Michael and I made some small contribution to meteorological history, as he won the 2006 Tournament of Champions, the next one after mine. At the time, he was working as a research meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, after getting degrees from Iowa State and UWM. So to have two consecutive ToC winners be from such a small field as ours was quite the coincidence and achievement! He's now a math teacher and quiz bowl coach in Milwaukee. We first met at a trivia competition in the mid-2000s, and it was great to see him again (and to have a fellow weather nerd to commiserate with at the taping).
I've also known Vinita for a while: she was the only other representative from our 2004 ToC, and I beat her in a close game in the semifinals of that tournament. She was the college tournament champion in 2001 (as a student at Stanford), but she couldn't rearrange her final exams to play in the next ToC, so the show was nice enough to let her defer and play in the 2004 ToC. It was also great catching up with her -- she's a smart, fun, and friendly person.
And then there's Ken, who doesn't really need much introduction. 74-time champ, 2nd most total winnings in the history of the show, and now writes books and for venues like Slate and Parade magazine. This was the first time I met Ken in person. I got the sense that he wasn't really an extrovert, in the sense that he didn't seem to be having as much fun in our big group of contestants as everyone else was. But I had the chance to talk with him one-on-one a couple times, and he was really nice and interesting to talk to.
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| Me with Ken and Vinita at the "after-party." Ken is not a crook. |
