093 Noteworthy Trivia

Bob Smith 0:00
They are old school but their sales are up. Why are mechanical pencils one of the top selling items at airport new stands?

Marcia Smith 0:07
What animal has the largest population on Earth?

Bob Smith 0:11
answers to those and other questions coming up in this episode of the off ramp with Bob

Marcia Smith 0:16
and Marshalls Smith

Bob Smith 0:34
Welcome to the off ramp chance to slow down steer clear of crazy. Take a side road to Saturday and get some perspective on life. Well, Marcia, if I knew the largest population of creatures on earth, that gives me a different perspective on life, doesn’t it? Yes.

Marcia Smith 0:51
What animal has the largest population on Earth?

Bob Smith 0:55
The largest population on Earth? I would think it would be an insect of some type.

Marcia Smith 1:00
Maybe,

Bob Smith 1:00
maybe, maybe you got more than one that you can give. I was

Marcia Smith 1:05
gonna give you number one and number two, I would think you would guess number two right off the top of that little head of yours.

Bob Smith 1:11
Okay, number two, I would say are mosquitoes. Ah, no. Okay.

Marcia Smith 1:16
Thank you again. I

Bob Smith 1:17
don’t know why my M and Emma seca the

Marcia Smith 1:19
backyard bees. No, no sand mounds and Oh, yes. Okay. Yes, that’s number two. There are 1 million billion ants, which boils down to 1 million ants per person on earth. Oh, dear. That’s not a good thought. No. But the number one is called the krill, the krill, not the one that’s on Star Trek, but they are a small shrimp like crustacean of the open seas and are eaten by larger animals, mainly baleen whales. But anyway, they’re estimated to be around 5 trillion quills. Wow. I don’t know if you call it a fish. But it is an animal and it lives in the sea. Okay, okay, 5 trillion. Somebody counted them up

Bob Smith 2:07
5 trillion. There’s one missing. It’s 4,000,000,000,999. Okay. Wow. Okay, they’re old school, but their sales are up. So why are mechanical pencils, one of the top items selling at newsstands at airports these days? Let me think why not think this has been happening for the past 10 years or so really?

Marcia Smith 2:32
Well, because you can erase it and people are rethinking or what their roles

Bob Smith 2:37
are. Those are two absolutely important qualities when you’re engaged in this particular activity. Well, what’s the activity? The activity that’s writing? What kind of writing?

Marcia Smith 2:48
What kind of writing?

Bob Smith 2:50
Here’s let me help you. It’s a game.

Marcia Smith 2:53
It’s a game. Oh, are people playing like Scrabble or word games? Sudoku, said duco. Sudoku is Su Doku and I say is to do go. You say that’s what they’re doing.

Bob Smith 3:05
That’s what the experts are saying that and other old school puzzle games have stimulated sales of mechanical pencils. And in the 21st century, they’ve become one of the top selling items at airport newsstands. Now, mechanical pencils are definitely old school. Most people use pens to write or they tap on their phones and text things. Sudoku was born in 1984. But since 2005, CNN proclaimed at a craze and the number of airline passengers who occupy their time during flights with it and other manual puzzles. Yeah, has skyrocketed. So use a term that is fun. Yeah.

Marcia Smith 3:42
That’s fascinating. I should have thought of that. You know, like cryptograms that I do. People use pencils for that all the time. Not me. My claim to fame is I do that in ink.

Bob Smith 3:53
Well, planes don’t come equipped with pencil sharpener. So people want something that they can keep putting the lead out there.

Marcia Smith 3:59
Yes. And get the lead out. Yes. I like it. Thank you for that. Chuck this up to Marsh’s obscure trivia day. Okay, okay. All right. Can you name Bob any of the top dumbest animals in the world?

Bob Smith 4:14
I don’t like doing this because somebody always owns one and they’re really upset. Okay, well, so I’ll just say, Gee, I can’t

Marcia Smith 4:20
think of domestic animals here. So you won’t offend anyone we know.

Bob Smith 4:25
Are they like aardvarks or something like that? Yeah, they’re not on the list though.

Marcia Smith 4:29
There is a barnyard animal here that Turkey is considered pretty stupid. Well, yes

Bob Smith 4:33
to That’s true.

Marcia Smith 4:35
You know what number one is know that panda bear? Oh, so cute. No cute but stupid. And then I don’t know what a robot is. Do.

Bob Smith 4:44
I thought that was something you bought a bed? Yeah. Is your robot.

Marcia Smith 4:48
And then the goblin shark? The sloth. A koala. Another adorable stupid thing and Kickapoo and cane toads. They all failed the IQ test in the animal King I’m

Bob Smith 5:00
sorry to hear that a shark which I would hope would be smart if it’s going to eat me is stupid. Well,

Marcia Smith 5:04
this is the goblin shark which I personally have not heard of. But

Bob Smith 5:09
melamine either goblin

Marcia Smith 5:11
comes out at Thanksgiving. say did you hear about

Bob Smith 5:15
the new CDC warning? It might sound silly after a year of solid warnings. The latest bulletin from the Centers for Disease Control, warns people against kissing chickens. Oh

Marcia Smith 5:26
no. Did you hear that? No, we can’t kiss chicken.

Bob Smith 5:29
No, you can’t oh my gosh, I know you like doing that. It’s

Marcia Smith 5:31
always something.

Bob Smith 5:32
It is a serious warning that I’ve heard people making fun of this, and it has nothing to do with the Coronavirus. But as the website Mental Floss puts it, the temptation to snuggle a chicken. There’s apparently too strong for some poultry owners. And that’s why they’re being advised to avoid displays of affection. I knew salmonella could be spread by eating food. But there have been 163 cases of salmonella poisoning reported in 43 states and they’ve been linked to backyard chicken coops where touching petting or kissing a baby chicken carries the risk of contracting the bacteria. And it’s no fun when you get it. It can cause diarrhea and fever in human beings. Salmonella could be on their feathers, beaks, feet and droppings. So don’t touch a chicken or their eggs or anything in their environment and then put your fingers in your mouth as of today. All right. And don’t eat or drink around them. They say either really? Yeah, because that stuff could be in the air.

Marcia Smith 6:32
Yeah, boy. Here’s something out of Reader’s Digest. Pay it forward. You know what that is? It happens to us in the Starbucks line. Sometimes once

Bob Smith 6:42
in a while somebody in front of us will fire an expensive coffee and more

Marcia Smith 6:45
often than not unless I look back and see 50 people in the car behind us I say yeah, we’ll pay for their I have my limits. But anyway, there’s a Dairy Queen in Brainerd, Minnesota. And sometimes they say that chain of giving passing it on can go on for 20 car.

Bob Smith 7:05
Oh my god. Yes.

Marcia Smith 7:07
But this last December, you know, during the holidays and the pandemic, that non stop continuous chain of passing on free ice cream. This is at a Dairy Queen to strangers lasted Bob for roughly how many cars?

Bob Smith 7:23
Well went on for longer than 10 or 20 cars? Yeah. If

Marcia Smith 7:26
it made Reader’s Digest Think big. Okay, let’s say 150 cars. That’s big 900 car. Oh, no kidding. went on for over two days. People bought $10,000 worth of ice cream for strangers. Where was this again in Brainerd, Minnesota at a

Bob Smith 7:44
Dairy Queen in Minnesota in winter people buying ice cream at

Marcia Smith 7:47
driving as 900 cars for two days. That’s amazing. What are they open 24 hours or they just held on to one and opened up the next day and said that car last night? bought you this? Who knows? Yeah, but that’s a great I thought it was fast.

Bob Smith 8:01
That is a great one. I had no idea that would happen in a cold climate in the winter. Yeah, that’s the thing. It gets me. Wow. All right, Marcia, you’re a writer. I’m a writer. And we know writers who have had attempts to write books and there’s an awful lot of rejection when you’re a writer, whether you’re a script writer or book writer or whatever. This author’s first book was rejected 27 times until by accident, he ran into an old friend on the street. What famous author’s first book was rejected? 27 times? It’s

Marcia Smith 8:33
not what you know, it’s who you know, right? When

Bob Smith 8:37
a hint, yes. Okay. He became probably the most famous children’s author of all time. Seuss Dr. Seuss. Yeah, his first book and to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street was rejected 27 times. Until one day when the author was walking down Madison Avenue in New York City he ran into a former classmate who just been named juvenile department editor at a publishing house

Marcia Smith 9:03
and the rest is history. Wow. Oh, that’s good. But

Bob Smith 9:07
I thought that would if there are any writers listening they can take heart that sometimes it even the best people it takes a long time to get started,

Marcia Smith 9:14
but I’ll jump ahead to my book story. What famous character Bob in the Charles Dickens story had first draft names of puny Pete little Larry and small Sam. What name did this famous character now think of those three names?

Unknown Speaker 9:31
What do you need Pete?

Marcia Smith 9:32
Little Larry and small Sam was named

Bob Smith 9:35
communitive person. It would be PIP maybe well

Marcia Smith 9:39
think it’s also Tiny Tim That’s that Oh no. Because he used alliteration and diminutive so so

Bob Smith 9:46
what were they again? What was Tiny Tim originally called?

Marcia Smith 9:48
Puny Pete. Little Larry and small Sam. Oh, those

Bob Smith 9:53
are bad compared to Tiny. Tiny Tim. Hey, puny up. Speaking have characters I’ve got one like that too. Okay, all right. These authors had an unusual name for their male character and the only change that when their publisher objected, who were they and what did their character become? It’s another children’s book. The character was very curious.

Marcia Smith 10:16
Was it George? Yes.

Bob Smith 10:18
But listen to this. Margaret and ha Ray came up with this curious boy monkey today. We know him as Curious George, but his original name was Fifi or FeiFei. I don’t know it’s spelled FYI. FYI, it’s Fifi to the eye. It looks like Fifi. Can’t imagine calling a boy character curious Fifi. You? Neither could the publisher so they changed the name to Curious George. Oh, well, okay.

Marcia Smith 10:43
What do writer Edgar Allan Poe and singer Jerry Lee Lewis have in common? Edgar Allan Poe and Jerry Lee Lewis, something very specific. I mean, not, you know, like both played the piano

Bob Smith 10:55
with their feet. You’re getting close. A whole lot of shaking going on

Marcia Smith 11:00
there and very distinctive that we think of Jerry Lee Lewis, both

Bob Smith 11:04
alcoholics. Both married their cousins.

Marcia Smith 11:07
13 year old cousin. Oh my god both married their 13 year old. Oh dear. And as an aside, Paul was expelled from West Point Military Academy for turning out for a public parade wearing only his white belt and gloves.

Bob Smith 11:26
He was a strange little Dickens.

Marcia Smith 11:27
Wow, that is funny.

Bob Smith 11:30
Okay. All right. I’ve got kind of a fun one here. How did an unbelievably rude waiter influenced the art of puppetry? And unbelievably rude waiter influenced the art of puppetry in our time.

Marcia Smith 11:47
In our time, yeah.

Bob Smith 11:49
He was a waiter at a bar in New York City.

Marcia Smith 11:52
Wow. Yeah. Got me there. Bob. One

Bob Smith 11:54
day one of his outburst amuse two customers sitting in the tavern. Yes, one was named Jim. St. John Jim Henson. Yes, the creator of the Muppets. And John Stone, who was TV director for a new show called Sesame Street. And they were so amused by this unbelievably rude man that he inspired a character and a puppet grouch. That’s right a grouch. They named Oscar after the New York City establishment where he worked Oscars tavern. Oh, that’s cute. That’s how Oscar the Grouch was born.

Marcia Smith 12:25
Okay, how much Bob of the ocean is unexplored? What percentage? Oh, I’d

Bob Smith 12:32
say most of it. Because I mean, there’s some of these canyons are seven miles deep. And they’ve only sent bathy scopes and those kinds of devices down there in the past, I’d say you know, 40 years so I would say something like 80% of

Marcia Smith 12:45
you might God you nailed it isn’t 80% of our oceans are unmapped. unobserved and unexplored. Isn’t

Bob Smith 12:52
that amazing? Yep. That just shows you how many adventures there are left for the human race to explore. Yeah,

Marcia Smith 12:58
that is and I have my next question follows off that. Ocean Exploration continued even during the pandemic. And last year, the Schmidt ocean Institute went 2000 feet down in Indian Ocean with a robot exploring a canyon. And they happened upon a fantastical loosely coil creatures suspended that they call the siphon for the siphon for Yeah, the siphon pH O R E, which is believed to be the longest animal ever discovered how long you think it was, so it uncoiled apparently then or they did deductive reasoning with how big and wide it was. So

Bob Smith 13:42
I’ll say 100 feet long. That’d be very long.

Marcia Smith 13:45
That’d be very long, but it was well over 150 feet. They say it’s just an example of what lies deep below and we are slowly able to observe through better technology. The cipher more is a bioluminescent and creates its own light. When it bumps against something. It stem glows with a bright blue light. I believe that some parts of the animal catch prey, some parts of the animal reproduce and the other swims.

Bob Smith 14:17
Some parts of it reproduce. Yeah, you mean some parts of it keep growing and the other parts?

Marcia Smith 14:21
Don’t I didn’t delve into it. But that’s exactly how they oceanographers describe Well, that’s

Bob Smith 14:27
strange.

Marcia Smith 14:28
150 feet in length, though, if that doesn’t give you the heebie jeebies. I don’t know what well, okay,

Bob Smith 14:34
I’ve got a good one here. What’s the oldest rose in the world?

Marcia Smith 14:39
The rose the flower. Tell me Bob.

Bob Smith 14:41
It’s called the 1000 year old. It’s true. And it’s got a remarkable story. It’s the rows of Hilden shame, and it grows on the wall of the Catholic Hilde shame Cathedral in central Germany. They think it’s been there for 1000 years. They know it’s been there for hundreds of years. They’ve seen old etchings and old pictures of it back to King Louis the pious at Hilda Shaiman 815. It climbs the Wall Of The Cathedrals apps. It’s commonly known as the Wild Dog. Rows of Rose can, Nina. It’s about 69 feet high. 30 feet wide,

Marcia Smith 15:18
totally covers 69 foot roll.

Bob Smith 15:20
Well, the rosebush, you know, yeah, the plants. Yeah. That’s the rose bush, the rose bush. Yeah. But the most amazing part of this as the cathedral was destroyed by Allied bombers in 1945, during World War Two, but the roots of the rosebush survived, it started growing out of the rubble and kept growing, and they rebuilt the church and it grows right up the side of the church again,

Marcia Smith 15:43
very cool. Nature finds a way. Yeah, the

Bob Smith 15:45
oldest rose in the world. There are pictures of it online. It’s this huge, big rosebush.

Marcia Smith 15:49
What’s that line from Bob nature finds a way? I don’t know. Jurassic Park.

Bob Smith 15:56
The hope nothing happens like that at St. Michael’s Church. All right. We’ll be back in just a moment. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marcia

Marcia Smith 16:05
Smith.

Bob Smith 16:09
All right, we’re back with your friend Bob and Marsha Smith. Marsha in the mid 1960s. While filming Star Trek actor, Leonard Nimoy was asked by TV director to improvise something for an episode. What did he improvise? And where did he get the idea?

Marcia Smith 16:24
Oh, no, that was Shatner did that kiss the first interracial kiss? So all right, he this guy. This is played Mr.

Bob Smith 16:33
Spock. Yes.

Marcia Smith 16:34
What was this famous

Bob Smith 16:36
thing he would say? Live long and prosper. And what did he do when he said that?

Marcia Smith 16:41
He held his fingers up with that? Oh, did

Bob Smith 16:43
he do that? Yeah, palm facing out with a finger separated into a V shape. Where did he get that? I don’t know. He thought back to his youth. And he reproduced an obscure rabbinical blessing. He remembered seeing a hand gesture that a rabbi used in synagogue. That’s where he got it from his synagogue days as a kid

Marcia Smith 17:01
back in the synagogue who would again that’s a great, great factoid. I love it. Yeah. Okay. Bob, the brightest star in our night sky is called Sirius, which is closer than most stars at 8.6 light years away. I’ve been there. Oh, did they have a drive through Starbucks or anything? Okay, good. Then I’ll go.

Bob Smith 17:24
I got I paid for ice cream for the boys behind me.

Marcia Smith 17:29
If it burned out tomorrow, Bob, how long would it take us to know about it?

Bob Smith 17:33
Oh, that’s a good question. So

Marcia Smith 17:34
eight, would you say it’s eight light years away? 8.6 light years away. Okay,

Bob Smith 17:38
so it’s gonna take a lot longer than that. Because a light year we can’t even travelled that fast. So I would say two or 300 years? No. A decade old. 10 years? Yeah. 10 years for us to know. Yeah, I

Marcia Smith 17:50
thought it would have been more to but takes 10 years for the light to get here. And then 10 years for us to figure out it’s not shining anymore.

Bob Smith 17:59
That’s interesting. It’s a long, long way away. It is. Okay, Marcia, I have a question for you. In most TV commercials, as well as print ads. What’s usually the time?

Marcia Smith 18:11
30 or 60 seconds?

Bob Smith 18:13
No, no? What’s usually the time if you see a time on a clock or a watch? What’s the time when you see that in most TV commercials or print ads? I don’t understand. Okay. You look at it an ad for a watch. Yes. What time? Is it? Oh,

Marcia Smith 18:28
is it usually the set? Is it like 12? Noon? Or 12? No. Two o’clock, three o’clock? Four, no, five. This

Bob Smith 18:35
makes sense. If you think about it, it’s 1010. It’s 10 After 10 Because, because that is totally symmetrical. And it leaves room in the middle for the logo. Or, or

Marcia Smith 18:48
the sounds silly. Of course, I should have thought of that. It’s the

Bob Smith 18:51
best way to center and showcase a logo and a manufacturer can I will watch for that in the next class. And that’s why 1010 has been the time in advertising. Whenever you see it for almost a century.

Marcia Smith 19:02
No kidding watches. That little escape from

Bob Smith 19:05
who knew a book called who knew by David Hoffman. I

Marcia Smith 19:07
like it. Yeah.

Bob Smith 19:09
Okay. Are you every once in a while we’ll flip on TV and you’ll click by Dancing with the Stars. You know, you see that everybody looks so good on that show. Everybody all the contestants have such great skin tone. How do they get that Marcia?

Marcia Smith 19:23
Well, the lighting? That’s what I would think to the lighting. Yeah, yeah. And they can put filters on the cameras.

Bob Smith 19:30
Now. It’s not the lighting. It’s not the filters on the camera. And it’s not because they’ve been sunning on the beach. It is because to get those deep, dark colors. The Caucasian celebrity contestants on Dancing with the Stars are applied with five layers of spray tan. Oh, God. Yes. Layers. Wait, we’re not done yet. Followed by a handbook stain a bronzer. Oh, and a final dusting of course of glitter.

Marcia Smith 19:53
Oh, they must have to clean off for days.

Bob Smith 19:58
It takes 45 minutes to do all that and then they’re ready. For the camera and then they better dance. What’s

Marcia Smith 20:01
wrong with just if you’re white and you know, some people look almost pearlescent they’re so white, you know that.

Bob Smith 20:09
You’re gonna have spray tan. I have five layers. Oh, stupid.

Marcia Smith 20:13
All right. All right, and then they have Chiclet teeth, right? God and it’s just scary. Marcia, Marcia, Marcia. All right, can you name Bob the only novel to tap the best sellers list for two consecutive years?

Bob Smith 20:30
Really? There’s only one novel. It’s done this Yeah, for two

Marcia Smith 20:33
years in a row. I’ll give you the years to help you. Okay. 72 and 1973 72

Bob Smith 20:39
is 1972. Yeah, and 1973 Okay, that may be a 16. So

Marcia Smith 20:44
now that wouldn’t be that’s centuries 1972

Bob Smith 20:47
What was the BAP novel? Was it the exorcist now, was it I wanted to guess? Rosemary’s? Baby? Were these books before? They were I

Marcia Smith 20:56
don’t I don’t believe I remember reading this. i Okay. Curious if you did. It was certainly popular. Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Oh, yeah. I read that by Richard Bach. What was it about?

Bob Smith 21:08
It was a very thin little book. Yeah. And it was the story of this Seagull and it was kind of a homily. I mean, it was one of those. You know, it tells a story, but there’s a bigger message to it about life. Oh, what it was, I can’t remember. But it was very, very popular. Everybody

Marcia Smith 21:23
was reading I know. They were I just was I was busy reading.

Bob Smith 21:27
I’m okay. You’re okay. If it’s time, you know, something like that. You

Marcia Smith 21:30
were reading that in 72. I was reading the rise and fall of the third, right. No, you

Bob Smith 21:34
were reading that? What was that? The group? That’s what you were reading? Sick. Okay, porno book. Okay, I’ve got another question about a TV star. Okay, okay. What kind of a bird I never thought about this before. What kind of a bird was Big Bird?

Marcia Smith 21:53
What kind of a bird he was a yellow tail cockatoo? No,

Bob Smith 21:59
it wasn’t a cockatoo.

Marcia Smith 22:01
He was a chicken. No,

Bob Smith 22:03
he wasn’t a chicken.

Marcia Smith 22:04
He was a very tall rooster who fell in a bad yellow paint. I don’t know. Tell me

Bob Smith 22:09
okay. He was a canary hitch or an Osprey. Oh, he was a cross between an ostrich and a canary. Yeah, that’s funny. He was eight feet two inches tall. So he can’t couldn’t be a canary itself, you know? And but he was a canary because of his big bright color. But he told everybody on the show. He was a golden Condor, which was a fictional bird species funny, but you could say he’s a turkey. You know why? Because big birds original costume was made up of 4000 white turkey feathers dyed bright yellow kidding. Yeah, real feather real feathers for the original Big Bird.

Marcia Smith 22:45
I should have got the ostrich part because we’re always looking at the big ostrich here puppet in your in your studio? Yes, yes. I’ve got an ostrich puppet here. Yes. And I should have thought of Big Bird. Is that. Okay? In 1900, Bob, Americans voted the Bible as their favorite book. Okay. What came in at number two? What was the second something you would know? It’s not, was it? Dr. Spock’s childcare 1900? Did

Bob Smith 23:14
he I don’t think he went back. 1900 I’m sorry. Was it a Jules Verne book?

Marcia Smith 23:20
No. Was it?

Bob Smith 23:21
What can you tell me the type of book?

Marcia Smith 23:25
It wasn’t a novel wasn’t a novel. It

Bob Smith 23:27
was a history book.

Marcia Smith 23:28
No,

Bob Smith 23:30
it was a nonfiction book.

Marcia Smith 23:32
It was. I don’t know how to. I don’t know it was here. I’ll give you a big clue. Ready? It was a catalog. Oh, it

Bob Smith 23:40
was the Montgomery Ward catalog. No Sears Roebuck catalog. Yeah, that was the number two book

Marcia Smith 23:46
after their favorite book. They voted on the Bible and the Sears Roebuck catalog.

Bob Smith 23:51
Oh, that’s so funny. That is

Marcia Smith 23:53
That’s funny. And I

Bob Smith 23:55
never thought of it as a book because it’s a periodical. Yeah,

Marcia Smith 23:58
I wonder said that either. But the Americans wrote it down as number two favorite book. So you know, they weren’t into fiction or nonfiction apparently much.

Bob Smith 24:09
I got a question for you. You know, we watch TV and we still occasionally watch NBC and they still do that. Boom, boom, boom. Now. Can you tell me do those three musical notes have any significance? Well,

Marcia Smith 24:21
aren’t they? I don’t the ACB or something on the piano. What would that be? Bom Bom.

Bob Smith 24:29
I mean, what significance would that have?

Marcia Smith 24:31
Ah, that’s their call letters.

Bob Smith 24:34
NBC.

Marcia Smith 24:35
There’s an N Yeah. Oh, scratch that.

Bob Smith 24:38
Note. Is that what you’re saying? Scratch that home county didn’t I don’t have that on my treble clef or bass. What

Marcia Smith 24:43
does it signify? I do not know. Tell me they are GECGC

Bob Smith 24:46
and they originally had significance. Tell me g c. Well, they

Marcia Smith 24:54
were Electric Corporation. That’s

Bob Smith 24:56
right. Oh my god. Yeah. And General Electric owned NBC. A rigidly Okay, well, they that was the signature they used was g c, I’ll

Marcia Smith 25:06
be darned. Well, that’s, that’s very fascinating.

Bob Smith 25:08
And my last question is what’s the only country on record that moved from one continent to another? The only what? Country on record that moved from one continent to another?

Marcia Smith 25:19
Wow, gee, isn’t that how long ago? It’s

Bob Smith 25:23
quite a while ago. 1903 1903.

Marcia Smith 25:26
Was it the part of Russia once?

Bob Smith 25:29
I’ll tell you it’s a trick question. Okay, then tell me okay. Because the only place the country moved was on the maps. Okay. It was Panama. Before Panama, before Panama gained its independence from Columbia in 1903. The nation was considered part of South America. After independence, the isthmus, Panama. That’s all they took out of Columbia, was that isthmus was regarded as part of Central America, which now belongs to North America. So today, Panama is considered a part of the North American continent, but originally, it was in South America.

Marcia Smith 26:03
A trick question is, well, I’m going to close with a quote by one Joseph Campbell, who said, A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself. That’s true. I like that definition. You know, nice, better

Bob Smith 26:20
than a hero as a sandwich. That’s what I was thinking the whole For God’s sake, I’m sorry, I’m

Marcia Smith 26:25
hung that kind of humor on Memorial Day apologist, so wrong, okay, wrong. I’m gonna go put up the flag to make up for your what you just said, sorry. I’m gonna actually go do that. Okay.

Bob Smith 26:37
All right. And we want to remind you that if you’d like to send us questions, if you’d like me to stump Marcia with something, you could send a question to me and tell me the question the answer where you got it and where you’re from, because we’d like to know where our listeners are. And go to our website, the off ramp dot show, scroll down to contact us and leave your information. But that’s it for today. We’ll be back next time. I’m Bob Smith.

Marcia Smith 27:00
I’m Marcia Smith.

Bob Smith 27:01
Thanks for joining us here on the off ramp.

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

Transcribed by https://otter.ai