Bowl over

      As I type this, "Manic Monday" is playing overhead! It won't be one for me or for the National History Bee/Bowl staff, I don't think.
     You might recall that at the end of the day Saturday, I did not know whether I was expected to work Sunday, and if so, where. Someone with whom I'd kept score with Saturday had heard we were going to start at 7:40, so I'd decided to arrive by then to try and find out. I got there and saw a hand-written sign in the lobby telling everyone where to meet at 7:30. David, who like Friday was wearing a suit instead of the red polo, said to the crowd that we were going to start at 9 a.m. There were going to be five rounds instead of six. Apparently that second part had already been announced, maybe at the end of the night before. I don't get involved with the format of the Bee or Bowl anyway, but I took this as an indication that the Bowl had ended late the night before. I ran into a former J! contestant who thought it had ended around 11:30 p.m.
     Anyone who was to help was asked to congregate in the corner of the room, where we gave our names to a staffperson. By the way, Dave Leach was there again, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as always! Later, he was in my packed elevator on our way to our respective sites. As he walked out, someone who knows him said to everyone else that he's a Jeopardy! champion. A woman near me got excited, and someone else said, "Maybe we'll see him again!" And the guy who knows him said, "Oh, you probably will, he won six times." He was referring to the Tournament of Champions, but she just meant maybe she'd see him later that day. :-)
     I had told the Bee staffperson I'd prefer to keep score where any Jeopardy! person was reading. Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised but the staffperson told me he doesn't know who they are! He was not the only one either, I found out when I asked another one later whether any J! champs would be reading at the late Mount Vernon rounds. (More on that a little later.) There's nothing wrong with that, by the way!
     I scanned the list of readers/scorekeepers and said, "Well, like Jerome [Vered]..." and the staffperson goes, "Okay. I'll put you with Jerome." That's great for me; I just hoped Jerome wasn't sick of me yet! So I got a Pepsi and waited. At about 8:30 the same staffperson said as I was minding my own business, "Jeanie, you can go to your room now." This was said sort of with a sense of urgency, but at 8:56 my moderator had not arrived yet. We were delayed again. By the way, the delays don't matter to me because there will be J! people around...unless of course they get too disgruntled by them. It is a bummer but I can totally see it happening.
     Gotta throw this in there: On my way to the room, the girlfriend of a J! champ made me feel good when she said, "I've been admiring your sundresses all weekend. You're upholding the mantle of feminity here." Vamos!
     The morning went well except when a moderator lost his temper and exploded at me. I truly don't remember the last time anyone was as angry at me as he was then. He was like a thunderstorm on a summer night: quite pleasant both before and after. In fact when I saw his enraged face, for a second I couldn't believe it was genuine. But it was. I need to say he didn't have all the facts and still doesn't, and thus the dressing-down was utterly unjustified. I'd admit it if I was in the wrong. I just took it and resisted the urge to speak in my defense though, because it really doesn't matter and because I didn't want to make matters any worse. He hasn't apologized but we haven't had any more problems. If I see him again, I will tread even more lightly than I do anyway!
     Enough about that. Like I said everything else went well. Jerome does a very good job both reading and engaging the kids. He took a genuine interest in the students, asking where they were from just because he really wanted to know. Someone asked Jerome what he does. I was glad because as I said in yesterday's post, I meant to ask him that myself the next day. It was also a chance for me to tout Jerome's success on Jeopardy! Jerome modestly downplayed that and changed the subject back to the students, and he was pretty vague about what he does. Someone else reports to me he was vague again when she heard someone else ask him what he does.
     By the way, O'Brien's Pub had just tweeted that morning the picture of that week's winning pub quiz team. I always look at it out of curiosity, since I'm likely to see one or two Jeopardy! contestants. Well, Jerome was in the picture this week! I showed him on my phone.
     These five rounds at the hotel didn't end until around the time we should have been arriving at Mount Vernon for the finals. Mount Vernon's pretty far away from D.C., if you didn't know. According to the Bee website, the Mount Vernon rounds were to start at 1:40 and end at 3:40, with the awards ceremony ending at 3:50. Well my sister and I had wolfed down lunch, again having nowhere to look for updates to the schedule, then took a Metro to her car and her car to Mount Vernon. I arrived at 3 p.m. There were no red polos in sight, and the auditorium was empty. I was afraid I'd missed something, but what was I thinking? Not to worry - some boys I'd asked outside the auditorium said nothing had started yet. It was perfect timing, in fact. Literally a minute or two later I saw David's fiancee with an armload of trophies.
     I sat in the back of the auditorium so I could see everyone who walked in, and thus catch sight of Jeopardy! people. I was just beginning to write down that none were there, when I saw Jean Cui, a two-time champion in 2008. She and I read at the same History Bowl site this year and last. She was with a guy, and she said he was a three-time J! champ named "Tom." I'm between 80 and 90 percent sure I know his last name, but if I'm wrong and I publish it I'd feel awful! Soon Drew Scheeler walked in with a guy I met from the Jeopardy! message boards. Jerome Vered and Steve Kaltenbaugh were with them. Steve played in David's last game, and they were both defeated by the third contestant.
     David already talked about next year from the stage (encouraging!), and he indicated he might extend the Bowl and Bee to longer than one day each, in the hopes that there will be fewer delays. That's fine since Friday had absolutely nothing going on for me.
     Once they were going to start, it didn't sound to me like any Jeopardy! contestants were going to do any more reading, and my sister and I had still not been to Mass. I asked David's mother and later his fiancee, and neither knew whether Jeopardy! people would be reading. (David's father was present too, by the way.)  David's mother also said there were going to be four more rounds yet! My sister and I went to Mass, then. :-) She and I then returned to D.C., got dinner, and watched Lisa Lampanelli blow her top once again on Celebrity Apprentice. Today she and I (my sister, that is) will get to spend a little more time together before I go home. First I'm gonna publish this, get a coffee, and hope to watch Friday's J! I'd call this weekend a success. I'm a lucky girl.
     I do still have lots of unanswered questions: What time did the Bee end? What did families do who had planes to catch? When do all the Catholic school students/families here make it to Mass? What is "Tom"'s last name? Are we going to see any of these kids in the J! Teen Tournament this week? When will I get the champions panel posted on this blog? Did Jacob make is three wins on Friday's J!? And what about next year's J! reunion? Anyone?

Stand-up guys

     Today was the reason most everybody else is here: the National History Bowl. This morning, I got to keep score where Jerome Vered read. That went very, very well. Jerome at first, understandably, seemed nervous about everything running smoothly and in a timely manner. But the longer he read, the looser he became, to the point where he was sort of providing "commentary" to the clues and bantering with the players. He read well too, even the very tough foreign words from all kinds of languages. At one point when David Madden walked in to write down scores, he and Jerome began to converse in German.

     It went so well in fact that Jerome told my sister "You're the best." And she is! I've been saying it for a very long time. (By the way, she lives nearby and has joined me for the weekend even though she is not a regular fan of Jeopardy!) By the end of the morning, Jerome didn't want to lose us. I don't know that it was us, as much as it was someone to keep score and keep track of a stopwatch when it was necessary. In any case Jerome was emphatic that we stay in the afternoon. He went so far as to call Bob Harris, who we were to keep score for in the afternoon. And we were right there when he did it! Our arms could've been twisted but we didn't know whether Bob would be expecting us, and we did not hear from Jerome again before the afternoon began. I saw Jerome again tonight, and he said it went well for him in the afternoon. So confident was Jerome tonight that when my sister and I joined him expecting to keep score, he waved his hand and said, "You have fun," meaning he could handle it. We were happy to keep score anyway!
     Now that the Bowl has begun, everyone's scattered in different directions. As a result it's tougher to even see Jeopardy! types, and even moreso to hook up with anyone. For example, I saw Roger Craig all over from Thursday evening all through Friday, but today I only saw him once when my sister and I passed by him (and his girlfriend and John Krizel) during the break for lunch. My sister and I ate lunch just the two of us. Don't get me wrong; I'm not complaining about that! She is excellent company.
     Speaking of excellent company, keeping score where Bob Harris read was as great as you'd expect. This just in - Bob, who has a background in stand-up comedy, is a funny and smart guy. He was the champ he's been, all afternoon. There was some tension at first (more on that in a second), but like Jerome, Bob loosened up. Eventually he added commentary of his own to the Bowl questions, including truly worthwhile anecdotes of his own very extensive travels. Name a place and Bob's probably been there, including all 50 states. He is a pro and just a good guy. Count me as a fan. Bob, by the way, is hard at work at a new book, so look for that. I wish I could tell you when, though! Last year at the Bowl, he gave a talk about this book, but it is not out yet.
     The afternoon did started a little rocky, though, and it's got nothing to do with Bob. This event is a chaotic, disordered one, a fact I virtually ignored when I blogged about it last year. It's tougher to ignore this year since it played a significant part in today's events. There was a still-unspecified issue that caused a delay. A long one. Okay, a very long one. For sure, no one knew where to be and when. This includes Bowl staffpeople, and it includes people who had to be somewhere like readers and scorekeepers. As a result, Bob and I didn't even have six teams with which to start until around 3 p.m., which is very late. This of course pushed the whole schedule back. Since there's no system in place for Bowl staff to inform everyone of changes, an announcement came via the assistant director, yelling to everyone lucky enough to be withing earshot. We were told to be at the ballroom at 7 p.m., but by this time it was 6:45! I know many of us had not eaten. I started to go somewhere but came back, unwilling to miss anything since this is why I'm here. Anyway there was nothing open as far as the eye could see.
     At 7:56, David finally said from the podium, "We are ready!" Til now, I've been looking around a ballroom full of people, but I'm still worried that I'm missing something Jeopardy!-related somewhere! On the plus side, this was a solid chance to upload the panel discussion. Or more like a chance to see it's almost certainly not gonna happen while I'm still here. I have no idea how long it will take, except it's big enough that I won't have a chunk of time big enough to idle where there's wifi. The file is admittedly huge, and I don't know enough about this to determine how long it will take to upload. This may well be laughable: 163,595 KB? If anyone has any insight, I'll take it! Next year, I'll break it down into two or three parts.
     I hadn't planned to work tonight, but as I said we wound up scorekeeping with Jerome. By then he was REALLY relaxed. He was the cut-up of the room! Adults and kids alike were laughing, which seemed to encourage him more. Tonight as we were walking out of the room, he said, "Now you have stories for your blog." I have to be honest: I didn't know he knew I had a blog! But scorekeeping is easy but just involved enough that you can't really do anything else at the same time if you want to make sure you're right, and at these late rounds it was very important. (Trust me, these people take this very, very seriously.) It hadn't occurred to me to write down any of what he was saying anyway!
     I learned something I didn't know about Jerome (I'm sure there's a lot): he has a degree in film from USC! I am fascinated by this and could talk to him for a long time about it. I'm gonna ask him tomorrow what he does for a living, which is something I'd never considered.
     It dawned on me that, since my hotel is connected by tunnels to the event hotel, I have not been outside even once today. That'll change tomorrow as, like last year, the Bee portion of the event will take us all to Mount Vernon. Last year, Sunday was more low-key and peaceful than Saturday. Let's see if this year's the same way. As of the end of the night, I didn't know whether they were expecting me to help, and I wasn't the only one! Also, I'm dying to find out what time they actually wrapped up last night. I had planned to draw the line at 11 p.m., but I was completely out of gas before that hour.
     Unfortunately I got neither a picture of Bob nor one of my dress, which I would've liked you to see! Hopefully I'll get one of Bob tomorrow.

Drew to his word

     Day 2 of the unofficial Jeopardy! reunion (AKA Day 1 of the National History Bee and Bowl!). I think I've successfully recorded the champions panel on both my cellphone and my trusty netbook here. The video on my cellphone is too large to e-mail, so I'm gonna post the netbook video and hope for the best. The panel was scheduled to be a half-hour long, but the powers that be wisely made it into an hour (after having said it would be extended to 45 minutes). It speaks for itself. Any other words I bring you would be too much in one post. But I don't want all this to be lost, either! It probably doesn't matter now anyway - I had planned to publish the discussion this morning but it takes longer to upload an hour-long video than I expected, and I'm out of time. :-( I'll get it to you soon.

     I know I'd hoped to never mention the red polo again, but this time I'm okay with it - Today was the first time I'd seen David Madden in anything else, and he looked sharp. He had on a suit and tie!

     The day was actually mostly blank until 5 p.m. I did have to attend moderator training this afternoon, which was as informal as it was last year. I'm not reading anyway, but keeping score for J! champs. I expect to be with Jerome Vered and Bob Harris.
     Speaking of those two, I can't believe I still haven't seen Bob this year. I've heard he's coming tonight. I was pleasantly surprised to see Jerome, because the History Bowl site indicated he might not arrive in time. And it was so great to hear a fresh voice/”expert” talk about Jeopardy! I hadn't known his thoughts about it before.  Jay Rhee impressed me with his insight, too. We don't hear from him much, either!
     Jerome also cleared the buzzers for the head-to-head match between Roger Craig and Raynell Cooper. The idea was to give Raynell a crack at Roger, since Teen Tournament winners cannot participate in the Tournament of Champions. Raynell is brave, and he held his own. Roger did win, though.
     I also have not seen Bill MacDonald yet this year! I thought I might see him at both the pub quiz and the champion discussion.
     I did have the pleasure of meeting superchamp and likely ToCer Dave Leach. He is just as buoyant and cheery as he was on Jeopardy! I congratulated him and told him how impressed I was, and he modestly said that no one was as surprised as he was.
    Remember how Drew Scheeler trash-talked to Roger yesterday about competing against him in the Jeopardy! bee? Well he did it again today! I was like, "Again, Drew!" and he said this is what he does to pump himself up ahead of any contest. I still think he's nuts, but whatever works, Drew! As it turns out, that bee was cut short. But I'd rather have that cut short than lose any of the panel. There’s really not even much to report about it.
     After Roger gave his excellent, spot-on keynote speech (which I’d recorded if I’d known ahead of time!), there was much more fun to be had than I expected: the sports and entertainment bees, in which anyone can participate. I chose to watch Preston Nicholson (“best dressed” according to one of the readers), bee staffer Maggie Larkin, and Drew compete in the entertainment bee. John Krizel and Jay Rhee were to compete in the sports bee, which was happening at the same time. There seemed to be a delay in announcing who was going where in the sports bee, and I was afraid if I waited I wouldn’t get to see anything. I guess I did the right thing: I know not to try my hand at the entertainment bee next year. I consider entertainment a wheelhouse, but these clues were tough. Like, obscure. Also, I couldn’t have written this better myself: All three made the finals. John, by the way, made the sports finals, but he opted to leave before finding out!          
     Well, that Drew, for all his perceived bluster and despite having actually written many of the clues and thus they had to be tossed, won the open (adult) division.
     I hate to make this so short, but unlike the song, the days are long and the nights are short.  But for this, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Looking forward to tomorrow!
     Here is a picture of the group, as well as the picture of John, Brian, and Jay from the night of the pub quiz. (Drew's camera is better than my cellphone camera.) :-)

Left to right: Dave Leach, Jay Rhee, me, Drew Scheeler, Roger Craig, Jerome Vered, Cathy Guiles, John Krizel, Steve Kaltenbaugh, Justin Sausville, and Preston Nicholson

Panic at the pub

     (Okay, before the pub!)
     You're expecting a pub quiz recap, right? Well neither I nor you, I'm sure, expected the drama that preceded it.
     Oh, I made it to D.C. fine for the National History Bee and Bowl, despite my plane leaving Grand Island an hour late. I got to my hotel fine, only to discover that the only free wifi is in their lobby, and wifi in the room costs $12.95 for 24 hours. I brushed my teeth even though I forgot toothpaste. (The hotel had it free.) I even managed to avoid a heart attack when I thought I didn't have the whole cord to my netbook.
      Before I had the netbook out, I somewhat idly looked at the pub quiz page of the History Bowl site and noticed...the time had changed, to a half-hour earlier! I don't know when this change was made, but it couldn't have been very long ago. This was a crisis because someone was picking me up, and I didn't know how to reach him in a pinch. More on that later.
      I wasn't at last year's quiz, but I heard about it. I suspect last year's quiz was better-attended and maybe the competition a little more serious. But we had 2011 ToCers who I don't think were there last year: John Krizel and Jay Rhee. I was delighted to see them both! And I know at least John will be around tomorrow. I knew Jay lived near D.C. but not John. I have a picture with them, but I have to get it from a certain Drew Scheeler, who is unable to get it to me right now because he doesn't have Internet access. Here's a picture of them playing, for now. I hope these pictures are acceptable. I can hardly see them - My screen is inexplicably, extremely dim. I can't even make everybody out. Every once in a while the screen lights up like the yard in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, but it doesn't last. Suggestions are welcome, but please don't tell me to try plugging it in - I did that.
     I know that's David Madden at the podium, John is facing us, and Jeopardy! contestant Andy Gefen is on the left. Jay is on the right side of the table, and that's his wife Kimberly with her back to us.

     By the way, it was Andy Gefen who saved the day for me. I both e-mailed him and sent him a private message via the Jeopardy! message boards. I knew he was coming to the quiz, and more to the point, he is, like Brian O'Donnell, a moderator on the boards. Brian and I were gonna go to the quiz together. Now, I could've made it on time, but that would've left Brian coming to pick me up after I was long gone, and he'd have had no idea. Instead I had to track down Brian. He had my number but I didn't have his, and time was of the essence. Check out everything I tried on Twitter, to make a long story a little shorter! It turns out Andy didn't know the time had changed either. He gave me a phone number for Brian that didn't work at first, but in desperation I tried again - and it worked. As it turns out, everyone else must've thought it started at 8, too: People filtered in slowly, and the quiz didn't start til well after 8.
     Drew was my teammate tonight at the quiz, as was Brian and a guy named Jeff. Here we are, minus Jeff:

     Before the quiz, Drew took great pleasure in showing us from his phone, clips of himself on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. We also had fun dishing about members of the Jeopardy! message boards - those that are controversial, those we'd like to meet, etc.
     Now, I usually don't like when I'm part of a big room - or for that matter a small room - where everyone has to introduce themselves, but tonight it came in handy (even though I'm not sure who "Jeff" is; sorry!). I of course got to say I was on Jeopardy! last month, and that I write a blog about the show. ;-) John was in front of me, so I noticed he clapped. That made me feel great. You may recall he writes a blog of his own, by the way.
     I wondered how Roger Craig was going to introduce himself, since he needs no introduction in that room. It's hard to believe he had a bit of a hard tme finding a team! And spoiler alert: His team won in the end, I believe. Second-place went to the Krizel/Rhee table. We held our own though. Drew, I already knew, is super-smart.
     Anyway Roger introduced himself as a "one-time Jeopardy! loser." John had said he was a two-time Jeopardy! loser! Jay said he was "unemployed and living with his parents." Highly unlikely! Here's a picture of, from left to right, Drew, Brian, me, Raynell Cooper, Roger, and David. (Hey, I finally got my picture with him!)

     And here's a picture of David's fiancee and his mother:

     Some of the topics were: clues with either "David" or "Madden" in them, presidential trivia, ancient history, Australia, and states. David had faked out even Drew when he said there was a category devoted to The War of Bavarian Succession. (Turns out the topic was World War II.) We were 9/10 in the David Madden category, only missing Calvin Johnson. (We went with my guess of Ndamukong Suh because he is the only Detroit Lion I knew.)
     Funny story: People were talking about a question that was not part of this quiz. Nick, one of David's staff, said "What's the answer?" and David said, "That's right!" (He thought Nick said "Westminster." :-)
     Tomorrow, Jeopardy! contestants, win or lose, can participate in their own bee. Drew, smart though he is, said to Roger he was gonna "smack him down." (That is, if Roger's participating!) I said to Drew, "Are you crazy?" and I may have imagined it, but Roger looked very confident to me!
     Also happening tomorrow: my probable highlight, the Jeopardy! panel discussion. Unfortunately there's only one this year, and it's only a half an hour! I'm gonna try my hardest to record it for you. I'm also looking forward to seeing Preston Nicholson, Justin Sausville, Bob Harris, Jerome Vered, and hopefully Bill MacDonald.
     To my great surprise, I was able to watch the 4-26 Jeopardy!, albeit on my netbook in the lobby of my hotel!  My Coryat was 20400, which is better than some days when I have fewer distractions!

Hi Ho Silverman

     First thing tomorrow - and I do mean "first" - I'm off to the unofficial Jeopardy! reunion in Washington, D.C. I'll be on a layover in Dallas when this publishes! And I'll be blogging every day, even Saturday and Sunday, so come back for updates including pictures and hopefully videos.



     Today's contestants:

Erika Myers (Her outfit is strangely familiar...)

Cindy Vanderbur

Jacob Silverman (He's an arts and culture journalist. That sounds like fun!)

     Cindy was a two-time champ coming into today. See here for a list of her quirky behaviors. She stayed true to this today, except for the sleeve-pushing! She seems eager to look like she doesn't care. So why take so long to choose even the first clue? Today, she also said "Good guess" to herself.
     Cindy found the first Daily Double before the first break, in Organizations. She had 600, Jacob had 200, and Erika had 1400. I don't know what Cindy said as people were applauding, but my closed captioning said she said "Fred." Cindy wagered 1000 in her "what the heck" style, and those were her words. This was the clue: "This international society for smarties was founded in Oxford, England in 1946." She and I got it right. At the first break, she had 4400, Jacob had 200, and Erika had 1400. At the end of the round, Cindy had 7600, Jacob had moved up to 3600, and Erika still had 1400.
     I got this triple-stumper in Miles' Standoffish Words: "If lawyer Miles retracts an objection he made in court, he uses this 9-letter word that also means shy."
     I'd like to know how many people got this one, in Quotes in American History: "For working on the family homestead, Lincoln called it 'that most useful instrument.'" It was a Daily Double, and Jacob had found it. He lost 3000 of his 6400. He said "wheelbarrow," and I said "plow." Cindy had 9200 at the time, and Erika had 6600. I did get this triple-stumper in Quotes in American History, thanks to a tour I took of the Naval Academy (It was still a guess.): "In a 1776 letter to Robert Morris, he wrote, 'Without a respectable navy--Alas! America!'"
     I swept Roman the Bible, including this Daily Double that Cindy found. She wagered [swivels hand on her wrist] 3000 of her 12000 on it: "Cornelius, one of these Roman military officers, became one of the first converts to Christianity." She said she should've known it and hit herself in the forehead saying, "Dopey me." Jacob had 8200 at the time, and Erika had 6200.
     The sweep also includes this triple-stumper: "Mark recounts how Roman soldiers forced this man of Cyrene to carry Jesus' cross." Have you ever heard anyone pronounce "Cyrene" the way Mr. Trebek did?
     At the end of the round, Jacob had 9800 while Cindy had 9000 and Erika had 6200. The final category was Websites. This was the clue: "It launched its first offer on Oct. 22, 2008: A two-for-one pizza deal in Chicago." I've heard this word but I don't know what it is. Thus I didn't have a chance. All three contestants got it. Erika added 2001. Cindy added 8995. Jacob added 8999, enough to win. They should his applauding grandparents in the audience! So you'll see him tomorrow, and I'll see tomorrow's episode sometime next week.
     I'll never say I'm glad anyone lost, having lost myself. I doubt I'd have said before losing, either. But if I was gonna be glad, it would be for a better reason than just finding her tough to watch: Had she won today, she'd have bypassed Beau on the list for the next Tournament of Champions.
     Here's the message board thread from today's episode. My Coryat today was 25000.

Polo grounded

      As Andy says, I'm going to the unofficial Jeopardy! reunion this week in Washington, D.C. I've hardly been able to think of anything else! I can't wait to bring you everything I see and hear. I'm still hoping to have videos too, either with my phone, camera-that-I've-never-used, or netbook-webcam-I've-never-used! I wish I was leaving tomorrow already, except I'll have the pleasure of getting my fingers/toes/hair done tomorrow, and I still want to do a little more shopping. You and I will find out, will my hair last all the way through the Thursday night pub quiz? I have my doubts, and it's too bad. Incidentally, my hair lady called today while I was sleeping and said she had me scheduled for today. (In fact it was scheduled for tomorrow.) It's too bad, because then I'd know I'd have to redo my hair by Thursday night. Also, I'd have more free time tomorrow.
     Hey, remember last year's infamous red polo shirt? Well this year I am keeping score (not reading, thank you God), so I thought I wouldn't have to wear it. As it turns out, it doesn't look like anyone has to wear it. Good move, History Bowl. Hopefully this'll be the last time I mention it. By the way, I'll be wearing the dress in the above link on Sunday this weekend.
     Speaking of Jeopardy! in D.C., the Power Players Tournament was taped there this past weekend. My sister e-mailed me this link from Anderson Cooper 360 that I thought you might like. Notice that Cheech Marin, like guest-blogger Cathy Guiles, uses his pointer-finger as opposed to his thumb when ringing in. I'd never heard of this before Cathy, or you can be sure that I'd at least have practiced it at home before my own appearance. And speaking of Cathy, she too is going to be at the reunion on Friday.
     Today's contestants:

Cindy Vanderbur

Andrea Korte

Matt Johnson (Like Brad Rutter, he's from Lancaster, PA!)

     Cindy was a one-time champ coming into today. I have to admit, I'm not a big fan. The constant sleeve-pushing reminiscent of Andy Roddick. The chattering to her fellow contestants. The hair-shaking. The wasted time. The overt indifference toward Daily Double wagering. The incongruent facial expressions and affected bewilderment. And there's nothing wrong with this, but you've gotta pay close attention if you're keeping track of your Coryat - she doesn't select the clues in the traditional top-to-bottom way. I wonder if this is strategy on her part, or if she is just nervous, as Mr. Trebek said she was.
     I had a solid Jeopardy round, for as wacky as the categories were. I should've swept Speaking Hawaiian, but didn't pull the trigger on this clue: "It can be a Hawaiian feast or a particular dish usually prepared with coconut cream at that feast." And somehow I'd have swept All About Artists, but I didn't ring in on this one: "This artist known for self-portraits had a child by a young housekeeper and once declared bankruptcy."

     I'd have suspect that Matt, introduced as a baker, had a little trouble ringing in in Just Desserts. He got 2/5.
     At the first break, Andrea and Cindy were tied at 3200 while Matt had 1800. At the end of the round, Cindy had 5700, Matt had 3400, and Andrea had 4200.
     Longfellow was as hard as I expected it to be. I got on this one for 400, and that on a WAG: "In a Longfellow rhyme, 'I shot' this 'into the air, it fell to earth, I knew not where.'"
     On the other hand, I only didn't get this one in We're an American Band: "We hit the top 10 with 'Don't Look Back' in 1978; we'd say where we're from, but that'd be too much of a hint." I was trying to decide between "Kansas" and the correct response.
     I got this triple-stumper on a WAG, in This or That (I got it because I love tennis): "A bad football punt, or the long, straight anchor part connecting the crown & the ring."
     At the end of the round, Cindy had 24000, Matt had 6200, and Andrea had 18400. Fun wagering practice today, yeah? As much as I was hoping for Andrea to defeat Cindy today, I lost some respect with her icky final wager. Playing for second. Sound familiar? It didn't matter in the end, because Andrea missed the final and Cindy got it. On the other hand, Cindy did widely-accepted "right" thing by wagering enough to cover Andrea in case she doubled. And that's a big wager! If I were Andrea, I'd have wagered 7200. She'd have won then if Cindy made the predictable wager and if both Cindy and Andrea got the final wrong. (That's taking Matt out of the equation, of course.) I'm not sure what I'd do if I were Matt. I'd doubt that Andrea would wager the way I just suggested. In that case I may wager nothing. Since Andrea wagered the way she did, he'd have wound up in third no matter what he did. He got the final right.
     This was the final clue, in Women's Firsts: "In 1977 Juanita Kreps, the first woman on the board of the NYSE, became the first woman to head this cabinet dept." Did they really not have enough room to spell out the whole word? Anyway, I got this seemingly straight-forward final wrong.
     My Coryat today was 27000! Here's the thread for today's episode.

April 23: Bad day for Canada?

Nothing much to say today, except that we got snow last night up here in Ontario. Yes. Snow. April 23: Bad day for weather.

Your contestants: Cindy Vanderbur, Mike Garrett, and returning champion Dan Adkison.

One thing that I've always found while watching the show: Copy editors are a vastly underrated occupation, especially when it comes to being Jeopardy! champions. They need to know a lot of things in order to do their jobs well, and thus it comes as no surprise whatsoever to me that Dan, a Brooklyn copy editor, is a 3-day champion.

Also, it makes me happy to see a Canadian on the show! Gives me somebody to cheer for.

J! round categories: GREG-CELLENT, BOOK LEARNIN', BIG (& NOT-SO-BIG) BIRD, FIVE FINGER EXERCISE, I LOVE PARIS, IN THE "SPRING" TIME.

Dan went right into BOOK LEARNIN', and we could tell that Mike was going to have a struggle on the opening clue: "Usually at the end of a book, it's a list of source materials & related readings". Being met with a "be more specific", followed by a neg, on his answer ,likely led to a derailment of his game for the first half of the Jeopardy! round.

Cindy has this trait of diving into the middle of a category, even when the Daily Doubles are exhausted, and her switching out of BOOK LEARNIN' cost her the Daily Double when Dan went back to the $800 clue there. As it was only the 5th clue of the game, he only had $1000 (Cindy had 600 and Mike -200). He bet the full $1000 and saw the following: Technically a page is only one side of each sheet of paper; the two-sided sheet is called this. Dan's response was accepted.

At the opening break, Dan had $5,200, Cindy $3,000 and Mike -$1,400.

Most of the second half of the opening round belonged to Cindy; she went 4/5 in IN THE "SPRING" TIME, 4/5 in GREG-CELLENT, and 2/4 in FIVE FINGER EXERCISE, leading to a $8400-$4400 lead over Dan. Mike, with $200, selected first in the Double Jeopardy! round.

I think Dan might not have realized that each answer in FIVE FINGER EXERCISE was the name of one of your finger, as evidenced by the $800 clue: "A Pac-Man ghost; use your "brain", a problem compounded by the fact that Alex thought that Dan had given the correct response (when in fact he had not)! My father, a charter member of the "Alex is losing his touch" club, will have a field day with that one...

The Double Jeopardy! categories: WATERFALLS, COMPLETE THE COMPANY NAME, IN THE DICTIONARY, APRIL 23: BAD DAY FOR WRITERS, "HOW TO" ENTERTAIN, and TIME PIECES.

Mike was the player that had the best start to the Double Jeopardy! round, even with an interesting clue at TIME PIECES $1200: In 1956 Time said he had "a high unpleasant quaver" & a "rich basso" marred by "a spasmodic delivery". Mike and Dan went in the wrong direction; but I knew who they were talking about...

The following clue (TIME PIECES $1600) was a Daily Double, and Mike saw it with $1400. Dan had $4000 and Cindy $8800. Mike bet the full $2000 and saw the following: "The ghostly white-clad figure descended the ladder" was the lead for a cover story in July of this yearas Mike, and his score went to -$600.

I picked up some further Triple Stumpers at the bottom of "HOW TO" ENTERTAIN: $1600 was "Kate Hudson is writing the titular column on a dating don't in this romantic comedy" and $2000 was "Brooklyn friends Ben & Cam hustly to try to make a buck without selling out in this comedic HBO series". It helps that I've seen both of them!

The final Daily Double was found under WATERFALLS $1600: Cindy had $11,600 to Dan's $6,000 and Mike's $4,200. She seemed hesitant but bet $4000, and saw the following: Add "S" to a Frank Lloyd Wright house & you get this, Florida's tallest cataract. Her unsure, but still correct, response, put her score up to $15,600.

In spite of a furious rally at the end by Mike, him and Dan were unable to break Cindy's lock going into Final Jeopardy (Cindy had $17,200 to Mike's $8,200 and Dan's $6,400).

Category: AMERICAN HISTORY

Clue: This state is known as the "Cockpit of the Revolution" for all the battles there, including a pivotal one in December 1776

Dan was unable to come up with the correct answer, but Mike and Cindy were, and Cindy will be back to defend tomorrow!

Dan 6400 - 6399 = 1
Mike 8200 + 4601 = 12801
Cindy 17200 + 799 = 17999

I'll be back in a week's time; I'm quite looking forward to Jeanie's reports from the J! reunion myself!

Axes of Evil

      At the top of Friday's episode, Mr. Trebek said, "Because the material seems to be a little more difficult in our recent shows, we haven't managed to get to all of the clues in each game. Let's hope that that can change today..." Do you guys think a) the clues have been more difficult, and b) that's why the boards haven't been cleared? In any case, thank you, Mr. Trebek: You make the title of yesterday's blog post ever so apt. Read on to see if Mr. Trebek's wish comes true.
     Today's contestants:

Dan Adkison

Kerr Houston

Amy Drittler

     Did Onomatopoetic Words remind anyone else of this incident in the last ToC?
     The game started with a bang when Dan found the Daily Double only the second clue in. He'd answered one 200 clue correctly, and wagered 1000 on this one in Axis & Allies: "An 'axis' binding these 2 cities was proclaimed in 1936." Dan got it right. I was at sea on this category. 0/5, and I finished it with a neg on this 1000 one: "'Terminal' was the code name for the final allied wartime conference, held in 1945 in this German city." How'd you guys do? I went 0/5 on Jazz Pianists later, too, and with 2 flippin' negs.
     Kerr's somewhat-modified use of the "Forrest Bounce" seemed to work to his advantage, at least until the first break. He had 5200 while Dan had 2600 and Amy had 1000. It may have messed me up in the Double Jeopardy round, as I'd been sweeping The ACLU but clammed on this last one when Dan got back to it after answering his Daily Double: "In Kitzmiller v. Dover, the ACLU fought the required teaching of this 2-word alternative to natural selection." Actually I read "alternative" as "alliterative," but I don't think I'd have gotten it anyway. So I was puzzled at first when Kerr said "evolutionary theory" and when Mr. Trebek gave the correct response.
     I was amazed that Dan mentioned the Peace Corps during his interview - My mom had suggested it to me during dinner as we are thinking of what I'm going to do next.
     Well we did clear the board in the Jeopardy round. Dan ended with 7800, while Amy had 2400 and Kerr had 7200.
   I swept The Midwest, luckily. But I object to Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio being considered "Midwest." The first Daily Double was the last clue of the category. Kerr had answered the top three clues, but Dan answered the fourth, giving him control of the Daily Double. He had 11400, Amy had 2800, and Kerr had 14000. Dan wagered a whopping 8000 on this clue: "This river passes through Waterloo, Iowa as well as through the cities named for its falls & rapids." Dan got it right.
     I got this triple-stumper in It's a Cover-Up: "The name of this warming item is from the French for 'white.'" "You use it every day," said Mr. Trebek when revealing the correct response.
     Amy struggled but she did find the second Daily Double, in Biblical Idol. She had 2800 while Dan had 20200 and Kerr had 16800. Amy wagered 1200, which is what she had just picked up on this, the previous clue: "Nehustan was a brass one of these reptiles fashioned by Moses & later worshipped by the Israelites as if it were a god." Here's the Daily Double clue: "Also known as the Lord of the Flies, this god of Ekron was consulted by Ahaziah, king of Israel." This was a toughie that Amy and I missed. As a matter of fact, I only got one right in the category, this one at 400: "This wise king unwisely made God angry when he erected an altar for the Moabite god Chemosh." I would've expected to get more than one in a Bible category. Then as if to have salt rubbed in her wounds, Amy's response to the Daily Double was the correct one on this next clue, but Dan rang in: "The prophet Elijah worked hard to stamp out the cult of this Canaanite god the Israelites had worshipped in the wilderness." Amy didn't look like she was trying to ring in, though.
     I'm sure Mr. Trebek was pleased that the Double Jeopardy board was cleared, too. Dan ended the round with 20600. Kerr had 16400, and Amy had 2400. The Final Jeopardy category was World Currencies. I guess if I were Dan I'd wager 12201, to cover Kerr if he doubled. If I were Kerr, I'd wager 8400, expecting Dan to wager 12201 and hoping he'd miss on the Final. If I were Amy? I suppose I'd wager nothing in the hopes that Kerr would over-wager.
     This was the clue: "1 of the 4 small U.N. member nations that use the Euro as their official currency even though not in the European Union." I'm both relieved and surprised that no contestant got this right, as I didn't either. And with 4 possibilities! I wonder if a final, or any clue for that matter, has ever been a "one of four." Mr. Trebek had to read from his card to give the correct response. Amy lost 600. Poor Kerr lost 11500, but he looked like he took it well that he was wrong. It looks like he was trying to play for at least second place, because he was left with 4900 (more than Amy if she'd doubled). He'd have lost less...and won...if he wagered the way I suggest in the previous paragraph. Play to win, please! Anyway, Dan lost 15000, leaving him with 5600, enough to make him a three-time champ with 37400. Dan's fun, but I'm still hoping Beau will make the next ToC. Beau's total after 3 wins, according to j-archive.com, was 51203. I'm also hoping Nick Condon will use his formula and keep track of this stuff over on his nifty blog with a cool concept. I've left a comment asking about it. Nick's total after three wins was 80101, and he didn't make the cut! :-(
     My Coryat today was identical to yesterday's: 17200.
     I'll be eager to read the wagering discussion there's sure to be on the boards. Here's the thread.
     I played a few J! GSN reruns tonight. My Coryats:
originally 12-9-05: 23000
originally 12-12-05: 26000
originally 12-13-05: 14800

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Clues

     Lots of ammo in yesterday's episode...BOOM!
   




Today's contestants:

Dan Adkison

Carol Golliher

Nathan Fuller

     Dan was a one-time champ coming into today. Mr. Trebek is right - We have had some rough games lately. Clues are being left covered, and tonight was no exception. Also, I was 0/3 on finals this week when I started this episode. Read on to see if I found redemption!
     I started strong by sweeping G to H, but I kicked myself hard (okay, I could have) for mixing up "There Will Be Blood" with the correct response on this clue in The Most Popular Netflix Movies: "The popularity of this Coen Brothers film has nothing to do with Javier Bardem's bowl cut as killer Anton Chigurh." You may remember I covered this book and movie back when I was reading/watching Oscar-nominated Best Adapted Screenplay movies. To make matters worse, I read Upton Sinclair's "Oil!" (fab) and watched the movie from which it was supposedly adapted. (Take my advice; don't waste your time on it.)
     I did get this triple-stumper, in Yo-Yo Ma: "At a 2009 black tie gala, Yo-Yo accompanied this prime minister of Canada, who sang 'With a Little Help from My Friends.'"
     The next clue wound up being the last one of the round, in the same category. Oh yeah, it was a Daily Double. Champ Dan found it. He wagered 1000 of his 4800. Nathan had 2400 and Carol had 3800. This was the clue: "'Yearning of the Sword' is a Yo-Yo Ma cut on the soundtrack of this 2000 movie with Chow Yun-Fat & Michelle Yeoh." This was a barely-brainer for me, if I can coin a term. Dan got it, too.
     These Double Jeopardy categories seemed tailor-made for me. I mean, Game Shows? In the Bookstore? (See this conversation between me and Robert Thursday morning.) Science "B"? (It seemed a sign that I knew the answer to J!'s tweeted clue from that category.) And the icing on the cake: 4-Letter Crossword Regulars, which naturally I swept. In spite of that plus getting two more triple-stumpers, I managed to get just 15/28 right in the round.
     I have to wonder how in the heck anyone knew this in The Hazards of Dukes (Carol got it): "The Duke of Clarence was executed in the Tower London in 1478; Shakespeare said he was drowned in this." I'd never even heard that word before. I did get this next clue, a triple-stumper that Carol and poor Nathan both negged on in In the Bookstore: "'Destiny of the Republic' is 'A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President'--his lingering death."
     A weird coincidence related once again to tweets with Robert Thursday morning: He and I talked about auditioning for this show, and I later tweeted a picture of me the day I passed the test. (Dig the cute dress and haircut.) Oh yeah, the J! clue: "On the U.S. version of 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,' this is the lowest amount you earn for a correct answer." I thought the correct response was $500! But as I told Robert this morning, I'm out of the loop now that Millionaire doesn't air anymore where I live. Poor Nathan negged on this one, too. He and I negged on this one in the same category, and it put him in the hole: "'Is it bigger than a breadbox?' became a popular catchphrase on this classic game show." Then, happily, I got this triple-stumper instantly: "The movie 'Quiz Show' told the story of the scandal involving this 1950s game show."
     Dan found the Daily Double, in 4-Letter Crossword Regulars. I was happy he wagered all of his 4600 on this clue: "This fruit of the blackthorn tree flavors a type of gin."
     I thought I was doomed when I saw the Final Jeopardy category: Who Was President When...? But a happy surprise: This was the easiest final of the week so far, or at least the most gettable. The clue: "...the Jets beat the heavily favored Colts in Superbowl III." Phew! Sadly, Nathan got this one wrong, too, and lost 200 of his 1200. Dan got it right and added 9000 to his 9600. Carol missed this one. (All three contestants guessed something different!) She lost 6000, making Dan a two-time champ! He's good. I like watching him.
     My Coryat was a disappointing 17200. Here is the message board thread to yesterday's episode.

Fourscore?

Good morning!

Did you know that there are sources of the Gettysburg address (like the version that appears in the New York Times!) that claim that the speech opens with "Fourscore" as opposed to "Four Score"? Apparently both "4" and "80" count as the "number that opens the Gettysburg Address! For the uninitiated, I write and host a pub quiz in my home town of Guelph four nights a week -- Sunday through Wednesday...

Your contestants today: Dan Adkison and Elieen McQuiggan challenging knitting store owner and defending champion Mary Harris.

You know that when a Triple Stumper happens on the previous show, Alex will make some reference to the champion's low total the next day, and today was no exception!

J! round categories: I WANT A GREEN CAR, CHARACTERS BASED ON REAL PEOPLE, A PREFIXER UPPER, NEWSPAPERS, THE STAFF OF "THE DANA CARVEY SHOW", and CULTURES OF SOUTH AFRICA (a video category!)

Dan give himself off to a good start compared to his opponents, going 3/5 in CHARACTERS BASED ON REAL PEOPLE and found the first Daily Double on Clue 10 (Newspapers $800). At $2,400 early (to Eileen's $600 and Mary's $200), Dan looked to consolidate his advantage by doubling up. He saw the following clue: Published continuously for military personnel since World War II, it now has about 420,000 daily readers. Watching Waltons and M*A*S*H reruns daily made this a really easy clue for me, and Dan had no difficulty with it either, doubling his score!

At the break, your scores had Dan at 5600 to Eileen's 1800 and Mary's -800.

I was happy to get the following Triple Stumper (CHARACTERS $600): The character of Natty Bumppo in "The Leatherstocking Tales" was based on this frontiersman.

Eileen's interview said that she met her husband in the Amsterdam red light district -- when he asked her "do you come here often?" And she married him anyway!

Coming out of the break, a series of very long video clues (in both the SOUTH AFRICA category and a video clue in GREEN CAR) led to a slowdown of the round and leaving four clues in THE DANA CARVEY SHOW uncovered. I like seeing all 30 clues and I know I'm not alone! After the Jeopardy! round, Dan had $9800, Eileen $2600 and Mary $200.

Double Jeopardy! categories: THAT'S WHERE I DRAW THE LION, NOTABLE WOMEN, HOW 'BOUT THEM APPLES?, BOOKS ABOUT ROCK STARS, US RIVERS, THE FIRST LETTER IS... -- and it was a board much better suited to the Tournament of Champions in my opinion.

The round got off to a good start in US RIVERS and THE FIRST LETTER IS, with some good gets by all 3 players, but it screeched to a halt when Dan found the first Daily Double in BOOKS ABOUT ROCK STARS $800. Holding $15400 to Eileen's $5000 and Mary's $4600, he bet $5000 and then saw the following clue: "The Quiet One" - I bet both of my parents will get this instantly. I hope Dad gives Mom a chance to answer, though! I gave the same answer that Dan gave -- and Dan fell to $10,400.

The carnage continued on the $1200 ("Tommyland") and $2000 (From a singer & TV talent judge: "Does the noise in my head bother you?") clues.

Dan also saw the final Daily Double, in THAT'S WHERE I DRAW THE LION $1200, after Triple Stumpers on $400 and $800. He had $10,800 to Mary's $2600 and Eileen's $2200, and understandably bet only $1000. His video clue:

Carpaccio painted the lion as a symbol of St. Mark, patron of this city where Carpaccio lived.




Dan increased his score by $1000 with his correct response.

Later on in the LION category, I learned something: "The Peaceable Kingdom" has a lion. Frankly, I was sick of Jeopardy! referencing the painting in 2005, and I'm still sick of it in 2012. Other things on my list: Parson Weems and William Tell.

I didn't like Dan's strategy of trying to go after the high-valued clues while holding a lock game after Alex's "minute to go" signal. I would have immediately moved into the low-lying fruit (yes, pun intended) and killed time on clues worth $400 and $800. It worked out for him this time, as going into Final Jeopardy, the scores had Dan in a runaway with $14,600 (to Mary's $4200 and Eileen's $2200)

Your category: 1920s NOVELS

The clue: This title guy says, "Do you believe in my innocence, in the fiendishness of my accusers? Reassure me with a hallelujah!"

Eileen came up with the correct answer; Mary was unable to have one, and Dan ventured "The Great Gatsby" (I assume for lack of a better guess):

Eileen 2200 +0 = 2200
Mary 4200 -0 = 4200
Dan 14600 -1400 = 13200

Dan'll be returning tomorrow to defend his title, and I'll be returning next Monday!

My own Coryat: $19,000. 28 right, 2 wrong.

Shark Tale

     I was out shopping today when not one but two people, my friend Robert and my sister, tweeted/texted me, asking if I got today's final. Spoiler alert: I didn't. 'Kay?
   

Today's contestants:

Evan Nolan

Michelle LaLonde (another eye contact issue today!)

Mary Harris

     Michelle was a one-time champ at the top of the show. Mary was introduced as a knitting store owner. I find that cool, as I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do with myself now that I've been on the show. (I don't knit but I'm thinking of another business.) I was hoping Mr. Trebek would ask Mary if she knitted her sweater, but he didn't. For what it's worth, I can't believe someone doesn't like potatoes, either.
     Mr. Trebek opened the show noting the dearth of multiple-time champs. I'm glad, because I wouldn't mind if Beau Henson, the guy who defeated me, made it into the Tournament of Champions. He won three episodes. And I'd like to be in a ToC audience some day!
     I knew this 1000 clue in A Single Tree because I used to live in West Covina CA, about 7 miles from the town of the same name: "Connecticut has the charter this; France has the chapel this, with a room for prayer inside."
     How about this clue in What Makes It Go?? I didn't ring in on this one!:

     Three clues were still covered at the end of the Jeopardy round. The Daily Double, in Cowboy Talk, wound up being the last clue. Michelle found it. Mary had 3800 and Evan had 4600. Michelle wisely wagered all of her 1600 on this clue: "As a verb, it meant to shoot someone; as a noun, it referred to a rectangular bar of chewing tobacco." Michelle knew it right away, but I doubt I'd have gotten it. What a great way for her to end the round!
     I heard the audience laughing and had to look up from my Coryat sheet to see what was funny:

     I hoped to sweep Pack Your Bags once I knew what it was about, but I, like Mary, said "Samsonite" on this one:

     All these videos remind me, I hope to record the champions' panel discussion at the unofficial J! reunion next week. I got a new memory card in my phone, and I really really hope I can make this work, but I haven't done something like this before! (Edit: Now that I've published these I notice that the sound is barely there. I hope I didn't waste my reward points on a memory card, and I especially hope I can still record the panel! Anyone have any suggestions?)
     I was happy to see this clue, as I admire Ivanka and I read her book (and I own it): "Last name of Ivanka, who has a line of satchels & purses; we understand Dad's in NYC real estate." The part about "Dad" was superfluous! She's famous in her own right! And anyway, Ivanka always calls him "my father."
     I also hoped to sweep Celebrity Names, but I negged on this one when I rang in and couldn't come up with the name before Mary did: "Since his real last name was Jenkins, Elizabeth Taylor could have been Mrs. Jenkins twice." I did get this next clue in the same category, a triple-stumper: "This real first name of Mia Hamm is also the first name of an actress-granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway." Evan eyed the other categories, but he stuck with this one and found the Daily Double. He led with 5400 while Mary had 3800 and Michelle had 2800. Evan wagered 3200 on this one: "He got his name in utero after he kicked his pregnant mom as she was looking at a Da Vinci painting." Evan didn't get it, while I did.
     I love how Michelle dives for the higher-value clues when she finds out time is running out. She found this clue in We'll Leave Tonight that way: "On Oct. 15, 1946, the night his execution was ordered, this No. 2 Nazi took a 1-way trip via poison in his Nuremberg cell." I kicked myself while we waited for someone to ring in, because I had just seen this same guy in a clue maybe a day or two ago in one of the GSN reruns I refer to below.
     There were five clues left at the end of the Double Jeopardy round. This time the Daily Double was the second-to-last clue in the round, in We'll Leave Tonight. Michelle found it again, and she once again knew the correct response right away. She wagered 2000 of her 5600 while Mary had 7400 and Evan had 2200. This is the clue: "On June 20, 1791, she influenced her husband to flee Paris; too bad his picture was on the nation's paper money."
     The Final Jeopardy category was Museums. Here is the clue that got my friends' fingers moving: "For 2010 & 2011, it's gotten more visitors than any other single museum in the U.S." This was a triple-stumper. Evan lost all but $11. Mary lost 1500 of her 7400. Michelle lost 5500, making Mary the new champ. Maybe she'll wear another sweater tomorrow.
     Here's the message board thread from today's episode. My Coryat today was 19600.
     I had the pleasure of watching a couple of weekend reruns recently, though one was interrupted by a weather warning (11 clues lost). At least it wasn't a new episode, and besides, when I first watched the episode I was playing with a Jeopardy Challenger as opposed to using the Coryat method. So it's hard to tell how much I've grown. I did finish Kara Spak's first episode. My Coryat was the magical 28000.
     Then I felt energetic and watched a handful of GSN episodes overnight a few nights ago. My Coryats:
originally 12-6-05: 18000 (last time: 18400! Not cool!)
originally 12-7-05: 16800 (last time: 14200. Phew!)
originally 12-8-05: 16400 (I remember seeing this one but I don't have a record of it on this site.)
originally 1-27-06: 20800 (I don't believe I've seen this one on GSN before, but I'm sure we'll all see it again.)
originally 1-30-06: 22400 (Same as above.)