JAQR - December 2, 2022
Constellations, honorary U.S. citizens, Thor Heyerdahl, and more...
Thank you for reading another issue of the Jeopardy Answer & Question Recap, or JAQR [“jacker”] for short. This recap focuses on the recent week (Monday 11/28 - Friday 12/2) of Jeopardy! episodes. It will include some Daily Doubles, one Final, and several 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
THAT’S MAJOR
They're the 2 major constellations with "Major" in their names
DAILY DOUBLE #2
NOBEL LITERATURE PRIZE WINNERS
Greek author George Seferis, who won the award in 1963, wrote "Six Nights on" this hilltop
DAILY DOUBLE #3
HONORARY U.S. CITIZENS
A city & a bay in this state derive their names from the most recent honoree, Revolutionary War hero Bernardo de Gálvez
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
CHILDREN'S AUTHORS
Reversing the story of this heroine she created, Patricia MacLachlan was born on the prairie but spent much of her life in New England
TRIPLE STUMPER #1
LAWMEN & WOMEN
The model for Victor Hugo's Inspector Javert, François Vidocq set up this service, from French for "security"
TRIPLE STUMPER #2
CAST UPON THE WATERS
Oscar winners Laurence Olivier, Daniel Day-Lewis & Mel Gibson were entwined with this title 1984 ship
TRIPLE STUMPER #3
HUFF & PUFF
Bridalveil Fall in this national park is also known as Pohono or "Spirit of the Puffing Wind"
TRIPLE STUMPER #4
THEM'S FIGHTIN' WORDS
A centuries-old fair held in a Dublin suburb gave its name to this type of melee
TRIPLE STUMPER #5
1, 2 & 3
In 1969 this sweet-sounding trio gave us "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" & an appeal to Nos. 2 & 3; 1 says he's sorry; please sing together again!
TRIPLE STUMPER #6
WORLD MUSEUMS
Oslo's Kon-Tiki Museum also has a later boat, made of papyrus & named for this Egyptian god; it went from Africa to the Americas
DAILY DOUBLE #1
THAT’S MAJOR
They're the 2 major constellations with "Major" in their names
***CANIS MAJOR & URSA MAJOR***
Canis Major is a constellation whose name is Latin for “Greater Dog.” Its brightest star is Sirius (the “dog star”), which is the brightest star in the entire night sky. Canis Major appears to follow the nearby constellation Orion, and was identified as one of his hunting dogs. Canis Major contains only one Messier object (M41, an open cluster nicknamed “The Little Beehive”). The Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy is the closest known galaxy to the Milky Way, which is where you are likely reading this recap.
Ursa Major is a constellation whose name is Latin for “Greater Bear.” Dubhe [DOO-bee] is the alpha star of the constellation, but Alioth is actually its brightest star. Those two stars, along with five others in Ursa Major, form the asterism (group of stars) called the Big Dipper (known as the Plough across the pond), which is named for its resemblance to a ladle. Two stars in the Big Dipper (Dubhe and Merak [MAIR-ak]) are said to form a line that can “point” the way to Polaris (currently the North Star, located in Ursa Minor, and part of the Little Dipper). Ursa Major contains seven Messier objects: M81 (Bode's Galaxy), M82 (the Cigar Galaxy), M97 (the Owl Nebula), M101 (the Pinwheel Galaxy), M108 (the Surfboard Galaxy), and M109 (the Vacuum Cleaner Galaxy). An image of part of Ursa Major taken by the Hubble Space Telescope is called the Hubble Deep Field.
DAILY DOUBLE #2
NOBEL LITERATURE PRIZE WINNERS
Greek author George Seferis, who won the award in 1963, wrote "Six Nights on" this hilltop
***ACROPOLIS***
Athens, Greece is home to the most famous acropolis, but the term (from the Greek for "city at the top") can be used to describe any fortified high point of an ancient Greek city. The Acropolis of Athens contains the Parthenon, which was the chief shrine to Athena. Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, notoriously removed some of the marble sculptures from the Parthenon.
George Seferis (the pen name of Giorgios Seferiades) was a Greek diplomat and poet. He was the first Greek author to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (Odysseas Elytis [e-lee-tees] was the second and most recent). The first collection of poems by Seferis was published in 1931 and was titled Strofi (or Strophe, which is often translated as Turning Point). It contains a poem titled “Denial,” which was set to music by Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, and was sung by mourners on the way to the funeral of Seferis in 1971.
On the secret seashore
white like a pigeon
we thirsted at noon;
but the water was brackish.
On the golden sand
we wrote her name;
but the sea-breeze blew
and the writing vanished.
With what spirit, what heart,
what desire and passion
we lived our life: a mistake!
So we changed our life.
DAILY DOUBLE #3
HONORARY U.S. CITIZENS
A city & a bay in this state derive their names from the most recent honoree, Revolutionary War hero Bernardo de Gálvez
***TEXAS***
Bernardo de Gálvez was governor of Spanish Louisiana during the American Revolutionary War. He was sympathetic to the cause of the colonies and aided them by attacking British forts, which forced the British to fight on two fronts. Gálvez captured British ports at Natchez and Baton Rouge, and successfully laid siege to Mobile and Pensacola. He is the namesake of Galveston, Texas.
Seven other people have been given honorary U.S. citizenship. They include Winston Churchill, William Penn and his wife Hannah Callowhill Penn, Mother Teresa, and Gilbert du Motier (better known as the Marquis de Lafayette). The other two are:
Raoul Wallenberg - Swedish businessman who saved thousands of Jews in Hungary during World War II
Casimir Pulaski - Polish person (possibly intersex) who fought at the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, and who died fighting at the siege of Savannah in 1779.
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
CHILDREN'S AUTHORS
Reversing the story of this heroine she created, Patricia MacLachlan was born on the prairie but spent much of her life in New England
***SARAH***
Wyoming-born Patricia MacLachlan (1938-2022) is probably best known for her children’s book Sarah, Plain and Tall. It begins with a farmer (Jacob Witting) and father of two children (Anna and Caleb), whose previous wife died in childbirth, searching for a new wife by placing an ad in the newspaper. Sarah Wheaton, who describes herself as “plain and tall,” responds to the ad and leaves her home in Maine to join the family on the prairie. The book won the Newberry Medal in 1986 and its first sequel is titled Skylark. The book was adapted into a 1991 TV movie starring Glenn Close and Christopher Walken.
TRIPLE STUMPER #1
LAWMEN & WOMEN
The model for Victor Hugo's Inspector Javert, François Vidocq set up this service, from French for "security"
***SÛRETÉ***
Sûreté [soor-TAY] (roughly meaning “security” in French) is the criminal investigation department of France and many other French-speaking countries. The original one was founded in 1812 in France by Eugène François Vidocq [vee-DOCK], who decided to stop his life of petty crime and become a spy for the police. Around twenty years later, he created what is considered to be the first detective agency. Vidocq (seen below) inspired the creation of many literary characters, including Vautrin [voh-TRAN] (found in Balzac’s The Human Comedy), both Jean Valjean and Javert (from Hugo's Les Misérables), and C. Auguste Dupin (appears in many Poe stories). A fictional member of the French Sûreté is Inspector Clouseau from The Pink Panther.
TRIPLE STUMPER #2
CAST UPON THE WATERS
Oscar winners Laurence Olivier, Daniel Day-Lewis & Mel Gibson were entwined with this title 1984 ship
***THE BOUNTY***
Roger Donaldson directed the 1984 movie The Bounty, which was based on a 1789 incident known as the mutiny on the Bounty. The movie stars Anthony Hopkins as William Bligh [BLY] and Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian. The screenplay was written by Robert Bolt, who also wrote the screenplays for Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago. The score was composed by Vangelis, whose also created the scores to Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner.
Fun fact: a film from 1935 titled Mutiny on the Bounty is the only film ever with three Oscar nominations for Best Actor. Clark Gable (Fletcher Christian), Charles Laughton (William Bligh), and Franchot Tone (Byam) were all nominated for the film, but they lost to Victor McLaglen, who starred in The Informer. The following year, the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor was introduced.
William Bligh was the English commander of the HMS Bounty. The purpose of the voyage was to transplant breadfruit trees from Tahiti to the Caribbean. After departing Tahiti, Fletcher Christian led the mutiny against his harsh friend William Bligh, who was set adrift in a small boat along with some men who were still loyal to him. Fletcher Christian and the mutineers returned to Tahiti, but feared retribution, so they hid on Pitcairn Island, which wasn’t on most maps. Bligh et al eventually made it back to England. He was later named Governor of New South Wales (in Australia), but was deposed in 1808 in the Rum Rebellion.
TRIPLE STUMPER #3
HUFF & PUFF
Bridalveil Fall in this national park is also known as Pohono or "Spirit of the Puffing Wind"
***YOSEMITE***
Bridalveil Fall (seen below) is in California’s Yosemite National Park, which is in the the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Attractions in the park include the granite monolith El Capitan (7,569 feet). The documentary Free Solo depicts Alex Honnold trying to perform a free solo climb (AKA no ropes, harnesses or other protective equipment) of El Capitan. Another granite structure called Half Dome (8,846 feet) is also in Yosemite. Ansel Adams took many photos in Yosemite, including one of Half Dome titled Monolith. John Muir campaigned to make Yosemite a national park. Bridalveil Fall is not to be confused with Bridal Veil Falls, which is one of the three waterfalls that make up Niagara Falls (the other two are Horseshoe Falls and American Falls).
TRIPLE STUMPER #4
THEM'S FIGHTIN' WORDS
A centuries-old fair held in a Dublin suburb gave its name to this type of melee
***DONNYBROOK***
In 1204, King John (AKA the Magna Carta guy) decreed the nobleman Meiler Fitzhenry to build a castle in Dublin and hold an eight-day fair in Donnybrook (which was then a nearby village). Over the many years, some came to associate the fair with riots, drunkenness, and debauchery. In 1855, clergymen and groups like the Association for Discountenancing Vice raised money to purchase the license required to hold the fair. The fair lends its name to the 2018 indie movie Donnybrook, which starred Jamie Bell, Frank Grillo, and Margaret Qualley. The movie, which contains “unrelentingly grim violence,” centers on Bell's character, Earl, who wants to enter a large bare-knuckle brawl and win its $100,000 winner-take-all prize so that he and his family can move away from their home in a trailer park. The term Donnybrook was also the correct response to a Final Jeopardy from back in 2000 (“This residential district of Dublin held an annual fair from 1204 to 1855, when it was closed due to frequent fights”). Erskine Nicol's 1859 painting titled Donnybrook Fair is seen below.
TRIPLE STUMPER #5
1, 2 & 3
In 1969 this sweet-sounding trio gave us "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" & an appeal to Nos. 2 & 3; 1 says he's sorry; please sing together again!
***CROSBY, STILLS, & NASH***
David Crosby (American), Stephen Stills (American), and Graham Nash (English) formed a folk rock supergroup in 1968. Crosby was a former member of the Byrds, Stills was a former member of Buffalo Springfield, and Nash was a former member of the Hollies. Their first album, titled Crosby, Stills & Nash, was released in 1969 and contained the hits "Marrakesh Express" and "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" (7 minute song written by Stills about his girlfriend Judy Collins; it featuring the lyrics “I am yours, you are mine / You are what you are / You make it hard”).
Neil Young (Canadian, and also a former member of Buffalo Springfield) joined the band (now known as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) for their first tour. The quartet released the 1970 album Déjà Vu, which includes the hits “Woodstock,” “Teach Your Children,” and “Our House” (written by Nash while in a relationship with Joni Mitchell, and includes the lyrics “Our house is a very, very, very fine house / With two cats in the yard / Life used to be so hard”). The quartet also released the 1971 live album 4 Way Street and the 1974 compilation album So Far, both of which include their song “Ohio” about the Kent State massacre. Tensions among the bandmates led the band to split up in 1970, although they have reunited a few times since.
TRIPLE STUMPER #6
WORLD MUSEUMS
Oslo's Kon-Tiki Museum also has a later boat, made of papyrus & named for this Egyptian god; it went from Africa to the Americas
***RA***
Oslo is home to the Kon-Tiki Museum, which is named for a raft made of balsa wood in which Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl (and a small crew) sailed for 3.5 months from Peru to Polynesia in 1947. The raft was named for an alternate name of the Inca creator god Viracocha. The raft was built to demonstrate that pre-Columbian Americans could have colonized Polynesia. The Kon-Tiki Museum also contains the Ra II (the first one, seen below, eventually took on water and had to be abandoned), which is named for the Egyptian sun god. Both Ra and Ra II were made of papyrus and were built to show that pre-Columbian Americans could have been influenced by the Egyptian civilization.
