I read Rich Hatch's book "101 Survival Secrets". It's not what you might think. "SurvivAL", not "SurvivOR". He said very little about the show. It's about his philosophy and rules for living happily. Fine, if that's what you're after, but don't be misled. There were a number of pictures of him at various points in his life, including when he was very fat. There's a lot of white space and very largely printed numbers. You can read the whole thing in half an hour. So get it from the library instead of buying it (libraries pay a small royalty on borrowed books).

• RE: Rich's book,Loree, 03:10 PM, 03-22-01
  • RE: Rich's book,Fast Eddie, 08:27 AM, 03-23-01
    • RE: Rich's book,managerr, 11:47 AM, 03-23-01
      • RE: Rich's book,Survivorerist, 01:56 PM, 03-24-01
      • RE: Rich's book,Fast Eddie, 12:52 PM, 03-25-01
    • RE: Rich's book,Ptaz, 03:10 PM, 03-27-01
      • RE: Rich's book,Fast Eddie, 08:31 PM, 03-27-01
    • RE: Rich's book,Survivorerist, 08:55 PM, 03-27-01
• RE: Rich's book,swampy, 01:22 PM, 03-24-01

I wouldn't say Rich is actually a Survivor expert either. He won partly out of luck. He was almost voted off the first episode. Plus he was almost gone the episode he won immunity. And it came down to a very close vote against Kelly. He played some things smart, but he also was stupid in other ways.

Plus Rich was so sure that Jeff was going to win this time.

Well, he was certainly the best player on the first series. Jeff was certainly unlucky. Like he said, if it hadn't been for Michael's accident, they would have been interviewing Colby that morning. Rich had a little luck, but he won by reading people correctly and assembling a solid alliance, and taking risks. He went for Stacey right away, seeing that she was the only one in the group who was actually playing the game. Then after the merger, he nailed Gretchen, who was the most intelligent of the new people, before she could react. Then he was smart enough to drop out and let Kelly whack Rudy so that he didn't break his word and turn Rudy against him. Game players would have awarded him a 7-0 vote at the end. The only reason it was close was because half the players were tourists.

Oh come on, doesn't anyone think Kelly played a great game? Her strategy of playing both sides in order to get the jury votes--was just as brilliant, the only problem was that she got caught. But she kicked butt in the challenges and as far as I know that's part of the game too. If you look at the reasons, that the jury gave--both Jenna and Gervase's explanations were game reasons--not personal ones. And Gervase was definitely a "game" player.

I thought Kelly's strategy was better than Rich's, her execution of it was poor though. It looks like Tina is doing the same thing in S2--we'll see if it pays off.

>>>I thought Kelly's strategy was better than Rich's, her execution of it was poor though.<<<

I don't think her execution was poor for the most part. I just thought the ousting of Sue was her only major flaw. Also, I think Rich knew that somebody was going to try a strategy like Kelly's and he was prepared to bust it all up by bringing her deceit (well maybe not deceit but playing both sides of the fence) out into the open.

Survivorerist

Fantasy Final Four: Amber Brkich, Colby Donaldson, Elisabeth Filarski, Jerri Manthey.

You must be joking. She was clueless. The only reason she survived was because of tremendous luck in winning immunities. Surely you're not suggesting that carrying mud is some kind of test of skill. Gervase a game player? Were we watching the same show?

I think it is absolutely no surprise that nobody has asked Kelly for her opinion on anything on this second series.

Then after the merger, he nailed Gretchen, who was the most intelligent of the new people, before she could react.

While Gretchen was intelligent, she was blindsided by the fact that she discounted alliances and thought she could win on her survival skills in and of themselves. Probably a regrettable decision on her part.

You've got it exactly right. She has stated publicly that she was surprised that actual survival skills played far less of a role than she had thought.

>>>He went for Stacey right away, seeing that she was the only one in the group who was actually playing the game.<<<

I didn't notice that. Good catch!

Also, one other smart move that definitely deserves mention. He said that he was planning to whack Kelly before Colleen but couldn't becuase of her immunity run. Obviously, he wanted to do this in order to avoid the "Rich, Rudy vs. Sue, Kelly" tie. I just thought that was brilliant. I think, ideally, he wanted to take Sean to the final two.

Personally, I would have loved to see Rich write a commentary book on how and why he played the game like he did. That would have been a good read indeed.

Survivorerist

Fantasy Final Four: Amber Brkich, Colby Donaldson, Elisabeth Filarski, Jerri Manthey.

I just picked up the book that came from a Goodwill, Salvation Army type store and to my surprise it was autographed. Anyway I just started reading it and so far I like it quite a bit. But like you say it is short. The guy was born to play the game!