this is no longer my blog

Dear Mr. Yushchenko,
As you may know, I am an admitted Survivor addict. I would faithfully tune in to watch the show whenever I could. I usually have two or three favorite competitors and usually I'm lucky enough to see one of them make it to the final three. That wasn't the case this time, however, but I still kept watching the show. I think it's an amazing sociological experiment, and it's interesting to see relationships and alliances develop and crumble.
Like I said, the people I picked as my favorites were voted off before the final three (although two were lucky enough to make it to the Jury) so when it got to the final two I really didn't prefer either. The guy who made it to the end was Chris, and I thought he was going to get voted off after the first challenge. But luckily he managed to get into an alliance with the other older guys and so they slowly picked off the young ones, which extended his stay in the game beyond what it should have been. The woman who made it to the final two was Twila, possibly the only character in the show who can rival Sue from the first season for Survivor's most nasty, obnoxious and trashy. Oh wait, I forgot Jonny Fairplay... although he only pretended his grandma died, Twila actually swore on her SON'S SOUL that she was with the all-female alliance, I think twice, and turned her back on both oaths and voted against the alliance each time.
I didn't think that Chris was the most deserving man to make it that far. I think he rode Sarge's coat tails and then when it came down to it jumped ship and pretended to be with the women. (Oh yeah, Mr. Yushchenko, I'm done taking the time and effort to link to the Survivor's different pages. I'm sure you are a web-competent man and can figure out how to get there on your own.) Twila was mean and nasty pretty much the whole game. So I thought that since Chris somehow managed to not become the next guy to get voted off in the line of the all female alliance picking off the men, that on the merit of that accomplishment he deserved the million dollars. But when it came down to it, and the jury got to ask him their questions, he totally backtracked. He apologized, he kissed ass, he told the girls that he totally backstabbed and betrayed and played and used and manipulated that he never intended to vote for them and it was a last minute decision to stay in the game. It seemed like he was trying to cover up, to make nice in a last ditch effort to get votes. Twila owned up to her decisions, said she did what she did to win the game, and until the very end didn't apologize... but that was only after people were horrible to her and a few she really respected said that they hoped they never saw her again, and hoped that a million dollars was worth damning your son's soul to hell. If I were there, at that point, I thought that I would have voted for Twila. Just because she said Sure, she pissed people off. She played the game hard. She did what it took to win. She's not proud of her decisions, but they're what got her where she is.
But alas, Mr. Yushchenko, as I'm sure you know, I was not able to vote. Because I was not in the game. So really my opinion mattered about as much as Advil does to someone with herpes, and in the end Chris won. So he's a million dollars richer.
And where does that leave me you ask, Mr. Yushchenko? Well, that is indeed a good question. It leaves me with a free Thursday nights, and a long time until Survivor starts again. And it leaves me with the hope that perhaps next time I will pick my favorites again, and this time they won't get voted off right away because they can't stop puking, or get voted off simply because they're male, or get voted off because you've already won a previous Survivor and so they feel like you don't deserve to win another. That perhaps they might make it to the final four, even the final three, and who knows... the final two and so I will be able to genuinely cheer for someone who I feel whole-heartedly deserves the money (or at least is pretty or cute enough to inspire my support).
And so, Mr. Yushchenko, I bid you adieu. I hope you have enjoyed this past season of Survivor as much as I have. I hope you have been able to take some time from the political mayhem and Dioxin poisoning you've experienced to sit and relax with a cold glass of iced tea to cheer for someone to outwit, outplay and outlast the others.
sincerely,
your new friend,
mark