Monday, February 16, 2009

Don't Let A Cheese Hit Me.

The Amazing Race never disappoints. I'm sort of obsessed with it for three reasons.

1) Travel turns people into the truest versions of themselves.

2) Whenever I'm lost I like to pretend that I'm on the show. And I'm pretty horrible with directions so I get to do this a lot. Once when attending a friend's wedding outside of Vancouver I was so terribly lost and thought I might miss the whole thing so I basically stopped and asked every person in BC for directions. One woman ran over to me, poked her head into the car to look in the backseat and asked with excitement, "Is this for The Amazing Race?!" I was so upset at the time I was like, "No!" but deep down I was like, "Unofficially, yes. Yes it is."

3) The show explores what I think is the fundamental question faced by humans in every culture: How should we waste our time? I love that every country, small town, or village has their own answer.

The premiere episode of season 14 aired last night and the contestants were given the task of bringing 200 pounds of cheese down a steep hill. Why the cheese makers don't store the cheese at the bottom of the hill to begin with was not discussed. However, I was pleased to learn that the combination of cheese wheels and steep hills should be added to the list of things I find amusing.

6 comments:

Icelandish said...

I love The Amazing Race! I just love how people turn into screaming idiots when they desperately ask a native for directions. "WHERE. IS. THE. TAJ. MAHAL??!"

Also fun to watch are the couples who should already be divorced.

And what has always boggled me is how people, after having their money taken away for the leg of the trip, can somehow beg enough at airports to be able to afford 2 tickets.

Jess said...

Yeah, how do they do that? Most of the contestants have trouble getting a taxi, but somehow asking locals for money is no problem. Is the universal sign for money pointing to your palm or pulling your pockets out of your pants? And if it's the former, then what is the universal sign for palm reading?

I'd like to see this woman on season 15. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4wn1QV7QvY&feature=related

Roughly translated, she's upset that the duty free shop is closed. People love their tax-free Toblerone.

MFB said...

i love this show!!! did you watch last season when they made the really uncoordinated guy march and he absolutely couldn't do it?! you read that right. the challenge was "walking" and he couldn't do it. love it.

can't believe i missed the first ep but i will start watching now. that clip made me laugh out loud multiple times.

Jess said...

ha! I did see that one. That was the same guy who forgot his shoes at a challenge and had to show up to the next leg of the race in his hotel slippers.

Have you ever tried to march around like him? Try it when you first wake up. Puts you in a good mood for the whole day.

Anonymous said...

I just heard about the Snuggie Pub Crawl being held in Chicago and thought of you. http://www.snuggiepubcrawl.com/. It combines your love for creative ways to waste time and giant wearable blankets. Apparently it's put on by "Team Snuggie" that also raises money for kids in Africa. This world is a bizarre place.

Jess said...

Well, that's the best thing I've heard all day.

The Snuggie has an evil twin known as The Slanket--which scares me a little to be honest-- but wearing bedding on a pub crawl for Africa is something I have to support.

Make checks payable to snuggiepubcrawl?