Wow, zut. Color me deeply impressed. Echo everyone else’s sentiment that I can’t wait to see this week after week.
Mullinator: this is a terrific format for elimination type reality shows. I wonder if you can apply this to the next Presidential race? >>> grins <<<
Burkina Faso means country of honorable people.
I applaud Gus for going shirtless, considering he had to haul salt under the hot African sun.
And Don should not blame the fickle finger of fate when those two are doing a fine job of diddling themselves. Besides, fate’s ministrations dealt them a non-elim leg this week.
If it was cheating, they may show the penalty at the beginning of the next episode. When Don/MJ took the wrong car in episode 2 (?) they didn’t show a penalty during that episode, but at the beginning of the next episode Phil said that the team was penalized 30 minutes for taking the wrong car, which moved them down in the departure order.
Typically, they only announce a penalty if it affects the running order of the teams. And despite creative editing, you just know Don/MJ finished far more than 30 minutes behind Hera & ManBoobs. So if next episode they leave close together, you’ll know they got penalized. 
I also think that if what Gus did was fully considered cheating, then the Cluemaster at Lac Rose would have told him he would have to re-do the Roadblock before he could get the clue. It sure does look like they realized they had to dig salt up from the bottom before they ever unloaded a basketful of salt.
We heard Hera telling Gus he wasn’t supposed to take the salt off the boat. When they didn’t get penalized I just assumed he dumped what he’d taken illegally and started over. But it is odd they didn’t show us that.
Would you believe the week’s been so crazy that I didn’t even get a chance to watch my tape until last night (of course, now I only have one more day to wait for the next leg, heh heh.
So, with a resounding “Who cares at this point?” ringing in my ears, here’s my take on The Leaderboard:
Kris/Jon: I too, would have liked to see the opening hours goof have more of an effect, but I really don’t see what the producers can do about bunching. As we have seen, some of the challenges can take a completely unpredictable amount of time to complete, and the locations for the clues, challenges, etc. have to be set up who knows how long in advance, so if everybody arrives in such a way as to create bunching, oh well. These two are still a big blank for me, but (without looking through five other leaderboards) I don’t think any team has ever had such consistent performance in the first part of the competition. Impressive!
Assathon/Victoria: Not only was it really creepy to hear about them planning to spawn, but did you get a look at Victoria’s face when she was talking about it? It looked badly scarred.
Lori/Bolo: Whatever works, I guess. These two keep inching up in the rankings, so we’ll see.
Hayden/Aaron: I don’t see what’s to hate about Hayden. I still like this team a lot, but a quick look through old threads will show I had a good feeling about Colin and Christie at this stage of the game, too. Besides, if they were eliminated, the show would suddenly become very boring, watching Kris and Jon dominate the other six more or less completely dysfunctional teams.
Freddy/Kendra: Now HERE’s a team to hate. As ineffective and bitchy as Brandon/Nicole at their worst, and they don’t even have stupid hair or a God complex to make them remotely amusing. What did the producers SEE in this team? Disposable.
Adam/Rebecca: All Adam needs is a red parka and a few more pounds, and he’d be Cartman. The rumors about Rebecca’s scheming just make the whole thing sicker. In any event, she was being as supportive as anyone could be of a supposedly strong guy who sees three skinny women beating him and doesn’t feel remotely behooved to even pick up the pace a a little. If they could beat him, the task obviously was not as difficult as he was trying to make it look. Why did they choose so many teams this time around with such heavy issues?
Gus/Hera: I also have a hard time believing that these two wandered around the streets for so long that Don and Mary Jean were serious contenders for beating them. I think the editors realize that appallingly bad navigation skills are this team’s main distinguishing feature. I’ll say it again: Gus always seems so cocksure of himself when doing something wrong, he’s he poster boy for what’s wrong with our intelligence community.
Don/Mary Jean: Not long for this race. If you prone to nausea so bad that you make your wife haul salt, what the hell possessed you to go fishing in the first place?
Not have challenges that require an obvious starting time. Imagine if the opening goof had let the last couples go to a challenge two-three hours before the teams that screwed up instead of going to the airport where there was only one flight to the country in question that day. Or not having a challenge that could be gotten to when the plane landed rather than giving the teams 10 hours to find the site of the next clue and then sit around and rest. This season is really bad about not letting anyone get any sort of lead. And when it’s as transparently done as this, it (IMO) makes for a bad show.
BWAHAHAHAHA!!! It’s not quite accurate (Cartman has a certain low cunning while Adam is…well…braindamaged) but it’s sooooo close! 
< Adam Cartman >
Screw you guys, I’m going to kill myself.
< /Adam>
Hee hee, if he starts pantingly muttering “Seriously, you guys” during a challenge this Tuesday, I’m really going to lose it.
Respect my authoritah! [sub]'cause if you don’t, I’m gonna kill myself[/sub]
Hee!
Imagine the challenges!
The “Pot Pie” eating challenge in England–eat the pot-pie and avoid the cats.
< Adam Cartman >
No kitty! You can’t have any! No kitty! This is mah pot-pie! Bad kitty.
< /Adam >
or the “Smuggle the cocaine into the Turkish Prison” challenge
< Adam Cartman >
Why is it that everything today has involved things either going in or coming out of my ass?!
< /Adam >
Hee–or getting punched out by the wrestler after a rousing chorus of “Bolo’s Wife Is A Big Fat Bitch”*
Fenris Broflovski
*Well, Bolo’s wife is a bitch, she’s a big fat bitch,
She’s the biggest bitch in the whole wide world
She’s a mean old bitch if there ever was a bitch,
She’s a bitch to all the boys and girls
(I’ll stop now…maybe )
Ahh but unless you have had experience with small boats in those kind of waves you don’t know that you will get seasick. He might be just fine on ferry’s and ships but when your bobbing around in this little (by comparison) thing, well your stomach is more apt to rebel.
I had gathered from their conversation and comments to the camera that Don’s nausea was a phenomenon well-known to both of them (perhaps I misinterpreted what they were saying), and it certainly couldn’t have been difficult to glimpse the size of the sea before making the decision.
I think that, stung by the bear-counting fiasco, Don decided to try and macho his way through the choppy sea rather than fiddle around with arranging fish.