shura

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.

My favorite part was that Morgan claimed that she “was only trying to help” and got all upset that she was nearly stabbed in return. How is placing your face near the needle helpful exactly? I am glad she didn’t lose an eye there. You really should be aware that nobody expects your face to be that close to the sewing and they are not going to be watching out for your safety. Although I must say, it kind of looked like Lena did make an extra effort to throw her needle-holding hand waaaay out there during that particular stitch.

Is there a reason there are just a handful of slightly different unique tile among thousands of identical ones at that temple? Is one supposed to walk around looking for them while contemplating something, is that normal practice there rather than just a TAR ask? Every time someone found their tile and ran off to get the judge, I was thinking I hope you remember where it is and can find it again. “I think it’s that way?..”

Come to think of it, if keeping fresh eggs unrefrigerated were a problem that led to spoilage, would any chick hatch out of them after weeks of being kept warm by the hen (or duck or whatever)?

Yeah, I am not sure 90 minutes is working for me. I understand the point that it allows us to get to know the teams better and enjoy more details of a challenge instead of just being given an short summary of things, but I felt like watching the teams do the same thing at the lotus task for a good 40 minutes was a little extreme. And that’s when we have 12 different teams. Now imagine that we are spending 40 minutes to watch a task when only four teams remain. Followed by a 15-minute coverage of a taxi ride. I have never heard the word “pomelo” stressed on the second syllable, only the first. The teams pronounced it both ways though. Cool task, I liked the imagery of all those pomelos bobbing around in canals.

You are right, the “winner” of the vote can be ahead of you, of course. I was just thinking that you may want them to be behind you - if they are ahead, slowing them down might not help you survive the leg. Just thinking about what I would base my U-turn vote on if I had to vote.

That would be pretty interesting, I like it. Who would one vote for? You could U-turn the team that’s been the strongest so far - but chances are that a U-turn won’t eliminate them nor help you avoid being eliminated. Or you could vote for the weakest team hoping that they will be behind you when they get to the U-turn and that will increase your safety cushion. No guarantee that they won’t be ahead of you in any particular leg though. Or you could just spite a team you don’t like, for no strategic reason. The only thing is, this voting U-turn opens a new possibility of alliances against someone, which might be ugly.

I saw the ""TY" at the end of that letter string and my mind goes "Sea of Tranquility! Wait, that's on the Moon..." Right? You'd think one would need a sense of urgency to be on TAR, and discussing for 5 minutes who is going to do the challenge is not it. They didn't seem like serious people, between this and the way they went to attempt the sword dance after clearly not learning enough during practice. But it would have been entertaining to watch them for a few episodes. I am not sure about the 90-minute episodes, it could become tedious to watch when there are fewer teams left. I suppose they have all the footage already and feel that it won't be a problem. Also, how exactly is the voting on the U-turn going to work? You can only U-turn a team that is behind you, right? (meaning that only a team that gets to the U-turn later can be forced to do it.) Are the teams going to have an idea of who is behind them or are they going to vote blind and inadvertently try to U-turn teams that are ahead? And wouldn't the results of this voting only be known after the last team gets to the U-turn? About Thai massage, is it safe for everybody? I am quite convinced my body cannot bend that way without breaking or spraining something. The father and son have the friendliest faces ever. Very bright-eyed, open and smiley. When they look at you (well, at the camera, but you see them looking at you), you feel that they are super happy to see you and cant' wait to know what you have to say.

This is very true. I have met quite a few Germans (enough to start thinking about stereotyping) who were not shy at all about speaking up about things they don’t like, in situations where a typical American would consider it impolite to bring it up or at least would phrase it in a much softer way. So yes, I agree that he would fit right in in that regard. But the other part of Sheldon’s personality, his disregard for what others want and his insistence that what he wants is more important, is not going to fly there. Nobody likes that.

I don't thinthey have to explain it. They asked for an independent DNA test, and Dan and Kelly confessed to committing fraud. It should be enough for an investigation, even if Jay said he had some evidence and now is not willing to explain where he got it, shouldn't it? Dan really needs to be punished more severely than with a "get out of my house." It's not really necessary to set up an actor's potential exit (that may or may not happen) like that. They can always film the same scene for the first episode of the next season when they know they need it. I think it has to be more of a planned plot development for the next season than a "just in case we lose a cast member over the summer." I'm sure they are aware. At the same time, I cannot help but take Isaac's line "if Sam doesn't give us the guest room, I will tell her she is being homophobic. It gets things done" as a pushback on the idea that one shouldn't do something just because they might be accused of being homophobic. It's a very interesting line, quite a social commentary, really. Another interesting line was Flower's "Not every conversation has to make sense." It made me think about the discussions about why some posters like to analyze things and point out inconsistencies in TV shows, while others say they just watch TV to relax and it doesn't matter to them whether the writers did not think things through. I am not trying to start an argument, just saying I liked getting food for thought like that. I wonder if the writers meant anything by it, like trying to claim the right to write things that don't have to make sense?

Well, he acts like an entitled and inconsiderate jerk. I doubt very much the Germans are going to love him.