FlashBack Friday - Four Years Ago Today

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Four years ago today, November 7th, 2004, I made my NPR debut. Okay, it was more like a one time thing, but it was very exciting.

I had the opportunity to appear on Puzzlemaster Presents with Will Shortz during Weekend Edition Sunday. CD called me with the puzzle and we thought about it together, then she called me back with the answer. She is way better at this stuff than me. I submitted my answer to NPR via email about 10 minutes before the Thursday at noon deadline, and about 20 minutes later I got the phone call informing me I had "won" and would I like to appear on-air to play puzzle with Will Shortz?

After taking some initial information, they set up to call me the next morning at 11:00 a.m., which was the Friday before it was set to air. At the time Jed was 2 and Henry was 3, and in need of their mama's constant attention. Since I needed my own undivided attention to not make a complete fool of myself on air, I knew I needed to make myself completely unavailable to them for the 10 or so minutes that it would take. I briefly considered hiding in my walk-in closet and taking the phone call there, but it just didn't seem comfortable, and I wanted to have access to a pen and paper.

So in the end, I strapped them into their car seats in the parked van in the garage, put a movie on the dvd (in the van) and gave them each a nice big bowl of chocolate chips. I sat inside where I could look out at them if needed, but could be just out of sight as well. It worked like a charm, if I do say so myself. They sat captive, watching their show and eating their decadent snack, and I was able to take the call and play the puzzle to the best of my ability.

Sunday morning I was nervous to listen to the actual program, but it was a lot of fun overall, and I was flattered to be picked. I received some nice prizes, mostly consisting of dictionaries, thesauruses and puzzle books, as well as an NPR lapel pin. Since I mentioned that CD had "helped" me solve the puzzle, the nice intern David sent me a second one for her.


That afternoon a note appeared on my front porch from a woman in the neighborhood who had heard me and was excited to tell me that she had been rooting for me. She found us through the phone book and came by to leave that note. It was very sweet. A teacher who worked with Pete also heard me, and told Pete about it on Monday. Our pediatrician, who is the older sister of Pete's BYU roommate also heard me and told us about it.

So, that is the extent of my NPR fame and fortune. I have never submitted an answer since, yet CD is always quick to email me when she has solved the weekly puzzle. My dream is to appear on Jeopardy!, I've even driven to their LA studios once to take the test. Out of the sixty or so of us there, only 7 passed the test. But not me. Now you can take the test online, but I haven't tried that yet. Maybe someday.

And as for my NPR appearance on November 7, 2004 you can
read about and hear it here

play along if you like, and tell me how you do!