Year: 2008

Larissa in Jeopardy!

My friend SamJay is a lifelong fan of Jeopardy! and last week he suggested that I tune in. The last time he told me to do that was early in Ken Jennings’ record sweep. This time the contestant who’s creating a sensation is Larissa Kelly. She’s originally from Newton, MA, and The Boston Globe had an item about her a couple of days ago at this link.

Her winning way
Grad student Larissa Kelly, who grew up in Newton, made some history on “Jeopardy!” this week. Kelly, 28, became the highest-money-winning woman in the game show’s long history, tallying $146,197 in just four games. Kelly, who attends UC-Berkeley, will try to extend her winning streak next week.

Jeopardy! insiders are saying Larissa will be around for a while. Exactly how long is unknown, but for now she seems to be on a roll. Here’s a heavily-edited video of Larissa’s appearance in last Friday’s show. Double Jeopardy had an Alfred Hitchcock theme, and I got all of the Hitchcock answers. The clip is chopped-up, so not all of the answers and questions match. Larissa was up against some excellent competitors, and it was only a bit of luck that saved her in Final Jeopardy. It will be interesting to see how long Larissa’s luck holds.

[flv:/Video/2008/MAY/jeopardy.flv 480 360]

Another Major Meltdown

You may have noticed earlier that the homepage was rolled back in time. The exact point, no surprise to me, was the last post before iPower switched me over to the new platform. This notice was posted on iPower’s support page:

DNS issues potentially affecting your Website and E-mail An unforeseen issue with our DNS system caused us to have to restore a backup from 3/16/2008.If your site has been transitioned to the new platform since 3/16/2008, or you have created your account since that date, your website and e-mail may be affected.

Transitioned customers may notice that your website is displaying an older version. We will be correcting this during the course of the day today (Mon 5/26/2008), as we restore our DNS.

New customers that have created their account since 3/16/2008 may notice that their website is offline completely. This will also be corrected over the next few hours.

We deeply apologize for this service interruption, we know that you count on us, and our team is working as quickly as possible to restore full service for all customers.

Everything seems to be back the way it was when I went to bed last night, but I’ll be on the lookout for further trouble. Needless to say, iPower’s shaky reputation can’t withstand any more incidents such as this one.

Boston’s Run to Remember

Boston\'s Race to Remember 2008

Today I got up bright and early (OK, maybe I wasn’t feeling so bright) and drove to Boston to do the Run to Remember. It’s a half-marathon, 13.1 miles, and it commemorates Massachusetts law enforcement officers who have been killed in the line of duty. With a huge police presence, it’s the most crime-free race going!

I finished in 2:04:31, and that comes out to one minute per mile slower than I did two years ago. I couldn’t run it last year because of my ankle trouble. Between this race and the marathon last month, I’m feeling confident that I can bring myself back up to what I consider to be good shape.

Much of the Run to Remember is along Memorial Drive in Cambridge, going past MIT and down to Harvard and back, but the start and finish go through Boston, which sure looks different than the last time I ran this race. The elevated highway is completely gone now, in post-Big Dig Boston. The total cost for the massive project, known for its mismanagement and corruption, was about $14 billion over 25 years. Compare that to our occupation of Iraq, known for its mismanagement and corruption, which costs about $12 billion per month, with no end in sight, and none promised by John McCain if he becomes President.

New Petula Clark CD, Interview

THEN AND NOW - THE VERY BEST OF PETULA CLARKIf you happen to live in England, you’re in for a bit of good luck, because a new Petula Clark CD is about to be released, including five new songs! It’s called “THEN AND NOW – THE VERY BEST OF PETULA CLARK”, and it will be out on June 16th. It’s listed on Amazon’s UK site, but not yet here in America. The new songs are described here, on the new Petula Clark blog.

Petula fan Dave Moncur, our DogRat reader in Scotland, wrote to say that the Times Online has posted a new interview with Pet, Not Just Anybody: Petula Clark. The questions are funny and unusual, and I daresay some of them are the sort that only another woman would ask of her. Unfortunately, at the moment the dimensions of the photo of Pet on that page have been distorted. The JPG is here in its original and unmodified form, just like Pet herself, who assures us she’s never had any plastic surgery.

Where Is Prudence?

It was Pattie Boyd who got to be inside of the baggage cage with the Beatles in A Hard Day’s Night; but as noted previously I think Prudence was the real beauty among the girls on the train. This video was taken from a 20-year-old Laserdisc, played on an equally old LD deck. Back then, it was the only format with the songs from the movie in digital stereo.
[flv:/Video/2008/MAY/IShouldHaveKnownBetter.flv 440 330]