Fabulist for $800

Daily Point

Who is …?

One need not have been a Masters-level contestant to provide the correct question on Jeopardy Wednesday night.

“Subheads in a piece on this N.Y. Rep.: ‘Lied about where he went to … college; Allegedly swindled a disabled vet whose dog was dying.’” 

Contestant Mattea Roach had selected the $800 clue in the Recent Events category and she hit the response button first. “Who is George Santos?” she said, stating her answer in the form of a question that many in New York have been asking since his upset win in 2022 in the House district for northwest Nassau County and northeast Queens.

So the NY CD3 representative continues to serve as a national joke, but host Ken Jennings might have had the most comedic riposte yet.

“I don’t get to say this very much, but George Santos is correct,” Jennings responded, as the contestants and live audience roared with laughter. 

— Rita Ciolli rita.ciolli@newsday.com

Reference Point

Delays over the decades

The year was 1955 and Newsday’s editorial board was in a celebratory frame of mind — channeling the mood of the region’s train commuters.

The occasion was the introduction of a new generation of rail cars by the Long Island Rail Road, which the board toasted in a May 25 piece titled “Life Can Be Beautiful!”

“From the stifling discomfort of a muggy office to the crisp comfort of an air-conditioned train — the dream came true yesterday for homebound commuters lucky enough to catch the 7:16 out of Jamaica,” the board wrote.

The board dubbed the new cars “dreamliners” and noted that they were “complete with rubber-cushioned couplers, ball-bearing doors, rubber-tile floors, foam-rubber seats, fluorescent lights, water coolers, parcel racks and coat hooks” — all of which were deemed positives. The board concluded that it “proves life can be beautiful, even at 7:16 PM in Jamaica.”

The editorial was accompanied by a cartoon of a commuter labeled “THE LUCKY FEW” who is cool, comfortable and smiling in his new train seat waving to a sweating throng outside, labeled “MOST OF US.” In their darker moments, modern day commuters might grouse that some of those cars are still in service. Certainly, they would note the irony that 68 years to the week after that editorial appeared, Newsday published a story about another delay in rolling out the newest generation of train cars which are touted as offering new levels of comfort for passengers. The final 38 “M9” electric cars are now expected to be ready in December, according to an independent consultant, more than three years later than projected.

Life indeed can be beautiful, as the board once observed, but when it involves the LIRR, chances are beauty is also going to be late.

— Michael Dobie michael.dobie@newsday.com, Amanda Fiscina-Wells amanda.fiscina-wells@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Buzzing again

For more cartoons, visit www.newsday.com/nationalcartoons

Programming Point

The Point will return Tuesday. Have a nice Memorial Day weekend!