Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Jeopardy Ultimate Tournament of Champions
Day Three: Friday, February 11, 2005
It’s been a few days, so the memory’s a bit rusty. I remember Babu, an Indo-Pak history professor from Houston, and some girl who was completely anonymous. I also remember some tall white guy who had ridiculously angular, New Wave hair in his first appearance, which was only eight years ago. He was a speech-writer from Boston turned novelist, whose two books I had never heard of. That doesn’t mean anything, though, because I only read books written by professional wrestlers or Clive Cussler. Anyhow, I do remember that Babu was in command the whole way, before slipping up and slightly misspelling the correct question to Final Jeopardy. It’s All Quiet on the Western Front, and there’s no ’s anywhere in there. But poor Babu didn’t know that, or forgot, and so the Duran Duran guy wound up winning by a hundred bucks, or something similarly small-change. Afterward Babu lost his composure, shaking his finger at Trebek and repeatedly calling him a “very bad man”, degrading the great game and bringing eternal shame upon himself and his family.
Day Four: Monday, February 14, 2005
Great imbroglio last night, as an early rout evaporated after an ill-considered Daily Double. Alan Bailey, 2001 champion (and flowery playwright), built a commanding lead over 2000 college champ Janet Wong and 1987 Tournament of Champions runner-up (and Melissa Etheridge look-alike) David Traini. Bailey pissed it away on a $5000 wager on Movie Taglines, though, revealing a fundamental ignorance of The Manchurian Candidate. Candidate was released in 1962, not 1960, and the tagline “They trained him to kill for their pleasure… but they trained him a little too well…” makes no sense when applied to that film. The correct question, of course, was “What is Spartcaus?”, an alternate answer to which would be “the greatest film of all time.” But Bailey lost half his cash, got rattled something fierce, and reeled off a series of wrong questions that left him dead last and near zero. He battled back, gamely, but finished Double Jeopardy with less than half of Traini’s $12800, making his loss inevitable. And sure enough, Bailey correctly answered Final Jeopardy, but fell $800 short of Traini’s total, despite Traini’s getting it wrong. Yet again, the importance of the Daily Double is hammered home by Bailey’s daring but deadly ploy.
Day Three: Friday, February 11, 2005
It’s been a few days, so the memory’s a bit rusty. I remember Babu, an Indo-Pak history professor from Houston, and some girl who was completely anonymous. I also remember some tall white guy who had ridiculously angular, New Wave hair in his first appearance, which was only eight years ago. He was a speech-writer from Boston turned novelist, whose two books I had never heard of. That doesn’t mean anything, though, because I only read books written by professional wrestlers or Clive Cussler. Anyhow, I do remember that Babu was in command the whole way, before slipping up and slightly misspelling the correct question to Final Jeopardy. It’s All Quiet on the Western Front, and there’s no ’s anywhere in there. But poor Babu didn’t know that, or forgot, and so the Duran Duran guy wound up winning by a hundred bucks, or something similarly small-change. Afterward Babu lost his composure, shaking his finger at Trebek and repeatedly calling him a “very bad man”, degrading the great game and bringing eternal shame upon himself and his family.
Day Four: Monday, February 14, 2005
Great imbroglio last night, as an early rout evaporated after an ill-considered Daily Double. Alan Bailey, 2001 champion (and flowery playwright), built a commanding lead over 2000 college champ Janet Wong and 1987 Tournament of Champions runner-up (and Melissa Etheridge look-alike) David Traini. Bailey pissed it away on a $5000 wager on Movie Taglines, though, revealing a fundamental ignorance of The Manchurian Candidate. Candidate was released in 1962, not 1960, and the tagline “They trained him to kill for their pleasure… but they trained him a little too well…” makes no sense when applied to that film. The correct question, of course, was “What is Spartcaus?”, an alternate answer to which would be “the greatest film of all time.” But Bailey lost half his cash, got rattled something fierce, and reeled off a series of wrong questions that left him dead last and near zero. He battled back, gamely, but finished Double Jeopardy with less than half of Traini’s $12800, making his loss inevitable. And sure enough, Bailey correctly answered Final Jeopardy, but fell $800 short of Traini’s total, despite Traini’s getting it wrong. Yet again, the importance of the Daily Double is hammered home by Bailey’s daring but deadly ploy.
