Favorite Survivor line so far from another site (Bill_in_PDX at FORT (Fans of Reality TV)):

Why is it hard to take off the scout hat? Is it glued on?

I'm rolling. Wish I had thought of that. What do you bet she would have still packed that outfit if they knew they were heading for the island?

(And now I will do something I'm trying to avoid. Repeat here what I wrote there. With this woman, I just can't resist.)

That woman drives me nuts. All she can think about is shirts tucked in and not starting firs with candles--all sorts of fake challenges you set up for yourself in the woods--when she's faced with all sorts of "real" challenges to deal with.

Real to her: real in the crucial sense that she has no control over them. On a camping trip, you start the fire with two rocks knowing damn well somebody could just pull out a match. Here, they're really on their own, and all she can think about is the simulated shit.

I realize there are multiple ironies about reality going on there, and maybe that's what bugs me most about her: she doesn't. If she were laughing about the irony, I'd love her. As it is, I just want to slap her.

So who do you guess will be the first person to turn to her with stern voice and say, "One more word about those girlscouts . . .!" (Cubscouts? Brownies? Weeblos? Did we ever learn exactly what kind of scouts these were? And tell me that's not a fulltime job for her. What a weird and possibly pathetic way to self-identify if it's only an hour or two of volunteer time a week.)

OK, I checked the CBS site. Boyscouts. "She was most recently employed in customer service for an eyeglass company. She holds an Associates Degree in accounting from the University of Cincinnati." OK, I guess that's why she fell back on the scoutmaster ID. heeheehee.

Also from her bio: "She feels she's ready for this adventure because of her outdoor skills, leadership, patience, ability to be a team player, tolerance, acceptance, positive attitude and resourcefulness." Leadership? Oh, she means she's great at leading as long as everyone is 1/3 her age and will be beaten by their parents if they talk back to her. (And I bet they are weeblos.) team player? tolerance? acceptance? and most of all positive attitude?

I shouldn't pick on her, she's just a queer little duck that forgot to join a cult, but she gets under my skin.

(Please head here for Survivor comments this week.)

PREDICTIONS, PREDICTIONS, PREDICTIONS:

OK people, let's get your predictions out on the table. For next week and for the whole series.

(You can post comments anywhere you like, but I suggest you head to the Survivor Comment Open Thread for this week, where a lively discussion is going on, and predictions are underway. If you lose track of it, you can always find it at my new Survivor page, which will soon have a link in the left sidebar.)

My predictions for next week:

Morgan is going to lose a lot more challenges, so I'm betting they'll crash again next week, though there's enough luck that you never ever know.

Ryan S most likely to go next, for (dammit!) the exact reasons Ben laid out in the comments:

Morgan goes to council, and Ryan S, the produce clerk (what does he handle? grape tomatoes? certainly not the 10lb bag of potatoes) will go home. He's a whiner and has isolated himself and not brought ANYTHING to the tribe, which Andrew (ssspp sspp) has recognized and let the other tribe members know he wants him out.

Dead on. And I swear I had already made that mental prediction for those same reasons before I went to bed last night. I swear!

Plus, this the period of the show where they like to toss off the physically weakest and the women are going to get queasy about halving their ranks on the team. Ryan also has a target for being weakest boy. And when the Chief signalled his displeasure . . . Just watch how quickly Lillian deserts him (though in her case, you never know. That woman lives on a different planet than me.)

Of course events move quickly, so you never know. (Just thought I'd toss in that disclaimer.)

First off from Drake? Not a lot to go on, but I'll guess Jon. He's annoying a few people, likely to shout his mouth off more and do something stupid, and he doesn't look like much value in the challenges. And the women in that camp will be feeling the alpha-male shadow of the Dynamic Duo much more strongly, so they're going to be far edgier about voting off a woman. They know they can never give Burton and Shawn the upper hand.

I'll have to get back to you on predictions for the whole season. But don't let me stop you. I swear not to steal your ideas. Or at least I'll credit you when I do.

I've set up a separate Survivor Pearl Islands page within the blog here.

Here's the table of contents, to give you an idea what you'll find there for now (expanding as the season progresses):

Contents:

1. Summary: Best posts and recent posts
2. Episode by episode: my posts, your open comment threads, links to CBS recaps and Fans of Reality TV thread for the episode, etc.
3. CBS official links.
4. Links to best fan sites.

I'll add a link to the page in the lefthand sidebar soon.

I'd love to hear your reaction to Survivor. (We'd all love to hear your responses to Survivor).  But I wrote so many Survivor posts yesterday that it will be hard to get a discussion going in any one place. Post them here, and we can have a lot of fun with it.

I have just started a Survivor Pearl Islands page, which will link to this as the place to post Episode One comments all week, so you and others can find it easily there.

Wow. The Tijuana and Nicole drama exploded faster than I expected--courtesy of that backstabbing little scoutmaster.

It's got to be one of them. (I paused the Tivo right before Dimples sent them off to vote.) Either one is expendable at this point, since no one is really close yet, and the only thing they need at the moment are strong backs. And once a feud erupts, you've got to settle it quickly by booting one of the parties.

This is sort of a three-way battle, with Lillian involved as well, but she managed to pin it on the other two nicely, and getting rid of her wouldn't end the deeper animosity between the others.

It's probably going to be Nicole. Nobody really trusts her, so that's a bad way to start off. And booting Tijuana would still live Lillian and Nicole feuding, since they both know Lillian set Nicole up and then Nicole lied about Lillian.

The funny part is that everyone is so sure Lillian is so pure, when she's the villian of the whole thing. All Nicole did was approach her about a voting block: that's standard procedure. Then she went and blabbed to everyone which was totally uncool, especially doing it with the express purpose of starting a feud. Good move to save her skin, but hardly the unblemished soul everyone is seeing.

Will she be the oddball who hangs on indefinitely because no one ever sees her as a threat?

Update:

No surprise at Tribal Council, so I won't bother with another post. It was Nicole, unanimously. Poor girl did herself in. Good final words (you can read them here, or click for the video here.) She understood exactly what happened and why and took responsibility for it. Those are the people I respect most. She's all right. I'll Tivo The Early Show tomorrow and have a report on her interview sometime during the day.

CBS has a recap of the ep up here.