Posted
12:04 PM
by Gene

We are sorry to learn
Merv Griffin has died. We cannot help imagining the man without thinking he had a good dose of the fool to him: the man who pioneered French-kissing on the screen, who seemed to laugh at anything and everything the guests on his talk show said, the inventor of those two geek games par excellence,
Jeopardy! and
Wheel of Fortune, the very man almost a self-caricature -- say that about him, but the man had a lot of fun in his life, a real gusto, and he communicated it almost (as the cliché goes) infectiously, and he got very rich as a result, and we're much poorer without people like that.
He reminds us too we still miss Arthur Treacher. Heck we miss
Mort Lindsey.
P. S. at 5:50 p.m.
Pat Sajak has it down exactly right. (Via
MS. TRAVERS, oh well)