Manitou Springs Annual Fruitcake Toss

posted by Mike
Dec 10

The Manitou Springs15th Annual Fruitcake Toss!

 

On January 9, 2010, Manitou Springs will hold its 15th Annual Fruitcake Toss at the track by Manitou Springs High School just about a block from Blue Skies Inn! This event is a wintertime favorite, and this year they’ve moved it out of the confined space of Memorial Park to the High School stadium, where the fruitcakes can fly farther and faster! Registration for participants begins at 9:30 AM, and the competitions start at 10 AM. For more details on registration, click the link. 

http://events.gazette.com/manitou-springs-co/events/show/89530399-15th-annual-great-fruitcake-toss

 

Come stay with us and take advantage of our Winter Specials – $10 off any one night stay, 50% off the second night of a two night stay, or stay three nights and get your third night free! In addition, Sal will throw in a free fruitcake rental, autographed by Mr. Fruitcake himself!

“Mr. WHO?” I hear you ask. Mr. Fruitcake. No kiddin’. Blue Skies Inn is and has been a proud sponsor of this unusual event. Last year Sally felt competitive and baked up a the largest fruitcake you ever did see, and lo and behold, just like Frosty the Snowman, it came to life! (with a little help from Zach) Mr. Fruitcake quickly got into the spirit of the event, despite the risk of being tossed, hurled, projected or otherwise misused by overzealous fruitcake tossers. Sally documented Mr. Fruitcake’s adventures in photographs as last year’s Festival of Flying Fruitcakes proceeded. See below.

Finally, to learn more than you ever wanted to know about the history of fruitcake tossing and many other things we just made up, see The Secret History of Fruitcake Tossing after the photos.
 
  
BlueSkies Innkeeper Cooking Fruitcake

BlueSkies' Innkeeper Cooking Fruitcake

Are you really a fruitcake?

"Are you really a fruitcake?"

Mr. Fruitcake Posing for Papparazzi
Mr. Fruitcake Posing for Papparazzi
Mr.Fruitcake Explains a Toss
Mr.Fruitcake Explains a Toss

For more photos of last year’s Fruitcake Toss, go to

http://www.blueskiesbb.com/fruitcake-popup.html
  
The Secret History
In the Middle Ages, alchemists concocted fruitcakes not for food (I mean, get real!), but as part of a fiendish military experiment. They theorized that if a critical mass of fruitcakes could be assembled in one spot and left long enough for the weight of the cake to begin crushing the fruit, a gravitational implosion would occur. This implosion would create a mini-Black Hole which would propel the fruitcakes and any persons unfortunate enough to be around them out of this Universe and into a new, expanding, parallel Universe where the “primal soup” would consist of nothing but fruitcakes — like a warmer and more vitreous version of Washington DC.
 
The thought of being mashed into a fruitcake universe was too horrible for even Medieval people to contemplate. In a famous lost chapter to The Inferno, Dante placed the Fruitcake Universe on the 30th level of hell, where bad cooks were condemned to endlessly heave leaden loaves into fiery ovens with only strangely chewy fruit to sustain them.
 
Medieval armies carefully separated their fruitcake munitions to keep them under critical mass and in constant motion. When a castle or town proved too well defended to storm, they would hurl fruitcake over the walls. The defenders were then confronted with the possibility of being sucked into a Fruitcake Universe, or (and worse yet) running out of food and being tempted to actually EAT a fruitcake. It is an historical fact that castles and towns subjected to fruitcake warfare ALWAYS surrendered, and thus the alchemists’ theories were never put to the test.
 
But why take chances? Even today, our tradition is to not let fruitcakes sit at rest too long. We send them to relatives, who in turn send them on. The darned things are dangerous. Can’t let too many of ‘em assemble in one place.
 
That is why Manitou Springs has elected to promote the civic duty of all good people to keep those fruitcakes in motion, and dedicate St. EPR Bell’s Day (the first possible Saturday after the first plausible Wednesday in January, skipping any year when Schroedinger’s Cat is determined to be alive) to the tossing of fruitcakes.
 
Guests at BLUE SKIES INN are invited to spend a few relaxing evenings with us to prepare for, or recover from performing their (you must admit) unusual civic duty of hurling and heaving.

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