Final Jeopardy: Geography (4-7-23)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (4/7/2023) in the category “Geography” was:
Of the 13 nations through which the Equator passes, it’s the only one whose coastline borders the Caribbean Sea
3x champ Brian Henegar, a guest services agent from La Follette, TN, won $68,202 this week. In Game 4, his competitors are: Brandie Ashe, a personal assistant from Panama City, FL; and Rachel Clark, a director of client strategy from Washington, DC.
Round 1 Categories: Norway is Famous for… – Americana – Landing on Planet Franchise – De-composing – Good “E” – Two Shoes
Brian found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “De-Composing” under the $1,000 clue on the 8th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $3,000, $2,200 more than Brandie in second place. Brian bet $1,000 and said Stravinsky. That was WRONG.
On March 25, 1918 the sun set on this “Moonlight” composer in Paris show
Brian finished in the lead with $8,000. Brandie was second with $2,800. Rachel was last with $1,000. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: You Totally Ruled! – Life & Death in Literary Titles – Science – The Secret of Acronym – Pop Culture – Animalistic Words
Rachel found the first Daily Double in “You Totally Ruled!” under the $1,600 clue on the 18th pick. She was in second place with $7,000, $2,600 less than Brandie’s lead. Rachel bet $3,000 and she was RIGHT.
He finally got the crown he craved on July 6, 1483 but just 2 years later, Henry VII would open the very first Tudor garage show
Brian got the last Daily Double in “Science” under the $1,600 clue with 6 clues left after it. In third place with $8,000, he had $3,200 less than Rachel‘s lead. Brian bet $4,000 and he was RIGHT.
Fireworks went off July 4, 2012 with the announcement of a boson consistent with the predictions of this British particle physicist show
Brian finished in the lead with $15,200. Rachel was second with $12,000 and Brandie was last with $10,000. All clues were shown.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS COLOMBIA?
There are 3 South American countries that lie on the Equator:
• Brazil, which has a 7,367 km coastline along the Atlantic Ocean, is the only country in the world that lies on the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn;
• Ecuador has a Pacific Ocean coastline of 2,237 km; and
• Colombia has a 1,760 km Caribbean Sea coastline and a 1,448 km coastline with the North Pacific Ocean.
Seven African countries lie on the Equator: São Tomé and Principe, Gabon, Rep. of the Congo, Democratic Rep. of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya and Somalia. In Asia, Indonesia is the only country that the Equator actually passes through. It also passes through waters that belong to the Maldives and the same thing goes for Kiribati in the central Pacific Ocean. Learn more on Thought.Co.
Brandie thought it was Venezuela. She lost $4,000 and finished with $6,000.
Rachel went with Ecuador. That cost her $5,500 and left her with $6,500.
Brian came up with Brazil. He lost $8,800 and and finished with $6,400. That made Rachel Clark the new Jeopardy! champ.
Reversal: DE-COMPOSING ($400) After taking aim at “William Tell” & then quitting theater entirely at age 37, he quit more than that on Nov. 13, 1868 – Brian said Giacomo Rossini while the composer’s first name was Gioachino. Ken didn’t catch that but the judges did, so Brian had to part with $800.
A triple stumper from each round:
AMERICANA ($1000) You can ride in a Model T in this “Village” of historic Americana created by Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan
LIFE & DEATH IN LITERARY TITLES ($2000) Solzhenitsyn’s “One Day in the Life of” this character is the story of an inmate struggling to survive in a Soviet prison camp
2 years ago: ALL of the players got this FJ in “Eponymous Landmarks”
In 1960 the ashes of this aviator were spread over the Venezuela natural wonder he famously sighted decades earlier show
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I agree with Howard and Albert about Brian. Why provide more information than requested? Evidently, he never watched Matt Amodio play. Matt’s “K.I.S.S.” approach garnered him big wins and a hefty check. Providing too much information can be dangerous.
Does anybody else think that Ken Jennings would look better if he had both buttons buttoned on his suit jacket when he walks out onto the stage? Ken would look, imo, a little more polished and sharp if both buttons were buttoned.
Probably not, Albert. It’s very doubtful that Ken’s buttons made the list of things complainers look for to gripe about on Jeopardy!
Brian got cocky and lost money by saying the first names of the composers, while Brian should have just said the composers’ last names. Brian should have just said, “Rossini”, instead of trying to be pretentious by mispronouncing Rossini’s first name. That mistake probably cost Brian the game and a visit to The Tournament of Champions.
What turned out to be a close encounter of the 3-person kind began as a possible runaway for Brian.
Ecuador seemed too obvious so I went with Suriname. Geography not my gig.
I haven’t parsed the FJ wagers yet, but right now I’m thinking Brian’s innocent gaffe on Rossini cost him in the long run. He seemed very proud all week to give first and last names, which is fine if you know them cold. Many players (calling on you, Matt Amodio) give only the surname.
The word for the eagle-beak nose I learned when I was very young and they drilled vocab words into us. I’d say I’ve retained most of them.
I read the Solzhenitsyn novel in college for a Russian politics class. I’m still chortling over Brian’s “Ivan Rabinowitz” response. That was an all-time chuckler!
“Zaandam” was a huge hint at the name of the trading company. Thought someone would take a shot at the SW state capital. There aren’t that many to choose from.
I agree, Howard. That Rabinowitz response was funny.🤣 I mispronounced the second syllable in the right answer as “niss” but I still counted it right.
Also funny: Almost 2 years ago, Ecuador was the correct response to FJ! in an Equator-related clue.
In a 1989 clue, the clue writers excluded island countries with the word “mainland”, like this: WORLD GEOGRAPHY: 2 of the 9 mainland countries of the world through which the Equator passes.
Regardless of whatever reason they had for not doing so today The players confined their guesses to South America anyway.
Caribbean sea pretty much restricted the countries to those in South America. Central America too far north. Worldwide, I’d guess offhand many/most are in Africa. My son posted a funny meme on Facebook last night. First view is a map of North/Central/South America, with Argentina highlighted and labeled as such. Second is the same map with all of the other countries highlighted and labeled “Aren’tgentina.”
Your pronunciation of the title character was well within bounds. No controversy there. No added syllables or letters. They frequently allow mispronounced words, especially when the contestant accents the wrong syllable.
Very old joke, most likely from Henny Youngman:
Law firm answering phone: “Good morning, Rabinowitz, Rabinowitz, Rabinowitz, and Rabinowitz.”
Caller: I’d like to speak to Mr.Rabinowitz.
Law firm: Sorry, he’s on another line.
Caller: OK, let me speak to Rabinowitz.
Law firm: Sorry, he’s on vacation.
Caller: Then let me speak to Rabinowitz.
Law firm: Sorry, he’s in conference with a client.
Caller: Then put Rabinowitz on the line.
Law firm: This is Rabinowitz.
Strangely enough, i saw a few “I guessed Panama” comments around the net.
Funny jokes!
I said Venezuela. Oh well! I thought it was kinda harsh, sharp maybe, when Ken said that the composer was Finnish. I don’t know if he knew that off the top of his head, or was provided to him.
And Brian’s $8800 would only be enough to tie, had Rachel wagered the max (and gotten it correct).
Worst Final Jeopardy! week. Sad.
Worst week since the 15th Season finale week.
My mother and I first went for Brazil in FJ, but in desperation, I went for an even worst choice in the closing seconds. Actually, my mother stayed with Brazil. Well, we both lost! Better luck next week I suppose.
I guessed Venezuela on the final.
Thanks to that pesky geography clue, we got our fourth triple stumper this week which means we got four triple stumpers in one week for the first time since the Season 33 finale week.
Like that week, this week was just bad for Final Jeopardy!. Next week better be better than this.
This week is a bad week for FJ! Only 1 out of 15 correct responses and that was Brian on Tuesday. It has never happened in the history of FJ! with 1 out of 15 correct responses. But Rachel certainly had a Good Friday by winning the game by a margin of 100 dollars. So we began and ended the week with two small paydays of less than 10,000 but Rachel can try to earn a lot more money on Monday.
Hopefully, next week will be better, and if we only went 1 for 15 this week, who knows? Maybe, we’ll go 15 for 15 next week. I’m not saying that will really happen. I’m just saying that as a possibility.
It actually happened before back in July 1999 when J! was wrapping up its fifteenth season.
I didn’t see that week, but I did see the Finale Week of Season 33, and that week was bad for Final Jeopardy!. Only 2 right on Monday, and the rest of the week was Triple Stumpers, but it helped Justin Vossler become a 5-Day Champion and a 2017 Tournament of Champions participant.