JAQR - April 6, 2025
Italian history, 21st century TV, Oscar Hijuelos, Country Music, Viva Las Vegas, the American Women series of quarters, and more...
Thank you for reading another issue of the Jeopardy Answer & Question Recap, or JAQR [“jacker”] for short. This recap includes at least one clue from each Jeopardy! episode between Monday 3/31 and Friday 4/4. The recap includes Final Jeopardy clues, Daily Doubles, and Triple Stumpers. There’s also Bonus Clues about long ago covered topics. The first half of the recap includes just the clues so you can quiz yourself if you want. The second half gives you some (hopefully) interesting information about the clues and/or some related info.
P.S. I highly recommend the weekly comedy podcast What Is...? A Jeopardy! Podcast
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
ITALIAN HISTORY
3 mighty city-states roughly forming an equilateral triangle were Venice, Florence & this one where the Viscontis & Sforzas ruled
FINAL JEOPARDY #2
21st CENTURY TELEVISION
The creator of this series that premiered in 2018 pitched it as "'The Godfather' in Montana"
DAILY DOUBLE #1
ANNUAL EVENTS
In 2024 this 3-week competition began in Florence & for the first time in its history, ended in Nice, due to the Olympics
DAILY DOUBLE #2
LITERATURE
"A Simple Habana Melody" by Oscar Hijuelos focuses on the rumba, but this other 5-letter dance is in the title of his best-known novel
TRIPLE STUMPER #1
COUNTRY MUSIC HISTORY
The "Coachella of country music", this festival featuring some of the greatest country artists began in California in 2007
TRIPLE STUMPER #2
MOVIE MUSICALS
"Viva Las Vegas" paired Elvis Presley & this Swedish beauty
TRIPLE STUMPER #3
POTPOURRI
Pioneers in a covered wagon & Chimney Rock are on the reverse of this Midwest state's quarter
BONUS CLUE #1
BIRTH OF A NATION
August 9, 1965: Singapore separates from this country across the Strait of Johore & becomes independent
BONUS CLUE #2
HISTORY IN THE MAKING
Thankfully, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka overturned this unfortunate decision of 1896
BONUS CLUE #3
MOVIE & TV ROLES
After a career in film, he got his first TV starring role in "Tulsa King", as a 75-year-old gangster just out of prison
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
ITALIAN HISTORY
3 mighty city-states roughly forming an equilateral triangle were Venice, Florence & this one where the Viscontis & Sforzas ruled
***MILAN***
Milan is located in northern Italy. It is the capital of Lombardy, which is the most populous of Italy’s 20 regions. The city is the namesake of the Edict of Milan, which granted religious freedom to Christians in the Roman Empire in 313. Members of the Visconti family ruled the city from 1277-1447. Their coat of arms depicts a serpent swallowing a child. A short-lived Golden Ambrosian Republic followed from 1447 to 1450. Members of the Sforza family then ruled for the next 100 years or so.
Milan is known for fashion. The term milliner (meaning someone who makes/sells women's hats) is derived from the name of Milan. Many companies have their HQs in the city, including Armani, Prada, and Versace. Milan Fashion Week is one of the "Big Four" fashion weeks, along with London, New York, and Paris. The first American to show his collections in Milan was the designer Geoffrey Beene. He names a Lifetime Achievement Award that recognizes contributions made to American fashion. Previous winners of the award include Norma Kamali, who won in 2016 partly for creating the “sleeping bag” coat.
Construction of the Milan Cathedral began in 1386 and finished a few (hundred) years later in 1965. It is topped with a statue of the Virgin Mary called the Madonnina. The mural The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci is located in the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie. The work was commissioned by Ludovico Sforza (nicknamed Il Moro, or The Moor), who was the Duke of Milan. A portrait by Leonardo titled Lady with an Ermine depicts Cecilia Gallerani, who was one of the many mistresses of Ludovico. The art movement Futurism was founded in Milan in 1909, the year Filippo Marinetti wrote its manifesto (“A roaring motor car which seems to run on machine-gun fire is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace”). The artist Lucio Fontana founded the art movement Spatialism in Milan in 1947. Fontana is known for cutting into paintings to provide a sense of depth.
Milan contains San Siro stadium, where the Serie A teams AC Milan and Inter Milan both play home matches. The AC stands for Associazione Calcio (“Association Soccer”), while Inter is short for Internazionale (“International”). AC Milan is nicknamed I Rossoneri (“The Red and Blacks”), while Inter Milan is nicknamed I Nerazzurri ("The Black and Blues"). The match between the two teams is called the Derby della Madonnina. AC Milan notably lost the 2005 UEFA Champions League final to Liverpool despite being up 3-0 at half-time. Played at Atatürk Olympic Stadium, the final is known as the "Miracle of Istanbul."
Other things to know about Milan include:
It is home to one of the world’s most famous opera houses, the Teatro alla Scala, which literally means “Theatre at the Stairway,” but it is better known as La Scala
It is the origin of a type of sweet bread called panettone, which has a cylindrical base and is commonly eaten at Christmas
It will co-host the 2026 Winter Olympics along with a town in the Alps called Cortina d'Ampezzo
FINAL JEOPARDY #2
21st CENTURY TELEVISION
The creator of this series that premiered in 2018 pitched it as "'The Godfather' in Montana"
***YELLOWSTONE***
The neo-western drama Yellowstone starred Kevin Costner. Airing from 2018-2024, the show chronicled the Dutton family, who own the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch in Montana. The ranch is often in conflict with a nearby town, an Indian reservation, and Yellowstone National Park. The show aired on the Paramount Network, whose former names include Spike TV and The Nashville Network. The show’s first prequel was a miniseries titled 1883, which co-starred Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. The show's second prequel is a currently airing show titled 1923, which stars Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford. An upcoming spinoff of the show is titled The Madison and will star Michelle Pfeiffer.
The show Yellowstone was created by Taylor Sheridan, who was born in North Carolina in 1969. He started out as an actor and had small roles on shows such as Veronica Mars and Sons of Anarchy. He then switched his focus to screenwriting and wrote the movies Sicario (2015) and Hell or High Water (2016).
Sheridan has also created these TV shows, all of which are on the streaming service Paramount+:
Mayor of Kingstown - stars Jeremy Renner as the title character and is set in a small Michigan town whose economy is based on its prisons
Tulsa King - stars Sylvester Stallone, who plays a Mafia capo who is sent to Oklahoma to set up a criminal organization
Lioness - stars Zoe Saldaña, whose character is a CIA officer in charge of the titular counterterrorism program, which uses female operatives
Landman - inspired by the podcast Boomtown, the show stars Billy Bob Thornton as the title character, who is a fixer for oil companies in West Texas
DAILY DOUBLE #1
ANNUAL EVENTS
In 2024 this 3-week competition began in Florence & for the first time in its history, ended in Nice, due to the Olympics
***TOUR DE FRANCE***
The Tour de France is considered the world's most prestigious bicycle race. It was established in 1903 by the sports journalist Henri Desgrange. The overall leader in the race wears the maillot jaune, or yellow jersey, which is the same color on which Desgrange’s newspaper (L’Auto, now called L'Équipe) was printed. Other jerseys to know include the green jersey (worn by the leader in the points competition), the polka-dotted jersey (worn by the “king of the mountains”), and the white jersey (worn by the best young rider). The term Flamme Rouge, which is also the title of a bicycle racing themed board game, refers to a “red flag” that is displayed one kilometer from the finish line of a race. In 2016, Adam Yates (who has a twin brother named Simon who is also a professional cyclist) was injured when the flamme rouge deflated as he rode underneath it. The rider who finishes last in the Tour de France is known as the Lantern Rouge, or Red Lantern.
The Tour de France has been subject to many doping scandals, especially with erythropoietin (or EPO, which increases the level of red blood cells). British cyclist Tom Simpson, who used amphetamines, died during the 1967 Tour de France while ascending Mont Ventoux. Italian cyclist Fabio Casartelli died during the 1995 Tour de France after crashing during the descent of the Col de Portet d'Aspet mountain pass. The 1998 iteration was known as the Tour de Farce after a car belonging to the Festina team was found with a bunch of doping products. That year's winner, the Italian cyclist Marco Pantani (nicknamed "Il Pirata" or "The Pirate") died in 2004 from cocaine.
Tour de France winners to know include: