The big question: Who’ll ask the questions? | Mann Overboard

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Who’ll be the next host? 

Some of us have been following the “Jeopardy!” Rotating Host-a-Rama this summer, and when exec-producer Mike Richards bestowed upon himself the title of Alex Trebek’s successor, I shrugged. He was among the better guest hosts in the tryouts. 

But his ousting for podcast slurs as both host and exec-producer has brought forth a new round of tryouts. 

I’ve felt all along that long-time champ Ken Jennings should get the job. The other favorite of this long-time TV columnist was a surprise entry — Packer quarterback Aaron Rodgers. 

Now, with Richards out, the smart-money favorite appears to be Seattle’s Jennings. And his father, Ken Jennings Jr., just happens to live over at Diamond Point and is, ahem, a fan of this column. Junior? His contestant son is named Ken Jennings III.

— One witty reader says he wants to organize a White People for Diversity rally here. Speaking of that color — or lack thereof — is anyone old enough to remember the silly rule forbidding the wearing of white after Labor Day? Mental-health captors beware! 

(They’re the guys in the white coats, with butterfly nets). 

— Many residents of Kuhn Street leading up to North Beach have a message to the avenue’s many visitors: Slow down! At first, the street was festooned with yard signs reading “Drive Like Your Kids Live Here.” Now there’s a new crop of signs: “This Is a Neighborhood, Not a Racetrack!”

— Reader Edgar Rice Chex  passes along this memorable line: “My dad told me that just because you have a thought, it doesn’t mean you know how to think.” Trying to think about that one. 

— The city, we thought, was wise in asking the Peninsula YMCA to take over operations of Mountain View Pool. But now that the pool has been closed — yet again — for another long stretch, the Y needs to redouble its search for a new pool director and get this important community resource open again. If you know anyone with the experience and ability to do the job, please contact the Y office in Sequim at 360-477-4381. 

— Yes, Twelves, only four more days until the Seahawks open the NFL season. I was a sportswriter in Montréal who doesn’t watch baseball but occasionally watches hockey, but I am sadly compelled to watch pro football. Or, as it’s accurately been called, expert violence. With NFL teams now at risk of forfeiting games for COVID outbreaks, I’m a bit surprised we don’t hear one noteworthy fact more often: Pete Carroll’s Seahawks were the only NFL team to have no cases of COVID last season. Quite an accomplishment. 

— Sad news indeed about the MV Coho not running up from P.A. to Victoria until next year. I’d like to see my grandson at the UVic, and we haven’t seen our son up in Vancouver in two years. Now you can visit Canada, but you have to jump through a lot of vaccination and other hoops to do it. But do it we will. 

— Dentists aren’t always the most popular folks to see, but when the genial Dr. Steve Scharf retired here a while back, at least 200 people packed his retirement party. “Filling” the room, you could say. You could call Scharf beloved, and that’s why his former staff were happy the other day to report that Scharf’s unexpected triple-bypass surgery was a success. 

— Vishu With You: Silverdale is not exactly known as a culinary mecca, but when we were down there recently on a Trader Joe’s run, we were pleasantly surprised to find good Indian food — in a strip mall, no less. The owner of Mehfil told us his brother-in-law owns the Shell station in PT, and I asked the local guy to get his relative to open an Indian restaurant up here. PT could go for one.

— OK, back by popular demand, a few more “Car Talk” closing credits:  Chicken Soup Provisioner: Kent Hoyt; Chief Cook/Bottle Washer: Chef Boyar Ubusy: Head of Watersports Marketing: Selma Kayak. Janis Joplin Biographer: Ian Bobby McGee. 

(Bill Mann is a former columnist at the San Francisco Examiner, Montreal Gazette, and Oakland Tribune. Email him at Newsmann9@gmail.com.)