# Was Final Jeopardy! wrong? (spoilers for 11-04-14 show) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 5, 2014, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-final-jeopardy-wrong-spoilers-for-11-04-14-show/703720 "2014-11-05T07:29:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-final-jeopardy-wrong-spoilers-for-11-04-14-show/703720/1 "2014-11-05T07:29:14Z")
final j clue THE SUPREME COURT After Washington & FDR, he is, perhaps fittingly, the president who appointed the most Supreme Court justices the answer Jeopardy! accepted was Taft wikipedia says thats wrong > **[List of presidents of the United States by judicial appointments](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States_by_judicial_appointments)** > > Following is a list indicating the number of Article III federal judicial appointments made by each president of the United States. The number of judicial offices has risen significantly from the time when Washington's 39 appointments were sufficient to maintain the entire federal judiciary for eight years. As of January 2020, there are 874 authorized Article III judgeships – 9 on the Supreme Court, 179 on the Courts of Appeals, 677 for the district courts including 10 temporary judgeships, and... Taft, Ike, and Lincoln appointed 5 Andrew Jackson appointed 6 ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-final-jeopardy-wrong-spoilers-for-11-04-14-show/703720/2 "2014-11-05T07:37:12Z")
This is tricky. Taft actually made six appointments to the Supreme Court, but one of them, [Edward White](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Douglass_White), was already a Justice and Taft elevated him to Chief Justice. He isn’t counted among the five in that Wikipedia list. But it sure seems like Jackson should be a tie. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-final-jeopardy-wrong-spoilers-for-11-04-14-show/703720/3 "2014-11-05T11:36:29Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > This is tricky. Taft actually made six appointments to the Supreme Court, but one of them, [Edward White](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Douglass_White), was already a Justice and Taft elevated him to Chief Justice. He isn’t counted among the five in that Wikipedia list. > > But it sure seems like Jackson should be a tie. But, the question is, would they have accepted Jackson, too? If so, a tie doesn’t matter. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-final-jeopardy-wrong-spoilers-for-11-04-14-show/703720/4 "2014-11-05T12:55:27Z")
But it would be incorrect to say just one or the other. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-final-jeopardy-wrong-spoilers-for-11-04-14-show/703720/5 "2014-11-05T13:28:08Z")
I didn’t know about Jackson, but the “perhaps fittingly” in the clue is clearly pointing toward Taft (since he later became Chief Justice himself). That makes me suspect the clue writers didn’t know about Jackson either. Had someone said Jackson, and been counted wrong, they most likely would have asked that person back later to a subsequent game once the mistake was pointed out. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-final-jeopardy-wrong-spoilers-for-11-04-14-show/703720/6 "2014-11-05T13:47:56Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > I didn’t know about Jackson, but the “perhaps fittingly” in the clue is clearly pointing toward Taft (since he later became Chief Justice himself). That makes me suspect the clue writers didn’t know about Jackson either. > > Had someone said Jackson, and been counted wrong, they most likely would have asked that person back later to a subsequent game once the mistake was pointed out. My thoughts exactly. I saw an episode of the show recently (sometime in the last two months or so) in which they used exactly the same question/answer. I can’t remember if it was from this season or a Saturday evening rerun from last year. Or maybe it was at the tail end of last season. In any case, this was a Final Jeopardy that was repeated. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-final-jeopardy-wrong-spoilers-for-11-04-14-show/703720/7 "2014-11-05T14:51:08Z")
The Final Jeopardy question aside, this was an interesting episode to me. The returning champion was an awesome player. She lost big money by missing a question by answering Sole Survivor instead of Lone Survivor and was WAY behind most of the show. She fought her way back into contention not once, but twice! And then the winner of the game ended up being the weird skinny chick in position 3 who would smile without showing her teeth. I felt like she was the worst player of the three contestants. I’ll be surprised if she wins again. I felt like the returning champ was much more well rounded and just caught a few bad breaks. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-final-jeopardy-wrong-spoilers-for-11-04-14-show/703720/8 "2014-11-05T17:11:03Z")
I just finished watching the last four episodes on line. (I’m not in North America at the moment.) None of their performances were stellar. On Monday’s show, the champ didn’t do too well either, picking up a measly $5000 and winning largely by default because the returning champ did miserably and ended up in the red. I liked her, but I wasn’t surprised that she lost on Tuesday. I liked the “skinny chick” on the right. She’s downright cute! ---
**Author:** ![TexCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/texcat/32/9041_2.png) [@TexCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TexCat)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-final-jeopardy-wrong-spoilers-for-11-04-14-show/703720/9 "2014-11-05T20:42:41Z")
[http://supremecourthistory.org/timeline\_SCOTUSAppointments.html](http://supremecourthistory.org/timeline_SCOTUSAppointments.html) Shows 6 from Taft. Also, John Catron was nominated by Jackson on his last day in office, but was not sworn in until after Jackson left office. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2014, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-final-jeopardy-wrong-spoilers-for-11-04-14-show/703720/10 "2014-11-06T04:53:52Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I just finished watching the last four episodes on line. (I’m not in North America at the moment.) Can I ask where you watch them online? Sometimes my DVR refuses to record Jeopardy (I don’t know why, it sees like 50% of time it doesn’t record it!) and I keep trying to find it online to watch instead. Sometimes they are posted on YouTube the next day but those accounts keeps getting banned by Sony. Is there a different site you use? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2014, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-final-jeopardy-wrong-spoilers-for-11-04-14-show/703720/11 "2014-11-06T06:40:12Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Can I ask where you watch them online? Sometimes my DVR refuses to record Jeopardy (I don’t know why, it sees like 50% of time it doesn’t record it!) and I keep trying to find it online to watch instead. Sometimes they are posted on YouTube the next day but those accounts keeps getting banned by Sony. Is there a different site you use? I managed to find one account on YouTube that hasn’t been shut down yet: [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7U3XNMNTaePHtCa4iZWtBQ](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7U3XNMNTaePHtCa4iZWtBQ) **This site** seems to be updated once every week or so: [http://watchserieshd.eu/category/jeopardy](http://watchserieshd.eu/category/jeopardy) ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2014, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-final-jeopardy-wrong-spoilers-for-11-04-14-show/703720/12 "2014-11-06T07:54:55Z")
watching Jeopardy! online is illegal, y’know ---
**Author:** ![tenacious\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tenacious\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tenacious_j)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-final-jeopardy-wrong-spoilers-for-11-04-14-show/703720/13 "2014-11-10T03:52:40Z")
Just watched the episode from 11/7. The final question/answer was “This NFL team’s logo is the only one that’s a plant.” They were supposed to say New Orleans Saints. 1. How the hell does a contestant get credit for saying “fleur de lis” and not naming the team? This show is notorious for its nitpicketyness! 2. Since when is fleur de lis a plant? It is a picture of a flower, is it not? (ETA, at least in this instance) Mostly, I’m pissed about #1 but #2 makes no sense to me either. Maybe the real judges are on vacation this week??? ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-final-jeopardy-wrong-spoilers-for-11-04-14-show/703720/14 "2014-11-10T03:58:12Z")
> [@tenacious\_j](#): > > Just watched the episode from 11/7. The final question/answer was “This NFL team’s logo is the only one that’s a plant.” > They were supposed to say New Orleans Saints. > > 1. How the hell does a contestant get credit for saying “fleur de lis” and not naming the team? This show is notorious for its nitpicketyness! “One” in the sentence could refer to the team or the logo. It’s the only logo that’s a plant. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-final-jeopardy-wrong-spoilers-for-11-04-14-show/703720/15 "2014-11-10T04:42:20Z")
> [@tenacious\_j](#): > > 1. Since when is fleur de lis a plant? It is a picture of a flower, is it not? (ETA, at least in this instance) Flowers aren’t plants? ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-final-jeopardy-wrong-spoilers-for-11-04-14-show/703720/16 "2014-11-10T05:11:36Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > “One” in the sentence could refer to the team or the logo. It’s the only logo that’s a plant. IANAlinguist, but ISTM that “this” could only refer to the logo if “NFL team’s logo” were a freestanding compound noun (_à la_ “carpenter’s level” or “mama’s boy”). ([Discussion](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=731060) re: a similarly ambiguous FJ! clue.) ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-final-jeopardy-wrong-spoilers-for-11-04-14-show/703720/17 "2014-11-10T07:39:59Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > “One” in the sentence could refer to the team or the logo. It’s the only logo that’s a plant. Yes, but the _[fleur de lis](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fleur-de-lis-fill.svg)_ is not by itself the New Orleans Saints logo. It’s a [specifically embossed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:New_Orleans_Saints.svg) _fleur de lis_. ---
**Author:** ![tenacious\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tenacious\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tenacious_j)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-final-jeopardy-wrong-spoilers-for-11-04-14-show/703720/18 "2014-11-10T17:36:39Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > “One” in the sentence could refer to the team or the logo. It’s the only logo that’s a plant. I was tired and didn’t look it up but here is the EXACT clue: “This NFL team’s logo is the only one that is a plant” So no, they should not have accepted “fleur de lis” when historically, Jeopardy has been so very intolerant of this sort of thing, and when, it’s not a team! Also, and this is a lesser complaint, while I fully accept the version of a horse in the Broncos’ logo to be an animal, the fleur de lis is not a plant in my mind. An iris is a plant. A fleur de lis, as shown on their helmet, is a pretty symbol, not exactly a plant. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-final-jeopardy-wrong-spoilers-for-11-04-14-show/703720/19 "2014-11-10T17:55:26Z")
> [@tenacious\_j](#): > > I was tired and didn’t look it up but here is the EXACT clue: > “This NFL team’s logo is the only one that is a plant” > > So no, they should not have accepted “fleur de lis” when historically, Jeopardy has been so very intolerant of this sort of thing, and when, it’s not a team! The apostrophe makes all of the difference. > [@](#): > > Also, and this is a lesser complaint, while I fully accept the version of a horse in the Broncos’ logo to be an animal, the fleur de lis is not a plant in my mind. An iris is a plant. A fleur de lis, as shown on their helmet, is a pretty symbol, not exactly a plant. It’s a stylized flower (lilly) which is a plant. Maybe they would have accepted the Chargers since a lighting bolt generates power. Or Tampa Bay since a flag can be staked into the ground and used to lure someone to its location. ---
**Author:** ![tenacious\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tenacious\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tenacious_j)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-final-jeopardy-wrong-spoilers-for-11-04-14-show/703720/20 "2014-11-10T18:08:05Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Maybe they would have accepted the Chargers since a lighting bolt generates power. > > Or Tampa Bay since a flag can be staked into the ground and used to lure someone to its location. 😃 Even if the dang thing WERE a flower, a flower isn’t a plant. It’s a plant part. That’s like saying a head is a person. :smack: Only in Saturday afternoon schlock theater. I don’t think I had enough coffee today. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-final-jeopardy-wrong-spoilers-for-11-04-14-show/703720.md?page=2)