Final Jeopardy: National Airlines (7-24-15)
The Final Jeopardy question (7/24/2015), in the category “National Airlines” was:
This small land’s airline advertises a “stopover”: 7 nights at no extra travel charge to break up a Boston-Brussels trip.
Current champ Scott Lord has won 4 games and $93,402 so far this week. He’ll be back on Monday if he can defeat these two players: Sam Suarez, from Cary, NC; and Tracy McCarthy, from Vista, CA.
Round 1: Scott found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Not Chess Again!” under the $600 clue. He was in second place with $800, $5,400 less than Sam’s lead. He bet the $1,000 allowance and he was RIGHT.
In a set of standard Staunton-style pieces, not bishops but these pieces are topped with crosses. show
Sam finished in the lead with $8,000. Scott was second with $2,600 and Tracy was last with $2,400.
Round 2: Tracy found the first Daily Double in “‘A’+ in History” under the $1,600 clue. She was in third place with $5,600, $4,000 less than Sam’s lead. She bet $3,000 and she was RIGHT.
Flourishing between 3000 & 1100 B.C., Cycladic & Minoan were 2 of the cultures named for this sea. show
Scott found the last Daily Double in “Securities & Exchange” under the $1,200 clue. He was now in the lead with $10,600, $1,000 more than Sam in second place. He bet $1,000 and he was RIGHT.
The SEC regulates this type of 5-letter material that allows shareholders to vote without being present. show
Sam finished in the lead with $14,400. Tracy was next with $13,800 and Scott was right behind her with $13,600. Tight game!
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS ICELAND or ICELANDAIR?
According to its website, Icelandair offers this “stopover” from 15 locations in the US and Canada to 25 destinations in Europe, and apparently, from this video, someone can nominate you for a “surprise” stopover. (Icelandair.com: Stopover in Iceland)
Scott wrote down Icelandic Airlines. Trebek pronounced that acceptable and Trebek said they would have accepted Icelandair or just Iceland (and presumably Iceland Air and Air Iceland). His $1,000 bet brought him up to $14,600.
Tracy thought it was Air Belgium. She bet and lost everything.
Sam also came up with Air Belgium. He lost his $14,000 bet and finished with $400. So Scott not only has a 5-day total of $108,002, he got every FJ right this week and was the only one to do so in 4 games.
During the chat, Scott enlightened Alex on the activities that construction attorneys engage in.
10 years ago:: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “Children’s Literature”
This 1952 classic contains the line “No one was with her when she died.” show
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Eric has given the best explanation about the fj clue which it appears not many are reading on Spoiler Talk and on this page.
The category states national airlines but the clue states this small land. As he correctly points out the clue was poorly written.
So what is a contestant to do? If a category is state capitals and a contestant gives the state name then it would be ruled incorrect.
Thank you Jacob. This actually reminds me of one time they brought back a contestant who had a bad judgment (assumingly a FJ). I think it was early or mid last decade. Anyone remember? I’m sure a raking of jarchive might show a losing contestant returning, but I’m not sure that it was consecutive games. Of course, there may have been more.
This small land’s airline… Isn’t the question the name of the land? There is no land named Icelandic Aire. Just wondering since the night before spelling Brigham Young was wrong, when they always say spelling doesn’t count in final Jeopardy.
Not to mention that Iceland is bigger than Ireland. Lol: or even twice the size of Switzerland. Before Tom asks, it’s 3 times the the size of Belgium. I guess they meant “small country”.
What I really guess is that it was Kid’s week: just for the writers.
Great Scott, and Good Lord, but is that guy lucky! He misreads the FJ clue and they still give it to him. For the Jeopardy staff’s information, the name of the “small land” isn’t “Icelandic Airlines.”
He not only lucked out by the judges being lenient, he lucked out in that his competitors also misread the clue and gave airlines as an answer, and in addition seemed to think that Belgium is a “stopover” BETWEEN Boston and Brussels. This is like saying that the United States is between London and Chicago, or something, and makes absolutely no sense.
And I’ll tell you something that’s starting to get on my nerves, and that’s the way Scott flings his arm out when he hits the buzzer. Being the cynical type, I interpret that as him saying, “I may not ring in first, but, hey, look, I KNOW this!”
Don’t mind me. I just happen to resent luck, seeing as how I never had any.
The problem was the juxtaposition of the way the clue was written ( implying a nation) and the category (implying an airline). It was a poorly worded clue.
Speaking of poorly worded clues, anybody remember the infamous Sports Logo FJ from last November?
I was going to ask if that arm-flinging thing was new today. I really didn’t notice Scott doing that before today.
Yes, that Logo thing was like J! Armageddon! Maybe J!writers should stop using apostrophes to denote the possessive form, e.g, This NFL team’s logo = The logo of THIS NFL team; This small land’s airlines = The airline of THIS small land, etc. (I used to do that when I was learning English to understand better “whose was what, who was who”.)
Oh yeah, the arm flinging thing – I can see how that can irritate Tom, as that lady that pointing irritated me. Scott did that all week.
P.S. @Eric, well put: juxtaposition of nation & airline – very confusing.
@VJ, you’re right on Scott’s chance on the TOC (mentioned previously) – very slim. But I’m just glad he made the cut.
@Cece – go to sleep!
Thank you Cece!
Just came from Keith Williams Final Wager website. He stated correctly that today’s Final Jeopardy clue was easy for New Yorkers because you see the posters on the subway all of the time. Although I no longer live in New York I do remember seeing them on the subway.
But as I stated in Spoiler Talk there are also ads about Icelandair in business magazines and on business channels.
Btw, Icelandic Airlines was acceptable because it merged with Icelandair and no longer exists as a separate airline. Icelandair trades on the Iceland Stock Exchange under the Icelandair Group. I won’t bore anyone with all of the other details of its business subsidiaries. 🙂 🙂
Btw vj, congrats on your prediction.
which was in agreement with yours–
high five and congrats to us both :):)
Thanks. I don’t like tooting my own horn. I want to thank you for the awesome Iceland video. You have us spoiled! lol
Icelandic Air did not merge with any other airline. They simply rebranded to Icelandair. They were never officially Icelandic Air. They were offically named Loftleiðir Icelandic but used the name Icelandic Airlines in advertising outside of Iceland since nobody knew Icelandic.
Just in case anyone is interested, Icelandair Group has its history on its investors website and mentions the merger of Icelandic Airlines and the year LINK
Btw, since Scott appears to be over 60 he probably remember Icelandic Airlines flying into the U. S. before the mid-1970’s prior to ceasing operation under that name. Might be why he wrote that name which was deemed acceptable. Good going Scott!
Why did Icelandic Air get the nod? It’s not the correct name of the airline. Extra syllable…seems like there have been some inconsistencies in ruling last few days…
Luckily for Scott, he would have won even if they did not accept his FJ answer.
I really do not like Scott’s bet here. For him to win, he needed two misses from the leaders. If , however, he were to miss, he puts himself in danger against a smaller bet by Tracy. That is, if Tracy bets to just cover Sam (e.g. 601) and they all miss, Scott is done. He would have been better to stand pat.
Good point. I don’t like Scott’s DD bets myself. OK, he didn’t have much choice on the first one he got today but he could have bet more on that second one.
His being the only one who gets FJ in a lot of his games has been cool, but I don’t think that’s gonna happen in the TOC.
About the bets, I agree with you both. But yayyyy, Scott made it to 5 wins and is going to the TOC!
(Sorry guys, I just like this dude.)
I like him too, Cece, but I just don’t see him standing much of a chance in the TOC.
I’m with you Cece. He is good. How many contestants can say they got 5 fj responses correct with no misses and a 5x championship?
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It’s tough to judge the strategy with so many clues left on the board. On the third DD, many would say not to risk the lead, although I personally find this theory vastly overrated. In this case, I think the two most powerful variables are the comfort of that category and of the remaining categories (for not only the player, but the adversaries as well). That is, if the player perceives to have a comparative weakness in the rest of the categories and strength in the DD category, an all-in might prove to be the best strategy.