In Jeopardy!
Part One - Pitching, Dunking and Tackling
The Question: “This river in Africa flows east from Angola north and west into the Democratic Republic of the Congo.” Len remembers the river being mentioned in a news report that focused on a deluge of polluted water that leaked from an Angolan diamond mine into the Kasai River basin, killing twelve people, sickening thousands and endangering millions more.
Len responds before the host, Ken Jennings has finished reading the question as Len conjures up the map of the continent, mentally tours the region and recalls the remainder of the report that included a mention that 60% of the diamonds mined in Central Africa are shipped to Belgium for cutting, and distribution throughout the world.
“What is the Kasaii River?” Len answers.
No sooner has he delivered his answer then he discards the facts in his head and selects another category: “Pitching, Dunking and Tackling.”
Len picks the $400 question, nearly certain he’ll be able to answer it, and smiles as he reads it as Jennings saying it: “This baseball pitcher has the record for the most strikeouts in the major leagues?”
Len clicks in again and answers, “Who is Nolan Ryan?”, noting that the question could and should have been made more difficult. He is also well aware that Steve Carlton holds the strikeout record for the National League and that Randy Johnson of the Atlanta Braves comes in a distant second to Ryan in both leagues. In fact, as he thinks about it, he recalled all of the top ten strikeout leaders, as well as the numbers of completed passes of the top 10 quarterbacks in the NFL. He also could answer all ten top point scorers in the NBA with the number one spot still being held by Wilt Chamberlain.
Before he has time to reflect on more sports questions, he selects another category from the board, picking “Checkmated Kings.” He surmises that the topic will be about battles lost by monarchs, a subject of which he knows little, and chooses the $200 question. Jennings says, “He was the last European monarch to die on the field in battle.” He considers passing on this question, but then remembers a story about an underrated monarch who surprised his subjects by personally defending his country during the Great Northern War. At the time Len heard of the king, he thought of Prince Charles and how little he had done as the Prince of Wales, appearing weak and ineffectual. Their names were the same, but what country was he from? Charles the XI was from France, so Charles the XII was from one of those Nordic countries, so he made a guess, “Who is Charles XII?”
“Correct,” says Jennings. “The courageous king of Sweden from the early 18th century.”
The audience applauds, as Len quickly chooses another category, “Horse Power.”
He hits another Daily Double and Len bets all of his winnings.
“This contemporary female personality owns and rides a horse named ‘Trigger?’”
Len pauses for effect, but he’s got this one for sure, and correctly answers, “Who is Lady Gaga?”
The game continues with Len missing only a very few questions, but bets little when he feels less knowledgeable in the category.
No contestant answers the $400 “Physical Fitness” question, “The Guiness World Record for the longest nose on a human is held by a man from this country.” After no one responsds, Ken Jennings gloats knowingly as he announces, “Who is Mehmet Özyürek...from Turkey?” pronouncing the last name of the record holder with perfection.
Throughout the game, Len eats away at questions in every category and is the only one eligible to answer the Final Jeopardy question in the category. Len bets $3,800.
Jennings reads, “He swam 139.8 miles to complete the longest ocean marathon in recorded history?”
A commercial follows as Len begins to write, and cross out names. There are a couple of possible answers, depending on where and when the swim occurred, but Len chooses correctly, writing, Who is Veljko Rogoši?
“Correct,” says Jennings, adding... “from Croatia.”
This is the first of many victories won by Meyer, and although he was never an audience favorite, he continued forward to become one of the top champions in the history of the show, accumulating more the $2,635,000 in prize money.
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Pitching, Dunking and Tackling - Part 2
Len Meyer lived just south of the Media Borough in a small, once-clapboarded house on Manchester Avenue. He recently retired from his job as a science teacher at Strath Haven Middle School where he taught for more than 30 years. He had two cats and a mongrel dog, didn’t own a car, and rodes his bicycle everywhere, in all kinds of weather. While he was still working, he would share a ride in foul weather with a fellow teacher who lived a few blocks away from him, and he used the Media trolley, or the train from the Moylen station. for travel to other burbs or into Philadelphia.
Len was once married to an English teacher, Lotta, with whom he shared a passion for books they would borrow from either of two nearby libraries. Both were eclectic readers guided from writer to writer and topic to topic by previously read books on their list. Lotta had earned her master’s degree in English Literature from the University of Pennsylvania after graduating with a B.A. in Sociology from Penn State. Len had received a full scholarship to Yale and earned an A.B. degree cum laude, but never bothered to further his education. Len’s professors recognized his talents early and were mystified by his erudition in the papers he’d turn in. Len expanded on the goals set for each assignment, so much so that his professors were convinced that he’d copied the manuscripts from works by recognized scholars, but accusations of plagiarism were never proven and Len continued to gain scholastic notoriety at Yale.
After receiving completed assignments from Len, his professors would often pass them to on others more knowledgeable in the subject, as well as to others outside the university who were specialists in the fields, such as quantum entanglement theories and evolutionary biology. When questioned about his knowledge, Len would confuse his interrogators further by expanding, in more substantive detail, proofs to theories expressed by Nobel laureates and other leaders in their fields. Len was never a very sociable student, and his responses would often come off as demeaning to those with whom he spoke. If he wasn’t interested in a topic proposed, or had little or no knowledge of it, he would investigate it further after disregarding the person who mentioned the subject, and approach them later with his newly configured insights on their opinions expressed. Those who originally proposed an idea often didn’t remember the encounter, but Len did, and would overwhelm them with details far beyond the scope of the suggested topic.
Len had very few genuine interests in which he actively participated. His house contained little artwork, and minimal furnishings which were stained and tattered. Len enjoyed finding bargains in yard and garage sales that he frequented to acquire items he hoped to resell at antique shows or on eBay to make a profit. He was a good negotiator at flea markets, and a deft bidder at auctions.
As the years went by, he would regularly take the train into Philadelphia to attend auctions at Freemans, after acquiring the catalog of the listed items and assessing their possible value and probability of purchase. Prior to attending an auction, he’d investigate the manufacturer, craftsman, or artist who made the item, its provenance, and comparable values of similar pieces sold in recent years. He maintained tight limitations on the amount he would bid on each item, and drop out if a paddle was raised for as little as five dollars more than his limit.
Many of the prized items he purchased were too large for him to carry on the train, so he hired a teenager, who lived with his parents house a block away, to haul the purchases to his house. Many of the pieces purchased remained packaged and were never opened or placed on display including two large paintings by Daniel Garber, an early Tiffany lamp, and a circa 1775 Philadelphia Chippendale highboy chest that was too tall to fit in any room of his house standing up, and which remained on its side in his dining room along with clusters of other found treasures, including a box of garden rakes, a rebuilt 283 CI short-block Chevy engine, and two signs from a former Lancaster County beer garden torn down in the 1990s.
What puzzled those most who knew about Len’s purchases was that the collector made little effort to sell what he bought, and distinguished little between high-value items and junk.
It could be said that Len feared that placing expensive objects on display could cause accidental damage that would lessen their value, whereas a three- bulb 1970-era lamp with one lamp missing would serve his purposes just as well as a valued Jacques Adnet style floor lamp that remained in its shipping container. Threadbare rugs covered the floors, while a 10’ x 14’ Isfahan carpet remained rolled and bound in the hallway and a 9’ x 12’ Tabriz was stashed behind the refrigerator in Len’s small kitchen.
If asked about any of the purchases he made, Len would provide their complete pedigree, and the market value of each. When asked why he didn’t sell many of the items, he would merely say that he was waiting for the right time and buyer, as well as for the market on the item to peak. In reality, the highpoint price of many pieces such as the highboy had come and gone, and Len thought nothing of having missed the opportunity for a profit.
Lotta had left Len before there were any children, finding a more suitable mate in another colleague at Strath Haven Middle School. Len therefore, in his 60s, had no heirs, and little family. His parents died early and he had only one brother who resided in Missouri, who he hadn’t been in touch with for many years.
Len had restricted his reading in recent years to six newspapers he would read most mornings at the Media Library, and selections from stashes of books stacked throughout his house from lots he’s purchased. They include biographies, historic novels, classical literature, home improvement manuals, poetry of every genre and era, and random literary fiction from the 19th and 20th centuries. He cared little for sitcoms and TV dramas, but enjoys Seinfeld episodes first aired more than 25 years ago. His only form of virtual entertainment is the game show Jeopardy, which he watched religiously.
He recorded each show and became more upset over the sickness and eventual death of Jeopardy’s host Alex Trebek than he was over the loss of his wife, as she walked out and slammed the door calling him “a loser” and “a waste of human flesh.”
Len’s reaction was to look at his watch to be sure she didn’t interrupt the start of Jeopardy, and barely flinched when the stained glassed window in the top of the front door shattered from the physical force exerted by Lotta’s display of anger.
Len was in his early 60s when he finally signed up to take the online Jeopardy quiz, realizing that his fluid intelligence was long past its prime, while his crystallized intelligence was near its decline. Len considered himself a good player, and when he missed a question, he’d spend hours researching the entire category as well as the specific topic. He had many times taken the practice quizzes, but until he began answering correctly the questions posed to champions such as James Holzhauer, Matt Amodio and Amy Schneider, he wasn’t confident enough of his abilities to actually compete in an actual game. He knew, from his interactions with those around him, that his personality was a deficit and he was well aware of the likability of certain players over others, hoping that if he was selected his awkwardness wouldn’t get in the way of his strategy.
Len also knew that his chances of getting picked were slim, since an adult online test is given only once a year and available only to those who sign up for a MyJeopardy! account. He learned from the rules that in order to be eligible, an applicant must answer a minimum number of questions correctly in the time allotted. If he or she successfully passes the 10-minute test, that person will be randomly placed in a pool for an online audition with no guarantee of inclusion afterwards for an in-person test and interview. He also was aware that should he pass through and be invited to the Colver City studio to take part in a game that he would have to pay all of his own expenses, including airfare, meals and accommodations with no compensation.
The costs and inconveniences were the sticking points for Len, and even though he knew that his chances were small of getting through the process, he was also fully aware that, win or lose, he would need to win at least $3,600 to cover his costs for the initial interview, and the subsequent trip if he was selected. Five episodes a day are recorded over a two-day period with only 15-minutes between games, during which time the winning contestant had to change clothes and be ready for another game.
After a few more months of agonizing consideration, Len took the plunge and began the process by taking the test and answering correctly all of the questions. He then waited months for his online audition and months after that for his in-person interview and testing before finally beginning his journey to the Jeopardy! challenge game another four months later. Along with his invitation to play, he was reminded, again, that he must arrange for all of his own transportation and to bring enough clothing changes for five games. If he survived the 10 rounds, the Jeopardy! producers would pay for the travel and expenses for his next appearance.
After 36 consecutive wins and more than $2.6 million in earnings, Len was asked by a reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer what it was like to be one of the highest money winners in Jeopardy’s history.
Len thought about it for a while and answered, “What I liked best was my room at the Hilton Los Angeles in Culver City. When I first went out to L.A. I stayed at the Motel 6 in Inglewood, and ate from the snack bar. Once I became a champion, they paid for my stay. I’m still a bit disappointed that the producers didn’t upgrade my flight to business class both there and back.”
“But you made a lot of money on the show,” stated the reporter, “Why didn’t you upgrade to business class, yourself?”
“Nah! It wasn’t worth it. I brought a few of the bottles from the Hilton‘s minibar back along with a pillow I put in my backpack. I figured they owed me something for my effort.”
Part Three – Love Me or Leave Me
Being married to Len had been like having a lead weight strapped to her ankle. When Lotta first met him, she was struck by his ability to shape ideas, and inspire, but over time she realized that his ideas led nowhere and that his interests were flacid, which also extended to other deficiencies. Like many great readers, he could capture the essence of a story, novel or biography, and conjure a tale that provoked thought, but without action. By his very nature, Len was lacking in spirit and a vitality for life that Lotta hungered for. It was one thing for him to understand the motivation of Ulysses, but quite another to strap himself to a mast and fight off sirens he knew had the power to control him.
So, after a few long years of trying to dig deeper into the soul of a husband who lacked one, she turned her attentions elsewhere, focusing on a music educator at Strath Haven Middle School who was adored by his students, and who put his words into actions, teaching the talented and untalented alike. By the time she got to know Timothy MacElray, he had already achieved the highest honors bestowed on a teacher at that school. His multiple talents had spawned nearly two generations of musicians, several of whom were to become nationally known singers, instrumentalists and composers.
Tim was even-tempered and philosophical, and could spot a prodigy quickly and gently prod a talented student to stardom, first with his teachings at school, and then by the guidance he offered between and after classes. He formed a jazz band, and a composer’s forum, and assembled several quartets. He also paired students with different instruments and created implausible duets with instrumentalists that no one would have considered successful, until they displayed their collaboration in school concerts, or larger events staged by the Lansdowne Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Sinfonia.
Lotta first became entranced by MacElray when he appeared on the middle school stage and introduced a few of the outstanding students he’d assembled for the jazz band. He appeared a different person in front of an audience than in teachers’ meetings and social gatherings. When speaking passionately about his students and their commitment, his persona brightened, as she later discovered when he directed from the podium. His movements were smooth and deft, and his facial gestures modulated by the pace and emotional impact of each phrase he spoke or conducted.
At the beginning of their marriage, Len had accompanied Lotta to school concerts. Prior to attending her husband would research the pieces to be performed and listen to recordings of them through earphones connected to his 1990s era stereo system that he’d purchased at a garage sale. Though he was unmoved by the emotional impact of music, he could accurately identify mistakes, taking pleasure in noting the technical flaws of the composer that belied his interest in the music played. While other listeners might be moved by nuances and rhythms, Len enjoyed only the mathematics, especially counterpoint, which wound lines of melodies and harmonies together into one. Thus he preferred Bach over Beethoven, and Miles Davis over Henry Mancini.
When Len attended school performances, he was distracted by the vast numbers of mistakes made by the players that disturbed the flow of the music. He mentally counted off the numbers of errors rather than pausing to understand the learning processes and the limitations in the skill of the students performing. After several such concerts, Len stopped attending, leaving Lotta to sit by herself at the end of a row, or tucked between two sets of parents who had come to bask in their children’s progress. Over time, Lotta began to monitor classes by MacElray, and became infatuated by the calm and purposeful manner in which he applied musical direction, adapting his criticisms to match the capability of each student, rather than focusing on any imperfection or technical proficiency.
Lotta soon realized that what she had appreciated about her husband’s genius was somehow indelibly tied to his complete absence of empathy. His relationship with her was marred by her physical and emotional imperfections, and not by any feelings of love, gratitude or understanding of who she was as a person, or what she meant to him as a partner.
Tim MacElray, in contrast, contained many desirable traits and forged emotional connections to each person he encountered. Sometimes his words were confusing, since he was simultaneously reacting to the responses from a student while attempting to provide an assessment that would not offend or be too critical of a statement or performance. Once a relationship was established, MacElray had no problem effecting change, because he had the natural ability to bond with nearly all he taught –– by basing his teaching on mutual understanding and respect.
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By the time Lotta slammed the front door of the house she lived in with Len, shattering the glass window on her way out, she had already come to the realization that she could no longer live her life under the control of her husband’s limited perceptions of her. Over the preceding several months, she had been beguiled by Tim MacElray, who had no difficulty maintaining his persona. He was well aware of his own faults and failures as a musician, teacher and human being.
At the start of each school year, MacElray was presented with 50 or 60 new students possessing varying abilities, sensitivities and musical acumen. Tim had discovered many years before that his major talent wasn’t music, but rather his ability to relate to his students and help them appreciate the arts and feel comfortable with themselves rather than judging them by the musical aptitude they exhibited in his class.
According to Lotta, her relationship with Tim developed after forming a close friendship that lead seamlessly into one of sexual and emotional intimacy. Lotta felt guilty about breaking her marriage vows, but for the first time in her life she felt unashamed of her body, and free of any inhibitions. Tim, who was single but had a girlfriend at the time he and Lotta met, shared with Lotta many beliefs about life, as they both grew to understand how important love, compassion and acceptance are in the forming of a real and sustaining relationship.
Tim broke up with his girlfriend as he and Lotta grew closer, and soon after Lotta’s divorce from Len became final, the two tied the knot in a magistrate’s office in Lima, a few miles west of Media. Witnesses to the marriage were two Strath Haven teachers, who shared lunch with the couple after the proceedings. Lena and Tim decided that the two bedroom condo Tim currently occupied was large enough for them to share until, or if, they had a child or two together. Lotta was in her mid-30s, and had no idea whether she could conceive or not, since she’d been on the pill for many years. By the couple’s six-month anniversary, Lotta was pleased to announce to Tim that she was pregnant, and that they should start to look in earnest for a house in the school district.
Lena continued to teach until she reached her final trimester, at which time the summer break had begun and the couple found, purchased and moved into a three-bedroom house in Swarthmore. Tim began to learn the basic tasks related to home ownership, and although the birth of their child, a girl, was still a few months away, he began painting and papering the nursery while Lotta searched through ads for slightly-used furnishings for the baby’s room.
Lotta lost the baby in the seventh month, and though the couple was heartbroken by the miscarriage, they continued to pray for a child. Lotta returned to teaching in the fall, and by February she was once again pregnant. Not wanting to endanger the fetus, Lotta stopped teaching in early spring, restricting her physical activities to walks through her new neighborhood, during which time she made several new friends. With a great deal of time on her hands, she began to read again and was reminded of the days when she and Len shared books ranging from how-to manuals to the bios of famous people, Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius and the Aeneid, The Kite Runner, The Life of Pi,” and “One Hundred Years of Solitude.”
One of Len’s many talents was his ability to strip a story down to its essentials and extract the meaning, as well as to compare it to other books he’d read containing similar subject matter, characters or storylines. When Lotta listened to him comment on the books, she often wondered why he couldn’t ingest himself with as much insight as he could the characters within the stories they shared.
Tim was quite different from Len, and his compassion often compromised his messaging. While Len never seemed to care what other people thought of him, Tim liked playing the role of the“nice guy” and pleasing people. Len had no time for pretenders, dilettantes or hand-holding, and Lotta shared many of her first husband’s views about the people they met who appeared knowledgeable, until one scratched their surface and found little to value at their cores. Lotta learned a lot about humanity while married to Len, with one of the lessons being that extremely intelligent people are often gruff, unpleasant, terribly egocentric and sometimes very mean.
Tim was very smart, but also witty, and searched for the good in everyone, whereas Len assumed people he met were ignorant fools until they proved themselves otherwise. Len was content to leave a sour taste in the mouths of those he encountered, shrugging his shoulders as if to say, “what you see is what you get,” after which he would often turn away and ignore the judgments formed of him. Because of their different traits, Tim had many friends, while Len had few.
Although Lotta valued Tim for his decency, as time passed, she missed Len’s brutally honest opinions concerning many matters except for money or his scathing view of her. Len never commented about Tim to Lotta, and she often wondered why. And although she grew to understand that Len was hurt by her desertion, his advice after the divorce in both personal and professional matters was usually proven to be correct — if not in the short term, then over the years, especially after she and Tim retired and their two boys had grown into early adulthood.
Tim died at the age of 66 from complications accompanying a stroke, while both boys were in college. Lotta had a pension from her years as a teacher, and a decent sum from Tim’s life insurance policy and their retirement fund. In two years she’d be eligible for Social Security benefits, and they only owed $35,000 on their home. She and Tim had discussed finances before he passed away, including the payment of the college tuition for the boys. I’ll be okay, she thought. But each night she’d stay wake and wonder if she’d make it through her later years without becoming a burden to their boys.
The day that Tim died, Lotta called Len, who provided advice and consolation. The next day she received a cashier’s check for $1.5 million along with a note:
Dear Lotta,
I’m sorry that I was not a better husband for you. You deserved better, and you got a good man.
I wish I could have been other, and still can’t account for my behavior in our marriage. That being said, I’m glad you found Tim and built a family. From what you’ve told me, the boys are quite extraordinary.
As you know, I made a great deal of money a few years back, and, unlike what I normally would have done, I chose a firm with which to invest my prize. I now have more than I’ll ever use, so since I had access to your social security number, I’ve prepaid the taxes on the check I’ve written to you, and it should help take care of the boy’s education and provide a safety net for you in the future. You or your sons will most likely get the bulk of what I have when I pass away.
I’ve enjoyed our conversations over the years, and hope you’ll continue to call, when and if you need any help in any way.
Despite how it all turned out between you and me, I’m glad that I got to share your life for a few years. Even though I couldn’t, or just didn’t, express my thoughts, words or feelings correctly — but that’s water under the dam.
And, please, don’t thank me for the money. You deserve it.
All my best,
Len
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