Wednesday, June 30, 2004

I'll take "That Guy's a Freak" for $500, Alex.

I've been watching Jeopardy! the last few days, mainly because a guy from Utah named Ken has been Champion for twenty days and won something like $600,000 as of this writing. (Here's an already-outdated news article.) Old viewers of Jeopardy! may recall that champions could only play for five days before they were sent packing, but apparently that rule has been eliminated. This guy is pretty amazing in the breadth of his knowledge; I've watched five of his episodes so far and in each one but last night's, he has gone into "Final Jeopardy!" with well over twice the total of his nearest competitor, which basically means you can't possibly lose (unless you do what Cliff Clayvin did on Cheers when he appeared on Jeopardy!).

Anyway, in last night's "contestant banter" segment (when Alex Trebek chats for a moment with the three contestants), Ken revealed that he keeps a "lucky token" in his pocket at all times. It was, to my immense pleasure, a Totoro. (Go here if you don't know what a Totoro is.) I can't root against a guy who keeps a Totoro figure in his pocket.

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