Who DOESN'T Want to Be a Millionaire Index

Here's an index for the Millionaire Experience, so you don't have to read through all the posts. This will get updated as new installments are posted.

The next trip report will start appearing on here in the coming month.


Initial Qualifying


Did He Make It?


How to Shave Ten Years Off Your Life


AAAACCKKK!!!


GAME ON!

@#^$%&@$% Stack!

The Carnage Afterward

Who DOESN'T Want to Be a Millionaire, Part 5: GAME ON!

Dan gets going in his continuing effort to win the big money. He flies through the questions but likes to converse in between. The producers said they'd edit out the unnecessary stuff, but those of us in the ring were getting impatient. We wanted our chance!


Dan takes a chance at the $125,000 and misses it. It was interesting to see how it worked, because Regis could not say the word "mitochondria" for anything! After Dan was done, they brought him back into the hot seat so Regis could re-read the question. It took about 6 takes...every time he got to mitochondria, he'd flub it up, and they'd stop the tape. Finally, on the last try, he got it right. Dan tried sneaking in "I'll say...(correct answer). Not missing a beat, Regis screams "WRONG!!!!", which got every busting up laughing.


Regis heads off-stage while they prepare for the fastest finger. Someone comes on-stage to keep the audience engaged. After they get the prompter ready for Regis, he comes back, and we face our first fastest finger (say that 5 times fast!).



Put these movies in order of release, starting with the earliest:

First Wives Club
Tootsie

Earth Girls Are Easy

What Women Want



(I don't remember the order on the show...once I find my copy of it, I'll edit this part a bit)



I knew that Tootsie was in the 80s, the First Wives club was some time in the 90s, and What Women Want was fairly recent. Earth Girls Are Easy…no flippin idea! Okay…where to put it…sounds somewhat older, so maybe I should puQUIT THINKING AND GET AN ANSWER IN NOW!!!



PRESS…PRESs…PRESS…PRESS…CRAP!!! The third one didn't take…backspace…PRESS…SUBMIT!!



I looked down, and I put Earth Girls Are Easy first…



…I'm not feeling too confident about that one.



Wait for the rest of the 20 second time frame to finish up….....



This takes absolutely forever…the wait is excruciating! The boom camera moves over to our side of the ring of fire, so that means one of us got it. Nope…no way it's me…unless nobody else knew it. I look over at Allan Hackney, next to me, and we both let out this huge exhale.



Regis calls the time up and gives the standard "let's look at the correct order…"



My pulse was somewhere around 436.



Tootsie
Earth Girls Are Easy
The First Wives Club
What Women Want





Oh well.



Right next to me, Allan is celebrating…good for him! They stop the taping to validate the answers and make sure nothing malfunctioned. They also brought Allan's significant other to the chair behind where he would be sitting (all the people that came with the contestants were sitting together near the top of the studio).



After validating that Allan got it and getting everything situated, they start taping again, and Allan starts his journey. I paused for a moment, realizing that very few people have seen the show from this perspective.



Kewl.



Now, the "stack" of questions that is selected for you means EVERYTHING. When I watched Kevin Olmstead go through the stack, I realistically could have seen myself making it to the $125,000 level with that one (not saying that Kevin had an easy stack at all…just that I had an interest in the categories of questions that he had). I bring this up because I would have been in HUGE trouble with Allan's stack. Everyone has decent knowledge on something, but everyone also has a "blind spot" in their knowledge where you simply don't know a question that 98% of the others would consider easy. I simply did NOT know what putting the kibosh on something meant (Allan's $200 question). There were a couple of others…I had no idea who Andre Braugher was (the answer to his $16,000 question), for example.



Allan got to the $125,000 level really quickly, even with a break for scheduled commercials…remember that we all agreed not to mess around with stalling. He phoned a friend for help on figuring out what country Alberto Fujimori ran. His phone-a-friend wasn't able to help, and Allan took a chance and incorrectly guessed. He walked with $32,000.



Another break as they got Allan and his significant other off the stage and in the back-stage where he could relax and watch the rest of the taping. The rest of us in the Ring talked to each other (we all got along, even though we knew we would be battling in a few moments).



Regis comes back on-stage, and we're ready to start taping again.



"Put the follow airlines in geographic order, starting with the north."



As he started to repeat the question, my mind went into overdrive. I immediately thought "SwissAir and Air New Zealand." It was geography AND it was flight-related, so I knew that this would likely be my best chance.

Finnair

Alitalia

Lufthansa

Quantas



I didn't even notice that they mis-spelled Quantas. Finair..FINLAND…close to Switzerland. Qantas…Aussies…far south. Alitalia is Italy, and Lufthansa is in Germany. Germany is north of Italy…PRESS A…PRESS C…PRESS B…PRESS D…pause for the briefest of looks to make sure the answers registered. I had one thumb over the BACK button and one over the SUBMIT button.



SUBMIT





The heart-rate is now over 844. I simply look down…the 20 seconds takes even longer, especially as I hear the boom camera move over to our side again. I knew my answers are correct – the only question is whether someone else got them quicker or not. I continue looking at the screen in front of me, begging time to move just a bit faster.



Regis announces that he's going to give us the correct answer. We all turn to the jumbo screens to see.



Finnair (yeah…keep going)


Lufthansa (I think I started holding my breath about this time)


Alitalia (yeah…show who got it first)


Quantas (COME ON ALREADY!!!!)



"Let's see who got the correct order first"



The first thing I notice is that there was quite a bit of green…I wasn't the only one to get it correct. (still holding my breath)



My time…right around 4.5 seconds. I couldn't even look at the other times, because I see my name start flashing.



I let out this huge "WHOOP!" as I jump out of the chair (I am no longer holding my breath). I run up, shake Regis's hand, and we walk to the center of the stage.



AND…CUT!



Crap…forgot about the validation.



I look over at Sheri, who is being escorted to the significant other chair, and we just give a big smile at each other. They give me a glass of water, throw on a little more makeup, and I think they have me do a mike check. The validation checks out, and a producer comes out and reminds me how to get in the chair. He then tells me to look up at the screen. On there, they have me frozen, starting to head to the chair (when they were taping a couple of minutes ago). I have my head down and my right hand in front of me as I had just released the handshake. The producer looks at me and tells me that I need to get into that pose, which looks like I'm playing Twister or doing the robot. We all start laughing for a minute…it was good as it broke the tension a bit. I get into the pose, and the producer gets everyone quiet for a minute as he gives a couple of instructions to the booth. Regis is right next to me, whispering "2.17 million…it could be yours…you can do it!" I'm trying to keep my balance while at the same time trying not to throw up AND respond to Regis with a barely-audible "yep".



The audience starts clapping, and we're rolling tape again!



I get in the hot seat and start calming down a bit. I could tell that Regis just did not like saying my name…it was always "Chris….pause….Mush…rush." He cracks a joke about Normal Illinois being quite normal. They were able to use the headline from The Pantagraph and had a good laugh about that. He talks to Sheri for a second and then does the trademark "Let's Play…Who WANTS to BE a MILLionAIRE, with Chris….pause….Mush…rush."



I look at the water sitting next to the console and contemplate downing the entire glass in one gulp. Cotton-mouth hit me. Those of you who have seen the show probably noticed me pursing my lips all throughout the experience. No time to do it because the lights went down a little, and the music stopped.



Wow…eerie…for the first 5 questions, it's deathly silent in there. They edit in the music in post-production. I try not to let that get to me…I'm more worried about getting something about a kibosh on the $100 question.



$100…An orchestra is led by how many conductors?



Whew



One
Two

Three
Ask Mozart



I let out a chuckle on "Ask Mozart" and say it exactly as they told us to: 'A', 'One', 'Final Answer'



Okay…got that one out of the way…I immediately calm down a little, and the experience becomes like a video game.



$200

Something about a high jumper





I snickered at the hot lava and mentioned that it would be more interesting if it were lava, but the correct answer was Bar.





$300

Which of the following is both a Roman God and a television show?

This one was one of those questions that threw some people…luckily, the stack was favorable for me, and it didn't trip me up. Titus was out of the way.



$500

Where would you find a control tower?



I'm on a roll…$1,000 here I come!





$1,000

An area of land known as a 'plain' has very few what?



I had "mountains" in my head before I saw the choices. It has to be…plains are usually really flat! 'Rocks' pops up as the first choice.



Hmmmm…well, rocks could be a possible answer! I'll go with rocks.



Then 'trees' comes up. Uh oh. Trees seems like the right answer, but I just couldn't get 'rocks' out of my head (groan). Recalling that the audience led two people astray yesterday AND the average age of the audience is approximately 7.8 years, I decide to burn my "Ask the Audience" lifeline – I make a major mistake, however in saying "I think the answer is C: Trees…but…". Of course, I inadvertently biased the audience. Over 80 percent of the audience picked "trees", which made me look like a complete moron! As I answer, Regis shrugs his shoulders at me and raises his eyebrows. I kind of nod to him as I acknowledge the audience, as though I knew I may have burned a lifeline early. Still, I feel like I made an okay decision. When I talked to Kevin Olmstead after we taped (he had to stick around as he was the carry-over contestant), he fully agreed that it was not a great question. In hindsight, what I should have done was ask for a clarification and verify that rocks could not imply hills or mountains, which was legal. Still, I got to $1,000 and couldn't leave with less.


I take a deep breath and get ready for the next set of questions.

Who DOESN’T Want to Be a Millionaire, Part 4: AAAACCKKK!!!

We had one day to get everything ready. This was going to be a problem because we were closing on a house and moving on a Friday. Considering we were to leave on Tuesday and return on Thursday, it made for a somewhat stressful time, even without the knowledge that I was going to be on a game show!

I had to get my phone a friend list in order. We were allowed to have 5 names in there. We were still down at Disney World when I got this information, so I had a couple of days to think about this. I wanted to make sure that I had my bases covered in all the areas. I decided on this list:

1. Al Goldfarb, Former Provost of Illinois State University (current President of Western Illinois University). He served as Dean of Fine Arts at ISU, so I could use him for questions on the arts. He also hailed from New York City, so, along with giving me information on things to do in NYC, he could answer questions about the Big Apple. There was one potential problem, however. He had a meeting at the same time the taping was scheduled with the University President and Vice-Presidents. He said they'd get a phone in there, and I requested a conference phone so they all could help answer the question LOL. There was a running joke at ISU for a few months afterwards, where, if I called him, 3 things would happen: 1) we both talk so fast that we could answer 4 questions in the 30 seconds allotted; 2) he would say that the answer was E. Educating Illinois (Educating Illinois is the strategic plan that Dr. Goldfarb spearheaded during this time…it was the buzzword for everything); or 3) after I give the possible answers, he'd bring up the time I voted against his proposal on academic governance during a Senate meeting and hang up on me.
   
   
   
2. Neil Skaggs, Economics Professor at ISU. Neil was going to be my religion go-to as well as the guy for sports (despite the fact that he's a Cardinals fan, he still knows his stuff). I also had him set up in my mind as a current events guy, just in case. Neil's challenge was that he was to teach during part of the time frame that the show was to tape.
   
   
   
3. Michele Finley, my high school English teacher. Literature was NOT my strong subject, as she could attest to. I rocked on the math components of the ACT and SAT. Verbal, however…ugh. I was going to lean on her big-time for anything literature-related.
   
   
   
4. Steve Haase, friend and veterinarian. Steve was going to be my biology/science guy as well as my German/Europe guy as he has traveled there a couple of times.
   
   
   
5. Peter Geddeis, friend and undergrad classmate at ISU. Pete and I shared a wall on the 5^th floor of Hamilton Hall on the ISU campus. When we both were in the room at the same time Jeopardy was on, one of us would hear the other's TV tuned to it (the walls were thin), and we'd both end up watching it. Eventually, a contest would break out, where we'd shout the answers to each other. We both knew about the same amount (Pete knew a few more than I did), but he was ALWAYS faster than me by a good .25-.50 seconds (pissed me off all the time!). At the time of the taping, Pete was a grad student, and he was working on helping run the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. Pete was a backup fine arts guy as well as a current events and general knowledge go-to.
   

I got my classes covered for Wednesday, and we were off to New York the following morning. We landed at LGA early in the afternoon and had a limo service waiting for us (first time…kewl). All the contestants were staying at the Empire Hotel, located at 63^rd and Broadway…right by Columbus Circle. We checked in and had a packet waiting for us. There were what seemed to be a few hundred more forms to sign as well as instructions to meet at a certain suite in the hotel later on in the evening. We decided to do a little sight-seeing before the meeting, so we headed down Broadway towards the Theatre District. After about 10 blocks, we walked past the Ed Sullivan Theater, where a long line had formed for the taping of Letterman. We continued down to Times Square and looked around at the hustle and bustle. Holy crap it was crazy!!! I recall wanting to live in a big city my whole life…standing in Times Square made me reconsider this.

We hopped into a sandwich shop and grabbed a bite to eat before making our way back to the hotel. As we were walking back, we hear a commotion up ahead. As we crossed a street, we walked by the Chippendales, who were heading the other direction. I nudged Sheri to let her know what was passing by, and her tongue hit the pavement. She nearly turned around to follow them. I was hoping the Playboy Bunnies were right behind them, but, alas, they weren't. To this day, Sheri still brings this up in conversation.

We got back to the hotel for the meeting, where we met the rest of the contestants for the show. We all made a pact to just answer the questions without going into long stories. We also joked with the show hand about hand signals to help the guy in the hot seat. When we asked about what the jackpot was at, the show hand refused, despite our best efforts to torture it out of him (he was a nice guy…we had fun with him). We brought the clothes that we anticipated to wear to make sure they wouldn't make the tv screens across the nation go all wobbly and got a rundown on what to expect tomorrow. We also got our per diem ($50/day for 3 days). After talking with each other for a while longer, we disbanded and headed back for what we hoped for a good night's sleep. Some headed back to study…I felt that doing something like that would be fruitless as I would likely forget anything I read at this point. We make a couple phone calls back home, watch a little TV, and attempt to get to bed early. Neither of us were used to the constant drone of sirens from police/ambulance/etc, so it took a while to actually fall asleep.



We had an early morning on the day of the taping. I felt really bad for one of the contestants, who was from Hawaii. It was something like Midnight to his body as we were waking up. We wake up, and I grab a shower. I then realize that, in the insanity of the past 48 hours, I forgot to pack deodorant. Considering I'd probably be sweating buckets all day (no stress at all!), I had to temporarily displace my masculinity and apply Secret (Hey, they say it's strong enough for a man). Sheri still brings this up in conversation too. At the appointed time, we headed down for a shuttle to the studio, which, surprisingly, was only 3 blocks away. We arrived at the ABC studios somewhere around 7:45 in the morning and went through our first security screening. We had a meeting and turned in our list of "phone a friends." We then had to make sure that we did not have any sort of aids for the show (basically, we couldn't have anything that may help us in the studio). Since I was a doctoral student at the time of the taping, I brought some books with me to read for my classes (College Administration...a lot of material there?!). I didn't realize that I had one of the books stuffed in the bag that I brought to the studio, and, naturally, it was found. All the contestants, partners, and ABC staff had a good laugh at that (they still took the book, though).

We then met with the producers and had a short continental breakfast. During this time, we tried to expand a little on our "lives" so that they could use the information and put it on the "blue card" that Regis Philbin has in front of him (he looks at this for the bantering between questions). After that, we got to visit the studio where the show taped and saw where we were going to sit (no audience yet). It was almost surreal when we walked in. Most of the lights weren't on, but we still felt a sense of awe, until we walked on the floor. The glass where the mirrors and lights are seemed like fairly thick plexiglass…it had some give to it as we walked on it. The directors told us the best way to enter our responses for the fastest finger round and then gave us five examples. There were 20 of us there as they were taping 2 shows that day. The second show's contestants played around in the gallery while we tested stuff out. The fastest finger question is not exactly what you saw on TV. The question was asked and then repeated (the second reading is edited out). Then the contestants in what we affectionately call the "Ring of Fire" had twenty seconds to try to figure out the proper order. As anyone who has ever been in the Ring can attest, it's nowhere near as easy to input your answers as you might think! And, to you Disney freaks, what you saw at WTTBAM/PI at Studios…nope…not the same thing. You have to push a button and let go, then press the next button, etc...then you have to press a "Submit" button (I wonder how many people missed getting into the hot seat simply because they forgot to submit their answers). I royally screwed up the first sample round, but I got my bearings and won the second fastest finger sample question (a geography question...remember this).

After we played around in the studio (we even learned the proper way to get into and out of the hot seat), we left our significant others and went back to where our stuff was and changed clothes. Then we went through make-up and got wired with our mikes. We met the carry-over contestant, Dan Orr, and it was then that we found out that nobody had hit the jackpot yet (when I was on, they went a long time without a million dollar winner, so they started adding $10,000 for every episode with no winner). We would be playing for $2,170,000!!!! We all pumped Dan for information on what it was like, and he said that the people yesterday were dumb and that the audience screwed up 2 people because they were so young.

After a little nervous smalltalk, we made our way to the now-dark and packed studio and were introduced to the audience...the first thing that we noticed was that this place looked awesome with the smoke and light effects. The second thing we noticed was that Dan was correct…the audience was YOUNG today too! It was spring break, and a lot of students had tickets to the show. I think we all noticed that -- I talked to Allan Hackney, who was seated next to me, and we agreed that we'll likely have to use the "ask the audience" lifeline early. Before we knew it, there was a call that they were going to start taping in just a minute. A director for the audience had one main job: get the crowd to whoop and holler on cue. He gives the signal, and the place just erupts with noise!!! A couple of seconds later, Dan Orr comes out with Regis right next to him! This was the first time we've seen him, so we're all just as excited as the audience was.



The game…is…on!

The Victory Garden (?), April 25

Well, we're a week past the first round of planting, and, despite my best efforts, it looks like things are growing, other than rocks and weeds! We get a good amount of wind between the houses, so I planted the seeds a bit lower than usual in an effort to keep the seeds in the ground. I was afraid that I had planted them too deeply, because nothing germinated in the first 6 days (I'm impatient). We got a lot of continuous rain for several days, starting the evening I planted everything, so I was also worried a bit about the seeds rotting.

Things are looking good. The radishes have germinated and are showing me just how un-straight my row is. The lettuce and spinach are a bit spotty, but this is expected, as the planting depth is a little more varied, but they are pushing through. I fully expected the onions to pop up within 3-4 days, but I'm using a different variety this year for the first time, and it might take a bit longer. I examined the soil and found the vast majority are growing...they're right at the top of the soil and starting to push through. The only thing that hasn't popped through yet is the cabbage.

No picture this week and no planting...I had hoped to get another row of spinach/lettuce out, but it can wait a couple more days.

Who DOESN’T Want to Be a Millionaire, Part 3 (How to Shave 10 Years Off of your Life)

 
 

We knew that if the cell phone rang, it was going to be someone from the show (that or a wrong number), because nobody else had the number.  About an hour and a half after I finished the round, the cell phone rang!!!!  After a momentary breathing stoppage and a vault from my chair through the ceiling, I answered it...NOBODY WAS THERE!!!!!  In fact, the weirdest thing happened...my in-laws' answering machine started playing on the other end.  I nearly panicked, thinking that I had somehow programmed the cell-phone to forward all calls to my in-laws' number (of course, I didn't bring the manual for the phone to change it).  I immediately started kicking myself, thinking that I had blown it.

Sheri, who was asleep when the phone rang, sat up, questioning the stunned look on my face as I frantically decided what to do.  I was especially stunned because they said that they would call one time.  I hung up, told Sheri what had happened, and said a silent prayer for them to call back.

 
 

 

 

 

RING.

 
 

 

 

 

I think I broke the record for answering a phone when it rang again.  I managed to mutter a "hello?" into the phone, fully expecting "Hi, you have reached the Miller residence.  We can't come to the phone right now..."  Alas!  There was a human voice on the other end asking for me.  He identified himself as a producer from 'Millionaire' and immediately asked if I was close to a land line.  I gave him the hotel and room number, hung up, looked at Sheri, and, as though nothing had happened, said, "It's Millionaire."

I cannot tell you what Sheri said after that.

After approximately 14,000 questions on qualifications, the joyful words "Congratulations!  You are now a finalist for 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' were finally heard. The same 14,000 questions were asked to Sheri, as she was to be my companion for the trip.

 

After about 45 minutes of talking with the producer, I called my parents.  My mother was not home.  I called my father's house and broke the news.  My step-mother let out a little scream and told my sisters, who had just gotten home from school.  The next thing I heard in the background was Casey, my youngest sister (in 8th grade), saying "NO WAY!"  This was shortly followed by my middle sister (Jamie...a sophomore in high school) asking if I could take her to New York.  She promised to wear her cheerleading outfit and root for me on the side during the fastest finger questions.

We then called Sheri's folks, who also were not home.  Sheri left a message to have them give us a call (emphasizing that it was NOT an emergency and that everything was okay).

Since the tape date was in the middle of the following week, I needed to start planning on getting my classes covered.  The tape date was going to be squeezed in to an already packed schedule.  We were to get back from Orlando on the 18th., leave for New York on the 20th., return on the 22nd., and close on our new house and move on the 23rd.

I called Illinois State University and talked to them for a good half hour.  I started with the Department of Economics, who let me know what all needed to be done for my job.  I then had them transfer me to the Graduate School, where I left a message with Pat Schnitker, advisor for the Graduate Student Association and friend.  I was then forwarded to the President's office to let Vic Boschini, ISU President, know that he was going to get a little free publicity on national television.  He was out of town, but I talked with his secretary and asked her to forward me to the Provost's phone so I could ask him to be a phone-a-friend.  He was not there, so I asked his secretary to forward me to media relations to give them a heads-up in case anyone contacted them about it.  Jay Groves, media relations director was not in, so I left a message and then FINALLY ended one hell of an intense phone call.

About fifteen minutes later, Pat calls back from the graduate school, screaming with delight.  She let the entire office know, and everyone else was screaming in the background.  I got off the phone with her, and the phone immediately rang again...it was Jay Groves this time.  Jay congratulated me and asked if I wanted him to do anything.  I simply asked him what should and what should not be said about ISU.  His reply was to simply enjoy it and mention whatever I wanted about the University.  We both agreed that something with the ISU logo would be good, but the ABC rules forbade anything copyrighted to be worn.

I think Jay smelled publicity for the school as soon as he heard my message.  He called back about twenty minutes later and mentioned that WJBC, the AM radio station for central Illinois, was going to call soon, followed by The Pantagraph, the local paper.  Within 20 minutes, I found myself on the air with WJBC. What seemed like seconds after I hung up with them, the phone rings again, and I answered questions for the reporter from The Pantagraph. Afterwards, we talked to Sheri's parents, who immediately called back, despite our efforts to reassure them that nothing was wrong. We also got a call from my father, who had just gotten home from work and had heard the news.

After over two hours of insane phone conversations, we both decided to skip the fireworks at EPCOT and head down to the hotel bar for a couple of MUCH-needed drinks.  We came back and tried to fall asleep, but the phone rang one more time that night:

Me: Hello?

Mom: Hi Honey. I got your message that you called.

Me: Yeah...I've got some good news that you probably aren't going to believe.

Mom: Is Sheri Pregnant?!!!!!

 

(Me: dumbfounded pause…didn't even think about that, with all the messages)

Me: No...not that good news.

Mom: Oh. Then what is it?

Me: All I will say is 'is that your final answer?'

Mom: Huh?  What the Hell is that supposed to mean?

Me: Do you watch tv much?

Mom: Yeah.

Me: Is that your final answer?!!!

Mom: I don't get it.

Me: Have you ever heard that before?

Mom: Yes.

Me: Where?

Mom: On that one show...<pauses> "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'.

Me: Yyyeeeeesssssssssss?

Mom:  <dead silence for a good ten seconds, then>  YOU'RE GOING TO BE ON WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE??!!!!!!

Me: Yyyeeeeesssssssssss!

Mom: OHMYGODICAN'TBELIEVEITI'M-SOPROUDOFYOUIKNEWYOUCOULDDOIT...

 

She always wanted me to try out for Jeopardy, but I never did. We talk for a bit longer and then hang up, as she had about 400 calls to make to tell everyone she knew. I think she randomly called a few strangers too and told them.

 

The next several days in the Disney parks were a complete blur. I was so stressed with everything going on that I missed nearly everything in the parks. I remember being in MGM a couple of days later, and we ate at the ABC Commissary. They were heavily promoting the new Millionaire attraction that was to be opening soon. The cast member working the register asked if I watched the show, and I just busted up laughing. When I explained it to her what was so funny, I don't think she believed us. These 2 teenage girls behind us, however, were floored and spent the entire meal sitting 3 tables away and staring at us, smiling the entire time. I had my own set of groupies for all of 15 minutes. As they got up to leave, they stopped and asked us about getting on the show, when it was going to be on, etc. After a final "good luck!", they headed out, leaving us with about 4 other tables nearby now staring at us.

 

We took an earlier flight home and flew standby for an earlier connecting flight…it was a good thing as Detroit was getting quite a bit of snow and was scheduled to get more around the time our actual connection was to leave. When we got back home, we had fourteen phone messages in three days (we don't get that many in 2 months) as well as nearly 250 e-mails.  Several friends and family dropped off copies of the article from the paper.  We didn't have time to do much, though, because we had to pack both the house for the move as well as ourselves for the trip to New York.  Luckily we had one business day to prepare, because I had to get my phone-a-friends ready!!

 
 

Who DOESN’T Want to Be a Millionaire? (Part 2: Did He Make It?)

The semi-final round is similar in format to the first round - but there would be five questions instead of three.  I was given a specific fifteen-minute window to call in on March 14th in order to take the semi-final round of questions.  I immediately discovered that this round was going to be interesting because it was to occur while we were going to be on vacation down in Orlando...probably while we would be screaming on an attraction at Disney World (more likely, while we were looking at a map and wondering what to do next…it was our very first trip down there).  We decided to take our cell-phone, which had never been used for incoming calls (we actually had to look at old phone bills to figure out what the phone number was) in case we were at a park or in traffic when the call-in window arrived.

I had to look like a fool at Disney World, because my pockets were absolutely bulging with things.  A quick inventory of my pockets included:

• Wallet.
  
• Cell Phone
  
• Palm Pilot -had phone number and PIN information
  
• keys
  
• maps
  
• bottled water
  
• camera
  

We even bought a fanny pack to hold some of this, but I would have looked like even more of a fool wearing that!

As luck would have it, we were both exhausted from the flight down there, the previous day at the Magic Kingdom, and the morning at EPCOT.  We decided to head back to the hotel where Sheri could rest and I could take the test without worrying about losing the signal on the cell phone.  The time came, and I started the test.  There is another slight difference in this round from the first round - in the first round, if you missed a question, you were told so, and the round stopped; in the semi-final round, it let you answer all five questions without telling you whether you got it right or not.

I answered the questions as best as I could...I was very confident I nailed four of the five, and I made an educated guess on the last question (I knew the order of three of the selections, and did my best on where to put the fourth one in the order).  They wanted a phone number that I could be contacted at over the next four hours in case I made the final "on-air" round.  Not knowing if we would head back to EPCOT or not, I gave them the cell-phone number.

And the waiting began...

Who DOESN’T Want to Be a Millionaire?!! (Part 1: Initial Qualifying)

We're going to take a short break from the Disney discussion. For those who want more WDW, don't worry, I promise there's tons more coming!



Okay...first, let me put this disclaimer in that I am living proof that ANYTHING can happen!!! Every 5-6 months, I'll get a bunch of e-mails/phone calls or, more recently, messages via Facebook from people saying that they just saw me on TV. I immediately groan and think to myself, "Here we go again!" Every semester, the cat is somehow let out of the bag by someone in the class, and they beg me to bring in a copy of what happened long ago, one calm April night in 2001. You've never experienced embarrassment until you project yourself into a lecture hall, where the image is over 20 feet tall…your nose hairs look like part favors at that size!

Many people have yet to see my experience on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and have asked me to share what it was like. Here's the first installment of WWTBAM…

I have always been a trivia buff, and my mother has always tried to get me to try out for a game show to see what I can do. I always figured I'd try when I was middle-aged and probably end up on something like 'Win Ben Stein's Money.'

When 'Millionaire' first hit the airwaves, I fell in love with it and tried calling in a few times to qualify. For those who do not know the procedure back then, it involved answering a series of three questions similar to the "fastest finger" format. The questions became increasingly difficult as you progressed through them. I could never get that last question right. After about 5 days of trying, I gave up, content to watch the show and scream at the television when the contestants were having trouble (admit it, you do the same thing!).

School, work, and other commitments took over, and I was unable to watch the show much until the spring semester of 2001, when I had a couple nights off from class each week. The jackpot then was growing to nearly $2 million dollars, so I figured that I'd try to call in again just for fun. On my second day of calling, the magic hit...I finally got past the third question (a literary question, and I got it right!). I picked my choice of tape dates and a phone number to contact me in case I was randomly picked to make it to the next round. Apparently, around 2 million people call in every night to qualify, and approximately 50,000 people get all three questions right and pick a particular tape date per day...each day, the computer randomly picks 40 people to advance to the next round. Each tape date is available for 5 days, do, doing the math we get this: I had basically won the lottery in having the computer select me. Out of millions of people, I was now 1 of only 200 people vying for a shot to be on the show.

I jokingly told my wife I'd stay home from a home interior party "just in case Millionaire calls", not thinking I'd hear from the show. The phone rang, and someone claiming to be from 'Millionaire' hit me with a barrage of qualifying questions. I at first thought it was Sheri (my wife) and her friends joking around with me...until they started asking the questions. When Sheri got home from her party, she (as you could imagine) thought I was full of it when I showed her the information. I had made the semi-final round!!!!!

The next installment will chronicle the longest hour or so of my life…

Disney Podcasts 101 for Idiots

My students have always looked at me oddly, as I'm too old to be considered their peers but younger than their average professor. When they see me with the earbuds in and sauntering into the classroom before boring them to tears with economics lectures that they will soon forget, they jokingly like to play "what's on Mush's iPod", where they try to guess what I'm listening to.

Despite the fact that I've got a wide selection of music on the 16G Nano (5th generation, for those geeks who were about to ask), they've never correctly guessed what it is I'm currently listening to. Why? Because 80% of the time, I'm not listening to music; rather, it's a good ole podcast blasting in my ears and causing irreparable harm to my long-term hearing ability. My students' next question is always "which ones do you listen to?" Their reaction is always the same mix of "really?" and "I'm sorry I asked" when I tell them that most of them are Disney-related.

One of my alter egos had me as a moderator for a now-extinct Disney World BBS (Lodgeboards...LOVED that site), and I provided updates about Disney World to the masses (okay, it wasn't a large board, but large boards don't necessarily equate to better boards). The best way that I find information is to check out websites, listen to podcasts, and (just recently) receive tweets from Twitter (I'm cemushr over there if you want to follow me!). Occasionally, I'll be asked what podcasts I listen to. Because of this (for the 10 or so readers of this blog), I figured I'd give you some of the ones I frequent in case you might be interested in subscribing to them (yes, all are available via iTunes). I'm also (slowly) working on adding other podcasts and providing a short synopsis of each one so that you can be better-informed. While I may say a certain podcast is the "Best…", there are not any actual awards to be handed out (I'm not tenured, and I've got kids), nor am I slighting any who may not be listed (it's mostly because I probably haven't found 75% of the Disney-related podcasts out there).

Note that this list will be edited as more podcasts are discovered! The level of detail should not be used as an indication of how "good" a podcast is…it's more an indication of how well I know the podcast more than anything. If a podcaster would like to have their cast added (and I haven't found you yet), just let me know via a comment, and I'll add you in!

Soooooooooooo…without further ado, here we go!

TRIP PLANNING & REPORT PODCASTS
This section is where many people get introduced to podcasting...they're planning a trip for the first time and want to get as much information as possible.

• Be Our Guest is a podcast that has trip-planning episodes twice a week. Mondays include trip reports from listeners in audio format, and Fridays usually revolve around a panel discussion on the Walt Disney World experience. Episodes are hosted by Mike, Rikki, Pam, and Debbie and average around 30-40 minutes.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• If you're looking for the Keys to the Kingdom, then head on over to the Keys to the Kingdom podcast. Kingdom Trips travel agents Mary and Jason True, along with co-host Karin Worth, release a couple of shows every month with trip planning advice for all things Disney-related (including DVC, DCL, WDW, Disneyland, and more). As Jason is outnumbered, he is often humorously on the defensive in most shows!