Jeopardy!  It’s the end of the second round.  Final Jeopardy is next. Production staffers buzz around and prep the podiums so the three of us can’t crane our necks and copy what our neighbor will write as a question.  I look up into the audience and see my wife and son, and feel very calm about betting everything I’ve earned in the game on the final topic – “Authors.”   I’m in third place, having been awful at getting my buzzer to match the timed lights surrounding the game board.   I’ve drawn mental blanks at categories involving Bugs, The 17th Century, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.   Despite missteps on both boards,  I made it through both rounds.  Though in last place,  I’ll be back for Final Jeopardy.   And I feel very calm.

The Final Jeopardy Category is ‘Authors,’ and here’s the clue:

He claimed, that as a Pinkerton detective, he had worked the Fatty Arbuckle & Nick Arnstein cases

Grateful that I had paperbacks of his work at home, I scrawled on the touch pad the question, “Who is Dashiell Hammett?”

Thirty seconds later, after betting it all, I got it right, and ended up in second place, with fabulous prizes and my self-respect intact.   And I got a neat souvenir.   During an earlier commercial break,  I asked one of the producers if she could have Alex Trebek sign an X-Files trading card I brought to the taping;   it was taken from the episode “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space,” where he had played one of the Men In Black.    He obliged,  I got the card back, and we talked about The X-Files while the credits rolled at the end of the show.