My stray observation: During the runway show, Gunnar saw Melissa's look and said to her, "You would wear that, wouldn't you?" And I thought, if that was intentionally backhanded, it was perfectly subtle.

I don't really think it's a gag. It's kind of an honest assessment of where the show is and has been—a solid performance that hasn't hit the heights quite yet.

Thirteen beautiful girls stand before me, but I only have 12 reasonable discussions in my hand.

I admit to making an "eww-gross" face when someone eats something I think of as gross. If that person is easily offended by my gross-face, they're welcome not to look at me. It's another case of meat-eaters being overly sensitive and concerned about what others think. Sorry my vegetarianism hurts your tender little…

I think it makes sense in terms of something mentioned on a recent Reasonable Discussions podcast, and distressingly familiar to those of us who give grades as part of our jobs. When you give a grade that's not an A, among some readers there's an expectation that you must explain what could have been done better. And…

I do think the New Girl Schmidt could write some very entertaining letters to Ndugu.

I think they do prepare for it, just all wrong. They bring the right wig for a character, and learn how to do makeup that would perhaps create the illusion of impersonation in a smoke-filled bar, but they don't think about how to make jokes in character. I also think the biggest misstep so many of them make is to…

And when are these damn pilgrims going to get to Canterbury?

It was Henry when Olivia came to his house. Not sure if that means anything if you're not watching the show, though.

Funny as this is, I think the answer to the last question is spot-on. It bothers me when books are used only as fashion statements, as something meant to impress. Which is why the "favorite book" question is a lot less revealing than the "latest book" question—to learn about someone as a reader, learn what they read…

Yeah, it seems they rely a bit too heavily on the Juliet quotes. Those of us who watch it on DVRs certainly notice. I wonder if they're assuming most of the CW audience is 15, so she's the character we're supposed to identify with. God help us all.

I think there has to be some of both, both adjusted and trending. If I look at a show's history here and see it gets a smattering of B+s and the rest As, I know which episodes are most successful for that show, but I also know that, in general, the show is considered good.

I just hope every challenge involves a word that LaShauwn can't pronounce. Hysterical.

It did strike me as odd that Willam and Chad used their real, male names. Then again, RuPaul uses his real male name as a drag name, so there's… some kind of precedent.

Actually, that's why I really like the video for "Edge of Glory." It has a certain kind of restraint, just a little bit of weirdness, but it's mostly just a video for a good song. It shows she can do that as well as the "short film" extravaganzas.

I don't think that's the case anymore. They used to give up all the money on non-elim legs, but that led to the uncomfortable sight of contestants begging for money in some very poor areas of the world. Now I think the Speed Bump is the only penalty.

I forget when I watched the first few episodes on some basic-cable channel. I'd actually never seen anything before Season Two, so it wasn't "re-watching," but it was kind of unfamiliarly familiar. The pacing of the show seemed like it needed to be worked out; the first team challenge ended, and the winning team was…

But I think that's only really a concern on the "voting" shows like Survivor, and even on those it's not usually as much a factor as they would think. In the few cases in TAR when teams play a direct role in other teams' success or failure, usually position plays out much more. They don't say, "We choose to U-Turn…

I'd forgotten about "The Geniuses!" Ah, the ironically named team.

reminds me of another show
There was a show on a few summers ago that I called "Amazing Race fan-fiction" which also had teams of three. It wasn't called National Treasure but that was obviously the aesthetic it was going for. It was pretty dreadful and low-budget—they only had two foreign destinations, and at the end…