GAME FOUR - Thursday, June 19

You can find the clues, correct responses, and results of the game HERE. (Another big THANKS to the J-Archive folks. Let me know how I can help and I'll let you know if I can do it.)

If I looked sort of green during the Jeopardy round, it wasn't your TV set or cable provider. That grilled cheese sandwich I wrote about yesterday was working on my belly bigtime.

Of course the first order of business was a new Hometown Howdy; I got out something about "You've seen me threepeat, watch to see if I can do . . . whatever you call winning four times."

It was really difficult to get focused, and my play showed it. I fell way behind in the Jeopardy round, and for the first time had the privilege(?) of choosing first in Double Jeopardy.

I must be careful to say that it wasn't just or even mostly the grilled cheese sandwich that put me behind - both Kew and Kara are excellent players. On another day with a different FJ (obviously), things would've been much different.

Kew really got on my nerves, though. Not him personally, but his style with the signalling device. He sort of swung it every time he rang in, and seeing the motion out of the corner of my eye when I was having so much trouble with my timing made me growl inwardly a little bit. (Note that I am not saying he was doing the swing-thing to be distracting. It was what worked for him.)

Between J and DJ, I - how can I put this delicately - took an unscheduled grilled-cheese related trip back to the green room. The contestant coordinators were great about it, as was the sound guy who had to unmike and mike me all over again. (I'm only including this detail for the information of any future contestants who may become sick during a game - they will escort you and the game will wait for you. I was told at least one other contestant had recently become sick during a game or between games.)

I felt better in DJ, and was fortunately able to get back into second place. For the second game in a row, I was shut out in DD's in DJ (and in J this game). There were several triple stumpers I can't believe we left on the table, but the one that is the most embarrasing was a striped animal called - of all rare things - a zebra. I don't know about the other two, but I thought zebra was way too obvious for a 1200 clue. You can hear me saying, "Not zebra" right before Alex says it.

A word about video clues - I HATED them. I am a verbal, not a visual, person, and I found it very hard to figure out what they wanted on many of the video clues. They also threw off my rhythm of reading the clue and deciding whether to ring in before Alex was done reading - I had to wait until whatever Clue Crew member was done. I do think the Clue Crew is good for the show, just not for my playing of the game.

Finally, a note about Final Jeopardy. FJ wagering strategy was the primary element of my preparation for actually playing the game. Thanks to the J-Archive, the Jeopardy Message Board, playing VJ, and consulting with wagering gurus like "Slam," I was ready for this situation. I was within 2/3 (actually 3/4) of the leader, Kew, so I could win if we both missed. Also, the third place player (Kara) was far enough behind (thanks to her unfortunate "Iwo Jima" response on a DD) that I didn't have to worry about her score. At 16300 to 14200, I wagered 2001 to cover a possible zero bet by Kew if I did get FJ right, but it was small enough to beat him if he made the usual lockout wager.

Since most FJ's are gettable by a good player like Kew, the great likelihood was that I would lose. I spent most of the time during the commercial break before FJ looking around the set, saying to myself, "You're about to leave. Remember this - it's been a great ride!"

I was quite hopeful when I saw the FJ clue. I had no idea - maybe Kew wouldn't either. I struggled to think of some company with its logo in script - Hallmark was all I could come up with. I wasn't surprised to be wrong. When Kew's response of "Adding Machines" was revealed I knew he was wrong. But had he wagered enough for me to win?

I think my surprise at winning this game was evident on TV. These are the thoughts I reemember: Wow! I 'm going to play again. Four-time champ. Maybe TOC? Thank you God for this opportunity! I hope Kew's ok.

Folks have asked if I felt sorry for the people who lost the games I won. Well, I think the idea of competition is for everyone to do their best to win - that's sort of the bargain we made with the Jeopardy! folks when we agreed to be on the show, to give them a good show. While I empathized with those who didn't win, the only person I really felt bad for was Kew. He played a great game, and then lost on the only really hard FJ in my games so far.

During the chat with Alex after the game, he pointed to the audience and asked, "Is that your wife?" I looked up and there she was, sort of slumped down in the seat, breathing funny. It turned out that she had started hyperventilating when I won - I think there's a brief shot of her on the show as televised. She was just incredibly surprised as I was. She had told our daughter during that last break to pack up, we were done.

Thankfully, she recovered. And she was wrong.

There would be at least one more game!

To the Next Installment - GAME FIVE