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Sunday, September 27, 2009
 
We're Racing Again!

Some of you may recall my posts on several series of the Amazing Race. After a little burnout on the show, I'm back to cover this season of TAR.

Initial impressions:

1. Interracial couple
2. Poker Players (yay!)
3. Asperger's syndrome guy
4. Songwriters/Christians
5. Harlem Globetrotters (!)
6. Gay brothers
7. Farmer & Son
8. Yoga N The Hood
9. Fiery Colombian Gal
10. SF Internet Couple
11. Blonde Beachers.
12. Obnoxious Lawyer and Girlfriend (Wife?)

Show starts off with a license plate challenge; teams have to locate one of 11 license plates from the area of Tokyo where they are going. The big clue is a symbol at the top of the clue, but surprisingly nobody notices it at first, and so almost everybody picks wrong at first. As it happens, the Obnoxious Lawyer team and Yoga N the Hood are the last teams, but the Lawyer's Wife locates the final plate. Bye-bye, Yoga!

The remaining teams are flying to Tokyo on two separate flights. The Poker Players are pretending to be gals working with the homeless, because they know this will help them seem more sympathetic than if they admit they are poker pros. And suddenly I recognize Tiffany as Tiffany Michelle, the final woman left in the 2008 Main Event. She was pretty obnoxious in that tournament, so I can't root for her any more despite our poker connection.

The teams arrive in Tokyo virtually simultaneously, despite the fact that the first flight was supposed to leave a half hour early. They have to locate a TV station in the base of the Tokyo Tower. It turns out that they are all part of a game show called "Wasabi Roulette". The host spins a giant roulette wheel and the contestants have to eat whatever sushi turns up in front of them. But if it's a Wasabi roll, they have to finish it in two minutes and if they do, they can leave. The first couple of contestants manage it easily, and embarrassingly, the Oriental gal who's part of the Poker Player team is unable to finish in time. Hilariously, and predictably she gets the Wasabi roll again the next turn, and we get the first of this season's "I can't do this," moments. But when we come back, she chows it down.

The teams then have to lead 20 of the people at the game show (all wearing one color hat) through the busiest intersection in Tokyo, and then to a shrine, where the pitstop for this leg is located. Everybody seems to have trouble locating the shrine, but the Blonde Beachers win, and the Poker Players manage to lose two of their audience members. After doubling back and quarreling about how Tiffany was supposed to keep them together, they finally decide to head to the mat. There, Phil advises them that they will have a two-hour penalty. Say what? Yep, this is a non-elimination leg. Apparently they have gotten rid of the old requirement that people give up all their possessions and all their money for the next leg, however, so we don't get to see Tiffany and Maria begging on the streets of Tokyo.

Next destination: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. They all get on the same plane, so the Poker Players have already made up their two-hour penalty, although they have a special task they will have to perform. Once in Vietnam, the teams have to travel by bus to a small fishing village on the Mekong. The first bus leaves an hour and 15 minutes before the second one, but guess what? Neither of them arrives early enough for the task (involving a ride up the Mekong), so they're all stuck until the next morning. Incidentally, the guy with Asperger's does a very kind thing on the bus ride and gives his jacket to one of the peasants on the bus.

One amusing little subplot; the Poker Players and the Gay Brothers are cooperating, getting taxis together and the like. Tiffany and Maria think the GBs are hot, but of course the GBs are not really interested, although they play that way. So both teams are conning each other. The Poker Players have been revealed, by the way, by somebody who approached them in line at the airport in Tokyo.

The next task is to ride up the Mekong and spread mud around a fruit tree. Tiffany and Maria have their separate task of preparing a meal for the harbor master. Fortunately Maria knows the meal well, and he is pleased and gives them their clue, so while they are in last, they are not hopelessly behind.

The mud task provides its quota of slips and falls but everybody seems to leave in roughly the order they arrived. Next task: go back to the harbor and do some duck herding. Apparently the peasants use the ducks to clear their rice paddies of insects that would destroy the crop.

Not surprisingly the mixed-gender teams all decide to use their female members to handle this part, which means we get much shouting and berating on the part of the male team members. The guy with Asperger's Syndrome (a mild form of autism) is the duck whisperer; he seems to glide through this challenge. The Farmer's son kicks a little duck butt, and Tiffany Michelle had ducks while she was growing up, so she does well also.

The final task is to run to a boat on the river. This proves to be a real challenge to locate at first and to everybody's surprise, the farmer and his son (with pink hair?) win the leg and are awarded kayaks. At the end it's a race between the interracial couple and another couple (I think the one with the fiery Colombian Gal) and the interracials win out.

I'm rooting for: Asperger's Syndrome Guy and his buddy.
I'm rooting against: Obnoxious lawyer.
Watch out for:

Eric the Viking Pundit also has up his account of this episode of TAR.

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Monday, September 21, 2009
 
Obligatory Hall of Fame Post

The preliminary list for next year has been announced. A lot of these guys will not be on the final (15-man) ballot. My take:

Will be inducted immediately: Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith. These guys are what the Hall of Fame is all about.

Probably will make it this year: Cris Carter, Shannon Sharpe, Gary Anderson.

Really should make it eventually but it will take time: Aeneas Williams, Kenny Anderson, John Randle, Andre Reed, Cortez Kennedy, Richard Dent.

First time on the ballot but no real chance: Eddie George, Rich Gannon.

BTW, one stat that you may not have heard about the astonishing Jerry Rice, one of my favorite players of all time. Did you know that he caught over 440 NFL passes before he fumbled for the first time and over 520 passes before he fumbled and the opposition recovered it?

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Sunday, September 20, 2009
 
Matt Sanchez Era Looking Good to Jets fans So Far

There are not many rookie quarterbacks who start their careers 2-0, especially when you consider that second game was against the New England Patriots. Tom Brady was last beaten in a regular season game on December 10, 2006.

Kurt Warner of the Cardinals established an NFL record for a single game by completing 24 of 26 passes, for a scintillating 92.3% completion percentage. Warner returned to his 2008 form after a subpar game against the 49ers. Beanie Wells ran well in his second outing, but found himself riding the pines after two fumbles on only seven carries, one of which resulted in a turnover. Matt Leinart looked a little shaky in the mop-up role, and the Cards would probably have had to put back in Warner if Jaguars wide receiver Nate Hughes not decided to try to catch a sure touchdown pass with his helmet instead of his hands. Predictably, the ball bounced off incomplete.

Brett Favre did not throw deep, but he almost as accurate as Warner, completing 23 of 27, but for only 151. His longest completion was for 14 yards.
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Tuesday, September 15, 2009
 
Human Rights Watch Researcher Collects Nazi Memorabilia?

Heheh, can't imagine where he gets his anti-Israel bias.

His hobby, inspired he said by a German grandfather conscripted into Hitler’s army, was revealed on a pro-Israel blog, Mere Rhetoric Mere Rhetoric, which quoted his enthusiastic postings on collector sites under the pseudonym “Flak88” — including, “That is so cool! The leather SS jacket makes my blood go cold it is so COOL!”


Okay, that Flak88 name should be a huge red flag, although the Times fails to mention why. "88" is neo-Nazi code for "Heil Hitler", as H is the 8th letter of the alphabet.

Update: Okay, commenters urged me to do some research, and at least according to this wikipedia page,

Germany's high-altitude needs were originally going to be filled by a 75 mm gun from Krupp, designed in collaboration with their Swedish counterpart Bofors, but the specifications were later amended to require much higher performance. In response Krupp's engineers presented a new 88 mm design, the FlaK 36. The eighty-eight would go on to become one of the most famous artillery pieces in history. First used in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, the gun proved to be one of the best anti-aircraft guns in the world, as well as particularly deadly against light and medium tanks.


Still I find it pretty creepy that a researcher for HRW's nick is a gun that no doubt killed many American aviators.
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Saturday, September 05, 2009
 
And Down the Stretch They Come!

My picks for the baseball awards, through August:

AL MVP: Joe Mauer, Twins. A catcher leading the league in hitting? Mauer's done that before (2006, 2008) , but he's never combined it with the sort of power--26 HR--that he's shown this season.

NL MVP: Chase Utley, Phillies. In my opinion, he's as good a player (not a hitter) as Albert Pujols. Both are having terrific years, but at some point, somebody has to acknowledge that this guy is a second baseman who's knocked in 100+ runs for the last four years. He's going to do it again this year.

AL Cy Young: Zack Greinke, Kansas City Royals. Look, this kid has star written all over him, he's leading the league in ERA, he's got a fine won/lost record considering his team, he's had some ridiculous lines this year. I really think he deserves it over some of the guys like Sabathia and Verlander who would probably finish ahead of him if the season ended today.

NL Cy Young: Chris Carpenter, St. Louis. Yeah, he's a finesse pitcher but you can't argue with the results. Almost certainly will get Comeback Player of the Year as well.

Team to Beat: Yankees. Please.
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Friday, September 04, 2009
 
Where Did All the Bipartisanship Go?

Joe Gandelman mourns the loss of civility in politics and remembers the time, from about 2001 to 2008, when the party out of power did not engage in petty politics, but put their shoulders to the wheel and helped the president.

The present frenzy suggests that the seeds are now being sowed for a mega-polarized America that could be almost ungovernable in the 21st century if this trend continues unabated.

If Republicans and conservatives make the very legitimacy of Obama his patriotism — even the safety of allowing little kids listen to him tell them to stay in school and think about helping their community — the issue, and link his name to Hitler and/or Nazism, precisely how do they think Democrats and the left will respond next time a GOPer is in power?


The same way they did the last time a GOPer was in power; linking his name to Hitler and/or Nazism. I mean, seriously, Joe, were you stoned the least 8 years?
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