Bob and Marcia Smith engage in a lively conversation about various inventions, problem-solving methods, and creative thinking. Bob shares interesting facts about William Shakespeare and dogs, while Marcia discusses the origins and significance of duct tape. They also explore creative solutions implemented during wartime, the practice of naming personal items, and the innovative approaches of Leonardo da Vinci. Later, they delve into the fascinating world of word origins, sharing insights on the evolution of language and culture. Throughout the conversation, they highlight the importance of thinking outside the box and embracing unconventional solutions to everyday problems.
Outline
Dog intelligence, Shakespeare inventions, and Grammy winners.
- Bob and Marcia discuss Shakespeare’s invented words and dog intelligence.
- Marcia and Bob discuss dog breeds, with Marcia naming the smartest and dumbest breeds.
- Bob mentions a podcast where a guest’s Roomba knocked out her Wi-Fi while watching Netflix.
Grammys, word origins, and Chinese food.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the Grammys, Beyonce, and word origins.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the oldest restaurant food chain in America, with White Castle hamburgers and A&W Root Beer being the oldest.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the origins of the term “Chop Suey” in Chinese cuisine.
Duct tape’s origins and Warren Buffett’s early tax return.
- Marcia Smith says duct tape was suggested to solve the problem of hard-to-open cartridges from World War II munitions plant, but the employer said no.
- Marcia and Bob discuss Warren Buffett’s early entrepreneurial spirit and tax savvy.
Toothpaste history, naming technologies, and food facts.
- Marcia Smith: Early Romans used urine as toothpaste ingredient (ammonia for cleaning)
- Bob Smith: Bruce Lee’s fast kicks too quick for cameramen to capture (reshot at faster speed)
- Bob and Marcia discuss people naming their household items, with a focus on gendered names.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the origins of the Mona Lisa, with Marcia sharing a recent theory that Leonardo da Vinci painted himself in the famous portrait.
- Bob jokes about the idea, and they move on to other topics, including the percentage of vegetables consumed in the US and the composition of a Twinkie.
Various topics, including etymology, history, and science.
- Bob Smith explains the origin of the term “lap” as a flap of a long jacket that rested on the upper legs when sitting.
- REO Speedwagon’s name comes from an early car model, and the band paid tribute to the founder, Ransom Eli Olds, decades later.
- Bob and Marcia discuss various topics, including the origins of pretzels and the largest living creature without a backbone.
- Bob and Marcia discuss Leonardo da Vinci’s artistic and scientific achievements.
Bob Smith 0:00
Why can you think Shakespeare for your bedroom?
Marcia Smith 0:03
And what dog has the highest IQ
Bob Smith 0:07
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 Saturday and enjoy some information in the form of trivia. Well, Marcia, why can you think Shakespeare for your bedroom?
Marcia Smith 0:45
Can you be a little more specific? Okay, how
Bob Smith 0:48
about this way? Why can we say that Shakespeare invented your bedroom?
Marcia Smith 0:53
Well, that’s even more preposterous.
Bob Smith 0:56
I don’t think it is.
Marcia Smith 0:58
Okay. All right. Tell me Tell me
Bob Smith 1:00
Okay, Shakespeare invented the word bedroom. How did he – they cannot find a use for that word before the plays of Shakespeare. And it’s not the only one he invented. A number of other words too. But bedroom it was not called a bedroom.
Marcia Smith 1:15
But maybe it was the bed chamber. That chamber the haystack.
Bob Smith 1:19
Haystack. That’s exactly what it was hits the hay.
Marcia Smith 1:23
Storage of that. That’s right.
Bob Smith 1:25
Yeah, that’s – you got it. But these are some of the other words or neologisms that Shakespeare also invented. Amaze. Excellent. Fitful. I could see how that is full of fit. Radiance, summit and majestic. Very cool. So there you go. All new words Shakespeare invented all new 500 years ago. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 1:48
Okay. So Bob, what dog has the highest IQ?
Bob Smith 1:53
The dog that has the highest IQ? I would think it would be something like a German shepherd or some kind of animal that’s used either for hunting or surveillance. Yes, maybe not. I
Marcia Smith 2:03
know. German Shepherd is number three. Okay. Number two is the poodle. Really? I
Bob Smith 2:09
always thought that poodles were so flighty, you know? Yeah. But very smart, though. Yeah, very smart. And poodles were bred as hunting dogs by the French. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 2:18
it’s hard to imagine. And the number one smartest dog is the sheep herder. The Border Collie. No
Bob Smith 2:24
kidding. Yeah, yeah.
Marcia Smith 2:26
So how about the dumbest dog? The dumbest
Bob Smith 2:30
not not ours? The dumbest dog our
Marcia Smith 2:32
dog? The Beagle was number eight. Yeah, Google’s are pretty smart. No for dumb number eight.
Bob Smith 2:38
They’re pretty smart. I know men think with a certain Oregon right? Yeah. And his was his nose. Right? He thought with his nose. Yeah, what’s that? Yeah,
Marcia Smith 2:46
let’s go over there. Oh, there’s something in the middle of this. What’s the only thing that could bring him back? Cheese
Bob Smith 2:52
Marcia kind of trained Buster our dog.
Marcia Smith 2:57
He loved it and you could be out
Bob Smith 2:58
there and yell cheese and he would actually come back. Yeah, that was fast in
Marcia Smith 3:02
the middle of the road, which is where he preferred hanging out.
Bob Smith 3:07
Okay, go ahead. What is Thomas doll right.
Marcia Smith 3:09
The number one domestic dog is the Afghan Hound. Wow. And number two is the Biogen G I don’t even know what that is by Jin Ji.
Bob Smith 3:18
I think that’s a rash that I get every summer. Okay, and
Marcia Smith 3:22
number three, this will kill my neighbor, the Bulldog.
Bob Smith 3:26
Oh really? The Bulldog is not a smart animal. Apparently.
Marcia Smith 3:30
It’s a plotter.
Bob Smith 3:33
You know, Marcia, I was recently listening to one of our favorite podcast and at one point a female guests said to the male host, my Roomba knocked out my Wi Fi while I was watching Netflix. Now what that meant was her robotic vacuum cleaner got caught up in the electrical cord of her Wi Fi unit and shut off her television set. But the podcast host paused for a moment and repeated what she said, “My Roomba knocked out my Wi Fi while I was watching Netflix.” That sentence wouldn’t have made sense to anyone 20 years ago.
Marcia Smith 4:02
That is a crazy sentence.
Bob Smith 4:04
And well that brought to mind how human like these devices can be and the fact that people are renaming them and I have some fun names for appliances. We’ll bring up a little later on in the show. Okay, all right.
Marcia Smith 4:14
Okay, we recently had the Grammys Bob. So who in history has won more Grammys than anybody else?
Bob Smith 4:22
This is going to be difficult because it’s not like the Oscars where we know Walt Disney and Edith Head were big winners of those statues. Yeah, so the Grammy So who won more Grammys than anyone else? I’m just gonna go like Elvis Presley or Bing Crosby. Yeah, or somebody like wrong
Marcia Smith 4:38
wrong. As of the recent Grammys, Beyonce racked up her 28th award Wow. Which tied with Quincy Jones, who also has 28 and they hold the record for living recipients. But the all time record is 31 figurines, and that went to classical and operatic conductor jaw Word salty.
Bob Smith 5:02
Oh, Georg Solti. He was with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Marcia Smith 5:04
Yeah, he died in 1997. Wow. I think Beyonce is probably going to pass him up in the not too distant future. So from Opera to rap, the Grammys are changing about that’s
Bob Smith 5:15
interesting. And who knew? In the pop music field? That classical conductor would be the one who got more than anyone? Yes. Wow. Okay. All right. Okay, Marcia. We like word origin questions. So I’ve got one here for you. Where does the word huncho Come on shore.
Marcia Smith 5:34
Now, would you call yourself when I first match? I was the head honcho.
Bob Smith 5:39
And I am no longer since I’ve been married. I thought it was.
Marcia Smith 5:43
Now you’re a little
Bob Smith 5:45
Junior. You’re the head honcho.
Marcia Smith 5:47
Okay. Well, I don’t know. My first thought is something i It’s a word that came out of Mexico like M Bray, or its Hispanic word
Bob Smith 5:57
is not a Hispanic word, but it is from another culture other than America. It is from the Japanese culture, really. And it’s a term that means squad leader. So the honcho was the number one guy in a squad of a military formation. What
Marcia Smith 6:13
what country Jeff,
Bob Smith 6:15
I said, Japan,
Marcia Smith 6:15
I heard you. I just forgot.
Bob Smith 6:20
That was like a second ago. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 6:22
Yeah. Which is retention longer than us. That’s true. Okay. Okay. Can you name the oldest restaurant food chain in America,
Bob Smith 6:31
the restaurant chain in America? Okay, I think that goes back to White Castle hamburgers or somebody like Well,
Marcia Smith 6:39
you’re right, in that that’s the oldest fast food burger chain, which started in 1921.
Bob Smith 6:48
Is it Howard Johnson’s. Yep. Okay. The oldest food
Marcia Smith 6:51
chain in America goes back to 1919 when the root beer kings Roy Allen and Frank Wright opened a root beer stand in Lodi, California. When they decided to expand. They called it A&W restaurants with A for Alan and W for Wright.
Bob Smith 7:10
No kidding. So that’s where the A&W Root Beer name comes from? I didn’t know that. What were their names again. So
Marcia Smith 7:14
we have Roy Allen and Frank Wright. Wow. It goes back to 1919. Their little root beer stand was so successful. They started franchising it almost immediately and leased it to different entrepreneurs and went all over the country and they had a name it and they came up with A&W Root Beer.
Bob Smith 7:36
Who knew? And I do commercial voiceovers for them. I know, you know, when you say things that sometimes there’s always something that comes to mind a picture in your head. And you know what this one is? It’s a picture of the shelf in my older cousin, Pete McGuire’s room when he was a teenager. And he had brought home one of those mugs and this was back in the day we were coveted. Yeah, because you couldn’t buy merchandise with the names of companies on it, like Donald’s or anything or Starbucks. So it was like, wow, Pete stole that. That was the first reaction I had, but also was like, oh, would I love to have one of those and he had pennies in it. You know, that was where he put his loose change. So my cousin was a thief?
Marcia Smith 8:20
Sounds like my Boy Scout. They probably gave it to him as a thank you. Yeah, back then. The merchants didn’t think of branding themselves with merchants simply
Bob Smith 8:28
didn’t think of selling their own ups. Yeah, who would buy that stuff? Yeah. Okay, Marsha. I have another question doing with language. Chinese writing. Unlike Western writing is made up of graphic symbols, each representing an idea. Do you have any idea what the symbol for trouble is in Chinese
Marcia Smith 8:47
Right here in River City? Absolutely not. Two women
Bob Smith 8:51
living under one roof. Really a little diagram it looks like two women living under one roof. That’s trouble. Oh, that’s fine. Oh, that oh, that’s at least from the book. That’s a fact Jack by every bride and Jacob answer. So that’s that’s what they say. I have another one here for you. Why does the term Chop Suey perfectly describe what that food is?
Marcia Smith 9:14
Because the sushi is all chopped up.
Bob Smith 9:17
Well, no, that’s not the answer Marsh but why would chop suey? What is chop suey mean? Well,
Marcia Smith 9:23
it means to cut into pieces. So we know.
Bob Smith 9:28
That’s not Oh, I’m sorry. That’s not the answer. My souI No. In Mandarin Chop Suey means odds and ends. Oh, really? And it means mixed bits in Cantonese. These are two different types of Chinese. And that’s exactly what Chop Suey is. It usually consists of meat and eggs cooked quickly with vegetables like bean sprouts and cabbage and celery. So it’s definitely odds and ends. Now there are different stories. It’s believed with invented by 19th century Chinese American cooks. Sometimes the story involves an emergency meal pulled together for important people visiting like Chinese royalty or a politician. Nobody knows for sure, but it could date back much further because dishes with names like top to a T SAP c hu EY appear as early as the 1500s in Chinese literally, but it’s always meant like a bunch of different things pulled together chop suey.
Marcia Smith 10:24
That’s like when I emptied the refrigerator and put it all in scrambled eggs. That’s exactly right. It’s just like that. Let’s put that in scrambled eggs. See what happened. Just
Bob Smith 10:32
need to get a sexy name for that.
Marcia Smith 10:34
I think Chop Suey is pretty cute. I like that. Okay, let’s talk duct tape.
Bob Smith 10:39
Duct tape. Do you see T TA be? Yes. I’m ready to talk duct tape.
Marcia Smith 10:44
Your state school diplomas showing? Okay. All right. Duct tape was created in the early 40s by Johnson and Johnson. But it didn’t make much of a splash back then until what happened?
Bob Smith 11:01
From what I understand somebody wrote a letter to FDR. How do you know that? Well, sorry. But I read that story that I think this lady wrote a letter to FDR and said something like, I know you’ve got sons in uniform, and our sons need to have things secured better, or something like that. And so this tape holds everything together.
Marcia Smith 11:24
You got a lot of the story, but not all.
Bob Smith 11:26
Thank you. Okay.
Marcia Smith 11:29
A little bit of it. Oh, come
Bob Smith 11:30
on. A woman
Marcia Smith 11:31
named vest V. S T. Don’t ask me that stout mother of two sons and the Navy started working in an Illinois munitions plant. She was responsible for packing rifle grenade cartridges, and ensuring they were sealed to keep them dry for shipping overseas. She found the tape she had to use was hard to tear open. And just to get it open. You needed a knife or a sharp object.
Bob Smith 11:57
Wait a minute, it’s sounding like I’m really right. Okay, good at just providing the detail.
Marcia Smith 12:04
That’s right. She needed at you she needed her knife or sharp object to do so. So she suggested duct tape to her employer who promptly said no. But Mama Bear didn’t leave it at that she had sons in the service. And she didn’t want them wasting time under fire trying to open a box that could take a minute or two to get the cartridges out. Yeah. So she wrote to Roosevelt, telling him that boys would be killed in the time it takes to get those cartridges out. And the administration wrote back saying, quote, It is cooperation of this type that will win this war. Wow. Her suggestion was implemented a few weeks later. Isn’t that
Bob Smith 12:48
fascinating? See, sometimes you can break through all this bureaucracy and there was a lot of bureaucracy in the Roosevelt administration because they started all these different Yeah, he’s a ton of it didn’t with alphabet names, but just a letter getting to the right person. Yeah, FDR.
Marcia Smith 13:03
That makes sense. We don’t need boys dying, trying to get a box open.
Bob Smith 13:07
This lady has a good idea. Imagine him everything. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 13:11
Anyway, that’s when duct tape suddenly became hugely popular. That’s
Bob Smith 13:16
fascinating, a great story. All right. See if you know the answer to this. If you looked at Warren Buffett’s first income tax return, what clue would tell you? This young man is going to be a success. Well, Warren Buffett’s first income tax return. Now this was when he was 13.
Marcia Smith 13:34
He was all okay. Well, there’s a clue right there. He probably had a an income tax report for his lemonade stand or something. He was delivering
Bob Smith 13:41
newspapers. Okay. So he had a newspaper delivery route. And for his revenue when he was 13 years old. I don’t know why he was filing an income tax return, but maybe his parents were, you should file an income tax return and learn about business young man. So for him his newspaper delivery route, he claimed a $35 deduction for his bicycle. Is that great? So that shows you and he’s on his way to becoming a businessman. I love it. Warren Buffett. Hilarious.
Marcia Smith 14:12
That was well Good for him. That is sweet. All right, Bob. We recently talked about the first toothbrushes That’s right. But before the first toothbrushes
Bob Smith 14:21
came the first tooth Oh, I’m sorry.
Marcia Smith 14:24
Toothpaste was before the toothbrushes. Okay. But when and what was the first toothpaste?
Bob Smith 14:31
They came in the 19th century the first toothpaste I believe I’m talking
Marcia Smith 14:34
about the real first toothpaste What did the ancient people use?
Bob Smith 14:39
Oh, way back way, way back. Oh, the the I know the Romans used urine to clean their teeth. Well,
Marcia Smith 14:44
I was getting to that.
Bob Smith 14:48
Just because of the ammonia in it, apparently. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 14:50
Okay. All right. History is first recorded toothpaste was an Egyptian mixture of ground pumice and strong wine that are well Okay, well
Bob Smith 15:00
there you go. Yeah, so having you like, we haven’t gotten to the other slight
Marcia Smith 15:04
depression three times a day. But the early Romans brush their teeth with as you said human urine, and also used it as a mouthwash. Actually urine was an active component in toothpaste and mouthwashes until well into the 18th century. Wow. So that is the ammonia it contains gave them a strong cleansing powder
Bob Smith 15:26
just makes you wonder what the breath smelled like though doesn’t it?
Marcia Smith 15:29
Not minty fresh.
Bob Smith 15:33
Okay, I have a question. This deals with a famous actor. Remember Bruce Lee? He was an all those karate movies and things right. Okay. What problem did cameraman have with actor Bruce Lee? What problem did they have?
Marcia Smith 15:48
They had a problem with him because he Oh, did he move so fast. They couldn’t keep up with him. That’s it.
Bob Smith 15:53
Some of his kicks were too fast to be seen by the camera. When he was filming a night scene for Enter the Dragon. He performed a flying kick so fast. It couldn’t be seen at 24 frames per second. Wow. So the filmmakers had to reshoot the sequence at a faster speed and then slow it into slow motion. So it wouldn’t appear faked. Isn’t that interesting? Yeah. But a regular camera runs 24 frames a second, which you would think would capture most everything. He was faster than that. Okay. All right. Well, I think we should take
Marcia Smith 16:25
a break, right? You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marsha Smith.
Bob Smith 16:29
That’s right. We’ll be back in just a moment. Okay, Marsha, we’re back with the off ramp, Bob and Marcia Smith. And back when COVID hit, people started spending a lot more time at home. A lot of people started ordering more things. And they were ordering new technologies. And it turns out people were starting to name their technologies. Because if we’re like friends you know, recently Erie Insurance ask their policyholders Do you name your robot vacuum or other household items, and 48.3% named their robot vacuum, something? Even houseplants are being named. So you want to hear some of the names? Yeah, it’s kind of fun. The number one name is Hazel. Yeah, from 1960. TV. Yeah. Other names include Taz. Ta Z, Rosie, and that was the name of the Jetsons Jetsons. Yeah, robot made right. Alice and Captain Jack has another name. Okay, maybe the trick to keeping your house plant alive is naming it Yeah. won’t seem gives it a reason to live. Some of those names include sticky and Fern. About your GPS you and I named our GPS a long time ago, that is Gladys Gladys, the GPS lady we called her. Some names that popped up in the survey included Maggie, Suzie Clementine, the people who named it Clementine said because you are lost and gone forever. The song and wacky Wanda because it’s usually wrong.
Marcia Smith 18:02
Like you notice something about all those names. They’re all women. I noticed that why do people name their GPS?
Bob Smith 18:07
Because I think they generally come as a default female voice but you can change it to male if you want. Oh, really? Yeah, I see. Okay. And then we got a couple of appliances named Joe the coffee pot. And Poppy the toaster,
Marcia Smith 18:22
these people gotta get a life.
Bob Smith 18:25
Okay, that goes from me, every insurance company. And it’s funny because they’re their sales thing at the end says, make an inventory list to be sure all your household friends are accounted for.
Marcia Smith 18:36
That’s funny. All right, according to the most recent evidence 2007 Who was it that posed for the famous Mona Lisa?
Bob Smith 18:45
Oh, she is the wife of a nobleman or something like that? Yeah. According to the Nanos, her name, yeah.
Marcia Smith 18:51
But Dr. Lillian Schwartz of Bell Labs says that De Vinci painted himself what she digitized both the Self Portrait of the Artist and the Mona Lisa then flipped the self portrait and merge the two images using a computer and the two faces superimposed perfectly No
Bob Smith 19:13
kidding. So it’s an androgynous kind of thing. You can’t tell if it’s male or female. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 19:17
digitally. That’s the most recent thought on I hadn’t read about that. Yeah, I thought that was very curious.
Bob Smith 19:24
That’s funny, and it’s almost like his joke on history.
Marcia Smith 19:27
Oh, yeah. He’s he knows how brilliant he was about everything. Well, I have
Bob Smith 19:31
some interesting food questions for you Marsh. Okay, water. 25% of all vegetables consumed in the United States. 25% of all vegetables consumed in the United States are French fries. That’s 25% of all vegetables. Wow. Yeah. Makes you eat those vegetables. Yeah. All right. What percentage of a Twinkie is air?
Marcia Smith 19:58
I’ll say 50
Bob Smith 20:01
percent of a Twinkie is there. Only 32% is made up of, well,
Marcia Smith 20:07
Twinkie stuff. Okay, that lasts for 2000 years. Okay.
Bob Smith 20:10
One out of every five American meals are eaten were at a restaurant in a car in a car. Yeah. So like that. Those are all interesting. See this last year? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Okay.
Marcia Smith 20:24
You’ve heard the phrase, Robert. He got up on the wrong side of the bed. Yes, I have. Which side is that?
Bob Smith 20:31
That’s my side of the bed. Which side is the wrong side of the bed?
Marcia Smith 20:36
It’s the left side. Really? Yeah. The Wrong side is the left side. At least according to ancient Romans. Well,
Bob Smith 20:44
wait a minute Marsh, depending on how you look at it. If you’re at the foot of the bed, I’m on the right side of the
Marcia Smith 20:49
bed. But if you’re laying there, I know. All right. But going back again to the ancient Romans, who thought getting out of the left side of the bed was leaving you vulnerable to the influences of the devil all all day. And you’re right. You can make that either way.
Bob Smith 21:06
Okay, okay. Well, I’ve considered the right side. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Okay, where does the word lap come from?
Marcia Smith 21:15
He mean, lap like
Bob Smith 21:17
like on your lap, like you sitting down and you pat your your upper upper legs. You go, that’s my lap. Yeah. Why is it called a lap? Because, because it comes from the French lap it that was a long jacket that hangs below the waist. You see any pictures of people from the 17th century men, for instance, they had these very long jackets, they wore coats, they were maybe have a love a trim, but it would go down almost to their knees. Well, those were called lappets. And that’s how we get the name lap for your upper legs. When you sit down the lap. It was the flap of a jacket that rested on your upper legs when you sat down. So long jackets with lappets were in vogue until the early 20th century, but that’s where the name lap comes from. It’s not a anatomical name. It was the flap that rested on your flap it crossing your upper legs.
Marcia Smith 22:07
Well thank you for that. Bob. It’s you gave me imagery for the whole day. You ever wonder how the band REO Speedwagon chose its name? That
Bob Smith 22:16
was taken from a antique car from a one of the early cars was called the REO Speedwagon, I think was not the name of it.
Marcia Smith 22:24
Yes. Who was it? Thank you. I’m debating whether I did give you a yay or nay. Oh, okay. Well, you know who are II? Oh, what are you? Oh, is? No, I
Bob Smith 22:36
don’t know. What are you said? I got you there. Okay. Okay. But that was the name of originally one of the early cars. Yes. Okay. Back
Marcia Smith 22:43
in 1915, a fellow named Ransom Eli, oh kidding. founded the Oldsmobile company. And his first trucks off the line were dubbed speed wagons, and I guess he put his initials in front of it. And decades later, a band paid tribute to him. You
Bob Smith 23:03
know, REO Speedwagon was just a regional band when I was in college, they would come by and they would, they were always a good band. If they’re playing down at the Golden gauntlet that was one of the clubs at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. If they were coming the REO Speedwagon Oh, everybody would go but they were like known in Illinois, they were not a national band. Hmm. So ransom Eli olds. Yep. There was one of the pioneers. Okay, what snack takes its name from prestige LA, Latin for little reward. So
Marcia Smith 23:34
is that a Twinkie? No.
Bob Smith 23:36
This goes back to 610 A D, oh my god and it was an Italian Mk. Who gave children things when they learned their prayers. Okay, he gave them strips of baked dough. They were folded to resemble arms crossing the breast. He called them pressed DLA they eventually became pretzels. That’s where the pretzel name came from prestige play. Okay. Yeah, little rewards, and that’s what they are. Unless you eat too many.
Marcia Smith 24:02
Or even any what do they do to me, Bob? Like give you the hiccups?
Bob Smith 24:05
Yes. Marcia gets hiccups from pretzels. I
Marcia Smith 24:09
don’t get every time I have Twinkies. I
Bob Smith 24:11
could get 68% It’s there. But no, that’s just crazy.
Marcia Smith 24:15
It is. Okay. What’s the largest living creature without a backbone?
Bob Smith 24:20
The largest living creature without a backbone. Maybe the
Marcia Smith 24:25
octopus. You’re in the in the right area.
Bob Smith 24:29
I’m in the sea. Okay, what
Marcia Smith 24:31
is the giant or colossal squid? It weighs up to 2.5 tons j’s and grows up to 55 feet long, but it doesn’t have a backbone. That’s right. That’s right. Each eye is more than a foot in diameter. Oh
Bob Smith 24:48
dear lord. That’s scary to think of, isn’t it? Hence
Marcia Smith 24:51
the colossal squid. There you go.
Bob Smith 24:54
Wow. Okay, I have a science question for you. When a ton of iron rusts How much will it weigh?
Marcia Smith 25:01
How much?
Bob Smith 25:02
How much will it weigh
Marcia Smith 25:04
a ton?
Bob Smith 25:05
No, it will weigh more than a ton. Because the rest yeah adds to it. Yeah, technically speaking rust is an additive process when iron or any other metal oxidizes, it combines with oxygen from the air to make iron oxide, which is rust. And at first the weight of the metal will increase. Of course, over time, the weight of the iron will decrease because that it will erode. But originally, immediately, a ton of iron will weigh more than a ton. Once it starts rusting. How much more well, just small percentage is one of those technicalities mark?
Marcia Smith 25:38
You don’t have the answer. That’s 1.0001.
Bob Smith 25:40
I don’t know
Marcia Smith 25:44
what famous artists figured out how to determine the age of a tree. Wow,
Bob Smith 25:51
that’s interesting. An artist figured
Marcia Smith 25:52
that I would have thought a biologist or a scientist.
Bob Smith 25:56
I’ll go back to Leonardo da Vinci. And
Marcia Smith 25:58
you went back right my my one of my heroes Oh kid, good old DaVinci. What didn’t he do? From conceptualizing everything from helicopters to sanitation systems. The painter, sculptor, architect and engineer was the first to record that the number of rings in the cross section of a tree reveals its age. He also discovered that the width between the rings indicated annual moisture in there. Okay. Did you know he could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time?
Bob Smith 26:29
No, I didn’t know that. This guy was just would be annoying to be around Whitney.
Marcia Smith 26:33
You know what his proudest achievement was though? His ability to bend iron with his bare hands.
Bob Smith 26:39
Wow. That’s a physical strain. Yeah. Holy cow. I didn’t know he was. That’s not the image of an artist. Yo, no, I know. Just is that interesting. You think all the mental stuff would be? To me that’s much more impressive than just the physical force,
Marcia Smith 26:52
but it’s something he could walk around show people and he didn’t know he
Bob Smith 26:57
was a guy. That’s what it was. It gets drawn around and brag about that. I’m
Marcia Smith 27:01
gonna finish up with a quote from Walter Darby, Bernard. Okay. All right. Most people find facts, irritating. Facts interfere with their symptoms of denial.
Bob Smith 27:12
I love that. That’s great. Yeah, that’s very timely. Yes. Excellent. Well, we hope you’ve enjoyed our half hour here and we’ll be back next time with more on the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith.
Marcia Smith 27:28
Bye bye,
Bob Smith 27:28
but the off ramp is produced in association with CPL radio online and the Cedarbrook Public Library Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
