Amazing Race is back!

[ajzepp]

So you did'nt like Jamie & Cara?

 

This was a very good and tense episode. The road block with the dinosaur skeleton was one of the best challenges I've seen in awhile.

 

It was great seeing the teams having some fun by playing basketball.

 

Still cheering for the Cowboys. Loved how they passed Gary & Mallory after they used the express pass.

 

It was more the outspoken one I didn't like. I'm just a big believer in treating people you don't know with respect, and they really rubbed me the wrong way during their first season so it's stuck with me.

 

The dinosaur skeleton was awesome, I agree. I would have liked to see the ginger goth girl try to put that thing together...that would have triggered another meltdown in record time!

[UConn James]

How rude was it that ALL of the teams were commenting about still being in China?

 

Several years ago, I got into the habit of 4 p.m. tea time with a British-emigre couple I worked for during a summer. Being of partial Dutch heritage also, it was a callback to time spent at my grandparents'. Since then I've often taken 4 p.m. tea as a kind of communion, and have gone from classic Lipton decaf to a green tea period and now I'm really sticking with a Celestial Seasons Vanilla flavor. Really, if I were only allowed one flavor to have for the rest of my life it would be vanilla. Ice cream (Hood Vanilla Bean; Vanilla Coke (THE best).... Rest assured though, that I would probably go as nuts as Luke if forced to drink that much. I mean, seriously, people have died from drinking excessive amounts of liquids. It was nice to see the Indian guys rally around Luke and cheer him on at the end there. It's something you see in this kind of show that the people who have to judge a challenge have to be kind of stoic and not play favorites, but that was a thing of basic humanity.

 

How dumb was that of Jen and Kisha --- didn't even open the bottle!

 

Also nice that now, right at the end, they just gave Luke a nice chance to sign his thoughts. It's really great that AR hasn't been afraid of casting people with disabilities --- showing proof positive that they can handle stresses that even "normal" people have a hard time with --- and then they haven't been afraid of holding them to the same standards of the Race that they hold for everyone else.

[Rico]

Cowboys still kicking butt... jumped past 4 teams in traffic to finish 2nd.

[Dante]

How rude was it that ALL of the teams were commenting about still being in China?

 

 

Rude or honest? Since when is a communist outfit like China a place anyone would like to stay?

[GoodBye]

Cowboys still kicking butt... jumped past 4 teams in traffic to finish 2nd.

Woohoo, go cowboys!

 

How rude was it that ALL of the teams were commenting about still being in China?

 

Several years ago, I got into the habit of 4 p.m. tea time with a British-emigre couple I worked for during a summer. Being of partial Dutch heritage also, it was a callback to time spent at my grandparents'. Since then I've often taken 4 p.m. tea as a kind of communion, and have gone from classic Lipton decaf to a green tea period and now I'm really sticking with a Celestial Seasons Vanilla flavor. Really, if I were only allowed one flavor to have for the rest of my life it would be vanilla. Ice cream (Hood Vanilla Bean; Vanilla Coke (THE best).... Rest assured though, that I would probably go as nuts as Luke if forced to drink that much. I mean, seriously, people have died from drinking excessive amounts of liquids. It was nice to see the Indian guys rally around Luke and cheer him on at the end there. It's something you see in this kind of show that the people who have to judge a challenge have to be kind of stoic and not play favorites, but that was a thing of basic humanity.

 

How dumb was that of Jen and Kisha --- didn't even open the bottle!

 

Also nice that now, right at the end, they just gave Luke a nice chance to sign his thoughts. It's really great that AR hasn't been afraid of casting people with disabilities --- showing proof positive that they can handle stresses that even "normal" people have a hard time with --- and then they haven't been afraid of holding them to the same standards of the Race that they hold for everyone else.

Yeah, duh, it's a clue!

 

I have also just recently started drinking green tea most days due to it being cold lately. I get back from lunch break and am freezing so I drink the tea to warm me up. But I also heard that drinking it w/i 2 hours of a meal helps burn fat. It also does wonders for the skin!

[ajzepp]

I think India is one of my favorite stops on the race, so I hope they stay for at least one more episode. As for the outcome, I agree with James about how great it is that AR supports inclusion of folks with a handicap. I can't say I'm sad to see Luke and Margie go, though...I just get tired of all the crying with these two, just like with Mike White and his "on the brink of death" father. I'm sure the tea challenge was very frustrating, and he probably had to pee like a race horse, but is the emotional, tearful breakdown really necessary? It's just tea...you keep trying until you find the right one...it's not the end of planet earth. On top of that, Luke is a grown man...he needs to suck it up a bit. I feel kind of like a jerk for saying all this, but all the crying gets old.

[WWVaBeach]

I think India is one of my favorite stops on the race, so I hope they stay for at least one more episode. As for the outcome, I agree with James about how great it is that AR supports inclusion of folks with a handicap. I can't say I'm sad to see Luke and Margie go, though...I just get tired of all the crying with these two, just like with Mike White and his "on the brink of death" father. I'm sure the tea challenge was very frustrating, and he probably had to pee like a race horse, but is the emotional, tearful breakdown really necessary? It's just tea...you keep trying until you find the right one...it's not the end of planet earth. On top of that, Luke is a grown man...he needs to suck it up a bit. I feel kind of like a jerk for saying all this, but all the crying gets old.

Well you don't have to deal with it anymore.

 

The book challenge seemed hundreds times easier than painting the six armed elephant.

[Fezmid]

I think India is one of my favorite stops on the race, so I hope they stay for at least one more episode. As for the outcome, I agree with James about how great it is that AR supports inclusion of folks with a handicap. I can't say I'm sad to see Luke and Margie go, though...I just get tired of all the crying with these two, just like with Mike White and his "on the brink of death" father. I'm sure the tea challenge was very frustrating, and he probably had to pee like a race horse, but is the emotional, tearful breakdown really necessary? It's just tea...you keep trying until you find the right one...it's not the end of planet earth. On top of that, Luke is a grown man...he needs to suck it up a bit. I feel kind of like a jerk for saying all this, but all the crying gets old.

 

I didn't like them in the first race and I didn't like this time either. They're arrogant (especially the mom).

 

I also didn't like that the Race let them cheat on the tea challenge. At the end, you saw Luke bring up 5 cups of tea to the podium. Part of the challenge is to go back and forth to get the cups of tea and bring one up at a time...

[UConn James]

I think India is one of my favorite stops on the race, so I hope they stay for at least one more episode. As for the outcome, I agree with James about how great it is that AR supports inclusion of folks with a handicap. I can't say I'm sad to see Luke and Margie go, though...I just get tired of all the crying with these two, just like with Mike White and his "on the brink of death" father. I'm sure the tea challenge was very frustrating, and he probably had to pee like a race horse, but is the emotional, tearful breakdown really necessary? It's just tea...you keep trying until you find the right one...it's not the end of planet earth. On top of that, Luke is a grown man...he needs to suck it up a bit. I feel kind of like a jerk for saying all this, but all the crying gets old.

 

It's a lot more than frustrating, AJ. It's a serious physical challenge. Most of those cups were gone by the end, and some teams had gotten it very early on. I wouldn't be surprised if Luke had drank 200 cups. At that point, it's not a matter of having to pee. The body is not like a sieve where liquids go out as fast as they go in. I'm really not over-exaggerating the effects when I say people have died from excessive fluid intake, even over several hours. Most notably in the past few years was a radio station that held a contest for a Wii. I really hope AR had medical personnel on site who could regulate intake, but I'm really not sure of that.

 

The Globetrotter and Mallory were actually being very smart about it, and they dribbled a lot of tea onto their shirts. In one shot, you could see the Globetrotter just spitting it out. Luke, otoh, was really drinking all the tea.

 

For the groups who didn't get it right away, this challenge was right up there with the 'find the plastic food sample' challenge in Japan last season. That was brutal. But to top it here, you can't really puke up much water once it's in your system. Like I wrote, I really hope they had a medical consultant. Water is looked at as generally innocuous in the public consciousness. But like a lot of things, not getting enough can kill you but too much can kill you, too.

 

Well you don't have to deal with it anymore.

 

The book challenge seemed hundreds times easier than painting the six armed elephant.

 

But with it, comes the risk of getting lost.

 

The elephant doesn't move.

[ajzepp]

It's a lot more than frustrating, AJ. It's a serious physical challenge. Most of those cups were gone by the end, and some teams had gotten it very early on. I wouldn't be surprised if Luke had drank 200 cups. At that point, it's not a matter of having to pee. The body is not like a sieve where liquids go out as fast as they go in. I'm really not over-exaggerating the effects when I say people have died from excessive fluid intake, even over several hours. Most notably in the past few years was a radio station that held a contest for a Wii. I really hope AR had medical personnel on site who could regulate intake, but I'm really not sure of that.

 

The Globetrotter and Mallory were actually being very smart about it, and they dribbled a lot of tea onto their shirts. In one shot, you could see the Globetrotter just spitting it out. Luke, otoh, was really drinking all the tea.

 

For the groups who didn't get it right away, this challenge was right up there with the 'find the plastic food sample' challenge in Japan last season. That was brutal. But to top it here, you can't really puke up much water once it's in your system. Like I wrote, I really hope they had a medical consultant. Water is looked at as generally innocuous in the public consciousness. But like a lot of things, not getting enough can kill you but too much can kill you, too.

 

 

 

 

 

I hear what you're saying, but I don't really consider it as much of a risk as you do. Water is dangerous to take in excessive quantities because it's hypotonic. The tea they were drinking had fruit juice in it and whatever else. It wouldn't have disrupted the body chemistry to the same degree as plain water. That being said, you're right, Luke should have dribbled it all down his shirt or something. Either that, or do what Christina's father and Mallory did and just use your sense of smell. I still don't think this is an excuse for all the drama lol.

 

I didn't like them in the first race and I didn't like this time either. They're arrogant (especially the mom).

 

I also didn't like that the Race let them cheat on the tea challenge. At the end, you saw Luke bring up 5 cups of tea to the podium. Part of the challenge is to go back and forth to get the cups of tea and bring one up at a time...

 

I seem to remember feeling the same way about them at one point during their first race, too.

[Mark Vader]

During the tea challenge:

 

Kent: "I bring you mango and papaya."

 

Flight Time: "Here ya go Homey."

 

:lol:

[Dante]

I didn't like them in the first race and I didn't like this time either. They're arrogant (especially the mom).

 

I also didn't like that the Race let them cheat on the tea challenge. At the end, you saw Luke bring up 5 cups of tea to the podium. Part of the challenge is to go back and forth to get the cups of tea and bring one up at a time...

Not sad they're gone. They always need to pair with other teams to advance. Luke was a whiner.

Edited March 29, 2011 by Dante

[Delete This Account]

still rooting for the cowboys, who impressed me more and more last episode.

unlike others through this series, who have disparaged India as a dirty, ugly place, i found the cowboys take on how they love India to be interesting. they strike me as two pretty cool guys.

 

jw

[Fezmid]

still rooting for the cowboys, who impressed me more and more last episode.

unlike others through this series, who have disparaged India as a dirty, ugly place, i found the cowboys take on how they love India to be interesting. they strike me as two pretty cool guys.

 

jw

Except that India pretty much is a dirty, ugly place from people I've talked to who have been over there....

[Delete This Account]

Except that India pretty much is a dirty, ugly place from people I've talked to who have been over there....

so's Buffalo. so is NYC. so's Tokyo. so are parts of London.

so what.

 

what i'm getting at is a person's appreciation of different cultures and different places, as opposed to expressing a knee-jerk personal bias by writing off a place simply because it's "different," and not like the suburban cul de sac, with the mini-mall plaza up the street that far too many north americans are comfortable with.

 

jw

Edited March 29, 2011 by john wawrow

[Fezmid]

so's Buffalo. so is NYC. so's Tokyo. so are parts of London.

so what.

 

what i'm getting at is a person's appreciation of different cultures and different places, as opposed to expressing a knee-jerk personal bias by writing off a place simply because it's "different," and not like the suburban cul de sac, with the mini-mall plaza up the street that far too many north americans are comfortable with.

 

jw

 

I disagree that it's a knee jerk reaction. Across from my company's office building in Bangalore is a giant trash heap that people walk up to and urinate on. The smell in the city is atrocious. The respect for women is non-existent. I think you can safely say, "I don't like this place" and not have it be a knee-jerk reaction.

 

I visited Cairo, Egypt for a couple of days a few months ago. The city smelled, there was garbage floating in the river, people were burning garbage on the side of the road. It was an interesting place to visit, but it was also a dirty dump that I have no interest in ever returning to. Is that a knee jerk reaction? No, I experienced the culture for a couple of days enough to know that I don't like it. You can appreciate a culture and still think the country (and culture) sucks.

[Delete This Account]

I disagree that it's a knee jerk reaction. Across from my company's office building in Bangalore is a giant trash heap that people walk up to and urinate on. The smell in the city is atrocious. The respect for women is non-existent. I think you can safely say, "I don't like this place" and not have it be a knee-jerk reaction.

 

I visited Cairo, Egypt for a couple of days a few months ago. The city smelled, there was garbage floating in the river, people were burning garbage on the side of the road. It was an interesting place to visit, but it was also a dirty dump that I have no interest in ever returning to. Is that a knee jerk reaction? No, I experienced the culture for a couple of days enough to know that I don't like it. You can appreciate a culture and still think the country (and culture) sucks.

sure. i get that. i personally get that eerie feeling every time i venture into the suburbs. the whole idea of the suburbs frightens the bejeezus out of me. all these lawns, and no sidewalks, and people not wanting senior citizens to move in.

it's so sterile and lacking in insipiration, of fat, pretentious ashley furniture inbreeding -- statues and big-legged dining room tables -- that it's a reflection of how doomed society has become in some places.

 

jw

[ajzepp]

still rooting for the cowboys, who impressed me more and more last episode.

unlike others through this series, who have disparaged India as a dirty, ugly place, i found the cowboys take on how they love India to be interesting. they strike me as two pretty cool guys.

 

jw

 

I completely agree, John. That's something I typically really pay attention to when I watch this race. I don't care how dirty or nasty a particular locale may be, there is ALWAYS something about the culture and/or the experience that you can appreciate and learn from. That's the approach I'd take if I were on this race, and I really appreciate it when I see other teams who take time to smell the roses and appreciate the world cultures. That's one of my favorite parts of the show, and I think a lot of teams miss the forest for the trees. You just don't get opportunities like this every day. I honestly wouldn't give a crap about the million bucks. The experience of having a structured and fun way to travel the world would be the reward.

[Dante]

I completely agree, John. That's something I typically really pay attention to when I watch this race. I don't care how dirty or nasty a particular locale may be, there is ALWAYS something about the culture and/or the experience that you can appreciate and learn from. That's the approach I'd take if I were on this race, and I really appreciate it when I see other teams who take time to smell the roses and appreciate the world cultures. That's one of my favorite parts of the show, and I think a lot of teams miss the forest for the trees. You just don't get opportunities like this every day. I honestly wouldn't give a crap about the million bucks. The experience of having a structured and fun way to travel the world would be the reward.

I don't know. Going by everything they show while in India and Africa, there is nothing good about those places. Dirty air. Dirty cities. Stinky people. Bad food. Animals running around crapping every where. Poverty and so on. Forget it.

[Delete This Account]

I don't know. Going by everything they show while in India and Africa, there is nothing good about those places. Dirty air. Dirty cities. Stinky people. Bad food. Animals running around crapping every where. Poverty and so on. Forget it.

the food is bad? i guess i forgot to set the "taste" button on my TV. and my smell-o-meter is broken.

"nothing good." that's a broad generalization, i think. nothing good? really?

 

wonder if the same would be said about "Amazing Race" India if their competitors ventured into some North American slums.

 

in my travels, i'll tell you where i had the worst food. England, of all places. bland, over-priced dinners. (lunches were good, though).

 

jw