Jeopardy! recap for Wed., Dec. 14

 Let's meet today's contestants:

- Mollie, an assistant puzzles and games editor, considers herself to be "pretty good" at crosswords; 

- Dan, an accounting clerk, whose Hebrew lessons involve both music and language; and

- Sean, a non-profit membership associate, didn't have $5 of his cousin's Jeopardy! money to give away.  Sean is a two-day champ with winnings of $53,200.

Jeopardy! 

HISTORIC NAMES // ANIMALS IN FRENCH // WHO LOU? // LIGHTS, CAMERA, AUCTION! // THE PROOF // IN THE PUDDING

DD1 - $800 - IN THE PUDDING - This type of "pudding" is actually sausage, but sanguinaccio dolce, made with the same stuff, is pudding pudding (Sean was still in first place after dropping $4,000 from his score of $8,600.)

Scores at first break: Sean $6,200, Dan $1,800, Mollie $1,400.

Scores going into DJ: Sean $5,800, Dan $3,800, Mollie $2,200.

Double Jeopardy! 

CAPITAL CITY RIVERS // 8-LETTER CROSSWORD CLUES // INSTRUMENTAL PAST // THE NONFICTION SECTION // THE "J.C"s // 1982: A YEAR IN FILM

DD2 - $1,200 - INSTRUMENTAL PAST - James Reid, who played these during the Jacobite Rebellion, was hanged--the English viewed them as instruments of war (Dan added $3,000 to his total of $5,000 vs. $5,800 for Sean.)

DD3 - $2,000 - THE NONFICTION SECTION - In "Disappointment River", Brian Castner retraces Sir Alexander Mackenzie's 1789 search for this waterway (Mollie, in third place with $6,600 vs. $17,400 for leader Sean, chose to bet only $1,500 and missed.)

Dan took the lead away from Sean on DD2 early in the round, but Sean had by far the strongest finish. leading into FJ at $23,000 vs. $13,600 for Dan and $5,100 for Mollie.

Final Jeopardy!

PRESIDENTIAL FACTS - Only 3 presidents have married while in office— John Tyler was the first & he was the last

Sean finished writing quickly and was the only player to be correct on FJ, adding $4,201 to win with $27,201 for a three-day total of $80,401.

Final scores: Sean $27,201, Dan $6,600, Mollie $6,000.

Odds and Ends

Triple Stumper of the day: Ken's impression of Arnold didn't help the players identify a violent-sounding quote from 1982's "Conan the Barbarian".

Clue selection strategy: Dan found DD2 on the second selection of DJ, then Dan and Sean chose to finish that category rather than shop for DD3 elsewhere. Later, Dan had control with the $400 and $2,000 clues remaining in THE NONFICTION SECTION and picked the top-row clue, which Mollie responded to and then immediately found DD3 under the bottom-row clue.

DD wagering strategy: After Mollie made a tiny wager on DD3 from a distant third place and missed, Ken incorrectly called it a "smart wager". By betting only $1,500, Mollie would have had no chance to win on FJ even if she was correct on DD3. Her only realistic winning chance was to go big, regardless of how she felt about the category.

Correct Qs: DD1 - What is blood pudding? DD2 - What are bagpipes? DD3 - What is the Northwest Passage? FJ - Who was Wilson?