Thread by @Jeopardamy

Post-game thoughts (1/17/22):
I forget if I mentioned, but one fear I had during the last two taping days was whether or not I would actually be able to see Genevieve during the downtime, given her Covid diagnosis.

However, the Covid captain for Jeopardy said that wouldn't be necessary, since she was asymptomatic and I was vaccinated, which was a huge relief, I don't know if I could have handled a full week without seeing her!

However, it did mean that, the next Monday, I once again had to come in early for an extra Covid test, which was annoying, but with the schedule I'd worked out the previous Tuesday it wasn't a huge disruption

Another trick I'd learned over the course of my run: I never packed hangers for my clothes, as they wouldn't fit in my suitcase, so I'd just been carrying an armful of clothes into the studio every day.

However, last week I realized that, since I'd booked the hotel for Monday night as well as Sunday, that on Mondays I could just use the hotel hangers and bring them back that evening

Last week I'd accidentally kept one of them, and just left it in my rental car since it still wouldn't fit in my suitcase, but thankfully I didn't get in trouble lol

So anyway, my Covid test (like the other six that I'd taken since Genevieve was exposed) came up negative (thanks again, vaccine!), and I was good to go. Having passed James, the next milestone in my sights was Matt Amodio, if I won all five games today, I'd tie his streak at 38!

It was really amazing to realize that. When I started taping, Matt's streak was still going strong, and I'd been really worried that I'd have to go up against him. His streak seemed so mind-blowing, and it was possible that I was a few hours away from matching it myself! Wild

But you can't win five games until you win one! I can't say I remember much about rehearsal, or about the day itself, really, though we'll see what memories get sparked as I watch the games. I drew Jorge and Frances to start, and it was time to play!

I started with the music category as usual, and I actually knew the first three answers, but got beaten to the buzzer on all three.

Did all right in Arthur Conan Doyle, though I'm a casual Sherlock Holmes fan at best. Still, I managed to dredge up his address, and I had the last two on the tip of my tongue, as it were, but couldn't come up with them in time

Moved over to Weights and Measures, where I found the first Daily Double! That early it made sense to make it a true Daily Double. But I just couldn't come up with it; had it been narrowed down slightly ("measure of depth" for example) I probably would have

So, down to $0, but plenty of time left, and since I had gotten my buzzer timing back, I wasn't too concerned yet, and indeed I got the last two clues before the break to retake the lead

"I've gone to sporting events" isn't much of an anecdote, I admit, but I really just wanted to talk about USA-Mexico. Michael Davies, the executive producer of Jeopardy, is originally from the UK and a big sports fan, he told me later that he loved to hear dos a cero on Jeopardy!

Paleontology was a foolish answer on my part, as it deals with pre-human hominids (homo erectus and the like), not ancient but anatomically modern societies

An elderly couple in my parish growing up had lived through the Spanish Civil War, my mom would occasionally pass on stories they had told about it. It sounds awful, I'm glad I'll never have to live through a civil war! *laughs nervously*

Felt dumb for blanking on Lake Huron, oh well

The Mayans weren't all in present-day Guatemala, but for Jeopardy purposes you can basically assume that they were

Estonia wasn't 100% a guess, but I knew their language is very close to Finnish, so I reasoned they were probably geographically close to Finland as well

So, not my best round, but I'd managed to build a bit of a lead heading into Double Jeopardy

"Won't You Be My Neighbor" is one of Genevieve's very favorite movies, so it was nice to see it come up

I was pretty sure about Hedy Lamarr, but not quite sure enough to ring in.

I'm glad I got the answer to the clue which mentioned pearls!

Moving over to Palaces, I found the first DD! At this point I'd managed to stretch my lead, but $4000 still felt right. Wikipedia says that the legend about prisoners sighing on the Bridge of Sighs isn't true, but it's still such an evocative image that it was easy to remember

So, things were looking good! I couldn't quite let up with the last Daily Double out there, but I was definitely in the driver's seat

If you've never read The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody, I recommend it. There's some outdated gender politics in it, but the humor overall holds up very well (I mention it because it has an amusing chapter making fun of Frederick the Great)

I think of Christopher Wren as associated with Charles II, but he was prolific well into his long life. He's really an impressive figure, much more than "just" a great architect

There's been talk lately of restoring the Hetch Hetchy valley; it seems like a good idea to me but I haven't really looked into all the arguments for and against

Jorge beat me to the Harlem Renaissance, and so found the last Daily Double. He quite rightly bet almost everything, and was clearly on the right track, but just couldn't come up with Gray's Anatomy (the book, not the show). With just five clues left, my win was now assured!

I once went to an exhibition of paintings by the whole Wyeth family, so I can tell you that Jamie Wyeth (grandson of N.C. and son of Andrew) is also a really good artist, definitely worth checking out

So another solid win, and once again I could afford a $10000 wager in Final Jeopardy. I debated it briefly, but stuck with the plan, and it paid off! I don't think any of us had much trouble with that one, it seemed pretty obvious

So, after the struggles of last week, I'd finally gotten a big payday in Final Jeopardy! Was this the end of my FJ slump? We'll have to see!

Thanks as always to Jorge and Frances, I wish I remembered more about them!