Penny Stock

New Ken Jennings Info

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- If winning more than $2.5 million wasn't enough, "Jeopardy!" whiz Ken Jennings will have a shot at winning an additional $2 million -- but the competition will be tougher this time around.

A "Super Tournament" will pit Jennings in a final match against two survivors of a competition among nearly 150 past five-time winners, producers of the game show announced Tuesday. The show used to have a limit of five shows for champions.

Host Alex Trebek called the tournament the "quest for Ken."

"Ever since Ken started his amazing run, people have been speculating on how some of the past 'Jeopardy!' players would do against him," Trebek said in a statement. "We're answering that question."

Jennings, too, was anxious about the challenge.

"I can't wait to see who I'll be up against in the finals," he said.

Jennings earned $2,520,700 after a 74-game winning streak. He was beaten by California real estate agent Nancy Zerg.

The matches will begin airing in February or March, and the finals will air in May, said "Jeopardy!" publicist Jeff Ritter.

The third-place winner will receive $250,000 and the second-place winner, $500,000.

Should be interesting...

Da Dum

In case no one reading this (or myself in about ten years for that matter) actually knows what goes on in my brain, the title of this post should be read like the interludes in between scenes of Law and Order (if you are a fan, you know what I am talking about, if you are not- this post probably won't make a difference to you.).

Anyway, Jerry Orbach passed away last night. He was a great actor. I gained an appreciation for him through his roles as Lennie Briscoe on Law and Order, Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast, and one of my favorites; Dr. Houseman in Dirty Dancing. It has been hard for me to watch Law and Order since he left. I am going to miss his silly side comments and wisecracks. He was pretty young: 69. May he rest in peace.

Incidentally, I haven't written anything about the Tsunami disaster simply because there isn't much to write. Truly a tragedy. My heart goes out to the victims and their families.

New Willy Wonka Movie

I just watched the trailer for the remake of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." I don't know what to think. It looks interesting, but I honestly think there was no need to mess with this movie. The original was superb.

I wonder what Gene Wilder will think when he sees it. Johnny Depp is a good actor- but he looks incredibly freakish as Willy Wonka and with none of the strangely scary likability that Wilder had. I just hope they do justice to the Oompa Loompas....

A baby by any other name...

So here is the latest controversy in the g*rshm@n home. Gila (3) is on a Strawberry Shortcake kick. When Gila gets into characters, she becomes the character of the moment. Therefore, when we call Gila down for dinner she might say something like, "I am not Gila, I am Strawberry Shortcake (or Dora, or Cassie- you get the picture)." Anyway, as it should be obvious to all who know anything about Strawberry Shortcake, her little sister's name is Apple Dumpling. Can you guess where we are going here? Well, Gila has taken to calling Eden (3 months) "Apple Dumpling" and she is quite serious about it.

In the car a little while ago Gila and Ezra (5) got in a huge fight about what our baby's name is. They are both still upset. I think they have worked out a compromise that Ezra will call her Eden and Gila, I mean Strawberry Shortcake will call her Apple Dumpling. I think we should call her A.D. which could be a nickname for either (since we pronounce Eden as ay-den). In any event- let's hope that Gila sticks to innocuous characters like Strawberry Shortcake. I hate to think of the other names our family might have to adopt in the next few years.

Make it a Blockbuster Night (or 2 weeks)

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Blockbuster Inc. announced Tuesday it is abolishing late fees on all its video tapes, DVDs and video games as of Jan. 1.

The world's largest video rental company will still have due dates for their rental products -- one week for games and two days or one week for movies, depending on whether it's a new release.

But customers will be given a one-week grace period after that to return the product. After that grace period ends, the chain will automatically sell them the product, less the rental fee. If the customers don't want to purchase the movie or game, they can return the product within 30 days for a credit, less a restocking fee.

Interesting. I wonder if Blockbuster will also stock more vides/DVD's in their stores now that people will most probably wait until the end of the 2 weeks to return the videos. This could either help or hurt Blockbuster.

Chanuka House

(Thanks Sara- you should start a blog by the way)

Here it is ladies and gentlemen- the famous Chanukah House of Northwest Baltimore has a website. Enjoy!

I won! I won! I won!

Last night was Shomrei's family Chanukah party. I have to say, it was great. Good food (foot long (they were about 5 feet actually) subs for the adults, hot dogs for the kids, potato salad, cole slaw, pickles, sufganiot...), good company, good times.

The best part was that I won the split the pot jackpot! OK, so there was only $36 in the pot, but I got $18 of that. That is nothing to scoff at. We played bingo too and they gave out gift certificates to local restaurants to the winners. the weird thing is every winner last night lived in my one block radius.

I have been thinking about how I will spend my windfall. Any suggestions?

Blogdigger Media Search

Check out Blogdigger's new Media Search. Pretty cool if you ask me!