What animals communicate by farting? And what President saw a UFO? Hear the answers on The Off Ramp with Bob & Marcia Smith. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Bob and Marcia discussed unusual topics such as animal communication, UFO sightings, and Antarctica. Bob shared scientific findings on herring that emit high-pitched raspberries, while Marcia shared Jimmy Carter’s account of a bright, color-changing UFO. They also delved into the history and symbolism behind famous sports team names, exploring language, etymology, economics, history, and culture. Marcia provided valuable insights into food and finance, while Bob explored the origins of popular clothing materials and the value of McDonald’s stock. Throughout the conversation, both speakers shared interesting and humorous perspectives on art, money, and related topics.
Outline
Animal communication and UFO sightings.
- Herring communicate at night by farting to keep schools together, avoid predators.
- Marcia Smith: Jimmy Carter saw a UFO in Georgia in 1969, described it as bright with changing colors and the size of the moon.
- Bob Smith: The term “minutes” comes from the Latin “minutus,” meaning small, and refers to the size of the writing used to record meeting proceedings.
Sports teams, word origins, and time measurements.
- Bob Smith shares interesting facts about the origins of sports team names, including the Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers.
- He also discusses the flatulence of animals, including sheep, and their potential as a source of fuel.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the smallest unit of time, Zepto seconds, and its origin.
- A New Orleans bank’s bilingual banknotes with the French word “Dixie” led to the nickname for the South.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the biggest selling restaurant food in the world, with hamburgers from McDonald’s topping the list.
Art, flowers, and ATMs in Antarctica.
- Marcia Smith: “I hate flowers. I paint them because they’re cheaper than models and they don’t move.”
- Bob Smith: Asks Marcia Smith questions about modern art, including how many bridges a dime has and why Franklin Roosevelt’s portrait was chosen for the dime.
- Marcia Smith mentions that there are 2 ATM machines at the McMurdo base in Antarctica, which is the largest US base and a sign of civilization.
- Bob Smith agrees that the ATM machines are important for the researchers and workers at the base, as they need cash for transactions since there are no credit card machines.
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about great white sharks and their hunger levels, with Marcia providing information on their feeding habits and duration without eating.
- Marcia Smith shares a fascinating fact about a woman named Donna Griffiths who sneezed for 976 days straight, according to the BBC and Guinness Book of World Records.
Money, musical instruments, and Wall Street terms.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the weight of $1,000,000 in $20 bills (102 pounds) and the history of the harmonica, which originated in ancient China and became popular in the US in the 1940s.
- Marcia shares interesting facts about the composition of US currency, including linen and cotton, and Bob is surprised by the durability of the material.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the origins of the term “broker” and its evolution on Wall Street.
- Joanne Woodward’s quote on the importance of laughter in a relationship is shared, highlighting the enduring nature of good relationships.
Bob Smith 0:00
What animals communicate by farting?
Marcia Smith 0:05
That sounds like a Marcia question. And here’s the Bob question. What President saw a UFO
Bob Smith 0:11
answers to those and other questions coming up in this episode of the off ramp with Bob and Marsha Smith
Welcome to the off ramp a chance to slow down steered clear of crazy. Take a side road to sanity and get some perspective on life. Well, you have the serious presidential question. I have the funny farting question, Marcia. So let’s start with these what animals communicate by farting? And this has been documented in a scientific study. Really? Yes.
Marcia Smith 0:55
All right. Let me guess cows. No. Human beings.
Bob Smith 0:59
No. Well, that’s probably true too. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 1:01
No, I don’t know herring. Took me a while to get to that one.
Bob Smith 1:08
Herring. They communicate it night by farting. This comes from nature.com Robert Batty and his associates at the Scottish Association for Marine Science were monitoring captive hearing one night and they noticed them breaking wind. He said, we heard these rasping noises they sounded like high pitched raspberries, you know?
Marcia Smith 1:30
okay. Yeah, they know it was gas and not something annoying.
Bob Smith 1:35
Oh, because they can see the little little trails of gas really apparently fish at the front of a shoal gulp air from the service. They store it in their swim bladder. And then they fart. This is at night, they fart to communicate with other herring to keep their schools together and away from predators. They – the sounds are not made during the day only at night, because during the day the fish use visual information. And that won Robert Batty and his associates, an Ignoble award from Harvard University. ignoble, ignoble, yes, the ignoble awards are awards designed to make people laugh and then think but they’re based on scientific truth.
Marcia Smith 2:11
Wow, that’s that’s my kind of award.
Bob Smith 2:15
So herring communicate by farting. Thank you only at night, though, when they need it.
Marcia Smith 2:21
Very tasteful. All right, Bob. Having seen in person a UFO, who was the only president to publicly say he believed in them.
Bob Smith 2:37
I think it was Jimmy Carter .Oh, sorry. A little distortion there from that new microphone you’re using Marsh?
Marcia Smith 2:44
Yes, Bob. It was Jimmy Carter when he was governor of Georgia in 1969. He and a group of people were standing outside of Lions Club in Leary, Georgia, when he spotted what he called the darndest thing I’ve ever seen. Unquote. He described the
Bob Smith 3:01
lease it like this was the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen.
Marcia Smith 3:06
That’s exactly right. He described the unidentified object as very bright with changing colors. And it was about the size of the moon. It hovered about 30 degrees above the horizon and moved in toward the earth before disappearing into the distance.
Bob Smith 3:23
So he described it like an engineer that he was yes. Wow. Yes. I just barely remembered that. And I assumed it would be somebody in the relatively recent past. You know, Jimmy Carter. Yeah. He was bigger than a peanut. Left bigger. He was also the only president to say that he had lust in his heart.
Marcia Smith 3:40
So there’s a lot of things to me had regretted that one and that’s too bad.
Bob Smith 3:44
Okay. Okay, Marcia, get ready word origins.
Marcia Smith 3:47
All right. So here’s a question. Have some special music for that?
Bob Smith 3:53
How did the notes of a meeting get to be called the minutes? It has nothing to do with the clock? Okay.
Marcia Smith 4:01
How did it Bob?
Bob Smith 4:02
I’m asking you? I don’t know. Okay, well, it comes from the Latin minutus, meaning small. Records of proceedings were generally taken down in miniature or abbreviated form. And they were later transcribed into full written script. So minutes refers to the size of the writing, or the notation taken to record a meetings progress, like shorthand. Yeah, gotcha. But they didn’t call it shorthand. They call it minutes.
Marcia Smith 4:29
Now, I would have thought it was something about the clock too Bob. Yeah. Okay. You remember a few years ago, when Bush the elder jumped out of the plane. President George Bush the elder Yes. At the age of 72 he parachuted
Bob Smith 4:45
72 Yeah. Okay.
Marcia Smith 4:47
What age was the oldest person to skydive?
Bob Smith 4:51
I think it was somebody in their 90s Wasn’t it?
Marcia Smith 4:53
It was not 100 was not 101 Now 100, 103 Yes.
Bob Smith 5:00
Wow. Really 103 years old and you jump out of an airplane.
Marcia Smith 5:07
Yeah.And this is the cool part. You know they skydive in tandem right. Professional person helping you along usually well, he made the dive with his grandsons all around him. He they were skydiving, too. Isn’t that cool?
Bob Smith 5:20
Had he been skydiving all of his life? No, no, no. Wow. So just at the last minute, politically, the last year? Yes. And wow. And the parachute opened? Yes. All right. All right. Very good. All right. I have another word origin. This is a sports oriented one. So listen up here. huge sports fan. Okay, okay. Okay. Okay. What baseball team got its name from the ability of its towns citizens to avoid cable cars. A famous baseball team got its name from the ability of its towns citizens to avoid cable cars. Now they moved to another city so that doesn’t apply anymore. It’s been years since they were in this town. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 6:04
Yeah. In what are the town you’re gonna reference? Yes.
Bob Smith 6:11
I Gosh. Let me give you have a hint. The name of the team has an action oriented word. It’s the town blinkers.
Marcia Smith 6:19
Okay. The Detroit Pistons now this is a
Bob Smith 6:23
There’s an idea. That’s movement. But that’s basketball. And it’s not ad
Marcia Smith 6:29
Right. Tell me, put me out of my misery.
Bob Smith 6:30
Well, the Los Angeles Dodgers which were originally the Brooklyn Dodgers. Brooklyn had many cable cars. That was the problem or there was a maze of trolley car lines crossing the town of Brooklyn and citizens had to be on the lookout to dodge them when they cross the streets. Very interesting. So they started calling Brooklyn people Brooklyn Dodgers. So that’s
Marcia Smith 6:52
I had no idea – which makes sense. But you know, I love that that that’s what that name came from. Yeah. Milwaukee Brewers is not hard to figure out.
Bob Smith 7:04
No, but so they were in Brooklyn for years. And then they went to Los Angeles and they kept the name. I’ll be Dodgers but that’s where it came from. From the electric cable car days.
Marcia Smith 7:12
That’s actually very interesting.
Bob Smith 7:15
All right, I have some flatulent questions. Another one coming. Six.
Marcia Smith 7:18
What rabbit hole did go down, Robert.
Bob Smith 7:21
Well, let’s not talk about – Go ahead. All right, what animals flatulence is so rich, it could power a small truck. Or buffalo? No. Elephant and amazingly not a big animal.
Marcia Smith 7:37
Okay, a small one.
Bob Smith 7:38
Yeah. A relatively small. Okay. I’ll give you a
Marcia Smith 7:44
Really Oh, lamb
Bob Smith 7:45
a sheep. Yes. According to the book, who knew the flatulence of a single sheep could power a small truck for 25 miles a day.
Marcia Smith 7:55
Let’s go green. Everybody get a sheep. There you go. In the car.
Bob Smith 8:00
The sheep’s digestive process produces methane gas, which can be burned as fuel that comes from who knew things you didn’t know about things? You know? Well, yeah. Anyway, so the sheep, the flatulence of a sheep is so rich, it could power a small truck. And I have more questions. No, I don’t have any more questions. Those are the only questions I had
Marcia Smith 8:21
The most flatulent, that’s it? That’s my question wave that went away as of October 2020. What is considered the smallest unit of time?
Bob Smith 8:32
The smallest unit of time? Yeah. So during 2020, we discovered the smallest unit of time, correct? Wow. I don’t know. It must be a very tiny division of microseconds or something like that. I don’t know what’s the
Marcia Smith 8:46
Very, very tiny. Can you probably thought it was the Yocto. Second, of course, I think we even did that once. But now it is a Zepto seconds. It’s a trillionth of a billionth of a second. And it was quantified by the physicist at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, recounted in science news, apparently, Bob, there’s a global race to measure ever shorter time spans. I’m sure someone will outdo this and another year, and why it’s important.
Bob Smith 9:20
I’m just too shallow. I just don’t have enough time to worry about.
Marcia Smith 9:23
So I’ll be with you in a Zepto second, okay.
Bob Smith 9:27
All right. A couple more word origin questions. What popular clothing material owes its name to a small French mill town? What kind of what kind of popular clothing material owes its name to a small French mill town?
Marcia Smith 9:44
Small French kind of popular clothing that boosts ta
Bob Smith 9:50
No, it’s It’s actually material.
Marcia Smith 9:52
It’s material. Not cotton.
Bob Smith 9:55
There’s – it’s a type of fabric. It is cotton. Is it? Yeah, from
Marcia Smith 9:58
Cotton France
Bob Smith 10:00
From denim or De Nime France, denim. Yeah the French called the fabric Surge De Nime. Named after the French Milltown of Nime. Later that name was shortened to Denime and today we call that material denim.
Marcia Smith 10:15
Yes, so sexy Denee didn’t.
Bob Smith 10:17
We once called the material De Nime but today, it is Denim. The town is Nime. Yes. The mill town. Okay. All right. How did a New Orleans bank lead us to call the south Dixie? How did a New Orleans bank lead us to call the south Dixie?
Marcia Smith 10:36
I don’t know. Did they have a lot of Dixie cups down there? No. Why? You might
Bob Smith 10:41
Remember before the Civil War most money was issued by banks individual banks, there was no national currency per se. And soon after Louisiana became part of the United States. A New Orleans bank issued bilingual banknotes in French and English. And the $10 bills carried the French word Dix. This spelled D-I-X. And soon the bills came to be known as Dixies.
Marcia Smith 11:06
Really? Yeah, it’s called the bill Dixie bills were Dixie
Bob Smith 11:08
And later Dixie was the nickname for New Orleans and in 1859, Daniel Decanter Emmet wrote the song Dixie, and that became an informal anthem for the South, but it all came from a currency. The French Dix note.
Marcia Smith 11:23
Okay, what is the biggest selling restaurant food in the world? What’s the food that more people eat every year than anything else?
Bob Smith 11:36
Ostrich hearts. Okay, that’s not Oh, I’m so tired.
Marcia Smith 11:39
Wait a minute. That’s so yesterday. Buffalo ostrich hearts
Bob Smith 11:41
Okay, I would say french fries or something like that.
Marcia Smith 11:46
I know that was that was an answer. But after going in depth as I do, I found out that was wrong.
Bob Smith 11:54
Let me ask you another one. Is this a prepared hot or cold? This is hot. Okay. It’s not a hamburger.
Marcia Smith 12:01
It is really it’s a McDonald hamburger to be specific because they have 39,000 locations. What’s not a holy cow. So that’s the biggest selling food in the world restaurant food is hamburgers from Mickey D’s. But in terms of location numbers, who do you think beats McDonald’s? Who has more locations in the world than McDonald’s? And it’s actually the number two selling, Kentucky Fried Chicken. No, that’s on the top five, I think but subway? Oh, really? Yeah, it has more than 41,500 locations in the world. And third, do you want to take a guess?
Bob Smith 12:43
Burger King or somebody like that if you’re talking about those kinds of foods.
Marcia Smith 12:46
Now this is one that has really grown in a short while. Okay, Starbucks. They have 29,900 worldwide locations.
Bob Smith 12:55
Well, since you mentioned McDonald’s, I found two other questions on McDonald’s. I thought you might find interest okay. If you bought 100 shares of McDonald’s restaurant stock way back in 1965 What would those 100 shares of McDonald’s restaurant stock be worth today? In 1965? They cost $2,250 For
Marcia Smith 13:15
100 shares Yeah, well that’s a lot of money.
Bob Smith 13:19
Well back then it was Yeah. $2,250 If you bought 100 shares and held on to them they would have grown to more than 70,000 shares today.
Marcia Smith 13:28
Oh cuz it keep reinvesting. Okay. And that would be where it’s $70 million, 7 million
Bob Smith 13:34
$7 million. Okay, and one more question if you drive up to the McDonald’s in Slough England and order a Big Mac whose pockets are you lining with your money?
Marcia Smith 13:45
Repeat that
Bob Smith 13:47
if you drive to the McDonald’s in Slough England I assume it’s pronounced slue S-L-O-U-G-H. And order a Big Mac. Whose pockets are you putting your money into?
Marcia Smith
The mayor?
Bob Smith
The Queen’s really Yeah. The Royal Family’s.The Bath Road Retail center where that McDonald’s restaurant is located, which is 20 miles west of London, is part of the Crown’s vast real estate portfolio. So when you’re ordering a Big Mac there, you’re given the money to the Queen.
Marcia Smith 14:16
Ah, yeah, she can use it properly. Yeah, I’ve never seen it needs more pantyhose and work gloves and purses. All right. Let’s go to break and then I’ll come back. Okay,
Bob Smith 14:26
Let’s break for a burger. Let’s just break. I don’t think we need a burger. Well, I know you’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and
Marcia Smith 14:34
Marcia Smith.
Bob Smith 14:38
You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marsha Smith and we’re back with more information.
Marcia Smith 14:43
Okay, Bob, who said this quote, okay, okay. I hate flowers. I paint them because they’re cheaper than models and they don’t move.
Bob Smith 14:53
Oh, gee. I hate flowers. I paint them because they’re cheaper than models and they don’t move is it? Back in the back of the era of the Impressionist painters, no, no, it isn’t. No, is it? I don’t know who would say that
Marcia Smith 15:08
It’s modern art.
Bob Smith 15:09
Who in modern art?
Marcia Smith 15:14
Georgia O’Keefe.Georgia O’Keefe painted over 200 flowers in her portfolio and these jagged, enormous a close ups. Yeah. And she hated them.
Bob Smith 15:24
She hated flowers.
Marcia Smith 15:26
I hate them, She says, read the quote again. I hate flowers. I paint them because they’re cheaper than models and they don’t move.
Bob Smith 15:33
So she must not like models, either. Wow, there’s an artist with a lot of hate in her.
Marcia Smith 15:39
Oh, yes, she was born. Did you know this, in Wisconsin? That’s right, Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, but lived in the Southwest New Mexico area until she died at the age of 98 in 1986. And she was considered a major part of the modern art movement.
Bob Smith 15:56
Well, Marcia, here’s the burning question I have for you. How many ridges does a dime have?
Marcia Smith 16:01
Really? You know, I bet you everybody listening woke up this morning wondering that, but you let me guess just out of the blue. I’ll say 116.
Bob Smith 16:11
Hey, you’re really close. You get that little dime in your hand that little us time. It’s got 118 ridges.
Marcia Smith 16:17
I was only two off only two. That was right then. Alright.
Bob Smith 16:21
Now one more bonus question. Now, of all the coins in US currency. Why was the dime chosen for President Franklin Roosevelt’s portrait? There was a reason
Marcia Smith 16:31
There was yes. And I don’t know what that is. Are you looking at me funny? You think I should know this? My God. Tell me why
Bob Smith 16:40
It’s due to his work on the March of Dimes. Oh, really, of course, that was the fundraising campaign to battle polio. And that disease took away his ability to walk and he participated in the March of Dimes.
Marcia Smith 16:52
He was a big supporter of that.
Bob Smith 16:56
And so after he died, they thought, well, let’s put him on the dime
Marcia Smith 17:00
That’s that’s very cool that that was a way to pay tribute to him. Okay, Bob, is there a continent that has birth and babies with 0% mortality rate?
Bob Smith 17:11
A continent with 0% mortality rate will be Antarctica
Marcia Smith 17:15
It is Antarctica, but not because nobody lives there. Because only 11 babies have been born there. Because there’s a population down there seasonally anyway, between 1005 1000 people and 11 women had their babies there and none of them died. So it has zero mortality rate.
Bob Smith 17:34
Okay, no,
Marcia Smith 17:35
I get it. Yeah. How many ATM machines do you think they have? Did you ever picture in your mind? A Money Machine over in Antarctica?
Bob Smith 17:46
Antarctica, the bottom of the earth? And we’re how many ATMs are there? There’s got to be more than one. So I’ll say there are two.
Marcia Smith 17:56
Very good. That is correct. Wells Fargo uses one of them is for spare parts. They have two of them sorted next to each other. If one goes up arrives they have another one to steal stuff off and fix it. I mean, what did what did they use the money for? Well, surprise, surprise. They have bars there and shops and barber shops. And so everything is done in cash transaction. They don’t even get their paycheck except auto deposit. Okay, so for anything they want to buy, or do they need the cash. So they need reliable ATM machines. NCR is the maker of those machines like they are here. And the customer engineer goes there in the summer when the average daily temperature is like about minus 40 degrees. Well, that’s the balmy temperature of the sunny days that yeah, he said they really appreciate having those ATMs at the McMurdo base, which is the largest and it’s the US base.
Bob Smith 18:53
How many different bases are there?
Marcia Smith 18:55
There are 66 Scientific stations scattered across Antarctica. Wow. And this is the largest one yeah, they all serve as national research bases for different countries. Yeah. populations from as many as 1300 to as few as six. Wow. But the biggest one is McMurdo. And that’s where the ATM machines are.
Bob Smith 19:18
So the ATM machine is like a sign of civilization.
Marcia Smith 19:21
It is. Like I said, they got bars and shops and barber shops.
Bob Smith 19:24
All right. That’s great. All right, Marcia, how hungry can great white sharks get out?
Marcia Smith 19:30
Should I quantify that?
Bob Smith 19:31
Well, let’s quantify this by how long can they go without eating? Because if you wait this long to eat, it’s going to be a meal. Half hour. Now they can go three months without eating really. So when they’re hungry, they can be very, very hungry.
Marcia Smith 19:49
What you hate to be the swimmer going in near that shark?
Bob Smith 19:54
Oh, yeah, just a leg. That would be a little appetizer. Alright Marcia, here’s another animal Question loud How loud is a lion’s roar? How far away can it be heard?
Marcia Smith 20:05
How say it can be heard five miles away?
Bob Smith 20:08
That’s exactly right. I got it. A lion’s roar can be heard up to five miles away.
Marcia Smith 20:14
Thank you. You know my penchant for sneezing Bob? Yes,
Bob Smith 20:18
Marcia can sneeze. When I first met her, she would sneeze and I would say bless you. And then I found out Marcia could go 13 times before I had to say bless you. I was you know, saving my energy.
Marcia Smith 20:30
I’d always say don’t bother pop
Bob Smith 20:35
Up to13 times she did it once I remember.
Marcia Smith 20:37
Okay, but how long do you think the longest sneezing fit has gone on for?
Bob Smith 20:43
Is this somebody that went on for longer than a day or something? Yes. Oh my goodness. Did they sleep?
Marcia Smith 20:49
Well, that’s just it. It didn’t say that. But I looked into it a little more and you you don’t sneeze during REM sleep because your body relaxes so much. So it’s in her waking hours. Let’s just say I’ll say she’s nice for three days a little bit off. According to the BBC and the Guinness Book 976 straight day. Oh my goodness. Yes. Donna Griffiths of Britain started sneezing in 1981 until September 16 1983. The first 365 days she sneezed approximately 1 million times. Can’t imagine your heart could take them I don’t see how you can take it either. But that is crazy. That’s amazing. Yeah, the baby they have on things and around the BBC. Well, for the BBC says it but it doesn’t tell you what made her sneeze. No, I don’t know. So don’t ever tell the story about my 13 in a row because like it’s a big deal.
Bob Smith 21:52
Yeah. Nothing. All right, Marcia, you’ve heard the song Three Coins in the Fountain. How much money is tossed into Rome’s famous Trevi fountain every day?
Marcia Smith 22:00
I’ll say every day $2,224
Bob Smith 22:06
$3,500 In change, yeah, just tossed into the Trevi on a daily basis and that was only discovered after it was learned that a homeless man was successfully and regularly getting pulling the stash out of the water using a magnetized hole oh good for him when to you I would since then all Italian coins and euros subsidize a food bank. Yeah, while the foreign currency is donated to the Red Cross. So Okay, another question. How much would a million dollars in $20 bills way?
Marcia Smith 22:38
Okay, we did this the other day remember we are cleaning out the drawers and we backed them up? No we did. Under the bed?
Bob Smith 22:47
Marcia Marcia the question? Okay. $1,000,000.20 dollar increments. What would that weigh?
Marcia Smith 22:53
I will say 14 pounds.
Bob Smith 22:56
102 pounds. Yes. Real $1,000,000.in 20 dollar bills would weigh 102 pounds.
Marcia Smith 23:04
Wow. That’s substantial. That’s a lot of bills just shows you how much a million dollars is. People say it like it’s nothing now but 100 pounds of money.
Bob Smith 23:15
Speaking of paper money, it’s not really paper. US paper money isn’t purely paper. What else is it made of?
Marcia Smith 23:21
Well, I think linen is in there. But that’s all I know.
Bob Smith 23:26
That’s true. Linen is in there. It’s made up of linen and several types of cotton US currency is I love the scraps of denim. And that’s done intentionally. Intentionally to give it a fabric like feel and durability. Yeah, if it was only paper, it could tear easily.
Marcia Smith 23:41
And I never thought of that. Yeah, how durable? It is.
Bob Smith 23:45
Yeah, there’s a science to it to consistency that makes it easy to carry in your pocket. That was interesting.
Marcia Smith 23:52
It is okay. It is. If you want to guess what is the world’s best selling musical instrument Bob,
Bob Smith 23:59
the world’s best selling musical instrument could be a harmonica could be a flute. I would think it’d be a flute because that would be the easiest thing to make. You know, like a stick with holes in it. Something that is hollow and then you basically drill holes in it. And then you can
Marcia Smith 24:17
Yeah, like you were right the first time it is the harmonica. Really? That’s right. It’s versatile, easy to carry and to learn. Its history actually goes back to ancient China. Oh, I didn’t know that were prototypes were found in digs. But it didn’t begin to be manufactured until the 1850s in Germany, and 10 years after that it came to the US. And it didn’t become popular until the 1940s when African American blues singers started incorporating it into their songs.
Bob Smith 24:49
Oh, I didn’t know that. Yeah, because I always think of it as the the Cowboys hat. I’m out on the rain.
Marcia Smith 24:53
We know American blue singers of the South started using it and that’s where it came popular.
Bob Smith 25:00
Okay, Marcia, one more money oriented question for you. Why are piggy banks shaped like pigs? Well, why are piggy banks shaped like pigs?
Marcia Smith 25:11
They’re called piggy banks. Why is that? Because you saved your money to buy a pig for the farm?
Bob Smith 25:18
No, no. Okay then why it’s a play on words. In the 18th century, people save their money in earthenware made of dense orange clay known as pig. PYGG, that was the name of the clay, okay. And they were pig banks. So later crafts people began shaping coin banks, like pigs the animal okay, it’s kind of a visual pun. I have piggy bank, you know, bank,
Marcia Smith 25:41
I had a huge pig of a pig bank. When I was a kid, a big plaster, pig blue and pink and everything. Yeah, it’s huge.
Bob Smith 25:50
I had those two, my sister and I both had and they were, they were like, gray or black piggy banks. And they were made out of like plaster or something.
Marcia Smith 25:58
Yeah, they were.They weren’t heavy, but they were had
Bob Smith 26:01
to kind of tap the bottom and break that to bring the coins out. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah. What old name for a wine salesman is used today on Wall Street. So this is another money oriented name.
Marcia Smith 26:14
Question and a wine question. Yeah. Which I thought, well, you know the answer to this No. And on Wall Street.
Bob Smith 26:20
Well, let me just spell the original word. It was BROCOUR. bro-cur. You are, it was the Anglo Saxon name for a person who broached or open a keg of wine. Later, brokour evolved into broker. Yeah. And came to describe any middleman who bought and sold things. Hmm, the broker, okay,
Marcia Smith 26:43
I’m going to finish up with a relationship quality relationship. This is a quote I pull out at weddings, if anybody asked me to speak and it’s from Joanne Woodward remember her the late, great actress and she was the wife of Paul Newman. And she said, good sex comes and goes, and beauty fades, but someone who can make you laugh every day. Now that’s something special and that’s true.
Bob Smith 27:09
It really is true.
Marcia Smith 27:11
She says, laughing
Bob Smith 27:12
Laughing – that that goes beyond everything else. Yeah. Speaking of going beyond everything else. If you’d like to send us your question you’d like to have one of us post to the other. Go to our website, the off ramp dot show and scroll down to contact us and then leave us your question, the source of it, your name
Marcia Smith 27:33
and where you come from. That’d be great.
Bob Smith 27:34
I’m Bob Smith.
Marcia Smith 27:35
I’m Marcia Smith. Join
Bob Smith 27:36
us when we return next time for 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
