Today was the third episode of this year’s Teen Tour­na­ment. Today’s Jeop­ardy! round included a cat­e­gory called “Right On The Money,” with trivia about U.S. cur­rency. The $200 clue was (approx­i­mately) “The cur­rent $2 bill fea­tures Thomas Jef­fer­son on the front and the sign­ing of this doc­u­ment on the back.” The con­tes­tant responded, “What is the Dec­la­ra­tion of Inde­pen­dence?” and this response was deemed cor­rect. It isn’t. The back of the cur­rent $2 note does not fea­ture the sign­ing of the Dec­la­ra­tion of Inde­pen­dence. It fea­tures the pre­sen­ta­tion of the draft of the Dec­la­ra­tion of Inde­pen­dence to Con­gress by the Draft­ing [ . . . ]

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Mr Tre­bek had a minor heart attack at his home yes­ter­day. He is recov­er­ing in hos­pi­tal, and intends to con­tinue host­ing Jeop­ardy! when it resumes tap­ing in Jan­u­ary. I wish him well, and look for­ward to many more awk­ward con­tes­tant inter­views in the future.

A con­tes­tant relates a story from when he was a mes­sen­ger. Upon mak­ing a deliv­ery to the exer­cise guru, the mes­sen­ger could not regain his pen from Richard Sim­mons until he had made a promise to exer­cise. The present day con­tes­tant is a husky man, with notice­able paunch. Alex responds: You lied! If he keeps this up, I’ll make this a reg­u­lar fea­ture. PS: Remem­ber to avoid dan­gling your participles!