A moment of silliness

In that I thought we had found a new Ken Jennings. How silly!

As someone who was once called Mrs. Jennings (stay tuned for the story), I am always on the lookout for the next Ken Jennings. I guess that, in itself, is silly. Two in one lifetime?! I highly doubt it on the one hand and on the other, I can't help but watch a two-day (or even sometimes one-day) champ, admire his or her trivia and buzzer skills and think to myself, "Is this the next Ken?!"

This "next" Ken came out of nowhere. So much so that at the beginning of the game I even remarked out loud in an not-so-nice moment "What a loser!" The category was Cheteau "Dif" and Craig (our contestant on the far right) answered "What is Diffuse?" for the $400 clue which was correct and then for the Daily Double (which was his and only his to answer) he answered "What is Diffuse?". I was CONfused. How could this person had made it through the rigorous screening? Come on, now!

So, you can imagine my surprise when he came alive in Double Jeopardy and put the current champ (Roberta of "I learned to read through Jeopardy" fame) to shame. She ended up coming in last place (dead last). By Final Jeopardy, Craig had runaway with the game. His score was so high no one could even hope to win.

On another note about this game, there was a category called Sing Sing. Answers included blogger favorite Duran Duran and the Go-Gos. I quite enjoyed the creative category, if you must know.

So back to the original story of silliness which involved Craig, a collector of antique hair bottles, current paramedic, former paratrooper and all around great guy (I made that last part up myself). He never cracked a smile, he seemed very regimented and he had over $114,000 after five days. THIS is when the "next ken?" question crossed my mind. Well, let's just say it didn't happen. Josh took it away from him with a rather troublesome Final Jeopardy. One so troublesome that it left us to go quickly to the computer and find out the true story.
The category was Transportation News. Answer: This city's iconic routemaster vehicles were just shy of 50 year service when they were retired in 2005.
Out of the three contestants, only Josh (the new champ) answered correctly but we were certainly puzzled. The answer was London and having just returned from a trip there (one of the best weekends of the year - ok, best day of my life!) and having ridden on the double decker buses to and fro the Ealing tube station but a mere two weeks before, we were screaming "bullshit" at the TV. What a sham! Until we read this. Those were not the vehicles we rode during our trip.

So, let's just acknowledge that this posting is more about last week's Jeopardy. It's most likely due to the fact that there was a surge of excitement here in AALJ land so only after I could settle down did it seem right to post again. The first was from the posted comment from June 14 when I found out there were readers of the blog NOT listed on the right hand side of the page. And truth be told, there are really only three readers listed as Jeremy isn't quite as excited about both watching and reading regularly about Jeopardy as some other people (yours truly) might be. The second was the post from Berlin. We are now officially multi-national as we've had postings from the US, England, AND Germany. But why keep track of these things, 'tis better to continue on to the one remaining anecdote of the day.
When and why was I called Mrs. Jennings?

The synopsis brings us to the Fall of 2004 when Ken has not started to make headlines but loyal (ahem) Jeopardy watchers know all about him. I mention him to my co-worker and give daily updates. We swap Jeopardy stories (perhaps the real beginnings of my fanaticism) where I learn of her Jeopardy watching grandmother. (scandalous!)
Next thing I know I am running the NYC Marathon in November 2004 and at the 12th or 13th mile come across friends in Queens cheering me on. There are a few signs made of oak tag (such a good word) with words of spirit - Run Jess Run! And there is one that makes me smile the widest.
"Go Mrs. Jennings!!!"

So there you have it. At the time, I had been engaged for 60 days but was taking the (nick)name of another. Now that is scandalous!