Friday, October 26, 2007

Quick Photos: The Volo Auto Museum

We visited here to help relatives with the antique fair on Sept. 29. Of course, there's only one thing I really wanted to see:


Volo Auto Museum

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Crossed Out!

Surprise and disappointment this past weekend, as Barb and I got someone to watch the boy Saturday while we headed into Downtown to audition for "Merv Griffin's Crosswords." Yep, another game show, the last one developed by the Mervster.

I had spotted an ad in the Tribune's TV page inviting aspiring contestants to call or go online to get one's name in the hopper. Well, I'm a big aspirer. I entered myself, then after letting Barb know this was going on, I entered her. Luckily, we got called and managed to arrange to go to the same audition time.

In case you haven't seen it, the Chicago NBC affiliate -- WMAQ -- is housed in in a "Main Street USA" replica of the NBC Tower in New York: same peacock on top, plus presumably a Noo Yawk style deli at the side. Only problem is, it's set a few block to the east of Michigan Ave. When the local TV marketing gurus decreed that all morning news shows must be done from a sidewalk-level studio with gawkers' windows, they leased out the ground floor of the nearby Equitable Building.

Once we get there, it's a basic cattle call familiar to any game show veteran or actor. Wait in line to get a numbered tag, then wait in a plain room with uncomfortable plastic chairs (no doubt the same place Jerry Springer's audience get penned up). Finally the show coordinators get finished with the previous auditions, and they fill us in on the game action, some of the rules, and various chitchat. Oh, yes: And a few free T-shirts.

After filling in our personal and tax info, we get a quick quiz testing our crossword solving ability. The last page of our applications had single rows of crossword squares, which we tried to fill in based on clues PowerPointed on the wall in front of us.

Hey! This quiz is hard!

A few minutes later, we hand in our tests. All of us new partners in anxiety chat about the clues; "What did you put down for #12," etc.

Then one of the coordinators reads the numbers of the applicants who get to stay and be interviewed.

Barb and I are not on the list. We both failed the test.

Tails between our legs, we console ourselves with some yummy entres at Lou Malnati's. Hey, no one said we needed to feel bad.

Finally got a chance to watch the show on Monday. Hey, those puzzle are hard!