JAQR - December 29, 2024
Asian cities, Latin American leaders, U.S. cities, Jack Nicholson movies, Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone, Supreme Court justices, F. Scott Fitzgerald stories, 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 12/23 and Friday 12/27. The recap includes Daily Doubles, Final Jeopardy clues, and Triple Stumpers. There’s also two questions about material from last week and several Bonus Clues about topics previously mentioned. 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
INTERNATIONAL CITIES
For its tourist-friendly mix of cultures, this "Lion City" south of Malaysia has been called "Instant Asia"
DAILY DOUBLE #2
READ FLAGS
A book put out by MoMA highlights this artist & his "deceptively straightforward paintings of flags"
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
WORLD LEADERS
In 2009 this leader gave Barack Obama the book "Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent"
FINAL JEOPARDY #2
U.S. PLACE NAMES
A trio including Andrew Jackson founded this city with a name that evokes a great city of the ancient world
TRIPLE STUMPER #1
WAITER
In this 1970 film Jack Nicholson tells a stubborn waitress to hold the chicken (between her knees!)
TRIPLE STUMPER #2
HAPPY 100th, ROD SERLING
Merry Xmas Eve! In a classic "Twilight Zone", Art Carney loses his job as this "uniquely popular American institution "
TRIPLE STUMPER #3
A "WHITE" WEDDING
A whiz on the gridiron & with the books, he married Marion Stearns in 1946 before putting on Supreme Court robes in 1962
TRIPLE STUMPER #4
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
Fitzgerald paired these young ladies of his day with "Philosophers" for an alliterative book title
LAST WEEK RECAP #1
What actress played Norma Desmond in the 1950 movie Sunset Boulevard?
LAST WEEK RECAP #2
What was the four-word nickname of the New York Jets defensive line in the early 1980s, which consisted of Mark Gastineau, Joe Klecko, Marty Lyons, and Abdul Salaam?
BONUS CLUE #1
THE CINEMATIC VAMPRE
Max Schreck starred as the dastardly Count Orlock, whose fingernails & fangs set the template for the future in the grandfather of vampire films, 1922's "Nosferatu", directed by this man
BONUS CLUE #2
19th CENTURY NOVELS
Recent translators of this Italian novel say the title character is brattier than the one in the Disney movie
BONUS CLUE #3
19th CENTURY NOVELS
Not bad for a title too: Stephen Crane wrote that Henry "wished that he too, had a wound, a" these 4 words
BONUS CLUE #4
DESTINY'S OTHER CHILDREN
There's a reason you don't hear much about the 5th century ruler Bleda; this meaner brother & co-ruler offed him in 445
BONUS CLUE #5
MOVIES & THEIR SOUNDTRACKS
"Catch It" was a tagline for this 1970s film whose iconic soundtrack became one of the bestselling albums of all time
DAILY DOUBLE #1
INTERNATIONAL CITIES
For its tourist-friendly mix of cultures, this "Lion City" south of Malaysia has been called "Instant Asia"
***SINGAPORE***
The city-state of Singapore is located just above the Equator and is separated from Peninsular Malaysia by the Johor Strait. The contemporary port city of Singapore was founded in 1819 by British colonial agent Stamford Raffles. Japan occupied Singapore during World War II and renamed it Syonan, meaning “Light of the South.” Churchill called the British surrender of Singapore "the worst disaster” in British history. It was briefly part of Malaysia before seceding and gaining independence in 1965. The island’s politics are dominated by the People's Action Party, which was co-founded by Lee Kuan Yew (LKY). He is considered the country’s Founding Father and served as PM until 1990. Goh Chok Tong served as PM from 1990-2004, and then LKY's son Lee Hsien Loong served from 2004-2024. Lawrence Wong took over in May 2024.
Singapore’s name comes from terms meaning "lion city." A symbol of Singapore is the merlion, which has the head of a lion and the body of a fish. Its four official languages are English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil. Its highest point is Bukit Timah Hill, which is a mere 538 feet tall. Singapore’s international airport is called Changi and is located at the eastern end of the island. The airport is home to the Rain Vortex, which is the world's tallest indoor waterfall (130 feet). Singapore is the third most densely populated country in the world, behind only Macau and Monaco. Speaking of that tiny European city-state, Singapore and Monaco have nearly the same flag (red on the top and white on the bottom). The difference between them is that Singapore's has a crescent moon and five stars.
IMO, one of the world’s coolest looking buildings is Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands resort. Its three towers are connected by a roof terrace. The island is also home to the Raffles Hotel, where the Singapore Sling was developed in 1915. Its ingredients include gin and cherry brandy. Road to Singapore was a 1940 movie starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, whose characters both fall in love with the same dancer (played by Dorothy Lamour) in the title city. It was the first movie in the Road to series, which also had movies set in Zanzibar, Morocco, and Rio. Another movie set in Singapore is the 2018 romcom Crazy Rich Asians, which starred Constance Wu and Henry Golding. It was based on a 2013 book by Kevin Kwan.
DAILY DOUBLE #2
READ FLAGS
A book put out by MoMA highlights this artist & his "deceptively straightforward paintings of flags"
***JASPER JOHNS***
American painter Jasper Johns was born in Georgia in 1930 and is considered part of the Pop Art movement. His first series of paintings of American flags was created in 1954. He is known for his large monochrome 1955 painting White Flag. That work appears hanging above a bed in a 1984 photo taken by Louise Lawler titled Monogram. Johns upped the ante in 1958 by creating the triple portrait Three Flags. He went on to make paintings of other common subjects, or to use his own words, “things the mind already knows.” Those objects include targets, maps, and numbers (e.g. the painting 0 through 9, in which the title objects are superimposed on each another).
Johns created the sculpture Painted Bronze in 1960. It consists of two casts of a Ballantine ale can. The work was allegedly inspired by Willem de Kooning’s remark that art dealer Leo Castelli was so skilled that he could sell beer cans. Johns had a long-term romantic relationship with fellow artist Robert Rauschenberg. He voiced himself in a 1999 episode of The Simpsons titled "Mom and Pop Art." His more recent works include the 2020 painting Slice, which combines two unrelated images: an anatomical diagram of a knee and a map of the distribution of galaxies in a particular “slice” of the universe.
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
WORLD LEADERS
In 2009 this leader gave Barack Obama the book "Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent"