Name the four new sports in the Tokyo Olympics. And when were the very first Olympic games played? Hear the answers on The Off Ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Marcia and Bob discussed the evolution of the Olympic Games, with Marcia providing insights into the judging criteria and disciplines of new sports like karate, skateboarding, and surfing. Bob expressed curiosity about surfing and shared interesting facts about the Olympic Games, including the history of the Olympic flag. They then shifted to discussing art forms, historical events, and cultural trivia, sharing their knowledge of famous works, Elvis Presley’s first movie, and the origins of the song ‘Yesterday.’ Marcia revealed the original names of famous works, while Bob provided lesser-known facts about Nokia’s history of pivoting in response to market changes. They also discussed the function of the appendix in the digestive system and shared Yogi Berra-like pearls of wisdom from other sports people, showcasing their diverse interests and knowledge.
Outline
New Olympic sports and history of the Olympics.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the four new sports added to the Tokyo Olympics: karate, skateboarding, sport climbing, and shooting (with blanks).
- The new sports are surprising to Marcia, with karate being judged on forms and sparring, skateboarding on given points for tricks, speed, height, and originality, and sport climbing on speed climbing, bouldering, and lead climbing.
- Bob Smith learns about the origins of the Olympic Games, including their religious roots and ancient events.
Olympic history, symbols, and events.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the meaning behind the Olympic logo and the fastest moving object in sports, which is the shuttlecock in badminton traveling at 306 miles per hour.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the history of the Olympic Games, including the number of sports and events, as well as the duration of the games in ancient times and modern times.
- The longest modern Olympic Games lasted 187 days in 1908, while the duration has been fixed at no more than 17 days since 1996.
Olympic history and prize money.
- Bob Smith shares a fascinating story about an Olympic athlete who stole the original Olympic flag as a prank in 1920, and how the flag was recently returned to the Olympic Museum in Switzerland after 77 years.
- Duke Kahanamoku, a five-time Olympic medalist in swimming, is credited with inventing surfing, and the original Olympic flag now on display at the Olympic Museum in Switzerland is a tribute to him.
- Marcia and Bob discuss Olympic prize money, revealing that some countries pay significant amounts to their gold winners.
Olympics, bird behavior, and heraldry.
- Marcia Smith notes the most gender-balanced Olympics in history with every sport offering both men’s and women’s events, and nine new mixed events.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the origins of the term “coat of arms” and how it relates to knights and their armor.
- Marcia Smith shares a humorous anecdote about killing a bird she named Gladys.
Trivia, language, and music.
- Marcia and Bob play a game of “What’s the Original Name?” for various songs and movies, with Marcia often guessing correctly.
- Bob shares interesting trivia about the origins of some well-known songs and movies, including “Yesterday” by the Beatles and “Love Me Tender” by Elvis Presley.
- Bob Smith learns Sue Hicks, William Jennings Bryan’s assistant in the Scopes Monkey Trial, inspired Johnny Cash’s song “A Boy Named Sue.”
- Nokia, a European telecom brand, started as a pulp mill and pivoted multiple times in its 135-year history.
The function and removal of the appendix.
- Marcia Smith shares research on the appendix’s function as a storage place for good bacteria in the gut, and how it protects digestive health.
- Bob Smith shares his experience of his wife Marcia’s appendix removal surgery, including the doctor’s Yogi Berra-like pearls of wisdom.
Marcia Smith 0:00
Name the four new sports included in the Tokyo Olympics this year.
Bob Smith 0:04
And when were the very first Olympic Games? Answers to those and other questions coming up in this athletic edition. Of the off ramp with Bob
Marcia Smith 0:14
and Marcia Smith
Bob Smith 0:31
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, Marcia, the Olympics give you a perspective on what’s important in life every four years and they are in full swing. That’s right. And you say there are four new games this year new sports,
Marcia Smith 0:50
new sports can your name and Bob can you name them?
Bob Smith 0:53
You know, it’s interesting because I know there were years when you know, trampolines were added and other things were added. And did you know that dueling was once a Sport and Olympic sport?
Marcia Smith 1:02
No I didn’t yet is it not anymore? No. No,
Bob Smith 1:04
they did with blanks. But they had x had shooting that was dueling back in the 1808 I think Olympics but no, I don’t know what the new ones would be. What are the new sports?
Marcia Smith 1:15
They would and they’re all They’re all surprising to me. Karate. They’re being judged on two disciplines Keita. That will be judged that’s forms and who might sparring so they’re judged on their form and they’re sparring? US second is skateboarding.
Bob Smith 1:33
Skateboarding. Now I thought that was in there.
Marcia Smith 1:35
So did I but we were confused. Remember the flying tomato. Shawn white.
Bob Smith 1:40
Shawn white right was a snowboarder. Oh, he
Marcia Smith 1:43
also skateboarded. So I seen him do both. Yeah, but he didn’t skateboard in the Olympics. Because it wasn’t a category. It was skateboarding. And skateboarders will be judged on given points for tricks, speed, height and originality. And then next is sport climbing. Events will include speed climbing, bouldering, and lead climbing.
Bob Smith 2:07
Are these like climbing walls and running the pegs into
Marcia Smith 2:10
the wall? I don’t know. I would imagine, you know, you’ve seen though you go to places and they have these walls, and you have to climb to the top. I assume that’s what it is. So okay. It’s interesting. Climbing.
Bob Smith 2:21
That sounds dangerous. I don’t think I want to do that. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 2:25
Okay. And the last one is surfing. Really not the internet kind. But yeah. And the judges will rate the difficulty of the maneuvers on the biggest waves and that’s how they’ll get their score.
Bob Smith 2:38
I had no idea that surfing wasn’t in it and not surprised. And that relates to a question I have coming up. Oh, that’s exciting. Yeah. Honest to God. Let’s get back to my first question. If that’s the end of yours, is it okay, when were the first Olympics, the very first known Olympics? God,
Marcia Smith 2:55
was it in the 20th century? No, no, they went back a bit. You’re talking back to Roman the original Olympics. Oh, when they were the Greeks. It was at the Olympics, Olympia? Yes. Olympia,
Bob Smith 3:07
776 B C it God and they were religious events back then it was in southern Greece. Now Olympia was where people went to worship their gods. And in fact, the Olympics were created in honor of Zeus king of the gods. So originally, the Olympic Games were religious events. And they were primarily male athletes. They prayed to Zeus for victory. They left gifts to thank him for their successes. And the events include sprinting, wrestling, chariot racing, and something called the pankration pankration and creation known as the ultimate fighting sport. Now, there were no waiting classes, no time limits, only two rules, no biting or eye gouging. And they were fought until one person gave up or died. Oh, God. Ah, now there was another smaller festival held for female athletes, they competed to honor hero which was Zeus his concert. And the men, by the way, competed completely naked.
Marcia Smith 4:06
Well, there you go. There’s a reason to go to the games.
Bob Smith 4:10
Again, I’m in those original Greek games lasted almost 1000 years until the Christian Roman Emperor Theodosis. The first banned all pagan festivals, so he got rid of the Olympic Games, and then they didn’t resume until 1896.
Marcia Smith 4:24
Really? Yeah. So so there was a big a big leg there a very big leg. Oh my gosh, you know what the meaning of the five Olympic ring logo is?
Bob Smith 4:34
I just assumed it was just a nice design that meant unity is it does it have more meaning than that?
Marcia Smith 4:39
It does. And it has that meaning to but it’s the five continents that participate in the Olympics. It also has significant colors that represent each continent which blue, yellow, black, green, and red represent the continents of Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas and Oceana, the symbol was created by a guy named Charles Pierre, Baron de Coubertin, co founder of the modern Olympic Games,
Bob Smith 5:08
He helped to bring it back. You’re right. That’s the guy that Well, five continents. Now I got a question for you. Since there are seven continents, why are there Seven Rings? Because they don’t all participate? Well, that’s part of it. And guess what, what? The Americas were considered one continent. Today we consider North and South America separate continents, but not back then just one continent. So there was no six ring. And then back in 1915. There were no people from Antarctica participating. Right. So that’s why there were five rings and they just kept it that way. Because it’s a it’s a better looking thing. It is.
Marcia Smith 5:40
It’s very nice. Yeah. Here’s that interesting one. You What is the fastest moving object in sports Bob, and this sport is part of the Olympics.
Bob Smith 5:51
This movie is that the javelin? No, no. And is it something like that? No, no. It’s not a person.
Marcia Smith 6:00
Now. Okay. Don’t think that baseball would be faster than Well, a
Bob Smith 6:03
baseball. I don’t know how fast a javelin goes. Baseball, of course goes 100 miles an hour. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 6:09
but this is faster. What is it? It is the shuttlecock really in badminton. And Badminton is a an Olympic sport. It travels over 306 miles per hour. Wow. Yeah. Wow. So
Bob Smith 6:24
they’re not hard when they hit you. Yeah, no kidding.
Marcia Smith 6:27
I guess I’m always hitting you in the head with those things.
Bob Smith 6:29
Okay. That would be terrible. That would be terrible.
Marcia Smith 6:33
And just as a side factoid, there are 33 Sports being played in this Summer Olympics. And that’s 24 More than the first Olympics in 1896. The first modern Olympics. Yeah, so there were only nine events. Today, there are 339 Total Events in those 33 sports.
Bob Smith 6:52
Now today, the games lasts no more than 16 days. But how long were the original Olympic games back in the ancient times
Marcia Smith 7:00
ancient Well, there wasn’t a lot to do back then. So they probably just spread it out in my right. It’s longer, right. Oh, it’s not it’s shorter. Yeah. Oh, okay. Well, especially if they played to the death they probably just ran out of time. And people at times. Yeah. The game. All right. So if it’s what is it today? How long 16 days? All right, I’ll say 12.
Bob Smith 7:19
No, the lasted five days really in the fourth and fifth centuries don’t remember it was more of a religious event back then. But on the first day, non sporting activities such as contests for heralds and trumpeters took place, so they did a musical contest. On the second day, there were horse and chariot races. So it’s almost like automobile races today, versus chariot races, followed by the pentathlon, which included the discus throw the long jump, javelin, a race and wrestling. And then the third day was given over to religious celebrations in honor of Pelops, the mythical founder of the games and Zeus, athletic events resumed on the fourth day with foot races, and that aggressive event known as the pankration, which is a cross between wrestling and boxing where somebody would die at the end of it or be exhausted. Yeah, that was the last game of each one of those events. But but you know, there was a time when the Olympics were way too long, I would say what was the longest modern Olympic Games? How long did they last? Summer
Marcia Smith 8:19
or winter? They were a combination. Oh, that would be it then? What year was that?
Bob Smith 8:24
1908. Now listen to this. The Olympic Games in 1908 lasted a total of 187 days, my lord. In other words, six months and four days, the duration has been fixed at no more than 17 days since 1996. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Oh
Marcia Smith 8:41
my god. Yeah, I had no idea. Okay, now, you were talking
Bob Smith 8:45
about those colors and the interlocking five rings on the flags. When was that flag first unveiled? You know, I don’t know. 1920 the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium. Okay. And guess what? Wow. The flag was stolen. It was lost for 73 years. And then guess what? They found it? Yes. At an Olympic ceremony. Oh, come
Marcia Smith 9:07
on somebody.
Bob Smith 9:08
It’s a fascinating story. The flag was stolen as a prank by one of the American Olympic athletes. Oh my god. I never heard about this before. His name was hell Hague priest. He was born in 1896. And he was a 24 year old Armenian American athlete. He participated in those 1920 Summer Games. He’s from Fresno, California. He won a bronze in platform diving as a member of the 1920 Olympic swim team. And he also competed in the plane high diving event but he was eliminated. But he took that original fig flag as a prank now, this is where surfing comes in Marcia, this is a fantastic story. He had a friend who has his Olympic partner with him in the games, one of his fellow swimmers, and guess what his name was? I don’t know. Duke Kahanamoku does that sound familiar? You know, when we were in Hawaii remember Dukes, we went to Dukes restaurant. Yeah. Duke Kahanamoku was the person who’s famous as the inventor of surfing. He was a swimmer on the 1920 Olympics to really
Marcia Smith 10:13
let his and yeah, everybody said what’s the best restaurant? Yeah, Waikiki Beach and Evansdale Dukes.
Bob Smith 10:20
Yeah, well, that was his place. And he was a 34 year old swimmer in this. And his 24 year old friend was how priest, he egged him on he says you should steal that flag so that he stole the flag. Now Duke was born to a noble family towards the end of the kingdom of Hawaii. And he was a five time Olympic medalist in swimming. So it’s a tribute to him that surfing finally is now going to be one of the Olympics. Very cool, but he invented it after he was in the Olympics. Anyway, how priest went up the flagpole he stoled that flag and for 77 years it was stored away. Here’s how they found it out. He was at a banquet hosted by the Olympic Committee in 1997. A reporter was interviewing him he was 103 years old at the time. And the reporter mentioned that the IOC hadn’t been able to find out what happened to the original Olympic flag. He goes, Oh, I can help you with that. It’s in my suitcase.
Marcia Smith 11:18
At 104, you don’t care? What are they going to do? You’re not going to arrest me.
Bob Smith 11:19
So anyway, the he returned it to them. And that Olympic flag is now on display at the Olympic Museum in Lucerne, Switzerland and there’s a plaque thanking him for it. And at the time of his death, how priest was the world’s oldest former Olympic medalist, and he’s the first known Olympian whose lifespan covered three centuries 1896 to 2001. But he was just 24 years old, and it was a prank to steal that flag. And he kept it in a suitcase.
Marcia Smith 11:46
All those – and he said, Here it is. Oh, I got that’s a great.
Bob Smith 11:49
Find it.
Marcia Smith 11:51
I got it. I got it right here.
Bob Smith 11:55
Would you like to be a reporter who uncovered that?
Marcia Smith 11:56
Who had the answer to that question?
Bob Smith 11:58
Oh, my God. Isn’t that funny? Now that just happened 22 -23 years ago that it was found?
Marcia Smith 12:05
I bet you didn’t know Bob that some countries give money prizes to their winners? Yes, you did.
Bob Smith 12:10
Well, it’s not just not a pure amateur thing like it was intended to be in 1896.
Marcia Smith 12:17
How much do you think the United States pays each of its gold winners?
Bob Smith 12:20
$500 $1,000 $5,000?
Marcia Smith 12:24
No, it’s 25,000 for each gold one. Wow. Yeah. Well, that’s good. Well, not compared to Italy. They show out more than 185,000 for each winner course. I think we have more gold than them don’t. And Japan gives 49,900 to each gold winner. Wow. Why not just 50,000 Japan? What’s with that?
Bob Smith 12:46
And for anybody who thinks well, why don’t they just do it for themselves for free. National Geographic just did a whole big thing on the Olympics. And they studied the ancient games. They paid people all the time for things back then stipend cities that sponsored these ancient athletes. You know, if they came back with metals, they would have jobs for life, you know, they would be paying them forever. Their families would live like kings. So it’s always been that way. It’s not like, oh, we tried to do something pure in the 19th century, and we can’t live up to that. Well, that’s just never been the way it’s been.
Marcia Smith 13:18
You know what United Kingdom pays its winners. Zero. Really? They’re not getting into that. That’s very, I have one more Olympic question. Okay. You want to take a break first? Yeah,
Bob Smith 13:28
let’s take a break. We’ll be back in just a moment. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marcia, Olympic Marcia Smith. We’re back again. This is Bob and Marcia Smith. And you’re listening to the off ramp with some questions on the Olympics and other topics today.
Marcia Smith 13:45
Okay, I got one more Olympic question. Okay. This year is the most gender balanced Olympics in history. With every sport offering both men’s and women’s events. That’s interesting. Yeah, there isn’t an event without men and women in it. And there are nine new mixed events where boys and girls paired up. And can you guess what some of those are? Just take a stab what sports where you have two people?
Bob Smith 14:11
Are you talking about two person events?
Marcia Smith 14:15
Male and female tennis maybe? What kind of tennis or table tennis? Yeah, one that’s fine.
Bob Smith 14:21
And what about regular tennis?
Marcia Smith 14:23
Law tennis now?
Bob Smith 14:24
Oh, okay. What do you got?
Marcia Smith 14:25
I got archery, judo, shooting, swimming, table tennis, triathlon, along with track and field.
Bob Smith 14:34
So those are all co Ed events. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 14:36
yeah, I would have guessed. Pretty much what you said too, but those are COVID events are
Bob Smith 14:41
alright Marcia what two continents have never hosted an Olympic game.
Marcia Smith 14:47
Hosted Well, gosh, two
Bob Smith 14:50
continents have never hosted the Olympic Games. Australia. No, no, that’s not true. Okay. Brisbane head games bras. Yeah. It’s right.
Marcia Smith 15:01
to Mecca South America. Okay, tell me, Africa
Bob Smith 15:03
and Antarctica. Now I mentioned that Antarctica wasn’t in the original five rings, but they have never hosted games. Now people from Africa have participated. Oh, yeah. But the status might soon change. There’s going to be a mini Olympic event sent to be hosted in Africa in 2022. And it’s thought that there might be an African host for the Olympics in 2032 or 2036. They’ve got all the cities chosen up to 2028. Oh, they do. Yeah. They’re all slated they know what’s going to be America in that. Yeah. There’s another American. Okay. Yeah. But, but they have never had an African city. All right. Hopefully they will. Yeah. All right.
Marcia Smith 15:40
I’m moving on. I am to I’m moving on to how many earthworms do baby Robins eat each day? And this is an Olympic sport, right? And I’m talking in terms of length. Oh, really? Yeah. Length of an earthworm. And one day a baby Robin.
Bob Smith 15:58
I’ve seen those Robins feeding their baby. So I will say two feet.
Marcia Smith 16:02
Yeah, that sounds that sounds because that’s a little
Bob Smith 16:06
Robin could nibble a two feet of Earth in
Marcia Smith 16:09
a full day. But no way. I know. It’s 14 feet wide a day. You got to be kidding me Robins. How
Bob Smith 16:16
can they get that in that little tiny beds? A lot of trips back and forth for that Mama?
Marcia Smith 16:20
That’s that’s why they yell at us if we interfere with their nap.
Bob Smith 16:25
All right, go ahead. A lot of work to bring 14 feet of earthworms to your one baby in the nest.
Marcia Smith 16:31
What and what if you get six jayvees in that nest? Then what?
Bob Smith 16:35
That’s amazing. That’s quite amazing. Okay, Marcia, here’s a good question for you. Why do we call a family symbol? A coat of arms? Oh, that’s coat of arms. Why do they call it karma? You know? Yeah, yeah. Family symbol. Why would it be coat of arms?
Marcia Smith 16:52
Well, arms back then were you know like those metal plate things? Right? The Knights wore them.
Bob Smith 16:58
Do you run to it? Yeah, it dates back to the middle age knights who wore armor. That’s right. And when the Knights were their armor with their visors down, they all look pretty much alike.
Marcia Smith 17:08
So you had to identify him by head. They had their little name on
Bob Smith 17:12
their night started painting pictures on their shields for identification to prevent them from battling their friends or family members.
Marcia Smith 17:21
Oh gee, I just killed Aunt Gladys. Oh god.
Bob Smith 17:24
Later a fabric similar to a sweater was woven over the armor and the Knights personal identification was woven into the fabric and that was known as a coat of arms.
Marcia Smith 17:34
I’ll be darned well, that makes perfect. That doesn’t make
Bob Smith 17:36
sense when you think of it that way, doesn’t it? All right. Well, we like to make sense of things here on the Ephram.
Marcia Smith 17:41
It’s what we do. It’s who we are. Yes,
Bob Smith 17:43
even though sometimes we’re wrong. Yeah, I thought that was fascinating. It was from the joy of trivia book kind of interesting. Okay, I’ve got a question for you here. During the creative process, books, plays and music often wind up with different names than they originally had at the beginning. Okay. Name the original names for the following the books Catch 22, The play West Side Story. The song You’re a Grand Old Flag. The movie Love Me Tender. The song Alexander’s Ragtime band and the song Yesterday you have 10 seconds.
Marcia Smith 18:17
Ridiculous.
Bob Smith 18:18
Let’s try catch 22 What was it originally?
Marcia Smith 18:20
Let’s just do one. I mean, how would you know any of those? All right, let me just guess. Was it Catch 23?
Bob Smith 18:27
Those Catch 18 Was it really know why? Yeah. Oh, for heaven’s sake to play West Side Story was originally called East Side East Side Story. That’s right. The song Euro Grand Old Flag was originally titled your grand old mama
Marcia Smith 18:42
reg. Reg instead of like, yeah, that is interesting.
Bob Smith 18:46
Alexander’s Ragtime band, you know, come on, and he Yeah, Alexander. This is Irving Berlin. The song originally was going to be called Alexander and his clarinet. That doesn’t even
Marcia Smith 18:58
it doesn’t have a link to it. Does.
Bob Smith 19:00
You know that the original working title for the Beatles song Yesterday was scrambled eggs. Remember that? We’ve heard that story before. All right now Elvis is first movie. This is your time you loved Elvis. When you were a little girl. It was called Love Me Tender. But movie makers were originally going to call that film. The Reno brothers.
Marcia Smith 19:21
Oh, yeah. Because he didn’t have that hit song that when they named that movie. That’s right. Then later they added it. Let’s just call it Love Me Tender. Yeah. Which is good marketing. Absolutely. And there was no love in the movie.
Bob Smith 19:32
No, there was no, it was kind of brutal, wasn’t it?
Marcia Smith 19:36
Well, here’s a quickie. Do you know the difference between fowl and poultry? fowl?
Bob Smith 19:42
Fo WL Yeah. And poultry. Yeah. Well, I think poultry is a bird that delivers eggs that are used but fowl is just a bird. Now, is that correct? No. Thank you. Next question.
Marcia Smith 19:54
Poultry is domesticated fowl. Oh, so the wild turkeys we see those are Follow up but you never say give me a pack of chop fall. You know, you get poultry at the store but you don’t get fowl.
Bob Smith 20:06
Yeah, you don’t go there to get Eagle. I’ll take a half a pound of Eagle there. That’s it. I had no idea. So that’s the difference. Yes. One is domesticated. So it’s domesticated and the fowl is basically a wild bird. Yes. Oh, okay. I didn’t know that.
Marcia Smith 20:21
I’m here to enlighten you, Bob. Okay.
Bob Smith 20:23
All right. Another history question history in the arts. Okay. Okay. What connection did William Jennings Bryan’s assistant in the Scopes Monkey Trial have with popular music? What? William Jennings Bryan’s assistant? Yeah, in the Scopes Monkey Trial. This is back in 1925. The person’s name was Sue Hicks.
Marcia Smith 20:44
Okay, why did she have to do with popular first it wasn’t a she was a he? Okay, what did he I don’t know. Did he introduce the Charleston? No.
Bob Smith 20:55
He was the inspiration for a song by Johnny Cash. Sue Hicks.
Marcia Smith 21:00
The man his name is Sue. He was the
Bob Smith 21:02
Boy Named Sue. I’ll be darned. Yeah, that was the 1969 song A Boy Named Sue, which was a hit for Johnny Cash. And attorney Sue Hicks was the inspiration. He was named after his mother. Why would you name your son? Sue if you’re a mother? I don’t know. It made us like pretty hard topic as in the song. Anyway, he was still alive when Johnny Cash did that song that Sue Hicks who was the assistant to William Jennings Bryan during the Scopes Monkey Trial died in the spring of 1980.
Marcia Smith 21:30
So all right. Did you know Bob that babies are born without kneecaps? Babies are born without we had to together Bob. How come we didn’t notice they didn’t have neat? I don’t know. We didn’t notice but when do you think they appear at what age?
Bob Smith 21:47
What do kneecaps first appear? Yeah. And a baby again to at the age of two or the age of one. I’ll say at the age of one. We start crawling they’d have to have kneecaps but no
Marcia Smith 21:57
they don’t you were really closer to it. It’s between the ages of two and six. Have you ever I can’t imagine of five or six year old not having kneecap Oh, I can’t either. Who knew? I think they disappear again around the age of 70. But I can’t go verify.
Bob Smith 22:14
Talk to your friends. Okay, today we keep hearing about modern businesses that succeed by pivoting but what famous European telecom brand started out as a pulp mill and once made rubber boots.
Marcia Smith 22:30
What European tell Okay, I’ll say Samsung.
Bob Smith 22:33
That’s a Korean telecommunications company. This is a European one. If known this name of this company. It starts with an N they made phones for years. We had one once you would know key these people know. Nokia. Yeah. Thank you, honey. Well, Nokia they pivoted many times in their 135 year history. And the Wall Street Business Journal writer John Stoll called its history perhaps the best testament to diversification because listen to this, they were scrappy fins who seized opportunities and have kept the company a step ahead of disaster. It started out as a pulp mill for papermakers. Nokia did eventually it added rubber boot making. And then for decades, they made toilet papers and respirators and eventually became a major mobile phone brand. Many of us had Nokia phones in the 90s. But when the smartphones revolutionized that business, they pivoted again, this time from phones to telecom gear. So they’re still in business. But today they’re one of the major manufacturers of telecommunications equipment.
Marcia Smith 23:39
Did you say telephones and toilet paper?
Bob Smith 23:42
Yeah, they did. They did. Oh, interesting.
Marcia Smith 23:45
Okay. All right. Bob, since I lost mine last week, I was curious to find out if the thinking has changed about the appendix actually having a function. They told me it didn’t. But I wanted to double check.
Bob Smith 23:59
I didn’t know if you’re gonna bring that up. Marcia had an emergency appendectomy a week ago, it’s gone. Now. We had some excitement in our family here. It
Marcia Smith 24:06
turns out Bob, they now believe it does have a function. You want to guess what it is?
Bob Smith 24:12
Well, I think something to do with bacteria or something. Why do you think that? Well, because that’s because when the said that’s the reason they go bad is because sometimes they get foreign objects in there and the bacteria goes wild. So I would think there’s got to be some reason. Well, that’s very
Marcia Smith 24:26
close. Yes. Research shows that the appendix is designed to protect the good bacteria in your gut and helps keep your digestive system healthier. So there is a function. It’s a storage place for good bacteria. And if bad bacteria gets in there, then it’s gotta go. And that’s what happened to you. Yeah, usually happens with young kids.
Bob Smith 24:48
That was such an interesting experience being on the outside in the waiting room waiting for you and I was getting texts or the whole time the doctors began, the incision operation is going well. And it only took 14 In minutes to get rid of. And they sent me home, then he sent you home. Yeah, but not before the doctor came out saw me and showed me those souvenir pictures, your appendix
Marcia Smith 25:09
Let’s put those on the Christmas letter this. That’ll be a winner. All right, all right. And I’m gonna end with some Yogi Berra type pearls of wisdom from other sports people. Okay, you know, remember any Yogi Berra
Bob Smith 25:23
Oh yeah, like if you find a fork in the road, take it. Alright,
Marcia Smith 25:27
it’s deja vu all over again. Okay, here’s one from boxer Alan Minter. Sure there have been injuries in and deaths in boxing, but none of them are serious.
Bob Smith 25:41
No, death is serious in boxing. Oh.
Marcia Smith 25:44
And this is from boxing trainer, Lou duva. He’s a guy who gets up at six o’clock in the morning, regardless of what time it is.
Bob Smith 25:53
These are like Yogi Berra.
Marcia Smith 25:56
Okay, I’ll just add two quick ones. This is from sports commentator Murray Walker. The Leap car is absolutely unique, except for the one behind it, which is identical. And before I go, I want to give a shout out to the world champion Milwaukee Bucks basketball team, a great bunch of guys who deserved to win the whole enchilada,
Bob Smith 26:22
great young men. So far, from what we’ve seen great examples of good citizens and good immigrant story to our great immigrants. Yeah. Yep. All right. Well, that’s it for today. We hope you’ve enjoyed our Olympics and other sports questions. And another thing you were with me on a few of the first 20 or so shows, but this is our 100th episode of the offering today. All right, 100. So that feels pretty good.
Marcia Smith 26:45
Let’s go celebrate.
Bob Smith 26:46
All right. Party, an office party. Yes. That’s just two people. I
Marcia Smith 26:50
know. I’ll get the champagne. That’s fine. I’m Bob Smith. I’m Marcia Smith. Join us again next
Bob Smith 26:54
time when we return with more trivia 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
