JAQR - January 27, 2023
The Saint of the Gutters, Wham!, craps, 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 1/23 - Friday 1/27) 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
HEY... WHERE'D YA GO?
A shelter possibly built by this alliterative captain was found in the 1630s but he was never seen again after a 1611 mutiny
DAILY DOUBLE #2
BOOK OF THE YEAR
Mark Kurlansky wrote a book titled this year of the Tet Offensive & 2 American assassinations
DAILY DOUBLE #3
HISTORIC NICKNAMES
Born 1910: "Saint of the Gutters"
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
ASTRONOMY & GEOGRAPHY
At the winter solstice, the Sun is in Sagittarius; it once appeared in this constellation, giving a geographic feature its name
FINAL JEOPARDY #2
FOREIGN-BORN AUTHORS
In the 1950s the New York Times said this author "is writing about all lust" & his lecherous narrator "is all of us"
FINAL JEOPARDY #3
WORLD CINEMA
The 2007 biopic called "La Mome" in France, meaning "The Kid", was released in the U.S. under this other French title
TRIPLE STUMPER #1
CLASSICAL IS IN
This Wagner opera concerns the winning back of a magic spear from the magician Klingsor
TRIPLE STUMPER #2
LET'S TALK ABOUT SAX, BABY
The classic sax line from this 1984 No. 1 hit by Wham! begins, Wa-wa-wa-wa, wa-wa-wa-wa, wa-wa-wa-wa, wa-wa-wa
TRIPLE STUMPER #3
WHAT'S IN THE BOTTLE?
This brand of champagne that she keeps "in her pretty cabinet" in a Queen song
TRIPLE STUMPER #4
PLACE YOUR BETS
A horn bet in craps pays a sizeable amount due to the fact that these 4 numbers you're betting on are quite hard to hit
DAILY DOUBLE #1
HEY... WHERE'D YA GO?
A shelter possibly built by this alliterative captain was found in the 1630s but he was never seen again after a 1611 mutiny
***HENRY HUDSON***
Henry Hudson was an English explorer. In 1607, he failed to find a route from Europe to Asia via the Arctic Ocean (“Northeast Passage”), which for some reason he thought would be ice-free. He tried again in 1608, but failed again due to large ice fields blocking his path. Those first two attempts were made with an English company called the Muscovy Company, which had a monopoly on Anglo-Russian trade. His third attempt was made in 1609 on the ship Halve Maen (“Half Moon”) with the Dutch East India Company. Storms forced him to abandon his intended route, so he decided to seek the Northwest Passage instead. He sailed into the New York river that today bears his name. After reaching present-day Albany, he wisely concluded that the Hudson River did not lead to the Pacific Ocean and returned home shortly thereafter.
His fourth voyage, which left in 1610 on the Discovery, attempted to find the Northwest Passage again. This time, his intended route was more to the north, which resulted in him entering the Canadian bay that now bears his name. Tempers flared while he cruised around Hudson Bay aimlessly. Shortly after deciding to return home in 1611, a mutiny occurred, and he was set adrift (with his son and seven others) in a small boat. As the clue mentions, he was never seen again. The map below shows his four voyages (first one = green, second = blue, third = orange, and four = purple).
DAILY DOUBLE #2
BOOK OF THE YEAR
Mark Kurlansky wrote a book titled this year of the Tet Offensive & 2 American assassinations
***1968***
Mark Kurlansky is the author of the book 1968: The Year that Rocked the World. Major events from 1968 that are discussed in the book include:
Prague Spring (early 1968) - brief period of liberalization in Czechoslovakia under Alexander Dubcek, who offered "socialism with a human face"
Tet Offensive (Jan ‘68) - consisted of simultaneous attacks by North Vietnamese forces against urban areas in South Vietnam and was named for the Vietnamese New Year; it was a tactical defeat for the North, but it led to the decline of public support for the war in the U.S.
Assassination of Martin Luther King (April ‘68) - civil rights leader who was killed by James Earl Ray while at the Lorraine Motel (seen below) in Memphis during a sanitation workers strike
Assassination of Robert (“Bobby”) Kennedy (June ‘68) - JFK's attorney general and later U.S. senator from New York who was killed by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles while he was the leading Democratic candidate in the 1968 presidential election
Protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago (August ‘68) - protestors objected to U.S. participation in the Vietnam War and chanted "the whole world is watching"
DAILY DOUBLE #3
HISTORIC NICKNAMES
Born 1910: "Saint of the Gutters"
***MOTHER TERESA***
Mother Teresa (1910-1997) was a Catholic nun who was dedicated to the sick, poor, and destitute of India, particularly in Calcutta (now called Kolkata). Albanian by blood, she was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in the city of Skopje, which today is the capital of Northern Macedonia (formerly called just Macedonia). In 1948 she founded the Missionaries of Charity, whose members wear a white sari with blue stripes. She established the hospice Nirmal Hriday (“Place for the Pure of Heart”) in 1952 and the leper colony Shanti Nagar (“Town of Peace”) in the mid-1960s. Pope Paul VI gave her a limo, which she raffled to help fund the leper colony. She was awarded a Nobel Peace in 1979 "for her work for bringing help to suffering humanity." She was canonized in 2016. She was criticized in the Christopher Hitchens book The Missionary Position. The main airport in Tirana, which is Albania's busiest, is named for her (Nënë Tereza).
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
ASTRONOMY & GEOGRAPHY
At the winter solstice, the Sun is in Sagittarius; it once appeared in this constellation, giving a geographic feature its name
***CAPRICORN***
The constellation Capricorn (or Capricornus) is the namesake of the Tropic of Capricorn, which is a circle of latitude approximately 23 degrees south of the Equator. At the winter solstice, the Sun is overhead at noon as far south as the Tropic of Capricorn. There are only four countries that are entirely south of the Tropic of Capricorn: Uruguay, Eswatini, Lesotho, and New Zealand. The Northern Hemisphere contains the analogous Tropic of Cancer, which is about 23 degrees north of the Equator. Tropic of Capricorn and Tropic of Cancer are also the titles of books by Henry Miller. It’s definitely worth knowing all the zodiac constellations and their symbols for “trivia” purposes.
Aries (Ram): March 21–April 19
Taurus (Bull): April 20–May 20
Gemini (Twins): May 21–June 21
Cancer (Crab): June 22–July 22
Leo (Lion): July 23–August 22
Virgo (Virgin): August 23–September 22
Libra (Scales): September 23–October 23
Scorpius (Scorpion): October 24–November 21
Sagittarius (Archer): November 22–December 21
Capricornus (Goat): December 22–January 19
Aquarius (Water Bearer): January 20–February 18
Pisces (Fish): February 19–March 20
FINAL JEOPARDY #2
FOREIGN-BORN AUTHORS
In the 1950s the New York Times said this author "is writing about all lust" & his lecherous narrator "is all of us"
***VLADIMIR NABOKOV***
Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) was a Russian-born author best known for his 1955 novel Lolita. That book concerns the pedophile professor Humbert Humbert, who lusts over the 12-year-old title nymphet, whose real name is Dolores Haze. The novel was adapted into a 1962 movie (pictured below) directed by Stanley Kubrick that stars James Mason as Humbert Humbert and features Peter Sellers as Clare Quilty. Nabokov is also known for his novel Pale Fire, which includes a 999-line poem by the reclusive poet John Shade that opens with the lines “I was the shadow of the waxwing slain / By the false azure in the windowpane.” The book includes a commentary on the poem by a mentally ill scholar named Charles Kinbote, who imagines that he is the exiled king of a country called Zembla.
Nabokov’s anti-utopian novel Invitation to a Beheading contains the musings of Cincinnatus, who is convicted of “gnostic(al) turpitude” for being different from his fellow countrymen. His novel titled Pnin is partly based on his time teaching at Cornell. Nabokov’s interest in chess can be seen in his novel titled The Luzhin Defense. Some of the money he made from writing went to butterfly-hunting expeditions! He is often credited with creating the first crossword puzzles in Russian!! He also made money giving tennis lessons!!! He moved to Montreux, Switzerland in 1961 and died there in 1977. His unfinished novel, The Original of Laura, was written on 138 note cards. He instructed the book to be burned while he was on his deathbed, but it was nevertheless published in 2009.
FINAL JEOPARDY #3
WORLD CINEMA
The 2007 biopic called "La Mome" in France, meaning "The Kid", was released in the U.S. under this other French title
***LA VIE EN ROSE***
Édith Piaf (1915-1963) was a French singer famous for songs such as "La Vie en rose," which literally means “life in pink.” Édith Giovanna Gassion was her birth name, and she was raised in a brothel by her grandmother after her mother abandoned her at birth. French nightclub owner Louis Leplée nicknamed her "La Môme Piaf" ("The Little Sparrow") for her small size (~4'10'' and 90 pounds). French actress Marion Cotillard was propelled to fame and won the Oscar for Best Actress for playing Piaf in the 2007 biopic La Môme (released in the U.S. as La Vie en rose). The film includes her affair with the boxer Marcel Cerdan, who died in a plane crash while traveling to see her. Piaf’s song “Non, je ne regrette rien” ("No, I do not regret anything") was prominently featured in the 2010 movie Inception, which co-starred…Marion Cotillard!
TRIPLE STUMPER #1
CLASSICAL IS IN
This Wagner opera concerns the winning back of a magic spear from the magician Klingsor
***PARSIFAL***
The three-act opera Parsifal was the final work by anti-Semitic composer Richard Wagner (pictured below). It premiered at Bayreuth [BY-royt] in 1882 and was partly based on an epic poem by Wolfram von Eschenbach. In the first act, we learn about a group of knights who take care of the Holy Grail and the Holy Spear. The leader of the knights, Amfortas, was wounded by the evil magician Klingsor, who stole the spear. Amfortas can only be saved with the help of a “guileless fool,” who turns out to be Parsifal. In the second act, Klingsor and Parsifal battle. Klingsor hurls the Holy Spear at him, but Parsifal catches it and makes the sign of the Cross with it. This causes Klingor’s castle and garden to crumble to ruins. In the third and final act, Parsifal heals Amfortas with the Holy Spear.
TRIPLE STUMPER #2
LET'S TALK ABOUT SAX, BABY
The classic sax line from this 1984 No. 1 hit by Wham! begins, Wa-wa-wa-wa, wa-wa-wa-wa, wa-wa-wa-wa, wa-wa-wa
***CARELESS WHISPER***
"Careless Whisper" is a 1984 song by the pop duo Wham!, which included George Michael (whose birth name was Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou) and Andrew Ridgeley. The song is the last one on their second album Make It Big, which opens with "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go." The sultry sax solo in “Careless Whisper” was played by Steve Gregory. The chorus includes the lines “I'm never gonna dance again / Guilty feet have got no rhythm.” Another popular song they released in 1984 was "Last Christmas," which hit number one in the UK for the first time in 2021. Whamageddon is a game in which people starting on December 1st try to avoid hearing the song. Its lyrics include “Last Christmas I gave you my heart / But the very next day you gave it away / This year, to save me from tears / I'll give it to someone special.”
Wham!’s first album was titled Fantastic and was released in 1983. The album included "Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)" and "Club Tropicana," the latter of which had its music video recreated scene-for-scene for the music video to Lewis Capaldi's "Forget Me." Wham!’s success led to a 1985 world tour, during which they became the first-ever Western pop band to play a gig in communist China. George Michael left Wham! to pursue a solo career, which resulted in hit singles such as “Faith” and “Freedom! ‘90,” the latter of which had its music video directed by David Fincher and featured several models lip syncing the song.
TRIPLE STUMPER #3
WHAT'S IN THE BOTTLE?
This brand of champagne that she keeps "in her pretty cabinet" in a Queen song
***MOET & CHANDON***
Moët & Chandon is a champagne company founded in 1743 by Claude Moët. The company is named for him and his great-grandson-in-law, Pierre-Gabriel Chandon de Briailles. The company owns the brand Dom Pérignon, which is named for the Benedictine monk who, according to legend, discovered how to make champagne sparkle. The luxury goods conglomerate LVMH is named for the fashion company Louis Vuitton, Moët (& Chandon), and the cognac producer Hennessy.
"Killer Queen" is a 1974 song by the band Queen that opens with the lyrics “She keeps her Moët et Chandon / In her pretty cabinet.” The song was their first one to chart in the U.S. It appears on their third album, Sheer Heart Attack (the first two albums were titled Queen and Queen II). The song is about a classy call girl who “never kept the same address” and “spoke just like a baroness.” The Australian band 5 Seconds of Sumer, which may be best known for the 2018 song "Youngblood," did a cover of "Killer Queen" in 2018.
TRIPLE STUMPER #4
PLACE YOUR BETS
A horn bet in craps pays a sizeable amount due to the fact that these 4 numbers you're betting on are quite hard to hit
***2, 3, 11, 12**
Craps is a popular dice game found in most American casinos. The person throwing the two dice is called the shooter, who wins if they throw a 7 or 11 (which is called a natural) on their first throw , and loses if they throw a 2, 3, or 12 (which is called "craps" or "crapping out"). If the first throw is a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10, that specific number is called their point. The shooter continues to throw until they roll the same number again (and wins), or throws a 7 (and losses).
The dice rolls in craps have various names. Snack eyes is a 1 & 1, while boxcars (or midnight) is a 6 & 6. The word “hard” is often used when two of the same number (a “double”) comes up (e.g. a hard four is 2 & 2 and a hard ten is 5 & 5). The word “easy” refers to any other combination of values. The word "yo" is often used for eleven, to avoid confusion since it rhymes with seven. The gambler Sky Masterson sings "Luck Be a Lady" while playing craps in the musical Guys and Dolls, which also includes the song “Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat.” Characters sing "Roll Them Bones" while playing craps in the Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess.
