Jeopardy! recap for Wed., Feb. 7 – Let’s meet today’s contestants:

– John, a banking analyst from New York, NY, who is very well-traveled;

– Marcy, a senior business systems analyst from Marion, IA, who has different ideas than her mother about how to spell her own name; and

– Sean, an expiditer from Cherry Hill, NJ, who became a game show contestant and an uncle in rapid succession. Sean is a two-day champ with winnings of $30,799.

John was well in the red at the end of round one, but got on a run in DJ, hitting both DDs and getting a crucial layup on a $2,000 clue that both his opponents missed. This allowed John to hold a very slim lead into FJ with $9,900 vs. $9,800 for Marcy and $3,600 for champ Sean.

DD1 – AUTHORS’ FICTIONAL PLACES – Brobdingnag (Sean lost $2,000)

DD2 – NEWSPAPERS – The independent Florida Alligator is a newspaper aimed at college students in this city (John won $1,500)

DD3 – THE GLOBE – This vast geographic feature is bordered by the Sahel on the south & the Maghreb on the north (John won $1,600)

FJ – FLAG COLORS – They’re the three colors of New York City’s flag & of the Knicks & Mets teams; 2 are on the Dutch flag & one used to be

Alex felt compelled to mention that Sean missed FJ in both of his victories. This time Sean got it right, but it only got him second money as John was also correct, improving by $9,701 to win with $19,601. Note that Marcy wagered $7,300, while her best play would have been a bet of less than $2,600, which would have locked out Sean from passing her.

Triple Stumper of the day: In the “Security” category, no one knew that FDR’s “Economic Security Bill” became known as the “Social Security Act”.

Judging the judges: The powers that be decided to give Sean the benefit of the doubt on his pronunciations of “veterinarian” and “discography”.

Correct Qs:

DD1 – Who was Jonathan Swift?
DD2 – What is Gainesville?
DD3 – What is the Sahara Desert?
FJ – What are orange, blue and white?