Ken Jennings

Celebrity

1974-05-23

Quotes by Ken Jennings

• pg. 58. As a kid, I always assumed the know-it-alls on Jeopardy! were obviously the smartest people in America. If you were smart, that's how you showed it: by knowing all your state flowers and kings of Saxony. But what if Rob's right and that's a different, much shallower kind of intelligence? Is my mountain of flash cards all for naught?

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• The decline of geography in academia is easy to understand: we live in an age of ever-increasing specialization, and geography is a generalist's discipline. Imagine the poor geographer trying to explain to someone at a campus cocktail party (or even to an unsympathetic adminitrator) exactly what it is he or she studies. Geography is Greek for 'writing about the earth.' We study the Earth.Right, like geologists.Well, yes, but we're interested in the whole world, not just the rocky bits. Geographers also study oceans, lakes, the water cycle...So, it's like oceanography or hydrology.And the atmosphere.Meteorology, climatology...It's broader than just physical geography. We're also interested in how humans relate to their planet.How is that different from ecology or environmental science?Well, it encompasses them. Aspects of them. But we also study the social and economic and cultural and geopolitical sides of--Sociology, economics, cultural studies, poli sci.Some geographers specialize in different world regions.Ah, right, we have Asian and African and Latin American studies programs here. But I didn't know they were part of the geography department.They're not.(Long pause.)So, uh, what is it that do study then?

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• What are those bulb things you're slicing?You've never seen fennel? It looks like celery and tastes like licorice.

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• I pick up Dylan. He certainly takes after his father: about three-quarters of his body weight seems to be head, and three-quarters of that is ears.

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• pg. 58. As a kid, I always assumed the know-it-alls on Jeopardy! were obviously the smartest people in America. If you were smart, that's how you showed it: by knowing all your state flowers and kings of Saxony. But what if Rob's right and that's a different, much shallower kind of intelligence? Is my mountain of flash cards all for naught?

  Read quote

• The decline of geography in academia is easy to understand: we live in an age of ever-increasing specialization, and geography is a generalist's discipline. Imagine the poor geographer trying to explain to someone at a campus cocktail party (or even to an unsympathetic adminitrator) exactly what it is he or she studies. Geography is Greek for 'writing about the earth.' We study the Earth.Right, like geologists.Well, yes, but we're interested in the whole world, not just the rocky bits. Geographers also study oceans, lakes, the water cycle...So, it's like oceanography or hydrology.And the atmosphere.Meteorology, climatology...It's broader than just physical geography. We're also interested in how humans relate to their planet.How is that different from ecology or environmental science?Well, it encompasses them. Aspects of them. But we also study the social and economic and cultural and geopolitical sides of--Sociology, economics, cultural studies, poli sci.Some geographers specialize in different world regions.Ah, right, we have Asian and African and Latin American studies programs here. But I didn't know they were part of the geography department.They're not.(Long pause.)So, uh, what is it that do study then?

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• I pick up Dylan. He certainly takes after his father: about three-quarters of his body weight seems to be head, and three-quarters of that is ears.

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• What are those bulb things you're slicing?You've never seen fennel? It looks like celery and tastes like licorice.

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• You watch an old 'Jeopardy!' and the categories alone are very plain. 'Poetry,' or 'Movies,' or 'Physics.' If you watch it now, though, there'll be a theme board where the categories are all Hitchcock movies. Lots more jokes, lots more high-concept categories and questions.

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• When you make a decision, you need facts. If those facts are in your brain, they're at your fingertips. If they're all in Google somewhere, you may not make the right decision on the spur of the moment.

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• I would stare at maps of Delaware for hours.

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• It's really changed me. For the first time I'm in favor of the Bush tax cuts.

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• People are using GPS systems to find millions of little hidden objects throughout the world - often as simple as a piece of Tupperware hidden in the woods. You go to a website, you get the latitude and longitude to get the specific location of a certain specific hiding space, and then you go there and see if you can find it.

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• For me, it started as a child with one of those little wooden jigsaw maps of the U.S., where's there's crocodiles on Florida and apples on Washington state. That was my very first map.

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