#Jeopardy

Jeopardy! happened.  Of course I already knew the outcome so there were no surprises on the TV.  But what was surprising was discovering that Twitter is positively teeming with Jeopardy! commentary.  After Kathy's episode aired, I combed through a pile of fascinating... enlightening... thought-provoking... 140-character-or-less Tweets, looking for anything relevant to the show.  Rather than recap last Thursday's episode myself, I will follow in the footsteps of venerable news organizations like CNN and let Twitter tell the story (with a little interstitial fill from me).  

It wouldn't be the internet without shallow comments about appearances.  Wardrobe criticism was rare but harsh:

Just flipped past Jeopardy! and the girl has the same shirt that I have..... Guess I bought a nerd shirt last season... :( [SuperAwesomeJen]

(There's a photo of the "nerd shirt" further down.)

People were pretty kind to Kathy:

Cute redhead alert! Kathleen on Jeopardy. She's definitely Jeopardy-hot! [bklynMF]

The new Jeopardy champion is cute :o [Davepencilguin]

Jeopardy-hot?  I guess that's a compliment?

What got more attention was her strategy of hopping around the board hunting for Daily Doubles:

I hate when Jeopardy contestants go searching for Daily Doubles, and I really hate when they end up winning. [sarbucks]

It slightly annoying when someone starts in the middle of the price range in Jeopardy rather than starting at the beginning. [nicholasjmay]

Somebody please tell this bitch to stop going out of order before I get mad. #jeopardy [hotterthanjuly]

The other controversial point was Kathy's Final Jeopardy answer which was scribbled hurriedly and just barely legible (Alex jokingly read "Gauguin" as "Laugh-In").  This did not play well:

That bitch shouldn't have won. She wrote down "Laughin" and tried to play it off like she wrote Gauguin. #jeopardy [hotterthanjuly]

I don't think you should get credit for a right answer in Final Jeopardy if it can't be read [rhettumphress]

The nice thing about Jeopardy is that you are allowed to correct yourself. [Theshanks]

WOW!!!! That's a 1st this chick just bullshitted Alex in Jeopardy and won!!!!!! WTF??? [saunidnicolas]

At least some people were happy to see her win:

So happy to see a woman win Jeopardy for a change and the final question was about Gaugin and Van Gogh. Both male players got it wrong. [AwardsDaily]

I love when someone wins Jeopardy with a monster 2nd round and an all-or-nothing Final Jeopardy wager. [Tomas_Rios]

On a totally separate note, the viewing party at Crave Cafe was great.  Here are some pictures from the night:

A couple of the posters Kathy made to decorate Crave Cafe.

Alex Weiss-Mallik?

Megan Quinn made this awesome cake.

Kathy on the big screen.  It's not a coincidence that she's wearing the exact same outfit on TV as in person.

The first group photo caught some people off guard. 

We did a better job on the second one. 

Thanks to everybody who came out to watch and cheer!

T minus 2 days

It's the final countdown to Kathy's Jeopardy! experience.  We leave tomorrow morning for L.A. and the show tapes on Tuesday.  Kathy has been busy with her final preparations, trying to cram as much knowledge as possible in these remaining days.  This would certainly be easier if we weren't moving to a new house two days after the show, not to mention keeping two babies alive.

Last night at dinner we practiced betting strategy for Final Jeopardy.  By the way, this is at her request-- I'm not a crazy stage mom!.  But it is sad to me when I see someone lose the game because they didn't know how to bet.  Usually this applies to the second place player who decides to bet everything instead of betting a calculated, conservative amount, playing for the possibility that the first place player makes a sensible bet and gets the question wrong.  (It also makes me sad when people on The Price Is Right bid badly in Contestant's Row-- the last player should always bid $1 more than a previous bet, or $1 exactly.  Can you tell I watched a lot of game shows as a kid?)

Today she's been reviewing her compiled spreadsheets of information on likely question topics (Shakespeare, world leaders, state nicknames, poetry, composers, etc.).  I took a peek at the Shakespeare list which includes for each play the major characters and a brief plot synopsis in her own words.  Among my favorites:

The Comedy of Errors:  Twins cause misunderstandings and beatings ensue.

Titus Andronicus:  Everyone dies. Lots of amputations and raping.

Pericles, Prince of Tyre:  Antiochus offers his daughter to whomever can solve a riddle.  The answer is "incest".

Shakespeare was pretty screwed up in the head.

Speaking of study topics, can anyone share a good reference on potent potables AKA mixology?  There are references online but they're way too comprehensive and include many drinks that will surely never appear on Jeopardy!.  Like "Cum in a Hot Tub," which I found just now on a top search result.  (Actually, after meeting Trebek last month I'm less sure that this would never appear.)  But a list of like 20 popular drinks and how to make them would be pretty handy.  Otherwise we're going to have to watch Cocktail and that would be unfortunate.