fishcakes

Boxing out Bizzy/Sunny and Yvonne/Melissa from even being able to attempt the meat challenge was bad, but the thing that bothered me was that when Yvonne (?) asked if they could all work together, they didn't outright refuse, they suddenly just got very shifty. They either pretended they didn't hear her or acted like, "ha ha! we don't know either! don't mind us and these clues to the Pit Stop in our hands!" A simple, "I'm sorry, we wish we could help, but we can't be sure there's anyone behind us," would have at least been respectful. It could come back to bite them anyway because as it turned out, those two teams were right on their heels. The three allied teams were still on the mat when B/S and Y/M showed up. So not helping them may have affected placement, but there's virtually no time advantage and they've engendered some bad will there. As someone upthread noted Danny/Angie were third of the three, so they may start out in the last group next week anyway, and they're not likely to get any help from teams they snubbed. I liked Derek and Shalisa too and am sorry to see them gone. They did bicker a lot, but that seems to be their thing and they both let it roll right off. I very much loved them at the skateboard task: Derek: Get ready to go, honey! Shalisa: I've been ready! Derek (laughing): She didn't have to say it like that.

I didn't notice this until the rerun the other night, but Betty's leash is huge. She probably weighs 4 pounds and the leash weighs 5. Her little feet sticking out of that sweater are killing me with cuteness.

This is the most egotistical group of players we've ever seen. I say that every season, but it might be true this time. At the very least, this is the largest number of players who refer to themselves in the third person. Jelinsky, Bhanu, Jem, Liz. I understand the impulse for a big target player like Hunter to hold on to his immunity idol, but he made a mistake not playing it for Tevin because now he's a big target player with no reliable allies. The Plus One alliance is done, and the Nami alliance never really existed. He doesn't seem that flexible or adept socially, so he's going to have to beast it to the end now if he wants to get there. Also I'm sorry to see Tevin go because he was at least entertaining. Tiffany is competent but boring, so I'd rather she had gone, and if not her, then Venus, who isn't boring but I think the editors have wrung all the humor they can out of her delusions of being the G.O.A.T. and now we're only left with how obnoxious she is. I do agree that the editors seem to hate her, but so does everyone else, and the only common factor there seems to be her and her personality. I think I'm rooting for Charlie now. He seems smart and has a sly sense of humor. Hanging on the pole only one foot off the ground and then, "how about some rice, Jeff?"

Tim said that Hunter was the biggest physical threat and Q said something like, "I don't know about that" or "I wouldn't say that." You could tell he was put out that someone else is considered the big challenge beast instead of himself. I don't know why he's surprised considering his challenge record.

I liked Q a lot up until now, but I was almost hoping he'd get blindsided last night. For a guy who spent the first half of the game losing, he certainly has a lot of opinions about what other people are doing wrong. This sometimes happens when there are three tribes with one tribe losing so much early on; they come into the merge down in numbers, aren't seen as threats but instead as "extra votes, and then end up controlling the game. It's how Denise won in Philippines and Yam Yam in whatever season that was. Kenzie, on the other hand, I haven't liked at all. I started to like her last night when she was helping Ben, but then she couldn't stop congratulating herself for what was basic human decency, so I went back to wishing she were gone. And I've wanted to like Venus, but she seems to rub everyone the wrong way, not just Nami. So I think she might indeed be the problem and not every single other person. Her smugness at and after TC was hilarious; Soda and Venus may think Venus engineered that vote, but everyone else knows it was Tevin. I don't understand why he voted for Venus instead of Soda, but he was clearly behind Maria and Charlie voting for Soda. Favorite moment was Jeff listing the reward menu and Tevin shakily uttering, "lord jesus." Watching them play the alphabet game reminds me of the time Uncle Bob, a TWoP mod, tried to get a six degrees game going in one of the threads. It went like Poster 1: Christian Bale was in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with David Strathairn. David Strathairn was in The River Wild with Kevin Bacon. Poster 2: Christian Bale was in The Dark Night. And so was Heath Ledger. Poster 3: It’s so sad about Heath Ledger. He was awesome in 10 Things I Hate About You. Poster 4: David Krumholtz was in 10 Things. He’s also in Numb3rs now. Oh, and he was in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle! Uncle Bob: Perhaps I didn’t explain the game correctly.

I like the little moments where you see how much Amanda loves Will like a son, like right after the car crash when she looked over and Will was unconscious she cried out, "Wilbur!" and was trying to cut him loose. So far, the writers and actors are presenting that relationship in a nicely understated way.

That was boring for a merge episode, especially because Moriah and Venus both seemed to be trying to move the target off the other one and back to themselves. Don't worry, ladies; you'll both go home before the end. This is me in cranky-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn mode, but jesus christ why is the music on the show constant and so loud? I have to hit instant replay about a dozen times each episode because I can't hear the conversations over the drums and that one horn making an "aaaaooooooh!!!!" sound. Even if they're just talking about papaya or whatever, there's all this dramatic music pounding.

Yes, I remember when Jeff was announcing alcohol in the rewards he'd look at an underage player (or even someone who just doesn't drink), and say "or soft drinks for [whoever]." As for food, I'm pretty sure there's never been an option. Vegetarians have either chosen to or declined to eat meat in rewards or been forced to eat meat in a gross food challenge or forfeit that round.

You know, no matter how many times an ousted player brags that, "if I hadn't been voted out, I would have won," it never gets any less stupid.

I think Maria is overrated by the rest of her tribe. They all seem to want to be allied with her and think they are. And it's hard to tell because until last night we've seen so little of anything besides the Yanu clown car, but Maria doesn't seem like a particularly good player. As you mentioned, burning her extra vote for one thing, but also, it's day 11 or whatever, you know a merge is coming within a day or two, so why would you side with the guys who are all pretty likeable and who could be seen as threats to the others instead of with the two more or less goaty women. Maria's now in an alliance that, after the merge, is probably going to be targeted, whereas, had she stuck with Jem and Moriah, she'd have allies who no one is worried about. And I don't think she needs strong players as shields, since once she's in with a bigger crowd, her own threat level is going to decrease. She'll have less social influence, and she's shown a couple of times that she's not a physical threat. But her doing what she did was good for me because I don't care about Jem, but I've grown to love Ben. I thought the constant Spicoli-esque, "these things rock, these things are a bummer" narration was going to bug, but I just find him so much fun. It was so funny that he took a hammer along with him to defend against Jem's machete and him refusing to let go of it long after their conversation was done put it over the top with me.

Someone posted all ten episodes of the Little Monk web series on YouTube. These are also on the Best of Monk DVD.

They started letting them have more clothes about four or five seasons ago. The show got some bad press about forcing the players to live in one pair of underwear for the entire season, which resulted in several players ending up with UTIs, some so severe that a couple of them had to be hospitalized.

As bad as this season is, we need to remember the real victim: Jess, who was stuck for a time at Ponderosa with only Jelinsky and Bhanu.

I'm with everyone who's suspicious that Bhanu was putting on an act. Survivor was an audition reel for him so that he can have something on his IMDb page other than a list of fake credits of when he appeared as an extra in a crowd scene. At the same time, a little psychiatric intervention wouldn't be the worst thing for him. When Tiff said, "I'm going to be honest with you, I'm writing your name down," I thought there was a 50-50 chance he might flip out and try to murder her on the spot. "I take no joy in keeping your flint, but I am going to keep your flint HAHAHAHAHAHA." The worse these casts get, the more of a magnificent bastard Jeff becomes.

Most eyeglasses won't start a fire. They have to be magnifiers. Either glasses for someone who's farsighted, which is much less common than nearsightedness, or they have to be the old type of bifocals with a convex bottom half of the lens, and not as many people wear those anymore now that progressive lenses exist.