November 29, 2011

"Native American foods" on Jeopardy

Jeopardy must have an arrangement with the National Museum of the American Indian. Continuing their collaboration, the game show featured a Double Jeopardy category on "Native American Foods" Monday (airdate: 11/28/11).

For once the category wasn't left till the end. That may be because one contestant, a park ranger who presumably knows about Indians, led off with it.

And surprisingly, the clues weren't all easy. Here's how it went, with my paraphrases of the "answers."

$400:  Indians ground acorns for this purpose.

Answer:  Thickener.

Degree of difficulty:  Medium.

$800:  The third of the "three sisters."

Answer:  Squash.

Degree of difficulty:  Medium.

$1200:  A war was named after this "meat and berry staple."

Answer:  Pemmican.

Degree of difficulty:  Medium.

$1600:  Salmon is cooked on a plank of this wood.

Answer:  Cedar.

(This is the second time they've asked a question involving salmon. Either they're fond of it or they lack imaginations.)

Degree of difficulty:  Easy.

$2000:  Couscous substitute grown in the Andes.

Answer:  Quinoa.

Degree of difficulty:  Medium.

Four medium-hard questions doesn't sound like much, but the previous shows had questions that were almost all easy. So this is the best Jeopardy yet in terms of quality questions.

For more on Jeopardy, see NMAI on Jeopardy and "Native American tribes" on Jeopardy.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I would put quinoa at "hard" just because most Americans who aren't vegans have never heard of it.