$2,000 Clue on Jeopardy! Should Be Easy for Philadelphians

As part of my ongoing crusade to inform Philadelphians of mentions of our fair city from around the country, check this out: Last night on Jeopardy! (don’t forget the exclamation point), there was a question about a Philadelphian! The category was Lesser-known Americans, and the value was the highest: $2000!

Do you know it? After the jump, the correct response.

Who is David Rittenhouse?

Last night was the first quarterfinal game in Jeopardy!‘s Battle of the Decades tournament; Roger Craig — the record-holder for winnings on a single Jeopardy!episode, with $77,000 — answered it correctly, because he’s smart as hell. Craig won. (Brad Rutter, an Eagles fan (of course) who used to live in Lancaster, is on Wednesday.)

Did you get this? I think it should be pretty easy for Philadelphians (or, at least, Philadelphians who watch Jeopardy! or read this website. Rittenhouse is Philadelphia’s most-used and best park downtown, so it’s the one that came to mind first. Three other options are obviously not true: Washington, Franklin and Center. (Contrary to popular belief, City Hall is not named after David Cityhall.) Logan Square is now a circle, though the neighborhood shares the name; it’s named after James Logan, advisor to William Penn, colonial mayor of Philadelphia, botanist and bibliophile. He was born in Ireland and came to Philadelphia in 1699. Back then, mayor of Philadelphia was not a job people wanted: Johnny Goodtimes noted here a few years ago that “Anthony Morris fled to Bucks County to hide and thus avoid notification of his election.” A great man in Philadelphia’s history.

David Rittenhouse was never mayor of Philadelphia, but he was an astronomer, clockmaker, inventor, mathematician, American Philosophical Society vice president, director of the U.S. Mint, rich dude, and overall generally smart guy. Congratulations to him on his greatest honor, being the response to a clue on Jeopardy!

Also a response on Jeopardy last night? YOLO.