Thursday, May 6, 2010

This is (Not) Jeopardy!

Well, yesterday was intended to be a soccer afternoon with friends. But I'll let The Stumbler explain what happened: click here to read! I was feeling 90% better than I had been, so I stayed at Sangam and got in after the lines had dissipated--there was only one section that was not sold-out. And so I did see three goals; Seongnam did not impress, and their offense never put together a sustained attack. (The score was 4 - 0 FCS. The announced attendance at the stadium was over 61,000.)

So, today it was back to the salt mines with the rest of them. You probably know, Dear Reader, that salt was historically a highly valued commodity, for preserving meat and fish, as well as for its essential biologicial roles, in regulating our body heat, among others. So much so, that Roman soldiers were paid in salt, at least in part, or paid in sort of ration coupons for salt, which is where the term "salary" comes from. And so, "the salt mines" as an idiom for workplace.

We've been playing Jeopardy, though mainly without the jeopardy aspect (i.e., losing points for a wrong guess, to encourage participation--except on the Daily Double); there are four teams, each with 9 or 10 players. I have strained the boundaries of geometry in putting together the desks into four large tables, and put four solo desks with chairs at the front. Players from each team rotate into the front chair for their turn at answering a question. If you are right, you stay, but everyone else goes back to the team table and is replaced by the next player.


This stretches the boundaries, also, of minimum participation--being one of nine or ten to rotate in is as far as I would consider going.

1 comment:

John from Daejeon said...

I once got to witness a crowd of nearly 400,000 at the world's largest-attended sporting event, The Indy 500. I really didn't care for the race as both A.J. and Al Sr. had just retired, but the sea of humanity getting sunburned was a sight to behold.

If you ever get the chance to see it in person, be sure not to get a seat in the infield.