Bob and Marcia Smith discussed the origins of the 10,000 steps per day goal, with Bob sharing information on its invention by a Japanese equipment company in the 1960s without any scientific study. Marcia mentioned a scientific study by Dr. Lee of Harvard Medical School that found walking 4400 steps per day can reduce mortality by 41%. Bob also shared insights on the average number of steps walked by different nationalities, while Marcia provided an anecdote about the intentional placement of empty space in potato chip bags to prevent breakage during transportation. The speakers demonstrated a passion for learning and exploring new topics, touching on various aspects of history, geography, and culture.
Outline
Decaf coffee’s orange tops and its history.
- Bob and Marcia Smith discuss the origins of the orange color for decaf coffee pots, tracing it back to the early 1900s and the Sanka brand.
- The distinct orange color became a standard for decaf coffee after General Foods promoted Sanka with orange coffee pots during the Great Depression, leading other companies to adopt the same color for their decaf offerings.
Baseball movies, diseases, and mountains.
- Marcia and Bob discuss baseball movies, with Marcia listing 5 movies featuring Kevin Costner, while Bob mentions a few lesser-known films.
- Bob shares an interesting fact about medieval bell ringers who were often struck by lightning while trying to scare off storms.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the oldest diseases still present today, with arthritis being one of the oldest and most common diseases.
- Bob asks Marcia how many mountains in the US are taller than 14,000 feet, and Marcia answers 96 mountains in total, with Colorado having the most at 53.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the King Ranch in Texas, which is the largest landowner in the state, and Hinsdale County in Colorado, which is the largest county in the United States.
- Bob and Marcia discuss time spent doing nothing, bravery of two unknown men in 1896, and their journey across the Atlantic Ocean in a canoe.
US history, national anthems, and largest trees.
- Marcia and Bob discuss various topics, including the length of national anthems, war bonds, and the largest tree in the world.
- Marcia and Bob provide interesting facts and trivia, such as the shortest national anthem being Japan and Jordan each containing only four lines, and the largest tree in the world being the General Sherman in Sequoia National Park, California, which weighs 12 million pounds and is over 275 feet tall.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the origins of 10 states in the US named after people, including Washington, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Jim (Texas).
Trivia, dog intelligence, and fitness goals.
- Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss the origins of state names in the United States, with Bob providing trivia facts and Marcia asking questions.
- Marcia Smith questions Bob about the intelligence of dogs, including their ability to understand words and the training required for exceptional canine intelligence.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the origins of the 10,000 steps per day goal, which was invented by a Japanese equipment company in 1965 with no scientific basis.
- The average American walks around 5,400 to 8,000 steps per day, which is associated with a 42% reduction in mortality, while the Old Order Amish walk an average of 14,000 to 18,000 steps per day.
Trivia questions and everyday topics.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the idea that potato chip bags are filled with half empty space to make them appear larger.
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith who the US president is that could read and write in Latin, Greek, and English, and Marcia incorrectly answers John Adams before Bob corrects her.
- Bob and Marcia Smith discuss the length of the 1958 Academy Awards broadcast.
Bob Smith 0:00
Why do decaf coffee pots have orange tops?
Marcia Smith 0:04
How many Kevin Costner baseball movies? Can you name? Wow.
Bob Smith 0:11
answers to those and other questions coming up in this edition of the off ramp with Bob and Marsha Smith
Welcome to the off ramp, a chance to slow down and steer clear of crazy take a side road to sanity and get some perspective on life. Okay, Marcia. Let’s just start with a morning question. Why do decaf coffee pots have an orange top?
Marcia Smith 0:50
I’ve often wondered that have you?
Bob Smith 0:53
It’s good that we have this show today then as well. No,
Marcia Smith 0:56
actually, I often wondered why and I assume maybe incorrectly that it was so that waitresses went accidentally grab it by mistake next to the green one orange is bright, like a red stoplight.
Bob Smith 1:08
Well, that’s true. But why is it orange? That’s the question. I don’t why do they have an orange tarp? I
Marcia Smith 1:14
thought that was why so you went mistaken. There’s
Bob Smith 1:16
some kind of a standard. Is that what you’re thinking? Yes. No. It’s a default standard. Yeah. And it was established years ago by a famous coffee brand. What would that be?
Marcia Smith 1:26
Maxwell House? No. sanka sanka Sanka.
Bob Smith 1:30
Yeah. sanka was the first commercially successful decaffeinated coffee. Yeah, but it was actually a German coffee. It was. Yeah, a guy named ludviq Rose alias, and his co workers in 1903. Discovered that process and they patented in 1906. But it wasn’t called sanka. In Germany, it was called sanka. In France, where the people marketing it said Saans coffee, meaning without caffeine. Okay, well, that makes sense. Yeah. But the people who sold sanka sold their coffee in glass jars with orange labels. And years later in 1932. This is why it became such a standard. When General Foods purchased the sank of brand it promoted sanka by sending orange sanka coffee pots to coffee shops and restaurants around the country during the Great Depression. Yeah. So they kept them you know, so that distinct color, like you said, made it easy for the waitstaff to distinguish decaf from regular. And it all started with sanka. Right. So that marketing worked like a charm, but maybe too well, because you don’t associate it with and that’s because other companies began marketing their decaf coffees with the same orange color. Oh, yeah, that’s why orange became the standard color for decaf coffee.
Marcia Smith 2:45
Okay, all right. All right. So baseball is back and fans are thrilled. But baseball Did you know Bob has been on the silver screen since Guess what? Well,
Bob Smith 2:57
I know they made some silent films that said baseball in Hi babe ruth started some silent film. Yeah, with with baseball. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 3:05
but this is this is even older. This is at 98 Thomas Edison did a movie called the ballgame. And it featured amateur baseball teams from New Jersey. Anyway, that was the first baseline. I have no idea. Yeah, good. Ol Edison just came out there with a baseball movie. Well, anyway, since then, there’s been over 250 Baseball movies really? 250 Yeah, that’s a lot of baseball movies. Yes. And here’s the interesting part five of them feature Kevin Costner. Are you kidding? For whatever reason who knows in
Bob Smith 3:36
five baseball.
Marcia Smith 3:38
So the question here is Bob how many baseball movies with my favorite bodyguard? Can you name
Bob Smith 3:46
well, the one that I remember the most course the Field of Dreams. Right. That’s one. I was thinkin The Natural but I think that was Robert Redford. Yes. And that was Yeah. So I don’t know any of the other Kevin. I
Marcia Smith 4:00
think he saw one. At least one other one. I think Susan Sarandon was in the holding room. That’s it. Okay, so you got to Okay, and those are the only two I would have got to so Field of Dreams, Bull Durham chasing dreams for the love of the game. And the Upside of Anger.
Bob Smith 4:17
I don’t remember any of those films but
Marcia Smith 4:19
those two are that do I would have got to
Bob Smith 4:23
okay, why were many bell ringers killed by lightning during the Middle Ages. very obscure fact. bell ringing bell ringers
Marcia Smith 4:33
Well, was it because they were metal and lightning struck metal? Well, that’s it but
Bob Smith 4:37
the problem was it was the bell ringers job to scare off the storms. Oh, yeah, that would they did yeah. And medieval days. Church bells were often consecrated to ward off evil spirits. And thunderstorms were thought to be the work of demons. So the bells were rung in an attempt to stop the storm. So if the storm was coming, you’d see people climbing up the bell towers and ring ring the bell is up there. Oh my god and consequently many bell ringers were struck by lightning dropped their duty bad job. No occupational hazard. No
Marcia Smith 5:08
union protection with that.
Bob Smith 5:09
No OSHA for that. Yeah. So the bell ringers get up
Marcia Smith 5:12
in the steeple. John. Who knew? Okay, all right. Here’s a little odd one name one of the oldest diseases still present today. Well, the bubonic plague. Well, it’s not that present. I mean, really present exists every so often. Right? Well, I
Bob Smith 5:33
guess it’s never gone away. That was the way I was looking. So ancient. Yeah, it
Marcia Smith 5:37
is ancient. Okay, it’s it’s this one is more common. And is in this house? Probably common cold. Well, no, that’s not a disease. Infectious disease. No.
Bob Smith 5:48
Okay. What is it?
Marcia Smith 5:49
It is arthritis. Arthritis is considered a degenerative disease. Oh, one of the oldest diseases still present today is arthritis. Traces of the illness have been found in the skeletons of the Neanderthal man. 40,000 years BC,
Bob Smith 6:07
I guess I usually think of a disease I guess as infectious. I could give it to somebody.
Marcia Smith 6:11
But anyway, this is 40,000 BC. Wow. 40,000
Bob Smith 6:16
BC. And still, we can’t figure out how to fix that. They
Marcia Smith 6:20
didn’t have a leave. What are you going to do?
Bob Smith 6:24
All right now during this time of the Coronavirus, we’re not able to travel like we’d like to so let’s just imagine for a moment we want to go to the mountains. Okay. Uh huh. I remember going to Pikes Peak as a kid 14,110 feet. I remember that on the peak. Yeah, Pikes Peak. So how many mountains in the United States are taller than 14,000 feet? And where are they?
Marcia Smith 6:47
God? Well, question. You little sassy man. All right. Okay. I’ll say six mountains. They’re located in Washington, Oregon and Colorado. Well, that’s
Bob Smith 7:02
a good guess. No,
Unknown Speaker 7:03
you love that.
Bob Smith 7:05
There are 96 Mountains really in the United States? Taller than 14,000. I have to admit, I didn’t know that. 96 Mountains in the United States higher than 14,000 feet. Now Colorado has more of them than anyone else. Colorado has 53 Mountains taller than 14,000 feet. Alaska is in second place. 29. I should have thought of that. What are the other two states that have 14,000 feet?
Marcia Smith 7:32
So it’s Alaska? Alaska and Colorado? Yeah. Washington. Washington state has to and Oregon. No, no, Montana? No, they don’t have that. I don’t know. California,
Bob Smith 7:44
California. California has 12 Mountains. 14,000 feet. Oh, I wouldn’t have guessed that at all. Now, which state has the tallest mountains of all?
Marcia Smith 7:53
Would that be Alaska? Denali. Uh huh. All right. I got one, right. That’s right.
Bob Smith 7:58
Denali is 20,310 feet. That’s the tallest mountain on the North American cotton. How
Marcia Smith 8:03
tall is it?
Bob Smith 8:04
It’s almost four miles tall.
Marcia Smith 8:06
Okay, so all the others are between 14 and 20. Now,
Bob Smith 8:09
the tallest of all the mountains are in white state, Alaska. That’s right. The 22 tallest mountains in the United States are in Alaska. That’s amazing. But all together 96 Mountains taller than 14,000 feet in the United States. So a little tourism question, therefore. Thank
Marcia Smith 8:28
you, Bob. Okay, fascinating. Okay, here’s one also about land. Who is the largest landowner in Texas?
Bob Smith 8:36
I would think it’d be the US government. But am I wrong? This is
Marcia Smith 8:41
not government person. This is a land owner. These are landowners
Bob Smith 8:46
the king fam. Wow, right? Family,
Marcia Smith 8:50
the heirs to Captain Richard King. Good for you
Bob Smith 8:53
as the King Ranch was always the biggest ranch in Texas. It’s one of
Marcia Smith 8:57
the biggest in the world. Okay. It’s bigger than the size of Rhode Island. It’s 825,000 acres. Wow. And it’s the home to 35,000 cattle Geez. And over 200 Quarter Horses. That is amazed and the old that old homestead is worth over a billion bucks.
Bob Smith 9:15
And you say it’s the ranch is bigger than the state of Rhode
Marcia Smith 9:18
Island. Yeah. And King has 60 Plus heirs who own that and it’s worth over a billion dollars.
Bob Smith 9:25
She’s. Well speaking of Rhode Island, there’s one county in the United States that’s larger than Rhode Island. Where is that county?
Marcia Smith 9:33
Is that Alaska? No. County, Montana? Nope. Texas. No. Tell me it’s
Bob Smith 9:40
in Colorado. I believe there are 64 counties in that state. And this one is 1117 square miles, which is bigger than the state of Rhode Island. It’s Hinsdale County, but only 800 people live there. It’s very, very remote. Interesting. The Continental Divide crosses Hinsdale county twice Ice. Really? That’s how rugged it is. Yes, most of the counties divided among for national forests and for wilderness areas. So, even though it’s big, it’s hard to get too hard to cross. I got some quick answer questions. Okay. What letter is the most used in English? IE, you got it? What’s the second most frequently used letter in English?
Marcia Smith 10:21
Ah, T.
Bob Smith 10:23
That’s right. What letter do more English words begin with than any other? Gosh, you’re very good. At s. That’s it. You got all those? Right. So those are my three big fast answer.
Marcia Smith 10:36
I love cryptic gram. So that’s Oh, that’s where you get that? Yeah.
Bob Smith 10:40
Oh, that makes
Marcia Smith 10:42
sense. I have to know those things. All those interesting little cryptic, gram things.
Bob Smith 10:45
You’re doing all the breaking code baby breaking code. That’s what we’re doing here. Yeah, that’s what we’re doing here in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. All right. All right.
Marcia Smith 10:53
According to a study completed at the University of North Carolina, Americans spend one hour and 47 minutes of their waking hours each day doing what?
Bob Smith 11:04
One hour and 47 minutes. Not snoring. No. Okay. Oh, they’re waking up there. Yeah. Okay. That’s right. We wouldn’t snore when we
Marcia Smith 11:15
waked eating. Now what? Absolutely nothing. Oh.
Bob Smith 11:23
Well, thanks for saving my time there because I could have gone on and on and on. Oh, my goodness.
Marcia Smith 11:29
You ever think about that? How much time you spend doing absolutely nothing? You’re not? Yeah, I can’t imagine how they measured that. Yeah, North Carolina. Well, they
Bob Smith 11:37
spent time doing nothing watching other people doing your breathing. They’re doing nothing.
Marcia Smith 11:43
Well, you’re right. Breathing is definitely something Okay, Bob. Okay. Want
Bob Smith 11:48
to tell you something that two men did two very brave, but unknown men did in 1896. And I’ll tell you all the tools they needed to do it. What did George horrible and Frank Samuelson do in 1896. Transportation is your clue. Thank you. Yeah, water is your second clue.
Marcia Smith 12:08
Well, there were certainly boats before then. So
Bob Smith 12:12
but they’re only two men. So what did they do? This is a canoe they
Marcia Smith 12:15
built the canoe now. Now Indians did that a long time before
Bob Smith 12:21
kayak. They rode across the Atlantic Ocean. To man stupid. They set sail Hey, they set sail from New York and an open boat they took turns at the oars and reached Britain’s Sicily islands after 55 days at sea. Now here’s what it took to do that can’t meet 250 eggs. 100 pounds of see biscuits, nine pounds of coffee, two tanks of fresh water and a small stove and five gallons of kerosene. Where did they sit?
Marcia Smith 12:51
What kind of boat was this? It was a rowboat, but it was a row boil.
Bob Smith 12:55
They had to row they used oars, so it was something they could move. But I can’t imagine just think of all the weight of all those things.
Marcia Smith 13:02
Just the coffee alone with the coffee. Okay, let’s talk national anthems. The shortest national anthem are those of Japan and Jordan each contains only four lines. Star Spangled Banner has four verses. Yeah. So the longest national anthem is Greece. How many stanzas or verses do they have? Oh,
Bob Smith 13:29
Greece. Okay, we have four. I’ll say eight for them. I
Marcia Smith 13:32
could guess and it does have an eight in it. 158. Let’s get up and sing the national anthem spent the whole day to COVID Put 150 verses on. I don’t know a song. That’s just crazy.
Bob Smith 13:49
Okay, you know, war bonds. They’ve been used to finance conflicts numerous times in American history. When were the first war bonds sold and who was our enemy at the time? The first war bonds?
Marcia Smith 14:02
Oh, I Well, then. I guess it’s not World War Two then. No war one. No, no. Before that. Yeah. Okay. Was it during the Revolutionary War? No, it was after that. After that. So the Civil War? Nope. It was the War of 1812. That was running out of words. Right. And it was to use to purchase military equipment to fight our enemy. Great Britain. Yeah, England.
Bob Smith 14:25
So the first war bonds in the United States were used to fight England. Hmm. And that was just 29 years after the revolution and
Marcia Smith 14:33
they were our big ally. And come wars later. Yeah. Okay. largest tree in the world. Hmm. Is what and where?
Bob Smith 14:43
I always thought maybe it was the General Grant which is a Sequoia.
Marcia Smith 14:46
You got there. Right war wrong, General. Oh,
Bob Smith 14:49
really? Okay. It’s the General Sherman. That’s
Marcia Smith 14:53
it and it’s located in the Sequoia National Park in California. It weighs 12 million pounds. Now who the heck weighed that? I don’t Well, million pounds 2700 years old and it’s over 275 feet tall. You know what the circumference is? I could put my arms around it Yes. Apparel not at 103 feet around. Oh, it’s considered the largest tree in the world bet it’s
Bob Smith 15:20
still growing. It is okay Marsh. Here is a question again about the United States since we’re on the topic of the US. There are 10 states in the United States that have been named after people 10 states named after people what are they?
Marcia Smith 15:36
Oh man oh man. I
Bob Smith 15:39
10 states named after people a hit one was named after a President Washington. Okay, so Washington State. Exactly. And Jim Texas, Jim, Texas. You got it right. It was Jim Texas. No, no.
Marcia Smith 15:52
Okay, you have to tell me because I’m gonna sit here and Okay,
Bob Smith 15:56
Georgia. Yeah, that’s named after King George the first of England. Really? I didn’t know that. He granted its charter in 1732. Louisiana was named after
Marcia Smith 16:07
Louise mandrill. No, King
Bob Smith 16:10
Louie the 14th. Okay. God, the French explore Robert LaSalle named that whole territory Louisiana. I claim this in the name of King Louis the 14th. That was in 1682. Maryland was named after Monroe. No, no. Officially was named after Queen Henrietta Maria. Uh huh. Wife of Charles the First. All right. New York. That’s named after a man. The Duke of York. Yeah. Can’t Charles’s brother was the Duke of York.
Marcia Smith 16:41
Okay, what else you got there? How many? out of 10?
Bob Smith 16:44
Two states were named after named after a person North and South Carolina. Carolina. Were they named after?
Marcia Smith 16:51
I don’t know. Not somebody named Carol. I was gonna say
Bob Smith 16:55
the name Charles in Latin is Carolus. Okay, so they were named after King Charles the First of England and he established the province of Carolina in 1629. There are four others. We’ll get to those a little later. Well, for others that name Um, okay. Pennsylvania. Yeah. named after William Penn. Okay. Virginia was named after who? Not somebody named Virginia. I don’t know about named after the Virgin Queen.
Marcia Smith 17:23
Oh, that would be Elizabeth. Yeah. So Elizabeth,
Bob Smith 17:27
the first they called her the Virgin Queen because she never had a children’s never was married. Yeah. All right, West Virginia, part of Virginia originally, so it’s named after the Virgin Queen. And as we said Washington state. So those are the 10 states named after people.
Marcia Smith 17:41
Wow. And I only got one Washington.
Bob Smith 17:45
One out of 10. Okay. Okay, now ask me a tough one named
Marcia Smith 17:49
the world’s largest railroad station in terms of platform capacity.
Bob Smith 17:55
Is it in the United States? Maybe? Is it? Is it New York? Let’s see. What is it? What’s the one in New York City how grand grand central station
Marcia Smith 18:04
data it is. How big is it situated on 48 acres of land. The upper level has 41 tracks and 26 more on the lower level. So in terms of platform capacity, it’s the biggest in the entire world
Bob Smith 18:18
with 60. Some odd tracks. Yeah. Amazing. Tate. Let’s take a break. Okay. Okay. You’re listening to trivia on the off ramp with Bob Mr. Shep Smith. And we’ll be back in just a moment. We’re back with trivia on the off ramp. I
Marcia Smith 18:35
Bob Smith. I’m Marcia Smith.
Bob Smith 18:37
And we’re going to move into more fun questions here.
Marcia Smith 18:41
Okay, I got some fun. Okay. The secret to understanding your dog’s behavior, Bob, is that the average dog has a mind equivalent to a human being how old?
Bob Smith 18:54
Five years old?
Marcia Smith 18:55
That’s pretty old. Really?
Bob Smith 18:57
Also, the dogs aren’t that well developed. Brain. It’s
Marcia Smith 19:00
half that two and a half years old. Oh, really? Yeah, that’s the average and dogs can understand about 165 words at that level at two and a half. Now there are super dogs in the 20% category closer to three years old, and they can understand around 250 words. But PhD Stanley Coren of British Columbia. He calls them the Mozart of dogs who understand 1000 words, jeez, those are dogs that are trained for four hours a day. And is there any particular breed that has no it doesn’t say a psychologist John pilih had a border collie who showed knowledge of the names of 1022 objects in a published study, but he worked with them like I said, four hours a day so what kind of life is that? So you can say oh, my dog knows 1000 But
Bob Smith 19:52
my dogs in school all the time. And it’s and it’s not even obedience school,
Marcia Smith 19:59
dogs law Got a buster? We’re talking 60 565
Bob Smith 20:04
words, okay, okay. All right. Now Marsha, you are an avid walker, you have a Fitbit. And 10,000 steps a day is the one that most people go after? Well, in 1965, the threshold of 10,000 steps a day was established as the minimum number to walk for good health. What was the science behind that number?
Marcia Smith 20:26
10,000? Yeah. What was the science behind that? Well, that’s what 10,000 steps is, what five miles?
Bob Smith 20:33
What was the science behind the number? Well, I have no idea. There was no science. There was no science just
Marcia Smith 20:42
made. Well, some guy could do it and said, Okay, let’s do that kind of it’s
Bob Smith 20:46
kind of it’s sad in a way. But it’s interesting. The 10,000 Step threshold was invented by a Japanese Equipment Company, when it launched a pedometer in 1965. Oh, my God, that really is the origin. According to Dr. Iman li of Harvard Medical School, the Japanese companies machine was launched with the slogan, let’s walk 10,000 steps a day. And over the next
Marcia Smith 21:09
He’s got the whole world, I kind of kept my 10,000 steps.
Bob Smith 21:12
And over the next 50 years that became the default goal for fitness trackers, smartphone apps, even corporate wellness programs where they give you money. Yeah, if you make those numbers, right, but there was absolutely no scientific study be done to determine that number. Now, here’s the good news. If you find 10,000 steps a day, the equivalent of five miles a day, it’s too difficult. Take heart because Dr. Lee did do a scientific study, they found that by walking just 4400 steps a day, you could associate that with a 41% reduction in mortality. So if you’re working 4000 steps you’re doing all right. This was done with people who were hip mounted accelerometers to track their movements. And they studied women between the ages of 62 and 101. To get those figures really
Marcia Smith 21:58
Yeah. All I know is when I put my information into Fitbit, and they saw my age, they said 7000 steps a day was suggested. So obviously, they’re
Bob Smith 22:08
overestimating what’s necessary according to this step. So how many steps does the average American walk in a day? I’d say 540 800. So we’re doing relatively well. Yeah. And again, that number is associated with lowering your mortality by 42%.
Marcia Smith 22:25
That’s good to know that average american walks 5000 a day. Well, now that
Bob Smith 22:29
you mentioned that. Who are the people who walk the most steps? I read this
Marcia Smith 22:33
once and I forget. Let me think I think they’re over there in the Netherlands somewhere in that area. No, no. Okay, the Japanese
Bob Smith 22:42
Oh, really? They average 7000 to 7500 steps a day. Australians in the South Pacific and the Swiss in Europe average 9000 to 10,000 steps every day. Okay, now, one more what group on average walks more steps than any other? What group? Yes. What group? Now, let me give you a hint. It’s not a nationality. Mormons. No, not Mormons. But it isn’t religious group. It’s the old order Amish.
Marcia Smith 23:14
I was gonna say Amish because what the heck, they got the horse in there. Yeah,
Bob Smith 23:18
there are people who have assured most of modern technology. They average 14,000 to 18,000 steps a day. Hmm. All right. So
Marcia Smith 23:28
you don’t see a lot of fat. Homage to you.
Bob Smith 23:31
All that comes from the Wall Street Journal a story 10,000 steps a day fewer may be fine. was just published in June of 2020. Well, let’s
Marcia Smith 23:41
go from fitness to potato chip.
Bob Smith 23:43
I thought you’re gonna say fitness to fatness.
Marcia Smith 23:48
There, that’s right. So if you’re a junk food lover, you know this, no matter where you shop, or what brand you buy, when you tear open a bag of potato chips. It’s almost always what? Fat? Oh, half
Bob Smith 24:03
full. Oh, yes, of course. You’re right. That’s right. Yes. And why is that?
Marcia Smith 24:07
That’s my question. Oh.
Bob Smith 24:11
Well, probably to make the bag look bigger. Like it’s got Hey, you’re getting more than you really think you are. You’re getting less than you think you are. But is that oxygen or that airspace necessary for the product?
Marcia Smith 24:22
It is to keep it from crumbling. Oh, and it’s not just regular air in there. It’s nitrogen gas. The manufacturing industry of potato chips call it slack fill its empty space intentionally placed around a product. So as it’s buffered about from store to store and trucks and all that there’s a lot less breakage so your potato chips are bigger and better because of that half bag. The nitrogen gas I didn’t know that was in there. No, I didn’t know that either. That’s natural gas completely harmless and it keeps them from spoiling.
Bob Smith 24:57
Very good. All right, from fitness to fatness to presidents. And I’m not talking about a fat President either. What US president could read and write in Latin, Greek and English? What US president could read and write in Latin, Greek and English?
Marcia Smith 25:18
Is it John Adams? No.
Bob Smith 25:21
came later, much later in the 19th century are? No, I don’t know, James Garfield. He had been a congressman, a college professor and a brigadier general during the Civil War. Unfortunately, he wasn’t President very long, he was assassinated after only 200 days in office. But it said that he could write in Latin with one hand in in Greek with the other at the same time, good lord, brilliant person. So you know, great loss to the nation. We never got to know how good he could have been. Wow.
Marcia Smith 25:49
And he could have negotiated with all those Greeks at the same time.
Bob Smith 25:53
Yes, he could have negotiated with people from two different cultures at the same time. With his
Marcia Smith 26:00
right and left hand.
Bob Smith 26:01
I’ll end with the Academy Award question. Okay, now we’re all used to the Academy Awards running long, way too long. Yes. But what happened during the Academy Awards of 1958? This is like the third year they were on television. Was it too short? Too short? Yeah, wouldn’t that be nice? At the conclusion of the awards, everyone on stage saying the grand finale There’s No Business Like Show Business and then it was discovered they still had 20 minutes remaining. Two hours that they had set aside but if they do well, Jerry Lewis tried to ad lib to fill the time I’d helped me but somebody starts began leaving the hall NBC switched to a 15 minute filler on sports. Oh my god, but can you imagine an academy awards broadcast only an hour and 45 minutes long? It’s nice to think about Yeah, but it’ll never happen today.
Marcia Smith 26:51
And now everybody got up and said thanks a lot and sat down. I can you imagine being the host of that.
Bob Smith 26:56
No. 20
Marcia Smith 26:57
minutes to get 20 minutes. Love two minutes, maybe but 20 and Jerry Lewis. Hey,
Speaker 1 27:03
lady. Okay, that’s too much for anybody to watch. All right,
Marcia Smith 27:08
I’m gonna go out with a joke. Okay. All right. If you’re an American when you go in the bathroom, and you’re an American when you come out of the bathroom, what are you when you’re in the bathroom?
Bob Smith 27:20
I’m still an American. I think this is a strange question. Euro
Marcia Smith 27:25
European.
Unknown Speaker 27:26
Oh, dear Lord. All right, you
Bob Smith 27:30
know that sets a new low.
Marcia Smith 27:33
I thought it was fun. Oh, dear. We are young listeners. Need a little Okay. All right. Okay. If you’re an American going in the bathroom. We
Unknown Speaker 27:43
got that Morris. I
Bob Smith 27:44
got your pee. Oh, dear. Okay, that’s it for today on the off ramp. I Bob Smith. I’m Marcia Smith. Join us again next time for more trivia questions about me on
Marcia Smith 27:58
the offering. We already said that. No, you did. Yes, I
Bob Smith 28:01
did. Here on the off ramp. The off ramp is produced in association with CPL radio and the Cedarbrook Public Library Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
