Mixed Media Junkie

I’m quite fond of words, especially in clever combinations, i.e. wordplay, but I also appreciate the well-turned phrase. I guess it’s only natural that I gravitate towards word games, such as Scrabble and Boggle, although I don’t play online through the Internet Scrabble Club (ISC) like Hazel does. Yeah. I know.

Anyway, Hazel and I occasionally watch Lingo* on the Game Show Network, a word puzzle game played by two teams of two, with the inimitable Chuck Woolery serving as host. Yes, he of Love Connection fame, so you know the show reeks of class. Hazel and I were watching an episode tonight, and throughout the first half of the show, Team A was just killing Team B. It was downright impressive, actually, with boy from Team A solving puzzles left and right, sometimes with only two (out of 5) letters showing, like a linguistic equivalent of Quick Draw McGraw. I don’t even know if that analogy is correct.

But. However. Unfortunately. Team A kept getting shafted on the bonus portion of the game; I don’t want to get bogged down in the details, but suffice it to say that Team B ended up stealing the victory from the more skilled but ill-fated A Team (haha A-Team – oh B.A. Barracus, Murdock and the gang, you slay me). Team B infuriatingly, unsurprisingly, BOMBED the final round, managing to solve a pitiful two puzzles, giving them a rather slim chance of winning the grand prize… which, of course, they proceeded to win by miraculously pulling the correct lucky-numbered ball out of their ignorant ass. I wanted to pull a Ghost Dad and spirit myself across the TV and punch Team B in their smug, undeserving faces. And spare me: I know Ghost Dad went through a phone line and not the TV.

Life is so unfair sometimes. Okay, that’s overly dramatic. It’s fun to get worked up about inconsequential things, though; life must be pretty okay when my biggest gripe is about TV game show injustice.

*Hazel and I were actually supposed to audition for Lingo a year or so ago; imagine, we could’ve been the subject of an angry tirade on someone else’s blog! If only.

** I have plans to make “Word Nerd” shirts in some sort of Scrabble font. Please don’t steal that idea. Does posting this here lay grounds for ownership of this intellectual property? Phil, law dude, I’m looking at you.