Contestant story

Every day brings a new batch of game show contestant stories to the web. This one about Vanessa Lambert on Wheel of Fortune got me wandering through some arcane info on the net.

To get the game show details out of the way, Vanessa ended up second on Wheel with $10,550. Which isn't bad, though she was bummed that she missed on the prize puzzle, and that wiped out her chance at the bonus round.

Vanessa comes from Simsbury, CT, and the town turns out to have a long and colorful history. Founded as the state's 21st town in 1670 - I wasn't there to see it, no matter what people say - Simsbury burned to the ground in its early years. The town still had less than 5,000 people as late as 1950. Strong growth over the next three decades helped bring the population to its current 24,000. From the Wikipedia entry, Simsbury seems like an affluent enclave of white-collar types. The average household income sits at a lofty $120,000. But I'm sure Vanessa can use her Wheel money.

Her story appears in Patch, that bunch of local and "hyperlocal" sites that has almost as colorful (though not nearly as long) a history as Simsbury. Once a struggling part of AOL, Patch is now turning a profit under new owners. Vanessa's story is just the kind of local news that Patch delights in.