shura

It’s the 90s and it’s Texas. Frankly, I was shocked George was so open-minded about Missy supposedly having a gay friend. Well, Taylor was pretty busy when Missy told him :). I liked his reaction, it reminded me of Joey Tribbiani ('Dude, what are yoiu massaging an old man for?' - 'His daughter was hot!' - 'Gotcha.') And George's perspective was pretty much that a gay friend is better than a straight boyfriend. I am actually surprised that the very religious Mary did not seem to have a problem with it, she just chuckled at George's patting himself on the back for being open-minded.

Yeah, I don’t know about Bela and Eric’s relationship. It sounded like she needed him to see ghosts or be that French biker for her to be into it. Or he felt like she did, at least. He will have to work hard and come up with something else to keep it going. And how would he know before going to Minnesota that Prince would still be hanging out here as a ghost? Bela is smarter than buying this. I saw this painting once at the Reina Sofia Museum, a female artist painted herself wearing a red dress. Her father disowned her. There wasn’t even an ankle showing, just a red dress. But this was Francoist Spain, super conservative. A woman wearing anything other than a black dress was scandalous, apparently. Right? She easily has a good 60 years left, no need to panic or anything, but still, awkward. And I don’t really understand why Isaac keeps thinking about the 10K as “his money” - he can’t spend any of this without Sam, he has no control over it whatsoever.

She does do this all the time, doesn’t she? And I can’t remember, was she ever different? Ever since she accepted her ability to see ghosts, she just dove into their rich world and became all about them, at Jay’s expense. Yes, she did set up a DnD game with the ghosts for him and suggested/agreed to build a restaurant, but those things kind of feel like throwing Jay a bone so he doesn’t become too unhappy and interfere with whatever Sam has going on with the ghosts. She just doesn’t come across like she is there for Jay, really. Sure, Sam interacting with the ghosts is the show. But Alison on the British Ghosts did not come across this way, she was totally there for Mike (in the two seasons that I have seen, at least). It’s probably because there Alison and Mike were actually struggling and persevering together, whereas here it doesn’t really feel like Sam and Jay are struggling. One is a freelance writer, the other a gifted chef, and they are pretty much enjoying life, even though they mention once in a while that they have no money.

Sass inadvertently inventing hygiene? That just might beat “The Old Man and the Sea” in terms of value to the humankind. But he said that he has to gain the person’s trust and show up in their dreams repeatedly before being able to influence their dreams, and the person has to be susceptible. How would one even discover that he can show up in someone’s dream? Poor Isaac. Even when he was alive, they had to entertain themselves by things like staring at James Madison’s hunting print for an entire burn of a candle. Or thinking that they are inventing democracy (amongst Europeans). I laughed at Thor’s enthusiastic account of ripping a pig apart. “What a lot of people don't know is pig has weak spot in spine. And once you locate spot, well, you can just rip it in half. Just like goat!” Just like goat.

Sure, it's for our benefit. But it could be that, this being a special, short-term international program, they would teach its courses in English. They do that sometimes, both for the international students and also so that the native students could polish their English.

Easy. Sam is writing something about the vikings and gets a sketch artist to produce a portrait according to what she wants an illustration to look like.

I am having a little problem with Missy’s bringing up that people don’t thank her for what she is doing for them. It sounds like she does things for others not just because she feels these things have to be done for her family’s wellbeing and wants to do them, but also because wanting to be thanked or to be thought of well is a major motivation for her. It kind of devalues the great job she is doing taking care of everybody. That said, she is absolutely right making everybody else work too. It’s not her job to do everything. Where exactly did that girl get her degree in education? Not with another prominent, award-winning scientist, I’m guessing? I liked how Mary in the background was enjoying her tutoring technique. Dummkopf! I wonder if Linkletter even knew about the 26 dimensions. There is no East MIT!

Huh, I have not realized until now that Thor always wears that shield on his back. Like a turtle of sorts. I know I’ve seen him wear it before, but I could have sworn that I have seen his back without the shield too. But it can’t be right, ghosts can’t get separated from the objects in their possession. I think I’m good. Isaac’s “you wouldn’t believe what a cattle stampede can do to a human body” is enough details about Flat Maria for me. Sass was a total evil genius for a minute, suggesting to Sam in so many words how she might be able to use his power. And then he goes into Jay’s dream and just folds at the slightest challenge! “If you are not Sass, how do you know his full name?” Man, the solution is so simple - “Jay, this is all your dream! It’s all in your head, dude.” But I’m glad he is not an evil genius after all and can have real conversations with Jay now.

Dale 😉? Dale is drinking Missy’s coffee and making jokes that are going to be funny in two years. And George doesn’t know they have a linen closet and spare sheets. Which still leaves more than enough adults taking care of the kids, to be sure. Come to think of it, Mary’s coming home would actually worsen the situation since she comes with the mega baby that is Sheldon.

This made me wonder - if Flower is the first sucked off ghost they care about, why didn’t they care about the ones who have been sucked off before? They have been ghosts for a long time, they knew about being sucked off, they surely have seen this already. They all get along so well (well, the upstairs ghosts with each other, at least). I kinda liked them, they all had personalities (and lines!) all of a sudden. Crash too! He reminded me of Joe Pesci. I wonder if they are all going to be more prominent now or if this was just a one-off, just some extra cash for long-out-of-work actors. “Interacting with local fauna is how I got cholera” :). Is that really how you get cholera? I thought it was mostly through drinking water.

Didn’t his wife use to be (or still is?) a police officer too? Are there any cops with integrity in this town? Honestly, how do you not get tornado coverage in Texas? What did her insurance cover then exactly? Just flood? I think you are right, I think they were cooking something with Meemaw that time when Missy dated the kid who decided to crush on Meemaw instead.

But they were wearing helmets! It’s perfectly safe if you wear a helmet, I’m sure… An interesting moment at the band staging task. Rob and Corey actively tried to hide from the brothers where they found that amplifier (or whatever that piece of equipment was). And then one of the brothers goes and helps them by pointing out that they are missing some cables. I know that he was looking for the cables himself and it wasn’t all altruism, but still, I felt a little awkward on Rob and Corey’s behalf.

A speech pathologist and a flight attendant (if I am understanding that last one correctly)? Now there's a combination! Is that right, rarely? So, the director at Gaiety Theater, the guy Xing peacock prints in India, the ladies checking hay stacking in Slovenia or lotus bouquets in Vietnam - fake, fake, fake, fake? Just reacting to whatever directions production was feeding them? If that's true, I think I wish I didn't know that.

They were not actually judging the task, were they? I find it nearly impossible to believe that the patrons were all ASL speakers (that's American sign language, mind you, not British or Irish) and could understand whether Rob was quoting without any mistakes. I wonder how it was judged. A specially provided ASL-speaking judge would check and signal to the patrons to cheer? Rob did a tremendous job expressing emotions though, it was a joy just to watch him.

I noticed that one of the recycling bins had a lot of flatboard/pressboard type of furniture going into it. Not exactly the best commercial for IKEA in a Sweden leg... just sayin'... I didn’t notice that specifically, but that place did feel like an IKEA somehow. Maybe the Swedes buy things there and immediately recycle them, bypassing actually using them. It’s the next level of environmentalism.

Well, he almost tried to make it more complicated by switching from the last word to the first word of the dish's name. It could have been potentially problematic if there had been, say, three different beef dishes. "Give me a bœuf!" - and Greg hands him the first random "bœuf" he sees on the table. I was almost waiting for that to happen. On the other hand, they are so good that Greg would probably have noticed that there are several beefs there and asked John to specify which one. I loved how everybody on the street was giving the racers wrong directions to the subway. "It's over there", "It's that way" (in what looked like a small woodland?), "Yes, the subway is right here, hop on" (thank you, bus driver!), "It's in Germany". See, this is why banning smartphone use would be a disaster - nobody knows anything without them anymore. So let me see. We just saw Slovenia showcased by absolutely stunning scenery and natural wonders of all kinds. And now they give us... trash recycling? Huh.

Interesting use of the word “overthinking”. I have only heard it used to mean that you are making things more difficult than they have to be, so stop overthinking and find an easier way. Not this time though. Kind of sounds like production had screwed up and didn’t phrase the clue precisely enough, and then didn’t let Joel do what was technically perfectly following the instructions as written. Or they use a Magic Eraser-type technology to remove them.

Nah, it’s not that bad. Just to play devil’s advocate, it is possible for a country to lose and gain independence several times, so theoretically the question might even have had more than one answer. If you know nothing about the country and are not sure that they broke away from Yugoslavia exactly in 1991 and not a couple years later, for example, who is to say they did not become independent in 1199 - for the first time? (Serbia became an independent kingdom right around that time in 1217, Wikipedia tells me) Or, like you said, in the post-WWI shakeup in 1919? It didn’t look like he was overthinking it like that and was probably just blanking out, but 1199 is not an impossible answer, really, just an incorrect one.

Makes me wonder if the rule specifies under what circumstances you can leave the "Roadblock mode", go do something else and then come back. Most probably there simply is no rule about that, this situation was simply unprecedented and unforseen. They probably didn't even think about it. I also wonder what kind of training the crew people have. How you do not give away to the racers that something extraordinarily wrong is happening? Those guys must be good at poker.

Maybe. You could also argue though that a task starts once you have read the description of what you actually have to do (as opposed to the cryptic clue they use to decide which team member will do it). Otherwise you could read the description, go back to your partner and get all kinds of input or other help, then come back and only then "start" the RB. I've never seen them do this, so I assume this is not allowed under the "only one team member may perform" rule. So it could be argued that once Andrea read the description, Malaina should not have been allowed to help with anything, be it suggestions or getting the right coins. Nobody interpreted the rule this way, obviously, which makes me wonder what exactly it says and what ways to bend it there are. I know. Imagine the feeling of standing there at the Roadblock, looking at the word "Witten", then at the euro coins in your palm and suddenly realizing that no, the reason you have not seen any other teams is not because you are ahead of everybody... It must have been devastating. In other news, it appears that all these ads on this wonderful website of ours have finally killed my Safari. It crashes every time I try to open it now.

Maybe it’s a reflex. When your controlling sibling starts yelling controlling things at you, you go “You are not the boss of me!” and do the opposite. Not a super useful reflex for self-driving on TAR, to be sure. Here is something for the fans of the intricacies of TAR rules and regulations (like last week’s discussion on telling Steve and Anna Leigh that they had not yet completed their task correctly). Andrea is starting to do “a task that only one team member may perform” and realizes that she cannot complete it because she does not have the right coins. She goes back to her partner and together they figure out why she does not have the right coins and what to do to about it, then go and get the coins so Andrea can in fact complete the Roadblock. Does this not constitute Malaina’s helping Andrea do the Roadblock?

That was pretty epic. We need to take a ferry - that’s a ferry, let’s get on this one. Are you the money changer? Well, yes, I am the money changer, sure, I can change your fiver into coins. And they even went back to the same guy to ask for the wittens (to the ferry that was farther away, I’m assuming). Wow. Only flying to Auckland instead of Oakland could top this one. It was so depressing to see the carnival people leaving and leaving behind some torn paper and a few balloons on the floor. It was like, you ladies are so far behind that we are not even going to try to make your elimination a respectable experience. You will be eliminated in a trashed hall. That’s quite a paradoxical definition of smart - refusing to do mental work in favor of brute-forcing it through the challenge. Good thing she only needed to pay 15 coins and not 115. I love how Corey laughs silently when he and Rob are joking in their interviews.

I was thinking about how different groups have these different motivations to U-turn either a weak or a strong team. Imagine you are a weaker team, you are exhausted and you feel that unless another bottom dweller gets U-turned it’s curtains for you. You arrive at the U-turn and discover that the cool kids from the front of the pack have voted to screw one of their own out of the first place - and so, in a hilariously ironic two-for-one, have screwed you too! Well, maybe it’s not hilarious for everyone, but I feel like Liam and Yeremi would find it funny. So they did something that might not be of any benefit for them at all if they don’t make the final leg? Just as a contingency - if they do make it, it could be nice to have a more manageable competition there? Interesting. It’s a whole different level of 3D chess right there. I thought they just weren’t considering the possibility that they might not be in the finale themselves.

Ah, now I see. Thank you for taking the time to analyze and break down who voted for whom. I could not figure out what strategy would be reasonable with a U-turn when you have cannot possibly know who is behind you. Reading this, though, it makes total sense that it depends on one's aspirations in the leg. If you feel confident that you are strong enough to be safe from elimination and hopinig for first place in the leg, you vote for your competition for the win. If you feel that you have been circling the drain and want to make sure you survive the leg, you vote for your competition in the race to stay alive. (And then there are Joel and Garrett thinking they are voting for their competition in the finale. Finale?!) Loved Todd's description of the judge's actions at the Roadblock. "He stamps this giant X on the prints that do not pass, then he goes away and you think the rest are good - but no, he just needs more paint for the X!"

Also, showing their true colors usually means that “they” have been pretending to be something they are not, but now we see who they really are. I don’t think anyone had been pretending that they would never do anything Steve and Anna Leigh would find upsetting, had they? The colors you see now are the colors everyone has been showing all along, really. Points to Steve for referencing the Pinta, the Niña and the Santa Maria. And I don’t really have a problem with Anna Leigh. She got upset unnecessarily, but I thought she was civil enough about it when she was talking to people at the peacock task. Frankly, I find it rather bland when there is no drama at all. I loved Liam and Yeremi’s easygoing attitude. Sure, our driver is totally not the driver we need to have a chance to win anything, but we are not going to be all Anna Leigh about it. We will be positive, joke about it and just enjoy the experience. I love people who keep things in perspective and have that kind of sense of humor. If TAR does another second-chance edition (or whatever they call it, I forget), I’d love to see these two again.