Beyond humans, who builds the tallest structures? And how did Marcia recently reduce her chances of dementia? Hear the answers on the Off Ramp with Bob & Marcia Smith.
Bob and Marcia discussed the potential link between cataract surgery and reduced risk of dementia, with Marcia sharing a study that found a 29% lower risk in those who had the surgery. They then shifted to a broader conversation about language and culture, exploring topics such as the origins of common abbreviations, the history of George Washington’s travels, and the creation of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Bob shared interesting facts about undersea cables and their repair process, while Marcia provided insights into the history of Captain Marvel and shared trivia about state capitals. Through their conversation, the speakers demonstrated the interconnectedness of language and culture and highlighted the importance of understanding their origins and evolution.
Outline
Dementia prevention, building heights, and copyright law.
- Marsha reduced dementia risk with cataract surgery.
- Bob and Marcia discuss who builds the tallest structures, with unexpected answers like termites and giraffes.
Language and abbreviations.
- Marcia and Bob discuss common abbreviations, including their meanings and origins.
- Bob and Marcia discuss how words have changed meanings over time, including “amuse,” “awesome,” and “riddles.”
Undersea cables and their history.
- George Washington visited Barbados in 1751 to recover from tuberculosis, the only time he left mainland North America during his life.
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the number of undersea cables and their length, with Marcia providing the answers 450 cables and over a million miles.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss how undersea cables are repaired, including using a special ship to locate and connect the separated ends of the cable.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the original names of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Armand Arman Sacher and sharing Ford.
Weather, planets, and animal sounds.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the city with the least amount of sunshine, which is Torshavn in the Faroe Islands, with only 2.4 hours of sunshine per day.
- Bob and Marcia discuss Yuma, Arizona as the world’s sunniest city and crickets as the loudest insect with built-in speakers.
- Bob Smith explains the origins of words like “boy,” “careful,” “dizzy,” and “fun,” revealing their original meanings in the 1200s and 1300s.
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the letters in the acronym “Shazam,” which he reveals is an acronym that stands for the names of the gods of the seven ancient civilizations.
Typefaces, state capitals, and inner peace.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the origins of the word “Shazam,” a comic book hero, and how it relates to Middle Eastern stories and mythology.
- Sweden is the first country to introduce its own signature typeface, called Swedish Sans, to be used on all government signs, documents, and properties, projecting a cohesive visual identity to the world.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss trivia, including the nickname of a state capital that was once called “Pigs Islanding” and another city known as the “City in a Forest” (Atlanta).
- The hosts share a quote from the Dalai Lama about maintaining inner peace in the face of negative behavior from others.
Marcia Smith 0:00
Beyond humans who builds the tallest structures.
Bob Smith 0:04
And how did Marsha reduce her chances of dementia? Yes, you did something to reduce your chances of dementia recently drank
Marcia Smith 0:13
a couple of bottles of wine we’ll have that.
Bob Smith 0:17
Answers to that and other questions coming up in this episode of the off ramp with Bob and
Marcia Smith 0:22
Marsha Smith.
Bob Smith 0:39
Welcome to the off ramp a chance to slow down steer clear of crazy take us side road to Saturday and get some perspective on life. Well, Marsha, recently you did something to reduce your chances of dementia. I didn’t
Marcia Smith 0:54
divorce you. So
Bob Smith 0:57
that would have been a good tributing cause?
Marcia Smith 0:59
Is it anything was consumption of food or beverage? No, it’s a type of surgery. You had appendicitis?
Bob Smith 1:07
No, no, no, it wasn’t that one. Cataract surgery. Really? Believe it or not? Yes. It restores vision almost instantaneously to people whose vision has become cloudy and it may have another benefit as well reducing your risk for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Now this is according to a new study just published in JAMA Internal Medicine. This is a publication of the American Medical Association. Scientists have found that the overall risk for dementia was 29% lower in those who had cataract surgery. Now, why is that? Well, that’s a good question. So they they asked themselves. Okay, so again, again, you asked me why is that Bob? Okay? Why would removing cataracts reduce the risk of dementia, the visual cortex undergoes changes with vision loss and impaired vision may lessen input to the brain, leading to brain shrinkage. So when you open that up again, you’re stimulating the brain clearing up your eyesight with cataract surgery may not only be a means of seeing better, it might help your brain become better stimulated and healthy. That study again published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, internal medicine reported in the New York Times January 2022. Okay, Harold, so that’s how Marsha may reduce your chances of dementia by getting cataract surgery.
Marcia Smith 2:30
Bob, that was very interesting. Okay, great. Glad you think so. Okay, Bob. Beyond humans. Yes. Who builds the tallest structures?
Bob Smith 2:40
Another good question, Marcia.
Marcia Smith 2:42
From the book you gave me for Christmas.
Bob Smith 2:44
Oh, is this the Guinness Book of Records? Yeah. Okay. So aside from humans, what other creatures build the tallest structures? For some reason? I’m thinking of ants because they build these. Is that it now? Okay, what is it?
Marcia Smith 2:56
Well think again. Who else could build something tall? monkeys? Monkeys? Yay, donkeys? No. Should I tell you how tall they’re cathedral type abode is
Bob Smith 3:06
Giraffes build buildings. Okay, who is it?
Marcia Smith 2:56
Termites?
Bob Smith 3:12
Oh, that’s a trick question. No, it’s not. Are they building anything that they use?
Marcia Smith 3:16
Australia has one termite cathedral type abode where they live. That’s – get this – 26 feet high.
Bob Smith 3:24
No. Is this something they actually built? Yeah,
Marcia Smith 3:27
They built it and then go in it. It’s a high rise, Bob.
Bob Smith 3:30
It’s it’s a termite. High
Marcia Smith 3:33
Rise, high rise made from soil, plant matter. Saliva and feces. Oh, dear. Well, you got to do what you got to do.
Bob Smith 3:40
Good. Okay, here’s a question. True or False? A cookbooks recipes can be copyrighted. False. What do you mean
Marcia Smith 3:49
False? False means no, it can’t be copyrighted.
Bob Smith 3:53
You’re right. I thought this is interesting. So this is why they when they do cookbooks, they do artwork and all this other stuff, you know to make the thing look interesting because the information itself cannot be copyrighted. In 1996. In a lawsuit, Meredith Corporation accused publications international of publishing recipes, from its cookbook discovered Dannon 50 famous recipes with yogurt. And even though Dannon’s name was in there, a court said that recipes and instructions are not covered by copyright law.
Marcia Smith 4:23
It makes sense to me.
Bob Smith 4:24
Really, when you think about it. Even the very first American cookbook was borrowing recipes from England, the one published in 1796 American cookery.
Marcia Smith 4:33
You can’t do that with a book titles either.
Bob Smith 4:36
No not titles, but you can usually copyright content, but they basically say a recipe is merely a set of instructions, not an artistic creation.
Marcia Smith 4:45
Okay, here’s something fun. I’m going to give you some common abbreviations and you tell me what it’s shorthand for. Okay? Okay, starting with O-K
Bob Smith 4:55
O-K means what is okay? Yes, I used to know that. Yeah, I just lost it. Maybe I should have cataract surgery. Okay, what does it stand for?
Marcia Smith 5:08
It means all correct OK All correct with a K O R r re c t. It was trendy shorthand at a Boston newspaper. And the invention of the telegraph made it standard. Just I don’t know if it was a joke. They just said all correct. And
Bob Smith 5:25
on Telegraph, you paid by the words. So you had this short word and OK. Yes, yeah. Cheaper than Yes,. OK.
Marcia Smith 5:32
I’ll bet you know this one, RSVP response, Sil vou play. Yes, very good. Please. If
Bob Smith 5:37
you please. Yes. Right.
Marcia Smith 5:39
How about stat sta T.
Bob Smith 5:42
That used to mean immediately, but it really doesn’t mean that does it? Well,
Marcia Smith 5:45
originally the Latin abbreviation was stratum, which means immediately okay, but in hospitals, it means situation is urgent. Yes.
Bob Smith 5:54
I read a doctor’s saying despite what you might see on television, we don’t go around yelling stat all the time in a hospital.
Marcia Smith 6:02
You think so? Yeah. You would think yeah, it’s part of every medical show? Okay. DST DST.
Bob Smith 6:09
DST, I know is a destination. No. What is it? Daylight Savings Time?
Marcia Smith 6:15
And here’s one that drives us all crazy. Catch. Captcha. That’s that little test they give you to see if you’re an automated robot Yes. And but it actually stands for something captcha: Completely automated public Turing test. It’s a method of inquiry in artificial intelligence.
Bob Smith 6:47
So it stands for completely automated public Turing test. All right, captcha. I got some words that used to mean something different than they mean now. A lot of them this used to be something negative. Oh, that amazes me. Or I’m amazed by that. Uh huh. Well, it used to mean to stun or to fill a person with fear, panic and alarm to terrify that was amaze them. Yeah, to amaze somebody. You
Marcia Smith 7:05
know, when you read these old books, you see how they did use some words and you go really? We don’t mean that today. Like,
Bob Smith 7:10
terrific, used to mean terrify, yeah. But anyway, the 16th century amazed meant to terrify into alarm to panic, amuse, amuse, the word amuse what did that used to mean? This was from the 1400s all the way up to the 18th century.
Marcia Smith 7:28
I know when you had abuse that you would
Bob Smith 7:31
amusement to delude, cheat and deceive. We think of amuse means fun. Oh, it’s fun. No, he amused her. He cheated her. Ah, he deceived her. Awesome. But did that used to mean something terrible? Yes, fear or dread. All Awe substantial, reverential fear, wonder or respect. dates back to the 1570s.
Marcia Smith 7:54
Yeah, but awesome. Actually, it’s not been around that long is meaning how kids use it. How we all use it,
Bob Smith 8:00
right? Yeah, you’re absolutely right. Okay, here’s
Marcia Smith 8:02
something you’ll hate. My boy does not like riddles. And so I got one for you. What three numbers in a row show the same result when multiplied or added together?
Bob Smith 8:13
What three numbers in a row. So it’s like four or five and six or one, two and three,
Marcia Smith 8:20
something like that. I turned out mush. What are they? You said it accidentally? What? 123? How’s that one plus two plus three is six. One times two times three is what? Six? Okay, so it’s isn’t it? No, you don’t think it’s interesting, though?
Bob Smith 8:37
I do. I never think those things are interesting, touchy, just like noodling
Marcia Smith 8:41
that out, multiplied or added together the same number. Thank you. You’re welcome.
Bob Smith 8:47
You’re very welcome. Thank you very much. Okay. We had a little test on George Washington last week. Remember, we determine he was the first president who sent the first email letter who was a blown and he was the first president to go to all the states that were states at the time he was president. So what is the only place that George Washington ever visited outside of North America?
Marcia Smith 9:11
Didn’t take go to England or France? Nope. You never did. All the old guys went over there. No, no. Is there?
Bob Smith 9:19
Yeah. Because they were diplomats for the United States. Yeah. They had to send somebody over. Okay.
Marcia Smith 9:22
Did he go to Canada? Nope. Didn’t go to Katie go to Mexico didn’t go to Mexico. He went to Cuba. Close the Bahamas, close.
Bob Smith 9:33
Philippines. Okay, in 1751, his half brother Lawrence, Washington came down with tuberculosis and George who was 19 accompanied him to spend a winter in sunny Barbados, okay, in hopes of recovering and that was the farthest Washington ever traveled from his Virginia home and the only time he left mainland North America during his life, huh?
Marcia Smith 9:54
Did he like it? I wonder? Well, not really because he
Bob Smith 9:57
contracted smallpox there. It’s always that charge spent much of the trip recuperating. Okay, but the the home where the Washington brothers stayed on the island is still there. It’s been saved as a museum in Barbados. Okay, where
Marcia Smith 10:11
and what is the largest solar powered building in the world?
Bob Smith 10:16
The south the Pentagon? Is it? No. Is it out in the United States? It’s in the desert of the United States? Yeah, no,
Unknown Speaker 10:23
totally. It’s
Marcia Smith 10:24
Apple’s headquarters. Well, in Cupertino, California. And it was opened in 2017. And is 2,798,600 square feet big. Well, that’s big. That’s very big, very big.
Bob Smith 10:39
Okay. Here’s another thing. It’s been in the news lately. With the recent volcano severing the nation of Tongass connectivity with the digital world remember that? Yes, I did. I thought it might be interesting to talk about all the undersea cables that not only connect islands, but the cables that connect the continents of the world. So question, how many undersea cables are there on the ocean floor? Really? Okay. 463 While you’re close, but 450 Okay, here’s the next one. Okay. How many miles of undersea cables are there?
Marcia Smith 11:14
400 times a million miles,
Bob Smith 11:17
more than a million miles in total. As the New York Times describes it, the cables are basically internet plumbing, and like all plumbing, it can suffer ruptures. Now that cable was severed somewhere in the 500 mile run on the Pacific floor between Tonga and Fiji. And it only went live in 2013. That’s all the longer they’ve had it. The interesting thing about that cable it only serves 100,000 people so it’s very expensive when you’re not going to serve more than 100,000 people. Yeah, repairs could cost hundreds of 1000s of dollars. And so that cabled was financed by the World Bank Group and the Asian Development Bank because investors didn’t want to touch something like that. Now, how do they connect those cables? The severed ends when they do that.
Marcia Smith 12:01
They would go underneath the ocean in a plastic bubble with hands you know, like, Redick like like when they operate like
Bob Smith 12:12
hooks or something you got it you got it you’re good you got three for three I’ll give you that. All right, the collective repairing the connection, there’s going to use a special 150 yard long ship it drags to grab Knowles anchors with hooks on the floor to find the separate ends of the cable. They may have been pushed several miles apart by the rupture of the of the volcano. Isn’t that amazing? Yeah. But when found they are hoisted onto the ship. The tornadoes are then trimmed and a replacement cable is spliced in and up to 50 people are involved in something like that. Now, the final question about undersea cables. I was I wanted to go out on you did fine. You get three out of four so far. Okay, why don’t you another one here? I’m the carnival guy with just take the ball again. Oh, I’m sorry. You missed it. Yeah. How long have we had undersea cables when we’re the first one. So within about 10 years time. It was in the 19th century meaning the 1800s. Okay. And it was before Abraham Lincoln.
Marcia Smith 13:08
Okay, well, then I will say at 12 Oh,
Bob Smith 13:13
I’m so sorry. They had
Marcia Smith 13:15
an eight. They had an overture that year.
Bob Smith 13:18
The first cable was laid in 1858. And that connected telegraph lines between the US and Europe and Queen Victoria and President James Buchanan exchanged messages and then the line went dead. And it was eight years before the next successful cable was laid. So Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War happened in between the way they did that was two ships met at mid ocean and then they took off in opposite directions laying the cable that’s how those things happened. Okay,
Marcia Smith 13:45
we’re gonna come back and then you have to answer who are Armand and sharing furred?
Bob Smith 13:52
Okay, we’ll be back in just a moment. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob
Unknown Speaker 13:55
and Marsha Smith.
Bob Smith 13:59
We’re back you’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marsha Smith and Marsha had a very cryptic sounding question. Yes,
Marcia Smith 14:05
yes, this is not the names we know them by today. Okay. But originally these two guys were Armand Arman Sacher to be precise and sharing firt Who are they are mon
Bob Smith 14:18
seckford and sharing food.
Marcia Smith 14:19
I love it.
Bob Smith 14:21
Is this a law firm? A comedy team? No composers, no. To inventors. No. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. No. Okay. I gave you four or five categories there and none of those are right now y’all love them. Are they scientists? No. Okay, who are
Marcia Smith 14:38
they? Okay, it’s Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watts. Oh, that was their original names Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In his first short story of the two sleuths had different names for them. Arman sacker was Watson, and Sherlock was sharing Ford poems. But before he came out the next year 1887 With A Study in Scarlet, he che Do their names to Sherlock. And Dr. Watson.
Bob Smith 15:03
That’s much better. Yeah. Than Armand. And what’s that again? Sharing for bonden sharing for doesn’t roll. Oh my goodness. Isn’t that funny? All right, Marcia, we did the who has the most son who has the most snow? Who has the strongest winds? This is a global question. Okay. Who has the least amount of sunshine? What’s the city?
Marcia Smith 15:24
In the in the continent in the world in the world? Yes. And
Bob Smith 15:29
here, I’ll give you the ones to choose from. Okay. Okay. Fairbanks, Alaska, Bergen, Norway, or towards shovin Denmark. It’s like Aumont. Armand was living at tour ship in Denmark.
Marcia Smith 15:42
Well, golly, I’ll say Alaska.
Bob Smith 15:46
No, it’s towards ship in Denmark, Russia. I thought the fact that I had a hard time pronouncing it would tell you oh, that’s the one right. So if you’re working on your tan, you probably want to avoid torshavn In the capital of the Faroe Islands. Part of Denmark. flanked by two mountains. The coastal city receives an average of just 2.4 hours of sunshine a day. Oh, wow. 840 hours a year. That’s it of the sunshine. I’m canceling that cruise baby. On the bright side. The cloudy weather and ice free water means the winters are relatively mild. The temperatures rarely dip below freezing.
Marcia Smith 16:20
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, you know, speaking of the biggest and the strongest this and that we’re talking about winds. Let’s talk solar system. What planet in the solar system has the strongest winds up to 1500 miles per hour to be exact? Wow.
Bob Smith 16:39
Is that Saturn? Nope. Is that Jupiter? Nope. Is it Tucson? Arizona? Okay.
Marcia Smith 16:47
Where is it? Neptune. Oh, it’s the farthest solar planet from the sun and the fourth largest. It’s 17 times the mass of Earth. So it’s a lot bigger than us. But it’s only the fourth largest. And
Bob Smith 17:01
you said though that is considered now the last planet in our solar system because Pluto is not considered a planet anymore. Remember, that was one that we keep forgetting to memorize that, you know, remember data data and Pluto? No, not no more ever had to
Marcia Smith 17:13
memorize that. Oh, I think they just let me go to study hall during science class. Well,
Bob Smith 17:18
speaking of science, sunshine, what city in the world has the most sunshine and guess what? It’s in the United States?
Speaker 1 17:25
Is it Tucson? No, but it’s close. It’s
Marcia Smith 17:30
the other one where people go in Arizona.
Bob Smith 17:33
They only go to two places in Arizona. Where do people go to Tucson and Phoenix? Yeah, no, it’s not Phoenix.
Marcia Smith 17:40
Is it in California? No. I
Bob Smith 17:41
said it’s in Arizona. I
Marcia Smith 17:42
know that IT staff no Sedona No. Tell me is in
Bob Smith 17:47
Yuma. Yuma, Arizona. That’s the world’s sunniest city they receive 4015 hours of sunshine on average each year. That’s that’s according to the World Atlas.
Marcia Smith 18:00
I bet you that people from WhatsApp would like to go visit there everything from
Bob Smith 18:04
what’s it would like to visit? Where should we call it? Yeah. Where to go? Yeah, you must be saying that the people from tour ship in Denmark would like to visit Yuma.
Marcia Smith 18:11
Yeah, I could only say Denmark. I could say the other. Okay. Okay. Bob, who has the loudest animal made sound amplifier built in to their body? They’re,
Bob Smith 18:22
I would say it’s an elephant. Because they get the trumpet and everything. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 18:27
Yeah, that’s it. But now Oh, a little smaller.
Bob Smith 18:31
Would it be alive?
Marcia Smith 18:32
No smaller.
Speaker 1 18:34
A cricket. That’s it. For you. Cricket explain
Marcia Smith 18:38
this, specifically the European mole cricket who digs burls with their two horn shaped openings. I was just kidding. I know. And they act like stereo speakers. When he rubs his little four wings together when he’s trying to attract a mate. You know, they rub their wings together. The resulting sound is 115 decibels and is equivalent to the sound of a lawn more Wow.
Bob Smith 19:04
A cricket with the sound of a lawnmower? Yeah, I’d like to hear that. Or maybe not. Maybe I wouldn’t like to use
Marcia Smith 19:10
amplified in their little stereo speaker head. And when you’re looking for a mate, you’re
Bob Smith 19:17
gonna make yourself heard.
Marcia Smith 19:19
I guess.
Bob Smith 19:20
So, that guy’s got a great noggin. Is that what the girls say? All right. I’ve got more words here that used to mean something different. Okay. Okay, what did the word boy originally mean? Be Oh, ye Yeah, this goes back as far as the 1200s. Wow.
Marcia Smith 19:38
That’s right before I was born. Yeah, I know. It’s a little earlier than 1200s. But okay, tell me
Bob Smith 19:44
Used to mean a male servant, a slave assistant or a junior employee. That’s how it got that meaning is a mystery but that was originally what boy meant. That’s why people say boy, meaning a servant. So what were men call? They weren’t. They weren’t called boys. Oh, well. Okay, now about the word Careful. Careful What did that mean in the 1200s? Careful think about it in terms of care full
Marcia Smith 20:09
Yeah. Full a person who was full of care person
Bob Smith 20:13
who was full of grief mourning or sorrow. Oh cared so much. Guess what careful used to mean. Yeah, that makes sense and dizzy. What did that used to mean? But it means in slang right now she’s dizzy or he’s dizzy. Dizzy means foolish or stupid. Yeah, that was the original meaning of the word dizzy. Not Not that I have some kind of a vertigo or something like that. Like a
Marcia Smith 20:35
dizzy broad.
Bob Smith 20:36
That’s right. All right, one more. Okay, fund fo N D for Wendy and the 1300s that used to mean find foolish or silly. And then finally the word fun. What was the word fun FUN What did it originally mean? When I tell you go oh, I can see why that got that. Really? Yeah. Oh, we think of fun being Oh, they’re fun. It was a fun thing to do. Right? Yeah, it originally meant to trick or deceive. So like, oh, they were having fun with him. Oh, wow. That’s where it came from. It was like not a nice thing. They were being mean to that person by having fun. Oh, tricking or deceiving. And that’s what fun meant in the 1680s. Now it means something more positive.
Marcia Smith 21:16
Okay, before I go to my final quote of the show. What do the letters in Shazam stand for
Bob Smith 21:25
the letters in Shazam. Yeah. Do you mean it’s an acronym? Yeah, I didn’t know that in
Marcia Smith 21:30
either. Shazam who said Shazam? That don’t tell me from that goofy Gomer Pile.
Bob Smith 21:37
No, no, no. He did Shazam. Though. Didn’t that come from a? The I thought it was something like the flying carpets and all of that, you know, one of those middle eastern kinds of stories. Is that where it came from? No. Okay, what is it Marvel
Marcia Smith 21:51
Comics? All they came up with it? The word was shouted to conjure up comic book hero, Captain Marvel when they wanted to. To see Captain Marvel shows out or what does that mean? It stood for Solomon’s wisdom. Hercules strength atlases, stamina, Zeus is power our Achilles courage and Mercury speed well
Unknown Speaker 22:15
I had no idea Shazam
Bob Smith 22:21
shows lamb Yeah, so Gomer was reading those comic books. That’s what you’re
Marcia Smith 22:24
telling me. That’s what was going on there. You watch that? What was that program? Gomer
Bob Smith 22:28
Pyle? USMC? No, I never watched it. Yeah. I mean, yes, I did. Of course. Oh, Lord chills. I
Marcia Smith 22:35
am. Well, who didn’t watch it? I did, Bob. Oh, was his was he? What was his sheriff or something? Or what was his
Bob Smith 22:43
Oh, he was a deputy from, you know, from the town where Andy Griffith was. And then he went in the military. That was oh, it was kind of Vietnam, comedy and Vietnam. Only they never made it there. You know, so much back then. All right. All right. Before we go, I have an interesting question. And I found this out just the other day on the web. And I thought it was fascinating. What country all right has its own national type font. Can you imagine that? No, we’re all familiar with type fonts. They all look different. Every Roman while people who use computer they have a chance to try different ones. So which country has its own national title?
Marcia Smith 23:19
Is it a Middle East country by any chance? No, it’s
Bob Smith 23:22
not. That’s a good guest because those some of those a very unique looking script they have to convert. I don’t know. It’s Sweden, which is not surprising because Sweden’s famous for Scandinavian design. And IKEA, at Sweden was the first country to introduce its own signature typeface a new font to be used on all government signs, documents and properties. The result was Swedish sans a modern minimalist geometric typeface with no legs you know, sans without inspired by retro Swedish signs from the 1950s font is intended to project a cohesive visual identity of Sweden to the world. That’s
Marcia Smith 24:01
that’s very smart. And the the typeface is called Swedish sans
Bob Smith 24:05
Swedish Sans. Okay. Sounds fun. Yeah, meaning that sounds Yeah, so it’s without the legs and so forth. Okay. Two questions about state capitals. All right. nicknames of state capitals or names of state capitals, what state capital used to be called pigs islanding.
Marcia Smith 24:21
Isn’t that charming
Bob Smith 24:22
pigs islanding
Marcia Smith 24:23
really brings in the tourists.
Bob Smith 24:27
This sounds like that sounds like it would be a southern state or Western snack. It’s not it’s from a northern state or then place that has pigs. Pigs, Islandia. You’ve been there numerous times. I have Yeah. All right.
Marcia Smith 24:38
I’ll say, Minneapolis, St.
Bob Smith 24:40
Paul, Minnesota. So it’s the Twin City to me. Yeah, it was known as pigs islanding in 1838, the first settlement there. It was named after a tavern owner named Pierre pig’s eye. The name only lasted until 1841. That’s when a Roman Catholic missionary bill is chapel dedicated to the Apostle Paul said Let’s change this to St. Paul. Isn’t that isn’t that funny?
Marcia Smith 25:03
I go into pigs. I did Danny and
Bob Smith 25:05
one more which state capital is known as the city in a forest. You’ve been there too, and I didn’t know that this was what it is known as
Marcia Smith 25:15
is it in? Is it in a forest? Yeah. Well, it’s surrounded by
Bob Smith 25:19
it surrounded by Woods. Not as much as you would think. But yeah, but originally it was Yeah. Okay. Half the city is covered by tree canopy. So it’s got a lot of trees, so
Marcia Smith 25:28
it’s nothing like it’s a big city. Is it in the Midwest? Nope,
Bob Smith 25:32
it’s in the South. Oh, our bed shot. It’s
Marcia Smith 25:35
almost
Bob Smith 25:36
everybody has to go through it at some manner. No, but nearby, same state. Yeah. Atlanta Atlanta. That’s right. It’s nicknamed the city in a forest because nearly half the city is covered by tree canopy substantially higher than other large US city so pines, oaks, magnolias, and dogwoods. Some dating back more than 200 years dominate Atlanta’s urban settings. So they provide a lot of shade and filtering out pollutants. So there you go city and a forest is Atlanta, and pigs. islanding is St. Paul. All right. Pretty good.
Marcia Smith 26:09
Yes. Okay. I’m going to finish up with a quote from my buddy Dalai Lama. Don’t let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.
Bob Smith 26:18
That’s what you have to do in life, isn’t it? You have to kind of keep your own Zen every day. Absolutely. That’s what you think of me. I’m always trying to destroy your inner peace. Isn’t that that’s where this was coming from doesn’t work. Alright, Marsha. Well, that’s all we have for today. We hope you’ll join us next time as we bring you more trivia. I’m Bob Smith.
Marcia Smith 26:37
I’m Marcia Smith. Join us again next
Bob Smith 26:38
time when we return with more fun facts 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