JAQR - February 24, 2023
Are you ready for some (Monday Night) Football, L.A. Towers, the Chamorro people, that desert in Botswana (again!), 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 2/20 - Friday 2/24) of Jeopardy! episodes. It will include some Daily Doubles, Final Jeopardys, 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.
DAILY DOUBLE #1
THE ELEMENTS
This strong, lightweight metal was named for the dozen children of Gaia & Uranus
DAILY DOUBLE #2
GREEK LIFE
In the long run, you'll know General Miltiades lost only around 200 men & the Persians, 6,400, in the 5th century B.C. Battle of this
DAILY DOUBLE #3
WORLD GEOGRAPHY
This desert that's rich in wildlife covers parts of Botswana, Namibia & South Africa
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
WRITERS & THE SOUTH
In 1939 he lived on Toulouse Street in the French Quarter & chose the professional name that bonded him to the South
FINAL JEOPARDY #2
CURRENT WORLD LEADERS
In office from 2022, the president of this country has taken so many foreign trips a play on his name is "Ferdinand Magellan Jr."
FINAL JEOPARDY #3
PEOPLE & PLACES
Thought to descend from people of Southeast Asia, the Chamorro make up this U.S. territory's largest ethnic group
TRIPLE STUMPER #1
A CRASH COURSE IN JOHN GREEN
John Green wrote alternating chapters with David Levithan for a novel that follows two very different teens--one gay & one straight--who share this same name
TRIPLE STUMPER #2
TV SWITCHEROO
In 2006 "Monday Night Football" began airing on this network after decades as a mainstay on ABC
TRIPLE STUMPER #3
ANNUAL EVENTS
The jazz festival named for these L.A. towers built by Simon Rodia has been grooving annually since 1976
TRIPLE STUMPER #4
DESCRIBING THE HORROR FILM FRANCHISE
A high school plane trip to Europe! What could possibly go wrong?; making death mad... problematic; hi, Mr. Bludworth!
DAILY DOUBLE #1
THE ELEMENTS
This strong, lightweight metal was named for the dozen children of Gaia & Uranus
***TITANIUM***
In Greek myth, the Titans were the twelve children of Gaia [GUY-yah] and Uranus. They include six brothers (Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Cronus), and six sisters (Thea, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys). Gaia had them rebel against Uranus, who was ultimately deposed by Cronus, who castrated his father with a sickle (or curved sword).
The element titanium has the symbol Ti and the atomic number 22. It is a high strength, lightweight transition metal. Those properties make it ideal for use in high-speed aircraft parts. Titanium alloys are also used as orthopedic implants and medical prosthetics because they do not react with human tissue or bone. An alloy of nickel and titanium called Nitinol [NIH-tih-nol] is known for exhibiting the shape memory effect, in which it can recover its pre-deformed shape simply by heating it above a certain temperature.
Minerals composed of titanium include rutile [ROO-tile] and ilmenite [ILL-meh-nite], the latter of which is pictured below. Titanium can be extracted from those mineral ores by the Kroll process. Titanium ore can be refined into titanium dioxide (TiO2), which is a white pigment used in paint, paper, and sunscreen. Coating glass with a film of titanium dioxide resulted in the first self-cleaning surface. Titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) can be used in skywriting and for making smoke screens.
DAILY DOUBLE #2
GREEK LIFE
In the long run, you'll know General Miltiades lost only around 200 men & the Persians, 6,400, in the 5th century B.C. Battle of this
***MARATHON***
The Battle of Marathon, depicted with stunning accuracy below, took place in 490 BCE during the Greco-Persian Wars. The battle was fought between the Achaemenian [ah-KAY-meh-nid] Empire (the first Persian empire, which was founded by Cyrus II in 559 BCE) and the Greek city-state of Athens (with a little bit of help from Plataea). Darius the Great ordered Persia’s invasion of Greece, but it was repulsed by Greek forces (spear-armed hoplites in the phalanx formation) who were led by Miltiades [mil-TY-ah-deez]. The Persians were routed (~6,400 dead compared to only ~200 for the Greeks, according to the historian Herodotus) and fled to their ships. Among those who participated in the battle include the Greek tragedian Aeschylus [ES-kuh-lus], whose Oresteia [or-eh-STEE-ah] trilogy consists of the plays Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides.
According to legend, the messenger Pheidippides [fye-DIP-ih-deez] was sent from Marathon to Athens to announce the Persian defeat. The messenger ran ~25 miles, announced the Greek victory, and then died of exhaustion. In reality though, this story conflates two different actual events. Before the battle, Pheidippides was sent to Sparta (140 miles away) to ask for help (they were busy with a religious festival at the time, but eventually showed up to Marathon one day after the battle ended). After defeating the Persians, the Athenian army marched 25 miles back to Athens in order to prevent a direct attack on Athens by the Persian fleet.
Why is a marathon today 26.2 miles (or technically, 26 miles and 385 yards) though? Well, the Olympics were hosted by London in 1908 and the organizers decided to start the marathon at Windsor Castle and finish at White City Stadium in London, which turned out to be 26 miles. Once at the stadium, the participants had to run a little bit more inside on the track to reach the VIP area, where the finish line was. The total distance of that particular race, 26 miles and 385 yards, was used again at the 1924 Olympics in Paris and has been the standard marathon length ever since.
DAILY DOUBLE #3
WORLD GEOGRAPHY
This desert that's rich in wildlife covers parts of Botswana, Namibia & South Africa
***KALAHARI***
JAQR covered the Kalahari Desert last month, when it was the correct response to a different Daily Double (“The Makgadikgadi Depression is a low point of this desert that makes up much of Botswana”). This recap is about half previously mentioned info and half new info, FYI.
The Kalahari Desert is mostly in the African country of Botswana. The desert is also in eastern Namibia and northern South Africa. The Okavango River flows into the northern portion of the Kalahari, which is home to the Makgadikgadi [mah-KAH-dee-KAH-dee] salt pans. The Kalahari is also home to the Dragon's Breath Cave (named for the flow of air that escapes from the entrance), which contains the largest non-subglacial underground lake in the world. Tsodilo [soh-DEE-loh] Hills, which is in the Kalahari, is home to 4,500 rock art paintings and is nicknamed the "Louvre of the Desert." The portion of the Kalahari in the eastern portion of Namibia contains the Hoba meteorite, which is often called the world's largest (estimated to be 60 tons).
Animals that live in the Kalahari in the springbok, which is an antelope that is the nickname and symbol of South Africa's rugby team. The show Meerkat Manor was set in the Kalahari. Those who live in the Kalahari include the hunter-gatherer San people, formerly referred to as the Bushmen. Clicks are a feature of their language. In the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy (pictured below) a member of the San finds a Coca-Cola bottle that was dropped from a plane and sets out to return the bottle to the gods. You can read an interesting four-page story about the San people titled "Eating Christmas in the Kalahari" via the link below:
http://people.morrisville.edu/~reymers/readings/ANTH101/EatingChristmas-Lee.pdf
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
WRITERS & THE SOUTH
In 1939 he lived on Toulouse Street in the French Quarter & chose the professional name that bonded him to the South
***TENNESSEE WILLIAMS***
Thomas Lanier Williams (1911-1983) was the birth name of the dramatist Tennessee Williams, whose plays include The Glass Menagerie (1944) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955). He changed his name because he had written some poetry that wasn't "much good" and felt "the name had been compromised." He chose his new name because “the Williamses had fought the Indians for Tennessee and I had already discovered that the life of a young writer was going to be something similar to the defense of a stockade against a band of savages.”
Tennessee Williams, pictured below, is famous for his Pulitzer-winning play A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), which is set in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The former Southern belle Blanche DuBois takes the “streetcar named Desire” as part of her journey from the family estate Belle Reve in Mississippi (which was lost to creditors) to the apartment of her sister Stella and Stella's brutish husband Stanley Kowalski. One of the most famous lines from the play is “Stellahhhhh,” which Stanley bellows after drunkenly hitting the pregnant Stella during poker night. Stanley later rapes Blanche while Stella is in labor, which contributes to Blanche having a mental breakdown. The play ends with Blanche going to a mental hospital and telling a helpful doctor “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” Elia Kazan directed a 1951 film adaptation that starred Vivien Leigh (who had earlier played Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind) as Blanche and Marlon Brando (who later starred in On the Waterfront) as Stanley.
Some interesting-sounding lesser-known plays by Tennessee Williams include:
Suddenly Last Summer (1958) - Violet Venable tries to bribe a doctor because she wants to silence her niece Catherine by lobotomizing her since she knows that Violet's son Sebastian sexually exploited young men and was killed and eaten by hungry members of a group he had earlier courted
Sweet Bird of Youth (1959) - The gigolo Chance Wayne travels to his hometown of St. Cloud, Florida with his current employer (aging film star Alexandra del Lago) and wants to win back his childhood sweetheart named Heavenly, but learns he had previously infected her with a venereal disease and as a result is going to get castrated by a posse
FINAL JEOPARDY #2
CURRENT WORLD LEADERS
In office from 2022, the president of this country has taken so many foreign trips a play on his name is "Ferdinand Magellan Jr."
***PHILIPPINES***
Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is the current president of the Philippines. He is often known by his childhood nickname, Bongbong. His father (Ferdinand Marcos Sr.) served as president of the Philippines from 1965-1986, and his mother (Imelda Marcos) is remembered for having around 2,700 pairs of shoes. Their rule has been called a "conjugal dictatorship." Marcos Sr. was removed from power in the People Power Revolution and fled to Hawaii. They packed just the essentials, such as $4 million in gems poorly hidden in Pampers diaper boxes and their hard-earned $717 million in cash in 22 crates.
Bongbong, pictured below, won the 2022 presidential election with around 59% of the vote. Leni Robredo finished second, and former professional boxer Manny Pacquiao finished third. Bongbong’s vice-president is Sara Duterte. She is the daughter of the previous president, Rodrigo Duterte, who was known for his war on drugs. Thousands of alleged drug suspects were killed during his six-year term (2016-2022) as president of the Philippines. Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, who was a prominent critic of Duterte, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for “efforts to safeguard freedom of expression.”
FINAL JEOPARDY #3
PEOPLE & PLACES
Thought to descend from people of Southeast Asia, the Chamorro make up this U.S. territory's largest ethnic group
***GUAM***
The Chamorro are the indigenous people of Guam, which is the southernmost of the Mariana Islands, and is about 6,000 miles from California. The Chamorro came from Indonesia and the Philippines around 1600 BCE. Guam is home to Latte Stone Park, which is named for the large stone pillars with capstones that were used by the Chamorro as the foundation of their raised houses. The park is in Guam’s capital, Hagåtña, which means “blood” in the Chamorro language. Holidays on Guam include Discovery Day (March 6), which commemorates Ferdinand Magellan’s arrival in 1521. Magellan called the Marianas the "Ladrones" (meaning “Thieves”) because some of the islanders took one of his boats. The Chamorro were relocated from the other Marianas to Guam by Spanish colonialists in 1720.
Guam was a Spanish possession until 1898, which is when Spain ceded Guam (and Puerto Rico and the Philippines) after losing the Spanish-American War. Japan attacked the island one day after Pearl Harbor and occupied the island until August 1944. Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi spent about 28 years hiding in the jungles of Guam after the end of WWII. Shortly after the war, the brown tree snake was accidentally introduced to Guam. A bird endemic to the island, the Guam flycatcher, went extinct afterwards as a result. Guam was made a U.S. territory in 1950. The other four U.S. territories are American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Lytico-bodig disease is a condition endemic to the Chamorro people. The disease resembles amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson's, and dementia. The neurologist and author Oliver Sacks believed that the incidence of the disease declined after the Chamorro people stopped eating fruit bats (also called flying foxes, and considered a delicacy), which feed on a type of nut containing the neurotoxin BMAA. Other scientists are skeptical of this conclusion, but now it is difficult to study the disease since Guam has become more westernized.
TRIPLE STUMPER #1
A CRASH COURSE IN JOHN GREEN
John Green wrote alternating chapters with David Levithan for a novel that follows two very different teens--one gay & one straight--who share this same name
***WILL GRAYSON***
Will Grayson, Will Grayson is a 2010 YA (young adult) novel by authors John Green and David Levithan. Green wrote the odd-numbered chapters about the straight high schooler Will Grayson, and Levithan wrote the even-numbered chapters about the gay high schooler will grayson (that’s how it’s stylized in the book). Despite the title, the protagonist of the book is actually Will’s best friend, the ironically named Tiny Cooper, whose is described as the “world’s largest person who is really, really gay.” Tiny, who is a fan of Elton John, is writing a musical about himself titled Tiny Dancer, but changes the subject to love (and the title to Hold Me Closer) after he begins to date will grayson. The cover of the book, pictured below, includes the names of the fictional band Maybe Dead Cats and the real indie band NMH (Neutral Milk Hotel). Levithan also co-wrote the book Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (and several others, including the Dash and Lily series) with Rachel Cohn. That book contains chapters from Nick's perspective written by Levithan, and chapters from Norah's perspective written by Cohn.
TRIPLE STUMPER #2
TV SWITCHEROO
In 2006 "Monday Night Football" began airing on this network after decades as a mainstay on ABC
***ESPN***
The first Monday Night Football (MNF) game aired on ABC in September of 1970 and saw the Cleveland Browns defeat the New York Jets 31-21. The Browns essentially clinched the game after Joe Namath threw a pick 6 (interception returned for a touchdown) late in the fourth quarter. The first MNF play-by-play announcer was Keith Jackson, who lasted one season before being replaced by Frank Gifford (1971–1985), a Hall of Fame running back who had earlier spent twelve seasons with the New York Giants. The first color commentators were the audacious Howard Cosell (1970–1983) and the laid-back Don Meredith (1970–1973, 1977–1984), the latter of whom was the Dallas Cowboys quarterback during most of the 1960s and took a bit of a break from MNF to focus on his acting career. Cosell helped popularized nachos (invented in 1943 by Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya) and loved saying the word ("That was a nacho run!"). Cosell is also remembered for reporting the death of John Lennon in 1980 during a MNF game between the Dolphins and Patriots. Nepo baby Joe Buck is the current play-by-play announcer for MNF on ESPN, and yet another former Cowboys quarterback, Troy Aikman, is the current color commentator. Buck and Aikman, pictured below, previously worked together calling games on Fox.
TRIPLE STUMPER #3
ANNUAL EVENTS
The jazz festival named for these L.A. towers built by Simon Rodia has been grooving annually since 1976
***WATTS TOWERS***
The Watts Towers are a group of 17 spire-shaped sculptures constructed in the middle of the 20th century by Italian immigrant Simon Rodia. The spires are made of steel and embellished with objects such as mosaic tiles, dishes, rocks, bottles, glass, clay, and shells. The towers were called “Nuestro Pueblo” ("Our Town") by Rodia himself, but today they are more commonly named for the Los Angeles community where they are located. The work has been called the “world’s largest single construction created by one individual.”
TRIPLE STUMPER #4
DESCRIBING THE HORROR FILM FRANCHISE
A high school plane trip to Europe! What could possibly go wrong?; making death mad... problematic; hi, Mr. Bludworth!
***FINAL DESTINATION***
The horror film franchise Final Destination consists of five movies that were released between 2000-2011. The films center on characters who cheat death, but then soon die gruesome deaths anyway through bizarre accidents. The five movies begin with a character having a premonition about a plane explosion, huge car pile-up, roller coaster accident, race car crash, and bridge collapse. The franchise was created by Jeffrey Reddick, who originally conceived it as an episode of The X-Files. Ali Larter played the character Clear Rivers in the first two movies, and Tony Todd has played mortician and death expert William Bludworth in several of the movies. Todd, pictured below, has also played the title character of the Candyman film series (1992-2021).