Hometown Howdies

If you go to http://www.jeopardy.com/showguide/thisweek/, you will see small video clips for the contestants for the week. These are recorded for airing in the local market. I have not heard of anyone seeing mine on television, but some people did go see the clip on the site.

You actually record two. The short recording is very basic: "Hi, I'm so and so from here. Watch me on Jeopardy!" The long one is a little more involved. In addition to your name, you give what you do, so now instead of just so and so from here, you are so and so, a this from here. Then you need to say something cute that relates. For example, the hotel clerk said "Check in with me on Jeopardy!" and the retired math teacher said "Watch me be calculating on Jeopardy!"

I was having a hard time coming up with something, mainly because there is nothing interesting or cute about being a document specialist. It left me needing to work with where I was from, and that was hard too.

I was thinking about trying to work something in about Powells, which is pretty well known, but of course that is Portland, and using Portland could have been easier, but I was deliberately saying Aloha, and I wanted to stick with that.

Ultimately I had to think about why I was saying Aloha. Saying Portland would be easier, and I’ve done it in the past, but this time it didn’t feel right. It's just that Aloha has been trying so hard to revitalize itself lately, and I want to be a part of that. I'm thrilled that there is a business organization now, and that they had a tree lighting and are putting in a library. Those are great things.

I'm always going to be an Aloha girl. First of all, I'm strongly loyal, and Aloha has been home since I was six. Also, I have a thing for underdogs, and we’re that too. It’s easy to pick on Aloha as trashy, but it’s also an oversimplification, and I think this place has some grit.

So I love my economically suffering, unincorporated area, and I had to make that work but wasn't sure how, and then I thought how the heart of the community is the high school, and it had to relate to that. Warrior pride, you know?

At first I was worried about it sounding too weird or obscure, but again, this is for the local market. The Warriors just won the football championship last year, and some of the other teams have been doing well, and so really anyone who watches Jeopardy on KATU could have heard of us. Now it felt right, and I nailed it on the first take.

"I'm Gina Harris, a document specialist from Aloha, Oregon. Watch me fight like a warrior on Jeopardy!"