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RW/RR looks to be good (meaning petty and mean) this year. Just the way I like it. I was actually surprised that Matt only got 4 votes because it was clear he was pissing off a bunch of people with his wingnut rantings. Sounds like Sarah will be doing the gauntlet every week until she loses. Sucks for her.

Joe Schmo is quite tivo-worthy. He's inadvertantly taking the actors and producers down because he seems too likeable to point and laugh at him. I think it is kind of backfiring on them, but it makes for good tv.

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Yeah, but out of those who left, at least two or three aced that exam. Those guys/girls are the ones who were truly laughing.

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Wasnt Ryan one of the two hot topless guys? As for Osten not swimming, I seem to remember Jervace from Survivor 1 saying he didnt swim bc he was a brother. What the dilly-o?

ANy hookups happening? I dont seem to recall any hot chix on the show.

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The OM commented on this as well. I think the biggest problem was the cold water rather than the swimming. (It's like the Whaleship Essex where all the black crewmates died quick, fast, in a hurry.)

Now, because of y'all I caught some of newlyweds. This is such a riot. I hate to say it but Jessica is almost identical in personality to one of my former friends. The same needy, all eyes on me, bullshit. I enjoy it so much more since I get to watch it on tv rather than endure it live. Perhaps she'll follow my ex-friend's example by having her husband divorce her within the first 18 months of marriage.

Karma rocks.

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I still do occasionally as well. Probably a leftover from my first two years of undergrad in a very tough major... I also was kind of a screwup then, and didn't learn my lesson for a while. It's always undergrad related, not law school.

Worst real-life nightmare I've heard of was a guy I met my first semester of undergrad. On a 5 point GPA scale, his first semester he got a 1.2. That was like 4 E's (F equivalent) and a D. GPA was so low, he was just gone. No probation, no second chance.

The class he passed was Bowling. Heard from others that the grading for the class was all improvement-based (i.e., show up and if your score improves, you get a good grade). Either he didn't show up, or he actually got worse as the class went on...

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Me too. I don't remember having it during college at all. (I had nightmares about getting sucked into the radiator instead. No drugs involved.) It's the kind of dream where I don't remember it really when I wake up; instead I have a vague memory that I signed up for a French (or advanced math) class in college (or even high school) and never went and tried to take the final anyway and failed. If I think about it I know that never happened, though. So thanks for bringing this up.

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I didn't think about the racial implications of a swimming test, but I was happy to see a physical/endurance test that favored women because their higher body fat percentage makes them more buoyant and better insulated. All those cut guys had to work a lot harder to keep themselves from sinking like stones.

tm

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Me three.

I think the dream was kept deeply suppressed during college by hormones when I was sober and alchohol and drugs when I was not.

Now, the dream has surfaced again, and every few months I have it.

Why can't I relive the times I've forgotten instead?

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Didja ever babysit one of those toddlers who didn't want to do something and just flopped around like the bones had disappeared from their body, so they couldn't be made to go anywhere? That's Jessica.

Please, someone rescue that poor sweet boy she's married to.

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(Hi E/O!) Only one black person would even get into the pool for gym class in HS (about 1/4 black), which doesn't really answer your question. Not sure why.

Now that I think about it, the requirement was for the student to tread water for a certain amount of time, fully clothed, while holding a brick over his/her head. Maybe that's why. B/c it was insane. I'm not sure why I didn't find this ridiculous at the time.

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Me four, and I was a classic ween who rarely skipped a class. What the hell is wrong with all of us?

Style note: cigarette cases
 

I don't smoke, but do have a lovely silver cigarette case that I use as a wallet. It stylishly holds my credit card, ID, ATM and cash in a nice neat package. Get lots of compliments on it.

If I did smoke I would certainly want one for my cigarettes. Tres chic. Of course, then I would need a stylish lighter as well, not the pack of matches from the 7-11 or the cheesy bic.

So, what do stylish smokers use these days?

Anne
Too bad they had to take down the Zippo tricks website.

Style note: cigarette cases
 

Well my stylish gay friend uses a butane lighter that was purchased for him by a clever, straight, reality-tv-loving gal pal. It is in the shape of a man's torso and pelvis region. And when you light it the penis lights up (under the tight trunks that cover the region). Tres chic. Tres classy.

Also available in female anatomy version, for those who were wondering (TITS light up).

Style note: cigarette cases
 

I am unsure about the case. But a gas station somewhere on 290 between Austin and Houston (I think it was in Giddings) had a lighter that was a little pig. When you pushed his hat back, flame shot out of his nostrils. I will let you imagine where the valve was for refills. I would've bought it had I not quit smoking recently. Very sophisticated.

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How did the Jews do?

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I had to write two essays for final exams in two separate classes in my major. However, the essay topic was so broad that I wrote one essay and turned it in to both classes. Unfortunately, the two professors were friends and helped grade each other's essays. I got a call from one of the professors, who seemed to imply that it was dishonest of me to submit the same paper to both classes. I didn't (and still don't) see anything ethically wrong about it: It was my original work and it addressed both essay topics. Granted, it was lazy, but not unethical. Anyway, I told them as much (goddamn embyronic attorneys), but they wouldn't buy it, and they demanded their own essays. I said fine, put on a pot of coffee, smoked a pack of cigarettes and blazed out another 25 page essay that night, and got my typical B's. But I'm still bitter that it didn't work.

Flinty

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I think I did that and it did work. I slightly reworked it. Had forgotten. Didn't get caught, but it wasn't in my major (or at least one wasn't).

Of course, I may only have had a dream about it and now it's turned into a vague memory.

I have several cigarette cases from my smoking days. They are all silver (in colour if not in material) and of varying designs. Most of them are pretty simple, because people who know me well enough to buy me a cigarette case know I prefer clean lines on things.

I also have some very nice lighters. Again most of them are silver. The most interesting one I have is in a heart shape if you look at it from the top. What makes it interesting is the person who bought it didn't realize it was a heart shape, and neither do most people. I guess because you aren't normally looking straight down at a lighter, but rather see it from an angle.

The problem with cigarette cases is no one else uses them so it would always attract a lot of attention when I would go to get a cigarette. Same with nice lighters.

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The OddMan had to do something like this in special forces assessment. He can swim just fine.

I would think it's experiential. If you lived where there were pools or water, you swim. I don't think it has anything to do with anything else, now that colored people are not barred from using the same pools as white people. The Bahamians and Californians in his family swim; the Alabama family, not so much.

Even(kisses, Coltrane!)Odds

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I guarantee you that not one of them did (though we voted to give one guy a B+ because he actually appeared able to make sense out of his stolen class notes and had some coherent translations). The prof graded them in front of us.

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He did just fine.

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A friend of mine has the recurring "final exam" dream. For him, it's high school French --- starring his actual former teacher and everything. It recurs when he's under particular stress at work. His first year as a lawyer, he had it quite often. If he looked particularly restless in the morning, his wife would ask, "Did you have French again last night?"

He's now in his sixth year as a lawyer. If he's particularly beat down at work, he'll warn his wife before bedtime, "I think I have a French test tonight." He's almost never wrong.

The funny thing is, he's very active in his H.S. alumni association, and regularly sees his old French teacher IRL around campus. No hard feelings.

My work stress dream involves driving in a residential neighborhood in the town where I grew up. My brakes are fading. Everytime I stop at a stop sign, the car slides into the intersection before coming to a stop. It keeps happening, no matter how far in advance I apply the brakes. I keep driving anyway. There must be something in that.

Academic hi(gh)jinx
 

I completely made up a 30-ish page "family history" paper for a sociology class. Something about my grandfather being blackballed during the red scare. I can't remember what I said he was blackballed from. I was pretty high when I wrote it. The prof (very stereotypical middle-age female sociology type) ate it up. I ran into her on campus the next semester and she encouraged me to consider grad school in sociology. I just laughed, probably because I had a solid head full of shrooms at the time.

Ollie (in high school, I was chased by a wild pig while shroomin') Ramone

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Yup. Sometimes also university French (though I switched to Spanish and various dead languages in university).

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I have brake failure dreams too! Bizarre. Mine are not in any particular location. I think I mostly stopped having them after I realized that all the vague memories of brake failure I had were really memories of dreams and not memories of things that actually happened.

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My freshman year, I resubmitted an English essay I had written for a H.S. English class. It was on the application of Keats's negative capability theory to Dilsey's section of Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury.

The prof gave me a better grade than my H.S. teacher did.

Style note: cigarette cases
 

Bambu or Zig Zag.

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Yep.

I've relegated myself to only stating factual observations. I'm too scared to draw any conclusions. :hide:

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The dream about the test you haven't prepared for is textbook "anxiety dream". I have it from time to time, and the relief I feel upon waking is almost overwhelming. Let's say it's just whelming, then. Sometimes, I have to sit and think for a minute and remind myself (after thinking about it for a second) that I'm not in school anymore. I graduated. On time.

Isn't it interesting that the classic anxiety dream would involve an exam you didn't study for? I find it interesting anyway.

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The SO, who is from the islands, can't swim. Freaks me out. Of course I grew up in the NJ suburbs and swim like a fish. We went rafting with friends last summer and I had nightmares about having to explain his drowning death to his family.

Anne
After conducting a very unscientific poll (in my head) of my colored friends, I realize that none of them can swim.

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Fine, but what moron goes on Survivor or the RW/RR challenge not knowing how to swim or without refining their skills. You know there are going to be challenges involving swimming, and you are just impeding your own opportunity for the big $$.

Less (on second hand, maybe I have simply proved that African-Americans are stupider than whitey in the all important Reality TV Intelligence Quotient score) inSF

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It's not paranoia when they really ARE out to get you.

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Mine's snakes. Some random snake will pop out in the middle of the dream and usually I have to wake myself up because I'm so freaked out.

The brake thing happened to me once IRL. Scariest driving I've ever done. Even worse than backing down the icy cliff. Turns out the brake line was completely severed. Put my foot on the break to stop at a red light and the car only decelerated. I ended up putting the car in neutral and pulling up into a driveway in order to stop.

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That's what I was thinking last night. Especially after it was a swimming (well, holding breath underwater) challenge that did him in last year. Funny when the guy said he should really learn to swim and David said, "well it's a little too late now, isn't it." I always think hte same thing when missions involve driving a standard. Hey, people, you know that the challenge will involve this skill, why not learn it beforehand?

Makes for better tv this way though, so who's complaining?

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Who "replaced" you, the Witness Protection Program?

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You did not just say "colored friends", did you? You sound like my husband's southern grandmother.

TV Guide
 

Have any African-Americans ever done even passably well on a reality tv show?

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Me too. During a really bad rain storm in Philly. I was driving home from having dropped someone at the airport and was approaching a light that had just turned red. I stepped on the brakes and nothing, I tried everything you are supposed to do, but still nothing, I went right through the light. And the car was so waterlogged that all that happened when I hit the horn was a real weak gurgling noise.

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You know, come to think of it, that wasn't too long after the shooting on the freeway incident. Hmmm.

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Vee (sp?) on Survivor. Didn't she win?