Sir RaiderDuck OMS

Either Gerry and Theresa had terrible judgement getting married when they were so incompatible, or the whole thing was fake as shit. Either way, I'm likely done with this stupid franchise. Yet another season ends up a 25-hour (give or take) waste of time.

The lack of a second hand will seriously hamper Miles in any kind of competition. To put it bluntly, there are things he simply cannot do physically that a competing chef can.

Tonight's episode hit Hulu a day early. I won't spoil the ending, but the right person (i.e. the weakest chef on the losing team) went home. Also, this is one of the few times on MCJ that I've seen Ramsay legit lose his patience. Normally, he treats the kids with kid gloves (no pun intended), but the gloves kinda came off when a few of the chefs weren't treating the service seriously enough. Oh, and nothing in this episode tempted me to set foot in a Magic Castle.

The latest episode (at the Thirsty Ox in Oxnard, CA) was a bust. No Taffer (except in the introduction and one or two voiceovers), and Phil came off as a know-it-all douchebag. You could see Ramon (the co-owner) HATING the new name when Phil unveiled it. And Phil's new cocktails seemed way too sophisticated for an admitted dive bar.

I'm guessing Jordan may have tipped off what he was going to make: she knew it would be risky, and went super-basic hoping he'd fall on his face and she'd win by default. Notice how she took zero risks with either her food choice or plating. But when the judges liked the taste of his wings (which looked gross), she was stuck with something very ordinary.

I couldn't believe Nikki caterwauling that "Justin won't accept me as I am" or whatever when she UNILATERALLY CHANGED HIS NAME because she didn't want to date a guy named Igor. Jasmine, of course, can't go 10 minutes without screaming and going into hysterics over something. I truly hope we've seen the last of them on this franchise. And the stripper is probably a part-time prostitute, which means she'll say whatever you want her to say if you pay her enough. Citra should get tested for STDs. Piggy and Nick knew TLC needed SOMETHING to keep the drama going, hence the feigned outrage over the nickname.

Hadn't watched this show in forever, but last night's episode about the Hogwash Saloon in Fountain Hills, AZ took place within walking distance of our home (you can literally see the place from our balcony), so we tuned in. A few observations: Jon noted that FH is an upscale community, and he is correct. It's primarily a bedroom community for people who work at home or in north Scottsdale or west Mesa, each of which is a 20-minute drive away, and also a retirement community. There are at least two very nice restaurant/bars located within walking distance of the Skybox (which the Hogwash was renamed to): one is an upscale sushi restaurant with an outdoor/indoor bar, and the other is a sports grill and bar. The food and drinks at both are excellent, which also explains why the Hogwash was losing money. FH residents are very finicky. Even the Burger King and Pizza Hut and McDonald's here serve better-prepared food than you'd normally get from any of these establishments. The town sports its namesake fountain (the fourth-tallest in the world) but has very little tourism otherwise. But it's a rich community, so there's money to be earned. All of this combines to create a restaurant clientele that has money to spend but zero loyalty: if your food or drinks suck, there's plenty of other places for people to go. In addition, the presence of so many working people and retirees means the town closes up early. Very few restaurants or bars are open past 9PM. There is no "club scene" like Scottsdale or Mesa or Phoenix or Tempe has, and the FH residents don't care about that. We're mostly in bed by 10 or so. Finally, the people working in the bar seemed very..."rough" for FH. I legitimately question how many of them live in the town or if they even really work at this establishment.

I ordered some Like Air puff snacks after seeing this ep: The Regular and White Cheddar flavors are OK, but the Pancake and Cinnamon flavors are really good.

Some of us are old enough to remember decades ago when Breyer's was a premium ice cream featuring only all-natural ingredients. Then Unilever bought it out and started cutting costs using cheap fillers, gradually turning Breyer's into tasteless garbage that can't even be legally called "ice cream" on the label. Jenard should've just winked at her and said: "Thanks for the tip. I'll make sure I'm at a party with plenty of witnesses the night it all goes down for your grandson." The PO is a stereotypical minor bureaucrat: he only rules the tiniest sliver of Planet Earth but compensates by lording it over the few people he does rule. Dude's being obnoxious to Diamond for no other reason than he can be, and he thinks (correctly or incorrectly) there's nothing Diamond can do about it.

It's possible the agreement they sign with Shark Tank businesses allow them a large amount of control.

Watched it last night. A couple of thoughts: 1) I wonder if they're going to have another All-Stars season soon and Dahmere was already told he'll be on it and X, Y, and Z are what he needs to improve. As others have pointed out, he didn't seem upset to be eliminated. 2) I wonder if the eliminations were set up as specific "F off, you arrogant jackass" to Jason: He's the only one of the final seven who doesn't get a black jacket, only for the "extra" person who did win a black jacket to immediately go home after the next service. IIRC, only black jacket winners are eligible to appear on future seasons (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). 3) I remember a situation similar to Jonathan's way back in the early seasons: There was a contestant named Robert who Ramsay kept sarcastically calling "Bobby" during service. Finally, Robert went to Ramsay and asked GR not to call him Bobby anymore. When GR said "It's only banter," Robert explained that his abusive stepfather had called him "Bobby" whenever he beat him as a child. A horrified Ramsay apologized and never used that nickname with him again. My point is that Ramsay uses a lot of rough language to get their attention and make his point, and sometimes it can go a little too far. He did seem genuinely apologetic and even told Jonathan "It's never personal."

When Heather said she couldn't meet her payroll, you could see Kevin looking sympathetic but also thinking "Hard NO." You can have sympathy for someone's plight (and the sharks have all been close to this position themselves), but a money pit is a money pit, and a contestant who says "I want your money but won't take any of your advice" is someone to stay away from. And it wouldn't surprise me if her business is still afloat from a short-term loan she wrangled on the premise of "I'm gonna be on Shark Tank and they all loved the food, so sales should explode!" Personally, my choice of workplace food (before going Work at Home fulltime) was Soylent drinks. I'd bring two into the office and have one for breakfast at the start of the shift, and the other one for lunch. And at $40-50 for a 12-pack, they're a heckuva lot cheaper and more convenient than McDonald's or TV dinners or whatever (I despise leftovers, so that wasn't an option). Meanwhile, after checking Fishwife's website, I found the secret to the great taste: Each tin of salmon is 260 calories with 900 mg (39% of the USA RDA) of sodium. To be fair, the tuna and trout are lower in salt, but if you dump almost 1/2 teaspoon of salt on 3 oz of fish (which sells for $11), it probably WILL taste good. Having said that, Kevin's initial offer (taking 5% equity in exchange for a loan at 11% interest) was cold-blooded, even for him. Fortunately, the other sharks had better offers. She totally went with the right one: two sharks with Lori ready to incorporate the fish into her Boarderie business.

And what exactly is wrong with getting married in Vegas?

I'm calling BS. The pictures shown of his early years reveal a very ordinary-looking jawline. Now it's caved in, PLUS we've never seen any bottom teeth when he's talking? He may have a few bottom molars left (which would also enable him to truthfully claim to have bottom teeth), but I'd bet money that his bottom front teeth and canines are all long gone.

And your evidence for that assertion is...?

A few thoughts: 1) Henri Paul was driving drunk, but that's because the drive back was a last-minute deal. He thought he was off for the night, so he was boozing and drugging it up. This is somewhat accurately portrayed in the ep, although it's toned down. 2) Diana's death was at least partly caused by the Paris paramedics. Paramedics in France are different than paramedics in the US. In the US, paramedics are basically taught to "Scoop and Run": the idea is to get the person to the Emergency Room as fast as possible. In France, ambulances are almost like mini ERs in and of themselves. They have a lot of equipment that US ambulances don't have, and the emphasis is on stabilizing the patient before driving them anywhere. Unfortunately, not all tests can be done in the field, including the tests for internal bleeding that could potentially have saved Diana's life. (NOTE: This is not meant as a condemnation of the French system of emergency medicine. I'm just pointing out that in this one specific situation, it was not optimal.) 3) A book I read called The Day Diana Died said when the Queen initially refused to give a televised address, Charles declared that he'd go on TV instead. When she refused to allow it, he actually threatened to abdicate his role as Prince of Wales and Heir Apparent, then make a televised address (as he'd be a private citizen and she'd be be powerless to stop him). That was when she backed down and agreed to deliver it herself. 4) Charles really felt Diana's loss: while he'd arguably never loved her, he had always liked her and felt bad that she'd been caught up in the middle of an institution she didn't understand while married to a man who loved someone else entirely. He had come to realize how much of their split was really his fault and how ill-suited she was for royal life. 5) Mohammed Al-Fayed went to his grave insisting that not only were Diana and Dodi to be wed, the entire accident was really a MI6 operation to ensure an Arab wouldn't be the future King's stepfather, with Diana and Dodi being casualties. 6) As for whether Diana and Dodi were going to get married, who knows? I've read accounts saying she was serious about it, and I've read other accounts saying she considered it a fling. I'm inclined to believe the latter, but the only two people who know for sure have been dead a long time.

The two actors have zero chemistry together. I just never bought Diana being romantically interested in the Dodi portrayed here. I loved Diana's cringing when Baba said "And here's a house for the two of you," followed by Dodi's cringe when he saw Diana's reaction: even though he didn't hear what his father said, he could guess that she didn't like it.

Did anyone else think Yash was enjoying himself a little too much? Given his level of English proficiency, he likely knows a typical American would be repulsed at ever handling cow dung, let burning it in an indoor kitchen. His obvious disdain of Kimberly is coming through loud and clear. And the mom is similarly done coddling her. The Scream of Doom™ comes closer with each episode. The Sarper and Shekinah storyline is a waste of time. He wants Shekinah to bear his child and is unwilling to compromise. She doesn't want to bear another child and is unwilling to compromise. There's no getting around this. Danielle and Yohan continue to be mutually awful. I just hope this season is either's final appearance on my TV.

She thought she and Jared would split $750K prize, then Jared would go onto a successful reality TV career. Instead, she didn't even make the Top 4, and Jared was an arrogant nimrod who didn't even make the jury and likely has no future in the network (i.e. big money) reality shows.

Mrs. RaiderDuck and I were surprised by Jag's win. Given both Matt's popularity during the season and Jag's arrogance during the Jury segment, we'd thought it'd be unanimous for Matt. Wrong. Good for him for winning the right way, though (i.e. not screwing over the guy who saved his ass two months ago). Yes Julie, we get it. You and the producers have been waiting with great anticipation and unimaginable glee for 100 days to tell everyone Cirie and Jared were related. Hope you guys got your little thrill from The Big Reveal™, because it was boring as hell for the rest of us. Interesting how they missed an opportunity to get Izzy's reaction when Cameron (who she bizarrely hated) was voted AFP. (Disclosure: My ten votes were split evenly between America and Cameron.) What was with Felicia's Urkel glasses? I only watched the first season of BB, then resumed from Season 21 (Jackson Michie's win) onward, so I have a question for those who have watched the whole series: Has anyone else been unpersoned the way Luke was this year? It's like he was never on the show: Picture gone from the website, no sighting or mention during the finale, etc. Someone tuning in after the first few weeks would literally not know he existed. Finally, do let us hope they bury this stupid Multiverse thing forever. The final Multiverse segment was just as insulting and cringeworthy as the first.

They say that hard drug users stop emotionally maturing at whatever age they begin using. We're seeing that with Holly. She acts like a whiny teenager who has to be told to take a bleeping shower. And after working a 12-hour day, the last thing Wayne wants is to come home to her moaning and groaning about how much she hates it there and how her street drugs were so much easier to score back in the US (she doesn't actually say that last part out loud, but we all know she's thinking it). As always, Brandan's mom needs to STFU. She was a crappy excuse for a mother who had a choice of getting high and sleeping around to score drugs or raising her kids, and chose the former. She doesn't get to jet back in and play Mommy now. She's lucky Brandan even gives her the time of day. How in the blue hell does Sarper stay with someone for a entire week-long boinkfest and never even learn her last name??? The only thing that makes sense is his renouncing his parental rights to get out of paying child support (or her leaving his name off the Birth Certificate), and her marrying someone else who eventually adopted the child. Even then, a good PI could probably track them both down. And once again, people: DODGING THE CHILDREN QUESTION DOES NOT WORK. If Sarper's dead-set on having a biological child and Shekinah's dead-set on not having (another) one, that's an insurmountable hill to climb. I love how the show had Kenny & Armando's potential surrogate talk about "giving a gift of love" when we all know she's doing this for the $$$. And there's absolutely NOTHING wrong with that, mind you, but the show should at least be honest about what's going on. (Disclosure: We know a gay couple who decided to start a family using an egg donor and separate surrogate mother. Each child cost them upwards of $100K by the time they paid both the egg donor and surrogate.)

Asphalt Tester must pay more than I thought. Or they're raking in the Pillow Talk $$$.

There's something more going on here. An ovarian cyst should not make it physically dangerous to have a child. If they had to remove an ovary, you'd have less chance of becoming pregnant, but once you were pregnant, the ovaries are no longer directly involved (except possibly for your hormone levels, which could be supplemented with medications) and the pregnancy should proceed normally.

Sounds like Jasmine needs an allergy test so she can figure out what she might be reacting to. If you've never had one, it's a simple outpatient procedure: They lay you down on your stomach (topless) and prick your back and upper arms with needles containing a bunch of different known allergens. You lay there for 15-20 minutes when they're done, then they come back and see which tiny holes have developed into big red welts. The ones with the welts are the substances you're allergic to. In my case, it came back Negative on everything except dust and grass, the latter being problematic because I lived in Eugene, which is widely considered the unofficial grass capital of the world. But Jasmine could figure out real fast exactly what she is and is not allergic to, then make the necessary adjustments to her and Gino's lifestyles. That aside, this season has been really boring. There's not one single couple to root for. They're all varying degrees of trainwrecks.

I think it comes down to them assuming that while there was a small chance Cirie would win the Veto comp, there's an even smaller chance Felicia will. And remember that real power this week is in the Veto comp, not the HoH comp. All the HoH win gives you is a pass into the Final 3. The person not nominated (i.e. the Veto winner if it's not the HoH) will decide who goes home by a 1-0 vote. And assuming Felicia goes home, nobody will miss her undeservedly smug ass. Cirie and Jared had the enormous advantage of being mother and son when nobody knew about it (save Izzy and Blue, neither of whom ever told anyone), and neither even made the final four. Jared didn't even make the jury, for that matter.