Kimberly played on Tuesday, July 17th!
Q: So you work at Azusa Pacific University. I’ll bet you were glad your Final was about the Bible! And you bet it all without knowing that. Incidentally, I used to live in West Covina! Do you ever go to Burrito Village? (I don’t know if it’s still there.) It was owned by my former co-worker.
Kimberley: Never been to Burrito Village, but I am partial to La Tolteca in Azusa.
I was excited to see that the final clue mentioned King David, since I’d actually read the story about him and Abigail in 1 Samuel not too long ago! As for the bet, I was trailing Blythe and Dan by quite a bit going into Final Jeopardy, and I knew they could both beat me with conservative wagers even if they got the question wrong. So I figured I didn’t have anything to lose by wagering everything, and I got lucky with the final clue. I was definitely surprised that Dan bet so much, especially since the category was so broad!
Q: I thought you did well to know “rupees” and “dinars.” Did you study currency for the show?
Kimberley: I really didn’t study much of anything before the show outside of the names of England’s kings and queens and some lists of classic literature titles. That was partly due to nervousness about being on the show, but mostly due to the fact that I had a lot of real studying to do–I was working on my MBA at the time of the taping (I’ve since graduated) in addition to working full-time.
I think my MBA coursework helped me with the currency questions, as did the Asian and Middle Eastern history classes I took in college.
Q:Did you stay for the rest of the day’s episodes?
Kimberley: I did not stay for the rest of the day’s episodes, for two reasons: first, I was kind of spent after my show (it’s nerve-wracking up there!), and second, I had already watched a full day’s taping several months before (I was the local alternate for a day).
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to say?
Kimberley: I’d like to mention the name of the software program I talked about in my “meet the contestant” anecdote. I’ve had several people track me down online since the show aired asking about the Linux program that my husband wrote to catalog his book collection, so I figure there might be some interest. 🙂 The program is called Tellico, and can be downloaded for free from http://tellico-project.org/
My family and I watched Jeopardy! together almost every day when I was growing up, so actually getting the chance to be on the show was amazing and surreal. I’ll wrap it up by saying that I’ve been really touched by how supportive and excited my family, friends, and co-workers have been even though I finished third. That certainly softens the blow of losing, and makes me feel pretty good about the whole experience!
Thank you, Kimberley!