Here are today’s contestants:

– Sean Carpenter, a procurement manager from New Lenox, Illinois;
– Lydia Herndon, a phd student from Chicago, Illinois; and
– Nikolas Polsinelli, a student from Winter Park, Florida. Nikolas is a one-day champ with winnings of $17,601.

Jeopardy!

INSIDE BOSTON // RESTRICTED READING IN AMERICA // GOATS, GOATS, GOATS // FOWL LANGUAGE // POLLY // WANNA CRACKER?

DD1 – $600 – RESTRICTED READING IN AMERICA – Utah had issues with “Oryx & Crake” by this Canadian woman who’s unafraid to confront (or create) harsh realities (Nikolas added $2,000 up to $5,000.)

Scores at first break: Nikolas $5,200, Lydia $1,600, Sean $1,000.

Scores entering DJ: Nikolas $5,400, Lydia $3,600, Sean $2,000.

Double Jeopardy!

NAME THE U.K. PRIME MINISTER // THEIR MONA LISA // SCIENTIFIC ADVENTURERS // QUESTIONABLE POP CULTURE // HOUSES WITH NAMES // “FRONT” OR “BACK”

DD2 – $2,000 – THEIR MONA LISA – A painting by this man at the Mauritshuis that depicts a girl in a turban is sometimes called “The Mona Lisa of the North” (Nikolas improved his leading score by $4,000 up to $15,400.)

DD3 – $2,000 – SCIENTIFIC ADVENTURERS – Before he built his thermometer, he took part in a 1736 expedition to N. Sweden that helped prove the flattening of the Earth’s poles (Nikolas added $6,000 up to $24,000.)

Nikolas swept the DDs and never had an anxious moment as be built a comfortable runaway at $26,200 vs. $9,600 for Sean and $7,600 for Lydia.

Final Jeopardy!

COINAGES OF THE 1980s – Marc Kelly Smith had Cubs slugger Ernie Banks in mind when he chose a name for these literary events he had “invented”

Only Lydia was correct on FJ. Nikolas dropped $3,800 to win with $22,400 for a two-day total of $40,001.

Final scores: Nikolas $22,400, Lydia $11,199, Sean $3,999.

Correct Qs: DD1 – Who is Atwood? DD2 – Who was Vermeer? DD3 – Who was Celsius? FJ – What is poetry slam?