Seeing clearly enough

The “Greatest Jeopardy Player of All Time” was determined in just four two-game segments. James Holzhauer won the second, while the first, third, and fourth were won by Ken Jannings, earning Ken the title and the $1,000,000 prize.

On that fourth evening, Brad Rutter hit on a “daily double” late in the game and bet everything. Unfortunately, he was unable to produce the correct question, bringing his score down to 0 points, and the game ended soon thereafter with Brad’s final score at 0. When the second game was initiated, host Alex Trebeck announced that they would now remove all the first-game scores and reset everyone’s tally to “0,” with the idea that at the end of the second game, the highest total two-game score would belong to the winner. When Alex announced this, James Holzhauer shouted out “they forgot to change Brad’s score.”  While I freely admit that I have never been particularly fond of James, I will give him the benefit of the doubt that he thought he was being humorous, although at least one friend shared with me that he saw the comment as rather mean-spirited.

One weakness of this tournament was that luck, rather than skill, may have played too large a role in the outcome. Why? Because the scores may have depended a bit too heavily on when the players found the “daily doubles.” This impact was apparent a number of times for Ken Jennings, who found the daily double late in the game and was able to achieve a very high score by betting his entire earnings and providing the correct response. Having said that, James Holzhauer would have won the fourth game had he correctly responded to the “Final Jeopardy.” Had there been a fifth game, we will never know what the outcome would have been.

Now we are back to regular “Jeopardy!”, and Barry and I were stunned last evening that none of the three contestants knew the correct question to this answer in the category of “US Representatives.”   

Finally, you might be wondering why I called this post “seeing clearly enough.” Although I have not driven a car since before 2002, I continue to carry a New York State driver’s license, if only because it is such a widely recognized form of identification. But a couple of months ago I received a notice that it was time to renew. I stopped in a local drug store that conducts the vision test, and unfortunately was unable to pass. I was overdue for a visit to my ophthalmologist, the same one I have been seeing since he was recommended to me by a Pfizer colleague over 25 years ago. Needless to say, we are both getting older. I was really nervous about this visit. But the assistant conducting the test of visual acuity was very patient, and went up to that very first line and had me read each one. As soon as I got to around the third or fourth line I started having a bit of trouble, but for reasons I cannot fully understand, I instinctively found myself “copying” the letters with my finger on my lap, and this helped me to correctly identify them all as far as I needed to go to indicate 20/35. Anything better than 20/40 is considered acceptable, so I “passed”! While I still have no intention of trying to drive, I was simply elated to be able to complete the renewal application and am really looking forward to that new card coming in the mail in a couple of weeks.

This has been a busy week of medical visits, including a follow-up CT of my bladder which continues to be negative for any signs of cancer, as was a recent cystoscopy. We are actually now talking about perhaps ending the pembrolizumab treatments in a few months, when I will have completed two years. It is not a simple decision, because the original trials were two years in length and there is no published long-term follow-up data to guide the decision. Even if we do stop treatment, I will need to continue careful follow-up.

I am so glad all these medical appointments are behind me because winter has now returned in earnest – it is very cold and that four-letter word beginning with “S” is back in the forecast. So, stay safe and warm!

Love,

Rebecca