Final Jeopardy: Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novels (7-19-13)
The Final Jeopardy question (7/19/2013) in the category “Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novels” was:
Its first line is “A green hunting cap squeezed on the top of the fleshy balloon of a head.”
New champ Berek Marcus won $25,199 yesterday and is back for another go at it. In the last match of the week, he takes on these two players: Cal (short for Caroline) Mason from Arlington, MA; and Alan Baltis from Lakewood, OH.
Cal found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Genealogy Glossary.” She was in the lead with $1,400, $400 ahead of Berek in second place. She bet $1,000 and blanked out so she was WRONG.
Also a Zodiac sign, in English marriage records this term referred to unmarried women. show
Alan finished in the lead with $4,800. Berek was second with $4,000 and Cal was last with $800.
Alan found the first Double Jeopardy Daily Double in “Old Names on the Map.” He was in the lead with $5,200, $400 ahead of Berek in second place. He bet $2,600, said Serbo-Croatia, but that was WRONG.
In 2003, this name was abandoned in favor of Serbia & Montenegro, which went their separate ways in 2006. show
Alan found the last Daily Double in “What’s Your Policy.” In second place with $6,200, he was $2,200 behind Berek’s lead. He bet $2,300, and struggled mightily to come up with something. He got “Leap Forward” out right after the buzzer rang, but that was WRONG anyway.
On September 25, 1980 the Chinese Communist party called on all its members to adhere to this policy. show
Alan finished in the lead with $9,900. Berek was next with $8,800 and Cal was in third place with $3,600.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
Okay, to begin with, the first line of the the book does not have the word “on” in it, and we looked at more than one. We are linking to “The Tao of Writing” on google books (which quotes it) so you may see that for yourself: “A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head.”
The wearer of the green hunting cap is Ignatius J. Reilly, described in the book’s foreword by Walker Percy as “without progenitor in any literature I know of — slob extraordinary, a mad Oliver Hardy, a fat Don Quixote, a perverse Thomas Aquinas rolled into one…”
Cal wrote down “Deliverance.” That cost her $1,600 and she finished with $2,000.
Berek bet everything he had and tried to write down “Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas” but it came out a bit of a mess. He finished with nothing.
Alan wrote down some gibberish Alex Trebek didn’t even want to try to decipher. He bet $7,701 so he won the match with $2,199 and we’re sure Cal is kicking herself for betting too much.
The swing between Cal and Alan on the last clue(clue 28) in DJ! where she said “Intellectual something or other, but not Property”, and Alan got it might have kept Berek from his second game, but who knows.
1.400 should have been the most, but she did not have to bet anything.
all in all a rather disappointing game. but then i guess we were spoiled rotten lately…. nevertheless, alan might redeem himself on monday.