- Did anyone realize that there is a new version of the
vintage ’70s game show “Let’s Make a Deal” and more importantly, why is there a
new version of the show? Clearly, the show does exist and it’s hosted by Wayne
Brady, a man who has built a career out of being a musical variety/corny comedy
act dating back to his days on the American version of “Whose Line is it
Anyway?” To generate some interest in the show and let people know that it
exists, producers are planning to rip a page from the playbook of a fellow CBS
show, “Hawaii Five-O” (itself a retread and a shameless effort to revive an old
show that didn’t need to be remade) by allowing fans to play an active role in
an upcoming episode. Whereas fans could vote for one of three endings to this
week’s “Hawaii Five-O” episode, on Jan. 25 “Deal” viewers will be able to take
to Twitter
to choose elements of the show. Voting will take place during a taping, with
fans able to follow along on the show's Twitter feed or website beginning at 4
p.m. ET. Votes will be tallied immediately and will be incorporated into the
episode as it's filmed. "We are very Twitter friendly at Let's Make a
Deal," executive producer Mike Richards said. "We are really excited
about incorporating this new voting element into the show, and hope our loyal
viewers, as well as some new ones, will have as much fun with this as we
are." Brady called the idea a “win-win” and said he is “excited about this
landmark show because we're doing things no other game show is doing.” How much
interest the gimmick creates will be determined when both on Jan. 25 and when
the episode airs on Jan. 30……..
- Again? For the umpteenth time, someone is claiming they
know the whereabouts of legendary union leader/organized crime figure Jimmy
Hoffa’s remains. This time, the wise guy in question is a Detroit
man described by federal agents as a formerly high-ranking gangster. Tony
Zerilli is 85 years old and has been described as a main character in the
infamous unsolved mystery. He lives, in his own words, a very humble lifestyle.
“I’m dead broke. I got no money,” Zerilli said. “My quality of life is zero.”
He claims that Hoffa’s remains were buried in a field in suburban Detroit --
about 20 miles north of the restaurant where he was last seen. Zerilli has
remained silent on the issue over the decades, which fits the profile for a man
a man the feds say was once a high-ranking member of the Detroit La Cosa Nostra
family. It has now been more than 37
years since Hoffa told people he was going to meet two men at a restaurant in
suburban Detroit, a suspected member of the Detroit mafia and a Teamster boss
from New Jersey, and was spotted at the restaurant before disappearing. Why is
Zerilli talking now? He says he wants to set the record straight about his life
and what happened to Hoffa. His credibility is somewhat suspect because Zerilli
still denies ever being in the mafia, but hearing him out could be amusing. As
he tells it, he was in prison at the time of Hoffa’s disappearance, but when he
was released from prison, the feds were all over him with questions
about the case. He may not have been responsible for Hoffa’s demise, but
Zerilli sounds very much like a guy who is confident about the location of the union
boss’ remains. “All this speculation about where he is and he’s not,"
Zerilli said. "They say he was in a meat grinder. It’s all baloney."
His theory is that Hoffa’s final resting place is about 20 miles north of the
restaurant where he was last seen, in a field in northern Oakland County, Mich.
The alleged plan was to bury the body in a shallow grave and move it later, but
for some reason that never happened. "Once he was buried here, he was
buried and they let it go,” Zerilli said.……….
- Raging commuters are a problem everywhere in the world,
but not in the way one angry traveler was this morning in the upscale Stockholm suburb of Saltsjöbaden. In a case that has police
befuddled, a cleaning lady hijacked a train and crashed it into a house for
reasons that are unclear. “The woman started driving the train from the
Neglinge train station, which is two stops from Saltsjöbaden, and usually a
three-minute ride,” Storstockholms
Lokaltrafik spokesman Jesper Pettersson explained. "The train
usually goes at about 10 kilometers an hour in this area, but we estimate that
she was going at about 70 kilometers per hour." Somehow, the speeding
train remained on the tracks until it reached the final stop on the line around
3 a.m., at which point it careened off the tracks and into the first-floor
kitchen of one of the house's three flats, causing severe damage.
where it remains while crews work out how to
safely remove the wreckage. The good news is that no other passengers were on
the train at the time and no one inside the house was seriously injured by the
crash, although one woman was trapped in the wreckage for two hours before
rescue crews managed to get her out. “We still don’t know why she was in the
driver’s seat or whether the incident was an accident. There’s a police
investigation underway and we’re waiting for them for clarification,”
Pettersson added. The insane cleaning lady who commandeered the train was
transported by helicopter to the Karolinska University Hospital for treatment of
what emergency workers described as "serious" injuries. She was also
ordered detained on suspicion of public devastation. "It's incredibly
lucky that no one in the house was injured," police spokesman Ulf Lindgren
said, adding that there were five residents from three different families
sleeping in the building at the time of the accident. “The head of the
emergency services crew has ordered the house to be evacuated for safety
reasons." Emergency crews spent the day trying to determine how to remove
the train from the house without it collapsing. Meanwhile, local politicians
quickly called on Storstockholms
Lokaltrafik to improve its safety procedure to ensure this sort of incident
doesn’t happen again. Until the crash site can be cleared, replacement
buses are transporting commuters between the Neglinge and Saltsjöbaden stops on
the Saltsjöbanan train line, according to Storstockholms Lokaltrafik…….
- Nice try, Coca-Cola. Obesity is a growing issue (pun
intended) in the United States and purveyors of sugary, unhealthy foods and
beverages must either find a way to adapt or risk perishing under the wave of healthy
consumption. Soda is an obvious target for junk-food haters, meaning Pepsi and
Coca-Cola must find ways to fight back against negative perceptions of their
products. Coca-Cola is already on the offensive, debuting a new ad that will go
into heavy rotation over the next few weeks and will also air during the Super
Bowl on Feb. 3. The add is predicated on two primary arguments: 1) all kinds of calories — not
just those from soda — are what will make you fat, and 2) Coke has plenty of
low-calorie drinks that won't make a person fat. The ad also offers ideas
(somewhat tongue-in-cheek) for how to burn the 140 calories in a single serving
of Coke. The company believes the ad will combat erroneous perceptions about
its products, such as the belief expressed in its market research that a can of
Coke has as many as 900 calories. A spokesperson for Coca-Cola insisted the ad
is simply to keep up with "the issue of the times" and not part of
anything bigger. “We have not done a good enough job in telling our story and
being consistent in telling our story,” spokeswoman Diana Garza Ciarlante said.
It sounds logical enough, except for the portion of the equation in which soda
accounts for 140 hollow calories per serving, pumping extra calories in without
any nutritional benefit while also loading consumers up on sugar. Focusing more
on calories is a point of emphasis for Coca-Cola, from its U.K. "calorie counter" website
and its new vending machines
that display calorie counts. The ad is now available on YouTube and in
addition to its main points, it also stresses Coca-Cola's history of soft drink
production and the company’s increase in low-calorie choices………
- The 2012-13 season has been a massive failure for the
Dallas Mavericks. They are 16-23, rank 12th in the Western Conference and five
games out of the playoff race. With the NBA’s most outspoken owner at the helm,
the odds that they will stand down as the league’s trading deadline approaches
are somewhere between zero and -100 percent. Loquacious owner Mark Cuban admitted as much when he was asked Monday night about
the chances that his team will make a move before the Feb. 21 deadline. “We're
letting everybody know that the "Bank of Cuban" is open,” Cuban said,
following up on previous comments that there was a "100 percent
chance" the Mavs would aggressively pursue trade opportunities "If
it's the right deal, we don't mind taking back money. But we're not going to do
a trade just to do a trade. It's got to be worthwhile." The Mavericks
could be an appealing trade partner because they are under the salary cap and
have the ability to take back significantly more salary in trades. Cuban’s
prudent financial approach to put the franchise in that position hasn’t been
universally embraced, as star forward Dirk Nowitzki recently lamented the fact
that his team missed out on Deron Williams last summer and seem to have little
chance to land a legitimate superstar this offseason because the two biggest
would-be free agents, Clippers point guard Chris Paul and Lakers center Dwight
Howard, are both expected to remain with their current teams. At the same time,
a team that will be supremely fortunate to make the playoffs with an aging
roster has a much better chance to upgrade its roster via a trade than by
convincing free agents to come to Dallas. Over the course of Cuban's 13-year
ownership run, the Mavericks have made many such trades and those deals brought
key championship pieces such as Jason Kidd and Tyson Chandler to Dallas. Making
big trades is tougher under the new, more restrictive collective bargaining
agreement that went into effect before last season, but the harder cap could
work in Dallas’ favor if Cuban is able to take advantage of teams that want to
avoid paying the luxury tax, which increases dramatically next season. He could
help them avoid breaking the bank by keeping the doors to his bank open……..
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