What happens on a beach when lightning strikes dry sand? And what American President was a pioneer of branding? (Photo: Nevada BLM Wikimedia Commons)
Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discussed various entrepreneurial ventures and historical figures, including George Washington and Attila the Hun. They also delved into the personal lives and achievements of US presidents and first ladies. Later, they discussed Simon & Schuster’s success with crossword puzzle books and clever tactics employed by spies during World War II. Bob highlighted the company’s risk-taking approach to publishing the first Crossword Book in 1924, while Marcia shared a story about a beauty parlor owner named Ruth Kuhn who operated a spy ring.
Outline
Lighting, branding, and word origins.
- Bob and Marcia discuss lightning striking sand on a beach, with Marcia sharing interesting facts about Fulgur, hollow branching glass tubes formed by lightning (Marcia, 0:01:43).
- Bob asks Marcia who the first American president was a pioneer of branding, with Marcia answering JFK (Marcia, 0:02:38).
- Bob Smith discusses George Washington’s entrepreneurial ventures, including his wheat and whiskey operations, and how he branded and globally shipped his products.
- Marcia Smith asks Bob about the origin of the term “doozy,” which he explains was due to the Duesenberg car produced in the 1930s, considered state-of-the-art and more elite than Cadillac.
George Washington’s business ventures and mental health.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss First Ladies, including one who was cross-eyed and her husband’s refusal to correct her disability, as well as Andrew Carnegie’s contributions to their welfare.
- Norman Rockwell painted uplifting images to help with chronic depression.
- George Washington’s entrepreneurial ventures included fishing, textiles, and banking.
US presidents and first ladies with interesting facts.
- Bob Smith: Discusses US presidents and their personal lives, including Andrew Jackson’s marriage to Rachel and Jimmy Carter’s birth in a hospital.
- Marcia Smith: Provides additional information and context, including the fact that women got the vote in 1920 with the 19th amendment.
- Marcia Smith explains the origin of the phrase “spitting image” and its connection to military discipline and reflection.
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt carrying a pistol in her purse for protection during the Depression era.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the history of football at Cornell University, with Bob sharing interesting facts and Marcia providing insightful comments.
Attila the Hun’s death and presidential trivia.
- Attila the Hun died from a nosebleed on his wedding night, with his friends burying him in a secret location to keep the location unknown.
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith a question about a book that turned Simon & Schuster into a successful publishing firm, despite the company’s initial fear of financial failure.
- Marcia Smith provides the answer, which is that the book was “The Crossword Book” published in 1924, during the crossword puzzle’s heyday, and its success helped Simon & Schuster grow.
Spies and literature.
- Bob Smith tells Marcia Smith about a beauty parlor run by a German spy named Ruth Kuhn during WWII, who gathered information on ships and military activities through her chats with officers’ wives.
- The spy ring was discovered after coded messages were found being flashed from the attic of Ruth’s home to the Japanese consulate in Honolulu during the Pearl Harbor attack.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss John Cleland’s novel “Fanny Hill” and its underground literary classic status.
- Colo Machiavelli’s quote about preferring hell to heaven is shared, and Bob Smith finds it funny.
Bob Smith 0:00
One American president was a pioneer of branding.
Marcia Smith 0:05
What if anything happens on a beach when lightning strikes? dry sand?
Bob Smith 0:10
Hmm. answers to those and other questions coming up in this episode of the off ramp with Bob and Marsha and beach bunny, Marcia peach. Smith, thank you
welcome to the off ramp a chance to slow down steer clear of crazy take a side road to sanity and get some perspective on life. Lightning is a way to gain perspective immediately, isn’t it? Marcia?
Marcia Smith 0:50
We had a lot of it last night, buddy.
Bob Smith 0:52
Yeah. So tell us the story of lightning. What’s this about?
Marcia Smith 0:55
Okay, Bob, what do you think? If anything happens on a beach when lightning hits dry sand?
Bob Smith 1:01
I would think it turns it into glass. Balls of glass
Marcia Smith 1:06
you think right? And you’re pretty darn close? Yes. According to Reader’s Digest, and 13 things you need to know about sand. depending on what’s in it, sand must be heated to more than 2500 degrees Fahrenheit to become glass. So the oldest and fastest glass maker is lightning. And when a bolt strikes dry sand it instantly melts and fuses the sand into hollow branching glass tubes. These things have a name called Fulgur. Right? Well, those
Bob Smith 1:41
are interesting to collect when they wanted.
Marcia Smith 1:43
I’ve never I don’t think I’ve ever seen one. But Google Fulgur right and see the pictures of sand hit by lightning very curious.
Bob Smith 1:51
Is it sort of like pictures of snowflakes and things like that? No,
Marcia Smith 1:55
I wouldn’t say that. It’s just very bizarre looking structures and pieces of stuff.
Bob Smith 2:02
So when lightning hits sand, the answer is it creates hollow branching glass tubes.
Marcia Smith 2:06
Yeah. And it forms all sorts of different shapes.
Bob Smith 2:12
There’s more than one reason to stay away from the lightning on a beach, isn’t there? Number one, you don’t want to get struck number two, you don’t want to walk on these glass tubes. If they hurt or not,
Marcia Smith 2:21
I didn’t go to that depth.
Bob Smith 2:24
I think
Marcia Smith 2:25
they wouldn’t be good on the old feet.
Bob Smith 2:27
Well, Marcia, one of America’s presidents was a pioneer of branding. Actually, there may have been a couple but who was the first American president who was a pioneer of branding. Branding.
Marcia Smith 2:38
Oh, JFK.
Bob Smith 2:40
No. before? Yeah.
Marcia Smith 2:43
Way before? Way before? Before? Okay.
Bob Smith 2:47
He actually put his name on merchandise, really Lincoln Logs? No, okay. It was George Washington of all people believe it or not, no, I don’t believe it. Yeah, we think of the founding fathers as farmers owners of large plantations. But George Washington really didn’t fit that mold. And this came clear in an interesting new book called George Washington entrepreneur by John Breaux Lau and a listen to this. George Washington built a constellation of Mount Vernon farms 8000 acres of farms that encircled where he lived, and he turned it into an industrial village. He evolved from farmer to entrepreneur by abandoning tobacco, which was Virginia’s Top Crop at the time, because he could tell it was depleting the soil. Now, before we go any farther we know, the only reason George Washington could be a big entrepreneur was because he had
Marcia Smith 3:39
a wife with money.
Bob Smith 3:43
Slaves and slaves. Yeah. Anyway, after experimenting with 60 grains, he settled on wheat, he built multiple businesses that spun off on that wheat in an early example of vertical integration. So here’s where the Brandon comes in. He not only raised the grain, he grounded into flour in a state of the art automated grist mill and he packaged it into bags branded with his name, which were shipped globally. Really. That’s interesting buyers throughout North America, the Caribbean and England valued the G dot Washington brand for its consistent high quality grain.
Marcia Smith 4:19
I think of all the streets and high schools he put his name on. I mean, that’s pretty, you know,
Bob Smith 4:25
The wheat operation also supported a profitable whiskey distillery. There you go, one of the largest in America, he produced 11,000 gallons of whiskey a year. And we’ll have some more facts on him as we go along.
Marcia Smith 4:37
Okay, Bob, here’s a word question. I got a few of them in this, this episode, word origins by Bob and why is something great or real knockout called a doozy. Like, wow, that boat is a real doozy that
Bob Smith 4:53
was because of the Duesenberg car that came out in the 30s. What was the name of the car? Duesenberg. It was a big it was a huge long car.
Marcia Smith 5:03
That’s right. Beautiful car very good. The first doozy was the Duesenberg and American car created by two brothers of the same name. It was considered state of the art at the time, and it was produced between 1921 and 1937. It was considered more elite than the Cadillac. And in fact, its high performance engine was even put into boats and airplanes. That’s so that airplane. Yeah, it was a doozy. Yeah, it
Bob Smith 5:29
was a doozy. Yeah, I know. There were pictures of Gary Cooper and some other big movie stars had Duesenbergs.
Marcia Smith 5:36
they’re huge monsters things you guys. Yeah, yeah. Started like the Hummer today.
Bob Smith 5:41
Well, I think I had more sex appeal than the Hummer sex appeal.
Marcia Smith 5:45
Let’s take the tank over to Piggly Wiggly. You know, what’s the point? Okay. Go ahead, Bob.
Bob Smith 5:49
I have another related to the President’s question. What First Lady was cross-eyed and her husband wouldn’t correct her disability because he liked her that way.
Marcia Smith 5:59
Well, you had to have your husband. Correct. The disability? Oh,
Bob Smith 6:04
no. He just didn’t want her to get her face changed her
Marcia Smith 6:07
face change. Okay, give me a century.
Bob Smith 6:09
It was the 19th century. All right. So one of the Presidents we kind of admire after reading some books. Grant. Yes, US grant. Yeah, his wife. She had she was cross-eyed but he refused to let her departure. Yeah, he thought she looked great the way it was. Sorta,
Marcia Smith 6:28
I like that.
Bob Smith 6:29
Speaking of First Ladies, I have another question for you. How did steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie contribute to the welfare of presidential first ladies. Now, we always think of Andrew Carnegie. And will those big robber barons they were monopolists. You know, they drove other people out of business. But Andrew Carnegie Of course we all know contributed to the libraries. But what did he do to help first ladies?
Marcia Smith 6:51
Yeah, got me Bob. He started the dress museum for First Lady. No,
Bob Smith 6:56
No, much more important than that until Congress took on the responsibility of providing for widowed presidential wives. He personally paid pensions to former first ladies.
Marcia Smith 7:06
Oh, God bless him. Is that cool? That’s amazing.
Bob Smith 7:10
I thought that was interesting. Okay,
Marcia Smith 7:11
speaking of interesting what famous artists Bob of our time, excepted Commission’s to do magazine ads for Kellogg’s cornflakes to help pay for his treatment of chronic depression. Andy
Bob Smith 7:25
Warhol. I just thought that would be the perfect person. But
Marcia Smith 7:29
now someone you’ll be surprised really
Bob Smith 7:31
had chronic depression. Yeah. chronic depression. I don’t know who was it? Okay.
Marcia Smith 7:37
It’s been demonstrated that if you pretend to be happy, even when you’re not, it often helps. You know, smile when your heart is breaking. In this case, it’s painting uplifting images. And the artist is Norman Rockwell. And
Bob Smith 7:51
I was gonna say Norman Rockwell, but I thought Nah, he wasn’t depressed. I couldn’t imagine him being depressed
Marcia Smith 7:56
big time the monthly love artists struggled with happiness. And he moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where he and his wife could both receive treatment for chronic depression. I
Bob Smith 8:09
thought he moved there because he just loved Massachusetts jets because
Marcia Smith 8:13
they were patients of the world famous psychoanalyst Erik Erikson, with whom Rockwell racked up such a big therapy bill that he did the gig for cornflakes.
Bob Smith 8:25
I did not know that. And I didn’t know that Norman Rockwell painted anything for Kellogg’s Corn. Yeah, well, I
Marcia Smith 8:32
think he kept that on.
Bob Smith 8:33
That was gonna be depressing. I have to do this in order to survive. Yeah, well,
Marcia Smith 8:37
he and his wife had massive bills with that psychoanalyst there. It’s amazing. Yeah, that was interest.
Bob Smith 8:43
I had no idea. That’s fascinating. Who knew that? Okay, back to George Washington, Marsh. I’ve got a couple more things about other businesses he had he had businesses on land. He had businesses on water to do you have any idea what the water business was? It was so huge for George Washington
Marcia Smith 8:59
County. I don’t know that he he built behind tune boats.
Bob Smith 9:04
Well, it was a fishing company. He also harvested the nearby Potomac River with a fishing fleet of small boats, crewed by slaves, every spring hauling in shad and herring during the breeding runs. And they captured 1.5 million fish in a good year, George Washington, the nets that they used were woven in George Washington’s own textile operations. So wheat, whiskey, fishing, fishing nets, ropes, chips, all part of George Washington Incorporated. I’ll be darned as he evolved from the farmer to the entrepreneur. So when you think of George Washington as a farmer Think bigger No wonder he and Alexander Hamilton in their Federalist Party supported banking and national credit and investment and manufacturing. Well, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and their followers promoted an agrarian utopia with plantations banned by slaves, you know, interesting anyway, that comes up gain from a new book called George Washington entrepreneur by John Burleigh.
Marcia Smith 10:04
I assume you’re reading that now.
Bob Smith 10:06
It’s very interesting.
Marcia Smith 10:07
Okay, let’s get to the term corny. Sometimes you’re called corny, aren’t you? But
Bob Smith 10:12
why wouldn’t somebody call me that
Marcia Smith 10:15
corny is considered a late 19th century theatrical expression, when theater groups, often from New York travelled to the hinterlands and felt smugly superior to their audiences. According to who put the butter in butterfly, these Thespians felt these audiences preferred lowbrow comedy and trite and sentimental melodrama, the preferences of these cornfed audiences soon became known as corny.
Bob Smith 10:44
Well, that makes sense. I can see that because they’re going out with a cornice me. Yeah, yeah. That’s too bad that they thought they were so superior.
Marcia Smith 10:52
says let’s do a lot of that going on. Okay, I
Bob Smith 10:55
got another presidential question for you here. What US president had to marry his wife twice? Because her divorce from a former husband wasn’t Final when they married? Yes. Really?
Marcia Smith 11:06
Well, who would that be a famous
Bob Smith 11:08
president. Yeah. Well, his wife’s name was Rachel. I’ve given you clues. Rachel. He’s from Tennessee. Andrew Jackson. Okay. She left her first husband who got permission from the Virginia Legislature to sue for divorce. Now Jackson married Rachel. And two years later, they discovered divorce decree had only then been made final by the courts. So they had been married for a couple of years. She was a big earnest, married to two people at the same time. So Jackson decided he wanted to marry her again. And he set a local record for duels, by the way, and some of them were over the question of his wife’s honor. I wonder why.
Marcia Smith 11:46
Yeah, imagine that coming up today on social media. Oh, my God. What was her name? Rachel? Yes. So what’s with the Rachel cat living in sin? The Washington woman. Okay. Hey, Bob, who was the first mom to vote for her son for President of the United States?
Bob Smith 12:06
Oh, that’s a good one. Okay, so women were given suffrage in the 1920s. So I would say would have to be someone like FDR is mother. Franklin Roosevelt’s
Marcia Smith 12:15
McGraw, Sarah Roosevelt. women got the vote in 1920. With the 19th amendment for white women anyway. So the first one with a mother alive, that undoubtedly voted for son would have been Sarah Roosevelt.
Bob Smith 12:30
And one of those other questions about presidents that I always find fascinating because the guy was president when we were alive. Who was the first president born in a hospital in the United States?
Marcia Smith 12:41
It was, yeah. Bus and Truman. No, no, no, it was after Truman. Wasn’t Eisenhower.
Bob Smith 12:51
Okay, who bomb? It was Jimmy Carter, believe it or not. I was thought that was fascinating because Jimmy Carter was elected in the 1970s. I think 76 and he actually was the first US president born in a hospital.
Marcia Smith 13:06
Yeah, that’s how we’ve been alive.
Bob Smith 13:10
Yeah, I thought we had been modern far before that. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 13:12
Yeah. It’s always amazing to to know that. I was born in a log hospital.
Bob Smith 13:17
A log hospital. Yes, we’ve
Marcia Smith 13:19
heard that. Why? Why isn’t exact likeness of someone Bob called a spitting image? Oh,
Bob Smith 13:25
I thought it was dead ringer. Okay. Spitting image. Why would it be a spitting image? Think about it. There’s always some kind of story behind these areas.
Marcia Smith 13:33
And the phrase goes back to the glory that was the British Empire, when just about every man was familiar with the spit and polish discipline of military life. When a man polished his boots he used to live it to bring them to where he could see his own reflection, hence the origin spitting image. Wow.
Bob Smith 13:52
So you had to see himself in the Yeah, different
Marcia Smith 13:55
time. You could see your own reflection. the
Bob Smith 13:59
spitting image. Isn’t that inch? Yes, it is. I had no idea that was it. That’s fascinating. Okay, we’ll be back with more in just a minute. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith. Okay, we’re back. Bob and Marcia Smith with the off ramp. I have one more presidential oriented question for you today. Only it’s a first lady. What first lady regularly carried a pistol in her purse.
Marcia Smith 14:25
I’ll say I’ve had a pistol packin mama. Hmm, let’s see. Jackie Kennedy. She had that little pillbox hat and purse. I could see I could see something like that. I don’t know. Eleanor Roosevelt. Did she know Yeah.
Bob Smith 14:41
Soon after FDR took office during the Depression, she received an alarming number of letters threatening her life. And so the Secret Service insisted she carry a pistol in her purse to protect herself and so she did that .
Marcia Smith 14:54
She was so outspoken people hated her. I think that was it speak even then.
Bob Smith 14:59
Yeah, because she was out spoken and that was very unusual for a woman, let alone a First Lady. They never came out and talked a lot.
Marcia Smith 15:06
Okay, two quickies going along with the presidential thing. Okay, besides his famous speak softly and carry a big stick What else did Teddy Roosevelt carry? Or What else
Bob Smith 15:17
did he carry? The big stick? Yeah. Did he carry a revolver?
Marcia Smith 15:22
Yes, he did. Oh really carried a gun so he could have some chance of shooting the assassin before he could shoot me now he was after assassinated President, which was McKinley. Yeah. So he was after that he thought and there was he had they had no protection back then. Not
Bob Smith 15:38
like the Secret Service like today. Yes. And after his presidential years, Teddy Roosevelt, there was an assassination attempt in Milwaukee. I know he was almost killed. Yeah. And what saved his life, his speech. That’s a big fat speech he had rolled up in his pocket or something
Marcia Smith 15:51
to being loquacious.
Bob Smith 15:55
His words protected him his they defended him.
Marcia Smith 15:58
Yes. And the second one, you should get this quickly. The country doubled in size under which president?
Bob Smith 16:05
That would be Thomas Jefferson.
Marcia Smith 16:07
That’s right. And why?
Bob Smith 16:08
Because of the Louisiana Purchase, correct?
Marcia Smith 16:09
Okay. You may go.
Bob Smith 16:13
Oh, I might. I may read you something. Is that what you mean?
Marcia Smith 16:15
You may ask a question now.
Bob Smith 16:17
Okay. Marsha. We’re heading towards football season. Yeah. Did American Colleges and Universities welcome football to college campuses, or did they fight it?
Marcia Smith 16:27
I would assume just because you’re asking it. They fought it? A little bit
Bob Smith 16:32
of both. Yeah. Yeah, it was a little of both. You don’t think of that now because you know what a college wants is a good football team right now brings in a lot of money, people. But Cornell University began playing intramural football in 1869. But in 1874 when its president and co founder Andrew Dickson white heard that a team with his college his name on it was going to be traveling to the University of Michigan for the first intercollegiate football game he put his foot down. He no he forbid the team to make the trip. He said I will not permit 30 men to travel 400 Miles merely to agitate a bag of wind. So no. Cornell Cornell was not a pioneer that embraced it
Marcia Smith 17:16
Sounds like an argument I’m having with you.
Bob Smith 17:18
Oh yeah, the bag of when it took 13 years before Cornell played its first game against another college that was an 87 And even then, the team went coach LIS in its first three seasons. They just didn’t believe in it. But the big red took off in the 1890s with famous coaches like Glenn Pop Warner and despite its shaky beginning Cornell’s teams have played more than 130 years of football. And they won five national championships with 20 all Americans and seven players in the College Football Hall of Fame. But at the beginning No, the college did not want a football team.
Marcia Smith 17:52
Okay, how did one of history’s most feared leaders? Attila the Hun die?
Bob Smith 17:59
How did he die? Yeah. I usually those people didn’t die a long and quiet death. Didn’t go home and retire. So usually it was during a battle so I would assume Attila the Hun died in battle and was succeeded by his sons or something like this.
Marcia Smith 18:18
You would think that but no. Okay. Okay. On one of his many first wedding nights. Yeah, he had a few wives. And this turned out to be his last one because on his first night of his wedding night with his last wife, heavy with wine and sleep. Hunt died in 453 AD from a nosebleed.
Bob Smith 18:41
From a nosebleed
Marcia Smith 18:42
He kind of drowned and he couldn’t eat, didn’t wake up and it went down his throat. Wow. And he kind of drowned in his own I
Bob Smith 18:51
suffer called blow. That sounds awful. Yes, it
Marcia Smith 18:53
took us a while hunting was pretty awful. Here’s a fun fact.
Bob Smith 18:57
A fun hunchback, okay.
Marcia Smith 18:59
Nobody knows where he’s buried. That’s because he was put to rest in a burial site that only his friends who buried them knew where it was. And just to make sure they didn’t tell anybody. They killed them all.
Bob Smith 19:13
Oh, no. Go off and bury him. Don’t tell us where Okay, now you’re done.
Marcia Smith 19:18
Now you’re dead. Hey, there’s your reward. Yes, yes. God. All right, just one more on those frisky hands. frisky huh. Apparently, they were considered pretty ugly guys. And it didn’t help that 100 babies had their heads bound between two boards for six months.
Bob Smith 19:35
Oh, this is like some of those African tribes that that kind of so that they would have cone
Marcia Smith 19:39
or conical shaped heads. That didn’t add to their good looks but they thought it was
Bob Smith 19:44
really cute. Well, it they look like fierce warriors. When
Marcia Smith 19:47
they came they were very Yeah, I think they were born with big mustaches to the babies. I’m not sure.
Bob Smith 19:51
How’s that possible?
Marcia Smith 19:53
I’m kidding. Okay. Okay,
Bob Smith 19:56
I always find it interesting how companies got started or what made them big successes. So I’ve got a question for you here from the book industry. Okay. Okay, what book turned Simon and Schuster into a top publishing firm? Even though the company didn’t put its name on the book because they feared a financial failure?
Marcia Smith 20:12
Really? Yeah. It was something was it in my lifetime? No, it
Bob Smith 20:16
was published in 1924. And it went along with a craze that was going on, but they didn’t put their name on
Marcia Smith 20:21
it. Was it something like, how to succeed without really trying by what’s his name? Carnegie kind of book?
Bob Smith 20:28
No, not like that. Tell me it was the crossword puzzle book. Really? Yeah. Published in 1924. The 20s were the heyday of the crossword puzzle. its golden age. As Americans popularized, this was a British born game. Okay. And Simon and Schuster put out the first Crossword Book under the title Plaza publishing the because they were afraid the book would fail and the publishing house would suffer. They didn’t want to be associated with it. But the book became an outstanding bestseller in the 20s. And its revenue helped Simon and Schuster grow into a successful company, so you never know. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 21:04
yeah. Never. You know,
Bob Smith 21:06
don’t feel bad because it’s a crossword puzzle book. You know, so you want it yeah, this fun? Okay,
Marcia Smith 21:10
I got two quickies. Okay. Okay. What President smarty pants married a direct descendant of Princess Pocahontas.
Bob Smith 21:18
What President married a direct descendant of Princess Pocahontas. Yes.
Marcia Smith 21:22
Didn’t know there was one Did you know and what what years?
Bob Smith 21:26
What century was this in the last century? That 19th century, the 20th century 19th 19th century? So it was probably somebody around the 1880s. Maybe?
Marcia Smith 21:35
I don’t know what your US President. Oh, my notes here. You want me to look,
Bob Smith 21:40
though? That’s okay. Gee, I don’t know who was it? Only 16 months
Marcia Smith 21:44
after his first wife died. Woodrow Wilson married an attractive widow by the name of Mrs. Edith bowling golf. She was a ninth generation direct descendant of Princess Pocahontas.
Bob Smith 21:56
Wow, that’s pretty impressive.
Marcia Smith 21:58
That’s in my little presidential tidbits card. I was sent. Okay. All right. Okay, quickly. How fast does a bird have to fly Bob to stay aloft?
Bob Smith 22:08
How fast does it have to fly to stay? I’ll only never think about the speed of birds. They’re darting past you it Yes. I’m really tremendous speeds when you think about what’s
Marcia Smith 22:17
the minimum speed that they don’t fall out of the sky? 20 miles per hour. Levin mass prime. Really? Yeah. To keep itself going. Just thought you’d want to know that is
Bob Smith 22:27
interesting, though, because we don’t associate speeds that slow with something. But that’s fast. That’s pretty
Marcia Smith 22:32
fast. Quite a dart across the tried to go 11 miles an hour on the treadmill?
Bob Smith 22:37
Well, instantly to think about a bird. They just take off and they’re going and they’re going at that speed. Yeah. Okay. I have a history question for you. Okay, how did a beauty parlor lead to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor?
Marcia Smith 22:50
Beauty. Well, can you give me a little more information?
Bob Smith 22:54
No, I’ll tell you the story. All right. The young German woman was named Ruth Kuhn. She operated a beauty parlor at Pearl Harbor. And she offered the best, most inexpensive service on the base, and all the officers wives came there. And naturally they talked and talked and talked about the base activities. Oh, yeah. You told them well, what they did know was that Ruth her father, Dr. Bernard Kuhn, their mother Freidel and their little brother, Hans Yocum were all spies were funneling information to the Japanese. Wow.
Marcia Smith 23:26
It makes sense. Perfect sense. And you talk up a storm and beauty.
Bob Smith 23:30
Oh god. Yeah. And they took nature expeditions to sailing expeditions. They gathered information on ships. little Hans even befriended the soldiers and sailors who took them aboard the destroyers and gave them a little tours of their vessels. Wow. They did not know he had been coached to ask military questions by his father and that he was debriefed after those tours. But no one spy tool proved greater than that of the beauty parlor that Ruth operated.
Marcia Smith 23:56
I believe it. That’s insidious and clever. Go to where the wives chit chat. Exactly amazing and
Bob Smith 24:03
the coons weren’t discovered until the Pearl Harbor attack when somebody finally noticed coded messages being flashed from their attic to the Japanese consulate in Honolulu.
Marcia Smith 24:14
What’s that? What are those flashing lights? Outside of the roof?
Bob Smith 24:18
Yeah, so although some family members were sentenced to death or long prison sentences all were freed after only a few years in prison. Really? Yeah. That’s from the People’s almanac going?
Marcia Smith 24:29
They were fried. Hmm. I don’t know. That’s pretty easy. You
Bob Smith 24:33
don’t know how you feel about that. Do you?
Marcia Smith 24:34
I don’t I mean, somebody that caused that much havoc in the country. This
Bob Smith 24:40
is an interesting question, Marsha. What famous pornographic novel was written by a man who wanted to get out of prison. Really, yeah.
Marcia Smith 24:49
What wasn’t lady chatter? No, no, it was it was that one that I was just skipped to the good pages that one
Bob Smith 24:58
I don’t know Marsh I didn’t know the name of Have you had this disgusting pest? I don’t know. What was the name of the book Fanny Hill ah, classic of dirty literature written in the 1750s. John cleeland was 41 he was broke when he returned to England from Bombay where he worked for the British East India Company. He’d lost his job and a quarrel with his boss, and eventually ended up in debtors prison. So he wrote the book for a 28 year old printer who offered to bail him out of prison in new gate if he would write a dirty novel so the printer earn 10,000 British pounds and the novel became an underground literary classic for two centuries and John Cleveland got out of jail all right, that was his Get Out of Jail car yeah,
Marcia Smith 25:39
that’s a good story and very, very industrious way to do it. I like it. Okay, I’m gonna finish with a quote by colo Machiavelli, okay. He said, I desire to go to hell and not to heaven. In the former place. I will enjoy the company of Pope’s kings and princes. That’s what inhale while in the ladder, only beggars monks and apostles,
Bob Smith 26:03
he would find he would find heaven boring compared to hell, so he wants to be in hell where all the corrupt people are. That’s funny. Okay, I
Marcia Smith 26:11
don’t think he had any problem with going to where he wants
Bob Smith 26:13
I think he went where he wanted to go I think so he’s done. No, good.
Marcia Smith 26:16
Bob fuller no full of bad to the bone. No. Okay.
Bob Smith 26:20
All right. That’s it for this episode of the off ramp. We hope you join us next time. Okay, that’s it for this time here on the off ramp. We want to remind you if you’d like to send us anything you’re welcome to one of our contributors sent us a whole book Reese Yes, Steve and short
Marcia Smith 26:36
hence all these presidential questions that l they’ll be more in the future. Thank you Steve. We’re
Bob Smith 26:41
gonna let Marcia asked me those questions in the future here so that’s great. But if you just have a question you want to ask and you want to direct it to one of us you can go to our website,
Marcia Smith 26:51
the off ramp that show go to contact us and
Bob Smith 26:55
then you can leave your question your answer and your name and address
Marcia Smith 27:00
children’s middle name we go
Bob Smith 27:02
again you always want our secured Oh no, no Marsh we don’t need social security now. Would you please stop with that?
Marcia Smith 27:07
Salem. All right. There we go. Make some money.
Bob Smith 27:10
That’s it time to go now. I mean, can’t stop this soon enough. All right. I’m Bob Smith and Marcia Smith. Join us again next time when we return with more of 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
