Bob and Marcia delved into the origins of everyday customs and inventions, from ‘bless you’ after a sneeze to chewing gum and fingerprinting. Marcia shared cultural and societal insights, while Bob provided interesting facts and information. They also explored the practicality of language and communication, as seen in the invention of the alarm clock and paperclip. Later, Bob shared trivia about the weight of a pound, while Marcia provided updates on the average length of marriages in the US, estimating 45 years and providing updated statistics showing an increase to eight years.
Outline
City names and skunk history.
- Bob Smith learns that Chicago’s name may have originally meant “skunk” in Native American languages.
- Marcia Smith joins the conversation and provides additional information on the topic.
- Bob Smith discusses the record for most balls juggled at once, with the current record holder juggling 1111 balls.
- Skunks were once a valuable fur trade commodity in the Americas, with their pelts becoming the second most valuable export in the 1920s.
History, culture, and superstitions.
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the origin of Q-tips, and Marcia explains that they were originally called “quality tips” and were invented in 1923 by Leo Girton Zheng.
- Bob Smith and Marcia discuss the origins of the best man tradition, with Bob explaining that the best man’s job was to protect the bride from other men who might want to capture her.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the origins of Friday the 13th superstition, with Bob sharing a new perspective on Judas and Marcia providing additional context on the number 13.
- Bob and Marcia also compare the Axis powers during World War II, with Bob highlighting Japan’s larger population under control (516 million) compared to Hitler’s (360 million).
History, science, and culture.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the origins of saying “bless you” after a sneeze, with Marcia providing historical context and Bob sharing a humorous anecdote.
- Bob asks Marcia a series of lighthearted questions about various products and their potential health effects, with Marcia providing correct answers and Bob offering humorous responses.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the oldest known instrument, the harp, and a flute found in a Neanderthal cave, with Marcia providing interesting facts and Bob offering humorous comments.
- Bob and Marcia engage in a trivia game, with Bob answering questions about World War II and the fastest baseball and tennis serves, while Marcia provides insightful comments and questions.
Marriage length, cultural trivia, and audio production.
- Cedarburg Public Library in Wisconsin is the only library in the US with its own streaming radio station.
- Bob and Marcia discuss a trick question about a pound of gold and a pound of feathers, revealing a historical truth about the measurement system.
- They also explore the origins of the Christian gesture of joining hands in prayer, which originated in early prisons and not from the church.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the origin of the phrase “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” which refers to unreliable information obtained through gossip or rumor, and how it was originally used to describe messages transmitted through telegraph wires during the Civil War.
- Bob shares a surprising fact that Hebrew, a language that was considered dead for 2300 years, has been revived as a common language in Israel.
Inventions and their creators’ motivations.
- Inventor Levi Hutchins created the alarm clock to solve his personal problem of oversleeping, without seeking financial gain.
- Bob and Marcia Smith discuss teenagers, dogs, and trivia, with Bob thanking their children and the show’s contributors.
Bob Smith 0:00
What major American cities name may have originally meant skunk to Native Americans.
Marcia Smith 0:06
And what’s the greatest number of balls ever juggled by one person?
Bob Smith 0:12
Burning Questions we all need the answers to. And we’ll get the answers to those another questions in this episode of the off ramp with Bob and
Marcia Smith 0:20
Marsha Smith
Bob Smith 0:38
Welcome to the off ramp a chance to slow down steer clear of crazy take us side road to sanity and get some perspective on life. Well, this gave me a new perspective on one of my favorite cities in America. Okay, what major American cities name may have originally meant skunk to Native Americans.
Marcia Smith 0:58
Well, I’m sure there and for good reason. Oh, really?
Bob Smith 1:02
Yeah. Skunks are still in that area. Really? Yeah. Okay.
Marcia Smith 1:05
What can we narrow it? Is it out west?
Bob Smith 1:07
No, it’s not out without east. It’s not out east.
Marcia Smith 1:09
It’s in the Midwest.
Bob Smith 1:11
It’s in the Midwest.
Marcia Smith 1:12
I’m running out of location.
Bob Smith 1:14
I’ve given you all the clues I’m going to give you what major American cities name may have originally meant skunk? Native
Marcia Smith 1:20
America was Chicago.
Bob Smith 1:22
That’s exactly right. Yeah. In fact, Chicago is an anglicized version of several smelly names used by Native American tribes who either live there or visited there. Yeah, some histories of Chicago have said the French explorers derive Chicago from a sloppy transliteration of Schick. CA, CA, the Miami, Illinois word for smelly wild Indians. And then others say it was G cod Gong, which is an Ojibwe word meaning skunk. Now, the interesting thing is, the Skunks are still very prevalent along the Chicago River. I didn’t know that. But they’ve lived there forever. And they still are there and they’re still stories of the animal wardens having to go out and trap these things because they show up in neighborhoods but skunks have always lived along that river. Apparently, the whole area of Chicago was named after the skunk according to Ojibwe Preservation Officer Edith Lowe. So she recalls stories of her ancestors traveling from their homes in southwest Lake Superior to the smelly Chicago River each fall right as the young skunks were setting out in search of new territory. Skunks, I still love the city that goes to Bob Froy. And I want him to know that his hometowns name means skunk.
Marcia Smith 2:39
Let’s go on to important world question. Okay, like what’s the greatest number of balls ever juggle by one person?
Bob Smith 2:47
This takes me back to all those Ed Sullivan shows watching those people juggling. What were their names. The lenders willing just would juggle their bodies because they would always make those pyramids, right. Just take so I would say you know, the most I could ever do would be four balls. I never did that three at the most and it didn’t last long. I can tell you so I’m going to say I will go up to 20 balls. And of course it depends on how big they are and everything else.
Marcia Smith 3:12
Think of the physics How could you do 20 balls? All right,
Bob Smith 3:14
well, tell me the answer. Tell me I’m wrong. You’re wrong. Oh,
Marcia Smith 3:18
how many the all time record is 1111 balls. This guy in England in 2012 juggled the love and balls 23 consecutive times. Alex Barron on April 3 2012 at the Roehampton squash club in London
Bob Smith 3:33
at the rue Hampton squash club. Yeah. Not a vaudeville theater or something like
Marcia Smith 3:37
that. Think about the physics of trying to catch they’re pretty uniform size balls and you couldn’t possibly do 20 Bob, well,
Bob Smith 3:44
size balls are there. I mean, they could be smaller balls. It could be you know, super balls. It could be baseball, so it could be volleyballs.
Marcia Smith 3:49
Maybe next week’s question. Okay. All right. All
Bob Smith 3:53
right. Guess what free animal became one of the most desirable pelts for the fur trade. And by the 1920s they were America’s second most valuable for export.
Marcia Smith 4:04
Well, was it beaver? No, Fox, no. Is it something that lives in the water and comes out? No. Okay, like a muskrat or something? No. Oh, no, I don’t know. Skunks.
Bob Smith 4:19
You know, it’s one of those rat holes. You
Marcia Smith 4:21
go down here. Can you get to see okay now
Bob Smith 4:23
divorced from their pungent smell. People loved the rich, warm, beautiful coats that skunks made they were likely the first mammals that trappers found when they reached the Chicago River in the 1600s, as I said, and skunks helped the city ride the fur trade to prosperity, and the 1920s durable skunk pelts had become the second most valuable for export in the Americas. Most people didn’t know that because sellers marketed their pelts with names like Alaskan Cebu or black
Marcia Smith 4:52
Martin. Oh, really? Yeah, they all came out of Chicago, I assume. Yeah.
Bob Smith 4:56
And then when the government started recording accurate labels after World War To the skunks popularity disappeared because nobody wanted a skunk. Yeah. In 2010 private companies with wildlife removal permits removed 6700 skunks from the Chicago area in one year alone. Wow. And 2017 They removed more than 14,000 Skunk so again, Chicago stinky. I love Chicago. It’s one of my favorite cities. It really is.
Marcia Smith 5:21
Okay, here’s that you’re kind of questioned MC bobber. What does the Q in Q tips stand for? Oh, I
Bob Smith 5:30
saw that question. But I didn’t read the answer. Damn.
Marcia Smith 5:36
Well, I did and I read the answer. Is it quality? Is
Bob Smith 5:39
that what it is? I did you say that? Well, I just think of it being a quality tip. You know, they wanted to call it the quality tip. Forget, you know, there were different companies making these. And so that’s the answer. Yeah. All right. Quality
Marcia Smith 5:51
tips. It’s a brand name as opposed to cotton swabs. So Q tips was originally and is quality tips. I didn’t know that. It was invented in 1923. When Leo Girton Zheng saw his wife stick bits of cotton on toothpicks to clean things like her ears. Sounds dangerous. It does. It does. And you know, every box of cotton swabs will tell you don’t use these to clean your ears. But do you know one person that doesn’t clean? Of course know what else you’re gonna use? So
Bob Smith 6:23
he invented these in 19. What was the year 23? Wow. And is there any other information on the company? Did it start a big empire there is
Marcia Smith 6:31
but I don’t have it, Bob. Okay.
Bob Smith 6:35
So the it’s funny quality tips. We have to abbreviate it. So it’s cute.
Marcia Smith 6:39
Too much.
Bob Smith 6:41
That’s America. All right, I got a question for you. This is a cultural question. It goes back centuries. So I’m going to ask it of you. And I know, based on your vast background, and your passion for history, you will like this question. Okay. The best man at a wedding originally accompanied the bride not the groom to the wedding. Okay, why? Oh, why was the best man originally part of the bride’s wedding party?
Marcia Smith 7:11
Well, I’m, I’m thinking here what makes sense? I’m, I have no idea.
Bob Smith 7:15
Okay, this goes way, way back. Originally, the best man’s job was to stay with the bride and protect her against other men who might want to capture her for themselves. Oh my god. That’s why he was the best man because you could trust him. Oh, with your wife? Yes. With your potential wife. Yeah. In fact, there are tales of warriors who wanted a bride of their own who set out with their own companions to seize the bride from her groom at a wedding. So it was for that reason that Scandinavians started the traditions of weddings at night, and behind the high altar of Swedish churches. Lance’s with sockets for torches were available for the best man in their duty of detecting and repelling abductors.
Marcia Smith 7:54
What kind of warriors you mean Indian warrior? So what
Bob Smith 7:57
these are warriors have in Scandinavia, they didn’t have Native Americans up there. Well, no, but I didn’t know I had warriors. Scandinavians didn’t have warriors. Ever heard of the Vikings? Yes, I’ve heard of them. Okay, well, they’re from that area.
Marcia Smith 8:09
Okay, fine. Okay. page to page two. All right. Why is Friday the 13th considered to be bad luck.
Bob Smith 8:18
And 13 Number 13 is considered bad luck because there’s some buildings don’t even have Thirteen’s on the doors. 13 floors, skips from 12 to 14. That’s right.
Marcia Smith 8:29
You know why that? No, I
Bob Smith 8:30
don’t know. Oh, got it. All right here. All right. Let’s take this Friday the
Marcia Smith 8:33
13th Okay, so here’s the answer. That number 13 represents Judas, a really all no kid and Thirteen’s to arrive at the Last Supper. Friday by itself is unlucky because it was the day of Christ’s crucifixion. years ago, the British set out to disprove these superstitions, and they named a new vessel HMS Friday, laid her keel on a Friday and then sent her to see on a Friday that fell on the 13th just to dispel the ridiculous Wow belief and then guess what the boat sank it never was heard from again. Oh, no kid, there were no survivors. No crew, no ship they never saw. Oh my goodness, that sound so that that added to the folklore of Friday the 13th I
Bob Smith 9:20
never heard the thing about Judas. course Jesus and the 12 disciples, that’s 13 right there. But Judas was the last to get there. So that’s the 13th person who who knew to
Marcia Smith 9:30
he so he was late for dinner. So he had he was out there making I think he was doing other things, too, apparently is making a deal. Yeah.
Bob Smith 9:36
Okay. All right. This is a 75th anniversary of World War Two recently. And looking back on that which of the Axis powers had more people under its thumb, Adolf Hitler in Europe, or Japan, in Asia Pacific. Again, looking back on World War Two, which of the Axis powers had more people under their thumb? Was it a Adolf Hitler in Europe or Japan and
Marcia Smith 10:01
Japan because there’s all those islands? Well,
Bob Smith 10:05
it’s a vastly larger region. Yeah, yeah, at the zenith of its imperial reach Japan had 516 million people under its control, which is 20% of the world’s population. Now, because China, of course, was the first country that they basically went into, and that was, is a huge country and was at that time too. Now, Hitler had 360 million people under his control. That’s about 14% of the world’s population. But the Japanese waged war of immense scope, you know, that exploded west, from China to India, South to Indonesia, and then east to the Hawaiian Islands and north to the illusion so when you look at that on a map, that is a huge portion of the world, and all of those peoples were under the Japanese control. Hmm.
Marcia Smith 10:51
Okay. I got a question. Why do we say bless you after a sneeze Oh, because
Bob Smith 10:58
that goes back to the plague days. I think that was one of the signs of the plague and people were worried that your your soul would fly away from your sneeze because of your you know, you have you have the disease. Oh, my goodness, you’re gonna die.
Marcia Smith 11:10
Yeah, make smarty pants. That’s pretty much it, but there’s a little more to it. Okay. The ancient Greeks believed a blessing might prevent evil from entering your body while you sneezed. Because it was left in an unguarded state, what’s lifted on guarding the body, when you’re sneezing, you haven’t got cold ice, you’re vulnerable at that moment. You’re not breathing in, you’re okay. But our tradition comes from the Black Plague of 1665 when sneezing was believed to be one of the first symptoms of the disease, infection met certain death. And so the symptom was greeted with the prayer. God bless you, which through time has been shortened to bless you. So, if you were sneezing back during the black plague, everybody was afraid just like now when you go to the grocery store and started coughing or sneezing, people start looking at you. Oh, like you have COVID or something? Yeah. So it was no different back then. So bless you may God bless.
Bob Smith 12:06
Okay, well, that makes sense. Okay, I have a lighter question. Okay. Okay. When this product was introduced, a doctor warned that its use would exhaust the salivary glands and caused the intestines to stick together. What product was it butter? No, not peanut butter. That’s a good one. Peanut butter is a great one. Because you would think yeah, it’s sticky and going down there. It’s gotta stick together, honey. Nope.
Marcia Smith 12:28
Okay, hold on. Marshmallows. No, I don’t know.
Bob Smith 12:32
Those are all excellent guests. And they are all wrong. Yeah. Chewing gum. Chewing? Oh, yeah,
Marcia Smith 12:38
sure, if you swallowed it. I used to worry about that. When I was a kid.
Bob Smith 12:41
The if that was what your parents always got wrapped around your stomach, and that’s it, you’re gonna die. But when chewing gum was introduced by William Finley sample of Mount Vernon, Ohio in 1869. This physicians warning was in a published article that that would exhaust the salivary glands and cause the intestines to stick together. Okay, when was fingerprinting first used as a means of identifying people. That’s another good question.
Marcia Smith 13:08
You’re already identifying your questions as good. They’re
Bob Smith 13:11
excellent questions. Okay, when was fingerprinting? First us? Oh, gosh.
Marcia Smith 13:17
Well, it was after Sherlock Holmes was just coming in at the late 1800s.
Bob Smith 13:24
That’s a very good guess. Again, it’s wrong. But Shaq
Marcia Smith 13:28
wasn’t using it. It was just coming in. He was
Bob Smith 13:32
talking about it. And that’s because it was starting to be used and J. Edgar Hoover in the FBI made it standard practice. Oh, yeah, that one? Yeah. 30. And that’s when most people think it was instituted. But fingerprints were actually being used to identify people as early as 700 ad by the Chinese. Oh,
Marcia Smith 13:48
yeah, they are. Were so advanced. They were advanced. That’s amazing. Okay, you ready for this? Okay. What is the oldest known instrument?
Bob Smith 13:59
I thought it was the
Marcia Smith 14:02
harp. Now, the flute. Now why did you say that? Well, because
Bob Smith 14:07
it’s easy to make. It’s you can hollow out a, you know, a stick or a rod and drill holes in it. And you could do that with a hand drill. So I would assume that would be one of the early instruments. Yes,
Marcia Smith 14:18
it is. And check this they found one in a Neanderthal cave that was dated between 43 and 82,000 years ago. Wow.
Bob Smith 14:27
That’s amazing. In
Marcia Smith 14:28
1996 an excavation in Northwest Slavonia uncovered a transverse flute made from the femur of a bear cub also came from an animal okay, God was perforated with four round holes, and its shape and structure strongly suggested a wind instrument between 43 and 83,000 years old making it the oldest musical instrument ever found. Well,
Bob Smith 14:55
you know, they found those ancient combs and those Egyptian tombs they found kazoos there. They did no good And they didn’t have wax paper yet. But when you make those as a kid,
Marcia Smith 15:05
that’s pretty funny.
Bob Smith 15:07
I was just thinking about, okay. All right, again, another world war two question for you. Yeah, in the anniversary of World War Two, which theater was at war longer Europe or Asia Pacific, Asia
Marcia Smith 15:19
Pacific. Why would you say that? Because the V J day comes later, okay. And the other day,
Bob Smith 15:26
but the fighting actually started earlier too, because the it began in 1937, when China mounted its resistance to the Japanese. Hitler invaded Poland in 1939. So that was roughly two years longer than Asia Pacific War.
Marcia Smith 15:40
So the answer is you’re right, Marcia.
Bob Smith 15:42
Next question. Yes, that was yes. You’re absolutely right, Marsha. That’s the right answer. Well,
Marcia Smith 15:48
Bob, remember a week or so ago, we talked about? How fast was the fastest baseball pitch ever recorded?
Bob Smith 15:56
Yes. We had several different ones. I think the one I had was 127 miles per hour. That was one of the stories. There’s others.
Marcia Smith 16:02
Yeah, but that’s the fastest recorded to date. Well, you want to guess what the fastest tennis serve is?
Bob Smith 16:09
I bet it’s 150 miles per hour.
Marcia Smith 16:13
What is it 155 Really old Score one for the Boberg 2004. Andy Roddick in a Davis Cup match against Russia served one up at 155 miles,
Bob Smith 16:25
155 miles per hour. You don’t think of something like that coming that fast edu until it hits you.
Marcia Smith 16:33
And it hit me. It was fast. Then
Bob Smith 16:36
it hit me. Well, it hit me we should take a break now. We’ll be back in a moment. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob
Marcia Smith 16:42
and Marsha Smith.
Bob Smith 16:46
You sounded like you retired. I
Marcia Smith 16:47
wanted to be relaxed and let’s have a little peppier.
Bob Smith 16:51
We’re back, you’re listening to the off ramp, and Marsha is feeling peppier. Now, right.
Marcia Smith 16:57
Well, I’d have a quick question. As far as we know how many libraries in the US have their own streaming radio station?
Bob Smith 17:06
How many libraries in the US public libraries have their own streaming radio station? I know the answer to this. But you know, it’s our very own Cedarburg Public Library. Yes.
Marcia Smith 17:15
And thanks to that. We have listeners in places like France, where people from some little town in France tune in every week to hear our show. Yeah. And I say bon Sua. Over in France, how cool is that?
Bob Smith 17:30
These people are very good listeners. Because if they’re listening to our show on the station, it runs in the evening on Sunday that actually runs on our internet radio station first broadcast out of our Cedarburg library. And the people in France have to listen to that like around midnight. No more incredible, but that’s in the analytics.
Marcia Smith 17:48
And as far as we know, Cedarburg Library is the only library in America that has a radio station streaming. And I’m proud to be part of it. Me
Bob Smith 17:57
too. Me too. And like we said, we had those folks in France, we know that we have people listening in Germany. And then once it gets on the podcast platforms, it goes even farther. For instance, here’s a shout out to Debashish Ghosh, one of my former work colleagues who lives in India. He said that he listens to us too. So
Marcia Smith 18:14
we can say here at the little off ramp that we are global.
Bob Smith 18:18
That’s right. Yes, I need a big sign now. All right. And we want to thank the Cedarburg Public Library and Jeff Masterman for putting us on the air. They run the show first and then we put it on SoundCloud. And then it goes out to all the podcasts, all the podcast platforms, like Apple and Spotify and Stitcher and Google and Pandora and I Heart Radio. We’re building a little audience. So we’re having a good time with it. It’s a lot of fun.
Marcia Smith 18:43
You bet it is. Okay, Bob, what weighs more, a pound of gold? Or a pound of feathers?
Bob Smith 18:47
Well, I would think a pound of gold. But wait a minute, a pound is a pound. So there’s both the same.
Marcia Smith 18:53
I set it to but no, our last day? Really? The answer is feather. Really? Yep, gold is weighed in the Troy measurement system. So if you convert both to the same system, or uniform measuring a pound of gold is approximately 373 point 24 grams, and a pound of feathers is approximately 453.59
Bob Smith 19:18
grams. So that’s a trick question. It is so you’re happy with that I guess.
Marcia Smith 19:22
But it uncovers a long held truth that a pound is a pound is a pound but it’s not
Bob Smith 19:26
Well, depends on the pound measurement system. So that’s a troy ounce is what you’re going by there, perhaps Okay. All right. I’ve got another cultural question. What Christian gesture that we use today came not from the church but from early prisons. What Christian gesture that we use today came not from the church but from early prisons.
Marcia Smith 19:47
Is it the Hail Mary? Crossing? No. Yeah, the crossing? I don’t know. It’s
Bob Smith 19:53
praying by joining hands. Oh, yeah. It’s not mentioned anywhere in the Bible. And it didn’t become part of the Christian tradition until around 800 years after Christ, it came out of the way prisoners hands were shackled together. So the joining of hands became the symbol of submission, a symbol of man’s servitude or total obedience to a divine power. Now back in Jesus’s time, the common method of praying in both Hebrew and Christian worship was to spread the arms and hands toward heaven in a great gesture. Yeah, that’s the way you used to pray. Yeah. But this whole idea of a prayer with a praying hands came from prisons, and probably because of St. Paul, it may have been symbolic of St. Paul was imprisoned so many times anyway, I thought that was kind of interesting.
Marcia Smith 20:33
And speaking of culture, yes. In the US. Yes. How long does the average marriage last? Oh,
Bob Smith 20:40
well, the average marriage you know, this changes every once a while like yeah, I
Marcia Smith 20:46
have a different dates here.
Bob Smith 20:49
I would think that the average longer by the way, so I’ll say the average marriage lasts 45 years. Okay, yeah. Oh, you poor naive soul. That was what that laugh was. Oh, you. All right.
Marcia Smith 21:02
They even had movies called The Seven Year Itch, you know?
Bob Smith 21:05
So that’s the average length of America. Oh,
Marcia Smith 21:09
no, it’s, it’s up to eight now. Eight years. You’re kidding. Now, in 1950. It was the average marriage lasted seven years and in 68. marriage lasted five years. Good Lord. So it’s actually gone up since 68. So it’s eight years now. Yeah, that’s the average time of a marriage. That’s sort of sad, isn’t it? But I love your optimism. Well, my
Bob Smith 21:32
first one didn’t make it, I guess.
Marcia Smith 21:35
How long were you married? Your six years? Well see? Isn’t that interesting?
Bob Smith 21:41
How about that? Okay. All right. All right. Back in 1349, King Edward the third of England banned all sports in his country, except one. He banned every sport in the country except one. King Edward the third of England. 1349. I know you were around then you were
Marcia Smith 22:02
wasn’t paying a lot of attention.
Bob Smith 22:04
It was junior high.
Marcia Smith 22:07
What were the sports? I don’t know. He banned everything. But what? Croquet?
Bob Smith 22:11
No, he wanted to upgrade the skill of the peasantry for warfare, so he banned every sport in his country except archery, archery. All right. Back in those days, it was basically bow and arrow for warfare. So this had a specific objective. It wasn’t all distraction. It was to avoid distraction. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 22:29
Interesting. Also, what’s interesting, Bob, is why do we and Marvin Gaye say I Heard It Through the Grapevine.
Bob Smith 22:37
So where does that expression? Heard It Through the Grapevine? I would think of the jungle and I think a Tarzan but that’s probably not what a great point. I don’t know. What is the answer
Marcia Smith 22:48
to that? Well, it comes from the Civil War. Oh, a colonel set up a crude telegraph line between place servo and Virginia City by stringing wires from the trees, and the wires hanging loops like wild grape vines. And so the system was called the grapevine telegraph Hmm. Or simply the grapevine. By the time the war news came through the wires, it was often outdated, misleading, or false. And so the expression I Heard It Through the Grapevine soon came to describe any information obtained through gossip or rumor. That was unreliable.
Bob Smith 23:24
So it’s not necessarily reliable. But here’s what I heard through the grapevine. Yeah, yeah. See, I didn’t know that. I always thought of Heard It Through the Grapevine as being like an informal, unofficial, yeah, type of communication. But this was actually the telegraph wires. Yeah. But
Marcia Smith 23:38
they weren’t reliable. And by the time it got to where it was going it, it wasn’t very, what is that game? We played? You whisper something in
Bob Smith 23:46
telephone? Yeah. Where you would retell what the person told you. And it would change as it went around the room after 10 people, that was a great thing to have kids do because it told you how easily it is for things to
Marcia Smith 23:56
change. You misunderstood? Change and gossip. Yeah, absolutely. All right.
Bob Smith 24:00
What is one of the only cases in history in which a dead language has been resurrected and put to substantial use?
Marcia Smith 24:07
Well, Latin was,
Bob Smith 24:09
it’s never been put at substantial use other than the scientific realm where you have genus and species and things like that. This was a dead language, this language totally died out,
Marcia Smith 24:18
and then brought back Alright, tell me Hebrew,
Bob Smith 24:22
Hebrew, which for all practical purposes, has been a dead language. It was for about 2300 years. No kidding. I didn’t know that. Yeah. Before the Jews revived it in Israel as their common language.
Marcia Smith 24:32
So they decided to resurrect it. Yeah. And that was their length.
Bob Smith 24:36
Yeah, it was probably only used in ceremonial purposes. But yeah, that is
Marcia Smith 24:41
very interesting. All right. What inventor Bob was so practical about solving a personal problem, that he was satisfied with his invention, and didn’t even try to patent it so he could reap financial rewards.
Bob Smith 24:54
So he was satisfied with it as what it was. Yeah, I did that good. There. He didn’t do
Marcia Smith 24:58
it for money. I did it. For convenience, it’s a problem I’ve had and now I don’t have the problem. Well, that
Bob Smith 25:04
was me. That was me. No. I think we’ve all done things like that. Like, I wonder if I can make money. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 25:09
I’m always thinking that. So how far back is this go? Well, 1700 1787 To be precise, it
Bob Smith 25:17
was an invention. And the inventor was so satisfied with it. He didn’t care about making money with it. Mm hmm. I was thinking about the was it Walter hunt invented the paperclip, because he needed money. And he sold that for hardly anything, and that would have been a fortune. So if this inventors invention had been patented, and he had basically taken credit for it, would he have become very wealthy?
Marcia Smith 25:40
Oh, I would assume so. Okay, what was it? He was 26 years old. Okay, name was Levi Hutchins, Levi Hutchins. And what did he invent? He got up late all the time. And it really bothered him, Bob. And he wanted to wake up at 4am each day to get started and work. Okay, but he often slept past the time, which threw him off the rest of the day. So he created the alarm clock. All No kidding. Yep. He constructed a gear device which would trip a bell when his clock struck for He never tried to protect his invention, because with it, he got what he wanted. He got he got up on, right. He got to work. He wasn’t interested in money he was interested in not oversleeping. And he
Bob Smith 26:26
succeeded at that. Keep it simple, stupid. Sounds like almost like a Rube Goldberg thing where gear from his clock, click something and hit a bell. And there you go. I’m awake.
Marcia Smith 26:37
Yep. It’s like, I don’t know, cotton on the end of a toothpick. That guy made money. All right. All right. All right.
Bob Smith 26:44
You say you got something funny that we can go out with. I’m just gonna
Marcia Smith 26:47
go out with a funny quote. Okay by one of my favorite writers, Nora Ephron. Okay. And she said, when your children are teenagers, it’s important to have a dog so that someone in your house is happy to see you.
Bob Smith 27:01
That’s true. Especially when they’re teenagers. Thank God, they get better as time goes by. They become real people again. And our kids are just the most wonderful joy of our lives these days. All right. Well, we thank them. We thank you. And we thank everybody who helped to contribute to the program today. And Bob Bryant again, Chicago stinks. Did you know that? No, no, it’s it’s a wonderful place. All right. We’ll be back again with more trivia next week. I’m Bob Smith,
Marcia Smith 27:30
I’m Marcia Smith.
Bob Smith 27:31
Thanks for listening to the off ramp.
The off rep is produced in association with CPL radio and the Cedarbrook Public Library Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
