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To answer the obvious question... :)

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Philip. Philip? Philip?!?! For goodness' sake, there's never even been a British king named Philip! If you were going to make a wild guess, why not a name like Edward or James, or, oh, I don't know, George?

Yeah, it wasn't really a shining moment. The main problem, I think, was how I approached the question. Instead of trying to figure out what country a foreign-born king might have come from, which could have led to the Hanoverian monarchs, or thinking more generally about kings who reigned during the eighteenth century, which might at least have triggered thoughts of George III, I fixated on the 1683 date and spent too much time trying to remember and sort out the names of rulers from that general time period. It was the difference between viewing the question as an exercise in trivia recall, and seeing it as a test of logical reasoning.

As time was running out, I still didn't have anything written down and started trying to get at the answer another way. Weren't a bunch of colonial wars named after rulers? There was Queen Anne's War, and, and…King Philip's War? It didn't feel right, but the music was hitting its last notes and the screen was still blank, so I put down the name. A few seconds later, as Alex commented on the question, I had two depressing realizations: (1) My answer was wrong and (2) my answer was really wrong, since King Philip was the name by which seventeenth-century American colonists referred to the Wampanoag leader Metacomet. (Yes, I've read Mary Rowlandson's narrative of captivity during King Philip's War. I've taken classes with archaeologists studying sites from the conflict. My dad taught American history, and my husband studies Britain in the 1600s. I've seen The Madness of King George. None of that helped.) It might have been nerves, tiredness, thick-skulledness or just good old-fashioned choking, but for whatever reason I simply didn't have what it took to come up with the right answer at that time. Dan did, and he richly deserved to win the tournament.

Playing with Dan and Aaron was a blast - they're both incredibly nice guys, and terrific players to boot. I really enjoyed getting a chance to meet them, and to hang out a little during the two days of taping. Both of them were very focused on doing as well as possible, but still managed to be funny, relaxed and charming despite the inherent stressfulness of the situation.

The preceding comments, in fact, could apply to any of the people in this tournament. Every single person there was smart, interesting, friendly, and frighteningly knowledgeable. It was a pleasure to meet everyone, and to get to play against such great competition.

So despite the fact that I'll be cringing anytime someone says the name "George," for oh, maybe the next five years, all in all the tournament was a great experience, and I feel very fortunate to have been able to participate. And, you know, looking at the big picture in all of this, it's hard to regret an outcome which enables two lovely people with a lovely baby to pay off law school loans, and continue to use their training to work in the public interest. (Andrea, when you get the call to be on the show, which should happen approximately five minutes from now, I expect you to school Dan and everyone else on how this Jeopardy game should really be played. ) Thanks to everyone for all the kind comments and constructive feedback, and hope that the tournament was in some small part as enjoyable to watch as it was to play.