JAQR - July 13, 2025
Best Song Oscar winners, Iberian cities, Minnesota state symbols, WNBA players, Thelonious Monk, architects, 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 7/7 and Friday 7/11. The recap includes some Final Jeopardy clues and many Triple Stumpers. There’s also questions about material from last week’s recap and a Bonus Clue about a long ago covered topic. 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.
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
MOVIE MUSIC
The last 2 Best Song Oscar winners whose titles were the same name as the movie they were in had this man in the leading role
FINAL JEOPARDY #2
CHART TOPPERS
His mother named him after her dream car but he topped the charts in 2019 under this moniker
TRIPLE STUMPER #1
HOT TIME IN THE OLD TOWN
Dating to Roman times & host of a World's Fair 2 millennia later, it's been called "the Iberian oven"
TRIPLE STUMPER #2
STATE ODDITY
Minnesota has a state photograph, taken in the city of Bovey in 1918 & titled this, what the man is saying
TRIPLE STUMPER #3
SPORTY STUFF
This UConn star had an intense spring in 2025 playing on her first national championship team & being picked first in the WNBA draft
TRIPLE STUMPER #4
"STRAIGHT" TALK
This 3-word phrase meaning simple & direct is the title of a Thelonious Monk album
TRIPLE STUMPER #5
ARCHITECTURE
He joined Mead & White in a firm & designed the Beaux Arts style Boston Public Library
TRIPLE STUMPER #6
OSCAR WINNERS ON TV
For 3 seasons he played Rodrigo Borgia, who becomes Pope Alexander VI
BONUS CLUE #1
20th CENTURY LIT
Chapter 1 of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" begins with this famous 4-word question
LAST WEEK RECAP #1
Laurence Olivier played a Nazi war criminal attempting to recover some ill-gotten diamonds in what 1976 movie starring Dustin Hoffman?
LAST WEEK RECAP #2
Maryam Mirzakhani (2014) and Maryna Viazovska (2022) are the only two women who have been awarded what medal?
LAST WEEK RECAP #3
The emperors Wen and Yang reigned during what short-lived Chinese dynasty?
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
MOVIE MUSIC
The last 2 Best Song Oscar winners whose titles were the same name as the movie they were in had this man in the leading role
***DANIEL CRAIG***
Daniel Craig has played James Bond in five movies, and the three most recent ones have won the Oscar for Best Original Song. Adele sang "Skyfall" (from the 2012 movie Skyfall), Sam Smith sang "Writing's on the Wall" (from the 2015 movie Spectre), and Billie Eilish sang "No Time to Die" (from the 2021 movie of the same name).
The three most recent winners of Best Original Song are:
“Naatu Naatu” from RRR (2022) = Telugu-language song created by M. M. Keeravani and Chandrabose
“What Was I Made For”? from Barbie (2023) = English-language song created by Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell
“El Mal” from Emilia Pérez (2024) = Spanish-language song created by Camille, Clément Ducol, and Jacques Audiard (all of whom are French)
The lyricist Sammy Cahn was nominated a record 25 times for Best Original Song between 1942 and 1974. His first of four wins came for “Three Coins in the Fountain,” whose music was composed by Jule Styne. The song was performed by Frank Sinatra and appears in the 1954 movie Three Coins in the Fountain (even though only two coins are thrown into the Trevi Fountain in Rome). He also won for the song “High Hopes” (from the 1959 movie A Hole in the Head). He was nominated for the song “My Kind of Town” (about Chicago), from the 1964 movie Robin and the 7 Hoods. Other songs written by Cahn include “Love and Marriage" (written for a TV production of Our Town) and “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” (written during a California heatwave).
Diane Warren (not to be confused with Dionne Warwick) holds the record for most nominations (16) without a win. Her first nomination came for co-writing the Starship song "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now," which appeared in the 1987 movie Mannequin. The song has since been featured in The Skeleton Twins (2014) and Thunderbolts* (2025). Her second nomination (and first of four in a row) was for the Celine Dion song "Because You Loved Me." It appeared in the 1996 movie Up Close & Personal, which starred Robert Redford as a news director and Michelle Pfeiffer as his protégée. Her third nomination was for the song “How Do I Live” from the 1997 movie Con Air. It was first recorded by LeAnn Rimes, but the song in the movie (which had a more country tinge to it) was recorded by Trisha Yearwood. Her fourth nomination was for the Aerosmith song “I Don't Want to Miss a Thing” from the 1998 movie Armageddon. Diane Warren has been nominated for Best Original Song each of the last eight years (2017 to 2024). She has written nine #1 songs, including Cher’s “If I Could Turn Back Time” (1989). Her other popular songs include Milli Vanilli's "Blame It on the Rain" (1989) and Toni Braxton's "Un-Break My Heart” (1996).
FINAL JEOPARDY #2
CHART TOPPERS
His mother named him after her dream car but he topped the charts in 2019 under this moniker
***LIL NAS X***
The singer Montero Lamar Hill (named for a Mitsubishi model) was born in Atlanta in 1999. He goes by the stage name Lil Nas X, which is a tribute to the rapper Nas. His debut mainstream single was the 2018 country rap song "Old Town Road." He bought the song’s underlying beat (a sample of "34 Ghosts IV" by Nine Inch Nails) from YoungKio on the website BeatStars for only $30. A remix of "Old Town Road" with Billy Ray Cyrus was released in 2019. A second remix was produced by Diplo, a third remix included Young Thug and Mason Ramsey (the kid who got famous for yodeling at a Walmart), and a fourth remix (referred to as "Seoul Town Road") featured the BTS member RM. He performed the song (along with "Rodeo") in a series of revolving rooms at the 2020 Grammys, where he was joined by Cyrus, BTS, Diplo, Ramsey, and his namesake, Nas. “Old Town Road” song spent a record 19 weeks at number one, during which time he came out as gay. In 2024, another country rap song, Shaboozey's "A Bar Song (Tipsy)," also spent 19 weeks at number one.
Lil Nas X's debut EP was titled 7 and includes the song “Panini.” Perhaps surprisingly, Kurt Cobain received a songwriter credit for the song since its chorus interpolates Nirvana’s “In Bloom.” The song was named for a pink cat-rabbit hybrid character from the Cartoon Network show Chowder (2007-2010), and not the ancient Sanskrit grammarian (Pāṇini) nor the Italian vedute painter (Giovanni Paolo Panini). He attended the 2021 Met Gala, where he wore a three-part gold outfit: a cape that was removed to reveal an armored suit (making him resemble C3PO), which was removed to reveal a skintight and sparkly catsuit.
Lil Nas X’s debut studio album was released in 2021 and is titled Montero. Its first single was “Montero (Call Me by Your Name),” which hit number one. Its parenthetical portion refers to the 2007 novel by André Aciman that was adapted into a 2017 movie (screenplay by the 89-year-old James Ivory, directed by Luca Guadagnino, and starring Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet). In the song’s music video, Lil Nas X gives Satan a lap dance. The song was promoted by the release of so-called Satan Shoes, which were Nike Air Max 97s decorated with a pentagram, inverted cross, and a drop of blood in the sole. The shoes were a collaboration with the art collective MSCHF [“mischief”], which is also known for Big Red Boots and a microscopic Louis Vuitton handbag. Montero’s other #1 hit was the NSFW song “Industry Baby.” It features Jack Harlow, who declares “I sent her back to her boyfriend with my handprint on her @$$ cheek.”
TRIPLE STUMPER #1
HOT TIME IN THE OLD TOWN
Dating to Roman times & host of a World's Fair 2 millennia later, it's been called "the Iberian oven"