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the last of my tv junk food ('til fall)

Parvati Shallow (top) won the million-dollar prize on last night's Survivor finale (Fans vs Favorites, Micronesia). Which means that my girlfriend (ok, not really) Amanda Kimmel did not. This is confusing.

Amanda won challenges. Parvati didn't. Amanda was loyal to friendships and alliances she made within the game. Parvati was not (with the exception, ironically, of her "little sister" Amanda). Amanda demonstrated cunning and no small amount of acting ability, most notably when she blindsided Alexis with an immunity idol she was not supposed to have. Pavarti showed almost nothing but flirtatious guile when she used both James and Ozzy for protection during the first half of the game and then coolly discarded them when she found the safety of a ruthless all-female alliance (which spent a lot of time stirring and cackling over an imaginary cauldron -- I'm not kidding). And even then the game plan often issued from Cirie's mouth, not hers. Meanwhile, Amanda's scrambled and fought her way to the end; several times she won immunity when that meant the only way forward. And all this coming straight from her previous Survivor season in China, with only a few weeks in between, meaning a full 78 days of game play.

And yet still she lost.

Oh, the power of public speaking -- a talent for which my poor Amanda does not possess. In China she pretty well fell apart under the stress of the hard steps that come at the end (choosing who goes with you before the jury, then facing the jury's self-righteous vindictiveness), and here in Micronesia she didn't do much better, with that long face and those doe eyes of hers, and the propensity for tears. Instead of laying out all the great things she had done to get there, all Amanda did was try to explain the depth of her sincerity. Even if she had made a good job of it, there was no way the jurors would stand for her squeezing in on the immense amount of sympathy they felt only for themselves. So instead they gave the money to someone they (or the rest of us) didn't like but also someone who just shrugged and made no apologies.

Oh well. For three month's work and her two final appearances, Amanda's made at least $200 000, of which she'll keep about half, and that's more than enough to take some time off for a Toastmasters course.
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  1. Anonymous10:55 am

    All I can say is I need arms like hers, well almost not quite as big ! I gotta start working out in that gym with my Hubby !

    ReplyDelete

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