Final Jeopardy: Today Spelling Counts (9-11-25)
The Final Jeopardy question (9/11/2025) in the category “Today Spelling Counts” was:
The winning word at the first Scripps National Spelling Bee was this, a plant & genus with sword-shaped leaves now on the trophy
New champ Paolo Pasco, a puzzle writer orig. from San Diego, CA, won $20,001 yesterday. In Game 2, his opponents are Jill Frechette, a research data analyst orig. from West Boylston, MA; and Andy Miller, a math professor from Nashville, TN.
Round 1 Categories: Around North America – Songwriters – This Old Thing? – Play Your Cards Right – Don’t Forget to Remember – Gee, “ography”!
Andy found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “This Old Thing?” under the $800 clue on the 7th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $3,800, $3,200 more than Paolo in second place. Andy bet $3,000 and he was RIGHT.
It was found in 1799 by a Frenchman named Bouchard or Boussard, whose name must’ve been written down in parallel texts show
Andy finished in the lead with $8,600. Paolo was second with $6,600 and Jill was last with $1,200. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: 200 Years Ago – Oscar-Winning Title References – I Love That for Yuri – Engineering – Writers at Rest – Overlaps
Paolo found the first Daily Double in “Oscar-Winning Title References” under the $1,200 clue on the 2nd pick of the round. He was in second place with $7,400, $1,200 less than Andy’s lead. Paolo bet $4,200 and he was RIGHT.
1988: How a young Charlie Babbitt mispronounced his older brother’s name show
Paolo got the last Daily Double in “Writers at Rest” under the $1,600 clue on the 4th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $12,800 now, $4,200 more than Andy in second place. Paolo bet $3,200 and he was RIGHT.
She may not be fully at rest in an English churchyard, as vandals chiseled away the name Hughes on her gravestone more than once show
Paolo finished in the lead with a runaway $34,400. Andy was second with $12,200. Jill was last with negative $400 and out of the game at this point. All clues were shown.
NEITHER contestant left in Final Jeopardy! got it right, and they both had the same response!
WHAT IS GLADIOLUS?
The Scripps National Spelling Bee is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Gladiolus was the winning word in that first 1925 competition. For most of its existence, the Bee didn’t have a unique trophy. In 2019, they finally got around to commissioning one from the Rookwood pottery company. The official Scripps cup “features an open book, bees, the honeycomb shape and gladiolus, the first winning word of the national Bee.” The Etymology Dictionary says that Pliny gave the plant its name, a diminutive form of gladius, meaning “sword”.
Gladiolus didn’t even make this list of hard-to-spell flowers!
Andy came up with the not-hard-to-spell-at-all laurel. He lost his $7,800 and finished with $4,400.
Paolo also came up with laurel. He lost $204 but won the game with the remaining $34,196. Paolo’s 2-day total is $54,197.
A triple stumper from each round:
AROUND NORTH AMERICA ($1000) Grupo Anderson’s is a company based in this Yucatán fun spot; Carlos Anderson was the Carlos of Carlos ‘n Charlie’s
200 YEARS AGO ($1600) No relation to Bill, this New York governor was on hand for the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825
2 years ago: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “WORLD CAPITALS”
In English, name of 1 of the 2 4-letter capitals with the same first & last letter, one in the N. & one in the S. Hemisphere show
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3/3 on DD, but missed FJ. I’m a little sheepish about that one, too, for a rather arcane reason. I play a Star Trek game online, and a Romulan ship that one can build is called a Gladius. So what, right? Well, not 1 hour before I watched the episode, someone brought up the Gladius. That’s just about like me, though – bounced right off me!
Oh, and, I keep forgetting – Buzzy Cohen is already off the credits as writer (or anything else). Half season and out?
Tough final as we got a double stumper.
Missed the first 10 minutes and the DD due to a press conference from Utah. When it came on, Andy was in the lead, then Paolo took off like a rocket ship. 2nd DD was easy, missed the others but they were somewhat gettable. Broke my FJ streak at 3 tonight.
Knew the NY governor; the Righteous Bros hit; guessed the Katy P song; Mexican general; French royal house. Those overlaps sure were tricky. Paolo will be tough to beat, but you never know.
I have a longtime friend named Gladys whom I call Gladiolus, but that was no help tonight.
Paolo is aces at the word categories but seems to be weak in history.
Jill is the first player this season to get dismissed before FJ! and it’s also the first time that no one got FJ! correct. I think the last time everyone wrote down the same incorrect response was 5/5/25 and the other time was 3/26/25.