TV: Amazing Race 9 - Ep 7

The theme this week was shards -- ancient ruins, plate shards, glass shards, pottery shards, and the shards of a broken spirit.

Apparently, many of my friends were unaware of the time slot change for the Amazing Race resulting in low ratings. Hopefully we'll hear better news this week. But if CBS decides to cancel the series because the production costs were higher than the ad revenue, I'll blame Fran and Barry for damaging their car.
I must admit that was good editing by the Amazing Race producers though. When they showed the car parked next to the trees, my immediate thought was howa team may be easily distracted and smack into one of them, and then it was "BAM!" a short time later. Nice way to make me feel psychic.

And that rear ender bender was a slow point in what felt like a hectic episode. For the first time in what feels like many legs, the racers were bunched together again to fly from Sicily to Rome for literally just a caffe espresso before heading off to Greece. At least they got to see the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps - to that I can just say, "Bella! Bella!"

It was a tough decision to take a cab or the metro to that area. I have not been to Rome - yet, but street traffic in any large city can always be unpredictable. In the end, the ones who chose the cab were faster. It may not have mattered much anyway as I think all the racers ended up on the same plane to Greece.

The DaVinci clue was pretty lame, and I say that not just because even the frat boys figured it out even though they acted as if they'd never seen that picture before. The tie-in for the upcoming movie was too obvious, but if it keeps the production in the black so the Amazing Race can live on a few more seasons, then I'll live with it. [And can I get my nickle for including the link to the site in my blog?]

Breaking dishes looked like fun (though it was like smashing stunt bottles in Germany). At first I thought the frat boys biggest challenge was to avoid being distracted by women. Now they need to add dangerous horseplay to that list. First falling backward in a wheelchair, and then jumping onto a pile of breakable plates and then getting a small cut from one of the shards. Then again maybe I'm showing signs of being raised by overly protective parents. Hopefully burning the fast forward in this leg will not be waste, but it probably will be.

In Greece, the Olympics challenge was just hilarious. Those Greek wrestlers actual put up a serious effort despite having to take on both team members at once. Strong man Ray shockingly did not have the coordination to throw a javelin as Mojo breezed past them.

I don't know how it happened once again, but the Oldsters were the slowest to a clue box yet keep staying alive due to huge mistakes by others. This time it was the hippies and the Lakers who broke the cardinal rule of carefully reading maps. I think Fran and Barry must be carrying a four-leaf clover with them or voodoo dolls of the other teams. They forgot to hit Ray and Yolanda with the hex this week as they managed to read their map and finish a more than decent second.

And so we bid "adio" to Lake, who despite scattered rain, completely dried up in exasperation and required his wife to calm him down. His "dang" quotes will be missed. It would have been fun to see his reaction to being in the Middle East next week. Maybe if he had packed doses of N2O, his team could have stayed in the race to the end.