JAQR - August 27, 2023
Gary Oldman, Mediterranean islands, Shakespeare, TikTok celebs, 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! airing between Monday 8/21 and Thursday 8/24.
The Friday 8/25 episode was already covered when it originally aired on 11/11/2022. For that recap, click here: https://jaqr.substack.com/p/jaqr-november-11-2022
This recap will include Daily Doubles, Final Jeopardy clues, 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.
P.S. These questions are all from the Tournament of Champions (in case they seem a little harder than normal).
DAILY DOUBLE #1
BRIT BITS
One of the oldest records at the National Archives in London is this record of William the Conqueror's 1086 survey of England
DAILY DOUBLE #2
IN THAT NOVEL
High-ranking Father Latour passes away in a Santa Fe cathedral
DAILY DOUBLE #3
WE'LL ALWAYS HAVE THE TREATY OF PARIS
1856: The Treaty of Paris ends this war
DAILY DOUBLE #4
MOVIE QUOTES
In this 2017 biopic Gary Oldman says, "You cannot reason with a tiger when your head is in its mouth"
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
CONTEMPORARY AUTHORS
A trip to El Paso with his young son & wondering what the city might look like years in the future inspired a novel by this author
FINAL JEOPARDY #2
GEOGRAPHIC PAIRS
By ferry, the distance between these 2 paired Mediterranean islands is about 40 miles from Alcudia to Ciutadella
TRIPLE STUMPER #1
SHAKESPEARE JUST KILLS ME
This title guy kills Lavinia, stabs Tamora, gets killed by Saturninus, who in turn is whacked by Lucius, the said title guy's son
TRIPLE STUMPER #2
CELEBS
This 18-year-old dancer has 145 million followers on TikTok
DAILY DOUBLE #1
BRIT BITS
One of the oldest records at the National Archives in London is this record of William the Conqueror's 1086 survey of England
***DOMESDAY BOOK***
The Domesday [“doomsday”] Book was a survey of most of England. It was made at the behest of King William I AKA William the Conqueror (pictured below) 20 years after the Norman Conquest. The king needed to know how much was owed to him in tax, rents, and military service since around that time he was threatened with a Danish invasion. The survey was written in Medieval Latin and recorded approximately 13,000 villages, 650,000 oxen, and a human population of 1.8 million.
DAILY DOUBLE #2
IN THAT NOVEL
High-ranking Father Latour passes away in a Santa Fe cathedral
***DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP***
Willa Cather wrote the 1927 novel Death Comes for the Archbishop, in which Bishop Jean Latour organizes a new Roman Catholic diocese in the territory of New Mexico (before it became a state). He is assisted by his childhood friend, the vicar Father Joseph Vaillant [vye-yawn]. Latour triumphs over corrupt and oppressive Spanish priests and canvasses donations in order to build and establish the church in Santa Fe. The novel also depicts the Long Walk of the Navajo, which was the 1864 deportation of the Navajo people by Kit Carson and the U.S. federal government. The book is based on the lives of two historical Frenchmen, Bishop Jean Baptiste L’Amy and Father Joseph Machebeut. Other novels by Willa Cather (pictured below) include O Pioneers! (1913) and My Ántonia (1918), both of which are set in Nebraska where she was raised.
DAILY DOUBLE #3
WE'LL ALWAYS HAVE THE TREATY OF PARIS
1856: The Treaty of Paris ends this war
***CRIMEAN WAR***
The Crimean War was named for the Black Sea peninsula where it was fought from 1853-1856. The war was primarily between Russia and the ultimately victorious alliance featuring British, French, and Ottoman troops. One of the major causes of the war was who would have authority over Orthodox Christians living in the declining Ottoman Empire. Events during the war included the 11-month-long siege of Sevastopol and the Battle of Balaclava. That battle included a disastrous British cavalry charge led by Lord Cardigan (namesake of a knitted sweater) that was commemorated in Lord Tennyson’s poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” The battle also included a portion in which the kilted infantry of the 93rd Highlanders fended off Russian cavalry charges. The defense was called the “Thin Red Line” by Irish war correspondent William Howard Russell.
During the war, British nurse Florence Nightingale used statistical data to help modernize the treatment of wounded soldiers. She was nicknamed “The Lady with the Lamp” because she would carry a lamp while making her rounds at night. A “doctress” who cared for British soldiers during the war was the Jamaican-born woman Mary Seacole (pictured below), who was nicknamed “The Creole with the Tea Mug.” Many photos of the war, including Valley of the Shadow of Death (also pictured below, and likely staged by moving some cannonballs to a road) were taken by English photographer Roger Fenton. A decoration of valor called the Victoria Cross was first awarded for action in the war and was originally cast from captured Russian guns.
DAILY DOUBLE #4
MOVIE QUOTES
In this 2017 biopic Gary Oldman says, "You cannot reason with a tiger when your head is in its mouth"
***DARKEST HOUR***
Gary Oldman (1958-) is an English actor who won the Oscar for Best Actor for playing British PM Winston Churchill in the 2017 movie Darkest Hour, which is set during the early days of World War II. He was nominated for Best Actor for playing John le Carré’s recurring character George Smiley in 2011’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and the title screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz [MANG-kuh-wits] in the 2020 movie Mank (directed by David Fincher). He can currently be seen on the Apple TV+ spy thriller Slow Horses. He played an actor who spits in Joey’s face while enunciating words on a 2001 episode of Friends. His ex-wives include Lesley Manville and Uma Thurman.
Some of his earliest roles were in:
Sid and Nancy (1986) - played Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious
JFK (1991) - played the assassin Lee Harvey Oswald
Immortal Beloved (1994) - played the composer Ludwig van Beethoven
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
CONTEMPORARY AUTHORS
A trip to El Paso with his young son & wondering what the city might look like years in the future inspired a novel by this author
***CORMAC MCCARTHY***
For a paragraph about McCarthy and his four most famous novels (including the one referenced above), check out DAILY DOUBLE #3 from the 01/20/23 issue: https://jaqr.substack.com/p/jaqr-january-20-2023
Since this game originally aired, American author Cormac McCarthy died at the age of 89 in 2023. Besides his four most famous novels (see above), he also wrote:
The Orchard Keeper (1965) - his first novel, it is set in rural Tennessee during the Prohibition era and centers the budding friendship between the bootlegger Marion Sylder and a boy named John Wesley Rattner, whose father was killed when trying to rob Marion
Suttree (1979) - named for the voluntarily impoverished Cornelius Suttree, who lives on a dilapidated houseboat on the Tennessee River in Knoxville; he interacts with many eccentrics, criminals, and squatters including one named Gene Harrogate, who has sex with watermelons, thus earning him the epithet ‘The Moonlight Melonmounter”
Cities of the Plain (1998) - final novel of The Border Trilogy, which also includes All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing; the novel is set in New Mexico in 1952 and centers on the ranch hands Billy Parham and John Grady Cole, the latter of whom falls for an epileptic prostitute from Mexico named Magdalena and tries to rescue her from the pimp Eduardo
FINAL JEOPARDY #2
GEOGRAPHIC PAIRS
By ferry, the distance between these 2 paired Mediterranean islands is about 40 miles from Alcudia to Ciutadella
***MALLORCA AND MENORCA***
Majorca [my-YORE-kah] and Minorca [mih-NOR-kah] (also known as Mallorca and Menorca) are two of the Balearic [bah-lee-AR-ik] Islands. They are about 100 miles off the coast of mainland Spain in the Mediterranean Sea. Majorca means “the larger one” and Minorca means “the smaller one.” They are the two largest of the Balearic Islands, followed by Ibiza (known for its nightlife during the summer) and Formentera. Minorca’s most populous city is Mahón [may-OWN], which was named for Hannibal's brother Mago Barca. The condiment mayonnaise is named for the city.
Majorca's village of Valldemossa contains a charterhouse where Frédéric Chopin and George Sand (pen name of Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin and author of the travelogue A Winter in Majorca) spent some time together. Chopin's "Raindrop" prelude may have been inspired by a storm on the island. Club Med (founded by Belgian entrepreneur Gérard Blitz) had its first location on Majorca. The capital of the Balearic Islands is the city of Palma on Majorca. Tennis player Rafael Nadal was born and raised on Majorca.
TRIPLE STUMPER #1
SHAKESPEARE JUST KILLS ME
This title guy kills Lavinia, stabs Tamora, gets killed by Saturninus, who in turn is whacked by Lucius, the said title guy's son
***TITUS ANDRONICUS***
William Shakespeare’s 1594 NSFW tragedy Titus Andronicus is set in ancient Rome and includes homicide, cannibalism, emperor-cide, and even a tongue-ectomy. The play is named for a Roman general who has recently defeated the Goths in battle (although 21 of his 25 sons died in battle). He returns home with their queen, Tamora, and allows her oldest son Alarbus to be sacrificed. Titus has a daughter named Lavinia who the Roman emperor Saturninus decides he will marry. However, Bassianus (brother of Saturninus) runs away with her. As a result, Saturninus marries Tamora instead. Lavinia is raped and mutilated by Tamora’s remaining sons Demetrius and Chiron, who cut off her hands and also cut out her tongue. Lavinia is able to communicate with her father by taking a staff in her mouth and guiding it with her stumps in some sand. Titus gets revenge by murdering Demetrius and Chiron. He bakes them in a pie and serves them to Tamora. Before stabbing her to death, he brags about his deed:
Why, there they are, both bakèd in this pie,
Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,
Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.
’Tis true, ’tis true! Witness my knife’s sharp point.
Tamora’s husband Saturninus responds by killing Titus, whose last surviving son Lucius then kills Saturninus and becomes emperor. Some people believe Shakespeare collaborated on the play with George Peele. The only surviving contemporary Shakespearean illustration, called the Peacham drawing, depicts a performance from Titus Andronicus. A 2019 "sequel" to the work called Gary starred Nathan Lane as the title character, was written by Taylor Mac, and deals with servants cleaning up the carnage from the original play. Anthony Hopkins played the title character in the 1999 movie Titus, which was directed by Julie Taymor. Titus Andronicus is also the name of an indie punk band fronted by Patrick Stickles.
TRIPLE STUMPER #2
CELEBS
This 18-year-old dancer has 145 million followers on TikTok
***CHARLI D’AMELIO***
Charli D'Amelio [dah-MIL-ee-oh] was born in 2004 and gained fame on TikTok for posting short dance routines (e.g. the “Renegade” dance). Update: she is now 19-years-old and has over 150 million followers. Hulu airs The D'Amelio Show, which also follows her sister Dixie (popular on social media too). Charli won Season 31 of Dancing with the Stars in 2022.
Charli, pictured below, was recently surpassed for most followers overall on TikTok by Senegalese-born Italian 23-year-old Khabane Lame, who is known for silently mocking overly complicated "life hack" videos. Third place on the platform is Philippine-born American military veteran Bella Poarch, who has the most liked video (she lip syncs to the song "M to the B" by British rapper Millie B).
