NOW ENTERING THE STUDIO…
If you are a member of our Facebook group, Games Magazine Enthusiasts, you may have read a few messages from one of our members, Becky Anderson. Her Facebook profile picture, which accompanies her posts, shows a man and woman posing together. At first glance, one might assume it to be Anderson and her husband. But something about the man in the picture looks familiar. Upon closer inspection, one realizes that she is standing with beloved game show host Alex Trebek. While you may not know Becky Anderson from Facebook, she was seen by millions of Americans in 2009, when she was a contestant on Jeopardy! Anderson recently told me about her experience via a Facebook Messenger discussion.
Like many GAMES WORLD OF PUZZLES readers, Anderson watches and plays Jeopardy! almost daily. Years ago, while watching the show, she realized, “I can do that.” But the journey from couch competitor to bona fide Jeopardy! contestant took over a year, and required much more than a lightning-fast recall of a lifetime of acquired knowledge.
One could argue that Anderson’s preparation for her appearance on began when she started to read at two years of age. Throughout her life, Anderson, a retired software marketer and management consultant, pored over anything and everything she could get her hands on. Describing her mind as “the original Post-it Note,” Anderson found that all the facts she learned from almanacs, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other books just “seemed to stick.” Anderson also credits family thinking games, British cryptic crosswords, Sudoku, and Games magazine as sources that either sharpened her mental acuity
