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Great Food Truck Race


Ericandblueboy

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After you lose the really annoying contestant (the ragin' cajun), the show turned out to be pretty entertaining. The nom nom team seems head and shoulders about their competitors when it comes to marketing, location scouting, and improvising. The Frenchies continue to pull frogs legs and escargots out of their asses. The panini team keeps relying on Priceline's name your own price strategy - which I believe is patented. The burger team kinda just sucks.

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I watched all of the episodes last week because I was home sick with strep throat for a few days, I was very entertained. I like the fact that you get kicked off if you don't make any money, it is not some subjective judging or some crap where they vote other people off, ti is purely based on how much money you make.

I agree, the Nom Nom Truck is just destroying everyone else, it would be a MAJOR upset if they didn't win the show. Doesn't hurt that they have such an outrageously attractive girl running the operation. When my wife watched an episode, she said to me, "Well, I know why YOU would go to that truck every day for lunch."

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I watched all of the episodes last week because I was home sick with strep throat for a few days, I was very entertained. I like the fact that you get kicked off if you don't make any money, it is not some subjective judging or some crap where they vote other people off, ti is purely based on how much money you make.

More like the Apprentice than Top Chef :(

youre_fired.jpg

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I like this show more than I thought I would. When the first episode was on, I had the tv on but didn't pay any attention. Then the same thing happened when they reran the first episode. The third time it came on, I actually watched it (still episode 1 :( ), and it was interesting enough that I've been watching the subsequent episodes when they air.

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I've heard that the Nom Nom truck isn't really that great (their bahn mi), but they're great at marketing and finding the best locations. And yeah, when I first saw the girl in charge, my first thought was that they probably get a lot of young hipster guys going just for that.

I was rooting for the Crepes Bonaparte truck, but it seems Texas just isn't the right market.

I agree that the burger guys are sort of...clueless? But they manage to squeak by every time...

I can't wait to load up the New Orleans episode on my DVR. Surely the people in New Orleans, tourist and locals alike, will gravitate towards the food and not the marketing? Plus, there's lots of Vietnamese in the NOLa suburbs, so they should be able to tell a good bahn mi from a crappy one...

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I've heard that the Nom Nom truck isn't really that great (their bahn mi), but they're great at marketing and finding the best locations. And yeah, when I first saw the girl in charge, my first thought was that they probably get a lot of young hipster guys going just for that.

I was rooting for the Crepes Bonaparte truck, but it seems Texas just isn't the right market.

I agree that the burger guys are sort of...clueless? But they manage to squeak by every time...

I can't wait to load up the New Orleans episode on my DVR. Surely the people in New Orleans, tourist and locals alike, will gravitate towards the food and not the marketing? Plus, there's lots of Vietnamese in the NOLa suburbs, so they should be able to tell a good bahn mi from a crappy one...

I won't say too much since you haven't watched it yet, but I thought the truck stop challenge they had them do was kind of pointless, except for being deliberately designed to screw up most of the trucks' operations. When they throw a type of food at them (metaphorically) and tell them that they have to incorporate it into the food they're selling on the trucks, that's one thing, but this was different. It was off the mark. When I heard what the challenge was, I knew which truck was going to win it (or I guessed and was right). I couldn't have predicted what the consolation "prize" for the other teams was going to be, though. Other than that challenge, I enjoyed this episode too.

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It's an ok show, along the lines of 24 hr. Restaurant Challenge & Chopped, I would love to try & work a food truck-combo Thai & southern food (lots of seafood)-very challenging, trying to find a location & source ingredients, but you wouldn't have the huge overhead of a location. Any sort of food biz/restaurant is going to be more work than you ever wanted, so you'd have to be crazy or totally committed to try it....

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Well, I watched the New Orleans episode and...I'm REALLY sick of the Nom Nom truck by now. :( Grill 'Em All's main tactic is to be by as many bars as possible, which is a good idea with the type of food they have.

I really don't understand how Spencer on the Go keeps getting by, especially with their prices...actually, it's probably because of their prices!

Sad to see the Austin Daily Press truck lose, but theirs was the "simplest" concept and not conducive to the towns that have more foodies, I suppose.

I'm actually more bored the less trucks there are, but at this point I'm pretty sure the Nom Nom truck will win (unfortunately).

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Well, I watched the New Orleans episode and...I'm REALLY sick of the Nom Nom truck by now. :( Grill 'Em All's main tactic is to be by as many bars as possible, which is a good idea with the type of food they have.

Did you enjoy seeing the Nom Nom truck get booed? :). And the guy driving their truck was having a kind of meltdown over parking. They still keep bringing in the $, though.

I really don't understand how Spencer on the Go keeps getting by, especially with their prices...actually, it's probably because of their prices!

I'm amazed that frogs' legs and escargot are succeeding in all of these places. I doubt they'll find a supplier for them in Whatevertown, TN, though. And, I've been holding back, but that long strand of hair from that one man's beard grosses me out. Eew.

Sad to see the Austin Daily Press truck lose, but theirs was the "simplest" concept and not conducive to the towns that have more foodies, I suppose.

They're too nice. They tried an alliance with the grill truck twice and failed. And they almost lost in Ft. Worth because they gave a portion of their proceeds to the local Little League. Nice is a good thing, but it doesn't win at this kind of competition.

I'm actually more bored the less trucks there are, but at this point I'm pretty sure the Nom Nom truck will win (unfortunately).

I'm wondering if they're being set up to lose. I imagine someone had fun editing all that footage of their problems in NOLA. I don't watch a lot of reality shows, but it seems unusual for someone to be the frontrunner from the beginning and to walk through and take the whole thing.

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I am sooooo annoyed by the way the main person on the nom nom truck talks by now. They do a great business and kudos to them, but she is grating on my nerves at this point. I'm pulling for Spencer at this point.

She also has that annoying "deer in the headlights" look to me. I mean, she's ten million times better looking than me, so it's probably catty of me to mention that... :)

And to continue on my deeply superficial level, the main guy in Grill 'Em All always looks like he hasn't bathed or showered since the beginning of the competition in San Diego... :(

Yes, I did enjoy the Nom Nom truck's weird breakdown in NOLa and them getting booed. Didn't seem to affect their business, though! Feh.

I wish they showed more of New Orleans, since I love that place, but it's not a travel show, it's a food competition.

The "truck stop" was sort of stupid, too. I don't see how it achieved anything, really? What else could Austin Daily Press or Nom Nom do with the catfish? Good thing they didn't subject the Crepes Bonaparte truck to that challenge, even though they did great things with the side of beef.

I think Grill 'Em All has a great chance at winning, since everyone (except vegans and vegetarians) loves hamburgers. It's really the perfect food truck food to spread across the country, I guess. But something tells me Nom NOm will squeak into the win with their marketing savvy.

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How do they select the locations where the trucks can stop to sell food?

from the one time watching the show (New Orleans), there must be some producer input. I've been to the Boot (the Tulane bar) and it is not a place you just stumble upon and set up shop. It's kind of tucked away behind the campus next to a residential area (although a residential area mostly taken over by students and frat houses). and Tulane is not close to the downtown/Bourban st/Frenchman St. areas (which seems to me to be the more obvious areas to set up shop if you have little knowledge of N.O.)

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How do they select the locations where the trucks can stop to sell food?

from the one time watching the show (New Orleans), there must be some producer input. I've been to the Boot (the Tulane bar) and it is not a place you just stumble upon and set up shop. It's kind of tucked away behind the campus next to a residential area (although a residential area mostly taken over by students and frat houses). and Tulane is not close to the downtown/Bourban st/Frenchman St. areas (which seems to me to be the more obvious areas to set up shop if you have little knowledge of N.O.)

Maybe to help out the competitors, they're all given a sort of guide to the most frequented places with potential parking spots within the city? It'd seem sort of cruel to just have them driving around a big city, even with a GPS, having them slow down traffic while they scope out the scene from their cars/trucks. They have to be given guidance on where the best areas are to park. I would imagine, to someone who wasn't that familiar with New Orleans, they'd just head to the French Quarter and try to park there, and there definitely is NOT room on any of the FQ streets for a food truck...

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How do they select the locations where the trucks can stop to sell food?

I don't know how much information the show provides, but Nom Nom, at least, seems to have a lot of contacts and does advance planning and networking. That's one of the reasons they're doing so well. Sometimes people mention asking a friend in the town where they're going what are the good spots. Other times it's asking people once they get there. In the NOLA episode, one of the guys gets advice from someone at the busy spot the others have already found about what's good nearby and gets sent to the place where all the people traditionally go after they leave that spot. I'm getting the trucks confused, but on the Ft. Worth episode, one team decided parking outside a tattoo parlor was a good idea. On the first episode, one truck (since eliminated) contacted the organizer of a festival they found out was going on to see if they could get a spot. Later, another truck (Ragin' Cajun?) came up with the same idea. Both of them had to agree to pay for their spots and ended up haggling on the fee so they wouldn't go broke.

The thing that fascinates me is how dedicated Spencer is to the plan of finding a restaurant and asking the chef to order their frogs' legs, etc. That made sense when going to a French restaurant, but this last time, they just picked a pizza place (seemingly at random) and had to wait a long time to get anyone to help them. That's why they lost out the first night there and were only kept afloat by winning the truck stop challenge.

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I resisted reading this thread because I haven't seen the New Orleans episode - vacationing has its downside. I will watch the show when I get home though. It's pretty clear to me the nom nom folks can't really cook but are otherwise very resourceful. This isn't a show about cooking, but about starting a food business with no worries about repeat customer. If nom nom wins, people will confuse those two concepts and flock to their truck after the show.

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If nom nom wins, people will confuse those two concepts and flock to their truck after the show.

Which isn't TOO different from what's going on with the whole food truck craze around the country right now, I suppose. I mean, sell it out of a truck, and it immediately has that "hipster, niche market, too-cool-for-school authenticity" that seems to be what a lot of foodies are crazy about. Is it that different from someone only wanting to go to "dives" when dining instead of the good chains or celeb chef places?

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Which isn't TOO different from what's going on with the whole food truck craze around the country right now, I suppose. I mean, sell it out of a truck, and it immediately has that "hipster, niche market, too-cool-for-school authenticity" that seems to be what a lot of foodies are crazy about. Is it that different from someone only wanting to go to "dives" when dining instead of the good chains or celeb chef places?

Looks like the hipster cool aspect is about finished. The food truck thing is about to join so many other hot foodie trends and jump the shark. click

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Looks like the hipster cool aspect is about finished. The food truck thing is about to join so many other hot foodie trends and jump the shark. click

Quote from the article: "I couldn't figure out what in the world was making people stand in line for 45 minutes," he said. "I was thinking, 'These people should be going to Sizzler."

I'm kinda thinking that if my choices are a 45 minute wait for a lobster roll, or 2 minutes at the Sizzler truck (at 1/2 the price), I'm going with lobster roll 11 times out of 10.

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I'm kinda thinking that if my choices are a 45 minute wait for a lobster roll, or 2 minutes at the Sizzler truck (at 1/2 the price), I'm going with lobster roll 11 times out of 10.

And miss the Texas Toast filled with more chemicals than a typical industrial park in New Jersey?

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I don't think those nom noms know how to cook but they sure know how to run a business. For sure I thought a small town in TN would lead to a win by Grill 'em All and jeopardize the noms and the frenchies but it really just shows you how inept the burger flippers are. Even with the advantage of having the exclusive right to sell to their kindreds, the unwashed grease purveyers got crushed by a couple of cute women and their melt-down prone manager. Although the frenchies lost, it was by less than $40.

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I don't think those nom noms know how to cook, but they sure know how to run a business.

Why does everyone think that they don't know how to cook? I agree, without a doubt, that they are WAY better at running a business than all of these others trucks, that is not even close. But, in a small town in Tennessee, how is being better at running a business, especially by selling food that no one has ever heard of, an advantage that puts them in the winner's circle yet again? They couldn't partner with a successful restaurant, social media was not a factor and, as I said, people had no clue what banh mi was. My guess is that they make some damn good sandwiches and they are quick at taking the orders and serving the customers.

I will agree that they haven't done very well at these truck stop challenges, so if you use that as the basis of why you think they can't cook, I can kind of buy it. But, who cares if they can cook using freakin ingredients from a chuck wagon, the product that they sell day in and day out must be pretty freakin good.

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Why does everyone think that they don't know how to cook?

I will agree that they haven't done very well at these truck stop challenges, so if you use that as the basis of why you think they can't cook, I can kind of buy it.

That's basically it. They haven't been able to cook anything other than their sandwiches. Kinda like the Grill Press folks keep saying they just make sandwiches.

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I think 2/3 of Nom Nom truck have actually a decent amount of cooking knowledge...at least enough to make good, basic sandwiches and they know what to do in a kitchen. Unfortunately, the 1/3 of Nom Nom that gets the most damn camera time is probably the one pulling in the most business and attention...

Just got caught up on the latest episode tonight. I'm rooting for Grill 'em All. Because they're not Nom Nom. Seriously, I can't stand looking at that damn headband that girl wears anymore...But as an Asian female who hates the "Asian schoolgirl" look, that's probably just my personal beef with society in general. :(

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So I finally remembered to set up my Tivo to catch what old episodes I could and managed to get the last 2. I'm surprised by how entertaining I found the show. I thought the set up was pretty good overall, although I think I may have been spared some annoyances having not watched the whole season. I got the impression that the french team hung on as long as they did purely by winning the truck stop challenges, which seem to have more to do with how experienced a cook you are than how good you are at running a food truck business and had I had to watch that over and over again, I would have probably gotten pissed. I was definitely not spared all annoyances though. Like Pool Boy said, the way the main girl from the Nom Nom truck talks (when she gets into her whiny mode) makes my ears bleed. It's a close call which is worse, that or the nauseous feeling I get looking at the french guys ridiculous goatee, but I think ears bleeding wins, especially because I still have to put up with that. I'm going to watch the finale anyway though and root for the burger folks b/c they're the dudes I'd want to hang out with. :(

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I enjoyed the finale but won't post any spoilers, since I don't know who might still want to watch it. I'm actually looking forward to what they do with this next season.

One thing I am wondering about, for anyone who saw it, is what meat was in that truck stop burger? I could have sworn I heard someone talk about putting pork in it, but when they presented it, they said it was Angus beef. I couldn't decide if they changed their minds about using pork or if it was a mix and they didn't mention the pork when they described it.

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As the only person that I know cheering for the Nom Nom Truck, I was disappointed with the finale, but I felt that it was a good show overall. I would likely cut down on the truck stops some, or make them more business related as opposed to cooking for a freakin cattle drive, but it was entertaining for the few weeks that it lasted.

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One thing I am wondering about, for anyone who saw it, is what meat was in that truck stop burger? I could have sworn I heard someone talk about putting pork in it, but when they presented it, they said it was Angus beef. I couldn't decide if they changed their minds about using pork or if it was a mix and they didn't mention the pork when they described it.

The nom nom woman that can actually cook said they were going to use pork to give the burger an Asian flavor. I don't understand what happened to the nom nom team at the end - did they move their truck to a new location to get more sales or did they get lost on the way to the Flatiron building?

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The nom nom woman that can actually cook said they were going to use pork to give the burger an Asian flavor. I don't understand what happened to the nom nom team at the end - did they move their truck to a new location to get more sales or did they get lost on the way to the Flatiron building?

Thanks. I thought I remembered her saying they were going to use pork, but then they said it was Angus beef when they presented it to Tyler and the chef.

I don't know where they went, but it looked like they were close to the total they needed right before that, so my assumption is that they left just before the Grill truck and got held up in traffic or lost or something. The editors were clever with the way they handled that. It made for good suspense, but I'm still not sure what happened.

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Well, I think it's pretty obvious that I'm glad the winning team won... :(

The editing and bad attempts at trying to create drama/make it a closer race/derail the winning team was horrible, though. The finale was easily the worst episode out of all six. I won't even get started about the truck stop. Oof.

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It was an entertaining little show. The Nom Nom folks did well, and will probably continue to do so. They were so dominating, though, that I was actually glad to see them lose, even though the Burger guys were kind of annoying. I wished that the Spencer guys would have won it. I'd watch the show again if they do another one.

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Something didn't sit right with me in the finale. I finally thought it through. In each prior challenge, they were told to go to a city and sell anywhere they can. In the finale, they were told to go to NYC but then required to work all 5 boroughs instead of just 1. The finale took away one of Nom Nom's strong-points, which is to scout locations in advance because they weren't told of the locations in advance.

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Something didn't sit right with me in the finale. I finally thought it through. In each prior challenge, they were told to go to a city and sell anywhere they can. In the finale, they were told to go to NYC but then required to work all 5 boroughs instead of just 1. The finale took away one of Nom Nom's strong-points, which is to scout locations in advance because they weren't told of the locations in advance.

I distinctly remember both Grill Em All and Nom Nom talking about parking near Yankees Stadium to try and catch any crowds there. Just so happened that Nom Nom caught the wrong crowd (coming out of the stadium) rather than the crowd Grill Em All got (bar scene, before the game let out, probably some people going TOWARDS the stadium as well). And once there, there was nothing stopping them from moving, I don't think? Or maybe with all the parking laws throughout all 5 boroughs, they probably just decided to stick to the Yankee Stadium area.

Besides, it didn't matter anyway since the truck stop put them on equal footing. The only difference this time is that Grill Em All finally cottoned onto some of the marketing tricks that Nom Nom had been using previously. I think they even mentioned that GEA was telling their customers to tweet their location and $500 goal while on Staten Island, and I think it continued into Manhattan.

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Season 2 started last night. They now incorporate a speed bump into each episode - based on a wheel of misfortune. Last night they got the "no propane" speed bump. Other unfortunate possibilities include two flat tires. That should be fun to watch. The drama last night involved the Boston grilled cheese team parking their car directly next to their competitor's truck, thus blocking off their competitor - very douchey thing to do.

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Season 2 started last night. They now incorporate a speed bump into each episode - based on a wheel of misfortune. Last night they got the "no propane" speed bump. Other unfortunate possibilities include two flat tires. That should be fun to watch. The drama last night involved the Boston grilled cheese team parking their car directly next to their competitor's truck, thus blocking off their competitor - very douchey thing to do.

I'm not sure I like the extra obstacles. I only saw part of the episode because our satellite went out due to nearby storms. I waited a bit to see if it would come back and then gave up. I'll have to check the schedule to see when it's being rerun. Last season was pretty enjoyable, so I'm hoping not to be disappointed.

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The Korilla truck is kind of like Nom Nom from the last season. These guys can't really cook anything other than Korean. For them not to participate in the sausage making truck top is kinda lame - but smart (he who fights and runs away may live to fight another day). But stop with the b.s. It's everyone for themselves. If it's okay for you to take someone else's spot, then it's okay for others to show up where you are. Buying food on credit is definitely smart - kinda of snaky, like taking the meat from the sausage challenge but not participating in the challenge.

From the little I saw about the lime team this week, they do seem a little slimey. Promising to work with the vegans and then signing some kind of exclusive contract for location and freezing the vegans out?

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it occurs to me that it will be hard to win this thing selling cooked to order grilled cheese sandwiches; it takes too long to effectively feed your line of customers a product that has an upper limit on what you can get away with charging...

So I think the Boston vs Lime truck rivalry they've been pimping is destined to be short-lived.

The food truck fad has hit Denver in a big way and I'm not sure I understand why people will stand in the blazing Colorado sun to pay $8 for a burger or bbq or empanada or arepa or taco, and then eat it standing up in the same blazing sun, when they could walk two minutes and get a better, or certainly no worse, product in a sit-down air-conditioned restaurant, for the same price. I wonder if this will begin to flame out?

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The Korilla truck is kind of like Nom Nom from the last season. These guys can't really cook anything other than Korean. For them not to participate in the sausage making truck top is kinda lame - but smart (he who fights and runs away may live to fight another day). But stop with the b.s. It's everyone for themselves. If it's okay for you to take someone else's spot, then it's okay for others to show up where you are. Buying food on credit is definitely smart - kinda of snaky, like taking the meat from the sausage challenge but not participating in the challenge.

They crossed the line from sneaky to cheating. They thought they were losing in Memphis (because they were limited to selling vegetarian food) so they padded their sales with their own cash to the tune of $2,700. They came across as scumbags and they sure proved it.

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I was at a concert last Sunday night and missed the Memphis episode. It just re-aired, and, wow...Those guys really thought they could cheat and not be caught? They thought no one was noticing that they had very few customers and really short lines? It was kind of perverse justice that another truck would have been eliminated for low sales if Korilla hadn't been disqualified for cheating. D'oh!

Overall, I like the grilled cheese guys the most, so I hope they win, but I'm glad Korilla got eliminated. I haven't liked them at all. I loved that the FN showed the translation across the bottom of the screen when they were sent away: "He just made us look really bad." No, you just made yourselves look really bad by cheating.

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So Lime Truck, the favorite after Korilla Madoff-ed themselves, wins in an anti-climatic finale. I watched this series for the first time this season, and despite a few annoyances (they shouldn't have a $1,500 truck stop challenge in the last episode) it was entertaining enough.

Although I question the motivation behind the hordes who lined up for these trucks. I guess if you have a TV crew with you, charging $35 for a bananas foster tart, waffle cone with whipped cream and (bleeping) Chex Mix puppy chow is perfectly fine.

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