Lately I have been watching Jeopardy faithfully, because I am on a trivia team and it’s research, and totally not one step closer to embracing my future life in a nursing home.
Here’s something that bugs you when you watch Jeopardy all the time: people who say “please” every single time they ask for a category. “Civil War Battles for $400 please,” “Role In Common for $1600 please,” “European Bodies of Water for $1000 please.”
I realize this sounds curmudgeonly (one MORE step towards embracing the nursing home), but when you watch it all the time, it gets so annoying. You have the RIGHT to choose a category, players. TAKE IT.
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Also bothering me lately: recipes that say “salt to taste.” I am a science cooker. I cook a lot, and not by choice, not because I enjoy it or because I have some sixth sense about flavour or want express my creativity in the kitchen while salting-tasting-salting-tasting happily over a steaming pot for an hour. No, I want to follow the directions as quickly as possible and get that food on the table.
Would it be so hard to give me a general guideline to follow, say “1 tsp salt, or to taste” or “dash of salt, or to taste” or “1 Tbsp salt, or to taste.” I think we can all agree that these three salt amounts are very different, and I am not looking for guesswork. JUST TELL ME HOW MUCH SALT TO PUT IN. Thank you.
TurtleHead 
I, too, have been watching Jeopardy a lot lately. I rather like it when they say please, but I am Nova Scotian and now feel compelled to tell you that I am sorry for disagreeing with you on this point. 🙂
The salt thing! Yes. This drives me mad. Though I like to cook I also *have* to cook and having a measurement would help. Have you ever watched chefs on TV “pinch” salt? It’s a kidney failure amount of salt in that chef sized pinch. Very frustrating. Especially if reducing sodium intake is important. When all else fails, I go for my mini finger pinch. No more than a half teaspoon. Unless otherwise directed.
Good luck with trivia! I’d love that.
I was on Jeopardy. The producers tell you NOT to say things such as, ‘if you don’t mind, Alex, I’d like Potent Potables for three hundred dollars, please’. They say, give us the category and the amount, because we need to keep the game moving. And here’s a little insider tip: at the end of the show, when Alex is standing with the three contestants, you might notice they are significantly different in height. But you don’t notice it during the game. That’s because they are standing on platforms that are elevated individually, so each person’s head is at the same level as the others. Producers warned us not to move around until they lowered the platforms and gave us the OK.