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“Your life isn’t over when you get this diagnosis.”

Instilled with what he calls a “voracious curiosity,” New York based attorney Harvey “H-bomb” Silikovitz has three major passions: karaoke, travel, and trivia. Naturally, that latter interest turned into a dream of one day competing on the trivia show of all trivia shows—Jeopardy!

This was a dream Silikovitz had been trying to realize since 2001. Then in 2019, after nine auditions throughout the years, he had missed the call finally welcoming him onto the popular quiz show. By the time he had finally found and heard the voicemail, the seasons had already wrapped.

The year would prove to be a challenging one, as five months later Silikovitz was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. But still, he kept going after his dream, “relentlessly” expanding his knowledge base and sharpening his buzzer timing skills in hopes of one day landing that coveted spot.

Then, in January 2025, it finally happened. In October 2024 had gotten an email from the show, and this time he didn't miss it. A few months later, Silikovitz hopped on a plane to California.

And not only did H-Bomb compete, he won, taking home a total of $23,200. He even ended another competitor’s eight day winning streak. Plus, he made history as the first Jeopardy! contestant to play with Parkinson’s.

“I wouldn’t recommend that as a preparation strategy for doing well on the show,” Silikovitz joked to Jennings during the episode’s Q&A portion. “But after living with Parkinson’s for five and a half years, it’s no longer just about wanting to do well for myself—I would like to give hope and inspiration to the people who are living with chronic illnesses.”

Claire McNear, who had followed Silikovitz’s journey while writing her 2020 Jeopardy! book, Answers in the Form of Questions, covered his recent win in an article for The Ringer. In it, Silikovitz shared his hope that someone else with Parkinson’s might see this moment and be inspired to think “your life isn’t over when you get this diagnosis.”

This is a real life story of resilience. No matter what setback came upon his path, Silikovitz persisted with optimism and his signature curiosity. We all have moments of challenge in our lives, and while a good attitude certainly isn’t a cure-all, keeping some sort of dream or purpose alive within us can make a huge difference in overcoming those challenges. Even for those with chronic illness, goal-setting can have an empowering effect, since it helps them remain an active participant in their own life.

Bottom line: we rarely deserve the obstacles that life throws our way. But sometimes we can transmute them into powerful parts of our overall story.

By the way, you can watch H-bomb defend his title on Jeopardy’s March 1 episode.

@ACinPhilly/X

He'll never eat poultry again.

It’s hard to say which is more entertaining—epic game show wins…or hilarious game show fails. Wheel of Fortune has provided us plenty of both over the years, and this time, it delivered a funny defeat that just so happened to be holiday themed.

During the beloved game show’s Dec. 17 episode, a contestant named Phil McManus hailing from Palmer, Massachusetts, attempted to solve a puzzle in “Same Letter” category, with the board reading “Chocolate Chestnuts & Chi_ne_s.”

Declining to buy an "I," McManusdecided to go for gold and guessed “Chocolates, chestnuts and chickens.” And while I suppose you can enjoy chicken on Christmas, this was not the correct answer. Not to mention the “E” and “N” would have to be in a different spot. But hey, our eyes play tricks on us when under pressure!

This set up another contestant to name the correct answer (“Chocolates, chestnuts & chimneys”) and for Wheel of Fortune fans to have a field day.

It ain't a proper Christmas without poultry!, one person joked.

Another quipped., “That was my shopping list last weekend,” someone

Still another person said.“When I think of chocolates and chestnuts, the next word I think of is chickens.”

Meanwhile, someone on Instagram shared, “I laughed so loud that my deaf dog jumped out of her bed,”

Someone else asked,“Love Wheel of Fortune but where do these contestants come from?”

But again, we all make silly mistakes when we’re nervous. This moment actually harkens back to another puzzle solving mishap that happened only a month prior. Instead of guessing “Give yourself a round of applause,” the contestant, named Will, guessed, “Treat yourself a round of sausage.”

In a postmortem interview, he shared, “I tell you, when the lights are on, and you know, the stars and Ryan Seacrest, Vanna White, I just went blank."

Still, he was able to have a good laugh about it, and hopefully McManus was too. And of course, it’s not gonna keep us from screaming at the TV at home.

Henry leaps in excitement after winning Bonkers.

It has to be exciting to be a contestant on the “The Price is Right.” First, the chances of being called by the audience on stage are about 1 in 36. Secondly, of the approximately 9 people called from the audience to play the game, only 6 make it past Contestant’s Row.

So it’s not surprising that someone would get a little excited after making it on the stage with Drew Carey and winning their first game. But a contest named Henry, who appeared on the Thursday, June 15 episode, took things to the next level.


After winning a game of Bonkers, he jumped up and down with his arms stretched over his head and dislocated a shoulder.

But the injury didn’t disqualify Henry from securing his spot in the Showcase Showdown. The judges allowed his wife, Alice, to spin the wheel for him. “Let me explain what happened,” Carey said. “This is Alice, Henry's wife. Henry was celebrating and going 'Woo,' and he dislocated his shoulder. So, he's not going to be able to spin the wheel, but Alice is going to spin the wheel for him,” Carey added.

Alice did a great job at the wheel, spinning 95 cents (intending to get as close to $1 as possible). As Alice cheered, Carey joked, "Don't hurt yourself!" In the end, Henry and his wife won a trip to Hawaii, and he has recovered from the injury.

“He won a trip to Hawaii and the ER,” the gameshow joked on its Instagram page.

Vanna White appeared on "The Price Is Right" in 1980.

Vanna White has been a household name in the United States for decades, which is kind of hilarious when you consider how she gained her fame and fortune. Since 1982, the former model and actress has made millions walking back and forth turning letters (and later simply touching them—yay technology) on the game show "Wheel of Fortune."

That's it. Walking back and forth in a pretty evening gown, flipping letters and clapping for contestants. More on that job in a minute…

As a member of Gen X, television game shows like "Wheel of Fortune" and "The Price is Right" send me straight back to my childhood. Watching this clip from 1980 of Vanna White competing on "The Price is Right" two years before she started turning letters on "Wheel of Fortune" is like stepping into a time machine. Bob Barker's voice, the theme music, the sound effects—I swear I'm home from school sick, lying on the ugly flowered couch with my mom checking my forehead and bringing me Tang.

This video has it all: the early '80s hairstyles, a fresh-faced Vanna White and Bob Barker's casual sexism that would never in a million years fly today.


Vanna White on The Price Is Right (June 20, 1980)www.youtube.com

Vanna was clearly not skilled at guessing prices. In fact, she was pretty terrible at it. But as it turned out, she didn't need to know how much things cost since she ended up basically winning the lottery with her job at "Wheel of Fortune."

Vanna White has made a 40-year career out of wearing dresses, smiling and clapping. That's it. She only works four days a month—not four days a week, four days a month—doing what is arguably the world's easiest and least necessary job. And she earns $10 million a year doing it.

Sometimes this world we humans have created just makes no sense.

Not that I blame Vanna White. If someone offered to pay me $10 million a year to look fabulous in a gown and heels and touch letters and clap for four days a month, I'd do it in a heartbeat. (The clapping is a bigger part of the job than you might think. She actually holds a Guinness World Record for clapping. Seriously.)

I'm sure she's very nice. And she has a charitable yarn line, so that's neat. It's great that she's still going strong and looking amazing at age 64.

I just can't get over how much she makes for how little she does at a superfluous job. I'm not sure who even watches "Wheel of Fortune" these days, but clearly someone does because that's the only way to possibly justify Vanna White's existence in the working world. (Sorry, "working" world.) Are "Wheel of Fortune" viewers all people older than me? They must be because until recently I didn't even know these game shows were still running on network television.

Congrats on being the luckiest human on the planet, Vanna, despite your not making it past the first round of "The Price is Right" in your 20s. May all of our fates be met with such fortune.