Monday: Preshow! Jeopardy! party! (!)

It all started with Jeopardy!, you know. Way back in 2002, I was a contestant on that august quiz contest—it's a long story that I will not go into now—but it convinced me to make a life in the world of trivia competition. And here we are.

And here we will be Monday night. Monday, of course, the Big Quiz Thing returns to Crash Mansion after this painful hiatus, with an added bonus: I just got confirmation that yes, doors will open shortly before 7pm, at which point we'll fire up the TVs and watch Jeopardy!, featuring an appearance by BQT regular Jonathan Corbblah (the big, extremely friendly black guy who jumps from lucky team to lucky team). Jonathan just might be the smartest person I know (apart from being one quarter of NYC's trivia champions, the guy plays poker and teaches chess for a living, no lie), so while he's refusing to divulge how well he fared in the glare of the Trebeck Demon, you can take a guess.

Following the show, at 7:30pm, the BQT will begin as scheduled, with Jonathan as special guest stage sidekick. To get you excited…