If you’re reading this story, I’ve got some good news: You probably would have gotten at least one question right on Thursday’s “Jeopardy!” episode.
That’s because Thursday’s “Jeopardy!” round included a question about the publication you’re reading at this very moment.
“The LDS paper called this News, a word in the Book of Mormon, was established in 1850 and is still around today,” the clue said.
The answer, of course, is Deseret.
‘Jeopardy!’ newspaper questions
The Deseret News clue came in a category called “19th Century Newspapers,” according to “Jeopardy!” archives.
Here are the four other clues from the category. Answers are at the bottom of the article.
- “The New York Times’ sub-headline about him on April 15,1865 — “no hopes entertained of his recovery.”
- “In 1893, the S.F. Examiner published illustrator Jimmy Swinnerton’s ‘California Bears,’ considered by some the first of these.”
- “The first newspaper west of the Mississippi was the Missouri Gazette, published in this city on the Mississippi in 1808.”
- “In 1862, this future novelist was hired at $25 a week to be city editor of Nevada’s Virginia City Territorial Enterprise.”
The “19th Century Newspapers” category proved somewhat challenging for Thursday’s “Jeopardy!” contestants.
The questions about “California Bears” and the Missouri Gazette were both triple stumpers, per “Jeopardy!” archives.
One of the competitors did answer the Deseret question correctly.
What does ‘deseret’ mean?
The word “Deseret,” as the “Jeopardy!” clue noted, comes from the Book of Mormon. It means honeybee, according to the Library of Congress.
Latter-day Saint pioneers in the West originally wanted their settlement to be known as the state of Deseret, the article said.
The federal government rejected the proposed name, countering with an offer to recognize a state named Utah. The original Utah/Deseret territory was much larger than the state of Utah is today.
The word “Deseret” and the associated symbol of a beehive remains relevant today — and not just in the journalism industry.
“The honeybee remains an important symbol to both (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and the state of Utah. A representation of industriousness and hard-work, a beehive surrounded by bees is at the center of both the Utah state flag and the official state seal,” per the Library of Congress.
Answers: 1. Abraham Lincoln; 2. Comic strip; 3. St. Louis; 4. Mark Twain.