Reality TV or Educational Television?
Last night The Amazing Race was as much educational programming as it was excellent reality television. And given that the lessons applied to my life today, I'm going to share them with the class that is my blog readership (all 4 of you).
Today's lesson will be modeled after "Goofus and Gallant" from Highlights for Kids magazine (one of my favorite publications as a child).
Goofus is being played by the team of Colin and Christie. Well, really just Colin, because the only thing Christie has done wrong is put up with Colin's verbal abuse (which is horrible, but not germane to today's lesson). Colin is an asshole to every transportation purveyor in sight. Cab driver, bus driver, ticket agent, you are there to serve him at his speed and he will pay you what he feels you are worth, regardless of if you have established a price ahead of time. On last night's show he almost landed in jail because he had made arrangements to pay a cab driver $100 (it was a 100 mile trip, so he wasn't being scammed), but at the end of the trip only wanted to pay the guy $50 because the cab had broken down along the way. When the Chief of Police said that the driver was going to press criminal charges the only reason that Colin paid the $100 was because they were in danger of missing their impending plane flight, which surely would have lost them speed in the race. You don't want to be like Colin, kids. He's a prick and if I were his cab driver and knew he was in a race I'd purposely get lost just to screw him up.
Gallant, on the other hand, is played by Chip and Kim. EVERYONE is Chip's friend. First thing he does when he gets in the cab is introduce himself and his wife to the cab driver. I'm sure at the end of the 100 mile journey you're on his Christmas Card list for life. He TIPPED the guy an extra $20 for his cab ride. If they lose the race it will probably be because Chip was taking so much time making friends with everyone he met along the way, or he spent all their money in tips and couldn't afford to move forward. Which brings us to the lesson on what TO do. Toward the end of the episode they had to take a cab ride which would cost them approximately $20 US. They had only $10 left (the result of the too-generous tipping). Chip managed to become good enough friends with the cab driver that the guy let them off with only paying half their fare. Anything for a friend, eh? Chip's theory is that whatever you give comes back to you. He had showed generosity to people earlier in the game, and now that generosity was coming back to him.
We could all stand to be a little more like Chip and a little less like Colin in our lives.
On a purely tangential, self-promotional note: The sweetie and I are both horribly addicted to The Amazing Race and have been since season 1. Starting last season we have started picking teams before the race starts. We read through all the bios posted online before the first episode, and based only on that pick the team that we think can win the race, based only on their description. Last season my team made it to the final 3 (and then didn't make it to the finish line). This year: I picked Chip and Kim. Now I want them to win even more. This season sweetie picked the team that was eliminated in the first week. He's since taken to rooting for my team.
Can you blame him?
Today's lesson will be modeled after "Goofus and Gallant" from Highlights for Kids magazine (one of my favorite publications as a child).
Goofus is being played by the team of Colin and Christie. Well, really just Colin, because the only thing Christie has done wrong is put up with Colin's verbal abuse (which is horrible, but not germane to today's lesson). Colin is an asshole to every transportation purveyor in sight. Cab driver, bus driver, ticket agent, you are there to serve him at his speed and he will pay you what he feels you are worth, regardless of if you have established a price ahead of time. On last night's show he almost landed in jail because he had made arrangements to pay a cab driver $100 (it was a 100 mile trip, so he wasn't being scammed), but at the end of the trip only wanted to pay the guy $50 because the cab had broken down along the way. When the Chief of Police said that the driver was going to press criminal charges the only reason that Colin paid the $100 was because they were in danger of missing their impending plane flight, which surely would have lost them speed in the race. You don't want to be like Colin, kids. He's a prick and if I were his cab driver and knew he was in a race I'd purposely get lost just to screw him up.
Gallant, on the other hand, is played by Chip and Kim. EVERYONE is Chip's friend. First thing he does when he gets in the cab is introduce himself and his wife to the cab driver. I'm sure at the end of the 100 mile journey you're on his Christmas Card list for life. He TIPPED the guy an extra $20 for his cab ride. If they lose the race it will probably be because Chip was taking so much time making friends with everyone he met along the way, or he spent all their money in tips and couldn't afford to move forward. Which brings us to the lesson on what TO do. Toward the end of the episode they had to take a cab ride which would cost them approximately $20 US. They had only $10 left (the result of the too-generous tipping). Chip managed to become good enough friends with the cab driver that the guy let them off with only paying half their fare. Anything for a friend, eh? Chip's theory is that whatever you give comes back to you. He had showed generosity to people earlier in the game, and now that generosity was coming back to him.
We could all stand to be a little more like Chip and a little less like Colin in our lives.
On a purely tangential, self-promotional note: The sweetie and I are both horribly addicted to The Amazing Race and have been since season 1. Starting last season we have started picking teams before the race starts. We read through all the bios posted online before the first episode, and based only on that pick the team that we think can win the race, based only on their description. Last season my team made it to the final 3 (and then didn't make it to the finish line). This year: I picked Chip and Kim. Now I want them to win even more. This season sweetie picked the team that was eliminated in the first week. He's since taken to rooting for my team.
Can you blame him?
posted by Swankette at 10:06 PM
1 Comments:
Hon--
I still think my team might come back.
--The Sweetie
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