I’ve been thinking about this for days and still haven’t come up with an answer: do you have a long-term wish that could be fulfilled with $3,000 and 3 free days?
This is the premise of a new reality show on the Discovery Channel called No Opportunity Wasted.
Most of the “fantasies” fulfilled in upcoming episodes are pretty run-of-the-mill: a reunion between Vietnam War vets, a “spot in the limelight” for a chanteuse wanna-be, etc.
In one of the promos, the question was asked, “What would you do with 3 free days and $3,000”, the assumption being that most people’s dreams could be fulfilled with limited time and limited means, if only they had the self-confidence to do it.
To tell you the truth, I can’t think of a single, blessed, meaningful thing I could accomplish with that little time and money.
For example, I’d like to be President of the United States, okay? I mean, could I do a worse job than the one we have?
I’d like to be able to pay cash for a house with an ocean view, even a small one, and it doesn’t even have to be in this country. Can I do that for 3 large?
I’d like to hand Peter and Bonnie a check for the kids’ education, from now through Graduate School, so they don’t have to attend public school. How could I do that in 3 days, plan and execute a bank robbery?
This doesn’t even begin to cover the things that money can’t buy, which I won’t go into because they are too maudlin and depressing.
And besides: those “lucky recipient of network beneficence” reality shows REALLY irritate the heck out of me. Whose to say that one widow-and-orphan story is more worthy than another?
The only one I’ve heard of that made any sense at all, to me at least, was the Extreme Makeover of some poor jamoke who was wrongly convicted of murder based on his resemblance to the real killer, and after 10 years finally was released from Death Row.
Extreme Makeover redid his face so that he no longer looked like the Scar-Tooth Killer. Now, THAT is cool, as opposed to the typical contestant: some dumb broad who clumsily lurches to her “reveal” because she’s sporting boobs the size of Rhode Island.
In spite of the sob stories which the producers try so hard to spin, the great majority of these “contestant” selections seem more like luck of the draw than compensation for real hardship.
The most arbitary of the arbitrary? Extreme Home Makeover. I despise that show, but probably should watch it anyway just so that I can send hate mail to their sponsors.
Back to the point: do you have a dream that could be realized with 3 grand and 3 days? If so, when you have time, write to me, and I’ll post the results, anonymously, of course.