Ken Jennings knows about everything. That now includes the afterlife.
That's the title from National Public Radio about him.
- He will turn 50 next year.
- Is the highest-earning American game show contestant, from five different venues, including $4.5 million just from Jeopardy!, where he holds the record for the longest winning streak...of 74 wins.
- Before 2003, contestants were limited to 5 consecutive wins.
- Previous to Jennings' run, Tom Walsh had the highest winning streak, of eight.
- Ken began his reign on 2 June 2004.
- In that first episode, he almost lost in Final Jeopardy, until Alex Trebek accepted his answer as correct. There was a technicality. If not for that, the story of Ken Jennings would not have happened and Jeopardy might now be no more.
- Win streak ended on 30 November 2004 to challenger Nancy Zerg. He won $2,522,700.
- In 2011 the competitors were Jennings, Rutter and Watson, the IBM computer, and IT won.
- In 2020 Jennings won $1 million in the Greatest of All Time competition against James Holzhauer and Brad Rutter.
- Following Trebek's death later in 2020, there was some fumbling by the administrators, until 2022, when Jennings and Mayim Bialik became dual hosts. He would have been the guy if not for his controversial tweets.
- Was born in a Seattle suburb, but lived 15 years in South Korea and Singapore where his dad worked as a lawyer.
- Educated at the University of Washington, served two years as a volunteer missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Madrid, Spain, then transferred to Brigham Young University, where he majored in English and computer science.
- Once worked as a software engineer.
- He wrote "Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs" about his time on "Jeopardy!" and other nonfiction titles such as "Planet Funny: How Comedy Took Over Our Culture," "Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks," and "Because I Said So!: The Truth Behind the Myths, Tales, and Warnings Every Generation Passes Down to Its Kids."
- Touches on heaven, hell and everything in between.
- Says it's not about death, but really deals with pop culture.
- Has long been interested in the unknown, like Bigfoot, pyramids, UFO and the Bermuda Triangle.
- About the Afterlife: while it doesn't seem impossible that there is nothing at all, he indicated that you want to believe the craziest flights of fancy from whatever you saw or read.
So where are the 100 places? You'll need to read the book. Me too. Ah, just too late now, but he appeared this fathers' day at Third Place Books Lake Forest Park, 15 miles north of Seattle
When I visited Las Vegas last week, I dreamt that my aquarium had babies. I've had 10 or so mollies and other fish in that tank for many years, and not one time did birth occur. When I returned I fed the fish but did not look closely. But just the other day, I did, and there are now six babies. This is the closest I'll get to being a father. If you look closely, you might see one or two.
The Fathers' Day Dinner at 15 Craigside:
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