Writers on Jeopardy?

 HALLIE EPHRON: We started the week talking about the amazing 31-game Jeopardy run by Jamie Ding, a cool as a cucumber, orange-shirted, sweet looking, self-described "bureaucrat" with an amazing knowledge bank and lightning fast buzzer finger.

Hank noted that one of my all-time favorite thriler writers, Meg Gardiner, was a Jeopardy champion in the 1980's.

Which got me wondering if there were many crime fiction writers who've come up aces on Jeopardy.

It turns out there are lots of writers who've done well on Jeopardy, but not many who are known for writing crime fiction. Only a few, compared to the vast numbers of attorneys and academics and assorted PhDs.... (BTW Meg Gardiner is a Stanford-educated attorney in addition to being an author.) 

Then this week, a glamorous redhead, Kate Brody, who wrote the bestselling, much critically acclaimed thriller The Rabbit Hole (Soho Crime) won, beating the guy who beat Jamie Ding.

/

I'm thrilled for her.

Turns out her appearance this week wasn't her first brush with  Jeopardy. Her novel was a CLUE when it came out a few years ago.

My husband tried out of Jeopardy but was never called. He was brilliant at any questions about history or geography (a stamp collector!) or science or art or classic lit. Useless when it came to pop culture or music.

I'd be great on Jeopardy if the clues were limited to children's lit and food. Other than that, I'm good at improvising, cracking jokes... aka, talking a good line. But that wouldn't rack up many $$.

This has me wondering whether being a crime fiction writer is  advantageous to an aspiring Jeopardy champ. Or does having an active imagination actually put one at a DISadvantage?

Would you want to be a contestant on Jeopardy? Or would Wheel of Fortune be more up your alley? Or would you rather just stay home and shout answers at the TV? Or write crime novels?

Or better yet, read them.

Jamie Ding... does the name ring a bell?

AND THE WINNER of yesterday's giveaway,  a copy of A POISONOUS POUR by Maddie Day, is Susan! (Susan, please send your contact information to Edith at edith@edithmaxwell.com)

HALLIE EPHRON: Raise your hand if you've heard of Jamie Ding?

I have, I have!

For the past month I've been tuning into CBS at 7:30 and following his trajectory as a contestant on “Jeopardy!”

Episodes have followed a pattern with Jamie (he's got the kind of approachable personality that makes me want to refer to him as Jamie) gathering momentum and buzzing in first, over and over, making modest wagers, and calmly answering (asking!) correctly, question after question, on every topic imaginable... and clobbering his two opponents. 

Rarely guessing wrong and without breaking a sweat.

But last week, after 31 wins, he lost.

His streak is the one of the longest in “Jeopardy!” history and he finished with more than $880,000. His nemesis was Greg Shahade, an International Master in chess who was lightning-fast on the buzzer.

Jamie calls himself as a “faceless bureaucrat.” He tended to look faintly surprised whenever he got an answer right. And his easy banter with Jeopardy host Ken Jennings was priceless.

He has the ideal nerd pedigree, asthe son of a neuroscience professor and a high school math teacher. He competed on high school quiz bowl team. Went to Princeton and has a job (he calls himself a bureaucrat, and I'm quite sure he is meticulously great at it) where he's working to address the housing crisis (and a social conscience!)

Didn't watch Jeopardy regularly until recently. Didn't start practicing to be a contestant until earlier this year.

A true Everyman.

As his clothes attested his favorite color is orange. And he's cool, calm, collected,  with a reliable intuition about where the daily doubles lie...until this final game.

A fan on Substack opined: “Put Jamie Ding on the $20 bill." As for me, I think he should run for president. And a cocktail in his honor wouldn't be amiss.

Do you follow Jeopardy and have you been watching Jamie's incredible winning streak? 

In the form of a Question...

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:   I have a newfound respect for that guy who's winning billions of dollars on Jeopardy. (Are you watching that? I am fascinated by his strategy.)

Hank and Jeff Kiney

Anyway, I have new respect for anyone who wins anything on Jeopardy! Friday night I played a special game of Jeopardy in a tournament of An Unlikely Story Bookstore in Plainville Massachusetts--one of my fave bookstores on the planet. 


It's owned by Jeff Kinney, who wrote the Wimpy Kids books, and he is the best person in the world. 


He organized this truly authentically amazing Jeopardy tournament this Independent Bookstore Appreciation Day weekend to benefit the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, a nonprofit that helps booksellers in need.

SO--I was on the author team with New York Times bestselling authors Cassandra Clare (Darkhunters!), Holly Black (Spiderwick Chronicles)!, and Raul The Third (Low Riders in Space! Sponge Bob!). We were SO ready, and when we saw the categories, I knew we had it nailed. I knew every answer to the crime fiction category and first lines, and Cassie and Holly had  horror and music down pat, and Raul had illustrators and children's lit.. 

SADLY we could not make the buzzers work.  

See how crazed I am?

We really tried, and we were way too competitive, but, apparently, we just did not have good buzzer skills. So bottom, line were were, um, skunked. It was TRAGIC! But off-the-charts fun. Amazing. And Jeff Kinney was a terrific and  charming and witty Alex Trebeck.

We won the consolation round, which is little consolation, but you know authors. We'll take every win we can get.

And here we are afterward, with our score posted. (That's Raul the fourth in the photo, too. 

And we demand--I mean, we'd be delighted--to come back next year and regain the crown.  

A million years ago, I did a series on "How to get on a game show" for Channel 7, and took the Jeopardy test and passed! (It was very difficult, but my head is full of unnecessary stuff.)  I could have been on the show! (But conflict of interest kept me off, of course.) But Meg Gardiner won Jeopardy, did you know that? And Brendan DuBois? And Laura Di Silverio was a contestant. 

Do you watch Jeopardy? Do you love it?