S19.E26: Head of Household #9

[K-9]

The clouds layer over LA dissipated right as the partial solar eclipse began.  The maximum eclipse over the BB house around 10:20 a.m. should've been clearly visible (with proper viewing techniques), even with just a pinhole in a piece of paper.  Except...  the HGs, even if hanging outside in the backyard, probably wouldn't have even noticed partial eclipse in LA was occurring with only 60% of the sun eclipsed.  Temperature dropped degrees but not much difference in sunlight to the naked eye unless purposely watching for it.  Wonder if the BB live feeds showed if the HGs were outside this morning? (post under spoilers, if needed) 

[Wandering Snark]

5 hours ago, ghoulina said:

Paul is playing a fairly smart game, no matter how boring I find it, and how gross his massive ego is to me. However, if any of these couples start talking amongst  each other, it could blow up in his face.

One can only hope...

42 minutes ago, Rachel RSL said:

Cody blindsided his entire alliance and they chose to side with Paul, not the guy who had just stabbed one of his own in the back. 

He actually stabbed two of them in the back as Christmas then went up in Paul's place.

[laurakaye]

27 minutes ago, Mumbles said:

Mark and Elena were targeted because they maintained friendship to Cody. Kevin was screamed at for merely *talking* to Cody. 

And had Alex not walked past right at that moment, would any of this have happened?  If Kevin falls down in the forest and no houseguests are there to see it happen and run squealing to Paul about it, does he make a sound?

What I found odd was that when the Red Tree of Eternal Damnation lit up, Mark looked at it and then casually took a stroll to the DR.  I assumed everyone, including Christmas and her cart, would go flying off to the DR to keep Mark from going in.  Instead, they all just watched him go like it was no big deal.  What was that about?  Did I miss Paul telling everyone to "Sit!  Stay!"

Edited August 21, 2017 by laurakaye

[Michichick]

34 minutes ago, K-9 said:

The clouds layer over LA dissipated right as the partial solar eclipse began.  The maximum eclipse over the BB house around 10:20 a.m. should've been clearly visible (with proper viewing techniques), even with just a pinhole in a piece of paper.  Except...  the HGs, even if hanging outside in the backyard, probably wouldn't have even noticed partial eclipse in LA was occurring with only 60% of the sun eclipsed.  Temperature dropped degrees but not much difference in sunlight to the naked eye unless purposely watching for it.  Wonder if the BB live feeds showed if the HGs were outside this morning? (post under spoilers, if needed) 

Spoiler

The house guests were given eclipse glasses and most of them went into the yard to watch the eclipse.

[ghoulina]

2 hours ago, Mumbles said:

but rather than pick an answer that might *plausibly* be a mistake, he picks Cameron, the first person voted off, showing clearly to anyone paying attention that he was throwing it. 

So only the viewers would have noticed? 

1 hour ago, Rachel RSL said:

Nobody was punished because literally nobody chose Cody except Jessica. Cody blindsided his entire alliance and they chose to side with Paul, not the guy who had just stabbed one of his own in the back.

I get why they quit working with Cody. As much as I ended up liking him, I called him out for what a horrible blunder he made. 

What I don't get is why they immediately latched onto Paul. They were a large enough group at that time, they could have just kicked Cody to the side and went on doing their thing. It's the pathetic need for a master that is bothering me so much. 

59 minutes ago, Mumbles said:

Mark and Elena were targeted because they maintained friendship to Cody. Kevin was screamed at for merely *talking* to Cody. 

And now Jason is getting shit for talking to Kevin and Mark. It's unbelievable. 

[Rachel RSL]

1 hour ago, laurakaye said:

 Instead, they all just watched him go like it was no big deal.  What was that about?  Did I miss Paul telling everyone to "Sit!  Stay!"

I assume it's because, at this stage of the game, nobody wanted to risk getting one of the punishments. 

[Wandering Snark]

4 hours ago, laurakaye said:

I assumed everyone, including Christmas and her cart, would go flying off to the DR to keep Mark from going in.  Instead, they all just watched him go like it was no big deal.  What was that about?  Did I miss Paul telling everyone to "Sit!  Stay!"

Well Christmas didn't want anything to derail her 'BIG MOVE' so she didn't want to take the chance on an apple I guess but yeah Mark even said as they were all there together "Hey, what's this?" as it started to flash red... I thought for sure as well that there would be a mad scramble to as people came flying down the hallway toward the DR! I was expecting a real "dog" pile. Maybe everyone is scared to do something they weren't expressly told to do and could have negative consequence. Pfft.

You could see Mark kinda couldn't believe it with his tentative "I uhh, want to claim an apple?" DR.

[Nashville]

With the exclusion of Mark - what a bunch of lemming-minded wussies.

[Cherry Cola]

11 hours ago, ghoulina said:

Ugh, I cannot STAND her. Yips and yaps is right. She has this very staccato way of talking when she's getting heated that just drives me mad. Everything about Alex grates - how she talks, the way she sits, the way she dresses. She has fully become "bitch eating crackers" for me. 

Also..her bored stare when anyone but her talks. 

[eurekagirl mOo]

SO if I talk to a cop I MUST be a cop? What an idiot! I think he is "gangster" or at least grew up in that world. You know who else knows cops besides over cops? Gangsters! My ex had a LOT of cop problems (his own doing) & he knew (and even liked) quite a few cops from his times in & out of the system. It should go without saying that when I met him I said 1 single cop problem & we. are. done. He NEVER got in trouble after that! 

[nkotb]

So much to comment on about this episode. My first thought: this forum needs to have "like" buttons like Facebook, where you can like, be sad, mad, love, laughing, & wow-ing. That'd be a great addendum to an already great forum group.

I did not know that Raven purposely wore makeup to make herself look "Twilight"-esque. Wow, she's a moron. I'm still so disappointed in Matt, I thought he was the Silver Fox, but he's actually the Silver Dud. Matt, eventually, the pawn goes home. You need to start winning.

Alex reminds me of that character on "Friends", played by Kristin Davis, who dated Joey & hit everyone. Alex seems like she wants to be friends with all of the guys, so she does whatever she can to fit in with them. Has she ever had a conversation with a female without a male in the room? I don't watch the feeds, although I do stalk all of you who do, but she seems to prefer guy-friends to girl-friends, which is fine, just an observation. 

When Mark was getting bullied at the table, ugh, my heart just broke. First of all, he's the only human left in the house, I hate that he's having to deal with this. The dude literally has no friends in the house, why are you all badgering him? If that's what makes them feel good about themselves...I just hope Zingbot is relentless in his attack of them, & I hope he slips in some info about how popular Mark & Cody are now, & lets the others know how much they're being portrayed as bullies. Ugh, of course, the one apple that Mark drew couldn't help at all. I get why he did it, he had nothing to lose, but I actually wish TPTB would've rigged something for him like they did Paul at the beginning.

I was watching last night, & I got mad all over again. To me, the turning point in the game was when Jess arrogantly nominated Josh with a pawn, instead of putting him up against Alex, or Christmas, or King Paul. She was arrogant to think that because she was HOH, the house would honor her wishes, & she lost non-offensive Ramses, & kept Josh, & that whole side of the house in the process. If she'd been smarter about her noms, she would have changed the game. 

[Rachel RSL]

4 minutes ago, nkotb said:

I just hope Zingbot is relentless in his attack of them, & I hope he slips in some info about how popular Mark & Cody are now,

Cody is popular? I can see how Mark's popularity has increased because he has that big dumb lovable puppy dog vibe about him but I haven't seen an increase in Cody's popularity at all. Most of the reactions I've seen are that people think Cody and Paul both suck. (It really seems like people became Cody fans or Paul fans mainly out of default - they sided with whoever they disliked the least. What a season. Yeesh!)

[nkotb]

Just according to Jokers (I think that's the website), the more popular players are Mark, Cody & Jess, with the bottom being Paul, Christmas, Josh...that whole crew. If I'm wrong, correct me, that's what I saw last week, anyway.

I wasn't a Cody fan, but his exit was gold! Those people hated him, he hated them, no fakeness, just get the hell outta Dodge.

[Pondlass1]

24 minutes ago, nkotb said:

She was arrogant to think that because she was HOH, the house would honor her wishes

The most mind-boggling for me was HOH Josh smugly looking into the camera and saying something like - "nobody knows this, but Elena's the one going home".

On another note - when the ousted HG runs through the door to greet Julie does the studio audience ALWAYS cheer and clap?  I'd like to hear some boos some time.   

[nkotb]

The stupid dripping off of these people hurts my head. I swear, though, Josh will be in the final 2. Mark my words, the final 2 will either be Josh & Christmas or Josh & Paul. He's the perfect goat.

3 minutes ago, Pondlass1 said:

The most mind-boggling for me was HOH Josh smugly looking into the camera and saying something like - "nobody knows this, but Elena's the one going home".

On another note - when the ousted HG runs through the door to greet Julie does the studio audience ALWAYS cheer and clap?  I'd like to hear some boos some time.   

I didn't watch the 1st 2 seasons, but I know that in the Aaryn year, they stacked the audience with CBS people, who wouldn't dare boo her, even though, if anyone ever, ever, ever deserved it, she did. I kind of think that Amanda might have received a few boos that same year, but I can't be 100% sure.

If those idiots were paying attention, the crowd erupted when Mark won that Veto puzzle, which should have given them a clue that Mark is pretty popular, & they're maybe not. 

[Rachel RSL]

9 minutes ago, Pondlass1 said:

On another note - when the ousted HG runs through the door to greet Julie does the studio audience ALWAYS cheer and clap?  I'd like to hear some boos some time.   

Most of the time they tell the studio audience not to boo. At least, that's what I've heard from people who have attended live tapings. (I remember being shocked when Christine was booed so soundly in her season.) Not to mention that the audience is often stacked with CBS employees/interns. That's why the audience reaction is rarely a good way to judge popularity.

[LoneHaranguer]

21 hours ago, ghoulina said:

So only the viewers would have noticed? 

Christmas did, but didn't care. If it matters to anyone else, Paul could claim that he incorrectly guessed what the question was, although he pushed it a bit on being able to do that.

[Nashville]

1 hour ago, Rachel RSL said:

Most of the time they tell the studio audience not to boo. At least, that's what I've heard from people who have attended live tapings. (I remember being shocked when Christine was booed so soundly in her season.) Not to mention that the audience is often stacked with CBS employees/interns. That's why the audience reaction is rarely a good way to judge popularity.

Ever since Aryan's House exit TPTB have taken pains to avoid boofests - and with the exception of Christine, they've been by-and-large successful.  Production has several tricks up their collective sleeves to this end:

1. Most common is filling the "studio audience" seats with CBS interns and employees who would cheer for Voldemort if it meant they got to keep their jobs.  
2. IIRC in at least one case (FmfG?) producers were so fearful of a negative backlash that not only did they employ Tactic #1, they also shifted the program schedule so FmfG's eviction was taped (not live) and moved to earlier in the day - thus escaping the possibility of fans of boo-worthy potential from even being in the vicinity during taping.

Studio audience reaction to Christine, I think, took TPTB totally by surprise; Production seriously underestimated the depth of audience animosity for Christine's Cody-fawning, and it caught them flat-footed.

[Mumbles]

I hope Mark wins fan favorite. It would be a reward for sincerity, and a nice thing for a former fat kid picked on by bullies.

[Nashville]

35 minutes ago, LoneHaranguer said:

Christmas did, but didn't care. If it matters to anyone else, Paul could claim that he incorrectly guessed what the question was, although he pushed it a bit on being able to do that.

Agreed.  Paul's choice of Cameron was stupid and obvious.  If Paul actually recognized the Halting Hex clue and surmised the answer was Jessica, better to have picked "Cody" instead; at least that way Paul could claim with a grain of basis he thought the encrypted question was about who the Hex was used on.

[laurakaye]

3 hours ago, eurekagirl mOo said:

SO if I talk to a cop I MUST be a cop? What an idiot! I think he is "gangster" or at least grew up in that world. You know who else knows cops besides over cops? Gangsters! My ex had a LOT of cop problems (his own doing) & he knew (and even liked) quite a few cops from his times in & out of the system. It should go without saying that when I met him I said 1 single cop problem & we. are. done. He NEVER got in trouble after that! 

Another great example of this season's mob mentality.  All it took was for Alex to tell Jason that she thinks Kevin is a cop and Jason's all........"ummm?  Err - YEAH!  He's TOTALLY A COP!"  You could practically hear all three of his brain cells working on coming to that conclusion.  Having spent as much time together as they have, you'd think that Jason would know enough about Kevin to laugh at Alex's comment and move on.  Instead, he's fully on board the Kevin/Cop train.  And why?  Because Alex said so.  It seems that if words are uttered by Alex or Paul, the others don't even blink or question anything.  I mean, we've all seen people go along with the supposed "leaders" in reality contests like this before, only to bide their time and take the leader out.  In this case?  I can't see any one of them standing up to Palex.  They'll each head off to the jury, where they will continue to berate Cody, Elena and (probably) Mark, carrying on the mighty works of the Great Your Boy, and applaud like mad when Paul takes the money as if they'd won it themselves.

Edited August 22, 2017 by laurakaye

[Rachel RSL]

I might be completely misremembering this but didn't Alex make some sort of comment about how the only people who know cops are either cops or criminals? (Or words to that effect?) Because if those were the only two options, I would immediately veer towards the criminal option. I mean, have they met Kevin?

[ghoulina]

1 hour ago, Mumbles said:

I hope Mark wins fan favorite. It would be a reward for sincerity, and a nice thing for a former fat kid picked on by bullies.

Yes, I previously wanted Kevin to get it, but now I hope it's Mark as well. 

 

21 minutes ago, Rachel RSL said:

I might be completely misremembering this but didn't Alex make some sort of comment about how the only people who know cops are either cops or criminals? (Or words to that effect?) Because if those were the only two options, I would immediately veer towards the criminal option. I mean, have they met Kevin?

Yea, I think that's basically what she said. She was all, "He said he KNEW Derrick! How ELSE could he know Derrick?" Because apparently cops have no neighbors, no friends, no acquaintances outside of work. But yea, I definitely would think mobster before cop. 

[Vixenstud]

I would like for Mark to, right before being evicted, gives an impassive speech about bullying to kids that may be watching the show.  And I especially want there to be deafening cheers when he's evicted.

[MarysWetBar]

On 21/08/2017 at 10:54 AM, Rachel RSL said:

Except....the others are playing the game. They're all making strategic decisions and forming alliances, they just don't realize that Paul is currently playing the game better than the rest of them.  

Paul is playing Derrick's game.

I hate that way of "playing".

I enjoy the competitions and some rivalry and gamework.

Some humor, even. These idiots are not funny. Kevin was bit funny but hes disappointed me now too, the way he rolled over with Alex. He looked like a doddering old fool.

In case i haven't mentioned it-I hate this season and dont care who wins.

[Rachel RSL]

Paul isn't playing Derrick's game, just like Derrick wasn't playing Dan's game, just like Dan wasn't playing Dr. Will's game.  None of those guys had some sort of super secret strategy - they were just really good at creating strong alliances, reading people and knowing how to get them to do what they want. Paul also seems to have mastered those things. I really don't know how else the game can be played or won. 

[Mumbles]

I think Paul is playing a different game than Derrick. The genius in Derrick's game was the other players had no idea they were being played. None of them - Cody, Frankie, Caleb, Zach - did anything at Derrick's direct bidding - Derrick was just smart enough to position himself so he would benefit from what they were going to do. In contrast, Paul has psychologically positioned himself as these idiots' leader. They do everything he asks. He tells them what to do.

Another big difference was that there was not the level of cruelty in Derrick's game. No screaming, no brow-beating, no bullying. I can't imagine Derrick ordering his guys to bang pots to mock Donnie, for example. 

[LoneHaranguer]

2 hours ago, ghoulina said:

She was all, "He said he KNEW Derrick! How ELSE could he know Derrick?" Because apparently cops have no neighbors, no friends, no acquaintances outside of work.

And it's not like Derrick could have been on any kind of BB promo tour visiting big cities like Boston, where Kevin is from and may have attended. FWIW, cops do hold community-relations events, with National Night Out being country-wide annually, so Kevin could have met him at something like that too.

[JerseyGirl]

9 hours ago, nkotb said:

Just according to Jokers (I think that's the website), the more popular players are Mark, Cody & Jess, with the bottom being Paul, Christmas, Josh...that whole crew. If I'm wrong, correct me, that's what I saw last week, anyway.

The bottom two least popular players on Jokers have been Raven and Matt since about Day 1.  Even Meghan is above them, including Josh, Christmas and Paul.

[Eolivet]

4 hours ago, Mumbles said:

I think Paul is playing a different game than Derrick. The genius in Derrick's game was the other players had no idea they were being played. None of them - Cody, Frankie, Caleb, Zach - did anything at Derrick's direct bidding - Derrick was just smart enough to position himself so he would benefit from what they were going to do. In contrast, Paul has psychologically positioned himself as these idiots' leader. They do everything he asks. He tells them what to do.

Because Derrick literally did that for a living. It's why Derrick was the ringiest ringer that ever ringered, and why I don't find his game nearly as impressive as Dan the high school football coach or Dr. Will, the plastic surgeon, or Maggie the nurse -- none of whom are paid to do that in real life.

As others have stated, I do think Paul is going to wind up exactly like Survivor's Boston Rob (on his fourth try) if he makes it to the end -- where I believe after the season, the other players said they didn't really like him, but they hated the other finalists so much more. And if he takes Josh (or Alex), that's exactly what will happen.

[rockibirdi]

I haven't watched the live feeds, but from just seeing the show it seems like no one is even thinking about using Paul as a pawn. I am kind of shocked that the topic hasn't come up.  Why wouldn't Jason or Matt say something- broach the subject in a casual way?  One of them could go through all those available to be pawns and see what the reasoning is to use or not use each guest. This would give Jason and Matt info if nothing else.  Really, Paul would probably be an ideal pawn because most at this time don't want to vote him out. (Not that they shouldn't get him out! I don't get what is wrong with these people.  How can they be so blind?)

It is embarrassing watching Christmas talk about "big moves" in her gleeful, ain't I smart way.  Her manner tells me that she thinks that we think she is an amazing player.  She is imagining the audience is with her, when, IMO, she is coming across as a big dope and definitely not a great player. 

Edited August 23, 2017 by rockibirdi

[ketchuplover]

17 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

Paul could take a crap in the backyard and rub most if not all of the remaining house guest's noses in it and they would thank him for doing so.

I wasn't too thrilled when Mark backed down when confronted by Paul about Mark's conversation with Jason while playing chess. 

The chessboard is set up wrongly.  A white square goes to the near right corner

[jumper sage]

7 hours ago, Mumbles said:

I think Paul is playing a different game than Derrick. The genius in Derrick's game was the other players had no idea they were being played. None of them - Cody, Frankie, Caleb, Zach - did anything at Derrick's direct bidding - Derrick was just smart enough to position himself so he would benefit from what they were going to do. In contrast, Paul has psychologically positioned himself as these idiots' leader. They do everything he asks. He tells them what to do.

Another big difference was that there was not the level of cruelty in Derrick's game. No screaming, no brow-beating, no bullying. I can't imagine Derrick ordering his guys to bang pots to mock Donnie, for example. 

I completely agree!

[GeorgiaRai]

True confession:  I still like Alex.  She hasn't gotten on my nerves, and I feel like I really don't see much of her compared to Josh, Kevin & Mark. 

I don't hate Jason but I hope he leaves this week, forcing Alex to find a new BFF in Mark.  He's aware of the threat posed by Paul & maybe could shake Alex's faith in him.  Like others have said, it baffles me that the HGs don't ever talk about Paul among themselves.  Start comparing notes, people!!  And listen to Mark!!

[mojoween]

Christmas's DR's with her scrunchy face made me hate her.

I like Mark and he seems sweet.  But he brought a lot of this on himself by throwing the crap in Josh's face.

I mean, Josh dials every slight up to 11 and overreacts to everything, but Mark 100% should not have done that.  His summer would most likely be a lot smoother if he hadn't because the jackals would not have that to fall back on.

The hamsters in the house have free thought.  If they do Paul's bidding, that's on them.  Not on Paul, not on Grodner.

[HighMaintenance]

Ditto on the Zingbot.  It wasn't funny the first time it appeared and it hasn't been amusing any of the following seasons.  Couldn't they do a crossover and have some of the queens from Ru-Paul's drag race come into the house and throw some wicked shade at the hamsters??  Now THAT would be entertaining!

Where did the endurance comps go?    Bring back the torture cage from BB6 where they had to hold a button and peed themselves!  OR the BB8 endurance challenge where you had to stand on a post and have freezing water showered on you.  Today's hamsters have it too easy I tells ya!  *Shakes cane and yells at cloud*

[Rachel RSL]

28 minutes ago, icemiser69 said:

I would settle for the clown shoe comp, and that wasn't much of an endurance competition.

Clown Shoe is usually what they play during double eliminations so I was bitterly disappointed when they skipped it in favour of that stupid puzzle piece comp! (Although, I don't know that I agree about them altering comps to accommodate Christmas. There have been quite a few she wasn't allowed to compete in and there's still plenty of time left in the season for the ones that you mentioned.)

[Kip Hackman]

41 minutes ago, icemiser69 said:

 The vast majority of the house don't even deserve a participation trophy. 

It's funny because it's true.

[llewis823]

14 hours ago, rockibirdi said:

It is embarrassing watching Christmas talk about "big moves" in her gleeful, ain't I smart way.  Her manner tells me that she thinks that we think she is an amazing player.  She is imagining the audience is with her, when, IMO, she is coming across as a big dope and definitely not a great player. 

Exactly.

[laurakaye]

1 hour ago, icemiser69 said:

I can't stand that metal piece of crap, Zingbot.  That screechy voice triggers my migraines.  I hope someone will list all of the crap flying out of that tinhole's mouth.  It will probably be all kinds of "stoopid", but I would like to read it nonetheless.  

+100000.  What I can't stand is the way the houseguests hoot and holler and high-five each other and ROTFLMAO because they are just so interesting, clever, and hysterically funny that a piece of tin has to come in and "zing" them.  Especially this group, who believe that they're the equivalent of the 7th grade cool-kids table.  Meanwhile, the viewing audience will sit through this most painful of episodes trying not to fracture our facial muscles due to extreme and prolonged eye-rolling, and no one will get called out for the things they absolutely should be called out for.

[LoneHaranguer]

1 hour ago, icemiser69 said:

Where are all of the physical/endurance competitions from season's past?

Probably shot down by lawyers. They'd have to do what others have done with "dangerous" comps and film outside the U.S.

[Mumbles]

But they did do an endurance comp earlier this season....the wall one that Alex won. And given that the show has been on 19 seasons and we've never heard of it getting sued, those waivers must be ironclad.

If we don't see the slippy-slide competition in the next week or two (an old standby for years and years), I would suspect they are avoiding very physical competitions because of Christmas.

[Wandering Snark]

We also had OTEV that was a non-available to Christmas comp.

[ghoulina]

On 8/22/2017 at 2:55 PM, Mumbles said:

I think Paul is playing a different game than Derrick. The genius in Derrick's game was the other players had no idea they were being played. None of them - Cody, Frankie, Caleb, Zach - did anything at Derrick's direct bidding - Derrick was just smart enough to position himself so he would benefit from what they were going to do. In contrast, Paul has psychologically positioned himself as these idiots' leader. They do everything he asks. He tells them what to do.

Another big difference was that there was not the level of cruelty in Derrick's game. No screaming, no brow-beating, no bullying. I can't imagine Derrick ordering his guys to bang pots to mock Donnie, for example. 

Agree 100%. I'm one of the few Derrick fans out there. Derrick's game, IMO, was very subtle. Paul is like a damned sledgehammer. Paul's people are happily doing his bidding. Derrick's didn't figure it out until it was too late. 

 

4 hours ago, mojoween said:

I like Mark and he seems sweet.  But he brought a lot of this on himself by throwing the crap in Josh's face.

I mean, Josh dials every slight up to 11 and overreacts to everything, but Mark 100% should not have done that.  His summer would most likely be a lot smoother if he hadn't because the jackals would not have that to fall back on.

I agree that Mark should not have thrown the pickle juice. But I don't know that he'd have had a smooth summer otherwise. I think the main reason he started getting treated like shit was his refusal to lock-step march after King Paul. He was friends with Cody. He talked to Cody. He didn't ostracize him when others did. That kind of individual thinking has no room in the house this year. 

[springbarb]

On 8/22/2017 at 5:25 AM, icemiser69 said:

I wasn't too thrilled when Mark backed down when confronted by Paul about Mark's conversation with Jason while playing chess. 

There really wasn't anything Mark could've said at that point. I've been in those conversations with bullies, where I know that nothing I say will make a difference, no matter how logical or persuasive or accurate.

[Rachel RSL]

1 hour ago, ghoulina said:

Derrick's didn't figure it out until it was too late. 

I'm pretty sure they still haven't figured it out. 

[LoneHaranguer]

4 hours ago, Mumbles said:

If we don't see the slippy-slide competition in the next week or two (an old standby for years and years), I would suspect they are avoiding very physical competitions because of Christmas.

Because they wanted her to compete, or because when she got hurt somebody said "oh crap, we'd better make sure nobody else gets hurt"?

[Mumbles]

Quote

Because they wanted her to compete, or because when she got hurt somebody said "oh crap, we'd better make sure nobody else gets hurt"?

My instinct points to the former.