What On Earth?-Column #45, February 2006

Well, here we are in February. It's Valentine's month, and it's all about LOVE. And the big sellers are candy and flowers. From chocolates and roses to fruits and carnations, it'll be a HEARTY blast!

The story of the holiday goes that there was a Saint Valentine from Rome. Of course, the legality of that history is yet to be confirmed, because there were seveal St. Valentines. The St. Valentine in question was a priest and doctor. He ignored the Roman emperor's prohibition of marrying people in Christian ceremonies, and when the Romans found out, he was executed. Legend also has it that a winged god named Cupid would go around shooting powerful arrows. According to old Roman stories, these arrows that he shot at people weren't harmful like archer's arrows, but they did make people fall in love at first sight.

And speaking of blasts, it'll be a blast to watch the Winter Olympics this year. They'll be held in Turin, Italy (while the Italians themselves call the city Torino); and you can expect a lot of competition. Michelle Kwan is going to try again for another shot at Olympic gold that has evaded her for so long. Remember, she won silver in the Nagano Games in '98 (Tara Lipinski of TX took the gold) and bronze in the Salt Lake Games in '02 (New Yorker Sarah Hughes took the gold). Good luck to her, and all the others representing the US.

More blasts to talk about. It was 3 years ago this month, that the Space Shuttle Columbia broke up over Texas, killing all 7 crew members on board: David Brown, Rick Husband, Laurel Clark, Kalpana Chawla (first Indian astronaut), Michael Anderson, William McCool, and Ilan Ramon. At first, some said it was a chunk of foam falling off and hitting the heat shield of the orbiter (which is the main part of the shuttle itself). Whether or not that's true is still up in the air.

It was also 12 years ago this month, that we witnessed the first WTC attack. It occured on February 26, 1993 and killed 6 people, while injuring 1,000 more. Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the confessed bomber, said he wanted the towers to fall one on top of the other, like a domino effect. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. In addition, Yousef is the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who orchestrated the second (and more known) WTC attack on September 11, 2001. For Yousef, he fled the Big Apple after the attack, but was arrested 2 years later in February 1995, in Islamabad, Pakistan. In 1997, he was convicted of the attacks, and in 1998 was sentenced to a life in prison.

Next blast: Remember last month when I talked about the Jeopardy! ULTIMATE Tournament of Champions? Well, last season, we watched Ken Jennings battle his way to a record 74 wins and $2.5 million in winnings. That prompted host Alex Trebek, Executive Producer Harry Friedman, and the rest of the staff to pose the question: "How would he do against other Jeopardy! greats?" Well, that question led them to the aformentioned Tournament, a 15-week Mega-Tournament for $2 million in cash to the winner. Jeopardy brought back 150 of the greatest champs in the history of the current version (which debuted in 1984, even though the show itself premiered in 1964, with host Art Fleming). Some of the names you might recognize are Frank Spangenburg (5-day total of $102,597), the legally blind 5-time champ of Eddie Timanus ($69,700; won $50K on Millionaire last season), and of course, Brad Rutter (winner of the 2002 Million Dollar Masters Tournament). As usual, we also saw other 5-time champs, Teen Tournament champs, College Championship winners, and other previous TOC contestants; as well as a few of those who made it past 5 days under the 3-year old "Sky's the Limit" rule, allowing for champs to stay on as long as they keep on winning (and as we saw with Ken, he took it stride). The tournament was played in 5 rounds (watch below):

Round 1

One hundred thirty-five players compete in one game each. Winners of the games in Round One of the tournament will keep their winnings, with a minimum guarantee of $15,000, and advance to the next round of competition. Non-winners will receive $5,000.

Round 2

Forty-five winners from Round One will be joined by nine "seeded" players and play one game each. The seeded players were selected based on past accomplishments and status as record holders:

*Chuck Forrest:* Record holder in regular winnings ($72,800) until Season 6.
*Frank Spangenberg:* Record holder in regular winnings ($102,597) from Season 6 until Season 19.
*Brian Weikle:* Record holder in regular winnings ($149,200) from Season 19 until five-day rule change.
*Robin Carroll:* Most cumulative (including all tourneys) money won on Jeopardy! ($224,100) until the Million Dollar Masters Tournament.
*Brad Rutter:* 1st Place Million Dollar Masters winner, and most money won on Jeopardy! ($1,155,102), until Ken Jennings.
*Eric Newhouse:* 2nd place, Jeopardy! Million Dollar Masters.
*Bob Verini:* 3rd place, Jeopardy! Million Dollar Masters.
*Sean Ryan:* First six-time champion ($123,797).
*Tom Walsh:* First seven-time champion (also, record holder in regular winnings -- $184,900 until Ken Jennings).

The winners of each of the Round Two games will keep their winnings, with a minimum guarantee of $20,000, and move on to the next round. Non-winners receive $10,000.

Round 3

The 18 winners from Round Two will compete in one game each. Winners keep their winnings, with a guarantee of $30,000, and move on to the Semi-Final round. Non-winners receive $15,000.

Round 4 - Semi-finals

Three of the six winners from Round Three compete in a two-day total point match, with the combined total point winner becoming one Finalist. The other three semi-finalists compete in another two-day total point match, with the combined total point winner becoming the second Finalist. All players in the Semi-Finals keep their two-day totals, with the two winners of the round receiving a minimum guarantee of $50,000 each. The two second-place finishers in each match receive a guarantee of $30,000; third-place is guaranteed $20,000.

Round 5- Finals

The two surviving champions face-off with record-holder Ken Jennings in a three day total point match to be broadcast May 23-25. $250,000 goes to Third place; $500,000 for Second place; and a $2 Million dollar cash prize will be awarded to the winner!

And, BTW, you can watch those finals, as well as Jeopardy's premiere (1984) episode and Ken Jennings' final episode as champ, on a brand new Jeopardy! DVD which was released in November of last year (I got a copy of it this past Christmas). Once again, I'm not gonna spoil the outcome of the finals. You'll have to watch the DVD yourself to figure out who wins. I watched the finals the first time around, and I even watched them again on my DVD. You'll have to wait until the May column to figure out who won it!

Finally, it's been 5 years since the A-Teens broke out of ABBA covers with their gold-certified sophomore CD of "Teen Spirit", of which I got a copy of in Xmas '04. I listened to MP3's of all 13 songs before getting the CD (now that I have the CD, I can listen to it whenever I want. I just now have to get a portable CD player!). It's also been 5 years since Kelly Ripa became Regis Philbin's new co-host on the "LIVE with Regis" show (as successor to Kathie Lee Gifford, who left in 2000). Something you didn't know, was that she competed on Celebrity III of Millionaire, and won $250K for her charity, Tomorrow's Children's Fund.

Well, that's a wrap! Next month, it's about St. Patty's Day! This is John Lee saying "Go HOME!"