Jeopardy! recap for Tue., Dec. 15

 Please welcome today's contestants:

- Brayden, a policy intern, met an alligator on a mini golf course;

- Margaret, a public affairs specialist, has long been expected to be on the show; and

- Valerie, a career counselor, left a Valerie-sized hole in a door. Valerie is a one-day champ with winnings of $38,001.

Brayden did an amazing job of shopping for DDs, quickly finding and scoring on all three in a dominating performance as he entered FJ with $28,200 vs. $7,400 for Valerie and $7,000 for Margaret.

DD1 - $800 - BOOK BARRIERS - This Melville scribe spends time staring at "dead-walls", then at the high walls of prison (Brayden won the window maximum of $1,000.)

DD2 - $1,600 - AMERICAN HISTORY - In 1832, hoping to reclaim land in Illinois, this Sauk leader led Native Americans against U.S. forces in a months-long war (Brayden won $3,500 from his score of $9,600 vs. $3,000 for Valerie.)

DD3 - $1,200 -  10-LETTER NATIONS - One of the world's most populous countries, it's in the delta of the Ganges & Brahmaputra rivers (On the very next clue after DD2, Brayden again won $3,500 from his total of $13,100.)

FJ - MAGAZINES - This magazine had the same person on its cover since its founding 20 years ago until it chose Breonna Taylor as its Sept. 2020 cover

Everyone was correct on FJ. Brayden added $2,800 to win with $31,000.

Triple Stumper of the day: No one knew the "pear-shaped lute" featured in both "Don Giovanni" and Bruce Hornsby's "Rain" is a mandolin.

This day in Trebekistan: It's very fitting that Alex presented a category called WHAT ARE THE ODDS?...he was The Wizard of Odds, after all.

Correct Qs: DD1 - Who is Bartleby (the Scrivener)? DD2 - Who was Black Hawk? DD3 - What is Bangladesh? FJ - What is O, the Oprah Magazine? (Two contestants simply wrote "O" or "O Magazine", which were accepted. Presumably, "Oprah" or "Oprah Magazine" would also have been accepted.)