Small Talk: "I'll Take Non-Show Chat For $400, Alex."

[shapeshifter]

So sorry for your loss, @The Wild Sow.
❤️‍🩹
 

13 hours ago, The Wild Sow said:

Hi, Jeopardy Peeps - some sad news to share.
My brother Jim McGinnis (gimmickgenius on the forums) passed away suddenly this past Thursday.  He had just turned 65 a few weeks ago.  My baby brother (along with Tom) and just the best brother and friend and all around wonderful guy anyone could ever hope to know 😪  Jim's show aired July 3, 2018.  He lost on a very tough Final Jeopardy, but just making it to the Alex Trebek stage - and meeting Alex himself! - was such a great thing.  We're all so proud of him.

Miss you like crazy, Brother - till we meet again 💔

13 hours ago, The Wild Sow said:

Miss you like crazy, Brother - till we meet again 💔

13 hours ago, The Wild Sow said:

13 hours ago, The Wild Sow said:

Edited January 12 by shapeshifter

[MrAtoz]

@The Wild Sow I only just saw this. I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. I didn't know Jim well at all, but we did meet because we both taped on the same day. We happened to sit next to each other on the van that drove us to the studio, and only narrowly missed competing against each other. I remember that he seemed to have a great sense of humor, and I loved his bow tie.

You and all of your family have my deepest condolences.

Edited January 14 by MrAtoz

[The Wild Sow]

@MrAtoz - Thank you (and everyone who remembers Jim.) He mentioned meeting you and said you were a great contestant too, as well as a pretty cool guy.  I'm heading over to the house now to spend some time with Jan and help with planning for the service Friday (including getting our 100 year old Mom there!) So awful - no one should lose a child, and certainly no one expects to reach the age of 100 and lose a child 💔

Here's Jim's obituary.

[MrAtoz]

1 hour ago, The Wild Sow said:

@MrAtoz - Thank you (and everyone who remembers Jim.) He mentioned meeting you and said you were a great contestant too, as well as a pretty cool guy.  I'm heading over to the house now to spend some time with Jan and help with planning for the service Friday (including getting our 100 year old Mom there!) So awful - no one should lose a child, and certainly no one expects to reach the age of 100 and lose a child 💔

Here's Jim's obituary.

Thank you for posting his obituary. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to get to know him better. It sounds like we would have gotten along wonderfully.

Particular condolences to his mother. It must be a very difficult time for her.

Edited January 14 by MrAtoz

[Mindthinkr]

@The Wild Sow My condolences to you and your family. 

[shapeshifter]

From Tuesday’s NYT crossword:

Edited January 15 by shapeshifter
Cannot edit image size in iOS 18 without first saving

[ProudMary]

I thought this was very interesting. I think some other people here might also have interest in participating.

The article is from USA Today. 

Can you read cursive? It's a superpower the National Archives is looking for.

If you can read cursive, the National Archives would like a word.

Or a few million. More than 200 years worth of U.S. documents need transcribing (or at least classifying) and the vast majority from the Revolutionary War era are handwritten in cursive – requiring people who know the flowing, looped form of penmanship.

...

To volunteer, all that’s required is to sign up online and then launch in. “There's no application,” she said. “You just pick a record that hasn't been done and read the instructions. It's easy to do for a half hour a day or a week.”

Here's the National Archives link to volunteer:  https://www.archives.gov/citizen-archivist/get-started-transcribing

 

[Clanstarling]

9 hours ago, ProudMary said:

I thought this was very interesting. I think some other people here might also have interest in participating.

The article is from USA Today. 

Can you read cursive? It's a superpower the National Archives is looking for.

 

Thank you! As much as I love being retired, I've been looking for something meaningful to do (at home - I'm lazy), and this looks like it's right up my alley.

[possibilities]

I'm also pretty excited about trying to do it! I want to read the Hannah Arendt documents, especially!!

[SomeTameGazelle]

6 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

Thank you! As much as I love being retired, I've been looking for something meaningful to do (at home - I'm lazy), and this looks like it's right up my alley.

I participated last year when the Jane Austen house asked for volunteers to transcribe Austen's brother's handwritten memoir. As far as I know they are still compiling the results and I will be interested to see it when it is published.

I also learned about volunteer proofreading for Project Gutenberg from Jeopardy champ Hannah Wilson's online posts and I do that from time to time as well. It's a different challenge from reading cursive but there's quite a variety of material and alongside some obscure oddities I have seen some interesting and well-known works coming into public domain as well.

[Driad]

I have edited and indexed articles and books for a genealogy society for several years. My vision is not up to reading cursive, but there is plenty of typed and typeset material to work on.