As you may have seen, Lawrence “Skip” Long of East Bend, North Carolina has become an instant legend thanks to the following things:

• His appearances this week on Jeopardy! (He’s won three games thus far!)

• His mustache

• His stories about conch shells and dinghy rescues

• His stated occupation: Stay-at-Home Uncle

I wrote about all of this in this week’s free newsletter. But! I’m lucky enough to know Claire McNear, a reporter with The Ringer who wrote what I consider to be the definitive Jeopardy! book, and also broke a story that led to the eventual resignation of new host-in-waiting Mike Richards. She knows the show, its producers, its mechanisms, and its contestants like few do. So, I asked her to explain how Skip Long was able to make the most of his time on a show that leaves very little room to show personality.

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