Creating a Good Trivia Question

One of the joys of being a fan of Jeopardy! is to appreciate the craftmanship that goes into creating a good "Final Jeopardy" clue. The writers have to keep the questions in the middle ground between so easy that everyone gets it immediately, and so hard that no one has any reasonable chance to get it. This is true of any trivia question.

Although none of the three contestants got Thursday's "Final Jeopardy" clue, I was able to figure it out, so I count it as a good clue. The clue was, "It's an Italian word for 'mercy' but also the name of a movie character who kills Stracci and Carlo". An awesome clue, combining as it does some linguistics knowledge with some movie knowledge.

I initially had no idea, but then I recognized Carlo as Connie's husband on "The Godfather", and then it hit me that the name "Clemenza", one of the Corleone lieutenants, might be related in Italian to "mercy", based on "clemency". I didn't recognize "Stracci" from the movie, but now I see that he was the leader of one of the five families who Don Corleone brought together for the famous meeting to stop the war and make peace.