# Amazing Race 5/3 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 3, 2005, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-5-3/302217 "2005-05-03T12:20:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2005, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-5-3/302217/61 "2005-05-04T22:24:44Z")
> [@Fiver](#): > > What are you talking about? That’s how the word is pronounced. Naked is when you have no clothes on. **Nekkid** is when you have no clothes on and you’re _up to something_. (tm Lewis Grizzard, I think) ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2005, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-5-3/302217/62 "2005-05-05T01:30:58Z")
> [@lisacurl](#): > > Naked is when you have no clothes on. **Nekkid** is when you have no clothes on and you’re _up to something_. (tm Lewis Grizzard, I think) And you just think those three statues were just innocently hanging around at Hammersmith? Now who’s being naive, Marge? ---
**Author:** ![Jaade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@Jaade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaade)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2005, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-5-3/302217/63 "2005-05-05T02:07:55Z")
> [@SmackFu](#): > > But normally they get less than a $100 for a leg. They usually only get this much when they have to buy alternative transportation, like train or bus tickets. No, I think they generally get between $120 and $250, depending on how much in-country traveling they have to do. I also think that **Mama Tiger** is right about the food, I’ve always heard that they _don’t_ pay for their crew’s food. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Tiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Mama\_Tiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Tiger)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2005, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-5-3/302217/64 "2005-05-05T02:35:59Z")
Chris, who was out early in TAR4 with his race partner Amanda, described in some detail – I believe on TWOP – how in Venice, he and Amanda wanted to go back to the mask roadblock site to wait since only 4 teams were allowed in at once, but instead had to sit there for two hours and watch their crew eat a large Chinese meal. So yes, I’m quite confident that racers don’t pay for their crew’s food. But I’m still trying to figure out what all they spent all that money on in this leg. Although hour-long cab rides around London don’t come cheap, I’m sure. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2005, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-5-3/302217/65 "2005-05-05T09:24:32Z")
> [@Mama Tiger](#): > > Chris, who was out early in TAR4 with his race partner Amanda, described in some detail – I believe on TWOP – how in Venice, he and Amanda wanted to go back to the mask roadblock site to wait since only 4 teams were allowed in at once, but instead had to sit there for two hours and watch their crew eat a large Chinese meal. So yes, I’m quite confident that racers don’t pay for their crew’s food. I wonder if crews ever take advatage of that to screw with the heads of a pair they don’t particularly like. Not saying that was the case with Chris and Amanda, but it seems to me that eating a large and leisurely meal in front of a really obnoxious and starving team could be one way of sticking it to them. It seems quite wrong, though, for a team to have to wait while their crew eats if they actually want to go somewhere. My impression was always that the crew has to go wherever the team wants to go, whenever they want to go there. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2005, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-5-3/302217/66 "2005-05-05T11:43:24Z")
Re: the money they get for the leg… I always find it amusing that they stand there and count the money. You see one team member reading the clue and the other one carefully counting the money, as if making sure they didn’t get shorted. One says, “You will have $250 for this leg of the race.” And the other one’s standing there counting it saying, “One hundred, two hundred, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty - okay, let’s go!” I wonder if the production person with them makes them do that or if they just do it on their own. ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2005, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-5-3/302217/67 "2005-05-05T11:49:48Z")
I’d bet that they are instructed to do that for the setup visual. Likely, iIt’s just one of those things that reality shows do. Like telling the camera that they choose not to yeild even though, from their conversation, it is abundantly clear they aren’t going to use a yield. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2005, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-5-3/302217/68 "2005-05-05T13:28:17Z")
Counting the money is probably a rule to make sure they have the right amount of money in the envelope – better to catch it at the start than twenty miles down the road when they suddenly realize, “Hey! We’re a hundred short here!” Who’s to say, in that case, they didn’t secretly pocket a couple greenbacks when the cameras weren’t looking? BTW “Naked” and “Nekkid” are not pronounced the same. Just wanted to add that. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![annieclaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5a626/32.png) [@annieclaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/annieclaus)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2005, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-5-3/302217/69 "2005-05-05T13:37:33Z")
> [@Robot Arm](#): > > I’ve been wondering about that. They always use phrases like “This is the tenth pit stop on a race around the world.” If they’re really going around the world, the last two legs are going to have to cover a lot of ground. I don’t think “a race around the world” is literally a circumnavigation of the globe. You can run “around the block” and literally complete a tour of the entire perimeter of the block. And you can also run “around New York” which means you go from here to there to another there, etc. You do not have to tour the entire perimeter of the city. I choose to think that the “around New York” is the equivalent of TAR’s race “around the world.” ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2005, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-5-3/302217/70 "2005-05-05T13:48:10Z")
This is only my second season of watching, but don’t they cross every meridian? ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2005, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-5-3/302217/71 "2005-05-05T14:02:52Z")
In all other races so far, they have actually “raced around the world” (or crossed every meridian, as **Fiver** puts it). They have flown ultra-long legs before, such as (IIRC) when they flew from southern Africa all the way to Russia. This season, the racers will probably fly from the UK to east or southeast Asia before making the leap over the Pacific back to the US. ---
**Author:** ![Atrael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Atrael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atrael)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2005, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-5-3/302217/72 "2005-05-05T14:05:26Z")
I also thought Rob and Amber picked the wrong team to yield. While it’s uncertain how close it was or how long the yield was for, it looked to be long enough that it could have put U&J last instead of G&M. There was almost no way that yielding Ron and Kelly would have put them in last place. And I believe that Rob did the bus in fewer tries than anyone else. While it was tough to watch, I think Meredith and Gretchen picked the right task at the detour. Usually the straight physical task will be faster than the “find something” task. I still think Rob and Amber have raced better and smarter more consistantly than anyone else. Sure the earlier flight thing bit him in the ass last week, but he learned from that, as demonstrated by the connecting flight in Germany. Should be a good finish. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2005, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-5-3/302217/73 "2005-05-05T14:12:02Z")
They don’t necessarily cross every meridian, but they have always crossed the international date line in the past. I gotta say-- forcing Ron and Kelly to yield was boneheaded. So you get a short advantage over team number 2-- it’s useless! You want to knock a team into last place, and preferably get them eliminated. IF Rob had been smarter and forced Uchenna and Joyce to yield, this finale would be an easy prediction-- Romber all the way. So we’re in the home stretch, and I have to say I have no idea who is going to win. It really is going to come down to the best plane and cab ride in the destination city, since from the previews, it seems that at one point all three teams are running through each other, so we know there’s a bunching point. I’m rooting for U+J, although I won’t be _too_ unhappy if Romber wins. He’s a bit of a dick, but I disagree with people who think he’s fundamentally changed the nature of TAR. He lies on occasion, he tries to get travel agents not to deal with other teams, and he’s good at getting local guides: all things we’ve seen other teams do in the past! The only new thing he did was blow a roadblock, and last season I thought Hayden should have done that at the key and lock challenge, since they knew it would only be a 4-hour penalty. ---
**Author:** ![jacquilynne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/67e7ee/32.png) [@jacquilynne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacquilynne)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-5-3/302217/74 "2005-05-06T12:13:39Z")
As a side note, is there somewhere that one can find a list of who the ‘local greeters’ have been in TAR? The one in London looked screamingly familiar to me, and I’d like to know who he was. ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-5-3/302217/75 "2005-05-06T13:42:41Z")
> [@jacquilynne](#): > > As a side note, is there somewhere that one can find a list of who the ‘local greeters’ have been in TAR? The one in London looked screamingly familiar to me, and I’d like to know who he was. He looked like Jude Law’s slightly plainer brother to me. ---
**Author:** ![jacquilynne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/67e7ee/32.png) [@jacquilynne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacquilynne)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-5-3/302217/76 "2005-05-06T16:39:31Z")
He looks like the tour guide we used in London, to me. I’m just curious if it’s the same person. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Big\_Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@The\_Big\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Big_Cheese)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-5-3/302217/77 "2005-05-06T17:43:30Z")
I’ve been to London twice in the last year, and that much money seems to be alot to me. If you took the tube everywhere you’d have spent no more than $30. Even if you cab it everywhere, which is dumb, you’d have spent maybe half of it–though cabbing it into londond from Heatrow is expensive…maybe $70. Then again, who knows what the next episode has in store, maybe they don’t go directly to the airport. A night in a hotel is gonna be $$$$. Don’t get me wrong, London is incredibly expensive, but all they had to pay for was the Tube and cabs if I recall. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-5-3/302217.md?page=3)