What part of the human body changes most after a year in space? And what impact did Marilyn Monroe have on the career of Ella Fitzgerald? Hear the answer on the Off Ramp with Bob & Marcia Smith. (Photo: Wiki Commons)
Bob and Marcia Smith engage in an eclectic conversation, touching on topics such as space travel, succession laws, and famous individuals’ eccentric habits. Marcia shares insights on Dr. Scholl’s and D.H. Lawrence, while Bob discusses Chinese inventions and anagrams of famous people’s names. Later, they discuss NASA technology in a Hollywood movie set in the 18th century, with Bob highlighting green screens and Carl Zeiss lenses. Marcia then shares details about Disney’s mosquito surveillance program, and Bob questions the practicality of a TV producer’s creative approach to explaining his pilot show’s concept to CBS management.
Outline
Space travel effects, Marilyn Monroe’s impact, and NASA tech in filmmaking.
- Heart mass shrinks by 25% in a year in space, study finds.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the decline of NASA’s Mars mission due to concerns about astronaut health.
- Marilyn Monroe’s love for Ella Fitzgerald’s music led to Fitzgerald’s increased fame and success, with Monroe even helping to secure her a front table at a Hollywood club.
- NASA technology helped Hollywood film an 18th-century movie set by providing a lens used for candlelight scenes.
Disney’s mosquito control measures and a question for Marcia.
- Disney World has a mosquito surveillance program to prevent bites and illnesses.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the measures taken to minimize mosquito bites at Disneyland, including the use of Sentinel chickens in a surveillance program.
Ocean freight, soccer, and history.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the volume of cargo transported by ocean-going barges, with Bob estimating 2500 Boeing 740 sevens are needed to fly the freight.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the Supreme Court and its history, including the story of Sandra Day O’Connor commandeering a nearby men’s room as the “highest court in the land” for women to exercise.
- Marcia Smith shares the story of Sarah Winchester, heir to the Winchester rifle fortune, who built a house in San Jose, California with 57 rooms, 160 doors, and 10,000 windows, believing it would confuse evil spirits.
- Bob Smith explains how King George the Third’s influence led to a system of male preference primogeniture in England, where the oldest male inherits property and the throne, until 2013 when the law was abolished in Georgia.
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith to narrow down his explanation, and Bob provides additional context on how this rule affected the royal family and society as a whole.
Pop culture, history, and TV production.
- Bob and Macia Smith discuss Michael Jackson’s oversleeping and missed meeting, and Kevin Bacon’s first paying acting job as an Army ROTC recruitment film, which disappointed his mom due to her anti-war activism.
- Marcia and Bob discuss a TV show from the 60s, with Marcia sharing details about the show’s concept and Bob expressing his confusion about the premise.
- Bob explains how the show’s creator, Sherwood Schwartz, wrote a song to explain the show’s concept to CBS management, which was later used as the show’s theme song.
Odd facts and historical trivia.
- Marcia shares a mummified hand story and factoid about body deterioration, while Bob responds with Shakespeare insults and a joke.
- Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss the origins of Dr. Scholl’s foot comfort aides, with Bob revealing that Dr. Scholl was a shoemaker’s apprentice before becoming a doctor.
- Bob Smith shares an eccentric habit of the famous writer D.H. Lawrence, who enjoyed climbing mulberry trees naked.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the origins of various inventions, including chess, hot air balloons, and fishing poles, and play anagrams of famous people’s names.
- Marcia Smith creates anagrams of William Shakespeare, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Walt Disney’s names, and Bob Smith provides additional examples.
Bob Smith 0:00
What part of the human body changes most after a year in space?
Marcia Smith 0:05
And how did Marilyn Monroe make a big impact on the career of Ella Fitzgerald? answers
Bob Smith 0:11
to those and other questions coming up in this half hour of the off ramp with Bob and Marsha Smith
Welcome to the off ramp a chance to slow down steered clear of crazy take us side road to sanity and get some perspective on life. Well, Marcia, scientists are starting to get some perspective on how long space travel affects the human body. So what part of the body seems to change the most after a year in space?
Marcia Smith 0:58
Well, is it the other skin?
Bob Smith 1:02
Skin? That’s a good one.
Marcia Smith 1:03
But that’s not it. Skin
Bob Smith 1:05
Changes, heads change, eyeballs change, but the part that seems to change the most is in the words of the New York Times note to future space travelers prepare for a shrinking hearts. Really? Yeah. Wow. Because in space, your heart gets smaller. That’s because without the pull of gravity, the heart does not have to pump his heart. Like any other muscle, it loses some of its fitness. And this just came out in a study of Scott Kelly, who’s the US astronaut who spent over a year in space. Yeah. In a study recently published in the journal Circulation, scientists reported the largest chamber in the heart of Scott Kelly shrank in mass by more than one quarter by the time he returned to Earth. So the right 5% the right Chamber of his heart was more than 25% smaller like,
Marcia Smith 1:51
wow,
Bob Smith 1:52
this is despite the fact that Scott Kelly exercise six days a week on the space station, he jogged on a treadmill for 30 to 40 minutes daily, or worked on on a stationary bicycle. And he also used a resistance machine that mimic the lifting of weights. And yet, over his 340 days in space, his heart mass shrank to 4.9 ounces from 6.7 ounces. That’s a decline of 27%
Marcia Smith 2:18
Can you retrieve that? I want I mean, can it come back? Yeah, apparently it
Bob Smith 2:21
has come back. Okay. But this poses, you know, concerns for these long journeys to Mars that they have planned, you know, so NASA is trying to design better exercise programs for astronauts. Let’s
Marcia Smith 2:34
put that on the top of the list for another reason for not going
Bob Smith 2:39
I can find more than one reason for remember as a kid we all thought when I grow up we’re gonna be probably taken trips to the moon probably go to on vacation there and all that stuff. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 2:49
Now it’s just Piggly Wiggly. Yeah, well, who knew? Why. Okay,
Bob Smith 2:54
we thought we have the Jetsons lifestyle, flying cars, all those things? None of that happen? Well,
Marcia Smith 3:00
we do have self driving cars.
Bob Smith 3:02
We do have the flat screen TVs. Yeah, we do have video phone calls. Other things that were in the Jetsons very
Marcia Smith 3:08
Jetson II. Yeah. So Bob, how did Marilyn Monroe make a big impact on the career of all people, Ella Fitzgerald.
Bob Smith 3:16
I never would have thought this. This is quite interesting, unless it had to do with the scene. So Ella Fitzgerald preceded Marilyn Monroe by a lot of years, you know, she was in jazz and for at least 20 years or more before Marilyn Monroe was even on the scene. So I would imagine did it have to do with style, the kinds of clothes she wore something like that? No.
Marcia Smith 3:37
Marilyn Monroe loved her music. She tried to do a little singing career. Anyway, one of her heroes was Ella. Well, back in the mid 50s, when Marilyn was at the top of her fame. She heard that Ella couldn’t play a posh Hollywood club because she was black. And according to miss Fitzgerald herself, Maryland called the club owner and said that she wanted Ella booked immediately. And if he did that, Maryland said she would take a front table every night of her performance. Oh, no kidding. And because of her superstar status, the press went wild. And of course, they showed up every time Maryland did. And Ella said I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt. after that. I never had to play a small jazz club again.
Bob Smith 4:27
No kidding. Who knew? Yeah. And Marilyn Monroe died in 62. So long before the Civil Rights Movement really?
Marcia Smith 4:33
Oh, yeah. caught on fire. And Alice said she was an unusual woman a little ahead of her time. And she didn’t know.
Bob Smith 4:40
Hhow interesting. That’s great. That’s a great story. Thank you, Bob. All right. Speaking of movies, I have a question here. Okay. How did NASA technology help Hollywood film a movie set in the 18th century? Say it again? How did NASA technology help Hollywood film a movie set in the 18th century.
Marcia Smith 5:03
Well, time travel they had a goal to have the green screen. So they could have realistic backdrops or No,
Bob Smith 5:13
I also helped with the green screen. Is that what you’re saying? Yeah, no. This was Stanley Kubrick. He wanted to shoot scenes in great English homes by candlelight. Only when he was doing Barry Lyndon, remember that? Yes, I do. That was the William Makepeace Thackeray novel that he put to film and he and his associates modified a camera with a lens they borrowed from NASA NASA had commissioned Carl Zeiss, the famous lens company. Many of us have Zeiss lenses on our cameras. Wait, my dad had it on his Yeah, on his camera, right? Yeah. Well, Carl Zeiss built 10 planar 50 millimeter still lenses in the 60s to take photos on the Dark Side of the Moon. And the lens had an f stop of 0.7 that helped Stanley Kubrick film night scenes using candlelight only, which gave an authentic feel to the film which was set in the 1700s. And by the way, he was no stranger to cameras before becoming a director and a filmmaker Stanley Kubrick was a Look magazine photographer. I didn’t know I didn’t know that either. Anyway, so that’s how NASA helped Hollywood film a movie set in the 1700s by candlelight. Very enlightening Bob. Enlightening. I love the pawn there. That’s good. You got it. Yeah. All right. We go again with the unusual Oh,
Marcia Smith 6:32
I’m sorry. That’s a compliment for me.
Bob Smith 6:33
It’s a no no. You’re a special don’t see special that has other connotations. I don’t like Alright, I
Marcia Smith 6:40
got a ramp or question for you, Bob. This is from Benjamin Christopher in Los Angeles. Okay. This is your kind of question. Why doesn’t Disney World have mosquitoes?
Bob Smith 6:53
Why doesn’t disney world have mosquitoes? You know, I read this in an article a long time ago. What is it? I think they went to great lengths in all of their water system in their ponds to eliminate the possibility of, you know, larvae forming, but I can’t tell you the answer.
Marcia Smith 7:09
Yes, it’s very complex. What they do and I’ll read you his answer. Even though Disney World is located in swampy Orlando, Florida, a prime place for mosquitoes to thrive. The theme park takes great pains to ensure that these pesky bloodsuckers don’t bother their guests. Disney has instituted what it calls the mosquito surveillance program. This includes carbon dioxide traps throughout the park that catch bugs. The Disney team then freezes the caught bugs and studies the population to determine the best way to get rid of them.
Bob Smith 7:47
Holy cow they’re like the SC Johnson company where they got the big lab for the mosquitoes for raid and everything.
Marcia Smith 7:52
They also have quote Sentinel chickens. Wow. Yeah, throughout the park like canaries in a coal mine so to speak, they regularly have their blood tested for mosquito borne illness. If a chicken shows any such illness, Disney can pinpoint where in the park it happened in places. They also make sure there’s very little standing or still water where mosquitoes with thrive. These measures combined with ensuring the presence of natural predators and the targeted use of sprayed insecticides helps ensure that visitors will have to endure as few bug mites as humanly possible while visiting the happiest place on earth. It allows people to enjoy themselves and focus on the things that really matter. Like making sure their children don’t get eaten by alligators.
Bob Smith 8:47
It’s another one. You know, it is remarkable that that whole park is in the middle of what was a swamp. Yet to be able to get rid of the mosquito problem when you’re surrounded by wetlands. It’s amazing. It’s an amazing, amazing thing. So wow, that’s interesting. I didn’t know about the Sentinel chickens
Marcia Smith 9:06
surveillance program. And do you recall when we were there twice with our young children? But did you ever
Bob Smith 9:13
know I don’t remember ever bitten by a mosquito?
Marcia Smith 9:16
Me either. It’s pretty amazing. It
Bob Smith 9:17
is it is. And where did that come from? Again,
Marcia Smith 9:19
Benjamin Christopher in Los Angeles. And if any other rapper out there has a question for one of us,
Bob Smith 9:26
you can go to our website, the off ramp dot show and go all the way down to contact us
Marcia Smith 9:32
and contact us.
Bob Smith 9:35
It’s best to write the question the answer where you got it from and then who you want to answer that question. Do you want the question to be for Bob? No, of course not. I want the question to be for Marsha to stump Marsha. We appreciate any and all contributions from our audience. Wonderful folks listening. Okay. Well speaking of water recently that big huge container ship the Evergreen was wedged short ashore in the middle of water the Suez Canal. It blocked traffic on the 60 year old waterway amazing. Now photos of that ship next to the Big John Deere front end loaders made the excavation equipment look like Matchbox toys. Alright, so that ship had 20,000 containers on board. Now if somebody decided let’s just go to the nearest airport and fly this stuff out how many Boeing 740 sevens would it have taken to fly that freight? How many Boeing 740? sevens?
Marcia Smith 10:31
12?
Bob Smith 10:32
That’s a lot of freight. Right.
Marcia Smith 10:34
That’s more, isn’t it? Yes. How many and
Bob Smith 10:36
unbelievable 2500 planes.
Marcia Smith 10:40
That’s how much that barge had. That’s crazy. Yes,
Bob Smith 10:44
that’s no exaggeration. Let me quote from the front page of the Wall Street Journal. The 20,000 containers aboard would fill 2500 Boeing 740 sevens and industry executive estimated. That’s how much those huge ocean going barges are transporting. You heard all the other comparisons? Flip it up on its end, it’s tall as the Statue of Liberty. It’s as long as four football fields. But when you say yeah, it would take 2500 Boeing 740 sevens to fly that freight. That’s just amazing. It is.
Marcia Smith 11:14
Quick question. What countries have won the most World Cups. You know what World Cup is? This is soccer. And the World Cup is like the Lombardi trophy for soccer only for the whole world. Yeah, not just the United States. I would
Bob Smith 11:29
say it’s probably Italy, or England. I don’t know one of those
Marcia Smith 11:34
tickets, right? Number one is five World Cups to Brazil. Okay. And then it’s tied for second which four World Cups each to Germany and Italy. So those three countries have five and four. I
Bob Smith 11:48
remember when Pele came up here from Brazil to play in the US years and years ago.
Marcia Smith 11:54
So that’s really a hotspot for soccer. So
Bob Smith 11:57
the World Cup championship has been won by Brazil more than any other nation. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 12:00
followed quickly by Germany and Italy. Okay.
Bob Smith 12:03
All right. Marcia, what’s the highest court in the land? Supreme Court? No, it’s above the Supreme Court.
Marcia Smith 12:10
Oh, you mean the godly one? No, there’s
Bob Smith 12:12
a basketball court above the Supreme Court. Oh, that’s funny. It’s known as the highest court in the land because Sandra Day O’Connor, who was the first woman on the Supreme Court insisted that she be able to play they’re too good for her. For 191 years, only men had sat on the Supreme Court and the closest lady’s room required her to walk down an endless hallway. So she did what made sense she just commandeered a nearby men’s room instead said this is the ladies room for now. And that’s mine. And she took ownership of this other boys room to the basketball court above the Supreme Court. She called it the highest court in the land. And she wanted to exercise and after she heard other women in the building did too. She reserved the gym and she asked the local YWCA to send an aerobics teacher and even ordered custom T shirts that read women workout at the Supreme Court and the exercise classes became a daily ritual. Oh, that’s wonderful. That shows how just one person going into a new environment can change thing. Yes, I love it. So that’s where the highest court in the land is. It’s the basketball court above the Supreme Court.
Marcia Smith 13:11
That’s very funny. Very funny. Well, you and I in the past that on the show, but have talked about the Sarah Winchester house in San Jose California remember the story about a man Yes, she’s
Bob Smith 13:22
an heir to the Winchester rifle of fame and she’s a little was a little desert. She kept adding on rooms to the house because she thought it was haunted or something like Well, it’s actually
Marcia Smith 13:31
she lost her daughter and her husband to disease and she went to a a medium who said you know you are cursed the break the curse, move west and build keep building. So she bought a house in San Jose. And she started to add on to it for 36 years. She added on so here’s the question Bob. How many rooms doors or windows does this house have?
Bob Smith 14:02
I will say 57 rooms 160 160 rooms 2000
Marcia Smith 14:10
doors holy cow and 10,000 window is
Bob Smith 14:15
this was all done in the 19th century. Yes. Think of all that work that was done on that house.
Marcia Smith 14:19
The house had many odd features to confuse evil spirits like staircases to the ceiling and rooms with a glass floor and doors that open to a two storey drop. She Yes, she wanted to confuse the evil spirits. So that’s that’s what she
Bob Smith 14:37
did. That’s scary. I’m surprised somebody didn’t die in that house because they fell when they open that door and walked into that two storey drop Yeah, hold dear. You know King George the Third is seen as a villain in American Memory right because he was the king during the American Revolution. He also created quite a lot of difficulty for English Royals till 2013 In what was that? What kind of difficulty? Did he lay on two generations of royals? It only changed in the last decade or so.
Marcia Smith 15:08
Tease? Can you narrow it down a bit, it
Bob Smith 15:10
was a royal marriages act of 1770 to be divorced. No. It created a system of male preference primogeniture, you know what that is no mail signs, even if they were only infants could displace an elder daughter in the line of succession. And because of that, in the centuries that followed King George the Third, there were only two queens, Victoria and Elizabeth the Second, they became rulers only because no males were in line for the throne when their fathers died. If there had been a young male there, if there had been a male baby that was there in the line of succession, it would have taken her place. It would have been the king, an infant, that all changed in 2013. So it’s only by age now, it’s not by gender anymore, but it was from the time of King George until 2013. I
Marcia Smith 16:00
had no idea it went on that long and it became the law for commoners to
Bob Smith 16:04
this whole primogeniture thing throughout society, any English speaking country that became the loves that, you know, who inherits anything? It’s the it’s the oldest male? Yeah, you can have an older daughter there. She won’t get anything. Yeah, no, the oldest male was always the inheritor of the land of any regular family. They mimicked what happened to the royal family, thanks to this stupid rule. This law that was passed on the insistence of King George the Third, and either in 1777, Georgia adopted a new state constitution that was the first state to abolish inheritance. primogeniture,
Marcia Smith 16:40
the state of Georgia, they were forward thinking
Bob Smith 16:43
they were the first in America to abolish that rule that the male inherits everything. Okay?
Marcia Smith 16:50
What famous Popstar overslept, and missed his morning meeting appointment at the top of one of the twin towers on 911 2001. Oh, no
Bob Smith 17:01
kidding. So he had a meeting of the top stories of that building. Oh my god, what kind of what kind of feel business Popstar, and music or film music? Music? Was that somebody like Elton John or somebody like that? No. Who is it?
Marcia Smith 17:16
Michael Jackson, really? And the evening of August 10. Michael Jackson stayed up until 3am Talking with his mom and sister and some other friends. Consequently, he overslept the next morning, and he missed his meeting. He told his mom, I’m okay. Thanks to you. And credit her with talking so much. He didn’t get enough sleep.
Bob Smith 17:41
So his mom helped him. Yeah, kept him alive.
Marcia Smith 17:44
Isn’t that something? Wow. Yeah. Well,
Bob Smith 17:47
here’s a mom question. And it’s about a celebrity. Why did Kevin Bacon’s first paying job as an actor disappoint his mom? Oh, his first paying job as an actor disappointed his mom. Why didn’t
Marcia Smith 18:01
he play a pimp or something? Oh, no. Did he not get much money didn’t know.
Bob Smith 18:05
He he had his first paying job as an actor when he was 16. He was in a recruitment film for the Army ROTC. And his mom was an anti war activist. So she was very disappointed teenagers.
Marcia Smith 18:19
They always find a way to get they
Bob Smith 18:22
just rebel. All right, there you go. Time to take a break. We’ll be back with more on the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith. In just a moment. Okay, we’re back with the off ramp. You got a question there, Marsha.
Marcia Smith 18:34
I do in the marriage ceremony of the ancient Incas of Peru. That couple was officially wed when they did what
Bob Smith 18:44
the couple was this was of any any level of society
Marcia Smith 18:48
part of the ceremony? Apparently yes. The couple was officially wed when they hear like here. What are they do we exchange rings? Yeah. So
Bob Smith 18:57
it’s some kind of ritual like that’s a ritual like exchanging rings. Okay. I don’t know what they did.
Marcia Smith 19:01
Okay. They took off their sandals and handed them to each other.
Bob Smith 19:05
Oh, that’s sweet. Walk in your feet. Yeah, your shoes. You walk in my shoes. Yeah, I
Marcia Smith 19:09
found it charming.
Bob Smith 19:10
That is really sweet. Yeah. Now that that has so much obvious symbolism. Except Your feet are smaller than mine. So your shoes wouldn’t fit me. Am I missing something? Move
Marcia Smith 19:21
on. Okay. All
Bob Smith 19:23
right. What TV producer convinced a studio to commit to his comedy by writing a song.
Marcia Smith 19:30
More in fall? Well,
Bob Smith 19:32
this is a comedy TV show that was in the 60s and a producer was having trouble getting people to understand his pilot. So what he did was he wrote a song to explain it. This
Marcia Smith 19:43
is the 60s. Gosh, I’m trying to go back. I don’t know. Tell him you
Bob Smith 19:48
know this song. Everybody knows this song. It’s an earworm song. Gilligan’s Island. Sherwood Schwartz. He was a college educated TV writer. He had degrees in sociology and psychology. So He came up with this concept for a show that would take representative members of American society and strand them on an island where they’d have to interact with each other. It sounds like Oh, does that sound like Survivor? Remember that was the first reality show, I think was that same thing only this was a comedy. So anyway, studios were interested, but they began arguing with him and tinkering with the concept. But he got a brainstorm why don’t I explain the premise in a theme song? So he wrote his own tune and performed it for CBS management. And yes, it was the song that they used at the beginning of the show. Oh, three? Yes, that whole thing. Step back to the millionaire. Course I didn’t watch that.
Marcia Smith 20:43
I only saw it maybe a couple times my whole life. You just you
Bob Smith 20:47
didn’t understand quality television. Anyway, that’s kind of fun. It is. It
Marcia Smith 20:51
is cute TV. Speaking of fun, okay, what is on display in the city of Munster Germany. That no doubt keeps public notaries on their toes.
Bob Smith 21:01
What is on display? Hmm. statue of a notary being impaled on some kind of a cross? Well, I don’t know. That’s
Marcia Smith 21:12
even worse than this. No, they have the mummified hand of a notary public that was chopped off for falsely certifying a document 400 years ago. Oh my god, and it was put out as a warning to other notaries mummified hand. Oh my god. 400 years old. That’s
Bob Smith 21:31
terrible. Oh, 400 years old. Okay, I got some insults from 400 years ago. You do. It’s more of those Shakespeare insults that he put in some of his plays. This is kind of funny. I’ll beat the but I should infect my hands. That’s good. Yeah, that was Tieman and of Athens. If you ever need to get out of a physical fight, Shakespeare gave you the perfect excuse with over brute force. I would beat the but I would infect my hands. And here’s another one. I am sick when I do look on the from a Midsummer’s Night. Oh, the reason you leave is for a bit of nausea. That’s getting out of a fight. I am sick when I look on you. I must go. Now I’ll
Marcia Smith 22:15
save that for our next disagreement. I need to go to the restroom. I have a little factoid connect with my last mummified hand story. And speaking of body deterioration. Did you know our bodies today don’t deteriorate as quickly as they used to? Why?
Bob Smith 22:35
Because of all the food preservative isn’t really out. No,
Marcia Smith 22:39
it just it slows down decomposition. Preservatives we sell. You know, grandma and grandpa Ratan a lot slower down there. Oh, dear. All right, Bob. The US interstate highway system requires that one mile in every five miles must be what
Bob Smith 23:00
must be straight on must be just a straight line because the Interstate Highway System was intended for use for planes during a time of war where they could land anywhere on the interstate highway system. So it’d be runways all over the country.
Marcia Smith 23:13
Well mix Barney pants does it again. That’s correct. That’s what
Bob Smith 23:17
happens when you have Eisenhower in charge of things.
Marcia Smith 23:19
Yes, a general you’re absolutely right. What a brilliant idea.
Bob Smith 23:23
It is a brilliant idea. Okay, Marsha. You buy some of these products. We know Dr. Scholl really was a doctor. Did you know that? Yes, doctor. What was his first occupation though?
Marcia Smith 23:35
He was a what are those guys that stuffed deer?
Bob Smith 23:40
A taxidermist? Yeah, no. No. Why? Why would that lead to being a shoe doctor? I
Marcia Smith 23:47
just thought it was something
Bob Smith 23:49
to show. Okay. He was a shoemakers apprentice. This is how he got the idea to go into medicine. Because that work convinced him of two things. feet were abused and nobody cared. Yeah. So he set out to fix that. And by the time he became a doctor at age 22, he had invented and patented his first arch support already. And then by the time he died, he had more than 300 patents for foot treatments and the machines for making foot comfort aides. His customers were so enthusiastic. One widow wrote to him saying she buried her husband with his foot aides so he’d be as comfortable in death as he was walking in life. And Dr. Scholl credited his success early to bed early to rise work like hell and advertise. That’s good. So there was a doctor show. He was a doctor, but he got his idea for, you know, helping people with their feet by being a shoemakers apprentice. I’ve got a famous writer who had a very eccentric habit, D H. Lawrence, what was one of his very eccentric habits. He’s a very original controversial writer of the 20th century.
Marcia Smith 24:55
I don’t know can you give me a hint?
Bob Smith 24:58
Well, I’ll just tell you that He likes to remove his clothes and climb mulberry trees. Really? Yeah, he likes to climb mulberry trees naked. I don’t know why, but he did. Okay, another question what two chests, hot air balloons and fishing poles have in common? chests, hotter air balloons and fishing poles.
Marcia Smith 25:22
Three very different things. Yeah. Okay, tell me.
Bob Smith 25:24
They were all invented by the Chinese. In fact, the Chinese are credited with many recreational innovations, I think of them as being more with the practical things. But in addition to chess, hot air balloons and fishing poles, they’re also credited with inventing the fishing hook kites, parachutes, and of course,
Marcia Smith 25:44
fire works. Well. Yeah. And a ton of other stuff. Yeah, a lot
Bob Smith 25:47
of other things too. But I just thought those were three random things to pull together and say, Who invented these things? And you thought they were random. So I guess I succeeded. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 25:56
That you did. Okay. I’m going to finish up with some anagrams. Okay. Famous people. You know what anagrams are?
Bob Smith 26:05
Yeah, I never liked these things. Okay. You take all the letters and rearrange them rearrange them.
Marcia Smith 26:09
It’s like Joe Biden. I need job.
Bob Smith 26:14
Does that really that’s an anagram that’s got all of his letters of his name.
Marcia Smith 26:17
Leonardo DiCaprio. Ocean Idol or a drip?
Bob Smith 26:22
Okay. And Calista
Marcia Smith 26:24
Flockhart. You know who she is? Yeah. She’s married to Harrison Ford. Right. It’s right. And her an anagram is La chick farts a lot.
Bob Smith 26:36
That’s something to be proud
Marcia Smith 26:37
of. Oh, okay. One more like this. William Shakespeare. I am a week ish speller. Oh, well,
Bob Smith 26:44
maybe he was.
Marcia Smith 26:46
And the last one, Walt Disney. Sadly, I went, wow. But
Bob Smith 26:51
happily he lived. That’s right. And he made so many people happy with all those fun things all those years. You got that? Right. All right. Well, that’s we hope you’re going happily into the next hour of your life and hope you’ve enjoyed the last 30 minutes of yours with us. So we hope you’ll join us again next time when we come back with more great trivia questions. I Bob Smith, I’m Marcia Smith, and you’re listening to the
Marcia Smith 27:14
off ramp. You said the off ramp.
Bob Smith 27:19
Very good. Thank you see that well, is English your first language.
The off ramp is produced in association with CPL radio online and the Cedarburg Public Library Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
