Publius & Co.

Barbie is a bitch with a capital "C"

Jennifer broke the news that Barbie is dumping Ken for an Australian boy-toy named Blaine. In her comments, I pointed out

Ken, after having supported her--not with cash, but with patience, understanding and encouragement--while she pursued her career and became a success the likes of which Madonna wouldn't imagine in her wildest dreams, dumps the guy like a bad habit (or not) for a blow-dried, significantly younger boy-toy with killer abs and a funny accent.

And I started wondering...what if Ken doesn't take this like a gentleman? He's been a nice guy in the past, but what if this drove him over the edge?

Well, there's only one way for me to wonder about how this will turn out. I now present the Munuvian Dfilm Players, in my newest production: Barbie Hates Ken

Drink alert!

One of my co-workers sent this to me. Work-safe, unless your co-workers don't like the sound of your laughter. You might not want to have anything in your mouth, either.

Art Monk he ain't

Memorials

The gf and I took our slow bikes downtown this morning, intending to view the AIDS Memorial Quilt. At about 8:30 AM the quilt was not available for viewing, so we headed over to the Mall, and visited several memorials.

Our first stop was the World War II Memorial, which I've discussed in the past. Nic confirmed what I suspected: It's arranged somewhat chronologically, tho we're still very confused about the order of the pillars commemorating the states and territories of the US at the time of the war.

Next we headed to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Currently, the western half of The Wall is not available for viewing, as the lighting system is being upgraded (later on this year, the east half will be closed for maintenance as well), but it's still one of the most moving sites I've ever had the honor of visiting.

A letter from a recent high school graduate, to the Great Uncle she never knew.

It's just a short walk from The Wall to the Korean War Veterans Memorial. Unlike the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial was designed with the statues in mind, which emphasizes, again, the fact that young men fought in this war. The statues represent all four branches of the military, and the black granite wall consists of over two thousand photos (sandblasted into black granite) of those who served in Korea.

We mounted our bikes and headed back toward the Ellipse, where volunteers where just starting to unpack the Quilt. I first saw the Quilt the last time it was displayed in its entirety, in October 1996, and it covered the entire Mall, and its size was overwhelming. Today, only a small portion, 1000 panels, are being displayed on the Ellipse.

It's no less moving.

A young volunteer helps out.

Ah, the music of my youth.

I'm sitting here at home after getting the bikes ready for a short ride tomorrow, and I've got the "New Wave" station on DirecTV. A girl with a British or Irish accent (can't quite tell) starts talking, "Some people say little girls should be seen and not heard. Well, I say OH BONDAGE! UP YOURS!" Then she starts screaming shouting singing the song:

Bind me tie me
Chain me to the wall!
I wanna be a slave
To you all!
Oh bondage!
Up yours!

over a nice little nails across the blackboard cacophony cat with tail caught in a meat grinder guitar and saxophone tune. Good beat, easy to slamdance to.

And to think Ted almost had a heart attack over a pair of pants.

The song is by a band called X-Ray Specs, in case you want to avoid accidentally spending your hard-earned bucks on it were wondering.

Survivor!

I was voted off the island.

Hope for Metro passengers

Life on the Metro isn't all fucked up. This afternoon (yesterday afternoon for those of you reading this at work with your first cup of coffee), I stood in the doorway while a lady with a white cane got on.

(Good thing, too, because I've seen 'em slam the car doors on people before. I've seen 'em slam the car doors shut while people are still getting off, for Pete's sake!)

Anyway, I got on after her, and while I was looking for an empty seat for her, two people jumped up to offer her their seats. Honestly, I was very touched.

Still a few bugs in the system.

Metro had a table next to the new SmarTrip machines (the gentleman in the yellow shirt is looking at one of them), selling even more SmarTrip cards to those who prefer doing business with a human being to doing business with a machine.

Of course, *this* little problem might've had something to do with it. Guess Metro didn't consider that possibility.

BTW, I counted eleven Farecard machines at the Shady Grove station; of those eleven machines, three of them are designed to add value to a SmarTrip card. I'm expecting long lines to be a regular feature at those three machines.

These five geniuses *still* haven't gotten with the program. My plans to drive to work next Monday are still firmly in place, though the cynic in me wants to take the day off just so I can film the sure-to-be-coming hijinks when those who haven't yet gotten the message have said message bite them firmly in the buttocks.

SmarTrip machines have been installed.

Monday evening, the gf noticed there were new machines being installed at the Shady Grove Metro stations. I saw them yesterday afternoon. Yep, they were three brand-new SmarTrip vending machines.

Notice these new machines only sell NEW SmarTrip cards. You cannot add value to your card at these machines. In order to add money, you still have to go to the old FareCard machines. Fortunately, stations tend to have a lot of these old clunkers--

--but it's not like you can add value to your SmarTrip card at all Farecard machines.

*sigh*

To their credit, Metro seems to be making an effort to make the changeover to SmarTrip-only parking (due to start next Monday!) as painless as possible...but I still saw a half-dozen mental midgets in line at the lone cash-only lane at the garage I park in.

I'm definitely driving to work next Monday.

Saturday at the Memorial

(NOTE: I apologize in advance for the size of the images--I will fix them tonight, at home, so that you may look at them. You're welcome to download them for viewing at home, but I reserve all commercial rights to these images.)

If you've been reading my gf's blog, you know last Saturday we played tourist with a friend, and visited the latest attraction in the nation's capital: The World War II Memorial. And like the gf, I must confess I was less than impressed.

I think the problem is there's nothing that gives one pause for reflection. Your eyes are drawn to fountains, waterfalls, flags, friezes, stars, quotations...everything. It seems to have been designed by committee, and the commttee threw every proposed element into a bag, shook the bag and dumped its contents onto a table, then arranged it into something that, while not unpleasing to the eye, doesn't give the mind anything to focus on.

Think of other memorials, such as the Lincoln Memorial (visible from the WWII memorial, to the west), and the first thing you notice upon entering the memorial is the statue of Lincoln himself. You probably won't notice the Gettysburg Address inscribed on the wall immediately, but that's how it should be. Let the eye and mind focus on one thing, then take in the other elements a little later.

The original design of theVietnam Veterans Memorial is still my favorite. So very elegant in it's simplicity, it's beautiful to the eye, but the statues (added after the memorial was dedicated), while touching, distract from the most important and moving element of the memorial: the names inscribed on the memorial itself.

Not to say there was nothing at the World War II that wan't moving. As at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, visitors are leaving behind their own little memorials. Photos, medals, and wreaths remind us of what was lost during that war, and help remind us of what was preserved.

The entrance, approaching from the north. The "true" entrance is from the east.

The "Pacific" arch, seen through the "Atlantic" arch.

The start of my (approximately) 340-degree collage of the memorial, starting at about 1 o'clock from what I consider to be the "true" entrance, which faces due east. While reviewing these pictures, I realized there may be some order to the memorial: At ~1 o'clock is an excerpt from FDR's "Day of Infamy" speech, which propelled the US into World War II.

The view sweeps from south to west, where the Pacific war ends. The stars represent a certain number of lives lost, but there's nothing there to tell you the factor--is it 1,000 or 5,000 or 10,000 per star? I suspect most people thought the stars were just...stars.

As you move from west to north, you enter the European theater. D-Day is commemorated immediately below the "Atlantic" arch.

The war ends with a quotation from FDR (above) reminding us of the true cost and sacrifices made during the second World War.

Increasing Rat population!

Yay! Yay, I say!

The recent cicada invasion is the likely cause in an increase in rodent complaints by ratist heathens in the Washington metropolitan area, according to an article in today's Washington TIMES:

The Montgomery County Health Department fields about 100 complaints about rats each June but has already logged 136 such calls this month, said Stephen Haynes, an environmental health specialist for the county.
The Fairfax County Health Department received 43 rodent complaints in May 2003 but recorded 74 last month, said spokeswoman Kimberly Cordero.
"I've been working here for 16-plus years, and we're getting [rats] in places we've never gotten before," Mr. Haynes said. "The only thing we can attribute it to is the cicada population."

It most certainly is. Rats are the very definition of omnivore, willing and able to eat damn near anything that doesn't eat them first. See?

(Print attributed to Royal Natural History, Richard Lydekker, 1896. I just bought it offa eBay.) Fun things Nic and I have fed to our rats include spinach leaves, steamed broccoli, freeze-dried peas and corn, ribs (they gnaw the bones to a powder), blueberry muffins frosted with yogurt for their birthday, pina colada mix, pizza, sushi, alou ghobi, and Hooter's chicken wings (breaded with no sauce, though I suspect my fat boys would probably love 911 wings.). Other people have fed crickets and goldfish to their rats, though not as part of their regular diet.

A certain very famous rat (famous to rat people, anyway) was adopted after he killed the snake that was supposed to eat him. Exterminators say cats are effective around mice, but around rats...just call Kitty, "lunch."

While I wouldn't want wild rats in my home, I do admire their adaptability. Give them anything they can exploit and they'll exploit it, which is one major reason why any "War on Rats" will fail.

(That, and they breed like crazy. Gestation is just three short weeks, a litter may be anywhere from five to fifteen eepers, and a female can become pregnant pretty much immediately after giving birth.)

If you don't want any rats in your yard, clean it up of *everything* edible. This includes dead cicadas, worms, bugs, pine cones, bird feeders, garbage, grass, dandelions...

Metro Sucks. Really.

Metro announced fare and parking increases yesterday, for the second time in two years.

No one here is really surprised. And why are the fares increasing? Could it be because Metro is ALL FUCKED UP?

(Ha, ha! Trick question! OF COURSE it's because Metro is ALL FUCKED UP!)

The Miracle at Dupont Circle is over. Wednesday evening, I noticed one of the three escalators at the south exit was closed for repairs/rebuilding. The normal state of affairs, IMO, is not news-worthy so I didn't blog it.

(BTW, Jeremy, in the comments to that post, observed ahh you will find that if all the escalators were working that at least 2 ticket machines and one toilet were out of order to make everything equal in the universe which isn't too far off the mark. The street-level elevator at Dupont Circle has been broken for several weeks--which means if you're on a wheelchair, or otherwise unable to take the escalator, you have to go an extra stop (if you're coming from Shady Grove) to take the Farragut North escalator to a shuttle bus that will take you to Dupont Circle.).

In my case, it means my rush-hour fare will increase to $3.90 each way. Parking will increase $0.75 to $4.00 a day, for a grand total of $11.80 each day, so that I can go to work.

If it weren't for wear and tear on my car (the potholes in the District are another matter entirely) it would be sooo much cheaper to drive to work, where I could park at a meter for eight hours for $6.00/day.

To further add to the complete fuck-up that is WMATA, one will no longer be able to pay cash at a Metro parking garage. Starting on June 28, you will be required to purchase, for $5.00 (just for the card--you'll have to add fare/parking onto it, but at least it's renewable), a SmarTrip card, if you don't already have one.

I have one, for the record, but I still see awful long lines at the lone cash-only exit lane at the Shady Grove Metro. Suffice it to say, I'm driving to work on June 28.

SmarTrip cards are not currently available for sale at Metro stations, though WMATA says they will install SmarTrip vending machines.

I haven't seen any yet, and neither have the tourists who are visiting Washington today.

Then there are the occasional "This-is-so-fucked-up-I'm-sure-someone-got-a-promotion-for-it" Metro experiences. Take yesterday afternoon:

First, Metro trains are normally six-cars long. Every now and then, you'll see a four-car train, which saves electricity, I guess. Of course, during rush hour, four-car trains tend to be pretty full.

Second, during rush hour, Metro alternates trains going to the end-of-the-line with trains that go only partway to the end of the line. In my case, every other car stops four stops short of Shady Grove, at the Grosvenor station (the first above-ground station on that end of the Red Line, but that's not important right now.). You're required to disembark at Grosvenor, and the train crosses over in the tunnel just north of Grosvenor and makes a return trip. I guess Metro's logic (if, in fact, any logic went into the decision, which the cynic in me says didn't) is they save some money because the train, by the time it reaches Grosvenor, isn't completely full, and they can fill up every other train, while kind of speeding up service. I admit I can see that point, if I'm correct--it's a little bit more efficient from a running-the-railroad point of view.

Yesterday PM, I got out of work a little late. When I reached Dupont Circle, the platform was a little bit more crowded than usual. The loudspeaker confirmed my worse fears: delays on the Red Line, in the direction of Shady Grove.

Shit.

A four-car train, jammed to the gills pulled up, bound for Shady Grove. Four cars, going to the end of the line? Metro does stupid shit like that sometimes. I didn't--couldn't--get on the train.

The next train pulls up, fairly quickly (I guess the delays were cleared up and the backed-up trains were making up for lost time), and it's six-cars bound for Grosvenor (remember, that's not the end of the line, and you'll have to transfer). Sometimes I get on and transfer a station or two before Grosvenor so I can get a seat, but this train is pretty full, too, and I hate standing. I decide to wait for the next one.

A few minutes later, a six-car train pulls up, still pretty full, but it's going to Shady Grove, only it's not. As the train pulls up, I heard the "train operator" announce, "Red Line to Grosvenor" and sure enough: the sign on the train says "Grosvenor." Um.

Two minutes later, a Shady Grove bound train pulls up, only it's four cars long! It's packed! It's only four cars! It's going all the way, but it'll have to absorb twelve already packed cars later on because it's only four cars long!

I got on, and stood up all the way. I couldn't even read my book.

Metro is seriously starting to PISS ME OFF!

On a similar note, Blogeline is having some problems with Metro's passengers.

Bye, Dizzy Girl

Dizzy Girl is gone.

It's a new meme!

I hope.

I'm sure by now most of you have seen that book thingy--highlight the ones you've read, add three of your own, pass it on. My gf found it, and after she added her three, it's up to nearly 450 books to review.

I'm a patient guy, but I ain't patient enough for that shit.

Don't get me wrong: I like books. I read books. When I was a wee tyke, learning to read in school in Hawaii, I frequently got in trouble because when it was my turn to read a "paragraph" ("See Spot run!" Honest, we had Dick and Jane when I was learning to read.) I had already finished the book and had no idea where the class was. But I digress.

Anyway, I ain't gonna do the book thing. Instead, I'll start off with the AFI's list of 100 Top Movies, highlighting the ones I've seen and I'll add three at the bottom.

So, onward!
1. CITIZEN KANE (1941)
2. CASABLANCA (1942)
3. THE GODFATHER (1972)
4. GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)
5. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962)
6. THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)
7. THE GRADUATE (1967)
8. ON THE WATERFRONT (1954)
9. SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993)
10. SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952)

11. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)
12. SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950)
13. THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957)
14. SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)
15. STAR WARS (1977)
16. ALL ABOUT EVE (1950)
17. THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951)
18. PSYCHO (1960)
19. CHINATOWN (1974)
20. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (1975)
21. THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940)
22. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)
23. THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)
24. RAGING BULL (1980)
25. E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982)
26. DR. STRANGELOVE (1964)
27. BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967)
28. APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)
29. MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939)
30. THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948)
31. ANNIE HALL (1977)
32. THE GODFATHER PART II (1974)
33. HIGH NOON (1952)
34. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962)
35. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)
36. MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969)
37. THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946)
38. DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)
39. DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965)
40. NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)
41. WEST SIDE STORY (1961)
42. REAR WINDOW (1954)
43. KING KONG (1933)
44. THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915)
45. A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951)
46. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)
47. TAXI DRIVER (1976)
48. JAWS (1975)
49. SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937)
50. BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)
51. THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940)
52. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953)
53. AMADEUS (1984)
54. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930)
55. THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965)
56. M*A*S*H (1970)
57. THE THIRD MAN (1949)
58. FANTASIA (1940)
59. REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955)
60. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)
61. VERTIGO (1958)
62. TOOTSIE (1982)
63. STAGECOACH (1939)
64. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977)
65. THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)
66. NETWORK (1976)
67. THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962)
68. AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951)
69. SHANE (1953)
70. THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971)
71. FORREST GUMP (1994)
72. BEN-HUR (1959)
73. WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1939)
74. THE GOLD RUSH (1925)
75. DANCES WITH WOLVES (1990)
76. CITY LIGHTS (1931)
77. AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973)
78. ROCKY (1976)
79. THE DEER HUNTER (1978)
80. THE WILD BUNCH (1969)
81. MODERN TIMES (1936)
82. GIANT (1956)
83. PLATOON (1986)
84. FARGO (1996)
85. DUCK SOUP (1933)
86. MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935)
87. FRANKENSTEIN (1931)
88. EASY RIDER (1969)
89. PATTON (1970)
90. THE JAZZ SINGER (1927)
91. MY FAIR LADY (1964)
92. A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951)
93. THE APARTMENT (1960)
94. GOODFELLAS (1990)
95. PULP FICTION (1994)
96. THE SEARCHERS (1956)
97. BRINGING UP BABY (1938)
98. UNFORGIVEN (1992)
99. GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER (1967)
100. YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942)

Sixty-one, unless I've miscounted. The next three:
101. THE CAINE MUTINY (1954)
102. METROPOLIS (1927)
103. PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1959)

You have no idea how bitter I am right now.

Four. Votes.

Four freakin' votes for the only immunity challenge that thought outside of the box. And, I must confess, three of those votes were mine!*

So, it seems no one wants originality. No one appreciates a different sound, a new meme. Kerry-Bush, Bush-Kerry, blah, blah, blah--but it's what you want.

Maybe it was because I submitted, basically, my outline. I started writing it, and I was up to page six when I realized I was less than halfway finished. I guess, as I said in the comments here, brevity is overrated. As it is, that was still two full Word pages long (and I mean full! When I finished, the outline alone was half a paragraph deep onto page three. I did some editing to get it down to two pages.).

Poo on you voters.

*The fourth vote? Yeah, it was the gf. Turns out the toilet humor and the use of a certain phrase tipped her off as to which one was mine. Quite unintentional, I assure you, but upon reflection, I now realize that if you know me very well, you would've recognized that little synopsis as mine.

I love you, sweetie!

Lance ain't retiring anytime soon!

Just stumbled over to Lance Armstrong's Official Site to discover he'll be racing for a different American team next season. Discovery Communication will sponsor the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team.

Yep, it's the same Discovery that sponsors one of my favorite magazines, and the channel I don't watch enough of.

Lance has also announced he'll race in The Tour day France next year. As they say: Yay!

The Worlds Most Truthful Movie Review

A coworker sent this movie review to me...Open Water. Nope, I've never heard of it, either, but now I want to see it.

For all the wrong reasons, of course.

It's a miracle!

At the south exit of the Dupont Circle Metro, both yesterday PM and this morning, ALL THREE escalators were running! I honestly canNOT recall when I last saw this!

Of course, it's going to rain for about forty days and forty nights, now, so I expect them to be rusted messes within a week.

New Friends...

Couple of new kids to enter on the blogroll--Nice guy (when he's not wandering off-topic) Jeremy at World of Soil joins the prestigious Rat People Bloggers blogroll (though he is currently ratless, he is a Rat Person at heart).

Congratulations, Jeremy!

I also received a nice comment from Blogeline about my recipe, Beef Medallions in Mustard-Cream Sauce, who says she will make it again! Yay! Be sure to experiment with it and let me know how it comes out, OK? She's going to be filed away under Pretty Nice People, because I'm sure she is.

I checked out her blog just now, and I'd like to ask if anyone has any spare good wishes, please send them to Germany, where her mother is in the hospital. I'm sending my warmest wishes for a speedy recovery!

The cicadas are dying.

Nothing in the cry of cicadas suggests they are about to die.
- Basho (17th-century poet and Zen Buddhist, via Zenchick)

Sad, isn't it?

Your first memory, if you have one, is of falling from a slit in a tree branch to the ground, and burrowing down, down into the cool earth, where you stay for seventeen years.

You emerge from the ground, shed the skin that was your home, and fly away. If you're lucky, you mate before you're stepped on, or run over, or eaten by a bird or a cat or a dog...then you die.

Victor, get a grip! You're talking about a bug! Yeah, but....They sing and then they die. You don't find that sad?

They remind me, in a way, of puppies. Pretty ugly puppies that aren't furry, sure, but still--ever laugh at a puppy as it flops across a room, on feet that are waaay to big for its little puppy body, then slip on a loose rug or a dust bunny or some air or something and crash into a wall? Well, the poor flight characteristics of a cicada, the clumsy way they fall around in the air (and, yeah, I've been startled by a few flying into me) is what reminds me of puppies.

Give 'em a break. They haven't had much practice at it, you know?

I haven't seen any in Washington in awhile. A week ago, I saw only four, and not until I got into Gaithersburg.

The first was sitting on the platform at the Shady Grove Metro. Not wanting him to get stepped on, I picked him up and tried to place him on my finger, but he flew away and promptly landed on a woman's shoulder. I debated what to do, then decided it was kinda my fault, and I should fix it. I walked up to her, excused myself and told her she had a cicada on her shoulder while reaching for my little friend at the same time.

Unlike the guy I saw a the day before (who, when his escort told him he had a cicada on his shoulder, jumped out of his skin), she simply said, "Oh, thank you!" and stood by while I plucked Fred off her shoulder.

Yeah, I name all cicadas Fred. It fits, somehow. Anyway, Fred rode my briefcase down the steps and out of the station itself, until I picked him up and threw him into a small wooded area next to the garage. I saw him take flight, then I lost him as he flew deeper into the area.

Walking the 61-steps up to the fourth floor of the garage, I saw another cicada, another Fred, flying away in his wobbly, Billy Kilmer pass way, headed...somewhere.

A few steps later I met Fred as he struggled on his back, tangled in a bit of old spider-web. I picked him up, cleaned the webbing from his feet and wings, and placed him on a ledge in the garage. He wasn't there the next morning, so I assume he flew off. I hope he found what he was looking for...

Friday, I took a slightly different route home. No real reason, just kinda felt like it...and I heard more cicada-songs. I drove thru an older part of town, very residential (though, somehow, more houses are getting squeezed in there), and I could hear that weird alien keening and I smiled. Later, stopped at a light, I saw a few flying around the trees. They're poor fliers, and that flopping around is what makes me think of puppies.

The gf is reporting fewer and fewer cicadas near her office, and we still haven't seen any live ones during our walks near our home. We'll happily wait seventeen years for the next brood--Brood XI, I guess--and hope a few are near us...

...and we'll listen to the song they sing before they die.

So, how've y'all been?

Have y'all checked Survivor lately? I almost got voted off! Guess I should start writing better so I can get immunity next time or something.

First immunity challenge.

The first Blogosphere Survivor Immunity challenge is up, and I've yet to start writing anything. It's due tomorrow.

So, in true American High School Kid fashion, I'll whip something up about ten minutes before I go to bed, tidy it up on the bus tomorrow, and hand it in just before the bell rings.

YOU have to figure out which one is mine (no, I can't tell you) and vote for it lots, from different computers, so I'll have immunity and will therefore avoid the embarrasment of being the first one voted off the island.

Survivor

I'm in! I guess all those annoying messages to Pylorns paid off.

Come back in two months or so (or two years if Pylorns remains true to the spirit of the original Survivor host, and to his recent extreme-lateness) to see who won.