The Unmade Podcast - 122: Podmongers

Episode Date: January 25, 2023

Support us on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/unmadeFM Join the discussion of this episode on our subreddit - https://redd.it/10kzsck Catch the podcast on YouTube where we often include accompanying videos and pictures - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkIRMZDOKKKs-d14YPmLMxg USEFUL LINKS An hour of Jurassic Park theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad08tK0E_bo Patron bonus - Brady drives into Longleat with the music playing - https://www.patreon.com/posts/77726166 Brady's Blog about the Academy Cinema - https://www.bradyharanblog.com/quarantine-diary-7-1 Innerspace Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kQDIosuZuo Prunes - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prune Mongers on Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monger John Ironmonger - https://australianfootball.com/players/player/john+ironmonger/12096

Okay, that's recording. Tell me when you're ready. Yeah. Okay. And we're away. Looks good. Tim, I've had another one of those moments where I've had one of my podcast ideas at the very last minute, just as we're about to call, I'm like, oh, this is a good idea, which means either it's a great idea or I haven't had time to think it through and realise, oh, no, this is not a good

idea. You're lucky though, because thinking things through helps you refine your ideas. The more I think about mine, the more excited I get. And they're just as likely to die. I think it's worse for you. I think you overthink it. And then you start thinking, how can I make this more worthy and, you know, more wholesome? And you start like building all this unnecessary goodness into it.

You've just got to go, just follow your heart. Follow your instinct. Well, my heart is good. That's the thing. Don't think. If you think, you're dead. Career advice for Tim Hyde. Just don't think.

Got to be like a Top Gun pilot. You just, like, you take the shot. Just all the training kicks in. I just have to trust that all my comedy training kicks in at this point. Yeah, exactly. Comedy training. So, anyway, just before we started recording, I was listening to the Jurassic Park theme. Nice.

There's actually this YouTube video I found that plays the Jurassic Park theme over and over again for an hour. Just back to back to back to back. Oh, I love it. Nice. There's actually this YouTube video I found that plays the Jurassic Park theme over and over again for an hour, just back to back to back to back. Oh, I love it. So, because it's such great background music, isn't it? Like, it's so inspiring. Oh, yeah. So, I had this idea for a podcast called the Jurassic Podcast, right? And what happens is, whatever you discuss, whether it's an idea for a podcast like you and I do or anecdotes or whatever you're talking, has to be told in like a sort of a three-minute time frame or however long the theme is and it has to be told with the

Jurassic Park theme in the background yeah right so it's like so so just so it just shows that anything's made better so for example say I was telling you a story about something that happened this week and I would say well I woke up and it was a bit of a dreary day and we have the horns just gently playing in the background at the start that lone horn and then i'm like and then i bumped into my mate dave at sainsbury's while i was doing my shopping and the music just slightly picks up and hints that something's coming and then like it just builds up. And we decided we were going to go and play tennis.

And we went out and played tennis. And maybe you could use that first climax that it has, you know. And then it speeds up and I could tell you about the tennis we were playing and what happened and how the score unfolds. And at the end, when I tell you the result, you have the big, bang, climactic thing. Just any story would be made better with the Jurassic Park theme. folds and at the end when I tell you the result you have the big bang climactic thing and just any story would be made better with the Jurassic Park theme just everything everything's talked sports results sports reports news reports anything you want to talk about anything is

better with John Williams Jurassic Park playing in the background That's nice. I like it. It would help some of my ideas, just to bring full circle. I think some of my ideas would be a lot better if they had the Jurassic Park theme. It's hard to tear something down when it's being presented to you with the Jurassic Park theme. Yeah, it's amazing. Did I send you that video? There's this, I've told you about this before,

but we did it the other day and I videoed it, but I can't remember if I sent it to you. I think I did. Yeah, I did. There's this drive around zoo park near where we live with lions and stuff in it and you drive your car through it and the lions and the monkeys and stuff come right up to your car but at the start there's these giant gates you go through and every time we drive through them we put the jurassic park theme on the car stereo and just jack it up all the way

to the top welcome to jurassic park driving long leap the place is called nice do you ever you ever consider a bit of jurassic park in the background when you're giving a sermon i was thinking not when i did when i was giving a sermon that's was thinking, not when I was giving a sermon, that's great. I often think about it when I take my glasses off. So, when I carry sunglasses around my neck and then I swap them, obviously, as I come in and out of sunlight, get in and out of the car and so forth. But I often think about taking them off in that way that Sam Neill does, you know, when he sees them for the first time.

I love the act of... Has there ever been a more overacted taking off of sunglasses scene in the history of... The most amazing thing is that the most famous taking on and off of sunglasses or the most famous taking off of sunglasses scene isn't from a Top Gun movie. It's the Top Gun glasses, but it's like looking at dinosaurs. It's a classic.

So often I think of that, no, no, no, when I take them on and off. I thought of it again the other day as well. There was something happening and I thought of the Jurassic Park theme. It's in my mind clearly, like as much as, remember Jaws was in our mind when we'd go through the swimming pool and we'd make the dern and noise. Jurassic Park comes to mind so often. I love it. Brilliant.

I love it. One of the rare albums that I owned on cassette and then CD as well and that I now stream. I haven't got it on vinyl, but I have had it on all those three. I didn't have it on cassette. I definitely had it on CD and I definitely I didn't have it on cassette. I definitely had it on CD. And I definitely listened to it at least once every few weeks. We have some parish notices.

You mentioned that when you bought your KFC to break the fast at... Which KFC did you go to? Was it Malvern or... Mitcham. Mitcham, sorry. Mitcham KFC. They didn't have any buckets in stock. That's right.

Deepest Descent on Reddit said, we were given a bucket at Golden Grove KFC yesterday without asking. Right. We ordered a giant feast. So if you're willing to drive down to Golden Grove, which is a suburb in Adelaide, Tim, it sounds like you can get buckets there. Well, I wonder if they're just working through their last few buckets,

though, or if they've been regularly given more is there something golden grove does strike me more as a bucket kind of kfc place than mitchum to be fair not to not to make judgments it is it's a long way to drive for a bucket but it'd be and i'm not going to go test the theory but it would be interesting to know if they're continuing to source some outlets with buckets and then are deliberately taking them away from other places. Yeah, maybe they've just realised where the buckets are popular. It could be. Another thing, Tim, I've been reflecting on your breaking of your fast and I was looking at the pictures you sent and I noted that you were drinking a glass of wine with your KFC. Yes. And I noted that you were drinking a glass of wine with your KFC.

Yes. I particularly noted it was red wine. And I was wondering, does one drink red wine with chicken? I thought it was white wine with chicken. Well, that's something only distributed at the Mitcham KFC, actually. Buckets are out, unless they're ice buckets, in which case you can get champagne and white wine and red wine now i don't know i think surely with fried chicken red wine is a good accompanying drink some people say look you drink whatever wine you like with whatever meat you like most

people will say white wine with white meat as far as I've read, lighter meat, and the reds come in when the meat gets a bit darker. So, it depends where you read, but I would have thought, I mean, I'm not judging because I'm a red wine man. I don't really like white wine, but I did think it was an interesting choice, the red wine with the chicken. And I wondered if you wanted to elaborate in any way. Well, to be fair on the guest, I didn't bring the wine. I brought the chicken and someone else brought the wine. So I don't, and I know that person listens to the podcast, so I'm not going to complain about the wine. And it was fine.

Remember the other day when we had KFC, I'm not sure about your choice of wine. I mean, it's getting a little bit, perhaps a Sauvignon Blanc would have been nicer. But there's something in my mind that red wine, if you're eating something fatty, red wine kind of burns up some of the fat, which I think is probably ridiculous,

but it's probably just adding sugar on top of the fat. But to my mind, it's better than having a sun-kissed, which is what KFC will provide. So you're saying the wine makes it healthier? Yes. And now that I'm saying that out loud, that doesn't seem as plausible. I had eight pieces of KFC, but it's okay. I had five glasses of red wine with it.

As long as you're not driving, you're in tip-top shape. That's right. I'm sure there's something you could, maybe the fries soak up the alcohol so then you can drive. I don't know. I'm sure you've got some logic going on there. Just keep eating. Just keep eating. Oh, golly.

It did get me thinking about red wine, this whole train of thought. And then a question came to mind that I thought maybe you could answer. You know how in churches you do communion and traditionally you could have red wine to represent the blood of Christ, as I understand it. Yes. When churches obtain the red wine to give to their parishioners, can you use just anything like a bottle of Wolf Blass, or is there like specific communion wine that churches buy from specific suppliers? That's a good question. Actually, I mean, you can use whatever you want. You tend to use a sort of a fortified kind of wine rather than, say, a Shiraz or something like that. There is a place out at Clare that's like a Catholic retreat centre. And they, it's also a winery and they make wine and people tend to get it from there. So, everyone tends to get their stuff from there.

Well, not like the Vatican. You mean in Adelaide? Yeah, in Adelaide. That's right. Clare. claire that's right just north of adelaide of course some listeners listening all around the world may not know where claire is so yes you're right to correct me there but like but like other churches don't get it from claire like churches around the world but they but they might get it from also from church suppliers no that's right that's right so i imagine there are probably well the catholic church is probably a classic on this it probably has um places i'm trying to think of the name of this seven hill there we go seven hill winery up uh in the clear oh that's like yeah you can just

buy normal wine from that like oh absolutely seven hill wine oh yeah yeah you just go there and get wine they produce it but they also happen to be the people who people get a lot of their so-called sacred wine from. But, of course, you can use, people use both alcoholic and non-alcoholic juice as well. In fact, in a lot of communities where there are people who are struggling with alcoholism, just tasting alcohol at church is not going to be helpful for them. So you might have both or you might have one or the other. Yeah, like Ribena or something. Yeah, yeah. Although you're not allowed to. The instructions in the Uniting Church book specifically says not Ribena.

So it should be grape juice and Ribena is too artificial. What's blackcurrant? Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah. So it specifically says not Ribena. Like it says the brand. The one thing I chose. Yeah. But that's because everyone chooses it as a default because it looks kind of the most like blood. The one thing I chose Yeah But that's because everyone chooses it as a default

Because it looks kind of the most like blood Whereas grape juice Of course if it's a white grape It's going to be white Because Ribena looks like Jesus' blood Imagine Jesus at the Last Supper Hand me that wine No not the Ribena

It's not Ribena Judas Put that Ribena away Get's not Ribena, Judas. Put that Ribena away. Get out of here. I see what you're doing. I remember one guy leading communion in our church years ago, 20 years ago. And we had one of the communities where some people struggled with alcohol. So we had non-alcoholic and alcoholic.

And you could line up in a different line depending on what you wanted. And I remember the guy who was leading communion, Frank, said, he goes, we've got both alcoholic and non-alcoholic today, country and western, which is a great line to throw into the middle of church. Does the Uniting Church handbook say anything about the bread? Like you can use any bread but not tip-top? Well, I would suggest not wonder white. Tip-top wonder white. Just bouncing away.

You can use whatever bread you want. Yeah, yeah. Generally, it would have been unleavened bread, you know, so without yeast in it. Flatbread being the Middle East. Brown or white or seeded. Yes. Unseeded.

Yes, yes yes could you could you use that yummy raisin toast like that bread that's got sultanas through i love raisin toast the the danger with starting to move into the more um the point is not about the bread so you unlike a cooking show where you're trying to focus people on the food in communion you're trying to the food is the signs of something greater. So you're actually getting them to not concentrate on the bread. At morning tea, you can go for your life. But at the ceremony, it's a bit different.

I would have thought raisin toast might be good, though, because then you can do the bread and the grape in one. Very good. Yes, you can. Yes. Very good. I'm just thinking. i'm just thinking i'm always thinking should have had the jurassic park music we should i'll put the jurassic park music under that it'll sound way more interesting you're asking the questions um all right very good thank you for

that how do we get onto that oh wine kfc yes right yes how do we get onto it? Oh, wine, KFC. Yes, right. Yes. How did we get onto it? I don't know how we got onto it, but I know it started with KFC somehow, as always. It did, yep. So KFC and a glass of wine. Had a letter here from Pieter in Germany. You remember, Tim, in a recent episode, you had the idea about interesting housemates that you lived with. Here's a message. Dear Tim and Brady,

your latest episode made me remember a housemate I had back in the day. Here we go. My housemate during my university days was a nice guy, but sometimes when I climbed up the stairs to the fourth floor up to our apartment and already on the second floor, I was confronted with an offensive smell. I knew, oh no, it's starting again. In front of our apartment door lay, or should I better say decomposed,

one or two cow skins fresh from the butcher. My roommate, who was about 40 years old, was actually adept in the traditional art of building djembe drums. Djembe drums? I'm sorry, I don't know the pronunciation. What followed was usually, the next morning he explained to me that from now on, I could not use the shower for a day or two.

This was because the skins were lying in it, soaking in something. The smell did not get better. In the next step, he nailed them onto wooden boards and put them on the rain gutters in front of the windows to dry. Every time I went to the kitchen window, the sky darkened because a cloud of flies rose from the skins. After that, he would sit in his room for days and string the drums. Fortunately, we had an iron rule.

He never played the drums in the apartment. Also want to thank you. I'm not a big podcast guy, but I never miss an unmade episode. Great work. From Pieter in Germany. Well, thank you, Pieter. How'd you like that? Look, I'd be happy to listen to drumming all day long

as long as I didn't get a bloody skin inside the house. I know, it's crazy. Decomposing skins. Oh, wow. Anyway, thank you very much. Ideas for podcasts. That's what we do here. Tim, what have you been cooking up?

Hang on, let me start. Let me start the music. Well, let me tell you, I think this... Now I want to go with the music. So I'm going to build up and then I'm going to take off my glasses at the right scene. You won't believe it, but my idea is about films. My idea is called Cinema Story. And it always strikes me as a little bit strange.

You go to the cinema to watch a film, which we've done all our life, and it's a wonderful thing. It's just weird when you stop and look around and realise, I'm sitting in a room with a whole bunch of people just facing a wall. And when you think about how peculiar that is, and you do it for two hours without talking to anyone, you're just staring at a wall. It's an incredible thing what they put up on that wall to keep us enraptured for all that time.

But it's a very dark room and largely you don't see it or pay much attention to it but you tend to have favorite aspects and a lot of pressure in the cinema and what cinema you like is down to the comfort of the chairs and how nice the foyer is because we spend about 10 minutes in the foyer and then we go into a dark room and watch a film and then we come, oh, I love that cinema. That's a wonderful cinema. I love lining up, buying something and walking into a dark room in that cinema because it's such a special place. There's so many wonderful memories.

This is called Cinema Story. This podcast is people telling the stories about their film rooms, the cinema rooms, their favorite cinemas, worst cinemas, first cinema, cinema they've seen the most films in across their life, and their favourite cinema. Love it. I love this. Being a big filmgoer, especially in my younger days, I've talked before about when my dad was a movie critic, so I used to go to the movies a lot to watch movies with him. This really resonates with me because I've got quite a few favourite cinemas and places i like going i would i would enjoy this podcast very much tell me where this where does it all start for you where where did you see your first film i can't remember that films have been so much a part of my life like there were the three there were three

main cinemas in the city center that i would always go to, you know, with dad where he was seeing films. So, in order that I liked them, my favourite was the Academy Cinema on Highmarsh Square, which isn't there anymore. And then my next favourite was probably the Greater Union that was down on Hindley Street. I quite liked. I never liked the Hoyts one off Rundle Mall very much because the cinemas were all split apart by shops and stuff. But that was the third one. Obviously, later on in life, I really grew to love the Piccadilly Cinema at North Adelaide because I lived near it and it's a very old fashioned, beautiful cinema. So that's a real favourite. That's probably my actual favourite.

It's recently been refurbished as well. It's just opened again and they've done a wonderful job inside. It's really nice. And Glenelg Cinema I went to a bit as a kid. Although I live near Glenelg, I didn't go there as often as you'd think. But Glenelg Cinema I obviously have a lot of memories of too. Do you have a regular cinema now that you go to as your default? Yeah, I live near a very, very lovely old-fashioned cinema now,

which I really enjoy going to. It's so old-fashioned they actually have uh in front of the screen they have this old-fashioned organ that rises out of the floor and when the film starts it goes back into the floor yeah and before the film starts it rises out of the floor and some old volunteer from the town comes and plays old-fashioned tunes on the organ so it's like really really old school so it's a really lovely uh lovely old cinema oh that's nice which which room which cinema do you think you've seen the most films in i would say cinema one the big screen at the academy cinema in highmarsh square which no longer exists i would have been to the most times i do

you know that's what i put down for me too. I think I've seen the most films through the, for you the 80s, I guess, but for me the 90s. Just saw lots and lots. It's obviously not there anymore. It's replaced by the hotel. It's been built on the same spot, which is where you stayed when you came in and had to do that lock-in, lockdown sort of quarantine time.

When I was staying in that hotel during my quarantine in Adelaide, I was doing a daily blog and one of my daily blogs was all about the fact that that cinema used to be there and I dug up old pictures of it and all sorts so I'll link people to that blog post and they can they can read a bit about it oh I thought you were going to give me some old cinemas from Turalgon some old country you know country cinemas well that's would be my first the academy's where I saw the most because we didn't go to the movies very much it was a really big deal to go to the movies in taralgon there was no cinema in taralgon we had to go to the next town over which is called morwell and they had a ahoy twin i saw my first film there which was inner space do you remember inner space i do yeah martin short yeah dennis

quaid yes yeah meg r too, wasn't it? Oh, you're right. I think that is Meg Ryan. I didn't remember that. A Spielberg sort of produced kind of thing. Yeah. Where one guy's injected into the body of another in a little space probe that's made really, really microscopic and goes into his bloodstream and travels all over his body, which is quite a good premise now I say it. But, yeah, I thought that was amazing. i thought it was incredible just to be seeing a film

it was just it was just phenomenal and the only reason i got to see it is because i delivered newspapers um three nights a week i was a newspaper boy and once a year then the newspaper would put on a special um film and film for all the newspaper boys in the Gippsland sort of area. And so I'd go along, we got a bottle of Coke and a popcorn and we got to see a film. And I thought that was like the most amazing thing ever. Like that was better than Christmas.

That was incredible. I love it. That's how I got to go to the cinema for the first time. Of course, the real game changer was when they built the big multiplex cinema at our very own Marion Shopping Centre, which was our favourite place as kids. Yeah. And they built the Megaplex. How many screens was the Megaplex?

It was mind-blowing. It was way too many. It was like 12 or... No, no, no. It was like 36 or something stupid. Oh, was it? It was some number that was inconceivable to me. This was being built in Adelaide. I felt like we were the

centre of the universe when they built this huge and you could go there and there were just so many screens. You couldn't believe it. It was like nothing you'd seen. It was like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. There were like 15 down each side left and right. I don't think there's that many anymore.

Until then, I don't think there was a cinema in Adelaide that had more than three. No, that's right. Well, there were five at that Grady Union in Hindley Street. But I'm not sure about that fifth one. I never saw it. It was just a rumour that it was. The word the five appeared on their promotional stuff,

but no one actually really saw that fifth dark little one. But, yeah, I saw a lot of films. When that opened, it was incredible. Yeah. And it was so high tech. You line up for your tickets and there were all those electric screens telling you what movies were on and what times. And there were so many times.

Yeah, yeah. You could just see a film almost any time you chose. That's right. You didn't just have to wait till 7 o'clock that night. I remember when Titanic was playing and it was, like, playing at 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3. You know what I mean? Different screens all over.

And they've all got about four people in there. Golly gosh. Yeah. What's the worst cinema you've ever been to? The worst cinema you've sat in to see a film? It's a good question. I don't know if an answer is springing to mind. Have you got one?

Yeah, I reckon the worst one is that one on Henley Beach Road where we saw Copycat. It was you and me and we're up the back. It's a long, thin one on Henley Beach Road. It's not there anymore. And it was kind of like vinyl chairs that we were kind of stuck to. And they were those old ones. So they're really thin. And it was like the movie was further away. So it was like smaller than if I was sitting in my lounge room with TV even back

then. And we saw Copycat, which is not a good film with Harry Connick Jr. And that was it was hot. There was no air conditioning. And that was not a good film experience. That would be the worst cinema. I often find movie theatres in America are a bit grubbier and not as nice as in Australia. Like, I think in Australia, going to the movies is considered quite posh and fun and, like, they've got people to clean things and they keep everything clean and shiny and all the banisters are shiny.

But in America, I think sometimes the cinemas feel a bit understaffed and grubby right i don't particularly like going to the movies in america i don't think i ever have been to the movies in america what about your favorite cinema is your favorite cinema of all time one of the nostalgic ones or this nice one that you're in at the moment oh i'd probably choose a cat the academy center on high on my square again just because so many memories so many great memories of you and i seeing films me and my dad seeing films that little video arcade up on the corner they had where you could play video games and there were heaps of games weren't there there were heaps of arcade games like 20 of them or something yeah yeah i love a cinema in adelaide called the mercury not but it's only because it plays lovely old films it only plays retro films and i really love it and apparently there's like a funding question over it at the moment but i really so if anyone's listening that has any authority in this matter i love the mercury cinema but i think

my favorite cinema is our regular one now which is the palace nova in rundle street that's been that we go to that a lot and there's the best thing about going to the cinema in adelaide is there's no one else there it's always it's always quiet so there's always heaps of space to sort of spread out and you don't have to book specific seats and stuff and that's there's coffee shop nearby and yeah that's probably my favorite when did you last go to the megaplex at marion i i was we were at marion the other day shopping because the girls needed something and i had time just to walk around you know kill time and i looked at it and went up the escalator just to have a look and stood around

looking at it and then then left and remembered but i haven't seen a film there since i took the girls there when they were little and they were staying at Nan's nearby Or something like that I think with Nan we went once That's a long time ago It's exactly the same I'm not a big fan of anything with the word mega or plex Like it's It is a little bit like

Bring the checkbook to buy the popcorn You know that kind of Massive sort of We would definitely love to hear from civilians if you've got cinema stories favorite cinemas things you want to tell us about send us a message unmade fm at gmail.com or reddit and twitter and all the usual places and uh we might share some next week and a photo too love to see a photo of the cinema. You don't have many photos from the cinema though, like, because who takes a camera to the cinema? And it's really dark. I guess not from back in the day, that's right.

You don't really. Do people these days take pictures in the cinema? I mean, even now, like, you know. Not in the cinema. I have a mobile phone now and I don't. You do it out the front. When people go see a theatre show, they take a photo of the theatre show. They don't tend to do it with a movie, do they the movie do they well that's different if it's a theater show because you paid a lot of money for the ticket you only do that you know once every couple of years fair enough all right drop the photo idea don't play any jurassic music over that photo idea because it's not worthy all right play that play the um the the star wars um what's it, March of the... The Imperial March.

The Imperial March. That's it. Play that over the top. That's the bad idea. That's the bad idea music. Yes. All right. Well, now it's time for...

Prune of the Week. Prune of the Week. Oh, finally. Nice. Prune of the week. Oh, finally. Nice. Prune of the week. Now, you know, we like a good dried plum here on the Unmade Podcast. We do. We love a plum.

There are so many species of prune that we can talk about. In fact, as most people probably know, there are more than a thousand species of plums that can be turned into prunes. Most of them are European varietals. Almost all prunes, particularly in the United States, are made from this one variety of prune, this one cultivar. And it's time to talk about it. It's the one everyone will want to hear about. And that is the Improved French prune. Improved French. Sometimes it's called french improved but we'll go with improved french this is what most across california which is the prune capital of the world 99 of america's prunes come from california 70 of the world's prunes come from california no way and almost

all of them are improved French. So, obviously, that's something to talk about on Prune of the Week. Well, is it improved French? Does that mean it's like it was French, but this version has been improved on the French? Or is it sort of it's been improved because it's been made a bit more French? Is it pejorative or congratulatory of the French history? I've done quite a bit of reading on this,une and and um i'm not entirely clear on that i do know it was introduced to california after

being sold to a trader there in the year 1898 right and it wasn't called improved french then it was called something else so maybe they did improve it slightly with a bit of uh with a bit of breeding of course the the fun thing about prunes in america is in 2001 the united states food and drug administration approved a renaming of prunes to dried plums because there was a feeling in the prune industry that the word prune has a bit of stigma associated with you know constipation and bowel movements and things like that. So I don't know whether we should be calling this dried plum of the week, but I'm going to stick with prune of the week. It's tradition. Stick with tradition. Prune of the week. Yeah.

I mean, the French Improved is a late season prune. You're looking at late July to mid to late August. It's medium sized. It's got a long oval shape, about the size of an egg, very egg shaped with a glaucous, dark purplish plum skin. It's got a sweet, mild flavoured flesh, juicy interior, bright orange apricot colour inside. And as with most prune varieties of plum, it's a freestone to semi frefree stone pit so the pit comes out quite easily for when you're making prunes you're eating plums have got the more fixed pit right but you know it's a it's a good free stone pit what do you mean it comes out easy it doesn't mean it breaks apart easy it's soft or do you mean it just comes out easy i think it comes out easily when you go

through the prune drying process right i don't know if you remove the pit before or after you do the drying. If there are any dried plum or prune makers out there, let us know. The plant was traditionally used in French orchards, hence the name, not just for the lovely fruit, but it was also very useful windbreak, having some of these plants there. It's a good windbreaking plant. How ironic. As in blocking the wind, not farting. some of these uh plants that it was a good it's a good wind breaking plant how how ironic as in blocking the wind not farting prunes have been used to stop wind as much as to be blamed for

causing it hmm so anyway nice one of the real classic prune there for prune of the week can you can you still get the french improved in france or is it only to be found in california now oh i would imagine you can still get it in France. I don't know that for a fact, but I'm pretty sure. It is the dominant plum prune. Right. Plum used for prunes. So, I imagine it's pretty international, but, I mean, California is where it's at.

All right. Well, you're the master. All right. Thank you for the French Improved on this edition of Prune of the Week. Now it's time for us to do our winners. We've got an unmade podcast spoon, not a prune, which we are going to be giving to one of our Patreon supporters, and that is Norman G.

Can you guess what country Norman G is is from norman g from canada you are right this is from canada congratulations canadians just clean up when it comes to these i promise it's random i don't know if we have a particularly high number of canadian patrons but they absolutely clean up on the prizes a sofa shop mixtape is going to Richard D. from Washington State. I wonder if he's related to Heavy D. from Heavy D and the Boys. Or Tenacious D.

Tenacious D. Wow, they're going to have a big family reunion. And we are giving Spoon of the Week collector cards to Magnus from Norway, Michael A from Virginia in the US, and Tyler Q from Victoria in Australia. Ah, fantastic. I've just come back from Victoria, and it's a great state. Wonderful state, Victoria.

Oh, it's lovely. It's lush. Is it better than South Australia? I think it's got a heck of a lot more rain, yes. So it's actually got some rain, which is one thing. So everything's green. It's a beautiful state. Well, speaking of things that are beautiful, would you like to hear my idea for a podcast?

Yes. You don't get to use the Jurassic Park music. You have to do it naked. Oh, no. All right. I'll give it my best. All right. I'll give it my best.

So, my idea is based on a word or a part of a word that always amuses me. It just always tickles me. And that is the word monger. M-O-N-G-E-R, as in a fishmonger. Oh, yes. Yeah. So, my idea is called, well, we'll call it podmongers. And basically, it's a lot like my idea I had the ology idea where you talk about all different ologies, you know, biology and psychology and that. This time, it's just

podcast episodes and each one is about a different kind of monger where you talk to someone who's in that trade because manga traditionally means like a dealer or a trader a peddler someone who sells things so the what mangas spring to your mind there are three that spring to my mind when i think of mangas fish manga of course fish manga comes to mind because reading the asterix books when i was a kid there was a a very famous fishmonger there. And then Ironmonger comes to mind for some reason. Yes, that's that.

Yep, Ironmonger is one of my three. Yep. There are three main ones, the Ironmonger, the fishmonger, and the other one that I come across a little bit, maybe because there's one in Bristol, is a cheesemonger. Oh, right, of course. That's another kind of monger. Yes.

Yeah. So I think they're the three classic mongers we still have. And every time I say the word monger, every time we walk past this cheesemonger, I always have a little titter to myself and start coming up with other, make jokes to my wife that she doesn't find funny about all the other jobs that could be mongers.

But some other ones that do exist but aren't used so much anymore a peltmonger or a fellmonger is someone who sells skins very appropriate after peter's earlier earlier message a costamonger is someone who sells fruit which was not a term i knew it's quite an old term from like shakespearean times it used to apply mainly to apples which i think is where costamunga comes from. That was a type of apple or an apple word, but it can be used just for a fruit seller.

A relic munga, someone who sells relics, old objects. But there were many other kinds of mungas, but it seems to be dying out. I was thinking, what would we be? Would I be a video munga? I'm not sure. Is that my job? And I was wondering, would you we be? Would I be a video monger? I'm not sure. Is that my job? And I was wondering, would you be a god monger or a salvation monger?

Yes, gospel monger. Gospel monger? That's very good. I quite like that. Yeah, that's cool. Yes. Gospel monger. You should get some business cards done.

Tim Hine, gospel monger. Established in 1999 or something like that. Yeah, yeah. That's cool. So I'd love to just interview Mungers. Oh, it's a good idea. It's a good idea. The other one that comes to mind that's used a little bit kind of pejoratively is War Munger.

When someone like Putin going to war is a War Munger. Yes, yes. And a Fear Munger. Fearer. Yes, yes. And a fearmonger. Fearmonger, yes. Yes. So we have warmongers and fearmongers. They could also be featured on my podcast. Wow.

I also did a bit of research into people with the surname Munger. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do any spring to your mind? I would be surprised if you knew any, but there was one I did know, and there was a few others i thought ironmonger came to mind because there was a 1980s footballer called someone ironmonger oh there was thinking north melbourne maybe you're right yes you're right good call good memory i i seem to remember that uh john ironmonger. Yes, there we go. Well done.

Played for North Melbourne and for Sydney. He was a ruckman from memory. Is that right? Yeah, he was a big lumbering. He was a big lumbering dude. Yeah, there he is. Yeah. Not the kind of player you see much anymore. No, that's right.

He couldn't run. It's really funny. The key facts have come up here. He's obviously a big, intimidating guy. And it says, full name,. He couldn't run. It's really funny. The key facts have come up here. Like, he's obviously a big, intimidating guy. And it says, full name, John Ironmonger. And it says, known as, which is obviously where they put the nickname. And they've just got John Ironmonger. Like, no one dared give him a nickname.

Love it. People who are big fans of motor racing, particularly in the UK, may know the name of a young man named billy munger who was a young up-and-coming racing car driver he had a really bad crash in the uk and had to have both of his legs amputated and he's still like involved in racing and commentating and he's a real great story of resilience that he hasn't he hasn't let it you know diminish him or cower him. But it was also a tragedy.

So people will know the name Billy Munger. Oh, right. Adrian Munger was an Australian rower who competed at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, won a bronze medal in the men's eight. Christopher Munger is a Welsh screenwriter and director, best known for The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain. Oh, that Hugh Grant film. Yeah, right.

Yeah. Frederick Charles Munger was a businessman and politician in Western Australia, in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, and him and his father were both elected to Parliament in Western Australia, which was a... I think they were the first people to do that, first father and son pair. And as a result,

there's actually a lake in Perth named Lake Munger, which I'm assuming is named after them. Very popular birdwatching location. And also a place where lots of people seem to drown from my investigations. Right. George Munger was an Englishman Who won the Victoria Cross in the 1800s For bravery on the battlefield And the one I thought you may have known

Because you know a lot about music Is Tom Munger Who's a harpist with Florence and the Machine No I've heard of Florence and the Machine But I'm not big on harpists No No

But harpists is another good idea for a podcast Yes We'll do that Harpmongers No. No. But harpists is another good idea for a podcast. Yes. Harpmongers. Very good. Many strings to my bow. Very good. There we go.

Mongers. I would invite various traders and peddlers and salespeople onto my podcast and talk to them about their mongering. What does it take to be an ironmonger or a cheese monger? When did you decide to embrace the term monger? What about farmers? What's a farmer? Are they an animal monger or a dirt monger? Cow mongers?

I think the thing that comes before the monger is traditionally the thing you're selling. You could be a milk manga. Milk manga. That's got a nice ring to it. Yeah. It does indeed. Or an egg manga. Beef manga.

Beef manga. Yeah. Nice. Sheep manga. It's funny that news manga, if a journalist, news manga, you'd think that would catch on. I like that. It's a bit of a news. I like news manga.

You go with news hound, I guess. That's the one that's always attached to them, isn't it? And can I just say, if Munger is one of your daughter's secret words this week, we have well and truly delivered the goods. I would say put on the Jurassic Park music, but no. No, it's not. No. Do you know what one is? What?

Plum. You're joking. I'm not not even joking have a look at that well where is it that is amazing i've got a little note a note here that i found next to my keys as i left and it's got two words on it one of them's plum and the other one there's a little note that says don't bother coming home if you don't say it. Kiss, kiss. And I see there's a second word there and you have used that word as well. I'm very proud. Yes. Well done.

I can't believe when I brought up prune of the week and started talking about plums, were you like thinking, oh, my God, this is amazing. I was. I've been sitting on my excitement for a while but i thought i'd get it out in case i was i know i was just as likely to get through this whole episode with you saying it and get to the end and then me have forgotten to say it with you so i've absolutely made sure i did it before i told you brilliant brilliant i can't believe plum was one of because do you know do you know do you know why because i'm a i'm a i'm a um a forgetting monger i'm a i'm memory monger memory bad memory monger i'm like the guy what's his name grant isn't it in jurassic park who takes off his glasses

he's a dinosaur monger dr grant dr grant yeah he's a bones mong. He's a dinosaur monger. Dr Grant. Dr Grant, yeah. He's a bones monger. He's a bone monger. Bone monger. And what's Hammond? Hammond is a dinosaur monger. He's an entertainment monger. Dino monger.

There's something... Do you know why the... Monger. Monger... What does it sound like that makes it sound distasteful? It sounds like... It doesn't sound... It does. Youasteful? It sounds like, it doesn't sound. It does, you're right.

It sounds unnice. It's got the same problem that I think the prune industry is reviling against, that it's associated with things. Prune sounds like prudish. But mungus sounds, what does it sound like? Mungrel? Yeah, I think that's right. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Although I thought mungrel would have been just an australianism really but perhaps i think mongrel is an international word for a mixed breed dog oh indeed yeah okay yep all right well there we go i think we're done mongers well done man you're a monger monger. I am. I'm an ideas monger. Ideas monger. I love it. Plum, plums, plums, plum.