For the 20 zillion who watch Wheel of Fortune with Pat Sajak and Vanna White, Wheel of Fortune will match your donation to the American Red Cross up to $100,000.00! This is for the victims of Katrina which blew through the city of New Orleans just after the New Orleans show was made. You wouldnt think that Wheel would bring bad luck, would you? Any way, lets all cough up a hundred grand (or even less) and make a contribution at: http://wvw.sonypictures.com/spacer.gif?event=286~MiniSite~287~RedCrossDonation~28~wheel Wheel will match it! Are you listening Bill Gates? While Im watching the show this week (we never miss it) I wonder what happened to the New Orleans contestants after the show. When a contestant wins a trip, I say, I hope she was in Paris when Katrina hit. Have you ever been in a hurricane or a tornado? I thought so. They are scary! The crisis is still on in New Orleans. When I called down there the other day to talk to the hospital, the lines were very busy. While waiting for someone to take my call, instructions came over the line on how to protect you from possible diseases in the area. The disaster is still on and it is real. So take the advantage of Wheel matching your donation to the Red Cross. You can read about the contestants at the WOF site. Thats where I learned WOF. Did you know it takes 150 people to make the show a success? I read about Amy. Amy has a show diary at the WOF site. (http://www.wheeloffortune.com/contestant_diary.php) She said, For as long as I can remember, I have watched Wheel of Fortune and dreamed of being a contestant. My mom would always say to me, Amy, you are so good at this show; we should fly you out to California so you can be on it. Little did I know that one day my dream would come true! We all have that dream, dont we? We all know we could make a zillion bucks if we could just get on WOF. Amy lives in Lafayette, about two hours from New Orleans. She said, My experience began when I went to the website and saw that WOF was coming to New Orleans. I became ecstatic and immediately filled out a form to become a future contestant. Since New Orleans is only 2 hours away from where I live, I figured there would be no problem for me to go and try out there, and it would be so much easier than flying to Los Angeles. Nobody can say that Amy is not a thinker. Amy said that she never thought she would be able to try out for the show, let alone be a contestant. But she got notified that she could try out. She said, We filled out a questionnaire about ourselves and they took a Polaroid of us. After that, we played a few rounds of a simulated WOF game where we got to pick letters and show them how well we could play. They kept stressing for us to have a big, loud voice and to call the letters quickly. Then, we took a 5 minute written test where we had to fill in puzzles that had missing letters. I recommend that to prepare yourself for WOF you go out to the fields and yell to the cows: C! B! L! When you get that down, yell: R! N! S! If you dont have a convenient field with cows, you can come out to Idaho. We have lots of them as does Wisconsin, etc. Make do with your town park if necessary. Dont get discouraged in all this! Amy decided that she didnt make it. She waited and waited and waited. Then one day, she got a call. That was the day she went BANANAS! Im sorry for that irrational exuberance. Did you know that it was 1997 when Alan Greenspan said that? Time flies! Amy had a cell phone which allowed her to take the WOF call in her car. I once made an oath to never buy a cell phone. Wait a minute while I go out and buy one! Amy was in a thigmagin until the day finally came to be on the show. She said, I went home and downloaded the internet version of WOF and played it religiously. I also made sure to watch every episode I could possibly watch to prepare for my big day. It felt like a lifetime, but the weekend of the taping finally came. I could not eat or sleep the night before because I was so nervous about being on TV. I just prayed that I would not make a fool of myself in front of millions of people. Amy caught me! I said zillions of people. Who is right? You must admire Amy for her preparation. Amy said that the wheel was very hard to turn. (Thats why they bring in those NBA stars to help turn it.) Her main problem was her anxiety. She said that the show staff and the other contestants were there to help! Here are Amys last words, We decided together that we would tape the best show of the day! It was a blast and I will never forget that day for the rest of my life. If you want to see how I did, watch me on November 10th! Well be watching, Amy! CopyrightJohn T. Jones, Ph.D. 2005 |
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