Afterthoughts

     As promised, here is a little bit more about my Jeopardy! experience, modified from a letter I wrote just two days after taping! Now you'll understand why I'm glad they kept my original howdy. (By the way, does anyone know if it was ever shown on TV?)
     The hotel provides a shuttle for contestants, but it was a good thing we decided at the last second to rent a car: There was no shuttle for contestant guests!! When the contestant coordinator called me, he was like, “You don’t even need to rent a car…” Turns out we did, or my sister wouldn't have had a painless way to get to the studio to watch. Also, there was no shuttle back to the hotel, even for contestants! I’m under the impression they provide a cab, though, if you need it. Or at least they ask you if you need one, and I assume that means they pay for it!  [I left this part of the letter in but I've since learned from another contestant's blog that the cab is on you.] The hotel hooked me up (but not my sister) with free breakfast each day, even after taping days, worth about $16 each! We also got free wifi and free parking at the hotel, and oh yeah, a free warm cookie upon checking in. (I was able to nail a February clue about this because of our stay there.)
     On the morning I arrived at the studio, contestant coordinators were circling around us each demanding our attention. One of them pretended to be Alex Trebek, basically, getting us to talk about our stories. He would start us off and expect us to talk. When I didn’t do that (I wasn’t the only one), he waved his hand like, “Come on, come on, come on, keep going!!” The coordinator then asked what we wanted to talk about with Mr. Trebek, but he (Trebek) would ultimately choose. We were also getting our makeup done two at a time while this was going on. That was a pleasure. I thought it would be minimal, but we each got the works. I had a different makeup person each day, and yet another for my touchup before my actual taping! I liked my first makeup better. The second day, the lady pinned my hair back, and the first lady had left my hair alone! They want you to arrive with your hair ready. Laura helped both mornings with my hair even though I had to be ready for the shuttle at 7:30 and she didn’t have to be at the studio til 10:30! She did my hair Mwah! both days.
     It was loud and crazy first thing in that green room. Another contestant coordinator asked us to practice our “hometown howdies.” Each contestant films two brief commercials for their local station, I guess intended to drum up interest. The second one is supposed to be tailored to you or your hometown. Well Mom had a genius idea: “Howdy, Nebraska! I’m a Buffalo gal from Buffalo County. Come out tonight and watch me win on Jeopardy!” When I rehearsed mine, I found out I am supposed to say where I’m from, and it must match how I’m being introduced (in my case, “originally from Lincoln, NE”). I was also told I cannot use the word “tonight” because the commercial may air on a night other than when I’m on. So my words didn’t match the famous song as well, but I still filmed the howdy that way.
     All day long, though, it was bothering me that I said I’m from Lincoln but also Buffalo County. (Lincoln's in Lancaster County.) At the end of the day, I told a contestant coordinator he was gonna kill me, but…and I told him my concern. He was as thrilled as I expected him to be. He was like, “That’s why I called you and asked how far Kearney is from Lincoln!” (He called the Thursday before.) Anyway I wanted to come up with something else, and I did: “Hey, Nebraska, I’m Jeanie Kenkel from Lincoln. Bo knows football. Come find out what I know, on Jeopardy!” The next morning, first thing, the coordinator said, “We can redo your howdy if you want to,” and I said, “YES.” (The howdies of the fresh bunch of contestants were being filmed anyway.) But it was a mistake – In the unlikeliest of twists, the name of the contestant who beat me, course, was BEAU! He had won one game when he and I played, along with a woman named Catie, from Bozeman, MT.
     The green room was full of food and drinks (a fruit tray, donut tray, coffee, and pop on ice). Contestants could even bring a drink of their choice (it didn’t have to be water, I checked!) into the taping while we were watching in the audience. The green room had two bathrooms.  The green room also had a neat feature: a dressing room reserved for the “Jeopardy! champion,” identifying them as such and including a star on the door. How I would’ve loved to use that room to change into my next outfit!
     We saw some ill-advised wagers on the episodes before mine. I even heard one girl say to another contestant, “I don’t watch the show very often.”  How I wished at the time I could've played her!  Sure enough she lost and did not do that well. At the end of that first day, me and a guy originally from New Orleans named Mithun had not played. He and I had questions – Do we wear our same outfits tomorrow? (Whatever we wanted.) Can we leave our clothes here? (Ehhhh…it’s not very safe.)
     One big plus of having to wait until the next day was the extra rehearsal time. There was even a rehearsal after lunch! I needed it, because I was having trouble ringing in first. At home, before I had my little laptop stand, I held the buzzer behind my back, sort of over my butt, because it felt the best. Well, their buzzer is different from a clicky pen. For one thing, it didn’t feel secure in my hand. It almost felt slippery. And the part you press down was high enough that I couldn’t really rest my thumb and just use the end of my thumb to press it. No way was I going to ring in first like that. Also, I spread my feet a little bit at home, but I did not want to do that there because they raise the ground for shorter people, and I’d rather have died than fallen off. And I’ve seen it happen. So I put my hand on top of the lectern and shoved it way up into the corner because I thought I could anchor my hand there. It wasn’t working either. Then I held the buzzer in the center of the podium, straight up and down. That was what worked, at least in rehearsal. I was buzzing in first. Every. Time. In fact, by the time of my third rehearsal (total), I didn’t practice long – A contestant coordinator said she pulls us out of rehearsal when they feel like we have the buzzer down. So I really couldn’t tell you why I couldn’t get it during the real game.
     In rehearsal, there is a board set up just like there will be when you play. A contestant coordinator reads you clues as if he was Mr. Trebek, and you choose them. A contestant named Chuck (a plastic surgeon!), who played just before I did, described those clues as “confidence-building” (easy), and I agree!
     Another fun thing about lots of rehearsal is I got to write my name each time for it to be seen on the front of the podium. I never did see what that looks like, by the way. The returning champ from the previous day, a nice guy from Kansas who reads my blog [Dennis Wright], jumped around to look because he hadn’t seen it either, but I never did.
     It was an amazing feeling to see the contestant friends and family file into the studio during rehearsal. What a rush! 
     The first segment of my game went well. Up til March 28th, I thought I'd been in the lead going into the first break, but I wasn't. I think before that first break, there had been a pause in the taping. Sometimes that happens if there is some kind of issue. I think in this case Catie had selected a Daily Double but they were going to overturn a previous call and they wanted the scores to be right before she wagered. They had us all turn around so that we would not see any clues that may be exposed unintentionally. At that time, Catie joshed with a contestant coordinator about how silly she thought one of her responses was. [Looking at the archive, I see it was "profit-loss statement."] Well when they started the taping again, Mr. Trebek told her that her response was acceptable! Catie missed the Daily Double, though. Weird thing – a contestant coordinator gives an example (I heard her spiel twice since I was there at the beginning of both days) of a contestant figuring out a response “One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish” based on the category. Well Catie’s Daily Double seemed to be that answer, and in fact that’s what she said! It was wrong, though. I think I would’ve said what she did, though!
     Soon came my interview. Mr. Trebek had ruptured his Achilles tendon last summer chasing a burglar out of his hotel room. For the interviews that were airing when I taped, he was still sitting behind his lectern for the contestant interviews.  When we taped, he was doing interviews again right next to the contestant, so that was a pleasant surprise for us. I was in the third lectern, so he was gonna do my interview first. By the way, lectern position is chosen immediately before your game by the contestant coordinators holding pieces of paper in their hands and having us draw. You find out who your other opponent will be (besides the champion) several minutes before that, as soon as the previous game has ended. As I saw Mr. Trebek approach, he was perusing the index cards with information about each of us. He looked amused, and I was dying to know which of my three stories he was going to choose. When they started taping again, he goes, “Are they fans, or fanatics?” and started talking about the blog. He asked how long I’ve been doing it, and I botched that by saying 2 ½ years, when it hadn’t even been two yet. I told him it has recaps of episodes, interviews with former champs, and a summary of the unofficial J! reunion.
     During a later break, Trebek walks over to each contestant and gets his picture taken with them. He doesn’t say anything to you, but he puts his arm around the waists of the females.
     The first category in Double Jeopardy was “Federal Agencies”! I thought of my sister in the audience because she works for the federal government, and I went over to that category when I could!
     As I indicated, I had a great deal of trouble ringing in, despite knowing the answer to seemingly everything. Well there had been a category in Double Jeopardy called Big Words, with correct responses like “mammoth.” After we’d gotten through the category, Beau found a Daily Double and time was running out. Mr. Trebek said to Beau something like, “You have a lead that could be described by those words in the Big Words category.” His lead was in fact mammoth.  I dove for the higher-dollar-value clues as soon as I could. I only found a Daily Double in rehearsal, not in the real game. (I wagered it all in rehearsal, right as a contestant coordinator yelled, “GO FOR IT!” and fellow contestants were encouraging the same!) When the round was over (time had run out), Beau had 10500, Catie had 6000, and I had 4400. [For some reason when I wrote this letter, I remembered neither whether Beau had gotten his Daily Double right, nor whether time had run out with clues remaining!] I’ve done enough wagering practice that it didn’t take me long to realize I was dead in the water: Beau’s wager would be 1501, almost certainly, in order to cover Catie if she doubled. So, if Beau lost 1501, he’d still have more than 8800 (my total even if I could’ve doubled). The Final Jeopy category was Latin Phrases.  The contestant coordinators hover around you while you calculate with a marker and paper your wager. You obviously should not say anything out loud, and they instruct you not to write anything at all until they’ve put dividers between each contestant. The contestant coordinator said to me as I was getting ready to wager, “Okay, draw a dollar sign nice and big, there you go…” even though I knew I would wager nothing, under the (correct) assumption that Catie would wager everything she had. Anyway, then I drew a big ol’ zero, but of course the contestant coordinator did not let on! It was kind of amusing, actually. By the way, the coordinators also tell you whether to write “Who” or “What,” minus the verb.
     I did not know the correct response to the Final: “The end justifies the means”! I had nothing at all, so I wrote a verb and drew a giant question mark. Mr. Trebek came to me first since I was in third. When he saw I’d wagered nothing, he goes, “Good strategy!” When he saw that Catie lost everything, he said, “See, Jeanie, now you’re in second place!” Beau got it right. We are instructed to stay put (don’t shake hands with each other) until told to move. Mr. Trebek came to me first and said, “Gosh, you were back and forth, you got some right, then you missed some….” Eventually we all went in front of the lecterns, and stage people pushed us to right where they wanted us.  Mr. Trebek and I talked about the cold weather. He also said at least we don’t have to wait, and I said I had waited all day already the day before. Jay Ben, who played the fourth game of the day, said as he and I were sitting in the audience for a previous game, he made me smile when he said, “This is excruciating.” (the wait) He wouldn’t have liked to wait all day like I did, or a whole ‘nother week or more like some have to! Believe me, I didn't mind having that whole day at the studio. In fact that day went better for me than taping day.
     I don’t remember Trebek talking to the other two contestants at all, but the tape may have proven me wrong. Mr. Trebek said to me, “Well, I hope you’ll still blog about this experience.” I said of course, and he said, “And I hope you’ll say nice things about us.” I said of course. And like that he was gone. As I left the stage, a contestant coordinator hugged me and said she was going to adopt me.  Then we contestants have to sign something and provide our SSNs and e-mail addresses.  We keep a copy of it and as a contestant coordinator says, “Make sure we pay you!” That’ll happen 120 days or so after our episode airs.
    My episode was taped third of the day, and the lunch break is after that third game. Once I’d lost, I could not go to lunch with them in the Sony Studios cafeteria, which really disappointed me. I left my clothes in the green room while my sister and I watched the last two games of the day.
     Beau won one more, then lost the last one of the day. I grabbed a contestant coordinator to let me in and get my clothes. This was the same coordinator who asked which celebrity we wanted to see in the cafeteria. I had to know: “You guys didn’t see any celebrities today at lunch, did you?” I could tell by the way he had to stop and think that they did not. I was like, “Oh, good, I would’ve been so bummed if you guys had seen somebody!” And he joshed, “We saw Justin Timberlake today!”
    There is still one more (at least) unsolved mystery - my sister and I had been wondering what a person does if he/she wins more than two on a given day, since we are asked to bring three outfits.  She and I half-joked that I could swap with her – she’d take one of my dresses and I’d take the shirt off her back. As it happens, Beau won three in one day, so was around for a fourth game.  My sister noticed he was wearing a blazer for his fourth game, so she was wondering if maybe Jeopardy! had extra clothes for people in case they do win more than twice. I didn’t ever ask the coordinators because I didn’t want to seem presumptuous.
    At the end of the day, my sister and I went to Whole Foods for dinner. (We went there two nights ago, too! We need one in Lincoln, and we're supposed to be getting one soon. Yum yum yum!) After that, of course, the O'Brien's pub quiz. Then home, with a heavy heart that's getting lighter all the time.

A Jeopardy! miscellany

     Tonight's guest-blogger: Beau Henson. Yes, the man himself. Tomorrow night, a little bit more from me. Monday: Ruth Robbins, who played Beau today and whom he mentions below!
     (Thanks, Beau! Good work here and on the show of course. Congratulations.)

     Hi, there, Jeopardy! fans!  Firstly, a big, big thanks to Jeanie for asking me to write a guest entry.  For those of you who've never had the good fortune to meet your enterprising blogress in person: she's just a delight.  Thanks again, Jeanie!

     And now I have to figure out what I can tell y'all.  I'm no expert in Coryats or DD hunting, and anyone who saw my first episode knows that I have the betting strategy of a dyscalculic time traveler.  So, beyond asking WWWD? (What Would Watson Do?), I'm coming up short on the pre-show advice.

     However!  I did learn a few things during my time on the show, and that's what I figure I can offer.

     First, J! folks are stellar.  Taping day felt like camp (I imagine from what movies tell me.  We don't really do summer camp back in farm country.) -- everyone was warm and supportive and funny, even though nerves did send a few of us into fits of solitude.  Fellow contestant Ruth and her family even adopted me for the evening when they found out I was in LA alone!  I got to ride in the cargo bay of their SUV!  (Don't pretend you've never wanted to do this.)  And watch out for Jay Ben Markson and Beau Henson's Vaudeville Explosion, coming soon to a VFW near you.  It's kinda like The Prestige, but with more fingers.

     Secondly, everyone listen to Harvey Dent:  You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.  Manohman, did the internet hate me and my blue sweater.  Also, if you have the brilliant idea to live tweet what the internet is saying, don't retweet everything.  Just don't.  In fact, MAKE SURE you tweet more bad than good.

     Next, never underestimate luck.  See Final Jeopardy during my game with Chuck and Margie.  Or that gotdang Classical Mash-Up category.  Future contestants: always sacrifice a goat to Fortuna before your taping.  She prefers older billy goats,  but she's surprisingly good with kids.

     Finally, I wish I had gotten plugged into the whole J! community before I went to tape.  Even aside from assisting in gameplay, it would have made what was already a lifetime experience all that much richer.  And, like I said, I'd feel a little less silly trying to blog something new for a whole bunch of people far more seasoned than I am.  So I hope this was at least fun to read, if not all that rich in content.  You want to hear an interesting etymology story?  I've got a ton of those!

     Oh, ok.  Cool.  Maybe next time.  Wait, where're you going...?

Grammie Gold

     How silly of me not to mention Tuesday night that I appeared in the Journal Star that day. So here that is.
     Jay Ben played today. He stayed in the audience after his loss, and at the end of the day some tweens and their mother stopped him for a picture, saying, "You were the cutest!" He gamely posed with them.
     Tonight's guest entry is brought to you by Catie Fletcher, one of my opponents last night on Jeopardy! (It feels strange to say those words!) Thanks Catie, and good job!

Photo by Nick Wolcott of the Bozeman Chronicle

It’s all about the “clicker”! 

     The chance of a lifetime…an item off my “bucket list” – these were a couple of the phrases the local media used when they wrote/broadcast the story of “a woman from Bozeman”’s experience of being a contestant on Jeopardy!  And though it might sound trite and somewhat philosophical or even an excuse, for me, being on Jeopardy! on Wednesday night was just that.

     I have watched Jeopardy! since the Art Fleming days of stage hands pulling up cards with the dollar amounts to reveal the answers. It’s true, shouting out the answers at home is easy; being the first to “ring in” (and not ringing in too quickly) – not so much.  But ringing in is THE key to success on my beloved Jeopardy!  With few exceptions, Jeanie, Beau and I ALL knew the questions to the answers, but somehow – in the final analysis – it was all about the clicker! 

     I watched myself on Jeopardy! surrounded by friends and co-workers (daughters texting and calling throughout the show).  It was, in a word, surreal, to see me on the television.  But, I have to admit those make-up ladies know their stuff!! 

     Do I wish I had won the game on March 28^th?  Of course, I do.  I am a naturally competitive person and not winning (I can’t bring myself to say “losing”) HURT A LOT!!  My chance to shine on the show I have loved all my life is now gone and so I find solace in the observations of others (and, deep down, myself).  I AM the only person I know who has been on Jeopardy! (except, of course, for the amazing people I met on my day at the studio), my supportive, wonderful husband and my amazing daughters have told me they are very proud of my performance – giving it all – going for broke!  My beautiful granddaughter could not understand why “Grammie” didn’t say “Hi” back to her (but the fact that she recognized me makes my heart sing as I only get to see her a few times a year).  All in all, I have come to be proud of myself, too.  It WAS the fulfillment of a lifelong dream and the experience at the studio with the contestant coordinators pumping all of us up for 2-3 hours prior to the taping, the camaraderie of the contestants was something I still marvel at and yes, ladies, Beau is as nice as he is cute! 

It’s about Final Jeopardy!

     When I saw the Category “Latin Phrases”, I was ecstatic!  I have worked in the legal profession most of my life, I studied one year of Latin in college (admittedly more than 30 years ago), I have loved “words” and languages forever.  I WAS IN!!!  I went for it all.  Then they throw Machiavelli into the answer.  Unless I have forgotten my Humanities class, Mr. M wrote in Italian!!!  So, it threw me a wide curve…. 

     So, yes, it’s about the clicker! But it is so much more.  If I may paraphrase my (incorrect) response to Final Jeopardy! “The Play(ing) is the Thing”!!!!  In hind sight I am much more satisfied not winning by $12,001 than not winning by $1 (the margin if I had gotten the right question)!!!  Playing Jeopardy! Is now off my “bucket list” – on to skydiving, riding in a hot air balloon, being “Grammie” to more grandchildren, traveling to the Galapagos.   

A Dream Deferred

     Now it can be told: I lost on Jeopardy!
     A mere two days after losing, I wrote a letter describing the experience to my big sister in Germany. I had planned to transform it into the March 28th blog entry. But I have more to say. More accurately, in the past week or so I decided piece by piece to reveal more than I thought I would. Like three guest bloggers here before me, I wondered if my own entry would be too long. Besides, I knew the details of my account wouldn’t mix well with the “emotional” aspect of the whole thing, as much as I hate the meaninglessness of that word. So that modified letter will follow in a Saturday post.
     For now, surprise: Losing hurts. A lot. It can only be described as heartbreak. I’m well aware that everyone who’s played Jeopardy! has lost, and while I haven’t heard of such a thing, I suspect that grief has been experienced by both first-day losers and celebrated champions whose pain is known to them alone.
     My immediate reaction: I wanted another chance. I knew I had it in me. I began a mental list, now stored on my phone, of people who lost their first Jeopardy! episode that I wish had a second chance. I had started it by the time I got to the pub quiz that night - and I added to it there, too. A friend said to me later, of the person I added to the list at the pub: "The Jeopardy! gods giveth and they taketh away, Jeanie." I considered hanging that up in my apartment, and taking down the motivational quotes I have on every door! I haven't yet, and the quotes remain. But he hit the nail on the head.
     One person on the second-chance list, I saw lose after me. (*I will use “he” as opposed to “they” to stay grammatically correct, but don’t assume I’m not talking about a female!) His distress was evident, and I’ll never forget how he described himself as “discombobulated” afterward. I wanted to embrace him but was afraid it would turn into a tearful scene.
     It wasn’t very long after taping that I knew I wouldn’t be watching my episode. Not only that, I knew I wouldn’t be watching any of the episodes from these two weeks that I saw from the studio audience. (Yes, my sister and I came back after lunch and watched the two episodes after mine. We sat near Cathy Guiles, who impressed me by coming to watch the show even though she didn’t play that day. A classy move.) I'm not even watching GSN reruns or weekend reruns. I never expected my sister to watch Jeopardy! while I leave the room! But here we are.
     Eventually I knew I wouldn’t be visiting the message boards during these two weeks, and I only visit my episode’s thread because I feel like I must to remain “in good standing” (even though there is no such thing). Anyway I think of the boardies as friends and God knows they've taught me and encouraged me a lot. They're precious to me.
     Don't get me wrong - I'm proud of what I did. I have a few regrets from the episode itself (in random order):

• I am sure to get dinged for not having written a Final Jeopardy response, even though I had nothing. In my defense (a friend pointed out), I hadn't wagered anything. I don't know if it'll matter to purists! What's more, I predict more than 70% of voting boardies will have gotten this final right. And that's being kind of conservative!
• I wish I'd had the chance to wager on a Daily Double.
• Naturally I wish I'd still had a chance to win at the end of Double Jeopardy, not that it mattered in the end. And I wish I hadn't said, "I'm still alive!" only to realize a half-second later that I wasn't.
• I wish I'd said the URL of my blog during my interview. I knew it as Mr. Trebek was backing away. And I wish I hadn't said, "I can't blog every day" or something like that. I also said I'd been blogging longer than I actually have. (Just wasn't expecting that question.)
• I regret not noticing Mr. Trebek say that I'm an RN from Lincoln Nebraska during my interview, because I'd been waiting for that.
• I wish I'd known where the camera was during the Final Jeopardy think music.
• I still wish I knew why I was dominating on the buzzer in rehearsals, yet I couldn't get in to save my life on the actual show. Frustrating when you feel like you know everything being asked.
• Someone in the audience tells me I was introduced as being "originally from Nebraska." If that's correct, I wish they'd specified Lincoln. Mr. Trebek said to me after the show, "You're originally from Nebraska. Where do you live now?"
• I wish my Coryat didn't look so bad.
• What hurts the most are the two negs in A Classical Mix-Up. (If those aren't the exact words, you know which category I mean!)

     That list is a little longer than I would've thought!
     In spite of these, there was something strangely joyous about those weeks and months, though, even to now. Spreading the word. Don't ask me why I was so eager to do that, since I lost. I can't answer that. But my face burned whenever I told people. My face even burned today when someone tweeted he was watching me on TV. Everyone I told took an interest in it and they shared in the glow. My local friends and acquaintances didn't know anyone who'd been on Jeopardy!, and wondered how I'd done it. I listened as people asked if I was studying, thinking I hadn't played yet. Then I listened when people tried to guess how well I'd done once they found out I'd played. I still marvel at the distance between the devoted fans of the message boards and people who didn't know much about the show. (Such people exist?!) People will tell you they like or even love Jeopardy! when they find out you're a fan, but when you engage them you find out they never watch! I relished explaining how it all works. I never get sick of talking about it.
     In those weeks, the letter to my big sister wasn’t the only one I wrote. I wrote one to the contestant coordinators, too. I wanted to thank them. I wanted to say goodbye. I wanted to show them a couple of the beautiful outfits I planned to wear if I won. I wanted them to remember me if they do ever give people like me a second chance. I asked them to consider me for the Clue Crew.
     As for you who dream of winning on Jeopardy!, I plead with you: consider this time your “second” chance. Work. Focus and eliminate distractions. Pray. And bask in the dream itself. You will not get it back, and nothing will replace it.
     As for me, tonight? Tennis. American Idol. Peace. Comfort from an ardent supporter who loves me and totally gets it. And still, as before, every year: the Jeopardy! test.

We have met the enemy...and he is handsome

     Tonight's guest entry - including the title, I'm quick to add! - is brought to you by none other than Patrick Antle, he of the can't-miss-it fist-pump and the karate chop.

     That Beau! I pointed him out to someone looking at the Jeopardy! site with me, and she gushed about how "cute" he is.
     Without further ado...Patrick!:
     Two weeks ago, America's favorite railroad mechanic, Reid Rodgers, lost to 2-time Jeopardy! champion Jessamine Price in heartbreaking fashion when he forgot to cross out a letter while editing his Final Jeopardy! response.  That single letter cost Reid dearly.  Now, having met the man, I can attest that he is a friendly and amiable man, but for the purposes of this narrative, we must pretend that he is not.  We must pretend that upon leaving the studio, Reid placed a curse on the remaining contestants.  The following night, a handsome young man unseated the lovely Ms. Price, but was unable to hold onto a large lead the following night and subsequently lost the title.  And so it has continued for two weeks of unsuccessful title defenses.  We have only had one repeat winner in those two weeks, and that champion won on a botched prisoner's dilemma and a game with a combined Coryat score of less than $20,000 (to the uninitiated, this means that the game was as torturous as one of the Saw films).  Not a single champion has seized the mantle, so to speak.  Last night's champion, Margie, finished with a total of only $6,199.  Would she break the Curse of Reid and vanquish her opponents, or will low scores and/or missed opportunities continue to rule the day?

     Her opponents were Chuck, a plastic surgeon who reminded me of the evil Gestapo guy in Raiders of the Lost Ark whose face is melted by the Ark of the Covenant, and "aspiring actor" Beau, who can be best described as a "tall drink of water".  He makes the aforementioned "handsome young man" look like Quasimodo.  Beau made some sort of charming thumbs-up gesture that was unfortunately blocked by his name during introductions, and has fantastic handwriting. (Swoon)
     Chuck started the game like a house of fire, running the "quotations" category, but he was hamstrung by a too-early Daily Double.  The "Adler" category was fun - overall, this was a well-written round that I enjoyed playing along with. 
     During storytime, Chuck retold "The Cask of Amontillado", with his cat cast as Fortunato.  Beau discussed the time he was hired to be a clown for a sad and lonely child's birthday party, to which no guests showed up.  A question to that child's parents - why not cancel the party if no one has RSVP'ed?  That's more like an elaborate prank or plan to get your daughter to no longer hate clowns than a party.  Finally, Margie discussed being a science teacher. 
     The TV category was fun, and I'm pleased that the "aspiring actor" got the "Inside the Actor's Studio" clue.  Chuck revealed his favorite show to be the fabulously dark "Breaking Bad".  When this is combined with his resemblance to one of the iconic film villains of the last 50 years, he's OK in my book.  And he's good at Jeopardy! too! At halftime, he had a solid lead, with $8000 to Beau's $4400 and Margie's $2800. 
     The Double Jeopardy! round was also well-written - the writers are finally back in my good graces after some iffy behavior last week.  What I thought would be the turning point in the game occurred when Beau missed "commercialism" (he answered "consumerism" - tough ruling, in my opinion), and the next clue revealed was a Daily Double.  Despite being goaded by Alex, Margie made a middle-of-the-road bet (Which one can certainly question, given the game situation and the category and clue value - middle-category word clues can often be deduced during the extra time provided by the DD).  She got the too-easy "multinational" response and was back in contention, while Beau found himself in third place. 
     Following that, there was plenty of back and forth action, as Beau and Margie ate away at Chuck's lead, with Chuck working hard to stay ahead.  Lots of good gets by these players, who did not wilt under the bright lights.  Chuck began to hunt for the last DD, and his strategy paid off, as he found it with only a few clues remaining.  He bet small, assumedly using it as a block, content to hold his lead going into Final Jeopardy!.  And he did more than that, finishing strong to head into FJ! with an $8000 lead, with $18,800 to Beau's $10,800 and Margie's $8,200. 
     The final category was 20th Century Novels, and the clue was as follows:
"Books leapt and danced like roasted birds, their wings ablaze with red and yellow feathers" is a line from this novel.
     I immediately assumed it would be a triply correct response (an instaget, in J! parlance).  Easy peasy lemon squeasy.  But things are often not so easy during the most terrifying 30 seconds imaginable - those 30 seconds while the "Think!" music is being played.  I can attest to this personally.  Beau went back and dotted his board as the camera panned, adding what, you might ask?   One of about ten different flourishes on the various letters of his response!  Penmanship is not a lost art, apparently. 
     Margie and Beau both got "Farenheit 451", but Chuck wrote down Gunter Grass' "The Tin Drum". I have not read the novel, so I cannot attest to the presence or absence of book burning.  When the smoke had cleared, however, Beau was our new champion, and the Curse of Reid lives on for another night! 
Epilogue:
Alex mentioned the "curious" wagering by tonight's contestants, and I will leave it at that.  Curious, indeed!!  (Refer to last evening's post for more on wagering.)  And speaking of thejeopardyfan.com, this game was of particular importance to readers of this site, because it marked the reveal of our hero's main antagonist, the champion against whom Ms. Kenkel squared off against.  If we are writing the Chronicles of Jeanie, this is the prequel. 
Good luck to Jeanie!  Don't get distracted by the square jaw and dreamy eyes!

Scrabble-rouser

     I couldn't resist checking the Jeopardy! site early this morning to see if this week's contestants were posted. They were! I was on the treadmill but I leaped off to tell my mom and set up the site for her to watch my hometown howdy. Weird thing - I redid my hometown howdy on Day 2 of taping because I wanted to be introduced as from Lincoln, Nebraska...which is in Lancaster County. I thought it would be confusing, so I said something to contestant coordinator Robert at the end of Day 1. It had been eating at me. Luckily I'd have another chance, although I didn't have a plan yet. The "wrong" howdy, but the one I like more, is on the site anyway! I wondered if that would happen. I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but I sure am grateful. The one that's posted was my mom's idea, and I think it's just brilliant. The only thing that would've made it better is if they'd let me say "come out tonight" (as in the song), but they wouldn't in case the howdy wasn't on TV the same day(s). I wonder whether they're going to show my howdy on TV, and which one it'll be, for that matter.
     You see Dennis Wright and Mithun Kamath on that page. When Dennis took the stage that day as returning champion, he was told he had to change something about his outfit. (It might have been his tie...?) Anyway I could be wrong but he didn't seem happy about it, and it seemed like the issue didn't die right away. As for Mithun, he and I were held over from Day 1 of taping, so we had maybe a teeny bit of a bond that second day. I think he's a nice guy. I'm sorry he lost today, and Dennis too for that matter. By the way, did Dennis's playing of the think music remind you of another contestant who did something similar in his interview? Dennis did that for us in the green room. The contestant coordinators asked him if he'd do it in his interview, and he was so blase about it. A cool dude, like I've said a few times!
     Tonight's guest blog entry is brought to you by Andy Saunders ("ontarioquizzer" on the message boards and "@andythequizzer" on Twitter). He plays Scrabble competitively, hence the title of this post. Tomorrow, Patrick Antle is guest-blogging for me. Remember him? ;-)

     Good evening, readers! I'm Andy Saunders, fellow diehard Jeopardy! fan, and I'm honoured that Jeanie has allowed me to guest-blog this week. I've been given the opportunity to speak about a topic very close to my heart, a topic that I consider to be the most underrated in show preparation: that being wagering strategy.

     The average winning score on the show the past 4.5 seasons is just over $21,000. Considering the fact that wagering strategy can often be the difference between winning and losing, it would make sense to pay some sort of attention to it, wouldn't it? Sadly, many contestants fail to do even the most cursory preparation.

     Now, I could probably write a reasonably-sized book on this subject, but I don't think Jeanie (or anyone else, for that matter) would have been happy if I'd done that. Thus, I'll mention some basic things and point you in the direction of other items that may help you!

     My personal suggestion: As soon as you have your audition and are in the contestant pool, start thinking about "what should I bet in Final Jeopardy!?" when you're watching the show. Watch what the contestants do. See if you can notice trends. Formulate your plan. And it's better to get over the "OMGMATH?!?!" block earlier than "it's Final Jeopardy! and the contestant coordinators are harassing me to lock a bet in". Once you do get to the show, the contestant coordinators do provide writing instruments and paper to write on when attempting to figure wagers. My advice in preparation would be to practice writing with Sharpies on index cards, if you can find them.

     A couple of things that you might notice: Leading players tend to make a bet that allows them to win if they get Final Jeopardy! right (this is a good thing) and trailing players tend to bet all (or almost all) of their score in Final (generally not so much of a good thing). A poster at J!Board last week said that if your bet is a round number, or you're betting to get to a round number, you're generally making a poor bet. Excellent advice in general (though, of course, see a few paragraphs below for a couple of caveats).

     The one general principle used in the majority of wagering strategies for the show: When leading, it is significantly better to lose by getting Final Jeopardy! incorrect than it is to lose by getting Final Jeopardy! correct and be overtaken by a trailing player. Generally, this means to make a wager that will defeat the trailing player by at least $1 if both players get the question right and the trailing player bets everything (henceforth known as a cover bet). Under this principle, if a leader follows this strategy, a correct response to Final Jeopardy! renders everything else moot. Conversely, when trailing, one need only focus on circumstances for when the leading player misses Final Jeopardy!. Since the formation of the J! Archive in September 2004 (a full 6.5 seasons of complete data), the player in the lead has failed to make the cover bet only 11.9% of the time.

     Here is the general wagering strategy algorithm, using an example game of:
Leader $18,700
Second $12,400
Third $10,600.

1.         Determine the leader’s optimum cover bet over 2nd by doubling second place’s score, adding $1, and subtracting the leader’s current score. (12400 * 2 = 24800; 24801 – 18700 = 6101).
2.         Now, see what happens if the leader’s wrong (subtract the cover bet from their score). 18700 – 6101 = 12599. Second and third should take note of this and attempt to ensure their score gets (or stays) above this number. As you can see here, 3rd place is still in contention in this scenario.
3.         Repeat steps 1 and 2 for 2nd place’s optimum bet against 3rd. (10600 * 2 = 21200; 21201 – 12400 = 8801).
4.         3rd place should therefore make a bet based on the optimum bet for 1st and 2nd place, ensuring that they stay ahead as best they can. (Here, 2nd place falls to 3599 if he is wrong. Thus, 3rd should ensure his score is at least above 12600 on a correct answer, yet does not fall below 3600 if he is wrong. Any bet between 2001 and 7599 works equally well here).

     One thing to remember as well: If you feel that you can, figure out what your score will be if you’re wrong. Do the same for the other players; figure out what their optimum cover wagers are, and what will happen if they are right/wrong. If you find that your score on a wrong answer is $1 less than one of the current scores of your opponents, give serious thought to betting $1 less and risking the possibility of a tie game. There are even very specific situations where a bet of $0 from the lead is most defensible! Many contestants have noted that the contestant co-ordinators warn you not to bet for a tie, but remember that if the options are "tie" or "lose", I think I'd rather tie!

     Remember: Practice, practice, practice! The more that you practice beforehand, the easier it will be for you once you get to the show itself! The J! Archive has a wagering calculator (http://www.j-archive.com/wageringcalculator.php) where you can type in scores for any 3 players and it will give you suggested wagers for each player. (While some of its suggestions do get debated by the experts, it is an excellent starting point.) It also has some more advanced strategies built into it, for once you've had a bit of practice!

     Hopefully you made it to the end of this, and best of luck if you do make it to the show!

Stud McMuffin

     I know it's Saturday. But Cathy Guiles has written a new post about her final game, which aired yesterday. What's more, I have something to say about Dennis Wright, who defeated Cathy. I described Dennis as "one cool dude." One reason why: He showed up both days in a car. No Sony shuttle for him! He was quite the sight, mysteriously pulling up to the crowd of contestants...getting out the passenger side of a car with his sunglasses on...carrying his garment bag. He kinda looked like a rock star or some other VIP. No doubt it intimidated the Day 2 people, especially when they found out he was the returning champion. It was our turn to be the "veterans" - me, Dennis, and a nice guy named Mithun. We got to listen to contestant coordinator Maggie's spiel one more time - the one referenced by Vince Gatton in his guest blog post.
     Another reason why Dennis is cool: He left on Day 1 with the tray full of donuts, for his family. He was quite a sight then, too!
     Cathy's blog post can't wait for Monday because Andy Saunders is guest-blogging that day...about wagering strategy. Andy's an aspiring Jeopardy! contestant himself. I don't know about you but I can't wait to see this entry!

Ladies who lunch

     I got my picture with Mr. Trebek yesterday!

     It came at like 5 p.m. By the time I got to my parents' today at about noon, a copy of it was framed in their living room. My mom had sent my dad to Walgreens. :-) My mom lured me in to the room, asking me if I liked the change they made there. I had told my big sister I wasn't going to look at my Mr. Trebek picture because I get weird about pictures I'm in, analyzing myself until I feel bad! Irrational, I know. We talked about me putting it in the blog, and she asked how I'd do it without looking at it. I still thought I could! When I first "saw" the picture in the Kearney Hub article, I went to great lengths to not look directly at it!
     Anyway, tonight's installment comes to you once again from Cathy Guiles, who lost to Dennis Wright today. (Dennis is one cool dude, by the way. Make sure you watch Monday.) Hey, Cathy talks about lunch at the Sony studio, which I mentioned yesterday and oh yeah, the day before, too, in the comments. Don't worry - you wouldn't know from reading my tweets and this blog (and maybe by seeing the picture above!), but my BMI's 20.4.
     Cathy blogged yesterday, too. Thanks, Cathy!

Journal Star Power

     Imagine my delight today when I woke up to a tweet from the Lincoln Journal Star's Jeff Korbelik, asking me to call about being on Jeopardy! I am so relieved - I have to say I was very worried that I would never be in the paper in my own hometown. This is what it's all about. Plus, I read everything Jeff says in the Journal Star. He writes about all things food, TV, radio, plus lots of other things. You may remember I asked you for help in his "Dining with Jeff" contest several weeks ago. I was gonna wait but couldn't - I already called him, and it went very well. I. Am. Stoked. (And all is forgiven for my "Dining with Jeff" entry being rejected for no apparent reason.) :-)
     The rest of today's guest post is brought to you by now two-time champ Cathy Guiles. (She's letting me borrow it from her own blog.) She won her first episode, defeating champ Melanie Spratford, just before lunch the day they taped. I secretly burned with jealousy, wondering what it must be like to be sitting there eating lunch like it was no big deal...the reigning Jeopardy! champion. Wow. By the way, lunch was absolutely a highlight that day. The food, conversation, and people-watching were all *Mwah*. Who's with me? I'd do it every day if I could. And someday I'd see a celebrity! I asked contestant coordinator Robert if he ever sees a celebrity there, and he does. He says there is a separate part of the cafeteria where customers can be served, rather than get their own food cafeteria-style. Then he asked us who we'd like to see there. I said Justin Timberlake.
     On with Cathy's post. Just click on her picture below. (Thanks, Cathy!)

At Cathy's request: "Photo courtesy of Jeopardy Productions, Inc." 

Setting the Table

     Tonight's entry is brought to you by one-time champ, caterer Melanie Spratford. She defeated Vince Gatton, who guest-blogged Monday, and was defeated by Cathy Guiles, who is guest-blogging tomorrow night. Cathy's an editor, which should make for some interesting reading!

Melanie Spratford

     Speaking of interesting, feast your eyes on this, from Melanie. As I told her, I have many questions and comments of my own!: 

     I don't put much stock in The Secret. I don't think you can visualize your way out of cancer or to a win on Jeopardy! As a caterer and a former stage manager, however, it is my job to anticipate everything that is going to happen and think through any potential problems.


     It was with this background of neurotic preparation which I approached my appearance on Jeopardy! I prepped for the fairly predictable things: I stared at my list of presidents and their vices. I memorized the current White House cabinet. I took online quizzes that challenged my knowledge of countries of the world. I poured over the Pavlovs. I was my usual, inquisitive, easily-distracted-by-trivia self.
     I also spent an absurd amount of time fixating on less-obvious problems:

• What will I wear??? The truth is, I went to LA with 10 camera-ready outfits. If you are called to play the first round and you win every game, you could, theoretically play 10 games, and I had no intention of repeating outfits. “Adding a scarf” was not going to be a sufficient option for this clotheshorse! In a related problem, how was I going to build 10 outfits around just 1 or 2 pairs of comfortable shoes?!
• What if I get something in my eye?? As someone who wears contacts, I'm always just an eyelash or a dust mote away from a bloodshot eye in a tear-stained face. Why don't Ken Jennings and Bob Harris address this critical problem in their books? I asked the makeup artist (twice!) what to do if it happened. She gave me the deeply unsatisfying response “I'll fix it at the commercial break.” The commercial break?! By that point, I could have lost the game by missing an entire round and done so looking like I was crying!
• What will I eat for lunch? If you have not yet been eliminated, Jeopardy! provides contestants with lunch at the commissary between games 3 and 4. I actually searched the internet for the menu at the commissary in hopes I could pre-select my meal. I reasoned it would be good to have one less thing to think about on the actual day. Unfortunate, I couldn't find the menu online, so I had to settle for telling myself that everyone serves Chicken Caesar Salad and that would be a good, filling, but not-food-coma-inducing lunch. As it turned out, I did not need to worry about this.

     Musing over these potential problems occupied a huge part of my brain in the weeks leading up to my trip to LA. As mentally exhausting as all this fretting was, however, there were actually challenges I had failed to anticipate:

• Writing my name. I've been doing it since I was a kid so you'd think this would be one of the easier tasks for the day. Not so. After I initially wrote my name on my screen, the contestant coordinators asked me to write it larger so that Alex could read it. On the second try I actually had to think about what I was doing and that focus must have flustered me. My writing was larger but shaky and nearly illegible. They cleared my screen and I tried again. On the third try, there may actually have been a misspelling. They cleared my screen and I tried again. It took me four tries to successfully write my name on my screen. As a friend pointed out, I could have skipped the cabinet members and been better served by spending some time practicing with a Magna-Doodle.
• Wagering. After I got The Call, I started learning proper wagering strategy and practiced by calculating the optimum FJ wager for each day's contestants. I checked my work on the J!Archive Wagering Calculator and I got pretty good at it. What I forgot, though, was when it came time to do it on the show, I would be standing, under the lights, with competitors on either side, contestant coordinators flitting around, a makeup artist hovering nearby to touch up my shiny bits, and a stealthy woman with a clipboard standing behind me waiting to take my official wager. And I'd be doing my calculations on a ½ sheet of paper with a Sharpie marker. I freaked out. I tend to make simple, arithmetic errors even when I understand the larger algebraic concepts. I went into my first FJ in first place. All I had to do was calculate how much I needed to bet to cover an all-in wager by my nearest opponent and add one dollar. But I got carried away. I started figuring out what I would have if I got it wrong and how much I need to have left over if third place bet it all. I filled my entire paper with calculations. I did all my work again to see if I had made any errors. They gave me another piece of paper. Long after my competitors had locked in their wagers, I was still scribbling away. Afraid I was taking too long, I panicked and started making errors. I tried to take deep breaths and tune out the coordinators' concerned hovering. Finally – finally! – I locked in my wager. To me, it felt like I had taken 15 minutes but my parents say they did not notice any lag from the audience. I know, however, that when I finally locked in my bet, the coordinator standing closest sighed and smiled in relief. A tip to future contestants, don't just practice your wagering. Practice your wagering while you are checking out at the grocery store. Practice your wagering with a ticking timer. Practice your wagering while standing at the bar on a Saturday night. Do not over-estimated your ability to tune out distractions and overcome your nerves.
• The last thing I didn't prepare for turned out to be the most critical. I never thought about what would happen if I won. I prepared all those outfits but I never really thought about quickly changing into them and heading back out to the Champion's podium. I didn't anticipate the flood of congratulations. I didn't prepare myself for the awkward moment when I would pass the Champion I had just unseated. I didn't think about continuing to play with the same intensity I brought to the first game. Instead, I took my place with solid confidence. All nerves were gone. I chatted comfortably with the coordinators and thanked the makeup artist casually, like a magnanimous movie star who always has her makeup done for her by a stranger. And then my ignorance about hockey was revealed. A least half of the first segment passed by before I even attempted to ring in. At the first break, Maggie took me by the hands and encouraged me “You can get right back in this!” I nonchalantly replied “Oh, I know!” but really, it was already over for me. I would be a one-and-done.

     Other than failing to anticipate the mental stamina required to be a returning champ, I only have one regret. In the DJ round of my second game, I should have gone back to the ballet category. As a kid, I was a dancer for nearly a decade and if you were to make a fantasy board of all my best categories, Ballet would be on it. For some reason, though, I didn't go back to the category when I had the chance. If I had, I would have landed on the Daily Double. I'm a gambler and, at that point, I wouldn't have had much to lose. My bet would have been huge and a correct response would have but me right back in the running. As it was, I stood there screaming “What is the Firebird?” in my head and cursing my own bad board management. Lesson: in third place, half-way through DJ, go to your wheelhouse.

     Ultimately, my experience as a Jeopardy! contestant was incredibly rewarding. Being invited to audition gave me the opportunity for a road trip to Lexington, Kentucky complete with multiple bourbon distillery tours and a visit to the Keeneland Racetrack. The trip to California was a chance to visit the Santa Monica Pier, drive up the Pacific Coast Highway, and dip my toes in the ocean. I met incredibly cool, smart, nice people (Alex Trebek included!). Plus, there was all that immensely fun trivia! It was all that I had hoped for and much, much more than I ever thought to visualize!

Hannah and Her Sisters

     I'm not sure what came over me this morning but I pulled the trigger and bought a ticket to D.C. for the unofficial Jeopardy! reunion. When I mentioned it on Twitter, Kristin Sausville, wife of ToC semifinalist Justin Sausville, tweeted back that Justin is going!
     Speaking of Twitter, Nick Condon tweeted this morning that 3-time champ Megan Barnes has joined the Twitterverse. I welcome her!
     The rest of tonight's post is a guest entry written by 1-time champ Hannah Spector, for her sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma. (So she's essentially letting me share it!) Hannah was the returning champ when my own week in Culver City began. Needless to say we were all impressed...a Jeopardy! veteran!...and jealous...a Jeopardy! champion! Click on Hannah's picture below to read her account, published before her episodes were televised.

     Tomorrow's guest-blogger: Melanie Spratford, who today took on yesterday's guest-blogger Vince Gatton!