Bob and Marcia Smith engaged in a lively conversation, covering topics ranging from language and culture to preschool education. Bob shared his fascination with Phil Collins’ connection to the Alamo, while Marcia asked questions about British history. They discussed the origins and evolution of words and phrases, including ‘cabin fever’ and ‘stir crazy,’ and explored cicadas’ unique mating habits. Bob and Marcia also emphasized the importance of compromise in leadership, citing Andrew Carnegie’s quote. Later, they discussed the significance and long-term benefits of preschool education, with Bob referencing a study showing a reduction in criminal behavior and Marcia highlighting the importance of social skills development.
Outline
History, music, and food with interesting facts.
- Phil Collins, British rock drummer, donated largest collection of Alamo artifacts.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the history of soybean substitution in the automotive industry, with Ford Motor Company pioneering the idea in 1937.
- Marcia Smith shares interesting facts about the number of British kings who were queens, with six of them ruling during different time periods.
Hollywood history, preschool’s impact, and hot temperatures.
- Marcia and Bob discuss Jesse James’ son playing his father in a 1921 silent movie.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the inspiration for the Muppet character Animal, and the potential benefits of preschool.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the benefits of preschool, including improved academic outcomes and life skills.
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the only entertainer with five stars on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, and Bob Smith guesses Bing Crosby.
Old movies, actors, and swearing in Hollywood.
- Bob and Marcia reminisce about old TV shows and movies.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the origins of the X symbol and Clark Gable’s fine for using a swear word in Gone with the Wind.
COVID-19, cabin fever, and the Muppet Show.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the origins of the term “cabin fever” and “stir crazy”.
- Bob and Marcia Smith discuss the banning of the Muppet Show in Saudi Arabia and the cicadas’ loud mating calls in Georgia.
- Marcia and Bob discuss Hollywood trivia, including Katharine Hepburn’s tomboy past and the only X-rated movie to win an Oscar.
History, culture, and trivia.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the origins of military salutes, newspaper naming, and paper cigar bands.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the similarities between famous people, including their dyslexia diagnosis.
- Bob explains the origin of the name “Pokemon,” which is a contraction of two English words.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the origin of the term “Pocket Monster” and a quote from Andrew Carnegie.
Bob Smith 0:00
He accumulated the largest collection of Alamo artifacts in the world who is this great American history scholar?
Marcia Smith 0:07
And how many of Britain’s kings were queens? What?
Bob Smith 0:13
Okay, answers to those and other questions coming up in this interesting version 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 get some perspective on life. Well, here’s some perspective on life. Marsha was the great American scholar who has accumulated the largest collection of artifacts from the Alamo in the world.
Marcia Smith 0:57
Is he alive? He’s alive. He’s alive. He’s alive. The Great American scholar. Is he a writer?
Bob Smith 1:06
He’s a musician. Okay,
Marcia Smith 1:07
some cowboy. I bet he’s a country western singer. No,
Bob Smith 1:11
no, he isn’t. Okay, what is he’s a great American scholar, but he’s British rock drummer Phil Collins of Genesis fame. He grew up in a middle class family in London. His father sold insurance. His mother was a theatrical agent, but he started getting interested in music. He also got caught up in the Davy Crockett craze. Yes, it was a thing in England to have the little half he had all that stuff. He even entered a talent contest singing the Disney Studio song Davy Crockett, King of the wild frontier. Oh, that’s adorable. And according to a teacher, he stopped the orchestra halfway through to tell them they were in the wrong key. You’re kidding. Probably about six years old. Well,
Marcia Smith 1:50
that’s very cool. Well, you had me on that one. I wouldn’t have guessed him in a million years. Well,
Bob Smith 1:54
I thought it was fascinating to it just came out recently. There’s a new book out about the Alamo. And they mentioned that Phil Collins, you know, when he became in middle age, he just started assembling what eventually became the largest collection of Alamo artifacts. And in 2012, he even wrote a book about his collection and talk to the Dallas Historical Society. And recently he decided to donate his collection. So they’re part of a $450 million renovation of the Alamo in San Antonio. He
Marcia Smith 2:21
has got a little collection of coonskin caps.
Bob Smith 2:24
I don’t know. Isn’t that funny, though? Not anybody you’d expect at all? No, not at all. Phil Collins to have the all those collections of things from the Alamo. Okay, Bob. Okay. Marsha, you have an interesting question there, don’t you? Yes, I do.
Marcia Smith 2:38
How many of Britain’s kings were queens?
Bob Smith 2:43
How many of the English kings were queens? Are we talking about female and personnel? Are
Marcia Smith 2:48
we talking homosexual? Oh, no, no homosexuals. According to guide London, how many? And
Bob Smith 2:54
we’re talking about 1000 years of history. I don’t know it could be a lot. I’ll just say three though.
Marcia Smith 3:00
There were six double that six and they were William the second Richard the first Edward the second Richard the second. James the First and William the third. Were all kings who were Queens. And it wasn’t until Tony Blair became prime minister that many anti homosexual laws were banished in England. Now.
Bob Smith 3:18
There were a lot of them. And they were used against everyone except the monarchy.
Marcia Smith 3:21
Yes. It was just kept on the down low back then. But now it’s it’s not us have moved on. Very
Bob Smith 3:28
interesting. Guide London is the name of the source of that. Yes.
Marcia Smith 3:31
All right. All right. Carry On your turn. Okay.
Bob Smith 3:35
I’ve got an interesting question on soybeans. Oh,
Marcia Smith 3:38
I like soy beans.
Bob Smith 3:39
How can you think a major auto company for soybean substitutions for things like bacon and other animal protein foods? A major what company a major automobile company?
Marcia Smith 3:50
Uh huh. Uh huh. I’ll say Ford.
Bob Smith 3:54
That’s exactly right.
Marcia Smith 3:55
What did Henry do with the soybeans, Bob? Well, he
Bob Smith 3:59
had his scientists, he had people working in the company, and they developed soy protein analogs in 1937. They pioneered that whole idea. He was looking for a synthetic wool fiber to use for car seats, and upholstery. And in one of the textile filaments they tried, it was made of soybean protein, which they turned into a vegetable protein that could be flavored any way they desired. So the fact that you have soybean substitutes for food goes all the way back to the Ford Motor Company in 1937.
Marcia Smith 4:32
I’ll be done. And then they finally turn to that almost extinct animal the polyester. Yes. And they kill that.
Speaker 1 4:41
Did they kill? Oh, yes. They’re just gone. They were killed. Great. All right.
Marcia Smith 4:46
I got a fair amount of Hollywood questions today. Okay, not all but a lot of them. So Bob, who was the first actor on the big screen to ever play the part of Frontier outlaw Jesse James? Hmm, Jesse.
Bob Smith 5:01
I don’t know why got Henry funded by Head for some reason, but I don’t think he I
Marcia Smith 5:05
wonder if he played it. I didn’t look at all the people who played it. But there were a fair amount of Hollywood actors.
Bob Smith 5:11
Does this go back to the silent day? It does. So is it? Gosh, what was his name? Big cowboy at that time out there be
Marcia Smith 5:18
surprised that this answer. Really?
Bob Smith 5:20
Yes. Well, then tell me who it is.
Marcia Smith 5:22
It was Jesse’s own son, Jesse James Junior’s kid. He portrayed his father in the 1921 Silent Movie under the black flag. So do the Black Flag. He was a young guy and he played his dad. He was an actor, apparently. Oh, no. Wow.
Bob Smith 5:41
Well, I think has happened a lot of times in the early days levels, people going in Wild West shows and things like that, you know, after the West was tamed or one. I wonder
Marcia Smith 5:49
what he thought of the old man? I don’t know. I’ve got a pop culture
Bob Smith 5:53
question to Okay. Named the largest and shortest titles of number one records the longest and shortest titles of number one records.
Marcia Smith 6:04
Okay, well, who put the Bob in the Bob Shabaab Shabaab? No. For the longest No,
Bob Smith 6:11
but it’s about that era, that same era, the 50s
Marcia Smith 6:13
She wore a yellow polka dot bikini itsy bitsy,
Bob Smith 6:19
teeny, weeny, yellow polka dot bikini that was the Brian Highland song that was the longest title 1960 it’s the shortest title 1951 Perry Como recorded a song called if, if two letters if so those are at least it according to this source, the shortest and the longest titles. As
Marcia Smith 6:40
I recall, he was very casual and relaxed. So if it was probably all he wanted to
Bob Smith 6:47
hear that phrasing like Frank Sinatra, he probably said if.
Marcia Smith 6:52
Okay, well, speaking of music, who was the inspiration Bob for the crazy Muppet drummer animal? Oh,
Bob Smith 7:01
that’s a good one. Because a couple of weeks ago, we realized that the Grouch was inspired by Yeah, a waiter at Oscars restaurants correct in New York,
Marcia Smith 7:11
but this is someone you know of, and was it be amused by?
Bob Smith 7:16
Was it a big band drummer? No. So it wasn’t Gene Krupa. It wasn’t one of those guys. So was it from the who? Keith Moon? That’s it. Okay.
Marcia Smith 7:24
Excellent. That’s it. He was the inspiration. Very good.
Bob Smith 7:28
Well, that makes sense. Keith Moon was just manic. When we saw the who was he playing? No, he had died by that time. Okay. He was a little too crazy. And he died. I have a question for you. Remember, when we were growing up, there was something called Headstart that began. And there was the promise was hopefully kids will get better grades and Headstart and all of that. So just how important was pre school and all those things? What did a recent study showed it didn’t show the result in academic excellence and future grades. But it did show something substantial.
Marcia Smith 8:00
It showed fewer of them went to prison. That’s part of it.
Bob Smith 8:03
That is exactly right. More well
Marcia Smith 8:06
adjusted. Yeah. Good. Now, this
Bob Smith 8:09
was 1997. This is interesting, because it Boston offered free universal preschool in 1997. And they had so many people that wanted it for their kids, they had to have a lottery. So this essentially became like a randomized controlled trial you haven’t researched. So hmm. 25 years later, researchers analyzed the records of more than 4000 students who started in that 1997 preschool, comparing kids who won the lottery to those who didn’t. Most of those kids were black, Hispanic, and poor. And the study showed that the preschool didn’t have any lasting effects on their better grades or test scores. But preschool had what they call a sleeper effect, because it apparently taught students play motivation, resilience and how to negotiate life because the kids who attended preschool were more likely to graduate from high school, take SATs tests, go on to college and less likely to be suspended or incarcerated back to what you were talking about.
Marcia Smith 9:06
If for nothing else, man, that’s an excellent reason to keep peds Headstart still around.
Bob Smith 9:12
Yes, it is. This is from a Wall Street Journal, preschool’s sleeper effect on later life by Alison Gopnik. I thought that was an interesting little article.
Marcia Smith 9:20
It is. Hey, who was the actress that sold out Playboy magazine when she posed semi nude in the magazine at age 5055.
Bob Smith 9:29
Zero, yep. H 50.
Marcia Smith 9:34
Yeah, sold it out. Playboy. Who
Unknown Speaker 9:37
was that? Oh, bah, bah. Okay.
Bob Smith 9:41
Women aren’t supposed to say that. Hubba hubba
Marcia Smith 9:44
it was Joan Collins.
Bob Smith 9:46
Oh, no kidding.
Marcia Smith 9:46
I don’t have the year here when she did that. But I recall vaguely her doing that and I thought the way to go lady, and
Bob Smith 9:55
she was in dynasty, right. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So she was hot. Yeah, she’s
Marcia Smith 9:59
still around and doesn’t look bad. That’s for sure.
Bob Smith 10:02
Speaking of hot, Marcia yes in heat waves. People frequently say it’s hot enough to cook an egg on a sidewalk and yet it can be no. How hot would that have to be outside the temperature? How hot would the sidewalks temperature have to reach 10 degrees? No more than that, believe it or not. And 20 158 degrees Fahrenheit. Wow, to actually cook an egg, a sidewalks temperature would have to reach 158 degrees,
Marcia Smith 10:30
probably a blacktop asphalt, asphalt would heat up to 150 on a hot day might
Bob Smith 10:35
be might be better. Yeah. All right.
Marcia Smith 10:38
Thank you for that.
Bob Smith 10:41
As we get into hot weather in the summer, I’d be
Marcia Smith 10:43
curious if you can guess this one. Okay, who was the only entertainer to have all five stars on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame? That is one for each category film, TV recording, radio and theater.
Bob Smith 10:57
I thought George Burns had that. Nope. Is it somebody recently? So it goes way back? Yeah. Was it would it be Bing Crosby? Nope. Somebody from that era who was in you know, live the live stage so far. Yeah. Who was it? I
Marcia Smith 11:13
think you probably had one of his records. Gene Autry.
Bob Smith 11:18
Gene Autry. almost unknown today. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 11:21
Yes. Yes. I think was he What did he do when we were kids? Was he have a TV program had
Bob Smith 11:27
a TV program cowboy show? Yeah, it was Roy Rogers and Dale Evans or Gene Autry. I remember kids kind of divided between which one they liked best. Okay. Hopalong Cassidy was in there too. Oh, hop along. I remember. Gene Autry of course was singing cowboy. Not the first the first singing cowboy was Guess who?
Unknown Speaker 11:43
Ah. Elvis Presley, John
Bob Smith 11:46
Wayne.
Marcia Smith 11:47
Oh cow.
Bob Smith 11:48
John Wayne was whispering Sandy and one of the early boys though. I don’t know if it was boys. I don’t know that mark.
Marcia Smith 11:57
I do. I read it. Yeah,
Bob Smith 11:59
I don’t know. You don’t know how he sounded. He could have been saying
Marcia Smith 12:04
Play Misty for Me. God.
Bob Smith 12:08
Bullet bull weeds. All right. I don’t know what he sounded like. But he was cold. That was good. Bob.
Marcia Smith 12:15
I didn’t know you could do. The Duke.
Bob Smith 12:20
We just got we just watched recently the longest day and John Wayne longest and he plays a I don’t know, a general or Lieutenant Colonel. And he goes, Do I make myself clear? I love that. I remember that for my kid hearing somebody say that. Every time I hear somebody asked Do I make myself clear? I hear John Wayne. Oh, in my head. That’s kind of sad. All right. Now here’s a question for you.
Marcia Smith 12:42
Isn’t it my turn? No. Who asked the John Wayne question. You
Bob Smith 12:47
were asking about the sidewalks. You were asking about the sidewalk all the five Hall of Fame and I answered. Gene Autry. Yeah, then I brought up John Wayne. Oh, you okay. All right. Fine. New golf, sir. So hard for you to follow these things, isn’t it? Well, you know, as we age things happen.
Marcia Smith 13:01
So I’ve noticed with you.
Bob Smith 13:05
Okay, why does x the letter X symbolizes kissing? Well, where does that go back?
Marcia Smith 13:13
That’s an excellent question. I
Bob Smith 13:14
have no idea. Oh, come on. Give me some idea here x and owes
Marcia Smith 13:18
hugs and kisses. I don’t know about for centuries,
Bob Smith 13:26
x was the way people would sign their name. If they didn’t know how to write. They just yeah, do and ask them as you still do, but in thanks. But in ancient times, when people would sign an exe to show an agreement, they would also kiss the mark to emphasize their sincerity really. So if there was an X on an agreement, a contract that indicated somebody kissed it wonder
Marcia Smith 13:48
What the Oh, how that came about? I don’t know. I have to look up that for the next show that would be wanting to keep people hanging on like an episodic series. Why Bob? Why Why was producer David Selznick fined $5,000 by the Motion Picture Association of America
Bob Smith 14:09
what year was it? 30s Yeah, was it from Gone With the Wind? Yeah, it was because Clark Gable said frankly my dear, I don’t give
Marcia Smith 14:18
a damn did he used that D
Bob Smith 14:20
word. Oh my God and he got fined 5,000 dollars.
Marcia Smith 14:23
5,000 which back in the 30s was pretty high probably worth about 500,000 Yeah, it’s just like people today sports people and some people that will take the fine just to make a point and I think he did and it’s was worth it. I think people flooded there to hear somebody swear on the screen. Oh
Bob Smith 14:41
yeah. That was like people I guess the first time people heard that they went home. But number one Clark Gable swore
Marcia Smith 14:49
That’s coming out of hotties’ mouth.
Bob Smith 14:50
A handsome man. He swore tooo. I’m sure the ladies loved that.
Marcia Smith 14:53
Yeah, I’m sure okay, I’ve got one more question here.
Bob Smith 14:54
Then we’ll take a break. All right. Okay. 2020 That was the year of COVID-19. That was the 103rd anniversary of another pandemic, which was the 1918 flu. Yeah, right. It was also the 103rd anniversary of a term many of us used during COVID-19. To describe our lockdown, what was the term?
Marcia Smith 15:15
Ah, to describe where you were when
Bob Smith 15:19
you’ve been in into seclusion for so long. Yeah, you get what? Hives you get a fever, a fever, cabin fever. Oh, well, that’s the term that was the title of a 1918 novel. And it kind of invented the meaning for the term we use now. Used to describe the lockdown so it was a anniversary of both those things. The term Cabin Fever it had been around for a while, but Bertha Mazie Bowers book gave the term it’s on wheel laden meaning and as a cowboy book about a former cowboy, published in 1918. Here’s how it started out. There’s a certain malady of the mind induced by too much of one thing just as the body fed too long upon meat becomes a prey to the horrid disease scurvy. So the mind fed too long on monotony succumbs to the insidious mental ailment which the West calls Cabin Fever hmm, actually goes back to the 19th century at one point that was considered a medical term Cabin Fever no kid had met typhus. No kidding Yeah. All right now follow up to that cabin fever that’s similar to another term we use stir crazy. You’ve heard that Yeah. Where did that term come from? What does stir in stir crazy mean somebody
Marcia Smith 16:31
that overmix their cocktail? Might start craving mastering too much.
Bob Smith 16:37
What was the stir?
Marcia Smith 16:39
What was the stir? I don’t know.
Bob Smith 16:41
That was originally slang for prison. So So stir crazy originally refer to somebody who became deranged from being locked up in prison. locked up in
Marcia Smith 16:51
the stir. Interesting.
Bob Smith 16:54
Okay. All right. Well, we’ll take a break here and be back in just a moment. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and me. With Bob and Marsha Smith we’re back again with the off ramp Bob and Marsha Smith on a summer day and Marcia, what do you have?
Marcia Smith 17:12
Why was the Muppet Show banned from television in Saudi Arabia?
Bob Smith 17:18
Oh, it must have something there in that show that they don’t think about it. Think about it Old Miss Piggy.
Marcia Smith 17:24
It’s big. Yes, that’s it. Because one of its stars Miss Piggy is a pig and they are forbidden to Muslims. And even merchandise baring her likeness was confiscated from stores and destroyed. Really? Yeah, they couldn’t show the show. Think of all the kids who miss the Muppet Show that wonderful show because of a porker. Isn’t
Bob Smith 17:47
that interesting? Yeah, that’s interesting. I had no idea. Yeah. Well, Marcia, you know, the cicadas are here and people are hearing them all over the country. Law enforcement officials in Union County, Georgia have been so besieged by calls and complaints about cicadas, they have been compelled to admonish the public don’t contact us about that. They’ve been getting multiple 911 calls really people thinking they’re hearing alarms, but they’re hearing the bug. They’re saying that they are the loudest of all insects, they can make sounds up to 100 decibels when groups of males form an insect choir and guess what they’re singing about sex?
Marcia Smith 18:29
Isn’t that what all music is about? They’re
Bob Smith 18:31
trying to attract females, which is why they’ve risen from the ground in the first place. They make their noise by contracting the muscles around organs called timbrels on either side of their abdomen, Timbo Yes, and the resulting air compression makes a clicking noise, female cicadas they can hear the siren call for love up to a mile away. That’s presuming they don’t get male suitors confused with power tools, which does happen sometimes. So don’t run too many power tools around cicadas females may come around you and attract to you.
Marcia Smith 19:06
What’s that all over your fans? All right before my next Hollywood question, here’s some old timey gender bending. factoids. Okay, when Katharine Hepburn was a child, she shaved her head wore trousers and called herself Jimmy, because she wanted to be a boy. Oh, dear. Did you know that?
Bob Smith 19:28
No, I didn’t know that. So she was a quite a tomboy then. Yes. wanted
Marcia Smith 19:32
to be a boy. And just for fun. Do you know Richard Gere’s middle name? Bob?
Bob Smith 19:37
Richard Gere’s middle name? Yeah, no,
Marcia Smith 19:39
Tiffany.
Bob Smith 19:42
Tiffany? Oh my god.
Marcia Smith 19:45
Yes, Mr. Sexy man. Okay, here’s a question. There’s only there’s only 1x rated film ever to win an Oscar. Do you know what it was?
Bob Smith 19:55
Midnight Cowboy?
Marcia Smith 19:56
That’s right. Excellent.
Bob Smith 19:58
I remember when that happened. Do
Marcia Smith 19:59
you and then they changed it to an R. Yeah. Why did they change it to an R so more people could see it and more young, impressionable kid,
Bob Smith 20:07
they may have taken something out to make it an R. X was pretty explicit. Yes. Okay. What international organization got its name from a poem by Lord Byron.
Marcia Smith 20:20
Byron. I have no idea.
Bob Smith 20:24
It’s the United Nations. It was originally going to be called the associated powers. And guess who is credited with changing it to its current name? Winston Churchill really quoted Lord Byron, the poet to Franklin Roosevelt. It comes from one of Lord Byron’s poems which reads in part millions of tongues record the and a new their children’s lips shout, Echo them and say, here where the sword United Nations drew our countrymen were warring on that day, and this is much and all which will not pass away. Oh, that
Marcia Smith 20:56
was a good change of heart. That’s a good name.
Bob Smith 20:59
Yeah, the United Nations got his name from a Lord Byron poem. I didn’t know that
Marcia Smith 21:03
good ol Winston. He’ll like this. Okay, find this curious. Okay. How did the custom of military salutes come about?
Bob Smith 21:11
Oh, you know, I read about this the other day, of course, the other day, it’s medieval knights would flip their visors for Gods because nobody could know who they were underneath the metal.
Marcia Smith 21:22
That’s right. Okay. Knights would raise their visors to identify themselves to the king, or to show friendly intention towards each other when passing by so
Bob Smith 21:33
that flipping it up, flip
Marcia Smith 21:33
it up. Hey, Joe, how
Bob Smith 21:35
you doing evolved into a salute? Yeah. Well,
Marcia Smith 21:38
every culture that is a salute has a salute. And so it makes sense.
Bob Smith 21:42
It all came back from the same era that Yeah, really? Yeah. Okay, Marsha, you worked in journalism. You worked for newspapers? How did many early newspapers and why did they name themselves the Gazette? Where did that? Wow,
Marcia Smith 21:55
we reporters would say let’s get the Gazette out today?
Bob Smith 22:00
I don’t think so. I don’t think so. It’s because the old Venetian copper coin was called the Gazeta. And that was the price of the early newspapers. Oh, yeah. Early newspapers soon adopted the slang term Gazette for the publications because that’s all it cost. It costs it Gazeta.
Marcia Smith 22:18
Hmm. That’s where it came for. I like it. Yeah. It taught me something about the
Bob Smith 22:22
news. I can teach you one more thing to tell, please. Where did paper cigar bands come from? Where were they invented? And why?
Marcia Smith 22:30
Why was it someplace like Cuba or South America, Cuba? Yeah. And they invented them so people could brand them maybe to get their their logo out there or their name that would
Bob Smith 22:43
seem to make sense. But this was to prevent the ladies who liked to smoke cigars from getting stuff on their fingers.
Marcia Smith 22:50
Oh, we oh, they had something to hold on to
Bob Smith 22:52
ladies of the Cuban aristocracy during colonial times they smoked cigars, but they didn’t want their fingers stained. So they wrapped a narrow holding strip of paper around their cigars in colors to match their gowns. I like it. I like it. That’s where the cigar bands originally came from. All
Marcia Smith 23:08
right. What melody Bob do these random people all share? Walt Disney? Leonardo da Vinci, Tom Cruise, Albert Einstein, Jim Carrey. Richard Branson.
Bob Smith 23:22
Wow, they all had the same kind of ailment?
Marcia Smith 23:25
I don’t know. I don’t know if you’d call it an ailment. Is
Bob Smith 23:28
this a viral thing that they caught it now?
Marcia Smith 23:30
It’s an affliction and affliction. Let’s call it that.
Bob Smith 23:34
Would this be something they were born with?
Marcia Smith 23:35
Yes.
Bob Smith 23:39
What was Disney and all these people? Yeah. Okay. The pressures. The pressure is on the names again.
Marcia Smith 23:45
Well, Disney DaVinci. Tom Cruise Einstein, Jim Carrey. Richard Branson. They’re
Bob Smith 23:51
all short people. Possibly. Okay. Got it. Okay, what is it?
Marcia Smith 23:55
The answer is they are all dyslexic. Really? Yeah. Well, no, obviously dyslexia doesn’t have to affect your success.
Bob Smith 24:05
No, but it’s something to overcome because especially in reading you have a hard time getting putting words together. And I’m amazed and all those people are people of great accomplishment in their own fields. Yeah. Wow. That’s fascinating. Yes. Okay. All right, Marsha, you’ve been to Amsterdam, but I think we were at the airport so you never saw it but that’s as far as I got. The individual houses in Amsterdam are very thin the old homes that are right along the top now I can’t go in there very thin Marsh. How did they governmental policy lead to those narrow houses in Amsterdam?
Marcia Smith 24:39
Taxes.
Bob Smith 24:40
That’s exactly right. Now that this goes back to like the 1600s or 1500s. Early taxes were levied on individual houses according to the width of the building front and the number of windows in it. So to avoid their high tax bills homes in Amsterdam were built thin and extremely tall with spreading gables. I’ll be darned. That’s how it affected us government policy has so many unintended consequences. And that’s hundreds of years old. That’s that’s quite interesting. All right, Marsha. We had a listener who contacted me with a question. Okay. Okay. Now, you mentioned Pokeyman. This past week. Do you know what the origin of that name is? That’s one of the games that people play Pokemon what
Marcia Smith 25:24
it is, and do I know the origin Pokemon? And it’s from Japanese culture? Is it not? Actually
Bob Smith 25:31
it’s a correction. It’s a contraction of two English words.
Marcia Smith 25:35
Pokey, Pokey, and Aman. Pope mon pokey money.
Bob Smith 25:44
I’ll tell you what it is. Thank you Pocket Monster. Really? Yeah. Which makes sense. You know, because it’s a portable game. Oh, that’s
Marcia Smith 25:51
kind of cute. Pocket Monster. Yeah,
Bob Smith 25:52
poker mind.
Marcia Smith 25:54
How does that come from?
Bob Smith 25:55
That comes from Steve short. Listener. So thank you very much, Steve. That was good. That’s
Marcia Smith 25:59
kind of cute. Okay, I shall finish up with a quote from Andrew Carnegie said a lot of great things in his day. And I send this out to all the politicians of all stripes and colors out there. He said, I shall argue that strong men know when to compromise, and that all principles can be compromised to serve a greater principle?
Bob Smith 26:21
Oh, that’s good. Yeah. Well, we certainly need that kind of cooperation these days. But how could you say that when again, please, I’d be happy to and this is Andrew Carnegie, who is the steel magnet, but who also gave many, many cities in the United States, libraries or libraries. I
Marcia Smith 26:36
shall argue that strong men know when to compromise and that all principles can be compromised to serve a greater principle.
Bob Smith 26:44
That’s great, great thought there. And that’s it for today. We’re glad you’ve joined us for our trivia on the off ramp. And if you’d like to send us your contribution, you can do so by going to our website, the off ramp dot show and going to contact us. That’s right. Leave your information your name and and what the question and the answer are and where you’re from. So that’s, that’s great. We’d like to hear that. Just heard we had another listener recently and a friend of ours, Pete Townsend, out of England.
Marcia Smith 27:15
I hear we have several listeners in France. I’d like to hear some something from someone in France.
Unknown Speaker 27:21
We love your show. All right. All right. I’m
Bob Smith 27:24
Bob Smith.
Marcia Smith 27:25
I’m Marcia Smith. Join us again next
Bob Smith 27:27
time when we bring you the off ramp sis Siboney.
The off ramp is produced in association with CPL radio online and the Cedarbrook Public Library Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
