Final Jeopardy: The USA (5-19-23)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (5/19/2023) in the category “The USA” was:
People going north on this route say they’re traveling “game”, an acronym regarding their beginning & ending points
7x champ Ben Chan, a philosophy professor from Green Bay, WI, has now won $213,000. In Game 8, his competitors are: Erica Johnson, a stay-at-home mom from Greenbelt, MD; and Chris Hammer, a teacher from McKinney, TX.
Round 1 Categories: Some of the 10 Commandments – On a First-Name Basis with Booze – Hurray for Hollywood! – Those Balls Have “I”s – Multiple Meanings – Gates
Ben found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Balls Have ‘I’s” under the $600 clue with 9 clues after it. He was in the lead with $4,000, $1,000 more than Erica in second place. Ben made it a true Daily Double and he was RIGHT.
In addition to its volleyballs, this company has been making the official NFL football since 1941 show
Ben finished in the lead with $10,400. Erica was second with $3,600. John was last with $1,400. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: Sweet 1616 – Literary Mismatches – The Human Body – Hip-Hop Names – Anagrams – Gaits
Ben found the first Daily Double in “Sweet 1616” under the $1,600 clue on the 2nd pick of the round. He was in the lead with $11,200, $7,800 more than Erica in second place. Ben bet $4,000 and said Henry Hudson. That was WRONG.
This navigator explored the Canadian Bay that alliteratively bears his name show
Ben got the last Daily Double in “Literary Mismatches” under the $1,200 clue on the 12th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $13,600 now, $9,200 more than Erica in second place. Ben bet $6,000 and didn’t have a clue so he was WRONG.
Nora Ephron’s novel about the end of a marriage bemoans “mysteries like.. neuritis, neuralgia, acid indigestion & this title condition show
Despite his big DD losses, Ben finished in the lead with a runaway $12,400. Erica was second with $4,800 and Chris was last with $3,400. All clues were shown.
ALL of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL?
The Appalachian Trail is an eastern hiking trail that is around 2,200 miles long. It spans 14 states between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine. I was not familiar with the acronym GAME myself, but after some hunting around, I found the following definitions in Litesmith.com’s comprehensive Trail Lingo lexicon:
GAME or GAMEr – A hike or hiker going from Georgia to Maine.
NoBo – Northbound thru-hiker, also a GAMEr (Georgia to Maine on AT, Mexico to Canada on PCT); and, conversely:
MEGA or ME-GA – A hike or hiker going from Maine to Georgia.
SoBo – Southbound thru-hiker (AT or PCT), also a MEGA (Maine to Georgia).
Whether you’re a GAMEr or a MEGA, if you make it all the way, you’ll be a “2000 Miler” – A person who has hiked the entire distance between termini of the official (white-blazed) AT, either by thru-hiking or section hiking.
AT=Appalachian Trail and PCT=Pacific Crest Trail.
Chris bet $3,299 and finished with $6,699.
Erica bet it all and doubled her score to $9,600.
Ben bet $2,400 and won the game with $14,800. His 8-day total is $227,800.
A triple stumper from each round:
THOSE BALLS HAVE “I”S ($800) After a century with its original supplier, in 1976 MLB said “Goodbye, Mr.” this & made Rawlings its new official ball
SWEET 1616 ($2000) Called England’s first great architect, he began work on the Queen’s House, England’s first classical building
2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “World Capitals”
A national capital for less than 100 years, it’s the westernmost capital in mainland Asia show
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Ben was right. Henry Hudson is alliterative, William Baffin is not.
Hi, Alan — Granted the clue was confusing as written, but it does not say the explorer’s name is alliterative — it’s the Bay’s name that’s alliterative. Therefore, Hudson Bay doesn’t work but Baffin Bay does.
Ben was sure up and down with his wrong answers. I thought he might have known the Ephron book (also a film, later) about her failed marriage to Carl Bernstein.
Was unfamiliar with GAME, figured it out quickly, but wasn’t sure if they meant I-95 (which of course runs from Florida north) or something else.
3 smart people didn’t know the name of the holy city? Or the okapi relative?
Having followed baseball for 60+ years, I did know the former ball maker.
That sure was a crazy game! After Ben lost $10K on those 2 DDs, he lost another $2K on the 13th Double Jeopardy! clue about the Queen’s architect. The scores after that were Ben $5,600, Erica $4,400 and Chris $2,200 — and Ben still pulled off a runaway!!
After steak and some beer, I wasn’t looking closely. I parsed the Georgia and Maine, but I went with I-95. Irony is, I went to college right on the App Trail. Shoulda gotten it.
The FJ was a breeze. As expected, Ben dominated today’s game, but not by the usual lopsided margin.
What a week it has been, Hannah Wilson dominated last week and this week Ben Chan dominated and he ran away all this week. It’s been a tough week for the challengers. Maybe next week, the challengers will have better luck in order to have a chance to take down Ben.