I grew up in Hawaii and used to visit Florida because my grandmother had a winter place there. I agree with your comment completely.

Early in my career, a co-worker was fired for (among other things), frequently sleeping at his desk when he was supposed to be working. The entire company was half a dozen people in a single room. I have no idea what he was thinking.

My first thought (you might even call it my gut reaction) was “my microbiome,” so it’s along similar lines to yours.

Lost, but not the one you’re thinking of.

Travel back in time with me to September 4, 2001. It was a golden age, and reality television had taken off in a big way. NBC and CBS were each set to premiere a new show, with basically the same format: Teams of two Americans would start somewhere in the world and have to race back to the United States to win a cash prize.

NBC’s show Lost was the first to air, with CBS’s The Amazing Race airing the night after. The premise of Lost was great:

Three two-member teams knew only the final destination (thousands of miles away) and were given only a backpack full of clothes and other essentials. In addition, team members were not acquainted with one another prior to the show, and were assigned to teams. Contestants were blindfolded and dropped off with a single camera person in a remote location of an unknown country to find their way back to their home country…Teams were given no money until they managed to figure out what country they were in. During the first set, the teams were abandoned in Mongolia. (Source: Wikipedia)

The show did not do well. NBC blamed the low ratings on the fact that 9/11 happened shortly after, which actually preempted the second episode. Considering The Amazing Race debuted at basically the same time and went on to tremendous success (Lost had 1 season with 6 episodes, whereas The Amazing Race had 36 seasons and 418 episodes), I suspect something else was the cause.

So if the show was so bad, why did I like it?

First, I liked the idea that the teams started out in a location that was a mystery to them. Their first challenge was to figure out where in the world they were in a country where they (almost certainly) didn’t speak the language.

Second, although they were two-person teams, any passage they secured for themselves, they also had to secure for their camera person. You want to catch a flight? Well, I hope you have enough money to buy three tickets!

And finally, I was hooked early on when this one moment happened. It’s still one of my favorite moments of reality TV. Remember, all three teams started out in the Mongolian desert. They were spread out from one another, so no two teams would cross paths right away. This meant that as they made their way to the nearest village, they were headed to different villages.

Two teams had a similar plan: To catch a bus that drove between the villages (and, IIRC, was headed to a larger city). So the first team gets on the bus in their village, and as the bus drives into the village where the second team is waiting, the first team spots them. They then quickly convince the bus driver not to stop and to just keep on driving instead. We’re then shown two shots: One from inside the bus, where we see the second team and their camera guy as they watch the bus go by, and then one from outside the bus, as the second team watches the bus blow past them and they realize the first team is on board.

Or Wonderfalls, or Pushing Daisies, or basically anything Bryan Fuller does.

Just one on each end.

Develop my current podcast further, as well as work on at least 1 or 2 other podcast ideas I have. So many great ideas, so little time.

I completely agree about Ethan Frome, but perhaps you’ll like this video, which cracked me the hell up.

Two chapters, IIRC.

I wish Too Good To Go was in use in my city. My friend lives in Oakland and she uses it all the time. She said it’s a bit hit-or-miss, though. She’s shown up at some places and they’re like, “here’s a bag, fit it up with whatever and we’ll charge you $n for it.” Once it was a shelf of stuff and they said she could as much stuff as she wanted from the shelf for the same price. Once when I was visiting her, we got a huge bag of baked goods. If nothing else, it can help familiarize you with areas and businesses you may not have come across otherwise.

I’ve been enjoying using both of these, and they make a great pairing. Go for a walk, check out the streets!

Cinema Paradiso

Honorable mentions for Galaxy Quest and Heist.

Thanks for letting me know. I’m glad you got to check the place out. Thanks for sharing it with us!

This seems like a good place to leave this…

With pictures, ideally!

In high school I was invited to be a third wheel for a friend who I’m pretty sure had never been on a date before. He was so nervous he ended up knocking over a large glass full of ice water. Twice.