Jeopardy! recap for Tue., Mar. 14

 Here are today's contestants:

- Jessica, a policy director, has a "3-legged cat and a 1-legged boyfriend"; 

- Long, a retired engineer, lost at trivia to James Holzhauer and his friends; and

- Stephen, a data scientist, could be on his way to Portugal. Stephen is a five-day champ with winnings of $139,281.

Jeopardy! 

11-LETTER WORDS // THE TITLE TV CHARACTER'S BUDDIES // IN THE COOKIE JAR // HERE'S YOUR REPORT CARD // "B" IN GEOGRAPHY // A PLEASURE TO HAVE IN CLASS

DD1 - $600 - HERE'S YOUR REPORT CARD - Put out by the Air Force in 1995, a report on a 1947 incident here is subtitled "Facts vs. Fiction in the New Mexico Desert" (Long moved into second by doubling to $3,200.)

Scores at first break: Stephen $6,600, Long $4,000, Jessica $2,400.

Scores going into DJ: : Stephen $9,600, Long $5,800, Jessica $3,400.

Double Jeopardy! 

LITERARY LONDON // LORD OF THE DINGS // DISEASES // SCRAMBLED U.S. HISTORY // BANKING & FINANCE // CONTRONYMS

DD2 - $1,200 - LITERARY LONDON - This 1881 Mark Twain novel takes place in London's poorer areas as well as in some of its ritzier locales (Jessica, on the first clue of DJ from third place, lost $3,400 on a true DD.)

DD3 - $1,200 - SCRAMBLED U.S. HISTORY - 1820s announcement: NO CREDO ON MERIT (Long, with $12,400 vs. $17,600 for Stephen, noted the he was from Vegas, bet it all and missed.)

Both of Stephen's opponents missed an all-in play on their DD opportunities in DJ, leaving Stephen with a runaway into FJ at $18,000 vs. $6,000 for Jessica and $400 for Long.

Final Jeopardy!

COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD - Part of the largest contiguous land empire during the 1200s & 1300s, today it’s the world’s second-largest landlocked country

Stephen crossed out the correct response and was the only player to miss, so either Jessica or Long could have won had they been correct on DD2 or DD3. He dropped $2,000 to win with $16,000 for a six-day total of $155,281.

Final scores: Stephen $16,000, Long $800, Jessica $11,000.

Odds and ends

Tough category of the day:  The players missed three clues in CONTRONYMS, including to remove dirt from your house or add sugar on top of a pie is to "dust".

DD wagering strategy: Note that even if Long had made a more typical wager on DD3 of around half of his score, it's likely he still wouldn't have been close enough in FJ to have a chance to pass Stephen.

Clue selection strategy: After Jessica found DD2 on the first clue of DJ, Jessica and Stephen chose to complete that category while DD3 was still available elsewhere.

Correct Qs: DD1 - What is Roswell? DD2 - What is "The Prince and the Pauper"? DD3 - What is Monroe Doctrine? FJ - What is Mongolia?