Taeolas

Yeah Jay (I think) said one of the first thing he would do is mark the anvil with the needed lengths to make sure you can get it. It's not against the rules, but only 1 person has thoguht to do it to date. I suspect once we get into a newer set of eps more smiths will mark the anvil and take advantage of it. The new guy is growing on me; I still miss Will, but the new guy is improving and the old humour and banter between the judges seems to be returning. I think COVID and a host change put the show off-beat for a bit but things are settling down again.

Seeing that clip of the older show made me realize how much I'd prefer a 3 rounds of a 4 or 5 card sprint instead of the current single round winner take all. Especially since it gives both players more of a chance to play. (Unlike last year when one person had a lucky streak of cards and ran the board on the first card IIRC) In the second game, I loved the guy's father more than anyone else I think. He was really getting into it, even in the money round for the other player.

I know next to nothing about Hemingway. Never read him, or sought out any info about him. But through osmosis I did get that factoid somehow. (I think it may have been through Amazing Race possibly or more likely just a random trivia question in Trivial Pursuit or something). Still it was just a random factoid I barely remembered; if you weren't familiar at all with Hemingway I could see missing it.

I don't really mind the Lose it All Gambling aspect for going after the higher amounts; there should definitely be some risk for doing that. "The Wall" is a hell of a lot worse for risking it all and/or ultimately not getting what you thought you won. That said, I wouldn't mind making the risks more tiered. Something like: * Get to the Final Sweep, you are guaranteed to win what you swept in the main game. * Get the first 3 clues, you win 25k if you walk right away. If you chose to go for the 50k, you'll have a 5k or 10k guarantee still in play (plus what you won earlier) * Get the 50k clue, you have a 20k guarantee if you go for the 100k, or you can take the 50k right then and there.

I'm enjoying this so far, but I only started watching Masked Singer on New Years so I'm not a Masked expert. For this bunch, I'm a bit disappointed Ice Cube was the first to get the boot; but the clues were quite obvious. I was expecting maybe Zebra or Moth to get the boot really. Moth feels like a very political person. I know it's extremely unlikely but I almost felt she could be Michelle Obama; but the security requirements for her appearance in this day and age would be extreme, even for this show. That said, I'm almost getting Hillary vibes too (especially with the reaction to being thought of as Monica). I doubt they'd get a First Lady regardless, but it would be a bonanza if they could.

Him being a 2xFiF champion was a 'big' deal when he was first brought on board. But now there are multiple multi-champs so it's not really that big a claim. But he was a great nab back then, and the fact that his main "claim to fame" is being a 2xChamp is almost funny now. As for the Build at Homes, his knife was gorgeous, as was David's handguard. J's chopper was a bit plain, but his family interactions made up for the simple case. I did love David's "My forge is too short" moment. *stabs the ceiling then decides to rotate the sword to better show the guard*

A bit off topic, but I think the reason they can't film Survivor is because Fiji is keeping the borders closed. Theoretically the contestants and crew should be able to show up, isolate and film. But if Fiji won't give an exemption to let them on, then they have to do something they haven't done in years.... Find a new location and build all the game infrastructure to film a season somewhere else. I think I've read somewhere that they are considering a US (Hawaii?) based interim season until they can get back to Fiji for a more 'normal' season, but I think CBS and Fiji are basically playing chicken to see who will blink first. As for TAR, with vaccinations going out now, I could see them filming in the spring or summer maybe. That should be a point where vaccinations are available to regular folk in many locations, and we can start seeing borders reopening (with vaccination proof). So a new season might happen for Fall 21, but a more realistic expectation would be to see the new TAR season in Winter 22 at this point. We'll probably see 2 more seasons of TAN in the mean time, to fill out the schedule and to keep Phil busy.

The end portrait was great. I did like the one time he did stop the fire, we had a Ghost-ship style massacre with the support wire snapping. So unexpected but so fitting. 🙂

I could see the VW Bed and Busness business doing okay, especially with a dragon backer. It's not going to take fire across Canada or anything; but it's a nice niche business that should boost local tourism (especially with a DD boost). It's like the old themed car-hotels that were aped in Cars on the old pre-Interstate highways. The Granite business should do well. I suspect some of the dragons will drop out ultimately, but he had the better offer with the big group.

As was pointed out earlier in the thread, CTV Life channel in Canada has aired the UK Supermarket Sweep. One big difference that surprised me, was how much North American Branding I depend on. I had no clue for a lot of the answers because the Brands and even the terms are completely different from North American styles. I think COVID restrictions killed a lot of the minigame styles; no point in having Cashier actors on set with COVID limits, but then you don't get a number of the cashier-related games. Hopefully that's something that a new season can do if COVID lightens up (so maybe Season 3 at this point). I'm not sure if I like having 2 games in an hour vs 1 game and more rounds; both have pros and cons. I do think I like the US style 3-4-5 tier final sweep better. I think I'd prefer seeing a second sweep midway through like the UK style has. The running around the market is a big thing for the show and having a second sprint searching for the 5 marked items would be a nice addition. (It would probably lead to the game going 1 group for 1 hour if that was done) The review of the rules for the final sweep is nice the first time. By the 9th time, I was FFing through it. This would be a perfect skit to film and have on the website so people are aware of it if they are curious, but not something to fill up air time with every episode.

History Channel Canada has finally started the new season. Clearly it's a post-COVID with all the new restrictions and distancing, and a new host. There are some growing pains as people adjust to all the new requirements (no more "Shake our hands and leave the forge" 😞 ), but it's still the same Forge with the same challenges. I will miss Will, but the new guy seems adequate enough for me to keep watching, at least to the post-COVID era.

Yeah I saw the pawn shop case this morning on the repeat block around 11am eastern (WSBK, Boston). I didn't pay as close attention to the case as I probably should've but the thief was a hell of a lot more polite and a better litigant than the pawn shop crew. The Pawn shop had a legit case, IF they had their paperwork in line. I get the feeling they filed one thing, but only had the paperwork for something else, and weren't listening to JJ's questions. Really, it should have been a dirt simple case for them. "We're suing to get money back for the items the police confiscated as stolen", and I'm sure the police would have an inventory of what they confiscated from the shop. Show those list(s) (seemed like that shop was the fence for multiple thieves) and maybe show they bought the items from the defendant and they would've had it all. We did get to see JJ do her impression of a back alley Rolex dealer. 🙂 And JJ has a defibrillator machine in her home gym apparently.

I think Paris made the right choice in her game, but it is basically a 50/50 chance. With 3 cards to go to the end, that's JUST far enough that trying to go the distance is a bit risky. On the other hand, her opponent had a really high starting card, which effectively made her 2 cards away from the win. But on the gripping hand, she had a middling card to start with the cover the same distance. Even if she changed it, chances are she'd still be stuck in the middle, and still had 3 cards to go. Really, either choice she made would be fair and justifiable in that situation. And it did nearly pay off for her; her opponent had a 7-8 streak at the end so basically won with a coin flip as well.

As usual, Food Network Canada is about half a year behind new episodes, so I don't know how GGG@Home is actually going. But if most of the contestants are Food Network Chefs, then I could see them able to get a taste category working just from descriptions. These Chefs should be experienced with tasting on TV and getting the description of the taste across to viewers. (Remember that's one of the things Next Food Network Star always stressed being able to do well). Were the contestants normal chefs, then the taste category wouldn't make sense because Joe or Jane Random Chef who isn't used to TV can't really be expected to have the taste description skills to properly compete against someone who's been on TV for a bit.

Yeah, there seems to be a cluster of the huge teddy bears near the Florist area, probably a limit of 1 per sweeper. So if you want to take the time to snag one and drag it across, you can get it (And it is 300$ retail apparently; not a bonus or anything like that). That's why the bear wasn't part of their props during the total; though sometimes they will have it there anyways just for looks.