OMG, Rich's video-in-lieu-of-recap for last week's ANTM might be the funniest thing I've seen all year. [link]

Yay, Danielle. She's still so pretty

Oh, Tyra. Ice skating . . . you do love me.

Lisa really does look like a poodle with that haircut. And Bianca's bitch is back. Right on!

I gotta post about Survivor right now! Even though I've had a glass or so of wine, this demands discussion!

To some extent, I admire the strategy-- taking a big risk in Survivor, playing the game qua game, is really what it's about. But I don't think I would have agreed with Peih Gee (aka P.G.). It assumes way too much-- it assumes that the merge takes place at ten (why not eight or nine?); it assumes Frosti and Sherea don't get turned, and it assumes that Aaron and James can't be turned. I just think it's *always* a mistake to put yourself in tribal council. Your strategy at base has to be to avoid going to tribal, to avoid drawing votes. I've never seen a team come back stronger from tribal-- they always come back stronger after *winning challenges.* Maybe I'm wrong, and this strategy is too conservative.

Just this: never throw a challenge!

Dammit! Still at work. Now I want to get home even more.

Oh, while I'm here, I have two random reality tidbits.

One of Bob Bob's colleagues is a poker player who has played with Jean-Robert. He says JR is not a good poker player-- he takes too many risks. He has no idea how JR made a living at poker unless he breaks even or is a "trust fund poker player."

Reality tidbit #2. This morning I was in the Starbucks in my work building and I saw a young guy in a suit that kind of hung off him, with two other guys. The guy looked really familiar , but I couldn't figure it out-- if I went to law school with him, why did he look so fresh-faced? If he was a first-year associate at my firm, why didn't I remember seeing him before, and who were those other guys? Finally, as I left the S-bucks, I saw he was in a different elevator bay than mine, so not a co-worker. I realized who it was-- Lee, the extremely young observant virgin from The Apprentice! I felt kind of bad for the guy. He must get people looking at him quizzically (like me!) all day.

He says JR is not a good poker player

Color me not at all surprised.

No one else watched Survivor? Or at least was disturbed by either (a) producer meddling or (b) challenge throwing?

I only watched part of it. So I didn't realize that what's her name throwring the piece to the side was challenge throwing until they admitted it to their tribe member. (and frankly I think at that time I would have decided to thrown in with the other guys and vote one of the girls off).

What was the producer meddling?

I watched! I was more concerned by challenge-throwing stupidity,than by the producer meddling (I assumeyoyu mean changing the tribe sup by trading two players?). I notice Jeff wasn't too happy either.

Also no one mentioned that everyone got new bathing suits (or at least the bathing suits they probably packed). I guess those stuck competing in their underwear were getting uncomfortable.

a) yes. b)? Not so much really. First off, I was just so boggled to see actual strategy going on that it took me a while to get to the evaluating point. As to whether it was a bad idea - I don't know. Mostly I agree with you, but I do think they had a situation there that presented some real opportunities. If they win - do they know how awful J-R is? Even if they do (and Aaron has to have made them doubt that, for...um... no good reason I can see ), I'd call it a virtual certainty that one of their two people goes home. This way, they at least get to make a choice, and target a couple of people who might not be easy to get to no matter what happens down the road.

Plus also - these are not the most perceptive people on the block. I'm sure they think Frosti and Sherea are their BFFs forever without even thinking twice about it. These people are seriously dim. Even if they are good at sudoku.

I do think they'll seriously regret not booting James. For which idiocy I heartily thank them.