Special K

During the preview montage, I saw a glimpse of that chef named Katie, and I thought, "haha, the editors screwed up and put in a photo of that woman Katie who was in last season!" And then I was like, waaaait a minute... Yeah, the season felt THAT long to me. I was happy to see Mei win (would have preferred Doug TBH), but I'm not sure about the editors. Ending the season with her litany of "holy sh*ts" didn't seem, well, like a very complimentary portrayal of her. Not the swearing, actually, just the supreme, immature inarticulateness of it. I mean, I know she was emotional, but she's in her 30s -- surely she has developed more of a a vocabulary! I was actually surprised and a little saddened that the show chose to portray her in the final moments like that.

I agee, but IMO bullying behavior in adults is more unseemly and indefensible than being self-involved and clueless. ETA: Moreover, I resent the bullies for making me root for Bev.

This brings up an interesting (to me) philosophical question. Is humility as a valued virtue the privilege of the majority? Or, maybe the question is, what role can personal humility have in marginalized or oppressed groups? It seems that what is usually seen as a virtue in one group (say, Doug's self-effacing manner) can be interpreted as self-subjugation in the disenfranchised. Oh how I wish we lived in a meritocracy, but alas we do not. And most certainly not on reality TV!

I dunno. To me, it's problematic when you assign yourself a role as a representation or a model or an example. Just do your thing and let others decide if they want you to represent them. Some things should come from external sources. YMMV, of course. It seems the world (or maybe just the internet) is full of people taking on aggrandized roles for themselves. Anyway, Mei is probbably just responding to the producers' relentless questions about winning as a woman.

For those of you grossed out by huitlacoche, you've probably already eaten it. If you've ever had a "mushroom" anything at a Mexican restaurant that is not Taco Bell, it might well have had huitlacoche in it. And yes, they are delicious. But I love fungus. :) Regarding Doug and escamole, I also thought it was unfair that they had to source their own assigned ingredients. We watched Katsuji and Doug go from vendor to vendor looking for escamole, and it seemed like hardly anyone was selling them. Given that the main criticism of Doug's dish was that the escamole flavor wasn't strong enough, couldn't it be that the quality of his ingredient was sub-par? Especially since Katsuji was shown saying how short a season they have. And while Mei's guacamole was a thing of beauty, the idea of eating a full forkful of guac, wrapped in a blanket of avocado kind of makes me queasy. Seems kind of one-note to me.

How cruel that they made Fabio sit in the front row for that Potemkin* wedding, right after being eliminated? I know it's been said before, but why, oh why are Alyssa Milano's dresses so tight!? It's like she's trying to get her non-pregnant wardrobe to last her the entire 9 months. That Marchesa dress she wore for the wedding looked OK...but only from the armpits up. At least the designers seem to be fond of her. *adding this Russian reference to compliment the previous references to Faberge eggs. Edited because "but" and "buy" are not the same word.

If you are a Zappos shopper: Brenda is constantly popping up there modeling clothes. She seems to model a lot of work-out attire, Nike, etc. Somehow I can't feel good about it, but I'm not sure why. I guess it's good that she has a gig. http://www.zappos.com/nike-v-neck-legend-short-sleeve-tee-2-0-vivid-pink-vivid-pink

Re: Shirin I hate when people describe themselves as "super-smart." It's kind of like if you use the word "classy," you are automatically not classy.

Uh oh.

What ever happened to the Quickfire where they go head-to-head with another contestant and have to taste and name the ingredients in a mystery sauce (or whatever)? I loved that one. I also love the mise-en-place challenge. It's fun to see cooking-related challenges that don't actually involve cooking. eta: I so much prefer those to the "cook in a moving RV or a dorm bathroom using only ingredients found in a vending machine" challenges. Gah!

Personally, I thought Gregory's artist was the easiest. What's easier to translate into food than "earthy peasant who grows food"?

Was I the only one who was relieved that Mei didn't act bratty and rude to her artist? They seemed to be total opposites personality-wise, and I was waiting for Mei's "professional" veneer to crack. Or perhaps they just left that stuff on the editing floor. She does not seem to have the gift of graciousness. She did seem to be grasping for something to say other than "I'm so inspired" when talking about her visit to Bea's studio. I think she said some variation of "I'm inspired" like 10 times in that TH! She clearly had nothing else (good?) to say about the art or artist. The other three all seemed to be sincerely respectful of and had an understanding of their artists, with Doug and Gregory doing the best with the challenge, IMO. Which: Team Doug!! Love this guy. And I loved to see him finally smile some. What a cutie.

Previously, my snobbery about QVC as a PR sponsor was based on prejudice since I have never really watched the show. But gah! That clip is a horror! Between the ignorance and the clothes! It would be hard to think of a worse representation of our nation.

Is this the first GUY on Survivor to have breast implants?

I love Katsuji calling Dougie Chiquito. So cute those two.

I noticed that, after George presented his dish, and the judges gave their initial feedback, Padma was shown dismissing him and instead of her usual "Thank you so-and-so," she said something like "George, please return to the kitchen...now." Translation: "Get your sweaty face as far away from our dining experience as possible."

I saw it, and he looked a million times better without the oil and comb tracks. We need a hair intervention, I believe.

I thought Brian's play was brilliant, like scary good. He invented the drag-a-goat strategy, which has been used practically every season since. But that doesn't mean I liked him. At all. And the puppy thing probably makes him the most reviled of all Survivors, after the fact. With Johnny Fairplay and the Hantzes in that category as well. Unless Colton is the most reviled?

When I lived in the Southwest years ago, I met a young, appealing guy who was traveling cross-country, on foot/hitch-hiking, playing the bagpipes. He was entirely dependent on the charity and contributions he got from people along the way, and would stop from time to time and work a job for a while to make money. He would literally walk along the highways playing the bagpipes. He wasn't doing it for a cause or for social-media fame, or to write a The-Year-I-Did-X Book. He just wanted to live that way. That guy should be on the no-collar tribe.

I guess they can both (all?) be jerks, no?

So I guess a bartender is blue collar, but a mixologist is white collar. :)

Wow. Judging from this, she really did get a favorable edit. What a snob!

I always thought Blue Collar implied manual labor and/or service profession, factory work, farm work, that kind of thing. Am I wrong? And that white collar implied a job that required advanced and/or professional education. I also think salary has nothing to do with this. For instance a friend of mine who is a contractor makes way more than another friend who is a Ph.D.-holding professor. JP's ridiculous categories of "Makes the rules, Follows the rules, No rules" is just so stupid. I'm white collar and I can tell you I'm not making any rules.

Is "bartender/model" really what they mean by Blue Collar?

It seems that in some seasons, a winning strategy has been to lay low at the beginning and not draw too much attention to yourself (hence the "invisible" edit), and then gradually consolidate your position and power as the game reaches its conclusion. This seems to work for rational/non-emotional players who are able to adapt to changing conditions and use them to continually strengthen their position. In this way, Kim and Natalie seem like similar winners to me...or at least they were edited that way. Like they were both bad-asses you didn't really see coming because of earlier emphasis on "characters." I would also argue that they got more bad-ass as the game went on, appropriate to their strengthening positions. I'll take a bad-ass over a character any day.