Chicago Sun-Times Dear Mr. Allermann: As The Mayor Of Gary...
With Alex out of the picture, things got a lot more peaceful. Good, because we were heading into my home region, the Midwest. Namely Bay City, Michigan. A random nomination was needed, as Alex picked himself. The person picked was Jon Pinyan. He was to kep the challenge secret, first and foremost. It was a 2-parter: Part 1 was identifying the Great Lakes states a series of unusual attractions came from; he got 2 out of 5. I wasn't concerned with the ones he got right. I wanted to know what he missed. He'd have to do 3 embarrassing things- without the others knowing what's up- in a live chat I had scheduled to discuss game matters such as Alex, the Safety Stone glut, and how we haven't had a true exile in 2 rounds and few people would know where they stand. And an interesting chat it would be. At random points during the chat, I'd force Jon to do or say something based on one of the quesrtions he missed. Get through them all and he's got 4 Safety Stones. Fail to perform the stunt or back out and he loses. ------------------- We didn't get too much hilarity, as Alex somehow got into the chat room.Instead of concentrating on getting Jon to perform his tasks, I now faced the task of getting Alex out of the chat room. Eventually we did the challenge. Jon was supposed to: *Imitate a stereotypical old man who sts on a rockng chair on the porch and accuses the whippersnappers of stealing his newspaper and there was a DEPRESSION going on when I had to alk 15 miles to school butt naked and yada yada yada, *Worship one other player, and *Treat one other player lke a contestant on Boot Camp. (For gettng 2 right, he didn't have to yodel or sing '12 Days of Christmas'.) He actually enjoyed it. Jon got his stones, and we moved to... Gary, Indiana, site of your favorite and mine, How Bad Do You Want It? Which Colin couldn't make it to because he was visiting someone in Gary, Indiana. I swear to God. More off-the-field 24/7 happenings: Valerie had told me that she based a journalism assignment on the game. I'm flattered. -------------------- And due for some yellow journalism after "How Bad Do You Want It?" For those of you who've never heard of it, I lay a series of liabilities on the players, who can drop out at any time and not have any harm come to them. The last one standing (or the last rat off the sinking ship, should it come to that) gets 6 Safety Stones, but also every liability I have named up to that point. In other words: Sure, you want the stones. Everyone wants them. But how dearly are you willing to pay for them? ---------------- Not much, it turns out. Of the three that showed up, Devon and Colin went out together after only three liabilities: Can't post on the message board for the rest of the round, home-field advantage gone, and must play in all remaining Bus Stops. Aaron won. The events of the past 4 rounds left me with a dilemma: Who to dump. John St. Croix or Fernando? As I saw it, they were in a virtual tie for last. John hadn't gotten too much accomplished since Ft. Sumter, and Fernando had done precisely jack in Round 4- no contact with me, no explanation as to why he hadn't shown up for challenges this round, nothin'. I labored over the weekend trying to decide who would go-- a major difference from the past 3 rounds, when I had a straggler, a quitter, and a cheater. I couldn't really take a tie, but one of them had to be in last. I eventually settled on Fernando by the closest margin between last and second last I had ever done: 79 votes. (Fern 23,846; John 23,767.) I then hoped to hell for a usage of Stones by either so I could sleep easier. Aaron (Arizona): I'm attempting to get Jon out mtvcdm: How so? Aaron: votes, not sure if it will work though seeing how I'm being targetted Oh, geez, MORE uncertainty. Thanks, you two! Really appreciate it! At least Aaron used one of his Safety Stones to help clear himself. And then John, that nice boy, put me out of my misery by voting against himself, thus exiling himself. (The Jon voting only served to drop him from 1st to 2nd, in case you're interested. 4 audience votes isn't going to get someone dumped from first to last.) Why did he cast the fatal vote? John (Maine): Because, I've been an inactive basturd... no offense but I'm kinda glad I got exiled, I was going to get even more inacitve as we went on and I don't want to stop others from having a good time, good luck w/ the rest of the game I just sucked at it 8 contestants, 7 rounds. Hope for a bit more excitement next round.
		To Round 5...