Happy birthday, Alex, and thanks for all the money

Please join the SSTOL crew in wishing Alex Trebek, the host of America's favorite quiz show for the past 21 years, a happy 65th birthday today.

I wish I could say that Alex and I are close personal friends, but despite our sharing a stage eleven times beginning in March 1988, I can't really say I know the man all that well. If you've been watching Jeopardy! all these years, you've seen the entirety of our relationship right there on your television screen.



Well, almost.

In 1998, ten years after my original five-game run, the good folks at Jeopardy! invited me to play in a special one-game event called the Jeopardy! Battle of the Bay Area Brains. Two other former champions, who like myself were Bay Area residents (specifically, Leslie Frates and Dr. Beverly Spurs, along with alternate Steve Chernicoff), joined me at Zellerbach Hall on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley for an evening of fun and frolic. (Okay, it was fun. We really didn't frolic all that much. We Jeopardy! champions have too much dignity to frolic overmuch in public. All right, I won the game, so I might have frolicked just a tad.)

After the show was taped, the contestants and families were invited to a gala reception hosted by Jeopardy! and the Bay Area chapter of the American Red Cross (the game was a benefit for disaster relief, and all the prize money went to the Red Cross). Alex actually took a few moments to chat with my daughter KM, who was nine years old at the time, and to autograph her souvenir Battle of the Bay Area Brains T-shirt. It was a kind gesture that made a huge impression on a starstruck little girl.

So happy 65th, Alex. If Bob Barker can still be going strong in his 80s, there's no reason why you can't too.

And just in case you guys decide to mount another mega-reunion tournament someday, keep my number handy.