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<p>Well, I have the advantage of living in SoCall, so the tryout expenses were one tank of gas to drive up to LA, one night stay in a TraveLodge, and one chicken dinner from Popeye’s.</p>
<p>Also, the winnings are taxed as ordinary income. There is not some special game show tax. So tax-wise winning $50K on Jeopardy would be the same as getting a $50K bonus at work.</p>
<p>The Nude Descending a Staircase was Duchamps, the Chilean poet was Neruda, the Jane Austen was Sense and Sensibility, he got the capital of New Zealand but I can’t remember it…I think these are right? </p>
<p>He got all the ones in your first paragraph, sometimes before I could even see what he was typing. Yes, Bonds was the asterisk baseball. The only one I’m not sure he got was the highest point in Antarctica one.</p>
<p>Really about the taxes? Because when DH’s cousin won the money on Millionaire, we were all saying that was great, but too bad he would have to pay most of it in windfall profit tax. No? Gosh, now I’m sorry DH didn’t get on…</p>
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<p>Married to him, and he puts his pants on one leg at a time.</p>
<p>The only problem with paying the taxes on game show winnings comes when you win an object instead of cash. If you win cash you just pay part of it to the government, just like your salary. But if you win say a boat or a car, you are taxed on the retail value of the boat or car. So you have to come up with that cash out of your pocket. Which is why you commonly hear stories of people who won a boat but had to sell it due to taxes. As long as you win cash you will be fine.</p>
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<p>I would never have guessed, you don’t have the same last name. ; ) </p>
<p>Guess you can see that DH is the smart one in our family.</p>
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<p>Yes, that was the problem with the Lee Press-On Nails and the year’s supply of yeast for my friend. Apparently the retail price was shockingly high on those, so when he had to pony up for the cash to pay taxes on items he would never normally have used, it was pretty painful. </p>
<p>Hmm, maybe he should have started wearing those Lee Press-On Nails, just to get his money’s worth out of them…</p>
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<p>Hmm… that was not case for me. My “lovely parting gifts” were a clock radio, a Lady Remington wet/dry leg razor, some lip gloss, some Rice-A-Roni, three Jeopardy home games, and some other items I can’t remember. They kept trickling in for nearly a year after I’d been on the show. Their retail value was minimal - more or less a rounding error in my overall winnings.</p>
<p>Well, he was probably exaggerating for the sake of a good story.</p>
<p>I took the test at a hotel around the corner from my office. Same setup as coureur’s. I did have to fly out to LA at my own expense. The prize I won was about equal in value to the amount I had to pay to go to LA, so I wasn’t killed on the taxes.</p>
<p>My biggest problem was with the buzzer. I knew the answers, but couldn’t beat the young guys who had been playing video games their whole lives. </p>
<p>It’s so much easier at home - it’s always your turn!</p>
<p>A cousin was on Jeopardy back in the 60s when it was in New York and the host was Art Fleming. She was scared to death and basically froze on the show, but answered a few questions correctly and accumulated a few dollars. Going in to Final Jeopardy she was in 3rd place. You guessed it - #1 and #2 both bet it all and had the wrong answer. Cousin bet nothing and won the game and had to come back for the 2nd show, where she got destroyed. She was so happy to be off that show!</p>
<p>DH just called and as soon as I said, “There was something about a mountain in Antarctica,” he said, “Oh, no! It was Antarctica!” So he got that one wrong, darn it.</p>
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<p>Good story! Poor cousin, though. I would be scared to go on, too.</p>
<p>I remember the days when I was a kid watching Jeopardy when I was sick from (or of) school. It came on at 11:00am right after Hollywood Squares. Art Fleming was the MC and Don Pardo was the announcer. I remember the home game with those little clickers that you had to use and the question board with the red screen to mask the answers. Our kids would never be patient enough to put all the tabs in for the questions. I remember the parting gifts included an Encyclopedia Brittainica. I thought it would be so cool to own my own Encycolpedia and not have to go to the library to look up stuff for my lame school papers.</p>
<p>My mother was a professional game show contestant. This was when Jeopardy was out of NY.
She lost her fourth day. They limited the shows you can get on, but she did do three and won a car and lots of other things. It is correct that on the objects you have to pay sale’s tax.</p>
<p>As a child, It was very embarrassing to see her on TV.</p>
<p>I was on the Teen Tournament when I was 15. Got knocked out in the first round (damn buzzer), but every participant got $1000 and a free trip to California for themselves and one parent. They put us up in the Beverly Hilton, gave us a per diem, etc…it was a fantastic experience, especially talking and bonding with the other contestants. It was like the nerd camp I never got to go to.</p>
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<p>Some lovely tupperware-like containers…</p>
<p>The buzzers are tricky. When you watch the show, you can often see where it is clear that all 3 contestants know the answer, and all 3 are madly banging on their buzzers, trying to ring in. There has got to be a timing trick to it…</p>
<p>Wow–this is the best thread ever!! When I was in college in the late 60’s/early 70’s, I used to try to plan my schedule so I could be back in my dorm room at 11 a.m. to watch the show. </p>
<p>I was a cutthroat player of the board game with my then-boyfriend, who was just as cutthroat as I was! We were well matched opponents in the game, although not in life (but that’s another story) and when we played, we made my younger sister be the moderator. The rules were we had to call her “Art” and when we chose the next category and answer we had to say, for example “History for $20, Art”. She also had to hum the Jeopardy theme song while we were thinking during Final Jeopardy. Do I belong on this nerd board, or what???</p>
<p>dg5052–you probably belong to a Jeopardy board!</p>