Called Uber after the cartoon ended. I didn't think I'd be up to a bike ride after my tooth was pulled. The first driver arrived in 8 minutes; got there just in time. The second came in 5 minutes.
As it turned out, my being on time was a moot point. I sat in the waiting room for a half-hour before they came for me. Honestly, though pulling the tooth was no picnic, the needles used to numb my gums hurt even worse. Not to mention, it cost a bundle, and may cost even more. The doctor gave me prescriptions for antibiotics to help with the infected gums and stronger pain killer to help with the swelling. At least I can eat real food this time. They just have to be soft and not too hot.
I took that second Uber trip to the Acme to get them filled. Walked around, then sat for a few minutes while the pharmacy filled them. After I paid for them, I bought one of those new Powerade waters that are really on sale right now (99 cents!).
It was such a gorgeous day, I decided to walk home. Besides, I wanted to stop at Common Grounds Coffee Shop for lunch. I figured you can't get much softer than a blueberry muffin and a slice of mushroom and caramelized onion quiche. Tried their Strawberry Meadow Matcha off their seasonal menu. Not bad. Strawberry foam on top of green tea. Not sweet at all. The muffin was nice and moist, but it could have done with more blueberries. The quiche was much better, filled with soft veggie pieces and lots of cheese. They were really busy - they had to pull out a separate table so I could eat.
After I dodged road work on Newton Avenue long enough to get home, I went straight into The Persuaders! I hadn't watched this British action show about two wealthy playboys who solve crimes for a while. A "Chain of Events" leads Danny (Tony Curtis) to being accidentally chained to a briefcase intended for British Secret Service agents. While his partner Brett (Roger Moore) figures out what's in the case, Danny dodges Russian agents who will literally kill for its contents.
Left slightly early to drop the bag with my old winter coat in the clothes bin behind Dollar General. Even with that and dodging traffic on the White Horse Pike, I was still right on time for the after-school program. This time, they couldn't get a teacher to help with the older kids. They needed more than one, so the head teacher stayed with them. The 10 kids at my table left two of them and myself to do all the cleaning up, and they were pretty noisy in the bathrooms, too. The kids were worse in the cafeteria after snack time, running around, hitting each other, and tattling on it. Maybe they were all excited about the Book Fair this week. I'm just glad they still have book fairs. Several of them had new books they were more than happy to show me.
I'm glad we were able to get them outside slightly early. Like I told one of the girls later, it was too nice to stay inside for long. The weather couldn't have been nicer for late April, breezy, sunny, and in the upper 60's. Just warm enough to take off your jacket without boiling to death. One poor little girl nearly got run over by a boy who was too eager to go on a slide when she was trying to get her boot back on. I had to break up at least two fights, too. At least they all got to go on the swings this time. There were three teachers by quarter of 5, enough to keep an eye on the remaining kids and keep them from getting kicked.
We took them back inside around 5...which lasted for all of 5 minutes before the kids voted to go on the blacktop and play ball games. I was almost done at that point, anyway. I kept an eye on a couple of boys playing soccer and one poor younger boy who had smacked his back earlier and now had an ice pack on it. They were down to six older kids and two younger ones when I finished.
Took out the recycling, took my laundry downstairs, and took a shower when I got home, then had dinner while watching Match Game '91. Most of the episodes finished the week with Bill Kirchenbauer, Pat Musick, Jo Anne Worley, Charles, Bruce Baum, and soap star and singer Gloria Loring. Bill got the lion's share of the good lines that week, especially his reaction to a question about Vidal Sassoon! Vicki Lawrence and another soap star, Walt Willey, returned the next week, along with Ronn Lucas and Scorch and the hilariously sarcastic Pam Stone.
Brought my laundry upstairs as I watched episodes from various versions of Scrabble. This may be by far the best board game to have become a game show. It debuted on NBC in 1984 with Chuck Woolery hosting, and became a cornerstone of their daytime schedule. Two contestants play what is essentially Scrabble Crosswords. They choose numbered tiles that bring up two letters. If the letter is in the word, it'll appear. If it doesn't, it's considered a "stopper." Three stoppers, and the contestants now had to guess the word as letters appeared. The "Scrabble Sprint" was the bonus round. The winner has to guess words as quickly as they can. That determines the length of time they have to play the champ.
Despite the slightly complicated game play, I can see why this was a hit right out of the gate and would be a mainstay of NBC's daytime schedule for five years. This is one of the fastest-moving game shows I've ever seen. They usually have room for at least two games. Woolery is just as charming her as he was on Love Connection around the same time. I have the debut episode here and the 200th episode from 1985.
Scrabble briefly returned to NBC in 1993. It was more-or-less the same format, but even with a snazzier set and Woolery returning, the life seemed to have gone out of the show. This version lasted six months. A pilot for a syndicated version in 1990 didn't sell.
Scrabble wasn't seen on TV again until 2010 as part of Family Game Night. This hit on the Hub (and later Discovery Kids) had four games an episode based on popular Hasbro board games. Scrabble Flash had families rearranging giant letter tiles to make words. The bigger the word, the more points they got.
Scrabble Flash was dropped after the first season in favor of a full Hub show, Scrabble Showdown. This time, a parent and their child plays. Once again, we have a series of mini-games, this time all based on Scrabble. In "Scrabble Knockout," one contestant plays Vanna White and eliminates the letters on a huge board that the other contestant calls out. "Scrabble Babble" is basically "Scrabble Password." The adults get a three-letter word with a missing letter. They have to put a tile in and describe the word. "Scrabble Scream" is unscrambling words. Scrabble Slam has them replacing a letter in a four-letter word with another letter to make a new word. Scrabble Flash is retained for the bonus round. Really fun show, especially if you love words, and it's too bad it didn't last more than six months in 2011-2012.
It wouldn't be until 2024 when Scrabble would return in something like its original form and for adults, this time on the CW. The game still revolves around crosswords, but this time, they're on a computer-generated Scrabble board. The current and returning champs once again play each other and guess words quickly in the bonus round. Raven-Symone hosted the first season of the show. Scottish comedian Craig Ferguson took over last fall, and he's the host in the episode from the CW's website I have here.
Calling all word lovers! Challenge your brains and stump your reading skills with these fast-paced, heart stopping spelling extravaganzas based on one of the most beloved board games of all time!
No comments:
Post a Comment