Final Jeopardy: The 1940s (9-18-19)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (9/18/2019) in the category “The 1940s” was:
This nickname for a history-changing weapon of 1945 came from a character in “The Maltese Falcon”
13x champ Jason Zuffranieri, a math teacher from Albuquerque, NM, had a close call yesterday but still brought his winnings up to $361,943. In Game 14, he is up against: Barbara Walton, a retired air traffic controller from Rockledge, FL; and Jon Chang, a tutor from Brooklyn, NY.
Round 1 Categories: Talking to Your Spaniel in Espanol – Science – Brand Names: Spell in the Blank – Recent Bestsellers – Describing the Casino Game – “M” Ports
Jason found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Science” under the $1,000 clue on the 8th pick of the round. He was in second place with $800, $1,400 less than Jon’s lead. He bet the $1,000 allowance and thought it might be the corona. That was WRONG.
During a total solar eclipse, you can glimpse this “colorful” layer of the sun just above the photosphere. show
Jon finished in the lead with $5,000. Jason was second with $3,000 and Barbara was last with $2,600.
Round 2 Categories: Real-life Metaphors – Career Highlights – Classic Metal Bands – Itty Bitty City – Plays & Playwrights – Ex-Sports
Jason found the first Daily Double in “Classic Metal Bands” under the $1,200 clue on the 6th pick. He was in the lead with $7,600 at this point, $1,000 more than Jon in second place. This was a wheelhouse category for him so he went with a true Daily Double and he was RIGHT.
“We’re Not Gonna Take It” by this Dee Snider band has some musical roots in “O Come, All Ye Faithful” show
Jason found the last Daily Double in “Career Highlights” under the $2,000 clue. In the lead with $23,200 now, he had $16,600 more than Jon in second place. He bet $3,000 and he was RIGHT.
Governor, Secretary of Energy, “Dancing with the Stars” contestant. show
Jason finished in the lead with a runaway $33,800. Barbara was next with $8,600 and Jon was in third place with $7,800.
TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
“The Maltese Falcon” character Casper Gutman is referred to as “the fat man” many times in Dashiell Hammett’s 1930 novel, and described like this: “The fat man was flabbily fat with bulbous pink cheeks and lips and chins and neck, with a great soft egg of a belly that was all his torso, and pendant cones for arms and legs.” The spelling of his first name changed to Kasper in the 1941 film, where he is portrayed by Sydney Greenstreet.
No. 6 on Mental Floss’s “13 Mysterious Things about The Maltese Falcon” relates how Manhattan Project physicist Robert Serber was inspired by Dashiell Hammett’s works when giving code names to the atomic bombs used in World War II. “Fat Man” was the name of the bomb dropped on Nagasaki on 8/9/1945. The code name “Little Boy”, for the bomb dropped on Hiroshima 3 days earlier, is said to have been inspired by Hammett’s “The Thin Man.”
“Fat Man and Little Boy”, a 1989 film about the Manhattan Project starring Paul Newman, is available free to Prime members on Amazon.
Jon went with “Little Boy.” He bet and lost it all.
Barbara got it right. She bet $6,999, bringing her up to $15,599.
Jason also got it. He added $3,800, winning this match with $37,600. That gives him a 14-day total of $399,543.
A triple stumper from each round (click on the category name to see the images that came with the clues):
“M” PORTS ($1000) Carthaginians, Romans, Goths, Byzantines & Arabs have all occupied this ancient Sicilian port city that gives it name to an important Mediterranean strait
EX-SPORTS ($1000) In his autobiography, he described a game played with moccasins & bones called “Kah” or “foot”
2 years ago: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “U.S. Postal Abbreviations”
In 1969 the “B” in this State’s abbreviation was changed to an “E” to avoid confusion with a Canadian province. show
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Wow. Jason turned things around BUT came short of $400,000. Barbara got lucky because Jon thought he got it right, but he made a big mistake. “1945” was very important in the clue, so you have to figure out which of the two weapons is the correct response.
and figuring out which of the two weapons was the correct response obviously wasn’t a sure thing if you didn’t know anything about “The Maltese Falcon.”
Incidentally, I don’t think anyone actually calls the Gutman character that to his face, he is just referred to as “the fat man” (a lot in the book, a couple of times in the dialogue of the movie)
I liked the Brand Names category in this game. Right across the room from me is a giant box of Cheez-Its (which I personally do not like. LOL!) I liked the Metaphors category too.
LINK: 10 more clues from the game
Also, here’s a shout out to my son to whom I owe the ability to get Metal Band clues. Here’s the rest of ’em:
($400) Megadeth founder Dave Mustaine partied so hard he got kicked out of this band whose very name says “metal”
($800) “And I want! And I need! And I lust!” are primal lyrics from this band’s “Animal”
($1600) In 2010 this band’s frontman Vince Neil took to the ice for ABC’s “Skating with the Stars”
($2000) In the ’90s singer Rob Halford told this Brit band, “You’ve got another thing comin'” (I’m leaving the group)
I liked the Brand Names category, too, VJ, especially the clue for Trix!
LOL, Rhonda, I just showed that clue to Julie and she laughed and said Silly Rabbit. I purposely did not show her the Play-Doh clue. ha ha ha
She’s such a cutie pie, VJ! I still remember her rabbit guessing game from several months ago LOL.
Glad Jason got his rhythm back today. Also congrats to Barbara on getting final right. This story the Maltese falcon that was referring to the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki is similar to Sadako and the thousand paper cranes which you must have heard of right VJ?
Speaking of Barbara, the bad news is that I don’t like her wager, because what would have happened had Jon got Final Jeopardy! right, he would have had $15,600, and Barbara had only $15,599, and Barbara would have lost the 2nd prize: The Extra $1,000, by $1. That’s why it’s important to add a dollar to the minimum wager, and to subtract a dollar from the maximum wager. The good news, though, is that Barbara got lucky that Jon missed, and she still wins the extra $1,000.