|
|
Seems The Four Of You went out and became The Eight Of You without telling me…after installing Comments I found out that a few people were reading this thing who I didn’t know about, and it was a nice surprise. Usually I respond to comments in the same thread as the comments themselves, but today I thought I’d address a couple of the items that have come up here:
Thomas writes: “Duran Duran? Really?”
Yeah, really. Duran Duran was my favorite band growing up, and remains my favorite band today behind Def Leppard. I’m excited about the new album, especially if Sunrise is any indication of how it’s going to sound, because the feeling is the same as when Leppard released Euphoria, it seems like they’ve gotten together and said “Let’s see if we can do what we did in the 80’s one more time.”
And if they’ve gotten Notorious out of their system, all the better. Whoof.
Casey writes: “I wonder what hot weather has to do with a turn signal, though…”
…and I realized I haven’t talked about the turn signal on my car at all. It’s a better forecaster of the seasons than your grandmother’s trick knee. It has an intermittent thing wrong with it such that the sensor that makes it click back to Off after making a turn gets stuck in really cold weather. Once it gets hot enough in my car to “melt” or “unstick” or whatever you want to call it, my turn signal starts to work normally again. Long story short, these two events happen very close to the official first days of summer and winter here in Seattle, and it never happened in California because it never got cold enough for the sticking to happen. Trips me up for a day at the most when it starts to stick, and then I just remember to flick it back myself when I finish a turn and everything is okay. I’m told that Honda put out a bulletin about it, so I could prolly bitch and moan and get them to fix it, but it’s not worth being without the car for however long it would take to make a special trip to the shop just for that. Maybe I’ll take it to a real dealership for the 90K checkup and have ’em have a look at it then.
It’s Friday morning, and that means it’s time for a….
S
U
R
V
I
V
O
R
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
If last night’s show didn’t turn you on to Lex as the man in the best position to win it all (at the very least, among the Mogos), you just aren’t thinking. Sure, Jerribitch is annoying, but she’s incredibly expendable, too, especially with the Merge looming large. And Lex knew this was his best chance to pull a swerve that he would be able to get away with, because the only person left to exact revenge is Ethan, who still wears the target of Former Champion. Jerribitch, who KNOWS she is a target, has no choice but to trust Lex or be sent packing, and with Kathy snuggling up with the Chapera gang, the only people bothering to think on Shii-Ann’s behalf are Lex and Jerribitch, because Colby thought he had a sufficient majority already. And the Merge looks very likely to happen next week, so Lex’s gambit was timed perfectly. Just brilliant. Colby in an individual competition situation was an extremely dangerous man.
So, let’s look at Chapera. Big, big win for them, obviously, for emotional reasons as much as anything…it always helps to be the tribe who won the last Immunity going into the Merge. (I am assuming the Merge IS happening next week, even though with twelve remaining that would be somewhat early. The preview for next week’s show damn well looked like it was gonna, anyhow, with Probst calling for ambassador’s from each tribe to meet and such.) And taking Kathy The Human Swing Vote along with them on the reward meant that either Jerribitch or Colby was going home, a win-win either way. And Chapera seems to be a pretty unified team, once Tom stops a) drinking and b) dancing. Boston Rob pretty much runs things over here, and since he finally forms the beast with two backs with Amber next week, and as far as we know has something going on (though not in the same way, I hope) with Rupert, he has a voting bloc that can pretty much only be killed if the remaining Mogos gang up and nail him as a unit NEXT week. If a Mogo goes next week, and tribe lines stay solid (and Kathy integrates into Chapera), the rest of them will simply be plucked off one at a time.
But I think (I HOPE) Lex is smart enough not to let that happen. We’ll know next week.
7:10 A.M., by my intentionally fast alarm clock. Came far too quickly, since I stayed up later than I should have (you’d think a half-glass of iced mocha wouldn’t have all THAT much caffeine in it), but at least I attended to some household chores that needed doing. (The toilet hasn’t looked that spotless in some time, and my bathroom is now filled with a delightful cinnamon-apple scent AND an auto-sensing nightlight. Those people at Glade think of everything.)
So. Roll my dead ass out of bed, and into the shower. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Throw some clothes on. Stagger out to the living room, fire up the PC, while that’s booting transfer those parts of my life that live outside of my work bag on the weekends (wallet, cellphone, Game Boy, datebook) back into my workbag. (I prolly need a new workbag, but I like this one a lot…it was SWAG from my Microsoft days.) Log on, sync the Palm, throw into the bag, check email quickly, grab lunch from the fridge, and let’s roll.
And I stumbled outside to the most beautiful day I’ve seen in a long time. The sky is blue, the temperature is cool, but NOT freezing ass cold, I bet if I looked the mountains would be out today. Maybe this is a sign that my turn signal is gonna fix itself soon. (It usually does on the first really hot day of the year.)
The ride into work was delightful, thanks to my Seattle brethren not having to drive on wet roads and some accompaniment from Duran Duran, Coolio, the Spin Doctors, and Def Leppard.
And we’re a month away from baseball. Let’s play two.
(The following is a Survivor Update. Below is spoiler space for those among The Four Of You who haven’t seen the show yet and don’t want to have it ruined for you. You’ve been warned.)
(Man, I hope RSS doesn’t strip this out.)
S
U
R
V
I
V
O
R
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
(There. We’ll see if that helps.)
Okay. I wanted to take a night to sleep on this to be sure that I’m ready to stand behind what I’m about to say. And it seems I am. So here goes:
Soozin Hawk is a fucking nutjob.
Over the course of two days, she took an brief encounter with Richard Hatch’s schwanz (and I’ll be the first to call it a wholly inappropriate one, but read on) and turned it into full-fledged, Grade-A, Holy-God-Do-I-Feel-Unclean sexual assault.
In her own words: CAHM AHHHHN. This is the same woman who handed Hatch the million dollars three and a half years ago by likening him to a snake. So why was she surprised when his snake raised it’s bulbous head? Did she all of a sudden not know it was a snake when she picked it up?
The lives of these two have been intertwined ever since that trip to Borneo, they have even engaged together in the ultimate act of reality-TV-celebrity-whoring: they’ve shared a box on Hollywood Squares. And now all of a sudden he’s a sexual predator. Sorry, I don’t buy it.
Oh, and this just in: SOOZIN, HE’S GAY.
She was weak, she was figuring out that being from The Original Game and keeping a high profile over these several years was a HUGE disadvantage, and she found a convenient out. She might try for the phat lawsuit, too. Not that I really care, Burnett’s got plenty of cheddar with which to shut up this Wisconsinite.
Alright, enough of her, let’s check the state of the tribes, now tied again at six heads apiece:
Chapera, says Amber, is the “happy tribe”. Well, ignorance is certainly bliss, I guess. Tom didn’t score himself any points with the ladies with his idiotic-and-only-slightly-less-faggy-than-Hatch’s-Fire-Dance Tribute To Soozin, and I suspect Alicia will be wagging her finger laterally in his face sooner rather than later. Rupert, God love him, has allied himself with Boston Rob, which means he’s next to go, and Jenna L. is doing a fine job of Gervasing, and while she won’t win, it may take her far into the game post-merge, so long as she stays off of the radar.
Over to the green side of the board: Lex “Oh, By The Way, I Can Fish Too” Van Den Berghe is still my favorite to win it all. Colby may perceive that as a threat, but he can’t afford to address it until after the merge. Right now, he needs to concern himself with Jerribitch, who, miracle of miracles, found someone even more void of original thought than Amber in Shii Ann, who is still reeling that The Holy Saint Richard The Great And Powerful Hatch was voted out of the game. (Another free Survivor hint for you budding applicants: NEVER WORSHIP YOUR OPPONENTS.) Ethan is still trying to find his place here; he would do well to broker some kind of agreement with Kathy, who holds an impressive number of cards as a swing vote right now.
So: “Another Twist” next week, followed by Jerribitch’s gaping maw. Bringing back an Outcast tribe would be in horrible taste, considering that fully 33% of the evictees up until this point have left by their own choosing. So what happens? Comments are welcome….
So, because I’m a foodie, I like looking at restaurant menus online, particularly of regional places I don’t have access to because I live in the Pacific Northwest, like Waffle House or Sonic Drive-In.
Well, this morning I found myself surfing to a Midwestern chain called Cracker Barrel that has been around for some time, but I’ve never seen one, much less dined in one, because they just aren’t out here in the West. And the food is what you expect, and looks pretty good – chicken and dumplings, biscuits and gravy, chicken fried steak, the usual hearty fare.
You will see me make fun of Midwesterners a lot here, because my mom grew up in Iowa, and that qualifies me to do so, I think. And I’m not gonna let you down here. After looking at these scrumptious looking dinners, I got to the desserts.
Specifically, the Frozen Mug Ice Cream Sundae. SOUNDS like a good concept, yes? Sounded damned good to me. I read on:
“Hot Fudge, Caramel, Chocolate, Strawberry, Blackberry, or Sorghum Molasses… topped with whipped cream, roasted almonds, and a cherry.”
SORGHUM MOLASSES?
SORGHUM FRIGGIN’ MOLASSES?
I will point out that for all of their cooking skillz (and they do have skillz, so long as you don’t wander into the fog known as “ethnic cuisine”) these are a people who still haven’t figured out how to make a decent loaf of French bread, and are known to use ketchup as a viable substitute for tomato sauce, but by all that is good and holy, MOLASSES DOES NOT GO ON ICE CREAM.
Remind me not to eat at Cracker Barrel.
Look! We’ve got the ability to leave comments on the page now!
With each passing day, this little place is becoming more and more Big League. :)
Ding, dong, the witch is dead. The original Survivor, Richard Hatch, has been voted out of Survivor All-Stars. And I can’t say I’m terribly surprised.
Hatch, while he made for great TV as a heel, reminded me of a baseball player from the 1930’s trying to play the game today: Survivor has changed so much over the course of – what, seven series now? – that his playing style, which might have been effective when everyone in the world was still trying to figure out what Survivor WAS, was just so out of touch with what the game has become that he simply didn’t have a hope in hell. Remember, he surfed into the initial million dollars on an alliance back when nobody knew what an alliance WAS. The game just doesn’t work like that anymore.
Interesting side-note. Of the four Sole Survivors who started this game, Ethan Zohn is the only one still remaining. And he seems to be in a pretty good situation right now, if he stays hooked up with Lex and Colby.
Also interesting: CBS has it screwed up on their website right now, they list Jerribitch as a member of Chapera, but I could swear that Mogo Mogo took her in the draft. CBS shows Jenna L. on Team Green, and that’s not right, because I remember a big to-do about Colby and Jerribitch being reunited.
Regarding Dick’s, well, um, dick, and it’s proximity to Soozin during that fateful part of the immunity challenge: if this is what she’s going to bitch vociferously to Probst about next week (no spoiler there, a pissed-off Soozin was screaming at Jeff about being humiliated in the promo for next week’s show), then I dun wanna hear it. She drives a truck, fer God’s sake, she hauls around concrete, she’s more man than Hatch is. He wants to expose his nutsack in a physical challenge? Grab him by it, and throw his dumb ass off of the rigging. I promise you he won’t try to do it again. Us guys learn early on in life never to show our balls to anyone in a position to kick them. You’d think Hatch would know better.
So, looking at the new teams, Chapera appears to be in real trouble, despite their genius of letting Boston Rob run the platforms when they figured out that he BY FAR was the best at it (Duh. Construction worker. High steel. You think he doesn’t have some balance skills?) He’s clearly in control there, since he’s doing Amber, who we already knew was incapable of original thought, and since Big Tom is quickly turning into a boorish drunk. Best thing that could happen to them is to run out of whisky. On top of that, Jenna and Rupert are fighting for their lives as outsiders – there just isn’t a cohesive unit anywhere in there, aside from Rob and Amber. Chapera blew their chance to break them up last week, and they’re gonna pay for it.
That said, I think the eventual champion is gonna come from Mogo Mogo. My money is still on Lex, but any of the Holy Triumverate of Lex, Ethan, and Colby could go the distance now that Hatch isn’t around to stir up the shit, and all three of them are too smart to trust Boston Rob any further than they can throw him.
So, play on…
Okay, I’m calling The Four Of You to arms.
See, my man Randy West has been one of the fill-in announcers on The Price Is Right since before Rod Roddy passed away last year, and he has, as expected, done a phenomenal job, and by all that is right and holy should be hired on as the full-time permanent announcer for the show.
So I’m asking you to help me tell CBS that.
They’re running a poll here. I need you to vote early and vote often (selecting Randy West, of course, if you pick Daniel Rosen you can cheerfully burn in hell), so we can make sure our part is done to get this man hired.
Look at it this way: If you vote for him, and you went to a taping of TPiR someday….well, okay, there prolly isn’t a damn thing extra that I could do for you. But I and he would appreciate it greatly.
That’s “West”. W-E-S-T. Thanks.
Another link to the poll
Good deal, everything seems to be in place and working, I can make the announcement now:
Fredsmythe.com is now offering an RSS feed!
(Okay, technically, it’s not QUITE RSS, it’s Atom, but from what I can tell most modern RSS aggregators and sites read Atom just as well…in fact, most test their feeds at atomenabled.org.
So, if you have LiveJournal and would like to add FredSmythe.com to your Friends page as a syndicated feed, just open it up at:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/fredsmythe_com
…click the link to Add the feed, and log in if necessary! Remember, in LJ, the more people who subscribe to a given feed, the less it costs everybody, so tell your friends!
If you’re using a different RSS aggregator, the URL you will want to use is:
http://rss.fredsmythe.com.
Give it a try! I’d love to know what people think!
Please don’t mind this. I’m doing some RSS testing. Hopefully we’ll have a major announcement about this soon.
|
