Amazing Race

[RICHARD]

Wow, interesting elimination last night. Karen called it!

There are Vietnamese restaurants in Chicago and I've read that Vietnamese food is different from Chinese or Japanese. I'm curious about the soup they made with rice noodles, bean sprouts, peppers and herbs. The Vietnam War was going on when I was little but I don't remember it well.

The soup is called pho.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pho

Good stuff, especially when you get it just made.

[Karen]

Wow, interesting elimination last night. Karen called it!

There are Vietnamese restaurants in Chicago and I've read that Vietnamese food is different from Chinese or Japanese. I'm curious about the soup they made with rice noodles, bean sprouts, peppers and herbs. The Vietnam War was going on when I was little but I don't remember it well.

I know Vietnam was a French colony for a while, so their food is not only based on their own local ingredients, but also influenced by the French colonials, too. We have Vietnamese restaurants around here, I have not tried one yet, but may someday!

[cassiesmom]

Interesting outcome tonight. I thought the comment made by one of the teams about an "off" odor in their vehicle was so not appropriate! Hello, there's a camera on you - and you're the guest in Botswana - so perhaps you should watch what you say.

I don't remember exactly how the song used in last week's segment in Vietnam was described. I thought Phil Keoghan referred to it simply as a "national song" but I could be wrong. Were the racers even told what the lyrics meant, or did they just have to get the lyrics right in Vietnamese? It struck me as odd that they would use a memorial featuring a downed B-52 as a clue site. But the Vietnam conflict ended in 1975 and I think most of the racers were born after that. So they can't even relate to it as something that happened during their lifetime. I don't think CBS was being insensitive, but I can see how older people (who remember more of the Vietnam conflict and are more likely to have been personally affected by it) might.

So now that the father and son team are out, I am not sure who to root for! Guess I'm rooting for Alabama, the hockey brothers and the roller derby moms. I want Mark and Bopper back!

[Karen]

I am sure it was one of the national propaganda songs for the socialist party, and the Vietnamese were thrilled to get it aired on American television, though I do not see any mass political conversions happening because of it.

I also thought that racer's comments about the odor were overplayed, I "get" we're not supposed to like her. And while I was disappointed there were no actual guinea fowl involved, I was surprised not many teams chose the "fowl" related task first, making fire by hand is notoriously tricky, as anyone who has ever been a scout, or watched any "reality tv" at all should know!

[Karen]

Well, now after we posted about this, CBS has apologized for the Amazing Race Hanoi episode, and are taking it seriously:

http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2013/03...tnam-war-vets/

[cassiesmom]

Surprising elimination this week. Didn't see it coming. I'm glad none of the teams tipped over their canoes with the baby goats (or even without!). I thought the second team to get a speeding ticket showed some "ugly American" behavior in how they handled that process.

[Karen]

I am always glad when an eliminated team handles it graciously, which they did. And I was particularly happy about the teams that actually showed some appreciation for the amazing surroundings they were in in Botswana!

[cassiesmom]

Oh my goodness, I wanted to leap through the TV, into the snow, and pet, hug and play with all those Swiss rescue dogs!

I sort of had a feeling how tonight's elimination was going to go. The one team member was really struggling.

[Karen]

I, of course, adored seeing the Saint Bernards! And had too laugh when the one didn't want to get on the train; she employed the patented Saint Bernard technique of
1. Put on the brakes then

2. Turn to jello.

A smaller dog you can pick up, but Saints seem to know that if they just go limp, you can push on one part of the dog, and the rest stays put!

[cassiesmom]

I'm embarrassed that some of the racers did not know who said, "Ich bin ein Berliner" !! Yikes!

I really don't want to see any of the remaining teams eliminated. I expected that this week's outcome would be a lot like last week -- didn't happen.

[Karen]

I think it really depends on the age of the contestants and how good their school history classes were! I was not surprised it was a non-elimination leg, we seemed due for another!

[cassiesmom]

Oh my goodness, I thought of Carole tonight because the teams were in Scotland What a beautiful castle! One of the challenges involved preparing haggis -- none for me, thank you.

When I was little, at the church where I grew up, there was a lady who would make Scottish shortbread from scratch for very special occasions. For example Christmas, the associate pastor's ordination luncheon, the church's 60th anniversary. It was always a very special treat, buttery and rich.

Were the last two teams that close behind the first three, that the U-Turn was necessary? I thought they could have just kept going and not used the U-Turn, since they were already ahead and the last two teams knew that. My dad and I thought the brothers were going to get penalized for carrying the whisky barrels instead of rolling them - but maybe they were only carried a short distance.

I'd like to visit Scotland and see that gorgeous castle! Wow! (But I'd also like to go to Germany and see the Brandenburg Gate and the Kurfurstendamm... to Switzerland and see the Alps... and of course Bora Bora!)

I was kind of hoping tonight would be a non-elimination. Didn't happen that way, though especially since there was one just last week.

[cassiesmom]

The teams went from Northern Ireland to London Heathrow Airport via Liverpool ... but we didn't get to see them in Liverpool at all -- boo!

I felt bad for the roller derby moms when they kept missing the first course over and over again.

[Karen]

I suspect they were in Liverpool only in the dark, and not in the prettier parts of the very industrial port city! I thought the eliminated team last night handled it gracefully, and was happy the winning team indeed were the ones who won!

At first I felt sorry for the roller derby moms, but then the hockey brother practically told them what they were doing wrong, and they still didn't "get" it!

[cassiesmom]

Season 23 is here ... any early thoughts? They've done those "follow your partner and meet up with them" road blocks before. I felt bad for the team that didn't read the clue and got to Phil via the wrong means of transportation. I think the first week should be non-elimination.