Hobson's Choice
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Game Show
I've been living a secret life too long. I cannot keep it quiet any longer. It's confession time.
"Jenny Hobson," you say, "a secret life? I don't believe it." But yes, it's true.
I have been for a long time now a secret devotee of The Family Feud. Not a really, really long time. Richard Dawson was plain yucky, and Ray Combs is just too sad to watch. But that lovely Richard Karn and his fast money, I love that Family Feud. I love Eleanor's new seven o'clock bedtime because I'm always downstairs in time for fast money.
Chris says that this confession should be accompanied by a description of our tv-watching in Eleanor's first year. I told him that would mean his far more hidden life would be revealed. He said it was okay.
When Eleanor was an infant and we were crazed from sleep deprivation (and you have to understand that having a premie means you get a two month bonus sleepless period), we watched Supermarket Sweep on the PAX channel. Supermarket Sweep, for those of you who missed it, was a game show in which contestants answered trivia questions and solved word puzzles about groceries. Then they "raced through the aisles" with shopping carts to try to net the biggest grocery total.
I have to tell you that we watched this show almost as devotedly as Star Trk TNG reruns when Eleanor was tiny. When the show was cancelled, I wrote a letter to the PAX network. Chris wrote sympathy letter to the host (and is still bitter that he never heard back).
Okay, there's only one more cringe-inducing detail, and it too involves the PAX network. During Eleanor's babyhood, Chris nursed a crush for Julie Lin, the co-host of a game show called, Beat the Clock, in which contests performed summer camp-like feats and then dove into a whirlwind of money.
The whirlwind of money leads to other memories to be confessed. My friend Leslie and I spent our last weeks in England, after we took our exams, watching British game shows, one of which featured a stoned host and the swirling whirlwind of money. Lord. That's 12 years ago now, and we've both got toddlers; Leslie's moved to Texas, and I miss her.
8:35 p.m. - 2005-06-03
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