Jeopardy! recap for Fri., Jul. 4

 Here are today's contestants:

- Andi Levenson, a senior paralegal from Narberth, Pennsylvania;

- Ricky Chandak, a financial assurance senior from Boston, Massachusetts; and

- Scott Riccardi, an engineer from Somerville, New Jersey. Scott is a one-day champ with winnings of $17,600.

Jeopardy!

WORLD CAPITALS // MARVEL CHARACTERS // NICKNAMES // DURING THE LAST 20 YEARS // PLANNING FOR DISASTER // THE JOY OF 6(-LETTER WORD)

DD1 - $600 - WORLD CAPITALS - The Comic Art Museum in this city includes 100 portraits of the Smurfs (On the first clue of the game, Scott won $1,000.)

Scores at first break: Scott $4,400, Ricky $2,000, Andi $1,400.

Scores entering DJ: Scott $7,600, Ricky $3,600, Andi $1,800.

Double Jeopardy!

YOU'RE ALL GETTING MEDALS // PROPER NAME RHYME TIME // TV MAKES HISTORY // THAT IS SOME FLEX // POETRY COLLECTIONS // HOW "AUD"

DD2 - $2,000 - TV MAKES HISTORY - The original 1980 version of this miniseries starred Richard Chamberlain & Toshiro Mifune & unlike the reboot, didn't use subtitles (Scott improved by $4,000 to $22,400 vs. $10,800 for Ricky.)

DD3 - $2,000 - YOU'RE ALL GETTING MEDALS - The Fields Medal, "the Nobel Prize of" this discipline, is for thinkers under 40, so Andrew Wiles wasn't eligible; he got a special plaque (Ricky doubled to $24,000 vs. $22,400 for Scott.)

Ricky found DD3 late while trailing Scott by over $10K, did the right thing by going all in and took a short lead. But Scott came right back on the remaining clues to regain first into FJ at $26,400 vs. $24,400 for Ricky and $7,400 for Andi.

Final Jeopardy!

GEOGRAPHY - In 2023, these 2 nations agreed to redraw part of their border near the Matterhorn due to melting glaciers

Scott and Ricky were correct on FJ. With Ricky in a close second place, Scott went very big, adding $24,000 to win with $50,400 for a two-day total of $68,000.

Final scores: Scott $50,400, Ricky $27,000, Andi $5,800.

Triple Stumper of the day: No one guessed the six-letter word that's a conductor's gesture as well as a cheerful and optimistic attitude, upbeat.

Judging the writers: Once again, two of the wagering clues were pop culture based, and there was a full category about a superhero movie franchise that wasn't even there to plug anything specific. It's fair to say the number one topic to study in preparation for the show is entertainment, because you can be assured it will come up multiple times, sometimes disguised as a DD in a more highbrow-sounding category.

Correct Qs: DD1 - What is Brussels? DD2 - What is "Shogun"? DD3 - What is Mathematics? FJ -What are Switzerland and Italy?