[Orin Kerr, June 28, 2006 at 12:30am] Trackbacks
Ken Jennings Blog:
Ken Jennings, famous for his remarkable string of 74 consecutive victories on Jepoardy, has started a blog. At the end of a detailed post on options for writers who want to publish "unofficial" trivia books about copyrighted entertainment programs, Ken writes:
Wow, that was long and boring. Just what I wanted, to turn this blog into The Volokh Conspiracy during its very first week.
Check out more here.
Fern R (www):
Considering that VC has over 18 million hits, it does not seem that too many share in Jennings opinion.
6.28.2006 3:37am
Ross Levatter (mail):
I think the take home lesson is, no matter his quirky sense of humor, we see that Jennings both reads VC and is aware that many others read VC, thus his confidence in casually referencing it. Perhaps, in this little vignette, we also see why he was sufficiently well versed in the arcane that he could win so many episodes of Jeopardy. Congratulations Volokh bloggers.
6.28.2006 3:52am
Mongoose388:
It's a sad thought that Jennings so filled his head with useless trivia that he finds the VC long and boring. One would hope that he had more intellectual curiosity than that. Wasn't he supposed to be a Law student or am I mistaken?
6.28.2006 8:40am
alkali (mail) (www):
Perhaps he's still traumatized by that never-ending series on interstate shipments of wine.
6.28.2006 9:20am
jab (mail):
Chill out... I took it as a tongue-in-cheek joke/compliment...
It shows that he in fact reads VC, and assumes that the kind of people who might visit his blog might know about VC, and if not, they might be motivated to go check it out...

If he REALLY thought it was boring, do you think he would have mentioned it all... usually things we find boring, we barely even remember.

I think he actually must be a real fan of VC... I mean he specializes in trivia, and you have to admit that VC, despite the wonderful legal blogging, sometimes strays into "how many angels dancing on the head of a pin" territory than any trivia fan may relish.
6.28.2006 9:23am
Bill N:
You want to know how closely he reads Volokh? Scroll down--he has a post entitled "Two trivia questions who have never been in my kitchen."
6.28.2006 10:17am
Bob from Ohio (mail):
He has been reading the soccer posts, of course.
6.28.2006 11:30am
Bob Bobstein (mail):
Oh, man, that post Bill N links to is so awesome-- the post's title alludes to something uttered on "Jeopardy" by a character played by the actor who's the answer to the trivia question at the end of the post.

I’m with jab on the merits here. Jenning’s "boring" quip reads like a gentle, well, jab, a reference to a well-known technical blog on his own admittedly chattier blog.
6.28.2006 12:11pm
Philip:
Sorry Mr. Jennings, that legal issues are long and boring and take some space to develop. Prehaps, that is the reason media coverage of major legal stories are often inaccurate or at best imprecise.
6.28.2006 3:07pm
Steve P. (mail):
Many posts on the VC are long and boring. In fact, much of law is long and boring. Some people like long and boring -- pedantic attention to detail is probably something that helped him win his victories. Personally, I think it's hilarious.
6.28.2006 3:32pm
Ken Jennings (mail):
Hey, this is the aforementioned Ken Jennings (posting as Guest though, so I guess I can't prove it or anything).

I just wanted to confirm jab's suspicion that I am an occasional VC fan and reader, and meant the mention as a shout-out. I had just posted a way-too-long analysis of a legal decision and it reminded me of the kind of post that I can never parse on Volokh. No offense intended.
6.28.2006 5:29pm
Barbara Skolaut (mail):
Cooooool, Orin. :-D
6.28.2006 5:29pm
Waldensian (mail):
I blame myself. Most of my posts are really boring.
6.28.2006 6:47pm
OrinKerr:
Ken,

No offense taken! I thought the reference was very funny, actually.
6.28.2006 7:13pm
Ken Jennings (mail):
He's not Ken Jennings, I'M the real Ken Jennings. (But I can't log in and prove it.)

Eugene, I love your trivia posts that never give answers. One of them once took me a good 15 seconds.
6.28.2006 10:22pm
Eugene Volokh (www):
I'm with Orin.
6.28.2006 10:27pm
DNL (mail):
You're with me, Eugene.

(too vague?)
6.28.2006 11:19pm
Sparky:
You may regret turning me on to Ken Jennings' blog -- it's my new favorite! VC has fallen to second place.
6.29.2006 12:46pm
wood turtle (mail):
Long and boring is what we expect out of our lawyers. If Volokh Conspiracy was not long winded and boring, I would start to get worried.
6.29.2006 1:59pm