Can I buy a vowel?

Hear RC resident Neal McBride, pictured next to Pat, ask that question tomorrow night on that hangman-esque game show on channel 7.

I'm the kind of person who doesn't like to read reviews before watching a movie so I won't say whether McBride, 60, got to the final round. But I will say if I won what he won, I would be ecstatic but not so rich that I'd quit working for the paper.

In my family, "Wheel of Fortune" is kinda like dessert, it's what always follows dinner. I'm more of a "Jeopardy" kind of gal but when I'm full and sprawled out on the couch, I'm just too lethargic to change the channel. When I was young, I loved the "The Dating Game." I would actually talk to the television, "pick contestant number three!" and was always dumbfounded when the television didn't listen.

It turns out, McBride, who teaches psychology at Azusa Pacific University, has been on the "The Dating Game" twice. Once, he claims, the girl meant to pick him but got the order of the contestants wrong and picked the wrong guy. And the second time, he lost to an actor.

It seems McBride had better luck with "Wheel." He said Pat and Vanna were both really friendly and that Vanna came out to chit chat with the contestants before the show. I asked McBride if they really look the way they do on television -- sorta frozen in time.

"They looked older," McBride said. "I would say they have good make-up artists."

Watch McBride represent at 7:30 p.m. on ABC.