Post typos, corrections here!

[Ken Jennings]

If you think you see a typo or error of fact in Brainiac or The Trivia Almanac, post it here. That way I can keep em all together in one thread.

[Hammer]

I had the pleasure of meeting you when you visited Stevens Point to enter into our world of Trivia mayhem, and had a great time visting with you for the small amount of time that we could pry ourselves away from the contest!

I did notice a few mistakes from the chapter about our contest and the city of Stevens Point. The first thing I noticed that you had Riverfront starting every June. That is incorrect Riverfront Rendezvous as it is called occurs every July over the Fourth of July weekend.

Also, the portion you have about the Jeopardy question is wrong. The question was, "Heres some trivia for you, the world's biggest trivia contest is run by WWSP FM in this Wisconsin City (Note the SP)." The answer was ofcourse, Stevens Point.

And thirdly, when you mentioned Oz bellowing into his microphone you stated that he said, "Are you ready to trivia?", that everyone got very excited. Every year to kick off the contest Oz uses a very special phrase that officially kicks off Trivia Weekend. That phrase being "Are you ready to play Trivia, Fast Eddie." That is a play on a quote from Paul Newman's 1986 movie, The Color of Money, in which he plays Fast Eddie Felson.

I am still waiting for my copy of the book to come in and am eagerly awaiting being able to read the whole thing. I just happened to notice those mistakes and since you had this section on the forum I thought I would let you know about them. Other than that I thought the chapter (atleast the part online) was really well done and did the contest justice.

[Hammer]

This is a bit of nitpick, you have that the parade ended at a local High School it is in fact a Junior High School, PJ Jacobs Junior High School to be exact.

[Ken Jennings]

Thanks Hammer! I was most afraid of getting details wrong in the Stevens Point chapter, since I only had a couple days' experience with the contest. I'll see if the appropriate changes can be made for future editions.

[river999]

Hi Ken,
The origin of Jeopardy is debatable. Here's what I know. A friend of mine, a retired sound engineer who worked for CBS radio during the "golden days of radio" back in the 50's told and proved to me the following story. Stationed in Korea sometime in the mid to late 50's he worked for Armed Forces Radio and thus had access to the large 16" inch transcription discs. The discs were dated and numbered and once they were played they were seldom repeated. In many cases they were thrown away. However, my friend mailed them home and saved them. One day we got on the subject of Jeopardy - this was around 1990- and he let me know that Merv Griffin stole the idea and made millions and he could prove it. The next time I saw my friend he produced the disc and played it for me. The host was Groucho Marx. The format was identical to Jeopardy except it was produced for radio and of course it was not called Jeopardy. The show was a pilot and I seem to remember Groucho having a good time with the novel concept of giving the answer first- complete with Groucho add libs.
Somebody out there-maybe a Groucho fan-should be able to confirm this factoid.
Sadly my friend, his name was Ham O'Hara passed away in 1996 and I have no idea what happened to his proof.....
Good luck with your book. I am not done reading it yet, but so far I am really enjoying it -Craig

[Ken Jennings]

The Groucho-pilot story is new to me. Anybody know more?

[GandSGal]

Hi Ken and everybody else! Just signed up and here's my first post, pointing out an error. I've already posted this on the JEOPARDY! board, but figured I'd bring this to the man himself.

Page 78: quoting Charles Van Doren answering about Jane Seymour's fate "Died in childbirth, giving birth to the future Edward IV".

I did a double-take and stopped to re-count the Edwards. Edward Tudor, son of Jane Seymour and Henry VIII grew up (slightly) to be Edward the SIXTH!!!!

Whose error was this? Did Van Doren really give this answer? If so, he was WRONG! Did Ken misquote? (seems unlikely). Copy editing error?

But, oh, horrors! A SECOND error in this sentence. Jane did NOT die "in childbirth", that is during the actual birth of the child. She died a week or so later, probably of an infection (those unsterile conditions, you know). Giving birth led to her death, but I don't think this precisely qualifies as dying in childbirth.

Otherwise I love the book and am eager to see how it all turns out. I'm up to Ken arriving at the studio without any changes of clothes...

[Ken Jennings]

I did a double-take and stopped to re-count the Edwards. Edward Tudor, son of Jane Seymour and Henry VIII grew up (slightly) to be Edward the SIXTH!!!!

Dammit! Typo. You think you have them all, and yet... Now I'll be cranky on Talk of the Nation.

[themanwho]

The Groucho-pilot story is new to me. Anybody know more?

Unless I'm mistaken, the Groucho show was more along the lines of the Carnac the Magnificent "Answers then Questions" format, and not a reverse quiz. Could be mistaken tho'. I think I read this in Omni magazine in 1989 or something.

-M

[argyl3]

tony private school = tiny private school

[gvonk]

tony private school = tiny private school

Sorry, argyl3, I think tony was probably Ken's intent. I had to dig my still-new copy out of my computer bag and flip ahead to page 125 to see the context:

Well, it's obviously too late for me, but I don't want Dylan to grow up odd either. I grew up in the sheltered bubble of expatriate life:a tony private school filled with competitive kids-of-internationalists already studying Princeton Review manuals in sixth grade[...]

Maybe you are unaware of this usage?

From the American Heritage Dictionary:
ton·y also ton·ey (tn)
adj. Informa. ton·i·er, ton·i·est

Marked by an elegant or exclusive manner or quality: a tony country club.

[Ken Jennings]

I had the pleasure of meeting you when you visited Stevens Point to enter into our world of Trivia mayhem, and had a great time visting with you for the small amount of time that we could pry ourselves away from the contest!

I did notice a few mistakes from the chapter about our contest and the city of Stevens Point. The first thing I noticed that you had Riverfront starting every June. That is incorrect Riverfront Rendezvous as it is called occurs every July over the Fourth of July weekend.

Also, the portion you have about the Jeopardy question is wrong. The question was, "Heres some trivia for you, the world's biggest trivia contest is run by WWSP FM in this Wisconsin City (Note the SP)." The answer was ofcourse, Stevens Point.

And thirdly, when you mentioned Oz bellowing into his microphone you stated that he said, "Are you ready to trivia?", that everyone got very excited. Every year to kick off the contest Oz uses a very special phrase that officially kicks off Trivia Weekend. That phrase being "Are you ready to play Trivia, Fast Eddie." That is a play on a quote from Paul Newman's 1986 movie, The Color of Money, in which he plays Fast Eddie Felson.

I am still waiting for my copy of the book to come in and am eagerly awaiting being able to read the whole thing. I just happened to notice those mistakes and since you had this section on the forum I thought I would let you know about them. Other than that I thought the chapter (atleast the part online) was really well done and did the contest justice.

Just to follow up quickly on this: you're correct on the Jeopardy question and the junior high, but as far as I can tell from a little Googling, I'm okay on the other two.

Riverfront Rendezvous is a Fourth of July event, but I was referring to the Wednesday evening concerts in the bandshell, which appear to begin in June and last for much of the summer:
http://www.pcgazette.com/news/2002/june ... es6-14.htm

And I can't find a line in Color of Money that's close to Oz's tagline. Transcript here:
http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scri ... ewman.html

But Jackie Gleason does say, "Shoot pool, Fast Eddie" in The Hustler, according to this transcript:
http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scri ... ewman.html

It's not "Are you ready to play pool, Fast Eddie?" but unless someone knows better, I think that's the reference.

[argyl3]

tony private school = tiny private school

Sorry, argyl3, I think tony was probably Ken's intent. I had to dig my still-new copy out of my computer bag and flip ahead to page 125 to see the context:

Well, it's obviously too late for me, but I don't want Dylan to grow up odd either. I grew up in the sheltered bubble of expatriate life:a tony private school filled with competitive kids-of-internationalists already studying Princeton Review manuals in sixth grade[...]

Maybe you are unaware of this usage?

From the American Heritage Dictionary:
ton·y also ton·ey (tn)
adj. Informa. ton·i·er, ton·i·est

Marked by an elegant or exclusive manner or quality: a tony country club.

aaaaah... It was 3 in the morning, and I guess if I had been awake enogh, I would have looked it up on dictionary.com. Makes sense now.

[Ruminator]

Extending on the origins of College Bowl, I found an interesting little tidbit that might be worth looking into:

From http://www.ukgameshows.com/page/index.p ... _Challenge

Based on the US format College Bowl by Don Reid. The format has its ultimate origin in the Second World War when Reid (who actually hailed from Canada) first devised it as a recreational activity for the US military.

[WestBerkeleyFlats]

Don Reid was cool. He was always good at livening up some awards banquet with a rambling excursus explaining how network television executives were too addle-minded to put quality programs, such as his, on the air. Then he would usually inadvertently insult volunteers from the host school by suggesting that it was their fault that hordes of people hadn't clamored to watch the proceedings, as if anyone should have cared.

[MFalk]

On p.100, "Up in the crowd, Mindy is applauding wildly, and my brother gives me a big thumps-up." I assume he's bigger than you.

[sabine01]

Regarding the Grand Slam/A&M Roadhouse Rivalry featured on pp. 224-225... an update, if you will.

From NTN-teammate @ the Slam (and fellow ex-quiz bowler) J.J. Todor: "...the A&M squad moved even between writing and press time."

Me: I concur: You'll now find a lot of old A&M folk at B4 in New York City. The other two bars that I always hear about during Showdown Tourneys @ the Slam nowadays are both in Texas: Stadium Cafe in Addison and Sam's Pub in Houston.

By the way, your Colbert appearance was loads of fun to watch.

Best,
Tricia S.
not a lawyer, definitely a QBer, and occasionaly a ringer at the Grand Slam.

[Ken Jennings]

Thumps-up! Aarrgh!

So A&M Roadhouse is no more, Buzztime-wise? Is B4 the new Grand Slam rival?

[sabine01]

So A&M Roadhouse is no more, Buzztime-wise? Is B4 the new Grand Slam rival?

Rivalry for us? I feel it's often between B4, Sam's and Stadium... (I'm not exactly which would be Maryland/NC to our Duke... or vice versa, since I'm just an "as work schedule allows" player at Grand Slam.)

Of course my teammates (and non teammate Bad-Bart posters) might have other views on the matter...

As always, Kind Regards,
Tricia

[Hammer]

Ken, I think you are right on the Color or Money vs. The Hustler. Its been awhile since I have seen either of them. I guess its easy to get the two confused. The exact origins and reasoning behind Oz's tagline are unkown to me. I am sure others could tell you more about why he says that. All I know is that he does.

On the Riverfront date issue. You are correct there as well. Concerts do occur there threw out the summer months. Riverfront Rendezvous just happens to be the biggest summer event that occurs there and I guess I read too much into it and figured that you meant to talk about the annual Fourth of July event because (besides the Trivia Contest) its probably the biggest event that occurs yearly in Stevens Point.

I was recently informed that the sign outside of PJ Jacobs Junior High still says that it is a High School (even though it hasnt been for years).

You can view the Jeopardy question clip in the trailer of, Triviatown, the recent documentary filmed about the Stevens Point Contest. If you havent seen it, I would suggest trying to view it. I was able to see the film in Madison last spring. Its very well done and captures the contest in a postive light. The trailer is quite entertaining. Enjoy!

http://www.triviatownmovie.com/

[KillerTomato]

OK, so this is nitpicky. Deal with it.

I finally got around to picking up "Brainiac" (I had to finish Bob Harris' terrific "Prisoner of Trebekistan" first, since I've actually met him, and you and I have only conversed by email!). I naturally turned first to the acknowledgements, and was pleased to see a name or two I recognized.

Full disclosure: I'm a Jeopardy! fan (and was lucky enough to have waited until AFTER your run to get my chance), and have been since seeing Chuck Forrest play back in the day. I'm also a HUGE "Millionaire" fanatic (and am currently hoping they call me for their annual Movie-Week shows later this year). And finally, I'm a Disney-holic. I'm one of the weirdo's you pointedly allude to in your chapter on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire - Play It!. When I lived in Las Vegas, I'd go down to DCA about every 6 weeks or so to play, and meet up with Mickey and Goofy and the gang. As you so correctly point out, it really is much more about the game than the prizes (I have more polo shirts with the Millionaire logo than I can count, and a whole drawer full of collectible pins). In truth, though, I also found that the 3-night Disney Cruise prize was so much fun (and provided me with total Disney immersion, which is a form of heaven on earth!) that I knew I had to win again. There was a one-year moratorium on the cruise tho....but once that year was up, I was lucky enough to have been one of the very small handful of people who ever won twice at DCA. (If I may pat myself on the back just a little more, I technically won three times, but once was while that one-year moratorium was still in effect, so I was ineligible for the cruise and had to be happy with just the extra pins, which one of these days I'll have to put on eBay; that 500,000 point pin has to be worth something! I am still kicking myself that I missed the million-point question the one time I saw one at the version in DisneyWorld, since I really wanted to be the first to win bicoastally.)

Anyway, to get to the point....as a Disney-phile and Millionaire freak, I did notice one tiny little mistake in that chapter: On page 67, you refer to Play It! as a "ride." Any true Disney geek will tell you that there is only ONE ride in all of Disneyland or DCA: Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. EVERYTHING else is an "attraction." In fact, this is a classic Disney trivia question in and of itself, and back when Play It! was still up and running, they used it as a trivia question to "win" a spot in the completely uncoveted "Ring of Fire" seats on the stage floor for the show. (FTR, these seats gave you no advantage, and the boxes used for entering your answers were clunkier than those in the rest of the audience.)

[jonp]

Ken, it was great to see you after all these years at the Arlington book signing. West Coast Quiz Bowl, represent, yo! While reading the book in anticipation of the book signing, I found two errors:

The acronym for the quiz bowl format called TRASH is not Total Recall About Strange Happenings, but Testing Recall About Strange Happenings. As a member of Christopher Walken's Dance Party, the winning team of TRASHionals 2001: A TRASH Odyssey, I should know, but you can also find confirmation at www.trashonline.net.

"Louie Louie" by the Kingsmen was not a 1964 hit. It was recorded in April 1963, and it reached its peak position of #2 on the Billboard chart on December 7, 1963. (P.S. Trivia Question: What famous rock group not only recorded a version of Louie Louie in the same studio as the Kingsmen, but on the same day?)

[braggtastic]

Will these typos be corrected for the paperback version? I have a friend who used to work in publishing and said when they got letters/calls from readers informing them about typos, nothing was ever done about them.

[Ken Jennings]

Aargh. I can't believe that TRASH thing is wrong. I guess you could say that Louie Louie was ALSO the biggest garage-band hit of 1964, since that was when the whole media frenzy over its lyrics happened, but you're right, that was an unintentional goof. Ride/attraction: you've got to be kidding.

Yes, as I understand it, these do get fixed.

[Omnicron]

Ride/attraction: you've got to be kidding.

Why? I didn't know or care, but after reading that explanation it makes sense. That kind of distinction is typical of trivia detailing.