When tossed into the air, is a Penny more likely to land tails up? Or heads up? And how did the witch really die in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? Hear the answers on the Off Ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith. (Photo: US Mint)
Bob and Marcia Smith engaged in a wide-ranging conversation, covering topics from historical events to artistic expression. Bob shared insights on the weight distribution of coins and the evolutionary significance of animal features, while Marcia provided information on the seven deadly sins and the history of the Disney movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Later, they discussed the longest coastal driving route in the world, with Bob correcting Marcia’s initial guess and identifying the wild Atlantic way in Ireland as the longest route, spanning 1600 miles. Through their conversation, the speakers demonstrated their passion for learning and exploring different topics.
Outline
Coin toss odds and fairy tale deaths.
- When tossing a Lincoln penny, it’s slightly more likely to land tails up due to the penny’s design (51% vs 49%).
- When spinning a Lincoln penny on its edge, it’s more likely to land on its head’s side (80% of the time).
- Bob and Marcia discuss the origins of the Disney classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and the Grimm Brothers’ original fairy tale, including the queen’s death by poison apple and red hot iron shoes.
Animal features and coin designs.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the unique body features of various animals, including iguanas, Komodo dragons, koalas, and walruses, and Marcia shares an interesting fact about the ancient city of Machu Picchu being designed to withstand earthquakes.
- Bob and Marcia discuss US coins and their presidents, with Marcia providing interesting facts and Bob responding with questions and observations.
Longest coastal driving route and famous artist’s frustration with famous work.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the longest coastal driving route in the world, which is the Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland, spanning 1600 miles.
- They wonder how jockeys stay on their camels during camel races in Abu Dhabi, with Marcia suggesting they use Velcro or some other secure attachment method.
- Michelangelo wrote a poem about hating to paint the Sistine Chapel while lying on his back on a scaffold for months.
- In the poem, Michelangelo describes his physical discomfort and frustration with the painting process, considering himself more of a sculptor than a painter.
- Marcia Smith shares interesting facts about Napoleon Bonaparte’s offer of a prize for a practical way of preserving food for his armies, including the invention of canning by Nicholas Appert.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss a question about American cities named after ancient Egyptian capitals, with the correct answer being Memphis, Tennessee.
Space, ancient civilizations, and advertising.
- Bob and Marcia discuss how astronauts can grow taller in space and ancient Persians used clay beehive-like structures as evaporation coolers to preserve food.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the history of the Jolly Green Giant mascot, including its initial lack of popularity and how it was rebranded to be more appealing.
The 7 Deadly Sins, Nickel Coinage, and Presidential Travel.
- Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss the seven deadly sins in Christian theology, including avarice, envy, gluttony, lust, pride, sloth, and wrath.
- The hosts encourage listeners to contribute to the off-ramp show and provide questions for them to answer, and they invite listeners to go to their local library to learn more.
- Bob and Marcia discuss FDR’s travels, piracy’s impact on shipping companies, and insurance rates in the 1700s.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the location of the ancient city of Babylon and the quote “it is necessary only for the good man to do nothing for evil to triumph.”
Bob Smith 0:00
When tossed into the air is a penny more likely to land tails up or heads up?
Marcia Smith 0:06
And how did the witch really die in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs?
Bob Smith 0:10
Well answers to those and other questions coming up in this episode of the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith.
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. Well, Marcia, whenever you have a bet, a lot of people like to throw a coin into the air. So the question is when tossed into the air, is a penny more likely to land tails up? Or heads up?
Marcia Smith 0:55
Well, 5050 chance right. But percentages will go with the tails
Bob Smith 1:02
will actually you’re right. But why tails?
Marcia Smith 1:05
I don’t know because it sounded counterintuitive.
Bob Smith 1:09
It’s a close call when you flip that coin and catch it in your hands. It could be heads or tails. But the odds are a tiny bit higher. 1% higher that the Lincoln penny will land tails up why high? Because the side with the head is
Unknown Speaker 1:23
a little heavier, a little bit heavier, of course,
Bob Smith 1:27
so it’s slightly more likely to end up on the bottom of the coin. Just 1% more,
Unknown Speaker 1:32
but slightly any coin.
Bob Smith 1:34
This is the Lincoln penny where tell Lincoln penny Yeah, so the odds are 51 to 49%. I’ll be darned. Now if you spin a Lincoln penny on its edge rather than toss it. That changes the odds dramatically how?
Marcia Smith 1:47
Well then it’s more likely to land on heads because it’s slightly lighter, and that will fall on the head side up.
Bob Smith 1:54
You’re absolutely wrong.
Marcia Smith 1:57
I saw that so
Bob Smith 2:00
when spinning a Lincoln penny on its edge the penny will land tail side up 80% of the time ad this comes from Percy de economists, a statistician at Stanford University and also a former magician. He performed a study with Susan Holmes of Stanford and Richard Montgomery of USC and they found eight out of 10 times a spinning coin tends to fall toward the heavier side. Again, that’s because the Lincoln heads head is a little heavier than the other side. But those are the odds so tossing a penny 51 to 49. It’ll land on its tails spinning a penny at one to 10% it lands tails. Well, thank
Marcia Smith 2:38
It’s a close you, Bob for that enlightening information.
Bob Smith 2:40
Well, you always come up with a little gambling things. Why not? Let’s bring up the penny and talk about that.
Marcia Smith 2:46
I love gambling sports Bobster. Okay, in the Disney classic Snow White and the Seven little guys. The script writers had the wicked queen falling off a precipice to her death. If you remember the movie. That’s how she died. No, I didn’t remember that. She dies. But how did she really die in the original Grimm Brothers fairy tale?
Bob Smith 3:10
She ate her own poison apple. Oh, no, I don’t know.
Marcia Smith 3:14
Yeah, well, that’s a good one. Make her eat the apple on her own up. I’m eating apple right now.
Bob Smith 3:19
Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel bad. Oh, those Grimm brothers.
Marcia Smith 3:22
They were pretty gruesome back in the day. Yes, they were back in the original fairy tale. The queen was condemned to dance in red hot iron shoes until she died.
Bob Smith 3:34
Oh my goodness. What a way to dance in red hot iron shoe until she died. I never heard that part of the store.
Marcia Smith 3:41
Talk about grim.
Bob Smith 3:43
And those guys. Basically the Brothers Grimm word folklorist, they went out and collected all these folk tales. Yeah, but the metal book
Marcia Smith 3:49
And they were all very, very misogynistic too.
Bob Smith 3:53
Yeah, women did not come out well, in these two. It just reflected society, I think. I guess. All right. I’m gonna go back to the Lincoln penny Marsh because I got a couple more questions on currency here. All right. All righty. What is unusual about Lincoln’s image on the penny. What is unusual about Lincoln’s image on the penny?
Marcia Smith 4:13
It’s facing like an Emir.
Bob Smith 4:15
It’s one of the few currently minted us coins where the profile faces right. Generally they face left.
Marcia Smith 4:22
Okay, what body features Bob do the iguanas koalas and Komodo dragons all have in common?
Bob Smith 4:29
They have tattoos. I don’t know. I was just trying to think of something different. So what body features do the iguanas the Komodo dragons? And what else koalas
Iguanas all have in common? Yes,
Marcia Smith 4:41
they have a body feature that’s different than most than
Unknown Speaker 4:45
most other animals. Yeah, or people? I don’t know.
Marcia Smith 4:50
They have two penises. Oh,
Bob Smith 4:51
of course. I would know that. Of course.
Marcia Smith 4:56
It’s not uncommon in reptiles like snakes and lizards either. It has Something to do with the evolutionary cycle, Bob, but that’s what they all have in common.
Bob Smith 5:04
Why not have two when one just won’t do?
Marcia Smith 5:08
Hey, now there’s a slogan. Advertising runs in the blood. Okay.
Bob Smith 5:12
Oh my god. I’ve never heard of that. Well, that’s
Marcia Smith 5:14
why I’m here to share some amazing but true stories with you. Okay,
Bob Smith 5:19
Marcia. I’m going to ask you an architecture question. Okay. What ancient city was designed to be earthquake proof? Now, let me give you a hint, this city had a feature in the architecture, that the people who the Europeans who discovered it back at the turn of the 20th century thought, well, that’s really unusual. But nobody put two and two together. But now scientists believed this was this city was actually designed to be earthquake proof.
Marcia Smith 5:44
Well, was it in China? No. Was it in South America? Is it was it in Peru? Yes, it was. And was it? Machu Picchu?
Bob Smith 5:52
Yes. Machu Picchu. Now that’s Peru is located in a seismic zone. Yeah. And apparently to protect against potential earthquakes. The Incas made those buildings with precisely fit stones. They’re held together with gravity alone. No more. They always said, is that strange? There’s no mortar holding these bricks together is so tight, nothing so thin as a credit card could be inserted in the crack. That’s amazing. So what they think this did was they designed this to let these mortar free stones dance during an earthquake, only to resettle back into place once it ended. That’s how advanced they were.
Marcia Smith 6:26
And we think we’re so smart today. Yeah.
Bob Smith 6:28
And. So smarty pants. I know. Isn’t that amazing? So to me, finally, that makes sense why they didn’t use mortar. So that’s what they think now. Okay, I have another coin back, Marcia.
Marcia Smith 6:40
Well, how about two penises?
Bob Smith 6:42
I know that two penis questions so fascinated, but I’ve gone back to coins. Because I just can’t explain that when. All right. So we talked about the presidents and how Lincoln faces right on the coin on the on the penny. What President originally faced left then right and now faces forward. His coin. Okay, who’s who’s facing left then? Right. And now faces forward on his coin?
Marcia Smith 7:09
I don’t know. Oh, come
Bob Smith 7:10
on. Give me a president
Marcia Smith 7:12
give you a president on a coin. Trying to think of You’re right. I haven’t looked at a coin lately. Oh, the buffalo.
Bob Smith 7:19
Oh, yeah. President buffalo, of course. Tell me. He was a woolly guy was
Marcia Smith 7:23
telling me President Thomas Jefferson. He was both ways. And then front.
Bob Smith 7:28
Yeah. When the Jefferson nickel was introduced in 1930. A he faced left in 2005. That nickel was redesigned for the Louisiana Purchase he faced right now he faces forward looking forward to you as a coin holder since 2006. Okay, that nickel was the first US coin that didn’t show a president in profile.
Marcia Smith 7:47
Fascinating, fascinating meeting. But if the population of China began walking past you, Bob in single file D here. How long would it take to get to the end?
Bob Smith 8:00
That would take centuries? I think, wouldn’t it? Centuries
Marcia Smith 8:04
Actually it would never end because of the rate of reproduction. Keep going forever.
Bob Smith 8:09
So it would take forever.
Marcia Smith 8:11
Yeah, they would never end. Sort of like your last question. I I’m the only one left.
Bob Smith 8:22
All right, Miss Smarty paths. Let’s say you want to take a trip. Yeah. And you want to drive down a coast. Okay. What is the longest coastal driving route in the world? How many miles and where is it?
Marcia Smith 8:38
Wow, this is a surprise.Is it? Yeah. Okay. So is it in the Knighted States.
Bob Smith 8:41
Not in the Knighted States, Marcia, wherever that is. You know, it’s not in the USA.
Marcia Smith 8:49
You say, you know, did I say? No. Would it be someplace like Russia or China?
Bob Smith 8:56
You think it would be something like that, but Okay,
Marcia Smith 8:59
shall we go to South America?
Unknown Speaker 9:01
No less? No. All right. How
Marcia Smith 9:02
about Australia? No. Okay. How about this would be a
Unknown Speaker 9:07
big surprise. Burbank. No, I don’t know. Okay,
Bob Smith 9:10
so the question is, what is the longest coastal driving route in the world? Okay. You were thinking the Pacific Coast Highway? Yeah. We went down there. Yeah. From Oregon all the way back forever. It did seem like forever. But this is called the wild Atlantic way. Have you ever heard of that? No, I hadn’t either. Where do you think the Wild Atlantic Way is? I don’t know. Oh, that’s right. That’s the point. You didn’t know. It’s on the western side of Ireland. Believe it or not? The island of Ireland lad and it’s 1600 miles long connecting Derry in Northern Ireland with cork in the South. takes three weeks to do this. No kid to drive it. Yeah. And it’s broken into 14 stages. They allow you limited time to pick and complete the portion you want to see it the most. And among the highlights are quaint Ville judges historic castles natural landmarks like the Cliffs of Moher and uninterrupted coastal views. So 1600 miles, that’s huge. The Pacific Coast Highway in California is 656 miles.
Marcia Smith 10:12
Is that right? Yeah. I thought well, how is long is it from the top of California to the bottom?
Bob Smith 10:18
Well, you and I drove from Portland, Oregon to Los Angeles in 2010. That was 963 miles, much of it via interstate five, but you’re not able to see the ocean the whole way. You are able to see the ocean the whole way on this 1600 mile route.
Marcia Smith 10:33
Wow, that’s the day this it takes so long.
Bob Smith 10:36
Well, you’re not going 90 miles an hour. It’s probably too small.
Marcia Smith 10:39
You’re going through a little village and go through. All right, that makes sense.
Bob Smith 10:43
So the answer again, is the longest coastal driving route in the world is in, of all places, in Ireland, the wild Atlantic way. 1600 files.
Marcia Smith 10:54
All right, Bob in Abu Dhabi. I just like to say that Abu Dhabi, how do Jackie’s stay on their mouths when they’re in camel races? Oh,
Bob Smith 11:03
God, I never thought of a camel race. I was thinking of oh, they probably a big horse races over there. How do jockeys stay on their camels? Yeah, well, it’s not just like a saddle like normal saddles you have to be on? Apparently not. Okay. Some kinds of harness or strap that’s attaching them to this.
Marcia Smith 11:20
They are strapped in with Velcro, or really? I don’t know if they have it on the bottom of their clothes and then on the Mount thing, but they’re in there securely with Velcro?
Bob Smith 11:32
That’s pretty good. That’s a good way. Now I’ve got a famous artist question. What famous artist wrote a poem about how much he hated working on one of his greatest creations? What famous artist wrote a poem
Marcia Smith 11:47
about, say, da VINCI and the Mona Lisa? No,
Bob Smith 11:51
it wasn’t da VINCI and the Mona Lisa. It was from that era. Think of somebody who was in a situation that was unusual. He had to paint things.
Marcia Smith 11:59
The ceiling. Yeah. Michelangelo laying on his back painting his ceiling. Well, that would get tedious, that’s for sure. The other clue
Bob Smith 12:08
was it was 500 years ago, but you got it. It was Michelangelo and he wrote a poem about how much he hated painting the Sistine Chapel. Did you know that? No, I didn’t. I didn’t either. He did that on his back on a scaffold. It took months and months and months. Here’s a little bit of a translation of a poem he sent to a friend really, this is Michelangelo to Giovanni de Pastoria. I love that when he was painting the Sistine Chapel 1509 Okay. I’ve already grown a goiter from this torture, hunched up here like a cat in Lombardi or anywhere else where the stagnant water is poison. My stomach’s squashed under my chin, my beards pointing at heaven. My brains crushed in a casket, my breast twists like a harpies, my brush above me all the time dribbles paint, so my face makes a fine floor for droppings.
Marcia Smith 12:57
Wow. Mike was cranky. Not done yet.
Bob Smith 13:01
My hunches are grinding into my guts my poor ass strange to work as a counterweight. Every gesture I make is blind and aimless. My skin hangs loose below me. My spines all knotted from folding over itself. I’m bent taut as a Syrian bow. Because I’m stuck like this. My thoughts are crazy. perfidious tripe. Anyone shoots badly through a crooked blowpipe my painting is dead. Defend it for me, Giovanni protect my honor. I am not in the right place. I am not a painter. He thought of himself more as a sculptor you know? Yes, he did. David. Thanks before the months and months laying on your back on the scaffold which any of us would think that would drive me nuts.
Marcia Smith 13:44
Apparently it was driving him and not only that, he’s a good writer. I mean, that is amazing imagery there. Right?
Bob Smith 13:49
Isn’t that amazing? That is from a 1509 Translated, of course, but it was in the form of a poem that is angry. Yeah, very angry. Yeah. All right. Well, cool off now and come back with more. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith. All right, we’re back after a break Bob and Marsha Smith with the off ramp Marshall. What is your next question? Well,
Marcia Smith 14:10
Now, Napoleon Bob. Napoleon offered a prize during the revolution for a practical way of preserving food for his armies. Oh, I’ve heard about this. The winner was a French inventor. Nicholas appear. What did he devise?
Bob Smith 14:26
He invented the tin can. Canned meat I think is was a candidate. They would put provisions in for the army when they were going places so it basically canned food.
Marcia Smith 14:36
That’s exactly right. Canning he invented the method of preserving food by enclosing it in hermetically sealed containers at Pur, is considered the father of canning. And that was the beginning of the canned food industry we have today.
Bob Smith 14:50
Isn’t that amazing? Yeah. So it came out of Napoleon offering money for a scientific event. It was like
Marcia Smith 14:56
30 It was a lot of money offered like 35,000 or so. Yeah,
Bob Smith 15:00
that was so he could have his provisions for his army wherever he went, Yeah, the food could follow them, which was
Marcia Smith 15:06
good thinking on his part. And he offered some serious coin for someone to think it through.
Bob Smith 15:11
Very interesting. So that goes back to the 1790s. Probably or early 1800s.
Marcia Smith 15:16
I got a quickie for sure. What is the only letter in the alphabet with more than one syllable?
Bob Smith 15:22
The only letter in the alphabet with more than one syllable? Quick W. That’s it. How did you get that? Just thinking W. It’s got to be w
Marcia Smith 15:31
I would have had to go through ABCD EFG J, good for you.
Bob Smith 15:34
And how many syllables is at three? All right, now we have a question about an American city. I’m gonna give you four cities tell me which one was named after an ancient Egyptian capital. Okay. Helena, Montana, Memphis, Tennessee, Omaha, Nebraska and Tucson, Arizona, which one was named after an ancient Egyptian capital, Atlanta. Memphis. Memphis was a prominent location on the Nile River Delta. And of course, Memphis is on the Mississippi which is considered the American Nile All right, yeah.
Marcia Smith 16:06
Okay. Bob, do astronauts get taller, shorter or stay the same when they’re in space?
Bob Smith 16:12
They get shorter. No, wait a minute, when they’re in space, they may be taller, because there’s no gravity. So you would expand? There we go. Answer taller?
Marcia Smith 16:21
That is correct. Okay, they can grow up to 3% taller. So a six foot guy can be six foot two while he’s up there. Wow. Yeah. They’re living in microgravity according to NASA. And they don’t return to normal until a couple months after they’re back on Earth.
Bob Smith 16:37
All right, another ancient civilization question. Okay. In what was once ancient Iran you will find giant bizarre beehive like structures buildings. Okay. Okay. What were they used for in ancient Persia, and I’ll give you a hint not for religious rituals or royal residences or defense purposes.
Marcia Smith 16:57
Were they built like that to act like chimneys to have fires in them at night when it got cold?
Bob Smith 17:03
Okay, that would be a good guess. But no, these are rounded. They’re like domed like,
Marcia Smith 17:06
yeah, without a hole. Yeah. Without a hole. Okay, I don’t know. Okay.
Bob Smith 17:09
They’re called Jack shells. YAKH cha LS. They appear like clay beehives. But you know what they were. They were used by the ancient Persians as evaporation coolers so they could make and collect ice during the colder months and stored in the desert throughout the year to preserve food long before electricity. You kidding? Yeah, they were kept the ice. They kept ice in the structure. They stayed. Yeah, in the desert. Yeah, in ancient times they built this. Isn’t that fascinating? How you
Marcia Smith 17:40
Ice would melt in our house. It must be incredibly thermally insulated.
Bob Smith 17:45
Yeah, exactly how they’re like ice warehouses and made of clay. 1000s of years old. They were introduced around 400 BC. Who know right?
Marcia Smith 17:54
All right, Bob. Real pearls will not burn in a fire. Mine just go down to dust. But what happens to them if you put them in vinegar? Well, they dissolve don’t they? Yeah, yeah. Sorry. Okay, there it goes. Yes, I Pearl is 89 to 90%. Calcium carbonate and vinegar is mostly acetic acids. So they just start to dissolve not completely, but they just deteriorate majorly.
Bob Smith 18:21
So yeah, I think a lot of people think well, there’s a pearl there’s a stone or something there and this. This has something built around it. Why would it dissolve? Yeah, but it does. Yeah. Hmm. Okay, Marcia, advertising question here. Okay. Now we all know the Jolly Green Giant, right. Whoa, whoa, whoa, Green Giant. Well, there you go. He was introduced years ago. In the 20s 10 years after he was introduced. The Green Giant wasn’t catching on. Why?
Marcia Smith 18:51
He wasn’t wearing a skirt yet.
Bob Smith 18:55
Well, he wasn’t green and he wasn’t jolly
Marcia Smith 18:58
was an angry and angry. Nobody wants an angry giant on their PCAT
Bob Smith 19:04
I don’t think he was angry. But it was like threatening, like, Oh my God. Yeah. When he was first adopted by the Minnesota Valley canning company. The mascot was a giant man wearing a bare skin and carrying a club. Finally, in 1935, the assignment was turned over to add man Leo Burnett, who was 43 at the time, he colored the giant green put a smile on his face and dressed him in leaves. The Jolly Green Giant caught on and Leo Burnett went on to form his own advertising agency. But that’s the reason for 10 years. The Giant was it catching on for this company? Because a mascot? He was a jolly and he wasn’t green.
Marcia Smith 19:40
Isn’t that isn’t that interesting? Just basic. I don’t know. I don’t know. Advertising. 101 make it appealing. Yeah. And put leaves on him. I thought it was a skirt but okay. Leaves.
Bob Smith 19:52
Make him happy. Yeah. Yeah, that’s great. Not a threatening giant. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 19:59
All right. Just out of curiosity how many of the seven deadly sins can you name? The
Bob Smith 20:06
Seven Deadly Sins? Yeah, where does this come from the
Marcia Smith 20:09
seven deadly sins Christian theology.
Bob Smith 20:12
Okay, so the seven deadly sins, okay, I’m just gonna give you a few that I have jealousy are the crimes of passion like killing would be murder. No, no, but they’re kind of all psychological things, aren’t they? Bad traits. Okay, so anger.
Marcia Smith 20:29
No. Well, I
Bob Smith 20:30
don’t know, Marcia, I’ve given you anger. I’ve given you a murder. I’ve given you jealousy. Those are the big three.
Marcia Smith 20:37
avarice that’s being greedy. That’s right. Envy. Gluttony. Eating too much
Speaker 1 20:43
lust. Oh, that’s a good one Pride. Pride pride before the fall sloth.
Bob Smith 20:51
You called me that one I did, and wrath. Wow. So those are the seven once again they are one, avarice,
Marcia Smith 20:57
envy, gluttony, lust, pride, sloth and wrath. Wow. That’s originating in I think the Catholics came up with that to keep keep people in place
Bob Smith 21:09
It was population control. I think that’s populate one as always.
Marcia Smith 21:12
And just so you know, the seven sins can be overcome with seven corresponding virtues, which are humility, charity, chastity, gratitude, temperance, patience, and diligence.
Bob Smith 21:25
And a small donation would help.
Marcia Smith 21:28
Sorry, before we close that little gift box on your hand,
Bob Smith 21:33
Okay, hey, we would love to have you contribute to the off ramp. If you have a question you’d like one of us to answer. We have people who regularly give us questions and answers to say, hey, try this on Marsha or try this on Bob, we welcome that we invite you to come to our website,
Speaker 1 21:48
the off ramp dot show, and go to contact us
Bob Smith 21:52
and just leave your information there, including your name, the question and the answer and where you got the answer from. We also would like to know where you are listening to us from that’s always a very important.
Marcia Smith 22:03
Yes, it is to us. We have people in all sorts of weird places around the world, don’t we?
Bob Smith 22:08
Yeah, very fortunate. We hope you are enjoying hearing this wherever you are hearing this. We also encourage you to go to your local library if you want to learn more things. We do this for Cedarburg, Public Library is one of our volunteer efforts. Oh, and one more question on coinage Marsh. All right. Why has the nickel always been mis named? The nickel because it’s not made of nickel? Yeah, it’s always been something else from its beginnings in 1866. Its composition was always something like 75% copper, and 25% nickel. So the only exceptions were during World War Two, when they made things out of lead member led pins. Yeah, from 1942 to 46.
Marcia Smith 22:47
Well, I’ll be jiggered.
Bob Smith 22:48
So give me a nickel. It’s not really a nickel. All right.
Marcia Smith 22:51
Who was the first President to travel more frequently outside the United States than anybody else?
Bob Smith 22:57
I’ll bet it was somebody was running away from trouble. Richard Nixon.
Marcia Smith 23:03
No, you’re right Come. No, it was the one who was the most immobile.
Speaker 1 23:10
Oh, no kidding. Yeah, FDR. He made 24 trips out of the United States during his presidency. And that was the first president to really traveled 24 trips outside of the country during his presidency. That’s remarkable. It is think of how difficult that must have been for everybody involved. But for him, it’s just everything was a major deal.
Marcia Smith 23:30
Wow.
Bob Smith 23:32
That’s a great statistic, the first president to really travel that far in his presidency was FDR. And he also traveled all over the country. You’ll see pictures of him in Yellowstone and places like that. I mean, he was traveling by train and play. And then all that time the press was helping him hide his disability. Yeah, yeah. The man won the war from a wheelchair.
Marcia Smith 23:51
And he wore leg braces sometimes. Yeah, in the early days. amazing
Bob Smith 23:55
Amazing things.
Marcia Smith 23:57
He was an amazing man. Yeah.
Bob Smith 23:59
All right. Okay, Marcia. When pirates captured cargo ships on the seas, the thefts cause shipping companies 1000s of dollars. In what other way? Did piracy hurt companies? Talking about the old days now? 1740s 1730s 1600s.
Marcia Smith 24:16
Besides taking their cargo, what were the other ways? Yeah, hurt.
Bob Smith 24:19
How other ways? Did it hurt shipping companies? What other ways there I drove their insurance rates? Oh, of course. Really. In 1747 marine insurance companies in London charged 11% of a ship’s cargo and replacement costs. If the vessels were going from New England to Madeira, the insurance companies charged 14% of the ship was going to Jamaica and if it was going to Santo Domingo, they would add on 25% So they knew where the most dangerous places where you want us to ensure that it’s going to cost you more because the pirates out there even three 400 years ago. Okay, Marcia, another old old question. Where was the ancient city of Babylon located what country today?
Marcia Smith 25:03
Ah, country today? It’s it’s not Africa. No, it’s
Bob Smith 25:07
Not Africa.
Marcia Smith 25:08
Okay that it’s the Middle East.
Bob Smith 25:10
That’s right. I’ll give you two clues. Okay. All right, in what they call the Fertile Crescent. between two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. What country would these be in Marcia? Well, Iraq, Iraq, that is where it was. Babylon was about 60 miles south of today’s Baghdad, in Iraq. Okay. It was an ancient city founded more than 4000 years ago, and it became the center of the Mesopotamian civilization for almost 2000 years. It was home to important scientific discoveries and trigonometry, physics and astronomy. And those ruins are still present along the east bank of the Euphrates River. So you’re right. It’s a rack is where the ancient city of Babylon was located. Okay. You’ve got a quote for us to wrap things up today. Okay, what is it? I’m
Marcia Smith 26:00
gonna go with a very well known popular quote, Bob. And I like it a lot. Edmund Burke, he said, it’s necessary only for the good man to do nothing for evil to triumph.
Bob Smith 26:14
That’s absolutely true. That’s standing by and saying nothing. That’s right. That’s a choice and it’s a bad one. All right. Good answer. All right. Well, that’s it for today. I’m Bob Smith. And I’m Marcia. Join us again next 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
