The penalty used to be the time you saved by not following directions correctly, PLUS a 30-minute punitive penalty. If no time is saved (i.e. taking a 2nd clue out of the box) then it’s just a 30 minute penalty. Skipping a Detour or Roadblock is 4 hours, or at least it was in TAR6. In TAR1, that penalty was 24 hours.
In the Italy leg of TAR1, penalties were indeed handed out for 2 teams not following the directions correctly. Also, the last place team received a time credit for production difficulties. None of the rankings were changed, and it was an NEL (before the mugging rule, so you lost nothing by being last) so there was no real effect on the race itself.
Lake & Michelle were on the Early Show, and they said that their relationship is actually a healthy one, and you got to see their worst side because of the stress of the Race. So there’s no need to call Dr. Phil, apparently. (I loved how Michelle had to talk Lake down from that stress attack…that was priceless!)
How are you doing in stupid class? Do you aim for an A or an F in that subject?
I always thought they had a pretty healthy relationship, even from what they showed. Sure, Lake can be an asshole, but he knows he can be an asshole, and she knows exactly how to deal with it. She doesn’t take any crap from him, and he usually seemed to back off pretty quickly. They’re a little volatile, but I think I’d hang out with them.
You can visit those towns any time, if you don’t mind lake effect snow. Although, personally, I think Ithaca is the “money melon” of upstate NY towns. Cornell is there, you know.
That’s IPA notation. * refers to the way almost all languages other than Enligsh pronounce “i”: “ee” as in “bleed”.
Actually I wouldn’t be surprised if the Greeks were confused about differences in vowel pronunciations. When I was in Brazil and had to spell my name, even folks who spoke perfect English wrote down an “e” when I said “a”.
[QUOTE=Smeghead]
How are you doing in stupid class? Do you aim for an A or an F in that subject?[./QUOTE]
: Throws **Smeghead ** at **rockle ** River City Ransom style. :
I’m actually a Syracuse alum, so I’m well aware of the Classics bender that 19th century New Yorkers were on. Hmm, while visiting Ithaca I could drive two hours north to Mexico…
[QUOTE=Mama Tiger]
As best I can recall from comments from racers in previous seasons:
Handheld compasses are allowed, but mechanical only.
NO electronics are allowed.
more discussion of the rules…
[QUOTE]
Do the contestants on AR have an average distribution of navigations skills? To me (I consider myself to have excellent navigations skills), the average seems very low. I conclude they are selected for this trait by the production staff. The question is, how do the production staff weed out fakers? If I got selected to audition, I would want to appear emotionally unstable, unable to navigate etc. However, it does not seem that there are “cheaters” like this in any season I can remember. How do you think the production staff does it?
Casting is totally a mystery. They seem to cast for certain types – gay couple, siblings, alpha males, married couple, old couple, one black couple, dating couple (preferably long distance) etc. – but beyond that, they’re casting for what they think will make good television. Which certainly isn’t what I would be casting for, but they haven’t hired me, alas.
One thing I really don’t like is that they seem to be moving more and more to teams that are there to resolve some internal issue – how well can siblings separated for a long time get along (Lisa & Joni)? Can a racer overcome his fear of flying (John of John & Scott, also filling the gay couple box)? Can a married couple handle the stress (Lake & Michelle)? Can the long-distance dating couple get along (Ray & Yolanda, filling multiple boxes)? Etc. I’ve seen interviews where they say they’re casting more for conflict. Yuck. Conflict in a team is what I least enjoy watching. But apparently they think that makes for good TV. I wish they’d ask the fans what we would like to see; I suspect the folks who want to see intra- or inter-team fighting are definitely in the minority. Based on nothing but a sheer WAG on my part, I hasten to add.
Me, I like the inter- and intra-team fighting (so long as it doesn’t cross the line into abuse). No one’s going to travel around the world with one person and not have conflicts, even without the stress of racing, camera crews, etc. If all we got was a travelogue with bungee jumps sprinkled through I would find that quite dull. I want to see someone unroll a thousand haystacks and not give up despite having to know it’s hopeless. I want to see teams snarking at each other. I want to see “Oh my GOD! My ox is BROKEN! This is BULLSHIT!” Actually I want to see that last one again and again and again. Anyway, I think the show has done a reasonably good job of balancing the scenery, the tasks and the conflicts through its history. With the esception of too many instances of “this is it, we’re eliminated” making it past the editors, but if you cut all of that out then the old people would never get any screen time at all.
I’m sorry, Smeg, and all involved. The “Da Vinci” promo was my fault. I watched “Race” yesterday on our DVR and skipped the commercials. Please accept my apologies.
I absolutely agree. The dullest season so far was TAR4, which had very little conflict between teams, and practically none within teams. Only Tian & Jaree came close (“I’m gonna rip your head off right now, you are so evil!”) and once they were gone, the rest of the season was dreadfully boring…and totally lacking eye candy, might I add.
