JEOPARDY Archives - Page 16 of 20

The (alleged) JEOPARDY! sins of Arthur Chu

When I knew an answer, I clicked once, and I was immediately corrected: “No, you keep clicking until Alex calls on you.”

Seriously, I had no idea. As a regular viewer of JEOPARDY!, there are contestants I like, ones that I don’t particularly care for, and most from whom I just want to see a good match.

Having viewed the four victories of one Arthur Chu, I did not realize that his reign, to be continued on February 24, was at all controversial until someone sent me an article and asked me to comment on it. Then a couple more people sent me other articles. This was a story on Yahoo!’s Finance page?

So what are his JEOPARDY! “sins”?

1. He jumps around the board. The first story I was sent was titled Jeopardy! Contestant Is Hated For Playing Like Nobody Else. This was untrue; several players over the years have utilized a strategy of “relentlessly hunt[ing] for the Daily Double clues in each round, clearing out the bottom three rows of the board so that he can get to them before anyone else.” It’s perfectly legal. Now it’s undoubtedly harder on Alex Trebek and the board operators, but that’s not Chu’s problem.

Moreover, his strategy doesn’t work if he gets in first but doesn’t know the answers. In looking at the pattern of topics picked in his first game, the other players would go to a more traditional pattern when they selected, so Chu would have been thwarted had the others beaten him on the buzzer.

2. He didn’t even try to answer a Daily Double, and said “I don’t know,” for which he only bet $5, which some considered unsporting. That was in his second game. The category was IN THE SPORT’S HALL OF FAME, the $1,000 question and the clues were Eddie Giacomin, Herb Brooks, Conn Smythe. Apparently, this was “easy” for most people, since Herb Brooks was the coach of the 1980 Olympics hockey team; doesn’t mean it was for Chu. He knows what he knows, and doesn’t.

3. He played for the tie, rather than the win, also in the second game; this was considered arrogant. Arthur Chu addressed this, correctly, in this interview:

Yeah, I mean, my decisions were motivated by the desire to win — I don’t think I need to apologize for that, that’s a lot of real money at stake with every game — but the other side of that is that the main thing I cared about was making my money and coming back to play again. There’s no reason to take money AWAY from other players unnecessarily, and that’s why I was puzzled that my bet for the tie somehow got everyone riled up, as though I’d somehow done something wrong.

It does make me feel good that Carolyn [Collins], who is a strong player whom I respect, went home with over $20k rather than with the $2k she would’ve ended up with had I bet the extra dollar. Or, for that matter, that Erik [Post], who was also a great player in our game, took home $2k for second instead of $1k for [third].

Former champion Keith Williams, who Chu studied, explains playing for the tie.

4. His very visible use of the buzzer is irritating. As this former player explains:

What, he shouldn’t buzz? Skill still plays a role: If you buzz in before Alex finishes reading a question, you are locked out for a crucial quarter-second or so; there is still timing to Chu’s thumbwork. His conspicuous digital athletics are merely bringing to light a facet of the game that not enough of its viewers appreciate: Buzzing well is part of winning, because most of the time more than one contestant knows the correct response.

I remember when I was at my JEOPARDY! tryout in Washington, DC in May 1998, and we played a mock game. When I knew an answer, I clicked once, and I was immediately corrected: “No, you keep clicking until Alex calls on you.” You might be temporarily locked out by clicking too early, but if no one else gets in, or if someone else responds incorrectly, repeated clicking is the way to go. In any case, I found it easier to do that than to watch the lights around the board go out before starting to click. Hey, it worked out, once.

Most people who click a lot do it at podium level, so it’s not as obvious to most.

Ken Jennings, who won 74 games in a row, defends Chu, and rightly so.

This is the 30th season of JEOPARDY! and they are bringing back former champions from the last three decades. Not only is this eliminating 30 or 40 players from participating during the season – far more than Chu’s tie game did – it weakens the field for the next Tournament of Champions. I believe the rule that allows for players to win six or more games does the latter as well.

Arthur Chu’s play does not bother me. If he wins a fifth game, I will actively root against him, but I ALWAYS root against five-plus day champions, for the reasons alluded to above.

January Rambling: looking for good news

Ever confuse palate, pallet and palette? I did this month.

Arthur’s article Why we think the news is worse than it is. This led to a thread that I wrote about finding good news amongst the bad which are here and here and here.

People I know personally, at least one artist, seemed really irritated that a Norman Rockwell painting fetched a record price last month. This antipathy seemed to be tied to the notion of Rockwell as artistic pablum. Another view of the artist is Closet Case as Gay Icon. I find these assumptions interesting, but highly speculative.

I am tired of being the T in LGBT.

Albany, NY has been a city since 1686; got its first woman mayor in 2014.

The Albany Symphony Orchestra Wins a Grammy Award! And I went to that ASO concert the week the recording was made.

In the small town of Binghamton, New York there spins a 1925 carousel that once inspired Rod Serling and has since become a portal into… the Twilight Zone.

Re: the Chris Christie/George Washington Bridge story, Stereotypes still caught in gridlock. You’ve probably already seen the take by Jimmy Fallon and Bruce Springsteen.

Speaking of whom, an NPR interview with Springsteen.

Criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic.

My Pete Seeger obit, which is a rewriting of what I wrote when he turned 90.
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The first obituary I saw for Amiri Baraka, formerly LeRoi Jones, whose Blues People book I loved, was a prolific author. Later stories focused on him being polarizing and controversial. I prefer the balanced NPR report.

Morrie Turner, R.I.P., creator of the comic strip Wee Pals, revolutionary in its own way.

Growing Up Unvaccinated. “I had the healthiest childhood imaginable. And yet I was sick all the time.”

In 1919 wave of molasses in the North End of Boston killed 21 people.

Because dictionary.

The Decoy Effect and, re: Fidel Castro, Elimination by Illumination, and early phone service via barbed bells and the medical wonder of tiny sideshows.

Lefty Brown is open-sourcing his weight loss and exercise.

About the new Presbyterian hymnal, written by my pastors’ niece.

50 Shades of Smartass, Chapter 9 and Chapter 10 and Chapter 11 and Chapter 12. Plus SamuraiFrog explains his visual autobiography.

Jaquandor is killing his darlings, so to speak.

The New York Times’ Most Popular Story of 2013 Was Not an Article.

Dates you won’t find on your calendar, such as January 0.

Happy introverts day was January 2. I so relate.

Melanie’s A Bit of Happy: Reading, Russian, and the Soviet Union and The Memory is in There.

Ever confuse palate, pallet, and palette? I did this month, but I had the good sense to stop and look it up before sending it.

The Official Website of William Schallert. He’s a character actor I know best as the dad in The Patty Duke Show.

The new and ugly Monopoly “Get Out of Jail Free” card.

Fables, Elfquest, Marvel’s Conan, and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman are the best fantasy comics of all time, according to Comic Book Resources.

Ever since two Atlanta Braves pitchers got elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame this month, people have been telling me about this commercial, which also features a former player NOT yet in the HoF, and who may never be.

Alex Trebek raps clues on ‘Jeopardy’, sort of.

Robert Downey Jr. sounding more like Sting than Sting does.

Leon Theremin playing the theremin.

Between the music and the history, well worth watching; I will say no more.

The history of Amazing Grace with Bill Moyers from 1990.

Quaker Parody: What Does George Fox Say.

We have two felines and can’t argue: Sorry, But Your Cat Is Actually A Total Jerk. It’s Just Science.
***
GOOGLE LINKS (not me)
The website is the brainchild of Roger Green, founder, and owner of £10m national office cleaning contractor, Spotless Commercial Cleaning Ltd.

Re: Statistically speaking: ‘Anti-mayor’ voting block overstated. Brighton Independent By Greg Smith and Roger Green.

JEOPARDY! plus 15 years

Put ‘Em in Order: “Oklahoma statehood, California statehood, Nebraska statehood.” What’s your guess?

What’s made relating the game information so much easier than when I first wrote about it in 2005 is my discovery of something called J-archive, which archives JEOPARDY! games, including mine. So you can read every question and the order in which it was selected.

In game 1, it was the fifth question before I can finally answer a question, even though I knew three of the previous four.
The category was The Brady Bunch. “Unlike his horse, his sidekick, Pat Brady isn’t mounted for display.” I ring in first: “What is Roy Rogers?” It should have been WHO, but it’s still correct.

At the first commercial, it’s Tom $800, Roger $1100, Amy $1900. However long the commercials are at home is how long there are in the studio. Jennifer had to re-powder my forehead because I was “shiny.

So we get to Old Testament Women, one of the categories I expect to do well in.
$100- Delilah, which Amy got.
$200- for reasons unclear, I said Delilah! I KNEW it was Bathsheba but the brain just picked up Amy’s response.
She asked for OT Women for $300 and I’m still literally shaking my head, beating myself up for this gaffe. The mortification finally passed and I did get the $500 clue.

The score after the JEOPARDY! round, Tom $2100, Roger $2000, Amy $2800. Alex says, “Roger, you’ll go first in Double JEOPARDY!”

The categories are Brahmins, The Untouchables, Television, Put ‘Em In Order, This Is Your Life – Woodrow Wilson, and Literary Crosswords “M”. Well, television should be OK, and maybe Wilson, but this is not looking great.

I start with Television for $200, get Frasier. Television for $400-the first of the two Daily Doubles! And it’s a Video. Score Tom $2100, Roger $2200, Amy $2800. OK, if I bet enough, and get it right, I can take the lead for the first time! I can say, “I held the lead once!” I bet $1200.

Jason Alexander (from Seinfeld) says on screen: “This actor co-starred with me on a sitcom called “E/R” before starring in the medical seies “E.R.” So what do YOU think? I actually watched the earlier show, which starred Elliot Gould, and I also read about it in People magazine after the latter show began.

“Who was George Clooney?” “You guessed right,” Alex said. It wasn’t a guess.

Amy started taking off, getting several responses. I managed to get a couple in Crosswords, and three under Wilson. I put some Popes in order for $400. Then I pick the $600 clue in that category. It’s the OTHER Daily Double!

With the furious back and forth, I was genuinely surprised to find that I was leading: Tom $4100, Roger $7400, Amy $7000. Put ‘Em in Order: the category made me nervous. It could be ANYTHING. I bet a conservative $1000. “Oklahoma statehood, California statehood, Nebraska statehood.” What’s your guess?

One thing I knew: California became a state in 1850, the year after the Gold Rush. Oklahoma became a state in the 20th Century, actually 1907. When did Nebraska become a state? I said, “California statehood, Nebraska statehood, Oklahoma statehood.” That was correct. Nebraska become a state in 1867.

At the end of Double JEOPARDY!, it’s Tom $5100, Roger $9600, Amy $8400. The Final JEOPARDY! category is World Capitals. During the commercials between Double JEOPARDY! and the Final, you have to make your bet. The Final JEOPARDY! clue was: “This city was known as Dong Kihn, and to the Europeans as Tonquin.”

For five seconds, I have no idea even what was being asked. Then I look at the two primary words in the clue Tonquin and Donkin. If you blend them together, you get Tonkin. Tonkin Gulf. Where’s that? Vietnam. And what’s the capital of Vietnam? And all that processing took about 10 seconds.

Tom writes, What is Hanoi? Correct. He bet $1000 and now has $6100. Amy wrote, “What is Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City?” Wrong, no longer a world capital. Then my response is revealed: “What is Hanoi?” At that moment, it didn’t matter what I bet. I stand, poker-faced. $8000, added to my $9600, for a total of $17,600! When my bet was uncovered, there was an audible gasp in the audience; I just exhaled.

I got tremendous applause, more than I could have imagined. There were reasons: 1) I was told by an audience member that WTEN brought a busload of people with them to see the show 2) both of my friends, Judy and Karen, were telling people sitting around them, “Hey, we know him, go root for Roger.” And they DID.

But the second game, about 20 minutes later, did not go nearly so well. After the first round, I had but $600, while Jim had $2,700 and Robin, $2,900, after I got the last question of the round incorrectly. I got only 2 right in the Double JEOPARDY! section, both films of the ’40s. I just couldn’t get in. After a while I started to root for Jim to stay close to Robin; the score at the end of the Double JEOPARDY! round was $2200 for me $5500 for Jim, $9200 for Robin.

I have virtually zero chances of winning. But I get Final JEOPARDY! right, they don’t, I end up in second place, which was a trip to Barbados, which I eventually used on my honeymoon with Carol. Then I sit in the audience, watch a third show, and am melancholy I think I would have done well with those questions.

The seven weeks between the taping and the airing of the show are the worst, with people prodding me for the results. The day before the show aired, I called Amy Roeder, and commiserated together.

I watched the show in my church’s parlor with about 50 other people. It was slightly mortifying.

Every day for the next 35 days, and indeed for most days for the next six months, someone who was a total stranger would recognize me and congratulate me. Just when I think it was dying off, a new wave of folks would remind me they saw my appearance. I was fascinated that when I was in San Diego in September of 1999, 10 months after the show aired, some women from DC recognized me.

Winning on JEOPARDY! means that people think I’m intelligent. I’m probably no smarter than I was before, but I am perceived as such.

As recently as August 2013, people in my office have introduced me to other people as “our JEOPARDY! champion.”

I’m still in touch with Amy Roeder; check out her blog. Still use the lap blanket I got as a consolation prize.

All in all, it was a great experience. I’m still talking about it in no small part because someone will introduce me to another, saying, “”Oh, Roger won on JEOPARDY!” and the second person will say, “Tell me about it.” So I do, here.

JEOPARDY! plus 180 months

The WTEN cameraman was following me around the room, and that he particularly concentrated on my feet because he was fascinated by my red Chuck Taylor sneakers.

Monday, November 9, 1998 was the first of my two appearances on the TV game show JEOPARDY! I wrote about this at TREMENDOUS length when I first started blogging in 2005: Parts 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 and 8 and 9 and 10 and 11.

I’ll try an abridged version here.

I took a mini-test in Albany in late April 1998, passed it, and was supposed to take a bus to Boston on May 14 to take the REAL test. But I had a NON-REFUNDABLE train ticket to visit Detroit and Cleveland that week.

I called WTEN, the local affiliate that carries the show, who gave me the number of Susanne Thurber, the “talent coordinator” for JEOPARDY!, in Los Angeles. She informed me about tests in Washington, DC the following week.

In DC, I went to a hotel conference room, where 45 or 50 people were seated for the test. We wrote the responses (no, they didn’t have to be in a form of a question) on a sheet of paper. There would be 50 questions in 50 categories.

Eight of us passed the test. We played a few mock games, complete with a buzzer. You don’t click once, you click repeatedly until someone’s name is called.

Thursday, August 13, I’m sitting at work, when our secretary buzzes my phone. “It’s JEOPARDY!” The next thing I hear is: “Roger Green? ” “Yes?” “I’m Grant Loud from JEOPARDY! This is the call!”

Grant explained that this would be a special series of programs filmed in Boston. They were taking only people who resided in the original 13 colonies for this week of programs. Would I be available on September 17 and 18? Yes! On September 17, my friend Judy Doyle and her son Max picked me up with my requisite three suits, five ties, two shirts, and my new shoes.

We get to the Boston Park Plaza Hotel, a very nice hotel. It was oddly shaped to fit the space that was available, I gather.

It turns out that President Clinton and other dignitaries were going to be at the hotel for a fancy (read: high-priced) fund-raising dinner. Eventually, I could look down from my upper story room and see several hundred protesters, split about 50/50 anti-Clinton, and anti-Ken Starr, the special prosecutor, who put all of the lurid details about Bill and Monica Lewinsky on the Internet. The added security made it difficult for us to get back into the hotel, once we left for dinner. (Host Alex Trebek had the same difficulty, I later learn.)

The contestants were to meet in the hotel lobby with our change of clothes at 11:30 a.m. We rode in two vans for the two or three-block trip to the Wang Center. Among other things, she noted that the place was much larger (seating capacity 3200) than the small theater where the show is filmed (250).

Boston was really psyched to have JEOPARDY! in town. The Globe, the Herald, and even the Christian Science Monitor were there, interviewing Susanne, Trebek, head writer Gary Johnson, and others.

There was a cameraman from WTEN wishing me “good luck.” They were because it was relatively close by AND because a guy from Albany was there. The WTEN cameraman was following me around the room, and that he particularly concentrated on my feet because he was fascinated by my red Chuck Taylor sneakers. (I REALLY know this, because, a few months later he gave me his raw footage of my feet and other things he filmed.)

My interview with Bianca de la Garza from Channel 10 takes place. Then Sharman Saccetti of Channel 18 in Elmira was there to interview me, probably because the station that carries JEOPARDY! in the Binghamton market, my hometown, is located 60 miles away in Elmira. Then Channel 2 Plattsburgh wanted to talk with me. Why? I don’t know. I must have been the contestant geographically closest to them.

Finally, with Susanne Thurber practically dragging me off the stage to end interview #3, we return downstairs. It was determined who the contestants who would face defending champion Tom: Amy Roeder, an actress from Merrimack, NH, and me!

I am still feeling very relaxed. Then Johnny Gilbert says, “A business librarian from Albany, NY, Roger Green.”
And my mouth goes dry.

(Tomorrow, the thrilling conclusion.)

August Rambling II: Smart is sexy and stupid is not

A reference to my piece about David Cassidy made it into the print version of the paper because “it was a good post, and filled with what we like: short, timely and to the point :)”

The New York Times’ prophetic 1983 warning about the NSA, which naturally leads to Glenn Greenwald killed the internet.

My Feelings About the Harriet Tubman Sex Tape in 10 GIFs.

Invisible Disabilities Day is October 24. I have this friend with rather a constant neck pain, but she doesn’t LOOK sick, and therefore feels diminished by those who actually don’t believe her. Conversely, The Complexities of Giving: People with Disabilities as Help Objects.

Photos of the worldly goods of inmates at the Willard Asylum. I backed the Kickstarter for this and wrote about it a couple years ago.

“Each week, TIME Magazine designs covers for four markets: the U.S., Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific.” Often, America’s cover is quite, well – different. I had noticed this before. I don’t know that it’s “stunning,” but it IS telling.

The Peanuts gang meets The Smiths, in which This Charming Charlie masterfully blends Charles Schulz’s comics with lyrics by The Smiths.

Mark Evanier’s Tales of My Father, featuring Tony Orlando. Also, Tales of My Cat.

A friend’s letter from his brother. (Can one read this sans Facebook?)

Yes, smart is sexy and stupidity is not.

Eddie, the Renaissance Geek is cancer-free!

So I have survived my first grown-up move. Moving as an adult, it turns out, is radically different from moving as a student.

John Scalzi: To The Dudebro Who Thinks He’s Insulting Me by Calling Me a Feminist.

Air New Zealand celebrates marriage equality.

Lake Edge United Church of Christ in Madison, WI: “Worship at the Edge” PRIDE Sunday.

My old buddy Matt Haller has a new blog and writes about lies my shampoo bottle tells me about dating.

Arthur challenges his own snap assumptions.

SamuraiFrog writes about the list of best movies that EW had on the list in 1999, but which had fallen off the list by 2013 and also other great films. Re: a comment he made: that will require a blog post from me. He’s been musing on the early Marvel comics, which have all been interesting, and I was glad to play a small part in his understanding of Thor.

21 Jokes Only History Nerds Will Understand.

German, not Swiss, Orson Welles.

Marian McPartland, ‘Piano Jazz’ Host, Has Died. I loved how she way she not only performed but, probably, more importantly, INFORMED about music.

The late Elmore Leonard’ TEN RULES FOR WRITING. His New York Times obit.

David Janower has passed away. He was the choral director of the fine Albany Pro Musica, and I knew and liked him personally, so I am sad. He had surgery a few months back and suffered a stroke from which he never really recovered.

A worthy neologism found by Dustbury.

The God of SNL will see you now.

Dolly Parton’s original recording of “Jolene” slowed down by 25% is surprisingly awesome.

Paul McCartney “In Spite Of All The Danger” & “20 Flight Rock” (Live), the former a cover of first Beatles record. Also, the Beatles’ final photo session, August 22, 1969.

Chuck Miller has posted every day for four years, over 2,000 blog posts on the Times Union site.

Dueling banjos: Steve Martin, Kermit the Frog. Sesame Street does Old Spice parody with Grover.

No ukuleles were harmed in the making of this video.

What did I write about in my Times Union blog this month? That annoying JEOPARDY! Kids Week story and Should ‘citizen initiative and referendum’ come to New York? and The prescient David Cassidy song. Cassidy got arrested locally for felony DWI, and a reference to my piece made it into the print version of the paper because “it was a good post, and filled with what we like: short, timely and to the point :),” FWIW.

If you are an NYS homeowner, read Tax Department Launches Statewide STAR Registration. The Data Detective blog has some other interesting stuff – if I do say so myself – such as On being ‘right’ in science.

Jaquandor answers my questions about the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team and unfriending.

Spontaneouss goat manure fire.