Totally Off Topic: My Appearance on Jeopardy!

I've had several requests for details about the time I was a Jeopardy! contestant, since I mentioned it in passing the other day. So for the holiday weekend, I thought I'd provide the story. This was all back in 1995-1996, when I lived in New Jersey, and that's actually how I got into the entire business. Coworkers had told me about how the Merv Griffin production people would be administering the test to get on the show down at the Resort International casino in Atlantic City (also owned by the Griffin company), so I drove down to try it out. The test was only a short one, meant to be done quickly as a screen, and none of the questions seemed particularly hard. I spent the rest of my time in AC working on my card-counting skills at the blackjack table, which was not too lucrative. In fact, under the rules then - and I'm sure they've gotten no better - the same amount of time and effort applied to almost any other activity would surely have provided a greater return. (But at least they couldn't throw you out, as opposed to Las Vegas). Not too many days later I got the invite to come down for the longer test, which had many more questions, all of which, I think, were from the $1000 category on the show. This was at the same casino, and I knew that morning, on the drive down, that I was in trouble. I'd gotten a late start, it was rainy, and there was more traffic than I'd counted on. I pulled in a few minutes late, bounded up the escalators, and was met by a lady sitting at a...
Source: In the Pipeline - Category: Chemists Tags: Blog Housekeeping Source Type: blogs