Um, hi, is anyone here?
Hello, Brian here, today is my first day at the helm of thejeopardyfan.com and I am very excited and nervous to be your guest host. I am a Canadian firefighter, writer, and Jeopardy! fan that has hoodwinked Jeanie into trusting me for a fortnight of reportage on your favorite game show. Don’t worry Jeanie although I allude to a naughty soccer hooligan song in the title I won’t include it. However I will embed Natalie Merchant’s pretty and lyrically similar song for the sake of a theme.
Today started with the timely reception of the Jeopardy! Challenger. As regular readers know, Jeanie uses the battery powered toy (to borrow the cruel verbiage of USPS’s custom sticker) to play along with Jeopardy! shows and keep score. Jeanie sent it to me by mail a couple of weeks ago (I usually don’t keep track of my total preferring to make wild claims) and I had all but given up hope of having it in time for my Jeopardy blogging gig. Needless to say I was elated to find it in my mailbox this morning.
When I opened the package I was shocked to find the Jeopardy! Challenger was sent in its original box with instructions and warranty–it looks in mint condition. I am afraid to touch it. Remind me to buy my next used car off of Jeanie! Made back in 1987 this 23 year old piece of game show technology (that looks suspiciously like a calculator) is now a rare jewel that commands a steep price from the discriminating Jeopardy! fan–this according to williamrob42’s current eBay listing for said item. Jeanie included a note explaining that the dollar totals no longer correspond to today’s board but thanks to the miracle of mathematics by doubling my score I can participate fully in the game–no more writing on the wall with a jiffy marker for me. Can’t someone write an elegant iPhone app for a new jeopardy challenger? You put a man on the moon! For the love of Pete, one of you must be able to make a new Jeopardy Challenger.
I was overwhelmed today with using the Challenger device, taking notes while pausing live TV with the PVR, and trying pair answers to questions. My seven year-old son was not impressed. I don’t know how Jeanie does it–I suspect she has a large staff of workers. Add to this frantic scene the fact that the Canadian television carrier of the show delayed the broadcast due to the World Cup Soccer schedule and I was in a mad rush to get to work. Okay, I’m done carping and I’m now ready to give you the lowdown, so without further ado…
Today lawyer Marty Scott squared off against librarian Mark Passarrello and Greek and Latin teacher Marianthe Colakis. Mark was decked out in a canary yellow shirt, thick black rimmed glasses, and a bow tie that I assume he bought at a librarian store. Marianthe wrote her name almost illegibly and made me wonder whether anyone (else)has ever misspelled their names on the console–I think she should have been summarily disqualified. Marty seemed very confident and relaxed. Their personal anecdotes were (as always) endearing, odd, and involved ants in lungs, fluency fun in dead languages, and family plans for Disneyworld.
The first round was unremarkable except for a questionable buzzer beating true daily double by Mark–I personally think he missed it. My favorite question of the round was in the category Landmarks for $400, Irish Born architect James Hoban designed this Washington D.C. building; he had to rebuild it after a 1814 fire*. I hate to brag but Canadians were the ones responsible for the blaze! I swept Literary Stupid Answers and loved the $400 question, It was the top-selling fiction book of 1986*. Presidential Campaign Slogans was fun and I only screwed up, A kinder gentler nation($800) but the correct answer paid off for me as a punch-line*(first and last political joke, I promise). At the first break Marty was already at $4,600 thanks to great buzzer control, Marianthe was struggling mightily with the buzzer and had $1,400 and Mark was hot and cold with his answers and had only $1,600 for his efforts. By the end of the round Marty had almost doubled his earnings to $8,000 to Marianthe’s and Mark’s second place tie of $4,400.
Double Jeopardy had the categories of Art and Artists, In an Emergency (easy), 1T,2T (super easy), Alien Invaders, Destination Earth and the very unlikely category of Jones-ing (easy). Jones-ing known slangingly as the craving of a drug and the undesirable side effects from withdrawal seemed an odd choice of expression for a category looking for celebrity Joneses. Mark got the second daily double of the day and bet $3,000 on Art and Artists clue, Dancer Jane Avril & printer Pere Cotelle are depicted in his 1893 lithograph “L’Estampe Originale”*. When in doubt about dancers in art always go with Degas is my rule and apparently Mark followed the same maxim but the answer was wrong! Who ever heard of a painting with dancers not my Degas? My favorite question of the round was, In An Emergency’s $2000, If you smell the mercaptans that are deliberately added to this, get out of the house–I was just at a three hour call for this very thing*. Mark withered and Marty went Matrix on the board finishing with an impressive $27,600 making Final Jeopardy moot for Mark with $8,200 and Marianthe at $5,200.
Final Jeopardy was a tough nut with the clue being, This planet is named for a Roman god; its only moons are named for the sons of his Greek counterpart. Marianthe, the Greek and Roman teacher nearly got it wrong with her initial guess of Neptune and Mark and Marty both guessed incorrectly with Jupiter and Neptune respectively*. Very odd that Mark chose to bet nothing–strange tactic even in a runaway game–perhaps parting gifts are better for runner ups? I doubt it.
Tomorrow I’ll be more succinct, more confident, and less frantic. Please feel free to aim your slings and arrows of outrageous fortune my way. I wonder if Jeanie can come back early?
*the White House, It, George H. W. Bush, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, natural gas, Mars.