Catching up on this past week’s file of Jeopardy! on the DVR, a surprise moment from the Double Jeopardy Round aired Thursday December 19:
Category: Literary Landmarks.
The $1200 slot.
Statement: In the late 1920s Dashiell Hammett lived in an apt. at 891 Post St. in San Francisco, also this detective’s address.
Then, the moments of suspense. Tic toc, tic toc. . . .
Typically on Jeopardy! if they ask who wrote The Big Sleep, the contestants will say “Dashiell Hammett.” If they ask who was the detective in The Maltese Falcon someone will guess “Philip Marlowe.” The contestants know enough to have it narrowed down to Hammett or Chandler (all you need to know to be reasonably conversant in the hard-boiled arena, really), but jump the wrong way.
This time the woman buzzes in.
Her answer?
“Who is Sam Spade?”
Correct!
I wish she’d won the day, but it was not to be.
