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.
