Since Prisoner of Trebekistan introduces a number of other players as eventual friends, I thought you might enjoy knowing some of them a little better. So I sent out a little game of Twenty Questions to a few of the champs I'm particularly fond of. (By the way, there are a few names here you might not recognize from the book; they're all big winners on the show, too.)

The following are some representative responses.  I was surprised by how often our stories are all very similar.  My thanks to all involved for sharing their experiences, and for allowing me to share their memories with you.

1. When did you first become a fan of the show, and when did you decide to try out?

Josh Den Hartog: My earliest Jeopardy memory is cheering fanatically for Eric Newhouse.  See, he was from Iowa, and we were from Iowa, and it felt good to have one of our own kick the rest of the country's butt.

Eric Newhouse: I first became interested right around the time Chuck Forrest came on and dominated the show like no one had before him.

Mike Rooney: When I got back from grad school and was unemployed in L.A., I had time to sit in front of the TV.  And that's when I first saw Dan Melia smile that jolly smile -- you know, the one that says "look, I'm kicking ass and having fun while simultaneously demonstrating my intellectual superiority."  So I decided to try out shortly thereafter.

Dan Melia: As things will happen with child/spousal support and the like, I was seriously upside-down financially for several years and flirting with bankruptcy as a serious option.  Dara & [son] Daniel (who was then 11) had urged me to try to get on the show, so I decided to go down to LA and give it a shot.  When I announced that I was going to do this, Dara said (with some irony) "So, your plan to get out of debt is to go on a TV show and win a lot of money?"  I replied, "You have a problem with that?"

Leslie Shannon: It got to be a family ritual that we would actually watch Jeopardy! while eating, and eventually our dinners got to starting right at 7:30 when the show did.

Fred Ramen: In college, people were telling me I should go on the show, but I never thought I was good enough.

Rachael Schwartz: I used to watch the old show with Art Fleming when I was in grade school.  I would go home for lunch and watch it with my grandmother.  Amazingly enough, as a six-year-old, I rarely knew any of the answers.

Leslie Frates: I started watching the show in 1964, during the Art Fleming days, when I was almost 10.  I even have a 1st edition Milton Bradley home version of the Jeopardy game that Santa left under the tree for me at Christmas 1964.  My parents were very accommodating of their complete nerd daughter.

Eugene Finerman: At age 11, I found myself immersed in questions that allowed me to test my wits against my vanity.  The onslaught of puberty did not dilute my devotion; I was perfectly capable of thinking about both naked cheerleaders and the Punic Wars.

Jerome Vered: I was doing a senior project at USC's film school, staying up and piddling around the editing rooms at all hours.  Another student project was a documentary on the first Tournament of Champions.  So I'm walking to my editing room and hearing clues being given by Alex and I'm calling out the answers... The director sticks his head out of the room and asks me if I've seen or heard the footage before.  No, say I.  Then he says, "You really should try out for this show. You'd do great."


2. How do you handle pre-show jitters?  Any green room tendencies you've developed?  Chatting with/avoiding other players?  Thinking/not thinking about the game? 

Fred Ramen: The first time I was on I was nervous as hell. I got maybe three or four hours of sleep the night before -- pure nerves -- and wired myself up on caffeine in the green room... After the practice game I was of course raring to go. However, Dan Melia was the returning champ... then they called out the players for his fifth game. Not me. Good.

Grace Veach: It's good that the staff keep us busy with contracts and stuff to do, or I'd probably be much more jittery.  That was the worst thing about the day we shared with Wes in the green room -- it lasted forever!  I felt a real bond with you by the time that we'd shared that whole day, and Wes was incredibly classy as well.

Kate Waits: For the Masters, I brought my crochet.  (I make blankets for our local battered women's shelter.)  I didn't feel all that nervous, but I kept messing up the pattern.

Leslie Frates: On my first appearance I was a nervous wreck.  When I walked out onto the stage and saw the lights come on and Alex walk out, my knees and hands were shaking, and my hands were so clammy they felt like they were coated with oil from a tuna can.   After the first break, when Alex interviews the contestants, I felt much more relaxed, and all the nervousness just oozed out of my fingers, just like when Novocaine wears off.  Really.

Eugene Finerman: Jitters?  Paranoia.  While in the Green Room, you will look at your fellow contestants and imagine which of them would slaughter you.  After all, they are real champions while you, in your innermost thoughts, know yourself to be only a lucky charlatan.

Jerome Vered: I tend to be chatty.  Not as big a class clown as some, but I guess I'm more effusive than many.  And bringing candy breaks the ice.

Ben Tritle: I don't handle pre-show jitters very well... I encountered a horrid case of flop sweat and nearly went on stage with an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction.

Leslie Shannon: For my first five shows, I was so terrified that I was almost trembling with adrenaline.  But once each game started, I was able to focus absolutely on the questions... However, for my ToC return, I was much calmer.  In fact, too calm.  I was very aware of the supporting role that my adrenaline rush had played in my five wins, and I started getting worried that I wasn't freaking out at all.  So in the Green Room, I tried to make myself nervous.

John Den Hartog: The best advice I have for others on pre-show routine is: don't drink ANYTHING that day, or you will have to pee about a BILLION times.  I learned this the hard way.  Luckily, I was able to survive it and have been fine ever since. 

Eric Newhouse: Watch out for the coffee in the green room.  The very first time I taped I'd probably downed about half the urn.

Mike Rooney: Frequent bathroom visits.  And Power Bars.


3. How were you lucky?

Fred Ramen: in my first game, I got left off the hook by the first place contestant, and ended up a co-champ.

Leslie Shannon: In one of my tournament games, the clue was something along the lines of: "He became governor of Louisiana in 1704 after being the first mayor of Detroit."  Miraculously, I had just read about this very thing while preparing for the Tournament, and so I actually knew that the response was "Who was Cadillac?"   Otherwise I would have had no idea.

Grace Veach: I had an important clue about Gen. George McClellan running for president against Lincoln.  I had just been reading about elections and thought it was unusual he would run against the man who had promoted him.

Josh Den Hartog: I had $3500 riding on a Daily Double once.  And then it asks some question about a gland that causes some particular disease.  I have never heard of said disease.  Time starts to run out... I panic, and start to say in my head, over and over..."Think of a gland, think of a gland..."  Finally, I just spit out "What is the thyroid?"  It was right.  Without that money, I lose the tourney going away.  I've been fond of the thyroid ever since.


4. What's your one big question that got away?

Arthur Phillips: Oh, dear God, the Oranjestad Incident.  We shall not speak of it further.  Everlasting shame.  I can barely say the name William of Orange without feeling nauseous.

Fred Ramen: I totally whiffed on a Sylvia Plath question despite having had three consecutive lectures on her the previous semsester at NYU.  Also, not being able to get in on the Quotable Coolidge categories that I could have crushed.

Leslie Frates: In the Masters, in a Final Jeopardy to reach the finals, they wanted President Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize-winning book.  I knew it instantly (Profiles in Courage), and it was the easiest FJ I ever got in any game I played.   But I had bet puny, and lost.

Leslie Shannon: Bob Verini beat me to a question about the composer of "Finlandia" (Sibelius, of course) in the Masters Tournament that had me fuming -- I work for Nokia, a Finnish company, and knew that my colleagues would never forgive me!  However, later in the same game, I got a question about the SATs, which Bob V. wished he had gotten, since he used to work for the SAT board.

Jerome Vered: I was playing against Frank Spangenberg and Pam Mueller... up comes the category "Rossini Operas."  The last one was about an opera involving the Venetian army.  I ring in immediately, and then -- too fast, too fast -- blurt out "Daughter Of The Regiment."  And I blanch immediately.  I know that was by Donizetti.  I know I'm f'ed.  Out comes the correct response -- "Otello."  I am so pissed.  I own only one opera on audio cassette.  One.  That opera?  Rossini's "Otello."

Kim Worth: Elijah! But I must say; if you're going to miss a clue, miss one you could never answer. There's none of that lying awake in bed thinking, "I KNEW that!"  No, this was more like stepping off the curb and getting hit by a cement truck. Fast, quick and painless.

Mike Rooney:  !@#$ing "Crete" Garfield.  And before that, I was bounced from the 2000 ToC on another FJ, asking for the advisor of Odysseus's son, who was of course named Mentor.  I knew what they wanted there, but drew a hugely frustrating blank.  A few weeks ago, I saw a biography of James Garfield at the bookstore.  So I flip to the index and the first reference to Lucretia "Crete" Garfield not only mentions her nickname but also the fact that before being elected to the Presidency, the Garfields made their home in... Mentor, Ohio.  And now you, Bob, who are from Mentor, Ohio, are asking me this.  You bastard.


5. What question did you pull the furthest out of your nether regions?  And how did you get to the answer?

Arthur Phillips: I've never seen "The Last Picture Show" and did not know it was the film that Cybill Shepherd debuted in, so how did I know from a random video clip that that's what the movie was?  When you're on, you're on, and knowledge apparently is sent to you from the cosmos.

Leslie Frates: A "Before & After" question, something like "the dueling vice-president who became the puppeteer who worked with Kukla, Fran and Ollie."  I remembered once seeing a grainy photo of Kukla, Fran and Ollie standing next to their creator, Burr Tillstrom.  It hit me so fast that on the tape my body physically jerks before I ring in:  "Who is Aaron Burr Tillstrom?".  I'm mighty proud of that one, mighty proud.

Eugene Finerman: In my second game, I actually was trailing as we went into Final Jeopardy.  The clue was “The century in which the largest number of elements on the periodic table was discovered.”  I knew it couldn’t be the 18th Century because Priestley was considered a genius for discovering oxygen.  I remembered that Mendeleyev created the table in the 19th Century, and I assumed that he didn’t have a number of blank spaces with the note: “Coming soon, an element near you.”  The answer seemed to be the 19th Century.  My opponents, infatuated with 20th Century technology, picked that era.  I was right.

Kate Waits: There was a clue that said something like "He wrote the novel The Virginian."  I'd never read it or even seen it in years, but I suddenly remembered seeing it on my parents' bookshelf decades before.  In a split second, the cover of the book appeared to me, and I rang in with "Who is Owen Wister?"

Ben Tritle: Apparently my nether regions are quite large, as I pulled a number of questions out.  I had to remember the periodic table to pull out that Oxygen was just to the right of Nitrogen... I had never heard of Juan Gris yet somehow managed to figure out he was born in Madrid... and I managed to recall that the last name of the maid on "Benson" was Krause.  Why do I know this?

Robin Carroll: Probably a Daily in the category The 800s. It related to "the short-statured son of Charles Martel" and I immediately knew it was Pepin the Short. I'm hardly an expert on obscure Carolingians.  I knew it because the musical "Pippin" ran in New York, and I saw the commercial a thousand times. It's about the son of Charlemagne, who was the son of Pepin, and somehow it all came together in my head in about 1.8 seconds.

Rachael Schwartz: Somehow I knew that the "Bride Of Frankenstein" was Elsa Lanchester.  For the life of me, I still have no idea how I knew that, but it popped into my brain and somehow I knew it was right.

Eric Newhouse: To this day I couldn't tell you what the exact question was, but it had something to do with Pulitzer Prize-winning novels that became Best Picture Oscar winners, and the 1930s were in there somewhere, so I added all this up and arrived with Gone With The Wind, but I was sure I was missing something.  As it turned out, I wasn't, and judging by the reaction, everyone else was about as shocked as I was.

Kim Worth: I needed a French king.  So, with a big smile I just said, "Who is Louis?"  Alex took a beat and responded, "Which one?"  I went with the fourteenth, since he was around forever.  It was right.


6. Do you have any unusual pre-show rituals?  Anything regarding diet, sleep, exercise, who you talk to, places you go?  Lucky charms or amulets?

Fred Ramen: Whenever I've stayed at the Holiday Inn I'm 6-0; at any Sony-recommended hotel, I'm 0-3. If they ever have another tourney, I'm staying at the Holiday Inn. Even if it's not there anymore.  I'll sleep in the vacant lot.

Eugene Finerman: On the day of a Jeopardy taping I become terrified of food.  I worry about gastro-intestinal distractions from the game, and I have this fear of belching on stage.

Josh Den Hartog: .  I burned a "GET UP" CD to get me in fighting mode.  It had the "Rocky" theme, Hulk Hogan's wrestling entrance music, etc.

Alan Bailey: I tried to weigh myself down like a runner preparing for a marathon.  When I played the real game, I wanted it to feel easier than playing along at home.  Every night when Jeopardy! came on, I put on dress shoes that were too short, I wore a shirt that buttoned around my neck too tight, and I wore a sport coat two sizes too small.  My girlfriend said I looked like a filling-station attendant.  I blared every CD player and radio until I could barely hear Alex; I rigged up blinking Christmas lights around the TV screen; I aimed interrogation-intensity lamps at my eyes.  When I finally walked onto the Sony soundstage, believe me, I was ready to play.

Kim Worth: My ritual the night before each show was to swim until I was relaxed enough to do it without real effort, then go home and have a large fillet of cod for dinner. Can't beat protein for mental dexterity. Then I'd arrive at the studio and drink coffee until I was incoherent.

Eric Newhouse: Avoiding any more food than is necessary beforehand.  I'm not the only one; I'd never met Chuck Forrest before the Masters, and when we went down to the Radio City commissary for lunch, I saw him staring at me over a completely empty plate.  And I knew he was out for blood.

Jerome Vered: In the UToC, I wore the same shoes and trousers each time.

Robin Carroll: The day before and day of the show, I try to eat simple, wholesome foods -- nothing too greasy.  I drink plenty of water, avoid soda, and limit myself to two cups of coffee, which is enough to make me alert without getting jittery.

Dan Melia: Disneyland.  Day before.  Every time.  Need Mickey.  Must see Mickey. 

Fred Ramen: One lucky charm: a small, faded stuffed turtle, Lucky Bill.

Mike Rooney: For my first UToC game, I wore the same shirt I had worn in my last appearance five years before.  (I hadn't worn it since.)


7. Any game strategy you particularly advocate or think is silly?

Fred Ramen: I generally looked for one category I thought I could do well in, and saved it for about 2/3rds of the way, on the theory that I would be making my move to either take the lead or put the game out of reach.  Also, I thought David Madden's strategy of fishing out the Daily Doubles and then underbetting them was a brilliant move for a strong player, and incredibly demoralizing to his competition.

Leslie Shannon: Perhaps to my detriment, I have always played a completely strategy-free game.  My hat goes off to those who are able to recall facts and fiendishly manipulate the categories or whatever, but I'm just not that kind of person.

Robin Carroll: Bouncing around the board really gets on my nerves. I prefer to work a category from top to bottom because you get a rhythm going. In a lot of cases you won't understand the theme until you've seen one or two clues, and it's better to blow a $200 clue than a $1000 clue.

Jerome Vered: I hate the bouncing around looking for Daily Doubles.  It you get it and it's early, you have no funds to get ahead.  You also eliminate it as a possible salvation device for yourself if you're behind later.  Also, I'm all for getting the hard categories out of the way first.

Arthur Phillips: I think it's tragic to see people come on the show, after all the trouble of trying out and flying out, and apparently not have given a minute's thought to betting.

Kate Waits: I'm a law professor, so I tend to analyze things.  I could go on about this for a long time.  In short: the penalty for being wrong is severe.  DO NOT GUESS.  This is how people get in trouble.  And when you hit a Daily Double late in Double Jeopardy, take into consideration that the leader going into Final Jeopardy usually wins.  Bet to have the lead entering Final Jeopardy.  So if you have the lead, don't be greedy.  If you don't, bet to win.  Losing is losing, whether you lose by a dollar or one dollar is all you have left.  Finally -- and this is a strategy I've hardly seen anyone else use -- if you see a category where you're exceptionally strong, start at the bottom with the highest value.  Since the board is set up to help players in the difficult clues by eliminating some easy responses in a category at the top, you increase your edge by taking those hints away from your opponents.


8. Did winning have any unexpected benefits or downside?

Grace Veach: I ended up with a lot more self-confidence after winning.  I even became really famous in my town -- got to be grand marshal of a parade, give autographs, etc.  That was fun.

Leslie Frates: The money has allowed our son to attend college without our having to worry too much about how to pay for it.  My education got me to Jeopardy, and now Jeopardy is paying for his education... very nifty.  As for the downside of winning... it makes losing suck even harder, because you know how good winning feels!

Robin Carroll: I put my Jeopardy experience on my resume, and I think it's been a major factor in being hired on at least two occasions. It's a little extra that sets me apart from other candidates.  I also found out that being recognized in public is pretty weird.  I think when I chose a career in technical writing over a career as an international superstar, I made the right decision.

Kim Worth: The only real change was that I acquired a great intro for a specialized comedy act of little commercial potential.  Not to belittle this; it helped set the audience's expectations.  A little while later, I played an LA bookstore, doing only the comedy I liked and, on the basis of that act, being asked to submit for Dennis Miller.  That was beneficial.

Eric Newhouse: I've been screamed at in every corner of the country -- in the good way, where someone recognizes you, and is really damned happy about it.  I've been screamed at in Wrigley Field, in New York, Florida, and Washington, and even in Omaha by a gentleman who, not having a pen with which could sign anything, insisted that I burn a hole in his shirt with his cigarette.

Leslie Shannon: When I first appeared, I had just gotten out of grad school and was trying to figure out what to do next.  After I won five times but before the shows aired, at a party I met a friend of a friend who turned out to be Wall Street Journal reporter.  This was at the height of the early 90's recession, and she instantly saw an angle for a story.  So on the morning that my fifth show was broadcast, I was featured in the central column of the Wall Street Journal, with a little dot picture of me and everything, in a story about how I was well-educated but the recession was so tough that I was forced to go onto game shows to make a living.  This wasn't completely accurate, but the story said that I had won four times and -- ooh, suspense! -- would I win a fifth time that night?  Tune in to Jeopardy! and find out!  This article had essentially put my resume on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, so I got phone calls with 15 job offers over the following two weeks.  Within a few months, I had moved to Dallas and started a new job which I stayed with for seven years, leading me to Indonesia, Germany, France, and finally settling in Australia, where I met my husband.  So now when I look at my beautiful baby son, and you ask if Jeopardy! has given me any unexpected benefits in my life, I have to answer, "Yes!"  The entire course of my adult life was changed by the show.


9. How much did you study before your games?

Fred Ramen: I read a few trivia books, most notably the NY Public Library's most often asked questions reference guide, played a lot of Jeopardy computer games, and watched the show a lot.  This proved to be less than satisfactory for the ToC.  As I faced Dan Melia, I would have been better off learning how to poison his breakfast.

Mike Rooney: I didn't study much at first -- you really don't have much time.  But I did have over a year to prepare for the ToC in 2000, and I definitely hit the books.  Thousands of note cards, which also came in handy for the UToC.  I retained a surprising amount, even concerning material I never used since.

Leslie Frates: A fair amount, actually.  I systematically went over lists in the World Almanac, read Time Magazine very thoroughly each week, newspapers, did extra crossword puzzles, and read a favorite book about presidential trivia.

Eugene Finerman: I suddenly realized everything I didn’t know.  I immediately bought an Almanac and wondered if I should rush to the library and read the last six years of People magazine.

Leslie Shannon: I studied nonstop during the five weeks' warning period I had before my taping dates (I was unemployed and could put in five or six hours a day on those perennial classics like the Vice-Presidents and opera plots).

Arthur Phillips: I read almanacs, watched the game religiously, practiced all combinations of betting strategy on each night I watched, and meditated about the lights.

Robin Carroll: For the first five games, I didn't study at all. I was going to college full-time and working part-time, and I had three young children. I was lucky I had time to shower. For the ToC, I studied a little, and the only thing it helped me with was knowing that the Spingarn Medal is awarded by the NAACP.  I studied a lot for the Million Dollar Masters and the UToC, and we all know how much that helped.

Rachael Schwartz: INCESSANTLY.

Alan Bailey: I studied obsessively. I'm a writer and director, which means that I'm frequently between work. It's amazing what a leg up you can get on your competition when you have no job. 


10. Did the show affect your relationships in any way?

Fred Ramen:  When I met my wife she was impressed that I had been on Jeopardy, though she didn't believe me at first.

Mike Rooney: My students seem to react favorably when they find out I actually know stuff.

Eugene Finerman: Being an ambulatory bachelor, I was frequently fixed up with acquaintances’ sisters and cousins.  After my Jeopardy! triumphs, however, I was introduced to the better-looking sisters and cousins, the ones who weighed less than I did.  I eventually married one.  Indeed, the future Mrs. Finerman asked to meet the Jeopardy! champion.

Kim Worth: When I first got my hands on a check with all those zeros, my first thought was to pay back everyone I owed money. While this appears to be responsibility, in reality I was just setting myself up for future borrowing.

Ben Tritle: Apparently I can now do pretty much anything, according to those who place a premium on winning on the show... it's amazing that I haven't cured cancer or solved the crisis on the Korean peninsula.

Robin Carroll: One of the best moments for me was when I got to give a shout-out to my parents, thanking them for encouraging my love of reading when I was a child. My dad passed away in 1982, but my mom said he would have been so proud of me. That was worth more than anything to me.


11. What's your preferred buzzer-timing technique?  Thumb or finger, holding or on the podium?  Do you watch the lights, try to key on Alex's vocal rhythm, or trust your instinct?

Fred Ramen: Being Catholic, I of course went with the rhythm method.  As to which digit to use, I built a computer program to time how quickly I could get in off the lights, and the forefinger was definitely faster.

Leslie Frates: I hold the buzzer in front of me, at chest level, with both hands -- someone once described it as holding a newly-won Oscar.  As to the lights, I listen for Alex's voice and watch the lights, too.  Back and forth.  It seems to have worked pretty well.

Leslie Shannon: Lots of practice on a clicky ball-point pen ahead of time.

Arthur Phillips: I'm a hanging-arm, index-finger, left-hand-circling-right-wrist, inhaling with the question, exhaling-and-reflexing with the light kind of guy.

Rachael Schwartz: My reflexes are too slow to wait for the lights, so I try to go by Alex's reading of the clue.

Kim Worth: If I'd had any "technique" I might be considerably wealthier.  Playing against you and Dan was like being a jackal on the Serengeti. After a kill, the lions saunter in, and take what they want. Then the hyenas take over when the lions leave. Meanwhile the jackal scampers around the edge of the action grabbing an unwanted scrap here and there...

Kate Waits: I figured out early on that I was way too slow responding to the lights, so I went with Alex's voice.  I tell people that one of the ways he's amazing at his job is the predictable pace with which he speaks the answers.  This allows everyone involved to accurately anticipate the magic moment.  Given the difficult vocabulary, etc., it's clar that Alex works very hard in preparing.  It's something you can only fully appreciate as a contestant.

Robin Carroll: I'm a thumb buzzer, hand held just above the podium. I used to time myself off of Alex's voice, but the last time I went the timing seemed different, so I had to rely on the lights. It didn't work out well for me, to say the least.

Alan Bailey: I was lousy on the buzzer. I flailed and lunged, I got mad at the thing, and I probably managed to win just by getting questions nobody else rang in on.

Jerome Vered: In my five day run, I was completely about what I call the musical break -- Alex finishes, in.  Alex finishes, in.  I like to watch the lights in practice and while others are taping to get the rhythm... if I have to look at the lights, it's not a good day for me.


12. No names here: what was the classiest thing you ever saw another player do?

Eugene Finerman: In the glorious old days of the five-game limit, there was a chivalric practice among winners of five games.  On his last game, the retiring champion might allow the runner-up a tie.  This gesture did not diminish the champion’s winnings and allowed the tying player to return as a champion for another game.

Fred Ramen: I think that those champs in the five-time days who offered a tie in their fifth games were class acts.

Kim Worth: This wasn't a player.  Glenn [the contestant wrangler] loaned me his sport jacket when I neglected to bring a change of clothes.  That's his jacket I'm wearing in our ToC final.


13. Unclassiest?

Leslie Shannon: I've always been surrounded by other contestants who have been generous with their praise and support of the other players.

Robin Carroll: Everyone I ever played with was gracious in both victory and defeat.

Leslie Frates: Two guys I played once sort of linked up before a game, trying to psych me out.  I wound up playing them both at the same time.  When we were waiting to go on, they started in about how women didn't have what it took, and it wasn't in a kidding way.  I was stunned at this -- every player before and since has wished other players well, congratulated them, etc.  I ended up beating them both.  And they say there's no justice.

Eugene Finerman: I know of one “champion” who never deigned to shake hands with his competitors.

Ben Tritle: I've yet to witness an unclassy player.

Josh Den Hartog: I can spot the "mind-gamers" a mile away.  They are the ones who are constantly dropping obscure facts into conversation to show you that you have no chance against them.

Jerome Vered: I was at a friend's birthday party, and she set up board games, and in waltzes this actor who announces brusquely that he is challenging one and all to a game of Trivial Pursuit, and there is no doubt that he will win -- he's a two-day Jeopardy champ.  Well.  I share a look with the few in the room who know me and say quietly, that sounds like fun.  I've never won a game of Trivial Pursuit as quickly in my life.  It was sweet.


14. Any favorite "contestants also receive" gifts?

Josh Den Hartog: Nestle's Treasures candy!  They sent me a freakin' giant BOX of those things.  We put those in the deep-freeze in the basement and were eating those for years.  They were so rich that you couldn't eat too many at one sitting.  That was by far the best of those gifts.

Leslie Shannon: Oh, I have simply got to mention the $25 worth of Vaseline that I received.  That is a LOT of Vaseline!  After contemplating all sorts of nefarious uses for it, I ended giving away all the jars to friends with babies.  And the honey... 25 POUNDS of honey.  That lived under the kitchen sink until it got left behind in a move.  For all I know it's still there.

Eugene Finerman: I resisted the offer for Lee’s Press On Nails but I did enjoy the chocolate chips.  I received 14 bags of them.  At the time, however, I was a bachelor and I never knew how to bake.

Fred Ramen: I got "Office Temp" as one of my gifts. I was looking forward to a few hours of an indentured servant; I was going to have him clean my apartment and my office. However, I only got a gift certificate.

Robin Carroll:  The fleece pullover from the Ultimate Tournament is both warm and stylish.

Leslie Frates: Yes, but not because I use them:  a case of Metamucil, 8 bottles of Tabasco sauce (I've been married 24 years now, and I'm still on the 4th bottle), and 36 boxes of Chicken Rice-a-Roni, the quintessential game show prize.  We still have some of the Rice-a-Roni for my earthquake supplies in the garage (that stuff never goes bad).

Eric Newhouse: After one tournament one of the promotional sponsors was the company that makes Beano.  And so at my door arrived one day not an unnaturally large box of Beano, which would have been embarrassing enough, but an inch-thick book of coupons redeemable for Beano.  Insert your own awkward shopping scenario here.


15. Have you ever been on any other game shows?  How did that differ?

Fred Ramen: I tried out for Millionaire and passed the test... but you know how that turned out.

Eugene Finerman: I also have vicariously played "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?"  A friend relied on me as her phone-a-savant, on “What artist first became famous for his paintings of California swimming pools?”  I told her that I was “obnoxiously certain” that it was David Hockney.  That knowledge was worth $125,000; on Jeopardy! it might have been a $1200 question.

Leslie Shannon: I was on Scrabble in 1989, which had Chuck Woolery as its host.  The atmosphere was more like playing miniature golf.

Mike Rooney: I did go on the Stein show.  It, ah, made me appreciate the upscale treatment on the Sony lot.  There was a technical glitch which stopped tape for five hours.  The board facing contestants to show scores didn't work, so you never knew exactly how you were doing.  Oh, and then that little Nixon-lover beat me.


16. Has your intelligence ever been a cause of awkwardness?  Do people have unrealistic expectations or show you off at parties?

Mike Rooney: People feel free to try to stump me with trivia.  And it's quite easy to do.  I want to say "I'm not freakin' Rain Man, folks.  I just have a good memory, that's all."

Fred Ramen: My in-laws show me off at parties, and use me as a walking encyclopedia, but they're about the only ones.

Leslie Frates: It was a double-edged sword when I was growing up.  The vast majority of men don't like smart women. I would try to play dumb and be cutesy-feminine, but they always saw through it.  Fortunately, I found a guy who was actually turned on by my intelligence, thought I was sexy (!) because of it, who let me be myself, and treated me like a queen.  Older and wiser, I realize that I have many faults, but intelligence isn't one of them.

Kim Worth: Not really.  When I was a kid, stupidity hadn't yet acquired its social cachet.

Robin Carroll: E), all of the above! Some people like to try to stump me, which isn't all that hard. Others (not to mention any names like my husband, cough cough) expect me to know just about anything, and consider me a handy substitute for the Encyclopedia Britannica. Some people introduce me as a Jeopardy champion, which is a little embarrassing but also flattering.

Ben Tritle: I get shown off more than I'd like... apparently I know everything.

Leslie Shannon: Absolutely!  The real problem is that it can make some feel awkward, and that's the moment that I like to avoid.  

Josh Den Hartog: I do get shown off at parties.  I just went to the wedding of my college roommate, and BOTH of his grandmothers were eagerly waiting to meet me.  That was kinda weird.


17. Do you find yourself playing up or playing down your Jeopardy experience socially?  Or both, depending on the situation?

Leslie Frates: I can honestly say that I don't volunteer that I'm a Jeopardy champion, someone else always brings it up.

Eugene Finerman: until I find myself in a room full of Nobel laureates, I doubt that I will ever play down my Jeopardy! experience.  However, I don’t use my game show triumphs as a bludgeon either.  “Waitress, the Jeopardy! God would like the stuffed spinach pizza.” 

Leslie Shannon: I find that I don't mention what university I went to or my Jeopardy! experience to new people until I've gauged their ability not to be intimidated. The reverse situation, in which you discover a like-minded bookworm, also happens, and that's of course much more fun.  And a little more rare.

Arthur Phillips: It's strangely interesting to people as part of my author's bio, so I generally find I talk about it at almost every reading I give.

Josh Den Hartog: I definitely don't mention it until I've known someone for quite a while.  My feeling is that it was so long ago, and I've done lots of other stuff in my life besides that, that I don't need to talk about it.  I'm not really into impressing people I don't know, so I really can't think of a reason to play it up.  I have not found it useful for attracting women.
 
Mike Rooney: If somebody wants to talk about it, that's great, but there's no way to raise the experience in most social situations without coming off as a pompous nerd.  I do enjoy discussing it with other champs, simply because it's such a weird, specialized experience that only a couple hundred other people in the world have lived through.

Rachael Schwartz: It can only sound like bragging if you bring it up yourself.  The key is to pay somebody else to bring it up.


18. What category kills you? 

Fred Ramen: I hate "Before and After" on principle.

Leslie Frates: Anything math-oriented.  I'm not too crazy about the Civil War. 

Eugene Finerman: I am abysmal at anagrams.  When confronted by that category in the UToC, I didn’t even try to ring in.  The contestant coordinator wondered if there was a problem with my buzzer.  No, it had a running current; I didn’t.

Leslie Shannon: Mysteriously, I've always had trouble with "Mammals" as a category -- maybe I should spend more time at the zoo.

Note: In the entire universe of possible categories, Ballet or Dance was immediately named, without any prompting or multiple choices, by four different top players: Brad Rutter, Chuck Forrest, Mike Rooney, and Kim Worth.


19. What category did you surprise yourself by knowing a lot about?

Leslie Frates: At the Masters I answered 4 out of 5 about Tony Awards, which is not usually something I follow... perhaps the inspiration of being at Radio City had something to do with it...

Ben Tritle: I shocked myself knowing far more about literature than I ever gave myself credit for.  Apparently I can read.

Grace Veach: I did OK in the Playboy Magazine category!  That was a shock -- I work at a Christian college, and I got a lot of teasing about it at work.


20. Have you ever been thrown by the chats with Alex?

Eugene Finerman: You might have perfect composure when identifying the capital of Bhutan, but you will always sound like an idiot when discussing your hobbies.

Arthur Phillips: Someone must have scribbled an ambiguous note on the card.  He referred to my son as my daughter.  I almost interrupted but then decided that it would be better for the show to send my child through gender reassignment.

Leslie Frates: At the Masters I wasn't expecting him to ask me about my trip to Spain, and I didn't catch what he was leading up to.  I stood there for a second or so with a pretty dumb smile on my face.  Fortunately I caught on.

Grace Veach: No, but I got a call from Jeopardy after the UToC saying that Alex had gotten a letter from someone who wanted to date me.

Eric Newhouse: I should have just held up signs, a la Wile E. Coyote.


21. What's your favorite Alex moment?

Fred Ramen: During my first taping experience, he did a little soft-shoe during one of the taping breaks.

Leslie Frates: During my ToC, there was a category about Despots & Dictators.  I answered 4 of them who were from Latin America, and being a Spanish teacher, I pronounced the names as natively as possible.  Alex stopped in the middle of the game, complimented me, and said I obviously have a great love for the language and for what I do.

Jerome Vered: I was impressed with how Alex would talk with only the losers.  That way, he'd divide the time only among two contestants, and besides, he'd talk to the winner eventually, one way or another.

Josh Den Hartog: Honestly, (I'm not just kissing up) the banter you guys had in your ToC games with Dan and Kim.  When you told Alex, "I don't need your pity", and he hasn't given you any ever since. :-)

Robin Carroll: At the International tournament, there was a visual clue that involved a photo of a baboon.  Fred, the Swedish contestant, said, "It looks like you, Alex."  We all just about died, Alex included.


22. Any other fun story, insight, or strategy you'd like to share?

Robin Carroll: Whenever I talk to someone who's ever had a thought of trying out for Jeopardy, I always encourage them to give it a shot. Being on the show is the most fun I've ever had in my life -- I mean actually playing the game is so exhilirating and amazing. Even if you lose -- and I've lost a few times -- it's tremendous fun. And you meet the nicest, smartest people.

Eric Newhouse: When they taped at the old KTLA studios in Hollywood, before the Age of Sony, you used to get to have lunch next door on the set of Soul Train.

Kate Waits: At the Masters, it seemed like at least one of us knew something about almost anything you could remotely call "general knowledge."  But all of us have areas where we're weak.  I remember Frank talking about missing the "Kim Philby" Final Jeopardy clue.  He said he thought about it all night, and concluded that he had just never come across that name.  Rachael, on the other hand, got the same clue right -- but only because, by her own admission, Kim Philby was the only spy she'd ever heard of.

Fred Ramen: I always wrote my name as large as possible.  I had noticed in watching the game that the person who wrote their name the biggest won quite often.  Sure, it might not stand up to controlled study, but when I play, my name is usually lapping the borders of the screen. 

Leslie Shannon: The first lesson is that audacity pays.  And I've had so much fun as a result!  The second lesson that Jeopardy! taught me is how to lose.  People who make it to Jeopardy! are generally used to being the smartest cookies around, and it was a major step for me when I finally lost in the ToC and had to face not only all of the people who had been cheering me on, but myself as well.  Admitting that other people could genuinely play this game better than I could -- and then being able to admire them for it -- brought me a kind of spirit that I didn't possess when I went to that first tryout.