Good Job, Brain! - 312: Outta the Blue

Episode Date: July 29, 2026

I'm blue, da ba dee da ba di! Kick your feet up and sip on a Blue Hawaii while Colin shares the story behind the strangely blue Curaçao liqueur. Learn weird facts behind everyday blue things in Karen's "True Blue Quiz." What flavor do you think of when you see blue ice cream? And move over Sinatra, we have a new ol' blue eyes 'round these parts. For advertising inquiries, please contact [e-mail]! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast. Never snooty beauties and cutie patooties, possibly from Djibouti? Welcome to Good Job Brain, your weekly quiz show and offbeat trivia podcast. This is episode 312, and of course I'm your humble host, Karen, and we are your blubbering blue gills on Bluesmobile ordering blue bottle over Bluetooth. I'm Colin. And I'm Chris. I am wearing blue. You are wearing blue.

I'm wearing blue. As am I. Wow, interesting. I'm not. Your button is, your buzzer is blue. Getting in the mood. Well, anyways. In the mood for what?

Let's jump into our first general trivia segment. Pop quiz, hot shot. All right, here I have two random trivia cards from a random assortment, a 12-pound box. You guys have your barnyard buzzers. Listeners, let's answer some questions. The two cards we have here are. Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture 2 from that edition of the game. And the other card here we have, let me show it to the camera, is not Trivial Pursuit.

It is Christmas Trivia game. Sure. There's enough Christmas trivia to power a whole game. Yep, that's the gift that keeps on giving the whole year round. Let alone many Christmas trivia cards to necessitate a tribute game. We get whatever card I choose. Here it is. Let's do Christmas Time.

Trivia game. All right. First category. Christmas carols. What singer-songwriter, famous for Margaritaville, was born Christmas Day, 1946? Colin? Mr. Jimmy Buffett. Mr. Jimmy Buffett. All right.

Next category. Stocking Stuffers. Who said, quote, Christmas children is not a date. It is a state of mind. I don't know this person. Interesting. I'm going to look it up. Is it fictional?

She is a, she is a real person and is described as an American educator, teacher, scholar, and author. Oh, interesting. American educator, teacher, scholar, and author. Marilyn Vose savant. It is Mary Ellen Chase. Nope. Nope. What's the quote one more time?

Christmas Christmas is what it's a state of mind. I like that. That's good. That's like Don Draper level. That sounds like what my mom said when she forgot to get his Christmas presents. All right. Next category, holiday traditions. How much did a 12 pack of shiny, bright Christmas tree ornaments sell for in the 1940s?

A 12-packer. Let's do closest to, closest to. Oh, really? Yeah, because it's a random amount. Oh, is it? It's not like a full number. Okay. Oh, really?

Oh, what? All right. You know what? I love Christmas trivia games. How much did a 12-pack of brand name, Shiny Bright, Christmas tree ornaments, sell for in the 1940s? Yes, shiny bright. That's a brand.

Shiny-B-R-I-T-E. Are we doing closest to the pin? Closest to the pin? Closest to. All right. 95 cents. I'm going to say 79 cents. The answer is 39 cents.

Wow. Amazing. I was going really, I was going like a gold plated ornament. It was the, it was the shiny bright that threw you, right? You're like, oh, I better bump it up. Yeah. It's good marketing. It's just 12 ornaments.

What could it cost? 95 cents? All right, next category, Christmas movies. Who played Henry F. Potter in the 1977 made-for-TV movie. It happened one Christmas. Wow. Wow. It's a famous person.

Okay, okay, okay. Chris. Jerry Lewis. No. Okay, all right. 77. Mm-hmm. This person may perhaps had a hand in one of the most.

famous movies, lauded movies, praised movies of all time. Wow. Wow. Colin? Orson Wells. Orson Wells. Oh, wow. Good hint, Karen.

Just enough to get me there. Wow. Okay. Kane. Also, 1977 made for TV movie. It happened one, Christ. Yeah, and that kind of fits where he was in, you know, sort of the cycle of his career in 1977.

Yeah. Oh, like older. Yeah, you know, a lot more willing to do things like a made-for-TV movie, certainly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Last category here, North Pole. What state is home to the town of Rudolph? One in 50.

Okay. Let me just double check there is no two, another town named that. Well, here's the thing. We got to go with what's on the card. Okay. Well, you said one in 50. So, I mean, you know, my first thought was I was going with. like, all right, well, Alaska, because it's got, you know, our furthest, our furthest north.

But the way you said one in 50, now it makes me want to change it to like Minnesota. Not really, actually, but there are, there are two possible answers. Ah, okay. All right. Even better. All right. Well, Chris, I got one foot in Alaska and one of Minnesota. Colorado.

It is on the card. The answer is Wisconsin. Okay. And it looks like there is also a Rudolph, Ohio. All right. Next card. Woo. All right.

Well, if that, yeah. If that was just a little taste for you, you can buy a whole box of those. Yes. If you like Christmas trivia and enjoy that. They're sold at your nearest goodwill. For 39 cents. Yes. Karen will sell to you by the pound.

Can you give me three quarters of pound of Christmas trivia? Sliced thin, please. All right. Here we go. pursue pop culture to a blue wedge for TV. Which Gibb brother was reduced to appearing on Punky Brewster after his singing career faded. Oh no. Oh, no, Colin.

Is that Andy? It's Andy. Yeah, he was the youngest, I believe, of the brother. How many brothers are there? Well, they all brothers? There were the three brothers in the Bee Gees and then Andy had like a, so he wasn't in the BGies. He was one of the brothers.

They phrased the question very, you know. Got it. Got it. Yeah. Yeah. So Andy was kind of like the little kid brother. Guess he was reduced to appearing on Punky Brewster. Yeah.

Hard. Yeah. Now, that, I mean, that would be a big step up in my career. You know, if that would be on Punky Brewster. All right. Next category, Pink Wedge for Fad. What gadget invented by nightclub musician, Diceke. I knowe in 1971 spawned an interactive art form popular in the 90s.

Chris. Who I believe spoke about this on a show. Yes. Karaoke. Karaoke. The karaoke machine. Yes. And also rest in power.

He recently passed. Yeah. Yeah, a couple years ago. Thank you. Thank you for your service. Yellow Edge for Buzz. What martial arts star? was K-O'd in one blow by ex-bodyguard Chuck Zito in a 1998 club fight.

Oh, oh, oh. Chris. What, okay, so this is a martial arts star. Star. Chuck Zito, I remember this happening. I think it was, was it Stephen Segal? I was going to guess Stephen Seagall. You're close.

Oh. I'm like you're going to get it. Is it is it, uh, J-C-V-D? Yes, Jean-Claude Van Dam. Okay. Purple Wedge for music. What 90s alternative band named a collection of outtakes and rarities, Nico and ICO, after the daughter of their late lead singer Shannon Hoon?

Mo. Uh, Colin. Uh, wasn't he, uh, singer of, uh, Blind Melon? Yes. Yes. Good pull. That's very 90s specific cool. Extremely. Good job. All right. Green Wedge movies.

What 2004 remake found Denzel Washington playing a film role originated by Frank Sinatra. Okay. What year was the remake? 2004. You know, I recently watched this movie. There are a lot of stars. A lot of kind of, you know, they're big. now, but they were so young back then. The Frank Sinatra is throwing

me here. Interesting. Yeah. Wasn't Man on Fire. It wasn't a remake. It wasn't Equalizer. That was from a TV show. It wasn't... Was Manchurian candidate. Oh, yes, of course.

Of course. I forgot. I forgot that they remade that. All StarCast. Yeah, it was. There was a young Anthony Mackey, a young Jeffrey Wright. There's like John Voight, Leif Schreiber, a lot of people of error. Yeah. Wow.

Forgot about that one. That's right. Of course, a snotra in the original. Yeah, Angela Lansberry in the original. A great, great role. Yeah, yeah. All right. Next question.

Last question here. Orange Wedge. Sports and Games. Who became the first Russian woman in tennis history to win a Grand Slam singles title in 2004? To win a singles title? 2004. That's. Was it, man.

Colin? Did Anna Kornikova win a slam singles title? No, I don't think she ever won a slam. Okay, I wasn't sure. All right. I think people wanted her to. No, they did. But, yeah.

Okay, 2004. Anastasia Miskina. Oh, okay. I was not going to pull that one. Anastasia Miskina. Good job, everybody. Good job, Brie. Ooh.

All right. look at you guys in your blue hoodies, blue t-shirts. It's no mystery here. Our episode topic is blue. So this week, we're coming at you out of the blue. If I recall correctly, you guys are or were

Mad Men fans, right? Yes. Yeah, I know at least Chris was. I was pretty sure you were too, Karen. I feel like there's been a resurgence of Mad Men discourse the last, you know, several months here. Has there been?

I feel like it. Maybe it's just my circle. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think it's in part due to that the episodes became available on HBO, you know, not too long ago. And in 4K as well. So it's, you know, it's kind of like a good time to either revisit the show or watch it for the first time because, you know, maybe you saw it, but you didn't see it in Forte or whatever.

You may or may not recall the opening episode of Season 6 of Mad Men. And we find Don Draper, our, I don't know, maybe not our hero, but our main character, we find Don Draper and his wife, Megan, they're on vacation in Hawaii. And in a very early scene, we see them sitting on the beach. It's just a gorgeous day. And Don is reading Dante's Inferno, you know, just deep in thought. And Megan is sunning herself next to him and drinking delightful. blue cocktails. Yes, sure.

Yes. Yeah. Now, when we start, she's already on to at least her second, if not her third one, when we pick up with the scene. Now, it's not, it's not said explicitly. I believe it is implied and assumed that Megan is drinking a classic vacation cocktail, the extremely appropriately named Blue Hawaii. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Now, you've seen them, look, if you've been on vacation anywhere in Hawaii, you have seen the blue Hawaii on the menu. You see it at, you know, teaky places. You know, it's a very tropical. Quintessential tropical drink. You got the fruit in there, you know, the fun glass and everything. Well, what's in a blue Hawaii? It is blue. You got usually, usually a very classic recipe for a blue Hawaii is rum, vodka, you know, is the base alcohols. Curacao. Some pineapple juice, some sour mix. And yes, Karen, some blue Curacao, some blue Curacao. That is, that is what. Oh, I think there are so many ingredients in that. Can you can run through the ingredients again? Sure, sure. Yeah. Leaving the, leaving the amounts out, a classic recipe, but might have some light rum, some vodka, some unsweetened pineapple juice, sour mix, and blue curacao, making it blue, making it the, the blue Hawaii. occasionally some places you'll see a blue Hawaiian on the menu not not the same cocktail related but not the same cocktail we'll come back to that in a minute in a minute oh interesting okay

so what is the flavor of blue curacao and it is unmistakably it is blue it's not just a little blue it's blue yeah it's like i think i know okay oh really what do you think it is karen i think it's orange you're right you're right it is it is it is broadly speaking and orange orange, citrusy orange flavor. That is the flavor profile of Curacao. So, all right. Curisal, the liqueur, takes its name from the Caribbean island, also called Curisal. Like that is, that is its home.

That's where it comes from. It's not just, you know, a nod to it. Curisal, the island, it is a Dutch territory, as you may know. And prior to becoming a Dutch colony originally in the 1600s, it was under Spanish colonial rule. While it was under Spanish colonial rule, these Spaniards brought over a variety of livestock and plants and fruits and crops to the island that were not native to Curacao. Okay. One of the things that they brought over was a plant, a type of orange tree called the Seville Orange. Yeah. The Seville Orange is a, it's a type of bitter orange.

And so they brought this over in the 1500s to like, we're going to grow this here. It grows well in Spain. We'll see if it grows well here. And you may know the Seville Orange, the bitter orange. You don't really eat it. You don't just cut it open and just eat the flesh. The pulp of this type of orange, it's not edible. All right.

It's just it's too. Oh, is it bread for the skin? It's too tough and fibrous. It's bread and grown mainly for cooking, particularly good for marmalade. The Seville orange, bitter orange is sort of. the go-to type of orange to make marmalade out of like it really stands up to it but

this plant could not it just couldn't make it it couldn't thrive under the harsher conditions of curacao it just the sun the wind the exposure just all of it and the spaniards essentially gave up on it as a crop but life finds a way you guys

as as they say and over generations of plant time and plant growth the original Seville Orange plants, they evolved. They changed. They evolved to adapt to the conditions of Curiselle. Like in Jurassic Park. Like in Jurassic Park.

Eventually becoming so distinct a plant that it is a proper new botanical variety. So this new take was it was smaller. It was more shriveled. It was tougher. You know, it had to just sort of like sort of withdraw and, you know, just sort of get a little just nastier and tougher to survive. And even less edible than the original. Hard living. Yeah.

Hard living. This plant became known as the Laraha or the La Raja orange. Okay. Again, a different variety, not the same plant anymore. And eventually, it was discovered that although you can't eat it, you can use the very, oily, aromatic rind of the Laraha orange to make a uniquely flavored liqueur. You can distill it. You can steep it and you can use it as the primary ingredient in this special liqueur,

right, from Curacao. Human beings are amazing in like the, just the sort of like just going down the list of like, can you eat it? No. Can you make alcohol out of it? Yes. Okay, great. Yeah, right. There's a step in, can you eat it? No. Oh, what happens if we cook it for a really long time?

Yes, that's right. That's right. You juice it. No. Can we make it into alcohol? Yeah. Well, there's still those sub-steps, too, of like, well, someone died, but we think it's got promise. Let's continue research and see. So as it's produced in the natural process, there is nothing, there's nothing in this process that is blue. There's no, there's no. There's nothing in here that is blue. So why, why when we think of Curacao, do we think of Blue Curacao? You can get Curacao. That's not blue. You can get it in other colors. You can get it in uncolored.

And to be very clear, the blue, it's just food coloring. Okay. So we've done good job, brain, long enough. Yeah. Let me just throw some things out there. Okay. All right. You know, it might be like one distillery or one place wants to stand out from the crowd.

And then, of course, like, oh, let's color it. And then, oh, well, the only coloring we have is blue because nobody uses it. And so we're going to put that in. And then it turns out it was a hit. I'm going to give you the point and just even give you just the most reductive version, which is just marketing. I mean, you've got it just broadly right. It's just, it's marketing. There's nothing about the process that was blue.

It didn't, it wasn't necessary. It's just kind of just, hey, let's make this blue and see how it sells. Yeah. There's a few slightly conflicting and overlapping histories, but typically the credit goes to the BOLS, B-O-L-S, the Spirits Company, Dutch company. So of course, they've got a tight connection with Curacao. The company history is that Lucas Bowles, you know, an early figure in the company history, developed this Laraja-based liqueur. And as one of the ways of marketing this liqueur, came up. with a version of it called crem de siel or cream of the sky and colored it blue yes just to stand out but yes to sort of thematically the sky and the ocean storytelling man and it became so successful so popular that that really other curacao manufacturers feel compelled to have a blue version like you can't make curacao and not have a blue version right how are you gonna make a blue

Hawaii. So how do you, so how and why do you make a blue Hawaii? So the blue Hawaii, the, the cocktail, it was invented in Hawaii. It does have, it like, it ties all these threads together. The blue Hawaii was invented in 1957 by a man named Harry Yee. And Harry was the head bartender of the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki. Yeah. And a sales representative from. the Bowles Company pitched him and said, Harry, we need you to design a drink to build a drink around our Blue Curacao and just cement it for a new generation. Now, the Crem de Ciel, the original Blue Curacao, like this had been on sale for decades at this point. I mean, going as far back as the 20s or even prior to that. But it was the sort of the nascent cocktail. teaky culture taking off by the time of the setting anyway of the episode Madman in question you know about 10 years after would have been just right in the groove for this this cocktail

to be yeah you could not go to hawaii and sit on the beach and not get a blue Hawaii yeah and treat yourself i had to go down that rabbit hole and i was just so delighted how it all tied together around just marketing at the beginning and marketing at the end and that's that's where We have a blue Hawaii. Oh, sorry. And to fulfill my own promise of the blue Hawaiian. The blue Hawaiian, very similar. Also has blue Curacao in it.

The main difference in a blue Hawaiian is that it'll have cream of coconut in there. So it's cloudy. pastel blue. That's right. That's the main difference between those two. Yeah. I'll have one of those. I'll have one.

I'll have two. Oh, that makes so much sense. The orange from Spain. Yes. Yes. They love their oranges. They do. And just total, just colonizer attitude.

Right. Well, hey, it grows back home. We're going to grow it here and just see it works. Yeah. Is that why it's Valencia orange? Because it's from Valencia, Spain? I think you're right. Oh, my God.

Not Valencia, California. Oh, actually, I'm not sure about that. Let me see here. Hold on. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Wow. It is indeed.

I read in the course of doing research, on the oranges. I read that at one point, a huge amount of the orange crops being grown in Spain were actually being sent to England to be processed into marmalade. Marmalade? Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Yeah. It's okay. Well, Paddington will be happy. Mm-hmm. All right, folks, I have a grab bag quiz for everybody about classically blue things. I'm going to name this quiz, true blue. True Blue. Like the Madonna song. Also, shout out to my Australian husband. Madonna. Shout out to my Australian husband.

And Australian listeners, True Blue, also a classic folk country song that embodies the Australian spirit. This is a buzzin. All right. Quiz. So get your buzzers ready. Here we go. The blue milk in the original Star Wars.

film. Captivated everyone's imagination when the movie came out in 1977. And of course, it has been made real and available for purchase at the Star Wars portion of Disney Parks. In addition to Blue Milk,

the Disney Milkstand also sells what other two colored milks? Oh. Chris, you've been there, right? I've seen green. Yes, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, green. What else would they do?

Pink? Pink or red? You're right. Yeah, okay. I'm just trying to think of like, what else would it be? Like, what would somebody want to actually buy? Must I'm pleasing. Yeah. Blue milk famously from Banthas.

Right. The green milk shows up in the new trilogy from Thala Sirens. They're like these big, ugly walrus Lochness monsters. And it's kind of, it's very explicit how they, They show milk coming out of the animal. Yeah. Deltailed. And then pink milk, though you might think this is like, oh, Disney's trying to sell another product.

It is partially from Star Wars lore. Pink milk comes from poaxsters. Poaxers first appeared in the 2003 comic, which they were milking these animals, pink milk. They're kind of cute. Now they're available for purchase. debuted in January 8th, 2026. Wow. Oh, hey.

Yeah. And, and. Okay. I was wondering why I hadn't seen it. Because it's very recent. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Folks have said the pink milk tastes kind of like bananae, bubble gummy. All of these milks when you drink it, they all have vague flavors.

It's not like one flavor. It's not like a mix of flavors. You were like, I can't really tell. It's kind of free. Okay. All right. All right. Next question.

After 40 years. Really, end of an era here. We recently had to say goodbye to what? After Microsoft announced, it was going to overhaul its design. After 40 years, we recently had to say goodbye to what? After Microsoft announced, it was going to overhaul its design, this design. Colin. Is it the blue screen of death?

The blue screen of death. You can see it in your dreams. You can see it in your nightmares. Is no more. Not that the screen is going away. Like we obviously need like a systems error screen. Yeah. They're like, oh, don't worry.

Windows is still going to crash on you. Don't worry. We haven't taken that part away. We're going to change it to now black screen of death. Okay. Not as fun. All right. Next question.

What classic blue title song, song with blue in the title starts off with a nursery rhyme from the early 1800s. Oh, okay. I'd say maybe classic rock. Classic rock song starts with lines from a nursery. Okay, it's going to be so obvious when she tells us, Chris. Yes, it is. I'm sure it is.

Yeah, okay. As blue in the title. Blue, yeah, I'm just, okay, blue in the title. 1956. A classic. Famous song with blue in the title. All right. Well, I'm sure we can figure this out.

Is she going to hit us with the blue Hawaii? Is she going to, she going to, I don't know that song. You know what? You're closer than you think. Yeah. Yeah. Uh-oh. Okay.

Yeah. Okay. Oh, yeah. Chris. Yeah. Is it blue suede shoes? Oh, okay. Like Carl, Carl Perkins, right?

Yes. Yes, yes, yes, but made famous by Elvis Presley. Made famous by Mr. Elvis Presley. So the original... One for the money. Nursery rhyme is one for the money, two for the show, three to make ready and four to go. Nice, right. So they altered the last two lines.

This is a popular nursery rhyme from the 1800s. We weren't there, so we don't know if it was really that popular. Hello World. Hello World is the name of the most recent photograph taken by a human. of what they call a full Earth disk. You know, it's like the full Earth photo. The last time a human took a full Earth disc photo was back in 1972, aboard Apollo 17, the last lunar human man, lunar mission.

Yeah. So this famous Earth photo from 1972 is considered one of the most widely distributed photographic images in human existence, because it's like the full picture of Earth. What is the title of this photograph? Right, right. Chris. Pale blue dot.

Oh, you're close. Oh, is it? No, something else. It is the blue marble. Oh, the blue marble. Okay, I've heard that too. Yeah, okay. Because it's not a dot.

It's huge. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pale blue dot is the other photo, right? The other photo. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Next question. What was originally titled Motor Car Values back in 1926?

Colin. Is that the Blue Book or the Kelly Blue Book? Kelly's Blue Book? The Kelly Blue Book. It almost was like an almanac. I mean, now it's like we go online and we're like, oh, looking at values of cars and whatever. But back then it was in a little blue cover.

And then before it was called Kelly Blue Book, it was called Motor CarValues by the Kelly Car Company. All right. Next question. The Blue Helmets, a collection of military. and police force is deployed by and associated with what organization? Colin. I think those are United Nations forces, right?

Yes, the United Nations UN forces. I kind of love the idea that it's a collection of military and police force from different countries. They're asked to wear their country's uniform, but their helmet is a light blue. Mm. All right. Next question. If you're a homeowner, you might be very familiar with reading blueprints, floor plans, and such.

It's funny because of blueprints today are not blue at all. They're just like a PDF or like a CAD file. They haven't been blue since the 1970s when photocopying technology and Xerox became widespread. But before then, blueprints were blue due to what printing process? Chris. Mimiography. Ah! technically no I'm looking for for something more more on the nose

okay okay the printing process known as cyanotype ah yeah cyanideyana type and what they used to do before we had Xerox and photocopiers you have your big blueprint that someone probably drew by hand with a ruler and a T square you have that drawing and then you put it over cyanotype-treated paper and then you shine light on it. And so the pieces where the light doesn't reach, which is like where the black lines are, they won't react. And so this is why you get blueprints where it's like the lines are white. Right. Looks like a negative or an inverse. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought it was mimeography, by the way, because I am, I am mimeograph machine old.

Like when I was in second grade, they used a mimeograph machine. No way. My school had a mimeograph machine. Yeah. Yeah. So you'd take that you'd write out the master copy on a sheet of like mimeograph paper

which like had the ink like in it and then put it onto a big cylinder, a drum and literally just crank it. That's how we ran off copies of the class newspaper that I started in the second grade. Wow. What was it called? It was called the the room.

for role because I wanted something that was alliterative. Isn't it? Isn't it? So telling of what your future was going to be. I looked around my second grade class and realized we didn't have a class music.

With all my free time would love to stop one. There are too many untold stories here. Exactly. So much is going on. All right. Last question here. In a hospital. What is the more common name for what's called surgical greens? Chris.

Scrubs. Scrubs. Yes, scrubs. The uniform, which now are mostly blue or like a bluish green. Do we know why? Do we know why it's that color? I do know why. I do know why.

It's easier on the surgeon's eyes because if you have a bright light shining down on the patient and you're getting white, it's reflecting off of white gowns all in the room that's going to be harsh. And then it also provides like more contrast with like blood and things like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like red would really decrease the visual strain.

But then they'd be bleeding out on the operating table. You'd be like, oh, didn't notice. Well, it's also easier to see stains, easier to see dirt. Yeah, yeah. Because there was a time when there were no, uniforms or medical clothing was not required nor was it a concept yeah exactly right right right tweed jacket yes they just wore like they just wore what they wore out on the street yep yeah comes

into the operation inside operation room it's the operating theater where you know live audience is watching and they don't have gloves they're just sticking their fingers in this poor person's body The barbecue apron on. Yeah, the barbecue apron. For scrubs, it wasn't really a mandated thing until the 1980s. That's so late. It's bananas to think about it. It's so late.

All right. And our last question in my true blue quiz. What kind of animal? I don't need a specific name. I just need a general animal known to be the only animal that produces a true blue pigment. As we know in nature, the pigment blue is very rare for naturally occurring. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's only one animal that we know of that can produce a blue pigment.

Go for it. What's your guess? Because we've talked about associated colors, close colors before. I'm going to say the snail. Maybe there's another snail. We talked about like the purple snail. Maybe there's a blue snail. It is not a snail.

But it is a bug. like thing. Bug like thing produces a blue pigment. I don't know. It's like a butterfly? It's a butterfly. The Cabrina olive wing. The only animal that produces

that can produce a true blue pigment. We see blue animals all the time. There's peacocks, right? There are other flying butterflies and bugs. And their blue is more of what they call structure coloration. It's not that they're producing

a blue ink. It's that their bodies are reflecting light to show blue. Right. Right. To show to highlight the blue, the blue wavelengths. And not because there's like an ink or a pigment that they're producing that looks blue. But yeah, good job. That's my quiz. All right. And so we'll take a quick break and we'll be right back. Hey, y'all. It's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if, like what if it doesn't hold up? Sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if.

Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home. You're listening to Good Job Brain. Smooth puzzles. Smart trivia. Good job, brain. All right, welcome back.

This week, we're all about blue facts, blue trivia, blue quizzes. What do you got for us, Chris? I have a blue quiz. First, I'm going to start this off by. I want to just play you a quick one question music round. One question. I've got a musical track. It's a one question music round real quick.

I just want you to name the singer. All right. All right. Here we go. Let's go. It's not that easy being green. What? Having to spend a day.

You can't. When I think it could be nicer, being red or yellow or gold or something much more colorful like that. I get it. Yeah, I get it. You get it? The song is called being green, by the way. Yeah, yeah. You probably never heard this song before.

Somewhere in the punchful. Do you have a guess as to who the singer is? I'm going to go on the record with old blue eyes himself, Mr. Frank Sinatra. Yeah. That is Frank Sinatra. Old Blue Eyes, hence the themeing of the question, of course. As he was well known, old blue eyes, Frank Sinatra, he was called this. And this got me thinking, are there other celebrity?

Certainly there are other celebrities who have blue eyes. He wasn't called that because he was the only famous person with blue eyes. But I got me thinking like, oh, were there other celebrities? who are famous for like having, you know, blue eyes. And I started in on this and I got exactly as far as one other celebrity. I can think of one. Who is who is who I want to talk about? What, Karen, can you think of one?

Who is your celebrity? Oh, I have two. I have like a classic one and a more modern. Give me a cup. Why don't you? Okay, let's improv this. Let's talk to stuff. Okay.

Who are your celebrities who are famous for having blue eyes? Elizabeth Taylor. Okay. whose eyes are so blue that sometimes they're violet. Right. Right.

Violet eyes. Sure. Yeah. Paul Hollywood, the judge from Paul Hollywood. Great British makeup. He does.

He does have. I see blue and set off really across with the gray hair and everything like that. Yeah. So I don't want to talk about either of those people. That's okay. No, it's interesting. Like who pops here to your.

to your head when you think about that. So I would like to talk about somebody who, certainly in the 70s and 80s, I think would have come to people's minds when they said, like an actress with blue eyes. I want to talk about an actress whose name is Meg Foster. She had a pretty deep career in films and television, a lot in the 70s and 80s, still working today.

She's in her 70s. Her eyes, I would call, I would call, them and other people have called them ice blue eyes. They look like white Walker eyes from Game of football. I am going to, I'm going to drop a picture into our discussion channel for you because Karen, I want you to avoid going off and Googling it. You know what I mean? I know you can't resist.

So I'm just going to, I'm just going to shoot you a picture of Meg Foster in the 70s. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, wow. The eyes, they are, they're icy. Yeah, like a husky. Oh, my God. Husky, yes.

It's like a husky. Like the Knight King. You would think that these striking eyes would have been a huge positive, right, for Meg Foster in her acting career, right? Apparently they were not. And in fact, sometimes when she was, you know, working on a show would be asked to wear colored contact lenses to dim her eye color because. because it was so distracted. Wow. Or that's certainly what either what the directors or whatever felt about her eyes.

Her eyes did have their fans. Mademoiselle magazine named her eyes the eyes of 1979. Do they name eyes for other years too? They may have. It was like they're January, I only got as far as looking back in the January 79 issue and they're like, the eyes of 1979. You'll often find this trivia tidbit kind of associated with Meg Foster that she had the eyes of 1970.

In the same issue, they named Brooke Shield's mouth, the mouth of 1979. Well, she does not talk about it as much, I don't think, or have it on her LinkedIn. So I have, I decided to just go ahead looking at the incredibly prolific, but sometimes like in the background career of Meg Foster. I decided to just do a whole quiz all about somebody who has also been called Old Blue Eyes herself occasionally. Prolific star of television and film Meg Foster. Here's the Meg Foster quiz. All right. Amazing.

So in 19. Yes, here we go. In 1978, shout out to Meg Foster. In 1979, rather, Meg Foster had a very high profile role in a widely watched television miniseries in which John Hurst, that's the dad from home alone, played her secret lover, Arthur Dimmesdale. What was the name of the television miniseries? Okay, man, there was like a golden age for those TV mini series. It was, it absolutely was.

I'm thinking it was widely watched because it was a little scandalous, there was like roots, thornbirds, there was so many. Flowers in the attic. Was it an adaptation? A lot of period piece. Yeah, an out of a novel. Melita. That was a little bit too hot for TV.

Her character was Hester Prynne. Scarlet Letter. Scarlet Letter. Very famously. At the time, lots of talk about her playing Hester Prin, from Home Alone, da-da-da. In 1980, a year later, Meg Foster played Katrina Van Tassel, opposite Jeff Goldblum's, Iqabad Crane.

and what made for TV moving. Karen. Sleeping Hollow. The legend, legend, legend of sleepy hollow. The legend of Sleepy Hollow. Yes, yeah, yeah. You're right to not give it to me. Yeah, that's right.

Celebrity, Jeopardy Rules. Yeah, stuff. Yes, yeah, she played. Yeah, so Jeff Goldblum was in Kibon. That's good. Wow. Katrina. Good cast.

Yeah. She was doing a lot of work in the late 70s, early 80s. In 1980, in 1980, Meg. Foster appeared in a movie called Carney. This is a movie about a girl who joins a traveling carnival. Meg Foster did not play the girl. The girl was played by another blue-eyed actress

who was 17 years old at the time and shared Meg's last name. College. Is that Jody Foster? It was Jody Foster. Age seemed right. Because she's a kid. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's right around the time. Yep, yep, yep.

A couple years later in 1982, Meg Foster, found herself at the center of some controversy. She was let go from this police procedural drama after just six episodes, even though she was playing one of the titular women detectives. Cagney and Lacey? Cagney and Lacey. She played Cagney, but only for the first six episodes. And she was, for whatever reason, not kept on.

Wow. It was kind of a big thing, of course, because the show was pretty big and she was dropped. Yeah. That was far from Meg Foster's first police drama show. Again, she'd be working throughout the 60s. And she actually, she guest starred two times in this 1968 series about three young hippies who become undercover cops. That's got to be the mod squad. That is the mod squad. The mod squad. Yep, she's been on a couple episodes of that. Now, the funny thing is, as I started researching this, this topic, I realized, oh, that's where I've heard Meg Foster from. Because it is not Mod Squad. But in 1987, I saw Meg Foster in the theater because she was in Masters of the Universe. Playing opposite Franklin Jella's Skeletor as his evil hench woman whose name is what?

Oh, God. It's like really punny. Like, it's like really evil. Evil, evil. Evil in. It's evil in. It's. That's who it is. Okay, I know who it is now. Yes, that's who it is. Now, well, here's the thing. I mean, you, you watch her as Evil Lynn. The eyes are perfect. Yeah. Because it's just absolute, you know, icy death say. It's wonderful. Evil Lynn, by the way, we played by Alison Brie in the upcoming reboot film of Masters of the Universe. So how about that? So, 1988, May have brought us Meg Foster's most remembered role because 1988 was the year that she starred alongside Rowdy Roddy Piper in this John Carpenter horror film. They live. They live. That's right.

They live. Was he good? I mean, look, I'm a fan of John Carpenter's entire oof. Is it a very good movie? I will say it is a very John Carpenter movie. So a couple more questions. Meg Foster also appeared in several episodes of this 2010's teen drama series about a group of girls who receive mysterious threatening letters. Oh.

Oh. Karen. Pretty little liars? Pretty little liars. Oh, never watched it. He heard of it. My era. And final question.

Blinken, you'll miss. Blinken, you'll miss those eyes. but Meg Foster made a brief appearance as a casino cashier in an episode of this long-awaited third season of a drama that aired in 2017. Okay, long-awaited. Came back for one last season in 2017. Casino. Is it a voice or is it her acting? It is not a cartoon.

It is a live-action, supernatural. drama. We're going to be so mad, I feel like. You are going to be mad. You are going to be mad. Is it just supernatural? It's not supernatural. No, no, no, no. Kyle McLaughlin was in the casino. Yes, of course. Twin Peaks. Oh, Portlandia.

Twin Peaks. Yes. Twin Peaks. Yes. Of course. But yeah, Meg Foster, she's been working all this time. She is still out there. They got her in the Masters of the Universe cartoon they just said a couple of years ago. Not playing evil in but playing another role. Because she knows the material. They're like, you're familiar with the lore. Certainly today, not as in the news as much anymore, but you know what? Still working.

And I love that. Yes. The best kind of actor, working actor. I mean, it makes me sad that she had to play down her eyes. Yeah. I feel like today it would be a little bit of. bit different. Like, you know, there was that sort of push towards like conformity, you know. I'm going to try and reclaim old blue eyes on her behalf. Like the next time that come out of

and says like, old blue eyes, I'm like, oh, Meg Foster, you mean? Yeah. What a not annoying thing to do. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's so, oh my gosh, speaking of that spirit, that good job, brain spirit, just today this morning, me and my husband, after dropping out of the kids, we went to a bakery. And this is a bakery that sells Asian baked goods. And it also includes molasadas, which are like the Hawaiian Portuguese fried donuts. Yes. And so in the display, you see all the different malasadas and then you see a beef curry pond. Yes. Mostly from Japan, Asia, it's like has beef curry in it and it's like in a fried dough. Sounds delicious. And then my husband was telling the bakery workers like, oh, can I get one of those beef curry molasadas too? And I'm like standing

that I was like, you know, those aren't molasadas. And then he's like, but they look the same. And then the person behind us in line was like, um, actually it's made out of a different dough. So it's completely different. The molasada dough here has this amount of sugar and the curry pond or that kind of dough is more like a bread. And it went off. And I was like, in my heart, I love this man. Because he just, he's hearing this discussion between.

me and my husband. He just can't, he can't stop himself. Like, he just had to correct us. I have the facts. Yes. I can't let a stranger be wrong. No, but I love it. I love that. I was like, wow, that's awesome. That is very much the good job, brain spirit. I'm not taking pleasure in that you're wrong, but it's like, no, I got, I got more info about it. Like, isn't it cool? Here's my next blue segment. I want to tell a quick story. So long time listeners, and you you guys know that I grew up in Taiwan. My family lived in L.A. before, but when I was born, we moved back to Taiwan, you know, where my parents are from. In 1987, during summer break, I was very little. My mom brought me and my sister back to L.A. for a visit. And we landed,

and I remember that day so clearly because it was exciting. It was my first time in America, where I was old enough to remember. A day with a lot of first. I had, first time I had terriaki chicken. First time I went to a mall. This is all on the first day. Like, we landed. This is like probably the best day of your life at that point, right?

First time going to a target. And this is pre-targe target, if you know what I mean. Oh, yeah. If it was, you said what, 87? Yeah, yeah. I remember the layout of that whatever random target in L.A. was. And we were checking out between the register and the sliding exit door, the snack bar. It had a classic round glass ice cream case.

There it was blue ice cream in a tub. And with gumballs, rainbow gumbulls peeking out, it was my first time seeing bubble gum ice cream. And I feel like most of us remember the first time seeing bubble gum ice cream. ice cream because it's so weird. Yeah. And of course, I made my mom buy me a cone. And I remember, like, I'm holding the cone. I'm looking at this ice cream. And I'm thinking,

I'm just like, wow, America is awesome. And then I proceeded to take my first buy and I regretted it all because Publum ice cream. In theory, it's like, In theory, it's a great flavor for gum because it goes away. Ingesting bubble gum flavor is a different, different story. It's a different experience.

Like swallowing it. Yeah, swallowing. It's just like chewing and then spitting it out later. Yeah, yeah. And there's like gumballs in it. They're all like frozen. They're hard. Yeah.

What am I doing with the gumballs that I'm eating? I'm not done with my ice cream. Do I save it on the side? Do I spit it out? Like, where do I put it? Do I just hide it in my cheeks? It was like a logistical nightmare. It's everything that would make sense to a kid to come up with the idea.

For this episode, it got me thinking, oh, what is the origin of bubblegum ice cream? And what's a wild and crazy thing? So we hear a good job, brain. We love sharing facts and trivia about regional foods. Oh, yeah. Local variants of foods. Coffee milk in Rhode Island. McDonald's in Australia.

They have burgers where they put a slice of beetroot in it. Cheeseless pizza from New Haven, Connecticut. And there is a small sliver of regional foods that is the phenomenon of blue ice cream. So let's back up. Bubblegum ice cream. Its origin is mostly associated with and credited with Baskin-Robbins who introduced the flavor in the 1970s. Oh. Now, are there other classically blue ice creams in existence other than bubblegum?

Because I think when I say blue ice cream, most people jump to bubble gum. And the answer was staring me in the face when I was reading a children's book to my daughters. Uh-huh. Let me hold it up. This book is called Ice Cream Face. Uh-huh. Whoa. Written by Heidi Woodward Sheffield.

And on the cover, you'll see a little boy holding an ice cream. and this ice cream is a kind of swirl of red, yellow, and blue. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, I guess it's like a rainbow sherburty kind of color. You know, it's whimsical. It's a kid's book. There is a page, a spread in this children's book where the boy goes to the ice cream shop and they have a menu on a chalkboard.

And I'll read out some flavors to you here. Chocolate, strawberry, pistachio, butter, pecan. mint chocolate, blue moon, and superhero. And I'm like, oh, it's a children's book. You know, they have like some fun names for flavors. I was like, what the heck is a blue moon and what the heck is a superhero? So I looked it up. So on the cover, you know, this ice cream we see, which is a swirl of red, yellow, and blue ice cream is a real flavor called Superman.

And it is available in the Midwest, mostly in Michigan and Ohio. Superman ice cream. Because it's the colors of his uniform? It's the color of his uniform. Funnily enough, this flavor existed before the creation of Superman. It was invented during prohibition. And it used to be called like, it used to be called like triple color or tricolor or try flavor. very generic term. And so the red is cherry, like whatever their red ice cream is, mixed with

whatever yellow ice cream is, it's usually lemon or vanilla. Okay. And then for the blue, the flavor is listed as blue moon. And I'm like, okay, what's that? Which is in the book, it's also listed as a separate flavor, blue moon. Blue moon is another regional Michigan, Midwest, I've never heard of this. Blue Moon is just a pure blue ice cream. No gumballs, nothing in it. Just a blue ice cream. And the flavor, people say, is kind of like fruit loops milk.

Huh. Kind of fruity, maybe a banana-e. But it's definitely not bubble gum. Okay, okay. And so, yes, in this area, you have Blue Moon and Superman ice cream. Never heard of either of them. Never heard of them. of them. And it's very popular. So popular that it's in a children's book. And for someone who

was not from the area, I'm like, oh, it's just like made up cool, cute like kids illustration. That's absolutely what I would think too if I was reading that with my daughter. And I looked up the author Heidi Woodward Sheffield. She's from Detroit. Yeah. So for her, this is just very common. I love I love that you're doing follow up research and due diligence on your bedtime story with with your kids. You're like, no, there's more to this story.

Yeah. There's something about Superman, the name never got trademarker, didn't have like legal protection. So you can call super, you can call things super anything. Right. Oh,

okay. And that's not all. There is another regional blue ice cream. That is from New Finland, New Finland, Canada. And this ice cream is called moon mist. A classic, you know, ice cream you can get at a drugstore or a store, a moon mist ice cream.

It is also a swirl. It is a blue swirl with yellow swirl with purple swirl. Oh. And what you end up is this preteen aesthetic girl bedroom, really pretty pastel, a dreamy scoop of these colors. And it's called moon mist. Here are the flavors. So this blue is actually. bubble gum. So it's the blue is bubble gum. The yellow is banana and the purple is grape. And it sounds

wild, but people love it. Even just grape ice cream on its own is kind of a novel thing to me. Like as a California kid, that was not like a common ice cream flavor that I encountered. Get this. New Finland has another regional ice cream. It's not blue. People who grew up didn't know that it didn't exist outside of where they lived. Right. And that is grape nuts, grape nuts ice cream. You didn't hear me wrong. The grape nuts.

Like the cereal? Like the cereal. Vanilla white milk base. Okay. With grape nuts. But the important thing is, if you take the grape nuts and you put them in the ice cream and you leave them there for a really long time, they're still totally hard as right.

I can see it. I can see it. Again, this is not creepy. crazy new flavors. Yeah. Decades and decades. You can buy it in a supermarket package. I'm just so happy that there's this sliver of regional foods for blue ice cream.

Yeah. Well, now I'm, I got to seek out some of these flavors now. I don't know if I got to. Yeah. So again, let's recap. We have bubble gum, which is more nationally distributed. There's superman ice cream, which is the red, yellow, blue swirl. Then you have blue moon ice cream, which is just the blue.

and then you have moon mist from Canada, which is yellow, purple, and blue. All right. All right. I'm going to hit up Michigan on route to Newfoundland. Yes. And that's our show. Thank you all for joining me.

And thank you listeners for listening in. Hope you learned stuff today about Meg Foster, about blue ice cream, about blue things, and about blue Hawaii. You can find us on all major podcast apps and on our website, good job, braint.com.

This podcast is part of it. Airwave Media Podcast Network, visit airwavemedia.com to listen and subscribe to other shows like all the books, culture kids, and dressed the history of fashion. And we'll see you next week. Goodbye.