Jeremy…
I can think of no more stirring symbol of man’s humanity to man than a fire engine - Kurt Vonnegut
Gentleman. I meant to say gentleman. Damn typos…
Jeremy…
I can think of no more stirring symbol of man’s humanity to man than a fire engine - Kurt Vonnegut
What color was the car?
Don’t get me wrong–I love life. I’m just finding it harder and harder to keep myself amused.
Why the hell would jeopardy give out a meat head car like a camaro to ANYONE???
Jeez, some car makers just don’t know nuthin about targets!
-Frankie
Should have given him a big screen TV instead.
This space for rent.
Well, thanks for the anticlimax KCB!! The show was about to begin when I read your thread :D. Doesn’t really matter because I haven’t watched Jeopardy! in a while.
I noticed that they gave him a braille card at the beginning of the show. Know what was on it? I figured it would be a reminder of the categories, but did he have to remember which answers were still available on the board and which weren’t??
I think he won two Camero’s. And I’m pretty sure he picked them. The guy’s so smart, he could probably figure out a way to drive them, too.
I can’t figure out how he knew which answers hadn’t been picked. I know he had a card listing the categories in braille, but how was he able to keep up on which answers were still on the board?
And usually, you can read the answer and ring in before bonehead finishes reading, but this guy was still able to beat everybody with the buzzer.
You see the way the sides of his head were kind of caved in? I wonder if that has anything to do with his blindness?
Good show.
Therealbubba
Thereal: No, contestants cannot ring in before Trebek has finished reading the answer; their buzzers are electronically locked until the last syllable is uttered. And I believe that if they do try to “jump the gun”, they are (electronically) penalized, with their buzzer remaining de-activated a few seconds more. So everyone was on an equal footing.
I think that if you win a prize on a game show, they are required by law to offer you the choice of said prize or an equivalent amount of cash. The blind guy probably just opted for the cash instead of the car.
So THAT’s why ATM’s have braille on them
so you found a girl who thinks really deep thoughts. what’s so amazing about really deep thoughts? Tori Amos
I concur with Drain, they must offer the cash equivalent.
There was a story about him on the news the other night. He had a Braille card listing the categories, but he did the rest of it from memory: keeping track of which questions were left, how much money everybody had, etc., even the math for final jeopardy. Also, while it’s true that you can’t ring in until the question has been read, usually contestants can read the question and anticipate a little bit, not by ringing in sooner, but by being ready. He had to hear the whole question before he could decide to ring in. I was amazed and impressed.
He’s a reporter for USA Today and since my school gives away free copies of it every morning I read the Monday edition and found two articles telling me all I could want to know about him. Remember this is the Monday edition! It tells about the fact he won five episodes ending on Tuesday. He was the first blind contestant on Jeopardy and the only accomadations he was given were a braille listing of the catagories and a keyboard to type on for Final Jeopardy. He won ~$70,000 and two cars making him the top winner of the season. He plans to give one Camaro to his parents and sell the other. His mother lost on Jeopardy in 1991. He is blind because at age 2 it was discovered that he had cancer in his eyes and the only way to save his brain and kill the cancer was to take his sight.
Thirdwarning: You’re quite right in saying that the two others had time to “ready” themselves, an option which obviously was not open to him.
Headless: I’d venture to say that the guy probably had the categories memorized if he was able to remember which answers were left on the board, the amounts involved, and how much money the other two contestants had won and lost!!!
I saw him play his first game last Wednesday on the bar TV at a bowling alley. The sound was down, so I didn’t hear anything about him. I did wonder why his name was so tiny on the screen, then why his Final Jeopardy answer was written in such neat letters.
Then in Friday’s Washington Post they had an article about him. And like TV Guide has done, they said that he went on to win five times. Gee, thanks for spoiling the next two nights of Jeopardy.
Blind Eddie was fantastic, and I’m a big fan. That said, you guys might be making too much of his memory feats. Alex frequently “mentioned” the scores, and he always states them before anyone bets on daily doubles and final jeopardy. Also, Eddie would frequently pick a category and then say “next one”, indicating the next available clue from the top.
I do agree with those who have noted that even though the sighted contestants could not buzz in before Alex finished reading the clue (always the case, not special for Eddie), they could read ahead and get ready to buzz in, while Eddie had to wait to hear the clue then decide if he was going to attempt to answer, or question that is.
An aside, our asinine local NBC station is our Jeopardy station. We are in Atlanta, so they decided we would rather watch an idiotic, locally produced pre-pre-game show for the world series than see Eddie win his fifth game. They have now decided to run that show Friday night, in the regular time slot, so we will miss Friday’s show. Don’t get me wrong, I am a big baseball fan, but I also like jeopardy. I’d rather have my cake and eat it too.
I thought the same thing! (About giving him a different prize) Make a concession, for crying out loud. This is probably a really prejudice, though unintentionally so, question, but what would a really great grand prize for a blind person be? My dad (my eternal Jeopardy foe) thought a European vacation. To me, I thought that that would be frustrating, being that he couldn’t see the sights, and to make matters worse, couldn’t understand anyone. I voted for Tahiti, or one of those Sharper Image massage chairs, or a personal concert by his favorite musician or group. Any better ideas?
How 'bout curtains to replace is blinds?
We’re all here, because we’re not all there!
re: cash equivalent for Jeopardy prizes.
I know a little bit about this, because I work with a guy who was on the show last year. He won one and came in second on the following day. The prize for the second place finish was a trip, which he wasn’t able to take. The only choice he had was to reject the prize (and avoid tax liability on its cash value.) He couldn’t transfer the trip or take its cash value. He of course kept the cash from the Day 1 win.
The ironic thing is that the two shows he was on were televised on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, although they were taped earlier. My friend is Jewish, and every category on the second day was Chistmas related. Kind of unfair, although he did okay, coming in second as I said before. The ironic part? The trip that he won (that he couldn’t take because of a scheduling problem) was a Holy Land package sponsored by the Israeli Tourism Board.
Not to minimize his abilities and his winning, but many of the Jeopardy questions can be answered correctly from the middle part. So likely by the time he heard the middle part, he knew if he wanted to answer and was likely on fairly even footing.
Any five day winner is amazing. And he will get to come back for the Tournament of Champions to win more money.
Jeffery