JAQR - January 6, 2023
Canadian geography namesakes, heavyweight boxers, recent Egyptian history, 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 1/2 - Friday 1/6) 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
OH MY GODS!
This group of early Greek gods includes Hyperion & Phoebe
DAILY DOUBLE #2
A TRIP TO THE ISLANDS
This 2,200-square-mile Canadian island was named for a son of George III
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
HISTORIC CRIMES
Saying it was stolen by Napoleon, self-styled Italian patriot Vincenzo Peruggia took it in 1911
FINAL JEOPARDY #2
FOREIGN-BORN AUTHORS
Early in her career she translated romance novels into Spanish, often changing the dialogue to make the heroines smarter
FINAL JEOPARDY #3
HISTORIC PEOPLE
After a 1789 event, he wrote, "My first determination was to seek a supply of... water at Tofoa, & afterwards to sail for Tongataboo"
TRIPLE STUMPER #1
POP MUSIC-POURRI
"Don't Get Above Your Raisin"' is a song from Flatt & Scruggs; it's also the name of an episode of this Ken Burns series
TRIPLE STUMPER #2
TRANSPORTATION
The 1912 Classic Six was the first production car to bear the name of this man born in Neuchatel Canton, Switzerland
TRIPLE STUMPER #3
TV: WHO PLAYED 'EM?
Audra Barkley on "The Big Valley" & in the '80s, Krystle Carrington
TRIPLE STUMPER #4
CHOOSE YOUR FIGHTER
Trainer Yancey Durham took this man from a Police Athletic League gym to the heavyweight title & gave him his "Smokin"' nickname
TRIPLE STUMPER #5
MODERN EGYPT
After the tumultuous Arab Spring & an election win by the Muslim Brotherhood, this former general became president in 2014 & still is
DAILY DOUBLE #1
OH MY GODS!
This group of early Greek gods includes Hyperion & Phoebe
***TITANS***
In Greek myth, the Titans were the twelve children of Uranus and Gaea. They included six brothers (Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Cronus), and six sisters (Thea, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys). Gaea had them rebel against Uranus, who was ultimately deposed by Cronus, who castrated his father with a sickle (or curved sword, see below). Cronus knew that he would be overthrown by his own child (just like Uranus was), so she made sure to swallow all the children he had (Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon) with his sister Rhea. However, one time Rhea tricked Cronus into swallowing a stone instead of a child (Zeus), who ultimately defeated him in the Titanomachy.
DAILY DOUBLE #2
A TRIP TO THE ISLANDS
This 2,200-square-mile Canadian island was named for a son of George III
***PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND***
Prince Edward was the fifth child of King George III, who had 15 children total (13 of which made it past childhood). Here are some other places in Canada named for people related to Prince Edward:
Charlottetown - capital of Prince Edward Island and named for his mother, Queen Charlotte (the wife of George III)
Fredericton - capital of the nearby province New Brunswick and named for one of Prince Edward's older brothers, Prince Frederick (the second child of George III)
Victoria - capital of British Columbia and named for Queen Victoria, the daughter of Prince Edward
Regina [reh-JYE-nah] - capital of Saskatchewan and named in honor of Queen Victoria (Regina is Latin for “Queen”)
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
HISTORIC CRIMES
Saying it was stolen by Napoleon, self-styled Italian patriot Vincenzo Peruggia took it in 1911
***MONA LISA***
The Mona Lisa was painted by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci in the early 16th century. It is a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, who was the wife of silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo, which is why the painting is sometimes called La Gioconda (in Italian), or La Joconde (in French). Leonardo used a technique called sfumato (the gradual transition between areas of different colors) when painting it. Leonardo spent his final years working at the court of French king Francis I, who acquired the painting after Leonardo’s death.
The painting was briefly in Napoleon's bedroom, and is now in the Louvre. The painting was stolen in 1911 by Vincenzo Peruggia, who hid in a closet overnight, took the portrait off the wall, and ran off. The poet Guillaume Apollinaire and the artist Pablo Picasso were initially arrested as suspects. Dada artist Marcel Duchamp created a version of the Mona Lisa (see below) in 1919 with a mustache and goatee called L.H.O.O.Q. The title, when spoken aloud in French, sounds similar to the phrase “elle a chaud au cul,” which means (pardon my French) “she's hot in the ass.”
FINAL JEOPARDY #2
FOREIGN-BORN AUTHORS
Early in her career she translated romance novels into Spanish, often changing the dialogue to make the heroines smarter
***ISABEL ALLENDE***
Isabel Allende [eye-YEN-day] is an author who was born in 1942 in, perhaps surprisingly, Peru. She was raised in Chile, but fled after her uncle, the socialist president Salvador Allende, was overthrown in a 1973 coup led by torture enthusiast Augusto Pinochet. She has lived in the U.S. since the early 1990s. Her daughter Paula died at age 29 after developing porphyria.
Isabel Allende’s first (and most famous) novel is The House of the Spirits, which concerns several generations of the Trueba family. The magical realism novel begins “Barrabás came to us by the sea,” which refers to a dog. Characters in the novel include Clara del Valle, who is known for her uncanny predictions, goes mute for nine years after the death of her sister (Rosa the Beautiful), and marries Esteban Trueba. The novel was adapted into a 1994 movie starring white actress Meryl Streep and white actor Jeremy Irons.
Other works by Isabel Allende include:
Daughter of Fortune (1999) - a Chilean woman named Eliza travels to San Francisco during the California gold rush and once there pretends to be a male cowboy
Inés of My Soul (2006) - based on real events, it concerns Inés Suárez, the mistress of the conquistador Pedro de Valdivia (who founded the city of Santiago and was the first royal governor of Chile)
A Long Petal of the Sea (2019) - based on a true story, it centers on a man and a woman who flee Spain because of Francisco Franco and travel to Chile on a refugee ship chartered by poet Pablo Neruda
FINAL JEOPARDY #3
HISTORIC PEOPLE
After a 1789 event, he wrote, "My first determination was to seek a supply of... water at Tofoa, & afterwards to sail for Tongataboo"
***WILLIAM BLIGH***
William Bligh was the English commander of the HMS Bounty. The purpose of his voyage was to transplant breadfruit trees from Tahiti to the Caribbean. After departing Tahiti, Fletcher Christian led the mutiny against his harsh friend, Captain Bligh, who may have had a penchant for flogging. Bligh was set adrift in a small 20-foot 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 at the time. Fletcher Christian and the Tahitian woman Mauatua had a child named Thursday October. Bligh et al sailed 3600 miles in their small boat to Timor, and they 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 after he was found hiding under his bed (see below, possibly Australia's first political cartoon). If some of this info sounds familiar, it might be because I wrote about Bligh in the December 2nd issue, when Jeopardy! asked about the 1984 movie The Bounty.
TRIPLE STUMPER #1
POP MUSIC-POURRI
"Don't Get Above Your Raisin"' is a song from Flatt & Scruggs; it's also the name of an episode of this Ken Burns series
***COUNTRY MUSIC***
The miniseries Country Music by Ken Burns features eight episodes that cover the genre from its beginnings up to 1996. Below you will find a brief description about one person featured in each of the first three episodes of the miniseries:
Jimmie Rodgers (1897-1933) - known as “The Father of Country Music,” he was one of the first three people inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1961 (along with Fred Rose and Hank Williams Sr.), and his nicknames included “The Singing Brakeman” (he worked as a train brakeman before George Westinghouse came along) and “America’s Blue Yodeler”
Roy Acuff (1903-1992) - known as “The King of Country Music,” he was the first living member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, he organized the first publishing house exclusively for country music with Fred Rose, and he was a popular performer at the Grand Ole Opry, where he sang “Wabash Cannonball” and “The Great Speckled Bird”
Hank Williams (1923-1953) - honky-tonk superstar born with spina bifida who was nicknamed “The Hillbilly Shakespeare,” suffered from alcoholism, and died at the age of 29; he wrote and recorded the songs “Cold, Cold Heart,” “Hey, Good Lokin,” “I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry,” and “Your Cheatin' Heart;” his son Hank Jr. (nicknamed Bocephus and seen below with dad) is also a country music star
TRIPLE STUMPER #2
TRANSPORTATION
The 1912 Classic Six was the first production car to bear the name of this man born in Neuchatel Canton, Switzerland
***LOUIS CHEVROLET***
Louis Chevrolet (1878-1941) was a Swiss-born, French-raised car designer. In the mid 1910s, Chevrolet’s namesake Motor Company joined General Motors (which was founded by William Crapo Durant, who later resigned from the company and went bankrupt during the Great Depression). Louis Chevrolet then shifted into the car racing industry. A car designed by Louis Chevrolet and driven by his brother Gaston won the Indy 500 in 1920. Chevrolet's logo is a gold bowtie that many assume is based on the Swiss flag. According to Durant though, the logo was inspired by the wallpaper design in a Paris hotel.
Chevrolet (or Chevy for short) formerly made the Impala (1958-1985, 1994-1996, and 2000-2020), which was named for a graceful antelope, and was the best-selling car in the U.S. in the 1960s. Its compact car the Corvair (“The One-Car Accident”) was the subject of the first chapter of Ralph Nader's book Unsafe at Any Speed. Chevy formerly made the plug-in hybrid Volt and currently makes the electric Bolt. Some of its other currently produced automobiles include the sports car Corvette (made in Bowling Green, Kentucky, which is home to the National Corvette Museum), the coupe Camaro (which Bumblebee from the recent Transformers movies is usually depicted as), the mid-size Malibu, and the pickup truck Silverado. Bob Seger's song "Like a Rock" was formerly used to advertise truck made by Chevy, which recently ended their “real people, not actors” commercials.
TRIPLE STUMPER #3
TV: WHO PLAYED 'EM?
Audra Barkley on "The Big Valley" & in the '80s, Krystle Carrington
***LINDA EVANS***
The actress Linda Evans is best known for her roles on the TV shows The Big Valley (1965-1969) and Dynasty (1981-1989). Her first husband (1968-1974) was the actor John Derek, who at the age of 46 had an affair with the 16-year-old Mary Cathleen Collins (better known as Bo Derek, who later starred in the movies 10 and Bolero) while filming a movie in Greece in 1973. Evans later had a ~decade-long relationship with the new age musician Yanni, but they uncoupled in 1998.
The Big Valley was an ABC western set in Stockton, California in the 1880s in which a “flinty matriarch keeps a tight rein on her late husband's ranch empire and her fractious brood.” Barbara Stanwyck (screen legend who co-starred in the 1944 movie Double Indemnity) played the matriarch of the Barkley family, some of whose younger members were played by Evans and Lee Majors (who later played the title character in the 1970s show The Six Million Dollar Man).
The show Dynasty was a primetime soap opera on ABC produced by Aaron Spelling (who also produced many other hits, such as The Love Boat and Beverly Hills, 90210). The “often-looney sudser” was created to compete with the CBS show Dallas and centered on the Carringtons, “a brood of beautiful bed-hoppers with twisted family ties.” Linda Evans played Krystle Carrington, who marries Blake (played by John Forsythe), a powerful oil tycoon. Joan Collins joined the show in season two as Blake’s ex-wife Alexis, and season five ended with the Moldavian wedding massacre cliffhanger. The Colbys was a short-lived spin-off of the show that aired from 1985-1987. A reboot of the show aired on The CW from 2017-2022.
TRIPLE STUMPER #4
CHOOSE YOUR FIGHTER
Trainer Yancey Durham took this man from a Police Athletic League gym to the heavyweight title & gave him his "Smokin"' nickname
***JOE FRAZIER***
The boxer Joe Frazier (1944-2011) won a gold medal in the heavyweight division at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. He became the world heavyweight boxing champion after defeating Jimmy Ellis in 1970. Frazier defended the title in 1971 at Madison Square Garden against the undefeated Muhammad Ali in “The Fight of the Century” (see below). Frazier won in fifteen rounds by unanimous decision over Ali, who was perhaps a bit rusty. Ali hadn’t been allowed to fight for around four years (1967-1970) after being found guilty of draft evasion and stripped of his boxing titles.
Frazier defended the title two more times, but then lost the title to George Foreman in 1973 in “The Sunshine Showdown,” which was in Kingston, Jamaica. The match featured the broadcaster Howard Cosell’s famous exclamation "Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier" after Frazier was knocked down the first time. Foreman won via second round TKO (technical knockout) after Frazier was knocked down for a sixth time. Foreman successfully defended the title twice, but lost the title to Ali (who used the rope-a-dope technique) in 1974 in “The Rumble in the Jungle” in Kinshasa, Zaire (now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo).
Ali defended the title three times before a 1975 match with Frazier known as “The Thrilla in Manila,” which was actually fought in Quezon City, the most populous city in the Philippines. Ali won when Frazier's manager wouldn't allow Frazier to continue after a brutal 14th round. Frazier retired the next year. Yancey Durham is credited with giving Frazier his nickname of “Smokin” since he would often say before matches “go out there, goddammit, and make smoke come from those gloves.” His children include Marvis, who lost to Larry Holmes in 1983, and Jacqui, who in 2001 lost to Laila Ali (you can probably guess who her father was).
TRIPLE STUMPER #5
MODERN EGYPT
After the tumultuous Arab Spring & an election win by the Muslim Brotherhood, this former general became president in 2014 & still is
***SISI***
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi [SEE-see] is the sixth president of Egypt (the first five were Naguib, Nasser, Sadat, Mubarak, and Morsi). He was involved in the coup that removed Morsi (who was backed by the Muslim Brotherhood) from office in 2013 following the 30 June protests. Six weeks later, thousands of protesters who supported Morsi were killed during the Rabaa massacre. Sisi became president in 2014 after winning a totally legit 97% of the vote. Egypt has since banned the Muslim Brotherhood and declared it a terrorist organization. Sisi’s time in office has also seen an expansion of part of the Suez Canal (not the part where the Ever Given got stuck). A memorable photo from 2017 (see below) depicted Sisi and his BFFs, King Salman of Saudi Arabia and Donald Trump, touching a glowing globe.
Here are some other random world leaders possibly worth knowing:
Argentina = Alberto Fernández - member of the Justicialist Party (formerly called the Peronist Party after its founder Juan Perón), who defeated the incumbent Mauricio Macri in 2019 and whose VP is former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (who served as president from 2007-2015 in between her husband Néstor Kirchner and Macri)
Cuba = Miguel Díaz-Canel - member of the Communist Party who in 2019 succeeded Raúl Castro, the brother of Fidel
Haiti = Ariel Henry [ahn-REE] - neurosurgeon and PM who also became president shortly after the 2021 assassination of Jovenel Moïse [moy-EEZ]
