I Just Watched...

[Masha]

I am humbled.


I have now watched all ten episodes of the game show: The Floor (2024).

The basis for the contest is that eighty-one people each have a specialist category. Two contestants have a: 'duel' in which they take turns identifying images from one of the two categories. Each person has forty-five seconds for all of their answers. The first one to run out of time loses. The number of images shown varies according to how fast the contestants are answering. It ranges from approx. twelve to more than forty. Play continues until all players but one have lost.

I love learning and I find that game shows are excellent sources of culturally significant factoids. They illuminate also those areas of general interest which I should study further.

I feel that I did well above average in most categories and had more right answers faster than most of the contestants. There were obviously a few things here and there which I did not recognize or did not know their common name.

The reason that I am humbled is that there were several categories in which I had absolutely no idea who the image represented. From one to three dozen images shown for each and I knew none of them! I would have been unable to answer even if given unlimited time because I had absolutely no clue. I did not even know what might be used as keywords to do a google search.

A complete lack of knowledge in certain areas is to be expected because people have wildly varying interest and experience and all people have only cursory knowledge concerning a great many topics. This does not relieve me because all of the game show's material was considered general knowledge.

All episodes are available for viewing for free with commercials on: TubiTV
https://tubitv.com/series/300002258/the-floor
I believe that it is available for streaming on: Paramount but I have read that there are many more commercials than on: TubiTV.

[TikiSoo]

Fruitcakes (the literal kind). Yuck. I'm glad my grandma baked pecan pies.

Don't malign the Fruitcake based on 50's-60's "quick, easy" processed candied recipes that resulted in cement bricks.

REAL fruitcake is made with fruit soaked in rum. After baking, the loaf is spritzed regularly with brandy to preserve it for consumption over the long, cold winter.



Real fruitcake is hearty, flavorful & a great source of vitamin C when fresh fruit wasn't available year round like it is now.

[TikiSoo]

I recently looked for COCOON '85 and it's not streaming free, so got a copy from the library. I talked it up as "Ron Howard's best film" while cautioning I remembered it as "corny". Sometimes corn is OK, but sadly, Cocoon doesn't hold up nearly as well as my memory of it.

It's the story of Aliens retrieving life form "pods" distributed in Earth's ocean and acclimating them in a swimming pool to prepare them for their journey home. The swimming pool is on an abandoned estate next to a Senior Community where a group of old guys regularly trespass to swim for exersize.
(mistake #1- NO ONE would keep up a costly swimming pool full of water/chemicals on abandoned property)

The oldies found rejuvenation from the nutrient rich water, turning back their bio clocks. Soon everyone wanted to swim in the Fountain of Youth resulting in destruction of some pods.

The Seniors realized their mistake and helped the Aliens return the living pods back to the sea so they could be successfully retrieved at a later date. Since there was now room on the ship, a group of Seniors left Earth with the Aliens, presumably to live forever.
Oh, like "heaven"...why not hit us over the head with sappy metaphors?

This wasn't Ron Howard's best film at all-instead it's typical of his work; slow moving, poorly written dialogue but well acted with more corn than Capra would have even dared. I love Ron Howard as a person- a talented actor, but this movie showcases all his failings as a director.

Ron Howard is as manipulative as Schpielberg using self-important lofty music and crazy unnecessary special effects that cheapen whatever message he's trying to convey. I can't believe I ever thought it was a good movie.

Actually, all the Seniors played by great Golden Age Actors was the only piece of this movie that keeps your interest. Brian Dennehy is spectacular as the head coordinator Alien, flashing his big beautiful smile while keeping his eyes "dead" so you always realize he's not human. Other supporting actors & their situations were a total yawn & unnecessary to what would have been a great story.

Cocoon is now tied with Jurassic Park as the worst resulting movie from a promising, imaginative story. At the end credits Mr Tiki said in exasperation, "What the hell was that movie even ABOUT?

[Swithin]

Fruitcakes (the literal kind). Yuck. I'm glad my grandma baked pecan pies.

Don't malign the Fruitcake based on 50's-60's "quick, easy" processed candied recipes that resulted in cement bricks.

REAL fruitcake is made with fruit soaked in rum. After baking, the loaf is spritzed regularly with brandy to preserve it for consumption over the long, cold winter.

Real fruitcake is hearty, flavorful & a great source of vitamin C when fresh fruit wasn't available year round like it is now.

I love fruitcake. I'm usually fortunate enough to be in London in November, when all the holiday fruitcakes are available, although a wide variety of fruitcakes are available year round. They're all different, and the variety is amazing. Christmas cakes in the UK tend to be fruitcakes with a later of marzipan and royal icing. The British cakes tend to be soaked in brandy rather than rum.


Marks and Spencer Fruit Cake


Waitrose Christmas Fruit Cake

[Lorna]

You know, I googled it and found what purported to be THE FRUITCAKE RECIPE USED BY TRUMAN AND HIS DAFFY COUSIN, and I copied and pasted it, but it was just too long.

someone gave my office a MOSTLY NUTS fruitcake this christmas and it tasted like THOSE SQUARE-GRANOLAISH-NUTTY BARS THEY KEEP BY THE REGISTER AT THE WHOLE FOODS- WHICH I HAPPEN TO LIKE A LOT.

I know this is wrong, but I like THE GREEN THINGS in fruitcake, whatever the **** they are (and I think it varies)- ANGELICA, PINEAPPLE CHUNKS DYED WITH ARSENIC, CONGEALED ANTIFREEZE SLICES- I don't care. If it is SWEET AND CHEMICALLY DYED AND PROCESSED TO THE POINT WHERE IT IS POSSIBLY POISONOUS, I AM DOWN TO TRY IT.

(It's my Southern upbringing, I think)

[Lorna]

AT THE RISK OF DERAILING THE CONVERSATION ENTIRELY, I WILL POST THIS, WHICH THE BRITS AMONG YOU WILL MOST DEFINITELY RECOGNIZE.
(AND POSSIBLY EVEN BE TRIGGERED BY)



PS- THIS IS DRAG, MOTHER

[dianedebuda]

Some years I make a Southern version of fruitcake with brandy, but omit the traditional citron. Mine has tons of pecans with raisins, dried dates plus candied pineapple & cherries (red & green). Last year I made a cookie version that was a big hit with the family. Think the English versions are quite a bit different.

I'm very fond of Cocoon and don't share most of Tiki's opinions. To me, it moves along at a nice, comfortable pace - a feel good movie. And I thought that the pool was on a rental estate, but that could be just my imagination. Over the years, I've seen that Tiki's favorite films are ones that I usually dislike and visa versa, so no big surprise here.

[txfilmfan]

Some years I make a Southern version of fruitcake with brandy, but omit the traditional citron. Mine has tons of pecans with raisins, dried dates plus candied pineapple & cherries (red & green). Last year I made a cookie version that was a big hit with the family. Think the English versions are quite a bit different.

I'm very fond of Cocoon and don't share most of Tiki's opinions. To me, it moves along at a nice, comfortable pace - a feel good movie. And I thought that the pool was on a rental estate, but that could be just my imagination. Over the years, I've seen that Tiki's favorite films are ones that I usually dislike and visa versa, so no big surprise here.

It wasn't your imagination. It was a rental - perhaps one that's seen better days - but there's a scene where we see Brian Dennehy's character renting the place for a month (no AirBnB or VRBO in those days). The real estate agent explains that the estate has been in extended probate or similar situation. Jack (Dennehy) declines the pool service for the month.

[j.lunatic]

Some years I make a Southern version of fruitcake with brandy, but omit the traditional citron. Mine has tons of pecans with raisins, dried dates plus candied pineapple & cherries (red & green). Last year I made a cookie version that was a big hit with the family. Think the English versions are quite a bit different.

A couple years ago I made fruitcakes (from a Joy of Cooking recipe) for Christmas packages. I would describe the results as "generic sweetness," not worth the brandy I poured over them.

Years earlier the Washington Post food section profiled a monastery that supports itself by baking and selling fruitcakes. Per the article, they had previously made concrete blocks. The jokes wrote themselves.

[kingrat]

When I was growing up, almost everyone liked fruitcake. This was before Johnny Carson started making jokes about it and we learned that it wasn't cool to like fruitcake. Yes, I always liked the green citrons, though the maraschino cherries were not my favorites. My mother would buy the small rectangular Claxton's fruitcakes and soak them in rum.

My aunt made her own fruitcakes, and the minister in their little town always said that she made the best fruitcakes. No one had the heart to tell him that that was because she soaked them in brandy. This was back when most of the South was officially "dry."

[txfilmfan]

Every Christmas until her passing, my great aunt would send a DeLuxe fruitcake from the Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana, TX to my Dad. Don't know how she started that tradition. She never lived anywhere close to Corsicana, but supposedly their fruitcakes are "world famous." The bakery says Elizabeth II and Princess Grace were customers. You have to like pecans if you eat a slice. The top is covered with them. People must like them. They've been baking them since 1896.

When we closed up my parents' house, there were 20 or so cake tins in the house. My mom liked them for her sewing and crocheting notions and storing other miscellaneous stuff.

[Lorna]

FUN FACT:

THE FDA allowed a loophole for those BRIGHT GREEN and RED MARASCHINO CHERRIES served with cocktails and desserts to be considered NOT A FOOD STUFF and as such they can legally be processed using a method that involves ARSENIC.

Cue "GOD BLESS THE USA" by LEE GREENWOOD....

[Lorna]

"Say, what is this foodstuff that is IN NO WAY AT ALL THE COLOR THAT GOD INTENDED IT TO BE? Looks DELICIOUS!!"
- Any American, Anywhere

[dianedebuda]

As far as I've seen in recipes, candied cherries are used in fruitcake, not Maraschino. But I'm sure some baker out there marches to a different drummer.

[Lorna]

As far as I've seen in recipes, candied cherries are used in fruitcake, not Maraschino. But I'm sure some baker out there marches to a different drummer.

yeah, I just looked it up and it said in explicit terms DO NOT SUBSTITUTE MARASCHINO CHERRIES FOR CANDIED CHERRIES.

Guess they disintegrate or something.

(clearly, I am not a baker)