9/3Category: American History
Clue: In the last week of the John Tyler administration, this republic was offered statehood.
Answer: Texas
I know absolutely nothing else about former President John Tyler, but I have a ton of family in Houston and San Antonio, so I did get this right.
9/4Category: Historic Journals
Clue: On January 18, 1972, he arrived at a tent near the Pole and found "a record of five Norwegians having been there."
Answer: Robert Scott
I had no idea. Upon a quick Wikipedia search to fill in my apparent gap in knowledge, it appears that Scott and the rest of his expedition crew perished on their way back home to Britain due to extreme exhaustion and exposure to cold -- serves them right for stumping me.
9/5Category: Alliances
Clue: The Quadruple Alliance began in 1813 against this country; in 1818, it let this country in and became the Quintuple Alliance.
Answer: France
In the Final Jeopardy! round, they give contestants (and viewers) 30 seconds to answer. I would think, even if I couldn't come up with the correct answer (which was the case here), that half a minute should be enough time for me to pick a country, any country, as at least a wild guess. Instead, I spent those 30 seconds dumbfounded.
9/8Category: The Vatican
Clue: A statue of this man is being erected inside the Vatican's walls near where he was locked up in 1633.
Answer: Galileo.
Haha, it's nice to hear that the Catholic Church is finally willing to honor Galileo after they imprisoned him for the remainder of his life for proposing something as ridiculous as the Earth revolving around the Sun.
And I didn't actually know the answer to this one, so I'll deflect this minor detail with two bits of vaguely-related but otherwise completely tangential useless trivia: 1) Vatican City is smaller than the state of Rhode Island and 2) Galileo was the only current day, "pop culture" celebrity that John Milton referenced by name in his epic poem Paradise Lost.
9/10Category: Brand Names
Clue: To feature its "Strong Enough To Stand On" product, in 1964 Schwayder Bros., Inc. changed its name to this.
Answer: Samsonite.
I love buying stuff, so I thought I'd get this one, no problem. But I guessed Krazy Glue. And has anyone ever bought luggage at the airport? I mean, they have the boutiques and they sell them there, so there must be a market for it...
9/11Category: Lines from 19th Century Novels
Clue: "My two natures had memory in common, but all other faculties were most unequally shared between them."
Answer: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Very easy. "Two natures" was a dead giveaway. And I've noticed there seems to be a small misconception among the general populace regarding Mr. Hyde -- many people are under the impression (maybe because of film adaptations, maybe because they've never read the novella) that Mr. Hyde was some monstrous, towering Incredible Hulk-like creature. But actually, he was smaller in stature than Dr. Jekyll -- very short and stumpy.
9/12Category: Royalty
Clue: It's the name of today's longest-ruling family in Europe, in power for most of the last 711 years.
Answer: Grimaldi.
Again, did not know. All that could come to mind was Prince Charles and the Queen Mum. My self-esteem and sense of self-worth is slowly diminishing. And in case it ever comes up during a dinner party or any other social gathering, "regicide" is the execution of a King (or whoever is in charge of whichever monarchy) after a conviction of wrong doing.
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