Joe Blow

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I understood what Tyler was saying - I don't remember the exact wording of the challenge, but if it was family based, I would have had to make either crock pot pinto beans or a bag full of charcoal grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. If it's based on where you're from, I wouldn't have time for traditional Kansas City style BBQ. I'm a slight majority Scottish, but I would have no idea how to incorporate that into my cooking. He basically failed by not realizing, on a show like this, you just make some story up and try to sell it.

One thing about the routine college commercials is that they show all of the cool places and awesome facilities that you, as a regular peon student, are not possibly allowed access to.

Years ago, I implemented the system of an indoor & outdoor trash can. Indoor gets normal trash, outdoor (patio, side of house, etc.) gets the stuff that might rot -- meat scraps, produce leavings, things like that. Since I generally only had to take out the trash once a week, there were two main bags of kitchen trash. And, true, the outdoor trash can would get gross sometimes, but that was the point -- it was outside. I recently had to buy another box of trash bags when I was at the grocery store, and got home only to discover they were scented. I hate most scented things. Much like Febreze-type products, they don't cover the odor, they just put their own weird scent on top of it..

I didn't realize texting in complete sentences made me an old man. Now I realize that out of all the people that send me texts, I'm the only one that does that.

My mom won't even eat a burger that's medium well and has a tiny bit of pink. A medium rare burger would definitely be an acquired taste. That being said, I hate the challenges where home cooks -- not professionals, you know? -- have to feed hundreds of people in a short amount of time. Yeah, part of it is menu planning, a combination of something that can be made quickly but also appeals to the most people. Elevated, of course. Unfortunately, none of these people have ever done that, so these challenges are just to create drama, but it's not really that fun to watch. I also kind of hate the "save yourself, or one of your teammates" thing. As big of a jerk as you might seem, this is an individual competition, and these people aren't really your friends. The odds that someone you spurned in order to save yourself having the opportunity to do the same back to you are pretty low, especially since there probably aren't that many team challenges left where it would even come up. And if it does, it does. That dessert seemed kind of lame to begin with. Maybe it's better in person.

Yeah, I guess I neglected to comment on the rest of the ridiculousness. I'm just wondering what the frozen steak on the frozen folded pants was even supposed to achieve.

I watch her throw in two giant Tide Pods (Plus Downy!), and all it makes me think is...that's an expensive thing that would get used up really fast. Wouldn't they want you to think the "super concentrated" pods could do the job on their own? https://www.ispot.tv/ad/wBfu/tide-pods-plus-downy-denim-hacks-made-simple

The cake challenge was silly -- if you're blindfolded and digging your hand through a four layer cake, how do you know exactly where the maple and bacon you're tasting is supposed to go? Don't use another mild nut instead of pistachio! Did *any* team use blueberries? It seems like whoever made the original cake maybe failed if it was supposed to be obvious. And I don't care enough to go back and watch again, but I thought when I first saw the original cake it had a pink layer, but one team got dinged for it. That being said, anytime someone does a "deconstructed" anything, it makes me think they have no ideas and don't feel like actually having to put a dish together. Most of those dishes barely resembled anything close to a tuna casserole, even "elevated"..

It's like watching First Time Flippers or Renovation Realities on DIY. People that go in blindly, thinking it'll be easy. Except this show is also, sadly, so incredibly more scripted and frustrating. When someone mentioned the filming permits needed for these trucks to park, assuming that's true, it made me realize why they all park in the same spots...and made it way less fun.

They've had other teams skip the challenges altogether. I can't think of a penalty given out except "You don't win". Which pretty much negates the point of the challenges, except the extra money, which has almost never mattered. Why are these teams so bad at menu planning when combined with budgeting & volume planning? If they really want to be in business, that's kind of important. I think they just mostly want to be on TV, which makes for crappy TV..

I never got much of a vibe from the guy in the All-State commercial that leaves the seat up -- he probably does do it, but I've always thought it was gross people don't close the lid, too. Plus, not to start this whole thing again, but that is BY FAR the most equitable way. He's just saying it because his wife isn't paying attention to him, and his whole family just sits there completely self-absorbed, playing with their phones, playing games, watching movies, doing whatever, while he probably always has to drive.

I also really hope Stick 'Em Up made it pretty clear what a "ho cake" was on their sign, because I can imagine just walking past and snickering. I wouldn't have actually known what they were trying to sell..

I'm definitely glad about the Stick people getting eliminated. She still didn't understand at the end that it wasn't because their prices were too low, but because her grand plan for day 1 was to sit in the Sam's Club parking lot and have her son wear a rubber duck innertube. And while walking past a breakfast truck wouldn't really excite me very much, if it also included a really annoying guy on the sidewalk trying to convince me to stop by -- probably a dealbreaker to begin with -- but they also refused to post their prices, I would never stop by. Why should I have to order something to find out how much it is? That was such a dumb idea..

I don't know, diamond just seems like it would be an unfun birthstone..=) August apparently has 3, which I now learned today.