Got lucky despite bad wager

There were a couple of interesting things on Jeopardy last evening. The first was in the category of “Religions” (at least I think that was the category), and the answer was something like “In 3032, this Jewish holiday falls in January.” The correct question? “What is Chanukah?” I just looked it up, and sure enough there is no Chanukah in 3031, rather Chanukah (25 of the Hebrew month of Kislev) begins on the 1^st of January 3032. Of course, none of us will be around for that but it does qualify as a “fun fact.”

That leads to the next question: what is the latest civil date on which Chanukah begins? Oh, don’t you just love the internet, where you can quickly find such things? For the next 2,269 years, at least, the latest date is January 6^th; Chanukah begins on January 6^th for the first time in 4286. Beginning in 3450, starting dates in January occur more regularly: once every fifty years or so.

In 2013, the first day of Chanukah was on Thursday November 28^th, which was also Thanksgiving that year. This is apparently as early as Chanukah can fall.

The second interesting thing on Jeopardy last evening was that the winner won despite a foolish mistake. Kyle Becker from Nashville, TN, had won two games and was playing his third. Going into Final Jeopardy, Kyle had $13,200 and both of the other contestants had $6,600. What could have happened was a three-way tie. But what did happen is that the neither of the two other contestants, who both wagered their entire $6,600, knew the correct question. Kyle provided the correct question, so of course he won. But here’s what made no sense: he had wagered $1. Why did he do that? If either of the other contestants had known the final question and he had not, he would have lost the game by $1. He should have wagered nothing, because then at least he would have tied one or both players and returned to play them again. I guess his nerves got the better of him in that moment.

The Final Jeopardy answer?

This manual resulted from a military engineer’s attendance at an unruly 1860s church meeting

The question?

What is “Robert’s Rules of Order”?

I know there was far more serious news than the Jeopardy outcome yesterday. I refer, of course, to the news that America plans to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move its embassy to that city. I am just struggling to process it, praying that calm minds and negotiations can prevail, and that Israel will also get lucky despite what may or may not have been a bad wager.

Love,

Rebecca