Here are today’s contestants:

– Bill, a bartender from California, whose “overzealous” mom sees Jeopardy! as a “blood sport”;
– Susan, a senior marketing manager from Washington state, whose son is an “eternal” twin; and
– Karen, a political consultant from Virginia, a “Clue” fan who didn’t get the “Clue” clue. Karen entered the game as a three-day champ with winnings of $57,601.

Karen finished very strongly in DJ, and when Bill missed DD3 it was all over with Karen at $18,400, Susan with $7,000 and Bill at $100.

DD1, $600 – COLLEGE ENDOWMENTS – With more than $27 billion, this California school is the best-endowed non-Ivy League private university (Bill won $2,200 on a true DD to take the lead.)

DD2, $2,000 – PSEUDONYMOUS WRITERS – Gabriela Mistral (a pseudonym) encouraged this other Chilean Nobel Prize-winning poet (also a pseudonym) (Karen dropped $2,000 from her score of $8,800 vs. $5,400 for Susan.)

DD3, $800 – HIS-TORY – In 2002 as the first woman to chair the Conservative party, she pushed the Tories away from being the “nasty party” (Bill lost $5,900 from his total of $6,000 vs. $18,400 for Karen. As it played out, if Bill had been correct here he almost certainly would have pulled off a huge comeback and won the game.)

FJ – BUSINESS & INNOVATION – Stuck with 260 tons of unused turkey in late 1953, this company ordered aluminum trays & sold 10 million units of a new item in 1954

Karen needed that runaway as she was the only player to miss FJ, dropping $1,600 to win with $16,800 for a four-day total of $74,401.

Triple Stumpers of the day: The players didn’t know “Fight the Power” rappers Public Enemy and couldn’t change one letter in “royalists” to come up with a word for Americans opposed to the Revolution, “loyalists”.

Pedantry corner: Susan added a possessive “s” to the end of her response that is not found in the name of company sought by the FJ clue, but this is apparently OK. Just don’t try to get away with “Julia Childs” or “Sally Fields”.

Correct Qs:
DD1 – What is Stanford?
DD2 – Who is Pablo Neruda?
DD3 – Who is May?
FJ – What is Swanson?