Deep Silver, the publishers-to-be of the videogame "Dead Island," claimed yesterday that they hadn't yet sold film rights to their as-of-yet unfinished and unreleased product, in development since basically forever, despite reports to the contrary. Here's a working theory about this unusual event (the "Dead Island" trailer: has like 2.5 million views, from the last five days): "My theory: Deep Silver knew Dead Island was in video game purgatory and they needed something to gauge the interest in it to determine if they should shelve it or issue yet another release date. So they came up with this bit of cinematic genius, something that would go viral and get people talking about their game again. Even if the family featured in the trailer has nothing to do with the game, even if the game is not quite ready for prime time. It was a bit of manipulative genius to put this out there, sort of like a girl who’s not quite sure she’s ready to date making a match.com profile to see if she can reel in anything worthy enough to make her try. The Dead Island trailer was bait. And we all took a bite."

Really? Is "Ferris Bueller to Have No More Days Off, Ever" that much of a better headline (to accompany a picture of Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick and their new twins on Gawker) than the originally-published headline, "Rare Twin Foals Yielded from Successful Studding"? What behooves (HA, "hooves"!) a blog to make regular after-publication changes like this? (This happens as often as a few times a day.) Is it just because one can? It is one of the great and, yes, rather uninteresting mysteries of our modern times. I have lost interest already really. OH and also today! "Billionaire's Wife Valued Solely For Her Smarts, or Whatever" just now became "New York Times Lavishes Praise on Lady Married to Its Third Largest Shareholder"! Which isn't really what the "post" is "about" but hey. Now I have lost interest in this minor matter again.