'Let's Make a Deal'

I was watching the polls about the New Hampshire primaries and somehow in my make shift desk arrangement I hit the remote button. Maybe I just dozed off a bit, or had just tuned out mentally what was going on, when I realized that I was no longer watching the news channel, but the TV had been turned somehow to the Game Show Network.

I did not change the station back for a while because I found out that there was very little difference. I was hearing one person against another while the commentators kept reminding us what big prize was awaiting the winner. Many of the questions these good looking commentators were asking the two competitors were everyday questions like how much water does the average person waste each day.

We never heard the correct answer, just what the others in the audience had agreed upon There were lots of cheers and smiles and the everyone tried to act like they were having a good time, but their smiles were somewhat forced it seemed to me.

Time passed and then there were several people vying for the various prizes But they had to know the prices of things to win, It was obvious that some had no idea how much the ordinary things we buy do cost. Some knew that it was way too high and that this should be changed.

After a while it seemed like the contest was who could yell the loudest or get more of the audience to clap their hands and also yell. It wasn't always clear what the question was, because no one seemed to be paying much attention to the question.

It seemed like for a while that the ones that had a chance were the oddest looking people there, but other time ordinary nice looking people were called upon to give answers Most of these answers were not yes or no, but long convoluted sentences that really make little sense except to the obvious partial crowd.

When they mentioned the $24,000 Pyramid, I knew they were referring to these big donations that some gave to the winners. One change there is that the ones in the contest did have to know the meaning of words in order to win. That's when I realized I must be on the wrong channel.

So I tried to change back to the news channel. But I must have done that wrong also. For one thing, only one person was talking at a time and in most of the news stations, there are two or three people all telling what they think, so that no one really hears what is said. No, this new channel seemed to have a problem with how we are living and wanted us to donate some money to buy this booklet on a better life.

I decided I might as well go back to the Game Show Network. At least nobody expects them to do anything except entertain. And the early morning shows give us another chance to see some of our old favorite comedians on the Match Game. Come to thinks of it, that might not be a bad idea for a name for the political conventions.