First, we don’t have Ken Jennings to kick around anymore. He clearly threw it on Jeopardy. He acted like a thief or a philanderer who has been getting away with his crimes for too long. He seemed uninterested. Downright reckless on the Daily Doubles. I think he was just ready to sign his book/movie deal and get back to a normal life. Come on, how do you miss that Final Jeopardy question? I think he spent the 30 seconds trying to come up with a wrong answer that seemed reasonable so he didn’t get too much grief. My favorite part, though, was the gasping from the crowd. The cameras showed some people giving him a standing ovation when it was obvious his reign had ended. I bet there were people seeping tears of confusion now that all they’ve come to believe in no longer makes sense.
Second, I took my first full-length practice GRE this afternoon. I had been just killing the practice sets on the verbal side while over the weekend I started from scratch on the math since I was feeling totally confused. Naturally, today I nailed the math side and missed far too many verbal questions. I admit, I devoted only 75% of my attention to the verbal questions because I had been doing so well. Easily rectified. The math questions I missed were all simple errors rather than lack of understanding of the subject matter, which makes me feel good. My whole goal is to do as well as possible on the verbal and essay portion, then hope I don’t hurt myself too much with my math score. I can’t really expect a journalism program to take me with a shitty verbal score. Seven days to make sure I hit my goal.
One more thing, I missed the actual interview but understand Dick Vitale has been running around ESPN weighing in on Notre Dame firing Ty Willingham. Why the fuck are they going to him for comments? Because his kid went there and he’s sucked up to them just slightly less than Duke over his career? That somehow gives him special insight? I know, he’s probably had dinner with Willingham, or sat next to him at a fund raiser or something, so he deserves to be heard, right? It’s not like he’s not going to go into a five minute tirade during whatever game he’s doing tonight anyway. Why give him a separate forum? I look forward to hearing the thoughts of Kirk Herbstreit, Trev Alberts, or one of the other ESPN football guys next spring when some big-time college basketball coach is fired. As always, outside of the actual broadcast of games, ESPN sucks.