Did anyone notice a little sideward glance Ken made at Nancy toward the end. I know it wasn’t devious, but it reminded me of a kid trying to cheat off another kid’s paper.
It was at the end and there was no way to see her screen.
It almost seemed instinctive. Like he was thinking “What did SHE put down?”
With that look, I figure there is no WAY he took a dive.
I believe he mentioned in an interview that he saw her out of the corner of his eye completing her answer quickly, but I can’t find that quote now. I did find this one, though.
I was amused that he didn’t answer any of the questions in the Seinfeld category. I suspect he never watched the show.
I’m also annoyed with the suggestions that he “threw the game”. I have sensed a bit of burn-out recently, however (not just playing, but meeting family and job obligations in Utah at the same time). That and the fact that he missed both of his Daily Doubles in Double Jeopardy probably taxed him mentally once Final Jeopardy rolled around.
Oh, and H&R Block wasn’t that freakin’ easy to come up with (although I got it after a few seconds of thinking). There are other white collar positions besides accounting, after all.
Whew, now that he’s out of the way, the Jeopardy people can go ahead and give me a call (I’m in the contestant pool this year).
At least one prediction was right on:
Spoken by Brad Rutter, previous Jeopardy all-time champ:
(Italics mine.)
In discussions about Jeopardy and other game shows over the years, I find that people who know the answer to a question usually think the question is easy, regardless of its actual difficulty.
It’s easy to come up with a line of reasoning, find out it’s the correct answer, then say this is the only logical way to go. But what about…
First clue: seasonal work. What’s the busiest time of year? The holidays.
Second clue: firm with 70,000 employees. What line of business has a single company that busy during the holidays? Shipping. Popular shipping company? UPS or FedEx.
Oops, it says white-collar workers… Then maybe–Crap, a few seconds left! Better just write FedEx.
I’m a pretty smart guy, but in Jennings’ position I very likely would have guessed UPS or Fedex, or a major retailing chain like Wal-Mart. The seasonal aspect of the question threw me. H&R Block is an obvious answer if you’re leaning that way but
I am familiar with the courier and carrier businesses so they’d be the first to pop into my head,
I would have thought of Christmas as the seasonal marker, not tax time, and
I do my own taxes. H&R Block just is not on my personal radar screen.
My first thought was FedEx. I did soon think it was tax related though because I remember hearing about an accountant in my area who is an NFL Referee (David Boston’s dad) and a CPA. He had time to be a referee because he only worked FOUR MONTHS A YEAR.
I got an e-mail today with these impressive statistics about Ken’s run. (It was sent on Tuesday, so it doesn’t include the last show).
Earnings through Nov. 29: $2,520,700
2,613 correct answers out of 2,848 attempted (not including Final Jeopardy). That’s 91.7% right!
2,575 First Ring-ins
93 Category Sweeps – more than one for each show!
132 Daily Doubles correct out of 157 attempted: 84% right.
51: Final Jeopardys correct out of 74 attempts: 69% right.
Quite a record.
I’d be interested to see how often he had to come from behind in Final Jeopardy.
Also, how many times someone else failed to make it to Final Jeopardy while he was on the show.
There was a segement on CNN at lunch that showed a party in the DC area where Ken’s Roadkill gathered to watch his last show. The title of the segment was SOUR GRAPES.
INDEED!
He never traiiled going into Final Jeopardy. The closest anyone had ever been to him after 2 rounds was the very first day, when he was ahead by just under $2,000.
Not that this is much of a spoiler, but…
[spoiler]After twenty-four hours, the Nancy Zerg dynasty has come to an end.
She finished in third place today, with $2.
[/spoiler]
h and r block may not be the first thing that would come to mind. my mum thought that it would be the irs. there are many seasonal jobs.
I could have told you that yesterday.
Looks like I underestimated the tax bite. I had guessed about $950 thousand, and your source says it will be $1.04 million.
A regressive tax takes a larger percentage of income from low-income groups than from high-income groups. Since Ken has a very high income this year wouldn’t he prefer a regressive tax to a progressive one?
Ken was on WOR radio this morning. He was asked to describe his weirdest experience in NYC: Some guy walked up to him and said “You’re Ken Jennings. I’ve got to get your autograph. This is the only book I have. Please sign it.” The book was “The History of Farting.”
I’m in the current contestant pool myself. My eye doctor–who looked very much like Alex Trebek when he operated on my eye in the 1907s–always asks me if I’ll be on; I’ve promised him that when they call me to appear I’ll call the doctor’s office right away. When I had my eye exam this year, however, the ophthalmologist said I might not have a chance against [Jennings].
Excuse me–1970s. :o
H&R Block (or something else tax-related) might be somewhat obvious if one starts one’s deductions with “white collar”. But personally, I started my reasoning with “seasonal”. When I think of seasonal employees, the first thing I think of is recreation and leisure activities, and the second is the Christmas season. My guess was Disneyworld. OK, so that’d probably be more purple-and-green collar, but I wasn’t sure exactly how the collar terms are defined.
Add to this the fact that anyone, no matter how good, is going to make a mistake occasionally, and anyone who makes mistakes occasionally is occasionally going to make enough of them in one game to lose. There’s no more reason to assume that Ken threw his game than there is to assume that a centinarian who eventually dies committed suicide.
I like what Jennings said…
After his first few wins he was used to the lights, and the people, it wasn’t affecting him anymore.
But the other contestants were in awe of what was going on around them.
He said that gave him an edge right off the bat.