Beware those sneaky mountains

Getting excited for Episode 2 of The Walking Dead? Me too—only 16 minutes away. This is what is considered news in our modern culture.

I loved the first episode, by the way—great balance of terrifying zombiesploitation and satisfyingly deep talkiness. But this post is not a review: It's a criticism, and an effort to creep the Big Quiz Thing blog onto the endless list of grammar/spelling-monitoring websites. I'm a professional, so why not?

A couple days ago, I visited the AMC website to rewatch the first episode of The Walking Dead, streaming for free (I'd watched it on premiere night, but dozed off halfway through—not high praise, but I had just completed a whirlwind trip to attest to my sanity in a maddening sea of people). And I saw this:
Let's take a closer look:
Really? A "sneak peak"? Does Episode 2 feature the top of a mountain surreptitiously trying to do something? Will Officer Rick turn a corner in Atlanta and suddenly run into a quietly movie zombie butte? Sadly, "sneak peak" is a common mistake I see all over the Internet these days; the fact that it's cliché is almost as bad as the spelling error.

I rolled my eyes when I spotted it on AMC's site, but whatever—such is the world we live in. I figured someone among the powers that be would fix it soon, but nope: I just revisited the site to confirm the next episode is at 10pm, and there it is, still wrong, wrong, WRONG!!!

Standards are breaking down. It starts with spelling on TV network websites, and next thing we know, the dead are walking the earth and civilization as we know it is in shambles. Heed my words…

Speeling it-out fore yoo

Yo, as they say on the Coney Island Boardwalk. Thanks for attending last night's Big Quiz Thing (or merely reading this blog post, if you did not attend). We were without EDP, the crowd was on the light side (perhaps you're a better Jew than I), and Fantastic Fourincators won…a-gain! Such is life in the business we call show.

First, the particulars: We brought back the "Proofread-O-Rama" (click here for the first edition), a video round near and dear to my grammar junkie heart. Now you know all about the conditional mood; sad that it's too late to rub William Safire's face in it.

As for the audio round, "Jazz for Dummies," you all clearly are not dummies (or perhaps you are, since you did so well). Hurray to the two teams guessing DJ Jazzy Jeff.

Now, the standings. Yes, the Fantastic Fourincators won yet again, so let's see what we can do about this. Perhaps I might hobble them. Some options:

-- I make them all play wearing blindfolds, with dispensation for one member designated the team secretary. Would this impact their trivia ability? Perhaps not, but it might be amusing.

-- I impose upon them, and them only, an eight-drink minimum.

-- I dock them a tenth of a point for their first wrong answer. Then a two tenths for the next wrong answer. Then three tenths, etc. This will give me a math headache.

-- I spend much of my spare time investigating their private lives and personal interests. Then, I craft the questions to veer decisively away their expertise. The advantage of this is that we all learn a little about these mysterious blackguards: Which Fournicator has an extra finger on his left hand? Is it true that another member once interned for Diane Von Furstenburg? Who's sleeping with whom? The possibilities are endless.

I like the blindfold idea. Perhaps. Your thoughts?

Otherwise…

1. Fantastic Fournicators
2. Strippers for Stephen Hawking
3. Gerard Depardouche
4. Squirrels on Film
5. Jefferson Davis Starship/Sugah Titz (tie)

Join us again, friends, on October 12. "The Movie Quote Thesaurus" and the long-awaited Wizard of Oz audio round. My chest hair is tingling with excitement.

Give in to the hype. GIVE IN!

I've begun Twittering. Don't get excited; I'm tweeting about once a day. I still don't completely see the fun/purpose of this, but I don't want to be that annoying last guy who picks up on a trend, the final holdout anti-Twitter guy six months after it becomes the dominant form of human communication. You know, like this guy or this guy.

So I'm trying. I like changing the status on my Facebook profile with some regularity, but somehow that seems less annoying and/or unnecessary. Also, I'm not much of a text-messager; partly because I have a Flintstones-vintage cell phone, partly because I'm a stickler for punctuation and grammar, and texting can be painful for people like me. (I exaggerate only slightly.)

But that brings me to an interesting observation: Part of my wariness with Twitter is that 140-character communication is not at all conducive to proper spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc. The more power Twitter has, the less power my people have. Yet ironically, the instruction text on the Twitter site itself is well copyedited. Consistent use of the serial comma, the conscious decision to lowercase tweet, use of the phrase 140 characters or fewer, an overall clarity of style that bears the graceful fingerprints of a talented copy editor. It's not perfect—I just spotted a missing period and an em-dash snafu—but it's surprising for a resource that is completely based on noncopyedited text.

Sometimes, it takes so little to interest me. Trivia, folks.