Jeopardy! recap for Wed., Sept. 28

 Let's meet today's contestants:

- Emily, a middle school counselor, whose college nickname was "Grandma", which still fits;

- Sam, a statistics professor, would love to be a truck driver; and

- David, an Episcopal priest, dealt with a "ton" of candles. David is a two-day champ with winnings of $44,200.

Jeopardy! 

OFF TO NEW ENGLAND // HATCHET MAN // HISTORY // ONE-NAMED ROCK STARS // MATERIAL // I LONG FOR LONG "U"

DD1 - $800 - MATERIAL - Portugal is the world's leading producer of this material that makes a whopper of a stopper (Emily won $3,000 on a true DD.)

Scores going into DJ: David $2,200, Sam $2,600, Emily $7,600.

Double Jeopardy! 

CLIFF NOTES // A LETTER, THEN A WORD // THE RIGHT BROTHERS // THE ACTOR'S STUDIO // NATURALISTS // AND THE STATE GOES TO... (state won by the presidential candidate)

DD2 - $2,000 - THE ACTOR'S STUDIO - Charlie Chaplin banded together with three other moviemakers to found this studio in 1919 (David added $2,000 to his total of $7,000 vs. $8,400 for Emily.)

DD3 - $800 - CLIFF NOTES - Alice Duer Miller's "The White Cliffs", a prose poem about WWI & WWII, mentions this town in its third line (David added $2,000 to his score of $12,600 vs. $8,800 for Emily.)

Emily built a quick lead with a double-up on DD1, then David took over in DJ, scoring on both DDs but falling short of a runaway this time at $14,600 vs. $8,800 for Emily and $7,800 for Sam.

Final Jeopardy!

WORLD RIVERS - These 2 rivers share the names of countries, end with the same 4 letters & both join up with the Parana River

Everyone was incorrect on FJ. David dropped $3,001 to win with $11,599 for a three-day total of $55,799.

Odds and ends

Triple Stumpers of the day: No one knew the one-named rock star who plays guitar for Guns N' Roses, Slash.

Clue selection strategy: DD3 was still available near the end of DJ with three $400 clues remaining and one $800 clue. Emily had control and went to the top row. David scored on that clue and immediately found DD3 under the $800 clue, enabling him to wrap up first place going into FJ.

Ken's Korner: After David chose DD3 but before he wagered, Ken told David that he earlier moved away from it because he "disliked" it. David then proceeded to make a modest wager to protect his lead. It's possible that the reason David left the category earlier was to shop for DD3 elsewhere rather than "disliking" it.

Correct Qs: DD1 - What is cork? DD2 - What is United Artists?  DD3 - What is Dover? FJ - What are Paraguay and Uruguay?