Phil Wexler is serving as a 2013 SOT Annual Meeting Roving Reporter and has submitted the article below.
Exceeding all expectations for enthusiasm, mayhem, and hilarity, Tuesday night’s Tox ShowDown again demonstrated that craziness and learning can actually go hand in hand. Contestants more than gladly put themselves in the line of fire for rooting, cheering, heckling, and jeering. Nearly 100 spectators turned out to watch nine would-be superstars of SOT risk their all in trying to answer obscure toxicological questions, and live to tell the tale.
Mike Gallo ably discharged his judgeship duties and swung a vicious gavel, while Sue Ford, Tammy Palenski, Sarah Lacher, and Phil Wexler worked hard at rocking the boat and warding off tomatoes hurled their way. The Free Radicals, the winning team of Sol Bobst, Diane Hardej, and Erin Hines, were gloating until the wee hours and sobering up thereafter. It was generally acknowledged that the ShowDown should be reprised in Phoenix in 2014 with a new complement of contestants willing to take on the world and all its venomous inhabitants. It’s not too soon to volunteer. What have you got to lose?