Final Jeopardy: Around the USA (5-24-19)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (5/24/2019) in the category “Around the USA” was:
Astronomy buffs visit Idaho for the USA’s first dark sky reserve; oddly, part of it is this resort area with a bright name
26x champ James Holzhauer, a pro sports gambler from Las Vegas, NV, has won $1,991,140 now, only $8,860 away from 2 million! In Game 27, he takes on these two players: Sam Kooistra, a criminal defense lawyer from Tucson, AZ; and Susan Waller, a K-12 school administrator from Chester, PA.
Round 1 Categories: Clues Across Texas – Adverbs – Hip-Hop to It – “Green” Book – Famous Lefties – The Big Unit of Measure
James found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Big Unit of Measure” under the $800 clue, with 8 clues left after it. He was in the lead with $11,600, $9,600 more than Sam in second place. He bet it all and he was RIGHT.
This unit of explosive power is equivalent to detonating 2 billion pounds of TNT. show
James finished in the lead with $24,600. Sam was second with $2,200 and Susan was last at negative $600.
Round 2 Categories: Let’s Go to the Opera – Actors We Miss – Quasi-related Pairs – In the King James Bible – Planes, Trains & Automobiles & a Boat – Queen Victoria
Sam found the first Daily Double in “King James Bible” under the $2,000 clue on the 2nd pick. He was in second place with $2,600 now, $22,000 less than James. He made it a true Daily Double and took a shot at it with “rakes.” That was WRONG.
Isaiah prophesied peace, when “they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into” these. show
4 clues later, Sam found the last Daily Double in “Opera” under the $1,600 clue. He was in second place with negative $400 now vs. James’ $24,600 lead. He bet the $2,000 allowance and thought it was Munich. That was WRONG.
The waiting list for the annual Wagner Festival in this Bavarian City can be 10 years long. show
James finished in the lead with $39,400. Susan was next with $1,800. Sam was in the red at $2,000 so he was out of the game at this point.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
Dark sky places have been around since the 1990s and can be designated as preserves, reserves or parks. (See Wikipedia and the Intl. Dark Sky Assoc.), Designated in 2017, the Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve (CIDSR) encompasses the cities of Sun Valley, Ketchum and Stanley in Central Idaho. Sun Valley has been famous much longer due to its connection with Ernest Hemingway who (per the Independent.UK) was first invited to the new resort in 1939 and “tasked with adding glitz and glamour by attracting an A-list crowd in return for free hospitality.” The celebrated author bought a home in Ketchum in 1959 and committed suicide there 2 years later.
From 2002: DOWN IN THE VALLEY ($400) Ernest Hemingway’s grave lies near this Idaho valley, a year-round resort developed by the Union Pacific
Susan didn’t have a response. She didn’t bet anything either so she finished with $1,800.
James got it right. He bet $35,000 and won the game with $74,400. His 27-day total is $2,065,535. James had “Las Vegas Strip” crossed out underneath “Sun Valley.” It looked like he added it as a joke after putting the right response down.
2 triple stumpers from the last round:
PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES & A BOAT: ($800) Honda broke through in the U.S. with the 1973 this, a model still made today
QUEEN VICTORIA ($2000) Given this new anesthetic to inhale, Queen Victoria felt little or no pain in 1853 when she delivered her eighth child
2 years ago: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “Ancient Authors”
His famous work culminates in accounts of Xerxes’ invasion & Greek victories at Salamis & Plataea. show
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Did anybody else hear the rumors that James lost this week?
VJ, like Becci would say, in the above picture, James doesn’t look like someone who has won over 2MIL. He looks rather depressed, lol.
(Yeah, I know, you have explained this before.)
yeah, too bad he didn’t make a fist bump like he did at the end of his fake craps throw in the intro of Wednesday’s game
He rebounded from a close call to a buzz-saw. I hope that he will reach $3 million before the season is over, but for now, Ken Jennings, he’s coming for you.
$24,600 is the highest round one score ever.
Like the last four regular play weeks, none of this week’s challengers played giant killer, but with a few exceptions. Better luck next time.
Sam is dismissed. If James uncovered those daily doubles he would definitely know about the king James Bible and of course geography is his strong subject. This week we had a triple solve and two dismissals along with one strong opponent. today’s opponents didn’t even try to boost their scores. I thought Sam could have done a lot better if he didn’t make such bad guesses on the daily doubles right Vj? Congrats to James on the 2 million dollar win.
Well, congrats to James. 27 is one of my lucky numbers and I guess it’s lucky for him too, though you might say he was a lot luckier yesterday 😀
LINK: 9 more clues from the game
Subliminal hint maybe? Hemingway was mentioned in the $1000 “Green Book” clue. It was about Africa but, as noted above, he has a definite Idaho connection.
The “Barber of Seville” was mentioned in the $2000 Opera clue today, referring to Rossini’s opera. The Quote of Day came from Beaumarchais’ play: “The same wind that extinguishes a light can set a brazier on fire”
As someone who is very familiar with the Bible, I thought the King James Bible Daily Double was incredibly obscure. I suppose that’s why it was a $2,000 clue. To put on my conspiracy theory hat, I think they may have been trying to set up James to finally lose big on a daily double.
Wikipedia has an article on “Swords to ploughshares”, and apparently that verse has entered into pop culture far more than I realized. Perhaps it will be one of those things where you’ve heard it many times without realizing, and now that you’ve learned it, you’ll start noticing it a lot.
ha ha ha, JP, I agree that it was a killer DD. I know a fair amount about the Bible myself, but I rolled both eyes and raised both eyebrows when Alex gave the correct response.
I thought that DD was ridiculously hard, and then I realized that it must have been deliberately placed there for James to step on and lose big. First time a land mine has ever been used on Jeopardy and it backfired.
I was mostly tongue-in-cheek with that comment. First, I wouldn’t be surprised if James knew the answer. Second, if they are actually trying to make James lose, making the Daily Doubles more difficult would also reduce the chance of a competitor using it to catch up (as we saw in the game today). To keep the blacksmithing metaphors going, trying to use a difficult daily double for or against a particular contestant would be a double-edged sword.