Final Jeopardy: Fruits (5-29-14)
The Final Jeopardy question (5/29/2014), in the category “Fruits” was:
It’s the only commercially important edible fruit of the bromeliad family.
18x champ Julia Collins is going for a record-making tie with 19x champ Dave Madden today. Her 18 day total is $391,600. Today her competitors are: FeiFei Jiang, from Olathe, KS; and Matt Weldy, from Grand Prairie, TX.
Round 1: Julia found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “On the Old Map” under the $1,000 clue. She was in the lead with $1,200, $200 ahead of Matt in second place. She made it a True Daily Double, but said Thailand. That was WRONG.
In the 1939 Brittanica Book of the Year, this entry says the King is Ananda Mahidol & a chief town is Bangkok. show
Matt finished in the lead with $4,400. Julia was second with $4,200 and FeiFei was last with $2,200.
Round 2: Julia found the first Daily Double in “I Won That State in the Presidential Election” under the $1,600 clue. She was in the lead with $11,400, $6,200 more than Matt in second place. She bet $1,400 and she was RIGHT.
Arkansas in 1968: this third party candidate. show
Julia found the last Daily Double in “New British Coins” under the $1,200 clue. In the lead with $18,800, she was $13,200 ahead of Matt in second place. She bet $1,200 and she was RIGHT.
Floral emblem 1-pound coins feature a daffodil for Wales, a thistle for Scotland & this for England. show
Julia finished in the lead with $23,200. FeiFei was next with $5,000 and Matt was in third place with $4,000.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
“The pineapple, or Ananas comosus, is the most economically important bromeliad. It is the only bromeliad that produces a fruit that can be eaten and is therefore grown commercially in a variety of tropical locations….
“James Dole started one of the first United States companies to begin growing pineapples in Hawaii. His first pineapple plantation was established in 1900. Dole opened a cannery a year later in 1901. Del Monte followed shortly after in 1917. In 2009, however, it was the Philippines that topped the world’s pineapple production, producing 2,198 thousand metric tons of fruit. ” (Pineapple: The Edible Bromeliad)
Matt got it right. He added $3,500 to finished with $7,500.
FeiFei thought it was a quince (Rosaceae family). She lost $3,000 and finished with $2,000.
Julia came up with the pear (also Rosaceae). She lost that $4,800 she felt like risking, but still won the game with $18,400. Her 19-day total is $410,000.
All Alex had to say was: “How about that? She could be the second winningest player if she wins tomorrow. You gotta tune in to find out, don’t you?”
We say “Congrats!” and “Well done!” to Julia, for tying the 2nd most games won in regular play record today.
3 years ago:: On 5/27/2011, this triple stumper was the $400 clue in “Pineapples” in Double Jeopardy.
Pineapples are the only widely eaten of the bromeliads, a family of 3,000 species; like others, they aren’t grown from seed, but by planting the top leafy structure, called this. show
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I have no idea about today’s clue, Jacob. Eric has an idea and he shared his thoughts with us below…but this has been discussed all day now without a definitive answer…pity the poor contestants who have only 30 seconds.
True. Plus under hot studio lights and in front of a live audience. The pressure must be excruciating.
I fear the worse: JJ is going on Good Morning America on Monday and fielding questions. The latter leads me to believe that she won today’s game.
@ eric & nomi: my reply might be lost in the middle, so i write one for the top: what the heck are you talking about? and who is HALDENBERG? am i missing something in the n.y. times clue, sitting here in hawaii???
“ex-presidents in congress???”
or was that a clue a few days ago?? i did not see all episodes completely the last few days.
Wendy Haldenberg is a librarian coming on the show today that Eric is hoping will take Julia down! The NY Times CotD is on Jeopardy’s site. I think I told you once that it’s usually the FJ.
I don’t know how much we should talk about it before the show. Far as I know the spoiler feature doesn’t work in the comments so the only other alternative if you are going to give away something about the clue or the answer is to type SPOILER ALERT (like Eric did)
I usually make a mental bet on how many I think will get it when I see the clue, and usually it’s only Friday that I know who all 3 contestants will be before I make the bet so I don’t go by what they do anyhow. I’m betting all 3 get it today. That’s all I’m saying about it before the show.
The ex-presidents in congress was an example of my under-caffeinated, sleep deprived addled mind misreading the clue. Please disregard it: it is not a proper hint.
Hey Eric. Gosh this one is so tough. I don’t even know what to google. American politics is not my forte.
It is sooooo very very true that these are easy when you know them and not when you don’t. This is a strong subject for me, so I am not a good judge on its difficulty. I do, unlike yesterday, think that Julia will get this as she majored in History.
My friend, if you google ex-Presidents in congress, you will get two results. If you Google ex-Presidents in the Senate, you will only get one.
Wow. Wait! I totally misread the question (answer or stimulus). Lets try senators who became Presidents. The FJ (probably) is way harder than I thought!
There is new hope for today.
Not good. Misreading still provides the same result! I honestly think the information was somewhere in my brain.
Well Eric, you are second-guessing yourself, so imagine how difficult this one is for me. I’m not American, so I didn’t study American presidents as a school subject.
It lifts my day to get the FJ in the morning. Unfortunately, not yesterday or today.
So, before the next Jeopardy test, you may want to read Don’t Know Much About History. …by Kenneth C. Davis. It’s an easy read and fact-filled. I knew that I read about the Senate seat someplace, haha. I’m truly not at my best pre-caffeinated a.m.
Hey Eric, found that book on Amazon and I’ve bookmarked it. Thanks.
You are so welcome. Not being American can certainly make it tough sometimes on Jeopardy. I’m too typically American: I don’t know enough world history or geography (lots of other subjects also). I’m glad that I don’t share the prejudices of many Americans. Fortunately, there are sites like these where we can treated by more enlightened Americans.
The book I recommended is good for accumulating factual knowledge, however, to more understand American history, I would recommend A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn.
I hope that you have the day that you deserve.
Thanks Eric. Categories like today’s make my heart sink. Also, U.S. states :).
Nomi, another thing you should is bookmark J! Archive and play the games on there as they put them up. Also notice that they have a search box at the top — if you miss something, search on that answer to get an idea of the types of clues and info that comes up. As you can see from the 3 years ago part of today’s recap — they do recycle clues!
Hey VJ. I love the J-Archive. Just a few days ago, my roommate said to me, “What’s this blue screen you’re always staring at?” Then I had to explain why I spent so much time on the archive.
for an American, Nomi, this one is a no-brainer.
I’m not American, VJ. As I said, I didn’t study American history in school.
Yes, I saw that you said that — I meant the contestants coming on the show today. Wendy is from Connecticut and Julia and Sami (a man) are from Illinois. All three of them should have no problem getting FJ, so the one who has the most money going into FJ should win.
I’m not sure the Clue of the Day is a no-brainer. Without any attempt to google it, I might logically guess….Civil War era due to the 4 year Senate seat vacancy…say…Andrew Johnson.
But I wouldn’t be 100% confident in that response. I don’t remember learning about a 4-year, vacant Senate seat.
P.S. I shudder to think about which questions are “brainers” to VJ.
“brainers” to me are in science fields, math and sports. I do well in poetry, lit, french, music (though spotty on opera), history and word stuff categories.
Isn’t this why you admired Julia though? Because she’s good in the arts and sciences?
So you’re good at about 94% of the final categories? Nice. And yes, I find minds which can synthesize both spheres to be inspiring. To be clear, although Julia possesses that remarkable type of a mind, Larissa Kelly does as well, and probably more so. If they lobbed in these Eephus pitches to her, she’d have twice the money as Julia has. So, in some amount of fairness, here’s to Hardenberg.
The Julia audition video that Eric mentioned below is actually on Jeopardy’s youtube channel
Well, my paranoid suspicions are still going strong. The guy in the middle started off well, then turned into another “weak competitor,” as we’re calling them. The woman on the other end is a law student, so it went without saying that she’d be a dud, which she was.
These two proved they were “gifts to Julia” when the woman thought the British queen who died in 1714 was Queen Elizabeth, was told “wrong!” and the guy in the middle rang in with “Elizabeth I.” Did he think they counted her wrong because she might have meant Elizabeth II?
Of course, he got the FJ and Julia didn’t, but did it matter at that point?
By the way —
Did you notice that 9 times out of 10 when there’s a category with letters in quotation marks, like today’s “SS,” the first answer given is something without the signified letters in it? It’s almost inevitable. I’d say if you go on Jeopardy, the first thing you should do is concentrate! (Easy for me to say. I’m sure I would freeze up and forget my name.)
well, it’s still weird when they read the category title out loud and then forget it.
As for the English monarch problem, I just put up a list of them from the 11th century forward to help with that.
Thanks for the list of English monarchs, vj. I’m not too bad after about…Henry VIII era…but I’m very blurry before then.
I think it’s worth noting that from 1100 to 1453 every king is a Henry, Edward, or Richard, except Steven of Blois, and crappy King John (the guy who instigated the Magna Carta because he was so brittle).
oops…1100 to 1553 (not 1453). That’s basically 453 years of Henry-Edward- Richards. Them brits sure weren’t too creative was they?! [I thought about typing that last sentence in Cockney, but I’d have botched it for sure.]
you’re welcome. I’m thinking of doing one on Opera by century, too.
I did my poets by century, then by decade within the century to help me sort out their contemporaries. That is cool stuff to me, who they interacted with when alive, more so than who they were influenced by.
I agree. Like, totally!
As always, your analysis is spot on, but what are your predictions? Do you think, as I do, that perhaps the streak will end today with her in the number two (or three) slot? Surely, they cannot continue to believe that these games are palatable?
I say it ends today! Today we crown a new champion: Wendy Hardenberg!
P.S. I haven’t looked yet at the Clue of the Day. I hope that it’s “which two neighbouring schools met in last year’s Frozen Four?”.
I just had a waking nightmare. What if Dave Madden is no longer in the good graces of Jeopardy? After all, he didn’t participate in the battle of the decades and a lot of watchers either don’t know him or have forgotten him. Further, perhaps they were not happy with the game theory employed by Roger Craig and are looking for/ creating/ engineering a new member for the triune? I fear the worst: this may go on for a while.
However, as for today, I am a Wendy Hardenberg (and somewhat that guy from Chicago) fan.
can’t wait for tomorrow.
the first dd btw was kind of sneaky and a trick clue, since siam was renamed thailand in exactly 1939…. but i guess the book was printed way before that. still, sneaky!
I thought that it changed names later. In that case, very sneaky indeed as I would think that the 1939 Book of the Year would be printed in 1940. Now, haha, I would guess that would be the 1940 Book of the Year before.
or the book was printed in 1938 with the facts up to date, sort of an almanac.
you don’t read the book for what happened the year(s) before, but what the facts are up to date. in that case the 1939 book would describe things, countries and what have you with the status of 1938. so you can go both ways. until 23 june 1939 it was siam, from june 24, 1939 thailand.
so that brittanica book of the year 1939 must have referred to anything BEFORE 1939. sneaky, either way you slice it.
and mahidol was king till 1946, when after his death he was succeeded by his younger brother Bhumibol Adulyadej, who is 10 days shy of reigning 68 years. he is 86 years old.
kind of funny, emperor francis joseph I reigned from 1848 – 1916 (68 years), when he died in 1916 he was 86….
he became emperor at the age 18, bhumibol was almost 22 when he became king (and still is…)
correction: bhumibol was 18 1/2 when he became king in 1946.
Oh check it out — King Bhumibol was born in the USA — He was born at the Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States on 5 December 1927… His US birth certificate only reads “Baby Songkla”…
These are the kind of little things I run across looking something up all the time, then forget 15 minutes later. Except I still remember that the President of Estonia went to school in Fort Lee, NJ and is the only European head of state that speaks English with an American accent.
Julia is very good, but through the weeks, she has faced some duds. She needs to be challenged more like today.
well, # 2 achieved, at the moment tied with dave madden.
in the money department julia would need a higher win than today, if she wants to break his record of 432.400. julia is 22.400 shy and her average winnings per game so far: 21.578,95 a win with 22.401 would do it and then she would enter the weekend being in sole possession of the #2 spot in both areas. worth watching and i hope she makes it. even if she falls short of the 432.000 tomorrow, she would be in the #2 spot all by herself in winning games and would need another win on monday for the money record. in any event: well done!!!
See Nomi, it WAS a hard question for more than just you and me. Whew. I was kind of worried.
It’s fantastic that we all excel in different aspects. Like I said, intellects are like snowflakes. It is a privilege to see all of the variety here.
Tomorrow, my main pick of the week (not weak, I hope) and a fellow (to Julia) Chicagoian.
Also, great post by will I am yesterday: it rather nicely synthesizes the different musings of Tom, John, et all. I’m wondering if VJ could augment it with the youtube footage of Julia’s audition (found on her Twitter)? It’s interesting to see the informal setting. I once tried for “Who wants to be a Millionaire? “, shredded the questions, but got screened out because I was a professional poker player. They are, after all, shows.
Why did you tell them? Is it mandatory to tell one’s profession? Always said if I went on a show would say I’m a gardener. Wouldn’t be lying. I do work in my garden as a way to pass time. If I didn’t perform well the viewers would not make fun of me.
Professionals in any occupation set themselves up for ridicule when they lose on these shows like the dentist and professor yesterday.
Chance Gardener. One of the truly great characters! To answer your question, they are looking for personable people, so if you don’t answer their questions, they will think that you’re hiding something: answering is pretty much mandatory. But, yeah, the average viewer doesn’t want to hear that Stu Unger was a freaking genius, so I still don’t know what I could’ve done.
Maybe will I am will tell us the similarities of Jeopardy!
Eric, you are so correct. It appears the average viewer doesn’t like professional people. For that reason and others I’ve not tried out for any tv show. Human nature appears to like to build people up and then see them not have a positive outcome. Weird!
oh, jacobska, viewers would make fun of a gardener, too. there would be a hashtag on twitter #moweddown
Yes Eric. It made me happy to see two of them get it wrong. Schadenfreude! 🙂
You dropped some hints yesterday that made me think Julia was on the outs today. Perhaps I misread, or read too much between the lines.
I am truly sorry if I mislead you, as my remarks were intentionally vague. I just picked who I thought might be the best contenders: my top pick plays tomorrow (see previous posts re: librarian, Yale and Quinnipiac). I was trying to create excitement, but when VJ pressed, I had to fully disclose: I have no insider knowledge, just educated guesses.
Please don’t be mad: I hope that we are the only two to get the right answer tomorrow (with the librarian, of course). The rest of these people know enough about everything else!
Hey, no need to say sorry. I read too much into the hint.
I visit the CotD page every morning. But tomorrow morning will be an added challenge. Will post the outcome here. I’m excited :).
Nice. Still a Wendy Hardenberg believer! I hope she’s a reference librarian.
Here’s a reference: Julia has already taken out two ladies who worked in libraries. LaWanda, a library asst. on 5-2-14 and Kate, a corporate librarian on 5-20-14
VJ, are you up in the middle of the night to check the CotD? Nomi incepted the idea of excitement into my brain, so here I am also. But I fear an easy clue.
Anyway, today my picks runs: picked solely on looks, geography, and vocation. Now you are trying to induce facts. Facts, facts? We don’t need we don’t need no stinking facts. (My apologies to the great movie and anyone offended).
Before I check the CotD, and not post until after Nomi (her idea and Ladies First), I will leave you with a quote (again) from Colonel Roosevelt:
“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat”.
Thus, our new champion, Wendy Hardenberg (librarian).
Eric, a lot of times I stay up late. I get a cryptogram in my email about 2 am, do that then go to bed. I check the CofD when I get up. I am hoping Julia wins this one just to make her 20 games. I think if she had stuck with the lowball bets, she’d be so close to Dave Madden’s $$, it’s ridiculous! But hey, this is her 5th game (this week) and she may be tired. One off day, it will come. But it can come on Monday.
VJ your posts were at 2:55 and then at 6:17! And you seem to know most (far more that Julia) of the FJs. I’m starting to wonder if I should start getting less sleep. Just kidding, of course, without proper sleep I couldn’t even read the CotD correctly.
VJ you are a marvel.
Oh, and thanks for taking that snapperhead’s (over on the stats page) post down. The only reason that I went Rashida Jones was to take his abusive comment from the top of the page. Your site does not deserve to be littered like that.
thanks, Eric, you are very sweet but unlike Julia, if I can’t figure out the answer in half a minute, I can find it out online in 10 seconds or less. LOL!
I thought it fairly odd that Julia missed “Siam”, under the category, “On the Old Map”. I mean, you wouldn’t go for Thailand after seeing Bangkok while understanding that the category was, “Old Map”.
Furthermore, “Thailand”, as your response to seeing Bangkok in the clue, as if shooting fish in a barrel?
Head scratcher.
Anyhow, here’s a bit of lite humor related to the above clue…
Confucius say, “Man who go through airport turnstyle sideways, surely going to Bangkok”.
…ba-dump, bump…TSSSSHHHHH!
She blurted that out before remembering the old part, no doubt. Not half as much of a head scratcher as that one yesterday, in States that end in “ia”, where Manuel blanked out and blurted out “Texas”
Well, you’re right, vj, there’s typically something that jumps out as weird/stupid in any given game and this gaff by Julia might not have been a prime example. But the clue was a DD so Julia, whose trademark is her meticulousness, had a good 10 to 12 seconds to give her answer. Furthermore it was a bottom row clue, and those aren’t (usually) complete giveaways so I would have expected just enough of a pause for Julia to at least process that one.
Regardless, she’s going to win her game today without even a moment’s hesitation on my part. If I had the opportunity to wager on it, I’d go big. I might even Roger Craig that bet!
🙂
Did you check out the 3 Years Ago clue, jacobska? That’s how I knew it — we looked up how to plant a pineapple after that show.
PS – Don’t know where you got the idea that I know Swedish?? The only Swedish I know is thanks (and that’s the only Chinese I know, too). I am of French and Irish descent.
What happened was when I was in Sweden a few years ago a Swede asked me if I liked pineapples. I replied yes and asked why. Was told it was in the plant family named after their 17th century botanist named Olaf Bromelius. That conversation stuck with me because I thought it odd to be asked about pineapple in Sweden since I always associated it with the tropics.
Of course, Jacob. Who WOULDN’T have known that bit of arcana?
Geez!
/sarcasm off.
It was a colleague at a professional conference there trying to test my Swedish knowledge. I never forgot his sarcasm.