Playing with "Their" Money

Matt, Matt, Matt. Are you already trying to buy a house? Have you been looking online between shows? Do you have a girlfriend who's already spending your money?

Matt Amodio, in case anyone is still unaware, is plowing through Jeopardy like a hot knife through frozen butter. This week's guest host, Joe Buck may as well just start out with baseball calls and tell us, "it's out of here," because Matt is knocking them over the fence.

Okay, Matt builds such commanding leads in money that unless he really does something stupid, he can't lose, even with tanking the Final Jeopardy question/answer.

And he does tank them. Lately with massive wagers that take his day's earnings down to amounts that used to be what F.D.I.C. insured savings accounts when I was a kid: $10,000; or a winning share in the World Series for a Yankee in the '50s. True.

Last night's show was another example of Matt making a big wager, albeit an "I-can't-lose-this-game wager" on the final clue.

The question/answer was: A penguin species found in South America is named for this 16th C. man whose crew were the first from Europe to see them.

The answer was Ferdinand Magellan. You know, the guy who sailed around the world only to become someone's Happy meal. I missed it. I was thinking Emperor penguins, Tuxedo penguins, but nothing with someone's name. Missed the embedded clue about 16th-century and crew, which would lead you to think an explorer with a ship.

Matt initially had Magellan, crossed it out and went with Drake. Being a Ph.D. candidate in computer science at Yale, Matt has certainly taken his fair share of tests. Doesn't he know not to change his first answer?

I know he's not losing, and gets to come back on the show for the next episode as the champion, but only adding $10,000 to your pile is a lousy rate of return for your smarts.

Matt reminds me of all the gamblers I've ever met tat the track who when ahead will tell you, "I'm playing with their money." Yeah, are you ahead for life?

Matt, ease up on the I'm-ahead-what-the-hell-bets and look for a place with more rooms when they finally knock you off the show. Just like in horse racing, they all lose sometime, unless of course you're Personal Ensign.

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