The New York Times carries a daily ad with the final Jeopardy question on the Jeopardy quiz show. I’m no Jeopardy whiz, but I had the answer to the following clue published yesterday:
Turns out this wasn’t so easy for contestants. A website that follows Jeopardy faults the formulation of the clue.
Now, for as good as Jeopardy’s writers and researchers are, this is a horribly written question. When you hear the right answer, you’ll kick yourself for how knee-slappingly obvious it was. But while reading it, the whole thing seems like it took place in 1957, with the president at the time (Eisenhower) signing the law and then eventually putting his library there. But even if you knew Eisenhower, the greatest general the country has ever seen, was a good ol’ Kansas boy, remembering where he was from (Abilene) and why there’d be have been a major event there in 1957 was tough.
Why? Because it turns out the law wasn’t enacted until four decades later and referred to the famed desegregation of a Little Rock high school. Bill Clinton signed the law and, obviously has his presidential library there.
The kicker is that all three contestants wagered their entire winnings on the Final Jeopardy question and all missed it, leaving them in a three-way tie with zero. This because one contestant, trailing badly with no way to win, blew the prevailing game theory and wagered rather than standing pat in hopes the other two would fail.
Final tidbit: What happens when this happens? According to the website, NO players advance to another game.