Final Jeopardy: Painted Ladies (7-22-16)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (7/22/2016) in the category “Painted Ladies” was:
She’s been called the “Mona Lisa of the North” & the poster girl for the Dutch Royal Picture Gallery in the Hague.
3x champ Pranjal Vachaspati has won $67,188 so far. It’s his 4th game and his opponents are: Samantha Hartke, from Sugar Land, TX; and Ross Merriam, from Roanoke, VA.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALEX TREBEK! BONNE FÊTE À TOI!
Round 1 Categories: Poisonous Plants – Operatic Adjectives – That Game of Thrones Guy with The Beard – The Bucket List – Things To Do Before – You “Dy”
Ross found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Things To Do Before” under the $1,000 clue on the 5th pick of the round. He was in third place with $400, half of Samantha’s lead. He bet the $1,000 allowance and took a guess with “opening statements.” That was WRONG.
During this pretrial court hearing, charges are read & the accused usually enters a plea. show
Samantha finished in the lead with $7,800. Pranjal was second with $5,600 and Ross was last with $1,000. Before round 2 began, Samantha’s score dropped to $7,000.
She was dinged for saying “What is wintering?” when she should have said winterizing on this: Things to Do Before ($400) “Seasonal” verb meaning to prepare a car for cold weather by adding antifreeze, or to prep a house, using insulation.
Round 2 Categories: Happy Trails To You – French History – Beastly Backing Bands – She’s A Real Saint! – Techno-Thrillers – Sounds like a Piece of Furniture
Pranjal found the first Daily Double in “French History” under the $1,200 clue on the 8th pick of the round. In the lead with $9,200, he had $1,400 more than Samantha in second place. He bet $1,400 and thought it was the Alsatians. That was WRONG.
The French epic “Song of Roland” depicts a battle against Saracens but it was actually vs. these people of the Pyrenees. show
Pranjal found the last Daily Double 7 clues later in “She’s a Real Saint” under the $2,000 clue. He was in the lead with $10,600 now, $400 more than Samantha in second place. He bet $3,500 and he was RIGHT.
This mother of the Virgin Mary is the patron saint of expectant mothers. show
Pranjal finished in the lead with $21,700. Samantha was next with $10,600, so yeah, Pranjal got his third consecutive runaway. Ross was in third place with $7,000.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
“Girl with a Pearl Earring is located in the Mauritshuis gallery [aka the Royal Dutch Picture Gallery] in The Hague. Some have called this painting the Mona Lisa of the North and some have called it the Dutch Mona Lisa…. This painting is the best-loved painting by Vermeer possibly because of the way the girl is looking over her shoulder, which draws the attention from the viewer, giving a feeling her head turns to see the viewer…. (Totally History.com)
Ross wrote down Princess Charlotte. He bet and lost it all.
Samantha thought it was Queen Victoria. She lost her $7,001 bet, leaving her with $3,599.
Pranjal got it right. He bet $300 so today’s winning total was $22,000 even. His 4-day total is $89,188.
There were no triple stumpers at all in Round 1. Here are two from Round 2
BEASTLY BACKING BANDS ($1600) Country Joe & these swimmers
TECHNO-THRILLERS ($1600) Secret agents & a deadly virus show up in “The Satan Bug”, a rollicking yarn from this “Guns of Navarone” author
2 years ago: ALL of the players got this FJ in “Websites”
A slang term for Harvard’s freshman register gave this website its name. show
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Happy birthday to Mr. Trebek! He’s still my junior (in years anyway), but he’s slowly catching up. I doubt very much if anyone could or will ever replace him.
In the end, it wouldn’t have mattered for Samantha even if they hadn’t taken away $800 for saying “Wintering” instead of “Winterizing.”
Dear Jeopardy writers: it’s the Sierra Nevada, NOT “Sierra Nevadas”
A word about Samantha. Imo if she had been playing against anyone else except Pranjal she would have won. She was quick on the buzzer, especially in round 1. It was funny watching Pranjal look her way at times when she beat him on the buzzer. Too bad she couldn’t pull off fj because she was cool as a cucumber in this match.
Yes, I agree. I thought the same thing and she was going toe to toe with him for a while till he went all steamroller.
It’s déjà vu. I found the Matt Jackson game where it was first noticed (in the comments) how Matt would let his opponents get some first round licks in and then pounce in the second round.
VJ, I remember that discussion. The patterns are somewhat similar.
Happy 76th to Alex Trebek! And congrats to Pranjal for an amazing 4 game run. I think he and Buzzy are making this game runaways just like Arthur Chu did.
Not to steal VJ’s job or anything like that, but Rhonda did ask for a certain clue from April, so:
“In 1954 a restorer re-varnished this Vermeer beauty, lobe, pendant & all; in 1994, his goop came off”
Thanks for posting, Mathwiz, I appreciate it.
yeah, thanks Mathwiz. I had it on my notepad but my daughter dropped by. That was a $1600 clue in this game. There was a DD in that category but that wasn’t it. For all the clues in that match, see J-Archive.
Game of Thrones is an obscure cable television show. I would consider that a very tough category!
Oh yes and congrats to Alex Trebek. He does not look 76.
He looks and acts amazing for 76, I agree.
Oh Pranjal… trails at the end of Round 1… ends up with his third runaway in a row. Once again, it came down to him finding the DDs, as it always does. Actually, Pranjal has now found 7 out of 12 possible DDs. We needed a 4-day champ, though.
About the Wrong Answers: Charlotte and Victoria… not bad guesses, but the historical route was not the correct one this time. Especially when the painting is at least 50 years older than both ladies.
Regarding the wrong DDs… well, “opening statement” was close. Alsatians… not so much (I think. Need to brush up on French history).
Don’t know if anyone else is a fan, but I look forward to that Game of Thrones category.
I don’t think it came down to the DDs for Pranjal on this one — he got his first one wrong. He went on a real streak in DJ — you’ll see. Today’s clues weren’t particularly hard, imo, but props to Pranjal for another runaway.
And props to you, Mathwiz, for the correct prediction on 1/3 in FJ and to Jacob on Pranjal’s win.
10 clues from the game are over here. (The Game of Thrones category, the rest of the French History clues and one more stumper)
Thank you very much, VJ, on the clues and the congrats… and yes, Pranjal did dominate Double Jeopardy. Made me flashback to Buzzy Cohen’s runaways, except Pranjal actually guesses on his. 🙂
VJ, thanks for the congrats. I find Pranjal’s game playing interesting. He starts out slow in round 1 and goes really fast in round 2 to a point where he cannot be caught. He only had 2 incorrect responses today & they were in round 2.
Unlike Buzzy Cohen he writes responses in fj even though he has a runaway game and cannot be caught. He is a fierce competitor and has a wide range of knowledge. He responded in every category. There is no such thing as intimidating Pranjal. Congrats Pranjal!!!
The extra information he gives away may cost him in the ToC.
We shall see. 🙂