Graduates `Shop Till You Drop'

Are you a senior suffering through post-LSAT withdrawal? Not sure what you're going to do with yourself next year?

If you're of the game-show-contestant bent and want to do more than just work in a dull office somewhere, Mark J. Mindich '92 might be something of an inspiration.

Mindich joined his classmate Tracy Kramer '92 in representing Harvard on "Shop Till You Drop," a Lifetime network game show. The Harvard contestants battled other college students in games of chance to win cash and prizes.

Kramer and Mindich, both former residents of Eliot House, were flown to Hollywood for a week of competition against nine rival schools, including Stanford and the University of Southern California. Fans tuned in last Thursday to see Harvard fall to the University of Pennsylvania in a bout over Mindich's and Kramer's knowledge of consumer affairs and their abilities to perform charade-like stunts.

Harvard's downfall came during the first of two "stunts," when Mindich had one minute to identify five out of six musical artists Kramer described from pop songs played into her headphones.

"One of them was a Cher song, but Tracy thought that it was Willie Nelson, and that's who she described to me. I guessed right, but we were still wrong," Mindich said.

The two were selected from approximately a dozen who attempted to participate by completing a videotaped audition at the Sheraton Commander in Cambridge last spring.

"All of my friends knew that I've always wanted to be a game show host," said Mindich, adding that it was a friend who first told him about the auditions.

Mindich is now spending a year as a private investigator in Venice, California, before going on to law school. "After law school I would like to be a lawyer or work for the CIA or the Department of Justice, or be a game show host," he said.

Mindich is presently enrolled in an adult education course entitled, "How to Make Money and/or Find Romance on Television Game Shows." He hopes to appear on either "Studs" or "Love Connection" before leaving California next year.

"We had such a good time, and it was really funny, even though the loss we suffered was painful," Mindich added.