Useless Items (무용지물 無用之物, 役に立たない)

This Halloween season, I didn't get scared, I didn't go to a haunted house, I didn't go to any costume parties, and I didn't do a horror movie marathon, but I did get reminded of things that I get scared of doing: useless activities. Due to previous bad experiences, I am constantly afraid of wasting my time on useless endeavors. Since we have only a limited amount of time on Earth, and only so much time available during the day that we try to squeeze as much value as possible, it's so vital to avoid useless things like the plague. Part ofmy phobia also rubs off on MJ and my sister, who have to listen to me warning them about wasting time, even though I'm just projecting my own fears onto them. 

It's hard to define what exactly is useless, since almost everything I do has a purpose, such as sleeping (not productive, but have to do it to recharge), taking a walk (not productive work-wise but useful health-wise as part of exercise), but I'd say wasting time looking at Tik-tok videos or checking fantasy football stats every 3 minutes count as useless activities. Nowadays, I count watching 2-hour non-famous movies as useless activities since I can get the plot and shorten the experience by watching a summary video or synoposis somewhere on the Internet (I've become a bit neurotic). 

I suspect this phobia took root after high school, when I realized all of the homework I'd done for so many AP and "honors" classes had been tedious and boring but also not useful......college and the real world didn't work like that. Especially the long essays we wrote for English class that I spent hours on that I suspect my teachers didn't really read particularly carefully, or group projects presenting to other classmates about a research topic, those were really done to prepare students for the future, but did it really require all the busywork and extra effort? Also, sitting through hours and hours of orchestra practice: as grateful as I was to play at the actual concert, those hours sitting through rehearsal on Monday nights, especially when I had gone through a long day of school already, was not a productive use of time. 

Much more recently and looking at it more philsophically, I often wonder if all those games of dodgeball mattered in the long run, or spending time at work earning every last cent (another day, another dollar) was a productive use of time or not. Yes, it was important to be gainfully employed and work to sustain life's other activities, and it's important to have fun once in a while and do things that we enjoy, but often I look back and wonder if I could have used those hours, days, weeks, even years in a more productive way to enjoy a more fruitful or meaningful life. But then as I'm pondering these difficult-to-answer questions, I realize the pondering itself is not that useful neither since I can't change the past and am delaying working on the future, so I stop and do something else. Quite the paradox. 

Fantasize on, 

Robert Yan 

Storm Clouds (폭풍우 구름, 嵐の雲, 暴风云)

 Clouds can tell you a lot about the future, or at least what the immediate future portends in terms of weather. Instead of looking at my Iphone all the time for someone to spit out what the weather to me (not always accurate, btw) I should look to the skies and use my natural gifts of sight and intuition. 

Just like looking at artificial light in the dark dulls one's night vision, living in L.A. for more than a decade really dulled my ability to sense incoming turbulent weather, and my capacity to plan for the worst. The Chinese have a phrase called 未雨绸缪, or (prepare cloth before the rain has come) which I should do by bringing a light umbrella any time there is any semblance of incoming rain. It starts innocently: a little dark speck in the distance breaking up the monotony of the blue skies, then the sense that the dark cloud is getting closer, then thunder heard roaring in the distance, some small drops hitting my nose or somewhere else on the face, and by then it's really time to seek shelter, because it can turn into a massive downpour very quickly. 

The other solution other than bringing an umbrella, of course, is to seek shelter under a big building or get into a bus station and duck into the nearest bus......but like Icarus who flew too close to the sun, anytime I get running and feeling wild and free, especially in the brisk cool autumn air, I start to veer off the cautious path towards the road less taken (Robert Frost was one half of the Jeopardy final jeopardy answer tonight about Pulitzer Prize winners who died in Massachusetts) and it's too late to get to safe harbor before the torrential downpour comes, as I'm lost out in the wilderness like a lonely ship in the deep dark see, with no St. Elmo's Fire or rescue ships to be seen. 

Luckily there's the Find My Friends App on Iphone and MJ has so far been gracious about saving me, who's usually huddled in a shivering mess under a tree or shack somewhere trying to wait out the storm, with socks and shoes soaked and feeling cold due to the accompanying drop in tempearture. So next time, before I venture out, I'll remind myself to check the clouds: the puffy, marshmallow-like or cauliflower- shaped ones that accompany blue sky and sun (cumulus), flat and layered clouds (stratus, we're still safe so far), wispy clouds like smoke (cirrus), nimbus (like Harry Potter's broom- except this one comes with rain) and the worst one for me, the menacing cumulonimbus clouds, associated with thunderstorms, thunder and lightening, and Thor throwing hammers at me (that last part is exaggerated). 

Fantasize on, 

Robert Yan 

Sharing One's Joys and Sorrows Together (동고동락, 同苦同樂)

 This past weekend MJ and I attended another wedding of a couple that MJ knew from graduate school, part of the backlog of late-pandemic weddings that are happening in the U.S. that were postponed due to Covid-19. It was one of the most Covid-negligent gatherings I've been to, as about 80-90 wedding guests all crowded into the reception venue, indoors, without masks on and danced in a tight circle for up to four hours, not to mention cocktail hour and dining at circular tables facing each other. MJ just got her booster shot this past weekend, so she was sitting pretty and relaxed, but there I was too with just one dose of the measly B- JNJ vaccine to my name, my body still as yet unsullied by Covd-19 (as far as I know). Looking back in a few years, I think this weekend will stick out in our memories as the weekend we really tested the end of Covid-19, if not the wedding 2 weeks before, although that one checked vaccine passports offering a slightly higher level of protection. 

Having been to enough weddings, I am now abundantly familiar with the stand fair of the ceremony and the reception and the rough order of events, so there's not many surprises and therefore nothing truly thrilling, like watching different directors' take on the same movie or play/musical, but what I do like is still hearing each couple's stories and how they met each other, and to some extent comparing their stories to the one that MJ and I share. Of course they all leave out the trials and tribulations and the inevitable difficulties that may pop up during a wedding, but that's kind of the beauty of it, knowing that they know there will be rough parts and the "thick" of the phrase "through thick and thin" (or is it the thin part that's the bad part?) but they're willing to commit to getting through those hardships and struggles together. The weddings is the beginning of that journey of some zigs and zags (there can definitely be some stress even in just planning the wedding, from costs, whom to invite, whether to even have the wedding, etc., etc.) but also of some of the best moments that will happen in a couple's life. MJ and I are happy to report that so far all the weddings we've attended have stayed strong and on the path towards "happily ever after...." I think my personal record is also still perfect in that regard (as far as I know, but not sure about some weddings I attended a long time ago), so maybe I'm the lucky charm? 

I also like different nuances at weddings showing the couple's style........it's like I'm entering a couple's world for a weekend and exploring all the facets of the world they've decided to show their guests at least for that weekend. (I'm not that crazy about destination weddings as they're not even in the city where the couple is living, but hey that's up to them). Contrasting strongly with the Upper East Side New York City black-tie dress code event 2 weekends ago, this weekend MJ and I made it to the idyllic town/village (not sure how big it is) of Staunton, Virginia, home of the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Birthplace, where it felt like everybody in the small town knew each other and the biggest gathering spot for the weekend was the farmer's market. The wedding itself didn't have chocolate fountains, a fancy well-known DJ, or 2 days and nights of eating and drinking to my heart's content (all features of other weddings I have attended) but it had the touch of what the couple was all about, like Taylor Swift music that highlighted a dance playlist that was like the 2012 best hits list, Peruvian food, speeches and dedications in multiple languages, and stories about crushing on Zach Efron, which was what I'll remember about them. Coincidentally, that's also what MJ and I tried to impart to our guests at our wedding that great night 4 years ago, 9/9/2017.... our violins, our ceremony near the beach, some late night snacks, I hope we left an impression on our guests just as the wedding that we attended left an impression on us. 

Fantasize on, 

Robert Yan 

Old School TV

 Netflix just reported an excellent quarter in its latest earnings report due in large part to the success of Squid Game, the new hit series, and there's no doubt that Netflix has become part of culture (see the term "Netflix and Chill" in many parts of the world including the U.S, where viewers have cut the chord in favor of streaming shows. The binge-watching capability that Netflix allows is liberating in allowing people to watch a whole series from start to finish as soon as it starts....(like MJ, who can get a recommendation from me about a cool-looking TV show in the morning, start watching that afternoon, get addicted easily and can finish a 10-episode season all in one night, and when I ask her the next morning how far she is she sheepishly admits she's already fnisihed it)   but is that really a good thing? 

For the "give me now" generation, it likely is, but at least for TV consumption and discussion, it really lends little to the way of water cooler talk and online message thread speculation, which I cherished when growing up as a teenager watching cartoons (ALL-NEW episode!) and then in high school with reality TV taking off (who got voted off on Survivor or the Office?) through college when LOST was the big thing on everyone's minds, through law school (more sophisticated shows like The Wire, Sopranos, etc.) and then the start of Game of Thrones. These shows gave me a sense of camaraderie with other TV-watchers that we were consuming these episodes together and coming together later to dissect it and living through the experience, like watching live sports and talking about what happened each week after football. Credit HBO for being the anti-Netflix, where episodes still drop only every once every week and viewers have to set a ritual for watching the show. 

The issue with Netflix for me is that everyone hears about a good show, but then they all watch it at separate times, spoilers are not allowed since not everyone has seen it yet, and when others finally catch up and have seen the full season the early birds have likely moved on to a different show and aren't interested in it any more. The level of interest in a show is totally different at all times depending on who you are, whereas for HBO's newest hot show (Succession, season 3 came out this past weekend) everyone knows where you stand, so that the show sets a limit for everyone to no skipping ahead. And I dislike it when people skip ahead. Stay with the team! In the analogy of episodic television as a reflection of today's generation, I'm on Team HBO of setting limits to the wild unsatiable consumption by people to a more moderate approach, taking food by portions as opposed to the wild buffet that Netflix offers that allows no time to even chew, take a break, let the food digest, savor the taste and reflect on how good the episode is. For example, in the recent Squid Game, the universally acclaimed "Episode 6" would have been a great stopping point for universal discussion among the internet community as well as within the household to reminisce on what just happened, but instead everyone just barreled ahead to Episode 7 and towards the close of the show. I personally wanted to save some good things for later and come back to it to spend more time with the favorite characters instead of just a one-night stand of emotions and unbridled indulgence in a good thing, like a sleepover sugar high (kind of a good metaphor of what the Squid Game was). 

Finally getting to the point I was trying to make: Jeopardy has become my safe harbor for old-school TV. It's my replacement for live sports where I don't have patience to watch 3-hour games anymore to find out who won, but I'm much more attracted to the daily rhythm of a Jeopardy game that's reliably on Monday-Friday at the same time, same format and same brain-challenging clues. There are also internet forums where I can feel like I'm in 2004 again asking why the polar bear was on LOST and what do Jack, Sawyer, and Locke represent, except now in 2021 I'm finding out why General Motors was the correct answer to a Chevy Volt question or where the heck Rockaway Beach in New York City is. I still get the same adrenaline of wanting to know what happens, knowing that this is a fresh episode that others may have already watched but in the same calendar day at least, a daily ritual shared by millions of other viewers. I'm just glad that feeling can still exist in 2021. 

Fantasize on, 

Robert Yan 

Cancer (암, 癌, 癌症)

 Today former United States Secretary of State Colin Powell passed away from symptoms related to Covid-19, aka Covid complications. Although Covid-19 certainly played a role, his underlying condition was a type of blood cancer, joining millions of people affected with cancer. I guess I was naive, ignorant, and foolish about cancer and just brushing past news like General Powell's cancer as just something "old people get," but it's definitely a wake-up call when someone in my family was diagnosed with cancer. Only then did I realize just how many different forms of cancer in our and different types that can be in almost every part of the body, including breast cancer, lung cancer, brain cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer (those are just the most common ones), as well as other types of disease I didn't even realize were forms of cancer like leukemia (cancer in blood-forming tissues), lymphoma, (cancer of the lymphatic system), and melanoma (skin cancer- this is the one I've been the most care-free about and not wearing suntan lotion, but something I need to be cognizant of from now on). 

One of the scary things about cancer is the lack of ability to know what causes it, with different studies showing various findings, sometimes even contradictory about what causes cancer, whether eating too much meat causes cancer, drinking too much, smoking cigerates, and the only way really be at peace with the odds of getting is trying to decrease it, like eating more vegetables and limiting harmful carcingen intake into the body, but none of those are like the vaccine against the Covid-19 virus. Early detection is the key to catch the cancer before it spreads to other parts of the body, but cancer isn't something that manifests itself early, which is why people think they're fine and don't go checked out until it's too late. At least with acne, concussions, structural problems it can be seen from the outside; cancer is just growing in one's body, hidden deep within, a silent killer. Cancer's also difficult to diagnose because it can be confused with other diseases, which gives it the nickname "the great imitator." 

The prototypical image of the Covid-19 virus is scary: it's a picture of a cell with various needle-like pricks sticking out like trees or cotton swabs, but it's all over the cell and moving around like a fungus growing out of a normally healthy plant. Cancer has that same eerie feeling (at least for me) when shown pictures of it, like a clot stuck in a body part that's blocking off healthy parts and absorbing other cells so that it can move around and expand (metastasis). It's really a horror movie villain, but a grim reality for millions of people around the war. Ever since President Nixon declared "War on Cancer" in 1971 many resources have been devoted to stop cancer, in fact there's lots of pharmaceutical companies that develop anti-cancer drugs every year trying to gain approval for patents, and cancer-speciality hospitals across the U.S. like City of Hope hospital in the L.A. area, where I used to work. I used to walk by there ten years ago marveling at the grandiose nature of the facilities and aesthetically pleasing courtyard and campus life, but now I see it much more as a serious fight against cancer and a refuge for cancer patients who are confined to a hospital bed; the fight against cancer is no picnic. 

Fantasize on, 

Robert Yan 

Fashion (时尚, 패션, ファッション)

 File it next to "electral engineering" and "automobile maintenance" as one of the topics I know next to nothing about and a topic I've avoided most of life except when absolutely necessary: Fashion. I am the first to readily admit that I have no fashion sense, as I fall in the camp of those who think fashion is just a (you guesed it) pyramid scheme where insecure people undergo a neverending, unwinnable competition to outdo each other while racking up large credit card bills in the process. In other words, another mechanism of the American consumer economy designed to get people to spend money. 

My view in that sense hasn't really changed, but MJ has opened my eyes (literally and figurately) to at least appreciating fashion and looking nice: one benefit is that the proper type of fashion can make me look taller and slimmer, two things I've failed to do through tried-and-true methods of dieting and exercise. Having the right fashion also gives me some confidence, something I've only had on very few occasions in social situations; there's always something off about my clothes, whether my socks don't match, my tie is crooked, my zipper is down, my hair is messy; so many different things about my appearance likely sent unwelcome signals to others including skin problems that lasted into adulthood. 

The aforementioned fashion vocabulary exhibit at the Met gave me some perspective: each fashion designer featured in the exhibit presented a word in fashion, like "resolve," "comfort," "resilience," etc. that came through in their featurd article of clothing. I didn't necessarily see myself wearing the styles that they presented, but I did at least see why the clothing they designed exuded the characteristic they were going for, why that piece of clothing would give off the "resolve" vibe or "comfort" vibe. Now that I have been exposed to high society, I'm much more conscious about what vibes my own clothes are giving off to others, even when I go running outside, which I didn't care one iota about before, I now try to wear something sporty or at least wear running shorts instead of jeans or dress pants (you laugh but I used to do this, quite frequently). It definitely helps to go to a dress code- required wedding where everyone is required to look nice, but looking nice when it's not required is almost more important because that shows what you'd do if you were on your own and how much effort you're willing to put in. I go to some art museums and art galleries with MJ and notice how much effort she puts into when preparing to go, so I try to make myself at least presentable, but also noticing how out of place people are who wear T-shirts or flip-flops or look like they just rolled out of bed: the museums are all nice, the galleries are designed artfully, the exhibits are presented just right to give off the artist's vibe, even the security guards are wearing uniforms with collars and color coded outfits, but then us visitors just go in like a bull in a china shop and ruin the ascetic. Some guy wore a loose-fitting yellow shirt with a baseball hat on into the fancy art gallery today......I know we are the customers and can wear anything we want, but in a place of so many nice things, I don't mind adding a little fashion in to enhance everyone's experience, or at least not detract from it. 

Fashionize on, 

Robert Yan 

The Desensitization of Death

 "Death is all around us." "People die every day." - These are just some of the quotes that are popular in culture but also reflect a startling truth: we're all surrounded by death all the time, so much so that I for one have been desensitized by it. It's estimated that by the time a child is 10 years ago, they see "x" number of deaths on screen already. I heard this statistic a long time ago and forgot the number but whatever it is, it's alarming: so many TV shows, movies, video games, and even the news show death so commonly, as if it's a commonplace thing in life. In reality, though, I only hear about deaths, whether it's a former law professor who passed away, or a famous celebrity, or a group of people who suffered from the same disease. The only people I've seen who passed away in front of me (or passed away almost right before I got there) was a guy on the dodgeball court in 2013 from a pre-existing condition, not dodgeball, and my grandfather who just passed away last month. In reality, death is such a more complicated thing to deal with than just hearing about something on the news, having a brief "oh that's sad, that's too bad" moment and then moving on. I've had very little experience having a loved one passed away, but now that I've gone through it I've realized it takes a lot of time to process, that even though humans naturally designed to adapt quickly to situations including the feeling of losing, I'm still trying to adapt to a death in the family, especially if it's sudden and unexepected. I'm starting to understand what the phrase "sorry for your loss" means, not just a pithy expression to try to cheer a grieving relative up or just the standard thing to say, but that loss is so important in one's life and signifies a large chunk in a life that just won't be there anymore forever, and won't be replaced ever again. 

The recent Netflix phenomenon "Squid Game," the number 1 show in 90 different countries, personifies the cheap violence that we're all subjected to nowadays. It's a good show, for sure, but it definitely uses the shock value of many, many deaths to its advantage, in a callous way of equating other people's lives as just dollar values, where each death increases the grand total prize that the winner of the Squid Game can obtain if he/she wins. The series even alludes to this bloodthirsty tendency by introducing characters who are "viewers" of the Squid Game to mirror us viewers who are watching from our couches through Netflix, seeing other people die as entertainment. 

A similar thing is going on with the news, with so much media attention paid to deaths and murders, including the Gabby Petito homicide (likely killed by her boyfriend Brian Laundrie, who is the subject of an ongoing manhunt) Covid deaths, and the body count in Afghanistan since the U.S.'s pullout, various other wars going on in other countries. Death is the most significant event in anyone's life, but when reporting on the deaths of vast quantities of death, it becomes overwhelming and less impactful, like a statistic that we have to measure against other days, like "only 9 people died today," and it all becomes difficult to accept, to even understand the concept of death. If so many people are dying every day, what is going in the world? It's hard to grasp, but I try not to think about it too much and continue living on with my own life while I can, and cherish those around me who are still living so as to put off death as long as possible. 

Fantasize on, 

Robert Yan 

Vaccine passports (疫苗护照, ワクチンパスポー, 백신 여권)

 Earlier this year there were fierce debates in the country about whether the U.S. should require vaccine passports, where citizens who received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine would have to present their vaccination cards in order to enter facilities, go to events, basically any public space. There are arguments on both sides about this being a public health emergency and needing mandates to contain the outbreak v. those who believe that freedoms are being taken away, but from my brief experience with the vaccine check system in New York City over the weekend, I don't think the system of checking works anyway. 

Luckily for the U.S., it appears Covid numbers are trending down, even with so many people still being unvaccinated. MJ and I visited NYC for a wedding this weekend, and it felt like the whole world had gone back to normal. Subways were filled with people (some masked, some not), which struck me as the most dangerous place to get Covid, where there's no checks and very cowded areas full of people coming in and out and exchanging air during a busy weekend. I guess the city just lets the peasants who can only afford the subway (instead of limos and private cars) fend for themselves while high-class restaurants and other establishments must be kept pure and untainted? The restaurants do ask to see vaccine cards upon checking in the restaurant, but they don't ask for accompanying ID, and they allowed me to show a picture of the card, allowing for any kind of digital manipulation of a vaccine card but also, I can just show a picture of Joe Biden's vaccine card (or anyone else in the world) and that would suffice. Seemed like a flimsy system to me, until I realized one fundamental rule about economics and human behavior: people respond to incentives, and the restaurants/ other businesses have no incentive to crack down on would-be customers ready to spend money and turn them away. Much more profitable to loosen the rules and let everybody in. I doubt the governments are sending in undercover vaccine checkers to pose as customers to test each restaurant's system, so why would a restaurant require ID check if it didn't need to? Patriotism? After more than a year of being locked down with different mandates, shut-down rules, mask rules, and vaccine rules, restaurants and businesses are eager to get butts in seats and payments into their accounting ledgers. Hence the problem with vaccine passports: letting the establishments police themselves isn't going to work, and enforcing a strict vaccine mandate is nearly impossible and would incur huge costs. 

On a related note, MJ and I walked through Times Square which was as full as it's ever been, but we were saddened to learn that on Friday night a nurse from the Philippines had been killed in that area by a mentally-ill African American man who was stealing her purse. I point out the race of the victim and offender not because their race should matter (I recommend NOT bringing race into the discussion all the time) but because this story got NO national press, I only read about the Filippine government being incensed about it by chance. Whereas the nurse had led a rewarding job being a nurse helping the sick but then had her life ended prematurely by a homeless person, George Floyd was a former criminal how was having an altercation with law enforcement when he died, yet he's one of the biggest heros in America and the face of a movement, whereas the nurse is just a one-line blurb of the metro section in local papers. Because she wasn't the right race at the right time for the country and killed by the right race in the right procession, she doesn't get any attention, even though at least to me her story is much more tragic. MJ and I will likely avoid the Times Square area from now on. 

I'll have more blurbs about this I'm sure, but the Metropolitan Museum in New York has to be one of the best museums in the world. Just the sheer size of it allows it to hold so many people from so many different parts of the world and have so many exhibitions ongoing at the same time (except the outdoor rooftop exhibition due to rain) but I learned a great deal about fashion in the "Lexicon of Fashion" special exhibit, one of my weakest Jeopardy categories where I don't know Michael Kors from Marc Jobs and Gianni Versace from Domenico Dolce, even I got interested in all the different lines and nuances. I still won't be tying my own bow ties (even if it's a black-tie formal wedding like the one we went to) though. 

Fantasize on, 

Robert Yan 

Send in the Clowns (小丑, ピエロ, 시골뜨기)

Clowns have always been a curious concept for me.... actors who dress up in costumes and heavy make-up and try to amuse people, make them laugh. My first memory of clowns was watching Bozo the Clown on TV and wishing I could play the Bozo Buckets game of tossing balls into the buckets. Little did I know as a kid that society would make clowns into a character more synonymous with horror and fear, through hit movies like "It," "Killer Clowns From Outer Space," etc. My most recent obsession with clowns, though is a good one: The song "Send in the Clowns," made famous in the musical "A Little Night Music" by Stephen Sondheim. No matter if it's sung by Judy Collins, Frank Sinatra, or Judy Dench (all renditions can be found on Youtube), I find the song not only musically brilliant with qualities similar to Debussy's Claire de Lune that hits a chord in my heart, but also the lyrics describe ironies and rejections in life, something we're all familiar with. It's true for me that although happy songs are memorable and make us happy, usually sung with a crowd of friends and family at parties or something, the sad songs are the ones that truly resonate with us and are much more profound and have deeper meaning, just as it's human nature to react more sensitively to loss than to gain. Similar songs like Donnie Darko's "Mad World" by Gary Jules and "Memory" from Cats have carved a notch in my memory bank for go-to songs when I'm feeling down or in need of inspiration. 

Studying for Jeopardy in the past year has given me so much knowledge that I didn't know that I really needed to know; the categories are often summarized as diverse and multi-faceted, but 3 main categories stick out: Geography, history, and literature. I would argue that sub-categories right behind those, kind of like the 4 oceans v. 7 seas, are Bible, entertainment (TV+ movies +musicals, etc.) , science, human body, music (classical + modern).  Recently, though, I've found that the categories have 2 different types of "sticky materials" that glue them all together: People, since the history of the world primarily consists of humans (the interesting and juicy parts anyway) and there's usually a person or many people behind every one of the other categories, and TIME, one of my favorite ways to remember things. Not just for historical facts (I love chronologies in history books, btw) but all other ways that can involve time like timing of inventions, when movies came out, when authors published their books, what year prizes were given out, when Rhodesia turned into Zimbabwe or East Timor split from Indonesia, etc., etc. time is one of the unifying factors, and Jeopardy uses them very liberally to give context to its clues, such that going down every year of movies like "what were the biggest movies of 1967? 1968?" would be a huge help for any trivia nerd. (Btw, 1980's is underrated as one of the best eras of movies ever). The category that it helps the MOST in is Final Jeopardy, where contestants have more time to think about the clue and narrow down their guesses based on date. One Final Jeopardy clue I just saw asked something about in 1919 this man won the (Blank) award but became more famous for the historic feat 8 years later). I knew nothing in the clue except that the year 1927 was the subject of a Bill Bryson book, and the most prominent fact about that year was Charles Lindbergh made his Transatlantic fact. Boom. A crucial Final Jeopardy clue deciphered just by time. Other times it matters are like "This 1988 movie used blah blah blah...." It was Who Framed Roger Rabbit, an answer that stumped even reigning 35-day champ Matt Amodio on his incredible run and would have eliminated him had his closest compettior gotten it right, but could have been narrowed down if I had just went through all the biggest hit movies of each year. 

Time, time, time. The most scarcest resource we all have, and some of the most important information that we can obtain. 

Fantasize on, 

Robert Yan