scowl

Another reason I'm sort of looking forward to next season: I really liked Mackenzie Davis in The Martian. She played a smart woman who didn't freak out at all.

The thing that bothered me was that near the end there are people smiling while they know they're dying. See, the Soviets can throw their nukes at us but we Americans can smile no matter what! Look at pictures of the Japanese dying after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They weren't smiling. Conservatives objected to it because it depicted NATO launching the first missiles. But we all knew that if Soviet tanks started rolling into Europe, we wouldn't hesitate to nuke them and everything behind them.

The best part for me was Elizabeth explaining the Soviet side of the nuclear arms race. The Soviets hadn't forgotten what happened after World War II. Not only had the U.S. used nuclear weapons but there were advocates in the Air Force, most notably USAF Chief of Staff Curtis "Bombs Away" LeMay, who were publicly advocating an immediate nuclear attack on the Soviet Union before they got significant atomic weapons. LeMay, who was the architect of the air campaign against Germany, said it was the only time in history when a country had a weapon powerful enough to absolutely win a war therefore it made no sense not to use it. Churchill told Truman that just one nuclear bomb dropped on the Kremlin would be all that was needed to tear down the Iron Curtain and free millions of people. The Soviets were terrified of this talk. They truly felt that if they didn't become a terrifying nuclear threat that it was only a matter of time before the U.S. started dropping nukes on them. There was no reason to believe that Reagan wouldn't use nuclear weapons to continue to contain Communism.

I'm just glad the doctor didn't arrive and put on a latex glove.

I just started this one. The funniest thing so far is Maria dragging her rollerpack around like a tourist instead of wearing it on her back.

I have trouble remembering what they were doing because it seemed to change every week. The Internet didn't take off for another decade so I wonder what retro-history they'll come up with this season. Man, I have been remembering many more things from the summer of 1981 when I worked for that doomed game company. I hope to include them when the show starts again. Out of curiosity I Googled my old boss from that time, the one who lost a lot of money. He's now teaching computer literacy at a small community college in Western Michigan. His webpage on the school web site says he's won three prestigious awards however Google cannot find any other winners of these awards or what organization awarded them. A little more searching and I found him on a games forum describing himself as a "genius" and "pioneer in computational gaming" even though his company only put out one game which tanked. Posters asked him why he was teaching at a community college. He said he was "no longer interested in getting big checks" and only wanted "to form young minds to prepare them for the future of computer technology". At a small community college. He reminded me of a teacher in another AMC drama. I wonder if he has a meth lab.

They are past the dawn of the tech boom. They should be seeing the aftereffects of the 1983 game industry crash which lasted a couple of years. There's been no mention of it so far which bothers me because it was the first huge wake-up call after five years of growth beyond anyone's imagination.

I found the ending of last season to be annoying in many ways, but the second season of Silicon Valley was also kind of disappointing so for some reason I'm interested in this show again. It's bringing back so many awful memories of when I worked for a summer at a doomed game company and how everyone was sure they'd be millionaires and small-town celebrities and wouldn't have to go to college.

Oh I see, they got rid of Yields a couple of seasons after this.

I didn't mind him this week. He's much better when he isn't thumping his chest and bossing people around. He seems kind of pleasant when he's sitting alone and happy when someone is bothering to talk to him. He was a good leader in the reward challenge and he was fun with the animals. He did well in the immunity challenge. Why would anyone put tattoos in their armpits? Glad he's gone.

A U-turn on a non-elimination leg? That doesn't make much sense.

RetroTV this week added "Swamp Diamonds" with the classic short "What to Do on a Date". "But I need to know what not to do on a date!" This inspires Tom to ask "Gyspy" on a date to the "scavenger scale". "Swamp Diamonds" is the blurriest color print I've ever seen, even worse than "Manos".

In the episode after Victor almost got them eliminated he said in an interview that it was completely his fault and it wouldn't happen again. To my utter shock, it never happened again! How often do racers say they're not going to be stupid again and go stupid again almost immediately?

Why? Do many people prefer teams fighting and having a miserable time?

At this point the not-twins and Desiree have been eliminated so the only hottie left is Monica. I thought she had shed her Tracy Flick personality but now she was walking in tears carrying a swordfish. But she didn't give up so that alone makes her better than Flo. BJ and Tyler (the early-70's rock band) were clearly the fan favorites of this season. They knew how to entertain for the cameras unlike a recent "HEY! HEY! HEY!" contestant.

But she jumped off the side of that ship like it was nothing! I couldn't figure her out.

A couple of weeks ago RetroTV added one of my absolute favorites: Bert I. Goron's (I mean Gordon's) brilliant classic "Tormented"!

And it looks like a fun season! We have the hippy guys that look like they're from an early 70's country/rock band. There are the surfer guys who will probably win and win. There are "Dani and Danielle", the not-twins who look, talk, and behave completely identically. There's the "hick" guy Lake ("like the ocean"?) and his wife who is hard to believe she's his wife. There's the pretty blond girl who acts like Tracy Flick in Election (always tightly wound). There are Wanda and gorgeous Desiree who I will be sad for when she gets eliminated. There's the nerd couple who remind us that they are nerds every five minutes because you can't tell by looking at them. Oh, yeah, I heard about the Glamazons somewhere. But especially helpless is the Middle Aged Couple. They walked past the clue box over and over and over and over. Once they saw the not-twins run up to it, they had a simple explanation: it wasn't there when we went past it. Damn those cheating TAR producers!

Season 9 is back on my Amazon Prime.

But the part before the backing off was also brilliant. This is the technique you use on coworkers who are passively shooting down ideas in meetings: you ask them if they have any better ideas. If they don't they're usually more receptive to the ideas they had been dismissing before.

Sure, he was voted off but don't count Scot out yet.... he won an NBA Championship sitting on a bench.

The fight was much ado about nothing. It showed how hard it is to start rivalries on TAR.

Are Mark and Michael the most penalized team in TAR history? They get two penalties during the rickshaw task by messing with equipment to make it harder for other teams (well, admitting that they had instead of saying it was an accident) and for paying a taxi to lead them. That was a pair of thirty minute penalties. Then in the next episode twice they use possessions to settle cab fares resulting in a four hour penalty! And are saved because it's a nonelimination leg.

I was thinking of adding that, but she kept dropping those shells.

I'm halfway through this one. The highlight so far has been Tammy and Victor demonstrating how people wander off trails in the wilderness to their deaths. In Transylvania, Victor was completely convinced that painted marks on trees were leading them to the challenge. They went on and on and on and on. Tammy yelled that they needed to go back but no, absolutely no! He needed to "finish" following these marks before he was willing to admit that they are not Amazing Race pointers to the challenge. Because he's not a quitter! By the time they decide to go back and discover the real signs with Amazing Race arrows, it's dark, they lose a key, and somehow find it on the ground. The only reason they weren't eliminated was because Brad and Victoria were on the worst possible flight and started hours later.