I'll take "Quoted Quotables" for $1000, Alex

Some of the quotables from today's Jeopardy! taping that I can remember (to be added to as I remember more):

Johnny Gilbert: The [raffle] is our way of thanking you for giving us your money--I mean, applause, for these last couple of shows.

Johnny: Alex Trebek will come crashing through that glass wall in the back there...it's a messy process, but we like to entertain you all.

Alex (during first break of first show): How many of you are still with us from this morning?

(some, including the contestants, raise their hands)

Alex (looking at contestants): Well, DUH!

Audience member: What do you like to do when you're not hosting Jeopardy!?

Alex: When I'm not filming Jeopardy!...I like to drink.

(audience laughter)

Alex: Diet Pepsi. (goes on)

My friend sitting next to me (while Alex is talking): WOOOOO DIET PEPSI!

Me: Do you ever get sick of the Jeopardy! think music?

Alex: Do I ever get sick of the Jeopardy! think music...no, I don't, I mentally block it out.

Audience member: Um--

Alex: Don't start a sentence with "um"!

Alex (after first break of second show, with Dracula accent): I feel as though I have seen some of you before.

(Johnny does a pickup of a contestant intro)

Said contestant, Raynell: (whispers) Thank you!

Alex: What'd he say the first time?

Raynell: Rah-nell. Should be Ray-nell.

Alex (in mock disgust): What's wrong with Rah-nell?

Audience member: How much of the Jeopardy! material do you personally know?

Alex: Oh, only about 96 percent.

(audience laughs)

Alex: (pats nose) Is it...yeah, it's getting longer.

Audience member: Have you ever met Pat Sajak and Vanna White?

Alex: Oh yes. Have you?

Audience member: No.

Alex: You haven't? Well, that makes me one-up on you, doesn't it?

(Outside studio, after taping. Alex is walking to his truck in jeans and a jacket.)

Alex: Now don't laugh!

Me: I've seen you in those kinds of clothes before, don't worry.

...He obviously forgot that I was a contestant seven years ago. But I wasn't expecting him to remember.

What is Deja Vu?

So I went to a taping of Jeopardy! today. And boy, were there a ton of memories from the last time I was there...seven years ago. Lots of "hey, that wasn't there the last time I was here..." Most notably, of course, was a giant poster of Alex and the Jeopardy! logo hanging outside the studio. As we passed through security I caught a glimpse of the Wheel of Fortune audience holding area, and inside I noticed a tribute poster to the late announcer, Charlie O'Donnell. Said something along the lines of, "The Wheel will keep turning, but the voice is forever silent." Rest his soul, Charlie O.

But anyway, back to Jeopardy!. The door to the green room, of course, still sits right in front of the door to the studio. Alex's podium from the old set, for whatever reason, sits right by said door. It appears they've turned part of the studio into a kind of museum of Jeopardy! history. Right across from Alex's old podium is a 3x3 bank of monitors playing various moments from Jeopardy!'s history. We were ushered in too quickly for me to take a good look at it, though I did notice some footage from the Art Fleming days being shown. And then there was a hallway between the green room entrance and the audience bleachers that I don't remember seeing before. Looked to have more press release photos and the like, though I couldn't get a good look at it.

We're ushered to our seats and I get a view of the new set. I remembered the set being smaller than it looks on TV, thanks to tricky camera angles and whatnot, but good grief, this set is TINY. Maybe I'm exaggerating a bit. To the left of the board are the cameras that catch the contestants, as well as a monitor where the video clues are displayed. Though this was a free-standing monitor and not one embedded into the wall like the old set was...looked a little sloppy back there. Anyway, above those are the score displays that the contestants see so they can track their scores throughout the game. They've changed them to LEDs instead of the clunky and noisy vane displays that bothered me throughout my appearance.

As it turns out, we're watching the last of the quarterfinal matches for the 2011 Teen Tournament. While I won't spoil any outcomes, I will say this: Trebek read a lot of answers, and contestants gave a lot of questions. Although since they are Teen matches, I won't get to brag to my roommates that I actually know all these answers when the shows air in February...since they probably also know them!

Sarah and Kelly from the Clue Crew were in attendance for this show, while Jimmy was, according to Alex, "at the bar across the street." Kelly corrected him and said something about a wedding that I didn't quite pick up.

I'll put together a list of quotables from this taping in another entry, but a few things that stuck out: Alex and Johnny are still as hilarious as I remember them from 7 years ago, and I actually spurred on Johnny's story about him flubbing a word during a cold commercial read for the original Price is Right with Bill Cullen. Alex messed up a couple of clues, but considering he only messed up 2 out of 122 he read for the afternoon, that's pretty damn good. Besides, it was pretty neat to watch the pro mess up every now and again.

Even better? I saw the man himself walk out of the studio to his truck, complete with golf cart security escort. He and I made eye contact, upon which he said "Now don't laugh!" (He was in a jacket and jeans at the time.) Reminded me of my very first encounter with him, when he threatened us with a banana. Luckily this time he was unarmed.

It's been a while.

Yes, I know this is my first post here in about two months. There's a reason for that.

Inspiration has been tough to come by, for one. That's the biggest thing. And when it does come, it comes at the weirdest (and often times most inconvenient) moments. Like now. As of the nanosecond this sentence was written, I am sitting in my print newswriting class, waiting for technical issues to resolve themselves.

I promised some of my Breakthrough compatriots a podcast after the program ended. So far, that hasn't even happened. I've recorded the text, sure. But I haven't dropped the quotes in there yet, and I haven't touched the recording in...oh, I don't know, two months?

That, and I've been up to a lot lately. I've been meaning to put up a set report from my visit to "Let's Make a Deal" last month, but haven't quite done that yet. Of course, the thought only occurred to me as I typed that sentence. So there.

Even worse, I have this horrible habit of starting to write things and finishing them much, much later. Call it lack of inspiration, call it laziness, call it whatever you want. But I don't like it. Any suggestions?

GSC: Week One Discussions

Over at my floor blog I am now publishing a weekly Game Show Challenge that my floormates (will hopefully) play, and this is their outlet to discuss the questions from that week.

'09-'10 denizens of BK4: discuss away.

Reflection on Summer

This is the last night in my own room for a long time.

But at least I won't be as sappy as I was last summer about it, now that I know what it's like. And besides, this summer was crazy good:

--I got a job, made a little money. I won't be flat broke when I go back to school. (Don't ask me to touch that check from that other little thing I did last January...that's for something bigger and better.)

--I made a difference in some kids' lives. As cliché as this sounds, it's probably true--teaching Korean, even though I myself am still learning, was a way to expose some kids to a culture they would otherwise not be exposed to. And even I learned something about myself in the process--although I may have seemed like a crotchety 42 year-old man with no soul, I still was deeply passionate about getting my point across.

--Made new friends, but kept the old. Well, a few of the old, in any event.

--I wrote my first good poem in a long while. (It was posted here, if you look back a couple of entries.) And I'm learning my first new classical piano piece in a long time...it's coming along alarmingly well, though we'll see when school starts.

--I could be good in the kitchen...if I only got off my lazy ass to get in the kitchen.

Most importantly to me, though...

--I saw people whom I haven't seen in years. No, this doesn't mean reconnecting over Facebook (though that's a nice surprise in and of itself, depending on who it is). I mean actual, face-to-face, heart-to-heart interaction. Yeah, I know, strange concept in this day and age, isn't it? There's something about actual physical contact, or sight, or whatever that emails definitely don't have, that Facebook tries to poorly replicate, that even pictures can't capture, but face-to-face, in-person encounters do. One person I saw, we were close friends when I used to live in Denver many, many, many, many years ago. We hadn't seen each other in FIFTEEN YEARS. Another person, I had kept in touch with lo these last two years. We hadn't seen each other for that amount of time, but it was a special reconnection for me. I just hate this impersonal barrier electronic communication sometimes raises--there are so many different vocal inflections that are lost over written text in an email. (Which is why I wanted to do podcasts to go along with my blog entries, but...that worked out really well, didn't it?)

But in short, it's been a wonderful, wonderful summer. Now I hope my brain isn't totally dysfunctional when I return to school.

BTNOLA, Come on Down!

Some photos from my recent game show short course at my summer job, where we played "The Price is Right" to wrap up the summer.

What pressure! What excitement!

Here's a happy contestant.

Playing a pricing game (for you PIR diehards out there, this was Money Game)

"Spinning" the Big Wheel

All lined up and raring to go in Contestants' Row!

In 140 Characters or Less:

I will never understand the appeal of #Twitter. #FB's status update gimmick can only go so far before it becomes repetitive. @Reader: Do yo

(Sorry, character limit cut me off.)