Bob and Marcia engage in a wide-ranging conversation, touching on topics such as the Manhattan Project, cork preservation, plant symbolism, and cat health monitoring. Bob shares his knowledge of the atomic bomb, while Marcia provides insight into the history of cork and its significance in wine preservation. They also discuss the impact of plants on human history and religion, as well as recent technological advancements in cat health monitoring. Throughout the conversation, the speakers demonstrate the intricate relationship between humans and the natural world.
Outline
Harry Truman’s presidency and football game statistics.
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith a history question about Harry Truman finding out he was president after Eleanor Roosevelt told him in his bedroom.
- Marcia Smith explains that Truman was called to the White House by Eleanor Roosevelt, who broke the news of FDR’s death to him.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb, with Bob mentioning that the Vice President knew about it but few others did (0:02-0:04).
- Bob and Marcia discuss the length of time the ball is in play during an NFL game, with Marcia revealing that only 11 minutes of a three-hour game are actual playing time (0:04-0:07).
History, science, and music trivia.
- Marcia Smith shares interesting facts about cork, including its use in ancient Egyptian tombs and its sustainability as a wine stopper.
- Bob Smith asks questions and provides additional information, including the origin of cork and its use in ancient times.
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the influence of the Industrial Revolution on the note that orchestras tune to, and Marcia explains how international meetings and standardization efforts led to the adoption of 440 Hz as the reference pitch for orchestras worldwide.
- Marcia Smith then asks Bob Smith about the use of olive oil by Greek athletes before big competitions, and Bob jokes that they didn’t have Vaseline or petroleum jelly back then, so they didn’t use it.
- Marcia Smith discusses the sacred history of olive oil and its symbolism, while Bob Smith shares a story about plant specialist Luther Burbank being charged with blasphemy for crossbreeding plants.
- Bob Smith asks how hurricanes have benefited the vegetation of Florida, with Marcia Smith suggesting that hurricanes have spread seeds throughout the region.
History, culture, and food with fun facts.
- Marcia and Bob Smith discuss the history and cultural significance of salt, including its value in ancient times and its use in religious and economic contexts.
- Bob Smith shares a fun fact about Volkswagen’s best-selling item, which is not a car but a lug nut with the part number 199398 500 day.
- Marcia and Bob discuss Volkswagen’s sausage business, including their best-selling product, currywurst, and their struggles with selling it in the US due to food safety regulations.
- Bob shares a fascinating fact about William Randolph Hearst being the richest person in America during the Great Depression, with Mae West being the second highest paid person in the country.
Actress Clara Bow’s life and legacy.
- Mae West’s wit and humor shine through in her quotes and actions, showcasing her independence and self-reliance.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the Panama Canal, including its location and how ships travel through it.
- A new product called the “Week Hair Smart Health Monitor” is introduced, which tracks a cat’s weight and litter box usage to monitor their health.
Trivia, history, and fun facts.
- Marcia and Bob discuss various trivia questions, including the world’s largest lake and a US president’s epitaph.
- Bob and Marcia Smith discuss various interesting facts and trivia, including the origins of the abacus and the percentage of a plant’s nutrition that comes from the soil.
- Marcia shares stories from Reader’s Digest, including the inventor of the stop sign and the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous asking for a whiskey on his deathbed.
Bob Smith 0:00
American history question Who told Harry S. Truman, you are the president now? You may be surprised. Okay.
Marcia Smith 0:07
In an average game of pro football, how long is the ball actually in play? answers
Bob Smith 0:13
to those and other questions coming up today on this episode of the off ramp with Bob and Marcia
Marcia Smith 0:19
Smith.
Bob Smith 0:36
Welcome to the off ramp a chance to slow down steer clear of crazy. Take a side road to sanity and get some perspective on life. Well, Marcia, I’d like to start the show today with a history question. I’ve always heard a famous quote, somebody said to Harry Truman, when he was told you are president, but I didn’t know the circumstances behind it. But it came out recently, again, in a book by Chris Wallace on the end of World War Two. So tell me, you know, most presidents know their president after a hard fought political campaign. How did Harry Truman find out he was suddenly President of the United States who told him his wife? No, not his wife.
Marcia Smith 1:17
Somebody else’s wife was in his bedroom to tell him when he woke up? What are you saying here?
Bob Smith 1:23
Let’s hear it. Okay. Well, actually, believe it or not, it was Eleanor Roosevelt. Harry Truman was wrapping up a day in the Senate, where he presided over it as the vice president when he got a phone call from Sam Rayburn, who is Speaker of the House saying you got to go to the White House for an urgent meeting. So Harry Truman, immediately took off in the car and headed for the White House. People there said, gotta go to the second floor. He goes up to the second floor. He opens up the elevator door, and he was met by Eleanor Roosevelt wearing black. She said, Harry, the President is dead. This is how he learned from the widow of the president. Nobody actually called him with the news. No secret service agents showed up. Nobody delivered a memo or telegram. Just go to the White House for a meeting. So he drove over there, assuming he’s meeting with FDR. So she broke the news. And then the famous quote is he regained his composure. He said Mrs. Roosevelt, is there anything I can do for you now? And she said, “Harry, is there anything we can do for you? You’re the one in trouble.”
Marcia Smith 2:22
Yes, the one in trouble. Yeah. Isn’t
Bob Smith 2:26
that fascinating? Wow. She said that. And guess who’s here? The Supreme Court Justice is here to swear you in? Yeah. And that comes from the countdown 1945 The extraordinary story of the atomic bomb.
Marcia Smith 2:38
But really, what a great thing for Eleanor to say, “What can we do to help you?”
Bob Smith 2:42
What can we do for you? You’re the one in trouble? Well, he was because the war was going on. And then and I think it was later that day, or a day later, he was told I need to tell you about this project that’s been going on? Yeah, guess what we got? We’ve got plants all over the country building things for this new weapon called the Manhattan Project. We have an atomic bomb. You can learn about it later.
Marcia Smith 3:03
Did he really not even the Vice President knew about the fact that he was
Bob Smith 3:07
astounded. There was something that big going on with plants all over the country. And so few people knew about Well,
Marcia Smith 3:13
I went to Los Alamos and I was there where it all began. Oh, very fascinating. Gym there. Oh, God. Yes. You should see just driving into it. They still have all the watchtowers to see everybody that drives into them. Really? Yeah. It’s fascinating. Wow. Didn’t they build? Start building it under the Chicago stadium?
Bob Smith 3:34
That’s where they did some of the work. Yeah, they split the atom there too. So well, well,
Marcia Smith 3:39
when we’re not playing football, we’re splitting the atom. That’s right. And speaking of football, how’s that for trends? There
Bob Smith 3:45
you go is my transition big Marsh. Thank
Marcia Smith 3:48
you. Thank you. So Bob, in the average football game, how long is the football actually in play? I
Bob Smith 3:57
heard this statistic a long time ago. I don’t know if I’ll get it right. And this is an NFL game right?
Marcia Smith 4:03
Which could last one day average game is three hours on watching on TV. So
Bob Smith 4:07
I watch it three hours. Give a first how much time is a game actually going on during that three hours?
Marcia Smith 4:11
One hour is devoted to commercials in a three hour game. One
Bob Smith 4:15
hour of the three hours is commercials. Okay, but that doesn’t mean two hours are the game how long is the ball actually in play? Marcia?
Marcia Smith 4:25
Yes. The answer is it’s 11 minutes. 11 minutes.
Bob Smith 4:28
I’m three hours. Yeah. is all the more time the ball has being touched or is in the air. Yeah. That makes me rethink a lot of things.
Marcia Smith 4:38
I’m still I don’t care. I still not as bad as golf, though. You’ll
Bob Smith 4:41
walk around for hours. And then wait till 12 People play through after you make your first mistake on that ball. Oh, jeez. That’s fascinating. All right. You always, always have some great questions on nature. So I have a question for you. And this is very interesting. What is the lumber of the giant sequoia used for now we know that some people in the past have built trees and houses out of redwoods trees that are 2000 years old, but that’s against the law now. What is the lumber of the giant sequoia? Good for? Boats? No. I don’t know about the only thing that’s good for it is lead pencils. Oh,
Marcia Smith 5:22
come on. No. No, because it Sequoia mighty
Bob Smith 5:25
Sequoia. Because the tree is so brittle. When it falls, it often cracks into fragments. So other than the lead pencil application, the lumber of the Sequoia is virtually worthless. That comes from Isaac Asimov’s book of facts. Fascinating.
Marcia Smith 5:43
Okay, so what simple device Bob, which can be found in our kitchen actually. Okay, do we use that was in common use for the same use? Way back in 3000 BC,
Bob Smith 5:56
the microwave oven? I guess that’s something that’s in common use in our kitchen. Yeah, that was used 3000 BC. Yeah. Not an egg beater. Now.
Marcia Smith 6:10
It was used in exactly the same way.
Bob Smith 6:12
Is it a utensil then?
Marcia Smith 6:13
I wouldn’t call it that. I didn’t know what to call it. It’s a it’s a thing, a thing. Something that has a function?
Bob Smith 6:23
Those colander so that you could drain things
Marcia Smith 6:27
with holes in the bottom? Yeah, that makes sense. But that’s not what I’m referring. Okay. What is it? Okay. It’s the cork. The cork? The cork wine stopper. Right. Yeah. So back in that when they were boozing it up back? 3000 BC. They had wine jugs, and they would put a cork in it to keep it dry. So it saved
Bob Smith 6:47
specifically the wine core. Yes, absolutely. Which is why you said in our kitchen since you like to drink wine.
Marcia Smith 6:56
That’s been said. Yes. And what’s so interesting, it preserves the wine so good that they actually found some in Egyptian tombs that was still drinkable. Oh, my God. Yeah, I don’t know who tested it. I wouldn’t have been the ones but
Bob Smith 7:10
yeah, wine still drinkable in Egyptian tombs with a proper
Marcia Smith 7:13
cork in it. So in the so this is interesting or not the sub bark of oak trees. It comes from the sub bark, not the top bark, but the under bark of oak trees that flourish in the Mediterranean. Oh, really. And as a happy wine drinker, I’m happy to report that cork is the cork is sustainable, because the tree doesn’t have to be chopped down or anything. You can partially strip the bark off of it and it grows back to serve another Cabernet another day.
Bob Smith 7:46
Another Cabernet another day that
Marcia Smith 7:48
was that was my little
Bob Smith 7:49
long explanation. As you would say a by questions. That was a long explanation. I was interesting.
Marcia Smith 7:56
It sustainable. I didn’t actually know it’s
Bob Smith 7:59
a sustainable answer. It was a sustainable answer was it makes sense? I didn’t know that’s where CT came from. I didn’t. Yeah. I didn’t know that the they were using cork in wind jugs of 3000 years ago. BC or 3000. BC Suez 5000 years ago. Now there is a technology that has been proven in action. And as a very good track record. It surely does. Okay, I have a question for you. It probably seems a little arcane. How did the Industrial Revolution influence the note that orchestras tune to? You know, when you go to a concert is
Marcia Smith 8:35
the note see? It’s a I would say, yeah. So orchestra,
Bob Smith 8:39
they all tuned to a note, it’s usually a Okay, almost always. But how did the Industrial Revolution influence that? I haven’t a clue. Well, the industrial revolution, that’s when machines began making goods and services that led to a lot of standardization in all aspects of life. People said, Well, we can do things with much more precision. Let’s do that here, too. And one of those areas was, believe it or not music. Part of that was because orchestras were showing up all over the world, people would travel from different orchestras to play and we’ve all wanted to be tuning to the same notes. So there was a series of international meetings to bring orchestras all over the world to the same warm up pitch, and the ultimate winner was 440 hertz, or the note A, it’s been the reference pitch or the approximate reference pitch for orchestras for 200 years now. And how did they come up with this? Tell me a tuning fork survey. Oh, really? Yeah, survey. That was one of the first inputs in 1859, a French government commission rounded up tuning forks, and discovered the pitch was about 445 hertz on average. So that was the first standard and then over the years as concert halls grew bigger, the Commission lowered the standard of what is the compromise pitch. The International Standards Organization, there is an ISO standard that was adopted in 1955. For the orchestra, warm up pitch and That’s how the Industrial Revolution influenced that note that orchestra stone to fasten. Okay,
Marcia Smith 10:09
well yeah, it is kind of,
Bob Smith 10:10
well the fascination is in the ear of the beholder. That’s true. Yes. So what’s your next question? Smarty Pants?
Marcia Smith 10:17
What did Greek athletes slather themselves in before big competitions?
Bob Smith 10:23
Well, I didn’t have Vaseline petroleum jelly then so they didn’t do that. This is an ancient times you’re talking about? Was that something so they would run faster? They would lubricate their bodies a little bit.
Marcia Smith 10:35
Okay, what? Olive oil?
Bob Smith 10:38
Why?
Marcia Smith 10:41
Few other substances have more sacred history than the olive and the oil it yields. For more than 6000 years olive oil has been used to cleanse purify, annoyed and create divine connections. So not only did they put it on for you know, divine connection to winning, they what did they get at the end if they won? olive branches? Right. I mean, Olive is the thing. And fruit bearing tree became a symbol of endurance, victory and peace, which is why when someone tries to end a dispute, even today, they say extending an olive branch.
Bob Smith 11:19
Yeah, very interesting. Very good. That was very interesting. Okay, speaking of plants, why was plant specialist Luther Burbank? You remember Luther Burbank? He came up with all kinds of bugs. Yeah. He was once charged with blasphemy and denounced by churches. Why was plant specialist Luther Burbank charged with blasphemy and denounced by churches?
Marcia Smith 11:44
Because he said the sun made plants go and that God
Bob Smith 11:48
no is directly related to his job. When he published his seed catalog at the turn of the century, it displayed new varieties of plants he developed by crossbreeding Yeah, churches charged him with blasphemy and interfering with nature for bringing forth new creation. Oh, this was a power the church is considered to be Gods alone. Oh, really? Interesting. Wow. I mean, that’s nothing I guess it was akin to what people feel sometimes about genetic engineering. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 12:16
you’re messing with the sun with God. Wow. Well,
Bob Smith 12:20
yes, God messes with us. And here’s a here’s a question I have along those lines. How have hurricanes benefited the vegetation of Florida hurricanes benefited they benefited the vegetation or affected the vegetation of Florida I
Marcia Smith 12:36
would think that that would spread seeds everywhere when you blowing around.
Bob Smith 12:41
And plants Yeah, you’re exactly right. Over the years hurricanes have picked up tropical plants including tree branches from Cuba and other islands and have deposited them alive on Florida soil which accounts for West Indian mahogany Gumbo Limbo poison wood and cocoa plum growing at random throughout Florida and the entire southeastern United States that we had we had that story about birds being blown all the way up to Nova Scotia Doesn’t it
Marcia Smith 13:07
make you wonder when you go in our backyard and you try to plant something you know specifically and you know it doesn’t grow and you need more water and it’s so hard and over here sometimes it just blows into will
Bob Smith 13:18
actually makes me think that you know all those all those big branches that fall down during a storm. God wants them there. Maybe I should leave them there is
Marcia Smith 13:25
Oh, nice try bomb.
Bob Smith 13:30
Oh, dear. Well, let’s take a break and we’ll be back in just a moment. Okay, you’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marsha Smith. Okay, we’re back with the off ramp. Bob and Marsha Smith.
Marcia Smith 13:43
You’ve heard the phrase not worth your salt. Any idea where that came from?
Bob Smith 13:48
Well, salt was considered very, very valuable and rare commodity in the ancient world. So if you were worth your salt, you were very valuable person.
Marcia Smith 13:56
Oh, that’s true.
Bob Smith 13:58
Okay, thank you. Next question. I’ve got some other person. All right. What is there?
Marcia Smith 14:02
But yeah, you’re right. You
Bob Smith 14:03
said I was right.
Marcia Smith 14:04
Well, yeah, in a manner of speaking it historically has played a pivotal role in religion and economics, purifying sacred rituals and guiding the rise and fall of empires. At one point it was traded for gold. Wow. So for examples, slaves in Greece, everybody had slaves were sometimes purchased with salt. And that’s where the salt phrase came from not worth his salt. If the slave didn’t turn out, he wasn’t worth the salt. You paid for holy cow. So that’s very specific. But here’s a little side note goes back a long way that yeah, it’s an expression three weeks since slaves salt. But since it was so valuable, it was often given to Roman soldiers as money they paid and that’s where the word salary comes fall. That’s right. solarium are gentle in Latin.
Bob Smith 14:53
Yeah, gotcha.
Marcia Smith 14:54
That means salt. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So the salt in our kitchens today is the same treasure fought over for 1000s of years
Bob Smith 15:02
and we fight over it every night. Oh, no, we don’t know that
Marcia Smith 15:06
good for you in quantities. Well,
Bob Smith 15:09
here’s something that’s only been produced for the last 45 years or so. Okay. It’s something Volkswagen makes. Now they’ve been producing automobiles for 90 years. What is Volkswagens all time? Best Seller? It’s not something you can drive. I’ll give you a hint. It’s part number 199398 500 day. Well, thanks.
Marcia Smith 15:31
You went down. I think that’s the lug nut on the driver’s side. The wheel that sounds like
Bob Smith 15:38
it doesn’t know what does Volkswagen sell more of than anything else. Sausage, Volkswagen carry worst sausages. They make 7 million a year for who primarily for their employees, but they are so rare and they’ve won so many awards in German cuisine contest that they provide them to their dealers. They sell them in Germany in grocery stores and at football
Marcia Smith 16:02
state Oh is their select brand. The curry versus
Bob Smith 16:05
curry reversed sausages produced at the Volkswagen factory located near the company headquarters in Wolfsburg since 1973. were intended originally as breakfast and lunch items in the company cafeteria. I’d love to taste one. Well, the part number again is 199398 500 days.
Marcia Smith 16:21
I can’t beat a US singer but that’s just me. Now they can’t sell them
Bob Smith 16:25
in the United States. People want them but they said that there’s no way they could safely send them to the United States and you have to have food and drug administration approval and everything else. But that is their biggest seller. They make 20,000 a day. 7 million sausages a year made by Volkswagen the VW brand sausage. Not the VW Bug.
Marcia Smith 16:45
I’ve been enlightened. Thank you for that, Bob. Okay, there was a great Greek tragedy writer. Okay. His name was sick, callous, okay. And he had an rather unfortunate demise.
Bob Smith 16:59
First name like Charlie’s a callous or something like that. You want
Marcia Smith 17:03
to guess how the poor dude died? In ancient Greece? Yes. In 456 BC. Okay,
Bob Smith 17:09
we’re going back a few years with today’s questions. He died when
Marcia Smith 17:13
a tortoise when a tortoise was dropped on his head by an eagle flying over him at a great height. Back in the day, the eagles were quite smart. And they wanted to break that tortoise shell by dropping it on rocks. Oh, okay. And this guy was unfortunately bald, and it thought it was a rock and he dropped the tortoise on his head and killed. So he was standing in the way he was getting in the way of thing he was. And now if that’s not a great little playwrights story, but when he wasn’t around her it wasn’t. So somebody else had to write that one. And the
Bob Smith 17:51
fact that that was actually recorded is fascinating. Yeah, isn’t
Marcia Smith 17:53
it? Yeah, I’m sure his fellow playwrights had a ball with that. Okay.
Bob Smith 17:57
I’ve got a money question. Okay. 1935, middle of the Great Depression. William Randolph Hearst is the richest person in America, who was the second highest paid person in America in the middle of the Great Depression. 1935. Hint, it was a woman.
Marcia Smith 18:17
Mrs. Rockefeller.
Bob Smith 18:18
No, it’s not Mrs. William Randolph Hearst. Mrs. Rockefeller. No. Okay.
Marcia Smith 18:23
Mae West. Oh, no kidding. Yeah, right. Yeah, she worked for it. And she
Bob Smith 18:28
became the second highest paid person in the country. We think of her as kind of a campy actress, but she wrote her own plays. She wrote her own screenplays. She did her own promotion. In 1927. She wrote a play called Sex and she was charged with obscenity. She was sentenced to 10 days in prison. She could have paid a fine and then release but she knew the value of publicity she demanded to be jailed instead for 10 days.
Marcia Smith 18:50
Yeah, she was quite ahead of her time and being her own woman making her own money and not relying on the guys that would come up and see her sometimes. You
Bob Smith 18:59
know, you just said one of her famous quotes. I didn’t hear these before, okay. You only live once. But if you do it right, once is enough that I’ve heard that I generally avoid temptation, unless I can’t resist it. It’s not the men in your life that matter. It’s the life and your man. And of course, is that a pistol in your pocket? are you just happy to see me Okay, now she actually said this first at a railway station in Los Angeles to a Los Angeles police officer who was assigned to take her home. She was being escorted home from being in Chicago. Hey office saying that a pistol Nina. And then she used it later in the movie. She done him wrong. Yeah. And who was the actress? She said that too? Far Gable. Nope, a very young Cary Grant.
Marcia Smith 19:44
Oh, really? I like it.
Bob Smith 19:46
She’s a millionaire. Well, I
Marcia Smith 19:47
would think so. Wow. You
Bob Smith 19:49
know, he was never really popular. When sound pictures really took off. She was in some of the first sound pictures and with WC Fields and stuff, but those are kind of crinkly old films, you know, I mean, We don’t really get how different she was than everybody else at the time. Okay.
Marcia Smith 20:03
While I’m going over to Panama now bomb due to the bend in the East mass
Bob Smith 20:09
Ismet. Yeah, that is never easy to say is it? If
Marcia Smith 20:12
you don’t look at it, it’s most of Panama. Yeah. That is the only place in the world where what happens?
Bob Smith 20:21
That’s the only place in the world where what happens? Yeah. Is it a word that starts with us? No, no, that’s not it. It’s
Marcia Smith 20:28
the only place where one can see the sunrise from the Pacific Ocean. And later. See it set over the Atlantic? Wow,
Bob Smith 20:35
that makes sense. Yeah. Because it’s a very thin strip of land. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 20:39
You would think there’d be other places, other islands. But that’s different ocean on each side? Well, since
Bob Smith 20:45
you mentioned the Isthmus of Panama, you know, the Panama Canal is there. So which way does it flow? The Panama? Yeah, the Panama Canal. Do
Marcia Smith 20:54
you mean like direction? Well, it cuts
Bob Smith 20:55
through the Isthmus of Panama. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 20:59
if you’re on a ship. Yeah. And you’re going east and west. Yeah, it’s runs east and west. No
Bob Smith 21:05
ships travel, the opposite of what you probably think ships traveling from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean, travel in a north west direction, while ships traveling from the Atlantic to the Pacific go in a south east direction. That’s just the nature of the cut that was made due to the natural features of the geography. Well, I
Marcia Smith 21:26
wouldn’t have guessed Of course. Well, they have been.
Bob Smith 21:28
I mean, most people wouldn’t guess it. Of course. Okay. Now let’s go on. Many people have Fitbits and Apple watches and other devices to help us monitor our health. No one believes cats would have the patience to wear one of those, right. So there is a way now you can apply technology to a litter box to monitor your cat’s health. It’s called week hair smart health monitor made by cat link, of course, does it’s a scale and activity sensor that your litter box sits on. And it actually tracks changes in weight and frequency of visits in litter box, which helps spot health problems how you ask when that cat gets in there, it weighs them. So a sudden weight or gain or loss can diagnose heart disease or diabetes. You can also measure how frequently the cat uses its litter box too often could mean a urinary tract infection. Staying in the box too long might be a symptom of bladder stones. And all that data is compiled and it’s alerted to you. So you know if there’s any unusual behavior. And then for multi cat households, you can actually differentiate cats by weight. It’s a little much the weak hair smart health monitor for
Marcia Smith 22:39
your cat. Bowser went 21 years without technology.
Bob Smith 22:43
Do you think we would have wanted technology on Bowser
Marcia Smith 22:47
we did fine. Without technology. He lived an incredibly long life. And he was an indoor outdoor cat and had 13 moves with me didn’t need any kind of data on him know he was either alive or dead and we knew it by he was allowed boy Oh gosh. All right. All right. Next question.
Bob Smith 23:04
Marcia.
Marcia Smith 23:05
What is the world’s largest lake? The
Bob Smith 23:09
largest lake in the world is Lake Superior. Wrong. Is it Lake Titicaca? Well, there’s a lake called that down. Yeah, no, no.
Marcia Smith 23:18
All right. What is it? The world’s largest lake? Is the misnamed Caspian Sea. Oh, that’s
Bob Smith 23:25
actually a lake. Yeah, it’s
Marcia Smith 23:26
a lake. It lies between Asia and Europe and it covers the area the size of montagny.
Bob Smith 23:34
montagny Oh, yes. I remember we visited there. Didn’t we take a cruise to Montana? I’m watching too
Marcia Smith 23:40
much of Yellowstone Yellowstone series and watching the Caspian Sea is four and one half times the size of Lake Superior. The second largest lake in the
Bob Smith 23:52
world. Wow. Four and a half times as big as Lake Superior. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 23:56
so I guess Lake Superior to and we were both wrong. That said
Bob Smith 24:02
it is but not a surprise. Yeah. Okay. Let me ask you this question. What US president wrote his own epitaph specified the size and material for his gravestone and chose the exact location for his grave?
Marcia Smith 24:17
Little a little anal retentive there. Don’t you think if
Bob Smith 24:21
you know anything about this guy, you say of course he did. Thomas Jefferson.
Marcia Smith 24:26
Oh, did he really? Yeah, well, this is interesting on a couple levels. Six months ago, this would have been more funny because I think they’re actually might be doing this now. But in 1968, Herschel Thornton opened the world’s first drive in what
Bob Smith 24:41
not drive in movie now not drive in restaurant because those have been around for years. Drive in what? Not driving mortuary. Yeah, oh my god, really in
Marcia Smith 24:50
Atlanta, Georgia. The deceased was displayed behind a glass wall. And motorists drove by paying last respects without leaving the car.
Bob Smith 24:59
That would be done today during COVID. You’re right, it could be done. But this was in 1968. Wow. Yeah. I didn’t know people were that busy back,
Marcia Smith 25:08
I guess while the flower children had places to go and things to do, what do
Bob Smith 25:13
they do with all the time they say, going to a funeral like that? Let’s just drive through. See Harry, and we’re gone.
Marcia Smith 25:19
Okay. Who invented the abacus? Bob, the abacus that was
Bob Smith 25:23
invented by the Indians, wasn’t it? Ancient India or no? Ancient China?
Marcia Smith 25:28
Well, that’s what everybody says, well, thank you. And they’re wrong. Oh, it was in use in Egypt 4000 years ago, almost 1000 years before it reached China. So China did
Bob Smith 25:43
use it. So they must have gotten it from the Egyptians rightly? Yeah, I’d
Marcia Smith 25:46
had no idea. All right,
Bob Smith 25:48
and I’ve got an interesting one here. Okay. What percentage of a plant’s nutrition comes from the soil? What percent of a plant’s nutrition comes from the soil?
Marcia Smith 25:59
Well, I bet it’s mostly from the sun. So I’ll say I’ll say 25%. From the soil,
Bob Smith 26:06
most people would think well, it gets all of its nutrients from the soil right most of it no photosynthesis, we think of plants getting their water, their mineral nutrition from the soil through their roots, but a plant gets only 10% of its nutrition from the soil 90% of a plant or a trees nutrition comes from the atmosphere that shows you how important sunshine and fresh areas while
Marcia Smith 26:30
you’ve seen trees growing out of concrete bridges or something you know, that explains it doesn’t nature finds a way nature finds a way I thought I’d wrap up Bob with a couple of can you believe it’s from the Reader’s Digest? Okay, can you believe Sweden’s famous Icehotel has a smoke detector? No. The founder of Alcoholics Anonymous asked for a whiskey on his deathbed. Oh, no kidding. The nurse refused. Oh, thank God. Yes. And the father of Traffic Safety. William Eno invented the stop sign speed limit traffic circle and the one way street and he never learned to dry. Oh,
Bob Smith 27:13
no. Wow. Fascinating. Okay, those are great stories. Great, great factoids. Thank you, Marcia. You’re welcome, Bob and we thank you for listening to this episode of the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith.
The off ramp is produced in association with CPL radio and the Cedarbrook Public Library Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
