Jeopardy! recap for Tue., Dec. 13

 Please welcome today's contestants:

- Ellen, a realtor, got a quick start into college at age 16; 

- Brett, a writer, was yelled at by Henry Hill for asking too many questions; and

- Sean, a non-profit membership associate, spent time in a monastery.  Sean is a one-day champ with winnings of $20,600.

Jeopardy! 

4 FUNERALS & ANOTHER FUNERAL // SOUNDS // PLACE"O" // 2-SYLLABLE WORDS // PLAYING SANTA // FOOD AS YOU MIGHT SAY IT

DD1 - $600 - PLACE"O" - Only Greenland & New Guinea are larger islands in size than this one in the Pacific (Ellen shoved in all the chips and lost $1,400.)

Scores at first break: Sean $6,000, Brett $1,000, Ellen -$200.

Scores going into DJ: Sean $7,400, Brett $4,000, Ellen $1,400.

Double Jeopardy! 

SPANISH ART & ARTISTS // CITY SPEAK // OIL THINGS CONSIDERED // YOU GET LETTERS // CHEMISTRY // THAT'S SOME OF WHAT SHE WROTE

DD2 - $1,600 - CHEMISTRY - Orpiment, formula As2S3 was a longtime aid to painters as a yellow pigment, but not now, due to this, the As (Sean added $3,000 to his total of $19,800 vs. $11,200 for Brett.)

DD3 - $1,200 - SPANISH ART & ARTISTS - In the 1570s this immigrant from Crete painted "The Disrobing of Christ" for the cathedral of Toledo, Spain (On the very next clue from DD2, Sean added another $3,000 to his score of $22,800.)

It took a long time to find the DDs, but once Sean discovered DD2, it was easy to select DD3 on the next clue, helping him put the game away into FJ at $28,600 vs. $11,200 for Brett and $4,600 for Ellen.

Final Jeopardy!

19th CENTURY AMERICANS - Demonstrating the dignity & humanity of Black Americans, he sat for 160 known photographs, the most of any American in the 19th century

Everyone was correct on FJ. Sean added $4,000 to win with $32,600 for a two-day total of $53,200.

Final scores: Sean $32,600, Brett $11,400, Ellen $8,600.

Odds and Ends

Triple Stumper of the day: Maybe the contestants were overthinking a top-row clue which simply wanted the seventh letter of the English alphabet, "G".

Clue selection strategy: After Sean found DD2 on the 24th clue chosen in DJ, the six remaining clues were in the top three rows, and three of those were in the same category where DD2 was already found. Sean smartly went to the $1,200 in the other category with the next pick, which was far and away the most likely location for DD3.

Judging the writers: They thought it was only worth $200 for the players to know the sound of skipping stones, which they in fact didn't know.

Ken's Korner: He implied that he thought Sean's wager of "just $3,000" on DD2 was too small, and said the FJ category "doesn't narrow it down much", even though it eliminates all non-Americans not living in the 19th century.

Correct Qs: DD1 - What is Borneo? DD2 - What is arsenic? DD3 - Who was El Greco? FJ - Who was Frederick Douglass?