SCOTT SIMON, Host:
Mr. O'Neil, thanks so much for being with us.
FLOYD O: Well, thanks for having me on today.
SIMON: I understand this year's event is more concerned with the accuracy of fruitcake tossing than the distance.
NEIL: Yeah. Well, after 13 years, the competition has gotten pretty steep. The distances that were being achieved by some of these devices were getting out of control. Two years ago, we were kind of forced to move it from the local park up to the high school track where the fruitcakes could be launched into the mountains and not be landing on buildings and restaurants as it was downtown. So we moved it back down in the park this year and we've created several new competition categories that I think are going to be pretty fun to watch this year.
SIMON: I understand Boeing and several aerospace companies get involved.
NEIL: Well, yeah. We have a team from Boeing that had started competing about five years ago. And the first year they came out, they did pretty well. And the next year, they used a slingshot type of contraction with elastic bonds. And, unfortunately, that winter, it was extraordinarily cold and the rubber broke down and it didn't take their fruitcakes too far and they were actually beat by a team of girl scouts. So much to their embarrassment, they decided to really put some engineering into their devices and came up with a pneumatic canon. And right now, they hold the record. Last year, they shut their fruitcake 1,225.50 feet.
SIMON: Mm-hmm.
NEIL: We actually use GPS tracking devices to find it.
SIMON: I'm sure that's why the technology was invented (unintelligible).
NEIL: I think so. I think it's all about fruitcake positioning.
SIMON: I was reading over some of the rules that you have here.
NEIL: Uh-huh.
SIMON: And it says participants should bring your own fruitcakes. Fruitcakes must contain glaceed fruits, nuts and flour. They cannot contain anything inedible.
NEIL: Well, some folks have found that if they can alter their fruitcake beyond the natural ingredients, they might get a little further distance out of them. We actually have a tech inspection table that every fruitcake gets probed and stuck with devices to make sure that there are no additional foreign objects in it beyond the natural foreign objects that are part of a natural fruitcake.
SIMON: Yeah, because for a lot of people that's just the point.
NEIL: Yeah.
SIMON: There's nothing edible about a fruitcake.
NEIL: Well, that's funny, because both of my sister, right before the holidays - and much to my chagrin and surprise - she actually likes the darn things and was going to eat hers this year.
SIMON: Oh, really?
NEIL: So go figure.
SIMON: One last competitor, I suppose.
NEIL: That's right.
SIMON: Mr. O'Neil, I don't think I've ever ended an interview quite this way before. Good hurling to you, sir.
NEIL: Thank you so much, sir.
SIMON: And this is NPR News.