Final Jeopardy: Literary Title Words (7-14-14)
The Final Jeopardy question (7/14/2014), in the category “Literary Titles” was:
It was Giovanni Boccaccio who added this adjective to another Italian author’s work.
Returning champ Jen Fiero has a 2-day total of $36,000. In the first game of the week, she is up against these two players: Ben-Hur Flores, from Tampa, FL; and Virginia Hatfield, from Toronto, ON, Canada.
Round 1: Jen found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “The Bible Tells Me So” under the $400 clue. She was in the lead with $1,800, $200 ahead of Ben-Hur in second place. She bet $1,000 and she was RIGHT.
Joshua 6:1: “Now” this city “was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel.” show
Jen and Ben-Hur finished in a tie at $7,400 each. Virginia was in second place with $600.
Round 2: Virginia found the first Daily Double in “Shakespeare’s Endings” under the $1,200 clue. She was in third place with $4,200, $4,400 less than Jen’s lead. She bet $1,000 and thought it was “Twelfth Night”, That was WRONG.
“With the help of your good hands, gentle breath of yours my sails must fill, or else my project fails.” show
Ben-Hur found the last Daily Double in “Time for a Revolution!” under the $1,600 clue. In the lead with $15,400, he had $4,400 more than Jen in second place. He bet $2,000 and took a guess with July. That was WRONG.
The Redcoats & Minutemen first got it on in the American Revolution on the 19th of this month in 1775. show
Ben-Hur finished in the lead with $16,200. Jen was next with $13,400 and Virginia was in third place with $4,400.
Only one of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
“The Divina Commedia (Italian for “divine comedy”) is Dante’s masterpiece and is the best literal expression of medieval culture. The original title of the work (the one Dante gave to it) was simply Commedia. Giovanni Boccaccio suggested adding the adjective Divina (“divine”) in order both to explain the kind of content and to celebrate the greatness and beauty of the work.” (Dante Alighieri on the Web)
Virginia came up with “fiery”. She bet and lost it all.
Jen thought it was “great”. She lost her $4,600 bet and finished with $8,800.
Ben-Hur got it right. His $3,800 bet brought him up to today’s winning total of $20,000.
New champ, Ben-Hur is a customer service representative He talked about his cool name in the chat and said his father named all the boys Ben something, long before George Foreman did it with the Georges. So in his family, there’s also a Benjamin, Benedict, Ben Simon, Ben John and Benji.
2 years ago:: NONE of the players got this FJ in “Investigative Journalists”
David Phillips, whose exposé reporting inspired this word made popular by Teddy Roosevelt, was later shot dead. show
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a lot of ifs and buts. jen covered against virginia and “won” second place. big deal. but maybe she was convinced b-h would strike out. fatal mistake. b-h on the other hand – eric s put it very politely…- HAD to bet at least 10.600 for a tie. as leader you should NEVER gamble that the second placed player will miss fj (even if there was a similar or even almost exact same category during regular play and #2 struck out there completely, s/he might get fj anyway because of a million reasons).
b-h lucked out,and despite his bet he won. it was even somehow deserved since he was the only one (!) getting fj right. but if he keeps betting like that he won’t be around long.
in the end the wagers did not matter since jen was wrong. had she been right and b-h wrong, o.k. but her wager was a fatal mistake, as soon as b-h got fj right and wagered 1.801 or more. risky wager by jen and a -let’s say “extremely unusual” bet by b-h. had jen stayed put he would have lost by 1 K, if wrong. i REALLY would like to know the reasoning for his bet!!!!!
UNBELIEVABLE, yet the final outcome was deserved,despite the insane wager by b-h, since – as i said – he was the only one getting fj right. go figure.
i wonder – should he finish in the lead or as #2 , what his bet will be tomorrow. i would LOVE to know what b-h was thinking, i REALLY would!!!
I liked Ben-Hur. Yeah, I wish he would have bet more but I’m glad he won. I wonder if he’s ever heard the Ben Hur knock knock joke. With that many siblings, I’d bet yes!
Ok. I’ll assume that you’re referring to the k-k joke (pretty R rated) that I can think of and that’s why you’re not being more specific.
no, just the regular kids joke. I don’t even know any R-rated knock knock jokes.
So then, what’s the punchline?
could you please fill me in as well,vj??? i don’t know either version, r-rated or not.
haven’t seen the show yet and the interview at the break, but unless b-h’s father is/was named hur(surname), an unusual name. if his father’s name IS “hur” , then he would be the “son of hur” in arabic. other than that i don’t think that i would name my son “ben-hur”, no matter how much i liked the movie..:-)
did they talk about the name at the break? if not, i wonder if they will tomorrow. that name screams for an explanation, “ben” would have sufficed. makes names like “rainbow” or “sunshine” from the 60s sound “normal”…. ah well, parents!
It’s here. I only didn’t tell it in case Ben-Hur drops by in case he never heard it and doesn’t want to. 🙂
I put a link to the joke, John. They did talk about his name in the chat — I mentioned it right below the image in the recap, Trebek said his father had a good sense of humor and Ben-Hur agreed, though maybe his father just liked the name Ben. Obviously, he likes his name or he would just go by Ben.
My French-Canadian great-grandfather had a bunch of kids. He gave the boys different first names but every single one of them had the same middle name he had – Joseph.
Thanks, VJ, that was funny.
thanks, vj. i have saved the site, in case i need a joke.the name ben-hur is certainly an icebreaker at a party……i bet not many people are called ben-hur. as i said, if he were arabic…but then it would be his last name, as in mustafa ben hur. mustafa, son of hur….
now i just wait for somebody whose name is ten commandments. 🙂
Sam Jaffe (he got around) was in the 1959 film Ben Hur starring Charlton Heston. Sam’s real first name was Shalom.
NOMI:Today, you are the smarter Canadian! #true Brainiac.
Sorry to see Jen go. For the record, she bet the top of her acceptable range: top two miss, V hits, then tie. On the other hand, B-H bet like a moron: I wish Jen would’ve got it right and beaten him.
By the top of her acceptable range, I mean enough to take the lead if B-H doesn’t bet, and not so much that she would allow Virginia to overtake her. So her range would be between: 2800 and 4600. Anything more constitutes an unnecessary risk. (No matter what the Final Wager says).
with the wagers as they were, she would have lost despite b-h’s wager by 1.999. she would have ended up with 18K.
This is where game theory gets weird. It has somewhat to do with rational expectations. That is, if he knows that she knows what to do, his bet makes some sense, although, yes, he could’ve bet up to 1999 (or 2000 to tie) more with the same risk. I know this sounds a little like Rumsfeld, but if doesn’t know what she is going to do, he should cover her double up. For sure though, he left 1999 on the table.
well, maybe he’ll be in the lead again tomorrow before fj. then we may be able to figure out his rationale..?
a lot of assumptions and not the way jen should have bet. had she bet it all, b-h would have paid the price for his wager (but jen was wrong anyway, so….all’s well that
ends well for b-h. TODAY.) scarlett o’hara used to say something like “tomorrow is another day…:??? again, i really would like to be able to read the minds of some players re their bets!