JAQR - June 25, 2023
Karen O, green comets, Roddy Doyle, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Marshawn Lynch, and more...
Thank you for reading another issue of the Jeopardy Answer & Question Recap, or JAQR [“jacker”] for short. This recap includes two clues from each episode of Jeopardy! between Monday 6/19 and Friday 6/23. The recap will include Daily Doubles, Final Jeopardy clues, 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
FIRST SPEECHES IN SHAKESPEARE (name the play)
"Take but good note & you shall see in him the triple pillar of the world transformed into a strumpet's fool"
DAILY DOUBLE #2
STATE EMBLEMS
Illinois has a state microbe to honor Peoria's 1940s role in first mass-producing this antibiotic
DAILY DOUBLE #3
MUSICAL ACT ETYMOLOGY
Karen O said this name of her band comes from "a New York City... reaction to everything"
DAILY DOUBLE #4
SAME FIRST & LAST LETTER GEOGRAPHY
It flows over 1,300 miles from highlands near Brazil across Venezuela to the Atlantic
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
THE OLYMPICS
This sport that made its Olympic debut in 1988 has a playing surface of only about 45 square feet
FINAL JEOPARDY #2
THE 19th CENTURY
In 1823 he wrote, "in the war between those new governments and Spain we declared our neutrality"
TRIPLE STUMPER #1
RANDOM FACTS
The green comet that visited Earth in 2023 was thought to come from this cloud named for a Dutch astronomer
TRIPLE STUMPER #2
THAT MUSICAL ACT IS UNREAL!
Later a movie, Roddy Doyle's first novel is about this soulful but imaginary Irish band
TRIPLE STUMPER #3
OFFICIAL NICKNAMES
Longtime president Nazarbayev decided this vast Central Asian country would be the "Land of the Great Steppe"
TRIPLE STUMPER #4
OFFICIAL NICKNAMES
Powerhouse Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch trademarked this as his nickname
DAILY DOUBLE #1
FIRST SPEECHES IN SHAKESPEARE (name the play)
"Take but good note & you shall see in him the triple pillar of the world transformed into a strumpet's fool"
***ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA***
William Shakespeare's tragedy Antony and Cleopatra is named for the Roman military leader Mark Antony and the Egyptian queen Cleopatra. Mark Antony was part of the Second Triumvirate and co-ruled the Roman Republic with Lepidus and Octavian (later known as Augustus, the first Roman emperor). For political reasons, Mark Antony married Octavia (the sister of Octavian) even though he is infatuated with Cleopatra. The play opens with a speech given by Philo, in which he refers to Cleopatra as a “strumpet,” which means a person with many casual sexual encounters. More famous lines concerning Cleopatra are spoken by the lieutenant Enobarbus, who says “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale / Her infinite variety.”
Octavius later imprisons Lepidus and turns on Mark Antony as well. Octavius defeats Mark Antony and Cleopatra at sea at the Battle of Actium. After hearing "fake news" about Cleopatra's death, Mark Antony attempts suicide. He dies after being reunited with Cleopatra, who then kills herself with venomous snakes by placing the asps on her breast and arm. The play is the source of the term "salad days," meaning a time of youthful inexperience. The play inspired a Samuel Barber opera of the same name. Its 1966 premiere at the Met saw Black soprano Leontyne Price play Cleopatra and Puerto Rican–born bass Justino Díaz play Mark Antony (pictured below).
DAILY DOUBLE #2
STATE EMBLEMS
Illinois has a state microbe to honor Peoria's 1940s role in first mass-producing this antibiotic
***PENICILLIN***
The drug penicillin was discovered in 1928 by Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming, who also discovered the enzyme lysozyme (found in tears and saliva). Penicillin was named for the green mold from which it was obtained. The antibiotic works by inhibiting the enzymes that are responsible for synthesizing the bacterial cell wall. Specifically, penicillin is a beta-lactam antibiotic, meaning its structure has a beta-lactam ring, which is a cyclic amide with the nitrogen atom attached to the beta-carbon. The structure of penicillin was determined using X-ray techniques by English chemist Dorothy Hodgkin, who also determined the structure of vitamin B12. The structure of penicillin is seen below, with the beta-lactam portion in red.
DAILY DOUBLE #3
MUSICAL ACT ETYMOLOGY
Karen O said this name of her band comes from "a New York City... reaction to everything"
***YEAH YEAH YEAHS***
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are an indie rock band whose lead vocalist is the South Korean-born musician Karen O. She often wears stage costumes designed by her friend Christian Joy. She wrote most of the soundtrack to the 2009 movie Where the Wild Things Are, which was directed by her former boyfriend Spike Jonze. She is the mentor of the band the Linda Lindas, who vent viral in 2021 with their performance of the song "Racist, Sexist Boy" at the LA Public Library.
One of the most famous songs by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is 2003’s "Maps," which can heard below and was included in the video game Rock Band. That song’s chorus repeats the line “Wait, they don't love you like I love you.” The chorus to Beyoncé’s song “Hold Up” includes the line “they don't love you like I love you.” As a result, the members of band (Karen Orzolek, drummer Brian Chase, and guitarist Nick Zinner) received songwriting credits. Another of the band’s famous songs is 2009’s “Heads Will Roll,” which can also be heard below. The band's first three albums (Fever to Tell, Show Your Bones, and It's Blitz) were nominated for the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album. The band's fifth and most recent studio album, Cool It Down, was released in 2022. The first track on the album and the lead single is "Spitting Off the Edge of the World," which features the singer Perfume Genius.
DAILY DOUBLE #4
SAME FIRST & LAST LETTER GEOGRAPHY
It flows over 1,300 miles from highlands near Brazil across Venezuela to the Atlantic
***ORINOCO***
Venezuela is home to most of the arc-shaped Orinoco River, which begins in the Guiana Highlands and flows west. It then turns north to form part of the Venezuela-Colombia border and flows through a region of grassland called the Llanos (meaning “Plains”). Finally, it flows east past the Venezuelan cities of Ciudad Bolívar and Ciudad Guayana before forming a 275-mile-wide delta and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean south of Trinidad.
The Angostura Bridge (or Puente Angostura) in Ciudad Bolívar, which was built in 1967, was the first bridge to cross the river. The second bridge to cross the river, the Puente Orinoquia, was built in 2006 and is near Ciudad Guayana. In 1595 Walter Raleigh sailed up the Orinoco looking for the city of gold, El Dorado. Daniel Defoe's character Robinson Crusoe is stranded on an island near the mouth of the Orinoco. The name of the river is derived from Warao words meaning "a place to paddle." A song by Enya titled "Orinoco Flow" shares its name with the river, but is actually named for the studio in London where the song was recorded.
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
THE OLYMPICS
This sport that made its Olympic debut in 1988 has a playing surface of only about 45 square feet
***TABLE TENNIS***
Table tennis made its Olympic debut in Seoul in 1988 and has been dominated by China ever since (32 out of a possible 37 gold medals). The winner of the last two gold medals in the men's singles event and last three gold medals in the men’s team event is Ma Long, who is often considered the best player of all time. One of the best female players of all-time is Deng Yaping, who won two gold medals in the women's singles and two gold medals in the women's doubles at Barcelona in 1992 and Atlanta in 1996. One of the best non-Asian players of all-time is Jan-Ove Waldner, who hails from Sweden. Nicknamed Waldi and also the “Mozart of Table Tennis,” he won the gold medal in the men's singles at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.
In addition to the Olympics, there is the World Table Tennis Championships, which is sanctioned by the ITTF (International Table Tennis Federation). The team trophy for men is the Swaythling Cup, and the team trophy for women is the Corbillon Cup. Table tennis is played with a white 40 millimeter diameter plastic ball (formerly 38 mm and celluloid) on a table that is 9 feet long, 5 feet wide, and 2.5 feet high. The height of the net is ~6 inches. Players hit the ball with a paddle (called a "bat" across the pond) that is covered with rubber. Most competitive players grip the paddle with either the shakehand or penhold grip.
FINAL JEOPARDY #2
THE 19th CENTURY
In 1823 he wrote, "in the war between those new governments and Spain we declared our neutrality"
***JAMES MONROE***
The Monroe Doctrine is named for the fifth U.S. president, James Monroe (pictured below). Its primary author was Monroe’s Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams. First articulated in 1823, the doctrine stated that the Western Hemisphere was not open to European colonization. The Roosevelt Corollary (named for President Theodore Roosevelt) was added to the Monroe Doctrine in 1904. The corollary stated that the U.S. had the responsibility to preserve order in Western Hemisphere countries.
TRIPLE STUMPER #1
RANDOM FACTS
The green comet that visited Earth in 2023 was thought to come from this cloud named for a Dutch astronomer
***OORT CLOUD***
The Oort Cloud is a "cloud" of small (less than 60 miles in diameter) icy bodies that revolves around the Sun and is named for Jan Oort. The cloud lies between 2,000 to 200,000 AU (astronomical unit) from the Sun. It is the source of long-period comets, which take more than 200 years to orbit the Sun. Small-period comets take less than 200 years and come from the Kuiper belt, which is named for a different Dutch astronomer.
The green-hued comet, officially known as C/2022 E3 (ZTF), could be seen by those in the Northern Hemisphere in early February 2023. It was discovered the year before by astronomers at the Palomar Observatory near San Diego. The long-period comet was last visible in the night sky around 50,000 years ago. Its green hue comes from its molecular composition of dicarbon, which has formula C2, and cyanogen, which has formula (CN)2.
TRIPLE STUMPER #2
THAT MUSICAL ACT IS UNREAL!
Later a movie, Roddy Doyle's first novel is about this soulful but imaginary Irish band
***THE COMMITMENTS***
The author Roddy Doyle, pictured below, was born in 1958 in Dublin. Many of his novels depict the working class in Ireland, including:
The Commitments (1987) - his first novel, it chronicles the rise and fall of the title soul band, which is managed by music fanatic Jimmy Rabbitte; it’s the first novel in the Barrytown series, which is named for a fictional Dublin neighborhood
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha (1993) - winner of the prestigious Booker Prize, it centers on the title 10-year-old boy, whose father leaves the family, resulting in his classmates taunting him with "Paddy Clarke, Paddy Clarke. Has no da. Ha ha ha"
The Woman Who Walked into Doors (1996) - centers on the 39-year-old working-class woman Paula Spencer, who was married to an abusive husband with a drinking problem
TRIPLE STUMPER #3
OFFICIAL NICKNAMES
Longtime president Nazarbayev decided this vast Central Asian country would be the "Land of the Great Steppe"
***KAZAKHSTAN***
Kazakhstan in Central Asia is the world’s largest landlocked country (and ninth largest overall). Nursultan Nazarbayev, pictured below, served as its first president/dictator from 1990-2019. He was followed in office by his hand-picked successor, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev (2019-). The country contains the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which is a spaceport used by Russia. It is also home to a pyramid-shaped spiritual center called the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation, which was designed by Norman Foster. The country's flag includes a gold sun above an eagle and has a turquoise background. The name of its currency is the tenge. Kazakhstani athletes to know include tennis player Elena Rybakina, who won Wimbledon in 2022.
The name of the capital of Kazakhstan is once again Astana, through which the Ishim River flows. The city was formerly named Nur-Sultan (2019-2022) in honor of its first president. Before that, it was called Astana (1998-2019), which means “capital.” It gained that name around the time it replaced Almaty (Kazakhstan’s most populous city) as capital. Before that, it was called Akmola (1991-1998), Tselinograd (1961-1991), and Akmolinsk (1830-1961). Very nice!
TRIPLE STUMPER #4
OFFICIAL NICKNAMES
Powerhouse Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch trademarked this as his nickname
***BEAST MODE***
Marshawn Lynch attended UC Berkeley and was drafted by the Buffalo Bills with the 12th pick in the 2007 NFL Draft. Three years later, he was traded to the Seattle Seahawks. Late in the fourth quarter of a 2010 NFC Wild Card playoff game against Drew Brees and the heavily-favored New Orleans Saints, he scored a 67-yard touchdown nicknamed “Beast Quake” in which he broke nine(!) tackles. Four years later, Lynch and the Seahawks beat the Denver Broncos 43-8 to win Super Bowl XLVIII (48).
Lynch and the Seahawks made the Super Bowl again the following season. In that game against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, the Seahawks were down 28-24 with 26 seconds left at the Patriots one-yard line. Instead of having Lynch run the ball, the Seahawks controversially called a pass play that was intercepted by Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler to essentially seal the victory. While at Media Day before that Super Bowl, he memorably answered every question with "I'm just here so I won't get fined." He retired and sat out the 2016 season, but came back and played the 2017 and 2018 seasons for the Oakland Raiders. He retired again, but later re-joined the Seahawks late in the 2019 season after they lost several running backs to injury. He played three games (one regular season game and two playoff games) before retiring for good. Lynch is known for his love of Skittles (the candy, not British bowling).
