JAQR - September 8, 2024
Utopian literature, William Morris, Metallic elements, 21st century literature, Lucy Barton, Charlamagne tha God, 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 games #15-18 (the last two semifinal games and the two final games) of the 2024 Jeopardy! Masters tournament. The recap includes Daily Doubles, Final Jeopardy clues, and Triple Stumpers. The first part of the recap includes just the clues so you can quiz yourself if you want. The second part gives you some (hopefully!) interesting information about the clues and/or some related info.
P.S. New episodes of Jeopardy! start tomorrow.
DAILY DOUBLE #1
UTOPIAN LITERATURE
What "utopia" means, it completes the title of William Morris' book about a place without politics or poverty, "News from..."
DAILY DOUBLE #2
NEW MATERIAL ABOUT OLD MATERIAL
Taken to England in 1296, this 26x16x11 block of pale yellow sandstone has but one decoration--a Latin cross
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
METALLIC ELEMENTS
As it's rarely found in pure form, one explanation of its name is that it comes from Greek for "not alone" or "not one"
FINAL JEOPARDY #2
21st CENTURY LITERARY CHARACTERS
The last name adopted by Damon Fields, the title character of this novel, refers to his red hair
FINAL JEOPARDY #3
POLITICIANS
This man was the 1st to be governor of one state & then senator from another; 173 years later, Mitt Romney became the second
FINAL JEOPARDY #4
AMERICAN WOMEN
The New York Times wrote of this woman who had died in 1951, "Though she was forgotten at the time, part of her remained alive"
TRIPLE STUMPER #1
UNREAL ESTATE
This author has written several books about Lucy Barton & made up Amgash, Illinois for Lucy to grow up in
TRIPLE STUMPER #2
THIRTYSOMETHINGS
In 2024 Jess Hilarious joined this radio show with Charlamagne tha God & DJ Envy
BONUS CLUE #1
JOURNALISTS
This correspondent didn't wish to "be a footnote to somebody else's life " --specifically ex-hubby Ernest Hemingway
BONUS CLUE #2
ALLITERATION ALL AROUND
Greenland forms this body of water's eastern shore
DAILY DOUBLE #1
UTOPIAN LITERATURE
What "utopia" means, it completes the title of William Morris' book about a place without politics or poverty, "News from..."
***NOWHERE***
A utopia is an ideal place. Its name comes from the Greek words “ou” (meaning “not”) and “topos” (meaning “place”). The term was coined by Thomas More, who wrote the 1516 work Utopia, which describes the customs of a fictional island society that lacks private property (e.g. its citizens rotate houses every ten years). Other works of utopian fiction include James Hilton's Lost Horizon, which is set in Shangri-La in Tibet, and Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward. The social reformer Robert Owen attempted to establish a utopian community in New Harmony, Indiana in 1825. However, the community attracted many lazy theorists and failed after only two years.
British artist and author William Morris (1834-1896) was the greatest influence on the Arts and Crafts movement, which typically used medieval styles of decoration. Morris is arguably the most famous practitioner of the art of wallpaper, and his first pattern was called Trellis. He also co-designed the L-shaped Red House (in the town of Bexleyheath), which featured many decorations made by members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Morris co-founded the publishing company Kelmscott Press, whose books featured decorative borders designed by him. His literary works included 1890’s News from Nowhere, which depicted a libertarian socialist rural utopia and was a response to Bellamy’s Looking Backward. His other literary works include A Dream of John Ball, which is a historical fantasy named for the English priest who was hanged for participating in the Peasants' Revolt in 1381.
DAILY DOUBLE #2
NEW MATERIAL ABOUT OLD MATERIAL
Taken to England in 1296, this 26x16x11 block of pale yellow sandstone has but one decoration--a Latin cross
***STONE OF SCONE****
The Stone of Scone [SKOON] is a 336-pound rectangular stone. According to legend, the stone was used as a pillow by the Biblical patriarch Jacob. It eventually ended up in the Scottish village of Scone around 840 CE. It was then encased in a royal coronation chair and used during the crowning of Scottish kings, including John de Balliol in 1292. England's Edward I (nicknamed the “Hammer of the Scots”) invaded Scotland and had the stone moved to London’s Westminster Abbey in 1296. Edward had a special throne built called the Coronation Chair that the stone could fit under. The stone was finally returned to Scotland in 1996.
FINAL JEOPARDY #1
METALLIC ELEMENTS
As it's rarely found in pure form, one explanation of its name is that it comes from Greek for "not alone" or "not one"
***ANTIMONY***
The metallic element antimony [an-TIH-moh-nee] is number 51 on the periodic table. Its name derives from the Greek terms “anti” and “monos” (meaning “not” and “alone”). Antimony’s atomic symbol is Sb, which derives from its Latin name, stibium. The element is a member of Group 15, whose other elements include nitrogen, phosphorus, and arsenic. The element is found in the sulfide mineral stibnite. That mineral, after being ground up by the ancient Egyptians, was used as a type of eye makeup called kohl. Johannes Gutenberg's system of movable type used an alloy consisting of antimony, lead, and tin. The element antimony is the second most common in the metal alloy pewter, behind only tin.
A super acid called magic acid, which is used to stabilize carbocations (the reactive intermediates in many reactions), consists of a 1:1 mixture of fluorosulfuric acid and antimony pentafluoride. Speaking of super acids, there is another one that also contains antimony called fluoroantimonic acid, which is often called the world’s strongest acid and by some accounts is 20 quintillion times stronger than sulfuric acid (AKA battery acid). An alloy of antimony and bismuth was the first 3D topological insulator (material whose interior acts like an insulator, but whose surface acts like a conductor).
Some other elements with seemingly odd chemical symbols include:
Copper (Cu - Cuprum)
Gold (Au - Aurum)
Iron (Fe - Ferrum)
Lead (Pb - Plumbum)
Mercury (Hg - Hydrargyrum)
Potassium (K - Kalium)
Silver (Ag - Argentum)
Sodium (Na - Natrium)
Tin (Sn - Stannum)
Tungsten (W - Wolfram)
FINAL JEOPARDY #2
21st CENTURY LITERARY CHARACTERS
The last name adopted by Damon Fields, the title character of this novel, refers to his red hair
***DEMON COPPERHEAD***
Demon Copperhead is a 2022 novel by Barbara Kingsolver that is a modern retelling of the Charles Dickens novel David Copperfield. The book’s title character experiences a difficult childhood in the Appalachia region of Virginia. Born to a single teenage mom who lives in a trailer home, he enters foster care after she overdoses. Demon plays high school football, but injures his knee and then gets addicted to oxycontin. He eventually enters rehab and later falls in love with the daughter of his high school football coach. Kingsolver won a Pulitzer for the book.
Barbara Kingsolver was born in 1955 and grew up in eastern Kentucky. Her most famous novel is 1999’s The Poisonwood Bible, in which a minister from Georgia named Nathan Price takes his wife and four daughters to the Belgian Congo in 1959. Nathan has trouble baptizing people since the river is filled with crocodiles. His youngest daughter, Ruth May, gets bitten by a green mamba and dies. Nathan ends his sermons by trying to say a local phrase meaning "Jesus is precious," but instead says a phrase meaning "Jesus is the poisonwood tree."
Barbara Kingsolver’s other novels include:
The Bean Trees (1988) - her first novel, it centers on the rural Kentucky woman Taylor Greer and an abandoned three-year-old Cherokee girl named Turtle who start a new life together in the Southwest; it has a 1993 sequel titled Pigs in Heaven, in which a lawyer for the Cherokee investigates the adoption
The Lacuna (2009) - centers on Harrison Shepherd, who was born in the U.S. but raised in Mexico, where he encounters Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Leon Trotsky; he later returns to the U.S. and is investigated during the McCarthy era; the book’s title word is defined as a space or gap (in this case, between truth and public presumption)
FINAL JEOPARDY #3
POLITICIANS
This man was the 1st to be governor of one state & then senator from another; 173 years later, Mitt Romney became the second