Jeopardy and the Green Zebra

[Tom Wagner]

I watched Jeopardy aired 3-14-11 and the category was Fruits and Vegetables. The answer was Green Zebra and Plum....the contestant got it right..."What are tomatoes?"

Jeopardy is a supper time thing for me...and it sure made me feel like part of the common vernacular when 'Green Zebra' was correctly ID'ed as a tomato.

I saved the episode to show others that something I created decades ago is part of language, culture, food, and tip of the tongue knowledge.

I can only imagine the viewership thinking...What? .. Tomatoes?

Tom Wagner

[heirloomdaddy]

that's awesome! must feel good

[Tom Wagner]

that's awesome! must feel good

Yes, I thought it was awesome too! I had to back up the recording just to make sure I saw what was on the screen....and I thought what a kicker that would be to have been a contestant on the show.

However, at the same time I felt amazed and good about the Jeopardy show using Green Zebra in their trivia portfolio....I felt rather insignificant as a person in contrast to what I created.

Recognition of a fruit or vegetable as a named variety is a rare event. I bet there are many plant breeders who would have given their eye teeth to have a variety so well known.

Tom Wagner

I'll take tomato-breeder mad scientists for $2000 Alex....

Rats! I missed tonight's episode.

[darwinslair]

The answer Alex is "what is developed by Tom Wagner, and What is a generic term for a type of tomato"

[MikeInCypress]

Jeopardy airs here at 11:30 PM - after Letterman. I rarely watch it but last night I was watching and saw the Green Zebra portion as well. Tom - You have added to American Culture as well as to horticulture. Good Job.

MikeInCypress

[amideutch]

Tom, you should be proud of the results from your work with tomatoes and potatoes. Good on ya. Ami

[shlacm]

Wow, does that mean one has "arrived" when their work ends up on Jeopardy?

[puttgirl]

I saw it too, and got a smile on my face.

[nctomatoman]

I know what you mean, Tom. Whenever I see Cherokee Purple in a seed catalog, or get asked about it, I reflect on how lucky I was to be in the right place at the right time, so to speak....interesting that in my years in grad school I had papers published in journals, and in the pharma industry synthesized all sorts of medicine candidates - but that's all kind of forgotten - it will be the tomato stuff that I remain most fond of !

Congratulations on your Alex Trebek moment!

[Tom Wagner]

Thanks, Craig.....I thought of you and the Cherokee Purple as another highly recognized name for a tomato....it may not be identified as quickly as a Green Zebra....but I know what you mean by an Alex Trebek moment.

Craig...your Cherokee Purple has taken off over the last twenty years and my Green Zebra...likewise has taken off during the last 25 years. These two varieties are highly instrumental when it came to making tomatoes popular within Heirloom tomato history.

Trivia....Which tomato is more popular...you be the judge....

wiki/Cherokee_purple gets a half million hits on Google
wiki/Green_Zebra gets near one million hits on Google!

I went to the site below to learn a bit more about Jeopardy…


http://www.slate.com/id/2284678/
I read about the various categories…..
http://img.slate.com/media/1/123125/...ardy-table.jpg

The top-10 categories, in order, are: "Stupid Answers," "Nature," "Hodgepodge," "4-Letter Words," "Common Bonds," "Pop Music," "Potent Potables," "Sports," "Food & Drink," "Fruits & Vegetables."

…and the category is “Fruits & Vegetables” where the Green Zebra tomato is located.

For the readership to view the show....the best I can do is to go to the Jeopardy Archives to locate the pertinent info...
http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=3597 is the show that mentions Green Zebra…if it does not appear today…it may appear in a few days.

Show #6106 - Monday, March 14, 2011

Contestants


Lori Cain, an insurance claims investigator from Altamont, New York
Ethan Dougherty, a journalist from Chicago, Illinois
Katie Sowder, a freelance researcher from Kansas City, Missouri

The answer to this question......Who knew that Green Zebra and Plum were tomatoes? You tell me...I know it was either Lori or Katie. I would love to invite her to our Tomatoville.com forum and explain how she knew......

Tom Wagner
I hope someday for the fame of Green Zebra to rub off on me a bit...maybe hanging with my avatar will help....lol

I don't know who to thank with the Jeopardy show, however a special thanks to this group of people in advance. Thanks go to the researchers, writers and clue crews.

Credits

• Executive Producer
  • HARRY FRIEDMAN
• Supervising Producer
  • LISA FINNERAN
• Supervising Producer
  • ROCKY SCHMIDT
• Supervising Producer
  • GARY JOHNSON
• Directed By
  • KEVIN McCARTHY
• Writers
  • STEVE D. TAMERIUS
  • DEBBIE GRIFFIN
  • HARRY FRIEDMAN
  • GARY JOHNSON
  • MICHELE LOUD
  • JIM RHINE
  • MARK GABERMAN
  • JOHN DUARTE
  • ROBERT McCLENAGHAN
• Editorial Supervisor
  • BILLY WISSE
• Clue Crew
  • JIMMY McGUIRE
  • KELLY MIYAHARA
  • SARAH WHITCOMB
• Announcer
  • JOHNNY GILBERT
• Associate Directors
  • L. DAVID IRETE
  • CLAY JACOBSEN
  • JOHN M. PRITCHETT
• Stage Manager
  • JOHN LAUDERDALE
• Coordinating Producer
  • BOB SOFIA
• Producers
  • DEB DITTMANN
  • BRETT SCHNEIDER
• Senior Production Supervisor
  • RANDY BERKE
• Associate Producer
  • JUNE CURTIS
• Senior Researcher
  • SUZANNE STONE
• Researchers
  • MATT CARUSO
  • MATT DESALVO
  • MICHAEL HARRIS
  • ERIC JOHNSON
  • MATTHEW SHERMAN
• Material Coordinator
  • RYAN HAAS

[Tormato]

Congrats Tom.

I wonder if "Watson" has Green Zebra in its database.

Trmat

[shlacm]

Originally Posted by Tormato

Congrats Tom.

I wonder if "Watson" has Green Zebra in its database.

Trmat

I bet "Watson" has Tatiana's Tomatobase in its database!!!

[Tom Wagner]

I wonder if "Watson" has Green Zebra in its database?

The IBM DeepQA technology...Question/Answer... that powers Watson is also designed to implement applications in the fields of healthcare, finance and telecom. It works with well researched algorithms.

http://www.research.ibm.com/deepqa/faq.shtml

Algorithm

A finite sequence of well-defined steps for solving a problem.

I think Watson has some well defined templates…by sequencing ‘Green Zebra’ and ‘Plum’ through several sequences (or holes within a template) and then through the template of ‘Fruits & Vegetables’ ....it will quickly arrive at a high probability percentage…like 90% and Watson will answer.

IBM’s Watson search routine is one of the best in the world. Watson is not as popular as Google search partly because it takes longer to answer questions, but in many ways Watson may be a more powerful “Search Algorithm” than Google search.

The nice thing about human intelligence or intuition…or both is that with a search on Google with the terms….'green zebra' plum "fruits & Vegetables"…we can quickly make a conclusion on relevance…and coupled with a memory…we don’t have to go through a Watson search routine since our knowledge is on the tip of our tongue.

[Douglas_OW]

Hi Tom,

Congrats on the Jeopardy reference. I’ve always wanted to be a clue on Jeopardy, or in the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle. I guess I haven’t made any significant historical or pop culture achievements yet.
I do think that Jeopardy has been dumbed down a little over the years; they had to make this category Fruits and Vegetables. Things might have been different if the category was just Fruits:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjdBCeUdAmI


Jim