Up among the best

Ben Ingram, an IT consultant from North Carolina, is taking his place among the best in Jeopardy history. After seven wins he's amassed $157,733, good for tenth on the all-time money list. If there's any game show where a big streak means something, it's that iconic answer-and-question thing.

Who knows how long Ben's streak will last? It could stop today. Ingram's lips are sealed by the confidentiality agreement, but he does concede, "It is going to end." I can believe that. It ended for Ken Jennings, too, after a while.

If there's any game where I fantasize about winning big, it's Jeopardy. After all, piling up a long string of wins on the show does tend to impress people, even if they have little use for game shows. Folks tend to think a long Jeopardy streak means you're smart, or at least halfway aware of the world. Yeah, it's just a silly little game like all the others, but Alex's show has that certain cachet.

Still, nobody's perfect. A lot of sports sites are chortling over Ben and his fellow contestants looking helpless on college football trivia. You can't really know it all.

UPDATE: Ben makes it eight in a row. He's getting into elite company. But sadly, all good things must end. Ben bows out after eight wins. He now holds ninth place on the all-time money list.