FUN IN THE SUN

Posted By: Glenn HaumanPosted On:

At this very moment, Shana and Gwen are at the Club Med resort in Cancun, Mexico. Why? Because they won a free trip from Comedy Central’s “Win Ben Stein’s Vacation” sweepstakes. Actually, Gwen filled out the entry form, but since she was under 21 she put in Shana’s name. And she asked me the trivia questions, which I answered correctly. So Shana, who didn’t do anything and didn’t even know she was being entered, won.

My Daughters Won a Free Trip to Cancun and All I Got Was This Lousy Blog Entry.

PAD

13 comments on “FUN IN THE SUN”

  1. Hey, as long as they’re on Ben Stein’s vacation, see if they can Eat Ben Stein’s Lunch.

    When I was on the show, knowing that I probably wouldn’t end up with His Money, I had a strong urge to sneak into his dressing room and steal His Lunch.

    Ben has a very large Israeli bodyguard. I left the show lunchless.

  2. Now if you were going to be a nasty,treacherous, vindictive parent — i.e., normal:

    When they get back, present them with a print-out of the fine print which declares that the winner is responsible for taxes and what the estimated taxable value of the trip _is_.

    You might want to include a transcript of their response in a future blog entry.

  3. “My Daughters Won a Free Trip to Cancun and All I Got Was This Lousy Blog Entry.”

    You want a “Lousy Blog Entry”? Check out some of my winners on my blog.

    Peace…

    Dan

    GeekPunk

  4. Heh. Shana’s gonna be thrilled when she gets hit with the tax on the unearned income, which the is based on the “value” of the prize. For the record, I’ve won 2 trips…the first was a trip to Hawaii that I won from the call-in version of “Trivial Pursuit” (if anyone remembers that), which I won on my 25th birthday (I’m 34 now) and the second was to Chicago to see a Blink 182/Greenday concert, which I won from a local radio station and took on my birthday…and yes, I did skew the demographics at the show 🙂

  5. On the other hand, I’m willing to bet that Shana’s tax bracket is a lot lower than Peter’s.

    Out of curiosity Peter, do you recall any of the questions or the general difficulty level? Would’ve liked to have done the show, but ala J!, the one time I tried out I didn’t get a callback, and in subsequent years I prefered trying to get on J! due to 1) sheer stubborness (11 passes and counting…) and 2) Frankly, combining state and federal taxes in my former bracket during the dot.com boom and expenses, if I didn’t beat Ben it was hardly worth it financially, and beating him wouldn’t have been a big deal moneywise either.

  6. ok

    there doesnt seem to be a proper message board on this site and this may very well be old news to everybody but…

    i just read on “lying in the gutters” that Peter David and LeSean Thomas would be doing a TMNT comic for dreamwave.

    is this true?

    theres nothing on the dreamwave site about this.

    have i even got the right peter david?

  7. I remember you mentioning the contest a couple’a months back in your “But I Digress…” column. Any idea on how much of their trip will be caught on camera for Comedy Central and when it’ll air? I concur with you that Com Cent lucked out BIG time when it got two such witty, bright, and fun young ladies as vacation recipients! I just hope Shana packed her ‘Happy Shoes’!!

    Hooper

  8. I’m going off topic like Jeremy. I won an auction of 18 Nexus comics last week and came across a Judah the Hammer back up story by Peter David. Has Peter written any other Nexus, Judah, or Badger stories? The story was only a few pages but enjoyable.

    Oh, and is Howling Mad out of print again? I was on the F Paul Wilson boards and there was some discussion on good Werewolf novels and that was my contribution but I can’t find a new copy anywhere.

  9. Alan wrote:

    “I won an auction of 18 Nexus comics last week and came across a Judah the Hammer back up story by Peter David. Has Peter written any other Nexus, Judah, or Badger stories?”

    Check PAD’s bibliography on this site. PAD had backup stories in two Nexus issues, #63 and 72. The one you don’t have is actually one part of a 6-part back-up story, each part written by a different writer. Aside from those 2 backups, DREADSTAR was the only other thing PAD wrote for First Comics to the best of my knowledge.

    Corey

  11. Many contests now also include a “cash” portion. However, if you do the math, that cash is usually supposed to be equal to the amount of taxes you might need to pay for the entire package (prize plus cash). Don’t spend the cash, save it for the taxes!

  12. Hopefully that cash portion is sized for a worst-case scenario. For example; college student in Washington, Florida, etc.; 15% federal bracket plus 0% state tax = 15% of value. Me in California; 30% federal bracket plus 9.3% state tax = 40% of value. And that 9.3% kicks in at a whopping $38K if single.

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