If you’re interested in some interesting news about Ken Jennings’ winning Jeopardy run 36 episodes in advance, then keep reading. Ken Jennings is the 30-year-old software engineer from Utah who has won over a million dollars playing Jeopardy for over forty episodes, resulting in the highest ratings ever for the show.
Word on the wire is that Ken Jennings has finally lost at Jeopardy in his 75th game taped this past Tuesday. He walks away with $2,500,000 in his pocket. I had no idea that they tape 30-40 shows in advance!
umm…
From the reports that i have been hearing on this, Jeopardy aparently tapes about 4 – 5 shows each day that they tape.
-JB-
Possibly Leaking For Ratings
Not sure if the story is true, because yesterday the reports quoted the same source (TV Week) with Kennings bowing out with $1.4 in earnings.
Could it possibly be an intentional leak to continue to improve ratings? I’m sure there are people at Jeopardy worried about losing viewer interest. So they spread a bogus story.
My other thought is that this guy ultimately gets bored and walks away. Maybe he doesn’t lose. Maybe he gets to the point where he “retires”.
My wife agrees
Yesterday, my wife said the ame thing: “You’ve got 2.5 mill in the bag, you’ve been taping 5 shows a day, you’ve been away from home a lot, what’s the motivation?”
Her $.02 Weed
I didn’t know…
I was not aware that Ken Jennings was a Mormon from Utah. There was a news report that i was listening to on the ride into work this morning that stated he was going to give 10% of his winnings to the church. I know Catholic Church’s have Tidings which are suppose to be 10% of your salary, do Mormon’s have the same kind of thing? (Pardon my ignorance)
Tithing
Yep, the LDS church has a principle of “tithing”. Being a “full tithe payer” is required to enter LDS temples. It’s a rule that made for interesting situations when I was serving as a Mormon Missionary in East Los Angeles. We’d eventually get to the lesson about tithing and temple work, and the conversation would go something like this:
Being a missionary was a difficult job some days…
—
Matthew P. Barnson
phew…
Heh, Yeah i can see where that conversation could spiral out of control. How often is the Tithing done? Is it an annual ritual? If you on ly pay on the pay increases, and you don’t get a raise over the year, do you still pay anything for the next year (if it is an annual thing that is)? Sorry for the questions, i was am just trying to understan
}JB{
More on tithing…
Well, how often it’s paid depends a lot on the person. And how much they actually pay depends on the person, too 🙂
I’ll provide me as an example. Assume I was making $52,000 a year, getting paid every two weeks. That would mean the gross on each paycheck is a nice, even $2,000 — easy to figure from :). When I was Mormon, I’d have paid $200 every two weeks to the tithing fund. This is a fairly common practice. Some people prefer to pay on the net after taxes, so let’s assume the take-home pay of that $2,000 check was $1600, they’d pay $160 on that paycheck.
Some figure out their bills, subtract them all from their gross pay, and pay on that. It’s really left up to the person. But if one makes $60,000 a year (for instance), and claims to be a “full tithe payer” in a temple recommend interview with the Bishop when one has only paid a few hundred dollars over the last year, evidence suggests that some bishops will question one’s honesty about that question. The Church Handbook tells them not to question whether your answers are honest or not, unless they positively know otherwise, but some men in power prefer to follow their feelings rather than the rules.
However, many people “save up” until December, and pay their tithe during “tithing settlement”. Some people I know have taken out loans to pay it; I think most people would agree that that is silly, including most active members of the church. But there’s a certain mindset to some people, that I’ve found is more prevalent here in Utah than in other places I’ve lived… it’s a “tit for tat” or “magical thinking” mentality.
I don’t think it’s a problem with the Church, but a problem with people trying to make sense out of the world. Many people assume if they pay a “full tithing”, that the Lord is bound to do what they want, which is generally give them greater prosperity. I consider this no different than other bargaining you hear, where people promise certain things to God in return for favors.
Any Mormon theologian, or Christian apologist, would tell you that’s hogwash, and God doesn’t work that way 🙂 But I was among the many that thought this way. And I have to fight that “magical thinking” every day, remembering that just because I want something to be a certain way doesn’t mean that I can make bargains with some powerful entity in my mind that will actually play out the way I want them to.
I think it’s an artifact of our evolution, that we seek patterns to aid our understanding, even when no pattern exists. Like saying a gambler is on a “hot streak”; given the odds, there’s no such thing. Previous random outcomes don’t affect future random outcomes. Yet, in our heads, we think along these lines to help us make sense of the world.
Long answer to a short question 🙂 Over the last fifty years, the Church has, through a series of small language changes in speeches by prominent leaders, gone from encouraging a limited interpretation of “increase” (as promoted by James E. Talmage as one’s “profit”) to an understanding that “increase” equals “income”. The definition of “income” is left up to the member, but for most it’s obvious what “income” is when you read it on your pay stub: that little box with dollar signs next to the “Gross Income” heading.
Which means that, when I was making $55,000 a year, I paid over $5500 that year in tithing to the church.
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Matthew P. Barnson
more on tithing and ken jennings
I was just reading through the postings here and would like to add something to the comments about the principle of tithing. i think it’s important to discuss the WHY behind tithing. The LDS church teaches it’s members to recognize that everything they have ultimately comes from God. when you think of it this way– paying tithing is only giving back a portion of what already belongs to Him. someone mentioned that other denominations do not keep as strict of a record of the tithes their members pay. The LDS church keeps records on every penny of tithing paid so that every penny can be accounted for and be used for what the members of the church have been told it will be used for. (every year the church audits itself and gives an accounting to it’s members)
in addition, the word tithe actually means “tenth”- so that is why the figure of 10% is used to determine how much tithing to pay.
also- mormon people believe the Church organization itself to be the actual Kingdom of God on the earth… as such, tithing is God’s way of supporting the earthly needs of that Kingdom voluntarily through the members (tithing is used for building church meeting houses, temples, church seminaries and institutes, etc)
LDS doctrine also teaches that there are certain blessings associated with God’s Laws- which blessings can only be received by adherence to the law upon which they are predicated… that is why LDS people believe that blessings will come to them by paying tithing (these can be temporal and/or spiritual blessings that God grants to those who demonstrate faith in Him and the laws of His Gospel).
It’s not that one would pay tithing and demand a blessing to go along with it! It is more that you put yourself in line to receive blessings that God is already willing to grant- but are dependent on our displaying faith (as in giving up 10% of your income even when times are tough) and putting His laws and commandments above the things of the world. I have seen my finances stretch beyond what they should have many times even though i gave ten percent to the church before paying bills or even buying food. when i pay tithing- i always have enough to pay for my needs, and i feel more grateful for the nice things i have. when i neglect to pay my tithing- things always seem more tight and i even tend to run out- even though technically i should have more in the bank because i didn’t pay tithing. this is just one example of the blessings people talk about coming from paying a tithe. there are many others of course (including intangibles) but i’ll leave it at that…
i hope that makes more sense as to why tithing is so stressed among mormon people and why Ken Jennings is going to pay 10% of his winnings in tithing to the church. It is his way of acknowledging God’s hand in his success and in helping the Kingdom of God on the earth to grow and progress.
— Heather Mason
Tithing-Mormons
Mormons are asked to give 10% of their income to the Church. Some do, some don’t.
TITHING
Tithing is common in all Christian religions, and is taught in the Bible. Like the other person explained, different people figure it diferent ways. However, Methodist/Baptist/Presbyterian, etc., don’t “audit” members, etc. It’s done more on a faith-oriented trust.
New Idea – They Rig It
New idea here…Jeopardy! rigs the game so that Ken loses. They bring in someone and feed the answers to the ringer contestant.
Get In Groove, Sammy G
It was accurate…
Well, the original news article was accurate. After a 74-game winning streak, Jennings finally lost. Crazy to think how long ago (two and a half months!) this broke, and just now it’s official…
Today, I received about a hundred hits to this blog entry, and figured I should update it for visitors 🙂
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Matthew P. Barnson