110 Headline Trivia

Bob Smith 0:00
How are lava lamps helping to make the internet safer?

Marcia Smith 0:06
And what do you call a pig? who recites Shakespeare?

Bob Smith 0:09
I don’t know. Trying to think of something funny. I couldn’t think of anything for the answers funny. Oh is the answer. It’s funny. Okay. answers to those and other questions coming up in this episode of the off ramp with Bob and

Marcia Smith 0:23
Mark Shaw Smith

Bob Smith 0:41
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. Okay, Marcia, how are lava lamps helping to make the internet safer?

Marcia Smith 0:55
While that’s a curious question. Well, let me think about that for a nanosecond Lambo lights, lava lamps, making the internet safer. Yeah.

Bob Smith 1:07
Tell me, I just saw this. It’s quite interesting. This is according to the website, Atlas Obscura, a California company that controls 10% of the web traffic. They’re encrypting their data with lava lamps instead of computer generated code. They say that the high powered computers can deconstruct most complex algorithms that are generated to protect data. So what do they do? Well, in their lobby, Cloud Flares, the name of this company, they use a unique collection of more than 100 Colorful lava lamps to create a variety of patterns. As the lava lamps bubble and swirl a video camera on the ceiling monitors all these unpredictable movements and translates that into code that’s almost unhackable because it’s so random. And you can visit their lobby and you can see them external disturbances like human movement, static changes in lighting from the adjacent windows, all that works to make the random code even more random and harder to predict. Well, that’s fascinating. So you can play a role in making the internet more secure No kiss by standing there and looking at these lava lamps which I haven’t seen a lava lamp and yours. Oh, yeah.

Marcia Smith 2:20
Kids have one. Ben.

Bob Smith 2:23
Ben has one. Our son Ben Han one. Did he take mine? No. Okay,

Marcia Smith 2:29
All right. You’re probably as our listeners are wondering about the pig who recites Shakespeare What do you call them?

Bob Smith 2:36
What do you call him? Is it Sir William?

Marcia Smith 2:38
No. Think about it. The pig. A pig who recite Shakespeare,

Bob Smith 2:44
Billy. Billy the pig? No, nope.

Marcia Smith 2:48
You’ll you’ll kick yourself Hamlet.

Bob Smith 2:53
Oh, no,

Marcia Smith 2:54
I steal that from WGN Chicago station. Every day. The morning guy does speed jokes. And that’s one that just made me laugh out loud. So

Bob Smith 3:03
that’s just a joke. Yeah. Oh, I thought it was real.

Marcia Smith 3:08
Well, I don’t know her to pig recite Shakespeare have we

Bob Smith 3:10
Have you just told a lie. As a teaser? Oh. Oh, this is so disappointing.

Marcia Smith 3:17
All right, let me move on them. All right. It is what it’s still most wonderful time of the year for some people. What is it Bob? It’s Halloween.

Bob Smith 3:27
It’s the ghost wonderful time. That’s what it is. It’s the ghost wonderful time of the year pop up. Yep. Very

Marcia Smith 3:36
good, Bob. Okay, according to Rotten Tomatoes, which is a website that we like for our rating movies. What’s considered the scariest movie of all times? They did a survey. Oh, so what do you think came in number one, you actually know this movie. So a recent movie? Well, no, but it was before you and I got

Bob Smith 3:56
together. Oh, okay. So it’s let’s see. That was like 75 years ago. Oh, just kidding. No. Okay. All right. Is it something like the Amityville Horror Picture? No,

Marcia Smith 4:08
no. What What is it is the exorcist Did you ever see you saw that? Didn’t you know I never did. Oh, you didn’t know. Oh, I saw it. And I read the book. I read the book in one sitting. I smoked back then I went through a pack of cigarettes and all night and all night read. But anyway, it’s exorcist followed by hereditary that conjuring The Shining, Texas Chainsaw Massacre during Halloween sinister, insidious. And number 10 Is the movie it? Well,

Bob Smith 4:43
I’ve seen hardly any of them.

Marcia Smith 4:45
I know it is the 2017 film that was the highest grossing horror film ever made. It was the guy with that diabolical clown we saw in other commercials that would freak us out. Remember that really creepy clown. Okay, so that That’s the tough.

Bob Smith 5:00
Yeah, you’re right. I’ve avoided almost every one of those. Yeah, I’m just not big on that stuff. However, how I did meet Mercedes McCambridge, she played the voice she was the voice of the Exorcist demon.. She came to our radio station for something. And they brought that up that that was her voice. Almost Yeah.

Marcia Smith 5:19
When she’d spin her head what I’m trying to remember some of the things she said

Bob Smith 5:23
She had to say a lot of stuff I’m sure she never said in the films she did when she was in the 40s. All right, I’ve got a couple questions on airports as people begin to travel again. Okay, passengers arriving at airport screening checkpoints are required to move everything from their pockets, as you know, when you have to put them in those little trays and everything. Guess what, a lot of that stuff doesn’t get picked up, especially the loose change. Oh, really? So how much money does the Transportation Security Administration claim from all that stuff? Every year? I’ll say a million bucks. Man. You’re right. In 2019 It was $926,030

Marcia Smith 6:04
What did they do with it?

Bob Smith 6:05
They reinvested in aviation security programs. So that’s fair, almost a million dollars a year. All right. Now speaking of loose change, what is the most frequently purchased item at an airport? Of all the things you can buy at the airport? Is

Marcia Smith 6:19
it is it food or no? A form of food? Okay, a form of food. So I’ll say trail mix no

Bob Smith 6:28
Not trail mix. What you’re always reminded to stay hydrated when you water a bottle of water bottles water yeah. All right.

Marcia Smith 6:38
Back to Halloween Bob. Okay. The ghost wonderful time of the year so beautifully said. So does any country besides the United States celebrate Halloween?

Bob Smith 6:50
Well of Yeah, we knew that they did in Ireland because that was where that came from. Remember? That was where the jackal lanterns jafco. Atlanta.

Marcia Smith 6:57
That’s right. That is one of the main ones Canada, China, Russia and Japan. But what countries don’t celebrate it?

Bob Smith 7:06
Well, I don’t know. Is there any specific kinds of countries that don’t celebrate? To surprise me?

Marcia Smith 7:09
It’s countries like Germany, Holland, Taiwan, Austria, Australia. And most of the Asian and African countries don’t celebrate it. So Trick or treat. The kids are missing out. So sad.

Bob Smith 7:23
So sad.

Marcia Smith 7:23
Are we going to be sitting on the porch with Esmerelda this Halloween with your witch?

Bob Smith 7:28
I don’t know. I used to do that deny?

Marcia Smith 7:31
Well, you did it the last time it wasn’t COVID was so cute is you put that scary Witch holding the candy basket scares the bejesus out. I love it. I’ll get you my pretty!. Yeah, we got to do that again.

Bob Smith 7:45
Okay, another history question on business here. Yes, sir. In 1937, a DuPont scientist was granted the patent for nylon, right? And less than a year later, DuPont was producing its first major product from nylon. What was it? Stockings?

Marcia Smith 8:01
No, most people think that today. I’m most people. Oh, that’s too bad.

Bob Smith 8:08
You don’t want to be most people?

Marcia Smith 8:10
Do I want to be a singular distinction. Okay, okay. But I don’t know.

Bob Smith 8:14
Nylon bristled toothbrushes. Really? If you thought the nylon hosiery was the answer that came out several years later, in May of 1940. When the first nylons were placed on sale at stores around the country, but the very first product 1937 or nylon bristled toothbrushes.

Marcia Smith 8:32
I’ll be okay Bob. How long can the average whale hold its breath?

Bob Smith 8:37
Oh, that’s a good one.

Marcia Smith 8:39
Remember today? I said, Well, what did I ask you?

Bob Smith 8:42
You asked me what a whale was if it was a fish? I said no. It’s a mammal. Yeah, because it has lungs. And then you said hmm, I wonder how long it can hold its breath

Marcia Smith 8:49
underwater. Yeah. Because they come up for air all the time. That’s right. Okay. What’s the average? How long can they hold their breath?

Bob Smith 8:57
Okay, I’m going to suggest that they can hold their breath for like three hours. Oh, my they can go for like three hours without coming up and getting air. Right?

Marcia Smith 9:07
No. Depends what whale you’re talking about. The average whale averages out to 60 minutes, they can go under sperm whale 90 minutes. And the killer whales. They vary just from five to 15 minutes. Well, and the longest time any whale can hold their breath is 138 minutes. Wow. And that’s the curved beak whale, which I’ve never heard of the curved beak is

Bob Smith 9:33
not like a woodpecker or something.

Marcia Smith 9:36
I’m never gonna have a whale with a beak. But they’re the longest

Bob Smith 9:41
and so that’s a little more than two hours. Yeah. Okay. Okay, so

Marcia Smith 9:44
I was close on the curve. Big whale. But yeah.

Bob Smith 9:48
Oh, but not the right whale covered. You’re saying? Yes. Oh, thank you. Okay. All right. I have another airport question. All righty. You got Halloween questions. I get airport questions. What country has more airports than any other country?

Marcia Smith 10:04
I will say what country Hmm I’ll say America, USA.

Bob Smith 10:12
You’re right it is the USA. Any idea how many airports we have? These are little airports and you

Marcia Smith 10:19
I’ll say you’ll be fine.

Bob Smith 10:21
These this amazing. Let me give you the statistics for the runner ups. Okay. Okay. Okay. For instance, Brazil is the next largest country on the list. Brazil has 2717 airports. Okay, so that that’s my answer. Third place, Mexico has 1740 airports. China only has 450. But they’re building them like crazy. So what does the United States have 5000 19,633 airports, yet far outstrips any other country in the world and among them, of course, the Atlanta airport the world’s busiest with 110.5 3 million passengers in 2019. But we have 19,633 years

Marcia Smith 11:10
around here. Even Even the little towns and arrows have some heavy airports. Just I thought was surprising. Yeah, it is. How many get 19,000

Bob Smith 11:19
19,633 airports Okay.

Marcia Smith 11:22
Let’s go down animals again. I was on the whales. Now. I’m gonna go to animals in general. I can almost bet you will not get this. Okay. It’s so rare. I can stump you so rare. What is Bob The slowest animal?

Bob Smith 11:39
This is the slowest animal on record. Yeah, it’s a slug.

Marcia Smith 11:43
No, it’s this has this clocks in at zero miles per hour.

Bob Smith 11:52
Now that’s slow. It’s very slow coat. What is it?

Marcia Smith 11:55
You wouldn’t think of this as an animal but it is Coral.

Bob Smith 11:59
Oh, coral. I guess it  it’s a living thing.

Marcia Smith 12:02
But it’s it doesn’t move. It’s you know, inanimate and it’s there. You know what the slowest reptile is? No. You could take a good guess at this and get it right.

Bob Smith 12:13
Oh, hippopotamus. No, no, those run fast alligator. No, no, no.

Marcia Smith 12:18
Come on.

Bob Smith 12:19
You won’t get it. Chameleon? No, no who slow?

Marcia Smith 12:24
I don’t know crossing the road to turtles. Big turtles. giant tortoise comes in at klaxon at zero point. 17 miles per hour.

Bob Smith 12:33
Wow. Well, you probably can just totally ignore that unless it’s right in the middle of the road. He

Marcia Smith 12:39
and I have I’ve tried to pick them up and move on. Okay. Let me just continue with the fast I remember you did that.

Bob Smith 12:44
And it snapped at you. That was years ago.

Marcia Smith 12:49
Okay, the fastest land animals. Okay,

Bob Smith 12:52
gazelles? No. Okay. Are you asking me? Yes. Oh, the fastest land. What would be fast a cheetah?

Marcia Smith 13:02
That’s right. We’re number 161 miles per hour. Wow. And followed right by the 60 mile per hour. pronghorn antelope so she doesn’t antelopes are pretty darn close. And the lion is 50 mph in case you were wondering if you had a outrun him first of

Bob Smith 13:21
all, those are bad. Running after you although I think the lion is the worst, right?

Marcia Smith 13:26
I don’t care for any of it’d be a big edit. And before we go to break, let me just ask you this. Okay. The fastest animals are not land animals. Obviously. They’d be what? Cheetahs? Something that fly. Oh, okay. Not land.

Bob Smith 13:41
I’m just not doing real well with this category.

Marcia Smith 13:43
It’s okay. I love it.

Bob Smith 13:46
You do, don’t you?

Marcia Smith 13:47
So what is the fastest animal in the world?

Bob Smith 13:50
It’s got to be an animal that flies.

Marcia Smith 13:54
This is hands down the fastest animal in the world.

Bob Smith 13:57
This is not a hummingbird. No. What is it? 200 miles per hour.

Marcia Smith 14:01
Wow. Yeah, it’s the peregrine falcon.

Bob Smith 14:04
Oh, no kidding. Wow, that’s fair.

Marcia Smith 14:07
That’s not even an issue in scientific circles. It is that fast.

Bob Smith 14:11
Gee, so when that swoops down you it’s there before you know it? Yeah, that fast. Okay, Marcia. What company was this? It was founded by two men who peddled candles in the streets of an American river town. Now, every American has bought products from this company.

Marcia Smith 14:28
Is it like Hallmark? No, no. Sit a candle company? No. Okay, tell me.

Bob Smith 14:34
The company was Procter and Gamble and it was founded in Cincinnati, Ohio by 35 year old English American candlemaker William Proctor and his 34 year old brother in law and Irish American James gamble. He was a soap maker. And they peddle their candles in the streets of Cincinnati and along the Ohio River and they grossed $50,000 their first year. Oh my gosh in 1837 Pretty impressive despite the competition from 11 other local soap and candle makers, and from housewives who made their own soap.

Marcia Smith 15:08
Well, what made them so different? What made them so successful?

Bob Smith 15:11
Their soap floated? Oh, that’s later. Yeah, that was one of them. Oh, yeah. But I just checked on their sales in 2020 $71 billion. And that was 5% More than the pre COVID year of 2019. So they had a great year 2020 And today, they’re in 180 countries.

Marcia Smith 15:34
Okay, take us to break.

Bob Smith 15:36
Okay, we’ll be back in just a moment. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marcia

Marcia Smith 15:39
Smith.

Bob Smith 15:43
Okay, another American business question, Marcia business history. How did Frank Gerber’s daughter-in-law start him on his road to success in food processing? How did she start him on the road to success?

Marcia Smith 15:58
Would she mash up vegetables or fruit and strain it and just say and give it to the baby.

Bob Smith 16:03
He already had a company that was canning peas. So she pureed them and gave it to the baby. She complained. She complained to her father in law. This is in 1927. Now he’d been in business since 1901. He began canning peas in Michigan, and his daughter in law complained to her husband about the chore of straining peas for their newborn babies. So dad had the cannery do it and before long strained foods became Gerber’s main product just because the data and law have Frank Gruber complaining. That’s how a lot of companies change their products when somebody complains or comes up with another idea that woman’s bitching paid off.

Marcia Smith 16:50
Oh, that always pays. Speaking of babies, during pregnancy, a woman’s blood volume can increase by how much? What percentage?

Bob Smith 16:58
Her blood volume? Yeah, her blood pressure her?

Marcia Smith 17:01
I would imagine both but know her actual blood volume. How much would you say it increased?

Bob Smith 17:07
I would say that goes up by by maybe? Maybe it goes up to three times what it normally is because you got two lives there. Yeah, Kara. So three times 300% of what it would normally be. Well,

Marcia Smith 17:19
that’s a lot of blood to have in your body. Tell

Bob Smith 17:22
me if it’s true. It’s not all right. What is it?

Marcia Smith 17:25
It goes up 50% Making a total of 12 pints of blood she has in her body. And this is in reserve against possible blood loss during delivery so the body actually manufactures more blood 50% More which is a lot of blood.

Bob Smith 17:41
That’s a lot. Okay, okay, back to air travel. What is the most amazing thing about a Bangkok airport?

Marcia Smith 17:49
A Bangkok airport,

Bob Smith 17:51
Bangkok, Thailand airport. It’s taken things to the next level.

Marcia Smith 17:55
Do they have a meditation tower?

Bob Smith 17:58
It’s even beyond that. They have an 18 hole golf oh my god inside ah, the Bangkok airport if you amused by your waiting some places have swimming pools and ice rinks and aquariums and butterfly gardens are full of all kinds of things. But Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport has taken things to the next level an 18 hole course set between their two parallel runways sheath and like any golf course they have fairways, bunkers, water hazards, greens, but these huge Airbus and Boeing aircraft take off and land only 20 yards away.

Marcia Smith 18:33
Wow, that’s nuts. And I was excited when Milwaukee airport put in a ping pong table.

Bob Smith 18:41
Which is gone now. Well, during COVID They

Marcia Smith 18:43
took it out. Never brought it. Right. Okay. All right. Okay, you probably know this that the longest British reign for a queen was who which queen, Queen Elizabeth. That’s right. Queen Elizabeth the Second, who became queen of England in 1952. Number two was Queen Victoria, who was on the throne 63 years and seven months from 1837 to 1901. But who Bob who had the shortest reign which queen? Which queen had the shortest route? If not the name give me how long or her unfortunate demise was

Bob Smith 19:23
It Anne Boleyn? One of those people. One of Henry the eighth’s wives. Who was this?

Marcia Smith 19:27
Lady Jane Grey. Oh, okay. She lasted nine days. She was only 16 and beheaded. Isn’t that awful? I mean, what the hell are they teaching gray known as Lady Jane Dudley? She was a great granddaughter of Henry the seventh.

Bob Smith 19:44
All right. Okay, I’ve got some sports questions now. All right, what English sport is the precursor to baseball? Let me give you the names of them. Okay. Fetch catch, bat and ball Rounders or Bandy. Fetch and catch, not Crikey. It crickets now on that list, it’s Rounders, okay Rounders was the bat was much shorter and the pitches are thrown under handed but there were no gloves. And there’s only one throw a batter runs on a hit or a miss. That’s been a game since the 16th century, but it’s the most related to baseball. Now. Here’s one. What country has the first hints of soccer in its history? This comes from travel trivia.com It’s great site, China, Egypt, India or France. We think of soccer as European. Yeah. Okay. So China, Egypt, India or France. All right, India. No, it’s an ancient China, which goes back to 2300 years ago, a game called suju or Kuju. kickball became immensely popular, and it shared many attributes with modern soccer or football, which formed in 19th century Britain. But the game was a more static proto version of the sport that promoted the virtues of good sportsmanship and things like that. Confucian China. That’s all get along here. Everyone from peasants to emperors played that.

Marcia Smith 21:09
No winners or loser. We’re all participants.

Bob Smith 21:11
I don’t know if they did that. But yeah, that was where it came from. I had no idea that came from China originally. I didn’t know that. No, I didn’t.

Marcia Smith 21:18
Okay, okay. George Lucas, Bob, where did he get the name for the robot are two d two in Star Wars?

Bob Smith 21:27
I know the answer to this good. This came from audio tapes and how they were labeled. For they were looking for something and they said are two d two and it was like real two. I don’t know D two.

Marcia Smith 21:39
It was editors’ code for cans on the film of American Graffiti. And they stood for Reel 2 Dialogue 2 Okay, that’s it. Yeah. And that’s where he got it.

Bob Smith 21:49
Okay, another sports question. One institution was instrumental in popularizing basketball. You probably know the answer to that famous American institution where James Naismith was an athletic director, guy, do I have to give it all away? Hello. He was like a god. Do you have any idea? No, the YMCA? Oh, that’s where it came from James Naismith, create a basketball in the gym at Springfield College, then known as the International YMCA training network. And then after their first public match in 1892, basketball spread throughout their global

Marcia Smith 22:28
network, and I would know this why? Well, it’s famous.

Bob Smith 22:31
Everybody knows it. Everybody knows that Marcia? Not me cheese. All right. All right. Now wait a minute. All right. Let me ask you this now. Since you did so well on that one. What were the first basketball hoops made of?

Marcia Smith 22:46
They were? They were baskets. They were Apple baskets.

Bob Smith 22:51
Apple baskets. Yes. Wrong. What other baskets may have there been?

Marcia Smith 22:56
I don’t know what kind of basket there were peach baskets.

Unknown Speaker 22:59
He thought forget peach basket basket.

Marcia Smith 23:02
Yeah, well, peach, he needed a nap.

Bob Smith 23:05
No, it was he needed a sport to keep his students at the Springfield College active during the winter. And they actually his bosses said invent something. And he did. Yeah. He envisioned a game where a ball would be thrown in an arc into some kind of goal and he asked the school superintendent for 18 inch square boxes, but instead they got peach baskets so that’s why it’s still called Basket-ball Bobby. Dang, that’s what they were originally doing each baskets basket ball. Because Because when you think I know it’s basketball.

Marcia Smith 23:34
But what did they call the basket is something you don’t pause and think

Bob Smith 23:37
That’s exactly right.

Unknown Speaker 23:41
Well, okay, Bob,

Marcia Smith 23:42
hHere’s a surprise. Okay. In the movie, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Olivia de Havilland in this movie, rode a horse that later became famous name this steed,

Bob Smith 23:56
My friend Flicka, no. Seabiscuit or tea biscuit or one of those.

Marcia Smith 24:00
No, that was long after this movie. Oh, this horse who would this horse be? That would be you knew him when you were young.

Bob Smith 24:07
I knew him. Yeah. How did I know him? Well, from TV.

Marcia Smith 24:10
He became a TV star a TV star not

Bob Smith 24:13
My friend Flicka.

Marcia Smith 24:14
That’s what I’m thinking. But on the other channel, the other horse show?

Bob Smith 24:18
Yeah. What was the first show? It was a cowboy show. Yeah, but it wasn’t Roy Rogers this horse was Trigger that’s it. Really?

Marcia Smith 24:26
Yeah. Trigger started out in as in a Robin Hood movie. And didn’t Roy stuff trigger eventually.

Bob Smith 24:31
Yeah. So it was Roy’s horse for years.

Marcia Smith 24:35
Yeah. So Trigger had a long life and I think still hails somewhere some museum somewhere in stuffed form.

Bob Smith 24:41
New. Okay, so another travel question for the airports. Okay. All right. What did the x mean in airport codes? Think of that there’s LAX Oh, yeah. And some other ones.

Marcia Smith 24:54
Yeah, what is the X four?

Bob Smith 24:58
Or tell me airports do have three letter codes – codes designated to them by the International Transportation Association But originally, a lot of airports only had two, like Los Angeles had LA right. Yeah. The X first appeared when airports changed from the two letter national weather system codes to the IAEA t a system in the 1930s. Los Angeles for instance, they went from LA to LAX, which isn’t bad. But think of these places. Germany’s Sandbach airport became SEX. That’s their designation, and Iowa’s Sioux gateway airport just sucks. Really asin  SUX. That’s funny, so it’s easy to see how some airports got their codes.

Marcia Smith 25:41
You wonder why didn’t I ponder that before? Why does LAX have an accent it? Did. We go there enough. You think?

Bob Smith 25:50
Wonder about that. The laws of unintended consequences, right?

Marcia Smith 25:52
Well, I’m going to finish up with a quote from gangster legs. Diamond legs, Dima. Yes, it was actually his dying words, which made his last words kind of funny it said, quote, the bullet hasn’t been made that can kill me.

Bob Smith 26:09
And then he died. Be careful what you say there. Oh, that is hilarious. Those are his last words? Yeah.

Marcia 26:21
Okay. Bye bye legs.

Bob Smith 26:22
That’s almost like that one we had that it was the Civil War, I believe it was with one of the officers said, Don’t worry, man. They couldn’t hit the Broadside. Alright, and if you’d like to send us an interesting question that you’d like us to ask the other person, you can go to our website,

Marcia Smith 26:41
Go to the off ramp dot show and go to contact us

Bob Smith 26:46
And you can leave us the question the answer where do you got it and where you live? Where you live? Where are you from? That’s what we’d like to know. Where are you from? Not the genealogical pedigree. Just where are you from?

Marcia Smith 26:59
Okay, let’s take us out. Lester.

Bob Smith 27:02
All right. Let’s play the music. Do you like it? Love it. It’s playing do like we can dance got the hand clap. Okay. Oh, we should say. Well, that’s it. Join us again next time when we return with more trivia here 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