“Suck it, Trebek!”
One of the biggest obstacles many folks have to really “getting” me is trying to understand the strange, eclectic mix of interests I have. How can any one person be completely enthralled by a live performance of Shakespeare, swooning over costume design and obsessing with editorial cuts to the text, and then go home to plan a weekend of camping and rafting? What makes sense about someone arguing the importance of the “male gaze” in misogynist texts from the Victorian literature, and then scooting over to her brother’s house to put together his gas grill, or help a friend set up her entertainment system over the phone?
I’m reminded of a line from “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning: “she liked whate’er / She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.” I blame Jeopardy! for my constant thirst for information. For as long as I can remember I have spent evenings watching Alex Trebek challenge contestants and I knew that one day I would be a contestant. This decision was, while profound for a grade school child, not entirely likely. I had so much to learn! So when I questioned my father (who, incidentally seemed to know every single correct response, regardless of category), he insisted that if you want to know things, you have to read about them and research the topics. So that’s what I did. I did it with any and every thing that sparked even a slight flicker of interest in me. I carried home books about the Japanese Nippon space program that preceded the one in the
