Ed. Secretary Places 2nd on 'Jeopardy'

[DoYouEverWonder]

November 21, 2006

WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Margaret Spellings says she studied hard to prepare for Tuesday night's airing of "Celebrity Jeopardy!"

"I didn't want to be the education secretary who didn't know how to spell potato," Spellings joked, describing how she read books and sought advice from a former show contender and her daughters.

In the end, Spellings said she thinks the effort was worth it. She came in second behind the actor Michael McKean, best known for his role as 'Lenny' on the television show "Laverne and Shirley" and for the movie "This Is Spinal Tap."

Placing third was actor Hill Harper, from the television show "CSI: NY."

"I think I held my own," Spellings said in an interview Tuesday, hours before the show aired. She noted McKean had an edge, having been on the show before.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/shared-gen/ap/US_Presidential_Cabinet/Education_Secretary_Jeopardy.html


You would think the top education official in the country could beat a joker like Lenny?



Maybe we should make him the Education Secretary instead?

[matcom]

1. she lost to LENNY?

:rofl:

"IS your children learning?"

:rofl:

[livetohike]

2. I think Lenny went to CMU (Carnegie Mellon Univ)

He's no dummy :-).

[bleedingheart]

5. Lenny is a CMU grad...

[livetohike]

8. Hey bleedingheart

:hi:! Check the PA forum. We are on our way home!!

Hope to meet you one day soon :-).

[bleedingheart]

14. That's great!!!

we will definitely have to meet up!

[wilt the stilt]

3. His work is brillant

MIke McKean body of work is very funny and I'm not surprised he did weel at Jeapordy

[leftchick]

4. I watched and "Lenny" was excellent

and the questions were actually pretty easy. The sec. looked like an idiot.

[lonestarnot]

10. Looked like?

bwwwwwwwwwwwwwwaaa :rofl:

[noonwitch]

6. I always think I'd be good at Jeopardy, but I wonder how fast I'd be with the button

I know a lot of the answers, 9 times out of ten, I know the final Jeopardy answer. But I don't know if I'd be good at ringing in, because I don't always have the best coordination at stuff like that.

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. The top education official in the USA

should not have a problem with beating the butt off of anybody on Jeopardy. This woman is a public official and is much more accustomed to being in the spotlight then any of us.

[PeterPuck]

19. It is all about the button

This was celebrity jeopardy. Anyone with a HS education should have known 95% of the answers. I am sure she knew all the answers but just couldn't buzz in quickly enough.

I read on a website about people's first hand experience on the show and they said that most of the time everyone knew the answer.. it was just a question of who could buzz in quickest.

She looked pretty nervous at first and hardly got a chance to answer any questions in the first half. Later in the game, she appeared a little more comfortable and started answering but it was too late. With Lenny's past experience on the show, he definitely had the advantage with the buzzer.

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. One of the most brilliant people I know tried out for Jeopardy

He said it was incredibly hard. He did well but didn't make the final cut. He said it is really a lot harder to think under the lights with a camera watching your face than most of us realize.

[Onlooker]

7. She deserves a lot of credit

I think it's pretty gutsy for someone in her position to appear on a show like that. That said, too bad she's a right-wing ass:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Spellings

"In January 2005, Spellings sent a letter to the head of PBS condemning an episode of the show Postcards From Buster which featured 'Buster the Bunny' visiting Vermont and interacting with the children of a lesbian couple. The mostly live-action show focuses on real children and in this episode the two moms are never mentioned as being lesbians. Spellings criticized the use of government funds to produce the episode saying 'many parents would not want their young children exposed to the life-styles portrayed in this episode.'"

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. As an educator myself,

I refuse to give this bitch any credit at all. She and her predecessor Rod Paige have done more to destroy public education in the past 6 years than anyone could have imagined, including Bill Bennett.

I can honestly say I hate these mother fuckers. http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/10/1/105329/697

[alcibiades_mystery]

9. I Lost on Jeopardy, Baby...

Look on the bright side. At least it wasn't...

[Roland99]

12. "Tell her Don Pardo what she *hasn't* won!"

And congrats to David St. Hubbins!

[sniffa]

13. i actuaLLy got stupid watching that

easiest jeapordy ever!!

i swear the chiLdren's version is harder.

"this front part of the brain is removed in a Labotomy, not to be confused with a part of your ear"

[ms liberty]

15. Cool...Spinal Tap beats Spinal Lack.....and Hill Harper...

Is a very handsome young man, as well as being a smart guy. If anyone gets a chance, watch him in a small Irish film called "The Nephew" - he's very good, and it's an excellent film about an American kid going to a small village in Ireland to meet his (dead) mother's family - who don't know that he's African American. I saw it several years ago, and thought then that he had a real career ahead of him.

[ceile]

21. Very good movie.

Pierce Brosnan actually playing an Irishman. Go figure. That's the only movie I've seen Hill Harper in, but he made such an impression on me that I say everytime I see him -"hey, he was in this great Irish movie..."

[ms liberty]

25. Me too - that's why I had to add it! And Pierce Brosnan...

I think (not 100% sure) that he is Irish. He's done a lot of smaller Irish movies, and I think The Nephew was done by his production company. He made another small Irish movie called "Madeline" IIRC, based on a true story about an Irish guy who had his kids taken away by the state after his wife died, fought the state, and won. It was the first case of it's kind in Ireland where the father won. It's also a pretty good movie.

I'm always on the lookout for those small, independent British or Irish films. They're almost always real gems, truly good movies that don't get the notice they deserve.

[Toots]

16. She deserves huge props for even going on the show IMO

Just think how embarrassing it would be if she totally flopped. In fact because of that I am beginning to doubt the authenticity of the show. I am beginning to feel punked and that it was a set up. They didn't dare have her finish first or everyone would holler foul but a respectable second actually gives this Administration gravitis...

[proud2BlibKansan]

20. The only good thing I can think of about this appearance

is it kept her out of her office for awhile, so she had a brief break from destroying public education.

[missingthebigdog]

22. It wasn't really a "respectable" second. . . .

Michael McKean won pretty convincingly, and Ms. Spellings missed a question in which she just had to know the shape of Stonehenge- Her answer was tower. . . . Duhhh

Kinda funny, and almost surreal for a huge Spinal Tap fan like myself to hear David St. Hubbins say "Who were the Druids?" in answer to a Stonehenge question on Jeopardy.

He was quick on the buzzer, came across as extremely bright, and was so far ahead at final jeopardy that the other two couldn't of caught him had they been allowed to pool their resources.

[IntravenousDemilo]

26. Of course, with a name like IntravenousDemilo, I'd be pretty pleased with Michael McKean's winning.

And Harry Shearer is no slouch at Jeopardy! either. I'd like to see how Christopher Guest and Rob Reiner do, though.

Last week, McKean's co-star on "Primetime Glick", Martin Short, came off as being as bright as a box of dirt, which I really didn't expect since his comedy is so sharp.

[CBHagman]

23. McKean mopped the floor with everybody.

It's timing, knowledge, response time, etc.

But he was beautiful to watch.

[MrPrax]

24. Poor Mike McKean...

In spite of turning in mountains of solid work in the last three decades, he is still known as 'Lenny' from a crappy 70s sit-com.

Poor guy...he gets no respect.

[muriel_volestrangler]

27. Could be worse - the British Home Secretary came last in "Celebrity Mastermind"

beaten by a TV journalist, soap opera actor, and TV chef: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/content_objectid=13754351_method=full_siteid=50143_headline=-BLUNKETT%2DS%2DEMBARRASSING%2DFLOP%2DON%2DMASTERMIND-name_page.html

He knew his specialist subject of 'Harry Potter' OK, but only got 2 general knowledge questions right (and in fact, he got 1 of those wrong, but they took pity on him and gave him the mark). In theory, if you answer fast enough, you can get 20 right in the round.

He's since been sacked from the Cabinet - twice.

[AngryAmish]

28. She lost to David St. Hubbins?

"I think that the problem *may* have been, that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being *crushed* by a *dwarf*. Alright? That tended to understate the hugeness of the object."

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

29. I think we should select all cabinet positions this way.

All cabinet appointments should be subject to congressional oversight and Jeopardy!

Secretery of State? Better know the capital of Myanmar.
Transportation? How much is the fare from Lynn to downtown Boston on the T? Double jeopardy - what about commuter rail?!?
Defense? Rummy, what do we think of land wars in Asia?

This could be good.

[yurbud]

30. Is she the one that called teachers' unions terrorists? The only question someone in Bush cabinet

can answer is what Bush's ass smells like when their nose is in it.

[Keefer]

31. This would be like the NFL commissioner...

...not being the best running back in NFL history, or the NHL commissioner who doesn't know what the blue line is, or the MLB commissioner who can't count to three, or...

[TroubleMan]

32. Later that week she lost to Squiggy on Wheel of Fortune.

nt.

[leesa]

33. Does she lose her federal funding ala No Child Left Behind?