>> on these sorts of issues, and they would simply not give way. now, some of the commentary that you hear about issues like the anti-lynching law which came up, senator robert wagner of new york wrote about it year after year after year, and either it got a threat of a filibuster or a filibuster would defeat it. the commentary is that, um, even though the idea of an anti-lynching law actually was very popular, opinion polls showed a majority of americans in favor of it even in the

south, you did have this on door rate clique or bloc in the senate that was determined to fight it and prevent it from happening. and you did not have a countervailing passion on the side of getting it done. now, the naacp in this encounter that i talked about a few minutes ago, they went to the white house, and they said you will be able to defeat the threat of a filibuster if you make the indiana-lynching bill -- anti-lynching bill an administration bill. it was a procedural stab, and it would have made it much harder for the filibuster to take place. roosevelt did not have a personal equipment to racial equality or civil rights. that role in the administration, as i'm sure you know, was played by eleanor roosevelt and, by the way, harold ickes who had been

the president of the chicago chapper of the naacp. and it was ickes and eleanor who got marilyn anderson to sing in front of the memorial which was in my book. that was the first moment in which you could see this commitment by the federal government to that sort of racial equality. interestingly enough, if you go back and you look at contemporary commentary by black or negro writers as, you know, the accepted term was then, before the 1936 election, um, the crisis which was the house organ of the naacp and had been founded by w.e.b. duboise sort of issued a judgment about the four candidates running for president in 1936. and that was ralph landon, the republican, fdr, the democrat. norman thomas as the socialest

and earl broader as the communist candidate. and for the negro in america if we had to choose, the best choice for us would be, first, earl browder and second, norman thomas. but we recognize that they have very little chance of getting elected, so among the other two we're going to go with roosevelt. all right? but it is true, and it is sort of a reproach to the new deal that they did not take that, they didn't take racial politics very seriously at the time. last question. >> yes. raised about eleanor roosevelt. how influential was she in regards to the new deal and the politics involved? >> well, in most respects she was -- the question is about eleanor roosevelt and her influence on the new deal. in most respects we have to say she was a peripheral figure.

she was not involved in any of the major initiatives, even social security. she was, she was pursuing her own agenda, and one might almost say that when she did have an influence, it was a negative influence. and that was in the creation of resettlement communities, particularly a community in west virginia called arthurdale. eleanor roosevelt had this idea where she'd been inculcated with this idea that if you could import farmers to an ideal, collective community, provide them with cows and barns, schools for the children, houses, that you would be able to create something. and arthurdale was in the poorest of the poor sections. it was in the depths of the coal mining districts. the land was not very good, but this was the first lady's project. so it got a lot of funding.

and it was under harold ickes who really hated it. [laughter] and, in fact, it was pretty much a disaster. the government overspent on the houses, they imported houses for the coal district from new england that turned out to not be insulated and department fit in the foundations -- and didn't fit in the foundations. the government spent $10,000 per family when the budget was really 2,000. they wanted the give every family a cow before they realized that most of these families had never milked a cow. [laughter] and they create -- they built a schoolhouse for the children of these imported farm families, and they staffed it with exponents of the latest in progressive education only for the farm families to discover that their kids weren't learning how to read, write and do arithmetic. so it all sort of came apart. it lasted about five years. but it existed because of the

first lady. on the other hand, she really was a beacon on civil rights. um, the whole marion anderson controversy which started when marion anderson, great black operatic soprano, american soprano was on a single tour. -- singing tour. she came to washington, she was supposed to sing at i think it's freedom hall in washington which was owned by the daughters of the american revolution which had a policy of whites only l. on their stage. eleanor roosevelt was a member of the dir. this controversy sort of simmered for several months, and then she wrote a letter, and she resigned from the dar. that put it on the front page. one of the most magnificent cultural moments, i think, in american history was marian and orson singing "america" from a makeshift stage in front of the

lincoln memorial to 50,000 people. and really sort of certified that hope for everybody was a part of this administration. thank you for coming. [applause] >> for more information and to read the author's column, visit latimes.com and search michael hiltzik. >> next, from knoxville, tennessee, authors fred brown and jean mcdonald talk about their book, "growing up southern." >> the title of your book is "growing up southern: how the south shapes its writers." so my first question is, how does the south shape its writers? >> we asked that question to the people we interviewed. what makes a southern writer,

and is a southern writer any different from, say, a writer out west or in the east or something like that. and most said that the writers in the south may not be, you know, they classify themselves as writers per se. they view themselves as southern writers because they live in the south, but they're americans nonetheless, you know? they're very american, very southern. but place is a big thing with southern writers, place, home, people, that sort of thing whereas the west may be writing big, larger -- writers may write larger on larger themes and everything. the south seems to be a little more compact. at least these writers that we interviewed, all who were born before world war ii, that was sort of their definition of it. yes, i'm a southern writer, but i'm an american too, as well. i write about southern themes that all americans can

appreciate and enjoy. when we interviewed, um, shelby foote, the great southern writer and author from memphis, we asked schell by that -- shelby that same question about being a southern writer and what is it about the south that makes a writer southern? and shelby says, um, you know, when he was a child and he got into, say, a fistfight or something, he says, you know, the fights you lose are the ones you remember. and, of course, the south was on the losing end of the -- as we say the war between the states or the civil war. and that's the one we remember. and you write about those stories. it creates tension. the south was wrong in that war, but it didn't think it was. and so we have a built-in kind

of tension already in our lives. most of the southerners my age, jeannie's age, that generation that we interviewed recall readily, you know, the civil war and have had either grand participants or great grandparents that they could recall having either met, talked to, heard. in shelby's case, he even interviewed some of the civil war veterans when he was a youngster. so it's that presence of mind, that connection to the land, the people, our history that creates all this tension, i think, in the south, or it did, or it does. and, um, we tend to write about that. >> there's a funny anecdote about shelby when we went to his house. we drove to memphis from knoxville, and he lived in this house which sort of looked like an old mansion. i guess it was an old mansion.

>> it was, yeah. [laughter] >> and we came in this creaky gate, and shelby looked out of a second story window and said, good morning, i'll be right down in this wonderful southern accent. so i was looking around the garden, it was all grown over, weeds, um, there was a fountain there covered with moss, and when he came down i said, i love your garden, it's just wonderful. and he said, it's in disarray now. the man who took care of it has left. and i said, i'm sure he'll be back. he said, no, i believe he shot a man. [laughter] that's, i mean, a lot of southerners are so matter of fact and just accepting of things like that. and there's a real closeness to, say, grandparents and people who themselves were storytellers. and a lot of, a lot of the southern writers said that as children the old people told them their stories and asked --

and then they'd say, you tell me your story which made them think even more about their lives and growing up in the south. >> how do you respond to the criticism that people may say that southern writers or just the south is too caught up in the past? >> well, i think it's like shelby said. you know, that war that we lost is the one you remember. and that's the one that southerners write a lot about. but when we interviewed, um, was it bexie cox, but lee smith -- >> lee smith -- >> and doris bet, they told us that, yeah, the students today have a different south that they're writing about. they teach, they teach at the university of north carolina. and those students may come up and write stories that are very

southern, and yet their places are like in the great, these strip malls and the cities that have changed dramatically since i was born, since jeannie was born and since those authors were born that we write about in this book, "growing up southern." but it's still a southern theme. those southern tensions are there. and i think shelby was really right about this overall picture of how southerners do, are very close to their history. we're very close to our family is big in the south as is extended family. i have a newspaper friend who says we're all cousins in the south anyway. and i think to a serb extent -- to a certain extent that that's kind of true. we may be looking back, but our writers for the most part write,

i mean, you can read william faulkner today and be just as stunned by what he's saying today as they were in the '30s when he was writing his great, wonderful novels about the south and the path. the south of his great grandfathers and which was the civil war. you can read those stories today and be just as moved by those same themes as the readers of the '30s, '40s. i don't know that we always looking in the past. i know that the past has shaped us. as faulkner says, the past is not dead, it's not even past, you know? i think we're haunted by what happened in the past and how we came through that as a people, you know? it made us stronger. i, for one, think that we're vastly better off and stronger for having gone through the

civil rights movement, you know, the civil war, civil rights movement. and now i think today if you look at the south, we're very -- i think we're very forward, and i think we've been bressed to -- blessed to have had some of the writers who we have had such as willie morrison and others to really help us reflect what happened to us here. >> next, jeopardy champion ken jennings presents a history of cartography and examines the ways that maps are used today. this is about 40 minutes. [applause] are. >> thank you. that's very kind. thank you. can you hear me okay? is it okay? the thanks for coming out. this is a lot of people.

i have been to elliot books many times, but i've never seen this part. i got to go through some offices, and i was like, where are we? [laughter] anyway, it's nice to see you guys. i am ken jennings. um, i think what we'll do is i'll talk a little bit about the book, and then i don't know how this is going to go, but i want to do a an impromptu trivia quiz, and it's pretty fun to turn it into a game show. [laughter] we're going to do a little geography quiz show, and we'll do some q&a, and then i'll sign some books and, hopefully, it will not be as long as it sounds because when i go to book signings, i sort of like it when the author errs on the side of getting me home in time for -- >> jeopardy. [laughter] >> is there any other jokes i can't finish? [laughter] just yell it out, you know? i'll just set 'em up, and you

guys can knock 'em down. [laughter] hi, my name's ken, the book's called "maphead." it sort of sounds like a 12-step thing, but it's true. i am a fan of maps in all their forms. maybe in here tonight, anybody here a maphead? do you guys want to share my little creed? my name is, your name here with initial. and i'm a maphead. [laughter] the book was sort of borne out of an experience i had a couple years ago going through my parents' garage which is a huge, huge pile of books. i know everybody's parents' garage is a huge pile of box, but my parents' garage is huge. and my mom had said they'd just found, like, one more box of mine. so i was going through the pile trying to find it, and i opened it up, and i was pulling stuff up, and it was like a time capsule of high school and my childhood. it was, like, comic books and mixed tapes. some of you people won't know what that is, mixed tapes.

[laughter] and at the bottom there was one heavy thing left. it was this big old green hammond world atlas, 1978. and it was this weird moment for me. i hadn't seen it, it was like finding your beloved stuffed animal at the bottom of a box or something because this thing is in a very meaningful childhood companion for me. i saved up all my allowance when i was 7 or 8 to buy this atlas because i could look at maps for hours, i would, you know, read atlases for pleasure the way, you know, a more normal kid would be reading clifford the big, red dog or whatever. i'd be paging through the atlas. and it was just this amazing moment of connection to see this again after so much time. and i realized that i'd spent many of the years since then sort of in the closet, as it were, as a maphead because you realize very quickly as you get older that liking geography a lot is not, like, a hit with girls, for one thing. with the opposite sex, let me

put it that way. or the same sex, whichever. [laughter] and you realize socially it's off a liability and not an asset. and it's sort of a love that dares not speak its name. people don't talk a lot about how much they just love looking at maps. but as i started writing the book, people would ask me what i was working on, and i'd sort of apologetically say -- and this is to friends -- it's a book about maps and be people who like maps. like that would really justify any kind of advance. they'd be like, what? it was amazing how many people were like, oh, i love maps, are you kidding? and many people would sort of be like, oh, i love maps, you know? [laughter] like they were also aware of the social costs of being a bit of a cartophile. i remember in college having a roommate that coming into our apartment at the beginning of a new she'ser and having a new roommate, a geeky canadian guy named sheldon, and he already

had up -- the walls were just papered with national geographic maps. and i had spent my childhood looking at national geographic maps. i should have been over the moon. i was, like, we are never going to see a girl in here. [laughter] i just became the second least attractive person in this environment. [laughter] very exciting for me. but i was not really true to my maphead roots, and writing this book was a real pleasure because i did get to meet with a lot of different people who have these sort of geographically geeky, for back of a better word, hobbies. map libraries, the library of congress is very cool, it's like three football fields of map cabinets, 9,000 cap nets just full of -- cabinets just full of maps. here's a map of a plantation of virginia. george washington drew it. you know? [laughter] like he could do the most amazing treasure-trove.

hung out with people who are using the gps revolution to -- i mean, they're using the mull by billion -- multibillion dollar satellites to find tupperware hidden in the woods. [laughter] it's actually a pacific west creation. the company is in free month now. fremont now. who else did i get to hang out with? the national geographic bee kids. washington, by the way, has won more national geographic bees than any other state, represent washington. these kids were amazing. they're, like, middle school, and when i did a little geography quiz with them, there's a girl in redmond who won the bee, and just for fun i gave her a list of geography questions some of which i'd gotten right, some of which i hadn't gotten right, and she smoked me. she got one wrong, i'd gotten half of them wrong. kids are amazing. and i started to see as i hung out with people like this,

people who were into maps, road geeks who were obsessed with the interstate system, systematic travelers who had a lifelong checklist of places they must step one toe in and then, you know, head back to the airport. the thing these people all had in common that occurred to me was they're explorers. they were modern day explorers. they were born in a world that for better or worse is already explored. let's face it, maps are not quite as fun as they used to be when there were big white spaces full of seaer is pents and cannibals. they're the places that suck, you know? there's a reason why a place gets left blank on the map. [laughter] and, you know, these are people. the things we map now, when we talk about mapping now, we're mapping the stars, we're mapping the human genome, but these are people who clearly miss a time when you could map something that would surround you, a territory, a location, a place

you could explore. so they reinvent exploration by making old places new, you know? they hide tupperware in city parks endlessly, and they draw maps of new, fantastic places, and they, you know, lose themselves in the contours of antique maps if they're collectors. these are sort of the equivalent of modern day explorers, and it was fascinating to spend a little time with them. i'm going to read a short segment, again, short. this is a part of the reading when i'm in your chairs i think always drags a bit, so -- i'm not going to speed read, but this is a brief section from chapter 4. this is actually the part where i'm hanging out at the library of congress with the map library, and it's about the place names on maps which have always sort of held a special appeal for me. as long as i've loved maps, aye been enthusiastic, a student of place names. maps that aren't dotted with text are barren and lonely to me.

with only a few sad ears of corn drawn on. these are the abominations that make kids hate geography. names are the infusion that bring a map to life. there may be poetry in the curl of a coastline, but there's personality in a oaxaca, mexico. in the 1570 atlas the imaginary continue nept was named with cape of the good signal and sweet earth river. no one had been to these nonexistent places, but, hey, it was either that or leave a land map suspiciously naked. i see obsolete map labels like british honduras. i've never been to these countries, but their names are as direct a copped wit to my childhood as the piano line from an air supply song. i plan my vacations around

places like land fair -- [inaudible] wales. that's all one word. st. mary's church near to the rapid whirlpool as every trivia fan should know and make sure to get my picture taken to the blocklong sign. names don't have to be long to be memorable, you could spend months in britain. scratchy bottom, wet wang. [laughter] in an american road atlas, roadside history cheesequake, new jersey. ding dong, texas. [laughter] and most of these places came by their names honestly. goose pimple. cheesequake means up one village. ding dong, texas, is located in bell county. but sometimes such names seem a

little too good to be true because they are. take that 58-letter welsh village. i'm not going to say it again. in the 1960s an enterprising tailor concocted a longer name to bring in tourest revenue. perhaps the town needed to buy a vowel. sometimes a contest-winning name sticks. the former hot springs, new mexico, is still called truth or consequences. the former positivechunk, pennsylvania, will probably be called jim thorpe as long as the olympian is buried there. half.com, oregon, went back to halfway, oregon. such gimmicky name swaps have always -- [inaudible] would you sell ad space on the side of mount rushmore? so i applauded in 2005 when a

tiny hamlet in kentucky turned down an offer. the town didn't coton the to that -- cotton to that internet gambling. money mad,.com. there's a butt hole road in south josh she. yorkshire. was a big draw when he first moved there, he couldn't believe the previous openers were moving out, but the novelty soon wore off thanks to skeptical delivery drivers, bus loads of tourists posing for photos while mooning the street signs. water butt located long ago, but in 2009 the neighbors collected the 300 pound fee, and the city changed the name to archer's way. it's hard for america to understand the patriotism. we're a young country, we're accustomed to everything else revolving around us, so we can

afford to let slide that, say, the gulf of mexico isn't called the gulf of america. although according to the library of congress, that is the pet issue of one complainant. if america ferrera announced tomorrow she was changing her first name to canada, we'd be okay with it. but elsewhere in the world it's national identity. sea of japan blacked out on the asian maps and the traditional korean name east sea hand lettered below. the republic of maas done that, historically macedonia was a region of ancient greece. the hottest rhetoric has come out of, surprise, iran after the 2004 edition of the national geographic to the world added to the persian gulf a parenthetical reading, arabian gulf. iran went bonkers. the oil dollars of certain arab

governments -- [inaudible] all national geographic publications and journalists were banned from iran. resourceful internet users sent national geographic thousands of e-mails, left hundreds of reviews, and even gool bombed the phrase, arabian gulf. so it's now a mock error page reading the gulf you are looking for does not exist. [laughter] try persian gulf. national geographic finally issued a correction, but tensions in the gulf are still running high over the issue. iran created the national persian gulf day every april, canceled the 2010 islamic solidarity games and has even threaten today ban any airline that doesn't use the right name on it display board. the closest american equivalent to this kind of pride is the way we used to convert insider or outsider status in our communities. woe unto the manhattan tourist who asks where avenue of the americas is.

like the city in texas. in my neck of the woods, the magic names are the -- [inaudible] and -- [inaudible] a retired mecca on the peninsula. to pronounce these names the way they're spelled is to insult one's self as a tourist or worse, california transplant. [laughter] i could tell you the correct pronunciation, but then under washington law, i'd have to kill you. [laughter] you'll have to imagine that being read. the one thing that struck me while writing the book is although the headlines about geography are sort of scary ones about how many percent of college students can't find canada on the map or can't find their butt with both hand -- [laughter] the fact that those headlines exist is a sign that deep down some part of our culture agrees that geographic knowledge is

important. there's this vast, untapped amount of goodwill towards geography, and i like to think, i like to think there's signs that we're living maybe in some new golden age for maps, you know? is that maybe in the age of google earth and, you know, realtime mapping of traffic and weather and smartphones that'll show you on a map where your friends are in realtime and, you know, all the amazing mapping innovations of the last ten years. after, frankly, maps have been about the same for centuries, but this will create some new golden age where maps appear to be as exciting and sex i to the average person as they, for whatever reason, always appeared to me. that's my hope, anyway, that's the hope of "maphead." should we do a little geography quiz show here? what do you guys think? >> yeah. >> here's my plan. we're going to see how this works. i have here in my magic bag. i also have this coveted item, ken jennings bobblehead. [laughter]

extremely rare due to the utter lack of demand for this. [laughter] but there's actually, you know how people say their nonexistent girlfriend is from canada? this was made in canada as a promotional item a few years ago for a trivia game. again, no one wanted them but me, but the result is, i have a garage full. [laughter] and i think for anyone who answers a question right, i asked my wife what kind of candy we should have for a geography quiz, and she's like, nerds. that's very sweet, thank you. [laughter] so i think my plan here insofar as i have one, i've done this before, and it works pretty well. i'm just going to shout out some questions. if you know the answer, shout it out. if you're quick, there's going to be a nerds aimed at your head. so this is not the time of sleep. this is the time you've got to

be alert. the questions are going to get harder. after we do a short number of these, we'll see if room and me together can sense who our most gifted geographically people have been during the preliminaries, and we'll get a few finalists up here to do a final round, how about that? okay. for example, i would read a question like this, and you would yell out the answer. it wouldn't necessarily be hard. in what state is lake oak choke? i heard it over here first. don't try out my arm. you don't have to answer in the form of a question. [laughter] you guys are already skipping jeopardy by being here tonight. alex showed up at a signing somewhere, like you used barnes & noble in manhattan, and this lady being outraged like, why are you here? who's hosting yepty? [laughter] everything's under control.

what country's longest river is the loire? >> france. >> i don't know, i heard it over here again first.oo right here? [inaudible] which canadian province is wild rose country? >> alberta. >> oh, it was over here somewhere, wasn't it? beardhead? >> thanks for the cooperation. until 1995, what was the english name of india's most popular city -- >> [inaudible] [laughter] >> i hear bombay and call cut that. calcutta. >> it's actually bombay. the current mumbai is -- does anybody want to know if there's really a doctor of bombay here? i heard it here somewhere. thank you for not getting hit in the head. i don't know what the liabilities are. in what country are, as soon as you know it you can yell it

biak, bali -- >> india. >> i hear someone, right? very nice. if you just scaled a 3,000 foot el captain, what national park?? >> quote mite.? >> oh -- yosemite. >> oh, over here somewhere. british airways. travel north from nearly anywhere in texas, what state do you enter first? is no one's lost an eye yet, this is going very well, i think. [laughter] what is your tallest sol cato -- anyone want to try it? where was it, over here? right here. but i didn't want, i didn't miss that. two correct answers. just so you know, the judges are keeping ab eye on you -- an eye on you. what country's most important seaport is basra? >> iraq. >> i heard it over here somewhere first.

will you go, sir. thanks for coming out. those or were sort of tough. this is where we separate the -- is there a -- [inaudible] which have the nations of the former yugoslavia is now a member of the e.u.? >> slow vienna. >> oh, right here. where are palmerland? way in the back, here we go. [laughter] one row -- hopefully -- [inaudible] what city cities beneath -- [inaudible] or sugar loaf? >> [inaudible] >> front row, very nice. terrible throw. that is not an error on the play. cleveland, ohio, sits on which of the great lakes? >> eri e. >> somebody here was quick. you again, sir.

yeah, you don't want to be sitting by him. i feel your pay. what canadianer the tore has a name meaning our land? knew it over here somewhere first. to you again, sir. oh, there's a rebellion over here. was somebody over here first? [laughter] [inaudible] the dardanelles connect thecx mediterranean with what other -- >> black sea. >> yeah, black sea somewhere here. again, very nice. [inaudible conversations] 75! >> we are jeopardy co-conspirators. i don't know, seattle's best, i live outside the city limits. in the house tonight, tom, how you doing? thanks for coming. [cheers and applause]

>> i haven't gotten any of the questions yet. [laughter] >> on jeopardy, you play for money instead of nerds, you would do very well. [laughter] name any one of the lesser antilles or abc eye -- islands. >> aruba. >> somebody said aruba. glasses? that's a better throw than last time, and i almost killed you. what island did the natives call -- [inaudible] >> i'll take credit. >> you two fight over i. the world's largest desert is not the sahara. >> antarctica. technically speaking, that guy's going to be eating nerds all night. the definition of a desert is, you know, scientifically nothing but amount of presip take, and

it's too cold there. there's not a lot of presip on antarctica. what island lies due south of -- >> [inaudible] >> back there somewhere. oh, whoa. [laughter] will you pass that back to hong kong? [laughter] i'm starting to get a pretty good sense of who our finalist are going to be. we'll do a couple more. what country's most famous tourist attraction is -- [inaudible] >> i heard jordan. one of my friends i found out was a bit of a map nerd. >> what's the largest cup by area in africa -- country by air in africa? >> sudan. >> last question, what specific country's largest island is -- [inaudible] >> someone said fiji. somebody said fiji.

in the back, it is fiji. here we go.?? [laughter] go deep!! think our finalists have probably got to be right here at least, probably right there, sir. anybody want to, like -- yeah, maybe right here. we've got two. these are people that got multiple one. you're, obviously, very good, sir. there were many, many -- so why don't you come on up. let's hear it for our three finalists here. [applause] i guess this mic doesn't really move, so tell me your name starting on the end. >> chris. >> where are you from, chris? >> spokane originally. >> and now living in the area. you didn't come all the way for this? >> thanks for coming. >> cliff from mountainview, california. >> you drove all the way up for this? >> i flew, but, yeah. >> i work for google.

>> i thought you might. [laughter] guy from mountainview, like, answers map questions like he's seen the answers. [laughter] probably works for google and may have it on his smartphone right now. [laughter] okay, when you guys -- i'm going to read the question slowly. when you know the answer, say your name, establish who's first, and then give the answer. and you guys keep score. we're going to do ten questions here. here's your first question. early explorers also called the platte river by the name -- yes. >> i'm sorry. >> it's the i'm sorry river. >> it's in nebraska. >> the answer is actually by nebraska. it is the nebraska river, very nice. and when i say very nice, i mean you just lucked out. [laughter] so one point here in the middle for frank, right? okay. what country's largest cities are concepcion -- >> chile. >> that's right.

[laughter] [inaudible] just in case, say your name before you say the answer. question three. what u.s. state has a capital city with a -- >> salt lake. >> [inaudible] >> say it. in some order, that's the right answer. you guys feel like you're still in this against frank? frank, you don't by chance work for microsoft, do you? >> no, i don't. [laughter] you. >> you saw what i was trying to do there, right? it department work. [laughter] what name is shared by the tallest mountain in cypress and greece. >> [inaudible] >> correct. chris on the board. frank's reign of terror may be over. [laughter] which was the only one of the 13 original u.s. states not to touch the atlantic? >> cliff, pennsylvania. >> pennsylvania, very good. you are on the board.

1-3-1. anybody stands at the house. which african country officially administered the enclave of kabinda? >> morocco. >> it's not. no penalty. you guys want to take it? there's no penalty for a wrong answer. >> sudan. >> algeria? >> angola. just north of angola. question seven, the island of -- [inaudible] is the northernmost extent of what mountain -- >> [inaudible] >> oh, chris is in first. >> russia. >> it's not -- [laughter] of what mountain range. i beg you, keep your answers to yourself. [laughter] we've got 1-4-1. was that question seven? you two could tie, there's no correct answer to --

[inaudible] sorry. i don't want you to question your math there, but -- [laughter] that means you two can tie at this point. you need to answer every remaining question correctly. this is tough. i could not have answered this before i looked it up on the way here. which of the countries in central asia is completely surrounded by the others? >> i think -- [inaudible] >> [inaudible] >> it is not azerbaijan. you were next. >> i would say uzbekistan. >> that is correct. what gulf, please, ladies and gentlemen, keep your answers to yourself. what gulf is -- >> chris. >> chris. the gulf of california. >> correct. 3-4-1. how many world nations have the word, "guinea" in their names? >> cliff, two. >> that's not correct. >> chris, three. >> three is not correct.

it is four. [cheers and applause] very nicely done, you guys. very impressive. i was going to give you the rest of the nerds, but there's only one left. we'll do one more question. in what state is the yazoo river? >> mississippi. >> i heard it up here first. frank. i tried, you guyses, i tried to help you. let's give these guys a big happened. [cheers and applause] very impressive, very impressive. we're going to do a little -- does anybody have any questions i did not get to in the thing? what are the four guineas? guinea, guinea -- [inaudible] new guinea. i don't know what the hard one is there. i think they're all the hard ones. any questions that are not about

countries with guinea in the name? is. >> how's your -- [inaudible] >> yeah, she's sort of famous. i mentioned in a jacket copy, i have a lab doer retriever who is getting more stable with age, so, you know, the same thing that is sort of sad in your grandpa is pretty awesome in our dogs. any other questions? >> tell us about your education. >> about my education. i sort of screwed off a lot in school, and i'm still a huge success. [laughter] no, that's -- that's not what you want to hear, am i right? i was originally from the seattle area, but we moved overseas when i was 7 or 8, my dad got a job in a law firm in korea. i went to universal school in seoul, korea. i have a degree in english and computer science. i live a very happy english major who decided it would be nice to pay the bills from time

to time. the joke i heard was what's the difference between a large pizza and an english major? the pizza can feed a family of four. [laughter] so i got a double major and was working as a programmer when i got the call to be on jeopardy. i, actually, thanks to jeopardy i do have a second chance, i'm a writer now using that english degree. >> did you actually know the answer to the last question and were just tired of -- >> did i actually know the answer to the last question on jeopardy? identify got to say, it's like the worst conspiracy theory ever. i don't know if you've ever quit a job where you're getting 60k an hour -- [laughter] a lot of people have told me that have an easy question. if you were going to tell me that after, save some time, i've heard it. [laughter] but they're all easy if you know them, and they're never easy if

you don't, i guess. no matter what i say, you knew that. i promise, i didn't want. lee harvey oswald acted alone. i did not, i did not throw jeopardy, i promise. [laughter] too much respect for mr. trebek to ever do that. [laughter] any other questions? >> [inaudible] >> yeah, i do live in the area, actually. i am local. >> are you an -- [inaudible] >> am i allow today go back to jeopardy? it's only one to a customer. i didn't see who asked. it's sort of one to a customer. you get one loss, and that's it. i guess it's possible. i got to go back last year when ibm had the evil supercomputer, so i guess it's possible at some future point that google will teach dolphins how to play jeopardy. of. [laughter] and then i will be back. there was a hand up over here. >> do you have any good

recommendations for ken -- [inaudible] >> i've actually been working on a little something. that was going to be the second reading. no, but you may be the first person ever to mention flash fiction on c-span. [laughter] yeah. >> i'm going to make you offend some people here. do you use mapquest, google mapping? is. >> are you asking if i bing? i always see bumper stickers asking if i bing? who here will be offended if i say i do not bing or use wing as a -- bing as a verb? all these technologies are great, and i pretty much only use google. [laughter] yes. >> i'm on my school's knowledge bowl team. what tips do you have for retaining the most knowledge possible? >> tips for a knowledge bowl team member. um, you know, when people ask me, like, how do you know all that stuff, i always feel like i don't have a good answer, like,

i don't have a system or, you know, a tie-in book of mine with my picture that i can direct them to. i think most jeopardy people would say they got on the show not via any kind of system or weekend of cramming or anything but just from a lifetime of sort of being a curious person. you know? very aware of the country around them. the other stuff just goes in one ear and out the other. rurally, somehow, whatever the secret is makes them interested in if everything. i don't know the way to cultivate that. always have something to connect it to. you know, whatever you hear you'll want to know it, you'll probably like things in your head to tie it on to. it won't go through the cracks. let's have time for just a couple more questions. yes, right here. >> i have a question. i noticed the -- [inaudible] and i understand in the geography nationals it's predominantly boys as opposed to the spelling bee which is

predominantly girls. do you have any observation on that? >> he's asking about, you know, the possibility of a gender gap in geography knowledge and map reading. if you've ever heard any stand-up comedian, you know this has been fodder for monologues for decades, you know, the idea that women can't read maps and men can't ask for directions. the national geographic is a little more concerned than, say, some crappy stand-up. they've actually commissioned research as to why this is because there is a big gap in their finals. the year i went there, um, there were two girls and 50-odd boys. this is not ideal for them market wise. they would like to think that geography can appeal to anyone, and the year i went was at the time the two least popular states, alaska and wyoming, were the two girls what they've found is they were sort of hoping to find an explanation, the girls get more nervous. they found there is a small but

measurable gap between the boys and girls they get trying out. and they're not sure why that is. it doesn't necessarily mean that the brains are wired differently, although i guess that's a possibility. the brain chemistry might be different from birth. we treat our boys and girls very differently from birth. even as little tiny babies, we today the boys around more. they experience spaces and locations more at a young age, throughout childhood we let them explore more. it's possible we are sending cues to our kids that you, the boys, will be interested in exploring places. and you, the girls, will not. that's the state of the research right now. >> thanks. >> in the back. >> yeah, thanks. seems to me, i could be wrong, that nowadays geography just doesn't have the same -- [inaudible] that it used to back, you know, 30 years ago when i was, you know, in school.

[inaudible] what can be done to correct that? because i think you said that, um, 40% of college students in the u.s. didn't even know where canada was? >> [inaudible] [laughter] things like that happen all the time, i'm sure. he's asking about geography education, um, and, you know, if that's taken a hit in recent years. is it like a thousand three degrees in here? [laughter] the answer is, yes, for a couple reasons. the main reason especially the primary, primary and secondary education in the '70s the social studies movement happened where they thought, why don't kids get some of our stuff too? they could have anthropology and economics and civics, political science, whatever other social sciences there are. and so there's the final tradition of teaching geography from a map in the front of the classroom which we now associate old time '50s school marms.

it got replaced by social studies. the u.s. is now, from what i've read, is if only country in the developed world where a kid can go from preschool to graduating with a master's and never crack a geography textbook. obviously, there have been good thing toss come out of the social studies revolution, there have also been some cost. when we stack up to the other countries in terms of geographic hit rassi, we are in ex-to last. thank you, mexico. [laughter] no developed nations do great. they're all sort of surprisingly bad when you look at how many people -- even someplace awesome. how many people in sweden can't find the pacific ocean on a map. it's higher than you would like. but the u.s. is much worse off than most, say japan, most of the european countries in the developed world. so it's a problem. and i think gps, things like gps might make it worse. we're not even going to open a map. we have a talking box that tells us where to turn.

and occasionally you see reports of people turning onto railroad tracks or rivers. we have time for just a couple more questions. we'll take one more question, he says. it's got to be were the than all the other questions -- better than all the other questions put together. who feels confident? okay, you're confident. >> other than going through the library of congress, are you able to go through any of the other ancient maps in other countries?on >> do i go through ancient maps. i did to some degree, i went to the london map fair which is very cool. it's sort of the leading place to buy and sell antique maps in europe. and the cool thing is they hold it in the old royal geographic society which is close today tourists most of the year. but it's where all of the great explorers in the age of guys in pith helmets came back. they financed robert scott's expedition to the pole and, you know, stanleylying son, all this stuff happened there. so that was very cool and

beautiful maps, obviously. and another favorite place of mine, i was talking about in the with a friend the other day, the map gallery in the vatican palaces in rome. i don't know if you've ever been through the vatican, but there's this beautiful mural and ginormous maps of every region of italy lining the walls. and i guess this was the antiroom when audiences for the pope would be waiting to see him, and the idea was they would be imtim dated by the pope's earthly realm. so, yeah, i'm a sucker for old maps. it really does, you know, it's something -- new maps are beautiful, but just to look at maps and be reminded of how many people sacrificed or probably lost their lives so in this coastline could be drawn more accurately, it's a very powerful thing to me. i'd like to thank you all for coming out tonight. i'm going to sign books as long as there are books to be signed. i really appreciate you coming. i want to thank elliot bay books for putting this together.

great, great job. thank you so much. [applause] >> for more information visit the author's web site, ken-jennings.com. >> next, jack neely, local author of knoxville, tennessee, this obscure city, takes booktv on a city of the literary history of knoxville. >> james agey is one of knoxville's best known writers. he was best known as a film critic and a screenwriter. he wrote the screenplay for "the african queen," for which he was nominated for an oscar. and as a journalist, he wrote a book which is still landmark in american journalism about sharecroppers in alabama in the 1930s. but when he died suddenly at the age of 45 of a heart attack in a new york taxi cab, and at the

time of his death it was discovered that he had left a huge body of work, more or less memoirs, but it was about his early life and the death of his father. and it was published as a death in the family. he won the pulitzer prize as a novel in 1957 after agee's death and has been made into several, several films including a major motion picture with robert preston and more recently a theater presentation of the book. um, but also well known for its prologue which was published separately in which he describes this block of highland avenue in knoxville, the 1500 block of highland, where he lived as a small child. but this was, his home was over here. it was torn down, ironically, just about the time that agee was winning the prettier prize after his death -- pulitzer

prize after his death and about the time he became famous, and they were starting to make movies about the book. but the rest of the block is still pretty much intact as he knew it, as a small child growing up here in knoxville in 1915. this was a fairly lively neighborhood. it had trolley tracks that went by. he could get on a troll by and go down -- trolley and go downtown, and he describes going to see chaplin movies with his father, they could walk downtown. it was a lovely place to grow up, and his memoir has been made into, into a well known choral, soprano piece by samuel barber that is based purely on the agee text. and it's interesting how this has appealed to so many people throughout the years. garrison keillor read a big chunk in one of his shows, and michael stipe of