JAQR - August 25, 2024
Aristophanes, Carson McCullers, gonzo journalism, "Hold Me Now," J. S. Bach, Sidney Lumet, Trent Affair, Elvis soundtrack, 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 games #11-14 (the last two quarterfinal games and the first two semifinal games) of the 2024 Jeopardy! Masters tournament, whose contestants included Amodio, Groce, Holzhauer, Raut, Roach, and Schneider. The recap includes Daily Doubles, a Final Jeopardy clue, and Triple Stumpers. The first part of the recap includes just the clues so you can quiz yourself if you want. The second part gives you some (hopefully!) interesting information about the clues and/or some related info.
P.S. The next LearnedLeague season starts tomorrow! If you’re a free subscriber, now's a good time to upgrade. Plans start as low as $5 per month, which is half the cost of one banana, as per Lucille Bluth from Arrested Development.
DAILY DOUBLE #1
ANCIENT LIT
Aristophanes' animal-titled works include "The Birds", "The Frogs" & this one that's actually about litigious Athenians
DAILY DOUBLE #2
BEFORE, DURING & AFTER
Carson McCullers novel about a gonzo journalist who hits the road with bandmates to sing songs like "Hold Me Now"
DAILY DOUBLE #3
I'LL BE BACH
In 1721 Bach dipped into the masterpiece bin & dedicated a series of works to the Margrave of this
DAILY DOUBLE #4
ONE-WORD MOVIE TITLES
This Sidney Lumet drama is set at the Union Broadcasting Systems
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
SHORT STORIES
"Down--steadily down it crept... downward with its lateral velocity. To the right--to the left" is in this 1842 tale
TRIPLE STUMPER #1
MUSIC IN BOOKS
This Londoner has her narrator watch "Top of the Pops" & dance to "Thriller" in her 2016 novel "Swing Time"
TRIPLE STUMPER #2
HISTORICAL CRISES
In the 1861 Trent Affair, the Union seized two Confederate envoys from a British ship, not pleasing this often-abrasive prime minister known as "Lord Pumice Stone"
TRIPLE STUMPER #3
KILLER RIFFS
This Eminem & Cee-Lo song on the "Elvis" soundtrack borrows a "Jailhouse Rock" riff & a Rodgers & Hammerstein show title
BONUS CLUE #1
IS THIS THING AWNING?
No, we're indoors, & that's this structure over an altar; it can end in just "N" or in "N-O", & one at St. Peter's is pretty elaborate
DAILY DOUBLE #1
ANCIENT LIT
Aristophanes' animal-titled works include "The Birds", "The Frogs" & this one that's actually about litigious Athenians
***THE WASPS***
Aristophanes [AIR-ih-STAH-fah-neez] was an Ancient Greek playwright best known for writing comedies in the 5th century BCE. He wrote around 40 plays total, but only 11 still survive today. Many of his works concerned life in Athens and/or the Peloponnesian War. He is probably best known for the play Lysistrata, in which the title character convinces the women of Greece to declare a sex strike until the men make peace. His animal-titled works include:
The Birds - the character Pisthetaerus is disgusted with the bureaucracy of Athens and builds a new city in between heaven and earth called Cloud Cuckoo Land (which lends its name to a 2021 book by Anthony Doerr [DOR])
The Frogs - Dionysus is concerned about the poor quality of present-day tragedy in Athens so he goes down to Hades to bring Euripides back, but returns with Aeschylus instead; the title amphibians repeat the phrase “Brekekekex koax koax”
The Wasps - satirized the litigiousness of Athenians using a dog accused of stealing cheese
DAILY DOUBLE #2
BEFORE, DURING & AFTER
Carson McCullers novel about a gonzo journalist who hits the road with bandmates to sing songs like "Hold Me Now"
***THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER S. THOMPSON TWINS***
Carson McCullers wrote the 1940 novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. Its opening sentence, “In the town there were two mutes, and they were always together,” refers to Spiros Antonapoulos and John Singer. Later on in the first chapter, Spiros is sent to an insane asylum. John eventually becomes a confidant for others (e.g. the tomboy Mick Kelly, who is obsessed with classical music) in the small Georgia mill town where the Southern Gothic novel is set. The novel ends with John’s suicide after he learns of the death of Spiros. Alan Arkin played John Singer in a 1968 movie adaptation. "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" is also the title of a 1995 country song by Reba McEntire.
Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005) created the genre of gonzo journalism, which is a non-objective and highly personal style of reporting. His first published book was titled Hell’s Angels and centered on the namesake motorcycle gang. His other works include the article “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved,” which was illustrated by Ralph Steadman and first published in the short-lived Scanlan’s Monthly. Thompson is probably best known for the novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which centers on a drug-soaked long weekend road trip. The novel begins “We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.” It was adapted into a Terry Gilliam movie starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro.
The Thompson Twins were a British synth-pop band. They were named for characters from The Adventures of Tintin, which was a comic created by Hergé (pen name of Georges Prosper Remi). The band’s biggest hits include "Hold Me Now" and "Doctor! Doctor!," both of which appeared on their 1984 album Into the Gap. The band's song "If You Were Here" is played when Sam and Jake kiss atop a table at the end of the John Hughes 1984 movie Sixteen Candles. The band performed their song "Hold Me Now" at the Philadelphia site of Live Aid in 1985. They were joined by Madonna for a performance of the song “Revolution” by the Beatles. The band's best-known lineup was a trio consisting of Tom Bailey (lead vocalist), Joe Leeway (former roadie), and Alannah Currie (Kiwi percussionist). Bailey and Currie were married from 1991-2004.
DAILY DOUBLE #3
I'LL BE BACH
In 1721 Bach dipped into the masterpiece bin & dedicated a series of works to the Margrave of this