Final Jeopardy: Presidents (7-9-18)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (7/9/2018) in the category “Presidents” was:
Of the Presidents who served more than 4 years, but less than 2 full terms, he served the longest: 7 yrs, 9 months, 8 days
New champ Lauren Kiehna, a writer from Illinois, won $31,601 last Friday. In her second game, she takes on these two guys: Wes Hazard, a standup comic & storyteller from Massachusetts; and Ray Coshow, a landscaper from California.
Round 1 Categories: Mnemonics – Pop Culture Stupid Answers – Places – Homophones – A Controversial Category – A Vanilla Category
Lauren found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Mnemonics” under the $600 clue on the 18th pick of the round. She was in second place with $800, $2,800 less than Wes in the lead. She made it a true Daily Double and she was RIGHT.
A standard tuning of this instrument: Eat All Dead Gophers Before Easter. show
Lauren and Wes finished in a tie for the lead with $5,400 each. Ray was next with $3,000.
Round 2 Categories: Ancient Rome – Unfurl the State Flag – Boys in the Band – International Law – Alliterative Lit – Throw ’em in the “Brig”
Lauren found the first Daily Double in “Unfurl the State Flag” under the $2,000 clue on the 10th pick. She was in the lead with $7,800 now, $2,000 more than Wes in second place. She bet $2,000 and guessed Georgia. That was WRONG.
The date December 7, 1787 is rather important in identifying the flag of this state. show
3 clues later, Lauren found the last Daily Double in “Ancient Rome” under the $1,200 clue. Still in the lead with $6,600, she had $800 more than Wes in second place. She bet $1,200 and she was RIGHT.
A 19th century historian wrongly thought the Emperor Severus built this divider. show
Lauren finished in the lead with $15,800. Wes was next with $14,600 and Ray was in third place with $7,000.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt died on 4/12/1945, 82 days into his 4th term, Harry S. Truman became the 33rd President of the United States and served a partial term of 3 years, 9 months and 8 days. He was elected to a full term on 11/2/1948. (Remember that 20th Century American History Final Jeopardy! clue on 6/19/2018?)
Classroom Help.com has a list of Vice-Presidents who became POTUS after the death of the President (or, in Nixon’s case, resignation). Although John Tyler and Andrew Johnson served longer partial terms than Truman, neither were re-elected. Theodore Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson were re-elected but both of their partial terms were shorter than Truman’s.
Ray came up with James Garfield. He bet nothing so he remained at $7,000.
Wes picked Teddy Roosevelt. He only lost $200 so he finished with $14,400.
Lauren thought it was Nixon. She lost her $13,401 bet, landing in third place with $2,399. So Wes Hazard won the match and he is the new Jeopardy! champ.
From the chat: The title of Wes’s book is “Questions for Terrible People: 250 Questions You’ll Be Ashamed to Answer.” One example Wes gave was “if you had to cut off your own pinky toe or your best friend would lose their right eye, which would you choose.” Alex responded with: “My best friend could still function with only one eye.”
A triple stumper from each round:
A CONTROVERSIAL CATEGORY ($400) Some say, loudly, that this common condiment that evolved from Asian fish sauce should never be used on eggs
ALLITERATIVE LIT ($1600) Rudyard Kipling took a break from his stories of South Asia to pen this tale of New England fishermen
2 years ago: ALL of the players got this FJ in “Shakespeare”
This comedy whose title aims to please says, “I charge you, O men… That between you and the women the play may please.” show
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Alex was funny when he mentioned this FJ on Tuesday’s game in the opener. I’m a HST aficionado so I knew right away.
Why not Bill Clinton
He served 2 full terms
Teddy Roosevelt was a very good answer, if a player was to have a wrong answer.
Flawed finals clue. Serving more than two terms disqualified FOR. He was the first person I thought of but struck him out based on that fact.
Oh dear, we have to start all over again. Last week, we have Suzanne trying to end the streak of losing in four games, ended with Lauren winding up with almost $31,000+, and starting the week off with Wes becoming the new Jeopardy! champion.
So much for optimism. At least I was right that someone would say TR but geez, I never imagined that no one would think of Truman.
The Final J! in the finals of the 1990 ABC Super Jeopardy primetime series said (in the category the 20th Century) “He was VP for 82 days before becoming president”, so this clue 28 years later is sort of that clue, reworded.
This is the second time that no one knew presidents? I thought American history was in the contestants corner today? Shame, but still we are still left without a five time champion but I hope it will be Wes. Plus VJ, wasn’t Truman going up.against Dewey previously? I know you mentioned this before but don’t you think the contestants should have brushed up on their history before going on the show? Congrats to Wes by the way.
@Lou
Yes, June 19. (see below) Only Ali got it right, his first win. Two had Truman then, ironically, one Dewey.
Well, we can’t go by John B — he knows every FJ right off the bat. For the rest of us, there’s always the possibility of misunderstanding the clue, approaching the clue from the wrong angle (like 2 players did today), not being able to figure it out in 30 seconds on the information given, or knowing a lot about the topic but not that particular bit of info, etc.
There’s an awful lot to study about the Presidents and like Alex said today, “This is a tough final, a lot of possibilities for you here.”
LINK: 12 more clues from this match
@VJ
I am sorry VJ, but
1. I have a doctorate in history
2. I am very interested in WWII, what led to it (WWI) and the consequences.
3.History is also my hobby. (After geography, languages and medicine). Those are the 4 categories I wish I would get. Everybody is strong in different areas. Today’s players forte was obviously NOT history/Presidents. Just judging from the FJ wagers , they were uneasy with it. Only Lauren placed the “conventional” bet, right?
And if you want to criticize me, do it openly, I can take it. I am probably the oldest in this illustrious round. No need for underhanded remarks such as “he knows every FJ off the bat”….I DO NOT. But those 4 categories ARE my strong ones, just like yours is literature.
If you want to hold that against me, be my guest. SORRY THAT I KNEW THE ANSWER.
@John B, I didn’t criticize you, I just said you know all the answers right off the bat, something you yourself often say. Every day on Spoiler Talk you write a whole paragraph on the FJ answer showing that you not only know the answer, you know a whole lot of other stuff connected to it and you tell us often that it is the result of the better education you had.
However, I don’t agree with your conclusion that the players are weak in history just because they didn’t get this FJ.
And yet another champion, we start to count again.
This was a 100% American FJ, and happened just before WW II ended in Europe. I guess nobody saw that coming. Embarrassing!
I guess routine congratulations to Wes for covering against 3rd placed Ray.
Aren’t players supposed to study “Presidents” when going o n J? I have no explanation for this strike out except complete disinterest in the history of your own country, and in terms of time: rather recent history. We are a relatively pretty young country on a worldwide list.
Maybe they were just overthinking this. FDR was elected a record 4 TIMES for crying out loud. Does anybody have any idea why there is a 22 nd amendment and what it says?? I knew Truman off the bat and I am naturalized, was not even born in the U.S. Unbelievable!
Looks like any WW II history would have maybe also been a disaster?? Plus, we had the election of Truman just on June 19 (Dewey was the FJ answer), when Ali won his 1st game. There, Jessica and Deirdre had TRUMAN (!) Ali was the only one with the right answer about possibly the most famous upset in presidential elections. Seems “Presidents” is not studied that much by contestants after all.
Everybody was too optimistic back in June and today. I will certainly make deductions for ANY history FJ in the future, foreign OR domestic.