Fire in the belly

With another presidential election descending upon us, you'll hear lots of pundit chatter about fire in the belly. That always sounded uncomfortable as hades to me. Flames licking up from my gut? Yeeeeeouch.

Of course, the pundits are only referring to the metaphorical flames of ambition. Our little genre sometimes inspires similar dreams, believe it or not. No, people don't watch Wheel of Fortune all their lives and suddenly want to be President. But they do watch The Price is Right all their lives and want to be...contestants on The Price is Right.

We all need something to get us through the day. And if ambition to appear on a game show makes your motor run, who am I to complain? The family in the linked story may have o.d.-ed on TPiR desire, but I can think of a lot worse ambitions.

The family offers one bit of advice to would-be contestants: "Basically, the louder you are and the more attention you draw to yourself, the better." Sounds right to me, whether you're running for President or trying to be a game show contestant.