Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discussed the origins of the word ‘vaccine’ and its historical significance, with Bob providing details on the Latin roots and Edward Jenner’s experiment leading to the development of vaccination. They then shifted to dairy farming and cow production, with Bob questioning the amount of manure an average cow produces daily (10 pounds), and the food required to feed a cow in a year (1500 gallons). Marcia provided statistics on the average milk production of a dairy cow (60 pounds per day), equivalent to 22.5 quarts or 90 glasses per day, as well as the average milk production of dairy cows in their average milk-producing years (19,000 gallons).
Outline
The origin of the word “vaccine” and its history.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the origin of the word “vaccine,” tracing it back to Latin and ultimately cows.
- Edward Jenner discovers vaccination by injecting cowpox virus into a boy to protect against smallpox.
Toys, packaging, and branding.
- Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss the National Toy Hall of Fame, including the winner of this year’s award: the American Girl doll.
- The doll, created in the 1940s, is praised for its cultural significance and ability to stimulate creativity and learning in children.
- Bob Smith discusses a four-page insert in the New York Times for packaging design, specifically the “easy open lid” feature for individuals with arthritis or weak hands.
- Marcia Smith joins the conversation, asking Bob to identify the company represented by various stock exchange symbols.
- Marcia and Bob discuss nicknames for companies, including Harley Davidson, Christie’s, Cheesecake Factory, and Pizza Hut.
Famous Americans in Westminster Abbey and policewoman Margaret York.
- Bob Smith mentions that Martin Luther King Jr.’s statue appears over the door of Westminster Abbey in London, and Stephen Hawking’s ashes were buried in the scientists’ corner of the church.
- Marcia Smith asks how many muscles caterpillars have, with Bob guessing around 1000-1500 muscles.
- Margaret York, inspiration for Cagney and Lacey, died at 80 years old.
- York’s work in homicide in the 1970s with an all-female unit inspired TV producers to create the famous series.
Cows, milk production, and isolated trees.
- Marcia and Bob discuss cows, including their manure production (65-82 pounds per day) and milk production (60 pounds per day).
- Bob asks Marcia a nature question and compares her to a cow, finding her cute.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the southernmost and most isolated tree in the world, including the Magellan beech tree in Chile and the 30-foot Sitka spruce in New Zealand’s Campbell Island.
- Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss William Morrison’s invention of cotton candy in 1897, with Bob revealing that Morrison was a dentist.
- Bob Smith shares an interesting fact about migrating birds and swimming dolphins being able to sleep while in motion, and how some animals have a defense mechanism that allows them to rest but remain alert.
Government, history, and culture.
- Marcia and Bob discuss blue eyes, democracy, and government history.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the history of Iceland’s parliament, the oldest continuing legislature in the world, and the hottest country on Earth, Mali, with an average temperature of 84 degrees.
- Marcia and Bob Smith discuss the National People’s Congress of China and its unique political system, as well as famous last words of drinkers Pablo Picasso and Dylan Thomas.
Bob Smith 0:00
According to a dictionary publisher, Vax short for vaccine is the word of the year. But what animal can we trace the word vaccine to?
Marcia Smith 0:10
And what Tao was entered into this year’s National Toy Hall of Fame
Bob Smith 0:15
Answers to those and other questions coming up in this episode of the off ramp with Bob and
Marcia Smith 0:20
Marsha Smith
Bob Smith 0:37
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.
Marcia Smith 0:47
What Phil was looking at me when you say steer clear of Chris. Oh no. I see a little side glance.
Bob Smith 0:55
Well, Marcia Marsha, the use of the word vaccine more than doubled in frequency and 2021. But the shortened version Vax, V-A-X, surged even more, it was 72 times more frequently used this year than last year. And that’s why the Oxford Dictionary is made Vax the word of the year but what animal can we trace the word vaccine to God?
Marcia Smith 1:20
I don’t know. Tell me.
Bob Smith 1:23
If you knew Latin, you’d know this.
Marcia Smith 1:24
Well, there you have it. I should know.
Bob Smith 1:27
Did you take Latin in high school
Marcia Smith 1:28
I didn’t.
Bob Smith 1:29
The word vaccine can be traced to cow or cattle. Now many people know that the first ever vaccine was for smallpox. A lot of people don’t know the role cows had in developing that vaccine. Did you know cows had anything to do with it? No, I didn’t. Well, Edward Jenner. He was a rural British physician in the 1790s. And he was looking for a way to inoculate the human body from smallpox and he had heard folklore, that milkmaids were immune from smallpox milkmaids, because they got cow pox sores on their hands from cows. They were milking and later they never got smallpox when everybody else got it. And then interesting. Now cow pox was a mild disease, but it had similar symptoms. It had scabs and sores and pus. So in 1796, he took some cow pox pus from a milkmaids hand, Sarah Nelms, and he scraped it onto the arm of an eight year old boy named James Phipps. Two months later, he injected smallpox into the boy and he never got it,
Marcia Smith 2:27
whose parents would let their boy be injected with smallpox. That’s the question, isn’t it?
Bob Smith 2:32
Yes, but it was a safe experiment from the standpoint of the cow pox. It’s a mild disease. You can’t die from that. But it made the boy immune to smallpox which you can die from. So Edward Jenner published a paper and he coined a scientific name for cow pox Variola vaccine Variola for virus and Vacca for cow virus of the cow is what cow pox was. So he called his inoculation process with a cow virus vaccination. That word is used all over the world for all kinds of vaccines today. And guess what? Speaking of the abbreviation Vax VTX, Edward Jenner himself even complained about anti Vax people, only he spelled it VACK s back then the anti vaxxers thought that injecting a cow virus would make cow parts grow out of your body. Okay, smallpox, we’re very familiar with that. That was a great plague. Smallpox. What was the big bucks if there was a smallpox?
Marcia Smith 3:29
Measles, malaria, that plague? Well,
Bob Smith 3:33
in a way tell me the term smallpox was first used in Britain in the early 16th century to distinguish the disease from syphilis. Oh, that was known as great pox.
Marcia Smith 3:44
Ah, that the great pox. All right, Bob. Let’s get happy. Let’s talk toys. I bet you didn’t know that. There’s a National Toy Hall of Fame that’s in Rochester, Rochester, New York, at a children’s museum. And it’s been around since 1998. This year, three top winners. One of them is a doll. Do you know which doll it was?
Bob Smith 4:05
Is it a current doll that I would know these are all existing toys they are okay. Well Barbie is probably already in there. Right? He
Marcia Smith 4:12
was one of the founding winners of founding toys.
Bob Smith 4:16
I don’t know what would it be me she’d know this one. Okay, wait a minute Xbox. It’s a DOS the Xbox
Marcia Smith 4:24
is trying to make it easy for you. But it’s the Wisconsin born Dobby American girl. Very good. You got it on that one. Yeah, whole series of dolls. Wow. It changed the way kids play. And it fostered learning and activity because it was the first doll that stimulated the exploration of this country’s social and cultural background. Our daughter had Mali from the 1940s
Bob Smith 4:47
Yes. And that spurred her interest in World War Two. Yes, you’re
Marcia Smith 4:51
right. And she and her dog looked exactly alike for a creepy amount of time.
Bob Smith 4:56
Got that picture of them. Oh, it
Marcia Smith 4:58
was adorable. Baby ear was beautiful.
Bob Smith 5:00
That was a great new development. Yes girls because it
Marcia Smith 5:04
came with other things. Besides the dresses. It came with a book about the culture of the time and their place. And that’s now into the National Toy Hall of Fame. And along with this year’s winner, I feel like this the game of Risk. Oh, really? Yeah. And sand. Sand
Bob Smith 5:23
is in the Toy Hall of Fame. Yes. It stimulated finally made it. After millions of years of waiting. Yes, that’s stupid as well.
Marcia Smith 5:32
It’s sandbox play as stimulates creativity and learning and kids love to play in it. Don’t ask me Bob. I didn’t pick it.
Bob Smith 5:40
Sand. Okay, well, sand finally got there. But I’m asking which grain of sand? Yeah,
Marcia Smith 5:46
that’s another question. All right, what do you got?
Bob Smith 5:50
Okay. In the New York Times, on Sunday, November 7, there was a four page insert. Now these things cost hundreds of 1000s of dollars to run. In a paper such as the New York Times, the ole cosmetics company is only ran an ad for something. It was for the packaging, not the product. So tell me what the ad was about.
Marcia Smith 6:09
For the packaging? Yes. Well, what the heck, they paid for a four page ad in the New York Times for packaging? Yes.
Bob Smith 6:19
Okay, tell me what could they do? Did they think of the things you usually say when you can’t open something? What do you say? Dammit.
Marcia Smith 6:26
We don’t need to go into all the words. Okay.
Bob Smith 6:27
Okay. How about good? How about this, let me tell you, this is what the headlines on the front of this, this section. And it’s like I said, it’s a four page section in the New York Times November 7, I literally cannot open the stupid jar on my own and Ollie user. Here’s another Ollie user. I’ve tried all night to get this jar open, please, please make this easier. And the third one was, please reconsider the design of your jar. And then below that, the big brand name ole, you open it up, which I am doing right now. And it says finally skincare designed with me in mind. And there’s a lady there. And what it says is now a jar that’s easy to open. They put little wings on the jar lid, so your fingers can go against that when you’re trying to turn it instead of just having a smooth round jar lid
Marcia Smith 7:17
if you have arthritis or handicap. Yes, it could be hard. Interesting.
Bob Smith 7:22
Yeah. If you have anything with a weak hand, from any age, yeah, it’s hard to open some of these things. Yeah, so it’s called the easy open lid.
Marcia Smith 7:30
Let’s see if they put that on pickle jars. Most of us women would have never had to get married.
Bob Smith 7:37
Oh, okay. Oh, my goodness. Explains so many things in our life.
Marcia Smith 7:44
Fortunately, it turned out happy but still. You open all my pickle. Pickle Jar. Okay. I’m going to tell you Bob for stock exchange symbols. And you tell me the company they represent. Okay, I’ll start with an easy one hog. Ah, oh, gee. That’s an easy one. Yeah, for you. It
Bob Smith 8:04
should be hog. House of glass. I don’t know what.
Marcia Smith 8:10
What would hog where do we live Bob? In Wisconsin? Yeah. Milwaukee.
Bob Smith 8:15
It’s not Harley? Yes. Why would it be hlG they
Marcia Smith 8:19
call the big Harley Davidson motorcycles. Haha, because
Bob Smith 8:22
I know that but. Okay, but yeah, I wouldn’t do that to my company. Okay.
Marcia Smith 8:25
That’s how guess what everybody calls the car.
Bob Smith 8:30
I know. They call it all right. Not what I would do.
Marcia Smith 8:33
Okay, B ID B ID
Bob Smith 8:36
Whose symbol is that? All right, if we’re going with nicknames that’s got to be like an auction house or some correct which one Christie’s now.
Marcia Smith 8:41
Okay, what is SES?
Bob Smith 8:44
She’s real. Auction goes better. Okay,
Marcia Smith 8:46
how about cake? Ca Ke?
Bob Smith 8:49
The bakery? Perhaps?
Marcia Smith 8:51
It’s a restaurant cake.
Bob Smith 8:53
Oh, is that the what is that name of that company?
Marcia Smith 8:56
That cheesecake? Cheesecake Factory? Okay.
Bob Smith 8:58
That’s I didn’t know they were an independent company that had stock that they sold. Yes, indeed. Well, maybe I should buy some of that. I’ve put enough of their product in my belly. The
Marcia Smith 9:10
last one PZZ A PISA PCZ. A Pizza Hut. Not Pizza Hut. But another one be a national chain.
Bob Smith 9:18
Is it the OH is the one that the Greek guy that says Pizza pizza?
Marcia Smith 9:22
I don’t know that one. It’s Papa John’s. Oh, Papa John’s okay. Anyway, that’s their exchange. Same. I did
Bob Smith 9:28
not know those. You didn’t get one of my apologies to the hog friends. We have friends who are big hog people.
Marcia Smith 9:34
Maybe if a president had been a hot then you know, I think a president did right. Yeah, they did. There were a couple speaking
Bob Smith 9:40
of famous Americans. Westminster Abbey has been around for over 1000 years. Yes, famous church in London. Many of England’s kings Queens poets are buried there. But which famous Americans statue appears over the door to Westminster Abbey right Really? Yeah,
Marcia Smith 10:00
would it be FDR no no goes way back we can see it goes way back. Oh, no you didn’t.
Bob Smith 10:06
Did this just listen Marsh which famous Americans I didn’t say what date? American apostrophe S
Marcia Smith 10:13
Oh,
Bob Smith 10:15
okay so let’s let’s put it this way which famous American in the form of a statue appears over the door of Westminster Abbey?
Marcia Smith 10:22
I see you’re getting crushed. Oh please. All right, well
Bob Smith 10:25
you put you out of your misery Marcia Martin Luther King Jr. No idea Bravo sculpture Tim crawleys statue of Martin Luther King Jr. was unveiled above the entrance to Westminster Abbey in 1998. And he joined Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Oscar Romero and several other modern martyrs above the main door. since medieval times the niches on that entrance have stood empty. And now statues of these important historical figures are there memorializing them as Christian martyrs. I had no idea. Okay, what famous American scientist was buried in Westminster Abbey? I didn’t know this either. It wasn’t Einstein, was it? No, he was what famous American scientists? No. This is recent, very recent, recent. Oh, is it Hocking? Now? Yes. Stephen Hawking. His ashes were buried in Westminster Abbey. In 2018. In the scientists corner, his ashes were laid between Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. He was 76 when he died. So that’s quite an honor. Yeah. Those are two famous Americans who are in in one form or another at Westminster Abbey. Well, yes, literally. That’s true. Yeah. Okay. Even Hawking’s Of course, did the groundbreaking research on black holes and the origins of the universe
Marcia Smith 11:47
is seated. Big Box.
Bob Smith 11:49
Big Box, big brain big ideas.
Marcia Smith 11:52
Let’s go. Speaking of a big idea. Human beings have about 600 muscles in their body. How many to caterpillars have Okay, 600 muscles in the human body? How many do caterpillars have?
Bob Smith 12:05
Well, I bet they have many more than that tiny little muscles really thinks Yeah, I’d say maybe 1000 or more. 1200 Okay. 1500 4000 That’s amazing. That helped raise intricate that is and
Marcia Smith 12:18
you know, they’re only live around three or four weeks and they use all their muscles to what? Look for food. And in their little lifetime. They eat 27,000 times their body weight. Oh my God before they spin off to another life.
Bob Smith 12:32
So they don’t follow that Miss Piggy rule of don’t eat anything bigger than your head, or
Marcia Smith 12:37
no more than you can lift. Oh, I thought it was 21 I quote regularly.
Bob Smith 12:42
Okay, let’s take a break. We’ll be back in just a moment. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and
Marcia Smith 12:47
Marsha Smith.
Bob Smith 12:51
Welcome back to the off ramp with Bob and Maria Smith Marcia of woman named Margaret York. An LAPD Trailblazer died. She was 80 years old. She’s married to judge Ito in the Simpson trial. The OJ Simpson trial. She’s married to him. Okay. What is she known for though? Margaret York age at former police person police woman. The Los Angeles police
Marcia Smith 13:18
fence something she inspired something he inspired something. Oh is a movement. movie
Bob Smith 13:26
or TV show? La law. Nope. Cagney and Lacey. Oh, really? Yeah. See, I’ll show you a picture of her. She almost looks like one of the girls. Looks like Lacey. We seek police women all the time in films and TV shows.
Marcia Smith 13:40
Well, now that there are no police men anymore.
Bob Smith 13:43
She was working in homicide in the 1970s and she was paired with detective Helen Kidder. Mainly, both said, because the men in the department didn’t want to work with women. So this left them as partners by default and created a groundbreaking team of an all female homicide unit. By 1980. They were attracting attention for their crime solving skills that included helping to find the perpetrators of a notorious series of murders on the Sunset Strip and that inspired TV producers to do Cagney and Lacey
Marcia Smith 14:13
You go ladies love it.
Bob Smith 14:14
Famous series. With what Tyne Daly and Sharon Glass you know what they said? I just wanted to tell you what she said that she thought they got so many confessions more than men. Really? Why? You know why? We didn’t start putting words in their mouths. She said, We gave them a chance to tell their stories. And they thought you’re a woman. You’re either stupid or you don’t matter. And so they just spilled the beans. Oh, Margaret York, one of the inspirations for Cagney and Lacey died in November of 2021 80 years old
Marcia Smith 14:45
Helps every so often to pull the girl card. It’s raining dropped me off at the door. Yes, yeah. Okay. All right. We’re in Wisconsin, Bob. So I have two car questions. Okay, in a row. Oh,
Bob Smith 14:58
I had my cow question. Don’t have your account. After
Marcia Smith 15:01
name. We didn’t even plan that. No, we never do it. This could be the dairy air
Bob Smith 15:06
show mom dairy air. All right. All right. We
Marcia Smith 15:10
know that cows produce a lot of gas. You’re always hearing about that. But how much manure? Do they average each day?
Bob Smith 15:18
Oh, how much manure does an average cow produce each day? Yeah. Think about that. Yes. Because I’m looking at in my mind of, you know, a pile of you know what going how much does that weigh? Yeah. 10 pounds.
Marcia Smith 15:29
65 To 82 pounds a day. Oh, Lord, I don’t know they do it like 15 times a day. When
Bob Smith 15:37
a cow produces in waste. It’s over 12 tonnes a year. Oh, my goodness. We need to get the other statistics from the other end. How much food does it take to feed a cow in a year? Some of our farmers would tell
Marcia Smith 15:50
us okay, but how much milk does the average cow produce each day?
Bob Smith 15:54
And of course that’s the dairy cow. Not a beef. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 15:57
How much milk? Yeah, in pounds or quarts or glasses? You do it by glasses. The answers I have are pounds are cool. Tell me what they are. It’s 60 pounds of milk a day. Wow. Which is 22 and a half quarts 90 glasses a day? Or about 1500 gallons a year.
Bob Smith 16:15
That’s amazing. 90 glasses of milk a day come from one cow.
Marcia Smith 16:19
So you that’s why the old farmstead you could easily it could take care of the whole family just having one cow. Oh, yeah. And in the average milk producing years of dairy cow they produce an average of 19,000 gallons
Bob Smith 16:33
19,000 gallons man, they are productive animals.
Marcia Smith 16:37
They are they’re useful. And they’re some of them are kind of cute. Okay.
Bob Smith 16:42
Well, thanks. So you compare me to a cow? Just know you did? You’re cute. I’ve got another question. A nature question. I’d never thought of this before. Where is the southern most tree in the world? We think of trees and big forests or woods southernmost?
Marcia Smith 16:58
Well, place it would be in the southern most place, I would think. Well, there are no trees and and artists gonna say there’s none in Antarctica. So it’d be above that.
Bob Smith 17:09
So where would they be? Would it be? Where would they be?
Marcia Smith 17:13
Is it cash, but it’s way down? I always forget. Okay.
Bob Smith 17:18
No, it’s chilly. Oh, chilly. Yeah, it’s on East LA hornos. That’s a Chilean. I’m just going to say that. It’s a very tip of South America. And that’s where you’ll find Cape Horn. That’s where the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans meet. It’s one of the windiest places in the world. hurricane force winds of 75 miles per hour are common. You’ve if you read Magellan, any of the diaries from the people on Magellan ‘s voyage or anything they were they just thought they were at the end of the earth. No kidding. Their sales were being ripped apart by the winds and everything was terrible. And nobody else had ever been there before. hurricane winds of 75 miles per hour comments so the trees in the area don’t grow very tall. And that includes the world southern most tree they call it a Magellan beech tree. Located at the edge of the island. It stands just a foot and a half tall. No kidding. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 18:09
Wow. That’s a little a little baby.
Bob Smith 18:11
And I got another tree question. Where is the most isolated tree in the world? The tree that’s the farthest away from any other tree. It’s not at the top of me. It’s on an island though.
Marcia Smith 18:23
Which one?
Bob Smith 18:24
It’s New Zealand’s Campbell Island. It’s a 30 foot tall Sitka spruce known as the Ranfurly tree. It’s located 120 miles from the nearest other tree in the Aqua Island. Okay,
Marcia Smith 18:37
so that’s the lone tree the farther lone tree and
Bob Smith 18:39
they believe it was actually planted there by human beings. Oh, okay. Lord. Ranfurly they believe planted it there on a visit to the island in 1901. He was New Zealand’s governor.
Marcia Smith 18:50
That’s okay. Yeah. All right. William Morrison in 1897 invented cotton candy. What makes this interesting Bob is I don’t know. Is his profession. What was he?
Bob Smith 19:04
Oh, I think he was a dentist.
Marcia Smith 19:08
How did you know?
Bob Smith 19:08
I don’t I remember that being an ironic iconic kind of fact. But tell me about it. That’s
Marcia Smith 19:12
it. That’s it. He was a dentist and he partnered with some confectioner because he wanted to make this sugary food. You know what’s in cotton candy bar? No. Just sugar and food coloring and water. Wow.
Bob Smith 19:25
And they spin it? Spin? Yeah. And then it disappears quickly.
Marcia Smith 19:29
You like it? I never I don’t I remember getting
Bob Smith 19:33
it like at a zoo or something. When I was a kid, and the first time I liked it, but after that, I never liked it. And it’s I felt like I didn’t eat anything.
Marcia Smith 19:41
Yeah, yeah, you get hungry right away. Yeah. Okay. What do you get? You know,
Bob Smith 19:44
remember we did this during the lockdown in 2020. We had a story about dreams and how people were dreaming weird names. And there’s the New York Times on magazine recently had a story called the Global dream. same lab and they’re comparing stories from all over the world. But in that article, they also had an interesting fact I never heard up. Did you know that migrating birds and swimming dolphins managed to sleep well on the move. But they do this by resting one hemisphere of their brains at a time. Isn’t that amazing? Yes. And sitting ducks do this to sitting ducks. It’s a lot of the animals, they think do this kind of thing, because they have a defense mechanism. So they can rest but they can be alert, wow. And they call that first night effect at a hotel when you go to a hotel, or some other place you never slept. When you have a hard time sleeping. Well, that’s the phenomenon in humans. They think it’s related to that. The first night effect that occurs when the left hemisphere of our brains refuses to fully rest when we’re sleeping in new uncertain environments for the first time, causing us to wake up tired because that brain that part of the brain says, I don’t know what this is, I’m concerned about this. Other side says, Wow, go to sleep. But it doesn’t get the first night effect. And they think that’s related to how some of these animals who maybe be fly all night somewhere. They’re resting half their brain at the time. It’s one of those things. It’s kind of like how can a horse stand up and go to sleep and all that kind of interesting stuff. M
Marcia Smith 21:15
Maybe that’s what that guy I was looking at last night at the pizza restaurant was standing in. I thought he was sleeping but his eyes were open. Remember? You
Bob Smith 21:23
I didn’t I didn’t see that. Oh, man. Marcia was transfixed by this. Yes, something’s wrong with that, man.
Marcia Smith 21:29
He’s just I think, yeah, well, nevermind what I thought but okay. All right. All right, who are the only mammals to have blue eyes? There’s only two mammals on earth that have blue eyes. There’s Frank Sinatra.
Bob Smith 21:45
And he’s old blue eyes. Yeah. I don’t know who else black
Marcia Smith 21:49
lumbers, LM URS, who knew that? Not me, but all the other animals and mammals in the world do not have blue.
Bob Smith 21:58
I wonder why I don’t It’s a weird thing of evolution. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. This is a simple question. You will answer this one right away. Give me a points. Okay. It’s about time, who had the world’s first democracy with the first legislature. But civilization,
Marcia Smith 22:13
Greece or us? Well,
Bob Smith 22:16
which one? I’m asking. I
Marcia Smith 22:19
think it was the United States. No, it’s Greece.
Bob Smith 22:25
Almost had a bad word there on our show. Yeah, the Greeks adopted democracy around the fifth century BCE in ancient Athens wasn’t like ours, only 500 people could vote. Oh, yeah. But they were not emperors or rulers. So it was the first government by the people. All right now, this is my second question on government. Okay. This country has been practicing democracy longer than any other continuously, not Greece. What country has the world’s oldest legislature and how old is it? I’m gonna give you countries Okay. Egypt, Iceland, Honduras, or China. Iceland. Really? Why would you say that?
Marcia Smith 23:03
I don’t know. It sounds like it doesn’t fit in that group.
Bob Smith 23:07
Iceland? It is. It’s true. That’s what it is. Yeah. Second question. How long have they been conducting elections for representatives in that country? Tell me 1080 years oh my god since the year 930 ad. That’s when Icelanders came together at an outdoor assembly at think fifth Lear. That’s what it’s called. Think the FLIR it’s an outdoor venue, which is now a national park, and that’s where they formed the world’s first modern legislature or parliament. Now the name in English. Think the FLIR means Parliament planes describing the outdoor landscape. So for over 1000 years, representatives from throughout Iceland have assembled every summer to make laws and settle disputes. And this has been going on since 930. AD. So it’s the oldest continuing Parliament or legislature in the world.
Marcia Smith 23:57
Who would have guessed well, I did didn’t die. You did. Okay, before I get to famous last words, we know the hottest day on Earth was in Death Valley in California in 1913. Nick came in at 134 degrees was the hardest recorded temperature on Earth. But what’s the hottest country on Earth?
Bob Smith 24:18
Okay, the hottest country? I would think the Sahara Desert. So I would say Egypt? Is it or is it the Middle East? Or is it somewhere in Africa?
Marcia Smith 24:25
Yes, it’s Mali in South Africa. Wow. Now keep this in mind. The average Molly
Bob Smith 24:31
was a girl who lived in our neighborhood, and also the American Girl doll. That’s true.
Marcia Smith 24:36
Distraction distraction, considering that death Valley’s average annual temperature is 76 degrees, which puts the Mali average temperature in perspective, it’s 84 degrees. So that’s pretty hot for an average. That means day and night. I go
Bob Smith 24:52
Yeah, you’re right. I love variations on that. But you have to be a study at four degrees or more most of the
Marcia Smith 24:58
time that’s that yeah, that’s That’s hot.
Bob Smith 25:01
Okay, one more question on government then I’ll let you have the final word. We know the US has 100. Senators to for each state. It has 435 voting congressmen and the House of Representatives. That’s 535 people, hard for that many people to come to agreement on things. I had noticed but we don’t have the world’s largest legislature. Now. What country has the world’s largest legislature? And how big is it?
Marcia Smith 25:26
Is it give me some countries, every tiny little country countries
Bob Smith 25:29
like China? Brazil, Iceland, or Russia?
Marcia Smith 25:35
I’ll say Brazil? No. Okay.
Bob Smith 25:39
Wait a second guess.
Marcia Smith 25:41
Can’t imagine Russia but Russia? No. Okay, your guess? No. Okay.
Bob Smith 25:47
It’s China. Yeah. The National People’s Congress of China has 2980 members, and each person represents 450,000 people. They’re elected to five year terms. But you know, when you’re in a communist country, you’re gonna say they just do what the government tells them
Marcia Smith 26:01
. Well, yeah, I don’t think if I didn’t guess China, because the you don’t really need a whole lot of politicians there.
Bob Smith 26:09
Well, the funny thing our Congress is year round, these 2980 people meet for one two week period every year and then everything’s done.
Marcia Smith 26:20
How does that work?
Bob Smith 26:26
That doesn’t even come close to settling our budget for the fiscal year.
Marcia Smith 26:27
Oh my god. All right. I’m gonna finish up with the famous last words of two famous drinkers. Okay, Pablo Picasso. Those last words
Bob Smith 26:37
great to me drink to my health. Yeah, you know, I don’t drink anymore. That’s what he said. Really? McCartney made a song out of it. Oh, did you ever hear that?
Marcia Smith 26:45
No.
Bob Smith 26:49
Drink to me drink to my health. You know, I don’t drink anymore.
Marcia Smith 26:53
All I have is drink to me. So I didn’t know there were three drink to drink to write hills. Yeah. And speaking of drinking, Dylan Thomas. He said I’d had 18 Straight whiskies. I think that’s a record. After 39 years. This is all I have done.
Bob Smith 27:11
Is all that he did at bad day. And
Marcia Smith 27:13
how many whiskeys 18 in a row 18 in a row.
Bob Smith 27:16
That’s why he died. Oh, that’s cool. Oh God. And that’s it for today with Bob and Marcia Smith. Join us again next time when we return with 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
