i was just reading another poet's blog about taking the TV quiz show jeopardy test online.  this poet & i are around the same age.  the mind might still hold a lot of data but speed of recall is something faded.  like this poet i am too pretty good with certain subjects like literature cinema art history & i have in this decade have been reading a great more science than i did when i was a lad.  but sports?  or opera?  forget about it.  anna sent me a link to this online test thinking i would do well.  my recall is still fairly good on the subjects i have strength in but the speed with which i can access that data in my noggin has slowed down.  as this poet said, & i concur, fucking age.  still, my love of the world & my curiosity of it has not abated.  i read as much as i've always have.  but don't ask me to take a geometry test.  still, i recall in the early '90s going down to the jeopardy studio in burbank with my brother who took the quiz as the first step to get on to the show.  the contestants would be comprised of college students.  i remember that the studio in burbank was tucked in a suburban housing tract.  the studio was tiny & the test was administered to potential contestants in the gallery.  the host of jeopardy, alex trebek, announced the test via video.  i sat next to my brother as he took the test.  i don't recall the subjects but what i was thinking was that producers were probably looking for photogenic contestants.  i don't mean movie star looks or whatever.  i mean some people look better on camera.  at the end, my brother didn't make the first cut.  later on, friends & family asked why i didn't take the test because i have a high threshold of useless trivia.  which is the same reason anna forwarded me the online test.  but i think my brain works slow.  i know a lot of useless data but my recall is around the tortoise running rate, even when i was younger.  & i am sure the hell not photogenic to be before a bank of TV cameras.  still, it was fun & eye opening to travel to burbank & the jeopardy studios to see how small a working TV studio really is. my memory turns to a moment after the test.  my brother & i are walking back to our car.  i don't recall if we planned a weekend in LA or not.  we probably did because we often traveled to LA in those days.  my brother & i got to shooting the shit with another contestant who didn't make the first cut.  he was, i think, an engineering student from UCLA.  i recall he was a handsome dude with lush black hair with a streak of grey.  i don't remember what we talked about.  certainly, we discussed the test & the subjects of that test.  but what my mind recalls is a very pleasant afternoon on a TV studio lot in the midst of a suburban housing tract.  that was the magic of hollywood.  on TV the game show jeopardy looks larger than life.  but in reality it is shot in very small studio tucked in to a neighborhood where people like you & i live.