Final Jeopardy: Cliches (6-8-12)
The Final Jeopardy question (6/8/2012) in the category “Cliches” was:
In an 1873 Thomas Hardy serial, a chapter ends with a character dangling from an “enormous sea-bord” this.
New champ, Sarah Fowlkes won $9,800 yesterday, and is back to defend her title against two new challengers: Aaron Cappocchi, from Burbank, CA and Rosanne Lightstone, from Royal Oak, MI.
Aaron found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Da Train, Da Train.” He was tied for the lead at $1,200 with Sarah, and they had $400 more than Sarah. He made it a true Daily Double and he was RIGHT.
On April 30, 1900, this engineer died with one hand on the brake lever, saving all but himself in an unavoidable crash. show
Aaron finished in the lead with $7,000. Rosanne was second with $3,400 and Sarah was in third place with $2,800.
After the commercial break, Aaron was given another $800 for his “zero hour” answer so he went into the next round with $7,800, and Alex found it necessary to tell Sarah that was $5,000 more than she had.
Aaron found the first Double Jeopardy Daily Double in “Latin Names for Cities.” He now had a runaway lead with $14,200, while the ladies were in the 5K range. He bet $3,000 and he was RIGHT.
A city on the Danube: Vindobona. show
Roseanne found the last Daily Double in “The Tony Awards.” She had $10,200. She bet $3,000, and she was RIGHT.
The 1956 Best Musical Award went to this show that was mad about baseball. show
Aaron finished in the lead with $21,600 but it was no longer a runaway because Roseanne had $14,400. Sarah was last with $8,400.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
“A Pair of Blue Eyes” is an early work of Thomas Hardy (could they come up with anything more obscure?), in which the blue-eyed heroine Elfride Swancourt must decide between the socially inferior Stephen Smith and the older and more acceptable Henry Knight. It is Henry who is left hanging off the cliff at the end of the chapter entitled “On Thy Gray Cold Stones, O Sea!” As any proper Englishman would do, Henry ascertains it will take three-quarters of an hour for Elfride to run and get help and says “That won’t do.” As Alex Trebek mentioned, the origin of the term “cliffhanger” is often attributed to this book, though we’re not sure if it was because of the cliff or because it was serialized, or both.
If you’ve a mind to read it, you can download the book for free to your Kindle on Amazon, or read it for free on Google books.
Sarah wrote down “tenterhook.” She lost her $8,300 bet and finished with $100.
Roseanne wrote down “a wooden plank.” She lost $2,401, finishing with $11,999.
Aaron got it right and added $7,200 to his already impressive total, winning the game with $28,800. Great job today, Aaron!
Oh and save your stamps, folks, however tempting it may be to spend 45 cents on telling Alex Trebek he pronounced something wrong! Alex took the trouble to explain that his pronunciation of Don Juan as Joo-un in the Lord Byron clue was correct. It’s really hard to catch old Alex in a mispronunciation, ain’t it? But it does happen. We never sent in a letter but we still remember the time he pronounced Parsippany (New Jersey) wrong.
