Just because we were in the endless loop of summer reruns on TV, we sat in front of a show with half of our attention diverted elsewhere. My attention was divided between a summer read and a repeat of a Jeopardy Tournament of great significance. Hence, the book was winning out. The book was more engaging until I heard Ken Jennings fire off numerous requests for translations of a language I didn't quite catch. The first three clues received no response from any of the contestants even though they were presumably smarter than the average Joe because they were on Jeopardy, after all. What was this baffling topic? Ken was looking for Esperanto translations. He finally got a correct response, but they had my attention now.
I looked at my husband and posed the question, "What is Esperanto and where is it from?" The quick answer (it's always a quick answer from a trivia geek) was "They speak it in an area of Arizona." Now I'm an expert in just about nothing, other than common sense, so my common sense alarm shot to the absolute highest measure of the BS range. This required more work.
I turned to my other friend - The Google. Google said nothing about Arizona - rather he/she/they spoke of a Polish ophthalmologist in the 1880's devising a new language intended to enable universal communication among all members of the human race regardless of their location or situation. And yet, here we were in 2025 and even Jeopardy contestants didn't know it. Craziness.
I recounted the evening to my daughter days later. I told the story up to the Arizona line and my 11 yr old grandson was writhing on the floor in laughter while saying "No, no, no!" What is so funny? I ask. He responds "It has nothing to do with Arizona. It is a totally made-up language that is supposed to be spoken by everyone in the world." I respond "that is exactly right. How did you know that?" His response? "It's one of those things you just know."
That one Jeopardy category had proven to be a gift continuing to provide universal entertainment through laughter and in order to put it to bed - I ask one more question.To my husband: "Why did you think they spoke Esperanto in Arizona?' His response - There was a time when Tonto appeared on The Johnny Carson Show." He was doing a whole bit with Johnny about how he, Tonto, was traveling to Toronto and he was going to speak Esperanto there." My husband has remembered the full exchange for over 50 years and now tells me he thought Esperanto was a dialect spoken in Arizona because that was Tonto's home.
You have to draw your own conclusions. My job is just to document. When I return to this page at a later date, it is my hope that I am laughing while still appreciating the richness of Esperanto.