Bet on it

The problem with writing about Jeopardy nowadays is that you-know-what is hanging over the show. It's hard to get away from the terrible health news about Alex Trebek.

But professional sports bettor James Holzhauer is doing his best to make us forget, or at least try to forget. He just set a single day winnings record of $110,914. That crushed the previous record of $77,000 by the redoubtable Roger Craig. The show put out a slightly tongue-in-cheek video on the new record, complete with black-and-white camera work and Alex intoning a trite but true cliche: "Records are meant to be broken." (See screenshot.)

I already got a faux tweet from James Holzhauer's winning streak, and I have a feeling that more entries may be coming. The show is hyping him as possibly the next Ken Jennings. Who knows how we should interpret this? James might lose his next game. Or he could run off 80 straight.

By the way, the linked story comes from ESPN's sports betting site. I never knew that such a thing existed, but then I never bet on anything, especially sports. The site informs us: "Las Vegas sportsbooks sources confirmed to ESPN that Holzhauer is a respected bettor." He's getting to be a respected Jeopardy player, too.

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