Final Jeopardy: Islands
The Final Jeopardy question (3/26/2012) in the category “Islands” was:
At 22 square miles, it’s the world’s smallest island with a population exceeding 1 million, a figure it reached by 1880.
New champion Dennis Wright returned today to try to add to his $25,200 win on Friday. Alex noted that he is the first welder champ in 28 years. He played so well on Friday that these new players may have their work cut out for them: Margie Cohen from Houston, TX, and Mithun Kamath, originally from New Orleans, LA.
Mithun landed on the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Little Brother is Watching You.” He was in third place with $2,800, $1,000 less than Dennis who had the lead by $200 over Margie. He bet $1,200 and he was RIGHT.
This little brother was christened by the Archbishop of Canterbury in December 1984. show
It was neck and neck up until the last category about Wedding Songs, which Dennis nailed and finished in the lead with $6,000. Mithun was in second place with $4,000 and Margie was last with $3,800.
Margie found the first Double Jeopardy! Daily Double in “Movies Based on Shakespeare.” She had $9,400 at this point, and was in the lead, $200 ahead of Dennis. She only risked $1,000, guessed King Lear, and she was WRONG.
Throne of Blood show
Two clues later, Margie found the second Daily Double in the category “There’s a Word for That.” Now she had $8,800, $400 less than Dennis. She bet $2,000 and she was WRONG (without a guess this time).
It’s a device used in threshing grain as well as a verb, meaning to wave your arms wildly & uselessly. show
Despite these two setback, Margie regained ground and finished in the lead with $12,800. Dennis ran into a $2,000 setback of his own but got the $2,000 clue in “Ambassadors” right and that was the last clue so he finished with $9,200. Mithun didn’t even get a buzz, let alone a wrong answer, in Double Jeopardy! so he still had $4,000.
NONE of the players got Final Jeopardy! right.
The population of Manhattan at the turn of the 19th century was 60,489 and by 1880 reached 1,164,674. The population peaked in 1920 at 2,284,103 and by 2010, there were 698.530 less than that. The article also lists the sq. mi. as 22.96, so there’s just a little more room for all those folks than we were led to believe. Manhattan demographic info on wikipedia.
Mithun write down “Indonesia” and bet $3,999 so he finished with $1.00. Indonesia is an archipelago and the 16th largest country in the world. Borneo, the third largest island in the world, is 287,000 sq. mi.
Just when Mithun thought he was in third place for sure, “Singapore” was revealed as Dennis’ answer and he bet it all, so now he was in third place with zero. Singapore consists of 63 islands and is presently 272 sq. mi.
Margie wrote down “Hong Kong.” (426 sq. mi.) She bet $6,601 and therefore won the game with $6,199.
Tsk, tsk. That’s all we can say. It would have worked out for Dennis this time if he had bet nothing like he did on Friday but, as we all know, sometimes you zig when you oughta zag.
