Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Simple Optimism...and other stuff

Every night from 8-9PM, WPLJ (95.5FM) here in New York plays "the 80s at 8" which is an all request hour of 80s music. I guess I am a child of the 1980s, and hearing the music just reminds me of a time that was so much simpler. Yes, I had my own issues and problems like every kid growing up does, but over all, it was a happier, simpler, optimistic time. My family was doing well financially, we were healthy, all of my Grandparents were still alive. And while people and the media like to make fun of Ronald Reagan for the way things were in the 1980s, it overall was a good decade in my opinion. A very simple decade. Things aren't so simple anymore. We've managed to make life very fast paced and very complicated in so many ways. Makes me wonder... where's the optimism with Obama, Clinton, McCain, or Romney? Scary... very scary.

On Pat Sajak's blog, he talks about the importance of buying vowels when playing Wheel of Fortune. While I agree about the importance of buying vowels on the show and how, if done strategically, can help a contestant solve the puzzle and win the game, I think some of the strategy of buying vowels is taken away because vowels are still so cheap at $250 each. When the show first debuted on daytime television over 25 years ago, $250 was a lot of money to spend on vowels, considering the top dollar amount on the wheel was $750. Today, a contestant can earn thousands of dollars with a single spin of the wheel, and if all 5 vowels are in the puzzle, a contestant could buy all 5 for $1,250. The price of vowels should keep up with the times, the money given away on the show, and increase strategy and competition. Increasing the price of vowels to $500 would not hurt the integrity of the game.

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