Final Jeopardy: A Year of Firsts (5-8-17)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (5/8/2017) in the category “A Year of Firsts” was:
Year in which the Dept. of Energy was created, the Indy 500 had its first female driver & the 1st Pres. was sworn in under a nickname.
The 2017 Teachers Tournament begins today and the first teachers up to bat are: Gail Ansheles, from Santa Fe, NM; George Deane, from Colchester, VT; and Graham Toben, from Portola Valley, CA
Round 1 Categories: Anatomically Correct – Hall of Famers by Sport – Parts of the Whole – 20th Century America – Newspapers – The “A.P.”
George found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “20th Century America” under the $1,000 clue on the 6th pick of the round. He was the only one with any money. He decided to bet half of his $1,000 and he was RIGHT.
A sign at the 1912 Progressive Party Convention read: “I want to be” one of these “with antlers on my forehead” show
George finished in the lead with $4,100. Gail was second with $3,800 and Graham was last with $800.
Round 2 Categories: Also Found in the Classroom – The Eastern Hemisphere – Provide Us the Latin Abbreviation – Religion – Singers Who Act – Pirates’ Favorite Authors–“R”!
George found the first Daily Double in “Religion” under the $1,200 clue. There were 12 clues to go after it. He was in second place with $5,700 at this point, $2,500 less than Gail’s lead. He bet $3,000 and he was RIGHT.
The person who holds this religious office also bears the title Primate of All England. show
George found the last Daily Double in “The Eastern Hemisphere” under the $2,000 clue, the very last pick in the round. In second place with $11,100, he had $2,700 less than Gail’s lead. He bet $2,000 but did not have a guess so he was WRONG.
Johor Bahru, Malaysia is a bedroom community of this tiny island nation across the Johor Strait. show
Gail finished in the lead with $13,800. George was next with $9,100 and Graham was in third place with $8,400.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
Janet Guthrie was the first woman to drive in the Indy 500. The Dept. of Energy was created on August 4, 1977. You can hear President Carter take the oath of office on youtube, using his nickname “Jimmy” rather than his formal name “James Earl.”
Pop Culture Madness has a collection of trivia from 1977 that includes none of the above events.
Graham thought it was 2008. He bet nothing so he remained at $8,400.
George came up with 1950. That cost him $7,000 so he finished with $2,100.
Gail got it right. She bet $2,000 and nailed the first semi-final spot in the Tournament with a $15,800 finish.
A triple stumper from each round:
HALL OF FAMERS BY SPORT ($400) Hank Greenberg
SINGERS WHO ACT ($1600) Selena Gomez played Alex Russo, one of the magic kids on this Disney series
2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “The Oscars”
Last name of the only family to have a father & daughter receive Academy Award nominations for Best Director. show
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I hope Graham makes it to next week also.
By the way, the Teachers Tournament is NOT in Washington D.C. this year.
Robert Fulghum “All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten.” What’s with the even years?
A Kindergarten teacher beat out a middle school teacher and a high school teacher. That pretty much says it all.
1950 was not even a presidential election year let alone an inaugural one. Guess he was going for Harry Truman, but that was his given name right? And Barack Obama was long past Barry in 2008. Energy Department was a good clue since that happened during carter’s administration. Of course I was alive and voting then, which could help. Winning bet amount was a strange one. A lot of easy clues missed!
@Babs, Yes, Harry was Truman’s given name. I have looked around mightily for the reason why Carter went with his nickname, suspecting it was because of James Earl Ray. I finally found this on google books:
“James Earl Carter Jr. would never do in a country that had just seen the trial and conviction of James Earl Ray Jr. for the assassination of the beloved Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”
It was a wise choice, I’m sure, especially when James Earl Ray was big news again in June of 1977 when he broke out of prison.
VJ, thanks for this info. I was wondering if that was the reason he went with the name Jimmy for the swearing in ceremony.
You’re welcome, Jacob. Apparently, he went with Jimmy his whole campaign for that reason.
Gail’s wager was horrible. It didn’t cover the double-ups of either player (which may have been perceived as generous, but probably would have won them a wild-card spot anyway) and only risked her shot at a wild-card.
It was a weird bet on what turned out to be a weird question. Should have read “first US president to be sworn in using a nickname”. As it was written the question was confusing. President of what? The Indy 500?
This was a challenging final jeopardy, but glad that Graham didn’t bet.anything so he could score a wildcard.spot.
VJ, how much do you remember about the Carter administration ?
@Lou, idk, probably not enough to get every Jeopardy! clue about him right, but I got this one and I do remember Billy Beer
BEERS TO YOU! $600: Cans of Billy Beer came inscribed with a note from him: “I think it’s the best I ever tasted. And I’ve tasted a lot”
LINK: 11 more clues from this match
That clue was a hard one…
Badly written question… “First US President to be sworn in using a nickname” would have clarified.
“Pop Culture Madness has a collection of trivia from 1977 that includes none of the above events.”
This cracked me up for some reason.
Glad you got a laugh out of it, Myron. I thought it was rather amusing myself.