MONDO EXTRAS

So I think that's everyone, aside from having briefly introduced myself to Drew and Eric as 'the new guy." As people start filtering out (Cara pausing to tell me goodbye and "Thank you for supporting us," which makes me feel like a cad), I find myself out on the sidewalk again with a group that includes Victor. He mentions the fact that his family on the West Coast just now found out that he won, and now Victor is looking forward to relaxing and enjoying it. Someone asks him about eating the bugs, and he shrugs, "It wasn't that bad. I mean, it wasn't good, and I'm not going to do it again, but...it would have been better with ketchup." Either I or someone else mentions to him that I'm the recapper, and he sincerely tells me, "Good for you!" I don't know how a guy who just became a demi-millionaire manages that without sounding condescending, but he pulls it off. In the meantime, he's sort of wandered off the curb, not exactly into traffic because there's a car parked just upstream from where he's standing, but someone invites him back up to the sidewalk anyway because nobody wants to see the headline "Amazing Race winner hit by car in New York." Well, not this season, anyway.

There are racers there from seasons I've missed, but I don't know who they are. They're only distinguishable by that odd aura of fame they all seem to have tonight, as though they were all sprayed with a coating of it before leaving the hotel.