Bob and Marcia Smith discussed the opulence and exclusivity of the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas – the most expensive hotel in the world – with Marcia sharing details about its renovation and Bob expressing surprise at the range of prices offered. They then delved into various innovations and their impact on society, sharing interesting tidbits and insights. Bob highlighted the origins of air conditioning, aspirin and heroin, while Marcia shared the history of envelopes and the cheese industry in Wisconsin. They also explored astrological connections between historical figures and discussed Steve Martin’s life and career, as well as Viking history and culture. Through these conversations, Bob and Marcia illustrated how innovations and societal changes have intersected throughout history.
Outline
Luxury hotel suite prices and amenities.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the most expensive hotel in the world, the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, with suites costing up to $20,000 per night.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the luxurious $100,000 per night penthouse suite at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, including its unique artwork and amenities.
Historical inventions and their impact.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the origins of modern inventions, including the air conditioner and the cotton gin.
- Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin was actually called the “cotton engine,” not “gin.”
- Bob Smith shares the story of how aspirin was developed by his father’s experimentation with different compounds in the Bayer factory archives, leading to its introduction in 1899.
- Marcia Smith asks about the other product introduced by Bayer the same year, to which Bob replies “Pepto Bismol,” another painkiller.
- Marcia and Bob discuss various topics, including the history of envelopes and cheese consumption in different countries.
- Marcia is surprised that the French consume 30 pounds of cheese per person annually, while Bob thinks the red wine may help.
Historical events and technology.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the Lizzie Borden trial, highlighting the use of crime scene photography as a new forensic technology.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the history of sidewalks in the United States, with Marcia providing the information that the first sidewalk was laid in 1657 in New York City.
- Bob asks Marcia if she knows the speed of city streetcars in the past, and Marcia replies that she believes they could reach speeds of up to 80 miles per hour.
Comedy, art collecting, and historical connections.
- Bob and Marcia Smith discuss the astrological connections between historical figures, including Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, and Charlie Chaplin.
- Steve Martin was a cheerleader in high school and had a classmate who went on to found a major rock band.
- Steve Martin has been a frequent host of Saturday Night Live and has a serious hobby of art collecting.
- Bob and Marcia discuss movie stars and their hobbies, including Stan Laurel’s unsuccessful attempt to cross a potato with an onion.
Viking history, medicine, and building materials.
- Bob Smith discusses the Vikings, sharing interesting facts and insights, including the extortion money paid by the Frankish Empire, the origins of the word “Russian,” and the discovery of Viking graffiti in Hagia Sophia.
- Marcia Smith adds a question, “What is the oldest form of building materials still in use today?”
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the history of tapping on patients’ chests to determine their internal condition, inspired by an Austrian doctor watching his father tap wine barrels.
- The French recognized the medical value of tapping on patients’ chests in 1808, and doctors have been doing it ever since.
- Tobacco was once believed to cure various ailments but is now known to cause cancer.
Bob Smith 0:00
How did a printers problems in the summer of 1902 lead to today’s air conditioning?
Marcia Smith 0:06
And what and where is the most expensive hotel in the world?
Bob Smith 0:10
answers to those and other questions coming up in this episode of the off ramp with Bob and Marsha Smith
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. We’ve got some fun and interesting questions today. You’ve got one they’re about a hotel.
Marcia Smith 0:46
My question is what and where is the most expensive hotel in the world? Well,
Bob Smith 0:52
I would normally think at some major financial center like Hong Kong or New York or, or maybe a big gambling place like Monte Carlo. That’s where I would think it would be
Marcia Smith 1:03
it is the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. You’re
Bob Smith 1:07
kidding out. They
Marcia Smith 1:08
just completed a two year renovation rumored to be about $1 billion holy cow and they revamped 1395 rooms and suites that include the king pin suite, what’s there it houses bowling lanes, and you can have in your suite. Yeah, and you can have that for 15,000 a night. Okay. And the Hardwood Suite. Guess what that has? Wooden mattresses, its own basketball court. And that’s 20,000 a night 20,000 A night. So what do you think how much for the most expensive room? It’s called the empathy suite.
Bob Smith 1:49
Oh, that’s all you got to have left after you stay there because your money is going to be gone. Yeah, I’ll go for 100,000 That’s exactly your nose. $100,000 a night? Yeah. In Las Vegas. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 2:03
So who stays there? Well, the high rollers and you consider that if it’s over a million dollars you spend there and then you get to stay free? Well, of course.
Bob Smith 2:12
You’ve already spent a million with this will let you have the $200,000 robot
Marcia Smith 2:16
for resort is very tight lipped about who actually pay to sleep there. We don’t
Bob Smith 2:22
know they’re going to say what do you get for $100,000 a night in
Marcia Smith 2:28
the 8500 square foot Damien Hirst design penthouse you will find an outdoor cantilever the pool hanging hundreds of feet in the air pillars covered in his signature dots 66 specially commissioned artworks including two sharks suspended in formaldehyde. You kidding me to hell? Okay. But 13 seat bar and a spectacular view
Bob Smith 2:51
of the strip where what’s the average room cost in this?
Marcia Smith 2:55
I don’t know about the average. But I can tell you the price point starts at 60 bucks a night. $60
Bob Smith 3:01
Yeah, that’s 60,000 Holy cat. Well, that’s quite a range there. $60 A Night to $100,000 a night. So you told me all the stuff that’s involved in the $100,000 room?
Marcia Smith 3:14
No, there are extra tree. Oh, really? Okay. Things that you and I would appreciate like 24 hour Butler’s a chauffeured car and $10,000 credit to spend in the resort as you wish. By your knickknacks, your keychains from the casino.
Bob Smith 3:32
That is a different lifestyle than I know. Indeed. Oh my goodness. And that’s in Las Vegas. Yeah. The palms.
Marcia Smith 3:39
Palms Casino. Yeah. Okay,
Bob Smith 3:41
how did they printers problems in the summer of 1902 lead to today’s air conditioning?
Marcia Smith 3:50
Well, I haven’t a
Bob Smith 3:52
clue. The heat and moisture in the air in the summer of 1902 in Brooklyn was causing problems for a color printer when the humidity caused the paper on the presses to change size enough to distort printing because you have to print multiple times in order to get a color image. Well, that paper was moving around shrinking and everything and it was all off. So a young engineer William Haviland carrier was called in to solve the problem. I know that yeah, carrier of Carrier air conditioning today, but he was just an engineer in those days. And he discovered that the air retains less moisture at lower temperatures. So the colder it was, there was less moisture in the air. This was not something people knew, like we know today. So he designed a machine that blew air over chilled pipes and stabilized the amount of moisture and the printing improved and his idea became the basis for the modern air conditioning industry. And one of the major air conditioning companies bears his name but it started because a printer was having problems with color registration on the paper. You never know where things are gonna come from ya never
Marcia Smith 4:55
know.
Bob Smith 4:56
Now I’ve got another one here. The name of the invention was Is the cotton gin but why did Eli Whitney call it a gin?
Marcia Smith 5:03
I have no idea. What
Bob Smith 5:04
was the cotton gin?
Marcia Smith 5:06
Yeah, it was that goofy looking machine and it had a big? Well here I’ll take a guess. Because the VAT look like how you would make alcohol gin? No no distill it. No. Okay.
Bob Smith 5:18
The cotton gin was actually the cotton engine that was the actual name of it. It was an engine basically a contraption that combed the seeds out of cotton. And he called it a gin it was just slang. That’s the gin it’s the engine over here. Oh, the chin like engine. Yeah. Oh, the cotton gin. You hear that all your life in history. That was that I don’t believe he took a patent out on that and never made any money off of it. Really. He could have made a fortune off of it because that revolutionized agriculture in the south, picking a cotton everything.
Marcia Smith 5:49
Okay, what modern pharmaceutical Bob was used back in 1500 BC, a modern pharmaceutical let me rephrase that. Medicine pharmaceutical that we still use today.
Bob Smith 6:02
Was it aspirin? It was because it was the roots of a tree, wasn’t it? That’s where they got it.
Marcia Smith 6:07
The bark of a willow tree? Willow Tree? Yes it was aspirin.
Bob Smith 6:02
And willow bark was known as a pain reliever in 1500 BCE. And in 1897, chemist Felix Hoffman developed a synthetic form of it. And the Bayer factory in Germany started producing it and referred to it as aspirin for the first time in 1899.
Bob Smith 6:28
And now, here’s the question for you based on that, what was the inspiration for him to develop aspirin since it had been known as kind of a folk remedy, but he was able to synthesize this artificially? What was the inspiration for that? Do you know the story? No. His father was in terrible pain and had been for years. And he was looking with all kinds of things, experimenting with him to try to help his father get rid of the pain. And that was one of the compounds that was in the archives at the beer company. And he went with it. Of course, that became the greatest drug of all time, you know? Yeah. Another question for the beer company. That same beer bear also had another product ID introduced. Aspirin was one What year was that? 1899. Okay, aspirin was one what was the other product that Bayer introduced that year? Oh, and you know the brand name, but you wouldn’t think it’s a brand name.
Marcia Smith 7:19
All right. Pepto Bismol. No,
Bob Smith 7:22
it’s another painkiller. Not Tylenol. No, I don’t know. heroin. Heroin was a trade name for a replacement for what was the thing that they gave to all the soldiers in the Civil War and they got the morphine it was supposed to help you get rid of a morphine addiction. And heroin means like hero, I guess is the name. But they were both introduced the same year. And you can find old pictures of brand bottles, a bottle with beer heroin, written on the label. Wow. Wow. There’s a lot of unintended consequences.
Marcia Smith 7:54
I’ll say how long did that last? You know?
Bob Smith 7:56
How long did heroin last?
Marcia Smith 7:59
Know the being a pill like that? Oh, I
Bob Smith 8:02
don’t know. At some point. It became obvious it was a mistake. Yeah. You know, at some point terrible, terrible mistake.
Marcia Smith 8:09
Okay. 90 years ago, Charles Creighton and James Harrigan went round trip from New York City to LA in 1929. Ford Model A. What made this trip so unusual?
Bob Smith 8:21
I don’t know. Was it a convertible car? They had no roof. It was what was it?
Marcia Smith 8:29
They drove backwards all the way. Oh, was that the dumbest thing you ever heard? They never turned off the engine? Never. At least that’s what they claim. It took them 42 days at 10 miles an hour. They took turns sleeping and everything and they went nonstop for 42 days backwards. You could do that apparently back in 1930. What a dubious
Bob Smith 8:52
distinction it is. But 10 miles per hour. Yep. I’m surprised only took him 42 days. So was
Marcia Smith 8:59
going backwards. Can you see them coming through town? Oh, you’re come Jim and Charlie. Oh, geez.
Bob Smith 9:05
Here’s a interesting little question and a quick answer. What changed the writing habits of millions when it was introduced in 1839? How
Marcia Smith 9:14
Gosh, I don’t know the quill pen. No, no, they had quills before then. Okay. You would know not ballpoint?
Bob Smith 9:22
That was 100 years later. Okay. Okay, believe it or not, it was the envelope. What is that word? Well, that’s what people thought how does this work? It wasn’t introduced until 1839. Prior to that time, people usually folded their letters both ways, sealed them with wax and wrote the address on the back and that was it. How they
Marcia Smith 9:42
sealed with wax the letter itself Yeah, they’d stamp the letters had been pretty vulnerable. Well, you think
Bob Smith 9:47
so? But you can imagine there were some people who don’t Why do I have to buy this thing? You have to buy this envelope thing? That’s stupid. It’s a waste of money
Marcia Smith 9:56
to this. Oh, that’s very interesting. Yeah. Well pop you know We live in Wisconsin and wear certain kinds of cheese hats, right? Well,
Bob Smith 10:06
different than other places that have cheese. I don’t know, I don’t know that.
Marcia Smith 10:11
Well, Wisconsin produces more than 3 billion pounds a year of cheese. And we’re the number one producer in the United States. But my question is, the French people consume more cheese every year than anyone else. The French do. Yeah, they consume more. Oh, okay. How much do you think they consume?
Bob Smith 10:31
Is this per person? Yes. Okay. I would say it’s by pounds, right? Yes. 30 pounds per person. 57
Marcia Smith 10:39
pounds. Wow, geez, what their arteries must be course the red wine helps. I think okay,
Bob Smith 10:45
God in heaven. This is probably in sauces and everything else, right.
Marcia Smith 10:49
I don’t know. I didn’t get a breakdown. But yeah, and actually, the biggest producers of cheese in the world are the EU countries. They count themselves as one country but I can’t Wisconsin. Well, don’t
Bob Smith 11:01
include me in your demented Wisconsin statistics because I’m not from here originally. Fine. Okay, my demented, your demented. Okay, Marsha, I’ve got a question for you. All right, the trial of Lizzie Borden accused of murdering her parents in 1892. That’s famous now that introduced a new forensic technology that changed murder trials for all time. What was the new forensic technology? Was it blood testing? Close but no.
Marcia Smith 11:33
Let’s say she had an x right. And blood and
Bob Smith 11:37
this was the first time jurors ever saw anything like this. All right, were
Marcia Smith 11:41
there fiber or hair samples? No. Nope. I don’t know.
Bob Smith 11:46
Crime scene photography. Oh, okay. That makes sense. Yeah, it was first used in the trial of 32 year old Elizabeth Borden. She was accused of killing her father Andrew and her stepmother with an axe. And it was the first widely publicized trial to use crime scene photographs. So and that made it standard around the world. Before the Lizzie Borden trial. The most famous crime photos were from the Jack the Ripper case in London, which was four years earlier, but only one of the rippers victims was actually photographed at the crime scene. So crime scene photography is taking a picture of the scene, including the victim, yeah, at the scene. So they showed those photos to the jurors. But still, for the record, Lizzie Borden was found not guilty by an all male jury that acquitted her and saw these pictures. And in a bizarre twist, the jurors posed for a photo of their own which they presented to her so all these men like this 32 year old woman, there’s
Marcia Smith 12:44
my gosh. Oh, dear. Did she do it?
Bob Smith 12:47
Well, nobody knows. I mean, if you read about it, you think maybe she did it and they thought she did. The victims were struck in the face. So that’s usually a person personal crime. Yeah. All right. What do you have? Well,
Marcia Smith 12:59
the first sidewalk in the United States was laid when
Bob Smith 13:04
now we’re talking a concrete sidewalk as opposed to a wooden sidewalk. It was you don’t know for sure stone. The stone sidewalk? I bet that was in Boston and 1624 You say that was such a thought you gotta say with authority. Even though you don’t know you know,
Marcia Smith 13:21
of course and you did very well with that actually. Okay, for a sidewalk in the United States was laid in 1657. Oh, close. Along New York City street name quite aptly. Stone street.
Bob Smith 13:33
Oh, no kidding. Stone Street. Will speaking of cities. How fast did city streetcars run sometimes? How fast did some major city streetcar lines run?
Marcia Smith 13:46
Well, I don’t know. They can’t run too fast. I’ll say 30 miles an hour.
Bob Smith 13:51
Believe it or not some inner city streetcar systems actually had a normal operating speed of 80 miles.
Marcia Smith 13:57
That’s crazy. That’s crazy talk
Bob Smith 13:59
Bob faster, faster than most of the trains in the US today.
Marcia Smith 14:03
People must have been killed left and right. Probably,
Bob Smith 14:05
you know, these are inter urban trail lines. So they had to be in certain areas they could run that
Marcia Smith 14:12
they weren’t streetcar streetcars running downtown through all their inner city
Bob Smith 14:15
inner city city to city streetcars. So if you want to you want to quibble
Marcia Smith 14:19
with what I can’t believe they’d run 80 miles an hour in the city. Okay, well, then
Bob Smith 14:23
I have another question for you. If you want to quibble with this. You’ll probably disagree with this one to the first round the world telephone call. What do you think that was made? Now, I’m just going to tell you this 1910 1935 What do I mean by round the world? Okay, from where to where was the call a New York to London. It was placed in New York. He was routed to San Francisco, then Java, then Amsterdam, then London, and it was received in an office just 50 feet from the collar. Really? The man who placed the call was the president of the American Telephone and Telegraph in 1935? So that’s the first round the world telephone call. There. Were there were transatlantic. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 15:09
but that’s pretty, pretty cool. Yeah, it’s kind of cute. Like to be the good. Get that. Okay, cool. All right.
Bob Smith 15:15
Okay, we’ll take a break. And we’ll be right back. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marsha Smith. Okay, we’re back with the off ramp.
Marcia Smith 15:24
How did astrology connect the lives of Winston Churchill? Franklin Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler.
Bob Smith 15:30
How did astrology connect the lives of Winston Churchill? Adolf Hitler, and who else? Franklin Roosevelt. Right? Wow. I don’t know.
Marcia Smith 15:39
It’s actually the date January 30. ties all those people together. It’s the date of President Roosevelt’s birth. Winston Churchill’s death, and Hitler’s ascension to power in Germany. Wow. On the same our same week of the same year. Oh, my goodness. This also had Charlie Chaplin in there. Oh, really?
Bob Smith 16:00
Tell me about that. Chaplin and Hitler have some relationship and that Chaplin
Marcia Smith 16:03
and Hitler were associated astrologically from birth because both men were born within the same hour in the same week on the same year. Wow.
Bob Smith 16:11
Now really, when you think about that, that makes The Great Dictator which was Chaplin’s film spoofing Hitler. Yeah. Fascinating when they were born the same
Marcia Smith 16:20
day. Is that right? Same day, the same hour in the same week or the same year? Holy
Bob Smith 16:24
cow. Okay. Okay. All right. I’ve got an entertainer question. Okay. Who is this entertainer? He was a cheerleader in high school. One of his classmates went on to found a major rock band. He was a contestant on The Dating Game. today. He’s a major art collector. And he’s recently turned 75. Sylvester Stallone, no. He was a cheerleader in high school, one of his classmates went on to found a major rock fan. Yeah, it was a contestant on The Dating Game, which you can actually find this show on on YouTube. Oh, and he’s a major art collector. Not Clint Eastwood. I’ll give you three more clues because you always want more clues mark. His first job was at Disneyland. He wrote for the Smothers Brothers. And he appeared on Saturday Night Live so often. People thought he was in the cast.
Marcia Smith 17:14
I know who it is Steve Martin. Steve Martin. Yes, yes. Took a few clues to get there. But I was thinking of all the famous people who are well known art collectors. And yeah, so
Bob Smith 17:24
Steve Martin just turned 75 He was a cheerleader. He calls it a yellow leader, was a yellow leader at Garden Grove High School in California. And his first job was two miles from home at Disneyland he started selling guide books. Then he graduated to the magic shop. That’s where he learned the balloon animals and other gags he used in his early comedy routines. And he learned rope tricks that you see in three amigos from a frontier land rope Wrangler. He befriended if you read his memoir, he gives thanks to all these people. He mentions them by name. These are people he knew when he was like 16, you know, very
Marcia Smith 17:59
cool. Yeah. Well, that makes a lot more sense than Sylvester Stallone, who I couldn’t see being a cheerleader. No, I couldn’t either. I just went for the
Bob Smith 18:07
job. Just so you know. He was chosen by the girl on the dating game. He was Yeah. He hosted Saturday Night Live 15 times. Alec Baldwin is the only person who is hosted at more 70 A high school classmate of Steve Martin was John McEwen of the nitty gritty dirt band who helped Steve Martin learn banjo at age 17. And Steve Martin tours, you know today with a group and how serious of a art collector is he? Well, his movie career made him a very rich man. So he owns pieces by Pablo Picasso, Roy Lichtenstein, David Hockney and Edward Hopper. He sold one of his Hoppers for $26.9 million in 2006. But he’s also been a victim of forgeries. He was paid $850,000 for a fraud. So that doesn’t make you an expert necessarily if you own all these things. All
Marcia Smith 19:00
right, Bob. What great screen comedian was a horticulturist who crossed a potato with an onion.
Bob Smith 19:08
This is a great screen. So we’re talking to movie star Correct. A great screen comedian was actually a horticulturalist in his private life and he crossed a
Marcia Smith 19:18
what potato with an onion potato.
Bob Smith 19:20
I could see all the unintended consequences of that. That could be good or very bad.
Marcia Smith 19:27
Sounds tasty to me.
Bob Smith 19:29
I’m thinking of Chaplin because he was interested in all kinds of things.
Marcia Smith 19:33
It was Stan Laurel, Laurel and Hardy. He had always dreamed of producing a hybrid between a potato and onion. And after many failures, he succeeded in producing one however, it turns out his product was inedible.
Bob Smith 19:49
So it didn’t work. No, it just did. He finally
Marcia Smith 19:52
got it. You know, he finally did it and then he couldn’t eat it. I don’t know why you would think it would taste pretty good.
Bob Smith 19:58
I would. Well yeah. because a lot of times you put onions and or onion powder or you know your potatoes, they taste great. I’ve got a couple facts here about the Vikings. Did you know this? Did you know The Vikings invaded Paris?
Marcia Smith 20:12
Oh, before it was called Paris? Well, it was an early city
Bob Smith 20:17
in 885. But with the Vikings, their reach went all across Europe, people don’t realize it. But yeah, Paris was besieged by a fleet of 1000s of Vikings and hundreds of ships in 885. And over 100 years time the Frankish Empire paid extortion money that the Vikings equal to 14% of the Empire is total output to keep them under control. You know, take don’t wander too much here. 885 Wow. Now here’s another one London Bridge is falling down maybe about Viking invasions. That’s an ancient song. It supposedly refers to Viking spin footbeds 1013 invasion of England. The raids evolved into continuous Viking presence and Scandinavian diasporas settlements and cultures were all over the coast of Europe. But London Bridge is falling down is like Oh, here they come again. And the word Russian comes from the Vikings. Did you know that? No, I did not. Okay. Modern Russia derives its name from Kevin Russ, the ancestors of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus the name Russ comes down from an Old Norse word. What do you think Russ meant? I don’t know. Man who wrote Oh, really? Men who row? All right now.
Marcia Smith 21:35
And that’s what they did. They said that she got her children into college.
Bob Smith 21:40
Oh, yeah. Some of these people in the scandal. Yeah, that they post their Candlemass man. All right. Yeah, they’re on the rowing
Marcia Smith 21:49
plantation here. Sorry.
Bob Smith 21:50
I’ve got one more. Okay. Where is some of the oldest Viking graffiti found? It’s a place that’s been in the news recently. Oh, dear. It’s an institution it’s a building that’s been in the news recently. I don’t know Turkey has that famous old church originally was a Christian basilica the Hagia Sophia it’s been turned into a mosques been Muslim and Christian over the years and it’s back again to being a Muslim center of worship. Well, there’s graffiti in there from the ninth century now at that time the building was already 300 years old. And I forget who the to the names of the fellows but there are two fellas that were there their Viking tourists let’s like spend and all the you know, they they sign their names, and there’s some reference to Vikings. So they know that these people are actually there from isn’t it fascinating.
Marcia Smith 22:40
That’s part of the DNA of the human being apparently become
Bob Smith 22:43
a tourist somewhere you go sign your name all over
Marcia Smith 22:45
the wall. And then I just have a couple of factoids you might find interesting. Okay. There are not what is Bob? What is Bob?
Bob Smith 22:57
A Bob is? Bob is good. Well, actually,
Marcia Smith 23:00
I’ll turn this into a question set of effect. Okay. What is the oldest form of building materials still in use today? Concrete
Bob Smith 23:09
now? Oh, well, stone, I would say obviously. No, no, probably wood. Yep.
Marcia Smith 23:17
What is it? The common brick? Oh, okay. So that’s it. Is it bricks?
Bob Smith 23:24
Okay. So it’s, well, it’s, it’s usually made out of clay or something. That’s
Marcia Smith 23:29
they were used in ancient Egypt more than 7000 years ago. So that’s the common 7000 years we’re still using
Bob Smith 23:40
brick bricks. And most people prefer houses made out of brick or stone. Well,
Marcia Smith 23:45
the three little pigs surely well.
Bob Smith 23:49
Okay, that was one factoid. Any other question? You started like a little pig. Okay, I got one more medicine. Okay. Okay. What was it that inspired an Austrian doctor to tap on patient’s chests to determine their internal condition? Now you you’ve ever had a doctor they tap on your chest when they’ve got a stethoscope. Sometimes they tap on your chest? What does that mean? Well, then they can find out whether you’ve got a heart congestion or something to
Marcia Smith 24:18
why why are they tapping? Now that now that you brought it up? I don’t know.
Bob Smith 24:21
I asked the question. What was it that inspired an Austrian doctor to tap on patients chests? I don’t know Bob wine barrels?
Marcia Smith 24:30
Of course I do.
Bob Smith 24:33
Actually to tap wine casts. I just forgot that. Well, an Australian doctor and Austrian doctor I’m sorry, Leopold out in bruger used to watch his father who was a Vinter tap wine cast to discover the level of wine inside of them. And that gave the doctor the idea of tapping patient’s chest with fingers and listening to the sound to determine the internal condition of the patient even for the level of congestion to see if they had congestion in their for their lungs. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 24:58
I know Have a thought of that. That’s enlightening. And then
Bob Smith 25:02
that was in 1761. He published his findings,
Marcia Smith 25:05
but I knew I had something in common with wine barrel.
Bob Smith 25:08
Well, your your ancestors come from France it was the French who recognized the darkness worth for what it was we they they translated as finding as an 1808. And so that’s when doctors started tapping and doing things because of a wine barrel. Wow, see, see that you love that, don’t you? Yeah, because you love why? Tap on that wine barrel. There’s medicinal value in that
Marcia Smith 25:29
and I love my ancestors. Okay, thank you for that five feeling good.
Bob Smith 25:34
Okay, here’s another thing that loosely relates to this current emergency we’re in with a virus and so forth. And it’s about something a substance that was once thought to be a cure for headaches, toothaches, arthritis, stomach aches, wounds and bad breath. Yet today, we know it harms health instead of enhancing it what was once believed to be a cure for all those things, headaches, toothaches, arthritis, stomach aches, wounds, bad breath.
Marcia Smith 26:01
Really? Yeah. What what is bad it’s considered bad now for all those things. It’s not
Bob Smith 26:08
considered bad for other things. It’s just considered bad.
Marcia Smith 26:10
Is it like drug like cocaine or something? No.
Bob Smith 26:15
It’s a naturally occurring substance, a naturally occurring substance or product or plant our plant? Think of the new world what was the big thing that they brought back? That was a plant from the new world back in the 16th 15th centuries? Tobacco? Oh, really? Yeah. Tobacco.
Marcia Smith 26:37
Oh my god.
Bob Smith 26:38
It was made into a tea. That’s absurd. It was made into a tea even rolled into pills to serve as a medicinal herb at one point. Yeah, a Spanish physician Nicholas Mondays brought it to the attention of the world when he extolled the medicinal beliefs in us 1577 book called joyful news of the newfound world. And it wasn’t until two centuries at basta XA three that his beliefs were challenged. God took almost 400 years finally before tobacco became, you know, no, it’s such a horrible thing for people.
Marcia Smith 27:11
It just shows you how intelligence here keeps evolving.
Bob Smith 27:18
Yeah, tobacco is the cure for a headache, toothache, arthritis, stomach aches, wounds and bad breath, but it gives you cancer.
Marcia Smith 27:26
Otherwise, go for it. Well, that’s very interesting, Bob, thanks for that.
Bob Smith 27:30
Well, that’s it for now. Okay. I’m Bob Smith.
Marcia Smith 27:33
I’m Marcia Smith. I
Bob Smith 27:34
hope you’ll join us again next time we come back 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
