Final Jeopardy: American Writers (3-6-12)
The Final Jeopardy question (3/6/2012) in the category “American Writers” was:
A fellow author called him “A very unique cat — a French Canadian Hinayana Buddhist Beat Catholic savant.”
Two day champ, David Gard came back today to fight to the finish with these two players: Ben Parks-Stamm from Winthrop, ME; and Laura Whittle from Sacramento, CA.
David found the Jeopardy! Daily Double in the category “Major Tom.” He was in the lead with $5,800, $1,200 more than Laura and $3,800 more than Ben. He bet $1,200 and was RIGHT.
Born in 1854, he assisted Alexander Graham Bell with his telephone experiments. show
Laura finished in the lead with $7,600. David was second with $7,000 and Ben was in third place with $2,000 at the end of the round.
David found the first Daily Double in Double Jeopardy in “Fill in the Quote.” He had $9,000, $2,600 less than Laura, who still held the lead. He wagered $1,000 and it was a good thing he was so cautious because he said “be” and that was WRONG.
Completes Gloria Steinem’s line: “Some of us are becoming the men we wanted to …” show
David also found the last Daily Double in the category “Just Like Heaven.” He had $9,600 now, an even $4,000 less than Laura. This time he boldly bet $4,600, and that was a good thing because he was RIGHT.
To Homer these fields were a land of perfect happiness on the banks of the Oceanus River.
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David finished in the lead with $16,800. Laura was right behind him with $15,600 and Ben had $7,200.
David got all the Daily Doubles today, but only got two right. Only TWO of the players knew the answer to Final Jeopardy!
Alex Trebek said that one word was a very important part of the clue and then mentioned that the French-Canadian part referred to Jack Kerouac’s father, but actually Kerouac’s mother was French-Canadian, too. Jack’s given name was Jean-Louis. We’re sure the most important part of the clue was the word “beat.” It was fellow Beat Generation poet, Allen Ginsberg who described Kerouac as “a unique cat …”
“The term ‘Beat Generation’ was coined by Kerouac in a conversation with John Clellon Holmes who felt Kerouac’s stories “seemed to be describing a new sort of stance toward reality, behind which a new sort of consciousness lay.” He urged Kerouac to try to define it in a phrase or two.
“As Holmes recalled, Kerouac replied, “It’s a kind of furtiveness… Like we were a generation of furtives. You know, with an inner knowledge…a kind of beatness… and a weariness with all the forms, all the conventions of the world… So I guess you might say we’re a ‘Beat Generation’.” (Beat Writers)
Ben didn’t have any idea so he lost his $715 bet and finished with $6,485.
Laura had the right response and bet $9,400. She finished with $25,000.
David also had it and bet $14,500 so he triumphed once again. Today’s impressive total was $31,300. His 3-day total leapt to $69,900.
We won’t even venture a guess why Laura didn’t bet more or why Dave didn’t bet enough in case she did. See ya tomorrow.
