STORM WARNINGS FOR TRUDEAU
When the National Post and the Toronto Sun criticize Justin Trudeau he probably just ignores it. But when the Globe and Mail’s editorial policy does, albeit mildly, and the Toronto Star, which is basically a Liberal Party house organ, mocks him in political cartoons, he better take notice. Trudeau’s problem is that he ignored a critical political tenet: cover-ups always make a situation worse. Trudeau and his ministers tried, and ultimately failed, to cover up that the deals made for COVID-19 vaccines are badly flawed. The deals may well be the best that could be reached, but Trudeau should have come clean from the get-go, not waiting months to shock the entire country.
UNPRINCIPLED REPUBLICAN SENATORS
It didn’t seem possible there could be as many unprincipled Republican senators as there clearly are, the ringleaders being Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham, Jim Jordan, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio. It’s going to take at least a generation for the U.S. to recover from the ravages of the tyrannical Donald Trump. Republican senators who are afraid of losing future votes if they stand up to their flawed and odious leader are not only unprincipled but are also craven cowards. That they’re prepared to blot their careers this way is otherwise inexplicable.
THE NEXT JEOPARDY! HOST
Jeopardy! producers have announced that Ken Jennings, the holder of the show’s longest winning streak, an astonishing seventy-four, will be Alex Trebek’s first “interim” successor. The “interim” tag is interesting. Jennings, who did a more than credible job introducing clues during Trebek’s final set of shows, and whose familiarity with the show’s audience is second only to Trebek’s, seemed like a shoo-in for the role. But the the producers have intimated they’re also considering other former winners.
The enormous impact Trebek had on the show’s popularity notwithstanding, Jeopardy!’s monumental success is solidly built on its unique format, which is contestants being given the answers and having to come up with the questions, which, in turn, allows viewers to play along. Also, avid Jeopardy! watchers tend to pick favourites such as Jennings, James Holzhauer, Brad Rutter, Roger Craig, and Julie Collins. (And the occasional villain, such as the universally-hated Arthur Chu.)
Brad Rutter has won over $5 million on Jeopardy!, more than any other contestant. Because the rules at the time forced Rutter off the show after five wins, the bulk of his haul was on Tournament of Champions shows — where he lost only once, to Jennings. James Holzhauer, by nearly always choosing the highest-valued clue on the board, to Trebek’s and the producers’ chagrin, introduced a new approach to the game. According to Trebek and the producers, the lowest-valued clues are designed to give the contestants a clearer idea of what the categories are actually about, which Holzhauer blithely ignored. Roger Craig won only seven consecutive games but held the single-day record ($77,000) for nine years before Holzhauer shattered it a number of times, garnering $131,127 on his best day. Julie Collins is the top female winner with a 20-game streak that netted her $428,100. Arthur Chu, who won twelve consecutive shows, came across as the epitome of arrogance, and may have achieved something that no other contestant ever did: viewers switching channels during the show.
Because even Paul Bunyan couldn’t fill Trebek’s huge shoes, there may be some doubt about who will endure as his successor; but there’s no doubt whatsoever that Jeopardy! itself will endure.
DOLLY PARTON
Dolly Parton, one of the most-beloved entertainers ever, has been in the news lately for two reasons: her $1 million contribution to COVID-19 research at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, and the release of a beautiful coffee-table book, Songteller, that can best be described as a biography of her songs accompanied by many never-before published photos, including a few of her and her husband of fifty-four years, Carl Dean. In addition to her angelic voice and prodigious song-writing ability (she’s had over 200 songs recorded by other artists), I’ve long appreciated Dolly’s honesty and sense of humour. My three favourite examples follow.
When asked if dumb-blonde jokes bothered her, her reply was,”Why should they? I’m not blonde and I’m certainly not dumb.” I think it was on the Johnny Carson show she said, “It costs me a fortune to look this cheap.” And my favourite: After she addressed a Rotary Club convention (I think in Montreal), when the chairman approached her with a Rotary Club lapel pin in his hand she cautioned him, “Be careful where you put that, I might burst and fly around the room.”