King of Double Jeopardy, media sensation and newly minted millionaire Ken Jennings has graciously agreed to participate in our 12 Questions interview feature.
However, because Ken is averse to answering questions, we will accomodate his request that we supply nothing but answers and leave the questions to him. ; )
Feel free to ask Ken questions, oops, I mean provide answers, in the comments. If for some reason you want to keep your answer secret, you can email it to Matt (matt @ times and seasons). The T&S staff will select 12 answers from the submissions and will post Ken’s responses in a future post.
(Actually, Ken didn’t ask that we provide him with answers. That idea was Gordon’s.)
Category: Spare-Time Secrets
Answer: How I learn all that stuff.
Answer: “Nothing has really changed at all. I’m just the same humble unassuming smart guy I always was before.”
Category: Big Mistakes of Former Mormon Jeopardy Contestants
Answer: Wilford Woodruff
I forgot to add a category to my previous answer.
Category: Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems
(sheesh, I’ll bet I somehow got this all messed up. oh well.)
Answer: What your wife and baby were up to while you were winning big.
Category: Friendly celebrities
Answer: Alex Trebek’s gentle sense of humor.
Category: Double Jeopardy Moments
Answer: “I’d like to wager it all, Alex.”
Category: Spare Time Secrets
Answer: What I read, my interests, and the kind of things I like to do.
A: Clammy handshake, short but with excellent posture, and a raving drunk.
Q: what are things I didn’t know about Alex Trebek until I met him?
I am going to break the rules here, Ken, and ask what is your favorite sort of literature? Do you really read Amy Tan, or is she just one of those odd facts you’ve picked up along the way? Joyce had a head for facts facts facts (see Poldy’s ode to water) and diverse and esoteric trivia: Do you read Joyce?
A: Ken Jennings’s home teaching stats for June.
Kingsley:
The correct format is:
“Answer: What I enjoy reading.”
“Answer: How my reading for fun impacted my success on Jeopardy.”
I think we need at least one that is simply:
Answer: Yes.
That will give Ken some space to discuss any old fun topic that we can’t think of.
Category: Highway Robbery
Answer: This sum is the percentage of my total Jeopardy! winnings that I will pay in taxes.
(I really would be very interested to know this one).
thanks.
Answer: Why or I do or do not enjoy reading Joyce.
Answer: Why I do not enjoy reading Amy Tan.
Answer: Why I apparently don’t have any suits and had to borrow my brother’s to go on the show.
Answer: The number of Elders in my quorum who have lost their testimony because I said “rat’s ass” on national television.
Answer: the # of reasons I have to quit my job.
Ken, I think you need to create a blog and join the Bloggernacle. You can wake up every day, drink your orange juice and write about all your unique experiences as a Jeopardy winner. C’mon… you know you want to do it.
Category: Newfound Celebrity
Answer: What is the amount of times I’ve been hit on by aging librarians and other Jeopardy groupies.
Category: Me and Alex
Answer: What is how sick I am of the jokes that Alex and I are lovers.
Category: Spare Time
Answer: What is what I plan on doing with my life now.
Category: Cheezy Advice
Answer: What is how to become like Ken and win money for a living.
I don’t have an answer, just a comment. The Chicago Tribune had a box next to an article about Ken that gave 10 of his correct final Jeopardy answers/questions. I must say, reading that impressed the hell out of me.
Here are the answers to which Ken provided the questions:
1. Films of the ’70s: This 1973 thriller was re-released in 2000 with extra footage, including a scene in which Ritalin is prescribed.
2. U.S. Presidents: With a book about the South, he became the first president — past or present — to publish a novel.
3. Words and Phrases: Once slang for brain, this two-word phrase now means the Heritage Foundation or the Brookings Institution.
4. Classic Literature: “Did I Request thee, maker, from my clay to mould me man . . . ” is the epigraph to this 1818 novel.
5. On Exhibit: The Chinese government, which controls all of these in the U.S., won’t let a new one be named until it’s 100 days old.
6. Entertainment: This title character who debuted in 1999 was created by former marine biology educator Steve Hillenburg.
7. Historic Americans: For his role in writing this 1861 document, Thomas Cobb of Georgia has been compared to James Madison.
8. Inventions: Josephine Cochrane’s 1886 version of this consisted of a copper boiler, wire baskets and a pump.
9. Famous Products: First designed as a surgical disinfectant, in 1895 it was available to dentists and by 1914 was sold over the counter.
10. Food: Experts believe that 16th Century Dutch growers, through breeding, gave this vegetable its color to honor their ruling house.
For the questions, see here.
Answer: What is Ken’s reaction to the absurd accusations of the games being fixed?
If we could bury a serious question (or answer) somewhere at the end of the list, I would like to know why Mr. Jennings thinks God has given him a five-talent gift for remembering trivia. I have a one-talent version myself and it puzzles me what to do with it.
How it feels to be dubbed a “Mormon assassin” and “the MJ of nerds” by ESPN.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/040721
I see that you have survived until the summer hiatus, and will be back in September. With the layoff, do you plan on studying any more topics and brushing up generally, or are you pretty much past that stuff now?
Ken, would there ever come a point at which you would simply retire, if your winning kept going for a while? What point would that be? 50 games? 100? 2 million dollars, 5 million dollars? What theoretical place could you reach where you would finally say “man, this is getting old, Alex.”
Category: KJ wannabes
Answer: This is the secret to being the first to buzz in on the questions all three contestants know the answer to.