My brother-in-law, Kerry, recently gifted me a book through the mail. There was no occasion associated with the gift — no birthday, no congratulatory event, nor anything like that. If you’re reading this column Kerry — Thank you!

(I don’t think I’ve gotten around to officially thanking him yet.) (Once again, the sign I have prominently displayed for people to read when they visit me still applies: “I’m Taking Care of My Procrastination Issues — Just You Wait and See!”)

The title of the book I received: “The Book of Unusual Knowledge.” (Publications International, Ltd., 2012) The heading for the introduction to the book is: “You Can Never Get Enough Unusual Knowledge!”

I kind of know why I got the book. When we were visiting various relatives at Christmas time, I remember that Kerry had received the book. I picked it up and started possibly annoying everyone (who me? annoying?) by reading “fun facts” out loud from the book.

I may have been kind of like the person who can’t stop showing funny memes on their phone, who you finally have to “turn them off” by saying something like: “Oh, I just remembered — I have legs. I need to be somewhere else.”

I don’t think it was quite that bad. And, I’m truly grateful for the book. I’ve been learning lots of good stuff.

One thing I learned the other day was a myth about dogs. The myth: A wagging tail indicates a friendly dog. What I learned: It depends! A mid-level, loose wag often means an approachable dog.

However, tails held high or low could mean aggressive or a defensive mood for the dog. That knowledge is good to know here in Sanpete. Everybody and their dog has a dog — so to speak.

Having the “unusual knowledge” book on my mind, and then seeing an episode of “Celebrity Jeopardy” on TV last Sunday night reminded me of a “flight of fantasy” idea I had a few years ago. I’ll get to that in a minute or two — depending on your reading speed.

Consider this: Category: Sanpete County Dates. Answer: 1849. Question: What is the year Sanpete County was settled?

I think you’re familiar with the format — an answer is given and responded with a question. It’s the way the knowledge/trivia television game show “Jeopardy” is played.

The contestants on the “Jeopardy “episode I saw Sunday night were, Macaulay Culkin (you remember the kid in the movie “Home Alone”), Steven Weber (TV shows “Wings” and “Chicago Med”) and Jackie Tohn (Netflix series “GLOW” and competed on “American Idol”). I usually have to look up who the celebrities are on the show. That’s how knowledgeable I am.

I do feel like I compete better with the celebrities than the regular contestants when I “play along” watching “Jeopardy.” I’m not sure what that says about the general knowledge of celebrities or my general knowledge, for that matter. Watching the show, I thought about some of my “Jeopardy” memories.

Who can forget (probably lots of people), the BYU graduate Ken Jennings who won a record 74 times in a row? That was years ago. After Alex Trebek’s passing, Ken eventually was chosen to be the regular host.

Bill Simmons, of ESPN Magazine, called Ken the “Mormon assassin … of nerds.” I guess there are worse things than being called a nerd — especially when you’ve won a few million bucks.

I tell people occasionally about my nerdiness. Years ago, I actually traveled to Salt Lake and auditioned to be on the “Jeopardy” show. There were two or three hundred of us there in a hotel convention ballroom.

They gave us a written test. They picked, as I recall, eight people at the end of the audition for their final consideration.

I was narrowly beaten out, in my mind at least, by either the University of Utah professor or the beautiful, blonde, braless, T-shirt wearing woman. (which person do you think I remember best?)

Even as a nerdy loser, I don’t regret trying out. It was an experience to remember. Auditions are different now. You go through a process online, and if you get that far, there is a virtual audition via Zoom. I haven’t tried out in that way — yet.

At my audition, it was really weird to see people attempting to prepare for a general knowledge test. People were actually cramming for the test by randomly studying maps in atlases and reading through reference books. (Maybe that was only weird to those of us who were not successful at the tryouts.)

So, here’s the idea I mentioned earlier. I have thought that perhaps one of these years, we ought to install a homemade “Sanpete Jeopardy” show as an event at the county fair. What do you think? This would be a great event for those who are not brave (crazy) enough to enter the demolition derby.

Not every Sanpeter has a cow, sheep, pig or goat to enter in the livestock show. And, not everyone has an interesting vehicle to enter in the car show. There’s only so many people who will volunteer for the talent shows. There’s lots of events for lots of people. But, I’m not sure the trivia nerds are being served.

Sanpete Jeopardy might have possibilities. What do you think? There may be some legal obstacles, but our county attorney’s office could cut through that red tape, I’m thinking.

In the meantime, I’ll start thinking of Sanpete Final Jeopardy categories just in case we need them. I’m scratching my head.

Here’s a category: “Navigable Rivers of Sanpete.” Or, “Sanpete County Airports.” Okay, it’s not going to be easy and it’s going to take some time. If some of you are thinking that you’d like to study up for the possible contest, I’ve got a book you can borrow. — Merrill