JAQR - April 23, 2023
recent Supreme Court cases, Emily Dickinson, Neal Stephenson, Gabrielle Zevin, the 1968 Winter Olympics, and more...
Thank you for reading another issue of the Jeopardy Answer & Question Recap, or JAQR [“jacker”] for short. This recap includes two clues from each episode of Jeopardy! between Monday 4/17 - Friday 4/21. The recap will include some Daily Doubles, Final Jeopardys, and Triple Stumpers. The first half of the recap will include just the clues so you can quiz yourself if you want. The second half will give you some (hopefully) interesting information about the clues and/or some related info.
DAILY DOUBLE #1
ALPHABETICALLY FIRST
Of current justices of the Supreme Court, by last name
DAILY DOUBLE #2
OLD WAR
1462's Battle of Piltown was the only major battle fought in Ireland as part of these dynastic civil wars
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
LIVES OF THE POETS
At a seminary that classified students' degree of faith, Emily Dickinson was "without" this, which she compares to a bird in a poem
FINAL JEOPARDY #2
MODERN WORDS
Neal Stephenson coined this word in his 1992 novel "Snow Crash"; it was later shortened by a company to become its new name
FINAL JEOPARDY #3
HISTORIC GROUPS
Originally a term for security escorts for commanders, in 27 B.C. this group was designated an official imperial force
TRIPLE STUMPER #1
IN THE BOOKSTORE
The title of Gabrielle Zevin's novel about young game designers is this repetitive line from "Macbeth" expressing weariness
TRIPLE STUMPER #2
SAVOIR FAIR
A yearly science fair is sponsored by a university in this French city that hosted the 1968 Winter Olympics
TRIPLE STUMPER #3
A BOX OF MATCHES
This glossy weekly pictorial magazine published in France since 1949 has been compared to Life magazine
TRIPLE STUMPER #4
'80s & '90s R&B SONGS
"My Prerogative" by this singer is noted as a prime example of R&B's new jack swing era
TRIPLE STUMPER #5
SCIENTIFIC NUMBERS
Rounded to 1.618, an irrational number mentioned by Euclid is known as this divine proportion
DAILY DOUBLE #1
ALPHABETICALLY FIRST
Of current justices of the Supreme Court, by last name
***SAMUEL ALITO***
Samuel Alito [ah-LEE-toh], pictured below, was nominated by George W. Bush to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court. Bush had previously tried to nominate Harriet Miers, who had no prior experience as a judge. Alito is the eleventh Catholic and second Italian-American to serve on the Supreme Court. Alito's background and conservatism have led some to nickname him "Scalito," a reference to the first Italian-American on the Supreme Court, Antonin Scalia. Alito was the lone dissent in the 2011 case Snyder v. Phelps, which concerned a protest held by the Westboro Baptist Church near the funeral of a Marine. The majority opinion held that the First Amendment protected the protesters.
Alito wrote the majority opinions in the following cases:
McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010) - extended District of Columbia v. Heller (which found that banning handguns violates the Second Amendment) to the states
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores (2014) - held that for-profit companies can deny its employees health coverage of contraceptions based on the religious objections of the company's owners
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022) - held that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion, thus overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey; a draft of the majority opinion written was leaked before the final decision was released
DAILY DOUBLE #2
OLD WAR
1462's Battle of Piltown was the only major battle fought in Ireland as part of these dynastic civil wars
***WARS OF THE ROSES***
The Wars of the Roses were fought for control of the English throne. They were fought between two branches of the House of Plantagenet [plan-TAJ-eh-net]: Lancaster (whose heraldic badge had a red rose) and York (whose heraldic badge had a white rose). The wars began with the First Battle of St Albans in 1455, and is where the mentally-unstable King Henry VI was captured by the Yorkist army. He was freed by the Lancastrian army in February 1461 at the Second Battle of St Albans. He may have spent that battle sitting under a tree singing to himself.
The largest and bloodiest battle of the wars was the Battle of Towton in March 1461. That battle was fought on Palm Sunday in a raging snowstorm and was a Yorkist victory. After the battle, Henry VI fled to Scotland. Edward IV claimed the throne, thanks in part to Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick, who was nicknamed the “Kingmaker” and was arguably the real ruler.
Edward IV and Richard Neville eventually had a falling out, resulting in Edward IV being deposed (and fleeing to The Netherlands) and Henry VI being restored to the crown in 1470. One year later, Edward IV returned and squared off against Richard Neville at the Battle of Barnet. Edward IV led the House of York to victory and Neville was killed at the battle. One month later, Edward IV scored a decisive victory at the Battle of Tewkesbury, and Henry VI died (possibly murdered in the Tower of London). Edward IV then ruled until his death in 1483.
Edward IV’s twelve-year-old Edward V was the next to rule. However, Edward V’s uncle, the Duke of Gloucester (the future Richard III), had him and Edward V’s younger brother put in the Tower of London. While there, the “Princes in the Tower” were likely murdered. Richard III was now king (for some Shakespearean info about Richard III, check out the 12/30/22 issue). Two years later though, Richard III was defeated and killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field, which was the last major battle of the Wars of the Roses. The battle's victor was the Lancastrian contender for the throne, Henry VII, who united the two rival branches by marrying Edward IV’s daughter, Elizabeth of York. Henry VII was the founder of the Tudor dynasty. Its four other rulers included Henry VIII and his children Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. As seen below, the Tudor rose combines the York and Lancaster roses.
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
LIVES OF THE POETS
At a seminary that classified students' degree of faith, Emily Dickinson was "without" this, which she compares to a bird in a poem
***HOPE***
Amherst-native Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), pictured below, lived in seclusion and wrote nearly 1,800 poems. She attended the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (now Mount Holyoke College, one of the Seven Sisters), where the students were divided into three categories: those who were “established Christians,” those who “expressed hope,” and those who were “without hope.” She only attended the seminary for one year, possibly due to being homesick. The dash-loving Dickinson later wrote a poem that begins:
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -
FINAL JEOPARDY #2
MODERN WORDS
Neal Stephenson coined this word in his 1992 novel "Snow Crash"; it was later shortened by a company to become its new name
***METAVERSE***
Neal Stephenson is known for his works of speculative fiction. They include the novel Snow Crash, which centers on a pizza deliverer and hacker named Hiro Protagonist. He spends most of his time in the Metaverse, where many fellow hackers are getting their brains fried on a new datafile/drug called Snow Crash. The book popularized the computer term “avatar.” Other novels by Neal Stephenson include 1999’s Cryptonomicon, whose title is based on the fictional book Necronomicon that is featured in many H.P. Lovecraft stories, and 2015’s Seveneves, whose title is a palindrome.
FINAL JEOPARDY #3
HISTORIC GROUPS
Originally a term for security escorts for commanders, in 27 B.C. this group was designated an official imperial force
***PRAETORIAN GUARD***
The Praetorian Guard (or “Cohors Praetoria” in Latin) is best known as the unit of troops belonging to the Roman emperor. The unit actually started as bodyguards for Roman generals in the 2nd century BCE. The group was designated an official imperial force by the first emperor, Augustus. During the reign of the second Roman emperor (Tiberius), the leader of the Praetorian Guard (Sejanus) became de facto ruler while the likely pedophile Tiberius spent many of his final years in his villa on the island of Capri. Sejanus is believed to wanted to be emperor himself, and may have killed Drusus, who was the only son of Tiberius. Sejanus was arrested in executed in AD 31 after Tiberius eventually became suspicious. The Praetorian Guard assassinated the possibly mentally ill Roman emperor Caligula in AD 41. One of its members, Cassius Chaerea [kye-REE-ah], had been constantly mocked by Caligula for his high-pitched voice. Caligula was succeeded by Claudius, who was handpicked by the Praetorian Guard after he was found hiding behind a curtain.
The year AD 193 is called the Year of the Five Emperors. The year was preceded by the advisers of gladiator wannabee Commodus getting a wrestler to strangle him to death in a bath on New Years Eve in AD 192. His successor Pertinax was assassinated by the Praetorian Guard for trying to reform the unit. Didius Julianus then became emperor by literally being the highest bidder for the support of the Praetorian Guard. However, he was condemned to death by the Senate and killed. Septimius Severus eventually came to power and he reorganized the Praetorian Guard. The unit was ultimately disbanded by Constantine I in AD 312. Ironically, the Praetorian Guard was established to protect the Roman emperor, but its members assassinated many of them.
TRIPLE STUMPER #1
IN THE BOOKSTORE
The title of Gabrielle Zevin's novel about young game designers is this repetitive line from "Macbeth" expressing weariness
***TOMORROW AND TOMORROW AND TOMORROW***
Gabrielle Zevin’s 2022 novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow centers on childhood friends named Sam and Sadie, who design the blockbuster video game Ichigo. The novel’s cover features the title in an 8-bit style and a reproduction of Hokusai’s woodblock print The Great Wave off Kanagawa. The novel’s title comes from a line in Macbeth’s soliloquy that he delivers after learning of Lady Macbeth’s suicide:
She should have died hereafter.
There would have been a time for such a word.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
TRIPLE STUMPER #2
SAVOIR FAIR
A yearly science fair is sponsored by a university in this French city that hosted the 1968 Winter Olympics
***GRENOBLE***
Grenoble is a city in southeastern France that is northwest of Nice and southeast of Lyon. Grenoble is the capital of the Isère [ee-SAY-ray] department (France has 101 administrative departments), which is named for the river of the same name. Grenoble is in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region (France has 18 administrative regions), which is named for the Auvergne [aw-VAIRN] region, the Rhône River, and the Alps mountain range. The center of Grenoble is linked to a former fortress that overlooks the city (the Bastille) by spherical cable cars nicknamed Les bulles ("The Bubbles"). The name Grenoble comes from Gratianopolis, which was named for the 4th century Roman emperor Gratian [GRAY-shun]. Grenoble was the birthplace of the writer Stendhal (pseudonym of Marie-Henri Beyle), whose novels from the 1830s include The Red and the Black and The Charterhouse of Parma.
Grenoble hosted the Winter Olympics in 1968. One of the big winners was French skier Jean-Claude Killy [KEE-lee], who won gold medals in the downhill, slalom, and giant slalom. The only gold medal won by an American went to figure skater Peggy Fleming, who wore an iconic chartreuse dress, pictured below. Perhaps the U.S. only won one gold medal because McDonalds’ airlifted hamburgers to homesick U.S. athletes. The only other two French hosts of the Winter Olympics have been Chamonix [shah-moh-NEE] (1924) and Albertville (1992, the last time the Winter and Summer Olympics were in the same year).
TRIPLE STUMPER #3
A BOX OF MATCHES
This glossy weekly pictorial magazine published in France since 1949 has been compared to Life magazine
***PARIS MATCH***
The news and current events magazine Paris Match includes stories on public affairs, profiles and interviews of celebrities and government officials, and stories on entertainment and fashion. The cover of an issue from 1955 was analyzed in the second section of the 1957 book Mythologies by literary theorist and philosopher Roland Barthes [bart]. The cover of that issue, seen below, depicts a young Black soldier in a French uniform saluting. Barthes, who is known for his writings on semiotics (the formal study of symbols and signs), discusses what the cover signifies to him: “France is a great Empire, that all her sons, without any colour discrimination, faithfully serve under her flag, and that there is no better answer to the detractors of an alleged colonialism than the zeal shown.” The title of the book Mythologies refers to the hidden assumptions behind popular cultural phenomena (e.g. wrestling, which is the subject of the first essay in the book).
TRIPLE STUMPER #4
'80s & '90s R&B SONGS
"My Prerogative" by this singer is noted as a prime example of R&B's new jack swing era
***BOBBY BROWN***
Bobby Brown was a member of the R&B and pop group New Edition, which was influenced and inspired by the Jackson 5. Brown left the group to go solo in 1985, while three of the remaining members went on to form the group Bell Biv DeVoe. Bobby Brown's second solo album, 1988's Don't Be Cruel, included the songs “Every Little Step” and "My Prerogative” (heard below). Those songs are examples of the new jack swing genre, which is a fusion of hip hop and R&B. He married Whitney Houston in 1992 and they recorded the duet “Something in Common” together. They had one child, the slightly confusingly named Bobbi Brown. The family appeared on the Bravo reality show Being Bobby Brown, which lasted for one season in 2005. The couple divorced in 2007. Whitney Houston died in a bathtub in 2012 and Bobbi died in 2015 at the age of 22 after being found face down and unconscious in a bathtub.
TRIPLE STUMPER #5
SCIENTIFIC NUMBERS
Rounded to 1.618, an irrational number mentioned by Euclid is known as this divine proportion
***GOLDEN RATIO***
The golden ratio, often abbreviated by the Greek letter ϕ (phi), equals one plus the square root of five, divided by two (1+√5 / 2). This value is equal to the positive solution of the quadratic equation x^2 – x – 1 = 0. The golden ratio is the limit of the ratios of consecutive terms in the Fibonacci sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc). The golden ratio is often considered to be aesthetically pleasing.
