Thread by @Jeopardamy

Post-game thoughts:
Getting out of bed was rough Tuesday morning, but I knew that at the end of the day, win or lose, I'd be flying home to Genevieve, which definitely helped me get through the day.

But of course, I wanted it to be "win!" I still had $300K to go on the quest for a million, and I knew I'd have to win all five today to have a chance to achieve it the next week!

I forgot to mention, but I had packed two dresses this week; I almost exclusively wear dresses in my day-to-day life, but for Jeopardy, I could only wear them if they had a belt, so that there would be a place to attach the microphone pack.

I'd picked two that I thought would look ok belted, but somehow in the rush of getting ready Monday morning, I'd left them at the hotel! So I made sure to remember them on Tuesday, and in fact wore one for the first episode, I felt I'd gone too long without having a fresh outfit!

We had our usual briefing, I was really starting to feel sorry for the other players! They'd come in thinking they might have to face Matt Amodio. He wasn't there, but then instead they were going up against an 18-day champion! That must have been a bit of a roller coaster ride

However, one other thing got mentioned in that briefing that was great to hear: whoever the defending champ was at the end of the day would get two weeks off! I assume this was when they actually taped the Professors Tournament, but I don't actually know that.

Now I was really motivated to win; if I did, I would get two weeks to rest up, hang out with Genevieve, and try to get caught up at my day job.

By the way, the offset of the taping break for the Professors means that my memories of these shows aren't as sharp as the ones before, because they were that much longer ago. Which is in part the reason I feel like I've had less to say about my fellow contestants, sorry!

But if I was going to get to take advantage of that break, I had to start with game one! IIRC, Donna hadn't done well in rehearsal. If so, it's just more proof that rehearsal performance doesn't have a strong correlation with game performance, because she was good!

One of the tips they always give us is, if there's a category you're not sure that you understand, start at the top. The first clue of the game was a great example of why; once we heard the first answer, we knew what the category was about, but for the first one we were confused.

Donna certainly had it figured out, anyway! I got the Trevor Noah clue and switched over to "Classic", another category I was unsure of, although it just turned out to be about classic literature. That's a reasonably strong subject for me, and it got me the first Daily Double

With only $1200, it was a rare chance for me to make it a true Daily Double, so I did. I hesitated, thinking of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, but of course Edward VI has nothing to do with King Arthur, so The Prince and the Pauper was correct, and I'd tied Donna

But she got the next two to pull ahead again, and while I did well in the wordplay, I was still down $1000 at the break, and knew I was up against a real competitor

I'm kind of surprised they let me use that anecdote, talking about baths with my girlfriend is probably the queerest thing I did on the show. Tbh, I was also kind of angling to get some free bath bombs from Lush out of it, since they're a big part of our budget, but no dice lol.

I didn't know that Coulombe was the name of Trader Joe, but I *did* know they have cheap wine! Then I had a good run on Arkansas to have a decent lead going into Double Jeopardy, but I wasn't feeling safe by any means

Got the music category out of the way, although I actually did well in it. And I finally got a Dayton-related clue! Guided By Voices is the biggest band to come out of Dayton (although still pretty obscure for even a $2000 clue), I was stoked to see them on the board!

Did well at first in Geography, but got the Seychelles and Maldives mixed up (easy mistake to make, but I won't be doing it again!) Ashley then went away from the category, missing what turned out to be a Daily Double

David Hockney is another one of those people that comes up reasonably often on Jeopardy, but I can never get his name to stick in my mind.

Then I got the 4th century clue, again moved away from what turned out to be the Daily Double, but found the other one! Donna had not been able to find her rhythm thus far in the round, so I had a $8600 lead, making $4000 feel right once again.

Cayenne isn't a capital that comes up often, but it's the only world capital I can think of offhand that's also a food, so it's an easy one to remember

Then I went straight to the other DD! That was a fun feeling. This time I went with $6000; either I would put the game away, or still have a decent chance at a runaway. Not sure if I would have gotten it without the hint (referring to the Olympic motto Faster-Higher-Stronger).

Getting $10000 in two clues was amazing, and meant that things would have to go really badly for me to not win at this point.

I've recited the Nicene creed innumerable times in my life, although since they changed the liturgy after I stopped regularly attending Mass, I can no longer do it on autopilot when I do attend, which is always disorienting.

Donna never really got going in the second round, and Ashley found her rhythm too late to make a serious run, so it was another runaway for me (not that I'm complaining!) My algorithm led to a $6000 wager, and I had a good feeling about the category

Which proved to be justified! In high school, my friend and I came across a copy of Waiting For Godot in our classroom, and we were shocked at how much we loved it. Before that, all I knew was the Pozzo monologue, which I'd been assigned in a class on monologues, and given up on.

Thanks to Ashley and Donna! They both had their moments, but once I got those two Daily Doubles that was pretty much all there was to it. I was almost 3/4 of the way to the million, and it was time to change for the next show, and I already knew exactly what I'd be wearing!