A few other interesting things I learned.

"Outside, Rob and Brennan are breaking the news to their cab driver that they're tipping zero -- no, seriously, ZERO -- on a thirty-eight-dollar fare. Ouch. Whatever wild animals may attack them later, whatever fungus they have to eat, whatever creeping jungle rot they come down with, this is the closest Rob and Brennan are going to come to death."

I am told that they were not -- not even remotely -- the only team who didn't tip the cabbie. Lots of teams didn't tip. Nobody knew what the money situation was at that time, and nobody knew whether there'd be enough for a tip. But the hot young privileged attorneys failing to tip? That's a story. Plus, it formed the basis of the Transportation Curse, so it's a good thing it was shown, and shown early.

"Phil attempts to build suspense by wondering aloud whether the trailing teams can catch up with the leaders, but his efforts are undercut by how utterly ridiculous he looks in the rolled-up pant legs and the bare feet. Sucks to be washed up on the beach in paradise with nothing but your beige button-down shirt and your brown pants. Where's Phil's Hawaiian shirt? Where are Phil's devil-may-care denim cutoffs? Everybody else gets to swim, but Phil's mom only lets him go wading."

Phil didn't make it to the TARcon, but I met him at Dinnercon, and he's verrrrry nice also. He went through a very amusing explanation of how he carefully got the show to set up this shot and roll tape directly up his nose with the sky in the background. It's possible that you had to be there.

These were two nicknames bandied about in the first recap for the team that later became Esquire. They're both too long, so I never would have kept them…but I still think Esquire owes me a debt of gratitude for dropping them both. Especially the second one, no?

"Credits. It occurs to me that this thumpety-thump-bwah-dah music sounds like the theme song from a movie about espionage. Well, maybe a porno movie about espionage. (Espionage porn! Maybe it's the next big thing!) On the visual side, the highlight is Team Guido sitting in front of the fireplace, clinking wine glasses and undoubtedly saying, 'Gentlemen, to evil!' (tm Mikey)."