SledDog

As usual Sheri rocked the snake task. The big men (and her son) were squealing about the snakes touching them an Sheri was "oh I like snakes." Don't even get me started about the other women. And the meatballs were probably chicken.

Something close to 85% of the population of Dubai are foreign workers, probably including most of the people that the contestants met. The bulk of those are Asian or from the Indian subcontinent (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka) Conditions for Westerner guest workers are acceptable even though the place is very expensive. Companies will offer Westerners living allowances. Conditions for the vast majority of guest workers are deplorable; low pay, barracks that would be found cruel and unusual for any American prison outside of Maricopa County Arizona, and workers generally get a chance to go home once a year if that. For those workers its about as close to slavery as you can get while still getting paid. Horrendous.

Mugging for the cameras is quite literally what he does for a living.

At the risk - read certainty - of sounding like a total sexist pig can I say that Sheri totally rocked that gold bikini. She is a total Mother I'd Like to ... Get to know.

Scott and Jason remind us yet again that they're a pair of ignorant bullies. You know, the way they were at the Brawn camp. I loathe bullies. Hopefully "America" does as well.

In other words he was nothing but a glorified cheerleader.

Kelsey: "I'm a Christian snd Joey's a Catholic. I've never had a blessing like that before." Huh? Silly me, I thought Catholics were Christians.

They're covering some very familiar ground. Mukuni Village was featured in the second episode of the first Amazing Race, complete with the "spit in your face" blessing, and The Knife's Edge Bridge was where a clue box was in the first episode ever of The Amazing Race!

Can I just say how much I really disliked Brian & Cynthia. Particularly in this episode, but throughout the whole race really. It used to be just Cynthia since she stopped Neil from helping Hamilton in Buenos Aires, but Brian started earning my ire, particularly last week in Saskatoon and then today in Kolkata. Glad to see them gone. There are three cab companies in Saskatoon. Each company got two teams. What were the odds of that (he said sarcastically).

There's something really special about watching The Race when it's in your home town. I am from Saskatoon so I know most of the locations (but not the trampoline place) so I know the various stories about the places and the ways to get there. So I know the story about the Original 16 and how Great Western Brewing came to be. I knew that Simi & Ope were seriously lost when they drove past the University and didn't seem to be looking for directions. And I knew Brian would be proven wrong when he said they had gone too far. Wanuskewin is pretty far out of the city. I was surprised that they used shots of the old bridge for cutaways that they did. The Traffic Bridge has been closed for at least five years and a couple of years ago one of the spans on the east end was removed for safety reasons.

Normally I don't like it when a team that survives by a gimmick or because they ride along on some other teams coattails either wins or makes it late into the race. Yea, I'm talking about you Beakman Boys. And yet I'm not terribly upset that Maya & Amy won the Amazing Race. Part of it was of course that they beat the Wrestlers (I halfway typed "Wrasslers" there). I have fond memories of TAR 6 and Lori and Bolo, but these two had none of their endearing qualities. They and the Dentists (but mostly them) had almost a sense of entitlement, like they deserved to win and that Maya and Amy weren't worthy of even being there. That's why I like Adam & Bethany more than the other two. There was a certain schadenfreude about The Wrestlers getting eliminated after their statements about The Scientists. The Scientists' triumph is exactly why we watch The Race. It's about the possibility of the underdog winning. It's about diversity; not just in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation but also in terms of physical type and even age. The Race isn't always to the strongest or the fittest or the people who look like they should win. The Scientists winning reminds us that if you are in this Race you can win it. The preview of next season - have they ever done that before? - looks dire, but let's wait to see the teams before we rush to judgement. I don't like the idea of mixing The Race with The Bachelor, but we don't know the character of the teams who will be participating in that season, so how can we realistically judge at this moment.

I believe you are right. Fits his basic bitterness towards Missy.

And what do the haters who called them "thieves" and "harpies" think of Natalie's win? She definitely worked hard at it and played beautifully, but will they admit it?

I'm trying to recall but wasn't one of the reasons that Nadiya was booted in the first round because someone claimed that she and Natalie used the U-Turn in The Amazing Race and that showed the sort of player she'd be (ruthless and conniving)? Which was absurd because Natalie & Nadiya didn't use the U-Turn the first time that they did the Amazing Race and weren't around long enough to get a chance to use it the second time they played. I think that the biggest motivator for Natalie has been "avenging" Nadiya by going as far as possible in this contest after her sister going out. Ironically by getting rid of Nadiya for supposedly being part of a ruthless team in The Amazing Race has led Natalie to be increasingly ruthless in Survivor. By what logic do you come to that conclusion? Because there's a preponderance of men on the jury? The fact is that Keith survived as long as he did largely because of the sufferance of Natalie and Baylor. Members of his old alliance won't appreciate it that his loose lips sank their collective ship when, Missy. Baylor, and Natalie were basically waiting to be the next out the door. If he goes up against Natalie he loses. If he goes up against Baylor he probably loses, because since theyallied together Baylor has basically been Natalie`s right hand woman. Keith wins easily against Jacklyn who has really been riding Jon`s coattails and probably wins against Missy because Missy really hasn`t done much. There are frankly a lot of ways I can see things going down next week. Missy's injury could come into play. It's clear that Jacklyn's ties with Jon means she'll be out to get Natalie so do you get her out before Keith, or take a chance and dump Keith first and (if you're Natalie) hoping that the Baylor-Missy-Natalie family dynamic holds for the final three? Simply put, Missy was the "Mom" to the alliance of Five. At least that's what she thinks. Of course they take care of her. But the very thing that you see as a weakness is why everyone wants her to go the final three with them. Her logical skills and misplaced loyalty shows that she's not likely to get a lot of votes at Final Tribal. So you take care of her to get her there, in much the same way that Boston Rob took care of the weakest players in his alliance to Final Tribal in his season. I think Jon's ideal final three would have been him, Jacklyn, and Missy. Actually a truly ruthless player would take Jackly and Missy to final so wee need to see how ruthless Natalie truly is. This is one you have to wonder about. Was she truly onboard with the plan to blindside Jon before they arrived at Tribal Council and he started talking about his thoughts for a Final Three that included Natalie (and probably Jacklyn)? Of course we can't know all of what happened at Tribal but I think that there are "advantages" - at least in her mind - to sticking to Jon's plan and getting rid of Keith.

Pretty sure they were just pixelating "butt crack." I'm pretty sure that American TV wouldn't pixelate a little blood. I have to wonder if the Racers who chose massage were expecting more of a North American spa massage which is closer to a body rub than a true massage. If so they were expecting something that would be relaxing and take away some of the tensions that all of the teams undoubtedly have as a result of The Race. The certainly wouldn't be the first teams to make that sort of assumption. Remember Paul & Amy (I think it was)in season 1 opted to take a Detour involving a Turkish massage in Tunis and the male half of that team spent the entire time complaining about how rough it was, and how the masseuse didn't use any oil. I think North Americans make an assumption about massages which isn't necessarily accurate.