Dadgum

     My picture messages still wouldn't send today. I only tried once this time because my phone's doing the same thing it was yesterday, and multiple attempts didn't work then! Plus, I'm blogging under the gun in hopes of being done by Holy Thursday Mass. In fact I skipped Final Jeopardy until I'm typing this now, so I could make dinner (I use those words loosely), so as to eat and blog at the same time. U.S. Cellular will see me (again!) tomorrow, so I should have the problem solved when I blog tomorrow night.
     I struggled with Emily Garber's picture anyway. Her eye contact was so spotty I had to take it several times! On the other hand, it's too bad because I wanted to show you how much she looks like Jamie-Lynn Sigler. She, like yesterday's Jesse, blogs about an odd subject, too: "stupid" nail polish names. But I guess she's on to something - She's got 518 followers, and 11 comments on her last post on 3-24. (Twelve now that I've left a comment, and now a thirteenth before I even hit "publish"!) It seemed like Emily'd really rehearsed her interview, the way she rattled off some polish names. Maybe the contestant coordinators told her to have some ready. I wonder if she was told not to give her URL. I was not told, and at the time I regretted not giving it. I didn't find out til my episode aired that it would not have been allowed anyway!
     The other two contestants were John Sellers and two-day champ Joey Falco. John is a writer, and I was hoping Mr. Trebek would ask him what he writes. Instead, he asked him about his father, who was a herpetologist. John talked about finding snakes in the freezer. I kinda had an experience like that: The brother of my childhood best friend once proudly displayed the snake he'd put into the freezer...alive. I can still see him, grinning and waving it around. This is why I'm glad to this day I do not have brothers, although as far as I know he's an okay guy now.
     The Buy Gum! category was somewhat serendipitous - I'd just been studying the gum and mints at the store today because I needed some. I'm not sure it helped, except I did take note of the gum being called "Orbit," and not "Orbits." I did not see "Chiclets."
     Joey found the Daily Double in the Jeopardy round, with 1 other clue left. It's kind of a shame he didn't risk it all, like he's done a couple times! He had 3800, Emily had 3200, and John had 5600. Joey wagered 1000 on this was the clue, in A Shower of April: "It speaks volumes that the U.S. government established this institution on April 24, 1800." Joey got it right, and so did I.
     Did you guys know that this correct response was a "Desperate Housewife"?: "'Greatest Hits: The First Ten Years' from this one of the 'Desperate Housewives' includes 'Dreamin''." (Not sure where to put the period there!) This was one of many triple-stumpers in the Double Jeopardy. Speaking of which, these are the ones I got today:

• In Buy Gum!: "The 'original' flavor of this sugarless gum was introduced nationally in 1964; it was the only flavor." (It helped that this is my dad's favorite.)
• I can't believe this was a triple-stumper, in Human Body Bits: "Sounding like something to tie up meat, it's a powerful group of muscles that helps straighten the hip."
• The next clue was this one, also in Human Body Bits: "A mass of nerve fibers, the pons is part of this, extending between the cerebral hemispheres & the spinal cord."

     The next clue was the Daily Double, in the same category. Joey found it again. He had 11600, Emily had 5600, and John had 4400. Joey wagered 3000 on this clue: "This gland secretes digestive enzymes & glucagon." He and I got it right.
     I wonder how many people knew the answer to this one, the last in the category and the only one I didn't get: "Named for one of Napoleon's field surgeons, the lisfranc joint can be found in this body part."
     John found the last Daily Double, again with one clue left in the round. Mr. Trebek had given the 1-minute warning with 5 clues left, and this time the Daily Double was the last clue in the round. The category was The Borgias. He had 6800, and Joey had 15000 while Emily had 5600. He too wagered 3000 on this clue: "Sibling to Lucrezia and Cesare & equally treacherous, Juan Borgia was murdered in 1497, his body found in this river." John got it right. I choosing between the right one and another, and went the wrong way.
     The Final Jeopardy category was Political Terms. This was the clue: "The OED traces these 2 parallel terms to an Oct. 30, 2000 'Today' show discussion of an electoral map." Emily added 5555. John added 5201, giving him a lead of one dollar, until Joey added 15000. We'll never know what John writes! That's right, now Joey wagered it all. *sigh* What a risky thing to do, no matter how confident you are in the category. He so easily could've lost. Well, we'll see Joey tomorrow, and this time you may actually see a picture of him here!
     My Coryat today was 16600. :-(
     As promised, here's the message board thread from today's episode. And yes, I am done well before Mass starts!