The Final Jeopardy question (10/21/2011), in the category Children’s Literature, was:

“In the original 1883 work, this title character kills a talking cricket, has his feet burned off and nearly starves“

New champion Jay Peterson from New Jersey returned Friday to take on these new challengers: Balaji Narain, originally from Georgia, and Heather Anstaett from Florida.

The Daily Double in the Jeopardy round was found right off the bat in the second clue by Heather in the category “State of the Novel”. She bet $1,000 and needed to know what state “Needful Things” & “Salem’s Lot” were set in. She got it right.

Balaji then took over, and began going up and down, but still was looking like a strong player. On the $1,000 clue in Physics, he answered “colloid” to “milk is an example of this suspension of tiny drops of one liquid in another.” Alex said the answer was emulsion. After the break, it was revealed that “colloid” was acceptable so they gave him back the $1,000 he lost, plus another $1,000 for a good response and his score rose to $5,000.

Heather neglected to phrase her Carole King answer in question form to the $1,000 clue in Song Dynasty (that had to do with songwriting teams) “with partner Gerry Goffin she wrote 5 No 1 hits, then 2 more without him.” It counts as a question if they raise their voice with the question inflection? Or, if Alex doesn’t catch it, it’s okay? Hmmmm. ***

Balaji ended the round in the lead with $5,400. Jay had $3,800 and Heather ended up in third place with $2,600.

Champion Jay picked up steam in Double Jeopardy, answering his way to an impressive lead by the time he found the first Daily Double in Old Jobs: “A lavender was a woman who did this.” He only bet $3,000 even though he had over twice as much as his nearest competitor, and he got it right.

Balaji got the second Daily Double in The Song Dynasty: “These fierce invaders from the north took out the Jin Dynasty before overthrowing the Song in 1279.” He also made a conservative bet of $2,000. He got it right.

These guys seemed to have more trouble today with easy answers than hard ones, except for the $2,000 clue in Politicians on the Governor of New Jersey. Jay hopped right on that one. LOL!

Jay finished first with $19,600. Balaji did a pretty good job of almost catching up to him. He was in second place with $17,800. Heather went into Final Jeopardy with $9,400.

Jay is an English professor so he must have been saying Yessss!!!! when the Final Jeopardy category, Children’s Literature, was revealed. Incredibly he was the only one to get this easy question wrong. Jiminy Cricket, Jay ….. Hansel?

“Who is Pinocchio?”

Carlo Collodi (the pen name of Italian author Carlo Lorenzini) created the Pinocchio character in the “Adventures of Pinocchio,” which was not originally intended as children’s literature. It’s a free Kindle download on Amazon if you click on the book. Jiminy Cricket, by the way, was actually the name given to the Talking Cricket by Disney.

Heather bet $9,399 almost doubling her money to $18,799.

Balaji bet $17,600 bringing his total to $35,400.

Jay bet $16,001 leaving him in third place with $3,599. So he got the third place prize of $1,000 to add to his $25,201 winnings from yesterday.

Balaji will return on Monday. It was the only time this week someone won over $30K.

*** From Jeopardy: The Complete Guide: “During the Jeopardy! Round, contestants are not penalized for forgetting to phrase a response in the form of a question, although the host will remind contestants to watch their phrasing on future clues. During the Double Jeopardy! Round, or on Daily Doubles (regardless of the round), adherence to the phrasing rule is followed more strictly, but contestants are still permitted to correct themselves before their time runs out.”

So now we know but, still, Alex did not warn anyone when they did that twice this week, and he also did not give Lloyd a chance to correct himself Wednesday on the Robert Browning clue.