Jeopardy! recap for Tue., May 24

Please welcome today's contestants:

- Bonnie, a novelist, is a "recovering lawyer";

- Eric, an order management specialist, has a collection of 2,000 bottlecaps; and

- Ryan, a rideshare driver, watches Jeopardy! with his mom, who thought Alex was "sooooo handsome". Ryan is a seven-day champ with winnings of $145,201.

Jeopardy! 

WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE // SPORTS SHORTS // RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES // ASIAN AMERICANS & PACIFIC ISLANDERS // WARTIME U.S. PRESIDENTS // Xs, THEN Os (each response contains an X and then an O later in the word.)

DD1 - $600 - WARTIME U.S. PRESIDENTS - In the final days of the Vietnam War, he ordered the airlift of more than 200,000 refugees, most of whom were brought to the USA (Ryan lost $2,000 from his leading score of $5,600.)

Scores going into DJ: Ryan $3,600, Eric $2,200, Bonnie $3,600.

Double Jeopardy! 

LITERATURE // NEWS PERSONALITIES PAST & PRESENT // U.S. GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY // MED. ABBREV. // WE DO TALK ABOUT BRUNO // YES, YES, YES

DD2 - $1,200 - LITERATURE - This Shakespeare character says, "When I was about thy years, Hal, I was not an eagle's talon in the waist" (Bonnie won $1,200 from her score of $3,200 vs. $8,800 for Ryan. Leaving that $2,000 behind came very close to costing Bonnie a chance to stay alive going into FJ.)

DD3 - $1,600 - U.S. GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY - Reflecting the name of Istanbul's harbor, c. 1846 the strait connecting this U.S. bay to the ocean was dubbed "Chrysopylae" (Ryan lost $2,000 from his score of $12,400 vs. $7,200 for Bonnie.)

Ryan missed on both of his DD opportunities, which caused him to fall short of a runaway going into FJ with $15,200 vs. Bonnie at $7,600 and Eric with $5,800.

Final Jeopardy!

THE MIDDLE AGES - It was the surname of the 2 Scottish brothers who claimed monarchies of 2 different countries in the 13-teens

Only Eric was correct on FJ, as both Ryan and Bonnie gave the same incorrect response. Ryan chose to bet $0 and is now an eight-day champ with $160,401.

Odds and ends

Wagering strategy: Once again, Ryan displayed his tendency to make unconventional FJ wagers, as we've seen most players in his situation today make a non-zero wager to avoid the possibility of a tiebreaker clue. Fortunately for him, Bonnie bet it all but missed FJ, so it didn't come down to a buzzer race on a single clue in an unknown category.

Triple Stumper of the day: In the jokey RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES, no one knew the "committee" generally composed of members of both houses of a legislature that a "marijuana issue" was sent to is "joint".

Mayim's musings: At the top of the show she informed us that Ryan now has the most regular-game earnings of players from Philadelphia.

Correct Qs: DD1 - Who was Ford? DD2 - Who is Falstaff? DD3 - What is San Francisco Bay? FJ - What is Bruce? (Ryan and Bonnie responded with Stuart.)