literary analysis jeopardy

125 Literary Jeopardy Answers To Test Your Bookish Trivia

Kelly Jensen

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She's the editor/author of (DON'T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen .

View All posts by Kelly Jensen

A few years back, in honor of the 50th anniversary of Jeopardy on television. I pulled together a set of posts featuring Literary Jeopardy final answers. Given that bookish trivia continues to be a powerhouse on the show, it seems about time to revisit some of the best book category answers and put your question skills to the test.

For those who don’t know how Jeopardy works, each of the clues are an answer. Your job is to come up with the question. Here’s an example: “This is the largest independent book website in North America” is the answer. The correct question would be “What is Book Riot?”

J-Archive has the most comprehensive record of Jeopardy’s games and players, and all of the answers and questions were sourced from them. Find below answers by category, with corresponding questions listed by category at the bottom half of the post.

Get ready. Get set. It’s literary Jeopardy!

Literary Jeopardy Answers

From page to screen, literary ladies, numeric lit, non-adverb “-ly” words, international literature, one-word book titles, the book nook, read any bestsellers lately, characters in the work, biographers, literary narrators, books for younger readers, 20th century novels, books going back in time, american poets laureate, the non-fiction book’s subtitle, ban that book, a tree grows in book land, ancient rome fiction, book numbers, the national book awards, fictional characters, her first published book, quotable books, literary jeopardy questions.

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• Knowledge Base
• How to write a literary analysis essay | A step-by-step guide

How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay | A Step-by-Step Guide

Published on January 30, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on August 14, 2023.

Literary analysis means closely studying a text, interpreting its meanings, and exploring why the author made certain choices. It can be applied to novels, short stories, plays, poems, or any other form of literary writing.

A literary analysis essay is not a rhetorical analysis , nor is it just a summary of the plot or a book review. Instead, it is a type of argumentative essay where you need to analyze elements such as the language, perspective, and structure of the text, and explain how the author uses literary devices to create effects and convey ideas.

Before beginning a literary analysis essay, it’s essential to carefully read the text and c ome up with a thesis statement to keep your essay focused. As you write, follow the standard structure of an academic essay :

• An introduction that tells the reader what your essay will focus on.
• A main body, divided into paragraphs , that builds an argument using evidence from the text.
• A conclusion that clearly states the main point that you have shown with your analysis.

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Table of contents

Step 1: reading the text and identifying literary devices, step 2: coming up with a thesis, step 3: writing a title and introduction, step 4: writing the body of the essay, step 5: writing a conclusion, other interesting articles.

The first step is to carefully read the text(s) and take initial notes. As you read, pay attention to the things that are most intriguing, surprising, or even confusing in the writing—these are things you can dig into in your analysis.

Your goal in literary analysis is not simply to explain the events described in the text, but to analyze the writing itself and discuss how the text works on a deeper level. Primarily, you’re looking out for literary devices —textual elements that writers use to convey meaning and create effects. If you’re comparing and contrasting multiple texts, you can also look for connections between different texts.

To get started with your analysis, there are several key areas that you can focus on. As you analyze each aspect of the text, try to think about how they all relate to each other. You can use highlights or notes to keep track of important passages and quotes.

Language choices

Consider what style of language the author uses. Are the sentences short and simple or more complex and poetic?

What word choices stand out as interesting or unusual? Are words used figuratively to mean something other than their literal definition? Figurative language includes things like metaphor (e.g. “her eyes were oceans”) and simile (e.g. “her eyes were like oceans”).

Also keep an eye out for imagery in the text—recurring images that create a certain atmosphere or symbolize something important. Remember that language is used in literary texts to say more than it means on the surface.

Narrative voice

Ask yourself:

• Who is telling the story?
• How are they telling it?

Is it a first-person narrator (“I”) who is personally involved in the story, or a third-person narrator who tells us about the characters from a distance?

Consider the narrator’s perspective . Is the narrator omniscient (where they know everything about all the characters and events), or do they only have partial knowledge? Are they an unreliable narrator who we are not supposed to take at face value? Authors often hint that their narrator might be giving us a distorted or dishonest version of events.

The tone of the text is also worth considering. Is the story intended to be comic, tragic, or something else? Are usually serious topics treated as funny, or vice versa ? Is the story realistic or fantastical (or somewhere in between)?

Consider how the text is structured, and how the structure relates to the story being told.

• Novels are often divided into chapters and parts.
• Poems are divided into lines, stanzas, and sometime cantos.
• Plays are divided into scenes and acts.

Think about why the author chose to divide the different parts of the text in the way they did.

There are also less formal structural elements to take into account. Does the story unfold in chronological order, or does it jump back and forth in time? Does it begin in medias res —in the middle of the action? Does the plot advance towards a clearly defined climax?

With poetry, consider how the rhyme and meter shape your understanding of the text and your impression of the tone. Try reading the poem aloud to get a sense of this.

In a play, you might consider how relationships between characters are built up through different scenes, and how the setting relates to the action. Watch out for  dramatic irony , where the audience knows some detail that the characters don’t, creating a double meaning in their words, thoughts, or actions.

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Your thesis in a literary analysis essay is the point you want to make about the text. It’s the core argument that gives your essay direction and prevents it from just being a collection of random observations about a text.

If you’re given a prompt for your essay, your thesis must answer or relate to the prompt. For example:

Essay question example

Is Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law” a religious parable?

Your thesis statement should be an answer to this question—not a simple yes or no, but a statement of why this is or isn’t the case:

Thesis statement example

Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law” is not a religious parable, but a story about bureaucratic alienation.

Sometimes you’ll be given freedom to choose your own topic; in this case, you’ll have to come up with an original thesis. Consider what stood out to you in the text; ask yourself questions about the elements that interested you, and consider how you might answer them.

Your thesis should be something arguable—that is, something that you think is true about the text, but which is not a simple matter of fact. It must be complex enough to develop through evidence and arguments across the course of your essay.

Say you’re analyzing the novel Frankenstein . You could start by asking yourself:

Your initial answer might be a surface-level description:

The character Frankenstein is portrayed negatively in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein .

However, this statement is too simple to be an interesting thesis. After reading the text and analyzing its narrative voice and structure, you can develop the answer into a more nuanced and arguable thesis statement:

Mary Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to portray Frankenstein in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as.

Remember that you can revise your thesis statement throughout the writing process , so it doesn’t need to be perfectly formulated at this stage. The aim is to keep you focused as you analyze the text.

Finding textual evidence

To support your thesis statement, your essay will build an argument using textual evidence —specific parts of the text that demonstrate your point. This evidence is quoted and analyzed throughout your essay to explain your argument to the reader.

It can be useful to comb through the text in search of relevant quotations before you start writing. You might not end up using everything you find, and you may have to return to the text for more evidence as you write, but collecting textual evidence from the beginning will help you to structure your arguments and assess whether they’re convincing.

To start your literary analysis paper, you’ll need two things: a good title, and an introduction.

Your title should clearly indicate what your analysis will focus on. It usually contains the name of the author and text(s) you’re analyzing. Keep it as concise and engaging as possible.

A common approach to the title is to use a relevant quote from the text, followed by a colon and then the rest of your title.

If you struggle to come up with a good title at first, don’t worry—this will be easier once you’ve begun writing the essay and have a better sense of your arguments.

“Fearful symmetry” : The violence of creation in William Blake’s “The Tyger”

The introduction

The essay introduction provides a quick overview of where your argument is going. It should include your thesis statement and a summary of the essay’s structure.

A typical structure for an introduction is to begin with a general statement about the text and author, using this to lead into your thesis statement. You might refer to a commonly held idea about the text and show how your thesis will contradict it, or zoom in on a particular device you intend to focus on.

Then you can end with a brief indication of what’s coming up in the main body of the essay. This is called signposting. It will be more elaborate in longer essays, but in a short five-paragraph essay structure, it shouldn’t be more than one sentence.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific advancement unrestrained by ethical considerations. In this reading, protagonist Victor Frankenstein is a stable representation of the callous ambition of modern science throughout the novel. This essay, however, argues that far from providing a stable image of the character, Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to portray Frankenstein in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as. This essay begins by exploring the positive portrayal of Frankenstein in the first volume, then moves on to the creature’s perception of him, and finally discusses the third volume’s narrative shift toward viewing Frankenstein as the creature views him.

Some students prefer to write the introduction later in the process, and it’s not a bad idea. After all, you’ll have a clearer idea of the overall shape of your arguments once you’ve begun writing them!

If you do write the introduction first, you should still return to it later to make sure it lines up with what you ended up writing, and edit as necessary.

The body of your essay is everything between the introduction and conclusion. It contains your arguments and the textual evidence that supports them.

Paragraph structure

A typical structure for a high school literary analysis essay consists of five paragraphs : the three paragraphs of the body, plus the introduction and conclusion.

Each paragraph in the main body should focus on one topic. In the five-paragraph model, try to divide your argument into three main areas of analysis, all linked to your thesis. Don’t try to include everything you can think of to say about the text—only analysis that drives your argument.

In longer essays, the same principle applies on a broader scale. For example, you might have two or three sections in your main body, each with multiple paragraphs. Within these sections, you still want to begin new paragraphs at logical moments—a turn in the argument or the introduction of a new idea.

Robert’s first encounter with Gil-Martin suggests something of his sinister power. Robert feels “a sort of invisible power that drew me towards him.” He identifies the moment of their meeting as “the beginning of a series of adventures which has puzzled myself, and will puzzle the world when I am no more in it” (p. 89). Gil-Martin’s “invisible power” seems to be at work even at this distance from the moment described; before continuing the story, Robert feels compelled to anticipate at length what readers will make of his narrative after his approaching death. With this interjection, Hogg emphasizes the fatal influence Gil-Martin exercises from his first appearance.

Topic sentences

To keep your points focused, it’s important to use a topic sentence at the beginning of each paragraph.

A good topic sentence allows a reader to see at a glance what the paragraph is about. It can introduce a new line of argument and connect or contrast it with the previous paragraph. Transition words like “however” or “moreover” are useful for creating smooth transitions:

… The story’s focus, therefore, is not upon the divine revelation that may be waiting beyond the door, but upon the mundane process of aging undergone by the man as he waits.

Nevertheless, the “radiance” that appears to stream from the door is typically treated as religious symbolism.

This topic sentence signals that the paragraph will address the question of religious symbolism, while the linking word “nevertheless” points out a contrast with the previous paragraph’s conclusion.

Using textual evidence

A key part of literary analysis is backing up your arguments with relevant evidence from the text. This involves introducing quotes from the text and explaining their significance to your point.

It’s important to contextualize quotes and explain why you’re using them; they should be properly introduced and analyzed, not treated as self-explanatory:

It isn’t always necessary to use a quote. Quoting is useful when you’re discussing the author’s language, but sometimes you’ll have to refer to plot points or structural elements that can’t be captured in a short quote.

In these cases, it’s more appropriate to paraphrase or summarize parts of the text—that is, to describe the relevant part in your own words:

The conclusion of your analysis shouldn’t introduce any new quotations or arguments. Instead, it’s about wrapping up the essay. Here, you summarize your key points and try to emphasize their significance to the reader.

A good way to approach this is to briefly summarize your key arguments, and then stress the conclusion they’ve led you to, highlighting the new perspective your thesis provides on the text as a whole:

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
• Post hoc fallacy
• Appeal to authority fallacy
• False cause fallacy
• Sunk cost fallacy

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By tracing the depiction of Frankenstein through the novel’s three volumes, I have demonstrated how the narrative structure shifts our perception of the character. While the Frankenstein of the first volume is depicted as having innocent intentions, the second and third volumes—first in the creature’s accusatory voice, and then in his own voice—increasingly undermine him, causing him to appear alternately ridiculous and vindictive. Far from the one-dimensional villain he is often taken to be, the character of Frankenstein is compelling because of the dynamic narrative frame in which he is placed. In this frame, Frankenstein’s narrative self-presentation responds to the images of him we see from others’ perspectives. This conclusion sheds new light on the novel, foregrounding Shelley’s unique layering of narrative perspectives and its importance for the depiction of character.

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100 Literary Jeopardy Clues from Real Episodes of Jeopardy!

Play with your friends.

It’s officially time to socialize again. But maybe . . . you’ve forgotten how? Here’s one way to break the ice/pass the time/celebrate your vaccinations with your book-reading friends: organize a day of literary Jeopardy! . (You can also just play by yourself, right here, right now.) To facilitate, I combed through this insane archive of every game of Jeopardy! ever played (YEP) and picked out 100 literary questions of varying difficulties. (You may notice that all of these clues are from the first 9 seasons (1984-1993), for no reason other than that’s how long it took me, haphazardly clicking through, to find 100 interesting ones. Test your brain (and your friends) below.

Reveal the correct “questions” (ie the answers, if you’re not familiar with Jeopardy! ) by highlighting the space after Question: (a triple click will also do it).

Show #9 – Thursday, September 20, 1984

Answer: Pasternak’s Moscow medic

Question: Who is Dr. Zhivago?

Show #11 – Monday, September 24, 1984

Answer: Completes the line “If music be the food of love…”

Question: What is “play on”?

Answer: Hamlet’s closest friend, only major character left alive at play’s end

Question: Who is Horatio?

Show #13 – Wednesday, September 26, 1984

Answer: Long-time companion of Dashiell Hammett, she was played in “Julia” by Jane Fonda

Question: Who is Lillian Hellman?

Show #18 – Wednesday, October 3, 1984

Answer: Sophocles’ “complex tragedy”

Question: What is Oedipus Rex ?

Show #19 – Thursday, October 4, 1984

Answer: Its sequels were “Men against the Sea” & “Pitcairn’s Island”

Question: What is Mutiny on the Bounty ?

Show #141 – Monday, March 25, 1985

Answer: Play in which Queen Gertrude, while watching a play, says, “The lady doth protest too much”

Question: What is Hamlet ?

Answer: Sport defined by Hemingway as “Death in the Afternoon”

Question: What is bullfighting?

Answer: Her Giant grew into an epic movie

Question: Who is Edna Ferber?

Show #138 – Wednesday, March 20, 1985

Answer: He wrote “There was a little girl, she had a little curl” & “The Wreck of the Hesperus”, too

Question: Who is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow?

Show #126 – Monday, March 4, 1985

Answer: Originally in Dutch, Het Achterhus , this Diary of a Young Girl is best known by its play title

Question: What is The Diary of Anne Frank ?

Answer: After pulling several “rabbits” from his hat, he made The Witches of Eastwick materialize

Question: Who is John Updike?

Show #110 – Friday, February 8, 1985

Answer: Language in which Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese was originally written

Question: What is English?

Show #99 – Thursday, January 24, 1985

Answer: “Under a spreading chestnut tree” it stands

Question: What is the village smithy?

Answer: “Dusk—of a summer night” is the first paragraph of his An American Tragedy

Question: Who is Theodore Dreiser?

Show #84 – Thursday, January 3, 1985

Answer: Shakespeare comedy subtitled “Or, What You Will”

Question: What is Twelfth Night ?

Show #80 – Friday, December 28, 1984

Answer: 1st name of Defoe’s bawdy heroine, or a gangster’s girlfriend

Question: What is Moll?

Answer: Mrs. Hamilton, Mrs. Kennedy, & Mrs. Butler, but never Mrs. Wilkes

Question: Who is Scarlett O’Hara?

Show #70 – Friday, December 14, 1984

Answer: Hans Brinker’s were silver

Question: What are ice skates?

Answer: Enid Bagnold’s book that became Liz Taylor’s 1st starring vehicle

Question: What is National Velvet ?

Show #66 – Monday, December 10, 1984

Answer: Vowel missing from entire 50,000 word text of Ernest Wright’s “Gadsby”

Question: What is E?

Show #65 – Friday, December 7, 1984

Answer: In “Trees”, he claimed that “poems are made by fools like me”

Question: Who is Joyce Kilmer?

Show #64 – Thursday, December 6, 1984

Answer: Time when the raven came rapping

Question: What is midnight?

Show #57 – Tuesday, November 27, 1984

Answer: Dramatic form, from Greek for “merrymaking”

Question: What is comedy?

Answer: 19th century Norwegian playwright often called founder of modern drama

Question: Who is Henrik Isben?

Answer: As he wished, the last play of Eugene O’Neill was produced after his death

Question: What is Long Day’s Journey Into Night ?

Show #41 – Monday, November 5, 1984

Answer: Unknown author of the story of Aladdin

Question: Who is Anonymous? (Alex: “A bit of trick. We threw you a curve there, gang. Sorry about that. We owe ourselves one per game.”)

Show #261 – Monday, September 9, 1985

Answer: In this book, Nick Charles’ Asta is a schnauzer, but in films was played by a wire-haired terrier

Question: What is The Thin Man ?

Answer: Garryowen is the “bloody mangy mongrel” in the “Cylops” episode of this James Joyce novel

Question: What is Ulysses ?

Show #262 – Tuesday, September 10, 1985

Answer: A gravedigger hands Hamlet this person’s skull

Question: Who is Yorick?

Show #263 – Wednesday, September 11, 1985

Answer: He wrote biographies of Columbus & Washington as well as Rip Van Winkle

Question: Who is Washington Irving?

Answer: Tutored by Ralph Waldo Emerson & Henry David Thoreau, her works include “Jo’s Boys”

Question: Who is Louisa May Alcott?

Show #264 – Thursday, September 12, 1985

Answer: Best-selling book of both ’72 & ’73 was this Richard Bach bird

Question: What is Jonathan Livingston Seagull ?

Answer: J. Onassis was supervising editor for his autobiography, which should prove a “Thriller”

Question: Who is Michael Jackson?

Show #267 – Tuesday, September 17, 1985

Answer: Sandburg wrote, “The fog comes on” these, but Brautigan said no, cats do, Carl

Question: What are little cat feet?

Answer: Expression “The glory that was Greece & the grandeur that was Rome” is by this gloomy poet

Question: Who is Edgar Allan Poe?

Show #270 – Friday, September 20, 1985

Answer: Queequeg’s occupation in “Moby Dick”

Question: What is a harpooner?

Answer: It begins, “Marley was dead to begin with”

Question: What is A Christmas Carol ?

Show #272 – Tuesday, September 24, 1985

Answer: As “Isak Dinesen”, Danish baroness Karen Blixen wrote about this continent she chose as her 2nd home

Question: What is Africa?

Show #276 – Monday, September 30, 1985

Answer: Melville title sailor who personifies innocence

Question: Who is Billy Budd?

Show #279 – Thursday, October 3, 1985

Answer: James Hilton’s schoolmaster father was the model for this novel’s title character

Question: Who is Mr. Chips?

Answer: John Steinbeck wrote the preface of a book about this Al Capp character

Question: Who is Li’l Abner?

Answer: Ironically Catherine, wife of this poet, painter, & printer, was illiterate Question: Who is William Blake?

Show #282 – Tuesday, October 8, 1985

Answer: Coleridge character who cries, “Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink”

Question: Who is The Ancient Mariner?

Show #295 – Friday, October 25, 1985

Answer: The decadent Snopes clan were featured in this author’s The Hamlet , The Town , & The Mansion

Question: Who is William Faulkner?

Show #297 – Tuesday, October 29, 1985

Answer: At the N.Y. customs house, Oscar Wilde asserted he had nothing to declare but this

Question: What is his genius?

Show #306 – Monday, November 11, 1985

Answer: Captain Nemo “dies” in both these Jules Verne novels

Question: What are Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island ?

Show #310 – Friday, November 15, 1985

Answer: The Mock Turtle said its 4 branches were “ambition, distraction, uglification, & derision”

Question: What is arithmetic?

Show #313 – Wednesday, November 20, 1985

Answer: It’s said he turned down Pulitzer for Arrowsmith because he felt he was due one sooner

Question: Who is Sinclair Lewis?

Answer: In 1895, this 67-year-old count learned to ride the bicycle he received from Moscow admirers

Question: Who is Leo Tolstoy?

Show #456 – Monday, September 8, 1986

Answer: Of Franny & Zooey & Daphnis & Chloe, the 2 heroines

Question: Who are Franny and Chloe?

Show #463 – Wednesday, September 17, 1986

Answer: Famed for taking it off, her writing career took off with The G-String Murders

Question: Who is Gypsy Rose Lee?

Answer: Frances H. Burnett based this “little” hero in long curls, velvet & lace on her own son, Vivian

Question: Who is Little Lord Fauntleroy?

Show #464 – Thursday, September 18, 1986

Answer: In 1976, Publishers Weekly initiated a best seller list for these

Question: What are paperbacks?

Show #478 – Wednesday, October 8, 1986

Answer: King of Scotland at the start of Macbeth

Question: Who is Duncan?

Show #480 – Friday, October 10, 1986

Answer: The travelers in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales are on a pilgrimage to shrine of this 12th c. martyr

Question: Who is Thomas à Becket?

Answer: Probably the 19th c.’s largest single royalty check went to this president’s widow in 1886 for his Memoirs

Question: Who is Ulysses S. Grant? (Alex: $200,000 check and it was through the good graces of Mark Twain by the way was the publisher.)

Show #481 – Monday, October 13, 1986

Answer: Ben Jonson told Celia, “Drink to me only with thine eyes, & I will” do this

Question: What is “pledge with mine”?

Show #484 – Thursday, October 16, 1986

Answer: Author of A Heap o’ Livin’ , listed in Avenel’s companion to American Literature as “Famous Bad Poet”

Question: Who is Edgar Guest?

Show #495 – Friday, October 31, 1986

Answer: To “amuse” his mother, he hid in his pockets bats which he’d found in a Hannibal cave

Question: Who is Mark Twain?

Answer: Perhaps Edgar Allan Poe’s flair for the dramatic came from this, his birth parents’ occupation

Question: What is acting?

Show #501 – Monday, November 10, 1986

Answer: What you’ll be if you accomplish all the ifs in Rudyard Kipling’s If , my son

Question: What is a man?

Show #504 – Thursday, November 13, 1986

Answer: In A Midsummer Night’s Dream , this was Tom Snout’s occupation tho you may not give a “dam”

Question: What is tinker?

Show #505 – Friday, November 14, 1986

Answer: Turgenev novel that dealt with confrontation between 2 generations & popularized the word “nihilist”

Question: What is Fathers and Sons ?

Show #521 – Monday, December 8, 1986

Answer: Czech writer who wrote in German, his life, like his novels, was a constant “Trial”

Question: Who is Franz Kafka?

Answer: “I know for a fact there is life after death,” said this author of On Death & Dying

Question: Who is Elisabeth Kübler-Ross?

Show #524 – Thursday, December 11, 1986

Answer: Once nearly blind from an infection as a teenager, this Englishman wrote Eyeless in Gaza in 1936

Question: Who is Aldous Huxley?

Show #526 – Monday, December 15, 1986

Answer: Author of The Third Man , Robert Louis Stevenson was his 1st cousin once removed

Question: Who is Graham Greene?

Show #527 – Tuesday, December 16, 1986

Answer: She told her father “I love your majesty according to my bond, no more nor less”

Question: Who is Cordelia?

Show #532 – Tuesday, December 23, 1986

Answer: In 1986, his second posthumous novel, The Garden of Eden , was published 25 years after his death

Question: Who is Ernest Hemingway?

Show #539 – Thursday, January 1, 1987

Answer: His pen name is Russian for “bitter”; his depressing plays include The Lower Depths

Question: Who is Maxim Gorky?

Answer: Peter Shaffer called this long time best seller “a tribal record…full of rape, incest & murder”

Question: What is The Bible ?

Show #547 – Tuesday, January 13, 1987

Answer: This “Little Chickadee” got thrown in jail for Sex , a 1926 play she not only starred in, but wrote

Question: Who is Mae West?

Answer: Feminist author of The Female Eunuch , she married 1 of Cosmopolitan’s 1st nude male centerfolds

Question: Who is Germaine Greer?

Show #550 – Friday, January 16, 1987

Answer: The only two Italian cities mentioned in [Shakespeare’s] titles, they both begin with “V”

Question: What are Verona and Venice?

Show #560 – Friday, January 30, 1987

Answer: Of this India-born writer, Mark Twain said, “He knows all that can be known, & I know the rest”

Question: Who is Rudyard Kipling?

Show #561 – Monday, February 2, 1987

Answer: The 42nd Parallel , 1919 , and The Big Money comprised this John Dos Passos trilogy

Question: What is U.S.A. ?

Show #563 – Wednesday, February 4, 1987

Answer: Of Lady Macbeth’s 165 words in her sleepwalking scene, all but 20 have this number of syllables

Question: What is one?

Show #565 – Friday, February 6, 1987

Answer: Name by which Eva St. Clare is better known in Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Question: What is Little Eva?

Show #615 – Friday, April 17, 1987

Answer: Margaret Sanger dedicated her book on birth control to this relative who had had 11 children

Question: Who is her mother?

Answer: Her only non-fiction work was Every Night, Josephine! describing her French poodle’s lifestyle

Question: Who is Jacqueline Susann?

Show #630 – Friday, May 8, 1987

Answer: Her 1949 tale, “The Lottery”, didn’t feature a pick 6 for cash, but a pick 1 for stoning

Question: Who is Shirley Jackson?

Answer: Title shared by novels of H.G. Wells & Ralph Ellison, though H.G. added a “The”

Question: What is Invisible Man ?

Answer: The darkest time of this British author’s youth was his job of pasting labels on pots of stove blacking

Question: Who is Charles Dickens?

Show #1179 – Thursday, October 19, 1989

Answer: In Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter , Hester Prynne did her sinning in this Puritan city

Question: What is Boston?

Answer: Tom Sawyer & Huck Finn’s hometown, St. Petersburg, was based on this Missouri city

Question: What is Hannibal?

Show #1189 – Thursday, November 2, 1989

Answer: Set in the Outback, this novel opens “On December 8, 1915, Meggie Cleary had her 4th birthday”

Question: What is The Thorn Birds ?

Answer: In his novel Falconer , Falconer is a prison

Question: Who is John Cheever?

Show #1272 – Tuesday, February 27, 1990

Answer: His 19th century novels such as The Mysterious Island foretold the submarine, the aqua lung & TV

Question: Who is Jules Verne?

Answer: Born Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin, she chose this pseudonym for her 1st novel, 1832’s Indiana

Question: Who is George Sand?

Show #1347 – Tuesday, June 12, 1990

Answer: In the Dostoevsky novel, one was a writer, one a student at a monastery & one didn’t work at all

Question: Who are the Brothers Karamazov?

Show #1354 – Thursday, June 21, 1990

Answer: Seeking to end Peloponnesian War, Aristophanes wrote this comedy about a sex strike

Question: What is Lysistrata ?

Show #1623 – Wednesday, September 25, 1991

Answer: Thomas Wolfe was born in 1900 & entered the University of this, his native state, at age 15

Question: What is North Carolina?

Show #1796 – Monday, May 25, 1992

Answer: His 1st book of stories appeared in 1904, 3 years after he finished serving time for embezzling

Question: Who is O. Henry?

Answer: In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow , this is Abraham Van Brunt’s nickname

Question: What is Brom Bones?

Show #1984 – Thursday, April 1, 1993

Answer: The expression “to grow like topsy” comes from this 1852 novel

Question: What is Uncle Tom’s Cabin ?

Answer: The Italian type of this 14-line poem is also known as the Petrarchan

Question: What is a sonnet?

Answer: Famous price of the novels written by Ned Buntline

Question: What is a dime?

Answer: Time magazine called this Working author “the tape recorder’s best friend”

Question: Who is Studs Terkel?

Show #2057 – Tuesday, July 13, 1993

Answer: The sails of her barge were “so perfumed that the winds were love-sick with them”

Question: Who is Cleopatra?

Emily Temple

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Can you solve these real 'Jeopardy!' clues about literature?

More than a hit game show, "Jeopardy!" endures as a perennial cornerstone of what might one day soon become a bygone era. Over 26 years and more than 8,000 episodes , host Alex Trebek and a rotating panel of three contestants have provided a certain tier of predictable comfort for millions of viewers around the country. Even those who don't watch the show regularly can take refuge in the fact that it will be there (more or less) every weekday night.

It was then understandably shocking when Trebek announced he was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer in March 2019. Just a few months later, contestant James Holzhauer kicked off a legendary winning streak. As if viewers had been taking the show for granted, "Jeopardy!" was suddenly back in the proverbial spotlight with a ratings boost to boot. One can safely assume that a fair amount of viewers were shouting answers (or questions, rather) to their TV screens at home. It is a tradition, after all.

In January of 2020, Trebek told the press that he has no plans to retire "in the near future." Should he ever decide to retire, it will mark the end of a veritable institution and one that will be difficult to replace. Meanwhile, the experience of playing at home lives on and will continue to do so even after the show has run its course.

To keep the tradition alive, Stacker scoured all the questions memorialized in the J! Archive , last updated February 2020, to compile the following list of 25 "Jeopardy!" clues about literature. Expect to find well-known names such as James Joyce and Charles Dickens, along with some of literature's most iconic characters and locations.

- Clue: Or, "The Parish Boy's Progress," which included picking a pocket or two. - Category: LITERATURE: THE SUBTITLE - Value: $1,200 - Date episode aired: Jan. 20, 2020

Answer #1: What is 'Oliver Twist'?

Charles Dickens' second novel was first published in serialized form, appearing in semi-regular installments over the course of two years. Its lesser-known subtitle makes reference to John Bunyan's 1678 novel " The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come ," as well as 18th-century works by William Hogarth. Numerous adaptations of "Oliver Twist" have appeared on stage and screen.

- Clue: In this Steinbeck work, George kills his friend Lennie to spare him from a lynch mob. - Category: LITERATURE - Value: $200 - Date episode aired: Dec. 23, 2019

Answer #2: What is 'Of Mice and Men'?

John Steinbeck's harrowing novella centers on two migrant workers, one of whom has a learning disability. Set during the Great Depression, the story grapples with themes of loneliness and despair. A fixture in school classrooms, the frank use of racist language in "Of Mice and Men" occasionally draws scrutiny from concerned parents and educators.

- Clue: This book with a lamb-free title marked the first appearance of Dr. Hannibal Lecter. - Category: POPULAR LITERATURE - Value: $1,000 - Date episode aired: Jan. 23, 2019

Answer #3: What is 'Red Dragon'?

Lecter was more of a supporting character in Thomas Harris' 1981 crime thriller, which follows FBI profiler Will Graham on his hunt for a serial killer. A big-screen adaptation called "Manhunter" similarly featured brief appearances from Lecter, as portrayed by actor Brian Cox. Anthony Hopkins later immortalized the character in the 1991 film "The Silence of the Lambs," which was based on Harris' follow-up novel.

- Clue: 1949's "The Kingdom of This World," an early work in this style blending naturalism and fantasy, includes a manifesto of it. - Category: LITERATURE IN SPANISH - Value: $1,200 - Date episode aired: May 9, 2018

Answer #4: What is magical realism?

Telling the story of the Haitian Revolution from multiple perspectives, "The Kingdom of This World" introduces themes of voodoo and magic rituals. In the preface, Cuban author Alejo Carpentier refers to his distinct style as "the marvelous real." It helped lay the groundwork for the magic realism genre and iconic novels such as "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel García Márquez.

- Clue: In St. Petersburg, it's not far from Raskolnikov's murder spree in this book to the bridge where he considers suicide. - Category: LITERATURE ON THE MAP - Value: $400 - Date episode aired: April 24, 2018

Answer #5: What is 'Crime and Punishment'?

Famous Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote this epochal novel following his return from 10 years in exile, forced labor, and military service. The story first appeared in serialized form and features a former law student named Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, who tries to emulate powerful historical figures by performing a vicious murder. Even as he evades the law, Raskolnikov receives punishment in the form of guilt and desperation.

- Clue: In 1972, this author created the Kinte foundation. - Category: AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE - Value: $400 - Date episode aired: March 16, 2018

Answer #6: Who is Alex Haley?

Author Alex Haley remains best known for the 1976 novel "Roots: The Saga of an American Family," which was quickly adapted into an award-winning miniseries. Based on family history as well as research, it tells the story of rebellious slave Kunta Kinte. The Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Foundation is "dedicated to fostering the exploration, rediscovery, and preservation of African American history, culture, archaeology, and genealogy."

- Clue: Thomas Bracken and Janet Frame are two authors from Dunedin in this country who bring that city to the forefront. - Category: UNESCO CITIES OF LITERATURE - Value: $2,000 - Date episode aired: Dec. 5, 2017

Answer #7: What is New Zealand?

They might have worked in the same city, but writers Janet Frame and Thomas Bracken bore little in common. Persistently troubled by mental illness, Frame frequently channeled her lifelong struggles while exploring "homelessness of self " in her work. By contrast, 19th-century poet and author Bracken was far more preoccupied with political and historical events.

- Clue: Won in 2015 by Svetlana Alexievich, it's handed out annually by the Swedish Academy. - Category: AWARDS FOR WRITING - Value: $400 - Date episode aired: Sept. 14, 2016

Answer #8: What is the Nobel Prize in Literature?

A creator of "documentary novels" about the Soviet Union, author Svetlana Alexievich won the Nobel Prize in Literature "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time." One of her best-known works is an oral history of the Chernobyl disaster called "Voices from Chernobyl." Alexievich is one of 116 Nobel Laureates to win the prize ( 52 of whom are women ), which has been awarded 112 times between 1901 and 2019 .

- Clue: It's the story of a weaving apparatus equipped with a pleasant panorama. - Category: PUNNY CLASSIC LITERATURE TITLES - Value: $1,200 - Date episode aired: July 17, 2015

Answer #9: What is a loom with a view?

"Jeopardy!" brought out the big puns for this literate-minded clue, which draws upon E.M. Forster's classic 1908 novel "A Room With a View." Divided between Italy and England, the story finds a middle-class Victorian woman breaking free from tradition.

- Clue: Sir Walter Scott's Waverley novels include "A Legend of Montrose" and one about this alliterative Scottish outlaw. - Category: LITERATURE OF THE EARLY 1800s - Value: $1,200 - Date episode aired: July 2, 2015

Answer #10: Who is Rob Roy?

The title "Rob Roy" will certainly ring some bells among Liam Neeson fans, but his 1995 film of the same name is not directly based on this book by Sir Walter Scott. Both stories feature Scottish outlaw Rob Roy MacGregor but take very different approaches. The film tells MacGregor's life story while the novel presents him in a supporting capacity.

- Clue: This Tolstoy tome centers on the 1812 invasion of Russia and the ensuing Russian resistance. - Category: LITERATURE - Value: $200 - Date episode aired: June 13, 2014

Answer #11: What is 'War & Peace'?

Leo Tolstoy's masterpiece was originally envisioned as a trilogy that would largely center on the attempted overthrow of Tsar Nicholas I. When writing about the lives of soldiers during the Napoleonic Wars, Tolstoy shifted the focus toward that time period to create one of history's most legendary tomes. Its first installments appeared in the journal Russian Messenger under the working title of "The Year 1805."

- Clue: Inspiring the film "Rescue Dawn" was Dieter Dengler's "Escape From" this Indochinese nation. - Category: WORLD LITERATURE - Value: $800 - Date episode aired: May 14, 2014

Answer #12: What is Laos?

Navy aviator Dieter Dengler was one of just two POWs to escape from a Pathet Lao prison camp in Laos during the Vietnam War. His subsequent memoir was the inspiration for two separate films by director Werner Herzog. The first was a documentary called "Little Dieter Needs to Fly" and it features reenactments by Dengler himself.

- Clue: Criticism of this gloomy novel and its loser title hero put Thomas Hardy off writing novels forever. - Category: ENGLISH LITERATURE - Value: $600 - Date episode aired: April 9, 2014

Answer #13: What is 'Jude the Obscure'?

Leveling its own harsh criticisms against Victorian-era England, Hardy's last completed novel was rumored to consist of autobiographical elements . It wasn't just maligned by certain critics, but allegedly burned by the Bishop of Wakefield. While Hardy never completed another novel, he continued to write and publish poetry.

- Clue: "The Boarding House" and "The Sisters" are two of the 15 stories appearing in this 1914 James Joyce collection. - Category: IRISH LITERATURE - Value: $2,800 - Date episode aired: Oct. 9, 2013

Answer #14: What is 'Dubliners'?

Depicting middle-class life in early 20th-century Ireland, "Dubliners" was the first book published by legendary author James Joyce. Beyond the purposefully mundane veneer of its 15 short stories were cleverly concealed revelations, also known as epiphanies . It concludes with the famous short story "The Dead," which became the inspiration for director John Huston's final film.

- Clue: "Well, my dear, take heart. Some day, I will kiss you and you will like it. But not now," he said in "Gone with the Wind." - Category: ROMANCE IN LITERATURE - Value: $400 - Date episode aired: June 3, 2013

Answer #15: Who is Rhett Butler?

Before it was the highest-grossing film of all time (when adjusted for inflation), "Gone with the Wind" was a wildly popular novel by Margaret Mitchell. First published in 1936, it was the top American fiction best-seller for two years in a row . In both the book and the film, Rhett Butler's final words are a variation of the line, "My dear, I don't give a damn."

- Clue: "The Road to En-Dor" (during WWI) and "Midnight Express" (later) are accounts of escaping a prison in this country. - Category: ESCAPIST LITERATURE - Value: $800 - Date episode aired: Oct. 18, 2012

Answer #16: What is Turkey?

To get out of prison, author E.H. Jones and fellow inmate C.W. Hill convinced the guards that they were both clinically insane. Decades later, prisoner Billy Hayes escaped by way of rowboat at night. Hayes' experience laid the groundwork for his acclaimed autobiography and an award-winning film of the same name.

- Clue: This 1929 Thomas Wolfe novel is subtitled "A Story of the Buried Life." - Category: AMERICAN LITERATURE - Value: $1,000 - Date episode aired: Feb. 9, 2010

Answer #17: What is 'Look Homeward, Angel'?

Thomas Wolfe's (not to be confused with Tom Wolfe) debut novel is considered to be largely autobiographical, following young Eugene Grant as he comes of age in North Carolina. The author completed four long novels before passing away from tuberculosis at 37 years old. Held in high regard by his peers, Wolfe's work later inspired authors such as Jack Kerouac .

- Clue: Peter Ustinov directed and starred in the film version of the Yasar Kemal novel "Memed, My" this predatory bird. - Category: TURKISH LITERATURE - Value: $1,600 - Date episode aired: Feb. 13, 2009

Answer #18: What is 'Hawk'?

The first novel by Kurdish writer Yaşar Kemal, "Memed, My Hawk," kicked off the "İnce Memed" tetralogy. Each book in the series chronicles the life of Memed, who escapes from his small village and later returns as a Robin Hood-like folk hero. Rife with Marxist overtones, Memed's first two novels were once reportedly seized by the Turkish government .

- Clue: This central character of "The Three Musketeers" was a real person; much of the material is drawn from his memoirs. - Category: FRENCH LITERATURE - Value: $1,600 - Date episode aired: Dec. 25, 2008

Answer #19: Who is D'Artagnan?

Charles de Batz de Castelmore—later known as d'Artagnan—was a real-life musketeer who served under King Louis XIV. His adventures were memorialized by French novelist Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras. A highly fictionalized version of the character appeared in three novels by Alexandre Dumas, the most famous of which remains "The Three Musketeers."

- Clue: Encyclopedia Britannica calls his "The Hunting of the Snark" "nonsense literature of the highest order." - Category: BRITISH POETS & POETRY - Value: $400 - Date episode aired: June 28, 2006

Answer #20: Who is Lewis Carroll?

Lewis Carroll was already a master of "nonsense literature" by the time he published this poem in 1876. It was preceded by similar and arguably more iconic fare such as "Jabberwocky" and "Through the Looking-Glass." Each of these works features portmanteaus, which combine parts and sounds of existing words to create new words.

- Clue: This Albert Camus novel begins with the discovery of a dead rat outside Dr. Bernard Rieux's door; more dead rats follow. - Category: WORLD LITERATURE - Value: $800 - Date episode aired: Sept. 30, 2005

Answer #21: What is 'The Plague'?

Along with celebrated works like "The Stranger" and "The Fall," this 1947 Albert Camus novel tackles the human experience through a philosophical lens. Reportedly based on a 19th-century cholera epidemic, it depicts a deadly plague that sweeps through the French-Algerian city of Oran. In 1957, Camus became the second-youngest recipient to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

- Clue: In 1943 this aviator created "The Little Prince;" a year later, his plane disappeared during a mission. - Category: FRENCH LITERATURE - Value: $2,000 - Date episode aired: June 24, 2003

Answer #22: Who is Antoine de Saint Exupery?

A man of many talents, de Saint-Exupéry was best known as a famous aviator and occasional writer during his lifetime. He is believed to have died on a 1944 reconnaissance mission, but his body was never recovered. A modest success at first, " The Little Prince " would go on to become one of the best-selling and most translated books ever published.

- Clue: Born in 1799, this poet, novelist, and playwright is to Russian literature what Shakespeare is to English literature. - Category: PLAYWRIGHTS - Value: $2,000 - Date episode aired: June 6, 2003

Answer #23: Who is Alexander Pushkin?

Widely considered the father of modern Russian literature , Alexander Pushkin explored various forms of writing throughout his relatively short career. His best-known play is called "Boris Godunov" and it centers on a former Russian ruler of the same name. Pushkin passed away at 37 years old after suffering a fatal gunshot wound in a duel with his brother-in-law.

- Clue: In Fred Gipson's novel, this "colorful" dog with one ear missing adopts a Texas frontier family in the 1860s. - Category: AMERICAN LITERATURE - Value: $400 - Date episode aired: April 23, 1999

Answer #24: Who is Old Yeller?

This Newbery Honor-winning book was turned into a classic Disney film just one year after it was published. For those out there who might read the book or see the film for the first time: Be sure to keep a box of tissues close by. Author Fred Gipson delivered two follow-ups, both of which take place on the Texas frontier and feature the Coates family.

- Clue: Many of the Dublin locales he personally frequented are featured in his book "Ulysses." - Category: LITERATURE - Value: $200 - Date episode aired: March 27, 1997

Answer #25: Who is James Joyce?

James Joyce's most famous novel takes place in 1904, which is the same year he met his future wife, Nora Barnacle. Soon after their first encounter, the two would go into self-imposed exile and leave Dublin behind. Completed over the course of seven years , "Ulysses" draws upon everything from Joyce's personal memories and Ireland's vast history to centuries-old mythology.

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Final Jeopardy: Literary Characters (2-6-24)

The Final Jeopardy question (2/6/2024) in the category “Literary Characters” was:

A 1902 work says an enigmatic character has a half-English mom & a half-French dad, but this name of his is German for “short”

Today’s Champions Wildcard contestants are: Deb Bilodeau , a restaurant server from San Francisco, CA; Crystal Zhao , a tech consultant from Bloomington, MN; and Matt Harvey , a healthcare administrator from Providence, RI.

Round 1 Categories: The 1970s – 2 Books in 1 – Actually, This Is My First Rodeo – Famous Pairs – Avengers, Who Said It? – 13-Letter Words

Deb found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Famous Pairs” under the $1,000 clue just before the commercial break. In second place with $4,000, Deb had $1,000 less than Matt’s lead. Deb bet $2,300 and was half right but that wasn’t enough so it was WRONG.

Depending on whose journal you read, it was either in October or November of 1871 when they first met at Lake Tanganyika show WHO ARE STANLEY & LIVINGSTONE? Deb only had Livingstone

Matt finished in the lead with $5,600. Deb was in second place with $3,500. Crystal was last with $1,600. All clues were shown.

Round 2 Categories: Around the Atlantic – Layers – It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! – At the Tiny Desk Concert – Sooner – Later, Dude

Matt found the first Daily Double in “Sooner” under the $1,600 clue on the 9th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $10,800, $4,100 more than Deb in second place. Matt bet $4,000 and he was RIGHT.

This folk singer was born in Okemah in 1912 & named for President Wilson show WHO IS WOODY GUTHRIE?

Matt found the last Daily Double in “It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane!” under the $2,000 clue on the 19th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $16,400 now, $6,900 more than Deb in second place. Matt bet $4,000 and came up with stork. That was WRONG.

During World War II one job of Howard DGA-15 was as a Navy air ambulance with this bird name that’s associated with nursing show WHAT IS NIGHTINGALE?

Matt finished in the lead with $16,000. Deb was in second place with $10,700. Crystal was last with $5,200. All clues were shown.

NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.

WHO IS KURTZ?

Kurtz is a main character in “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad, first published in book form in 1902. Cliff Notes calls Kurtz “enigmatic” in its character analysis and describes him as “a petty tyrant, a dying god, an embodiment of Europe, and an assault on European values.” Elsewhere, you can find simpler descriptions of Kurtz as a man corrupted by greed.

The other elements of the clue appear in Part I : “His mother was half-English, his father was half-French. All Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz….” and “Kurtz—Kurtz—that means short in German—don’t it? Well, the name was as true as everything else in his life—and death.”

An old Daily Double: CLASSIC LITERATURE ($2000) He penned the immortal 1902 line “The horror! The horror!” – They were the famous last words of Kurtz, but they wanted the author and David Madden got it right.

Crystal had no response. She lost $300 and finished with $4,900.

Deb wrote down “Hi Mom” and stood pat on $10,700.

Matt’s amusing response was “Shorty”. He lost $5,401 and finished with $10,599. Deb Bilodeau advances to the semifinals.

2 triple stumpers from the last round:

SOONER ($400) Born in Tulsa in 1962, this country singer known for “The Dance” once tried his hand at baseball while already famous

IT’S A BIRD! IT’S A PLANE! ($800) This Grumman amphibious plane essential to the defenders of Bataan is not named for an amphibian, but for a water bird

More clues on Page 2

2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “Historic Geography”

This city on the Rhone River that is partly a World Heritage Site was Papal property until the French Revolution show WHAT IS AVIGNON?

IF YOU HAVE SUGGESTIONS FOR CHANGES TO THE SHOW OR COMPLAINTS, PLEASE SEND YOUR FEEDBACK DIRECTLY TO JEOPARDY!

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by VJ · February 6, 2024

Tags: crystal deb jeopardy matt tournament

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Our first triple stumper this week since the final was a tough one.

I have been studying German for over two years on Duolingo, and didn’t know the word for “short”! Once I cheated and used translate, then, I figured it out.

The Gordo clue was a bit of a bummer, too, as Gus WAS Virgil Ivan Grissom’s nickname, and John Glenn was from Ohio, where he was also a 4 term Senator!

Gratz to Deb!

Studying German for 2 yrs reminded me of my granddaughter studying Spanish in middle and high school for several yrs. One day I asked her how to say “ready” in Spanish and she didn’t know. At the time, her mom was a bank manager in Houston. When I told them the word, my DIL realized she had been hearing the Hispanic tellers say that to customers every day without knowing what it meant.

I had several Spanish language courses some 18-25 years ago along with a number of Spanish language CDs. In fact, I had a live Spanish teacher who taught me reading and pronunciation at work. In addition, I entered a Spanish language school while I was vacationing in Mexico (but only for 4 days), and I also took a local adult Spanish language course. Yes, I even vacationed in Mexico 4 years in a row so I certainly knew how to get around over there. Since that was some 18-25 years ago, I seldom read or spoke Spanish from then on. No, I didn’t come up with the Spanish word for ‘ready’ either (listo/lista), but I surely do recognize the word. Back then, I would have easily come up with that Spanish word.

Well, the study methods you mention might be better than the language instruction kids get in school. Personally, I think a person can probably build a better working vocabulary by watching cartoons in the desired language, listening to music and reading translations of books they already know in English. To that end, I gave my niece a French bible.

I had an introductory German language course some twenty years ago, but the word for ‘short’ wasn’t mentioned. Actually, I instantly knew the Spanish word for ‘short’ (corto), but that didn’t help me any.

When I was in college, more than 30 years ago, my roommate had to take a language, and he took Spanish. I recall, he translated one of the other cadet’s name – John Shorter, whom he translated as “Juan Mas Bajo”! (“John More Short”!)

Head-scratcher of a FJ, but my lame guess of Kurt wasn’t far off. Matt was the best of the three, but couldn’t quite get to runaway status. Deb’s $0 wager was spot-on. A bit hard to believe she got Livingstone but not Stanley. Country singer/The Dance/ baseball wasn’t a giveaway, but there was enough there that someone might have known it. The country of Colon was pretty easy. These youngsters didn’t have a clue about “The Rest of the Story” legend among radio show hosts. Likewise, they could not be expected to know that you can’t always get what you want when it comes to public protests. At one time I knew all the original 7 astronauts, but blanked tonight on Gordo. Guess I no longer have the right stuff. Glenn, Carpenter, Grissom, Slayton, Shepard, Gordo, one more. Now I know there are at least three people who don’t know how long one has to ride a bronc to succeed. It was even the title of a movie.

Personally, I would have given you at least a half credit for FJ as you likely had done better than most.

Thanks. Somehow I thought of curtail (shorten), which quickly led me to Kurt. Had I deduced what the actual novel was, or the much later movie, then I almost certainly would have come up with the true name.

I did a tad above average in the game, and was desperately trying to come up with the German word for ‘short’ in FJ. Failing that, I missed the FJ as it was a tough one.

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