Jeopardy: Don't Dream It's Over

Today marks the beginning of the 2009-2010 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions. Though I qualified for the field of contestants, I will not be appearing, having been eliminated early this year. There were two major factors in my elimination: (1) there are three college tournament winners for this qualification period, since there have been two college tourneys since the last ToC and they have a leftover champion who couldn't do the last one because the Air Force said so; and (2) there was a quick pace of contestants, this season especially, who won 4 games and were done. Since the qualification ranks players by number of wins first and money second, even a powerhouse three-game winner like Kevin Joyce, who won a crazygonuts $111k in his three games, was eliminated. I should note that if they went by money first and then number of wins, Kevin would be in but I still wouldn't. Cue sad-sack "Christmastime is Here" music.

But: it's OK, because my Jeopardy! experience was one hell of a ride, and the achievement of a lifetime goal! Seriously, a little over two years ago I took the online test for fun, thinking it would be great to be on the show but with no expectations. And I was invited to audition, in my home city no less, and was invited on to the show on my first try. I went on, again with no expectations, and hoping only to not humiliate myself and maybe win a game. And I won three games and got to be in the contestant Hall of Fame, earning a hefty chunk of change in the middle of a tough recession. So, despite the opportunities (and there are plenty) for counter-factual games of "what if I'd remembered What's In My Wallet and won one more game?", I have very little to complain about, and far more for which to be thankful. Hooray!

The matchups for this week's Tournament quarterfinal games have been posted, and I'm excited to root for my fellow Season 25 players Liz Murphy, Justin Bernbach, and Stefan Goodreau.

Make your nerdy life nerdier!

I've long been fascinated by the ways in which information can be represented graphically. I love maps, charts, graphs, and the like, especially when it is presented in unusual, inventive, or elegant ways. I'm a fan of the work of Edward Tufte, and if his seminars weren't bloody $380 a piece, I might consider going to one (he highlights the chart shown here of Napoleon's army's size during the Russian campaign of 1812 as perhaps the best "probably the best statistical graphic ever drawn"). Likewise, I want to read all of these posters in detail.

It may come as no surprise, then, that I am a visual learner, and like to make use of visual arrangements of information when trying to learn it. And the act of putting said information together myself only helps cement the information. Hence my Jeopardy notebook. But I find myself from time to time doodling lists, tables, or graphs to wrap my brain around something. To explain my own oddities better, I thought I'd share a few with you.

First, a simple one. I found myself at lunch one day for some reason reading about the history of the NFL in Los Angeles. When I was growing up, there were two NFL teams in LA, but both left for greener pastures when I was in high school. I could never remember which teams were where, when (especially since the Raiders were originally in Oakland, then went to LA for a little over a decade, and then returned to Oakland). I decided to make a little timeline:

OK, next is something to keep track of current events, specifically the 2009 AL Central pennant race between the Twins and Tigers. At some point I picked up the habit, inherited from my father, of marking up a Twins pocket schedule with wins & losses. So this is hanging up in my cube:

I added the pre-All-Star-Break record as a midsummer stock-taking of the team. Anyway, with less than two weeks remaining in the season, I decided to start keeping track of not just what the Twins do, but also the Tigers. Last week I stuck this on my schedule:

Green means good and red means bad. The blue number is the Twins' position in the standings relative to the Tigers. From here on out, the Tigers have the "harder" schedule, but when you're in the AL Central, everything is relative.

And I do this all the time. On the practical side there are to-do lists and tables at work. On the self-interested side a calendar tracking Jeopardy contestants who qualify for the 2010 Tournament of Champions (Melissa and I are also keeping a spreadsheet on this one). And then there's the trivial. A hand-filled map of Minneapolis neighborhoods. Colored maps of the 2008 US Presidential primary and general elections. A spreadsheet of Brave New Workshop shows and casts since I started working there in 2001. Venn diagrams of classic rock band personnel. It is a disease.

Jeopardy: sense of scale

The 2009 Jeopardy College Tournament is this week, and whoever wins it is guaranteed a spot in the 2010 Tournament of Champions along with previous College winner Joey Beachum (prevented by the Air Force from competing in the 2009 ToC), Liz Murphy, maybe Kevin Joyce, and maybe maybe me.

The official site now has a set of photos of the College players going through the process, and it shows a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff I was yammering about for weeks. Check it out.

Jeopardy: Potpourri

To close out Major Jeopardy Blogging Operations, here are some Jeopardy-related bits that fell along the wayside. The first three are answers to frequently-asked questions.

1. How the little interview bits with Alex work
When you audition, you fill out a set of five sample stories that might be good for the contestant interviews during the show. These are only used at the audition, I'm assuming to see how you respond to questions and how you deal with talking out loud in front of others.

When you're booked, in addition to the ten-page non-disclosure and release form (which says you won't spill the beans about any show results, lest they take away your winnings, and allows them to use your image from the show in perpetuity throughout the universe on any media in existence or yet to be invented (really)), you fill out more stories and questions and other little tidbits. What's an unusual talent or trait? I enjoy using phrases that went out of style half a century ago. What's one of your earliest memories? I bit a kid at Chuck E. Cheese. Any interesting travel experiences? I went to Space Camp with Chelsea Clinton. And so on.

When you arrive in the green room, contestant coordinator Tony Pandolfo has a card with four of your stories selected from the many, many nuggets you've provided. He will ask you to select one of them to be highlighted. On my first day, Alex was not going with what people had selected. This is not uncommon, I guess, so you have to know what's on the card and be ready to chitchat about any of the stories. I had picked the story about writing for The Onion, and he didn't get around to it until my third game, after talking about Al Italia losing my luggage and talking about improv on national TV.

2. What I'm Doing With My Winnings
Details haven't been worked out, but roughly the following:

• Taxes.
• Other taxes.
• Bills.
• A second bathroom, upstairs.
• A nice TV. Not too big.
• Misc.
  

That'll probably cover it.

Also, they tell you to expect your winnings from 90-120 days after taping (so, end of April to end of May), but the sheets you sign for your prizes in each game say it may be as late as 120 days after airing (end of July). So I haven't joined a sushi of the week club just yet (incidentally, if I ran such a club, Unagi would be the sushi of the week every week except for special weeks reserved for Otoro. Om nom nom nom.).

3. What are the eligibility requirements referenced in the end credits of the show?
I don't think I know all of them, but they include: being 18 years or older, not having appeared on any other game show in the past year, not being a candidate for public office (interesting note: John McCain was a contestant back in the Art Fleming days before he went to Vietnam), I have never been convicted of a felony, I'm not being paid to plug anything, I'm not competing against anyone I know without telling the producers so beforehand, and so on.

Back in the 80s, a woman named Barbara Lowe won five games and thus qualified for the Tournament of Champions, but before the ToC came around, it was discovered that she was ineligible to play on the show (I think because she'd been on another show under a different name in the preceding year). I believe her winnings were withheld, and I know she wasn't allowed in the Tournament.

4. Shameless Self-Promotion: The Online Jeopardy Community
There are two sites that track what's going down on Jeopardy on a daily basis. The first, which I've referenced before, is the J! Archive, which posts every clue every day, and basically allows you to read the entire game from start to finish, and track each player's every move:
Game One
Game Two
Game Three
Game Four

Second, Game Show Kingdom is a fellow blogspot blog that recaps various game shows every day. Their summaries are like SportsCenter highlights, with a mix of fact and commentary. Each entry has Jeopardy down near the bottom:
Game One
Game Two
Game Three
Game Four

5. Shameless Self-Promotion: The Press
I've gotten ink in a handful of random locations, including the US Congressional newspaper The Hill (due to my opponent Meg being a staffer for Sen. Lautenberg). But I wanted especially to mention one in particular, which was that my Great Uncle Cork in Michigan was very sweet to send a notice to the Grand Haven Tribune about my appearance.

6. One more random story
During the pre-rehearsal meetings on the second day, one contestant went into the restroom in the green room, and came out looking a little frantic. This person ran to their bag and pulled out a stack of flash cards. Somebody asked if anything was wrong.

"I can't remember who wrote Heart of Darkness!"

The rest of the room chimed in with "Joseph Conrad," and this person was relieved when they found the card they were looking for, confirming they'd covered this.

I think we all knew the feeling: that one piece of information we would need would elude us at a crucial moment. I know I wish I'd flipped through my wallet just before I went on again.

---

Barring my getting into the Tournament next year, that's the end of the road for my Jeopardy experience, for now. Thanks to all the far-flung family, friends, classmates, friends, and acquaintences who have cheered me on and sent their congratulations. I've tried to reply to any direct questions I've received, but I'm sure I missed some along the way. In any case, thank you for your support, and for reading.

Typically sporadic posting on a variety of nerdy topics will resume presently.

Jeopardy: Another day, another dollar? Game Four!

Part of an ongoing series. Written before this episode aired.
Contains spoilers of tonight's episode.

It was January 28th now. Happy birthday to my brother and to Rakim. Early to rise. Repeated Tuesday's breakfast routine, including listening to some Ennio Morricone to start the day right. There was a whole new crew of people with garment bags in the lobby, in addition to Heather and John returning from yesterday. On board the bus, we returners answered questions about the game. This continued while we gathered in the waiting area in the Sony parking structure and waited for more folks to arrive. I was slightly embarrassed to be in the middle of repeating something funny Glenn had said on Tuesday (that you should be sure to add a verb when writing your Final Jeopardy question -- you don't want to be the guy who wrote "WHO THOMAS EDISON" on TV), when Mr. Kagan himself arrived.

In the green room I was sent straight into makeup as Inta had been the day before while Maggie once again held court and got everybody up to speed. We went through our morning rehearsal, and I was delighted that the crew was warming up the screens on the game board using the following clip from Animaniacs, which had been one of the study songs on my iPod:



Back in the green room, the challengers were named. Anne from Stow, MA (shoutout to Whitney Davidson), a new contestant, and John from Kansas City, were called out. John was the contestant I'd spent the most time chatting with, who admitted he was itching to go up against me in a game. We all shook hands and headed out.

Fourth Hometown Howdy: "Hey, Twin Cities, this is Fred Beukema from Minneapolis, and I'm the returning champion on Jeopardy. By the time you see this, we might even have another Senator!"

If only that were true.

Today's was a tough board, and both Anne and John were solid on the buzzer. I committed the cardinal Jeopardy sin of flat-out guessing on a question, in Military Abbreviations. The answer was what the tactical abbreviation C2 stood for, and, influenced by being in the middle of Battlestar Galactica, I asked "What is Condition 2?" Ooh, sorry, they were looking for command & control. Command & control.

This is the game in which I started swearing under my breath when I got Daily Doubles. There came a point where it seemed like every time I got one, it was in a category I didn't like. In any case, I really hope the mic didn't pick that up. In the oblique "famous people as aerobics instructors" category, I knew that Indiana University was the tease-out clue, but I wasn't connecting the Kinsey Institute with IU, and all I could come up with was Bobby Knight.

[Hindsight addendum — Just watched the show when it aired, and here's a piece of advice for any future Jeopardy contestants: do not be afraid of a True Daily Double if it's in a category you like. I could have done some real damage in that "THE" Nation category. But given that I was not seeing clues I liked in recent DDs, I was staying conservative.]

Overall, this game felt like a question of survival more than anything, and I could feel it slipping away from me. I knew this had the potential to become a self-fulfilling prophecy, so in Double Jeopardy took it an opportunity to shake off what had happened so far and focus on my buzzer timing. I had been trying to anticipate the Go! Lights, but was locking myself out more often than not. So I stared very intently at each clue as it was read, keeping the Lights in my peripheral vision, and let video game reflexes run the buzzer. It helped, and at the end of regular play, I had managed to eke out a lead.

I'm very happy that I managed to do that, but it was not enough to shut Anne or John out. It would all come down to Final Jeopardy. The category was revealed, and while I don't remember the exact name, I'm pretty sure it was "Painters." Now, let me draw your attention back to this unfortunate bit of foreshadowing from a few weeks ago, my Jeopardy studying to-do list. The circled items, unfortunately, represent things I didn't get around to before heading out:
Art. Blerg. If I could have safely done so, I would have bet very little or nothing. But the others were close enough that I'd have to bet enough to cover either one of them doubling their score.

Anyway, the clue boiled down to "On March 30th, 1746 in Spain, and 1853 in the Netherlands, these two painters were born." So I started thinking of painters. The Spaniard was surprisingly easy, as Goya (pictured, left) was the only big one who fit the time period. At this point, I think there was smoke coming out of my ears. Now, the Dutchman... Hm. Well, there's Rembrandt. I don't think that's right, he's older. Same with Vermeer. Bosch is way too old. De Kooning is too late... and so on. All of this missing the obvious 19th Century Dutch painter. You know, the one who did most of his work in France and cut his ear off and was played by Kirk Douglas in that movie and painted Starry Night, which is on one of the credit cards that was in my wallet in the green room at that exact moment. Running out of time, I went with Rembrandt (pictured, upper right).

John got Van Gogh, if I remember correctly, which meant I now knew I was wrong, and had to hope Anne got one or the other wrong. She didn't, so I knew I'd narrowly lost a very tough game. In the only bit of post-game chatter I recall, Alex commented on this being a hard game and how the writers expected Goya to be the harder part of the FJ clue. I likened my brain to a car refusing to turn over on a cold morning.

I signed for my $2000 consolation prize and Melissa and I smiled at each other. I grabbed my stuff from the green room, as did John, and we joined my family and friend Pete in the audience. We decided to stick around and at least watch the games taped before lunch, especially since Heather was likely to be up, and we wanted to cheer her on.

Everybody loses on Jeopardy eventually, even if it's Ken Jennings in his 75th consecutive game. While it's easy to be philosophical, it doesn't make finally bouncing out any more fun. This isn't really about the money, or the competition, or the fact that Alex seemed excited that I was winning (just before the last game started, I overheard him chatting with someone behind the game board, and the only words I recognized were "Beukema Week." Aw.). Actually, it was all those things, too. But most of all, I just wanted to keep playing. The game is fun. I want more, just as Bob Harris said he did.

Now, here's the thing. As Alex explained at the beginning of today's show, with three wins I became the first person to qualify for the next Tournament of Champions in 2010. The top 13 players between now & then, by number of wins, will join two College Tournament winners in the competition.

It's going to be a long year.

Next Jeopardy blog: Leftovers!

Jeopardy: Game Three!

Part of an ongoing series. Written before this episode aired.
Contains spoilers of tonight's episode.

Hometown Howdy: "Hey Twin Cities, this is Fred Beukema from Minneapolis. Circle me, Bert: I'm the returning champion on Jeopardy." Other than Melissa, nobody in the studio had any idea what I was talking about. A couple of the coordinators asked me about it when they came to stand by the lecterns during the first commercial break.

In my interview bit with Alex, I talked about my time writing headlines for the Onion back when I was a senior in high school & first-year in college. This is the headline I specifically referenced.

Also, after lunch, I mentioned to Tony, the contestant coordinator who handles getting the biographical information to Trebek, that Alex had been mispronouncing my name all day. Tony said something, and Alex got it perfectly, but unfortunately, Johnny Gilbert had now picked up his previous pronunciation. Gilbert re-recorded my intro during the first commercial break.

First off: yes, I know lamprey. But my brain wasn't releasing information to me at that moment.

Meg and Peter had me on the run. My buzzer timing felt off pretty consistently, and one or the other of them was beating me on the buzzer as often as (or more than) I was beating both of them. Categories that I loved, and was excited to play (mythological couples, especially, all of which I knew) passed me by, mostly answered by others. I'm relieved I got the volcano one right, as I was feeling iffy on that. I think I'd happened to read something about Hawaiian volcanoes in the prior weeks of January.

Other than a brief lead at the first commercial break, I think I was perpetually behind in this game. By the end of Double Jeopardy, I was in second but within range of Peter. Trebek revealed the Final Jeopardy category: "19th Century Construction," and Peter tipped his hand: "oh, man," he said, only nominally under his breath. I knew that my winning would depend on him getting this wrong. For my FJ wager, I'd have to assume that he would. I bet to prevent Meg overtaking me if she doubled her score.

Thankfully for me, his worry about the category was borne out. Although the Suez Canal did float through my mind as a 19th-Century construction project on the Sinai Peninsula, canals don't usually get names that sound like titles of artwork. The only major, modern construction project that fit the name was the Statue of Liberty.

This was the end of the day's taping, so as I got off stage, I signed the paperwork for each game's winnings. Three games, $69k. Wow. Neat! I don't think it had hit me yet. Looking up at Melissa, it looked like it had hit her. Stopping back in the green room to gather my things, Heather and John mentioned they'd come up with a new nickname: "the Twin City Terror." Sounds like a serial killer, but it made me laugh.

As we stepped, blinking, out of the building into the sun, I was congratulated by various audience members. Hugs and congrats from Melissa's family and from my college buddy Pete, who lives in LA and I was only now able to say hi to, although he'd been in the audience all day. This was the first I'd been able to interact with Melissa since leaving the hotel in the morning. She was mostly speechless, other than the occasional "wow!" Hadn't hit me yet, although I was chuckling from time to time.

Upon returning to the hotel, I called my parents and brother to share the news. It still hadn't hit me, although the chuckling had expanded into full-on jags of periodic laughter. That night Melissa and her family and I went to a nice Italian place in Santa Monica to celebrate (I'm glad I didn't know their slogan was "Life is a combination of magic and pasta" until just now: barf).

We went to bed earlyish again, and I had to check myself: I wanted to win two more now, get to the five episodes that used to mean retirement from the game, a car, and an automatic invitation to the Tournament of Champions. That way lies madness. Game at a time, I recited, play the game that's in front of you, and don't think of outcomes or expectations.

Mostly, though, I was having a blast and just wanted to keep playing the game, regardless of winning.

Next Jeopardy blog, to be published after Monday's game: A new day of taping, and game four!

Jeopardy: Game Two!

Part of an ongoing series. Written before this episode aired.
Contains spoilers of tonight's episode.

My second Hometown Howdy, less thought-out than the previous game's, will not be shown on the Jeopardy website:
"Hey Twin Cities, this is Fred Beukema from Minneapolis. Let's see if I can make it a twin win as the returning champion on Jeopardy."

Kinda dumb. Ken Jennings is lucky they only had to record one Howdy back in his day.

I remember less about my show with Mark and Sonia than my first. I don't think I could name for you any categories or questions from this game, except the Final Jeopardy, which I misremembered as being from the previous game. I'm sure when I see this one on TV, it'll all come rushing back. The image I do remember from this episode is of being in a buzzer battle with Sonia, and being happily surprised when the red lights on the backside of my lectern would light up.

I hadn't really dealt with my bunched right sock during the break, so once again, my toes went numb on and off throughout the game.

And once again, I was lucky to get myself into a lock game going into FJ. Today's response (again, pictured) wasn't as immediate as the previous one. My first instinct was to wonder if there was some Pope from the era in question who had actually spoken out about indulgences. That didn't sound right, and the obvious answer popped out of the soup between my ears.

Holy cow: now I was a two time Jeopardy champion! This was beyond any expectations I had for myself when I went out to the show, and it was a lot of fun.

Now it was lunchtime, and the remaining contestants were cheerfully competitive. They had come up with a nickname for me (“The Hammer”) and jokingly (?) took out contracts with each other to take me down. We were sequestered with the contestant coordinators in the Sony canteen for lunch, which was delicious. The grill had a lot of options, made to order. My turkey burger was delicious, but I wasn't really hungry. We chatted about where we were from, our jobs, stories we'd heard from previous contestants, and about our phobias. Several claustropobes and acrophobes in the group, if I remember correctly. I mentioned I'd been working on some water tower projects, which have the unique distinction of having tight, enclosed spaces sitting at the top of 100ft+ drops. Yeesh.

Peter, Meg, Heather and John, the remaining contestants, had all seemed particularly formidable in the rehearsals, and this was reinforced by our brief after-lunch practice. My adrenaline was starting to wane and I was losing on the buzzer more often. Upon our return to the green room, I learned the last show of the day would be against Meg and Peter, who had learned that morning that they had a mutual friend. Heather and John would be back the next day, along with a new batch of contestants.

In the meantime, I prepared myself for what I expected to be a rough game.

Next Jeopardy blog, to be published after Friday's game: Game Three!

Jeopardy: The Big Show

Part of an ongoing series. Please note that this entry was written before the episode aired.

First, we recorded our Hometown Howdies (NOTE! This link will expire on Monday, 3/30). I’d heard that KARE 11 in the Twin Cities never, ever uses them, so I knew content was fairly unimportant. The weekend prior, on the Filmspotting podcast, hosts Adam & Matty had recited a scene from Purple Rain for their Massacre Theater segment. Thus:

“Hey Twin Cities, this is Fred Beukema from Minneapolis. Now that I’ve purified myself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka, I’m ready to take on Jeopardy.”

Everybody says this, because it’s true, but Alex Trebek is as nice and as dryly goofy in person as he is on TV. As a contestant, you don’t get much chance to interact with him beyond what’s shown on the show. As far as we can tell, he lives in the corner of the studio behind the game board. The moment when he walked out to start the game ranks as one of the more surreal in my life. “Hey, I know that guy! That’s Alex Trebek. Wait, he’s talking to us…”

I don’t think it will (have) be(en) shown, but the moment the categories were announced, a smile spread over my face. The first category was The Sopranos, which was a favorite show of mine over the near-decade that it intermittently ran. Also in the first set was a Before & After category, which I find challenging but fun. This was going to be enjoyable.

When the episode airs, I plan to keep track of two numbers: (1) how many times I was able to get a question on a rebound after someone else got it wrong and (2) how many times I was saved from giving an incorrect response by someone else beating me on the buzzer. My memory is foggy, but I recall benefiting from both.

The game itself is fast, addictive, and fun. Play accordingly. I had to immediately laugh off any incorrect response or any longer stretch of getting beaten on the buzzer. Otherwise all I could expect would be a tail-spin. I was still pretty nervous, and I think that nervousness gave me an edge on the buzzer, although I found that the toes of my right foot went slightly numb during the game due to a slightly bunched sock, which was distracting.

During the first commercial break, Trebek came around to take pictures with me and Beth. When he lined up with me, he started repeating my name, like he was trying to place something. “Fred, Fred, Fred, Fred, Fred… Flintstone!” They took the picture. I want to note that he made that same concerned-looking face with every contestant we saw go through the show.

In Double Jeopardy, I was glad for the other sopranos category, this time about opera singers. My Dad is an opera/classical guy, and I’m a classical guy, so I expected at least a couple questions to be in my wheelhouse. Beverly Sills I knew because she was on the Muppet Show, and I knew her Bubbles nickname because a copy of one of her books sat on top of our piano for as far back as I could remember. And the only reason I’ve even heard of Leontyne Price was because my uncle put a song by her on a Christmas mix tape 25 years ago, which we listened to every year, and 6 years ago I scraped the same mix together on CD for my family. So I happened to have looked her up at that time.

In addition to the friendliness of the show’s staff, it’s important to know that your fellow contestants, and their families, are probably also awesome. My group cheered each other on from show to show, and the families did the same. At some point, while Melissa was nervously leaning forward during the game Sonia’s father patted her on the shoulder: “It’s gonna be ok. He’s doing well!”

Through the game, I managed to build up some momentum. I don’t remember whether I got a Daily Double in that first game or not, but I tried very hard to keep my eyes off the scores unless I was wagering. When I looked up at the pre-Final Jeopardy commercial break, I was delighted to discover I had a lock game: as long as I wagered sanely, I’d won.

Daily Doubles and Final Jeopardy make me more nervous than the regular gameplay: you can’t avoid guessing on something you don’t necessarily know. I could have wagered more than I did, but I remember deciding to stick with a couple thousand (or something) in case I got a stumper. Having a lock game is the rare case in Jeopardy when you can look at your score and think of it as actual money. Lit is a bad category for me, so I decided to play it safe and only bet $2k, though I could have safely bet a bit more.

That the FJ question (pictured, right) ended up being pretty straight-forward was a nice little bonus. So now I was the Jeopardy champion, with winnings over $20k. That’s ridiculous, I thought, and imagined bills disappearing.

After Final Jeopardy, they bring the contestants to mid-stage for the awkward chitchat. I have very little recollection of what we talked to Alex about at the end of my games.

After the taping, they immediately un-mic the winner and scoot them back to the greenroom while the 2nd- and 3rd-place contestants sign their prize forms. On the way out, I snuck a glance at Melissa in the audience, who was beaming/stunned. I gave her a subtle thumbs-up before heading out of the studio.

So at this point, I'd achieved the two things I set out to do in my appearance:
1. Avoid humiliating myself.
2. Win a game.
Sweet. Everything from here on would be gravy.

Back in the green room, I made a quick stop in the bathroom before changing jacket & tie and heading back to the makeup chair. The next players had been selected, and it was Sonia and Mark. We all got wired for sound, and headed back out to play.

Next Jeopardy blog: Defending champeen!

So, that happened...

And of course my eyes were mostly closed.

March 25th!

Photo courtesy Jeopardy! Productions, Inc.

Jeopardy: From Sony Pictures Studios, this! is!

Part of an ongoing series.

The stage is big and blue and cold. I was happy to find that the individual panels of the game board are bigger and closer to the podium than they seem on TV. That said, I was still glad I'd recently had my glasses prescription updated. They taught us how to use the light pen for writing our names and playing Final Jeopardy (write big and slow). We went through a full game in real-time with Glenn as host and with contestants rotating in and out to give everyone a feel for the flow and the signaling device (keep your thumb on the button and eliminate any wind-up motions when you ring in; I liked bracing the bottom of the buzzer against the desk).

When a clue is revealed, Alex reads it, and when he's done, a guy at the production table flips a switch that activates the signaling devices as well as a series of small white lights running up either side of the game board. These are the so-called "Go! Lights." If you ring in before that guy flips that switch, you're locked out for a crucial quarter of a second, and someone will beat you if they know the response. Bob Harris practiced, and advocates, Jedi Mastery of the Go! Lights: anticipate Trebek's last syllable, pause imperceptibly, then ring in. Ignore the lights, in other words, and feel the timing. I found during practice that this usually made me ring in too early, that a couple decades of video gaming had my reflexes to the point that I was better off watching for the lights to ignite.

To the left of the game board is a big flatscreen TV (you can see its corner in the photo above), on which they play video clues. Above this is a hole in the wall behind which are the two cameras that point at the players head-on. Above that is the scoreboard. When you see someone looking up and slightly to their left during a Daily Double, they're checking out the scores. It's a good idea not too look at the scores too often during gameplay; the more you're thinking about the scores, the less you're playing the game.

(If you're a visual learner, check out these photos from the set during the 2004 Tournament of Champions. The details have changed a little, but the relative positioning of everything is the same.)

Here's roughly how a game goes down: the contestants will be mic'd and marched out to the lecterns. Each contestant will record short and long Hometown Howdies. A guy with a handheld camera will tape some goofy little promotional bit that may or may not be used. Johnny Gilbert will announce the show number and taping and air dates. The music and CG intro will play and Johnny will introduce the players, including the returning champ's winnings (they ask new players to applaud the champ), and then Alex (applauding for the host is a good idea, too). Alex will say a few words, then get the game started with the champ selecting first. After about 15 questions is the first commercial break, during which time Alex will stand with the new players for a souvenir photo to be mailed later (as much as 90 days after taping, which is when they send prize checks). During breaks in general, Alex will re-record clues to correct for pronunciation as necessary, and then chat with the audience. The contestant coordinators will come out at this time to bring water bottles to the players and hang around in case you need to puke or contest a ruling on a question. Also, the makeup artist will come to see if you've gotten shiny.

During the third commercial break, just before Final Jeopardy, you make your wager based on the scores and how you feel about the category. They give you scratch paper and a marker to do math, and will apparently stop the show if you need more time to crunch numbers. If you write something with the light pen but want to change something, they will reset it for you. Once you're satisfied, you lock it in with a button on the screen. Once everybody's ready, they will change the screen for Final Jeopardy response input, and tell you whether the response will start with Who or What, so you can write that during the break. I guess they got tired of having to disqualify people for not answering in the form of a question during FJ. At this time, Glenn will remind everyone that when they're answering, they should add a verb, so they won't end up with "Who George Washington?" on TV.

Back from commercial, and then a 10-second Closed Captioning ad, most likely for eggs. Then Alex reveals the clue, and the Think Music probably starts. If for some reason the music cart doesn't play, the stage manager will yell out ten-second intervals (I was glad to not have to witness this option, as it sounds stressful). If your pen doesn't work, you're to use the Sharpie to write on a card in front of you that's got WHO pre-scrawled on one side and WHAT pre-scrawled on the other. Thirty seconds, and the Think Music, are over. Responses and wagers are revealed, a champion is crowned, Alex shakes hands (unless, as the week before we taped, he's still too injured from dropping a jackhammer on his foot. Yes, really.), and while commercials roll, the contestants are lined up by Alex for awkward chitchat during the credits.

Rinse, repeat. Five times a day (usually), two days a week, a couple weeks a month.

So. They ran us through a fake version of all of that in real time, and then a more relaxed run-through without all the rigmarole to get everyone comfy with the game. Between auditions and rehearsals, it seems, they burn a lot of practice questions.

Now, three hours after we got on the bus at the hotel, we were led from the studio. Upon our return to the greenroom, two contestants were announced to face Inta, our returning champion from Ontario. I was not one of them, so I joined the rest of the pool in the audience, scrupulously avoiding making contact with my family and friends in the audience. The auditorium seats about 130 or so. The podiums on stage are angled so contestants can only see the half of the seating reserved for tourists and others who are just there to see a game. Friends and family are seated in a section roughly at 9 O'Clock for the players, with the contestant pool quarantined in the front section adjacent.

Watching the March 9th episode was a trip. Playing along with the show from this perspective is exciting in a way watching at home isn’t, but also nerve-wracking as you watch some categories fly by that you wish you’d gotten and some you’re glad you didn’t. I tapped my thumb on my knee, trying to keep my buzzer timing down. Peter from Philadelphia and I muttered answers under our breath, very quietly.

The game was good. All three players were competitive, though Barry from had a rough time with the Daily Doubles he uncovered. There was at least one stoppage at the uncovering of a Daily Double, at which time they turned the contestants around so they wouldn't be exposed to revealed information while The Powers That Be could fiddle with the gameboard software, which had hit a slight glitch. At the end of the episode, Dana from Georgia had won. Alex announced that she would have a couple weeks to relax while the show went to Vegas for the Tournament of Champions. The contestant pool chuckled bitterly, as we knew better.

Robert approached the front of the risers and announced that Beth and I would be facing off against Dana in the next game. So we were hustled off to the green room for bathroom breaks and makeup touch-up while Dana did a quick change. Ten minutes later, we were led back to take our places on the stage.

STAY CLAM!

Next Jeopardy blog, to be published on or after March 25th: My game.

Jeopardy: in which I ride a series of shuttle buses

Part of an ongoing series.

Last time, I was obsessing over Final Jeopardy betting strategy. And was on the plane heading to LA.

The night we got in, January 26th, the night before my tape date, I was reasonably nervous, but trying to stay frosty. Waiting for the shuttle at the airport, Melissa and I eyed the other folks standing at the curb, trying to guess if any were also contestants. Another couple got on the shuttle for the Radisson Los Angeles Westside (pictured), the semi-official hotel of Jeopardy. It turned out that Sonia was indeed another contestant, and had flown out from Boston with her boyfriend. She seemed nice and also frostily nervous.

As we arrived at the hotel it was getting late for us Central Timers. We ate in the hotel's bar as I flipped through the notebook, wondering what I was going to wish I'd studied more. Melissa's parents had driven down from the Central Valley to cheer me on, too. Once they'd arrived and said hello, we went to bed. In the morning I assembled my multiple changes of clothes for potential back-to-back tapings, ate some breakfast (yogurt, granola & fruit — no good being jittery!) and we went down early to gather with the other contestants for the shuttle to the studio. Sizing-up of the competition was inevitable. People in nice clothes without any makeup on eyed each other before tentatively introducing themselves.

Sonia's parents had come out to see her play, and her mother was determined to discover who among the people in the lobby were there for the show. She would report back to the handful of us who had already introduced ourselves, with debriefings like, "he's here for the game, but he doesn't seem very talkative."

The shuttle arrived and the lot of us with our business clothes and garment bags and un-made-up faces said goodbye to our loved supporters and piled in. There were nine of us, not a full day's pool of contestants; I figured others must have been arriving separately. While "Yellow Submarine" played on the driver's radio, we discovered that almost everyone in the van had taken or, in some cases, taught a statistics class. Two contestants found that they had a fairly close mutual friend through connections in Washington, DC. People casually mentioned places around the world they'd traveled or lived for a time. Everybody was impressive. I figured I was probably screwed but continued to force myself to let go of expectations, of results. I’d come to LA prepared to bounce out with the $1000 third-place consolation prize and the experience to talk about. I recommend this mindset. At the same time, I wanted, really badly, to win at least one game.

We arrived at Sony Pictures Studios' Overland Ave gate, and were ushered into a waiting area in the parking ramp. Another contestant arrived on her own. We went around the circle and introduced ourselves. John from Kansas City. Peter from Philadelphia. Beth from Tulsa. Heather from North Carolina. Dana from Georgia. Inta from Toronto. Meg from Washington. Sonia from Boston. Barry from New York. Fred from Minneapolis. Pretty much everybody from the eastern half of the continent; odd, I thought.

Contestant coordinators Corrina and Glenn, who you may remember from the audition, arrived to herd us onto another short bus. They welcomed us and began The Morning Orientation. Turn off your phones. If you absolutely need to make a call, a staffer has to listen in. No wandering around or talking to anyone who isn't a contestant coordinator, another contestant, or someone who has been introduced to you for a specific show-related purpose. And so on. We drove a few blocks through the narrow streets of the former MGM lot, and pulled up next to Pat Sajak's big giant head on the side of a building (Wheel of Fortune tapes next door and shares some staff with Jeopardy). Our bags were poked by security while we walked through a metal detector. Finally, we were ushered into the green room, which I think I remember as purple. I could be wrong about that.

One of the most important things for you to understand about the experience is that everybody involved with the show is really, really nice. Warm, friendly, and funny. You may learn this during the audition process, but it’s really driven home in the morning meetings. The contestant coordinators are all there to prepare you to win money from their bosses, and they love their job. We were greeted by Robert James, who had given me The Call in December, who now asked if Melissa was going to be there. Tony Pandolfo, who splits his time between Jeopardy and Wheel, started confirming the pronunciation of people's names and rattling off the biographical sentences that would be on Trebek's card, asking for us each to highlight a preferred story. Maggie Speak arrived to hold court and get us ready to play.

We were each directed to a pile of release forms with a Jeopardy pen on it. We were encouraged to start coming up with our Hometown Howdies, greetings that our local stations could play to announce our imminent appearances before our air dates. It is my understanding that KARE 11 never uses these. Meanwhile, we were rotated through the makeup chair and Maggie ran through a description of everything that would happen in a given game. Maggie's terrific, and brought us as close to being at ease as eleven people (Mark from Detroit had been caught in traffic) about to be tested on national television can be.

Maggie introduced Inta, who was our returning champion. Inta had been out the week before, and had won the last game of Wednesday's taping (you can read Inta's winner's blog here, for the time being -- she is all class). Inta would be at the first podium for the first game. All new contestants would be drawn randomly from the pool by the compliance company that oversees the gameplay. We would only be taping four shows that day, as they had taped an extra celebrity game in Vegas while they were out there for the Tournament of Champions earlier in January. So six of us plus Inta would play today. The remaining two would be guaranteed to play on Wednesday.

We were instructed to have fun, and to keep the game moving. They know that everybody likes to say "I'll take [category] for [dollar amount], please, Alex," at least once, but to try to keep it brief after our first selection. They encourage shortening category names, and always naming categories before dollar amounts. They don't require sticking with one category—some players were known for bouncing—but do ask that you signal that you're moving to a new category, so their cameras can catch up. Some categories are required to be taken in order, and we'll be informed if this is the case. Mispronunciation is generally ok, as long as it doesn't change the consonant sounds. Misspelling in Final Jeopardy is also alright, as long as it doesn't change the sounds of the word. Giving an answer, any answer, is always preferable to giving none. As I mentioned last time, they discourage playing for ties. And so on.

After the morning talking-to, I could now say I’d had my makeup applied by Vanna White’s makeup artist, and we were moved to the stage to rehearse. My nervousness grew.

Next Jeopardy blog: In the studio!

Jeopardy: Strategery, or: Don't hate the player, hate the game

Part of an ongoing series.

In tandem with studying potential Jeopardy content, I familiarized myself in Jeopardy strategy in December and January. The J! Archive was particularly helpful for this, as it has every clue and their outcomes from almost all of the show's seasons available for browsing. It also has a long glossary full of game theory and strategy, including guidelines on how you should bet in Final Jeopardy! under a variety of conditions. Head-spinning.

I eventually came across a description of the game pictured above, which was the first and thus far only three-way tie in the history of the show. You can watch their FJ! on YouTube (WaMu Files For ChapLev). I wondered what the game-leader (Scott Weiss, left, a computer scientist) had been thinking with his wager. Typically, if you're leading enough to potentially outpace the other contestants, you bet enough to get to 2x(their current score)+1 so you win. My first thought was that he'd done it for the sake of the uniqueness of the tie. It's neat to be a part of something like that.

But then I realized that the rules of the game, and by extension the nature of competition, might incentivize going for the tie. Here's how prizes work on the show:

• First-place player gets to keep the money in their score, and gets to play again in the next day's show.
• Second-place player gets $2000 regardless of winnings.
• Third-place player gets $1000 regardless of winnings, which only partially defrays the cost of traveling to the show if you got on a plane to get there.
• If there is a tie for first place, both or all three players keep the money and get to play again.

So if you're in Weiss' position, and you bet the whatever+1, all you're doing is screwing the other players out of $14,000 and $15,000. You jerk. But, if you play for the tie and everybody gets the question right, then you've just made two new best friends AND you get to play your next game against two players you've already been able to beat once. The benefit of this is hard to estimate. Reading Prisoner of Trebekistan left me with the impression that any known quantity with regards to who your opponents will be is greatly beneficial, both psychologically and strategically. Otherwise, you might end up with what Bob Harris calls an "Ivy League Serial Killer," who can get all the really obscure crap regardless of who might beat him or her on the buzzer (excuse me, Signalling Device).

(Of course, in the later rounds of a Tournament of Champions game, this rule does not hold, as the poor guy on the left in this video learned all too well. I would've been in the same boat here, incidentally, answering the FJ! handily but being useless on this particular tiebreaker.)

Now, skipping ahead somewhat in the narrative, I learned when I was actually at the show that The Powers That Be actively discourage ties. They were certainly excited about the three-way tie due to its novelty, and if you go into FJ as the leader with exactly twice the score of the person in second, it doesn't make sense to endanger your lock-tie with a non-zero wager. But, they screen thousands of contestants a year, and turn away most of them. They want to move as many people through the show as they can, and any game with two winners cuts in half the new players in the next game. So they encourage playing for the tie+1.

Back to me approaching my tape date... I watched the show daily in the weeks leading to my tape date. The week before I went out to California, there was a five-day winner named Matt Kohlstedt (a graduate student originally from La Grange, IL, pictured, borrowed from PioneerLocal). Kohlstedt had two very interesting FJ situations wherein (1) he was not in the lead going in, (2) everybody got it wrong (triple-stumpers), and (3) he won by $1 or $2 with wagers that were not obvious choices to me. I decided that it would behoove me to understand them before I appeared on the show, so the day I left, I copied down the FJ scenarios of these two games in my book, and on the flight westward, I reasoned my way through them.

I believe Matt's logic was roughly this:

• I'm not in the lead
• The people ahead of me are most likely going to make rational wagers to cover their nearest opponent doubling their score
  
• If they get the question right, I will lose
• I can't guarantee that I will get the question right
• Therefore, the only way to win is to assume that the people ahead of me will get it wrong, and base my wager on what their wager is likely to be
  

Look at the January 20th game. Matt's in 2nd going in, with 10,000 to Rebecca's 11,800. Matt figures Rebecca will bet 8200 to tie him if he doubles. So he assumes she'll lose 8200, and bets just enough that if he loses too, they'll tie at 3600. This almost happened, except she played for the win+1, and lost by $1.

He did it again, two days later. Here Matt is in third with 6400 to Luis' 12,200 and Chris' 15,000. He figures Chris will bet 9400 to cover Luis doubling up. So he bets enough that if everybody's wrong, he'll cover Chris by a dollar. It ended up being $2 in this case, because Chris also played for the win+1. (Note that in this case, if Luis hadn't overbid 8800, and instead bet between 2801 and 5600, he'd have won. Matt's gambit is less likely to be successful, it seems to me, from third place.)

(Matt Kohlstedt will be in this year's Tournament of Champions, which begins airing on Wednesday's broadcast. Watch for him, as well as for Deborah Fitzgerald, right, a retired government employee from McLean, VA, who is a friend of my Aunt's.)

This is crafty stuff. On the flight, prime ministers and countries on the Equator competed for headspace, along with Matt's strategy, the crush, and the 2/3, 3/4, and 4/5 rules. But mostly I tried to stay frosty.

Next Jeopardy Blog: To The Studio!

Jeopardy: the invitation and studying

The last time I blogged in detail about my Jeopardy experience was late last winter, after my audition. I felt good about my chances, but had been told that if I had, indeed, passed the written contestant exam, I'd be on the active list for 18 months, during which time I should not call to check on my chances, nor should I re-audition.

So I got busy keeping my Jeopardy expectations low. In the Spring, Melissa and I bought our house and I changed firms. In early December, I got a call on my cell during my commute from work to mentoring at Homework & Hoops, an after-school program ([you] should volunteer, by the way; drop me a line). Robert from Jeopardy was calling to ask me some questions. Did I still live on Harriet Ave? No. Did I still work at [my former employer]? Nope. Was I at least still with Melissa? Very much so, thank goodness. Was I interested in coming out to Los Angeles in late January to try to win some money? A stupid grin spread over my face. Absolutely! He told me to call him back when I wasn't driving to work out the details.

Those close to me know I had a worried several days after that, as I was unable to get ahold of Robert to confirm. In the meantime I had proceeded to tell anyone who’d listen that I was going to be on the show. I didn't want to lose the opportunity by either not following up or being That Guy who calls back all the time. After having left a message, I decided to wait. Nerve-wracking. On Friday he finally called me back and gave me the details. My taping date would be January 27th and/or 28th. If I wasn't drawn to play on the first day, I'd be guaranteed a spot on the second. Five episodes would be taped each day. The first one or two from the first day would air starting on March 9th, then the remainder would pick up on March 25th following the airing of the Tournament of Champions, being taped in Las Vegas in January.

One of the most common questions I've gotten about the process is whether the people at the show (The Powers That Be, or TPTB, borrowing a term from the Jeopardy message boards) tell you what to study, or what the categories are. They don't. What you’re supposed to study is Everything. Sort of.

There is a bunch of good information online and in print from former contestants about how to prepare for the show. To begin with, I reread Prisoner of Trebekistan while Melissa and I were in New Orleans just before Christmas. I'd read Bob Harris' book on the recommendation of a college friend. It is funny and well-written, and filled in a lot of information about the show. However, his approach to preparing for the show depended somewhat on not being employed, so I knew I couldn’t be that hard-core about it. I also knew that I would drive myself insane if I tried to cover everything.

Former champion Karl Coryat's article on how to prepare scared the crap out of me. His list of what you absolutely need to know is very long and intimidating, but does an excellent job of delineating what the high-value targets of study should be. He also includes many good examples of what Harris calls "one-to-ones." If a Jeopardy clue refers to a Finnish composer, they're asking for Sibelius, a personal favorite. A bog fruit is always a cranberry. Etcetera.

I decided to put together a Jeopardy notebook, that the act of copying information into lists, tables & synopses would be more effective for learning than just reading. You can check it out for yourself. Click here to see the guts of the book (2MB).

Most of this information I got from Wikipedia, cross-referenced with print as necessary. I also decided to focus on areas of study that I had a pretty good grounding in, but could stand to brush up. So I concentrated on US and world history and geography, primarily, with some other stuff thrown in. I made lists of presidents and their elections/ascensions, Vice Presidents, current world leaders, UN Secretaries General, Shakespeare’s plays in order of writing with major characters and short summaries, English and British royal houses and monarchs, and major Prime Ministers. I printed blank maps of the continents and filled in nations & capitals, seas, bays, straits, and lakes. I wrote out a periodic table of elements. I went a little overboard with my Greco-Roman mythology review (pp. 42-46). I also printed Coryat's article and taped it in the back of the book.

Around the same time, I was in the process of re-ripping every single piece of music in my collection from CD to put on my iPod, which gave me a good opportunity to review 19th- and early 20th-Century composers. I also put together a short Jeopardy playlist of such high-information-density songs as Monty Python's "Oliver Cromwell," the state capital song from Animaniacs, "James K. Polk" by They Might Be Giants, and other flashbacks to high school. As a result, I had "Mammal" stuck in my head for weeks.

You'll notice that on my to-do list, two large items never got crossed out: Literature and Art. So it goes. A few items I considered but decided against, including Roman Emperors and Empires (Roman vs. Holy Roman vs. Eastern or Western), Nobel Prize winners, Popes, and so on. I may continue to expand the book with topics that pique my interest. Gotta come up with Weeklypedia quizzes somehow, after all.

Next Jeopardy blog: Strategery, or: Don't Hate the Player, Hate The Game

Oh yeah: Jeopardy

kmkat's comment on my post from the other night made me realize that I never actually announced anything upon my return from LA. So, yes, I taped on Jeopardy. My airdate is Wednesday, March 25th. Those in the Minneapolis area can see it at 4:30PM on KARE 11.

Jeopardy was a ton of fun. I'll be blogging about it more in pieces over the coming weeks. There's plenty that I'm legally obligated not to talk about now, of course.

I'd like to buy a vowel? Wait, no.

Hey everybody. Fun news to share. I just returned from Los Angeles yesterday, where I was a contestant on Jeopardy! I took the online test a year ago today, auditioned in Minneapolis in March, and got the call inviting me to be on the show in December. I'll probably be writing a series of posts about my experience over the course of the next few months because, until my airdate, I'm not allowed to reveal anything about results.

Speaking of which, my airdate is Wednesday, March 25th. Check your local listings.

If you haven't read my previous posts about the audition process, click the Jeopardy tag at the bottom of the post.

One thing I'm pretty sure I can safely say is that I didn't do this:

Jeopardy Audition Rundown

Note: UPDATED! See below.

Web-logged accounts of auditioning for or appearing on Jeopardy are thick on the ground, but dammit, it looms large in recent events, so it's my turn.

My Jeopardy audition happened back on March 10th in downtown Minneapolis. See also my previous post about the online test and my invitation. Thanks to the efforts of Kathryn Kienholz, a fellow invitee to the same session, and knitting blogger extraordinaire, there's photographic illustration of our audition experience. All photos in this post are by her, and used with permission.

My appointment wasn't until 3, but I took the afternoon off so I wouldn't be hurried and stressed on my way in. I showed up to the swanky, new Hotel Ivy a little early, and immediately wished I'd shown up even earlier so I could take a quick bathroom break. As it was, I didn't think I had time before things were going to start. They had me fill out a contact info form, including times you know you're definitely NOT available to go to LA for a day or two and, oddly enough, asking if you were involved in Quiz Bowl in high school (I was, and I suspect a lot of contestants have come from that background). They also asked if I'd had any contact with previous Jeopardy contestants, which I had to admit I had (a brief weblog-based exchange with Kate Pedersen, a fellow Grinnell alum who congratulated me on my audition and who had very recently played on the show). They took a Polaroid of me, and soon ushered the group of hopefuls into a small meeting room.

There were twenty of us in a room that could hold twenty-seven of us. An LCD projector and speakers were rigged up to a laptop up front. Head Contestant Coordinator Glenn Kagan (pictured) and associates Corrina and Laurie and tech guy Carlos ran the show. Here was our itinerary:

1. Introductions and description of what is about to happen (Glenn)
2. Showing us how the mock game board works (Corrina)
3. 50-question contestant exam
4. Q&A about the show (Glenn)
5. Rolling mock game and interviews (everybody)

The exam was similar in structure to the online qualifier I'd passed in January. 50 questions, 12 seconds each. However, since it was written, we had the opportunity to correct ourselves as we went along. Thank goodness, too, because it took a while for my brain to warm up. There were two or three extremely basic questions in the first ten that I knew, but couldn't produce to save my life. Once I got going, and those previous answers came screaming back into my forebrain, I was able to fix them. In the end, I felt at least as good about this test as the previous one. Giving a quick glance at my answers once time was up, I counted only ten or eleven questions that were educated or out-of-my-ass guesses. Although they'll never admit it, rumor says 35 is a passing score. So I like those odds.

While Corrina and Laurie scored our tests in the hall, Glenn answered every question anyone's ever had about the show. What's with Trebek's sling? He had an accident puttering around the house. Have you ever had blind or deaf contestants? Blind yes, deaf no. Do you pay for our airfare and hotel if we get on the show? No, unless you win and have to come back another day -- they had to fly Ken Jennings back & forth between LA and Salt Lake City week after week while he was on his streak. And so on... Many of these questions were paired with amusing anecdotes. Glenn's been in the game a long time, and accrued plenty of stories.

The stuff I was curious about was related to the competition to get on the show. How many people took the online test in January? I didn't write it down, but I think they said 11,000. How many of these sessions were they doing in Minneapolis this week? Five. Ok, so that means I was one of no more than 135 to be invited to a Minneapolis audition, which draws not only from MN but the whole upper midwest, since there were folks there from WI, IA, and as far away as St. Louis. That's pretty sweet.

In the mock game, they invited three of us up at a time to get on the buzzer and try our hand. The game board had six categories of three clues each, and every time one was depleted, a new category popped up. They gave each trio about 10 clues each, and may or may not have actually called on people based on buzzer timing -- we couldn't see or hear the buzzer signals, and they seemed to cycle to allow all three folks a chance to show they can speak loudly and clearly. After the questions, they had us put the buzzers down and interviewed us briefly about who we are, what we do, what our interests are, and, vitally, what we'd do with the money if we won. The whole mock game isn't about scoring or otherwise answering correctly. It's all about whether you have any presence or personality, can handle the buzzer, and can follow directions.

I was in the first group up, along with Susan and Norman. We traded questions back & forth. I misidentified the famous guitarist who owns the guitar named Lucille. I got control of the board on a question about the year 1961. And then I got a question nobody else knew the answer to. After the clue was revealed, everybody stared blankly. A beat or two later, I managed to scrape the name of a two-time Bond girl (whose movies I've never seen) out of the back of my skull and coupled her with our first one-term president to get fake presidential couple "Maud and John Adams" (Who are Maud and John Adams, indeed?). This earned me a little round of applause from the room, which felt pretty great.

After being interviewed, I sat down and observed the rest of the mock game and interviews. It was cool hearing everybody's back-story. There were a lot of new or recent empty-nesters and a lot of lawyers. I was definitely the only engineer with improv comedy experience in the bunch. Lots of people who would use Jeopardy winnings to travel, and a couple folks who would use it for a wedding or honeymoon. Since I was in the first group, the idea of using the money to pay off loans and maybe pay a down payment on a house was way less played out when I said it than it was by the end of the session.

I was disappointed that they didn't tell us whether or not we passed the test, which I guess they do at their big contestant calls in LA, in order to cut down the number before playing mock games. I suppose that makes sense, given the relative numbers. Anyway, if I passed the test, which I feel safe in assuming, then I'm in their "active contestant file" for the next 18 months. Anytime during that period, they could call me to be a contestant. They told us in no uncertain terms: do not call or email us; we'll call you. If they don't decide to put me on the show, I'll know after 18 months have passed, at which time I'm free to take their qualifier again.

At this point I've accomplished what I feel I needed to. I still count being on the show as a life goal, and I hope it happens and that it's a lot of fun and I win at least one game, if not seventy-five. But having passed the January test, I felt I needed to have a good showing at the audition and have fun. And I've done that. Hoo-plah!

UPDATED (3/28/08):
I forgot to include two points. First was one of the most interesting bits of Glenn's Q&A. Someone asked if the specifics of the answering in a form of a question are parsed for grammar. For instance, if you responded to He opposed George Westinghouse in the so-called War of the Currents with "Where are Thomas Edison?" or the less weird "What is Thomas Edison?" Apparently not only is that sort of thing ok, but you could also say "Is it Thomas Edison?" They discourage such flippant games, but if you stumble into something like that, they're not going to dock you for it.

Second is that the day after my audition, my wonderful wife sent me delicious brownies at work as congratulations. In the parlance of the medium, she is teh awesome.

Weeklypedia Quiz #2: Sophomore Slump

OK. It's a bit late, but here is the second Weeklypedia quiz, comprised of stuff I learned or re-learned because I read about it on Wikipedia this week. The answers to last week's quiz have been posted as a comment to that blog entry, so check 'em out.

Here's the new quiz:

1. If The Ramones had reset their song "Rockaway Beach" in the next nearest peninsula to that shore, it might have been called this.

2. When he takes office to succeed NY Gov Eliot Spitzer, David Paterson will be the United States' fourth African-American governor and, significantly, only the second governor who is this.

3. Although wildly popular in American Chinese restaurants, this dish, named for a ming dynasty warrior, is largely unknown in China.

4. It is a statistical phenomenon that may be seen as a basis for a "sophomore slump," the tendency of those who excel to be less above-average in their next performance.

5. For most of NASA's Space Shuttle project, extra-vehicular manipulations have been performed by astronauts and by eponymous robotic "arms" produced in this country.

6. This British rock band was hailed as "the next Beatles," had the support of the Fab Four and even performed original songs by Lennon & McCartney, before spectacularly flaming out.

7. This presidential appointee is not part of the military, but is the head of one of the United States' uniformed services. Hence the naval-styled attire. (Note: multiple correct answers are possible.)

8. They are what the two syllables of the geographic slang BosWash refer to.

I still have not blogged about how my Jeopardy! audition went on Monday. I'll do that soon, honest. Short version: it went well, I think, and I hope that I have a decent shot at being a contestant. I'll know if they call me or not in the next 18 months. More to come, but in the meantime, check out the blog of one of the other applicants at my session, kmkat, who knits! She even got some great pictures!