Jeopardy as Drama

Last night's Jeopardy telecast (April 23, 2026) was as good as the Ron Lyle/George Foreman fight of January 24, 1976 when each fighter knocked the other down so many times it was thought that only the referee would remain standing and be declared the winner.

Wednesday night's telecast was not billed as a heavyweight fight—it just turned into one. Anyone with even a passing interest in Jeopardy now knows that Jamie Ding, the man who wears something orange as his talisman, was in his now usual spot at the No. 1 champion's podium. That Jamie has now occupied this spot for the prior 29 days has attracted attention outside of ardent Jeopardy fans. He's in the news.

Facing Jeopardy champ Jamie are of course two opponents. In the middle is Leighanna Mixter, an attorney from Fresco, California. In the No. 3 slot is Patrick Nolan, an actuary from Wheaton, Illinois.  Having an actuary compete is almost like having a professional gambler like James Holzhauer compete. Thus, the East Coast (Jamie) and the Midwest and West Coast are represented.

Poor Leighanna. She's out buzzed and out answered by Jamie and Patrick. Patrick is a firecracker, and pulls ahead of Jamie with $11,600 to Jamie's $11,200. Toe-to-toe. Is this the end of Jamie?

Bet right, and answer the Daily Double (if you get the chance) and you can bury the opposition. Patrick gets to select a $1,200 clue under TEENY TINY COUNTRIES. What's the bet? "True Daily Double, Ken." This means all of it. The audience gasps. Loudly. I gasp. If right, Patrick is gong to dump a load of gravel on Jamie's head and pull way ahead with $23,200 to Jamie's $11,200? Will Jamie have to get up off the mat?

Patrick's clue is: Borgo Maggiore & Serravalle are towns in this landlocked nation that bears the name of a 4th century holy man.

Are you fucking kidding me? Nope. But they didn't write a clue that stumps Patrick. He answers "San Marino" and dumps the gravel on Jamie's head. Is this the end of Jamie? Will be get up off the mat?

The contestants go back to their corners. Jamie picks up some loose change and moves to $13,200, now nowhere near Patrick's $23,200. 

If Jeopardy were to have a scandal, it would be who gets the Daily Doubles? Is there scrambling/someone behind the board so that when someone gets a clue and they need money, they are steered to a needed Daily Double? Not likely, but a conspiracy theorist will go with it.

What happens when Jamie, with control of the board, picks a $2.000 clue under the category, Art for Art's Sake? 

Daily Double. Suspicious? Who knows, but Jamie goes "True daily double" because his $13,00 pales to Patrick's $23,200, and the game is winding down. More audience gasping.

The clue is: The Glasshouse in Seattle is a one-of-kind structure holding a 100-foot sculpture by this artist.

Are they for real?

Jamie at this point, has come off the mat and is throwing a haymaker. Will he be correct?

Jamie answers Who is Chihuly?

Ding, ding, ding goes Ding. Down goes Patrick. Jamie is correct and now has $26,400.

What did Jamie get at Christmas that I didn't get?

The game proceeds, and of course goes to final Jeopardy. Poor Leighanna Mixter. She's been caught between two heavyweights and can only expect to finish second or third.

Jamie picks up some more loose change goes into the round with $30,800; Patrick goes in with some more loose change as well and goes in  $28,000. Someone's arm is going to be raised. But who?

The category: THE 1950s

I saw the preview of the clue in the morning New York Times: 

The announcement declared this safe & effective was made April 12, 1955, the 10th anniversary of the death of a famous American.

To a child born during the Truman administration, this one's easy. My mother was an R.N. from Illinois who was an Army nurse during WW II and who volunteered and was allowed to administer polio vaccine shots to us little people in the gym of P.S. 22 on Sanford Avenue in Flushing, sometime in the 1950s

I wasn't on her line, but there were plenty of us lined up in that gym. In my adult years I always thought how was my mother allowed to do that? She wasn't working as a nurse after the war. She wasn't licensed in New York. She just told them she was an Army nurse and was assigned a line and a battery of needles and vaccine to administer to little arms and wincing faces. Different times.

Surely Jamie's going to know this one. Even the actuary, despite neither of them being old enough to remember the polio outbreak in the 1950s and Salk vaccine, should know it, no?.

Jamie's got $30,800; Patrick's got $28,000; poor overlooked Leighanna's got $5,400.

Leighanna goes first. She bets $5,000, gets it right, and finishes with a paltry $10,400.

Patrick's got to go double, or at least bet enough to finish ahead of Leighanna. Not hard. He bets a surprising $10,000. But actually a good bet. He figures Jamie's going to bet whatever it takes to exceed a double bet on Patrick's part, if that's what he makes, which would give him $56,000.

Jamie needs to cover the possible $56,000 of Patrick if Patrick doubles and gets it right. So Jamie's bet is the classic cover, $25,201, which if correct would give Jamie $56,001, a dollar over an expected Patrick double bet.

Drum roll please, maestro.

Patrick answers "penicillin". Oh no. Obviously wrong, but still leaves Patrick with $18,000, enough to win if Jamie doubles, or covers, and stumbles with a wrong answer which would bring him below Patrick's $18,000. Is this the end of Jamie?

In Jeopardy you need to be good at math as well as have lots of correct answers.

Jamie has bet the expected cover of $25,201, but needs a right answer to win his 30th game.

Jamie's dressed in solid, bright orange sweater today. He looks like Buddha and a traffic cone at the same time. Jamie, what's your answer?

"Polio vaccine," with "Salk" added in smaller letters.

Win No. 30 is in the books. See you Friday.

http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com

It's Not Just Me

It's not just me writing about Jamie Ding, a multi-day, multi-month Jeopardy champion that appears today as the subject of a Wall Street Journal A-Hed piece. Jamie's gone viral. It is now no longer just Jeopardy fans that know of Jamie. He's making the news. 

Jamie is described in the piece by John Jurgensen as having "a knowledge range that borders on omniscience." At the outset of this week's show, host Ken Jennings announced that Jamie has provided 839 correct responses. Jennings asks if the evening's two opponents have the Kryptonite to dethrone Jamie. Hasn't happened, as Mr. Ding has sailed to 27 consecutive victories.

Given that Jeopardy shows are taped at least 4-6 weeks before we see them, Jamie is either out there somewhere back home at work, or is extending his streak as we write this, beyond all comprehension. That is, the shows they're taping today to be shown later still have Jamie has champion.  Now that would be another something.

It will be interesting to note on what actual calendar date Jamie gets dethroned. I wonder if that ever really becomes publicly known, i.e. what is the date of the taping that sees Jamie yield the No. 1 podium position? It will be interesting.

The mind boggles. He already seems to have bought a new wardrobe. With Jeopardy's taping schedule and Jamie's streak, he's run out of clothes he brought to California to the Alex Trebek, Sony Pictures Sound Stage.

At some point in Jamie's life he was injected with the contents of an atlas. He doesn't miss a clue that has a geographic answer. The other night when the category was Australia and its islands, the viewer saw a map of dots off the coast of Australia's eastern shore. The answer: Tuvalu, a country that I never heard of, that I wonder if it has ever sent someone to the Summer Olympics. Maybe a swimmer? What's the flag of Tuvalu?

Wikipedia tells us: 

Tuvalu is an island country in the Polynesian sub-region of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean, about midway between Hawaii and Australia. It lies east-northeast of the Santa Cruz Islands (which belong to the Solomon Islands), northeast of Vanuatu, southeast of Nauru, south of Kiribati, west of Tokelau, northwest of Samoa and Wallis and Futuna, and north of Fiji

Tuvalu is composed of three islands and six atolls spread out between the latitude of 5° and 10° south and between the longitude of 176° and 180°. They lie west of the International Date Line.^[7] The 2022 census determined that Tuvalu had a population of 10,643,^[8]: 5 making it the 194th most populous country, exceeding only Niue and the Vatican City in population. Tuvalu's total land area is 25.14 square kilometres (9.71 sq mi).^[8]

My father served in Guam during WW II. He was a tech sergeant in the Corps of Engineers. He had his engineering degree from Syracuse University before the war. His assignment was making maps from reconnaissance photos.

Anyone who knows where Guam is, knows it too is a small dot in the Pacific, a United States possession. It is well north of Tuvalu, but my guess is my father probably heard of it. I can no longer ask him.

When the quiz show "21" was popular and before it was tainted with scandal regarding contestant prep, I remember my father growing suspicious of how someone knew, probably Van Doren, the name of an obscure island in the Pacific. He never got over that a civilian heard of it. 

Well, Van Doren was probably fed the answer and looked like he was sweating in the "concentration booth." Jamie is not fed any answers. He is an atlas.

As already noted in prior postings, Jamie has escaped elimination. He's also provided drama by giving the audience a poker face when his hoped for correct answer will be enough to topple his opponent's smart bet in the Final Jeopardy round. Like last night, Jamie knew the answer. The other contestants did too, but Jamie sailed past them. (I didn't know the answer.)

Yesterday's clue:

18th Century Works

Ironically, it was the mayor of Strasbourg, a victim of the guillotine, who requested the composition of this.

Contestant No. 3, Max Ernst, the closest to Jamie in winnings with $10,800 to Jamie's $17,600, made a bet, $9,000, that would secure the match if Jamie stumbled, gets it right.

Contestant No. 2, Lydia Sekscenski, was no factor throughout the match, just squeaking into the final round with $400, bets $0, but gets it right.

Jamie, with $17,600, made a $4,001 bet, which would put him ahead of No. 3 by a dollar if No.3 were to bet double his total of $10,800.

Moot point, since Jamie has to get it right sine No. 3 has moved into the lead. A wrong answer by Jamie, and we don't see him again.

As I wrote, I didn't know the answer, but all three did: "What is La Marseillaise?

Jamie prevails for his 27th win.

Okay, the answer sort of begs an explanation as to why did the mayor of Strasbourg, a city in the Alsace region of France near the German border, want the French national anthem played, and why was he being executed?

Trusty ChatGpt tells us:

You’re thinking of Philippe‑Frédéric de Dietrich.

Why he was executed:
De Dietrich was a moderate supporter of the French Revolution, but during the radical phase known as the Reign of Terror, moderates and suspected “counter-revolutionaries” were often targeted. He was accused of being insufficiently loyal to the revolutionary government and of connections that made him suspect. Like many in that period, the charges were political and loosely defined.

When and where:
He was executed by guillotine on 29 December 1793 in Paris.

The La Marseillaise connection:
De Dietrich is closely linked to La Marseillaise because, as mayor of Strasbourg, he hosted the officer Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in April 1792. During that visit, Rouget de Lisle composed the song (originally titled “Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin”) at de Dietrich’s request.

According to tradition, as his final wish before execution, de Dietrich asked to hear La Marseillaise—the very song whose creation he had inspired—making his death symbolically tied to one of the Revolution’s most enduring anthems.

Jamie probably knows the full story as well.

http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com

A Ride to Remember

This is meant to memorialize a touchstone moment when I can be reminded of what a great sport watching horse racing is: Saturday's Oaklawn Park Handicap that was a six horse field that included Sovereignty, Journalism and White Abarrio, competing for a $1,250,000 purse at a mile and an eighth.

Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas runs a first class thoroughbred meet. I always thought I wanted to travel to Del Mar, but no, I'll take Oaklawn over Del Mar, despite surprisingly no turf course..

For some unfathomable reason, the sport's grading committee has relegated the Oaklawn Handicap to a Grade II event rather than a Grade I event. It is mystifying, since the purse is $1,250,000 and requires nominating fees, $6,250 to pass the entry box, and $6,250 to start. That's a lot of money for a Grade II race. 

This year's field was exceptional. The winners of last year Triple Crown races are there: Journalism who won the Preakness, and Sovereignty who won the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont Stakes, and the Travers, who topped the year with an Eclipse Award as outstanding three year-old, as well as Horse of the Year honors...joined with the generation's war horse, 7 year-old White Abarrio, winner of the 2023 Breeders' Cup classic as well as the 2023 Whitney and the 2025 Pegasus World Cup. White Abarrio is the Eveready battery. He just keeps going and going, and is not a gelding.

White Abarrio's breeding is from a modest sire, Race Day, but the mare, Catching Diamonds, is by Into Mischief, a top stakes producing sire. A mare's breeding can be more important than the sire's. 

White Abarrio is trained by Saffie Joseph, Jr, a burly third generation horseman with a distinct man bun, from Barbados who can flat out train horses. 

Racing standards will not describe a horse as "white." White Abarrio is considered a gray/roan, but can never be thought of as anything but a white horse.

The Oaklawn Handicap is for 4 year-olds and up. It is a handicap, which means the racing secretary assigns weights with the theoretical goal of being so accurate that all the horses hit he finish line together, or very close together; level the playing field so to speak.

It never works out that way, but the horse with the best résumé is assigned the highest weight. Weight handicapping is nowhere near anything like it was in the days when I started racing and watching Dr. Fager and Damascus get weight assignments geared to level the playing field. You handicapped with weight in mind: pounds on, pounds off, the swing in weights.

I will never forget that in 1968 Dr. Fager was assigned a massive 139 pounds in the seven furlong Vosburgh Handicap at Aqueduct. He blew their doors off and set a new track record of 1:201/5 that has stood for over half a century. No one will ever be assigned to carry 139 pounds again, anywhere.

Oaklawn's track secretary acknowledges Sovereignty's credentials and assigns 123 pounds, pretty much almost laughable since the horse was running at scale of 126 as a three year-old. But that's the way it is these days. 

White Abarrio gets in with 121 pounds, and Journalism gets in with 119. No one cares about the weight assignments.

Sovereignty goes off the favorite, as he should. The pre-race analysis by Laffit Pincay, Jr. and Richard Migliore, a highly competent, retired New York based journeyman jockey, is that White Abarrio will take the lead, and the other big two will follow.

What follows is a surprise. Sovereignty takes the lead, White Abarrio follows, and Journalism follows closely. A quarter mile into the race is run in 23: flat. The three are almost running in tandem. The Big Three. It's Churchill, Stalin and F.D.R gathering at Potsdam and Yalta. 

If anyone ever thinks the jockey doesn't matter, then you don't know horse racing. Decisions are made in the blink of an eye, and Irad Ortiz, Jr. on White Abarrio makes a decision. Tap the breaks.

He basically thinks that if his brother, José Ortiz on Journalism, and Robbie Alvarado on Sovereignty  want to contest for the lead, go ahead. I'll stay close. And he does.

Uncharacteristically, Sovereignty leads by a head at every pole and into the stretch. White Abarrio is second at the quarter, pulls back and is fourth, third and second going into the stretch. Irad has them where he wants them. He's had them for lunch.

He easily overtakes Sovereignty in the stretch; the chart caller called it "forged clear" and wins by 2 lengths, finishing in a more than decent 1:47.49.

White Abarrio runs the final quarter mile in under 12 seconds; a championship effort. The TV analyst Richard Migliore is over the moon. It's as if he was on the horse's back.

Of the three, White Abarrio is the longest odds: $3.60 to $1.00. Sovereignty finishes second and Journalism third. The triple and the superfecta are chump change, even with a 14-1 finishing fourth; but the exacta is a very generous $11.60 for $1. It was an outstanding bet if you liked White Abarrio.  This was a "value" bet.

And that is what is attractive about horse racing; liking a horse that may turn out to be a surprise winner and cashing in. Handicapping it that way. I didn't play the race, I'm sure those that picked that exacta were as happy as Saffie Joseph, Jr. who was overtaken with emotion and basically reduced to tears on any post-race interview as he struggled to get words out. 

Winning the exacta may not have reduced you to tears of joy, but you get the idea. Horse racing is exciting. If you know. You know.

http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com

Shaking My Head

The long-awaited re-opening of the new Belmont Park is almost here. Lest anyone not know that Belmont Park, while being parklike, is also a thoroughbred racing venue run by the notoriously baffling, short-sighted, ever haughty, ever stupid, New York Racing Association, most times referred to as NYRA.

The re-opening is scheduled for a date in September, I think a little ahead of the planned October re-opening. I guess no construction delays.

It's a complete revamping of what was a new Belmont Park that opened in 1968, that replaced the prior, even older Belmont Park. Belmont Park goes way back. My story with it starts at the re-opening in 1968.

The New York Times front page story on Wednesday is about a police chief losing $4.5 million and never leaving his home or office  It was all done on his phone, with Draft Kings and Fan Duel apps, financed by money stolen from the New Haven, Connecticut police department. A Police Chief's $4.5 Million Gambling Secret: 'It's on the App.' Online, phone/app betting is the cocaine of betting.

Chief Karl. R. Jacobson never set foot in a casino, racetrack, or made calls to a bookie who would extend credit, to a point, but then would become threatening to Karl's joints if payments were not kept up. No, Karl's bets were in effect cash from his accounts with Draft Kings and FanDuel, taking action on sports, significantly NOT horse racing. 

No one loses $4.5 million betting on horse racing these days. And therein lies the ignorance of the folks at NYRA who think they are running some kind of Disney attraction geared to attract the young and beautiful from New York Times style pages wearing Kate Middleton fascinator hats— is it Generation Z?— to a venue that has been perpetually frequented by single, male bettors over 40, of a vast ethnic background who are now disappearing into graveyards and assisted living centers.  

NYRA has never understood who its patrons are. All you have to do is look at the ads for Belmont Day at Saratoga to realize that NYRA has an idealized view of who comes to the racetrack.

The racetrack is a venue for gambling that has been losing out to lottery tickets, brick and mortar casinos, online casinos, online sport betting apps, and now prediction market platforms:  "Will Trump introduce his son at the State of the Union Address?" It is pathetic.

Betting revenue feeds the purses, and the purses at NYRA are tanking all year. There are $10.000 claiming races, unheard of but a few years ago. Thoroughbred foals are coming into the world in decreasing numbers. NYRA runs 4 days a week, often with fields of fewer than 5 horses in a race. The other day, for an $88,000 purse, only two horses were lead into the starting gate. TWO! A match race created by scratches. There was betting. NYRA has to take every opportunity there is to take action.

As such, they allowed, and now have pulled back on, Computer Assisted Wagering, or CAW. This lets the whales bet via telecommunications to bet massive amounts on a race, often loading the bet in so late that post time odds of 5-2 can flash down to 9/5, or lower, as the gates open and no one can bet anymore. There was always a thought that the bets were allowed after the gates opened and the desired horse got out of the gate cleanly, a fraction of a second after the gates open—past posting.

NYRA claims to have taken precautions to past-posting betting, and now limits the races that CAW can dump money though the board. CAW accounts get a 10% rebate on their volume. All they have to do is make enough correct bets to break even or better, then gain a 10% rebate on their aggregate betting. With clever betting, it is not hard to break even over time. When I was betting perhaps 30 days a years at NYRA tracks, I might have finished the year with a $200 deficit. Not bad for a casual player.

With the re-opening approaching and anticipation building to see what the new place will look like, I registered my email to get Belmont Track Updates. I've been trying to find out how NYRA will price its admissions and seats. I've gone to Saratoga for the last 20 years plus (not last year) and was very familiar with NYRA raising admission prices and securing reserved seats.

I minded, but the effect of their pricing didn't dampen my attendance. Saratoga was a planned vacation. And when you're on vacation, you spend money you ordinarily don't.

The Saratoga patron who is not from downstate contrasts greatly with someone from downstate, who might not be a gambler but rather will accept the definition as "horseplayer:" Someone who revels in handicapping and trying to leverage betting. In the years I attended Saratoga for 4 straight days of betting, the most I ever lost betting was $60 for the four days, often netting a profit of between $60 and $150: a casual "horseplayer."

My friend and I would pay for Foustardave seating and were constantly in awe of all the people who walked by without even a program, let along a Racing Form. They were however a very well-fed group who seemed to enjoy eating in the atmosphere of the racetrack rather than in handicapping. There was always a line for the mac n' cheese truck parked outside the Fourstardave.

Saratoga Springs boasts no beaches or professional sports of any kind. There is night trotting racing, but little to compete with Saratoga when it's open other than the library. Upstaters understandably flock to Saratoga Race Track for diversion and recreation. And a place to eat.

Since my quartet of race-going friends—which is now three due to a death last June—have been looking forward to Belmont's re-opening, I've signed on for the Belmont newsletter. Yesterday, one landed in the in box.

And therein is a clue to NYRA's mentality that they've built a venue that should attract a premium dollar. The drawings show a lush, clean, new atmosphere that seems worthy of the wait for the re-opening. I'm looking forward to it. But not what I anticipate pricing that will greatly discourage this retiree, Senior Citizen, from any kind of repeat attendance.

The NYRA newsletter shows an ticket option that includes 20 days of racing admissions, (some "marquee dates"—other than the Belmont Stakes admission and seats, for which you get "priority" in ordering tickets for that bad boy) with a daily credit of $25 for food and beverage, in "seats with backs" (I kid you not.) for what amounts to $981, just short of $50 for each admission to get a seat "with a back." Toilet sets have no back. So far they're free. Maybe.

That squares with my guessing that the new Belmont will require at least a $10 admission fee, and at least $15 for a seat that used to be free. The seats were always free because no one was ever there. You could set off explosives in sections of the old Belmont, and not hurt anyone. And now they think because they "built it, they will come." Delusional thinking.

There is an even more exclusive option to obtain multiple seats in a box. I didn't go through with the pricing on that one. Whatever it is, it is delusional.

But NYRA's not really stupid. They convinced New York's Governor Kathy Hochul to fork over a publicly financed $455 million loan to complete the re-build to attract the imagined beautiful people who will descend on the place and enjoy themselves, which will only occur one day a year, the Belmont Stakes Day. (2027 Breeders' Cup day is handled by the Breeders' Cup people)

Governor Hochul has fallen for NYRA's line about being good for employment. With public money, she is financing a renovation that really rebuilds Belmont as "Big Beautiful Belmont" (it is) as an automatic white elephant, to be run as a self-serving club for the people appointed to run it.

Going to Belmont in the years before the renovation, there was always a reserved section on the third floor of the clubhouse area adjacent to the boxes. As close to the finish line as you could get without being in a box. There was always an attendant to check those who were going to be seated there for their ticket. They were the only person in the section for the entire card. There was no need to "buy" a seat when the rest of the seats were available. Now I guess NYRA wants then all to be reserved, like Saratoga. Belmont is not Saratoga. But after all, a "seat with a back" is worth a premium I guess.

Belmont is not a vacation destination. Downstate horseplayers have been getting free admission to Aqueduct, with free parking for years The sparse crowd—and if it looked big, it was only because everyone was shoehorned into a small section of the second floor—was there to basically use automated machines to even get a voucher, and machines to make bets. It was gotten used to. Live cashiers were barely existent.

Belmont is not in New York City. It is in Elmont, New York, just over the Queens border. No subway goes there. But the LIRR has a dedicated station with service from Jamaica or Penn Station straight to the track. A commuter train's version of what was once The Subway Special to Aqueduct from Times Square, 42nd street, or Hoyt-Schermerhorn Station in Brooklyn. A special $1.50 token was what you needed.

If you don't drive and park at Belmont (whatever that's going to cost you) you might get there by a Nassau County bus along Hempstead Turnpike, or take the LIRR. But at what fare? LIRR at least has a Senior Citizen fare. NYRA does not. Never did.

With their continued short sighted mentality of who is really going to come to the racetrack, that loan may fall in arrears. But hey, NYRA has been playing with public money for years to keep an insular game going that is really run for the benefit of the owners, trainers, jockeys, backstretch workers, breeding industry, and those interests on the Board of Trustees. If it were to disappear, I would miss it, but I'd move on.

We'll see how much longer I'll get to enjoy handicapping at the racetrack. The kitchen TV and computer work just fine for me.

http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com

The Sphinx Speaks

I love reading Maureen Dowd. Not because I agree with everything she writes, which is usually a tirade or a disquisition against the Trump administration, but because of the way she phrases it. No one does a one sentence snark better than Maureen. 

Maureen usually leaves me circling a word she's used that I have to look up, but not this time. Maybe I met her match by using "disquisition."

Today's disquisition is about the mystery of why Melania Trump seemed to be motivated to  proactively disavow any relationship with the disgraced, and very dead [Yeah, I know. I modified an absolute. Sue me.] Jeffrey Epstein, whose files are more talked about than the Adams Papers once were, or the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Melania spoke for several minutes at a presidential podium clearly stating that not only did she not have a relationship with Epstein of any kind, Jeffrey didn't introduce her to The Donald back in the 1990s at the Kit Kat Club in Manhattan.

There are  of course photos of Donald and Melania with Jeffrey and his Gal Friday Giselle Maxell, but that's merely explained by attending the same parties and being asked for a photo. Nothing more.

Maureen tells us the Washington press corps was "gobsmacked" by Melanie's soliloquy. No one knew it was coming. Not even The Donald.

The headline to Maureen's Sunday Opinion piece in the Sunday NYT goes: The Sphinx Thinks It Stinks. Maureen has been calling Melania the Sphinx for years because she rarely talks to the public.

An out quote from the piece goes: "A Melania surprise creates another mystery." Who doesn't love a mystery?

"For mysterious reasons, The Slovenian Sphinx stunned the West Wing [not under renovation]. walking into the grand entrance hall of the White House to dump kerosene on the flickering Epstein fire." You gotta love it.

And you gottta love Maureen's description of Melania approaching the lectern: "for the first time the first lady—who glided so serenely on skyscraper stilettos in her infomercial, 'Melania'—looked shaken."

Is Maureen jealous of Melania's ability to wear probably 5" high heels and not fall down? Did Maureen once try it and tumble down a flight of stairs? This could be a woman thing.

The pundits have spent a week trying to figure out what made the first lady talk and deny. No doubt the Sunday news shows will touch on the topic when they tire of talking about the Strait of Hormuz and the Iranian war.

But Maureen has probably scooped them all when she tells us that Amanda Ungaro, a model and girlfriend of the man who Melania says introduced Trump to her, Paolo Zampolli, took to X and wrote some nasty. threatening things to Melania, which included the word "bitch." (The Tweet's been deleted.)

The story goes that Paolo inquired to President Trump about his model girlfriend and mother of his child's status. Amanda had been arrested on fraud charges and was being detained by ICE in Miami. Supposedly the innocent phone call lead to Amanda being deported back to Brazil where she surely wasn't going to attending any more parties at Mar-a-Lago.

The fur flies when one female calls another one "bitch." Producers of the "Desperate Housewives" franchise are salivating trying to get at least a Zoom call cat fight between Melania and Amanda as a Netflix special. Amanda further used X to warn Melania that she was going to be dumping dirt on The Donald. Social media knows no borders. Even from Brazil, it's possible to raise Melania's hackles and make the Sphinx talk. 

Since Elon Musk and Trump are buddies, it seems doubtful that Amanda's going to anything on X about anyone. And Brazil is in another hemisphere.

What will the new week bring?

http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com

The Orange Elephant

There's an orange-clad elephant taking over the Alex Trebek studio at Sony Pictures Studio in California, and his name is Jamie Ying, the current Jeopardy champion at 21 consecutive games with $609,000 in winnings. When he's done, he's buying Sony Pictures.

The Artemis II astronauts have returned from space, but Jamie's headed into space. He was most vulnerable on Wednesday night when his game earnings had him in 2nd place going into the Final Jeopardy round.  

Only the middle contestant was ahead of Jamie with $17,600. Jamie was weighing in with $14,400, an unusual place for him. No runaway.  He was most vulnerable to be checkmated. Final Jeopardy clue was a humdinger: "Adopted in 1979, the name reflects his size and strength as well as a promoter's wish to appeal to Irish-American fans."

WTF! Who writes these clues? The 3rd Contestant is mathematically out of it. The leader, Dominex Kovacs, wagers $11,201, the classic cover move to go past Jamie if Jamie doubles his bet and gets it right. Jamie, must not have been feeling it, because he bets a lukewarm $5,199, but a smart bet probably not feeling he was going to answer right, and if the leader bet enough to cover a potential Jamie double and lost, then he'd have less than Jamie as they both didn't know the answer. Result would be Jamie continues as champion. The bed feeling paid off, and the bet was right.

Remember, the bets are made before the clue is revealed. Dominex has no answer. Jamie answers Roddy Rowdy Piper, which at least brings him close to the answer being a wrestler, Hulk Hogan. Hogan, get it? Appeal to Irish-American fans. Huh?

Dust settles, and Jamie has $9,201 to Dominex's $6,398.  The champ wins the decision.

My knowledge of wrestling fans must be outdated, because I thought in New York at least they were mostly all Polish. Killer Kowalski, remember? Monday night was wrestling night at Madison Square Garden and Greenpoint, Brooklyn emptied out as the residents got on the subway to the Garden. 

Jamie sails through Thursday and Friday matches and ends the week at 21 consecutive games with $609,000 in earnings. 

Does a Jeopardy clue writer get a raise when they triple-stump the contestants?. They should. Maybe there's a Hall of Fame, or a plaque. When I saw the preview clue to Friday's final, I thought Jamie will easily get that one. I didn't get the answer, but Jamie has swallowed an atlas and lives to be with us on Monday.

Friday's clue: Around the World  A river named for the sacred lotus flower flows toward this 839,000-square-mike body of water. 

Yeah, sure. Jamie: The Bay of Bengal.

Ding goes Ka-ching again. See you Monday.

http://www.onoffraramp.blogspot.com

A Celebrity Sighting

Whether you like them or not, it's exciting to be in close—or somewhat close proximity—with a celebrity: a celebrity sighting. Maybe even a photo with, as easy as that is with a cell phone these days.

For myself, I've had a few, but not enough to talk about, and few of whom are still alive. Longevity gets surrounded by death. This is not about my celebrity sightings, but rather my granddaughter's. A far more contemporary sighting.

Having Easter dinner at my oldest daughter's home in Pleasantville, NY. (My wife, has passed the baton on preparing holiday meals.) My son-in law prompted his daughter, my 14 year-old granddaughter to tell me who she saw at the movies the other night at the 7:30 showing of Sinners at the Chappaqua cinema. (She's was off for Easter spring break.)

"Bill Clinton."
"Wow, really, where?"
"At the Chappaqua Cinema on Thursday night."
"Was he with any sketchy females?"
"No, just Hillary."
"Wow."

Clinton sightings are not uncommon, since Chappaqua is the adjacent hamlet to Pleasantville. Chappaqua is in New Castle Township; Pleasantville is in Mount Pleasant. They are the same in many ways, other than the median income. Chappaqua is lots more. Chappaqua is within walking distance of the family home in Pleasantville.

Bill and Hillary were taking in a showing of Sinners. I asked my granddaughter about the movie and she said it's "violent." She and her girlfriend sat close enough to the Clintons in their reserved seats to observe that Bill is wearing a hearing aid. She said Hillary looked good.

A small security detail surrounded the Clintons. My granddaughter didn't get a selfie with the power couple.

I don't remember when the Clintons started calling Chappaqua home. Hillary of course was twice elected U.S. Senator for New York; served as Obama's Secretary of state, and famously ran for president in 2016, only to be dfeate4d by a real estate developer from Queens. The ignominy will never wear off.

I related my story to a dedicated reader who was surprised to hear I had a 14 year-old granddaughter. Perhaps not as surprised as I am, especially when I consider she has an 18 year-old sister who is in her freshman year at Penn State, studying nursing.

Life if full of nice surprises.

http://www.onofframp.blogsot.com