Who wants to be a millionaire tryout
Posted on 06/29/2006 in misc
Yesterday, I took the day off of work to follow through on a dare from the kids. I had a 530 PM appointment in NYC to audition for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. I had a great plan that involved me getting to NY about 5 hours early so I could visit a couple of museums along the way.
Unfortunately, I forgot to check with Amtrak before I made that plan.
The day got off to a bad start. Traffic was horrendous and the 70 minute drive from my home to Union Station DC took 2 hrs and 20 minutes. I got there at 10:35. My train was scheduled to depart at 10:30. As it turned out, my train pulled out of DC about 12:30 and pulled into Penn Station in NY at 4:30. So instead of lots of lingering time, I had just enough to walk up 7th Ave to Broadway, and then follow Broadway through Times Square to Central Park. The audition was at the ABC building just a block off of Central Park.
Some random observations about NYC.
- It's loud. It's freaking loud.
- Stoplights and walk signs are mere suggestions.
- Drivers prefer to honk excessively in lieu of braking for pedestrians.
- It's surprisingly clean.
- Anywhere they can fit a vendor stand or advertisement they do. It really is an ode to capitalism
- Times Square is a pretty good proxy for my idea of hell. It's crowded, loud, hot, and has enough flashing lights to send a small nation into an epileptic fit.
- There is no amount of money that would get me to live there. I don't like loud, I don't like crowds, and in fact, I don't really like people.
Continuing our journey, everything changed when I got to Central Park. It got much more pleasant.
The Millionaire test is 30 questions. They handed me test #42. I immediately got very confident. What greater sign could I possibly receive?
The passing score is a secret. I am 99% confident that I got 26 right, maybe 27. That apparently ain't passing.
So I went back the way I came, this time slowing down to take a few pictures of the madness that is Times Square. I made it home about 12:30 AM, 16 hours after my journey started.
And all I have to show for it is a stupid pencil.