MADISON, Wisconsin (madison.com/Wisconsin State Journal) — Silence is rare during happy hour on Friday in a Madison bar.
But at Crystal Corner on Williamson Street, a hush falls over the crowd every few minutes between 4:30 and 5 p.m. each afternoon, dozens of ears pricking up, patrons like alert dogs as the man on the little, mounted TV screens reads off the clues.
Pattie Almlie scoops popcorn and refills beer glasses. The silent periods began around 32 years ago, she says, with the first screenings of “Jeopardy!” at the bar.
She’s busy with the crowd. So the patrons fill in the blanks in the story.
Bill Shaffer is one of Friday’s winners, answering Final Jeopardy! correctly and proudly taking home his prize: A “Jeopardy!” refrigerator magnet.
Things aren’t as competitive as they once were, especially since the pandemic led to a switch in the prizes. Those who got Final Jeopardy! right used to win a free drink, two free drinks if you were the only person in the bar to get it right. Now, the prizes come from a bucket of misfit toys: action figures, bumper stickers, etc.
Shaffer tended bar here back in the ’70s, he says, recalling the “olden days” when it was “pretty rough.” What keeps him coming back is his community, the opportunity to share a drink with his neighbors.
“It’s a total neighborhood bar,” he said. “It’s my neighborhood bar.”
Holding court across the bar are a group of women with popcorn-salty hands and Old Fashioneds.
Ann Shade and Vicki Taylor met here around 1997, when their husbands played ball together. As Taylor recalls, “The men got out of our lives and then we took over the bar.”
Every Friday night since, the two of them have enjoyed the company of friends at “their corner” of the bar, where they can play Jeopardy! Shade in particular excels at the game, her liberal arts education giving her a bit of an advantage.
“I’m not good at just one thing,” said Shade. “I know a bunch of little stupid things, and why would you ever use them? But somehow they come up.”
But the true prize isn’t just a Minnie Mouse figurine or a bumper sticker. It’s the sense of community, camaraderie for all ages.
“It is kind of our support group,” said Shade.
At WOOF’s on King Street, owner Dino Maniaci preps little slips of paper that read “What is” for the casual academic decathlon of nightly “Jeopardy!” screenings.
For 16 years of afternoons, Maniaci has watched patrons connect through daily deliberations about Final Jeopardy! Originally, those “What is” papers were blank, but Maniaci says they had to add the words to start off patrons’ answers after some good-natured but tense altercations about whether an answer that wasn’t phrased as a question counted as correct.
“Some people take it very seriously,” said Maniaci.
To be fair, a free shot of liquor hangs in the balance for those who supply the answer correctly. Yelling out the answer, even if it’s correct, will earn you the penalty of buying everyone a shot.
Eight to 12 people typically come out for the game, Maniaci said, adding that while it’s no army, his customer base represents a diverse crowd. Veteran patrons in their 80s and newcomers in their 20s put their heads together, sometimes with nothing in common except their competitive spirits and the quest for free alcohol.
“It becomes a real fun common ground,” said Maniaci. “It fosters this great multi-generational synergy.”
Since “Jeopardy!” airs earlier in some states, some participants in the bar games take advantage of the internet and sniff out the Final Jeopardy! answers to guarantee a win. Maniaci is aware of the cheating, but to him, a few unethically redeemed shots of whiskey are a non-issue.
“It’s just a shot of whiskey.”
