When you start your day with a good laugh it's a good thing. This morning's good laugh was provided by Ken Jennings, in his blog entry about JEOPARDY! Take a few minutes; go and read it! It's worth it.
I'm no Ken Jennings, but 11 years ago I was on JEOPARDY! Not being Ken Jennings, I came in third on my first (and only) appearance on the show. But I did OK, despite the obtuse categories like "Texas Airports" (HUH?) The only question I got wrong was Final Jeopardy (who cares about the U.N. anyway?) and I even beat 2 guys to the punch on a few sports questions, which absolutely amazed my family and friends. They know that my sports knowledge is basically limited to what time the Notre Dame football game will be televised on a given fall weekend.
Even though, as a contestant, I had to pay my own way across the country to play the game and win Valuable Prizes (a $600-value set of videotapes that I mostly gave away--what? no refrigerator?) I had a really good time trying out for the show and during the day of taping all the contestants had a blast. Everyone except Alex was really nice--until your game was over and you weren't the winner. Then it was, "Come over here and sign for your prize. Then go pick up your change of wardrobe. Do you have a car here or should we call a cab for you?" Don't let the door hit you in your pregnant butt on the way out, ma'am. And Alex--what's the male term for a prima donna? His behavior off-camera was inexcusable. I swear the air changed in the room when he walked in and started yelling at people.
I don't like the new rule that allows amazing people like Ken Jennings to play forever. When I was on the show, we were told that only about 400 contestants per year have the chance to be on. That was with the 5-day-win limit. With no win limit, that makes the annual contestant pool that much smaller, so people like me might not ever have the chance to play the game. But I still listen to the show on my kitchen radio while I do dishes. Maybe someday one of my kids will be a contestant--and I'm still waiting for Mom to try again to qualify. She would rock.
H/T to The Lady in the Pew for the link.
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