Final Jeopardy: Novel Characters (5-30-25)
The Final Jeopardy question (5/30/2025) in the category “Novel Characters” was:
Likely a nod to the actor who first played him in 1962, this character was subsequently given Scottish ancestry by way of his father
New champ Geoff Barnes, an analyst from Washington, D.C., won $24,000. In Game 2, he competes against: Heather Ide, a Special Ed paraprofessional from Monmouth, IL; and Chad Heltzel, a H.S. English teacher from Denver, CO.
Round 1 Categories: 20th Century America – In the Words of the Poet – Don’t Miss the Boat – The Shape of You – TV Settings – From Other Languages
Heather found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “In the Words of the Poet” under the $800 on the 3rd pick of the round. She was in the lead with $600, nobody else was on the board. Heather bet $1,000 and she was RIGHT.
“All our woe, with loss of Eden till one greater man restore us, and regain the blissful seat, sing heav’nly muse” show
Geoff finished in the lead with $3,400. Heather was second with $2,400 and Chad was last with $0. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: Nations Found in States – Mammals – Music-pourri – Film Franchises – It Will Happen – Before Long
Heather found the first Daily Double in “Music-pourri” under the $1,200 clue on the 5th pick of the round. She was in second place with $3,200, $1,400 less than Geoff’s lead. Heather made it a true Daily Double and drew a blank so she was WRONG.
The Apollo, introduced in the early 20th century, was a popular version of this alliterative automatic keyboard show
Heather found the last Daily Double in “Nations Found in States” under the $2,000 clue on the 17th pick of the round. She was in last place with negative $2,000, Geoff was in the lead with $7,800. Heather bet $2,000 and tried Syria. That was WRONG.
Pennsylvania: this landlocked Asian country show
Geoff finished in the lead with $12,600 and Chad was second with $7,200. At negative $3,200, Heather was out of the game at this point. All clues were shown.
BOTH contestants left in Final Jeopardy! got it right.
WHO IS JAMES BOND?
Ian Fleming wrote 10 James Bond novels before he decided to reveal Bond’s Scottish heritage. ‘My father was a Scot and my mother was Swiss…’, Bond says in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”, first published in 1963. I found the quote on Project Gutenberg Canada, taken from the 1965 printing. Then Bond says, ‘My father came from the Highlands, from near Glencoe.’
A lot of sites only mention the Glencoe quote as the first mention of Bond’s heritage. Other sites say the Swiss mother first came up in 1964 in “You Only Live Twice”. It’s all very odd when, in a Jan. 1964 interview, Fleming said he intended to reveal in his next book that “Bond is Scottish” on both sides. “You Only Live Twice” came out a few months later, it stated that Bond was Scottish on his father’s side and Swiss on his mother’s.
Perhaps subsequent printings of “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” were edited to add that detail, unless Fleming forgot that cat was already out of the bag. Either way, Scottish Sean Connery, who first portrayed Bond in 1962, is credited with inspiring Fleming to make 007 a Scotsman. Fleming was himself Scottish on his father’s side and English on his mother’s. Sean Connery had Irish ancestry though he and his parents were born in Scotland.
Chad bet $5,500 and finished with $12,700.
Geoff bet $1,801 and won the game with $14,401. His 2-day total is $38,401.
2 triple stumpers from MUSIC-POURRI:
($800) Mildred Dilling pioneered the solo recital on this instrument & gave some tips to a Marx brother
($1600) Alphonse Daudet’s play “L’Arlésienne” had incidental music by this other -et guy that Alphonse agreed was better than the play
2 years ago: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “20th CENTURY AMERICA”
In bold letters, it was the 2-word historic N.Y. Times headline for August 9, 1974, followed by “He urges a time of ‘healing'” show
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My goodness, Heather took off like a house afire, then faded like a cheap suit. Chad did well to make it at least competitive.
I knew Dr. No premiered in ’62 (one of the better Bond films) and Connery was Scottish, so Final was a no-brainer. The DDs were unkind to me.
Some of the stumpers were not that challenging. The Marx Brother’s instrument; the -et guy; “Big Bang” city; Siouan dwelling; country bordering Caspian; Miranda right.
A couple of the stumpers are showing $000 values.
RE FJ from 2 years ago: I think I mentioned this on the original post, but out in the garage I have a copy of the 8-9-74 LA Times which I believe bears the same headline.
I fixed that, Howard. My son called when I was finishing this up. I got distracted when we got in some animated discussions. About yesterday’s FJ!, he said he came up with eminent domain and felt quite confident. This guy loves to contradict me 🤣 so I asked him if he would have stuck with it if I was there and said manifest destiny. He said he would have realized I was right. Then we went on to discuss the upcoming MobLand finale.
It was another great game, and Geoff remained as champion. Congratulations Geoff! No, at least in the films starring Sean Connery, James Bond was always portrayed as simply a British secret agent with hardly a reference to some Scottish heritage. I mean, that was what threw me.
It’s too bad Heather decided to go all in on the first DD she got. I realize she had to go all in the second time, but I think things would have played out differently if she hadn’t bet it all the first time.
Well sometimes it’s the luck of the draw VJ. As former President John F. Kennedy once said (after the failed Bay Of Pigs invasion): Success has a hundred fathers, but failure is an orphan”.
All I have to say is darn those daily doubles to Heather. She started out nicely but then the wheels came off and missed both daily doubles to finish in the red.