Holding out for another chance at ‘Jeopardy’

I have spent hours and hours of my life sitting in front of the television set, shouting random trivia in question form. Yes. I am a “Jeopardy” junkie. It looks so easy at home. I usually know almost all of the questions in the first round. Double Jeopardy, not so much — but even a blind hog finds an acorn from time to time — and Final Jeopardy is a crap shoot. And I know that I am more interesting than 78 percent of the contestants that actually make it onto the show.

A few years ago — during the reign of Jeopardy Champion Extraordinaire, Ken Jennings, I actually flew all the way to Los Angeles to try out for the show. It was a disaster. The game is a lot harder in the studio than it is at home.

About 300 of us gathered at a hotel near Studio City — wherever that is — and took a paper and pencil trivia test. That apparently went well because I was one of a handful of folks chosen to be interviewed and play a practice game. I guess the interview went well enough, but during the practice game — I choked. There’s no other way to put it.

I sat and stared at the screen as the first few clues were revealed. That’s all I did. I just sat there. Finally, the pretty young thing that was acting as the host — Alex Trebek must have been on vacation that day — reminded me that I hadn’t participated.

I blurted out the very next answer — which earned me a reprimand for not buzzing in first. So I buzzed in on the next question and then blurted out the answer. I forgot to put it in the form of a question. The next time I buzzed in I didn’t know the answer.

They gave me a Jeopardy coffee mug for trying out and said, basically, don’t call us — we’ll call you. But they never did.

The trip to LA wasn’t a total loss, however. I got to walk on the beach at Malibu with Mary Jane Odum — thus fulfilling another lifetime dream.

But I am a stubborn sort and have never been one to give up easily. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again and all of that. Wednesday night I accepted the challenge and tried out for “Jeopardy” yet again. No, I haven’t been to the west coast. They let you do it online these days, which means that instead of having to dress up and wear a tie and my Sunday shoes, like I did in LA, I could try out for “Jeopardy” in my lucky Georgia Bulldog boxers and Hog’s Breath saloon T-shirt — which might be too much information. Good luck getting that image out of your mind.
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The test started at 9 p.m., but I had to sit and stare at a picture of Alex Trebek for 16 minutes to make sure I was logged on. I had rather been staring at a picture of the cute girl in LA that had to remind me to take part in the game.

The online test was tough! They threw question after question at you — 50 in all — and you had 15 seconds to read the question, digest the information and type in your answer. Thankfully the answers didn’t have to be in the form of a question and spelling didn’t count.

Spelling should never count. I agree with Thomas Jefferson. “I have nothing but contempt for a man who can only think of one good way to spell a word.”

There were no questions about Thomas Jefferson, by the way. There was one about Andrew Jackson, however and one about Bill Clinton. I am confident I got both those right. I also got the ones right about U.S. geography, because I’ve seen about all of it there is to see. I knew, for instance, that Ft. Sumter National Monument is in Charleston Harbor and that the Colorado River is near Yuma, Ariz. I also knew that Roger Williams gave Providence, R.I., its name.

There were lots of other questions I didn’t know, however. Don’t even think about asking me a question about opera — which they did, or scientific equations. There were some questions I knew but didn’t get typed into the space in time. All in all, I am certain I did better with the pencil and paper version of the test and — just like before — I won’t hold my breath until they call me to be a contestant on the show.

Big sigh here.

But at least I can look on the bright side. This time I didn’t spend several hundred dollars on a flight to LAX. When my humiliation was over I just tootled off to the bedroom to try to get some sleep. Of course I didn’t get to walk on the beach with Mary Jane Odum either. Everything’s a trade-off in life.