Ken Jennings is my hero!

My two favorite things in life when I was a kid were: my tattered cardboard globe, and watching Jeopardy! (I actually used to sleep with my globe...I'm sure my parents were frightened that I either had an unusual obsession with large balls and Alex Trebek, or that I was destined to become a geographer - both options did not portend well for my future. Alas, my obsession with balls remains - though I found an outlet through the joga bonita - I did eventually become a geographer, and Alex Trebek, as with all my childhood man crushes, aged gracefully but has fallen out of favor) Anyway, Ken Jennings, that mythical Jeopardy! champion who crushed all opponents with the unassuming grace of a nerdy flaming sword on his way to become the winningest (is that a word?) Jeopardy! contestant of all time (yes, I do have to use the exclamation point every time I mention the show...!), has replaced Alex Trebek for me in the pantheon of dork-men hero worship. His game-show exploits have launched his new career as a writer, and his latest book Maphead: Charting the wide, weird world of geography wonks is a revelation, even in the now dork-saturated media universe. His latest post on Slate also confirms that he is (to borrow a quote from Herman Cain, that Herman Cain borrowed from someone else) my 'brother from another mother': Globes in the age of google maps