the buzz log

Your high school English teacher was right. You do have to know your classics, if you want to get anywhere in the world ... or at least to the next country on a reality show.

An episode of cultural humiliation on "The Amazing Race 14" may have done more to help the cause of Russian literature than a network of KGB agents infiltrating American classrooms. The ABC reality show's globe-trotting scavenger hunt threw Season 14 contestants behind the Iron Curtain into Siberia. Of the tasks aired March 8 (booking a flight, stacking firewood, racing bobsleds), the one that flummoxed the Americans was unscrambling 7 letters to reveal the surname of Anton Chekhov.

Five out of the eight teams never heard of the famed 19th-century writer, whose plays (notably "Three Sisters" and "The Cherry Orchard") still get staged around the world. (Coincidentally, "Uncle Vanya" starring Maggie Gyllenhaal ended its off-Broadway run the same night as the "Race" episode).

The ignorance triggered righteous indignation among some critics: The EW critic said outrage wasn't from "intellectual snobbery," but over team attitudes that the "challenge was unreasonably hard. If [the show had] asked them to unscramble old Saved by the Bell plots... I bet they'd have done it in record time." (Hey, unscrambling "Thiessen" would've been hard.) Smarter couch potatoes turned the educational debacle into a learning moment: People have been cramming Web searches for "anton chekhov" and "anton chekhov plays."

All we can say is, good thing they didn't have to unscramble Dostoyekvsky, otherwise everyone would still be in Siberia subsisting on vodka and cabbage. Then again, contestant Mike inadvertently waxed Russian poetic when he described the people battling for last place (his team included) as "a caravan of idiots." Sounds like that's good for four acts.

Filed under: TV, Reality TV, Literature, Russia

The more we learn of the ex-KGB agent and the ever-widening trail of radioactive material, the more confusing and chilling the story becomes. Searchers, however, have refused to be intimidated. In the past week, buzz on the investigation has surged tremendously. Here's a brief overview of the queries that have spiked the most...

• Alexander Litvinenko (+683%)—the one-time KGB (+172%) spy was looking into the murder of journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya (+171%). At the beginning of November, he met with several people in London. Within the month, he was dead from poisoning, and searches like "litvinenko death" and "russian spy" began their climb.
• Polonium-210 (off the chart)—the radioactive isotope is colorless, highly toxic, and suspected in the former spook's murder. Fears of contaminated planes and radiation exposure have boosted queries on "what is polonium 210," "polonium russian spy," and "polonium poisoning."
• Vladimir Putin (+226%)—before dying, Litvinenko accused the Russian president of being involved in the attack. Since then, another high-ranking critic of the Russian regime has fallen sick. With searches like "russia spy putin" and "putin plot" leaping in numbers, the Kremlin (+344%) chief has certainly been caught in this all-too-real tale.

Filed under: News, Russia, Espionage