064 Care Free Trivia

Marcia Smith 0:00
What is the famous French chef Alexis Sawyer known for?

Bob Smith 0:06
And one of the great exploration missions to the new world had something to do with sex. What explorer took on that adventure? And what was it? That’s a good answers to those and other questions coming up in this episode of the off ramp with Bob

Marcia Smith 0:22
and Marsha Smith.

Bob Smith 0:40
Welcome to the off ramp a chance to slow down steer clear of crazy. Take up side road to Saturday and get some perspective on life. Here we are. And I think we’re at the week number 29 or 30 of our shows that began with the COVID Emergency still going. We’re still going still having fun. So is the COVID. Yes. So let’s launch right in. Well, Marcia, you’ve probably suffered all those years in high school through all those dates and all those explorers and never heard that one of the great exploration missions had to do with sex. Did you know that?

Marcia Smith 1:15
Of course not.

Bob Smith 1:16
Okay. What explorer took on the adventure? And what was it all about?

Marcia Smith 1:21
You tell me. I’m breathless. Wait, you are.

Bob Smith 1:25
You’ve heard of Ponce de Leon. poncey and the fountain of youth. We all thought oh, it’s just an everlasting thing. That’s all it was. They thought there was no no, it wasn’t supposed to make you younger or shed those skin wrinkles like in the cartoons and the stories in the songs. It had a lot more to do with sex than anything else. Because the fountain of youth was a legendary stream that could miraculously cured sexual debility. So they were looking for the Viagra of their time. You got it. Who knew? So Ponce de Leon left Puerto Rico went to Florida to find it. He didn’t. But he did find the Gulf Stream. Which, which we know that it was named later by Benjamin Franklin. But yeah, right once he kind of found it because that’s when he sailed back. He came back faster than he found it after Ben. No Marsh, I’m gonna get a few you’re getting into the weeds that are full of reeds because we’re talking about the ocean here. All right, so the fountain of youth was all about sex. It wasn’t about eternal life. Well,

Marcia Smith 2:28
from sex to food, which is a nice combo, actually. What is the famous French chef Alexis Sawyer? So why II are known for?

Bob Smith 2:38
You know, I have to admit, I don’t know. I’ve never heard of Alexis Sawyer. I’ve heard of Chef Boyardee.

Marcia Smith 2:45
Well, that’s really

Bob Smith 2:47
who’s the fella James is James Beard. I’ve heard of him and Julia Child and some of the people we see on TV, but tell me who this person was known for? He’s

Marcia Smith 2:56
not really famous today. I see. So it’s not a surprise. Okay. Center listeners never heard of them. But this Frenchman was the most celebrated chef in Victorian England. So he was French in in England and celebrated all the time. But on the side, he was a very charitable sort, who took great interest in the poor, and particularly the great Irish potato famine. Bottom line on this. He went to Dublin to help and invented what we know today as the soup kitchen. Oh, really. He had a way to feed the starving masses he thought would be with bread and a hearty healthy soup of his own making. So when word went out that older Sawyer was making soup, everybody, because he was a famous chef at the time. Yeah. But to support his project, he wrote cookbooks and pamphlets, because everybody knew his name. And originally it was called the famine soup. And the idea quickly, almost instantly spread around the world and remains sadly to this day. The soup kitchen. Yeah. So one of my takeaways from this story was that his love of cooking and charitable work, is another example how putting your passions or interests together can sometimes result in helping the world with problems. Yeah,

Bob Smith 4:15
really? Yeah. And he was a world famous chef known for great cuisine. Yeah. But he also had compassion for people.

Marcia Smith 4:21
Yeah. Wow. And he put the two together and voila, the soup kitchen.

Bob Smith 4:26
Okay, well, I have a French question since you brought up a French chef. Where does the French word curfew come from? And that’s in the news where we hear there’s a lockdown and people have a curfew to be done at certain times of the day or night? Yeah, I don’t know. It comes from the French Coover a few spelled couvre CLU vre, which means cover the fire. Oh, so originally curfew was the time of the evening when you were required to extinguish fires candles and lamps for safety sake. Didn’t want to have the city burned down because somebody left their candle burning, you know? So that’s how curfew became associated with nights and safety curfew, cover the fire.

Marcia Smith 5:08
Here’s a question from you’re never used Christmas presents the Beatles trivia pursuit what’s

Bob Smith 5:16
my sister got us this.

Marcia Smith 5:17
We talked about it a few

Bob Smith 5:18
years ago and you have as a Beatles a box. It’s a trivial pursuit and I just never thought I could find three or four people to sit down and do it with me. So, okay, it’s in the box, but it’s got great trivia and that’s what Marsha pulls those cards out every once in a while has a question for me. So all right, I am game which Beatle

Marcia Smith 5:37
told the press in early 1969 that The Beatles would be broke in six months if Apple wasn’t streamlined. And Apple was what their company their was it a record company? Well, it was their company. They had music they had a fashion shop where they sold. So we’re not to be confused with Apple Computer quote again, was he told the press that the Beatles would be broken six months if Apple wasn’t streamlined. Now? That’s

Bob Smith 6:03
a good question. I’d say John Lennon but I could say George Harrison too. I’ll say George Harrison. Well,

Marcia Smith 6:09
wrong. John Lennon. He is in the news this birthday week because he would have been

Bob Smith 6:14
80 years old. Very good. That’s amazing. Anna. Yeah.

Marcia Smith 6:18
Imagine. Here’s one more Beatle quickie. What could Paul do with a guitar that none of the members of John’s first band could do?

Bob Smith 6:30
He could play what was the name of that song? It was a song he could play wasn’t it? Nope. Oh, it wasn’t? Nope. There’s something he could do with the guitar. Yeah. And play it behind his back. No, behind his head above his head. Now set it on fire

Marcia Smith 6:43
something very elementary what he could tune.

Bob Smith 6:49
He could tune a guitar in the band. Yeah.

Marcia Smith 6:52
John had a you know, he had that first band. And he hired Paul and they met at the church or something. That’s right. Yeah, it was a church social event. So anyway, happy birthday.

Bob Smith 7:02
But there was a song that that he could play that none of the other band members really? Yeah. That

Marcia Smith 7:08
was Adel aficionado like some people.

Bob Smith 7:10
Are you a pilgrim aficionado.

Marcia Smith 7:12
I am married to you

Bob Smith 7:14
being a person descended from a pilgrim. There’s a shirttail religion. Distinction, isn’t it? But it’s kind of fun. So what favorite beverage did the Pilgrims introduced to America? Coming up the 400th anniversary of the pilgrims landing.

Marcia Smith 7:32
Right. Okay. Yeah, yeah, John. So

Bob Smith 7:34
400 years ago, the Pilgrims landed with this beverage with this beverage? Beer. That’s exactly right. You think of the pilgrims as these pious people and everything. But they brought the first beer. And that’s documented in a 1622 publication mortes relation. Beer was a mainstay of long ship voyages because it was essentially a processed food. So it was safe beer because it had been boiled was purer than water. It was safer to keep on so even the kids drank it. Yeah, even kids drank it. Exactly. And according to that book, mortes relation in 1622, the Pilgrims the Mayflower pilgrims not only brought beer with them, they settled where they did because their supplies, especially beer was running low. They knew they needed something safe to drink. So they stopped in Massachusetts, went to a bar in Boston, no, no. So they went ashore, and they found some fresh water. So you can think that pilgrims for bringing beer to America. And if that doesn’t impress you, you can also thank them for America’s first college first bookstore and the first newspaper The Pilgrims found it all of those two, what was the first column? I don’t know? Was it William and Mary or was it Yale? Or was it? No was what’s coming

Marcia Smith 8:45
up on one of my questions. Here’s an interesting factoid before I move on. Okay. In the 17th century, it was the opinion of many scientists that migratory birds left the colder climates to spend winter on the moon.

Bob Smith 9:02
When was this in the 17th century? You gotta be kidding. So about the same time as the Pilgrims left Europe the the scientists were saying that migratory birds left warmer climates no letter called client or left colds go to the moon. Yeah, in the wintertime. Yeah. Oh, that’s very, very strange. It is. But

Marcia Smith 9:22
why do we often call the conclusion of anything? The bitter end?

Bob Smith 9:28
is probably the end of something you would drink and in the bottom of the glass, it’s bitter. You have some bitters or bitter? Yeah. Would that be some kind of beer also? No.

Marcia Smith 9:39
And it was my first thought also, but this actually ties into your theory about so many phrases that come to us from the nautical world. Okay. Yeah, I mean, bitter does mean sour and or distasteful, right but in the nautical world, bitter means the posts on the ship’s deck where cables and ropes are wound in tide. So when they’re securing a ship to the dock or while at anchor, the very end of the rope or cable holding the vessel secure is called the bitter end.

Bob Smith 10:09
Yeah, no kidding. Yeah, I had no – I never heard that when

Marcia Smith 10:14
but me either. And I know you always find so many things that come from there are many, many nautical terms here

Bob Smith 10:18
You’re right. It’s fascinating. Okay. What famous rock and roll song by Elvis Presley was written by a high school English teacher.

Marcia Smith 10:28
Really? Yeah. Well, I I know a lot of Elvis trivia. And I never heard this one.

Bob Smith 10:37
So you come to me with Beatles I come to you with Elvis.

Marcia Smith 10:40
I’ll just say wear my ring around your neck or long tall Sally. Or

Bob Smith 10:48
or, or why would you say any of those?

Marcia Smith 10:51
I’m just thinking of high school mindset long tall Sally.

Bob Smith 10:55
But this has nothing to do with high school.

Marcia Smith 10:58
Okay, go ahead. What is it? Heartbreak Hotel how that’s a good one, too.

Bob Smith 11:01
Now that was written by May Boren Axton. She was in her late 30s or early 40s. She was actually a journalism degree major from the University of Oklahoma. But then when her husband John Axton, an Army officer was stationed in Jacksonville, they moved there in 1949. She taught at three high schools in Jacksonville, and she started writing songs now. In 1955. She and musician Tommy Durden wrote Heartbreak Hotel, he had started the song after reading a Miami Herald story about a man who killed himself. He left behind a note Oh, I walk a lonely Street. Ah, he brought that to her and she said, there should be a Heartbreak Hotel at the end of that lonely Street and that’s the song was born like probably one of the greatest rock songs of all time. Now, not only did she write that song, she introduced 19 year old Elvis Presley to Tom Parker, his manager, Colonel Colonel Tom after performance in Jacksonville, and she actually helped promote Elvis and she worked with all kinds of artists hope she got some bucks for that she wrote 200 rock’n’roll songs freely 200 And guess baby love me exactly. Find a new place didn’t dwell DVD. Guess who her son was? I give up. Hoyt Axton was me born accidents son, and he wrote greenback dollar for the Kingston Trio. He wrote the pusher for Steppenwolf. He wrote Joy to the world. Remember, Jeremiah was a bullfrog. He wrote that song. So he had great success as a singer, actor and TV performer too. So two very talented people mother and son both talents in the music business. But the think that Heartbreak Hotel was written by a high school English teacher. I just thought that was so strange.

Marcia Smith 12:43
Yeah, that’s true. Touching to this story story behind Well, at

Bob Smith 12:47
the end of that lonely street,

Marcia Smith 12:48
there should be a Heartbreak Hotel. Well, here’s an old riddle. And if you remember it, then just tell me and I’ll stop, okay? A man is driving in his car when he comes upon an automobile accident. Since he is a doctor, he stops to help and discover to his horror that the injured person is his own son. Does this sound familiar? No. Okay. He rushes the son to the hospital where the boy is taken into surgery. And the surgeon enters looks at the boy and exclaims I cannot operate on him. He’s my son. How can this be

Bob Smith 13:26
that when I don’t understand, the doctor goes and finds the son. His son had an accident. Yeah. Then he takes him to the hospital and the doctor there says I can’t operate on him. He’s my son.

Marcia Smith 13:38
That surgeon says that Lurtz

Bob Smith 13:40
once somebody’s a liar Marsh, that’s the answer. No.

Marcia Smith 13:43
Somebody hasn’t moved along with the times. I thought after 30 years ago, I got this wrong. I’ve come a long way. But apparently you haven’t. Tell me. His mother was the surgeon. Oh, it was a mother and father. Okay. Of course. Isn’t that interesting? Yeah. You

Bob Smith 13:59
think of two men? Yeah, yeah. Wow. That shows bias. Yeah, a lot of bias there. That’s shame on me. Shame on me. Yes, indeed. Okay, let’s take a break. We’ll be back with more of the off ramp and just a moment with Bob

Marcia Smith 14:13
and Marsha Smith.

Bob Smith 14:16
You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marsha Smith. Marsha, I have a question for you. One architectural house feature seems to be making a comeback in America. What is it? What architectural house feature is making a comeback in America with new houses?

Marcia Smith 14:34
They dormer know the family room know the rec room? No. I don’t know the front porch. Oh, of course. I love front porches. According

Bob Smith 14:44
to The Wall Street Journal, the front porch is enjoying a new golden age, especially during the pandemic. Because it’s a place where friends and neighbors can gather gossip they walked by flirt, you know they can do anything without worrying too much about virus transmit I

Marcia Smith 15:00
love sitting on our front porch around before dinner and people come by and talk to me. It’s wonderful.

Bob Smith 15:05
In the word of Claude Stevens, the front porch is the only place where you can feel like you’re outside and inside at the same time out with all the neighbors or alone reading a book. And I didn’t realize this but the front porch is uniquely American. Really, Europe depended on town squares and sidewalk cafes for their Casual Encounters. But starting in the 19th century, every respectable house in the US was built with a front porch. All the rich people’s houses were built with front porches and the poor people started adding theirs. Well, good for them. There was one homestyle that nearly killed the front porch in our lifetime. What was that homestead? Torian? No, the No no, in our lifetime. Oh, salt, the saltbox know, the Ranch House, the Ranch House craze of the 1950s. For example, almost none of those 2000 homes in the famous Levittown subdivision, had a front porch. Yeah, they got the patio and they can trace the front porches return to a 1960s book called The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Jane Jacobs argued that eyes on the streets and butts on the porch kept neighborhoods safer. How you bet so by 1955 42% of new homes were being built with front porches 10 years later that had risen to 52. Today, 65% of new US homes are being built with front porches and guess what, they can be a good investment. If you add a new front porch might set you back $20,000 or more. But no matter what it costs to study shows you can recoup 90% or more of the investment for a front porch at resale. I believe that that’s excellent. Yeah. So very interesting things a front porch it comes from the Forgotten front porch is making a comeback that was in the Wall Street Journal in September.

Marcia Smith 16:49
All right. Why do we say that takes the cake when something is done surprisingly well. That

Bob Smith 16:55
takes the cake because that’s what we want. We want cake Marsha America wants cake. Anywhere people want cake. It’s not just America, people anywhere in the world. I don’t know the answer. Okay.

Marcia Smith 17:06
Yeah, African Americans came up with this, of the old South highlighted their social season with a dancing contest called the Cakewalk that contestants often practice for months that included couples of all ages. And the prize was a huge cake, which was set in the center of the hall, around the dancers. And they all exhibited their skills, a panel of judges would watch the innovative dancers until a winner was chosen. Who would then obviously,

Bob Smith 17:37
that takes the cake. There you go.

Marcia Smith 17:39
There you go. Well, I

Bob Smith 17:40
have heard about that, that yeah, the Cakewalk was a big cultural thing. And in a lot of communities, especially in African American communities. Interesting.

Marcia Smith 17:47
I used to love as a little girl the Cakewalk at the May Festival at Garden homeschool. And you just walk around and it’s like musical chairs. Yeah, right. There were numbers. And if you Oh, I would just be over the moon if I want to take it home to my parents.

Bob Smith 18:05
Speaking of eating, I’ve got an eating question. Oh, that’s wonderful. Okay, here’s what it is Marsh, pay attention now. What famous restaurant got its name from the way its customers ate their food. Say it again. What famous restaurant got its name from the way customers ate their food.

Marcia Smith 18:23
Ah, this is in America. Yeah, that’s all over

Bob Smith 18:27
the world. And you might not think of it as a restaurant. It’s a place to eat though.

Marcia Smith 18:30
Well,

Bob Smith 18:32
can it out? No. There you go. Well, that’s kind of good. That’s a good idea.

Marcia Smith 18:36
I don’t know. Dunkin Donuts. Really? Yeah.

Bob Smith 18:39
During World War Two, William Rosenberg of Quincy, Massachusetts. He worked at a shipyard and he and his fellow shipyard workers were frustrated by the limited lunch options they had. Yeah, so he borrowed $1,000 and he bought a snack truck and he named the snack truck industrial luncheon services. That’s what have a lot of panache. Actually, it’s funny industrial luncheon services. They sold sandwiches, coffee snacks and gone at doughnuts now. He noticed the coffee and donuts made up to 50% of their sales. Yeah, so he opened up a second location. He called that the open kettle. But he kept watching people. He noticed they were dunking their doughnuts in his coffee. So he changed the name to Dunkin Donuts that started in 1950. The original restaurant is still there in Quincy, Massachusetts, but they’re all over the world. Gracie was

Marcia Smith 19:30
observing his customers right havior

Bob Smith 19:32
a good entrepreneurs always looking at what the customers are doing and how they’re using the product.

Marcia Smith 19:37
Yeah, I love it. Okay. In 1776, William and Mary College established the first one.

Bob Smith 19:45
Well, that was the college I thought maybe the Pilgrims establish they were in the marriage. This was the second College.

Marcia Smith 19:50
Can you give me any clues as he would say? Well, it’s something we still have today. Harvard and Yale followed suit years later, but they weren’t born

Bob Smith 19:59
Oh, no, that’s not it isn’t now. Okay. The first college bookstore. dorm rooms? No,

Marcia Smith 20:06
it’s the first scholarship fraternity known as Phi Beta Kappa. It was founded by the original 50 members of William and Mary. And three years later, Harvard and Yale did the same. Here’s a bonus question. Okay, who were William and Mary?

Bob Smith 20:24
That was king and queen, wasn’t it? Yeah.

Marcia Smith 20:28
Okay. Yeah. King William the third and Queen Mary the second. It was founded in 1693, and is the second oldest institution in the US. Harvard was the first

Bob Smith 20:39
Okay, so Harvard was for pilgrims, right. I’ll be doing okay. Well, now we have the answer. Okay. Okay. We always think of Charles Goodyear as a person who invented rubber. But was he a chemist? Yes. No, he wasn’t. I was so emphatic. He was a business failure,

Marcia Smith 20:59
as many of us are, in fact, he

Bob Smith 21:01
was once sent to prison for debt. So he decided if he could find a way to do something that he can improve it, it would improve his fortunes. And so rubber was the thing. That discovery was an accident, he spilled his mixture of chemicals on a hot stove. Unfortunately, the patent he filed in 1844 was for vulcanized rubber for a very simple process, and many people stole it, it cost him his fortune, the infringement on his patents and when he died in 1860, he was more in debt than ever, going hundreds of 1000s of dollars

Marcia Smith 21:30
always happens. That’s a shame. Okay, okay. years ago, Bob. Yes, this cream was sold in pharmacies and was called Dr. buntings, sunburn cream,

Bob Smith 21:42
that your buntings sunburn cream.

Marcia Smith 21:45
What do they call it today? Still in drugstores today. That’s why I said what do

Bob Smith 21:49
we call it today? Okay, so is it? Not Noxema? Is it or something like yeah, okay.

Marcia Smith 21:55
They said it could knock excema

Bob Smith 21:58
Oh, knock excema. Yes, knock excema. Oh, that was part of their advertising

Marcia Smith 22:02
And then soon after it become, it became Noxema. I’ll be darned. And that’s how it was from an advertising campaign that they use. Then they thought, well, let’s let’s make it more interesting and nobody cares about Dr. Bunting anyway.

Bob Smith 22:17
Was Dr. Bunting. Does it sound right? So it was like an old patent medicine at the time? Yeah. Okay. Marcia, why was the name of the first man to set foot on Antarctica? Unknown for 134 years?

Marcia Smith 22:32
Ah, he froze to death up there. Well, I

Bob Smith 22:37
think I think that’s what happened. Yeah. The log of the ship he sailed in, and presumably the man himself were lost in Antarctica. The man’s name was John Davis. He was an American sealer, he hunted seals. And he set foot on Antarctica on February 7 1821. Why do we know this? It was in a logbook of the ship, which was found in 1955.

Marcia Smith 23:01
How many years transpired? 134 years? Yeah,

Bob Smith 23:05
from 1821 to 1955. Okay, I’ve got another one here. Now let me ask you this question. This is names business names you get we’ve done two of them. So far, we did Noxema. And we did Dunkin Donuts. What famous pharmacy chain never sold a drug until its fifth year in business. And what does its name mean? Two questions Marsh – easy

Marcia Smith 23:32
Walgreens, no. CVS, CVS,

Bob Smith 23:37
CVS, and what does it stand for? Since they didn’t sell any drugs there for the first five, yeah, what what it is it was consumer value stores real it was the name 1963 Brothers Stanley and Sidney Goldstein and their business partner Ralph Hoagland. They open the first consumer value stores with health and beauty items in Lowell, Massachusetts. And the very next year, it opened 17 stores and it added a little CVS shield the initials inside a shield, next to the words consumer value store. And then in its fifth year of business, it added its first pharmacy today it’s got 9900 retail locations. So that’s what CVS stands for consumer value stores.

Marcia Smith 24:24
I would have never guessed that.

Bob Smith 24:25
I do have another name of a chain I’m going to ask you about okay, go ahead. Okay. Famous grocery store chain. It’s predominantly in the south. But what grocery stores chain was inspired by a train slowing down next to a farmer’s field. I’d never heard the story before.

Marcia Smith 24:41
How it’s not Piggly Wiggly. Yes, it

Bob Smith 24:43
is. Is it? Yeah. They started in Memphis. Now I’ve always known that Piggly Wiggly was the first self serve. grocery store. You know, before that you had to go in and talk to the grocer and ask for things. I’d like that up there on the shelf. Well in 1916 In Clarence Saunders he was a young wholesale food salesman and he was returning home to Tennessee from Indiana. And on the train home, the train slowed down next to a farm and he saw a sow standing in the field surrounded by six feeding piglets, and they weren’t serving themselves dinner, right? Because Mama was just saying that’s how he got the idea. He thought, why not let human customers serve themselves. So he called it Piggly Wiggly. He just because that was the inspiration. I mean, that’s there’s a patent for the first floor plan. You go inside and where everything was. He came up with that in 1917. It was a huge success. People just go in and pick whatever they want to do off the shelves. Didn’t have to stand in line waiting for a grocer to go to the back room to get what they want it. Wow.

Marcia Smith 25:45
That’s amazing. That that’s how it came about. Yeah.

Bob Smith 25:48
What you got there.

Marcia Smith 25:49
Okay, Bob, why did we say that the person in charge, quote calls the shots.

Bob Smith 25:55
Hmm. Why the person in charge calls the shots. Can you give me any hint as to where this came from? Did it come from a business realm or a military round game? Or came from a game? The person in charge calls the shots? Something to do with guns? I take it no, no, not. Okay. What poor? Oh, really? Yes, yeah.

Marcia Smith 26:18
Calling the shots means being in control or taking responsibility for critical decisions. The expression comes from a form of billiards. In the game of straight pool the person shooting is required to specify both the ball he or she intends to strike and the specific pocket it’s gonna land. Oh, yeah, calling the shots now in the mid 20th century, calling the shots moved out of the smoky pool hall and into everyday usage. So it’s not that hasn’t been around in the regular vernacular that long I thought had been around for years. Yeah, well, it was in pool halls, but not till the mid century. Did we put it elsewhere? Okay, Bob, I’m going to end with a quote. A fence around a cemetery as foolish, says Arthur Brisbane, for those inside can’t come out and those outside don’t want to get in no

Bob Smith 27:09
way. Nobody wants to go there. Okay, well, let’s not go there for a while anyway. Yeah. Okay, I guess that’s it for now. This fall edition of the off ramp with Bob and Marsha Smith. Join us again next time. We’ll have some more fun. Bye. Bye. Bye. Can you see us waving we’re waving, waving here.

The off ramp is produced in association with CPL radio and the Cedarbrook Public Library Cedarburg, Wisconsin.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai