[HN Gopher] Alex Trebek has died
___________________________________________________________________
Alex Trebek has died
Author : slater
Score : 571 points
Date : 2020-11-08 17:30 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (twitter.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
| chongli wrote:
| Some of my earliest memories were of watching Jeopardy with my
| dad when I was a kid. Alex and all the hard working staff on the
| show helped to inculcate in me, at a very young age, a deep
| desire and passion to always learn about and explore the world
| around me.
|
| Though it's called "trivia" there's really nothing trivial about
| it. People who have no interest in these facts often express deep
| ignorance of the world and people from other cultures and places.
| I think people would come closer together and learn to reconcile
| our differences if we all took more of an interest in trivia.
|
| Alex, you brought so much professionalism, dignity, and gravitas
| to the game show business. Your strength of voice and sincerity,
| together with the show's simple format, elevated the game above
| the usual sensationalism and addictive patterns we see in other
| formats. Your tireless and selfless commitment to charity has
| made a difference to so many people around the world. Thank you
| and Rest In Peace.
| TravHatesMe wrote:
| > People who have no interest in these facts often express deep
| ignorance of the world and people from other cultures and
| places.
|
| I think this is an unfair statement. Certainly there are facts
| that are not interesting to a large majority, doesn't mean that
| they are ignorant. Personally my brain does not work well with
| remembering specific facts, I always admire people who can
| recall so easily.
|
| Anyway I do not want to take away from the thread, just a bit
| surprised at that sweeping statement, unless I misinterpreted
| it.
| GavinMcG wrote:
| I think you're mixing up interest in the facts with interest
| in recalling and performing them.
|
| In other words, even if you have no answer to the question, a
| curiousity or interest in the world makes Jeopardy appealing.
| People who lack that curiosity may "express deep ignorance of
| the world and people from other cultures and places," as the
| comment put it.
| chongli wrote:
| I qualified it with the word "often." Perhaps I should have
| said "sometimes." At any rate, I am only speaking from
| experience based on the people I've met. I have personally
| been ridiculed for expressing an interest in trivia facts, on
| more than one occasion.
| Satam wrote:
| Either you're hanging out with complete assholes, or you're
| presenting yourself in a pretentious way.
| somberi wrote:
| As someone who moved to US 25 years ago - when neither internet
| was not ubiquitous nor Cable TV affordable, for this then young
| man, Jeopardy and Mr. Trebek offered a peek into Americanah that
| extends even today. I have lived in a dozen countries since, and
| every time I stream Jeopardy from wherever, mind latches to the
| comfort of a sparse apartment, shared with 2 other roommates, all
| equally enthused by figuring out what this large, lovely country
| was all about, through the questions from the show.
|
| I, after a couple of attempts ended up being "screened" for the
| the show, and failed - Baseball and Civil War were the topics. I
| still do bad in these topics. Still much to learn, but thanks to
| Mr.Trebek, America offers a fleeting familiarity.
|
| If anyone wants to witness the two sides of American popular
| culture, spend an hour between 7-8pm on ABC - For the first half
| you will see Jeopardy, and then a cheerful but vapid (by design)
| Wheel of Fortune.
|
| I was telling my wife, two days ago, that CNN political host John
| King will be a good stand-in for Mr.Trebek and today I heard this
| news.
|
| I will miss Mr.Trebek in a way that will last my lifetime.
| URfejk wrote:
| A celebrity has died. No technology is discussed.
| miobrien wrote:
| Are you a robot?
| Tomte wrote:
| He's trying to be funny mimicking the style of n-gate.com.
|
| Unfortunately, copy-cat humor is rarely funny.
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| chowells wrote:
| Goodbye, Mr. Trebek. You will be missed.
| miobrien wrote:
| RIP Alex. Your show had a profound influence on me as a young
| adult.
| snegu wrote:
| I got the chance to see him in action from being on the show, and
| he was probably the most impressive "people person" I've ever
| met. Just perfectly at ease telling stories and interacting with
| strangers, and he sets everybody else at ease also. I don't know
| how a person ends up like that, whether its a matter of innate
| talent, training, or a mix of the two, but I've never seen
| anything like it.
| ComputerGuru wrote:
| RIP, Alex. You were one of a kind and inspired millions. I am
| incredibly glad to have had the opportunity to meet you (and
| grateful to my wife for making it happen, as I would never have
| indulged myself). You played a huge role in making nerdy cool, in
| addition to bringing credibility back to trivia game shows.
|
| You were an incredibly kind, witty, and passionate role model.
| Your ability to be simultaneously no-nonsense yet fully human was
| was second to none. You will be missed greatly.
|
| (For Jeopardy! fans, I believe the show producers approached
| Jennings earlier this year and he expressed interest in taking
| over as host.)
|
| EDIT: Link to a placeholder NYT obit, which I'm sure will be
| updated shortly, courtesy of HN user scrollaway:
| https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/08/arts/television/alex-treb...
| Scoundreller wrote:
| I was hoping Sean Connery would take over for a week, but a
| little late for that dream too.
| artificial wrote:
| One of the unfortunate aspects of growing older is witnessing
| the passing of people we know and care about. While I enjoy
| "skilling up" seeing my parents age, while natural, is a
| bummer.
| 535188B17C93743 wrote:
| Ken Jennings has already stated he's not interest--listen to
| his episode on the podcast "People I Mostly Admire".
| T-hawk wrote:
| This is correct, Jennings said (a while back but probably
| still true) that he doesn't want it. Short version: he
| doesn't want to uproot his family from Seattle to LA or have
| to commute between them. He also doesn't really want any more
| of a showbiz career than he already has.
| [deleted]
| runevault wrote:
| I watched so much Jeopardy as a kid. And always there was Trebek
| being witty but kind as he and the contestants entertained me all
| that time over all those years.
|
| Thanks for everything. Rest in Peace.
| ng12 wrote:
| He will be sorely, sorely missed. At the end of the day it's just
| TV but Jeopardy has been a part of my daily routine for the last
| twenty years, it certainly will feel strange without him.
| happytoexplain wrote:
| Typo in title: His name is spelled Trebek
| echelon wrote:
| Hey dang, can you fix this?
| pronoiac wrote:
| I emailed them.
| dang wrote:
| Fixed now. Sorry Alex.
| voisin wrote:
| What is extremely sad news for $100? RIP.
| tuccinator wrote:
| If you haven't read his autobiography, I highly suggest it. His
| life was awe inspiring and we've lost a great soul of the media
| industry.
|
| "The Answer Is... : Reflections on My Life"
| geocrasher wrote:
| I'll take "Yet More 2020" for 1000, Alex. Alex? Oh no... :'(
| rococode wrote:
| I'm glad that he seems to have found peace as he neared the end.
| Here's an excerpt from the autobiography/memoir he published in
| July this year ("The Answer is... Reflections on My Life") that I
| thought was touching:
|
| With the coronavirus, [our family] can't go out to eat, we can't
| go out to public places, even the park next door has limited its
| use. Here I am wanting to enjoy what might be the last of my
| days, and, what, I'm supposed to just stay at home and sit in a
| chair and stare into space? Actually, that doesn't sound too bad.
|
| Except instead of a chair, I'll sit on the swing out in the yard.
| That's my favorite spot on the whole property. I used to do it
| with Mom. Just sit there and rock. No need to talk.
|
| It's just very peaceful. I suppose the feeling I have sitting on
| that porch swing is similar to what people feel when they
| meditate, though I would never call it meditating. I just
| consider it goofing off, not doing anything.
|
| Yep, I'll be perfectly content if that's how my story ends:
| sitting on the swing with the woman I love, my soul mate, and our
| two wonderful children nearby. I'll sit there for a while and
| then maybe the four of us will go for a walk, each day trying to
| walk a little farther than the last. We'll take things one step
| at a time, one day at a time.
|
| In fact, I think I'll go sit in the swing for a bit right now.
| The weather is beautiful -- the sun is shining into a mild, mild
| looking sky, and there's not a cloud in sight.
|
| (copied from https://www.nextavenue.org/alex-trebek-in-his-own-
| words which has a couple more excerpts from the memoir)
| rajandatta wrote:
| Thank you for sharing this excerpt. RIP Alex. Thank you for all
| the joy you gave so people thru your work on Jeopardy and your
| pre-Jeopardy work.
| melling wrote:
| When someone dies of pancreatic cancer, I always think of Randy
| Pausch discussions on HN.
|
| Randy was so inspiring and we've made no progress since his death
| from it in 2008.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=256623
|
| We've added close to $20 trillion in debt since then. Better
| treatments for a few cancers should have been included in there.
| mlyle wrote:
| > Randy was so inspiring and we've made no progress since his
| death from it in 2008. ... Better treatments for a few cancers
| should have been included in there.
|
| It's a slow, slow slog. But at least give the scientific world
| some credit. There's been a whole lot of improvements to cancer
| treatment in general in the past 12 years, and some small ones
| that are still very meaningful for some people for pancreatic
| cancer in the past decade (e.g., just in the past several
| months, Lynparza).
| reaperducer wrote:
| _When someone dies of pancreatic cancer, I always think of
| Randy Pausch_
|
| I think of Steve Jobs, which proves that neither money, nor
| power, nor prestige can buy what God has granted to all of us:
| Life.
| melling wrote:
| Sometime in this century, we will have a cure for most
| cancers.
|
| Most likely by catching it very early.
|
| There's nothing arrogant about humanity working really hard
| to solve a problem.
|
| I'm sure the Big Guy would rather we had spent the $2
| trillion on cancer research instead of 2 wars.
| mensetmanusman wrote:
| I witnessed an amazing nuclear medicine talk that showed
| how the power of a single radioactive atom delivered to the
| right cell can destroy it in one single decay.
|
| The caveat was that the entire worlds source of these types
| of isotopes is only enough for one or two doses a day of
| targeted therapy.
|
| The general theme of the talk was that centuries from now,
| this is what medicine will look like, but it will take
| humanity many years to raise the education threshold enough
| for people to want 'nuclear' in their backyard.
|
| Another interesting tidbit was that the value of single
| fissile event used for medicine in this way was about ten
| thousand times more valuable than when used for energy
| generation.
| selectodude wrote:
| Pancreatic cancer (and other abdominal-area cancers like
| stomach, gallbladder, etc) are notoriously hard to find and
| diagnose because they're almost completely asymptomatic. Once
| we see the cancer, it's in a place where it's noticeable like
| the lungs at which point it's in later stage metastasis.
|
| Unfortunately there's not necessarily a cure that just needs
| more money. And enhanced screening has been a total dead end.
| melling wrote:
| Sounds like it's an impossible problem.
|
| I remember people saying AIDS was impossible to treat. It
| took less than 10 years to find a treatment.
|
| I'm in the camp that believes we will eventually find a
| solution sooner or later. I was hoping for sooner.
| selectodude wrote:
| I'd like to hope that nothing is impossible but a cure for
| abdominal cancers is going to be one of the last cancers we
| figure out. They're basically perfect as far as being
| difficult to kill.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| It takes about a year for pancreatic cancer to go from
| stage one to stage four. With improved biomarker detection
| in biannual blood tests, I think we'd make a lot of headway
| to earlier detection, with CRISPR for (more effective)
| immunotherapy treatment (vs surgery and chemo).
|
| https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6813368/
| selectodude wrote:
| Easier said than done, unfortunately.
|
| https://www.targetedonc.com/view/challenges-persist-with-
| car...
| melling wrote:
| I don't think anyone is saying it's going to be easy.
|
| I simply wish we would have more of a "can do" attitude
| rather than "it's a really hard problem. There's nothing
| more we can do"
| iancmceachern wrote:
| I also will miss him. He and Jeopardy were a fixture in
| our home, and life. What a great human.
|
| I'm willing to work on this. I have lots of relevant
| experience, and a can do attitude. I've tackled (mostly
| successfully) similar challenges like artificial hearts,
| dialysis, AI and surgical robots. Coincidentally I'm
| giving a talk on making an artificial heart in 45 mins at
| the hackaday remoticon:
| https://www.eventbrite.com/e/remoticon-
| tickets-115886905855
|
| I'm confident we could solve this problem. Lets do it.
| mlyle wrote:
| Maybe. But earlier detection isn't the panacea that we
| thought it might be in cancer.
|
| The problem is--- staging isn't independent of the
| cancer's aggressiveness. If you detect a cancer at stage
| 2, it may be "earlier" detection, or it may be a much
| less aggressive cancer than one that would have reached
| stage 4 by the same point.
| mensetmanusman wrote:
| ~ 1 million people a year die of HIV/AIDS... It is endemic,
| which is why we don't have a global lockdown for it, but it
| is still there killing about the same number of people as
| automobiles.
| dmurray wrote:
| What are the problems with earlier stage screening? Without
| knowing much about pancreatic cancer screening in particular,
| it sounds like it might be one of those screenings that
| aren't recommended "because of the risk of false positives",
| which is a failure of the medical system rather than a
| deficiency in the medical technology.
|
| Some cancer screenings aren't recommended below whatever age
| because if you have a false positive test, it may lead to
| worse outcomes due to anxiety, low trust in future tests, or
| large costs and risks from additional more invasive tests the
| doctors feel they have to recommend [0]. The medium term
| solution should be better education and cleverer processes
| for recommending the invasive tests - if the false positive
| risk is high, maybe just make sure they get screened again
| every year - but instead it's just to stop the screening.
| Pick your own narrative about whether the root cause here is
| poor application of medical ethics, fear of malpractice
| cases, or the principal/agent problem in health insurance.
|
| Having less information should never be advantageous. And if
| the benefits are marginal, doing millions of screens "for
| real" incentivizes improving the process far more then when
| it's just a research problem.
|
| Is early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer something like this
| that needs to be fixed in the "system" or just something we
| don't have the technology to do?
|
| [0] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/12/04122000222
| 4.h... - I'm sure there are better resources but just one
| paper about how early screening can be "bad" even if it's
| free.
| selectodude wrote:
| > What are the problems with earlier stage screening?
|
| It's not false positives that are the issue. It's the huge
| number of false negatives. The standard biomarker we look
| for is only present in 70 percent of people with the
| cancer. Furthermore, only 5 percent of the people who
| present with CA 19-9 even have pancreatic cancer to begin
| with since it also presents with almost any other gut
| issue.
|
| >which is a failure of the medical system rather than a
| deficiency in the medical technology.
|
| The technology that we have to actually find pancreatic
| cancer is an endoscopy which is going to find a whole lot
| of stuff. 5 percent of the issues present on your pancreas
| are pancreatic cancer.
|
| >Is early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer something like
| this that needs to be fixed in the "system" or just
| something we don't have the technology to do?
|
| We simply don't have the technology. Below is a link with a
| bunch of statistics showing just how devilishly hard
| pancreatic cancer is to find before metastasis.
|
| https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4113008/
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| xbar wrote:
| Rest in peace, Alex Trebek.
| tomrod wrote:
| RIP dear Alex. Thanks for your work, your career touched many
| lives.
| blacksqr wrote:
| Trebek and the Jeopardy crew used to tour military bases around
| the world to greet the troops and give the qualifying exam in
| search of potential contestants. I got to meet him as a goofy
| young officer fanboy at Yokota Air Base in Japan in the late
| 1980's.
|
| I asked to get a photo with him, and of course he was perfectly
| gracious. Still have it somewhere.
| doc_gunthrop wrote:
| We've lost a national treasure (yes, he is Canadian-American).
| RIP, Mr. Trebek.
| haram_masala wrote:
| Alex Trebek was a favorite victim of Longmont Potion Castle. But
| what always stood out about those calls was Trebek's kindness,
| his common sense, and his amazing refusal to lose his temper
| amidst the tsunami of diabolical absurdity that is an LPC call.
| Trebek was one of the very, very few call recipients who "won" at
| Longmont Potion Castle.
| chrisan wrote:
| > (For Jeopardy! fans, I believe the show producers approached
| Jennings earlier this year and he expressed interest in taking
| over as host.)
|
| Will Ken Jennings get past his tweet about people in wheelchairs?
|
| https://twitter.com/KenJennings/status/514125105426071553
| alexilliamson wrote:
| It seems like you have an opinion about whether or not Ken
| Jennings _should_ get past it. Why else would you post
| something that is sure to spark a conversation about "cancel
| culture".
|
| If you think the joke is too offensive, I would be glad to read
| your reasoning. I think the joke has a few interpretations, and
| some are more offensive than others, so hearing someone else's
| thoughts would be interesting.
|
| But it's hard not to read this comment as an attempt to stir
| shit up for kicks.
| dang wrote:
| We detached this subthread from
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25027380.
| [deleted]
| fatjokes wrote:
| Not sure why you've been downvoted. I wasn't aware of that
| comment. A real surprise given his image as a dorky guy.
| mdoms wrote:
| How sad it must be to be as joyless as you.
| jchw wrote:
| For me it's because I didn't know about the tweet, and I
| assume it simply isn't that well known of a tweet. Why would
| it be, as a joke made in poor taste 6 years ago. However, the
| comment is written as if everyone implicitly knows about it.
| This to me is disingenuous. It may seem less vain to phrase
| it like that, but it feels more scummy. I assume the reason
| why is because the alternative would be going mask-off and
| admitting that the intent is to raise awareness of some
| stupid off-hand remark from 6 years ago, which I suspect
| wouldn't land well on HN.
|
| Could be wrong! But that was how I felt reading through this.
|
| Do I defend the remark in question? No. But at least people
| should cut the shit and admit that saying something horribly
| inappropriate once in a while isn't actually that weird.
| Funny how we all have people we know that have done this,
| often people like our close family members, then act like
| it's the end of the world when someone moderately popular
| does it.
|
| Let's be realistic: nobody should care about this tweet. If
| it stops them from getting a job six years down the road, I
| would find that immensely more fucked up than the
| inappropriate joke itself. If Ken Jennings is actually a
| terrible person, it would probably manifest in more ways.
|
| edit: Not that anyone thinks it would, but my opinion on this
| is not going to change due to a low score, so if you are
| stopping by to leave a vote please consider commenting to
| explain why you disagree. Otherwise, I am left puzzled.
| hombre_fatal wrote:
| It's politically incorrect and not very tasteful, but they're
| acting like it's Jennings who has to "get past" that six year
| old tweet when it's actually people like that HNer who link
| it any time his name pops up hoping that others tar him for
| it. It makes we wonder how much this HNer is still dwelling
| on it.
|
| It's not the best joke but he's also not wrong btw. Let's not
| suggest that having shriveled up wheelchair legs is a boon in
| the dating market. It's just not nice to point out such
| inconvenient truths.
| ianai wrote:
| I agree that society would do well to consider learning
| forgiveness. Forgiveness though does require that the
| attack stop - repeating your agreement with some kernel of
| the post doesn't help that effort as it reopens the wound.
|
| I really really wish society to learn forgiveness. Life is
| too short - and the internet can be so incredibly
| destructive in its current lack of grace.
| rexpop wrote:
| Shocking, to me, that you consider forgiveness a higher
| priority than accountability.
| ianai wrote:
| Accountability is a way for society to correct societal
| ills - put people in prison so they stop committing
| crimes and to serve justice, for instance. Forgiveness is
| a way for society to move forward. There's an infinite
| amount of "tomorrow", but few things need to be
| infinitely repeated.
| rexpop wrote:
| Putting someone in prison is an external imposition of
| retribution, not an internal act of contrition. It's
| completely inadequate, especially when discussing micro-
| aggressions, or cultural acts of bigotry which dehumanize
| at-a-distance.
| dlivingston wrote:
| Forgiveness is the next moral step after accountability.
| Jennings took accountability and apologized [0].
| Therefore, forgiveness is now where we go.
|
| My comment is already getting too political and culture
| wars-ey to be suitable for HN, for me, but at the risk of
| pushing that further I would like to add this: the moral
| nitpicking and flogging of public figures needs to end.
|
| There are real villains out there, like Harvey Weinstein
| and Bill Cosby who need to be and have been held to
| account, and there are real issues out there, like ageism
| and sexism in hiring processes. Focusing on trivial
| matters like this not only doesn't help the movement to
| justice, but actively harms it.
|
| A recent quote from Andrew Yang:
|
| > "I would say, 'Hey! I'm running for president!' to a
| truck driver, retail worker, waitress in a diner, and
| they would say, 'What party?' And I'd say 'Democrat' and
| they would flinch like I said something really negative
| or I had just turned another color or something like
| that." Yang told CNN host Don Lemon during a panel.
|
| > "So you have to ask yourself, what has the Democratic
| Party been standing for in their minds?," he continued.
| "And in their minds, the Democratic Party, unfortunately,
| has taken on this role of the coastal urban elites who
| are more concerned about policing various cultural issues
| than improving their way of life that has been declining
| for years." [1]
|
| [0]:
| https://twitter.com/KenJennings/status/987423884436647936
|
| [1]: https://nypost.com/2020/11/07/andrew-yang-calls-out-
| democrat...
| rexpop wrote:
| To decry accountability as "public flogging" is not an
| example of accountability and apology. It's a pretty good
| example of a non-apology. It reads as evidence that he's
| really detached from the harm.
|
| You are not the authority on what constitutes "trivial
| matters". You read as someone extremely privileged, and
| entitled, who would rather have their own trespasses
| swept under the rug.
|
| I don't, by the way, give a fuck about the Democratic
| party. I am not a member. I do not care what their
| reputation is.
| fatjokes wrote:
| I'm not saying he (Jennings) is wrong, just that it's a
| douche thing to say. I'm not sure how I feel about cancel
| culture and I don't think Jennings needs to get "tarred"
| for a tweet. That said, I also don't think he's being
| robbed of any basic human rights here and knowing this, I'd
| rather give the (presumably well-paid, relatively
| prestigious and very public) job of Jeopardy! host to
| someone who isn't on record as needing to broadcast a
| message with no known benefit to anybody.
| reaperducer wrote:
| _I also don 't think he's being robbed of any basic human
| rights here_
|
| In some countries, freedom of thought and speech is a
| basic human right.
| InitialLastName wrote:
| Name some countries where you can be free of all social
| and economic repercussions for your speech?
|
| You clearly can have the right to state your opinions.
| Other people also clearly have the right not to do
| business with you based on those stated opinions.
| rexpop wrote:
| Repercussions scale inversely with wealth, and power.
| xfitm3 wrote:
| Cancel culture is ridiculous. Ironic username.
| pengstrom wrote:
| First rule of comedy: don't kick downwards. It's essential
| if we want to collectively get over our intolerance.
| mdoms wrote:
| This is not and has never been the "first rule of
| comedy". It's only very recently, since the scourge of
| wokeness, that people have been turning this shitty line.
| Comedy is comedy. Lots of different kinds of comedy can
| be funny. Stop trying to make it rigidly fit your world
| view.
| darkerside wrote:
| Yup, first rule of comedy is, it's gotta be funny. That
| was Ken's actual sin here, and an apology should be all
| he needs to rectify it.
| hashkb wrote:
| Depends on the purity of the laugh you're after.
| Obviously there are roasts, but if comedy had a score
| it'd be laughs and cheap shots always split the laughs
| with groans.
| oh_sigh wrote:
| That's just something you made up. If you google for the
| first rule of comedy, the results I see are similar to
| "be funny", "surprise", "timing", etc.
| darkerside wrote:
| Having a rule like that is itself patronizing and
| demeaning, is it not?
| NewOrderNow wrote:
| Never listen to anyone making rules about comedy. Clearly
| they don't have any clue what they are talking about.
| Der_Einzige wrote:
| I'm not convinced that exclusively "kicking up" does
| anything to meaningfully solve intolerance
| dlivingston wrote:
| Comedians like Dave Chapelle, Louis CK, Trey Parker &
| Matt Stone, Bill Burr, and many, many others, kick in
| every direction: up, down, left, right. Policing comedy
| with a lens of wokeness is a profoundly bad idea.
| selimthegrim wrote:
| Chappelle has gotten a lot of stick for it lately if you
| haven't noticed.
| dlivingston wrote:
| They all have, and the world is worse for it.
|
| An anecdote: someone like Dave Chappelle is wildly
| popular on both the left and the right. Several friends
| of mine on the right devour his specials like a gourmet
| buffet. So when Chappelle gets up on stage and talks
| about his experiences with racism, police profiling, and
| inequality (as he did on yesterday's SNL monologue [0]),
| those same people on the right _listen_. They hear him.
| It moves the needle of justice forward by reaching an
| audience who otherwise wouldn 't necessarily hear these
| stories.
|
| [0]: https://youtu.be/Un_VvR_WqNs
| sterlind wrote:
| That's a very limited idea of attractiveness you have. For
| instance, you could say the same thing about trans people,
| and that might be true among mainstream straight people,
| but personally I found dating far easier once I
| transitioned, and find trans people hotter.
|
| Also, disabled people often date each other, which comes
| with some downsides (like not having an able-bodied partner
| to be a caretaker), but means you're shielded from that
| icky stigma and you don't have a partner who's ashamed of
| you.
| crankyoldcrank wrote:
| My wife has multiple sclerosis. She was diagnosed while
| we were dating. It's extremely insulting that you think
| I, her abled partner, would ever be ashamed of that fact.
| Fuck you very much.
| Talanes wrote:
| Please assume good intent. I don't believe the poster
| jumping in to attack the (ridiculous) idea that disabled
| people are inherently less attractive is trying to say
| that being ashamed of a disabled partner is inevitable or
| excusable.
| sterlind wrote:
| Yes, thank you. I was speaking from experience: I have a
| disability myself (though I don't look it), so I've felt
| the stigma first-hand, but I don't think it's universal.
|
| I've had partners who were ashamed of me before. My
| current partner isn't but still gets grossed out when my
| joints dislocate, though they know it's bad and try to
| help me when that happens. It varies.
| zamadatix wrote:
| I'm glad things worked for you and I think people can
| always find someone to be with regardless of who they are
| but let's be honest, is it "a very limited idea of
| attractiveness" the GP has or are you just sidestepping
| "Let's not suggest that having shriveled up wheelchair
| legs is a boon in the dating market."?
|
| Yes it's a horrible thing, yes it's horrible to tweet
| about... but you know what, it's also horrible to try to
| act like it's just not a hinderance and this kind of
| thing needs to be called out. It's great, in fact it's
| easier! No, it's not. It's significantly harder life.
| Nobody thinks "man, if I just woke up tomorrow without
| the use of the lower half of my body my dating life would
| be so much easier" because it wouldn't be easier, it'd be
| a great hurdle. In fact nearly everything would be
| harder. Again this doesn't mean you can't find happiness
| or that nobody will ever like you for you, I think that's
| literally impossible in this world, but this is
| unfortunately sure as hell not an easy path to either of
| those things. <- this also means you don't have to be in
| the same situation to not be "ashamed" of your partner,
| though some may certainly be it's not a requirement of
| how society operates.
|
| I'm not sure you can make the jump "you could say the
| same thing about trans people" (more power to you) as the
| alternative to being or liking trans people is lying to
| yourself about who you like while the alternative to
| being disabled is being abled. One is all about who you
| are attracted to and who's attracted to you, the other is
| about being able or unable to use part of your body. Of
| course being true about the former leads to greater
| success in dating, the latter seems a bit of a stretch.
| blinkingled wrote:
| I have been watching Jeopardy! on Netflix and having known about
| Alex's health always felt that whenever it happens it will make
| me sad - I am sad but more than I imagined I would be. There was
| something about him that made me feel everything was alright.
| What a legend. RIP Alex.
|
| [Also can we fix the last name typo in the title please - it's
| Alex Trebek not Trebeck.]
| someonehere wrote:
| As straight edge as he seemed, I recommend tracking down the
| Howard Stern interview he did several years ago.
|
| One of the highlights was he tried cocaine at a party via someone
| who worked for him (accountant maybe) and Alex said he didn't
| like it. He also mentioned ingesting a large quantity of cannabis
| edibles not knowing you weren't supposed to. He said he slept all
| weekend and didn't realize how long he was out. Pretty
| interesting given I always thought he was a straight edge.
| sandworm101 wrote:
| Almost 20 years ago I had a brief conversation with Mr Trebek.
| Hew was working on the Canadian "Reach for the Top" trivia
| competition. He was half-way through giving me some "advice" when
| he stopped himself: "Sorry, I now realize you probably know how
| to do your job and I'll stop talking." Even when not happy, when
| other celebs could easily get hot headed, he remained a
| consummate professional. I never heard a bad thing said about the
| guy.
| whalesalad wrote:
| This one hits hard. He was such a genuinely kind person. RIP.
| highfalut wrote:
| Not to downplay how sad it is, but he did seem as at peace as a
| person could be.
| vmurthy wrote:
| "What is We <3 Trebek?"
|
| Thank you Mr Trebek. You played well. You fought well. For
| inspiring millions of young geeks, you are our champion tonight.
| pseudolus wrote:
| A sad day. Jeopardy has always been a pretty unifying cultural
| touchstone in large part because of his hosting style. A brief
| bio can be found on him on Wikipedia [0].
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Trebek
| bigmattystyles wrote:
| With no evidence, I always assumed there was a clean cut
| between jeopardy fans and wheel fans. Not to get political but
| it also felt as though that separation was along the blue / red
| divide. Back in the day when I would watch jeopardy at 7, I
| always had this compulsion to change the channel before wheel
| started. Again no evidence, just a feeling. I don't know why,
| Pat and Vanna seem like nice people, I just can't stand wheel,
| maybe because I suck at wheel whereas I could hold my own when
| watching Jeopardy. RIP Alex.
| disown wrote:
| > I always assumed there was a clean cut between jeopardy
| fans and wheel fans.
|
| I'm sure there some purists as there are purists in anything.
| But purists are small portion of the overall audience.
|
| The overlap fanbase between the shows were easily the
| majority. It's why they put the shows on one after another.
| Like you mentioned one got the 7pm slot and the other got the
| 7:30 slot. Networks do that when there is substantial common
| fanbase. They don't want a significant portion of the viewing
| audience to switch channels at 7:30.
| xh-dude wrote:
| I've heard the contrast described as the difference between
| amazement at how someone knows something versus how they
| don't know something.
| reaperducer wrote:
| _I always assumed there was a clean cut between jeopardy fans
| and wheel fans._
|
| There isn't. The shows are sold as a package to the local
| stations, and the local stations very often sell the
| advertising for both shows as a package to local businesses
| because the viewership is similar.
|
| For people with the time to watch the whole two hours, it's
| an opportunity to show your message multiple times, which
| improves retention.
| gabagool wrote:
| The two are only one hour not two. Each show is 30 minutes
| (including commercial breaks).
| gao8a wrote:
| RIP Alex
|
| This is still one of my favourite moments https://youtu.be/OpKOm-
| LLRhA
| dharmon wrote:
| I went to a taping about 4 years ago (so Trebek was 76ish). For
| those who've never been, the show is basically filmed in real-
| time, and the first thing they do during the commercial breaks is
| Alex re-records any cards that he might have flubbed so they can
| punch it in later during editing.
|
| They film 5 episodes in a day, and maybe he had to re-record 1 or
| 2 per episode? I remember thinking that was incredible, and I
| still do. Even some of the things they re-recorded I wasn't sure
| why (possibly he mis-pronounced a foreign word I wasn't familiar
| with).
|
| I guess taking 2 of my favorite musicians wasn't enough, 2020 had
| to come for the host of my favorite game show.
| gist wrote:
| Has anyone calculated the ratio of simple questions that anyone
| can answer on a game show vs. the more difficult ones? Obviously
| there is a formula to keep people engaged by having low hanging
| fruit that everyone knows 'that's easy'. This would be an
| interesting topic for a paper or article.
| croissants wrote:
| There are some game shows where (IMO) every question is hard,
| like Only Connect [1].
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Only_Connect
| owenversteeg wrote:
| Wow. Rest in peace, Mr. Trebek.
|
| I can thank Alex Trebek for inspiring the first ever computer
| program I made and actually distributed - a terrible "Jeopardy"
| game. Made it myself in Java (that I learned entirely from a
| paper book), then tried to "convert" the resulting JAR to an EXE
| using some weird converter, then burned the somewhat mangled
| result onto a bunch of DVD-Rs and gave them out. One of the most
| difficult parts of the "programming" process was copying and
| pasting the same few lines around the whole program, because I
| didn't yet fully understand scope and variables, hah.
| always_left wrote:
| When I was little (maybe middle school), I remember being
| frustrated at not knowing any of the answers to the show.
| Inspired by jeopardy, I joined quiz bowl (think jeopardy but for
| teams), and it really let me explore many different topics
| through my own curiosity. I still get most questions wrong when I
| watch the show but I can really embrace how learning in itself is
| a gift, even if you don't win :)
| kthejoker2 wrote:
| Probably my greatest honor was being called a "buzzsaw" by Alex!
|
| He liked to verbally spar, always quick with a joke, a flair for
| the dramatic - a perfect fit for a TV quiz show host.
|
| A small anecdote:
|
| We filmed college Jeopardy in Columbus, Ohio. After taping was
| over, all of us contestants were all hanging out in the hotel
| lobby waiting for our flights.
|
| Alex and the crew were doing some kind of local press thing in a
| nearby conference room.
|
| Out of nowhere, into the hotel lobby walks .. Jerry Springer. He
| kind of just meandered into the lobby where we sitting and sat
| down, by himself, with no apparent agenda?
|
| We being a bunch of not-too-shy college kids struck up a
| conversation and learned he was campaigning on behalf of some
| state Senator and they were going to use the same TV crew and
| setup that the Jeopardy! team was using to film some interviews.
|
| He was very nice, and then Alex and the crew came out during a
| break and we all got a couple of pictures of us, Alex, and Jerry
| Springer.
|
| A surreal meeting of two very different TV personalities!
|
| RIP Alex, the coolest of the nerds!
| reaperducer wrote:
| _Columbus, Ohio.. Out of nowhere, into the hotel lobby walks ..
| Jerry Springer_
|
| IIRC, Springer was the mayor of Cincinnati for a bit. I seem to
| recall he also got busted passing a bad check to a hooker. I
| don't think hookers take checks anymore.
| artificial wrote:
| Hahaha, it only takes one to ruin it for everyone. Sounds
| like a smear?
| fma wrote:
| One of the scenes I remember in "Catch me if you can" is that
| DeCaprio passes a bad check to a hooker (former beauty
| contestant, too...) and she gives him cash in exchange of the
| difference. You'd think they woulda learned!
| dehrmann wrote:
| Jerry Springer trivia: he's one of three people born in the
| London Underground.
|
| To make it fair, Prime Minister of the UK Boris Johnson was
| born in NYC.
| gist wrote:
| > Jerry Springer. He kind of just meandered into the lobby
| where we sitting and sat down, by himself, with no apparent
| agenda?
|
| I understand you indicated the actual reason 'film crew' but
| people in entertainment (or who write) often do similar in
| order to bank some content or idea for a future show. Talk to
| people see what's on their mind and then file it away for
| future reference. Comedians do that not like you get funny
| ideas sitting in a room not interacting with people.
|
| > He was very nice,
|
| When you think about it if you are a celebrity (and forgetting
| that you probably like attention) you have to be nice. You
| don't want people spreading around bad things about you. This
| is a theme that comes up a great deal.
|
| It's like if someone shows up in the lobby for an interview.
| They are on their best behavior. Last thing they need is for
| someone (who they might talk to later) thinking they aren't
| nice.
| my_usernam3 wrote:
| Maybe you're right, maybe you're wrong, and we'll never know.
| Either way, your comment tears down the initial commentators
| memorable and positive experience, for a non-sourced based
| claim. To me it came off as more insensitive than insightful.
| Especially given the subject matter of this thread.
| macjohnmcc wrote:
| People can only report the behavior they witnessed and
| anything else should be considered suspect because you
| never know if the person making the statement may have an
| agenda.
| krustyburger wrote:
| I had started to believe he was somehow going to beat the odds
| that he and all of us knew were essentially insurmountable.
|
| The fact that he continued working nearly until the end shows how
| much he truly loved his job.
|
| He will be sorely missed.
| throwaway5752 wrote:
| Thank you, Alex Trebek, for giving us a kind, polite, and
| dignified show that elevated education and knowledge. You were
| the perfect host for it and inspired millions of young adults,
| including myself (a long time ago).
|
| Deepest condolences to his family and friends.
| purpleidea wrote:
| Damn. What a great loss. One of the best Canadians.
|
| I'm still hoping someone will release an archive of every single
| game. A torrent will do if the studio won't release it.
| disown wrote:
| I think when he gained his US citizenship became an american.
| Besides he lived most of his life in the US, marriedan
| american, had american children, chose to die in america and
| his best work is in america as an american. Not sure on the
| canada-us naturalization laws. But I distinctly remember he
| became a US citizen some time ago. Regardless of his
| nationality, truly a great loss. One of the iconic figures of
| american television.
| gigatexal wrote:
| I'm sad. I used to watch Jeopardy! with my family almost every
| night.
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