Fayetteville-Manlius Graduate Finds Herself on Jeopardy

Greg Kihn once wrote that his love was in jeopardy.

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Fayetteville-Manlius alumna Dr. Jessica Ashooh's husband's love was on Jeopardy.

Jeopardy was created as a game show by Merv Griffin. It debuted in 1964 as a daytime TV game show. It was adapted for night time television first in 1974 and then again in 1978. The syndicated version we know and love started up in 1984.

Some of my earliest memories were watching Alex Trebek nightly and watching my dad get so many of the questions right before the contestants.  Later I would watch my sister join in. Nowadays when we are visiting, my mother and I join in as well and we are all coming up with the questions to the answers that Ken Jennings is now reciting for the contestants.

I will admit to being sure Alex would beat cancer. I never doubted it in my mind. He was rebounding and seemed to be on the mend. And then he was gone.

I do enjoy Ken Jennings on the show as well. And I love that the show has continued. So much so that Dr. Jessica Ashooh was able to come on the show and challenge the returning champion Stephen Webb.

Going into Final Jeopardy, Ashooh was in second place with $6,000, trailing the champion Webb, who had $18,000. Under the category of "Countries of the World", the answer was revealed -

Part of the largest contiguous land empire during the 1200s & 1300s, today it’s the world’s second-largest landlocked country

Our local hero answered "What is Mongolia?". And quickly added $5,000 to her total. Sadly it was not enough to overtake Webb, who while answering incorrectly, only wagered 2k of his $18,000.

We celebrate our good Doctor for her second place finish. It's no easy task.