Two moments of clarity.

1) So happy for a solid education that would allow me to look at these five letters:

Z N F A R

and be able to see F R A N Z -- even without having trotted around the globe.

2) It's Dan. Dan is the gay brother to hate.

In truth, it was a smart move, not nice, but what the gay brothers did to the Americas was in the realm of gamesmanship rather than villainy.

But those brothers are just so annoying, aren't they?

That's a double double entrendre.

Because you can take that headline to refer to the emotion that the Globetrotters drew from Sam & Dan, the gay brothers.

Now if I had put: The brothers let it all hang out, well, that would be different.

Most times, you could call the Race fun or crazy or exhausting or wacky.

But last night the Race was cruel.

Because that flag-in-the-hay-bale challenge is the kind of punishment they give to kids sent to prison camps.

Add "upper body strength" to the list of things you might need to win the Race.

We're down to six teams. First, let's take a step back and marvel at
the wonder that is Dubai. The pit stop is a resort, a man-made island
shaped like a palm tree that is eight football fields big. On the one
hand, it's ridiculously over the top. On the other hand, I yearn to go
there.

Amazing Race 15 (8pm, CBS) - The teams fly to the Netherlands to race amongst clogs, windmills, and tulips. 

Desperate Housewives (9pm, ABC) - Bree is starting to really fall for Susan's slick ex-husband Karl, while Gaby gets her daughter Juanita expelled from school. 

Bored to Death (9:30pm, HBO) - "Bored to Death" has become a top destination for cool guest cameos. So far they've had Kristin Wiig, Jim Jarmusch, Parker Posey, and Patton Oswalt. The wonderful Oliver Platt (right) shows up again tonight as GQ magazine editor and nemesis of George (Ted Danson). John Hodgman is great as a book reviewer who trashed Jonathan's first novel, and Bebe Neuwirth appears again as Jonathan's book editor. (Look for NPR's Sarah Vowell next week.) Meanwhile, Ray (Zach Galifianakis, who continues to steal all his scenes) is alarmed when a lesbian couple (Samantha Bee shows up in this story line tonight too) to whom he has been donating sperm disappears.

Mad Men (10pm, AMC) - After tonight, we're sadly only one episode away from the finale. Will tonight's episode (or even the finale) top last week's, in which Don was forced to come clean to Betty about his secret past? We do know that tonight Peggy has more proof that her taste in men is flat-out atrocious, and Pete has to make a major decision about his career.

Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew (10pm, VH1) - The series premiere of a new show in which Dr. Drew treats eight patients for sex addiction. 

But apparently it's wrong to shove her in.

Or is it?

We're still in Dubai. The guy with the tall hair, OK, Cheyne (and how precious that it's spelled that way) and his partner Meghan get a healthy lead because last episode they did the fast forward and arrived first.

Well, we already knew from CBS promos that a team was going to lose its passports.

And then subsequent promos even revealed which team it was. So I guess the suspense was finding out what happened after that.

I was definitely bummed.

We're quickly down to 10 teams in Vietnam and there's another first in AR history.

The pit stop, which is a barge, moves to a secret location and drops the teams off. Their first clue sends them to Ho Chi Minh City, and the Golden Dragon Puppet Theater where they must take the clue from the mouth of a water dragon puppet.

Dad and the pink-haired son are the first to leave.

I know some people are questioning "The Amazing Race's" Emmy-winning domination.

But after last night's episode, I can already see Number 8 on the way.

It was 2 hours of fun.

With 12 teams starting, names are insignificant. But some team descriptions stand out; the Harlem Globetrotters (here's hoping we don't hear that whistling theme too often); the Miss America couple (she's black, he's white); the on-and-off dating couple (the man says she's a fiery Colombian), the guy with Asperger's and his friend; the
poker players; the gay brothers; and the yoga couple ("People think we're Zen, but we're like yoga in the hood.")