# The Amazing Race, November 18 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 19, 2012, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-november-18/641470 "2012-11-19T03:41:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-november-18/641470/41 "2012-11-20T06:38:51Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > Behind. LA is three hours _behind_ NY. > > A map of US time zones with UTC -5 (EST) and UTC -8 (PST) might have thrown the contestants for an even bigger loop. That never made sense when I was a kid. I knew that, for example, it would be noon in New York, and then three hours later it would be noon in L.A. But whenever I heard people talk about time zones, they’d say “it’s three hours later in New York.” Took me ages to figure that out. I would, however, have totally killed at the time zone task on this leg. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-november-18/641470/42 "2012-11-20T06:46:51Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > Behind. LA is three hours _behind_ NY. Quiet you! 😉 I realized my typo about three seconds after I posted it and I was hoping no one else would notice. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-november-18/641470/43 "2012-11-20T07:08:15Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > They really are. > > And Ryan is really kind of awful. He pales in comparison to some of his competitors (thieves), still kind of awful. > > Second, why do only the farmers know how time zones work? Or what UTC means? Or at the very simplest, a city in the same general longitude as Moscow is going to be about the same time? That task did not speak well for the American educational system. Until reading this thread I had never heard of UTC, GMT, EST, Zulu, PST - heard of all of these, but never UTC… ---
**Author:** ![tsm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/db5fbb/32.png) [@tsm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tsm)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-november-18/641470/44 "2012-11-20T07:11:33Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I would, however, have totally killed at the time zone task on this leg. Well, Ryan thought the same thing. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![D-bear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@D-bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D-bear)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-november-18/641470/45 "2012-11-20T07:57:00Z")
I heard Abba and James interviewed today and they had a few interesting things to say. They came into Moscow on a Friday, before a state holiday. Every State office including the embassy was closed for days. They didn’t get the proper paperwork to leave Russia until 6 days after they had theirs stolen. They said that in every other country it is expressly forbidden to take Gypsy Cabs _except_ in Moscow. They negotiated a price, ran to get the clue **never paying the cab fare** and the driver bolted. They hypothesize that the fact that they were traveling with a camera crew made the driver assume they were celebrities and that the items in their packs would be of higher value than the fare they negotiated, and chose to cut out on the cab fare and take the bags instead. Abba also shared that he didn’t have bad knees… He had 2 broken legs. [QUOTE=Abba] Here’s what happened with my knee: it turned out that it wasn’t my knee. We had thought it was potentially the meniscus. But when I came home and had a few MRIs, it turned out that I fractured both tibias. So, I ran the race with two broken legs. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-november-18/641470/46 "2012-11-20T08:03:02Z")
> [@tsm](#): > > Well, Ryan thought the same thing. 😉 I used to be a pilot. My dad was a pilot and even kept his watch set to UTC (back when it was called Zulu). I would have killed at the time zone task. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-november-18/641470/47 "2012-11-20T12:08:20Z")
I would not have put that together quickly. I’d like to think it wouldn’t have taken me longer than Lexi, but I could easily have been sitting there as long as Ryan. My eventual “aha!” moment would have played out exactly as Ryan’s did. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-november-18/641470/48 "2012-11-20T12:39:29Z")
While it may result in a bit of blandness I am glad to see all the teams chugging along with pretty good intrateam dynamics. Nobody really yelling at each other, dealing with frustration and exhaustion pretty well. === And the last two episodes highlight why they work so hard to keep teams from getting two spread out. It’s annoying, but shit starts to fall apart when they need to keep a detour station open for an unknown amount of time. And I’m sure they aren’t traveling around with extra production stuff just in case they have different teams on different days and therefore need to try and staff extra locations simultaneously. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-november-18/641470/49 "2012-11-20T13:57:55Z")
> [@zut](#): > > On the one hand, the comedy of Ryan’s suffering was too delicious to not enjoy. On the other hand, I’ve had the experience of being so keyed into my first assumption on how to do a complex task that I overlook a glaring error in my initial assumptions, so I can be somewhat sympathetic. On the third hand, the time-zone thing was more akin to a sixth-grade math story problem than a hardcore puzzle, so I’m a bit at a loss to see why it was so hard for almost everyone. Ryan was so sure he had rocked the task, and they were in such a hurry, that I can see getting into a mindset that “I know I’m right, the test is flawed”. But I have to say, the sequence showing him gradually getting more and more disgusted as he handed over his test page was pretty funny. First, handing it over with confidence & packing up his stuff; then handing it to the guy but not looking at him; then just sort of shoving it toward him while he looked the other way; then ripping it to pieces before handing it to him… my wife was laughing so hard she was crying. At least when he finally realized his mistake he acknowledged how stupid he had been. I don’t think he’s as much of a loathsome character as the rest of you, I think he just gets a bad edit. That’s my wife’s biggest fear when we discuss, only half-seriously, whether to try out for the show. You make a couple brain farts in the heat of competition and you get edited to look like a complete tool. ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-november-18/641470/50 "2012-11-20T14:08:41Z")
If they do another all-star or missed opportunities type of season, I’d love to see the Rockers return. They were awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-november-18/641470/51 "2012-11-20T14:25:55Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > I would not have put that together quickly. I’d like to think it wouldn’t have taken me longer than Lexi, but I could easily have been sitting there as long as Ryan. My eventual “aha!” moment would have played out exactly as Ryan’s did. I probably would have done the same thing. I know UTC, but I never use it. That was a brilliant task though, if you knew what you were doing you were done fast, if you knew what you were doing and missed the one small piece of the puzzle then you got screwed. That’s a well laid task. ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-november-18/641470/52 "2012-11-20T15:25:46Z")
> [@D-bear](#): > > Abba also shared that he didn’t have bad knees… He had 2 broken legs. Holy shit. Poor guy. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-november-18/641470/53 "2012-11-20T16:43:09Z")
How the hell can you have two broken legs and be walking around? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-november-18/641470/54 "2012-11-20T16:55:23Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > How the hell can you have two broken legs and be walking around? Broken _tibias_. Your lower legs have TWO bones in them, so he wasn’t putting his full weight on the broken bones (and they could just as well been greenstick fractures). A portion of his body weight was taken up by his fibulas. Did we even see a glimpse of the Rockers doing the Detour? I can’t imagine that the one with the leg problem even considered the dancing. ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-november-18/641470/55 "2012-11-20T17:00:46Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Broken _tibias_. Your lower legs have TWO bones in them, so he wasn’t putting his full weight on the broken bones (and they could just as well been greenstick fractures). A portion of his body weight was taken up by his fibulas. > > Did we even see a glimpse of the Rockers doing the Detour? I can’t imagine that the one with the leg problem even considered the dancing. We didn’t see them doing the detour, usually if they’re that far behind they get a clue sending them straight to the mat. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-november-18/641470/56 "2012-11-20T17:03:24Z")
And no one is snarking on the twinnies for using their express pass on the time zone task. With a huge lead. ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-november-18/641470/57 "2012-11-20T17:29:50Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > And no one is snarking on the twinnies for using their express pass on the time zone task. With a huge lead. That’s because the express pass expired at the end of the leg. I would have snarked on them if they hadn’t used it. ---
**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-november-18/641470/58 "2012-11-20T17:30:07Z")
This was the last leg they could use it, so they might as well do so. ETA, since I was ninja’d: And, assuming neither one was charged with having chosen to do the task, the Roadblock would be the most strategic task to use it on, since it leaves open the possibility they could still choose who to do the RB on the last leg, rather than being forced to even up the count. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-november-18/641470/59 "2012-11-20T17:36:00Z")
I don’t know - if I was them, I think I would have tried the Roadblock at least once - spend 5 minutes to see if it’s an easy task, which it certainly could have been. I was hoping they got creamed at the Detour just because I was annoyed they gave up on the Roadblock so easily. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-november-18/641470/60 "2012-11-20T17:36:23Z")
> [@zut](#): > > This was the last leg they could use it, so they might as well do so. > > ETA, since I was ninja’d: And, assuming neither one was charged with having chosen to do the task, the Roadblock would be the most strategic task to use it on, since it leaves open the possibility they could still choose who to do the RB on the last leg, rather than being forced to even up the count. I agree, but according to the Wikipedia article for this season, they had to identify which twin would do it before handing in the express pass, so she was ‘charged’ with a roadblock even though she didn’t have to complete it. I don’t remember which twin it was, but since I don’t know which is which anyway it doesn’t matter. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-november-18/641470.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-november-18/641470.md?page=4)