S34.E03: It's All in the Details

[Netfoot]

19 minutes ago, Steph Sometimes said:

I don't watch Big Brother, so I'm not familiar with Derek and Claire, but I find myself really liking her.

I came to loathe BB after watching only about 20 minutes of an episode years ago. Since then I have refused to watch it again, and held BB contestants in contempt. My position had been reinforced by every BB contestants to end up on TAR. You mentioned Rachael so you know what I'm talking about.

But for some reason I quite like Claire. She may be just another generic, young, blonde woman on the race, but somehow she has avoided the conceited, entitled, self-aggrandizing behaviour I was expecting. She manages her own moments of poor performance without displays of anger and frustration but instead with a touch of humour.

I get the impression that if we were thrown together by circumstance - seated next to each other on a plane, for instance - that we would get along. 

Yet this has not altered my general opinion of BB or BB contestants. I just think she is the exception that proves the rule.

Edited October 7, 2022 by Netfoot

[Fukui San]

2 hours ago, North of Eden said:

I'm a day behind now thanks to CBS shipping TAR off to 10pm in favor of garbage like the LOVE BOAT.

You know they tried putting it in the death slot about ten years ago but it defied the odds. CBS has some sort of love/hate thing going on with the show. They love the EMMYS and the acclaim but they don't give a damn about the fans or why else would you  put a family show on at an hour when most children are long gone to bed.

Anyway...

Love ASSEMBLY tasks. They are my favorite because I take a malicious pleasure in knowing that if it were me doing it...it would cost me the race!

Asian twins really...I mean really impressed me tonight. Their confessionals taking place during daylight augers a good ending for them in the mega race while on the other hand the demeanor of the Jamaican father/daughter in their confessionals portends a not so good ending for them.

As for the Jamaicans...the daughter gives me all kinds of warning bells. I think I'm looking at a very difficult person also sometimes you have to know when to Bald Snark and I think they should have after attempt 2.

Not going to open up the can of worms of racers randomly wearing masks at certain points in the race.

Lastly after tonight I have come to the conclusion that Ritchie is nothing more than an empty husk, a  puppet who only responds when Dom is controlling his strings....he's just....there...no personality, a blank slate forever living in the shadow of the Rainbow. I suspect he got very little attention from women his whole life and when somehow he landed Dom he still can't believe it and literally will do anything his  puppet master commands to stay with her. That's just my guess anyway.

Please no more europe. As I said in SURVIVOR threat it's time to get down to business in extreme culture shock countries like being jammed on a commuter bus in India or struggling mightily behind a stubborn oxe in some far flung rice paddy....in other words out of the comfort zone!

I’m fairly sure that this season’s route was determined by whatever countries were available that were in good shape Covidwise at the time of shooting. For all I know that could limit the race to Europe and more developed countries. I’m sure our spoiler seekers have a better idea. 

[30 Helens]

On 10/5/2022 at 11:54 PM, Kleav said:

I’ve never driven a stick. Is it possible that learning it in one kind of car doesn’t necessarily mean it’s easy in a different car? Especially under pressure?

Not really. I’ve read the other responses to this question, and there are some valid points (some clutches are more sensitive than others), but if you spend enough time driving a stick shift to become comfortable with it, as I have, you should be able to handle any other manual transmission car adequately. “Enough time” being the operative words. You can’t just take a single lesson, you have to practice. Many driving schools offer this option, for those who aren’t lucky enough to have a friend with a manual transmission car.  But I think the problem this group had is the same problem TAR contestants have had since the beginning of time: They don’t think it’s a big deal, so they just don’t bother to learn. And year after year, they make me yell at my screen. It’s a very annoying tradition.

1 hour ago, Netfoot said:

I came to loathe BB after watching only about 20 minutes of an episode years ago. Since then I have refused to watch it again, and held BB contestants in contempt. 

23 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Even the Big Brother team is bearable. I'm still rooting against them, but that's out of principle for me.

1 hour ago, Steph Sometimes said:

 But I guess assuming every BB player is like Rachel is like assuming every Survivor contestant is like Russell.

Or assuming every TAR contestant is like Zach and Flo, or Jonathan and Victoria. Look, I get disliking BB on principle, if all you know are the obnoxious, more controversial contestants. But every reality show has those. I have seen every season of Survivor, Big Brother, and the Amazing Race, and there are people from all three shows that I despise. But there are also people from all three shows that I would happily spend time with. 

I said it last week, and I’ll say it again: Derek and Claire are awesome. Don’t pre-judge.

30 minutes ago, Fukui San said:

I’m fairly sure that this season’s route was determined by whatever countries were available that were in good shape Covidwise at the time of shooting. For all I know that could limit the race to Europe and more developed countries. I’m sure our spoiler seekers have a better idea. 

The previous season’s route was severely restricted because of Covid. That’s also the reason they started using chartered aircraft. I’m not sure if this season is still limited to Europe, but I would not be at all surprised. They are not going to put the contestants and crew (and, by extension, the show) at risk just to show some crowded streets in India. Yeah, I miss the around-the-world aspect, too, and I also hope they can get back to that someday, but I get why it’s limited for now.  I’m just happy they figured out a way to keep it on the air at all.

[SVNBob]

15 hours ago, seacliffsal said:

A bit of a tangent, but I hope the Real Love Boat doesn't discourage viewers from sticking around and watching the Amazing Race.  I did watch the Love Boat (leftover sentimentality from the original show [RIP Captain Stubing]) and think CBS knows the only way to keep it is to put it behind a successful show-but if it negatively impacts the Amazing Race...grrrrrr

I'm sure they do know this, hence why it's happening.  So to that end, I offer CBS a compromise: reshuffle the entire Wednesday night schedule.  TAR first, followed by Survivor, which still leads into the "Real" Love Boat.

This still gives the new show the ratings juggernaut for a lead-in, but also has the advantage of finally treating TAR as the multiple-Emmy Award winner that it is.

(I know....they'd never do it.  Still, fun to think about.)

9 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

I hate a TBC. It's the worst of all worlds. A Megaleg should only exist if it's a two hours episode. Well at least this time they said it from the start...

I wonder if TPTB were told about the presumed air schedule in advance, including the 90-minute episode.  But they got the leg count wrong.  Meaning that they'd meant for this mega-leg to be the 90-minute episode instead of padding out the previous episode with extra yodeling.

6 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

Detours have detailed descriptions when you open the clue, as you have to do them according to the clue. So they would have known how many stops it was and where they were. And the clue for the other side would have at least said they had to sit through a lecture that began at certain times, if not also how long those lectures were.

It appeared to me that the lectures only started when there was at least one team present to hear it, and with no additional entry once it began.  Not exactly a set schedule.  And a little different from other "lecture clues" in previous TARs.

[ML89]

On 10/6/2022 at 3:12 AM, aradia22 said:

Did we know that David was a helicopter mechanic??? I forget his wife's name but I thought they were sold as both being dancers.

I don't remember them saying that before either. I loved her being so excited and the editors cutting to him using the ratchet like a boss.

Loved the cheerleaders, especially when she just coolly said "yeah, I took Anatomy and loved it so..."  I think I could have rocked that one (too many years watching Medical Center, ER and MASH!). Then him saying that his friends were jealous of his moped.

And the separated twins! Emily (I think) just rocked the assembly task. Loved her "I assembled all the toys and the IKEA furniture."

Rainbow Hair (Dom?) is going to drive me crazy - I think BB Derek had the best response, sort of "yeah, okay, whatever."  Them putting in the "stock meditation music" while she was sitting there was hilarious.

Re: driving stick. Having reverse next to first is a killer - we had a car like that when I was a child and I always remember my parents just carefully easing off the brakes to make sure they were in first not reverse, because that particular car was such a pain (we went to automatics after that. Also we stopped buying VWs (one of the first water cooled VWs, what a lemon of a car!))

I wish TAR was at 9....sigh.

[Welshman in Ca]

17 hours ago, eel21788 said:

There are also a lot of cars made today that require you to push down on the gearshift before putting it into reverse. That can be a total surprise to people who haven't driven one recently.

Nothing new, there has been a lockout mechanism on most manual gearboxes for reverse for at least 50 years that I know of. My mother's early 70s mini & my 1978 ford both had either a lift or push gear stick to get to reverse. The reason being is so that you can't shift straight into reverse from another gear and  wrecking your gearbox.

Having ridden motorbikes into my late 20s I would have wanted to ride mine around the track a few times just to "test" that everything was working correctly. 🙂

Edited October 7, 2022 by Welshman in Ca

[Lamb18]

I made that comment that maybe there are some roadblocks Claire can't do, so she is doing ones she can do. Derek was just on The Challenge: USA and he showed a reasonable amount of strength and coordination. (Can't remember why he went out.) Anyhow, maybe Claire can't throw any distance or hit a target and Derek can. Maybe she isn't that strong or have a lot of physical endurance. Maybe she has an insane fear of heights. I wouldn't be surprised if they worked out how to divide the roadblocks before they left to go on the race.

Edited October 7, 2022 by Lamb18

[PurpleTentacle]

10 hours ago, North of Eden said:

Please no more europe. As I said in SURVIVOR threat it's time to get down to business in extreme culture shock countries like being jammed on a commuter bus in India or struggling mightily behind a stubborn oxe in some far flung rice paddy....in other words out of the comfort zone!

The first isn't going to happen, for obvious reasons. Rice paddy should be fine, but the countries those paddies are in might not be.

9 hours ago, aghst said:

At Whole Foods, parmesano reggiano is over $20 a pound so that disk would be  around $2000.

Whole food prices aren't exactly indicative of big cheese wheels in Italy.

6 hours ago, SVNBob said:

I wonder if TPTB were told about the presumed air schedule in advance, including the 90-minute episode.  But they got the leg count wrong.  Meaning that they'd meant for this mega-leg to be the 90-minute episode instead of padding out the previous episode with extra yodeling.

Could be that they thought they were going to get a double episode season opener. Then it would have fit. But with no non-eliminations, there is going to be at least one more keep racing.

6 hours ago, SVNBob said:

It appeared to me that the lectures only started when there was at least one team present to hear it, and with no additional entry once it began.  Not exactly a set schedule.  And a little different from other "lecture clues" in previous TARs.

Nah, teams had to wait till scheduled times. That is how multiple teams got in there, even when they arrived staggered. It was just edited very tight.

Of course the guy wouldn't lecture to an empty room, but there were still set times.

11 minutes ago, Welshman in Ca said:

Nothing new, there has been a lockout mechanism on most manual gearboxes for reverse for at least 50 years that I know of. My mother's early 70s mini & my 1978 ford both had either a lift or push gear stick to get to reverse. The reason being is so that you can't shift straight into reverse from another gear and  wrecking your gearbox.

I haven't seen that on any car that is older than ~15 years old. Maybe if you went really high class. Or maybe it was a regulation in some countries?

My Ford Fiesta certainly doesn't have something like that. The only thing it has is that reverse sometimes won't go in, but that's because it's old and the gearbox is crap.

6 minutes ago, Lamb18 said:

I made that comment that maybe there are some roadblocks Claire can't do, so she is doing ones she can do. Derek was just on The Challenge: USA and he showed a reasonable amount of strength and coordination. (Can't remember why he went out.) Anyhow, maybe Claire can't throw any distance or hit a target and Derek can. Maybe she isn't that strong or have a lot of physical endurance. Maybe she has an insane fear of heights. I wouldn't be surprised if they worked out how to divide the roadblocks before they left to go on the race.

If that's the standard of "can't" then I'm sure there are a lot of things Derek can't do. It's best to pick the person best suited for the roadblock as long as you can keep the count fairly even. You don't want to play yourself and get eleminated in leg 2. They are lucky that other teams suck at navigating compared to them. If there wasn't so much self-driving, they might be out already.

[blackwing]

Another boring leg.  I also was disappointed they were told in advance it was a Mega Leg, it takes away the fun of seeing Phil give the first team the "you're still racing" message.  I wonder why they cut out the Phil portion, maybe he wanted to get to Florence early and sightsee or eat? 

I was disappointed with the tasks.  It's not interesting watching Teams cart around a wheel of cheese when we really have no concept of how far they had to go or how far apart the places were.  Why couldn't we be shown an overhead shot/map of where the locations were?  Also, it would have been more interesting if the teams had to physically carry the cheese, and not just push on a cart.  The anatomy task didn't seem that hard, and it wasn't interesting watching one snippet of the start of the lecture and then seeing the teams put pieces of wood onto hooks.  We didn't even get to see all of the words.  And then I thought I heard "I think that's the heart" from at least one team.  Really?  A 3rd grader could have identified the heart.

The motorcycle assembly task was really incredibly boring to watch as well.  Mostly because we couldn't even see what they were doing or what was going wrong.  Seemed like people failed at getting the wheel locked in because they didn't put the gearshift in neutral.  But after that, there's nothing interesting about watching people screw plastic panels in.  Also, wouldn't the guy doing the demonstration have started from scratch?  If so, and teams watched from the beginning, wouldn't they have seen him shifting the gear into neutral?

On 10/6/2022 at 1:43 AM, Fukui San said:

Hey let's appreciate that no one helped anyone else in the motorcycle build challenge. It must have been made explicitly a rule this time, because if I'm in that challenge I am asking for any help I can get. 

Yes.  I do wonder if there was a rule, because nobody was even asking each other for help or advice.  But couldn't others have overheard others talking to their camera?  At least one person said something along the lines of "I finally figured it out, I didn't have the gear in neutral".

On 10/6/2022 at 1:27 AM, GaT said:

If I had to listen to Dom spout platitudes at me all day, I would kick her out of the car.

I am not really enjoying watching the challenges this season. I don't know if it's the challenges themselves, or the show is spending too much time on them, but I'm getting bored.

Agree with both comments.  Dom is incredibly irritating.  She loves to project this calm zen exterior while saying things to Rich like "please don't be angry at the car, it can hear you and then it will get mad".  Her voice is annoying, it screams "I'm a motivational speaker and you will listen to me if I just keep calmly saying it".  

On 10/6/2022 at 7:49 AM, Lamb18 said:

I think Claire is doing the roadblocks she physically can do, while saving Derek for the ones she physically can't.

I think she is doing the roadblocks she thinks she can do, but she has been fairly awful at the two that she has done.  I'd love to know what kind of information the teams got about this task in advance.  They knew they were going to a motorcycle factory.  The clue said "who needs a brake" (or maybe break).  I would have assumed the task involved driving a motorcycle.  Yet other teams, the twins and one of the Hispanic teams that was a mechanic (I still can't distinguish them and don't know any of their names), seemed to infer that it was a mechanical task.

Also, Claire is young and tall and seems fit.  Look at the twins, they are middle aged (maybe around 35?), shorter and chunkier than Claire.  And they have rocked the tasks.

8 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

I said it last week, and I’ll say it again: Derek and Claire are awesome. Don’t pre-judge.

I haven't watched Big Brother in years so don't know who these people are.  I'm not "pre-judging", I'm judging based on what I've seen from them in three episodes.  And in three episodes, I've determined that I don't care for them.  There's something about their relationship that seems really fake to me.  It was created out of the show and they don't really act like a couple to me, they act like two people who were on the same reality show and are friends and racing as friends.  There's something about her that I find off-putting, I think it's her personality.  Meanwhile, he seems completely devoid of personality.  All he does is just stand there and say "you got this Claire".  It seems to me that she is the dominant force in whatever relationship they have and he seems like he's just along for the ride.

6 hours ago, SVNBob said:

It appeared to me that the lectures only started when there was at least one team present to hear it, and with no additional entry once it began.  Not exactly a set schedule.  And a little different from other "lecture clues" in previous TARs.

I think there was a schedule and that they were set some minutes apart.  Because the father/daughter were in the lecture.  They finished the lecture, saw the generic white couple waiting, failed the test, and then re-entered the class alongside the generic white couple.  If it was just "start the lecture as soon as one team is there", then generic white couple would have already been in the lecture and father/daughter would have had to wait another round.

Edited October 7, 2022 by blackwing

[choclatechip45]

13 hours ago, Netfoot said:

I have a question: Did anyone else see 88 lbs. of cheese and think "I want one!" or was that only me?

The difficulty with "driving stick" isn't really the stick. It's the clutch pedal. Some clutches are long, some are short. Some are heavy, some are light. Which is why even an experienced driver can have issues for a short while, when switching to an unfamiliar vehicle. The real problem for the novice is balancing the release of the clutch against depressing the throttle. They have to be operated together and it has to be smooth and the timing just right. The actual use of the stick to select gears is generally the simplest part of the entire operation. Most vehicles have the same pattern for gear selection, with Reverse being the exception.

When he was building the bike, I thought he would ask her to shut up. *I* wanted to ask her to shut up.

It looked like the ratchet drivers were all set to "Loosen" and the builder had to switch it to "Tighten" in order to assemble the wheels and brakes. Claire in particular was repeatedly trying to tighten the rear wheel nut but you could tell from the clicking that she was actually slackening it. I think the engines were also deliberately left in gear. The bikes had to be put into neutral to get the rear wheel to spin freely.

Of course, as a healthy young woman she should be capable of doing any challenge that might be set. However, that doesn't mean there are things she won't want to do, like bungee jump or eat raw camel brains. So, I believe the thought is she will do the ones she is OK with doing while she can. Later, if something comes up that she "can't" do, he will do instead. Of courser, this begs the question: Aren't there things he "can't" do? "Can't" eat?

Claire is a vegan and Derek isn't so I'm sure that is part of the strategy. 

[PurpleTentacle]

48 minutes ago, blackwing said:

And then I thought I heard "I think that's the heart" from at least one team.  Really?  A 3rd grader could have identified the heart.

If that was uttered I assume it was more about the latin name for the heart and not about the location. "Cor" isn't super intuitive, unless of course they used the latinised greek "Cardia", then really everybody should know it. But I never saw what was written down on those little wooden signs, so can't say one way or the other.

56 minutes ago, blackwing said:

I haven't watched Big Brother in years so don't know who these people are.  I'm not "pre-judging", I'm judging based on what I've seen from them in three episodes.  And in three episodes, I've determined that I don't care for them.  There's something about their relationship that seems really fake to me.  It was created out of the show and they don't really act like a couple to me, they act like two people who were on the same reality show and are friends and racing as friends. 

They do seem more like friends than a couple. You are not the first person to say so either.

I was wondering if one of them might be a beard, but that would be kinda weird in this day and age. Is one of them maybe from a super religious background or something?

But maybe they just aren't very comfortable with PDA and behind closed doors it's hot and steamy. Who knows?

21 minutes ago, choclatechip45 said:

Claire is a vegan and Derek isn't so I'm sure that is part of the strategy. 

There aren't going to be food tasks as roadblocks. Also if you keep the count even, you can always make Derek do the food task, should it happen to be there, which it won't. Plus, I'm sure you can scarf down some maggot cheese for a million dollars, even if you are vegan.

[choclatechip45]

3 minutes ago, PurpleTentacle said:

If that was uttered I assume it was more about the latin name for the heart and not about the location. "Cor" isn't super intuitive, unless of course they used the latinised greek "Cardia", then really everybody should know it. But I never saw what was written down on those little wooden signs, so can't say one way or the other.

They do seem more like friends than a couple. You are not the first person to say so either.

I was wondering if one of them might be a beard, but that would be kinda weird in this day and age. Is one of them maybe from a super religious background or something?

But maybe they just aren't very comfortable with PDA and behind closed doors it's hot and steamy. Who knows?

There aren't going to be food tasks as roadblocks. Also if you keep the count even, you can always make Derek do the food task, should it happen to be there, which it won't. Plus, I'm sure you can scarf down some maggot cheese for a million dollars, even if you are vegan.

I imagine if you know one person is a much stronger eater than the other person you would want that person to do the task. Have they really gotten away from food tasks being roadblocks? I swore there was one in a recent season, but I could be wrong. 

[PurpleTentacle]

7 minutes ago, choclatechip45 said:

I imagine if you know one person is a much stronger eater than the other person you would want that person to do the task.

Sure, that is why you keep the count even, so you can react to the individuals strength and weaknesses. Which they did a terrible job of so far. If there was no self driving, at which they are really good and other teams are really terrible, they could have been out last leg.

7 minutes ago, choclatechip45 said:

Have they really gotten away from food tasks being roadblocks? I swore there was one in a recent season, but I could be wrong. 

I certainly can't remember one. Last season there was the maggot cheese, but both partners just had to do it. In earlier seasons that would have been a route marker, but I'm not sure if they are still calling those mini tasks that.

Edited October 7, 2022 by PurpleTentacle

[choclatechip45]

9 minutes ago, PurpleTentacle said:

Sure, that is why you keep the count even, so you can react to the individuals strength and weaknesses. Which they did a terrible job of so far. If there was no self driving, at which they are really good and other teams are really terrible, they could have been out last leg.

I certainly can't remember one. Last season there was the maggot cheese, but both partners just had to do it. In earlier seasons that would have been a route marker, but I'm not sure if they are still calling those mini tasks that.

Yeah I agree they have been terrible so far at keeping it even. I do know Claire wasn't great at comps on Big Brother plus she also overthinks things. While I doubt Derek has ever watched an episode of the Amazing Race that Claire didn't make him watch, he did no prep when he went on Big Brother. 

[Guest]

Just now, PurpleTentacle said:

4 minutes ago, choclatechip45 said:

Have they really gotten away from food tasks being roadblocks? I swore there was one in a recent season, but I could be wrong. 

I certainly can't remember one. Last season there was the maggot cheese, but both partners just had to do it. In earlier seasons it would have been a route marker, but I'm not sure if they are still calling those mini tasks that.

There were definitely food eating tasks as roadblocks in the past, not just as route markers. The infamous meat eating challenge in Season 7 that Rob convinced other teams to take a penalty on, and the caviar eating challenge in Season 5 that made several people sick. Season 17 had one involving eating sushi. Maybe they've moved away from food roadblocks more recently, but it was certainly a thing before, and it doesn't seem like it can be categorically stated that it's not going to happen.

[blackwing]

35 minutes ago, choclatechip45 said:

Claire is a vegan and Derek isn't so I'm sure that is part of the strategy. 

2 minutes ago, PurpleTentacle said:

There aren't going to be food tasks as roadblocks. Also if you keep the count even, you can always make Derek do the food task, should it happen to be there, which it won't. Plus, I'm sure you can scarf down some maggot cheese for a million dollars, even if you are vegan.

Yep.  Whichever one of the amazing Kat and Nat that was vegetarian managed to eat her half of an entire sheep's head, including the eyeballs, to further their successful quest for a million dollars.  

I recall a long time ago, there was one roadblock where the racer had to look for fake food in a buffet.  If they picked up any real food, they would have to eat it.

There aren't any more Fast Forwards, but food tasks were occasionally the FF.  The aforementioned Sheep's Head, and also there have been live baby octopus, and fried grasshoppers.  

I don't think there have been many food tasks lately, one that seems semi-recent to me was a detour where the teams were on a ferris wheel, and they had to eat a plate of sausage and sauerkraut within one revolution.  I think some of the teams that tried it failed, and switched.  I remember being amazed, it was sausage and sauerkraut, I would have had it done in 5 minutes!

Maybe there haven't been food tasks lately because of increased sensitivity to allergies?  I have always wondered what would happen if someone has an allergy.  Not just the actual eating, but what if someone is really sensitive to even touching the allergen?  What if someone is allergic to fish, there was a task I think where they had to sort fish.  Just rely on the partner?  

[PurpleTentacle]

1 minute ago, tracyscott76 said:

There were definitely food eating tasks as roadblocks in the past, not just as route markers. The infamous meat eating challenge in Season 7 that Rob convinced other teams to take a penalty on, and the caviar eating challenge in Season 5 that made several people sick. Season 17 had one involving eating sushi. Maybe they've moved away from food roadblocks more recently, but it was certainly a thing before, and it doesn't seem like it can be categorically stated that it's not going to happen.

We were talking about recent seasons. Of course there were many in early seasons. I believe even the one where Charla had to eat the sausage and then ate her own puke was a roadblock.

[Guest]

I also just remembered the Season 17 Roadblock where Claire ate a watermelon, but that wasn't by design.

13 minutes ago, PurpleTentacle said:

We were talking about recent seasons. Of course there were many in early seasons. I believe even the one where Charla had to eat the sausage and then ate her own puke was a roadblock.

I misinterpreted your phrasing talking about the maggot cheese last season and thought you were referring to all earlier seasons' eating tasks as route markers. I stand corrected on that. However, you did categorically state that Roadblocks won't be eating challenges, and I still question where that certainty is coming from.

(Also, if 5 years/seasons ago counts as recent, there was roadblock in Season 29, the "strangers" season, that had eating as part of the task.)

Back to this season and the speculation about Derek and Claire's relationship: maybe it's an act and maybe it isn't, but not all couples are shmoopy in public. I would say that many of the couples this season are not, so far, being overly romantic and could come across as pals except for the occasional "sweetie".

Edited October 7, 2022 by tracyscott76
To add info about Season 29

[aghst]

Whole Foods is actually more like $25-30 a pound for parmesano reggiano.

Here is an Amazon listing, 1 pound for $25.

https://www.amazon.com/igourmet-Parmigiano-Reggiano-Month-Grade/dp/B00U9VNXYA

Even Trader Joe's has a grated tub, 5 ounces for $6.  

So $20 a pound is on the low end.

[aghst]

There have been food tasks where they had to prepare something and then eat some.

But they don't have food tasks like other shows where they have to gorge like 2 pounds of disgusting things and they're puking away.

I know people get down on Dom because she's a motivational speaker and if she was doing her schtick all the time it would be annoying.

But I think a lot of it is nervous chatter, when she feels stress, she's just saying things without trying to motivate her partner so much as trying to relieve some of the tension she's feeling.

[Welshman in Ca]

21 minutes ago, aghst said:

But they don't have food tasks like other shows where they have to gorge like 2 pounds of disgusting things and they're puking away.

I know people get down on Dom because she's a motivational speaker and if she was doing her schtick all the time it would be annoying.

But I think a lot of it is nervous chatter, when she feels stress, she's just saying things without trying to motivate her partner so much as trying to relieve some of the tension she's feeling.

Every time she says something my wife looks at me & laughs because she knows how much I hate that canned motivational shit, I'm sure she has that poster with the cat and the saying "hang in there" in her backpack just in case.

[PurpleTentacle]

46 minutes ago, tracyscott76 said:

I also just remembered the Season 17 Roadblock where Claire ate a watermelon, but that wasn't by design.

🤣🤣🤣

46 minutes ago, tracyscott76 said:

However, you did categorically state that Roadblocks won't be eating challenges, and I still question where that certainty is coming from.

Because we haven't seen one in like 10 seasons. Of course there is always a super outside chance and I might be eating my words on this, but they seems to be done with food roadblocks.

48 minutes ago, tracyscott76 said:

(Also, if 5 years/seasons ago counts as recent, there was roadblock in Season 29, the "strangers" season, that had eating as part of the task.)

I guess that was a "prepare something and then eat some of it" or "get something there and then eat some of it" task? That is usually just a bite and I wouldn't classify that as your oldschool food challange.

26 minutes ago, aghst said:

But they don't have food tasks like other shows where they have to gorge like 2 pounds of disgusting things and they're puking away.

This show had that, too. It just was a while ago. "Fnish this bowl of caviar", "Have fun eating the meat and eyes of this boiled goat head", etc.

[watch2much]

I learned on a stick shift.  the worst was when you were going uphill and had to stop.  I remember having to put the parking brake on until I felt that point where you shift then take off the parking brake while giving gas.  don't know how I'd so on a stick today.  somehow, I think it would come back.

[Netfoot]

4 minutes ago, watch2much said:

I remember having to put the parking brake on until I felt that point where you shift then take off the parking brake while giving gas.

On my driving test I had to do this on a very steep hill, in the wet, making a 90° turn, in reverse! While being observed by a policeman. The dreaded Buckingham Road.

Quote

don't know how I'd so on a stick today.  somehow, I think it would come back.

Been driving an automatic for years, so I'm sure I'd rake a few gears and stall a few times. But I'm sure it would all come back to me pretty quickly.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, PurpleTentacle said:

1 hour ago, tracyscott76 said:

(Also, if 5 years/seasons ago counts as recent, there was roadblock in Season 29, the "strangers" season, that had eating as part of the task.)

I guess that was a "prepare something and then eat some of it" or "get something there and then eat some of it" task? That is usually just a bite and I wouldn't classify that as your oldschool food challange.

From Wikipedia: In this leg's Roadblock, one team member had to ride ATMosfera Tram Ristorante, a dining tram which tours Downtown Milan, to find three marked words along the ride: Cernobbio, Concordia, and Lago. However, only four team members could ride the tram at one time. During the ride, they received a plate of gnocchi and parmigiana melanzane, which they had to finish, in order to complete the ride. At the end of the ride, they had to recite the three correct words to the tram conductor to receive their next clue. If they failed to say all three words, they had to perform the task again.

So not an eating task in the sense that the whole task was eating, but certainly more than a bite.

But at any rate, this discussion has probably run its course and veered into off-topic land, so I will drop it. Now back to the stick shift discussion 😄

[xcrayon2215x]

Glad to see a megaleg, Dom continues to be irritating. 

The cheese challenge was pretty cool, Marcus and Michael are hitting their stride. 

[dgpolo]

6 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

The first isn't going to happen, for obvious reasons. Rice paddy should be fine, but the countries those paddies are in might not be.

Even before Covid, driving the ox or whatever through a field of mud and manure seemed very risky to me, also eating in the open markets in the far east, there were/are concerns about bird flues and other kinds coming from those markets.

6 hours ago, blackwing said:

Also, it would have been more interesting if the teams had to physically carry the cheese, and not just push on a cart. 

I noticed that they actually 'handled' the cheese very little, they used a cloth to pick it up and put it on the table or back on the cart, they had to handle it briefly to do that but I don't think they wanted someones sweaty hands and breath on it for a long period of time.

3 hours ago, watch2much said:

I learned on a stick shift.  the worst was when you were going uphill and had to stop.  I remember having to put the parking brake on until I felt that point where you shift then take off the parking brake while giving gas. 

My (ex) MIL taught me, did have a hard time on hills, got rear ended by someone when I didn't move quickly enough when a light turned green. Luckily (for me) a cop was on the cross street, saw what happened and ticketed the guy that rear ended me. Next light it was taking me a while again and the car behind my started beeping. I put it in park, got out, and told the guy "Look. I was just rear ended, I'm doing the best I can and you honking at me isn't helping' He just kept saying OK Lady, Ok.

[BusyOctober]

Weren’t the bones and organs shown in their proper spots with lines drawn to them for the Racers to place the labels on the model?  It wasn’t as if they had a pile of bones and organ puzzle pieces and another pile of labels to match up.  I was only paying half attention when they described the task, so I assumed the trouble some teams had was because either the lecturer would be speaking Italian or the labels would be in Latin or some other tricky deal.  

My husband rarely watches TAR with me, but by chance he did this time.  He’s a motorcycle mechanic and was drooling that the Racers got to go to the Ducati factory. He also can drive a manual transmission with ease.  Our daughter said, “wow you guys would’ve been done with both those tasks before anyone else!  Mom knows anatomy and Dad fixes bikes! And I love cheese so I could’ve eaten all of it”.  I broke the news teams had to carry the cheese, not eat it.
 

[chitowngirl]

It looked like there were extra puzzle pieces, so not all of the bone, organ, & muscle names were used. You had to also know what wasn’t there.

[aradia22]

Quote

Sure, that is why you keep the count even, so you can react to the individuals strength and weaknesses. Which they did a terrible job of so far.

I like Claire and Derek (more her than him) but I do not understand their gameplay right now for this reason. If you know she's tone deaf or awkward about choreography and Derek is more musical, just let him do yodeling. It's not like every other task will be something she can't do. It's going to end up being an even split anyway. My memory is of him breaking the ice block and mainly handling the cheese wheel task but otherwise I think she's done the tasks or they've done them together. 

Quote

I know people get down on Dom because she's a motivational speaker and if she was doing her schtick all the time it would be annoying. But I think a lot of it is nervous chatter, when she feels stress, she's just saying things without trying to motivate her partner so much as trying to relieve some of the tension she's feeling.

Fair, but she just keeps confirming what a bad motivational speaker she seems to be (at least in any kind of stressful situation vs. just giving an abstract talk). Maybe they exclusively give pep talks at schools rather than doing any life coaching or counseling or mentoring but yikes. It's like if a therapist was a racer and they constantly shouted at their partner, didn't listen, mocked their feelings, etc. 

[TAG42481]

Dom admits that she can't read a map - SO SHE BETTER BE DRIVING.  Otherwise, she is literally contributing NOTHING in self-driving parts of the race.

Frankly, all she's done in 3 episodes is drive me nuts with cliche after cliche.

[jabRI]

I liked this leg better than the first, where you could do them in any order.  That was confusing to watch, could not tell who was ahead, etc.  Do you know if they could have switched from Anatomy to Cheese like we've seen in past seasons.  Glad they did away with the NELs, hey it's called  a race.

[aemom]

On 10/6/2022 at 10:41 PM, North of Eden said:

I'm a day behind now thanks to CBS shipping TAR off to 10pm in favor of garbage like the LOVE BOAT.

You know they tried putting it in the death slot about ten years ago but it defied the odds. CBS has some sort of love/hate thing going on with the show. They love the EMMYS and the acclaim but they don't give a damn about the fans or why else would you  put a family show on at an hour when most children are long gone to bed.

I'm also way behind now too.

This was my laundry show, and now with the time and the day that it's on, I have to wait until Friday or even Saturday to watch.

Really impressed with Molly and Emily. I thought that the cheerleaders were going to annoy the crap out of me, but so far, I really like them.

Dom: SHUT THE FUCK UP!

[eelpout]

On 10/6/2022 at 11:41 AM, chitowngirl said:

Did I hear Dom say that she couldn’t navigate using a map or didn’t know how to read a map? 🙄

I'm hearing this more and more with Zoomers. if one thinks about it, they've grown up with their phones just telling them where to turn and glancing at a map can be only superficial. another skill humans are losing. 😬

On 10/5/2022 at 11:27 PM, GaT said:

If I had to listen to Dom spout platitudes at me all day, I would kick her out of the car.

what frightens me the most, if her "career" chyron is to be believed, is some people must pay to hear this stuff. 😶

[aghst]

I remember the days of using paper maps.

It sucked, every time you pulled over to look at the map again, you had to figure out where you were and where you were going, unless you're willing to mark up the map.

I used technology as soon as I was able to.  Before smart phones, I would buy Garmins and load it up with European maps for trips.  And I'd update the maps before every trip, which sometimes took an hour or two, though after awhile, you had to pay for updates.

The problem was, even with those updated maps, it didn't have half the data Google Maps has today, where you search for say burgers if you feel like grabbing a burger to take a break during a long drive.  You couldn't do that with the old Garmins where you're using hardware buttons to go up and down menus and the search was bad.

But as clumsy as the Garmins were, they were much better option than paper maps because you never had to pull over and you knew how much longer your destination was away at a given point.

In TAR, paper maps introduce variability and a chance for a team to screw up.  But I'd be surprised now if even 10% of people use paper maps on road trips, especially in foreign places.

[Netfoot]

Paper maps are amazing! They are light weight, highly portable, cheap, durable, their batteries never go flat and your provider can't de-platform you for wrong-think. Yes, Google Maps is more convenient, especially the feature that allows you to search near your route for a burger coffee. But as a fallback option, nothing beats a paper map.

Unfortunately, more and more people are failing to learn the basic skills in life, like reading a map. Or telling the time. I bet less than half the under 25s can tell the time on a clock.

[jabRI]

It happened to me a few weeks ago, my phone and hence GPS was not working, and gas stations don't even sell paper maps anymore.  Happened to see a police station and they were nice enough to print out a google maps.

I remember last season, the father and daughter from the Detroit area, neither could read a paper map to save their life.  I couldn't figure out why during the covid pause of a few months they didn't just challenge themselves to get better at it.  Not like they'd have GPS on the race.

[Browncoat]

I love paper maps!  I'd spend hours planning a trip, poring over the map.  Anyone remember the TripTiks that AAA used to make?  Those were the best -- and they showed restaurants and hotels.  Map reading is a skill, and it should be part of the race.  It would be so boring if they all just used Google maps. 

But as much as I love paper maps, when I'm travelling by myself, Google maps on my phone is better.  Everyone walks around looking at their phones.  I don't stand out as much as if I were looking at a paper map trying to find my way around an unfamiliar city.  Mind you, I'm sure I still stand out as a tourist, but it might be a wee bit less obvious.

[aghst]

They ask people to borrow phones, search Google Maps and some seem to write down the step by step directions.

Paper maps are no more than a prob in many of these cases.

[PurpleTentacle]

4 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Paper maps are amazing! They are light weight, highly portable, cheap, durable, their batteries never go flat and your provider can't de-platform you for wrong-think.

Because that's a problem with google maps? People getting deplatformed?

4 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Yes, Google Maps is more convenient, especially the feature that allows you to search near your route for a burger coffee. But as a fallback option, nothing beats a paper map.

There are a bunch of better fallback options than paper maps, like open street maps or even still garmin or navigon. Paper maps are way on the bottom of the pile for good fallbacks.

3 hours ago, Browncoat said:

Map reading is a skill, and it should be part of the race.  It would be so boring if they all just used Google maps. 

Sure. I still wouldn't want to do it in the real world.

[Netfoot]

31 minutes ago, PurpleTentacle said:

Because that's a problem with google maps? People getting deplatformed?

There is always tomorrow.

[aradia22]

Google maps can be useful if you really have no idea where you are because you can see on your phone if you're going the wrong way down the street or you can get step by step directions. Personally, I tend to just look up directions (if I'm going somewhere unfamiliar) before I leave the house, and I usually do fine unless there are weird intersections or random street names. I feel like part of the difficulty (at least in Europe) is the street signs being tiny plaques on the side of buildings.

For me, the real advantage of a map on a screen is it can be any size I want. Paper maps usually aren't printed at a scale that's accessible for me to use them easily. 

[Netfoot]

I'm not speaking out against Google Maps. A friend and I toured Britain a few years ago, and the vast majority of the 3,935 miles we traveled was with navigation by Google Maps. The only exception was a few hours when we lost connectivity and fell back on our paper maps.

A friend's son told me he refuses to learn how to drive a car. Why would he have to? He can always call an Uber! He doesn't think it necessary to learn how to cook even the simplest of dishes. Why? He can just order a pizza (or anything else) delivered. Want to guess who caught his Royal arse, when he got locked down for months, and there was no Uber and no food deliveries?

There are certain skills I think it is wise to acquire. Because while you many never need to rely upon them, if you ever do need them... Drive a car. Light a fire. Cook a meal. Shoot a gun. Read a map. Sail a boat. Bandage a wound. These are some of the items on my list. Your list will be different.

[aghst]

Except who carries paper maps these days?

Value of Google Maps, besides showing you your position real time relative to your destination, is that it will quickly generate turn by turn directions.

Even experienced paper map people will take a few minutes to plot out a route..

So the racers are checking the route calculation and the relative positions of the origin and destination.  They should just use the paper map to mark up the directions that Google Maps generated.  It's not infallible but in at least 95% of the cases, it will be right.

I question how much manual navigation most of these racers are doing since they invariably ask someone with a phone, who helps them plot the route.

Not only that, if all but say a couple of teams get directions from a phone of a passerby, I would say they will likely do better -- start out on their drive earlier and be less prone to get lost -- than teams who choose to pore over their paper maps.

Really the only skills racers are displaying is the ability to ask onlookers politely to borrow their phones and maybe the onlookers will also help navigate, since in the case of the Munich to Innsbruck route, they are generally aware of where the nearby counties and cities are relative to where they are.

[Browncoat]

1 hour ago, aghst said:

Except who carries paper maps these days?

If I'm on a road trip, I do.  

[Stardancer Supreme]

On 10/7/2022 at 10:00 AM, blackwing said:

Also, Claire is young and tall and seems fit.  Look at the twins, they are middle aged (maybe around 35?), shorter and chunkier than Claire.  And they have rocked the tasks.

Middle aged is strictly 50 years and over. 

I'm rooting for the Twins. I am also the toy builder and IKEA heaux! Skills like that are awesome.

[Netfoot]

5 hours ago, aghst said:

Except who carries paper maps these days?

I do. I keep a 50,000:1 (around ¾ mile per inch) map of my entire country in the car, and I have the entire country at 10,000:1 ( around ⅛ mile per inch) at home.

When I visited the UK I made sure I acquired the latest set of maps for all of England, Scotland and Wales at around 3¾ miles per inch, plus larger scales at 5 and 15 miles per inch for route planning. Oh, and urban areas at 1 mile per inch. I paid the enormous price of twenty bucks for this set. Map pages were 11½" by 15¼".

Quote

Even experienced paper map people will take a few minutes to plot out a route..

A few minutes well worth taking, if your electronic navigation fails you. And please! Don't say that can't happen. It happened to me in England, less than five years ago. What are the chances of an outage when traveling in less sophisticated environments?

Quote

Really the only skills racers are displaying is the ability to ask onlookers politely to borrow their phones...

Which is why I'd ban them borrowing phones. If they want to ask someone for directions (or anything) and that person uses their phone to answer, I'm OK with it. But I would prevent racers from using phones directly.

I think this is a silly argument. "Why are they asked to drive a manual transmission when everybody drives automatic transmission?" Answer: Everybody does not drive an automatic transmission. In some parts of the world Automatic transmission is the exception, not the rule.

Anyway, I'm done with this argument. I'm right, so no need to say more.

[Quilt Fairy]

Firmly in the map camp.  I could never take a long trip without paper maps.  I need a sense of where I'm going and how I'm going to get there, what the alternatives are, etc.  An app telling me "turn here", "turn there" doesn't do that.  

[chitowngirl]

I love maps. I need the visual of the big picture of the area.

[blackwing]

On 10/8/2022 at 10:22 AM, jabRI said:

I liked this leg better than the first, where you could do them in any order.  That was confusing to watch, could not tell who was ahead, etc.  Do you know if they could have switched from Anatomy to Cheese like we've seen in past seasons.  Glad they did away with the NELs, hey it's called  a race.

Anatomy and Cheese were Detour tasks, so unless the rules have changed, there's no reason to believe a team couldn't have switched tasks if they wanted.

With respect to NELs, I don't really see the difference in having multiple Megalegs on the race versus having NELs.  The function of the Megaleg vs. the NEL is exactly the same... we get an episode where nobody gets eliminated.  In the past it seemed like there was maybe one Megaleg per season, it seems like we may be in for multiple Megalegs this season.  I always thought one of the purposes of the NELs was because the show needed to get a certain number of episodes, and they wanted to keep the budget a little smaller by keeping the cast smaller instead of paying for one team per episode.