The Amazing Race 10, Episode 6 Insider: Pot, Meet Kettle

All right, I’m late in writing, it’s late here tonight, I’m tired, and I think I may have to sell my second oldest son (good thing I have a spare!), so I’m going to just jump right into the recap of the clips without my usual banter. You may all sigh with relief now!

Beauty Queens Bicker: Post-race, Dustin & Kandice are mildly, MILDLY, bickering over the fact that one used the other’s makeup without asking. She doesn’t mind sharing, but she wants to be asked first. The other one knew she wouldn’t mind, so doesn’t get how she could be upset over it. And there’s something about not understanding how she could be upset because she has a boatload of brothers. I don’t follow the logic there. Also, the one offended also has a tendency to place blame and not apologize, or thus sayeth Miss NY. Miss CA asks Miss NY to please tell her when she’s doing this, because if she doesn’t know she’s doing something that irritates, she can’t fix it or apologize for it. Miss NY doesn’t want to do that because she just apologizes and doesn’t need to be told. She’s missing the point that CA doesn’t realize it, and wants to be told, so she can do the important apology.

It’s sort of a bizarre argument to start with make up and wind up with blame, but hey. The key point to take away from this though, is that the friends are totally calm when bickering and come to good conclusions. They apologize to each other, come up with a plan of action for the future, and move on.

Kimberly Shows No Depth: Post-race with Rob & Kimberly and Kimberly seriously lacks something. She’s all wide-eyed about how she was scared to come to Kuwait once Rob told her some of our troops were there. Uh, shouldn’t that make you feel safer? Whatever. The scary point: she didn’t know that on her own. Rob cuts in that he respects the troops even more after being in this climate. He says it’s harsh out there with the heat and wind and dirt. They may be in the coast now, but they were out in the sticks earlier, he reminds us, and he can feel for those guys [the troops]. It seems sincere.

Final Words, Sarah: Amusingly enough, despite the glowing words on both sides you’ll hear, the final words were done separately for both Peter and Sarah. Sarah explains that Peter is aggressive and Type A on this race, but he does have a kind and sensitive side. [On a side note, my CFO, a wonderful woman, is in a Type of her own. She’s so Type A we just call it Type Vicky, because she scares other Type A’s. It’s quite amusing.] She goes on about how aware of the world he is, and how he truly and sincerely wants to come back to one of the areas they saw on the race and help kids in that area. That’s all well and good, but until he can treat people well in stressful circumstances, then he’s still a putz, k? K.

Final Words, Peter: This is one of the more normal times you’ll see Peter on camera. He actually looks less like a Team America puppet and more like a human being. He proclaims that he and Sarah do have a strong bond, but it’s just not the love bond they were seeing if they might have. He explains they have had some incredible experiences together that are physically and emotionally draining. He emphasizes this a lot, so that we all understand that to HIM, this race wasn’t that, but everything else they’ve done is SO much better and no one else could understand that. He rubs this point in by stating that other people (us lessers, you know) have sunsets together, but he and Sarah share trying challenges. Yeah, buddy? You have four kids in under 23 months, get a divorce, go back to college, work full-time, have four kids in diapers, etc and so on, then try to integrate a new boyfriend into the chaos of your life. It’s not all sunsets and strokings!

Sorry, bucko, everyone’s life has challenges. Yours are no more emotionally or physically draining then mine. It’s a pet peeve of mine that people cannot understand that others might go through things similar or at least on par with what they’re going through. It’s hard to quantify these things, so we should all be more considerate and less full of hubris, PETER.

Beauty Queens Budget: The girls drive around in Kuwait waiting for the Towers to open and looking for food. They find the golden arches. Sigh. Am I the only one that finds the presence of McD’s everywhere to be a sign of the apocalypse and a degradation to unique cultures everywhere?

Beauty Queens Beg: In the airport, the girls charm a French man out of $20 U.S. and then move elsewhere and charm an Alabaman out of the same. They’re fairly amusing and endearing during this all. They are genuine and entertainingly flirtatious with these guys. Not leading them on, but just being their natural selves. They are giddy with their profits and feel incredibly rich with forty more dollars to their name.

Cho Bros & a Cop: What is with these boys and policemen? They get another policeman to drive them to the Pit Stop! Erwin & Godwin decide they have a newfound respect for international policemen. Heh. They explain that having a cop take them from Point A to Point B is the best, because they won’t lie, they know where they’re going, and they’ll get you there expeditiously. Downsides, in my book: they might get called off to an emergency leaving you high and dry. They might miss an emergency doing your non-urgent task. How do you know they won’t lie?

Okay, while I’m on the Cho Brothers, a mini-rant. WHAT IS WITH YOU TWO? I like you. I like your life outlook. However, you are in a RACE. Yes, it’s an Amazing Race, but you could try to combine the two words and not just focus on the one (Amazing) at the exclusion of the other (Race). Dave & Mary are nice and all, I suppose, but seriously? I don’t know, I guess if you recognized that they truly need it more than you, and you’re fine, then I could see doing it. So never mind. Or, if you’re really sure of yourselves and devious, perhaps you’re thinking by doing that, you can pull the Back Packers along and then kick their asses at the end game? Hmmm.