Final Jeopardy: The Great Lakes (9-29-20)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (9/29/2020) in the category “The Great Lakes” was:
An 1855 poem gives us this Native American name for the 1 Great Lake not known to us today by a Native American word or a tribe’s name
New champ, Eric Aiese, a media researcher from North Hollywood, CA, won $16,399 yesterday. In his second game, he is up against: Molly Lower, a high school history teacher from Pasadena, CA; and Mason Maggio, a songwriter from Los Angeles, CA.
Round 1 Categories: Island Nations – Games – Anagrams – Hash Tags – Election Oddities – The “Boss” of Pop Culture
Eric found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Games” under the $800 clue, with only the $1,000 clue in the same category left after it. He was in third place with $1,800, $3,800 less than Mason’s lead. He made it a true Daily Double and he was RIGHT.
In the game of Hearts, this card is known as “The Black Lady” show
Mason finished in the lead with $5,600. Molly was second with $5,400 and Eric was last with $3,600. One clue went uncovered in “Games”.
Round 2 Categories: Side Effects May Vary – 4-Syllable Words – American Names – Lifetime Achievement Grammys – Nonfiction – You Say It’s Your Birthstone
Molly found the first Daily Double in “Birthstone” under the $1,600 clue on the 14th pick. She was in the lead with $11,400 now, $1,000 more than Mason in second place. She bet $2,000 and thought it was an opal. That was WRONG.
June features this: its surface luster is called orient. show
Mason got the last Daily Double in “Nonfiction” under the $1,200 clue, with 3 clues left after it. In the lead with $16,000, he had $4,800 more than Eric in second place. He bet $4,000 and he was RIGHT.
Later a major motion picture, it was Sebatian Junger’s “True Story of Men Against the Sea” show
Mason finished in the lead with $20,000. Eric was next with $11,600 and Molly was in third place with $8,600. Before FJ! began, Eric’s score dropped to $8,400 on a reversal (see below), knocking him down to third place.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS GITCHE GUMEE?
“The Song of Hiawatha” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is the 1855 poem referred to in the clue. Longfellow used the Native American name (sort of) for Lake Superior in its most famous lines: “By the shores of Gitche Gumee / By the shining Big-Sea-Water”. The poem was very popular for decades after its publications and many places were named after the poem’s characters, Hiawatha and Minnehaha. The pair also found their way into popular culture as did “Gitche Gumee” in Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 song “The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald.”
An 1890 article in “Eye of the North-West” on Lake Superior says: “Champlain named it ‘Grand Lac;’ Father Marquette called it ‘Lac Superior de Tracy;’ in some of the Jesuit Relations it is referred to as ‘Lac Conde,’ and in Longfellow’s ‘Hiawatha’ the Chippewas are made to call it ‘Gitche Gumee.'” Longfellow got that from the Ojibwe (aka the Chippewa). I don’t know why he changed it from the Native American “gichigami” to Gitche Gumee. Maybe one of his kids said it that way.
Eric wrote down Lake Superior. He lost his $201 bet and finished with $8,199.
Molly misread the clue as well and offered “Michigan.” She lost $5,500 and was left with $3,100.
Mason had Lake Hiawatha, which was a lot closer than Alex seemed to think. He only lost $1,000, winning the game with $19,000. Mason Maggio is the new Jeopardy! champ.
Reversal: Eric got dinged on this clue for his “lightheadedness” response: SIDE EFFECTS MAY VARY ($1600) Stay seated when you donate blood & get up slowly– a common side effect is syncope, aka this
3 triple stumpers in the whole game:
HASH TAGS ($1000) This dessert, a crisp meringue topped with fruit & whipped cream, was named for a Russian ballerina
4-SYLLABLE WORDS ($1600) Hydrogen, propane & renewables such as biodiesel are labeled this type of fuel in vehicles
NONFICTION ($1200) He got his Lifetime Award in 1991; almost 30 years later, his 2020 album “Rough and Rowdy Ways” went to No. l
2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “20th Century Plays”
From its preface: “It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate…him” show
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I thought the “lightheadedness” answer should have been accepted. I’ve heard physicians use that term. It didn’t matter, but it was demoralizing…
As to the final Jeopard question was confusing. If you sort of knew the question already you could figure it out, but honestly, it was so oddly worded, that I think “Superior:” should have been accepted. Why not ask something like:; “According to a much-loved 1844 poem Lake Superior was given this name by Native Americans who inhabited the region”. That way there would be no confusion about what was being asked,
Maybe the current questions need a couple more seconds. It seems to me that there has been a lot of running out of time as of late. Too many answers seem to be “What is Gitc_______________”
I thought this was a good match between the players. Molly had a strong beginning and somehow got outbuzzed by her opponents in the second half of the game. But still overall good contestants imo. Enjoyed watching this match.
That has got to be the worst and most confusing question ever asked on jeopardy… it was a total mind f’ of a question
I honestly don’t see what was so confusing about the FJ! — the contestants and regular viewers well know that the word this is used to indicate what response they are looking for. Here’s the clue:
An 1855 poem gives us this Native American name for the 1 Great Lake not known to us today by a Native American word or a tribe’s name (emphasis added)
If they wanted Lake Superior, it would have said “a Native American name” (or they just would have put in that name like they did in the 2019 clue in my earlier comment) and “this 1 Great Lake”
I think difficulty was that the second half of the clue, everything after “this Native American name” was oddly worded and difficult to parse on first reading. And it was even harder given the fact you had to try to maintain in your short term memory that you were looking for “this Native American name”.
Ah, well, I can’t speak to that because I had the luxury of reading the clue this morning and knew the answer by the time I got to “the 1 Great Lake”.
But, yeah, 2 players apparently did forget or overlook the “this” pointer
I agree with JP, and would add “under the harsh lights, while Alex stares at you while you’re trying to decipher the answer/question.
I think Mason, the song writer, should write a song titled Lake Hiawatha:.
There already is one, Cece. It’s about Lake Hiawatha, NJ “the town without a lake” 🤣🤣🤣
Hahaha. Could someone please inject some life into that song?
I had no problem with the clue once I read it carefully, and knew the answer right away.
I thought Alex’s comment to Mason was off-base, as Hiawatha was certainly on the right track.
Even though it had no effect on the outcome, I thought the handling of Eric’s response to the fainting clue was poorly handled.
Players were pretty good pre-final tonight and left me only a couple of crumbs to pick up, Pavlova and alternative. Maybe one other, not sure.
That was possibly the poorest worded final Jeopardy I have ever seen.
I was excited to get the answer correct right away. My reference is a song by a great Canadian, Gordon Lightfoot – The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Awesome!
Awesome, indeed, LoriAnne! I was wondering if Eric has that record in his 45 collection
🤣🤣🤣
the question is not clear whether it is asking for the common name of the lake or the name of the lake from Longfellow’s poem. If I had been answering the question I would have written both. Lake Superior and Gitche-Gumee.
You’re right, but that’s a lotta writing in a relatively few seconds….
Should have mentioned that the answer was referring to Lake Superior!!
Third Tuesday triple stumper as it was a hardest FJ.
I have never heard of this fj answer either although I do know Hiawatha, but we still need a streaker to close out the week. I would have thought that this was a triple solve VJ? I also had gotten Lake Hiawatha as well.
There’s a place in New Jersey named Lake Hiawatha. Here are the last two clues that mention today’s FJ! response:
10-23-2019 A POETIC GEOGRAPHY LESSON ($1200) Longfellow’s line “On the shores of Gitche Gumee” from “The Song of Hiawatha” refers to this Great Lake
10-13-2016 A POETIC CATEGORY ($800) “The Song of” him includes the lines “by the shores of Gitche Gumee, by the shining big-sea-water”
There’s a lot more on J-Archive
There’s also a quick look at Longfellow’s most famous poems right on this site
Scott Lord got it in the $1200 clue Literary Settings, his fourth game — “Hiawatha pitches his wigwam “by the shore of” this alliterative body of water”
I still don’t understand the question.
I must be lightheaded!
It was very clumsily worded, in my opinion.
So today, Houston Jeopardy! was interrupted after the first round to show the police in a low-speed chase after a white car on I-10. My daughter and I were watching it and her boy came over and said “Is that daddy?”🤣🤣🤣 (His father has a white car)
VJ, that is too funny. Amazing what comes out of the mouth of children. 😂
I’ve never heard of today’s FJ! answer, but it seems like every time it’s a Tuesday, and I have online El Centro Classes, tonight’s show results in a Triple Stumper, even in times when we almost 1 had solve, but players messed up, and Mike Richards likes being persnickety. Why?
I don’t know why.
Me neither, but obviously, tomorrow will be different, and let’s just hope for an easier time, and that SOMEBODY gets Final Jeopardy! right.