Monday, February 14, 2011

A Hallmark Moment

Today is a very special day. A day millions of men in America have been looking forward to. A day when lovers, poets, artists, writers, men of all stripes, get to renew and recharge our relationship -- with Alex Trebeck.

That's right. Tonight marks the debut of Watson, the IBM supercomputer on Jeopardy. Watson will square off against Ken Jennings, the all time reigning champion. And some other doofus know-it-all. (I don't even know why he gets to share the stage with these two heavyweights.)

I love Jeopardy. It's the perfect transitional show that takes me out of my workday state of mind and into my enjoy-the-evening state of mind. I'm also fortunate that my family enjoys the show. It gives me ample opportunity to show off my vast knowledge of useless, meaningless trivia.

It's particularly fun when it's a close game and everything hinges on the final Jeopardy Clue. And somehow, through some magical firing of synapses, I'm able to pull out a correct answer when no one in my living room or even on the set of the show can. This irks my wife to no end.

"How the hell do you know that Gioachino Rossini wrote the opera, The Barber of Seville, but you can't remember the names of my co-workers of my cousins in Minneapolis?"

I don't know. That's just the beauty of the human mind.

Oh shit, today is Valentines Day.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As you know, I too share your love of Jeopardy. (http://rotationandbalance.blogspot.com/2010/03/feel-like-idiot-for-100-alex.html) It did seem to me though that WATSON had the advantage when it came to ringing in on the buzzer. Ken Jennings is awesome, but when it comes to beating a machine that only takes a quarter of a nanosecond to press a plastic button, he's gonna lose every time.