Aha! I found a good explanation of TTOW, the exclamatory "word" used by BJ and Tyler throughout the recent Amazing Race season. This TV Guide online article also gives lots of insight, so check it out!
But, TTOW? Here ya go:
TVGuide.com: What does "TTOW" stand for?
BJ: Truth, justice and the American way.
TVGuide.com: No, for real.
BJ: It's basically the Chinese word for "good times." We went to China in 2002 and ended up with these awesome shirts that randomly said TTOW on them. In Asian countries, they like English characters and it didn't mean anything at the time, but since we bought the shirts and have been yelling out the phrase on national television, it has become our power call to the universe.
It's down to the Final Four, two episodes to go after this one. Yes, indeed...it's the 13th week of the 15 week long interview. Thirteen is bad luck, right? I guess it was for...Wait, let me tell you about the episode first!The show opened with Sean preparing a salad for whichever Synergy team members survived the Boardroom. He was so hoping that Tammy would return, although he acknowledged there was a strong possibility that she was the one Trump fired. He looked absolutely crestfallen when Allie and Roxanne walked in. Then he changed to determined and outright angry. "They lack integrity!"In the morning, the teams met up with Donald Trump and the Trumplets -- his adult children Ivanka and Don, Jr. For no reason on earth (that I can think of) other than to promote his own fragrance, they met at the Estee Lauder offices. The actual task for the teams involved Embassy Suites, so you figure the reason they met at Estee Lauder and showed the design of the fragrance bottle.The task had the candidates in their gender war team mode, Gold Rush men, Synergy women, designing uniforms for Embassy Suites staff. They had to create four designs -- front desk, bellmen, suitekeepers, and chefs. The finished product would be voted on by Embassy Suites employees.Lee decided he wanted to be the project manager for Gold Rush, and he went with Sean to meet up with the E.S. executives. He wanted a focus group of employees and that's pretty much what the execs suggested, too. They went about asking the employees what they liked about their present uniforms and what they would want changed if they could. They didn't go hog-wild and worked on more functionality than changing everything around.Sean seemed to know a lot about fashion and clothing design. He believes it's because he's a metrosexual. That prompted Lee to say, "What's a metrosexual? A cross between a homosexual and a heterosexual?" He must live under a rock.I was out in my kitchen getting a cold tasty beverage during the commercial break prior to the Trump Firing Prediction Quote, so I missed the actual quote. The gist of it came down to business and friendship don't always mix. Hmmm...at that point in the show it could be either team. Sean and Lee had just been saying how great they got along. We know that Allie and Roxanne are tight. Or...are they? The second they showed Synergy (Roxanne and Allie), I knew they were doomed. Allie decided to be the project manager, but oh-we're-really-co-PM mindset took over. She didn't want to just tweak and update the uniforms; she wanted to create fashion! I swear Roxanne almost rolled her eyes at her, perhaps gave a deep sigh. But she played along. Bad mistake. Roxanne thought she was rude to the designer (she was, she was!). But she told us; she didn't tell Allie. The day of the fashion show was a hoot! The Gold Rush uniforms were the clear winner with the crowd -- fashionable, but very functional and improvements the employees themselves suggested to Lee and Sean. You could almost hear horrified gasps coming from some of the employees when Allie's Space Cadet designs hovered down the runway. Oh. My. God. It was like she took her designs from a '60s science fiction space novel! On the models they kind of looked um...interesting. Put real people with not-so-great builds in the uniforms, get the fashion police -- a crime has been committed!Sure enough, the employee vote went overwhelmingly to Gold Rush - 83 votes against 37 for Synergy. Sean and Lee won the honor (well, to them, I guess) of having dinner at Aquavit with Ivanka and Don, Jr. As for Roxanne and Allie, someone wil be fired. Or...Lee and Sean's dinner with the Trumplets went very well. They asked a lot of questions about growing up Trump, being Trump employees and on and on. I found it interesting that Trump gave his son $300 a month on a credit card when he was in college. He had to budget or get a job if he wanted more. I went to college in the Dark Ages, so I could have done a semester on that, but judging on his age, that wasn't exorbitant at all. Lee spilled the beans that Sean was smitten with Tammy (fired last week).As Allie and Roxanne prepared for their last night together, they cuddled and said they'd never turn on each other. "I'd throw myself under a truck for her," said Roxanne. Yeah, right.In the Boardroom, all started well. Then, the more nervous and defensive she got under Trump's questioning, the faster and higher-pitched Allie's speech became. Soon she was laying the blame on Roxanne. Then Roxanne spoke up (which she should have done in the task) saying she didn't decide the designs and Allie was rude to the designer. Catfight! Meow! Ivanka literally lit into Allie. Don, Jr. just watched for the most part. Meow, meow, hiss, hiss."Stop it! Roxanne and Allie, you're both fired!"Afterwards, he commented on the lack of loyalty. They came in as good friends and all fell apart over a loss. Well, of course it did. One would have to get fired. While I understand where Trump was coming from, what did he expect? Each one would have to defend their own actions and they best way to do that is to focus on what the other did wrong. Although I get his reasoning for the double fire, I think Allie should have gone as she made the fashion decisions and failed miserably.
I'm so happy, I'm so pretty, so pretty...!Well, um...This season was almost perfect in my eyes, at least. After a bit of a recap of the last leg, I'll be reflecting back on a very satisfying season of The Amazing Race.Now, where were we leave off? Japan? Ah, yes, that's it! Domo arigato! We were at the Pit Stop where Phil announced there would be no more eliminations in the race. However, since Ray and Yolanda came in last on the leg, they lost all of their money and possessions...in Tokyo (a very expensive city) with only the clothes they had on their backs and their passports. BJ and Tyler only had a two-minute headstart against Jeremy and Eric, but made sure to stop at Ray and Yolanda's car to leave them some money and "stuff." I don't believe Jeremy and Eric left anything at all. While the flight tickets are paid for by the production staff, nothing else is. So, they had to beg.And, beg they did. They went to restaurants, Ray wore a white sign dangling from his neck which read "yen." While he made more of an effort than I ever thought he would, even a humble and gracious one, it was Yolanda who brought in the bucks. The Japanese businessmen in one restaurant thought she looked like Janet Jackson and she had them handing over the money with ease.All three teams caught up to each other at the airport and were on the same flight heading to Anchorage, Alaska. None of the teams seemed to be too happy about that situation, but the Frat Boys (Eric and Jeremy) seemed outright disgusted.Once in Alaska, the teams had to drive thirty miles to Mirror Lake where they faced a Detour (a choice of two tasks relating to the local area). This one was Drill It or Deliver It. In Drill It, teams had to drill ten holes in the lake's ice with an auger, then drag an ice-fishing shack over to their area, setting it up to be approved by a local. In Deliver It, teams would have had to fly supplies 150 miles while doing the navigation for the pilot. Scratch that. All teams had to do Drill It because bad weather grounded all the planes.Eric and Jeremy finished the task first and received a clue directing them to a chalet in Kincaid Park where they had to don snowshoes and follow an intricate map to find the next clue. BJ and Tyler weren't all that far behind, but walked right by all the snowshoes! Argh! Not once, not twice, but at least three times! A sidenote: When I Googled "Kincaid Park," the information I found starts with "Don't throw snowballs at the moose." Heh.So...where my favorites, BJ and Tyler, far behind? And, what of Ray and Yolanda? Did they throw snowballs at the moose? Did a polar bear think they were salmon heading upstream? Well, the latter team was way behind, but in the end it didn't matter. All three teams made it on the same flight to Denver.They first had to head to Golden, Colorado to find hidden clues in what looked like a dilapidated chicken farm. First Eric/Jeremy, then BJ/Tyler. Alas, Ray and Yolanda lost any chance of winning right then and there. Between getting lost and having trouble finding, they were too far behind too close to the end of the race to catch up.The race would end where it began, in the Red Rocks Amphitheater (Denver). But there was a Roadblock before the Pit Stop. At Red Rocks, one member of each team was confronted with a field containing 285 flags. That team member had to select the 9 flags which represent the countries through which they had traveled. The racer had to take them one by one to a stand where they had to be placed in the correct chronological order. The other team member couldn't help physically, but could shout out advice. Eric and Jeremy got there first with what seemed like a huge lead, but they really had no clue. BJ and Tyler arrived and, while they had some difficulty, they nailed it in the nick of time and ran their way to the Pit Stop to win the million dollars! Woohoo! As Eric and Jeremy said, "We didn't know the last one would be about brains." I love it!
This team has been my favorite since about the second show. Watching them deal with the people in the various countries was refreshing compared the the "Ugly American" persona we've seen in some teams other seasons. In a lot of countries, they knew at least bits and pieces of the language. They obviously were out to have fun and an adventure, as well as trying for the million dollars. They entertained me without going for that idea of nastiness is "good TV" -- can you say Jonathan Baker?All in all, this was one of the best seasons in a long time. Even the villains this time around weren't once that had folks up in arms thinking they should be arrested. Amazing Race -- thank you for a fun, entertaining, exciting and truly amazing race.And, for BJ and Tyler, TTOW! Well done!If anyone out there reading this is interested, the CBS website has the information for applying to be on The Amazing Race 11. Where was this show before I wrecked my knees? Also, if you missed it, Ray proposed to Yolanda on The Early Show:
Ray shocked Yolanda by proposing, live, on his knees, in the plaza Thursday.
"I think the race was, I mean, it was a once in a lifetime experience," Ray said, "and I mean, you got to hang out with hippies and frat boys but, most of all, sharing the race with Yolanda. It was something that was special. I would have not been here if it wasn't for you and you're like everything I've dreamed of my whole life. Will you marry me?"
With onlookers cheering wildly, she said yes, tears streaming down her face.
Aww...
Well, well, well...a perfect conclusion to a fantastic season of The Amazing Race. Of course, that's in my own humble opinion. Yes, the lackluster, boring, tedious, and family-safe family version faux pas of last autumn is but a distant memory. This season was one heck of a whirlwind ride with excellent casting (overall), excitement, and lots of close finishes. Ah, but close doesn't win the million, does it? On with the show...The three remaining teams (BJ/Tyler, Eric/Jeremy and Ray/Yolanda) left their last Pit Stop at the Marble Temple in Thailand taking a taxi 75 miles to the Royal Kraal Pavilion - an historical place where wild elephants used to be taken in round-ups. Today, it seems like a trained elephant hangout. Now, what would the show be without a product placement? The clue there, passed by elephants to the team (via trunk mail) was a T-Mobile cell phone with a message. Although the teams left the Marble Temple in their arrival order with a few hours between first and last, this was another bunching point as they waited for the Pavilion to open. Rats, there went BJ and Tyler's lead! One thing I noticed -- Ray and Yolanda had a bright pink taxi. I thought some of the taxis in New Jersey had odd colors!Teams took off to the airport to fly to Tokyo, Japan. BJ and Tyler were ecstatic as Tyler speaks fluent Japanese, has a Japanese girlfriend and hiked the length of the country. Of course, it would have behooved them to get the first flight to Tokyo. Nope. Eric/Jeremy and Ray/Yolanda filled that one. My heart sank. Instead of the two-hour lead they had, all of a sudden they were running two hours behind the other teams! Ack!Once in Tokyo, teams had to drive to Shibuya which is so much like Times Square in Manhattan that I had to do a double-take. They had to search the huge video ads on the buildings for a clue which turned out to be "Find Hachiko." What's a Hachiko, you ask? It's a statue of a beloved dog, an Akita named Hachiko. Ray and Yolanda fell behind in Tokyo and set the pattern for the rest of the leg. Their obstacles were the language barrier compounded by a big traffic jam. The fun note on this leg was when Ray told Yolanda he was "driving Miss Crazy."The clue at Hachiko was a Detour, a choice between two tasks usually having something to do with the locality. The choices were Maiden (carrying a maiden to a tea house) or Delivery (delivering two packages to separate businesses on folding bikes). Eric and Jeremy chose Maiden, probably because there was a woman involved, those HornDogz! BJ and Tyler thought they could make up time with delivery as Tyler could easily ask for and understand directions in Japanese. Ray and Yolanda? Still roaming in the search for Hachiko! Once they got there, they took the Maiden Detour and whined less than Jeremy and Eric about it.Oh, no! The clue after the detour led to yet another bunching point. All teams spent the night in the Capsule Land Hotel -- a very odd hotel whose accommodations reminded me of morgue shelves with better lighting. Definitely not a place for folks with claustrophobia! Teams departed the hotel in the morning in 15-minute intervals, Eric/Jeremy first and Ray/Yolanda last.Teams were then off for Fujikyu Highlands, a huge amusement park located near an even larger mountain -- Mt. Fuji. Either Eric or Jeremy called it Mt. Tokyo. (Yes, I rolled my eyes!) In a Roadblock (a task which must be completed by only one team member), racers had to ride three very fast, high, and wild rides searching for a man holding a sign which had their next destination written upon it. At the amusement park and throughout Tokyo, the locals really took a liking to Tyler, blond and bearded, and fluent in their language. "Want to touch my beard?" he asked when a young girl told him she liked it. Both guy teams finished at the same time and headed to the Pit Stop which was a gigantic swan boat in Yamanaka. BJ and Tyler won the paddle-boat race with Eric and Jeremy to the bird and took first place. As per usual, they didn't win a cruise or trip. They won a T-Mobile phone and service contract, hence the earlier product placement. Jeremy and Eric came in second and got razzed by Phil Keoghan for letting BJ/Tyler beat them in a physical endeavor. Heh. What? Ray and Yolanda? Dead last. The clue had read the last team may be eliminated. It was a non-Philimination leg. I sort of figured that as they usually have three teams racing for the million dollars at the finish line. They lost all their money and possessions except for their passports and the clothes on their backs.Stay tuned for Part 2 which I'll be writing up tomorrow evening!
Elliott Yamin is going home.:::sniffle:::
