How did the field of Medicine give us soft drinks? And what was the best-selling Rock ‘n’ Roll single of all time? Hear the answers on the Off Ramp with Bob & Marcia Smith (Photos: Wiki Commons)
Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discussed the origins of soft drinks, rock music, and the term ‘restaurant,’ while Steve from San Francisco shared insights on the demand for hand sanitizer and the dangers of using contaminated products. Bob and Marcia explored the history of soft drinks, citing the invention of carbonated water in 1807, and Marcia shared interesting facts about the life cycles of cicadas and the construction of St. Basil’s Cathedral. Bob and Marcia also discussed hair consumption, sharing amusing facts about the amount of hair a person grows in a lifetime and the number of tons of food a person has eaten. Steve added to the conversation by sharing information about the high demand for hand sanitizer and the dangers of using Mexican-imported products due to contaminants. Later, Bob and Marcia discussed presidential inaugurations, covering topics such as Teddy Roosevelt, William McKinley, Harry Truman, and the Monroe Doctrine, with Bob providing accurate answers and Marcia offering incorrect responses. Unknown Speaker joined the conversation to share a historical prediction related to presidential inaugurations.
Outline
Medicine’s role in creating soft drinks and a global seed vault for food crops.
- In 1807, Dr. Phillips Singh invented carbonated water for a patient, leading to the invention of soft drinks.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the Global Seed Vault, a storage facility for seeds from plants around the world.
- They also talk about Bill Haley’s song “Rock Around the Clock,” including its historical significance and Haley’s unique vocal style.
Cicadas, Ivan the Terrible, and food consumption.
- Bob and Marcia discuss cicadas emerging from the earth this summer.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the history of the US Capitol building in Washington DC, including its destruction by the British during the War of 1812 and the subsequent construction of a temporary Capitol building.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the average amount of hair and food a person consumes in a lifetime.
US presidents, inaugurations, and trivia.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the origins of paper products in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss James Monroe’s presidency and accomplishments.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the first presidential inaugurations to be photographed, filmed, or televised, with Bob asking questions and Marcia providing answers.
- Marcia Smith incorrectly identifies Teddy Roosevelt as the first president to have his inauguration photographed, while Bob corrects her and provides the correct answer, which is James Buchanan in 1857.
Presidential inaugurations, trivia questions, and a record for most children born to one woman.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the location of the world’s largest art gallery and the history of presidential inaugurations in Washington, DC and New York City.
- Bob and Marcia discuss US presidents’ inaugurations, locations, and trivia.
- Bob and Marcia discuss a Russian peasant woman who gave birth to 69 children in the 18th century.
Mark Twain, restaurants, and COVID-19.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the inaccuracies in the image of Mark Twain and the origin of the term “restaurant.”
- Bob Smith shares humorous lines about aging, including one about his wife’s past partners and another about the online generation rewriting history.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss camels’ ability to go without water, with Bob sharing an interesting fact about their ability to store water in their humps.
- Steve from San Francisco provides information about the demand for hand sanitizer during COVID-19, with sales increasing by 600% and warnings about dangerous contaminants in Mexican products.
Bob Smith 0:00
How did the field of medicine give us soft drinks?
Marcia Smith 0:04
And what was the best selling rock and roll single of all time?
Bob Smith 0:09
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 chance to slow down steer clear of crazy. Take a side road to sanity and get some perspective on life. Well, this gives you some new perspective on something that medicine has told us for years. It isn’t necessarily good for us to drink soft drinks. There are a lot of things wrong with soft drinks but medicine actually gave us soft drinks. Do you know the story of that?
Marcia Smith 0:55
Is that the Coca Cola story or Dr. Pepper?
Bob Smith 0:58
No it wasn’t Dr. Peppers. That’s that’s a good one. Dr. Pepper you believe all those times? What about Mr. Clean? Does that mean to you? Oh,
Marcia Smith 1:07
that’s my Clorox chewable or when I’m sick. Okay,
Bob Smith 1:10
here’s where it came from. Back in the 19th century, a man named John Matthews invented an apparatus for charging water with carbon dioxide gas. And the first carbonated drink is believed to have come from this from the field of medicine. Because back in 1807, a Philadelphia Dr. Phillips Singh physic the father of American surgery, asked a chemist to prepare carbonated water for one of his patients. And flavor was added to make the drink more palatable. And that was the invention of soft drinks, carbonated drinks came from a doctor in 1807. Well,
Marcia Smith 1:47
thank you, Bob. All right. So I have a feeling by the look on your face that you probably know the answer to this. Okay. Okay. Named the biggest selling rock and roll single record of all time.
Bob Smith 1:59
You know, I don’t think I do know this because it could be you, who knows many different things? Was it something from one of the big guns like Elvis or the Beatles, or somebody like that? No,
Marcia Smith 2:09
it’s rock around the clock. Oh, no
Unknown Speaker 2:11
kidding. Yeah, this
Marcia Smith 2:12
estimated at least 25 million, right? Christmas sold over 50 million, but for rock and roll Rock Around the Clock by
Bob Smith 2:21
Bill Haley in the coma. That’s it. I love that song. You know, one of the great things about that song, you probably don’t realize it, but if you listen to it, when he goes one o’clock, two o’clock, three o’clock rock, one of those things gets to one of those words, he pops the microphone like, like I’m doing right here. And that you listen to that. It’s like I’m listening to it now, even though it was recorded, like 60 years ago. 1955 I think it was Oh, wow. Yeah, a long time ago. But do you hear that in some of Frank Sinatra as to when there’s little bitty flaws in the recording? It’s like, wow, it’s like, I’m right there. It just makes me feel like I’m in the studio with them.
Marcia Smith 2:57
I’m a favor of flaws. Okay. I got a good question from the Ask Marilyn. Column. You read that, don’t you? Oh, yeah. Then Parade Magazine? Yes, yes. Right. Okay, what? And where is the Global Seed Vault?
Bob Smith 3:11
The Global Seed Vault? Oh, I’ve heard about this. This is where they’ve collected seeds from plants all over the world. It’s like just in case there’s some kind of a cataclysm or we can always replant things, if there was a nuclear war or something. And I think it’s up in Norway somewhere. It’s in a mountain or something, isn’t it? Well, it’s
Marcia Smith 3:30
close on both those accounts. Where is it? Well, first, the Global Seed Vault is deep inside a mountain on a cold remote island halfway between Norway and the North Pole. But it is not a Doomsday Vault, as some people are in reporters like to say well, that’s what I was thinking. Rather, it is intended to collect and safeguard our great worldwide diversity of food crops, which are just as vulnerable to extinction as animals. So all sorts of actions ranging from volcanic activity to
Bob Smith 4:03
wars, so they just hold this in reserve in case there’s something so they can
Marcia Smith 4:07
restart a failed extinct crop again. It’s a Global Seed Vault in a buried deep inside of a mountain. I love it. I love the thought of that.
Bob Smith 4:18
It’s a cool idea to it is good. It’s nice to have. It’s almost like having spare body parts around if you needed an arm or something.
Marcia Smith 4:24
Well, we don’t have that. That’s a strange. I don’t know. I
Bob Smith 4:28
just always thought why don’t they have that? Okay. All right, looking ahead. What’s going to be climbing out of the earth by the billions this summer? Any idea what’s going to be climbing out of the earth by the billions
Marcia Smith 4:41
they see the crickets or locust or right
Bob Smith 4:45
the cicadas also known as locusts. Qaeda, they this particular group is known as brood X, they go through life cycles of either 13 or 17 years. So now when the soil hits what degree this spring that When the cicadas will start crawling out 50 degrees 64 degrees, and they’ll scale the closest vertical surface, whether it’s a tree, a screen door or somebody’s leg. And after molting into their adult form, they make their presence known with deafening mating calls. choruses that can exceed 100 decibels. That’s equal to a car stereo blasting at maximum volume. Oh my lord. Wow. But to me, they’re the sound of the summer. Because I love the way they wave up and down. He Yeah. It means
Marcia Smith 5:31
summer to me, too.
Bob Smith 5:33
How long do they live? Oh, I
Marcia Smith 5:34
bet it’s not long. I’ll say three weeks. Yep, just
Bob Smith 5:38
a few weeks after which their bodies dropped back to the earth from which they came. So coming up this summer, the cicadas the 17 year locust
Marcia Smith 5:46
good to know Bob. By the way, Bob how terrible was Ivan the Terrible
Bob Smith 5:51
Oh, he was terrible. He was the Impaler wasn’t that his term? Ivan the Impaler
Marcia Smith 5:56
Can you name a specific thing that was particularly terrible.
Bob Smith 6:02
I thought being impaled was a bad one that is maybe not to you. Maybe that’s just you know, the warm up for other thing. Oh, no, I’m wrong. That was Vlad the Impaler. Tell me tell me what you found. Okay.
Marcia Smith 6:15
In 1555. Ivan the Terrible ordered the construction of St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow. He was so thrilled with the work done by his two architects that he had them blinded so they could never be able to build anything else. So beautiful again.
Unknown Speaker 6:33
Oh, cheese. What a horrible person.
Marcia Smith 6:36
Yeah, he did. The Cathedral. Okay. Thank you. At
Bob Smith 6:41
one time in the United States, there were two capitol buildings. Did you know that at the same time at the same time now,
Marcia Smith 6:48
why why?
Bob Smith 6:49
Why were there two buildings known as the US
Marcia Smith 6:52
Capitol as one wasn’t finished being built yet? Well, not exactly. Because they one was in the north one was in the South. No. Because one was in a state of disrepair,
Bob Smith 7:04
because because because the British burned it down.
Marcia Smith 7:10
Fire. I remember that cheese. Okay. Anyway,
Bob Smith 7:14
so there were two US Capitol buildings in Washington DC at one point because Congress needed somewhere to meet after the British burn the capitol in the War of 1812. And actually, the British burned both the Capitol and the White House. They were empty hawks, after that disaster. And that actually led some to suggest let’s just abandon Washington DC is too close to the coast. If we ever get invaded, it’s a problem. What was one of the major reasons Washington wasn’t abandoned? He got me real estate speculators, really? Yeah. Because they they panicked after Washington, DC came within nine votes of being abandoned by Congress. They had a vote and they almost abandoned the city, because it was a new city. Yeah, it had just been built. It wasn’t totally developed. And if that had happened, all of these real estate speculators investments and federal city would have been wasted. Is that what it was called? It was called federal city originally, huh. Anyway, they were developing neighborhoods, housing businesses, so millions and millions of dollars were in real estate deals. So the local businessman banded together and build a three story brick building where Congress could meet. And they use that as the capitol for 10 years. That building was around till the civil war in the Civil War. It was a prison. That site is now the site of the Supreme Court. Now, originally, there was another capitol building there.
Marcia Smith 8:36
How much hair? Does the average human being grow in a lifetime? Bob?
Bob Smith 8:41
No. How do we measure that Marsha pinches in terms of Gertz his feet? So if you took a strand of hair, let’s go with miles. Wow, you’re kidding.
Marcia Smith 8:52
Now the answer is in Maya, how
Bob Smith 8:53
many miles of hair? Does the average person grow at a lifetime? Okay, I I’m all ears. Well, don’t
Marcia Smith 9:00
you want to take a guess? You gotta take it. Okay. I’d
Bob Smith 9:02
say a mile and a half. Yeah. Well, this
Marcia Smith 9:04
was so ridiculous that I triple checked it. 590 miles of hair. The average person grows and make you know how far that that’s to your sisters in Bath.
Bob Smith 9:16
That’s a long, long way. That’s a lot of hair. Yeah. That’s hard to believe it. Is
Marcia Smith 9:22
it this?
Bob Smith 9:23
That’s why I understand why there are barber shops. There’s a lot of work. I don’t know
Marcia Smith 9:28
what age they’re using you live to but I’m sure you know. It’s
Bob Smith 9:31
like wow, that is an incredible statistic and you double check that I did
Marcia Smith 9:35
it. I should triple check. Maybe you know how many the average person eats in their lifetime?
Bob Smith 9:42
How many here’s? What is that? What you’re asking me?
Marcia Smith 9:45
I’m seeing tons of food. Okay, the average life of
Bob Smith 9:49
food. Oh, geez. Bad calories are bad enough. I can’t imagine how many tons of food I ate. How many tons of food have I eaten in a lifetime? Okay, what’s the answer?
Marcia Smith 9:59
Just give me You get a ton, a ton. That’s a lot. This is 35 tons. In the average lifetime you’re
Bob Smith 10:05
Wait a minute, wait 35 tonnes. Is that what you’re saying? That’s
Marcia Smith 10:10
what I’m saying. Oh, come
Bob Smith 10:12
on, is that really true? And I
Marcia Smith 10:15
ate a pound and nuts the other day?
Bob Smith 10:19
That’s like 70,000 pounds. That’s, we eat that much food in a lifetime. What do you get these things? That’s hard to believe. Yes, it is. Okay, I’ve got a question for you back to that brick building that served as the US Capitol. Okay. Okay. What inauguration tradition was launched there. The brick building that was used for the US Capitol for about 10 to 12 years. Oh. And it was the US President James braid.
Marcia Smith 10:46
Was it fireworks? So was it speaking on the outside?
Bob Smith 10:52
Yes, it was taking the oath of office outdoors. Okay. It first took place in front of that brick Capitol by James Monroe. That was the first time the inauguration was held outside. And it’s a tradition that continues to this day.
Marcia Smith 11:04
That’s interesting. So is this Bob? Where is the toilet paper capital of the world?
Bob Smith 11:09
The toilet paper? World? This is where they make the most toilet paper. Would it be in Wisconsin? Yeah. It’s one of the big paper plant towns. What is it? What’s the name of it? Oh,
Marcia Smith 11:23
I think the Packers hang out there.
Unknown Speaker 11:25
Green Bay. Yeah. Green Bay is the paper toilet capital of the world or that keister
Marcia Smith 11:29
kingdom there?
Unknown Speaker 11:32
Like she’s drinking the capital
Marcia Smith 11:33
city. Xanadu of doodoo I’ve
Bob Smith 11:36
never heard any of these. Oh, my goodness. That’s hilarious. Green
Marcia Smith 11:40
Bay is the paper industry’s capital. And it’s still accounts for more than 6000 jobs in the Green Bay Area. Georgia Pacific alone has five facilities in Green Bay. Wow. And it is the birthplace of the Quilted Northern bathroom tissue that
Bob Smith 11:57
began there in Green Bay. Well, yeah, a lot of that makes sense. I think paper towels were first done in the state of Wisconsin. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 12:04
it’s well, we got the rivers and the lakes and means to Purdue and the logging. The paper
Bob Smith 12:10
industry was huge. Absolutely huge. Okay, those are good questions. Marsha.
Marcia Smith 12:14
You’re like Khazanah doo doo doo.
Bob Smith 12:17
I love that one Xanadu of doo doo. All right, let’s go back Marsha. Okay, what US president carried 84% of the state’s 16 of the 19 at the time in his first election, and four years later ran unopposed winning all the one electoral votes what President he was also commended for his courage in battle by George Washington. That’s my other
Marcia Smith 12:44
well, by George Washington. Wow, that wasn’t great. And well,
Bob Smith 12:51
you know, this president for a for a speech he gave and it’s called the blank doctrine.
Marcia Smith 12:56
Could it be Monroe? It’s
Bob Smith 12:58
James Monroe. Yeah. James has been wrote was a teenager when he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Continental Army, and he was shot in the shoulder when he was leading a charge at the Battle of Trenton in 1776. And George Washington commended him as a brave, active and sensible officer, sensible. And he when he ran for president, he won 16 of the 19 states in his first election. And the second term, he ran unopposed, there was an era of good feelings. And he followed John Adams Jefferson and James Madison. And that was a very contentious time. Yeah. And when he came in, one of the things he did was he took a tour of the country went all over the country and met people. And people felt they knew the president. So when he ran for re election, he was unopposed. Wow, amazing. He won all but one electoral vote. He was a US ambassador. He helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase. And then you had the Monroe Doctrine. So fascinating, man. Actually,
Marcia Smith 13:56
I think it’s time for a break.
Bob Smith 13:58
We’ll be back in just a moment. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob
Marcia Smith 14:01
and Marsha Smith.
Bob Smith 14:05
All right, we’re back. I’m Bob Smith.
Marcia Smith 14:07
I’m Marcia Smith. And
Bob Smith 14:08
we’re returning with more on the off ramp. You got a question there?
Marcia Smith 14:11
Download. I have a little factoid I found interesting. Okay, kind of Woowoo 14 years because that being woowoo kind of out there. Well, you know that Twilight Zone music? Okay. That’s kind of woowoo okay.
Bob Smith 14:25
I never knew what that meant. I thought woowoo had something to do with a pretty girl who was throwing you kisses. Oh, for God’s
Marcia Smith 14:31
sake. Okay. 14 years before that Titanic sank. Novelist Morgan Robertson, published futility. The story was about an ocean liner that struck an iceberg on an April night. The name of the ship in his novel, that Titan. Oh, really? Yeah. Isn’t that bizarre?
Bob Smith 14:53
There are things like that have happened in literature that pre sage so yeah, it’s gonna happen. Yeah, the title the title The name of the ship.
Marcia Smith 15:01
Yeah. And it hit an iceberg in April was 14 years before the Titanic sank. Okay, so
Bob Smith 15:07
this was like 1898. Yeah. Wow. Okay, Marsha, I have a couple of questions for you again back to presidential inauguration since we recently had one. What were the first presidential inaugurations to be photographed, filmed, or televised? Three different presidents. So let’s start with the first one. What President was the first to have his inauguration? photographed?
Marcia Smith 15:28
photographed?
Bob Smith 15:29
I’ll give you a hat. Was
Marcia Smith 15:31
it Teddy Roosevelt? No, no, no,
Bob Smith 15:33
we’ve got pictures of Lincoln’s and all
Marcia Smith 15:35
that stuff. Right. Okay. I was thinking of some pictures of him. Go ahead. Give me a head.
Bob Smith 15:39
There was the president before Lincoln. James Buchanan, ah, 1857 the inauguration ceremony first to be photographed. Okay. Which one was the first to be filmed with a motion picture camera? Which inauguration?
Marcia Smith 15:51
I was thinking FDR. No, no,
Unknown Speaker 15:53
no way before? Way before that.
Marcia Smith 15:56
I’m getting a lot of Oh, no, no, get a lot of
Bob Smith 15:58
FDR. No, we’ll get to FDR eventually find a question that we can answer with FDR.
Marcia Smith 16:03
I was Teddy. I’ve said first. Oh, Teddy. Not even the Roosevelt. Even a Roosevelt
Bob Smith 16:08
was the first inauguration to be filmed. Please stick to the question.
Marcia Smith 16:13
Tell me Bob. The year was
Bob Smith 16:15
1897. Yeah. William McKinley.
Marcia Smith 16:18
Thank you. Okay.
Bob Smith 16:20
The first inauguration to be televised,
Marcia Smith 16:22
to be televised. You
Bob Smith 16:25
can use your favorite which president now? FDR.
Unknown Speaker 16:33
Sorry, I tricked you into that
Bob Smith 16:36
was rude. I apologize. Okay. Close enough. It was Harry Truman. Oh, 1949. That was the first to be televised. So funny. Now, this is a significant fact. The introduction of cameras brought a wider audience to the ceremonies and to the peaceful transfer of power, another sacred American tradition since the days of Washington, but just to photograph it for people to see it around the world. Here’s the inauguration of the new president. Oh, there’s the old President standing right next to him. That’s the way things used to be done. Yeah. So photos, films and television helped to spread that. Yeah. Tradition
Marcia Smith 17:10
of things. Yeah. So here’s a question, Bob. Okay. Where is the world’s largest art gallery?
Bob Smith 17:17
The world’s largest art gallery. Isn’t that the isn’t at the Louvre Museum? I would have thought so too. Oh, I bet it’s in Russia. A bet. It’s in St. Petersburg. Very good. Yeah. Yeah. The What’s The Hermitage is that within
Marcia Smith 17:30
the Winter Palace palace. That’s right. Visitors would have to walk 15 miles to see the 322 galleries which house nearly 3 million works of art in St. Petersburg, Russia at the Winter Garden palace
Bob Smith 17:45
and like the Louvre that was originally a palace of a king. The Louvre Museum as originally was the Yeah, so the king right. And same thing that was the Czar’s palace in Russia. Okay, Marcia? Uh huh. Almost every presidential inauguration has been conducted in Washington, DC. So why was a presidential inauguration conducted once in New York City, when President was inaugurated in New York City? Who was he and why? All right, tell me Well, it’s
Unknown Speaker 18:13
simple. Marcia.
Marcia Smith 18:15
You are your damn president.
Bob Smith 18:17
It’s George Washington because Oh, capital was in New York City originally. It
Marcia Smith 18:21
is simple. Yeah.
Bob Smith 18:22
That’s where the capital of the US was when he was president. The first presidential inauguration was April 30 1789. In the nation’s first capital, New York City, on a second floor balcony of Federal Hall. That’s where George Washington took the oath of office. Now, when he was reelected. Where was the Capitol? It had moved.
Marcia Smith 18:42
What do you see? No.
Bob Smith 18:47
So wrong. I love this. This is great. Wrong. Wrong, Marsha? No, it was Philadelphia. Philadelphia was our second US Capitol. That’s where the second and third inaugurations were conducted. In fact, the city of Washington didn’t exist. George Washington chose the site for the city of Washington for federal cities. indicated.
Marcia Smith 19:08
I think we need a moratorium on these presidential questions. Bob, did
Bob Smith 19:13
you know the two presidents? Okay, one more. One more. This is the last inauguration question. Okay. Two US presidents were sworn in at the White House. Who were they? We’ve mentioned both of their names in this show. So far.
Marcia Smith 19:27
Today was one John Adams. No.
Unknown Speaker 19:31
He’s not one.
Marcia Smith 19:33
I don’t like here’s his thing. I don’t like your tone. Now.
Bob Smith 19:36
You can use the name of the president. You’ve been trying to get answer a question of FDR. You’re right. You’re right, Marsha. Yes. During World War Two, Franklin Roosevelt was sworn in for his fourth term in 1945. At the White House, South Portico, and less than three months later, after Roosevelt’s death, we know that Harry Truman was sworn in in the White House Cabinet room. Okay. I actually do Old Gerald Ford was actually sworn in also after Nixon resigned in the room. I remember that. So those weren’t inaugurations. I mean, that was not an inauguration either was Harry
Marcia Smith 20:10
Truman and Johnson was on a plane. What city was that? It was on the ground. I was yeah, he fell on the ground. He wanted to swear him in before they left before they left the field in Dallas. Okay. All right, Marsha,
Bob Smith 20:21
what kind of questions do you have for me? Well,
Marcia Smith 20:23
I I amazed and amused you with questions about how long hair is and how much food we eat. You did?
Bob Smith 20:33
This this is an interesting combination of things. Certainly is not going to fingernails next. No. Next Okay. Birth, Bob.
Marcia Smith 20:40
Tell me the largest number of children born to one woman. Oh,
Bob Smith 20:45
dear. That’s just painful to even think of.
Marcia Smith 20:51
You have no idea.
Bob Smith 20:52
I know a way of course. I told you when you gave birth the first time I said I’ve never seen a man work that heard it. I was so impressed. You’ve
Marcia Smith 21:01
never saw a man where Oh, work as hard as a woman
Bob Smith 21:03
does when she gives birth. It’s like, oh my god. I had no idea.
Marcia Smith 21:07
Now you do. Yes. I’ve
Bob Smith 21:08
I’ve worshiped at the feet of your feet ever since as you know. Stop
Marcia Smith 21:13
asking presidential. Okay, if you love me, okay. All right. So how many did this woman had? Let
Bob Smith 21:18
me say she had 18 children. 18 Children 69. Your kids? Had 69 gave birth at 69 human beings and then why did she probably die? I would hope
Marcia Smith 21:30
so. The Mother of All mothers.
Unknown Speaker 21:34
That’s what I would call her the largest. The largest
Marcia Smith 21:36
number of children born to one woman is recorded at 69. From 1725 to 1765, a Russian peasant woman gave birth to 16 sets of twin GS seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets.
Bob Smith 21:55
Holy cow and this was long before fertility drugs. Yeah, I
Marcia Smith 21:58
would think 17 1700 1725 To set was this poor woman’s name recorded we don’t even bother to give it just because our Russian peasant woman Oh god. That’s amazing. Sad that her name is 39
Bob Smith 22:15
kids. Oh my goodness. That’s an amazing statistic. I can’t believe that. You know, recently how Holbrook the actor died is one of my favorite. We had the pleasure of seeing him do his Mark Twain tonight show right here in our hometown a few years back, he did that show all over the world. What is wrong with the image Hal Holbrook and other Mark Twain impersonators gave to Samuel Clemens on the lecture circuit. What was incorrect about the image that they left. Now just picture Mark Twain and what do you see?
Marcia Smith 22:46
Yeah, I see him with the white hat and the beard and the
Bob Smith 22:51
white suit white suit. That’s it. But the fact is, Mark Twain never lectured in a white suit. In fact, it wasn’t until he reached his 70s that Mark Twain came to wear the white suits we associate with him and by that time he belonged give it up the lecture circuit. As a matter of fact, his longtime friend William Dean Howells said Twain customarily wore black of a truly deplorable cut when he gave his lectures, the first time how will so Mark Twain were White was at the congressional committee on copyright hearings in 1906. So that comes from the dictionary of misinformation.
Marcia Smith 23:27
Okay, why are places we go to eat Bob often called restaurants?
Bob Smith 23:33
All I read above this, it was because of the restorative nature of them right to restore. That’s where it came from. Well,
Marcia Smith 23:41
you’re not far off. Up until 1765. Diners were offered only what innkeepers chose to serve. You didn’t have a menu or anything. You’d go to the end and they’d say, Well, here’s, you know, here’s your tongue sandwich. But then, but then a Paris chef named Mulan zoo, began offering a choice of nourishing soups to passerby and onboard hanging over the door. He painted the word restaurant meaning to quote restore. Oh, so I was right. You were really cool. Right on. He was so successful that throughout the world dining rooms still display his original sign restaurant, I promise to restore your energy Well,
Bob Smith 24:24
and that’s what a good restaurant will do. Okay, I’ve got a couple of kind of funny lines to help us end the show today. They’re all about the aging. Okay, okay. I like this one. Don’t irritate old people. The older we get, the less life in prison is a deterrent. Here’s one that you laughed at. When I said the other day, I asked my wife if I was the only one she’d ever been with. She said yes. All the others were nines and 10s. It’s terrible. And finally, this is one I think is kind of funny. As I watched the online generation tried to rewrite history. One thing I’m sure above it will be misspelled and have no punctuation yeah got that right.
Unknown Speaker 25:03
Like a bad text message.
Marcia Smith 25:06
Hey Bob How long can a camel go without drinking water?
Bob Smith 25:10
So you can go days it can go like a week
Marcia Smith 25:13
know up to seven months your kid I know that’s hard to believe I haven’t checked that one too much. Yeah, out on the desert but give they stored in their little humps there and go seven months they can lose half their body weight. They can’t go too long without food but seven months without water if they’ve stored it all in their humps. You
Bob Smith 25:36
know, I saw an interesting fact because we associate the camels with a desert. There was an interesting story recently where they uncovered in the middle of the Sahara Desert stones with pictures of giraffes and and other jungle animals in the desert. So that shows you how that climate changed over centuries while human beings were alive. Fascinating. Okay, here’s one. This is kind of a funny, my wife asked me to take her to one of those restaurants where they make food right in front of you. I took her to Subway. That’s when the fight started. Our thanks to Gordie gray for those phonies. Oh, here’s an interesting thing that deals with we are talking about all the things that changed because of COVID over the last year, and this comes from Steve short from his short report a week or so ago. He said the makers of Purell hand sanitizer have added a factory and a warehouse and reworked their supply chain all with the expectation that demand for hand sanitizer will remain high. sales were up 600% over last year. But keep your hands clean, not with Mexican sanitizers importers have been warned repeatedly about products containing dangerous contaminants from Mexico. So be careful with those. He’s where Steve from Steve from San Francisco. Okay, well,
Marcia Smith 26:59
that’s one of the rappers in San Francisco. If you have a question and you’d like a shout out on the show, just go to our website, the off ramp dot show, then go to contact us and send us a question. Give us your name and location.
Bob Smith 27:14
And give us the answer and give us the because one of us is going to stump the other with your answer. Yes.
Marcia Smith 27:19
So that’d be fun. Appreciate it. Thank you, Steve for sending in that sanitizing information is
Bob Smith 27:24
very sanitary information, Steve. Yes. Very clean jokes. All right. That’s it for today. We hope you join us again next time. I’m Bob Smith.
Marcia Smith 27:34
I’m Marcia Smith and
Unknown Speaker 27:35
you’ve been listening to
Bob Smith 27:36
the off ramp. The off ramp is produced in association with CPL radio online and the Cedarbrook Public Library Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
