Popular Columnist has Fun with Hoosier Web Search Company

Sports columnist Rick Reilly has written about some of the most triumphant accomplishments in all of sport. However, those feats might pale in comparison to the sweat he worked up while working for ChaCha, a Carmel-based Internet/mobile answer service (and Indiana Chamber member).

Then, as if someone had turned on a hose, the questions came flooding across my laptop, soaking my shoes. Where does Emmitt Smith live? (Dallas.) Why were the Montreal Expos called that? (Montreal hosted the ’67 World’s Fair, called Expo 67.) They came as fast as I could answer. I began to sweat. I was Lucy working the chocolate-factory conveyor belt. Questions fell to the floor as my mouth filled with unchewed answers. In a three-fingered bowling ball, which fingers go in the holes? (Jeez, people!) What’s the longest cricket game ever? (Couldn’t find it.) More sweat. Anyone got a ShamWow? I hit "abort." Bad idea; black mark on my record. Five minutes, no dimes. $0/hour.

I hit "away" under the status bar so I could rest. Next to being Terrell Owens’ publicist, there can be no more stressful way to earn a living.

I wasn’t a very enthusiastic guide after that. I made $3.80 total and received a quality control rating of 70%. That’s a C-minus. They said I didn’t include time zones with games and gave the year the Bears won the Super Bowl but not whom they beat. They really didn’t like my sign-off: "Chatta go!" Mark Malseed, dean of ChaCha’s Search University, told me it didn’t sit well with the Quality Team. "It prefers no variants on the ‘ChaCha’ name," he said.

So I’m the Eddie Gaedel of guides. At least I now know this: In 1939, South Africa and England played the longest cricket match ever, from March 3 until March 14.

That will be 10 cents.

Hat tip to Inside Indiana Business.