When was the first published reference to a video call? You’ll be surprised! And who has won more Academy Awards than anyone else? Hear the answers on The Off Ramp with Bob & Marcia Smith. (Photo: JibJab)
Bob and Marcia Smith discussed the history of video calls, from their first published description in 1925 to modern-day use. They also explored various fascinating worlds, including the largest natural pearl, Buzz Aldrin’s achievements, and their anniversary plans. Marcia was intrigued by the origins of junk mail and shared interesting facts with Bob, while Bob was captivated by Aldrin’s experiences in space. Both expressed enthusiasm for expensive food options, including a cheesecake from a high-end restaurant in New York City and a pizza infused with edible gold flakes.
Outline
Video calls, Academy Awards, and movie history.
- Walt Disney won the most Academy Awards (26) in a single person’s lifetime.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the history of video calls, including a 1925 silent movie featuring a videophone invention.
Space exploration, history, and interesting facts.
- Marcia and Bob discuss a 75-pound pearl found by a Philippine fisherman worth $100 million, and the history of Vicks Vapor Rub and its role in creating junk mail.
- Bob shares a quote from an unknown source, “We explore or we expire,” and Marcia agrees with the sentiment.
- Buzz Aldrin is still going strong at 90, with a laundry list of accomplishments including taking the first selfie in space and walking on the moon.
- Before joining Neil Armstrong on the moon’s surface, Buzz Aldrin had to make sure he didn’t pull the lunar module’s door shut, as there was no exterior door handle, and they could have been locked out.
Expensive food options in New York City.
- Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss the cost of food in New York City, including a $4,592 cheesecake and a $2,700 pizza.
- Marcia Smith is skeptical of the expensive ingredients in the food, including gold flakes and black squid ink.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the cost of various pizza toppings, including Stilton cheese from the UK and 24K gold leaf.
- Bob shares that video calls were first tested in the 1930s, with the first practical video phones featured at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York.
Coffee culture, astronomy, and video conferencing technology.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the oldest known living land animal, Jonathan the tortoise, who is 187 years old and lives in Seychelles.
- Astronomers have named the color of all light in the universe “cosmic latte,” inspired by their need for caffeine to stay alert while doing their jobs.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the evolution of video conferencing technology, including early attempts by AT&T in the 1970s and the first commercially successful product introduced in 1972 by Compression Labs.
- Technology has evolved over the last 15-20 years, with advancements in laptops and phones making video conferencing more accessible and widespread.
Politics, digestion, and video calls.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the origins of political terms “left” and “right,” tracing them back to 17th-century France.
- Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss the length of intestines, with Marcia estimating 20 feet for the small intestine and 5 feet for the large intestine, and Bob providing the actual length of 26 feet for the small intestine and 25 feet for the large intestine.
- Bob Smith incorrectly states that the term “myriad” means 10,000, while Marcia corrects him that it means exactly 10,000, as per its Greek root.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discussed the history of video calls, including the first modern movie to feature a video call (Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”) and the recent adoption of video calls during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Marcia Smith shared a quote about acceptance healing everything, and Bob Smith thanked listeners for tuning in and invited them to join the show again next time.
Marcia Smith 0:00
When was the first published reference to a video call? And who has won more Academy Awards than anyone else?
Bob Smith 0:09
answers to those and other questions coming up in this edition of the off ramp with Bob and Marsha Smith?
Welcome to the off ramp a chance to slow down steer clear of crazy. Take a side road to sanity and enjoy life with some trivia. I’m Bob Smith.
Marcia Smith 0:42
I’m Marcia Smith. And
Bob Smith 0:43
we’ve got some good questions for you today.
Marcia Smith 0:45
That will be the judge of well,
Bob Smith 0:46
yes, they will. But okay,
Marcia Smith 0:48
just saying she’s got to sell it, Marty.
Bob Smith 0:49
Yeah,
Marcia Smith 0:50
that’s me a salesman? Yeah. Movies. We love them, don’t we? And you even participate in the Screen Actors Guild Award show. We get a lot of free movies. Because yes,
Bob Smith 1:01
because that’s right. It’s our film festival.
Marcia Smith 1:04
Yes. Just
Bob Smith 1:05
from being in the Screen Actors Guild. Union. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 1:09
Congrats.
Bob Smith 1:09
You’ve given away our secret. Now. We’re gonna have people here all the time. January we do
Marcia Smith 1:14
get popular in January for a brief moment in time and then me. Okay. All right. So the question is Bob, who has won the most Oscars ever in their lifetime? So it’s not an actor’s not an
Bob Smith 1:26
actor in their lifetime? I thought it was the Walt Disney Studios. I thought that they won more awards over time than anyone else. What’s the answer? Well,
Marcia Smith 1:35
you were verging on right. But the answer is a person, not a studio or anything. It was Walt Disney. It
Bob Smith 1:42
was Walt Disney. Okay, well, there’s a technicality. Well, no, he
Marcia Smith 1:46
won him. He won 26 Academy Awards. 26 Between the years 1932 and 1969. I’ll bet you know the 1932 one.
Bob Smith 1:56
I think that was for one of his early animated cartoons with music. Yeah. The silly symphonies in the answer, I think was flowers and trees. Wow,
Marcia Smith 2:06
bravo. But you know, the last one, no, 1869 He died in 68. But this movie was done in up and so he won the Academy Award.
Bob Smith 2:16
I bet it was. No, I was thinking of Mary Poppins with that roundabout. And then what
Marcia Smith 2:20
was it? No. It was Winnie the Pooh and the blustery day. Oh,
Bob Smith 2:25
another another animated film? Yeah, yeah.
Marcia Smith 2:27
26 Academy Awards. Go, Walt. All right. Well, they
Bob Smith 2:32
certainly deserve them. Oh, he
Marcia Smith 2:34
does. Okay,
Bob Smith 2:35
Marcia, with COVID We take a lot of video because a lot of people are using video calls these days be the Zoom calls, Skype calls or Microsoft Teams calls. We take them for granted. We’re getting used to seeing the people we talk to on a screen. But when was the first printed description of a video call?
Marcia Smith 2:54
I bet it’s really Oh, I bet it’s like George Orwell or something?
Bob Smith 2:58
Well, tell me the answer. George Orwell. No, it’s even before him. I’m gonna read you this description. And you tell me when this was published. Okay. before very long when the telephone call comes there will appear with it the face of the person who was talking now. They claimed it would make it unnecessary for many people to travel to and from work at all. Wow, about that. Wow. When was that published? That was a prediction. Tell me Give me a year.
Marcia Smith 3:27
Okay. I’ll say 1940 1912
Bob Smith 3:32
Oh my gosh. Isn’t that amazing? That was in Cassius magazine, which was an engineering journal. Oh, I
Marcia Smith 3:37
used to read that. No, you
Bob Smith 3:39
read call yours. Another question of videos. Okay. And pop culture. When did the movies first feature video phone calls? Oh,
Marcia Smith 3:48
I bet you that was a some kind of futuristic movie back in those goofy black and white. So far, so good. Okay, and so tell me
Bob Smith 3:56
it was a silent movie. Yeah. 1925 Yeah, movie called up the ladder. It was about the fictitious videophone inventor who was cheating on his wife with her best friend. Well, one day his wife called your best friend on what was called a tele vision phone, really? And guess what, what her husband was there. He raced out of the frame, but he sat near a mirror which accidentally showed him on screen exposing the affair.
Marcia Smith 4:23
It’s not a bad platform it today.
Bob Smith 4:27
That was 1925 a film called up the ladder and that was before video phone calls actually existed. Wow.
Marcia Smith 4:34
Wow. That’s fascinating. All right, Bob. How heavy is the biggest natural Pearl clam Pearl ever found?
Bob Smith 4:42
Wow. That’s right. Because pearls are formed by those clams. Yeah. How big was it in terms of pounds? Just saying three pounds. That seems awful big.
Marcia Smith 4:52
Yeah, it does. And this one was 75 pounds. 75 pounds. Honestly got this was a Philippine fishermen. In 2006 Wow. And he didn’t know that it was worth a lot of money, like $100 million. Mike. So what did he do? It’s two feet long minute. He brought this thing up you Bali was fishing. And so he kept it under his bed for good luck for 10 years, because he had never seen anything like it. And then now, he brought it in somewhere and someone said, Oh, that’s worth a lot of money. Wow. And they never tell his name because I’m sure he’d be paged on the Philippine
Bob Smith 5:32
fishermen and 75 pounds How did he bring it out of the water? Well, I
Marcia Smith 5:37
don’t know that either. Think about that.
Bob Smith 5:39
Have get a Craner said.
Marcia Smith 5:40
Wow, just think of all the earrings. You can get guys that Holy moly.
Bob Smith 5:45
Okay. I’ve got a history question. What famous over the counter drug product is responsible for junk mail? What famous over the counter drug product is responsible for junk mail? Well,
Marcia Smith 5:58
I’ll try to think of some old product that’s been around. It’s still here. People still. I mean, and I’ll just say aspirin.
Bob Smith 6:06
Nope. I’ll give you a hint. Mother probably rubbed it on your chest. A big staple rib? Yes. And the reason was a mass mailing campaign that Lunsford Richardson its creator developed Richardson created Vicks Vapor Rub during a menthol craze that swept America following the introduction of Ben gay muscle bomb in 1898. Isn’t that amazing? He created advertisements with coupons that can be redeemed for a trial jar. Now here’s how they invented junk mail. He convinced the post office to let him do something unprecedented. Address the coupons merely to an occupant or box holder as friend Yes. Rather than to the specific individuals living there and thus junkmail was born. Isn’t
Marcia Smith 6:50
that interesting? Wow. Okay, Bob. Yes. Who said we explore or we expire? We explore or we expand, lived up to that quote,
Bob Smith 7:01
did he die? Nope. Oh, he’s still alive here. Oh, how clever that was. Always think of somebody like Carl Sagan or somebody like that. Yeah, but no, who is it?
Marcia Smith 7:12
It’s Buzz Aldrin. Buzz Aldrin is still he’s still going strong at age 90. And a couple things about all buzz he got his name from his sister who mispronounced brother as buzzer
Bob Smith 7:26
I heard that. Yes. Buzzer so they just stopped could started calling him but
Marcia Smith 7:30
yeah, that’s how he got his name. Okay. Anyway, this guy’s got a laundry list of accomplishments, including taking the first selfie and space before he moved. Walked down the moon. He took a selfie in space in 1966 when he was tethered to the Gemini. Do you remember that picture? Yes, he’s up there and floating around scares you have to death at 86 He was the oldest person to visit the north and south poles. And he dived into the wreck of the Titanic. Oh, I didn’t know that. Yeah, I mean, it just always like he’s always doing accelerating things that you and I wouldn’t dream of. And as an interesting aside, but he was right after Armstrong. He followed Armstrong onto the moon. They were both up there bouncing around. Right. And as an interesting aside, his mother’s maiden name was moon. That’s right.
Bob Smith 8:21
I read that too. Well, I
Marcia Smith 8:22
told you that once. No, I did read that. Yeah. Isn’t that
Bob Smith 8:26
cute? You know, it’s fascinating. Here we are again, Marsh. I have a Buzz Aldrin question for you today. No, I do. Yeah. So it’s another fascinating fact about the Apollo 11 astronauts first man on the moon. What did Buzz Aldrin have to make sure he didn’t do just before he joined Neil Armstrong on the surface of the moon? What did buzz Armstrong have to make sure he
Marcia Smith 8:48
didn’t do Wow. Well, there’s that give me you have to narrow
Bob Smith 8:52
it had something to do with the space capsule actually the lunar lander well, he had
Marcia Smith 8:56
to put it in park. Well, but imagine he went off
Bob Smith 9:00
it was it was so stationary it had landed when you went out and then buzz was gonna go up. But before he went out he had to make sure he didn’t tell me he didn’t pull the door shut because there’s no way to get in.
Marcia Smith 9:14
Oh my God in heaven. The
Bob Smith 9:15
designers did not put a door handle on the lunar module no exterior door handle stupid so they could have been locked out and which would have been a disastrous they would have died in our
Marcia Smith 9:27
mission control could have opened it. No, no way. Oh, see? Wow, that is a flaw.
Bob Smith 9:32
And again, if that sounds crude for a nation that was able to launch those men into space, always remember NASA landed Apollo 11 on the moon with computers that had less processing power than your cell phone. Oh,
Marcia Smith 9:42
a lot less a lot less. It’s amazing. Little duct tape here and a little oil there. Okay, let’s talk food. Our anniversary is coming up up. Oh, yeah. And I’m thinking cheesecake. Okay. In New York City, there is a restaurant On called restaurant a rough LA. Okay, take a guess how much some cheesecake for dessert would set us back there approximately I
Bob Smith 10:09
imagine that’s pretty expensive. It sounds Raphael it sounds like it’s a big famous restaurant. So I would say you know, maybe $100
Marcia Smith 10:15
for some cheesecake. Yeah. Is that what you say? Well, how about $4,592?
Bob Smith 10:21
In this cheese game? It’s not just cheese. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 10:26
No, it’s, I happen to know the answer. Okay, it’s comprised of buffalo ricotta, white truffles, ground hazelnuts, velvet, like melted milk chocolate, which could be just a Hershey bar. But to a 200 year old cognac.
Bob Smith 10:43
Oh my goodness, man. 100 year old Konya. That’s the price Madagascar
Marcia Smith 10:47
and vanilla gold leaf, little gold leaf. And a fresh block of Honeycomb. It’s really ugly to look at. It’s just a little round, sir. I
Bob Smith 10:57
just want to know what buffalo ricotta?
Marcia Smith 10:59
I have no idea. Exotic cheese from cheddar. Cheese ricotta cheese. Wild Wings are awful. Anyway, that’s it. How much $4,592 200 year
Bob Smith 11:12
old cognac? Yeah. Why would you have that in your cheesecake? You should be drinking that after dinner.
Marcia Smith 11:19
Can I follow up? Yeah, sure. Well, because that it costs so much for dinner. We’ll have to go for pizza right? But if we just skip across town Duke place called industry kitchen. This is in New York in New York City. Same place. How much would you pay for a little pizza pie?
Bob Smith 11:36
Wow. All right, these prices. Alright, so if you bought a piece this is cheesecake was how much
Marcia Smith 11:42
was that? 4592 Oh, man, that’s too rich. For me. These are the most expensive prices in the world. Okay, they’re both in New York City
Bob Smith 11:52
pizza. Let’s bring that down to only like a $500 dinner for pizza. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 11:57
it does come down. But it’s down to $2,700 Cheaper a little pie.
Bob Smith 12:02
Oh my goodness, that pie that’s not carry up prices. I mean, you actually get
Marcia Smith 12:08
the pie is called it has a name. It’s called the 24k. And that’s because the crust of this international sensation is infused with Indian Black Squid ink. sprinkled with Ecuadorian gold flakes. Here
Bob Smith 12:24
we go again with the golden food. Why would I have that in my food? It’s
Marcia Smith 12:27
toppings and now that’s just that’s the crust right? Gold going in your crust? Yes. Apparently it’s edible and gold has cachet. I didn’t know I don’t believe it’s probably tasty. But what do I nutritious? It’s, it goes up my finger before it goes in my mouth. It’s tappings at its this pizza topping includes Stilton Stilton from the UK. It’s called Stilton. Cheers. Oh, sorry. It’s tappings featured Stilton cheese from the UK, which is personally one of my favorite really. French folk fall for gras French for black truffles are sutra and almost caviar from the Caspian Sea and 24k gold leaf over the
Bob Smith 13:16
top again, gold on the food what the heck’s this?
Marcia Smith 13:19
Just so you know, if we’re gonna order one, you got to place it two days ahead because it takes some getting all those ingredients together. Instead
Bob Smith 13:28
of wanting to eat these things want me to be on a diet where I save money?
Marcia Smith 13:31
So if we had both those things, we’re talking 4000 5006 over $7,000 for pizza and a cheesecake.
Bob Smith 13:38
just astounding. And I’m
Marcia Smith 13:42
amazed that this the most expensive prices are for those two things anyway are in New York City. Oh, yeah. Okay. All right.
Bob Smith 13:49
I’m gonna go back to video calls again cuz you don’t we’re still talking. You know, we’re doing zoom calls. So when did companies first began testing audio video calls? Now this stuff that we’re all taking for granted now on our laptops and desktops? When did companies begin testing calls? This is a TN t it started it okay. 1935 no older than that. 100 years ago, in 1920s in the AT and T Labs. That’s when a TNT began testing a technology called the icono phone like an icon icon a phone on local telephone lines in New York City. It had two way audio and partial video. But when did it display its first video phone prototype in public? What year? It was at a World’s Fair. Okay.
Marcia Smith 14:37
Was it the Chicago? Yeah, really? Okay. Was 1932 Okay.
Bob Smith 14:45
All right now to go on from that what World’s Fair feature the first practical video phones This is the one we remember. New York what year? I don’t know. 1964. Okay, that’s when they installed picture phone booths in Chicago ,New York and Washington so people could talk to each other at the fair. The video calls cost 16 to $27. A minute. How successful was it March? Not to really, in the first six months after the fair, big splash at the fair, I remember see it on TV. A total of 71 people tried, really, they subscribed. Five years later in 1969. Three people paid to use it. And in 1970, no one paid really not one person thought a video call was worth it. Of course, the chicken and egg problem you gotta
Marcia Smith 15:34
have someone to call that has it? Nobody had it. That’s very fun. All right. Now, what’s your question? Marsh? Jonathan is 187 years old? What? Who is he?
Bob Smith 15:45
He’s a turtle? Oh, very good, right? I just assumed it was he’s a
Marcia Smith 15:49
tortoise. It’s, and he is living in Africa in a place called Seychellois. This tortoise Jonathan is called is the oldest known living land animal. Well entered in 87. Can you tell how old the tortoise is? I wonder I don’t think it’s the rings you can I was gonna say you don’t kind of got
Bob Smith 16:09
there. I’m open and see how many rings or I don’t know how they know. All right. Going along with your food questions. All right, somewhat. How has how has coffee culture influenced what astronomers are naming things? Any idea?
Marcia Smith 16:24
I’m thinking I’m thinking the coffee. Now
Bob Smith 16:26
astronomers like the rest of us say sometimes I have to drink coffee, a lot of coffee to stay alert doing their jobs. Recently, they announced the name of something. Astronomers at John Hopkins University announced that the color of all the light in the universe is beige. They refer to the color of the universe not as beige but cosmic latte. cosmic light, all light in the universe is cosmic latte. Somebody’s drinking too much coffee over there.
Marcia Smith 16:53
coffee houses. Did you know they were all the rage in England, London in the mid 1800s. But mostly it was the scientists and the cerebral types who like to sit around in those places. They’re rich and all those people had their clubs. But the scientists, coffee houses. Yeah, they rejected the clubby was because they were actually working. That’s a risk. That is correct. Going back, let’s
Bob Smith 17:18
take a break and we’ll be back in just a moment with more on the off to Marsha, Marsha. Marsha, we’re stopping now. We’re gonna take a break. We’ll be back with more of the off ramp in just a moment. I’m Bob Smith. I’m Marcia Smith. Join us with more of the off ramp in just a moment. All right, we’re back. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob Smith.
Marcia Smith 17:37
And Marcia Smith. All right,
Bob Smith 17:39
you’ve got a question there. You were just dying to ask me and I interrupted you.
Marcia Smith 17:43
And let’s go back to movies. Okay. Named the highest grossing single animated movie of all time. The
Bob Smith 17:53
highest grossing animated movie to date? I think it’s the frozen isn’t it? One of the Disney films one or two? Well, I’ll say frozen to Yes, it replaced
Marcia Smith 18:06
frozen was number one and then frozen two came out. So
Bob Smith 18:10
frozen one was frozen in time frozen two came replaced it and what did it rake in to date
Marcia Smith 18:16
it has made $1,324,788,837
Bob Smith 18:24
Now that that a billion dollars would have been the entire movie industry not that long ago in terms of income. Yeah, one movie. Yeah. And that’s because of all the different ways it can be seen, again, a
Marcia Smith 18:34
Disney film. And just as an aside, frozen one was also the first film with a female director to ever gross $1 billion.
Bob Smith 18:43
Wow. So okay, I’ve got some more prices here that probably deterred people from using video call technology. You might find this interesting. So they kept trying at&t did back in the 70s. In Pittsburgh in 1972. After a year and a half, again, dismal numbers, only eight households adopted that they were willing to pay $160 A month only eight households. That is they all call each other. Yeah, like apparently in Chicago. $75 a month, but only 46. Homes kept one. So corporations were among the few that adopted the technology. And that was to help people attend meetings and meet with their colleagues without traveling and saving money. So now when was the first commercially successful video conferencing product introduced something you could buy?
Marcia Smith 19:31
He mean, like for companies 19 7219 8208
Bob Smith 19:35
It was a company called compression labs. The price was $250,000 plus $1,000 An hour line rentals, which is a lot of money, but actually corporations who bought it saved more than that in travel costs. You know, they set up rooms back in the early 90s. Rockwell did that when I was there. And we set up video conferencing rooms in Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan where we had technology centers and I had Write a brochure explaining what this technology was and how it worked. Do you remember the headline? How can you be in two places at once? Had to use that to explain to people what’s the stuff? I remember that that was 92. And Rockwell kept using that service, which saved a lot of travel expense until the technologies came online for laptops and phones, anyway. Okay, just interesting how this technology we use today has been evolving and getting quickly over the last 1520 years. Yeah. Couple
Marcia Smith 20:29
of quick
Bob Smith 20:30
political questions. Okay.
Marcia Smith 20:32
Why is political favoritism called pork barrel politics,
Bob Smith 20:37
pork barrel politics, it must have something to do with agriculture. Well,
Marcia Smith 20:41
long before refrigeration, North American farmers kept supplies of salt, pork stored and barrels, and the amount of meat on hand indicated the family’s prosperity more pork more, more money ahead. Okay, if the barrel was low on pork, it meant the possibility of disaster through starvation. So when a politician sought and gained favoritism for his constituents, he was said to have filled the pork barrels of those who had elected him and thereby assure their reelection. That’s amazing. Well, you know, how we got to the political positions as left and right. I
Bob Smith 21:18
think it’s was in France or somewhere where they were had these big meetings, and the politicians sat on certain sides and the conservatives were on the right and the liberals were on the left.
Marcia Smith 21:28
Yeah, yeah. Only it’s goes back to King Louie the 16th. Really? Okay. So it is in France, it is in France, he was forced to convene a form of Parliament for the first time in more than a century over 200 years ago. Okay. And at the assembly, the more radical delegates just happened to sit on the left side of him, while the Conservatives sat on his right. And ever since liberal views have been referred to as from the left and conservative ideas from the right,
Bob Smith 21:54
Louis the 16th. Now, that was the one he lost his head, indeed, in the French Revolution. So we’re talking going back to the 1790s. Yeah, yeah. Wow. And
Marcia Smith 22:04
it’s just happens to be where people sat on that particular day
Bob Smith 22:08
in the meeting. Okay. All right. Let me see here. I got it.
Marcia Smith 22:13
While you’re looking for that. Can I ask you a quick one, if you want
Bob Smith 22:16
to. Okay. I could ask How far do you want your intestine stretch, but
Marcia Smith 22:20
Well, that’s pretty far. It is actually. Okay.
Bob Smith 22:24
How far okay, I’ve got one in you’re talking about food. Well, dense. You
Marcia Smith 22:27
want to ask me about the intestines?
Bob Smith 22:29
I thought that’s what I mean. Okay, said okay, food question, kinda. I said have gold in it? No, no gold. It is about your digestion, though. Yet? How far can your intestines stretch? Well, that’s where all that food including the gold if you eat that stuff, is
Marcia Smith 22:47
it? It’s a long way? Is it in feet? or miles? Oh, no, it’s
Bob Smith 22:51
it’s in feet. Yeah, yeah. Okay. I’ve heard terms of miles too. But this does this statistic doesn’t have that.
Marcia Smith 22:58
I mean, you don’t have a body big enough for miles. Well, there’s some people anyway, I would say. You could you could measure team feet. You
Bob Smith 23:08
could measure by length or surface area. One of the two, I’ll say 26 feet. 26 feet. Well, you’re pretty close. That was good. Marsh, and intestines are pretty long. The small intestine stretches to about 20 feet. Okay, the large intestine only goes five feet together. They’re 25 feet. So that’s a long area, the surface area of your intestines could take up to entire tennis courts. Oh,
Marcia Smith 23:33
thank you. Thank you. Thank you. If you had a myriad of choices, Bob, what is a myriad? Well, that’s just the question. How many choices do you have? Oh, that is the question. Yeah, Myriad?
Bob Smith 23:45
Is it 1000? Nope. I don’t know. It’s 10,000.
Marcia Smith 23:49
Really? That’s what a myriad means. Yeah. Since the 16th centuries, writers have used the adjective myriad to describe a large, unspecified or overwhelming number. But based on its Greek root one, myriad is exactly 10,000. So
Bob Smith 24:06
when somebody says I’ve got a myriad of ideas, they are exaggerating. Final questions on on video calls Marsh Oh, Gladware. Yeah. All right, who was the first celebrity to promote or inaugurate video conferencing? She was in the first real public video call. She was the wife of a president.
Marcia Smith 24:28
I said Mrs. Carter. No, before that, was it. Now I gotta go. It’s a bird. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s a Lady Bird.
Bob Smith 24:36
Lady Bird Johnson. Yeah, wife of President Lyndon Johnson. So is a 1964. And she inaugurated the picture phone service. So it was just before the World’s Fair with a call from the White House to New York and she spoke with the Big Apple’s mayor at the time, Robert Wagner. All right now, what was the first modern movie to feature a video call? We talked about the 1920 Five silent film first time a video call was shown. This was in 1968 What movie was that? famous science fiction film 68 We all saw we did famous movie famous music thus spoke
Marcia Smith 25:17
2000 doesn’t
Bob Smith 25:18
want to Space Odyssey Stanley Kubrick’s film. It featured a space to Earth video call using again an AT and T picture phone still hadn’t been adopted, you know, they’re trying to get this thing off the ground. And in the movie, the cost of the call was $1.70. Oh really? Remember that movie had all kinds of brands were there? They were showing all these things branded and outerspace. Alright, funny. And then just one bad prediction. I gave you the good prediction in 1912. Someday people will see who they talk to. In 1969. Bell Labs executive Julius Molnar predicted that in the future picture phone will be the primary mode by which people will be communicating with one another.
Marcia Smith 25:58
When did he say that would happen? Say ad sets now.
Bob Smith 26:01
The year was 2000. He thought it would be 20 years ago still and take it off.
Marcia Smith 26:07
When did it take off?
Bob Smith 26:08
Well, businesses like Skype started about 2003. But that’s for business. COVID-19 was the first time regular people started adopting it because they, you know, had a need to see friends, relatives and business associates Zoom is the one dedicated to B and immediately zoom became a verb just like Google
Marcia Smith 26:28
because of the recent events and all that what streaming service surpassed its five year goal of 73 million subscribers in 11 months. Okay, is it Disney? Disney plus there we go that it was Hamilton that brought it in? That’s what they had a five year goal of 73 million subscribers. And they made it this year because of COVID 11 months
Bob Smith 26:51
Disney plus didn’t even exist a year ago. I know. Amazing. Yeah. Okay, let’s wrap it up with something unique Marsh you have a quote or a thought or interesting tidbit. A Buddhist
Marcia Smith 27:01
quote. Time does not heal everything. But acceptance will heal everything. Very good. Yeah,
Bob Smith 27:10
nice. Fine.
Marcia Smith 27:11
It is a nice Thanks. Let’s
Bob Smith 27:12
go out on and helps us all steer clear of crazy like we’d like to say with this show. All right. That’s it for today. I’m Bob Smith.
Marcia Smith 27:20
I’m Marcia Smith.
Bob Smith 27:21
Thank you for listening to us and join us again next time for 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