After EDG considers taking a shot at the Fast Forward (which Frank dismisses as "sissy stuff"), they decide to just make a break for the Ferris wheel. In their continuing effort to bring the Guinness Book of World Records people out of their offices to invent a new category called Worst Cab Etiquette Ever, Rob and Brennan appear to actually guilt-trip a pair of older women into giving up their cab. For cryin' out loud, what IS with the cab-stealing? People, please. Don't push. There's room for everyone. And keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle, too. What were you, born in a barn? Your face will freeze that way. There goes my mind, wandering again. At any rate, I'm still right about the cab-stealing. The availability of ground transportation, after all, has yet to be a major factor in this race.

EDG develops its first official Cracks Of Discord as Frank and Margarita see Team Esquire jump into a cab without them, and then have to wait to get one of their own. It's not an unambiguous abandonment, but it appears to worry the Danzas. Frank is misanthropic enough that he's not crazy about the whole alliance thing anyway, so this is playing into his every paranoid fantasy. (Miss Alli's Internal Alternative-Audio-Track Narrator: "Frank's issues are many and varied, but those who have had the opportunity to examine him closely suspect a fear of abandonment, low self-esteem, and a benign golf-ball-sized cyst that overstimulates his temper.")

Rob dimly points out that "life is a game of minutes." Oh, go sew a mother-of-pearl button on your fly, Mr. Dramatic-Flairy-Pants. I admit that you're hot, but you're not too bright, so smile pretty and don't talk a lot.

Pat and Brenda reach the wheel. They're giddy -- they're ahead, they found the clue, they have all kinds of time! Things are going so well for them!

Phil explains that once they reach the Ferris wheel, the teams have two choices. The first is an "Easy Walk," which leads to a Foucault's pendulum with a statue of a cat next to it. I should point out here, that in normal use, a "Foucault pendulum" isn't a single thing, like the Arc de Triomphe. A Foucault pendulum is like a Mobius strip or a Rubik's Cube. There are lots of pendulums in the world, and any one that's properly built can display the Foucault effect (which has to do with building a pendulum long enough to demonstrate the rotation of the earth), so it’s not as simple as finding a named landmark. At any rate, in keeping with this fact, the Easy Walk has a specific trick to it -- there are two fairly well-known Foucault pendulums (pendula?) in Paris. One is at what Phil translates as the Museum of Arts and Crafts (ah, yes, they had a divine exhibit on Popsicle Stick Houses, and they have one of the world's finest collections of Macaroni Jewelry), and that's the one you DON'T want. The pendulum you want, the one with the cat statue next to it, is at the Pantheon. On one hand, this is a trick. On the other, if you find somebody who happens to know that one of the pendulums has a cat statue next to it and one doesn't, or even if you ask somebody who knows that there are two pendulums in Paris, you can improve your situation, so it isn't as if you're helpless at the cruel hand of fate. Furthermore, a little research has suggested to me that the pendulum at the Pantheon is the more historically significant -- it is the original site of Foucault's demonstration. On the other hand, the one at the Museum of Arts and Crafts was immortalized by Umberto Eco, so who's to say which is more "famous"? I think all we can say for sure is that finding the right pendulum would be challenging indeed. Aren't you glad we explored this subject?