The Americas”. Cuba being an island not attached to South America. I think NYC is a valid answer since Manhattan is an island not attached to the mainland of New York.
plus the caribbean.