Little left in 'Millionaire' kitty; flag buster unsilenced

Ah, the financial perils of game show contestant notoriety.

Jay Snyder of Valrico was on top of the world -- well, three questions from the top of the world, to be precise -- when he won $125,000 as a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in 2000.

Two years later -- and 3,000 Dow points lower -- Snyder's cash is kaput.

"Unfortunately, we got a financial adviser and invested it, and it has been a disaster," he said. "I can't even stand to look at the market reports anymore."

But just how distraught over his loss is Stewart, a systems analyst for a finance company in Tampa? He doesn't need a phone-a-friend to give his final answer to that question.

"The experience itself, I'd do it again in a heartbeat," he said.

A fan of many game shows -- "We used to watch Jeopardy! religiously," he said -- Snyder made it to Millionaire through the show's standard phone-in process, and was quick enough on the "fastest finger" quiz to make it to the hot seat in front of host Regis Philbin.

Before long, he was into the big-money questions.

To reach the $125,000 mark, Snyder answered this: Which credit card company features the name C.F. Frost on its cards in advertisements? (Answer: American Express.)

But Snyder was stumped just three questions away from $1-million. Which animal, he was asked, has a skeleton made of chitin -- tortoise, grasshopper, armadillo or carp?

Snyder opted not to guess at the answer (grasshopper) and left with $125,000.

"That's probably just going to be etched in my memory forever," he said. "I think I missed biology class that day."

It didn't take long for him to be recognized once the show aired on Oct. 1, 2000. Soon after, he noticed people looking at him at the local Wal-Mart.

"This woman says to her husband, "It's him!' " he said.

Unfortunately for Snyder, his prize money only slightly outlasted his 15 minutes of fame.

"There's very little left," he said. "We didn't even spend any of it, figuring, "We'll invest it, we'll make a few bucks to pay the taxes.' Never happened. I actually had to take out an equity credit line to pay my taxes, that's how badly we got hit."

Still, being part of pop culture was exciting enough for Snyder.

"The average guy next door really did get on the show," he said. "It's not rigged."

It may surprise you to know that Richard Klos was at one time a Civil War buff. He was even a big fan of the Confederate army.

"I used to love the South," said Klos, an Illinois native. "I used to love their uniforms, I thought the guys were pretty good fighters. Man for man, they were probably much better than the Union Army."

Not words you'd expect coming from the man who led the fight to have the Confederate flag removed from the Hillsborough County seal.

But that's what Klos did in 1993, when he noticed the flag on a the side of a county car. A few days before, he had watched as Illinois Sen. Carol Mosley-Braun, the first African-American woman elected to the Senate, argued passionately against the flag and what it symbolized.

Inspired by Mosley-Braun, Klos decided it was time he spoke up.

"If I see something that I believe is wrong, I have to say something about it or do it," he said. "I've never been the type to just sit back and do nothing, because I feel guilty later that I didn't do something."

Klos complained to the County Commission, and in 1994 a measure to adopt a new seal passed by a 4-3 vote.

Throughout the ordeal, Klos received numerous death threats and asked for police protection.

He now says the flag has a place in society -- so long as it's displayed properly, perhaps in a museum.

"I think there should be a place somewhere like that, a place where both sides could celebrate their ancestors' beliefs," he said.

Klos never led a charge of this magnitude again, but he found ways to combat racism.

A few years ago, Klos, a former producer for WFLA-Ch. 8, moved to Albany, N.Y., to work at another television station. He encouraged co-workers to report on racially diverse issues and take caution when reporting on crimes not to note a criminal's race unless it was pertinent to the story.

"I've tried, in my everyday life, to just live by what I've preached," he said.

Klos is now back in Tampa, the city he says he'll always call home. But he still thinks the county seal needs a little work.

"I wasn't even that thrilled with the new seal," he said. "It doesn't look all that great to me. It's kind of confusing when you look at it. It's like a little work of art."

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