S37.E10: Up the River Without a Joust

[Netfoot]

3 hours ago, mertensia said:

To be fair, smart phones weren't around until 2007 (at least, in general public use). Don't tell me these vaunted Season 1-5 teams wouldn't gave been using them if they'd had access to them.

To be sure! But we have seen teams navigate across the Tanzanian desert in a landrover using a compass and a map.  Some of the new teams can't navigate across a town with copious road signs, using a navigation app that gives turn-by-turn directions.  Sure, they have to hand the app back to it's owner. But they write down every turn and still end up completely lost and four hours off-route!

We expect life in the modern world to become easier with the passaage of time but should not forget that all countries have not reached the same level of  development and sophistication. When you go on TAR you expect to be sent to a selection of countries with varying levels of advancement.  TAR competitors (and people generally, I believe) should be prepared to manage with a degree of competence in places where the environment is not up to the standard they are accustomed to at home.

I'm not saying they should expect to face the "Cross this river by chopping down a tree and making a dugout canoe" level of challenge.  But when they are told "Erect the tent you will be sleeping in tonight" it should not be the end of the world for them. 

[InDueTime]

Well damn. Without Mark and Brett, I am out of teams to cheer. I'll hope for an interesting Season Finale in general, and for Johnathan not to win, I suppose.

[cowgirlwen]

On 5/9/2025 at 9:29 PM, North of Eden said:

Anyway...not fair there was no time penalty for the dating couple not parking where they were suppose to..and despite the outcome that was one of the worst uses of an Express Pass ever. Who uses it at the end of a task not the beginning?

If you're referring to Josiah & Alyssa, they are married.  And they certainly aren't the first to not park in a designated parking area this season.  (Remember Jonathan getting the car stuck because he just pulled off the side of the road, and didn't follow the signs to parking?)  Unless the clue says "Park in the designated parking area" it is not a requirement, even if there are PARKING signs showing them where to park.  

[iMonrey]

19 hours ago, kav said:

First of all, you continue to be disrespectful when you say he claimed to be diagnosed, he is diagnosed, that is a fact and is disrespectful to say it is not real.

Do you know the man personally? How do you know what he's saying is true? 

I never said it wasn't real, I said nothing I have seen of Jonathan makes me inclined to trust him. It might be true, it might not be. 

What I do know is that he is verbally and emotionally abusive to his wife. That is a fact, regardless of any excuses for it. We've all seen it. 

Edited Monday at 02:59 PM by iMonrey

[proserpina65]

On 5/9/2025 at 6:01 PM, kav said:

Unfortunately nobody knows what it is actually like inside the brain of anyone of the Spectrum, and the way they process and learn things is different.  Words can be a form of coping and processing.

Abusing someone else with words should NEVER be a form of coping or processing, and Jonathan is far too old to not have learned that.  I'm tired of his diagnosis being used to justify his lousy treatment of his wife, and that is my last word on this subject.

On 5/10/2025 at 9:26 PM, PurpleTentacle said:

He took another 20 seasons to come back on the race.

And was one of the few contestants to watch his original race, see what a shithead he could be and actually change his behavior.  Something I would not have thought possible: that I would be rooting for Colin and Christie in their second AR appearance.

On 5/10/2025 at 9:50 PM, Ancaster said:

Hmm, another blamer on anything/anybody but himself.

To his credit, when he saw himself behave that way, he worked to change.  Maybe Jonathan will.

22 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

You don't have to purchase a second set of train tickets. If your train is delayed for more than 20 minutes you simply hop onto another train with your existing tickets.

Maybe the problem really was that that seems to be hard concept to grasp for americans.

It's probable that they didn't know it was possible to do that.  I certainly didn't until you posted it here.

16 hours ago, mertensia said:

To be fair, smart phones weren't around until 2007 (at least, in general public use). Don't tell me these vaunted Season 1-5 teams wouldn't gave been using them if they'd had access to them.

Actually Rob & Brennan, winners of the very first Amazing Race, paid someone for their cellphone during one of the last legs in Alaska, with the promise that they'd mail it back after the Race.  Which they did.  I assume the producers hadn't even considered that possibility when designing AR1 and implemented the rules regarding cellphone use afterward.

Just like using a local as a guide for the leg wasn't against the rules when Danny & Oswald did it in Bangkok in AR2.

[kav]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

Do you know the man personally? How do you know what he's saying is true? 

I never said it wasn't real, I said nothing I have seen of Jonathan makes me inclined to trust him. It might be true, it might not be. 

What I do know is that he is verbally and emotionally abusive to his wife. That is a fact, regardless of any excuses for it. We've all seen it. 

It is your opinion that he "verbally and emotionally abused his wife" based on what you saw on an edited TV show without considering many outside factors that attribute to behavior, so no it is not a fact.

[proserpina65]

Perhaps the continuing discussion of Jonathan, his diagnosis and its implications can be taken to the contestant thread so that it doesn't continue to suck up all the air in the episode threads?

https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/153474-jonathan/

 

[bunnyface]

19 hours ago, Netfoot said:

I'm not saying they should expect to face the "Cross this river by chopping down a tree and making a dugout canoe" level of challenge.  But when they are told "Erect the tent you will be sleeping in tonight" it should not be the end of the world for them. 

I'd watch that.  lol  But the race does seem a LOT easier than it was in the beginning, as far as the tasks and even the navigation.  I haven't watch TAR Canada in a few years, no longer able to watch it, but the seasons I watched were more like original TAR as far as tasks and having to figure things out for themselves. I like less "go right here" and more "figure out where this is" type of racing.  But that's just me, on my sofa, eating popcorn, not racing.