Prepardy!

Because I know you are so utterly dying to know (ahem), here's what I'm doing vis-à-vis preparing for the Jeopardy! audition so far. (Mimi: am totes hoping you and Eddie will join Jim and me for drinks/dinner/commiseration at some point while you're here.)

1. Watching the show! We have a new family ritual to carry out every night at 7 p.m. We settle down on Jim's and my bed ('cause we have no TV in the living room... crazy hippies that we are) and I yell out answers and then every five or so questions I apologize for being so obnoxious about it. Really, I am going to have to cut down on the number of times I yell "Suck it, dumbass!" at an "opponent" who gets an answer wrong. I think that sort of behavior might be frowned upon by Trebek and crew.

2. Making flashcards! Seriously. Names and dates-in-office of US presidents, names and capitals of countries of the world. Wanna hear about Azerbaijan? (Capital: Baku. Government: nutty autocracy.) How about William Henry Harrison? ("Tippecanoe and Tyler, too." Contracted a fatal case of pneumonia less than a month into his term. Some sturdy war hero he was!)

3. Freaking out about math! There's apparently a whole scientific statistics-based procedure to go through when wagering some part of one's score on a Daily Double ("Let's make it a true Daily Double, Alex." How I long to say these words some day! And not to have them come back and bite me in the ass like the woeful shaggy-haired kid who ended up with a final score of ZERO in last week's Teen Tournament. I think zero doesn't even get you the home game.). Slate's Matt Gaffney lays it out for hopeful players, but hell, I can't really comprehend what he's talking about while I'm sitting calmly at my computer, let alone under the heat of the klieg lights with some buzzer-happy mouthbreather lurking near my left shoulder. Let's have "Complicated Calculations I am Virtually Certain to Get Wrong" for $800, Alex!

4. Bemoaning the woeful state of my civics/economics/American history education! There are gaps in my understanding of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries you could drive a fleet of Willys Jeeps through. But that's OK; according to this recent survey, I am in good company, if by "good company" you mean "a majority of American high school seniors." Blargh.

5. Coming up with anecdotes and/or Fun Facts about myself! So far: I homeschool my two insane children; I used to have a radio show which I wanted to call "Audio Quicksand" but which had to be called something else (I think I just kind of referred to it as "The RedMolly Show"); I taught a college class on Vikings and medieval Scandinavia;  I would rather gnaw off my own right arm than vote for a Republican presidential candidate;  and then I'm at a loss. Um, I can eat more mashed potatoes than can anyone else in my family? And live to tell the *urp* tale?

Comments

[heidikins]

Haha! I think your prepardy routine is fantastic... although the scary math part would give me fits!

Huzzah for Mashed Potato Consumption Queenliness!

xox

[Mimi]

Yes, let us! I shall email. We could meet for drinks/comiseration at the hotel bar afterwards? We are doing dinner the night before - any suggestions? Are you free?

And, yes, I am also watching Jeopardy now with a new appreciation. No flash cards yet, but good idea.

[Helena]

Hey, did I tell you that Ken Jennings was Brandon Sanderson's roommate at BYU?

Good luck!

[azureavian]

i'll take Things Only I Know for 100$ Alex!

it's latin name means river horse = hippopotamus. also, learn the spelling, unless you already know. i didn't =)
Andorra - woefully undervalued country that will really trip you up. also, Eastern European countries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andorra

i would love to be on the show, but the math and classic literature would trip me up faster than tied shoelaces.

[not-so-silent auctioneer]

when you said you had a blog at the auction i got nervous, but you delivered in full style.

PS i have been trying to get on this show for years. i cannot seem to deliver under pressure though. i am the smartest man alive from the comfort of my own living room, but it disappears when i step outside my house.

[jenidallas]

I somehow know that you are going to ace this audition in which case you MUST let me know when I can watch to cheer you on. I *heart* Jeopardy!