Final Jeopardy: U.S. National Parks (6-19-25)
The Final Jeopardy question (6/19/2025) in the category “U.S. National Parks” was:
Much of this 73-square-mile National Park is located beneath the Chihuahuan Desert
New champ Jacob Hale, a nonprofit finance director from Anchorage, AK, won $4,800 yesterday. In Game 2, his opponents are: Bevin Blaber, a writer orig. from Schenectady, NY; and Vivek Upadhyay, a physician from Princeton, NJ.
Round 1 Categories: At the Keyboard – Food – Double Letters – Brooklyn Neighborhoods – Crown Heights – Let’s Go to Coney Island
Jacob found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Let’s Go to Coney Island” under the $400 with 9 clues left after it. He was in last place with $1,800, $1,000 less than Vivek’s lead. Jacob bet $1,200 and he was RIGHT.
In the 1978 film “The Wiz”, Dorothy finds the Tin Man under this iconic (& aptly named) Coney Island roller coaster show
Vivek finished in the lead with $4,400. Bevin was second with $4,000 and Jacob was last with $3,200. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: Lesser-Known Black Americans – Subtitles in the Bookstore – Slow Songs – 6-Syllable Medical Words – Worldwide Party Tips – Pardon My French
Jacob found the first Daily Double in “Worldwide Party Tips” under the $800 clue on the 17th pick of the round. He was in a tie for the lead with Bevin. They both had $9,200, $400 more than Vivek in second place. Jacob bet $2,000 and he was RIGHT.
Wiesn is another name for this celebration held during Autumn; check the online barometer to see when it’s not so crazy to visit show
On the very next pick, Jacob got the last Daily Double in “Lesser-Known Black Americans” under the $800 clue. He was in the lead with $11,200 now, $2,000 more than Bevin in second place. Jacob bet $2,000 again and he was RIGHT again.
Last name of Automotive Hall of Fame Member Alma, who with her husband Victor put out a guide for black travelers show
Jacob and Bevin finished in a tie for the lead with $13,600. Vivek was last with $12,000. All clues were shown.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS CARLSBAD CAVERNS (NATIONAL PARK)?
Carlsbad Caverns National Park is located 20 miles southwest of the city of Carlsbad (aka Cavern City) in New Mexico. Per its page on wnpa.org, “Hidden beneath the Chihuahuan Desert of New Mexico, the park’s most famous feature, the Big Room, is one of the largest cave chambers in North America, filled with towering stalactites, delicate draperies, and otherworldly formations.” The site was designated a National Park by Congress in 1930 when Herbert Hoover was President. See more Interesting Facts about Carlsbad Caverns on the National Park Service.
Differentiating stalagmites and stalactites was part of my report on Carlsbad Caverns when I was in the 9th grade. (“C” for ceiling and “G” for ground.)
Vivek wrote down “Arches”. He lost $11,998 and finished with $2.00.
Bevin had Carlsbad but leaving off the last word cost her $13,000. She finished with $600.
Jacob had both words. Carlsbad was good but his scribbled Caverns came out Cavrans so it could not be accepted. Jacob bet and lost his whole $13,600. That made Bevin Blaber the new Jeopardy! champ.
A triple stumper from each round:
CROWN HEIGHTS ($600) Called the tallest man of his time (the 1300s), Dusan the Mighty was king of this country, native land of 7’1″ NBA star Vlade Divac
SLOW SONGS ($1200) “Slower” was a 2021 single by this Canadian singer of “Sports Car” (which is most definitely not about taking things slow)
2 years ago: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “THE 19th CENTURY”
In 1823 he wrote, “In the war between those new governments and Spain we declared our neutrality” show
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Jacob definitely should have bet more on those 2 second row Daily Doubles.
P.S. Mattea is the one that used to wave the hands around all the time. Bevin, shall we say, is more exuberant.
That’s a nice way of putting it, VJ. I don’t normally comment on things like that, but I had to look away from all of that; Surprised that she was allowed to put on such an annoying , exaggerated performance. She could have made it across the English Channel with all of that gyrating.
A battle royale ended with a giant anti-climax. CAVRANS? I thought of Death Valley for Final and didn’t try to change it. Bevin bounced, rocked, and waved her way to a Jeopardy! win. She makes Matt Amodio look like a statue. And there’s been a raft of players lately prefacing their clue selections with “Let’s do…”
Last 2 DDs rather easy. I should have known the first one. I Mom grew up in Brooklyn and used to go on the rides at Coney Island. I did know Duke Snider’s realm. My grandmother lived on Bedford Avenue, just a short walk from Ebbets Field. I went to one game there the year before they bolted for LA. Didn’t matter, but the MD did well in the medical words category, other than his goof-up on “vascular.” Ten years of French classes in the 1960s got me the first two of the three stumpers in that column. The great czar clue was very guessable.
I second Bevin to STOP MOVING. My goodness, it might be her style, but she puts Ray in a distant second. I thought I was going to get motion sick!
3/3 on DD, but missed FJ. I know very little of National Parks (and most of what I know is from Jeopardy!, anyhow). I said “Painted Desert”, even though “desert” was in the clue.
As stated, wow, nitpick, but, definitely the correct decisions. What can you say?
Oh, a final note – Vivek told his funny story about being grilled on Duke basketball. That’s something of which med school applicants have to be acutely aware – if you SAY you can speak Lithuanian or play the guitar, you better darn well be ready to do it when your interviewer greets you or hands you an axe and tells you to rip!!
I just wanted Bevin to stop dancing.
Yes. They should have spoken to her about it during the break!
This has been a very hard week for FJ!, and we’ve had a lot of hard weeks as of recently. Depending on how things work out tomorrow, I hope next week is WAY better than this.
600 was the lowest payday of Season 41. 799 is no longer the lowest payday. In fact, this was the second time this season that someone wins with less than 1,000.
AS VJ NOTED IN THE RECAP, Vivek was way off with his response, Bevin’s response was incomplete and Jacob misspelled Caverns by putting an R before replacing a vowel with an A and his response was ruled incorrect.
That was painful and Jacob’s response should be added to the spelling list decisions as not accepted.
@Kevin, since you didn’t acknowledge that I had already covered that info, I fixed it for you.
This is the third triple stumper in a row! Ugh!