 Welcome to Me On Five, a show about Maine and its people. The COVID show that I did was about my grandfather who passed away in the 1918 Spanish Flu in which millions upon millions died and several thousand here in Portland. And then I closed by talking about my own COVID shot. Since then, COVID has resurfaced, as we all know from watching front page news every night, the Delta variant is killing more people. And all I can say to my fellow Mainers out there, get the shot. And for those of you who are still hesitant, I simply would say to you, listen to your doctor as opposed to someone who is involved in national politics. I now want to move to a more fun topic for me. Ever since I started the Dairy Run show in this show, I've wanted to have somebody that has been on Jeopardy. I reached out to one man who I'd watched faithfully. I'd never got a return phone call. I reached out to another person. She said, come on, but she never answered my emails. So finally, my friend Martha Burke sent me the phone number of my guest, Jamie Logan, who was just on Jeopardy recently and who won two nights in a row and went back for a third. Jamie, thank you so much for coming on this show. I have been trying. And folks, what's interesting about it is that Jamie got my phone call when you were at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That's correct. I like it. It was amazing. I was actually out there with some Scrabble friends. We were doing an unofficial Scrabble tournament. And we spent a day at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I spent most of my time at the Beatles exhibit. But overall, it was absolutely, it was amazing. So you were out there not to go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Some people actually fly out there for that reason. You were there for a Scrabble tournament. Yep, for an unofficial Scrabble tournament. Unofficial. We mean there's a difference between official and unofficial. There is. And official tournaments are currently on hiatus for at least a little bit longer. But yeah, a group of friends who are also tournament Scrabble players, we took a road trip out there, played Scrabble in between doing things like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I think we played, overall, I played 13 games in the two days we were out there. So. Jamie, I think I mentioned you that my niece Liz gave me a brick. It's about this big. It says Derry Runman, Maine's Elvis. And she got that for me right after I visited out there. I actually know or have met a few of the inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And met Priscilla Presley, which was a neat thing. And we talked about the fact that her husband, of course, was the first inductee. So getting back to why you're here. Jeopardy. Jamie, you tried out many times for Jeopardy. Tell us about that process. You're going to take exams. Go ahead. Tell me how that worked. Sure. So to get on, you have to go through a process of passing the online test, getting the email that you passed the online test and are being invited to do an in-person audition. And then after the in-person audition, you wait and wait and wait to see if you get the phone call inviting you out to Los Angeles. So the first time I took the online test was in college. And I was shocked to get the email inviting me to an in-person audition. I was in college in D.C. and I had to go to New York City to audition. And then, you know, I did not get the call to get on that time. I took the online test again in college for College Jeopardy, got called again to an in-person audition, didn't get the call to LA that time. And then every time I've been eligible, since then, I've taken the online test. I've gone to New York twice for auditions, Boston. And then this most recent time, the third time that I passed the online test for regular adult Jeopardy, I got the call from LA. I initially did not pick up the phone because it wasn't a 207 number. And thankfully, they called me back on Monday. And they called you back. They called me back. They had called on a Friday. They called you back. That's the back they wanted you. Yeah, right. And I was told, you know, we'd love to have you come on, you know, follow these protocols for COVID and all of this. And I had about two weeks to get the plane ticket, get ready, study, and get out to LA to tape. Jamie, you know what blows my mind is how many contestants say they study. How do you study? You have to take the encyclopedia botanical and read them from beginning. I mean, how's one study from the Jeopardy? In a way, you know, I've been asked that question a lot. And one of the things I say is I've been studying my whole life, you know, watching the show since I was a kid as early as I can remember. I remember, you know, the, you know, the old million dollar bridge. Yes. So my mother's family's from South Portland. I grew up in Portland. And my mother still loves to tell the story that when I was like six or seven, we were coming home from my grandparents one night. The bridge was up and I just threw a temper tantrum and backseat screaming, I'm going to miss the final question. So literally my whole life watching the show was how I've studied going to trivia nights, even in high school before we could drink. My friends and I would go to the bar and play trivia. We'd drink our diet sodas and bleachers in Portland. We were, yeah, we won one night and I got a gift certificate for the bar and people were like, what are you guys going to do with this? But, and my husband is a big trivia player. So Bill Logan, a lawyer, folks, well respected, highly respected lawyer. So we always, you know, not as recently now that we have a toddler, but we go to trivia night in the Augusta area. When I lived in DC, I'd go to trivia night there. I listened to trivia podcasts. So you are a trivia expert. Yeah. You know, Jimmy, one of the things that I enjoy about doing this show is I'm able to connect my own life with the person I'm talking to. And when I was a child, I watched tic-tac-do, the 64,000 dollar question, I watched all those trivia shows and my mother used to get a kick out of it that I would answer the questions. What people don't realize is that the questions that you get on Jeopardy, some of them are actually, quote, easier, unquote, than the ones of this written test. Correct? You know, I don't know, honestly, for sure. I think... I took the test, Jimmy. Folks, I took the test in person at the Eastland Hotel. I'm going to tell you, Jamie, they knew that they could correct the music because out of 50 questions, I might have got maybe six right. They're asking, like, how many stars in the universe? What was the material of Queen Victoria's coronation dress? So I am so impressed that you could do that. Jamie, I want to ask you some questions specifically about you going out there. We know, first of all, no one would accuse you of not having persistence. I would have asked you out there in the hall, why were you so persistent? I mean, after a man asked someone to the prom 10 times, why were you so persistent? It's like I said, it's something that I have just always loved since I was a kid, screaming answers at the TV. And I don't know, it's just always been a goal. And I set my mind to that goal since I was a kid and just kept after it. And as I mentioned to you, though, part of that goal was never being on TV. She comes on and says to me, I'm really uncomfortable being on TV. Excuse me, you just applied for the biggest TV show on the air. I like to answer trivia questions and it never even. So you could have won a mask if they let you, right? Yeah. So Jamie, when you got out there, so you fly out to Los Angeles, did your husband go with you? He did not, no. You went alone? Yeah. Oh my goodness, so do they pick you up with a limousine? Do you take a cab? No, you find your own way. You find your own way. There's no sign, Jamie Logan. No. And so you stayed at a decent hotel, I assume. I have no idea. I stayed at the first one I found that looked okay to me. They told you to get your own hotel? Yeah. No way. Yeah. So you get your own hotel and you get your own transportation to the station. You walk in, you show them an ID, they let you in. Yeah, pretty much. And along with all the extra COVID protocol and everything. And so did you feel that you were being treated like a superstar? Or do you think you were being treated like, okay, I mean, how did you feel you were being treated? Like a human being, which is all you can ask for. But no special treatment. No, thank goodness. Because you would, me, I would have gone, excuse me, where's the spread from the shrimp cocktails? So do you have a green when you sit in while you're waiting to go on? No, we hung out. It's a group of contestants because they filmed five shows in a day. And you're hanging out. Yeah. And they're wonderful people, the other contestants. We had such a good time that day. How about the staff? Did you like the staff? They were so nice. They were nice. So nice. Okay. Because everybody well, you know, you go on someone's show, Ellen, the generous, and she got kind of, you know, she wasn't kind, whatever. But so you had the guest, the guest host was from 60 Minutes. Bill Whitaker. Bill Whitaker, did you like him? Yes, he was such a kind guy. Really? Yeah. And I thought he did a wonderful job hosting. Yeah. So, okay. So, but Jamie, the show starts and we know you're filming, you're not live. There's a live audience still there, right? Because I think of the way the protocols worked, it was the other contestants for the day were in the audience. So you don't even have like a real audience, which was for me, I was happy. That was okay. The show starts, you're nervous. How do you even think to push that first button? You just gear into it? I'll tell you, the buzzer is the hardest part. That's what people say. That was the hardest part. Tell us why. Because you have to time it exactly, right? You know, there's lights that come on to show you when you're able to buzz in. And of course, you know, by the time you get on Jeopardy, most everybody on the stage is going to know the answer. So it's a matter of who's buzzing in and you get locked out if you buzz in too early. If you buzz in too early, you're out. Yeah. Did that happen to you at all? For a certain amount of time, you can buzz back in after. Did that happen to you? I'm sure it did. But you wouldn't have noticed. Right. So you can't push that button. If he comes out with a first word and you know, I can tell what it's going to be about and you know the answer, you still can't do it. You've got to wait till. Right. So like at home, I'm used to screaming. Screaming out. You know, my husband is very good at trivia. So we just whoever screams it out first. So you have to be fast. So I had to change that whole approach to timing it with the buzzer. Jimmy, can I ask you what the amounts that you want each night is that something you can discuss? Yeah. So the first night, thanks to a wonderful, final Jeopardy category of classic albums, I knew that I had, I was in second. So I knew that I had to pretty much bet everything. And so I ended up with $32,200 that night. The first night. The second night at $18,000. And the third night when I came in second, the $2,000 for second place. Okay. A question you may not be able to answer and you can decline. When you get paid, do they withhold from withholding? Do they withhold or just send you the check? I have no idea. Have you got the check yet? No. Oh, so you won't know? Tell me. I'll be interested to know. Because as we know, a very famous contestant, Richard Hatch on Survivor, first winner, didn't pay his taxes. And actually, I think, I think it's sort of time if I'm not mistaken. And I think his argument was, well, he thought they were going to pay the time. I forget what it was, but I felt very bad for him. And so make sure that if they didn't withhold you. I'm sure. And I'm sure my husband will. Speaking of, I had Bob Crowley on this show who was the winner of Survivor. And it was long and the lines of time. And my partner said, what's that got to do with the law? And I said, well, he would have had a hundred page contract. I want to know what was in it. Bob Crowley came on and said, I never read it. But you got, it was, wasn't it like a hundred pages? I mean, a long contract. I don't think it was that long. But it was quite long. Yeah. Longer than I wanted to read it. And Bill read it? Yeah. Of course, you can't negotiate it. You get right back. I don't want to take this clause out. And the big thing in the clause in the contract was that you were not able to disclose anyone how you'd done. Correct. Could you tell your husband? I told Bill, but for two months, nobody else knew. You came in, you can't even wink. Right. So I had to come up with a reason that I was going to be away for a few days in the middle of a pandemic. Yes. My toddler at home. So I told people I had to go see clients in Denver. Right. It's funny because some of the other contestants, I asked them, like, so what did you tell your family? Like, what was your excuse? And they're like, oh, they just, you know, didn't ask questions because we travel. And I was like, oh, like, I leave Augusta and people want to know what's wrong. I'm just going to a TV show. I just think it's so fascinating, Jamie. And before we get to do, folks, we're going to do Jeopardy here for Big Bucks coming up. Before we do, Jamie, you have done a master's thesis on what you referred to as Little Italy here in Portland because you have Italian heritage here in Portland. Yeah. My grandmother's, my paternal grandmother, she grew up on Middle Street in the building that now houses duck fat. Right. The French fries ever. Yeah. So when I was doing my master's degree at the University of Maine, that's what I chose to focus on. And it's fascinating, especially I wrote it, geez, seven years ago now, seven or eight years ago, the research and the writing. And even then, I closed it out with an observation about how the area was changing because at the time I lived on India Street myself. Yeah. And I read what I had observed seven or eight years ago about how the neighborhood was changing. Right. I look at it now. Oh, my God. Million dollar condos. I don't even recognize it. Yeah, no, it's different. I have to say, Jamie, you and I both went to King Middle School. I was living at the Femeth Hotel just down the block here. And I had a choice to go to either King Middle School or Jack. And I just remember as a child that Jack was a fairly, I don't want to use the word tough, but it was kind of a tough neighborhood. So I opted for King, I had a walkfather. But I remember thinking, oh, geez, I don't know. I'm a small skinny kid. And I don't know if I, so I ended up going to King. And you also went to King. I did. And you went to Dering High School, where I have many friends that went. I mentioned one who just passed away a couple of days ago, tragically Paul Sol, a great athlete from there. Where did you go to? Jamie, I want to switch gears a little bit because I don't want to have any shot that we cannot do this jeopardy game. So folks, I was home and Jamie wrote me a note and said, I'll tell you what, why don't we do a little jeopardy ourselves on some rock and roll trivia. So I did some questions. And Jamie, the rules are going to be that if you match me or beat me in general trivia, then I'm going to give you some final jeopardy questions. I've written five of them out at a very high rate per question. So first of all, you can give me your first question on and then we'll go to your question. All right. What do you got? All right, Dairy, question number one. What Beatles movie released in 1965 was originally titled Eight Arms to Hold You? 65. So I'm going to say, I'm going to say, what is magical mystery tour? The answer is help. Oh my God, I was one off off. And by the way, my hard day's night was the first one. Oh my God, that was a good question. I lose on that one. I'm going to give you yours. Okay. Here we go. This petite female artist from the 50s and 60s is the only 60s rock star to reach the current number two popular song chart in December 2020 for a Christmas song that was first recorded in 1958, 62 years earlier. That would be Miss Brenda Lee with Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree. Okay, okay. You know, one to zero. Give me my next one. We all know who did Mr. Tambourine Man. But what one hit wonder sang Green Tambourine? Oh my God, I'm almost going to cry. Who are the lemon papers? You're right. I swear to God, Jamie, I heard that song just yesterday. Okay, well one for one. Here you go. Elvis's only wife, Priscilla, had this maiden name before she became Mrs. Presley in 1967. I should know this. I should know this. I think I got it. You got me. Okay, what is Borja? Okay, my number three. Here we go. Well, one for one. Number three, which member of the yard birds went on to be in Led Zeppelin? Oh my goodness. Alex, give me a minute. Led Zeppelin. I'm done. Jimmy Page. Oh, okay. Here's your third. You're going to chance to beat me here. This huge teen idol who died tragically was a member of a family portrayed on television, who had three generations of number one hits. Yet, this man is not in the rock and roll Hall of Fame. Ricky Nelson? Oh my God. I'm sorry, Jamie. It had to be in the form of a question. Who was Ricky Nelson? Jamie, you have just won two to one. We're now moving to final jeopardy. I know you got tears in your eyes and I know you're nervous. So we have... Ricky Nelson isn't in the Hall of Fame? He is not. Wow. By the way, when I was out there, they had an exhibit about him, but he was not in the Hall of Fame. Should be. Garden party is one of my favorites. So we're doing general trivia, folks. And now I am Alex Trebek. No questions for me. And this is a five-dollar question. Jamie, this suburb of Cairo is home to the world's largest man-made object and is the final burial place of Pharaoh Keops, also known as Kofu. Valley of the Kings? That would be Luxor. No, the question would have been, what is Giza? Oh, I should have had that. I need more coffee. No, you missed a five-dollar one on that one. This one is a ten-dollar question, Jamie. We're moving up the ladder here. This word, one of the longest in the dictionary, was spelled correctly such that the contestant won $64,000 in the popular yet infamous TV show, $64,000 question. What is the word? Anti-disestablishmentarianism? Jamie, you just won $10. Here we go. I swear to God, I didn't think you were going to get that one. Number three, once the world's largest cruise line, this line has the distinction of at one time having the world's largest moving object, the Queen Mary II, as well as other ships named Four Queens. What is the line? What is the name of the line? It's not the Scotia Prince. Is it the White Star Line? Did that go down with the Titanic? Well, I'm going to pay you something. You might have been okay, but we were looking for the answer. Kanad, I'm looking for the judges. No, I'm sorry. I didn't think you would know on that one, Jamie. It's just still $10. Here we go for another $10 question. This famous lawyer was part of the O.J. Simpson team, and along with F. Lee Bailey, won a quiddle for O.J. Simpson by saying, if the glove does not fit, you must acquit. It's the one, is it the guy who's somehow related to the Kardashians that I'm supposed to know? Is it Kardashian? Is that his name? No, it would be Johnny Cochran. Jamie, we're moving along here, buddy. Okay, so far you've won, was it $10? Yeah. Here we go for another $10 question. This main college was founded in 1794 and was named after the governor of Massachusetts. It's Bowden or Colby, you would join. Let's go with Bowden. Bowden College. Jamie, that is absolutely correct. Okay, this is a final Japanese question. You've now won $20. This is a $20 bonus for a total of $40. It's going to be a difficult question. This main lawyer was named the legendary lawyer by the main trial lawyers in 2017, has written two books, and has two television shows on the same channel. Who is Derry Runlut? I swear to God, that was so much fun. Tom, Tom Hindell, our station manager said, well, he'll ask a question about who's the talk show host. Jamie, that was so much fun. I want to move back to your life now. You have a two-year-old son. Bill, very active little guy. Bill, and your husband Bill works for what you said is main care, which is a big job. He's kind of a lawyer for main care, right? No, he's not a lawyer for main care, but he's seen management there. Management in terms of main care, but did practice with law firm Erwin Tadde and Morris, very good lawyers. And when you went to college, when did you go to college? The Catholic University of America. Oh, you did? Yep, in D.C. And when you were there, what did you major in? I did politics with a concentration in American government, and I minored in philosophy, and minored in theology and religious studies. I was also a government major at Bowdoin. Many pre-law people think that you should be a government to be a lawyer, but actually it doesn't matter. And did you like your government courses? I did, yes. I did an internship with Senator Ed Muskie in 1967, just before he ran for the vice presidency of the United States. And I enjoyed it down there in D.C. Did you like it there? I liked it to go to college. I am not a city person per se, so I did not stay down there to live and work, but I loved Catholic University and the campus and the cultural opportunities in D.C., you know, being able to go to the Smithsonian on the weekend in the National Gallery. That was absolutely amazing. Well, I enjoyed it. This was 1967. They had riots there that year, but I remember back then, folks, you could walk around the Capitol. There was no security. You could walk into the Senate. You could show them a card. They walk around. Anywhere you wanted to go, you could stop by Senator's offices and say hello to your friends. It was a wonderful, indeed, a wonderful summer. Did you think you were going to go into law or something, some sort of government service? I thought that I would probably go into politics, either as an aide or something like that, and I did work at the State House for several years, but now I'm primarily... What did you do at the State House? I was a legislative aide and then I was the communications director for a short time. You were? Yep. And then I've been working for myself for five years now. And what are you doing now? Primarily writing and some consulting on social media and things like that. And when you do your scrabble tournaments, I think you said to me, I said, well, you're a champion and you were so humble about it, well, I'm not really a champion. And I said, well, how do you stand in the state of Maine? I think you said you're the number two player in the state of Maine. Out of, I think, four. So I'm right there in the middle. But still, I'm impressed because I do national track. And when you go to a national event, it's special, isn't it? I mean, you feel like you're part of something special. I want to get back to jeopardy as we close. When you were on the show, would you say that you had, at that moment, the greatest possible adrenaline rush that a person could get? Or were you just like in the moment? I would say it's a combination. I was so terrified to be on TV. You were terrified. I was so excited, but I was also absolutely terrified. You watched yourself since then. Yeah. When you watched yourself, did you think that you looked terrified? I don't know. It's hard to tell because I knew that I was, so. But yeah, I mean, I think I had an adrenaline rush with the final question on the first night once I saw that classic albums come up. So this is, this way you sound like a stupid question. But for me, I would have had a difficult time after winning that first night to not go out and celebrate. You didn't go out and start drinking a lot. You have, I had about 10 or 15 minutes before they filmed the next one. Oh, so you're doing it, you're doing it 10 minutes later. Yeah. So you don't have all night long to go home and sleep. No. Oh my god, right? I went home, I went off, you know, went off stage, changed my sweater, fixed my hair, went back on. And so won the second match within 50 and 20 minutes after the first one. Yep. And then you did the third one. Right after that, yeah. So it was all in one afternoon. So you were all done in the afternoon. Yep. Did you sleep well that night? Yes, I did. You did. Especially knowing that you were doing $50,000. That made it easier. $50,000 richer. Yes. So Jamie, when I pay you today, I want you to do what you want with this huge amount of money that I'm going to give you. But if you give the money to charity, you can say to people, I went on two quiz shows and on one of them, I gave my entire winnings to charity. Jamie, I cannot thank you enough for coming here today. I've done a lot of shows. I've had some famous people on here, including Brenda Lee and Effley Bailey. And you just fulfilled the dream for me. So now I don't have to go on jeopardy. I just have to listen to how you, a good time that you had. So ladies and gentlemen, thank you for watching me on five. And Jamie, thank you so much for being such a champion. All right. Thank you, Dary. It's been a pleasure.