Last night’s episode of The Amazing Race was, I think, the weakest one I’ve seen. There were a number of things that made it so: the seemingly endless focus on ostrich egg eating, the unusually strong emphasis on intra-team conflict, and, most oddly, the elimination of Charla and Mirna that was compressed into an anti-climactic minute or two at the very end.

The pacing seemed off for the entire episode, and what might have received emphasis didn’t, and vice versa.

Charla and Mirna were, argubly, the stars of Amazing Race 5 to date, for they brought the most interesting relationship, the quickest thinking, and the most “rebounds from certain defeat” to the table. Last night their departure was handled so quickly that it was as if they simply disappeared.

There were some good parts to the episode.

Chip and Kim, probably the most positive players, and seemingly the only ones paying any attention to their surroundings, had a good experience in the “deliver a chair” challenge, and took enough time away from the crazy race pace to make a small connection with the local family they delivered the chair to.

The variety of experiences the teams had with hiring a minibus in Tanzania was also interesting: teams that acted like rich North Americans and waved their money around were met with hostility and delay; teams that went with the flow did better (if I followed the proceedings correctly, one team payed as little as $3 for a ride that cost another team upwards of $100).

Edward Hasbrouck, who provides weekly commentary on each episode on vacation until September 1, so we’ll not hear from him again, I presume, on this or the next two episodes.

First, if we’re supposed to feel all warm and patriotic when Canadian athletes win medals at the Olympics, are we supposed to feel inadequate and useless when they come 11th. Or 43rd?

Second, how should we read this message on the CBC website:

Due to International Olympic Committee (IOC) restrictions regarding the online transmission of Olympic Games coverage, CBC.ca is prohibited from streaming any live or on-demand audio/video files that may include protected Olympic material.

Doesn’t this say, in effect, “all that superfluous local content that we play most of the time is less important than allowing the sporty people to watch divers trying to hit the water at the same time?”

I don’t mean to suggest that the CBC shouldn’t broadcast the Olympics — certainly they are of interest. But these “restrictions” about “protected Olympic material” mean that the thousands of people who use CBC’s streaming audio on the web are left in silence.

The CBC, I think, has a made a deal with the devil.

…and the net will answer.

Plasma has a branding problem.

You’ve got your plasma televisions.

And your plasma rays.

There are plasma gemstones.

And the more ominous sounding Plasma: Fourth State of Matter.

So when our friendly blood collectors across the street at 85 Fitzroy St. recruited me to become a plasma donor, it was hard not to have very Star Trek visions of what this might entail.

(By “recruited,” I mean “I walked in, after seeing the ‘Donor Clinic Today’ sign out front for the 2,000th time, and said “I’d like to give blood.” Before I knew it, I’d been upsold to plasma).

So in 20 minutes I’m heading across the street to plasmanate for the first time.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Update: It all went fine. People were super nice, the technology behind the “suck out his plasma and give him back his blood” is nifty. It didn’t hurt. Lots of questions about sex with IV drug users and trips to the Congo, but that’s understandable. They’re all super-careful about double- and triple-checking everything. It was a good hour away from telephone, television, cell phone and other stresses. I’ll go again.

Buzz has posted photos of the aftermath of Hurricane Charley. Looks very familiar.

Perhaps the written word escapes you and yet you still feel the need to express yourself about something you’ve read here? Now, in addition to leaving text comments, you can phone your comments in by telephone.

Just click the Add audio? checkbox on the regular old comments form, and then enter a little text preamble. Post your comments as normal, and then watch your email for instructions on how to telephone in your comments.

Follow the instructions and your audio commentary will appear attached to your original comment for the world to hear.

This is experimental — the result of a late-nite procrastination session — so it might not work completely or as you might expect. Or it might be a silly idea to begin with. Feedback (textual or audio) is welcome.

My friend Oliver says that he thinks me “subdued.” Here’s proof-positive that I am not, at least while in Phoenix:

Josh Ritter (recommended by Ann) is starting a Canadian tour soon, and it includes dates in Halifax, Saint John, Fredericton and St. John’s here in the east. He then heads east through Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.

I came to know this by following Steven on a wild goose chase for the identity of a song playing in the background of a VW Touareg commercial currently playing on television. We’re not sure if it’s Ritter, but it sounds close.

You can see Hurricane Charley’s weather, in diluted form, passing through Dublin, NH this morning.

Update: Our friend Buzz is blogging the hurricane He lives in Winter Park, near Orlando:

When you live in Florida you expect that every so often there will be a hurricane. Kind of like blizzards in Minnesota where I grew up or earthquakes in California…

You can donate to the American Red Cross relief effort online.

My father and I are in the midst of planning a trip to the “old country” — Croatia — this fall. One of the things I learned this week is that to have any success at making family connections once there, we’ll have to determine which “line” of Rukavinas we hale from. Apparently, like Arsenaults on PEI, there are so many Rukavina families in our home place that they have taken on nicknames over the years.