Wordle rips off Lingo, which is coming back to TV

Where's the lawsuit? 

Wordle literally is the concept of the game show Lingo, a word game cleverly infused with some elements of bingo, which first appeared in 1987. The only differences in the word-guessing portion, really, are that Lingo gives the player the first letter, and Worlde provides a handy grid to help keep track of the used letters that are not in the word. I say the differences will not stand up in court. As has been all over the news, The New York Times snatched up Wordle for a big wad of money.

American viewers will best know Lingo for the Chuck Woolery-hosted Game Show Network version, which ran from 2002 to 2007 with more than 300 episodes — a rare bounty for a GSN production. The show originated with a single, obscure syndicated season (1987-88), and there have been a number of successful international versions. In the Netherlands, except for a five-year gap, it has been in production since 1989. So, the concept has been around, and there have been Lingo game apps for the phone.

Now news breaks that CBS is resurrecting the show for primetime. Seems too much to be a coincidence, but news reports indicate the show was in development long before the Wordle craze emerged.

It's fun to see some of the lesser known game shows get the big-budget, big-network treatment — perhaps there will be a car prize ball — but I suspect an hour of Lingo is going to grow tiresome. It seems more of a small-doses pleasure.

And RuPaul as host? Wouldn't be my on my shortlist, or even long list, but maybe he'll work it.

Not in Kansas anymore

Don't you hate those "this is why I haven't posted in forever" blog posts? Well, this is one of those posts, more or less.

It was the week of Super Tuesday that derailed me — a week of high drama on many fronts (and I don't mean the Survivor Fans vs. Favorites premiere). I was dispatched to Oxford, Miss., for the week to cover a double-murder trial that had been moved from a neighboring county — plenty of drama in and of itself, but the week proved to be a whirlwind — literally — of other big news.

No offense to the Oxonians, but my foremost thought whenever I am in the town where I attended "Ole Miss" back in the early to mid-'90s is usually, "When can I leave?" And on Super Tuesday, after a full day on a stiff court bench, I had no intention of venturing out and missing coverage of a presidential race that is perhaps the most interesting I'll see in my lifetime.

But nothing much went as planned that week. As promised, storms were brewing as I arrived back at the luxurious Days Inn, and, as I began pecking out the day's trial news on my laptop, the tornado sirens began to blare. While I never saw more than darkly threatening skies above my picturesque view of a covered swimming pool, an EF-3 tornado was blowing through just north of town, upending some people's lives while I contemplated what I might have for dinner. Other tornados hit Memphis and Jackson in Tennessee, and an EF-1 tornado passed just a few miles west of my home base in Corinth, Miss. (you can see the storm tracks here; look towards the bottom for Oxford and toward the right for Corinth). It was a crazy night of switching back and forth between hysterical Super Tornado and Super Tuesday coverage and a frenzy of phone calls with family and friends.

I left Oxford on Friday with an improbably hung jury (11-1) and a weariness that has only begun to lift in the past week or so. Stepping away from the blog for a few weeks has probably been a good thing, anyway. I don't know where Toto is, but I'm ready to roll again.

200th post: By Friday, life has killed my blog

I missed posting on the Jeblog's second anniversary back in the summer, so I'm taking advantage of this 200th post to engage in some personal and behind-the-scenes thoughts, something rarely done on this blog:

• If this blog were going to die, it would have happened a long, long time ago, like in mid-2006. I try to not ever go longer than a week without giving new postage, but occasionally it happens. Fortunately, my niche comes with a never-ending fount of material. If it weren't for the darned necessity of earning a living at a job that consumes most of my day and often much of my will to live, I'd be posting nigh daily.

• Speaking of the niche, I sometimes think this should have been just a horror blog, or the horror aspect should have been a separate blog. But I'm not the only person on the planet whose favorite entertainments are electronic pop music, horror movies and game shows, am I? OK, maybe I am.

• Regular visitors may have noticed the roundup of new movies and weekly product of note (CDs, DVD, books and occasionally a video game) has waffled between sidebar content and a full post. This is likely to continue, as some weeks, like these at the end of the year, don't bring much new stuff. But new releases will continue to be teased and updated one way or the other on Sundays, unless I'm really hung over, because I need to know if there's a good scary movie or a new Enya album to anticipate in the coming week.

• Overall, I think the Jeblog's tone and direction have sharpened in 2007, and I hope my blog friends would agree.

• Link love is very appreciated, and it's a great way to get into my highly exclusive sidebar.

• When I'm feeling introspective, I like to think of my life in contrasting segments: pre-blog / post-blog, for example. My post-blog life contains some notable ones: pre-Katrina / post-Katrina, pre-heart murmur / post-heart murmur.

We all have our burdens. And life — and posting — goes on.

Random tracks

• Five upcoming flicks & some other stuff.

The Hitcher (Jan. 19) • Expectations can only be low for this retread of the mildly interesting 1986 highway horror film starring C. Thomas Howell and directed this time by a no-name, Dave Meyers.

The Invisible (Jan. 26) • David S. Goyer (Blade: Trinity — I know we all saw that one) remakes a Swedish thriller about a young man trying to solve his own murder from the other side.

The Messengers (Feb. 2) • Something about some creepiness on a rundown sunflower farm — that's a bit different, at least. Scary enough is the co-director's name: Oxide Pang.

Hannibal Rising (Feb. 9) • The Hannibal Lecter prequel hits theaters just weeks after the novel, which is getting a dubious reception. The trailer is effectively creepy, though, even if it's going to be tough for this Anthony Hopkins-less effort to bring anything truly interesting or shocking to the table. It is only the second directorial credit for Peter Webber.

Reno 911: Miami (Feb. 23) • Some humor to cleanse the palate after that string of likely bad horror films. The Comedy Central show, which consists largely of a string of Cops-like vignettes taken to the absurd extreme, is arguably the funniest comedy on television (which isn't saying much at the moment) thanks to the quirky characters, such as Lt. Dangle in his short shorts. This big-screen adaptation could be the breakout moment for Dangle and the Reno crew, who visit Miami for a convention and are called into action following an attack of some sort.

Temptation • If this is done properly, I may finally shut up about the lack of quality formats in the new wave of game shows. TV Week reports that this title — the current incarnation of $ale of the Century in Australia — is a go for fall syndication.

Lisey's Story • With the holidays over, I'm trying to get back into the stack of books waiting to be read. Though a bit daunting in length at more than 500 pages (things have changed since I happily slogged through 1,000+ pages of The Stand Complete and Uncut back in the day), this Stephen King novel is off to an intriguing start and has the potential air of Something Special.

Random tracks

• Assorted musings from the entertainment world.

Jericho season split • CBS' nuclear serial is one of the few new dramas that got a full season order early on, but the network has decided the show will have an extended break after this week's episode, which will include a cliffhanger finale involving a murder. The show is set to return Feb. 14 with a recap of the first 11 episodes; the subsequent episode will flesh out back story with a look at life in Jericho a day before the bombs exploded. In the interim, the network is beefing up its Jericho content on innertube, including some original content and streams of all episodes to date. I thought the first episode of the series was outstanding, but my interest has since waned somewhat.

Sony Playstation 3 • What a brilliant marketing scheme: Ship so few units of the follow-up to the most successful console ever that many stores only get a handful of them on the first day of sale, resulting in a media frenzy. That aside, I don't think I'd fork over $600 for it unless it cleans the house and cooks dinner while I'm at work. As for Nintendo's much cheaper Wii with its motion sensitive controller, I don't think a session of video game playing should feel like doing calisthenics (although some might argue it's a good thing for sedentary youth). However, a decent lineup of games might pique my interest in the underdog console. Lots of retro stuff offered for download via the Wi-Fi connection might seriously pique my interest.

The Real Match Game Story: Behind the Blank • GSN occasionally coughs up a solid documentary, and this is interesting, if not as good as the one about the Press Your Luck scandal. Now repeating at various times, this doc features interviews with key players such as panelists Brett Somers and Marcia Wallace, host Gene Rayburn (old interview footage) and key production staff. Ample clips remind the viewer of the knee-slapping, inebriated mood of the envelope-pushing '70s game, and a catty Somers candidly reveals that the other panelists secretly delighted in the moments when contestant fave Richard Dawson would flub a Super Match. Overall, a sadness pervades as Rayburn's daughter talks about how he never got over the show's cancellation.

Burning Love (Remix) • There's a commercial — probably for a car, but I wouldn't know because I don't watch them — that's using an excellent remix of Elvis Presley's "Burning Love," one of my favorites from "the King." It's more or less in the style of the remixes of "A Little Less Conversation" and "Rubberneckin'." I want this mix (it's by something called Mowo), but it doesn't seem to be available anywhere. However, I've seen references to a remix album forthcoming.

Kidnapped on-line • NBC, which has developed an overly itchy trigger finger during its time in last place, quickly axed the best new show of the season, Kidnapped. The remaining episodes are being burned off on-line, but you can't watch past episodes. I missed one or two because I didn't realize they were already airing them on-line, and I don't want to watch the rest without seeing what I've missed. Will this get a DVD release? Hello, NBC? Put them all on-line. It's a crime not to.

Photo: Citizens of Jericho stand their ground. / CBS

Site stuff: More on Blogger Beta

• About labels and blog search.

Blogger launched one of its best Beta features yet this past week — a handy label (category) manager on the edit posts page. Using a drop-down menu of your labels and check boxes next to each post title, it's now simple to add and remove labels from posts. This is great, because the only way to add labels to older posts before was to bring up a post for editing, add the labels and save it again. I had done that to maybe 20 of my older posts, but I didn't like the way it was bringing them back to the top of my FeedBurner feed. The only quirk I noticed with the label manager is the "new label" feature doesn't work unless a post is selected. I've added the basic labels to all the blog's posts today, and the Jeblog's categories should be completely up to date by later today.

While my transition to Blogger Beta has been exciting, I've run into one significant problem: Google Blog Search seems to have lost my feed altogether. No posts since the switch have shown up there. That's a real bummer, because it's a major source of my traffic. I feel confident the problem isn't on my end, because posts are still popping up as normal at Technorati and in my FeedBurner feed. Blog Search support told me that, ultimately, nothing is guaranteed (gee, thanks). Anyone who can help me solve this one will earn my eternal gratitude and admiration.

// Update (11/15) // A few of the first Beta posts showed up in Google Blog Search, but no more have since then. Very strange. All other indexing is occuring as normal; I've been keeping a close eye on Technorati, Icerocket, Google and others, and pinging far more aggressively than I used to. For another take on Google Blog Search problems, see this post.

// Update (11/19) // It seems every time I post about this, something changes. Within the last few days, all the missing posts showed up in Google Blog Search, and the newest post was indexed within an hour. It may have been much sooner; I didn't look until about an hour later. So, it appears this problem may finally be resolved some six weeks after converting to Blogger Beta. Fingers crossed.

Tackling Blogger Beta

Sometimes you just have to throw caution to the wind, eh? After much hemming and hawing because of the many horror stories and naysayers, this blog has finally been converted to the new Blogger Beta as of yesterday. This means we'll have the benefit of properly functioning category links (Blogger calls them "labels") in the sidebar as we go forward. I intend to gradually add labels to the older posts as time and willpower allows.

My big hesitation with switching mostly had to do with figuring out how to get my custom header (it's merely a jpeg image) in place of the generic Blogger heading. I couldn't find any clear instructions on how to do this, but I pieced together bits from here and there combined with a little tinkering on my own and got it to work.

For those who are interested, these are the tricks I used: In Beta, go to "edit html." Find b:widget id='Header1' locked='true' and change "true" to "false." This will allow a "remove element" button when the standard header is being edited on the template page elements sub-tab. To get rid of the prefabricated rectangle that contains your snappy blog title and allow the custom header to take over this space, remove the /* Blog Header section all the way down to font: $ description Font;} . You can increase the number of elements allowed in the header area by finding maxwidgets="1" in the code for the header and replacing the one with, for example, two. Once the code changes were in place, all I had to do was add an HTML/JavaScript element at the top, using the img src code with the URL of my header.

Thus far, I love the ease of use — especially the instant saving of changes. It hasn't been as tedious as I'd feared, as the sidebar was largely preserved in the migration and upgrade to layouts, as was all the formatting of individual posts. Only the "recent comments" hack was lost. Also, I had to re-add my counter code in the new template html.

// Update 12.16.06 //

A few people asked for more details on how to add the custom header, including the owner of this nice blog. I'm happy to share the "how-to" notes I made for myself when I did it. Just drop me an e-mail via my profile page.

At this point, I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't switch to Beta, as it is now feature-complete, and Blogger has dropped the hint that everyone will soon be using the new version.

Random tracks

• Assorted musings from the entertainment world.

CSI casting • CBS informs us that something called K-Fed will guest star in a future episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. It will portray an arrogant teenager who harasses the CSI team as they investigate a series of brutal tourist beatings taking place throughout the Las Vegas area. Nick and Warrick are confronted by Cole Tritt, (K-Fed), an arrogant teen who hassles them while they work a crime scene. View at your own risk.

Survivor stunt • It has pained me to see Survivor look increasingly (and needlessly) desperate with each passing season, resorting to endless game tweaks such as Exile Island and midpoint "twists." Now that the ratings have actually shown some erosion (although it's still comfortably a top 10 show), we get an obvious publicity stunt: four teams split along racial lines. As someone (I've forgotten who or I'd give credit) said: What are they going to do, hurl racial insults at each other during challenges?

Cheap DVD rentals • With tax, I paid $1.59 last weekend to watch Brick. What is this, 1988? We've come this far from $4 a pop — might as well roll it on back to the 99¢ days and rent The Breakfast Club on VHS for nostalgia's sake.

Xtina's album cover • I can take or leave the music and over-vocalizing of Christina Aguilera, but the Back to Basics album cover, presented in the style of an old-school RCA release, is quite clever. The photo reminds me of Madonna's Bedtime Stories.

Teresa Calentano • Calentano is currently making her television debut in ABC Family's Three Moons over Milford as Lydia Davis, and she has apparently made an impression, because she has been the top search term leading folks here for a couple of weeks. There's surprisingly scant information about her on the web, and this item is obviously a shameless attempt to work her name into another post. Check out her character's blog here.

Word game • GSN (formerly Game Show Network) wants you to play the new online version of its game show Chain Reaction. Good news: Most folks will probably find the web game more enjoyable than the show. Check it out here.

Speaking of games • The Page O' Clips has become an essential destination for old-school game show fans, serving a generous helping of everything from rare Chuck Woolery-hosted Wheel of Fortune episodes to $ale of the Century — in other words, all that good stuff GSN isn't showing.

One year

When this blog began a year ago today, I didn't know if it would last more than a week or two. I was feeling a bit like the guy in that commercial whose computer suddenly tells him that he has just reached the end of the Internet — it didn't feel exciting anymore. Something led me to Blogger on an idle Sunday morning and, within a few minutes, I had a blog and a first post — appropriately a review of a horror film, Dark Water. Now, the blogosphere is an integral part of my Internet life. I know that I'll probably never be among Blogger's "blogs of note" or Technorati's top 10 (or even 1,000), but this is a medium I can't resist. One goal for year two is more frequent posts, an important objective that often conflicts with my job. My emphasis has always been on content (anyone want to design a fancy new header for me?), and that will continue. Thanks to everyone who has made it a point to return and to those who have posted comments. It's much appreciated. And the suggestion box is open — feel free to drop me a line if you have some feedback. The address is available through my profile.

Fun with search terms

The Jeblog uses a counter to help me marvel at how much or how little traffic is rolling in on any given day, and, as any good counter does, it provides the search terms that have led gentle, sometimes randy web surfers to this destination. The results are often amusing for one reason or another. Here's a sample. Click the search term to find out what really led them here.

Gloom, despair and agony on me karaoke • Oh god, no.

Buck Rogers television catfight • Oh, we see what's on your mind — perverse childhood TV memories. Wilma in tight jumpsuits. Incidentally, if the Buck Rogers DVD set weren't so grossly overpriced a la Star Trek, I'd already be a happy owner.

Match game 73 episodes dvd • You WISH! And I'll take the entire 1983-1989 network run, as well as the concurrent syndicated run, of $ale of the Century, thank you very much. Admittedly, yours is far more likely to happen, but why not just watch them on GSN?

Luke Perry barefoot • You whore.

Mummer's dance tv show • OK, I'm obviously missing something on this one.

Breasts dance to music • You perv.

Stephen king storm of the century how it ends • Just watch it. It is, hands down, the best Stephen King TV project, except for that part near the end when the kids fly around.

Electronics: Tivoli Audio PAL radio

What: A terrestrial radio that wants to wow you
Verdict: &&&1/2

For further proof that I'm neither hip nor cutting edge, consider my new music toy. It doesn't pick up Howard Stern's Sirius Satellite Radio show or hold my iTunes music collection. It's nothing more than a standard (but pricey) radio, the Tivoli Audio PALBLU Portable Audio Laboratory (PAL) AM / FM, but in an eye-pleasing electric-blue color and sleek modern-meets-retro design. Why go old school? I was interested in satellite radio – particularly the Delphi XM2go with integrated antenna, which, in theory, you can use anywhere – but I read too many horror stories about poor reception. As a resident of a decidedly un-metropolitan area where there is no repeater for XM or Sirius, I knew reception would be nothing but a headache. I was primarily interested in using it at work, a building in which even terrestrial radio reception is dodgy at best, and a stress-driven environment in which a pair of headphones is sometimes the only link to sanity. And, while I have wholeheartedly embraced iTunes, I just don't feel driven to carry around the exact same songs I listen to at home. That left Tivoli portable, which I had admired in catalogs for the last couple of years and features a Henry Kloss-designed tuner. I was intrigued by claims that it will pull in distant stations that you can't get with a lesser receiver. This is where the radio disappoints, though – while reception is good and better than what I get with the cheap radio/CD player I have at the office, it doesn't deliver on the claims of pulling in stations you're surprised to pick up. In every other regard, it's worthy of raves, and its unique look can serve as a conversation-starter. The single mono speaker delivers a surprisingly rich sound, and the headphone jack provides FM stereo that can also be piped to a component receiver. Keep the radio plugged up and the NiMH battery will stay charged for easy portability (it's small enough to stash in my briefcase) or for when the power goes out (handy for our severe storm days in north Mississippi). Now, if only terrestrial radio would shake things up and give the PAL's telescoping antenna something fresh to pull in – man, do I miss the fun days of '80s top 40. I'd happily go the rest of my life without hearing another song by Avril Lavigne or Nickelback. What's worse, our local pop station thinks it's fine to play artists like those back to back with Tim McGraw. That's when I find the PAL sounds best turned off.

Random tracks

I admit it: February was a little slow on the Jeblog.

The month took its toll with "extra work" (that's what we'll politely call it) at the office, and I'm in that closing stretch leading up to a week off that makes me feel like I'm always running up hill and losing ground.

But there hasn't been much going on in my entertainment life, either – no new TV outside of the return of Deal or no Deal (which has fared surprisingly well – care to wager how long NBC takes to kill it with celebrity editions or overuse?), and I haven't been to the theater in ages. My current most anticipated movie, Pulse, another American J-horror remake, was originally set for this weekend but recently got bumped to July 14. I was stoked for Steve Martin's Pink Panther, but I've downgraded it to a rental based on the generally negative reviews.

Despite the stack of new novels I've picked up recently, I haven't gotten more than a few pages into Stephen King's Cell. Not that it's bad – I'm just at a standstill. Sometimes turning the pages feels like taking out the trash, no matter how much I enjoy the writer. It's easier to sit in front of the computer staring blankly at web pages.

March looks to be a more fruitful month. In all likelihood, I will take in next weekend's big horror remake, The Hills Have Eyes, and I'm looking forward to Julia Louis-Dreyfus' new sitcom, The New Adventures of Old Christine, which looks killer funny in the promos. And I'm within a few episodes of the end of several TV on DVD sets – NewsRadio seasons one and two, The Twilight Zone season one (1980s version); and V: The Complete Series, all of which will be blogged here.

Bottom line: Check back often this month. Bookmark me, leave comments (they're open to everyone), do with me what you will.

Finally, an update: The most read post here by far has been Surface vs. Threshold vs. Invasion. Most folks who cared probably noticed Threshold (CBS) disappeared from the schedule shortly after changing timeslots. There were several unaired episodes, and TVShowsOnDVD.com recently reported that the show will get a DVD release with those unseen episodes. Invasion (ABC, 9 p.m. Wednesday) is chugging through a full season despite precipitous ratings drop-offs from its lead-in, Lost, and Surface (NBC) is apparently done for the season, with Deal or no Deal now filling its Monday slot (plus a Friday night slot, as well).