Final Jeopardy: Presidential Distinctions (1-8-13)
The Final Jeopardy question (1/8/2013) in the category “Presidential Distinctions” was:
Record holder for the longest time lived after leaving office.
3-day champ Ashok Poonzhikunnel is back today. He’s got over $65K and looking for a 4th win. These two players are looking to send him home: Lee Ann Roberts, from Albuquerque, NM and Matt Ruprecht, from Hamilton, NJ.
Ashok found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “The 6 New England States” on the 3rd pick. (Didn’t that happen yesterday in Double Jeopardy!?) He was in the lead with $400, $200 more than Lee Ann. He bet $1,000 and he was RIGHT.
The 2 whose names come from Native American words.
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Ashok finished in the lead with $9,000. Lee Ann was second with $4,600 and Matt was last with $3,800.
Lee Ann found the first Double Jeopardy Daily Double in “Director.” She was in second place with $11,400, $4,400 behind Matt’s lead. She bet $3,000 and she was RIGHT.
Peter Ueberroth, Barry Diller & ex-Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn are on the board of this beverage company.
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Ashok, so far very quiet in this round, managed to find the last Daily Double in “Editor.” He was in last place with $12,600, $6,400 behind Matt’s lead. He bet $6,000 on this Video DD, and he was RIGHT.
John Callahan, seen at left, pulled together “Juneteenth”, the posthumous second novel of this author.
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What a wild round! Ashok finished in the lead with $21,400. Matt was hot on his heels with $19,000 and so was Lee Ann with $18,000.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHO IS JAMES EARL “JIMMY” CARTER, JR.?
President Carter left office in 1981, and has been out of office 11,669 days, according to wikipedia, beating Herbert Hoover’s record of 11,553 days, and still counting, as our host put it. Carter will be celebrating his 89th birthday on October 1st, 2013. Gerald Ford (10,932), John Adams (9,253) and Martin Van Buren (7,812) round out the Top 5.
Lee Ann wrote down “Gerald Ford.” She bet everything but a buck so that’s all she had left.
Matt bet everything on prior record holder Herbert Hoover so he was left with nothing.
Ashok wrote down “Teddy Roosevelt,” not even in the Top 10 with 3,595 days. He bet $18,000 but, thanks to saving a few thousand in hopes of at least taking second place, Ashok triumphed once again. He won the game with $3,400 and his 4-day total is now $69,002.
“What a game,” Alex Trebek said, and we agree. Lee Ann and Matt sure gave Ashok some stiff competition!
We all understood what the question meant. Unfortunately, though I knew Carter had celebrated a birthday not too long before we taped the show in October, I didn’t read anything that indicated he had the new record. But I had a great time and came in second, thanks to keeping that dollar. :-)
I thought it made the question a bit of a trick question myself, but it doesn’t change the fact that the question did not specify living or dead.
Having outlived Hoover’s record, Jimmy Carter does and will hold the record until another President surpasses it . If one does, he’ll pretty much have to be alive to do it. :-)
Error here in my opinion. Longest time “lived” implies “dead”. Jimmy Carter is still alive. Negates absolute win for Ashok. And I love Ashok.