Etta Place

I tend to read a lot, but not a lot by one author. I have a couple, though. Haruki Murakami - The blend of the bizarre and the mundane is really what appeals to me. Tim O'Brien - I'm pretty sure nothing else of his matches up to the brilliance of The Things They Carried, but that's to be expected. I'm kinda on the fence about John Irving. A Prayer for Owen Meany is one of my favorite books of all time, but I've been less enamored of the rest of what I've read of his.

Brendon's "alphanumeric" thing made me absolutely crazy. If you'd had to convert to hexadecimal, you'd be right. I no longer like Flight Time. I'm surprised, but this totally changed my mind about him. 1. He doesn't even attempt to count the steps himself, in spite of going up and down them multiple times. 2. He keeps talking about how he doesn't know anything about Roman numerals, but then he doesn't actually do anything with Roman numerals and is still confused why he's wrong, 3. He doesn't read the damn clue. As other people mentioned, I kept thinking that if the racers had just mentioned Roman Holiday to the cabbies, they would have ended up in the right place. We'll see if the Afghanimals' attempt of a deal at gunpoint ("we'll give you the answer, you don't U-turn us in the future") will work with the one team who lives to race another leg.

I started to say "Isn't Quarles dead?" but I guess although we saw him mutilated, we didn't see him actually take a last breath. I'd love to see him again. Neal McDonough was just a special type of psycho in that role. Dickie being seen is definitely on my wish list. I'd like to see another good conversation between Raylan and Boyd like the one they had on the way to the airfield about bad guys vs. good guys. One of those moments where they can both be introspective instead of reacting all the time. They know a lot about each other, and they're the updated version of the classic movie best-friends-where-one-becomes-a-priest-and-the-other-a-criminal thing. I'd like to see Raylan realize they're not as different as he thinks they are, and Boyd to realize they're not as similar as he thinks they are. My husband says, and I agree: more Rachel. We got that bit about her marriage falling apart, and then nothing.

And yet my husband spends all of Dexter's performances ranting about how Dexter just uses the guitar as a prop. He wasn't playing anything of any consequence on the Georgia Satellites song; that's why he had the band guitarist there.

I got the Heinz one, but sort of wondered if you had to be "of a certain age" (it was the "Anticipation" commercials for me as well). Don't know what that age is, exactly, though, because my younger husband got it too.

I was completely bored by the finale. How disappointing. I imagine it's setting up the right final season - Ava, Raylan and Boyd in a sort of dance of death - but I just didn't care about this episode. I did care that Jimmy was killed, poor bastard. And I liked seeing a good amount of Rachel and Tim. But other than that, I was left cold.

This is exactly what made me tell my husband they were going to use it. Jennifer wouldn't be the one giving the bad news. I don't like Sam, but I did think he made some improvements tonight. He was actually looking at the audience, instead of scanning them from side to side as if looking through a crowd in the airport. He had no idea how to hold the mic or what to do with his free hand, but at least he worked on the eye contact.

Tasha was counting on Kass being smart enough to understand that Sarah needed reassurance to stick with the vote. I guess she didn't realize how sensitive Kass was. I certainly wouldn't have expected her to get all "I guess I'll just go eat worms" about the whole thing.

I used to like Ava. I haven't enjoyed her prison storyline, partially because she's separated from everyone else and partially because I just don't like the dark, dark direction they've taken both her and Boyd this season. But Raylan, threatening her? Seriously? "Third person? This guy?" Jesus, Dewey, just when I thought you could not possibly be any dumber (and this after "the anus is on you"). I'm gonna miss him, and I agree I'd love to see him in adjoining cells with Dickie Bennett. I like Jimmy, and it broke my heart to see him crying with guns to his head. Although earlier, the other guy made me laugh when he said "worst job ever!" after getting shot in the leg. That and Dewey were much-needed comic relief in this episode. The look on Raylan's face when Boyd mentioned Nicky Augustine was pitch-perfect. I guess Raylan somehow thought he and Boyd had some kind of honor-among-bastards thing that would prevent Boyd from bringing that up even though Raylan was strong-arming everyone? I guess I understand how everything has gotten so dark this season, but I miss the days of Raylan having occasion to smile besides in bitterness. And to take his shirt off.

Jake has such a weird, stalker-like vibe when he sings these duets. Tonight he managed to make "Have a Little Faith in Me" sound aggressive.

Yeah, good catch on that. I was yelling at the tv wondering why John would tell her what she was doing wrong, and then my husband pointed out that she'd gotten one of John's tuk-tuks to the pump, so it really was in his best interests at that point. I admit it makes sense, but I would have been happy with Rachel continuing to fill the wrong ones until everyone left. If only there were a way to selectively mute her voice on the broadcast. True. Although on a previous race, they posed with tigers and I know there have been some reports in the media about problems with the conditions at places like that before. The elephants here looked okay to me (I'm not an elephant expert), and I was glad to see that the workers were checking the racers' chains before letting the elephants try to pick anything up. I guess that was probably mostly so no one got crushed by a log that the elephant dropped, but I was hoping it was also for the elephants' safety.

I wasn't really bothered by seeing the elephants working - horses pull carriages, oxen pull plows (unless your ox is broken), elephants apparently carry logs. I loved how close the racers were to each other just about the entire time. It was great to be able to see multiple teams in so many of the transporation and pit-stop-dash shots.

That was the part that really got me. I thought, "Ah! That's why he added that weird "where you eat" part into his speech. Good, because otherwise that would have just been a really awkward thing to say." Then I remembered that they were supposed to be random killings, which meant that it turned out to be a clue given by Joe just because he can't turn a decent phrase and his disciples are idiots who can't follow directions. Just the usual, then.

Tony strikes me as one of those guys who could probably be a really good player, if he just had more self-awareness. He thinks of good plays - targeting Jeremiah with a fake idol clue was an interesting idea, and he definitely chose the right person (if you choose someone less gullible or compliant, you don't get your clue back and the gig's up). But he just can't keep his mouth shut. He needs to be better at letting things roll and giving them time to play out a little. Particularly when you're coming up on a merge soon; it seems like maybe it's in your best interests to be even more circumspect than usual about any big plays or plots you might have come up with.