With our usual pomp and circumstance (i.e., a single, semi-inflated balloon released into the stratosphere), we announced the new and improved version of CMEpalooza Bingo!! on Monday.

We understand that some of you like to dilly and dally, so this is your reminder that entries are due to me on Sunday, Sept. 30 at 11:59 p.m. ET along with a witty tagline (optional wittiness, though people are trying their best).

You can get all the forms you need at this link. Full rules were included in the earlier post, but here are the highlights:

1. Download the Bingo!! forms and queue up the Sponsor tab on our website.
2. Complete a Bingo!! (do I really need to explain to you what that is? OK, fine, it’s 5 in a row – horizontal, vertical, or diagonal).
3. Email your entries to me at scott@medcasewriter.com. You can enter up to 3 times, but each entry needs to have a unique Bingo!!
4. Wait until Monday morning (October 1) when we have the prize drawing. We’re giving away one single, gargantuan prize of $500. Second place is first loser.

As all 4,256 loyal followers of the CMEpaloooza blog know, prior to every biannual broadcast, we do a special event where we challenge you to find answers to some really piercing questions on the websites of some of our valued Sponsors. There has been CMEpalooza Pursuit!! and CMEpalooza Scavenger Hunt!!, but the all-time favorite seems to be CMEpalooza Bingo!!

Perhaps it’s because so many of you spend your Friday nights down at your local community VFW holding tightly to your lucky talismans as you pray for “O 68”, but man, you guys love your Bingo.

And so, CMEpalooza Bingo!! is back again this fall.

But there is a catch. Partly because we have too many sponsors to fit onto a Bingo card (27 of ’em) and partly because, well, we wanted to make some tweaks to generate more interest, there are a few new rules.

Here goes:

STEP 1: Download all of the necessary Bingo forms by clicking on this link. That will give you the Bingo board, the Bingo questions, and the Bingo answer sheet. You should also queue up our Sponsor page, which will give you direct links to all of the websites you will need to visit.

STEP 2: A successful entry involves completing a Bingo – it can be horizontal (that’s straight across), vertical (that’s up and down), or diagonal (that’s, um, diagonal).

Wrinkle No. 1: A successful entry also involves completing the clue for one of our two Gold sponsors – Academy for Continued Healthcare Learning or Genentech. So a total of six (6) answers are necessary this year for a successful entry. I can hear you whining already about the extra work, but hey, think of all the interesting information you are going to learn about our industry!

STEP 3: Email your completed form to me at scott@medcasewriter.com along with a witty subject line (witty subject line is optional). Entry deadline is 11:59 p.m. ET on Sunday, September 30.

Wrinkle No. 2: You can enter up to 3 times this year, but you need to complete a unique Bingo for each entry (yes, you can repeat the Gold sponsor question). You can even send all of your submissions to me in a single bulk email. Every entry is another chance to win our grand prize.

STEP 4: Wait until the morning of Monday, October 1, when we will have the CMEpalooza Bingo!! prize drawing in the law offices of Simmons, Fultz, and Brown (note from Derek: I see what you did there).

Wrinkle No. 3: In past years, we had multiple winners of smallish prizes ($25-100). This year, we are doing away with the piddling stuff and simply giving away one single $500 prize. That’s right, $500. What might you do with $500? I guess it depends on your personal preference, but here are some practical ideas courtesy of The Motley Fool website – pay down your credit cards, make an extra mortgage payment, buy life insurance. Here are some less practical ideas courtesy of me – buy a football autographed by Carson Wentz, a 2-oz tin of Beluga caviar, or a George Costanza signed and framed baseball card.

Sounds simple enough, right? Yes, yes it does. So get cracking there, chipmunk.

5. You don’t need to travel anywhere to watch. Unless you are the type of person who loves waking up early, fighting traffic to the airport, parking, waiting in the security line, taking off your belt and shoes, putting your belt and shoes back on, sitting in an uncomfortable seat while trying to get work done using the airport’s spotty Wifi, buying an overpriced coffee at the airport coffee shop, shouldering through the crowd of people gathered around the entrance gate even though their zone hasn’t been called yet, sitting in an uncomfortable seat while trying to get work done using the airplane’s spotty Wifi, bonking your head on the airplane ceiling when you stand up to de-plane (that might just be me), waiting for a taxi/Uber/Lyft to take you to your hotel, checking in at the hotel, registering at the conference, and finally sitting down at a round table with ice water and those weird fruity candies — not needing to travel is a nice perk.

4. It’s a good excuse to binge-watch Season 7 of Game of Thrones. This goes along with reason #5 — if you don’t need to travel anywhere, then you can tell your boss you are going to stay at home to watch CMEpalooza Fall and not have to deal with constant distractions, like Larry from accounting always stopping by your office to tell you about his Fantasy Football team (nobody cares, Larry!) And while I would never encourage anyone to do this, since all of the CMEpalooza Fall sessions are recorded and immediately archived, you theoretically could spend the day watching all of season 7 of Game of Thrones in order to catch up before season 8 begins, and then watch the archived versions of the palooza sessions later on. I’m not saying you should do this, just that you could do this. If you wanted to. (Side note: my wife would like to recommend everyone binge-watch Outlander instead, which she claims is just as good as Game of Thrones. My counter to this is: does Outlander have dragons? No. Does it have zombies? No. Does it have zombie dragons? No. Then it’s not as good as Game of Thrones. Point for me.)

3. Scott might do something nuts. Tap dance routine? Tuvan throat singing? New tattoo reveal? You never know with that guy. Tune in to find out!

2. Have you seen the agenda? Seriously, have you? It’s quite good.

1. It’s free. Always has been and always will be. I mean, if you want to pay us a registration fee just out of habit, that’s fine, we’ll take it. I’m not actually sure how we would do that, but we could figure it out. Maybe bitcoin or something? On second thought, forget it. Please don’t pay us a registration fee even if you want to. It will just lead to more emails back and forth between Scott and me arguing about how to set up a Venmo account on the website and I’ll end up saying something about trusting the process and Scott will throw out a reference to some obscure 80’s sitcom I’ve never heard of and we already spend way too much time doing this and don’t need an excuse to do it more. So, back to my original point: CMEpalooza is free!