simplyme

Presumably their families, although at this point people willing to identify as such are probably dwindling. ETA: ByaNose beat me, well, by a nose.

To be fair, Paul and Victor haven't been getting sexually harassed for weeks. That takes a physical and mental toll on a person, and they're more likely to isolate themselves rather than socialize, especially with the person(s) harassing them. Nat may have figured it was wiser to mostly keep away from Paulie to avoid saying the wrong thing. It's one thing to give Paul and Victor credit for their current great moves, but I think it should be noted that being female with this cast (both males and females) is a disadvantage and requires playing the game differently (which no, does not mean like Nicole).

Does the goat get a vote on that statement?

Off plotting to have a family member beat someone up?

I don't know if it's truly fair to expect two people to be a monogamous couple after one day, one date, and some kisses. It used to be much more acceptable to go on casual dates with different people until a couple agreed they were a couple. Nowadays a lot of people seem to go immediately from "We like each other" to "We must not see anyone else." I don't know that that's actually healthy without a bit of time to get to know each other first. (Not that I am suggesting anyone on this show is healthy, relationship-wise.) That said, if someone I liked kissed me one day and then spent the next day playing tonsil hockey with someone else with no explanation (which may or may not be true), I doubt my reaction would be to pine for them. I'd be hurt, but I'd be angry at them. I sure wouldn't want them back.

They had been using Derek as their choreographer for their ice dancing routine, though, so there was a previous relationship already in place. I hate the Bachelor/ette being on DWTS. If I wanted to see them, I'd have watched their show. Maybe I should phrase it as "I'm tired of the network's cross-shows pimping of D-list celebrities." That includes GMA, too.

To be honest, being the first to do something seems to be a bigger deal to some people than to me. For me, first is a timing issue. I'm happy for anyone who does it and don't really see a need to take anything away from them, either by saying people have done it after or before them. They did it. Most people don't. Enjoy the glory. I am impressed that Kacy had any success at all on any course given her height. The city finals course she completed had poles contestants had to move between, and the distance between some of them was 5' or greater. Unlike the other ninjas who could straddle that, Kacy had to cling to one pole with her back to the one she was jumping to, jump, turn in mid-air, and grab and hang on to the second pole. She earned that finals finish. Being a short person myself, I have a soft spot for ninjas whose bodies don't really fit the course ideal. Like Nick, the 6'6" ninja from some small village in Alaska, who has to wedge some portion of his hyuuuuuuuge feet onto tiny ledges during climbing obstacles, and the football-player-frame guys who are bulky muscle instead of lean muscle that you know are going to have a hard time supporting those 200 lbs through all the upper body stuff. I'm pretty sure they said Meagan Martin is only 5'3", and if so, she does amazingly well.

Thank you. Teaching part-time for a college or uni sure as hell isn't lucrative unless you've done something like won a Nobel prize and they think having your name on their roster will bring in lots of attention, applications, and grants. That $60k estimate bugged me, but... yeah. I'm lazy. :)

I think often it's less a reaction to the people themselves and more a reaction to whatever type of coverage they receive from ANW. If they come across as an underdog, people seem to be positive. If people feel ANW "fawns" over someone, it's not unusual to see a backlash. I myself have always had an illogical dislike of Lance Pekus based on the cowboy hat, jeans, bare chest, and belt buckle thing, but I'll admit that the more they've shown of him actually occasionally talking over the years (instead of just the thematic cowboy ninja "watch me practice in a barn with hay bales hyuk hyuk") the more I like him.

I don't recall seeing Elet Hall this year. Did I just miss him? He seemed like an okay guy, though there was something kind of angular about him that always made me want to see what would happen if he and Tilda Swinton had a baby. I watched Spartan and didn't even recognize Evan Dollard as a ninja. That's how much of an impact the guy made on me. Of course, until you said he was on Spartan, I didn't remember that either. (Maybe he should become a spy? :P )

Kacy is a gymnast and is built like one. Nothing wrong with that, imo. She wears clothes that are comfortable for her to run the course in, which should be the priority. At 5'0", managing to finish an ANW city course once is mind-boggling to me. (Dustin McKinney is 5'2", and I find him just as amazing.) I don't really care about ninja romances. I'm the type of viewer that could do with fewer personal stories and more full runs being shown. Olympics coverage tends to make me scream. Show the competition!

I saw this and laughed. http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/08/bears-bachelorette-jordan-rodgers Apparently someone on the Chicago Bears staff with access to their Twitter account likes Jordan as much as the previously.tv crowd does and tried to advise JoJo. Too bad she wasn't checking her Tweets (and it's pretaped).

It's good to know that they do that. On one of her attempts you can hear her shoe slip. It was something SimplyMom and I commented on to each other at the time.

Thank God the boat analogy isn't literal. We'd have to mount a rescue operation for Britten. I get the feeling it wouldn't take all that long alone in a boat with Caldiero before I started eyeing the water and contemplating my chances with the sharks.

Oh, geez. I took a look, and sure enough. Some folks are claiming that Khizr Khan is an agent of the Muslim Brotherhood AND that his son Capt. Humuyun (hope I spelled that right) Khan was an agent too. Here is what snopes has on it: http://www.snopes.com/khizr-khan-is-a-muslim-brotherhood-agent/

Another pet peeve of mine is related to this, at least in my mind. If someone says something particularly stupid or offensive (for example, a public facebook post or a tweet) and gets fired from their job at a private company, some people start talking about how the person's free speech was violated. Um, no. The first amendment protects a person's right to criticize the government, and it protects them from the government curtailing their free speech. If they are harassing an individual, libeling someone, making the company they work for look bad, etc. then there are often repercussions. Companies firing someone for giving them a bad name is not a violation of free speech. Certain people's inability to understand this drives me up a wall. Regarding the 24/7 news making people paranoid, that's true. I would also argue that e-mails and copy & paste facebook posts pushing an outlook an agenda similar to Fox News have become very pervasive within the last 8-10 years. They certainly existed before then, but they're practically a freaking cottage industry now. (Other viewpoints also have their emails/posts, but I only see them occasionally.)

American Grit has reportedly been renewed for a second season: http://www.thewrap.com/john-cenas-american-grit-renewed-for-season-2-at-fox/

Whoops. My coopting quotes to make a point muddied my point. Sorry! I do agree with you that it would be easier to replicate than people think. I'm sure once they've done it and know about how wide and long it is, they can work out the pattern from video. Even if distances/sizes vary slightly, it's going to be close enough to work. Well, unless ANW wildly changes the pattern every time they use the circuitboard, which would then keep the puzzle element of it. I got excited about the part where @DrSpaceman talked about the holes and the pegs being two different sizes and just went with it.

This. Also, people with a shorter wingspan can't reach as far and presumably have fewer holes as options, and it will be more difficult for them (if not impossible) to do it with proper L-arm technique. I think with its placement at the end of the course when arms and grips are fatigued and a bit of a puzzle element to it, the circuit breaker might be easy to underestimate.

I thought they were married, too. I'm pretty sure he's the father to the youngest and stepfather to the other two. I thought someone said he now had a job again, but I could be confused. (I don't really follow ninja's personal lives. If it gets said on ANW or here, I might remember it.)

The circuit board was interesting. You need upper body strength (for the whole second half of the course, actually), and it definitely helps to have a longer reach. You also need to be careful where you place the ball-hook-thing and make sure it won't move back and out the hole you put it through while trying to get the other hand moved (which usually means moving your body backwards). It looked like Meagan took the hook out on purpose, but I wasn't 100% sure that was intentional. Ha. That's a decent approximation of my thought process at that point. I can't say I'm disappointed to see Lorin Ball flame out. I don't dislike him, but the "Go for speed!" approach isn't necessarily one I think is wise, and he's an excellent example of why. I was glad to see Meagan do well, and it sounds like she is now considered part of the Wolf Pack. I could have done with a little less "bro"ing from the Towers of Power.

We could probably put together a drinking game based on this season. Drink every time Sugar cries. Drink every time Randy says something racist. Drink whenever Bob builds something. I'm sure people have other suggestions. If using alcohol, I recommend that the "drinks" be small sips though or players will need their stomachs pumped.

I remember liking Kenny, the geeky gamer. The season was terrible in many ways, but in others it was somewhat nice to see jagoffs get voted out because certain people played with their heart.* *I don't rewatch seasons, so this is based on my lasting impressions of that long-ago season and could be completely off-base.

I think the problem is that it only takes one slip, one loss of balance at the wrong place and you're done. Think how often gymnasts at the Olympics fall, and they're considered the best in the world and are only dealing with a single apparatus at a time (albeit they're essentially performing multiple moves over a period of time on that apparatus.) Stringing together a series of obstacles, at least one of which in each qualifier has never been done before, makes it more likely for a contestant to have that one slip-up... and biff the obstacle. Obviously veterans are much more experienced, but they're still human. They also generally have a lot more pressure on them than rookies to do well. I don't know that people necessarily need to win or move on, but I think competitors planning to live off it need to realize it's still a limited market and they're presumably competing with each other for that market. Hopefully they will figure out other markets to tap into or additional income sources if it isn't going as well as they hoped. Admittedly, if someone's plan comes across as "quit my job for ANW and live off my spouse," I tend to have a knee jerk negative reaction. :P

The music video bit at the end was great. I have several relatives who live in the Cleveland suburbs. They're hunkering down, praying, and going nowhere near the actual city during the RNC. They completely agree with the police officer. Speaking of the police officer, he sure knew the show's audience.