Apparently, people think I'm smart. I pay them no mind.....most of time. However, long ago, I was asked by a teacher why I never took the test to become a member of MENSA. He thought I was capable enough to become am member, but I never gave it much thought. Until now. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you one of the few times where I've listened to someone calling me "smart".

The MENSA logo....can you see two doorways?

MENSA, which means "Table" in Latin, by the way, is the oldest high-IQ society in the world. Founded in 1946, it has roughly 100,000 members, and is composed of those who score in the 98th percentile of the administered exam. The exam itself costs about $40 to take, and another $40 to be graded by the org

anization. Before the end of 2010, I will take this exam, hopefully becoming a member of Mensa in the process. I took this practice test from a website, and score 9 out of 10. Try it yourself! Oh...and wish me luck. Oh wait....I'm smart! I don't need luck!

1. What is the four-digit number in which the first digit is one-fifth the last, and the second and third digits are the last digit multiplied by 3? (Hint: The sum of all digits is 12.)

2. Jane went to visit Jill. Jill is Jane's only husband's mother-in-law's only husband's only daughter's only daughter. What relation is Jill to Jane?

3. Which of these words is least like the others? The difference has nothing to do with vowels, consonants or syllables: MORE, PAIRS, ETCHERS, ZIPPER

4. Tabitha likes cookies but not cake. She likes mutton but not lamb, and she likes okra but not squash. Following the same rule, will she like cherries or pears?

5. What is the number that is one more than one-tenth of one-fifth of one-half of 4,000?

6. In a foot race, Jerry was neither first nor last. Janet beat Jerry, Jerry beat Pat. Charlie was neither first nor last. Charlie beat Rachel. Pat beat Charlie. Who came in last?

7. Find the number that best completes the following sequence: 1 2 4 7 11? 22

8. Marian bought four oranges and three lemons for 90 cents. The next day she bought three oranges and four lemons for 85 cents. How much did each lemon and orange cost?

9. Start with the number of total mittens the (nursery rhyme) kittens lost, and multiply by the voting age in the USA. What's the answer?

10. There is at least one nine-letter word that contains only one vowel. Do you know what it is?

• National Mensa Testing Day is Saturday; for details and locations, visit us.mensa.org
Source: Abbie Salny, Mensa

Answers: Don't peek!
1. 1,155 
2. Jane's daughter (Jane's mother's husband is Jane's father, his daughter is Jane, and Jill is her daughter.)
3. Zipper (The others can be anagrammed into the names of cities: Rome, Paris, Chester.)
4.Cherries (Tabitha likes only food with two syllables.)
5. 41. (4000 / 2 =2000, / 5 =400, / 10 = 40, + 1= 41)
6.Rachel
7. 16 (Each number adds 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, respectively, to the proceeding number.)
8. Oranges cost 15 cents each; lemons cost 10 cents each.
9. 216. (3 kittens @ 4 mittens each = 12 x 18. Kittens have 4 paws.)
10.Strengths

MBA Students, Unite!

So for the seven of you who already regularly follow my blog (without actually hitting the "follow" button), I've got great news! There will be more joining the ranks!

If you look to the "About Me" section, you'll see that some of my blog posts for this semester will be mandated by my Business 501 class, better known as Business Perspectives. Hopefully, by the end of the semester, there will be quite a few people following this blog. I've already followed a few of my loyal business school chums, and hopefully they will do the same for me.

Anyways, what that means is that you'll see a few more business related blog entries on this page. Not to worry, though; I'll do my best to keep them interesting and relevant to my twenty-something audience. Although you may see a few articles on Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, you'll still see business pieces on Starbucks, Best Buy, The Gap, and your favorite sports team (to hate).

So without futher ado, it's time to put away childish things...so I can pick up more childish things.

Rule 17b: No conjugal visits for the sake of science.

I love my life. I feel blessed with all the opportunities that have been put in front of me. I'm a great person, a grad student, and I have got a pretty kickass internship with the Illinois Department of Transportation that pays my grad tuition. Basically, that leaves me very few people to be jealous of. Now let's be honest; everybody's got one person who fits that bill, but I've got two. I'm normally jealous of really old people who win more money in the lottery than they have time to spend. But right now, and probably until I win this contest, I will be jealous of the person who gets to live here:


If you're a Chicagoan, you've probably heard about the Museum of Science and Industry's Month at the Museum promotion. Basically, the museum received 1500 applications from people vying to be the one person who gets the awesome job of actually living and blogging in the museum for an entire month. After hours, they can choose to sleep in this bedroom, or they can take their bedspread and pillow to any exhibit in the museum. It's like The Terminal, but way cooler.

In addition to living and blogging in the museum for the month, the winner becomes a full employee of the museum, which means they get to work as tour guides, conduct science experiment demos, and just about any other fun task they wish they could do. To sweeten the pot, not only do they get a bunch of tech stuff to help them make their blogs awesome (assumed to at least be a laptop, video camera, and digital camera), but they also get to keep it all, along with lifetime membership to the museum and a check for $10,000. For a month's worth of work. That's like being given a six figure job for a month. By now, you're probably pretty jealous.

I wanted to apply, and I probably should have. But I knew that my new internship wouldn't allow me to take off work (and school, for that matter) for a full month. Like I said at the top, my tuition is paid for; grad school ain't cheap, people. That risk wasn't worth the reward when I rationalized everything, but honestly, could it have been?

That answer is yes, especially for someone like me. I LOVE the Museum of Science and Industry, so much so that I'm buying a museum membership with my next paycheck ($80 gets me unlimited admission with a guest for an entire year). It is, in my opinion, the best museum in the country by far; what other museum boasted Harry Potter, Jim Henson's Muppets, AND Smart Home exhibits? Come on, tell me. I'll watch the clock.

My point is that this is one of those instances where following my dream may not have been rational, but would have made for one incredible story. Besides, I should have at least applied; there was no guarantee that I'd even get it.

Of course, there are minor downsides. Other than a few outside appearances, and barring a major museume accident/disaster, the winner is confined to the museum for the entire month. No leaving to shop in Michigan Avenue. No going to the Bulls game. No outside food (although I'm sure I could get around it and have Gino's East deliver a pizza).

In addition, the winner can't have overnight guests, which I guess does make sense. You don't want to oversleep one morning and have impressionable little 6 year old Johnny catch you in your glass bedroom in bed (possibly birthday suited up) with your significant other. No conjugal visits for the sake of science. But that also cuts out the possibility of a museum overnight party with your friends. If I could play cards and get plastered with my friends inside a life size fuselage hanging from the museum's ceiling, I probably would.

These were the "parameters" that stuck out the most, and even they're minor. All I have to say is that I'm awaiting the 2012 competition; I'll be fresh out of grad school and looking for a new job! Get ready!

Best Buy: The Modern Day Mancave

So I got out of my Business Perspectives Class tonight and found myself dumbfounded. Two groups were assigned to make presentations addressing the lack of female customers in Best Buy, and what the company could do about it. There were a couple of good suggestions, such as adding a Internet cafe/coffeehouse corner to the store, and implementing some sort of computer tutorial classes in the same fashion as Apple does with the Genius Bar at their Apple Stores. However, some of the suggestions I heard were lacking. Some even made my blood boil a little. Basically, there were quite a few suggestions that turned Best Buy into NOT Best Buy.

Let's get this out of the way now before I receive a cavalcade of hate mail and a letter from Hillary Clinton; I am not a male chauvinist. However, I DO protect men where it matters, and I do strongly believe in the Bros Before Hoes Law (Check your Man Law Constitution, 2010 Edition, Article 22, Section a).

Here's the thing: when women drag their husbands, boyfriends, sons, and other significant males to the department stores, notice that these men don't exactly jump for joy when entering these stores. They know what's in store; a marathon-like afternoon where they get asked a bunch of menial questions concerning shoes, drapes, outfits, and other merchandise. They'll choose an item or make some other judgement by either mentally flipping a coin or by going all Newlywed Game on her and try to guess what she's thinking. As men in an uninteresting environment, we don't care, and all women sense that. She'll eventually go with her gut feeling, disregarding anything we may say, which, in the end, makes us useless shopping companions. That car space would have been put to better use with one of her girlfriends, and not us.

Best Buy, on the other end, is the ONE place where men can turn the tables. There's no other store in the country where such a sample of men can be found. Just as you'll only find professional men in suit stores, bikers at the Harley Davidson store, and stoners at the skate shop, Best Buy attracts all those men and more. Men of every age bracket, race, social status, marital status, and income level can be found at Best Buy. It is, as I like to refer to it, as the Public Mancave. This is the only place where you'll find men of all backgrounds HAPPILY shopping. Make changes to that, and you'll lose part of that loyal customer base.

The question we must ask first is this: Can Best Buy attract enough LOYAL female shoppers to offset the loyal male shoppers that they would lose with major changes to the store? The answer is no; Best Buy is the only public getaway for men of all ages. It's the one place where I knew my mother or girlfriend wouldn't follow me to, and I'd have free reign over my time and money.

There's still a bigger reason why Best Buy would be making a huge mistake in investing time and money into an attempt at balancing the gender ratio in their stores. Why? Because the change is slowly but surely happening already.

Over the past 10 years, there has been an organic shift in the way women view technology. More women are embracing technology than ever before; some even going as far as really digging into the specs the same way other women stare at the same pair of shoes for hours on end. Because of this change, more women are now apt to go to a place that's not only seen as an authority on technology, but also carries a large array of items. That eliminates the tech departments at Sears, Wal Mart, and Target.

If Best Buy really wants to dump money into balancing the gender ratio right now, the best way for them to do it is by renting out mall space; not necessarily renting something as big as an anchor space like Sears or Macy's, but a storefront about as big as a Gap or an Express. A few years back, Apple started opening Apple Stores in malls, and as far as I know, the change has been quite successful, especially in areas where a standalone Apple Store is not accessible. If Best Buy created a store where they only sold an array of smaller consumer electronics (phones, mp3 players, cameras), laptops, CDs, and DVDs, and video games, that could go a long way. Today's female techie won't necessarily buy a car stereo, but she will buy Season 1 of Glee on DVD and its accompanying soundtracks. Today's female techie won't spend $900 on a new TV, but she will go out right away and drop $175 on a new camera because she lost or broke her old one.



A promotional shot from a 2008 Best Buy Female Gamer Day.



I know there are female techies out there who WILL buy a quality car stereo, a $3000 TV and surround sound speakers to boot, but the majority of that EXTREMELY small population are already loyal Best Buy customers. They need to go after the ones aged 14-25, who don't have a lot of money but are willing to spend it on things that Best Buy already sells. Hit them where they hang out (the mall), and you'll blow the remnants of any remaining Sam Goody or FYE to oblivion.

For the time being, though, let us men keep our mancave. It's the last place we can drag women to make them feel as bored, useless, and infuriated as we do when we walk into a Macy's.

In the Mornings, I Really Don't Give A Damn.

For those of you who haven't found out yet, I work for the Department of Transporation's Divison of Traffic Safety. I go 3 or 4 days a week and work on various things from media buys to invoicing. I start at 9:00, but since I don't have a car, I have to be up every morning at 7:15 to catch the 8:15 bus. So naturally, with three roommates in their senior years, mornings are kinda quiet in M12. Because of this, I really don't give a damn what I do in the mornings. If I just happen to wake someone up, they can go back to sleep without interruption- screw it.

Because most nights I'm doing grad homework til midnight or later (I don't get out of class until 8:30 PM), 7:15 can be a bit much to ask. So I get up and sleepwalk my way through my morning routine, often making dead, sloth-like motions not too far removed from the zombies in the Thriller video. Most of the time, I can make it around my townhouse without doing anything that may disrupt my morning routines, or my roommates.

Today, however, was different. I didn't have any pressed shirts (I usually have my shirts dry cleaned or I iron them a few days before), so I had to iron a shirt. My roommate Ryan's room is right next to the utility closet where we keep the iron and ironing board. So at this point, it should come as no surprise what happened next. I opened Ryan's door on accident.

Now at this point, I didn't know how light a sleeper Ryan really was. But when I opened the door, he made this move that was a combination of shooting straight up like he had just had the worst nightmare of his life...and had been tasered at the same time. It took me about three seconds to realize what I had done, to which I said, "Sorry dude. I thought this was the closet.". I closed his door and laughed my ass off.

Now, I went to work, came home, and still hadn't seen Ryan again- the incident was ages ago to me, so when I got this text at around 8:25 that night, I was surprised and amused.

Yo J-dog, did you come into my room this morning or was I dreaming? Lol

I was due to get out of class in 5 minutes or so, so I knew we were due to have a good laugh over this. I come back in the house, see Ryan, and exclaim "YES!" at the top of my lungs. According to my roommate Tim, it's one of the two best stories of the year- both involve Ryan and both involve closets. However, the other story isn't mine to tell, nor do I know all of the details. You'll just have to ask them about it.

Major Leagues, Major Problems

I barely watch baseball anymore. Sure, I watch the occasional White Sox game, but baseball doesn't catch my attention. Baseball is no longer America's pasttime; it's football. With only 16 games and full college exposure, you see players from their college days grow into NFL superstars. Baseball? Eh, not so much. Here are baseball's biggest problems and what we can do to fix them.

1. 162 games is way too long

162 games?!?!? That's two NBA or NHL seasons, and TEN NFL seasons! Having a season that lasts so long creates a couple of different problems; it causes both players and fans to see games as expendable. 16 NFL games means that every game you play is a major factor in whether or not you make the playoffs. With 162 games, players don't have to be as concerned with the outcome of every game, and neither do the fans. Until the playoffs draw near, I don't watch games all of the way through, and I imagine MLB loses many on-the-fence fans this way.

2. We don't know who the hell half the new guys are
The advantage that the NBA and NFL have is that NCAA basketball and football are both widely covered. If every college basketball player had to play in the NBA Development League before being called up, the NBA wouldn't be anywhere as popular; college players would lose any steam or publicity they had coming out of college and enter the NBA with people barely remembering their college careers. Unless you go to college baseball games, watch the barely-covered College World Series on ESPN, or pay attention to the minor leagues, you don't know most, or any of the future stars of Major League Baseball.

3. Only 8 teams make the playoffs
This, in my opinion, is the biggest mistake the MLB is making; If I'm a fan, and I have to wait 162 games only to have just 8 teams make the playoffs? That sucks. As a player, I'd have to imagine that would suck too. The division winners and one wild card from each league make the playoffs. That's EIGHT TEAMS. Every other major professional sport has a 12 or 16 team playoff. There is too much invested in the season to only see 8 teams. make it. Sure you get the best teams, but you don't get upset moments where a team who barely sneaks in makes a playoff splash.

Now what should we do about it? First of all, lower the MLB season to 100 games. Math is easier, players pay more attention to the importance of games, and it allows the MLB brass to....wait for it...expand the playoffs to 12 or 16 teams. Take the top two from each division, or adopt the NBA playoff system.

When the NHL made changes to its rules during the lockout, they created a faster, higher scoring, and as a result, more exciting game. Hockey ratings keep climbing, and with the advent of new additions like the Winter Classic and overseas season openers, they are gaining coverage from more networks.

MLB, your system is long and drawn out. Change it, or America's pastime will be just that- a pastime.

Arthur C. Clarke, You Da Bomb!

This is my first blog post fully composed and researched on my iPad, so I thought it would be fitting to write a blog entry related to the device.

Remember the old Miss Cleo infomercials? I do. They were so funny. But past Miss Cleo demoing how she could identify the fathers of many babies, the best part of each commercial would be where some female caller would say "Miss Cleo, you da bomb!".

Miss Cleo may have been able to solve Maury Povich-esque matters, but Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, had a much more accurate and relevant premonition concerning technology of our time. Although he was about 7 years off in the title, this description of a device in the novel could very well be attributed to the Kindle or the iPad:


“When he tired of official reports and memoranda and minutes, he would plug in his foolscap-size newspad into the ship’s information circuit and scan the latest reports from Earth.


One by one he would conjure up the world’s major electronic papers…Switching to the display unit’s short-term memory, he would hold the front page while he quickly searched the headlines and noted the items that interested him. Each had its own two-digit reference; when he punched that, the postage-stamp-size rectangle would expand until it neatly filled the screen and he could read it with comfort. When he had finished, he would flash back to the complete page and select a new subject for detailed examination.


Floyd sometimes wondered if the Newspad, and the fantastic technology behind it, was the last word in man's quest for perfect communications. Here he was, far out in space, speeding away from Earth at thousands of miles an hour, yet in a few milliseconds he could see the headlines of any newspaper he pleased. (That very word "newspaper," of course, was an anachronistic hangover into the age of electronics.) The text was updated automatically on every hour; even if one read only the English versions, one could spend an entire lifetime doing nothing but absorbing the ever-changing flow of information from the news satellites.


It was hard to imagine how the system could be improved or made more convenient. But sooner or later, Floyd guessed, it would pass away, to be replaced by something as unimaginable as the Newspad itself would have been to Caxton or Gutenberg. ”

Note how freakishly accurate Clarke was with the description of what sounds more like an iPad than a Kindle, and his coining the term Newspad. I use the Wall Street Journal app on my iPad, and that is a pretty dead on description of the app. Even Safari, Apple's default web browser, fits that bill pretty comfortably. That is pretty unreal.

Many years ago, somewhere in the lineage of records, 8 tracks, and cassettes, American Bandstand emcee Dick Clark made a statement saying that one day in the future, people would not only be able to easily take their entire music collections anywhere they went, but would be able to pick and choose whatever music they wanted to listen to on their car stereos. That statement became true with the advent of MP3 players and satellite radios, but Arthur Clarke made his prediction farther back in the past with incredible accuracy. For that, I must say, Arthur C. Clarke, You Da Bomb!

An In-TEXT-icated Country

I love texting. I think it's a highly useful form of communication when in situations where you can't or don't want to talk. However, I believe it should be done in moderation. I think I send quite a few when seeing that I go through 500-600 a month, but it turns out that I'm considered an infrequent texter by teenage standards.

The average teenager sends about 1800 text messages a month, but considering how much I see them text, it's not surprising. I was first exposed to the enormity of teenage text mesaging almost a year and a half ago, when a teenage girl in Wisconsin sent almost 20000 text messages over the course of a month; that rounds out to nearly 700 per day. It would have been fine had her father paid for an unlimited texting plan, but he didnt. The result? a $4,700+ cell phone bill. Even worse, she had received 5 Fs on her report card. Not surprisingly, her father smashed the phone. Literally. With a hammer.



She sent 20,000 text messages? On THIS?
There's not even a full keyboard!



Anyhoo, fast forward to 2010. Teens are texting everywhere. School, church, at the dinner table, and even while they drive. Let's not even go to sexting, which thankfully has begun to decline. What is one cell phone company doing to cut back on this potentially dangerous phenomenon? THEY'RE REWARDING IT.

For the past 3 years, LG has hosted the National Texting Championship, a competition to find the best teenage texter in America. Contestants advance through rounds by accurately typing a given text message and sending it to the judging panel. Contestants who are too slow or make even just one error in their message are eliminated. The winner of the contest earns $50,000. For an activity that's so dangerous, I'd hope that LG would be promoting safer texting situations, not paying kids to do it more.



The LG National Texting Championship pays 50 large to the winner.
I think LG loses a lot more than that in the end.

Some peopele will try to rebuke my claim, saying that there are plenty of competitive beer pong championships out there. But the difference is that a beer pong federation/league is sponsoring those, not a beer company. Leave the text competitions to the private organizations to sponsor, because as a cell phone manufacturer, with more and more distracted driving cases being attributed to cell phones and texting, this isn't something I'd want to put my name on. It's not even like LG is a cell phone SERVICE provider, where unlimited texting plans put money into the corporation's pockets. This, in my opinion, is a bad move by LG, especially when the event wasn't even publicized enough to improve their US market share.

I guess it could be worse...they could be sexting for $50,000. But on the other hand, texting, as are most activities, is best when used in moderation. I'm not going to go off on some Glenn Beck/Rush Linbaugh-esque tirade that ends with me blaming every teenage problem with lack of prayer in schools, especially when adult texting is on the rise, too. But I will say this; it all depends on what each parent allows and teaches. If a parent wants to allow their kid to text at the dinner table, then wants to complain about a lack of family time, then that's on the parent. If parents instill good driving habits and conversational skills in their teenagers, then texting isn't as needed, although it is still effective.

Here's the best thing for me to say: If you hit my car, and I find out that you were texting, you and I will have a serious problem; I don't care if it is 2023 and your car drives itself. You've been warned.

Someone's Gotta Buy A Whole New Wardrobe...

So today was the premiere of the 39th season of The Price is Right. A new pricing game premiered today, but that was not the focal point of today's show. I had known that Drew Carey lost some weight, but man, he looks really good!



Carey was reportedly tired of being fat (as I imagine many overweight people are), and wanted to be able to enjoy his 5 year old son and watch him grow up. So he went on a strict regimen, cutting out all carbs and exercising daily. All in all, he lost about 80 pounds and got his pant waist size down to a 33-34.

I'd love to be as diligent and driven as Drew, but no carbs? That means no burgers, no pizza, no bread, no chips, no fun? I could probably get away with a light carb diet if I actually found time to work out.

Anyways, back to Drew: he looks great, and best of all, he made no mention of it; he let his trim new figure do the talking. I think he's a great example of a celebrity in Hollywood who chooses to lose weight the right way; no liposuction, no starvation, no master cleanse, and no lap band surgery. We could use more people like him as great role models.

Congrats Drew. You have finally fulfilled the prophecy that once you started hosting Price, people would compare your look to Bill Cullen.

So...it's like Dungeons and Dragons?

Ryan: Dave, yo ass ain't gonna win a game with all those running backs!
Dave: Just wait and see.
Me: Dave, yo ass ain't gonna win the whole thing anyway.

Welcome to Draft Day of our Fantasy Football League. This is my first year playing, and I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

Let's get this straight; I made fun of guys who played Fantasy Football. A lot. I loved using this joke that I had heard a few years back In a comedian competition:

"Isn't Fantasy Football Dungeons and Dragons for the people who made fun of people who played Dungeons and Dragons?"

That was my perception of it for the longest time. I thought it was the dumbest thing ever...until I tried it myself.

Fantasy Football, in a nutshell, is like this: You are the owner/coach of your very own football team, made up of teams in a league you create with friends, family, and/or passing acquaintances. Before the start of the the NFL season, your league has a draft made up of every NFL offensive player, plus each defense/special team as a collective unit. You draft players and defenses, who then gain or lose points based off their real-life performances each week. You have more players than slots on your game day roster, so you can rearrange your lineup weekly, as well as make trades, cut players, and sign free agents. Each week, your roster plays against another's with whoever gaining the most Fantasy Points picking up the W.

So much for a nutshell.

Anyways, I've been hooked. My cousin Ryan invited me to play in his league, and I'm sitting here on a Sunday, watching my Springfield Skyhawks, led by Peyton Manning, taking on Team Grabowski, who is currently nursing a 5 point lead. All I need is for Manning to have a superb day, and I improve to 1-1. The week prior, my team had the third highest point total, but sadly was matched up against the highest scoring team that week.

Fantasy Football is not an obsession of mine, but I can see how this turns players into obsessive, hardcore league owners. Football, like soccer in Europe, is a very loyal sport. People stick with one team for their whole lives in many cases, although the only football team that has even come close to a European level of hooliganism is the Oakland Raiders. Fantasy Football gives its players a more invested interest in the league, not just their team. I'd actually recommend that women who want to impress their men with football stats join a league and keep up with it regularly.

Even better, it allows you to root for your Fantasy team without actually rooting for a real NFL team to do well. I'm a lifelong Chicago Bears fan, and I want them to win, regardless of my FFL numbers, but I do want other players to perform well. I don't care whether the Colts win or lose, but I do care when Peyton Manning puts up 300 yards and 4 touchdowns. After all, he's my main QB. Brett Favre is my backup (imagine that!).

Winning an losing is so important that people spend hours during the week rearranging their lineups, downloading FFL podcasts, and proposing mammoth trades. I am slowly, but surely, becoming one of these people. I noticed myself spending an hour signing free agents and playing around with my starting lineup. Thank God this only lasts for 10 weeks and a playoffs!

Anyways, Peyton Manning put forth a valiant effort, nailing me 22 points, but no luck. Team Grabowski still ended up beating me by 3 points. I am now 0-2. If I'm going to make the playoffs, I need to put more work into this team!

Now about those Fantasy Baseball assholes...

Mega Monster Aggro Showcase

One of my favorite parts of being a game show fan is watching how other countries pull off variants of shows in the US. For example, Family Feud in England gave away cars long before we did. Jeopardy! in England has an interesting twist where the contestants never see each others scores, so wagering on Daily Doubles and Final Jeopardy! is more strategic. Even Wheel of Fortune in France has a shopping wedge that allows contestants $2000 to spend in a vintage Wheel shopping/Price is Right minigame. But the best change that any foreign show has made, by far, is The Price is Right in Australia. Their Showcase round looks like this:

Instead of the final two contestants bidding on their own showcases, they go head to head trying to figure the price of ONE showcase. One player guesses the price, and the host says whether the actual price is higher or lower. The other player then goes, and we go back and forth like this until someone hits the price on the nose. Then this huge board rotates on the turntable, and the player must place the prizes in order from lowest to highest. If they do, they win the showcase (and in some variants, a six figure cash prize or a $500,000 condo in prime time). Usually, the game is won or lost on prizes 3, 4 and 5, but if the contestant wants to stop, the host offers a cash bailout if the contestant doesn't feel confident (we've seen these go up to $20,000 in some cases). It's exciting, it's tense, and it is perfect. 

Hey, Fremantle? If you ever decide to syndicate The Price is Right again, use this format for the showcase. It's budget friendly, suspenseful, and allows you to offer a boatload of prizes. Just my 2 cents.

And Here's Your Host...

Let's face it- I've always been a fan of game shows. The excitement of being able to win life changing money in 30 minutes has always been appealing to me. Being a game show host, however, would be awesome. I would want to be a game show host. Giving away a car to somebody who really needs one is an awesome prospect. The best part is that it's not my money. I get to play the part of Santa Claus without donning a red suit....unless of course, I somehow get pixelated and am turned into Buzz, the host of the Buzz! series of quiz games for the Playstation Suite.

Anyways, I've compiled a list of game shows that, if given the chance, I would host.

5: Card Sharks- This game was great because people won and lost tons of money by betting on cards. When I'm in Vegas and playing Blackjack, I'm that guy that verbally roots for the whole table to win. That would translate to Card Sharks well. Plus, the survey questions, for the most part, are thought provoking and can tell you a lot about people in geenral.

4: Body Language- This one isn't known by most people, but it's an old 80s game show hsoted by Tom Kennedy. Basically, you had 60 seconds to play charades and make your partner guess words or phrases. Each one you got right was inserted into this word puzzle, and it was the player's job to guess the puzzle. I've always been a fan of charades, and I alwyas thought this was a great execution of charades on television.

3: Family Feud- From what I've seen of Steve Harvey so far, he's going to be a great host. He actually SAYS what I'm thinking when bad answers are given. I'd be somewhere between him and Dawson as far as hosting styles are concerned. Besides, I get to adlib and interact with 10 people every day- how great is that?

2: The Price is Right- Drew Carey was spot on when he said that the show is like a little bit of church. People come to have a good time, and there's a party atmosphere throughout the whole episode. The bevy of games means that there's never the same comination played twice (well, at least not that often), and every 18 seconds a bell of some kind is going off. Bells mean winners. Winners mean happy people. Happy people means an awesome show. Besides, I figure I'll be near the target age of the new host when Drew retires in about 20 years.

1: The $25,000 Pyramid- Most people who know me would say Jeopardy!, but no, this is it right here. I'm good at Pyramid, and I can pull the "Dick Clark Is Better Than You" (i.e. after the Winner Circle is over, in many cases, Dick Clark knew the perfect clue to give the contestant to get them to the right answer...and in the process made the celebrities look like crap) better than most. Again, I'm into games that can be played in a living room, just as they can be played in a studio.

Honorable mention:
Scrabble: Great game, and Chuck Woolery was awesome, hands down. To me, it's as good a word game as Wheel of Fortune.

$ale of the Century: Another Reg Grundy creation, but with Jim Perry at the helm. He really shone in Instant Bargains, and the fast paced buzzer battle really does appeal to the College Bowl player in me.

Wheel Of Fortune: If the show were ever to get back to the atmosphere or feeling of the Chuck Woolery or mid 80s Pat Sajak days, It'd probably make my Top 5, but too many gimmicks and an uninspired set turn me off from hosting it. Considering it's #1 in syndication and has been for years, I guess I can't say anything.

Jeopardy!: Alex Trebek and Art Fleming are in a category of their own. How they are able to rattle off 61 clues an episode without missing a beat is beyond me. However, that's not the reason I can't host Jeopardy- I need a show that lets me be flexible in being me- Alex can adlib and whatnot during contestant interviews, but for the most part, he has to stay the course and finish as many clues as possible. Love the show, but hosting might grate on me after a while. That's not saying I wouldn't give it a try, though.