Late Late Show - Thanksgiving Roundtable

The Thanksgiving Round table was a gloriously bizarre idea with a terrifically random execution.

The premise was that Craig would have a Thanksgiving round table discussion with Rod Roddy (of The Price is Right fame), actor Martin Mull, tennis player Anna Kournikova ("live via satellite", of course) and Late Late Show writer Mike Grayson. Rather than eat, they would sit down and discuss the issues of the day (always hampered by a way-too-big table centerpiece).

The second video is my recording from another year where the full segment was divided into pieces and played throughout the episode. The first video is not mine.

MST3K - Turkey Day Marathon 2017

The Turkey Day Marathon 2017 is now Live. The stream starts at Noon EST and ends at ???.

[Live Stream Video Removed]

Dave's Mom

Dorothy Mengering, David Letterman's mom has passed away at age 95.

Dave's mom was always a highlight of the show. Her appearances every year on Thanksgiving became one of my favorite traditions. If it was Thanksgiving night, I was watching Dave guess the pies...



And this Top Ten is a highlight:

Guess The Pies

It's a Thanksgiving tradition. Every year on the Thanksgiving episode of the Late Show, we visit Dave's mom and try to guess which pies she baked this year. See if you can (psychically) determine which pies she made.

Can't embed the video. Follow this link for the full episode and skip to the second segment.

Spoilers Below....

First off, way to go Dave's mom, denying global warming. Stickin' it to the man. Dave is obsessed with global warming so it features in the show often (to my annoyance).

Dave's first guess is Pumpkin. And Dave's first guess is ALWAYS pumpkin. He goes for the percentage shot first. Out of the years that Guess the Pie has been played, a Pumpkin pie was a correct answer 75% of the time. If that guess is correct, the real work begins but at least it's only one-to-go. If that guess isn't correct (as is the case this year), he's really in trouble. In these situations he does the best thing which is to just do the "RSTLNE" of the pie world (Cherry, Apple, Blueberry, Pecan).

In years in which she's feeling creative, the pie(s) can be virtually ungettable. The fact that he got the Sugar Cream pie was quite a home run (though it was huge that he got the clue he did). Looking it up, it looks like Sugar Cream is a pie that's specific to the Indiana region. It's also known as "Hoosier Sugar Cream" and "Indiana Sugar Cream". That explains why I've never heard of it.

The major pie in the "ungettable" category that sticks out in my mind was from 1997. That year she made a Coconut Butterscotch Pecan pie. WHOAH. Are you kidding me?! Another year the (much less difficult) pie was a Rhubarb pie which always reminds me that I've never had a Rhubarb pie and I'll have to find one some time.

GUESS THE PIE BONUS COVERAGE:

As the Sugar Cream is specific to Indiana, I've never had it but there are tons and tons of pies specific to my region. The most obscure one, which I have had, is Ground Cherry pie. Oh, you mean a Cherry pie? No. Oh, you mean a specific type of Cherry pie? No, GROUND CHERRY pie. It's a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition/recipe and sure enough my great-grandmother used to make them every year for Thanksgiving. (The recipe was passed down to my grandmother and then my aunt). What do ground cherries taste like? It's very much an "aquired taste" [read: kinda gross]. The closest thing I can point to is they kinda taste a little bit like tomatoes. As such it's a pie that, I think, is teetering on the edge of extinction. It doesn't even have a wikipedia page to link to. I'm not partial to it, myself, but I always think it's a shame when the old-timey traditions like that die out.