anhydrite

Actually, I read somewhere (probably on the TWOP forums, I don't remember, and it was a while ago anyway), that this Speed Bump was much longer that what was shown. TK/Rachel (of season 12) said it took them about half an hour to complete the task, because there was a long security briefing and they had to change/unchange from safety outfits.

In TAR 22(?), Wynona got her fair share of snark when she was pawning off all Roadblocks to Chuck because she was afraid to run. Everyone was constantly calling her a wimp and/or a whiner, but it turned out she pulled a calf muscle on her way to the starting line. This was only shown in an extra clip, and never mentioned at all in the show. Also, in TAR21, one of the Chippendales hurt his ankle somewhere during leg one, yet, no mention of it was made until leg 6 or 7 or so, when he had a hard time completing a dance task. Of course, the show did mentioned the injury then, but never once in all the preceding episodes, and no explanation was given as to why he had trouble with his ankle. Editing, I guess. No trouble at all believing Blair about her knee. One day, I badly slammed my kneecap, and though I could walk just fine on day 2 (nobody would have guessed I was injured), it took me until day 4 or 5 until I could climb stairs normally. No way on Earth I could dance with that. It's already hard enough on healthy knees. Completely unrelated to all subjects mentioned previously (TV), but for some reason, I kind of found it touching the way Tyler/Korey were sobbing at the mat. Is that the first time a team cries after actually not being eliminated? I guess they just had a sudden emotion burst of relief after a hard day. I'll probably be back to lurking now, see you later guys ;)

At some point in TAR18, teams were required to fly on a specific spoon-fed flight from Narita, but Kent & Vyxsin got lost and missed it. Even though they ended up losing like 12 hours, and having the perfectly valid excuse of not being able to take the specific flight since it was long gone, they still got a 30-minute penalty at the end of the leg. Although rules regarding air travel are probably widly different than ferry/train/car travel.

For everyone who's interested, here's an (approximate) translation of the rap sung by the racers: Less in the neighbourhood, driven to beat down, I gear mine to move and constrict. Ninety one first disc, first part in the bins, ninety two / ninety four our tactics always attack it. It's Passi soloing for a new album For all metropoles but also for all DOM-TOMs* *overseas departments / territories Sorry if it's incomprehensible, but the original text didn't make much sense either. As far as casting appreciation goes, I actually don't mind it that much, although I do agree that this cast is far from being the best. The cheerleaders and Alabama I midly dislike, but they're still tolerable, the Texans are non-objectionable to me, the doctors ans reporters could be interesting to watch if they weren't so underedited, and for some reason I actually quite like the Paps when they're not arguing. The only one I really don'T like is Justin. He seriously said that he "may have bullied [his fiancée] in it but that [his] sort of "charisma" would erase her doubts" or something like that? He comes off to me as that sort of person who always needs to be right, and if you don't agree with him, you're wrong, except he's acting much more like a (totally not) conniving manipulator. Bleh. Those airplanes lokked soooo cool. Ultralights, open cockpit planes, that's quite the right season for an aviation fan, I'm almost jealous. I thought the racers garbled pronunciations of the French motto were funnily goofy. They did make me laugh. The rap, not so much, maybe because of the music and the fact that the phrases were more complicated, some of it didn't even sound like the subtitle. But kudos for the racers for trying their best. And finally a task that I could have aced this season, being a native fracophone and all :P Speaking of, those of you who said that the tasks were too easy are right. Even the double legs didn't seem to induce killer fatigue. Too much "wait in line" tasks, while most the rest of it isn't very hard, not a lot of opportunities to catch up, the same frontrunners all season long, not enough self-navigation or sending teams in remote corners of the planet... Oh well, it's still the Amazing Race, and I'l still continue to watch it as long as it goes despite everything. All in all, a decent episode I say.

I'm going to change the subject entirely if y'all don't mind :P With Justin the Superfan running the Race this season, it makes me wonder how many other superfans have run the Race in the past years. Excluding Justin, the only other ones I remember are Gary and Will from TAR21(?) and Jordan (of Dan and Jordan) from TAR16. Have there been other ones that I'm forgetting at the moment?

I thought this finale to be quite underwhelming. The description of the episode said that it was the most extreme finale or whatever, but frankly this episode completely bored me. Too many one-at-a-time challenges and no real opportunity for placement switches outside of the taxi raides, except at the map challenge. And speaking of, I also thought it was quite poor from the part of production to allow one team to basically just copy someone else's answer without even anything. This is the final leg guys! I wont blame B/S from doing something that wasn't explicetly forbidden, but that felt a bit to me like exploiting a computer bug to get ahead or something. Otherwise, I'm fine with the winners. They may have been boring alpha-males, but they were always nice to each other and to the locals, and competent racers. So good for them. After having three "themed" finales (family only, friends only, guys only), I wonder what's the next theme going to be. Maybe couples only :P

First, I can't believe I only just discovered this board after a whole season of eagerly watching the show. In Unfinished Business, the Globetrotters accidentally picked up Ron and Christina's bag and instead of giving it back to them, they just left it somewhere around. Ron and Christina lost some time looking for it, and the Globes received a 30-minutes penalty. Same case for Don and Mary Jean in TAR6, who drove another team's car (with personal belongings inside), making said team lose time while looking for their car. They incurred the same penalty. Also, Mark and Michael of TAR14 also incurred a 30-minute penalty for hiding task-related equipment. I suppose tampering with another team's bags would be worth a 30-minute penalty, but I'm just guessing here. Re: curling. I've played curling a couple of times in my life, and I don't remember ever placing a rock in the big target, or being anywhere near acceptable at this. So kudos to all these guys for managing to look somewhat competent. And these rocks weight a ton, so it's actually quite physical at the beginning, when you have absolutely no idea how to even stand on the ice. Otherwise, a complete shame that there are no women left in the finale, especially considering that the last mixed team really got their leg stolen here. For the one time that they were actually good at the tasks, they get screwed over thrice by taxis, and both of those being by having their cab stolen. If Simi had managed to knock out that rock in the curling challenge, or if the boys didn't steal their taxi, I'm pretty sure they could have made it to the final. These guys really had the worst day ever. The wrestlers were quite pleasant to watch until today. But I guess that's the Big Guy Syndrome: nice guy suddenly turns ugly and bullies his way out when it suits him (looking at you, Big Easy). I really like they fun-loving and jaunty personalities, but they really lost me in this episode. If they manage not to be so ugly next time, I might actually be rooting for them. I guess I'll have to tolerate Sean melodrama then. But at least they seem quite nice, if a bit clumsy. Edit to add that whoever thought the Face Off would be a good idea should remove it immediately from the race and stick it where the sun never shines for all of eternity.

Funniest editing moment of the season: Blair boasting about his boat skills, and then splash, splash, splash, capsizes, drowns, then finally manages to make it to the buoy. And Jelani was hilarious all the way with his "Jelani-way" of paddling. The waves were brutal though (but Jenny's reaction cracked me up). At first, I didn't see that the teams had a photo clue for the mural task, so I thought teams had to search through all 3 million? billion? tiles, only to see Blair and Hayley find the flag in five minutes. I was completely baffled until I saw the next team holding a picture. Otherwise, I want to know what kind of bionic eyes these guys have. I didn't mind the dancing challenge, and I like when there's lots of dressing up. It'S like S19 all over again, and I like it (yes, I very much enjoyed season 19). Still rooting for Mike/Rochelle, but I'm not sure if they're going to make itm they really seem out of their game. Tyler and Laura are too arrogant for my tastes and actually quite unpleasant, Jelani seems fine enough but he and Jenny are completely blah. Hayley and Blair are very pleasant when they're getting along, but then they have yet another argument. Lets hope they will keep it together next week, so I could enjoy a win from them. Well, I would, if it wasn't for the fact that I'm absent for two weeks and might not be able to watch the episode at all. Oh well, at least the results are easy enough to find.

The crew was traveling by scooter, we could see them during the ferry ride (and I also saw at least one glimpse of a scooter windshield during a "regular" filming sequence). Throw me tomatoes if you want, but for some reason I think Blair and Hayley have a very interesting dynamic. Yes Hayley is a screeching Harpy, and Blair seems to take pleasure in making her mad (I saw your little smug smile there Blair), but when they're not arguing they go along pretty well, being dorks with one another and generally seeming to have fun, like their pseudo-fight at the mat (like me and a friend of mine who are constantly teasing each other). Kinda weird that one moment we see Hayley screaming her lungs out, then ten minutes later she's back in having fun on the race. Comparatively, I find Tyler and Laura to have a more "serious" friend relationship (not bad, just not dorky like B/H), and Jelani and Jenny seem somewhat distant towards one another. Maybe Jelani is going nuts too over his type-A+ partner. Blair can't be a doctor, his writing is too legible for that. I died when, at the Roadblock, Ashley said to Matt: "you got tunnel vision" and he responded "no, I'm just an idiot". I guess that's rule #729 of the Race: do not panic, ever. Taking some time to cool off and rethink your strategy can never be a bad thing. Who knows how long he's been there. Those impersonators at the shuffleboard detour were just GREAT. I love it when we have people so invested in their roles. Nice costumes, great mood, lots of life and encouragements, I wouls have loved to do that side of the detour just to have them around (But I would have done the shuffleboard anyways. Seems fun, and I don't like hot tubs all that much.) Good to see a biking leg, it's rare we see contestants bike around the whole leg. There's been a whole bunch of self-navigation for the past few legs, and that's much more interesting to see that endless taxi races. Schiphol airport, I've been there a couple of times. Although I really need to find some way of getting out of the airport other than by plane. Amsterdam is so nice a city, and I heard the peole there are very kind. If I ever have the opportunity to study abroad, I know which country to choose. I was a bit dissapointed that women at the klompen roadblock didn't get to wear the traditional femal dutch outfit. And how was that woman knitting? She was holding her needles from below. Never seen that before. What else to say? Oh, I think the clues at the hot tug were funnily done. Except maybe for the five I's (that some people still found easily enough), we got some good wrong answers. Roman, 5 I's, rblot, rsplat, square root of 64 is 6, phone minus R (well, that's still phone?). Next destination: Roman 5 Is Sk6phone-r rblot. Yep. Enjoyable episode I say.

I wonder what was in the air of Namibia that has a soothing effect on Hayley because she barely bickered at all. When she's being comprehensive, she's actually quite tolerable, if a tad bit dead weight. Blair had some good one-liners this episode. "I'm pretty sure it won't fit in your pack" or "That's... not a person. *dissapointed face*" I like his calm and dry attitude. I can't remember the last time an introverted contestant got so much screentime. Nat and Kat maybe? Nice change of pace from the other overly-manly guys. And his unshakable calm makes even more hilarious when Hayley yells at him. I like Mike and Rochelle. They seem genuine and I like when racers aren't being overaware of the cameras. The two just seem like they're in for the adventure, the wonder, seeing the world. They have a very sweet relationship. I wont root for them because my faves never win, but I'm happy that they're still in, as bumbling as it might be. When Mike said "I don't even know what Nambia is", I immediatly thought: "probably because it's not even a real country" :P It seems that most people here like Matt and Ashley, but they make absolutely no impression on me. They are just sort of there, and I find them so bland that I keep forgetting they are racing until I see them on screen. Most forgettable couple this season. Re: Aly. Personally, I don't blame her a bit for being snappy this episode. Exhaustion can do weird things to your body and mind. I know that in my case, fatigues makes me grumpy, dozy and uncooperative, so I don't have the slightest bit of difficulty understanding Aly's situation. At some point after the flat tire, she even looked like she was about to burst crying, and she was quite incoherent during the second leg. I'm pretty sure that what we saw is just tired-Aly, and not some dark side of her or something. And Steve also looked like he was "off" too. He was almost completely apathetic about what was going around. Even if I would have liked to see them go a bit further, some rest at Sequesterville seems exactly what they needed then. Other than that, beautiful scenery. It's always amazing how something as barren as a desert can be so beautiful.

If I remember correctly, when the term was invented in the Middle Ages, most of the population were low-class peasants or merchants, and "bourgeoisie" was that class of slightly richer people (at the time, middle-class) usually living in cities. I suppose that since most North-Americans are middle-class, "slightly richer people" = upper-class. Sorry for off-topic.

Not to mention that most (all?) of them were sniffing the mystery scents directly through the nozzle of the flask. Anyone who ever worked in a lab knows that you rather "ventilate" the scents towards your nose instead of directly sniffing the products, since it can be damaging to brain cells (not to mention that it might save you some nose bleeding if you accidentally pick up ammoniac instead of ethylen). The overabundance of pawerful smells and vapours of alcohol certainly didn't help, but I'm quite sure part of the racers' headaches were due to oversniffing. Wow, this entire post is completely incomprehensible, sorry about that.

From what I read, they don't actually win a trip, but rather credits of some sort and are free to make their own travel arrangements.

So Mike and Rochelle started the leg more than three hours after the second to last team, and still manage to snatch seats on the earliest flight. It's been a while we haven't got some of those old-fashioned airport shenanigans. Good for them for catching that flight, unfortunately it was nullified by a bunch. But after seeing the teams arrive late at night, it was predictable. The formal wear was very nice. Gorgeous dresses and proper suits, makes a change from racing gear and actually has a comical effet seeing teams dressed that way and running all across Europe. For some reason, Mike made me laugh with his beige suit with the pink tie, like all the other guys were dressed like Hollywood stars, and you have him wearing this. I'm not saying he can't wear it, no at all, I just thought it was funny. Hayley, Laura and the hairdresser woman whose name escapes my memory should wear less revealing necklines. At some point, Hayley's brests looked like they were about to bounce out of the dress. Speaking of Hayley, I can't believe how tolerable she is when she's not arguing. Blair and her looked like a true cohesive team, and it served them right. Maybe she finally learnt that yelling doesn't get her anywhere. Well-deserved win anyhow. And Blair is actually kind of cute now that he doesn't look like a douche anymore. The Detour now. I thought it was an interesting twist, but it would have been much better if it was to sort between two small Route Marker tasks or something. The whole point of the Detour is to choose yourself, and still have the possibility to change. At least none of them was too difficult**. And we got to see Phil in a tuxedo. How deep was that canyon? I was gorgeous scenery though. Teams getting lost all over the place never gets old, especially if the whole cast is lost at the same time. I wonder how they managed to check in so close to one another. Too bad for JJ who seemed to have been lost a little longer, but I don't think I'll really miss them. I hope them the best if their relationship is really going to work, and that way this season gimmick wont be a complete failure. Tyler and Laura were kind of unpleasant weren't they? All that trash-talking at the Detour, and the map theft thing, it was all kind of iffy. **They seemed unbalanced, since the zipline task was very quick, but apparently the racers had to change in black jumpsuits for the task (and unchange after it was completed), so it probably was longer than what was shown.

Apparently, TAR8 (regardless if it should be named or not) initially had 11 families casted, but father Bransen confirmed that the 11th one had been expelled after doing something forbidden during the pre-race sequestration. We will never know what exactly though.