Record-breaking Jeopardy $2.52 million winner Ken Jennings will MC and host a free program of Lunchtime Trivia
and talk about his new best selling book, Ken
Jennings Trivia Almanac: 8,888 Questions in 365 Days at the Altadena Library, 600 E. Mariposa St.,
on Wed., March 19 at 1 p.m. The
program will include a trivia competition with questions taken from his new
book with prizes awarded to the winners. For more
information please call 626-798-0833 or
check the library’s website.
His bio says:
Ken Jennings was born in Seattle but spent much of his childhood in Seoul, South Korea. A graduate of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, he worked as a computer programmer until becoming an unlikely celebrity due to his unprecedented record-breaking streak on the television quiz show Jeopardy!
Much to his surprise, Ken's Jeopardy! appearance extended beyond a single game in June: He took advantage of a recent rule change allowing Jeopardy! champs to appear on the show indefinitely, and spent the next six months hogging America's TV screens. Before losing on the November 30 show because he didn't know enough trivia about H&R Block, Ken won 74 games and $2.52 million---both American game show records.
The streak made Ken Jennings a TV folk hero, and he appeared as a guest on shows including The Tonight Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, Good Morning America, Live with Regis and Kelly and Sesame Street.< Barbara Walters named him one of the ten most fascinating people of the year. The Christian Science Monitor called him "the king of Trivia Nation" and Slate magazine dubbed him "the Michael Jordan of trivia, the Seabiscuit of geekdom." ESPN: The Magazine called him "smarmy (and) punchable," with "personality of a hall monitor," thus continuing America's long national struggle between jocks and nerds.
