Ken Jennings Is Awesome

Don’t know if you’ve read Jeopardy Ken Jennings’ interviews, but the man is hilarious. See his interview in the Washington Post and his Reddit interview. He went to school in South Korea! Seoul Foreign School! And he loves Wits and Wagers! Some interesting quotations:

Q: When growing up in Korea, did you bedroom have a ceiling fan?

A: Obviously not, since I survived.

A Korean fan death reference. Good times.

Q: In the sixth season episode “See You in September” of the TV show “Perfect Strangers”, it is revealed that Balki is a licensed nupitiki doctoruthiki, a Myposian marriage counselor. He administers the Myposian marriage test to Larry and Jennifer, to help them get over their fear of getting married. However, no mention was made of this in the second season episode “Since I Lost my Baby”, when Balki and Larry attempt to save the Twinkacettis’ marriage.

Was this a continuity error? Or did Balki receive this certification through some sort of correspondence course from Mypos at a later date?

A: I’ve thought a lot about this over the years, and have decided that Balki didn’t feel right using his Myposian certification in his adopted country, due to the licensing issues, both legal and ethical, that even he would recognized.

And now we do the dance of joy!

Mormon trivia:

1. Christian Aguilera was born Mormon. Not our finest effort.
   The original proposed name for Utah, “Deseret,” isn’t related to “desert.” It’s a Book of Mormon word (and therefore etymologically iffy to nonbelievers) meaning “honeybee.”
2. Mormon congregations are called “wards,” and dioceses are called “stakes.” Some of our houses of worship used to therefore be called “stake houses,” but this turned out to be too confusing. (Especially because there was no salad bar.)
3. Mormon scripture strongly implies that the apostle John, as well as three Book of Mormon disciples, never actually died but are still kicking around someplace. Awesomely, this leads some Mormons to repeat urban legends about “the three Nephites” miraculously appearing to help little old ladies, repair the cars of stranded travelers, etc.
4. My Sunday school teacher, when I was a Mormon teen, once memorably advised us that “There’s nothing more overrated than sex, and nothing more underrated than a good bowel movement.” It totally worked…I don’t remember a single other sermon from when I was a kid, but I think about this guy exactly once a day, and then again once a week.

Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Harry Reid (D-NV) both called me back personally in 2004 to try to get me to run for Orrin Hatch’s Senate seat.
I am not making this up. Win on a game show and you can apparently run for the US Senate. That was when I realized the Democratic Party was f@#$ed in ’04.

There’s a lot more. Maybe not interesting to you, but I was entertained.