JAQR - December 22, 2024
Paul Gauguin, Thomas Hardy, Super Bowl History, World War I, Scottish New Year's Eve, 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 12/16 and Friday 12/20. The recap includes Daily Doubles, Final Jeopardy clues, and Triple Stumpers. 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.
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DAILY DOUBLE #1
FROM THE AFI CATALOG
"The exteriors of the Desmond mansion were shot at a 25-room mansion on Wilshire Blvd"... the studio "added the swimming pool"
DAILY DOUBLE #2
ART CLASS
Cézanne & Gauguin were leaders of this movement that came onto the scene a little after Monet & Renoir
DAILY DOUBLE #3
VICTORIAN VERSE
Thomas Hardy really liked this made-up name, writing a poem about its "Captains" as well as a novel about its "Mayor"
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
ANTHEMS
The unofficial anthem of this U.K. territory mentions kelp, penguins & "the wind from the Horn"
FINAL JEOPARDY #2
SUPER BOWL HISTORY
It's the only team to play in the Super Bowl before Neil Armstrong's Moon walk that has not been back to the Big Game since
TRIPLE STUMPER #1
WORLD WAR I
An August 5, 1914 assault on this Belgian city was the first battle of the war; the Germans took it & marched into Lüttich
TRIPLE STUMPER #2
KABOOM
In 1970 it cost $35 million to build this Pittsburgh stadium & in 2001, $5.1 million to implode the structure in 19 seconds
TRIPLE STUMPER #3
"HOG" CALLING
Aye, laddie, it's what the Scottish call New Year's Eve
LAST WEEK RECAP #1
What author who was born in the Dominican Republic wrote the Pulitzer-winning 2007 novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao?
LAST WEEK RECAP #2
What gallery at the Tate Britain that is named for a philanthropist is dedicated to the paintings of J. M. W. Turner?
BONUS CLUE #1
WORLD WAR I
A German defensive position begun in 1916 was known to the Allies by the name of this man, a name later used for a Zeppelin
BONUS CLUE #2
GEOGRAPHY
Jebel Musa in Morocco & Mount Hacho near Ceuta are candidates for the southern half of this pair
BONUS CLUE #3
FICTIONAL CHARACTERS
Dressed in white in her first scene, this play character says her name means "white woods"
DAILY DOUBLE #1
FROM THE AFI CATALOG
"The exteriors of the Desmond mansion were shot at a 25-room mansion on Wilshire Blvd"... the studio "added the swimming pool"
***SUNSET BOULEVARD***
The film noir Sunset Boulevard was released in 1950. The movie was directed by Billy Wilder, who also co-wrote the script. It stared Gloria Swanson as the fading silent-movie star Norma Desmond and William Holden as the struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis. The movie opens with Joe’s body being discovered face down in a swimming pool. Six months earlier, Joe is hired to be a script doctor by Norma, who falsely believes her big comeback is imminent. Joe tells her “You used to be big” and Norma responds “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.” Near the end of the movie, he later tells her that her butler Max (played by Erich von Stroheim) is actually writing her fan mail, resulting in Norma shooting and killing Joe. The film ends with Norma confusing newsreel cameras with movie cameras and saying "Alright, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."
The movie Sunset Boulevard was named for a 24-mile-long street in Los Angeles. It is the home of The Beverly Hills Hotel and Wolfgang Puck's flagship restaurant, Spago. A 1.7-mile portion of it featuring many nightclubs, such as Whisky a Go Go, is called the Sunset Strip.
Glenn Close played Norma in the 1994 Broadway musical Sunset Boulevard, whose music was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Its famous songs include “Every Movie's A Circus” and “As If We Never Said Goodbye.”
The star of the movie Sunset Boulevard, Gloria Swanson, had earlier been nominated for the very first Best Actress Oscar for her role as the title character in the 1928 movie Sadie Thompson. It was based on a W. Somerset Maugham story titled "Rain," in which a missionary tries to redeem the prostitute Sadie on the island of Pago Pago. Swanson lost the first Oscar to Janet Gaynor. Other winners from the 1st Academy Awards (which only lasted 15 minutes) were Emil Jannings for Best Actor and Wings for Outstanding Picture.
DAILY DOUBLE #2
ART CLASS
Cézanne & Gauguin were leaders of this movement that came onto the scene a little after Monet & Renoir
***POST-IMPRESSIONISM***
French painter Paul Gauguin was born in 1848. He spent several years of his childhood in Peru (where his mother was from) before enlisting in the merchant marine and sailing around the world for six years. Gauguin eventually became a stockbroker and took up art as a hobby. He met Camille Pissarro in 1874 and began studying under him. He traveled to Arles in 1888 to stay with Vincent van Gogh, who severed his own left ear with a razor during the visit (although some believe Gauguin did it with a sword). Gauguin then wanted a more remote environment to create art, so he traveled to Tahiti in 1891. He depicted his 13-year-old wife in the portrait The Ancestors of Tehamana, in which a mango represents her fertility. He began to suffer from syphilis in 1902 and died the following year on the island of Hiva Oa (part of the Marquesas Islands).
Gauguin is considered part of the the Post-Impressionist movement, whose name was coined by critic Roger Fry. Gauguin inspired a group of artists called Les Nabis, whose name comes from the Hebrew for “prophet.” The painter Edgar Leeteg, who is known for painting on black velvet, is sometimes called the "American Gauguin" since he also moved to French Polynesia. Gauguin was the basis for the main character in W. Somerset Maugham's 1919 novel The Moon and Sixpence, in which a stockbroker heads to Tahiti to be a painter. Mario Vargas Llosa's 2003 historical novel The Way to Paradise centers on Gauguin and his grandmother Flora Tristan, who was a social activist. Anthony Quinn won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for playing Gauguin in the 1956 movie Lust for Life, which starred Kirk Douglas as van Gogh.
Gauguin’s paintings include:
Vision after the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel) - 1888 painting that depicts Breton women watching Jacob wrestling with an angel (which is mentioned in Genesis 32:22-32)
The Yellow Christ - 1889 painting in which Breton women are gathered in prayer around the crucifixion of Jesus
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? - enormous 1897 painting that proceeds from right to left and begins with a sleeping infant and ends with an old woman near death
For info about another Post-Impressionist named Paul Cézanne, check out Triple Stumper #3 from this past recap: https://jaqr.substack.com/p/jaqr-march-10-2024
DAILY DOUBLE #3
VICTORIAN VERSE
Thomas Hardy really liked this made-up name, writing a poem about its "Captains" as well as a novel about its "Mayor"
***CASTERBRIDGE***
English author Thomas Hardy was born in 1840. He was initially an architect before pursuing a literary career. Many of his works are set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex, which refers to the counties in SW England. Casterbridge is based on the town of Dorchester in the county of Dorset, where he was born.
Hardy's Wessex novels include The Mayor of Casterbridge, which was published in 1886. The novel opens with the main character, Michael Henchard, drunkenly auctioning off his wife Susan and daughter Elizabeth-Jane for five guineas to the sailor Richard Newson. Eighteen years later, Richard is believed to be lost at sea. Susan takes her daughter and goes searching for Michael, who has given up alcohol and is now the titular Mayor of Casterbridge. Michael and Susan remarry and they live happily ever after. Susan dies shortly after getting remarried. Michael learns that Elizabeth-Jane is not actually his daughter, but is the daughter of the sailor Richard, who is not actually dead after all. Michael makes some bad business decisions and goes bankrupt. He starts drinking again and dies soon thereafter, hoping to be forgotten.
Hardy’s early novels include:
Under the Greenwood Tree (1872) - Hardy’s first Wessex novel, it centers on Dick Dewy, a member of the Mellstock Choir (a group of church musicians), who falls in love with the schoolmistress and organist Fancy Day, who is to replace the choir at Sunday services according to the new vicar Mr. Maybold, who successfully proposes to her; Maybold later learns that Dick already proposed, so Maybold wants her to marry Dick instead; Fancy and Dick end up getting married, but without her mentioning that she had also said yes to Maybold; the novel's title is based on a song of the same name from Shakespeare's As You Like It
Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) - centers on Bathsheba Everdene and her marital choices between Sergeant Troy (dashing but irresponsible soldier), William Boldwood (obsessive lonely farmer), and Gabriel Oak (faithful and resourceful shepherd); near the end of the novel, Boldwood shoots and kills Troy after he roughly grabs Bathsheba, who eventually marries Gabriel; its title is taken from Thomas Gray's 1751 poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," whose first two lines are "Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife / Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray"
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
ANTHEMS
The unofficial anthem of this U.K. territory mentions kelp, penguins & "the wind from the Horn"
***FALKLAND ISLANDS***