Did anyone see Ken on The Tonight Show last Friday? I forgot to watch or tape it. (My habits as a die-hard Letterman fan are hard to overcome.)
How did it go? What did they talk about? (Beside the obvious, of course.) Any good stuff?
Yes, please keep the thread going when he returns in September!
I’ll be back in the UK then and want to be able to keep track of how he’s doing. I arrived in the US the evening of June 1st, the first episode I saw was his first victory on June 2nd.
Darn this summer Jeopardy hiatus!
They haven’t started taping the next season of Jeopardy!, correct?
So, then … how the hell are they going to convince anyone to become a contestant at the start of the next season? Give out “I was defeated by Ken Jennings” t-shirts?
Incorrect. As Walloon mentioned above, taping for the fall season is probably well under way.
As someone discovered earlier in this thread, they started taping Ken’s episodes in February, and he didn’t show up on air until early June. So they tape at least two to four months in advance.
Many LDS (Mormon) men and women, eggheads or not, are basketball players and fans. Most meetinghouses are built with a cultural hall/gym that includes a basketball court with goals that can be raised or lowered to suit the activity. Most congregations have youth teams in three age groups for boys and girls as well as a men’s team. A geographically organized group of congregations called a stake holds annual league type competitions between the congregations for the youth and men.
In our area in a 5A school of over 4000 students with only about 40 LDS high school students, four of the starters on the high school basketball team were LDS last year.
Nothing about being LDS discourages an interest in basketball, sports or egghead studies. 
Oh, sure. As I already explained, I wasn’t talking about his religion, but his geography. I’m a basketball fan, too, but I couldn’t tell you who the WNBA team is from Seattle, for example. I happened to know Charlotte because I’m fairly close to there, and Charlotte’s men’s team was the Hornets.
Ken Jennings is the only one who can make that determination.
For LDS members, that is determined by the individual member for him or herself. Church policy specifically states that no one in the Church has any authority to interpret this revelation for another person. It is up to the individual to declare whether they are paying a full tithe or not. No one is ever going to ask or tell you if they are paying on gross or net. If someone does they are clearly outside the bounds of their authority and you should simply refuse to answer and go up a level to let a higher authority know of the problem.
Hmmm … I wonder if the LDS church has its “tax protestor” crowd who insists that “interest” means only interest on bank accounts, not wages or rent or other income, and that therefore you can claim to be tithing in full if you pay 10% of the $11.50 you earned with your savings account last year.
Well not a “tax protestor crowd” but I have heard it mentioned by individuals on rare occassions. Usually in the case of folks with significant savings or investment plans.
The bottom line is
- a full tithe is 10% of your “increase”
- how you arrive at what “increase” is for you is strictly between you and the Lord
- if anyone tries to tell you how to arrive at a full tithe they are acting outside their stewardship and should to told to mind their own business
The thing to keep in mind is that we are taught that paying a full and honest tithe opens the windows of heaven spiritually and temporally on our behalf and that not paying a full and honest tithe is to “rob God” as is mentioned in Malachi 3: 7-12.
The majority of my friends in the church with whom I have discussed tithing in such specific terms seem to feel that a full tithe is 10 on ALL your gross earning, and that charitable donations to church humanitarian aid programs, welfare and education funds and other programs are gifts above and beyond the full tithe.
Whether Ken Jennings pays on the gross, net, or gross plus interest or any other amount is entirely up to what he feels is full and right and I bet he could have answered all this in the form of a question too!
Hmmmm…not only does Ken Jennings set a record on Jeopardy, but he inspires a (currently) nine page thread with offshoots here & here. He truly is “amazing.”
[QUOTE=AbbySthrnAccent]
Most congregations have youth teams in three age groups for boys and girls as well as a **men’s ** team. A geographically organized group of congregations called a stake holds annual league type competitions between the congregations for the youth and men.
[QUOTE]
Bolding mine.
Are there not enough adult LDS females interested in basketball to justify teams and competitions for them?
</aside>
Apparently not.
There are intramural basketball programs at the church colleges, but not on the congregational level. I sure as heck wasn’t interested in basketball by adulthood. In my experience, basketball is painful when played with breasts. I don’t mind playing horse with the kids, but I’m not interested in a full blown game, much less an organized tournament and practices.
On a congregational level, we’ve put together volleyball and softball games and tournaments with other nearby congregations. I’ve also seen women get together for aerobics, mommy and me excercise classes, dance and movement as well as small groups together to walk the greenbelt regularly.
Finally, nothing prevents a woman from pursuing her athletic interests at the local Y, or health club.
In another thread:
I, however, do not share Liberal’s compunction against resurrecting an old thread. Mua ha ha ha ha!!