Bob and Marcia discussed various topics, including the use of recycled tin in toothpaste, historical discoveries, and online dating. Bob shared interesting facts about stannous fluoride and the history of chewing gum, while Marcia provided insights on the world’s first constitution and the rediscovery of Pompeii. In the second part of the conversation, Marcia and Bob discussed online dating and social media, touching on topics such as YouTube’s origins and the invention of the iPhone. They also discussed the challenges faced by the makers of The Godfather, including threats from the Italian American civil rights League, and the making of the classic film ‘E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.’
Outline
Recycled tin, Twitter bird, and bird trivia.
- Recycled tin is used in toothpaste to prevent cavities, as stannous fluoride (made from tin) helps reduce bacteria’s acid production and remineralize tooth areas.
- The Twitter bird logo was inspired by Larry Bird, a Hall of Fame basketball player from Boston, and the original design was thinner and different before being bought as a stock image for $15.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the origin of the phrase “turn a blind eye,” with Bob providing a humorous explanation involving Admiral Horatio Nelson.
- Marcia asks Bob about the world’s most expensive ice cream, which is found at a cafe in Dubai and costs $817 USD.
“The Godfather” movie and mob violence.
- Bob and Marcia discuss luxurious gold-infused desserts, precedents, and The Godfather.
- Bob Smith: Director Francis Ford Coppola faced opposition from the Italian American Civil Rights League, led by mob boss Joseph Colombo, who demanded changes to the script and threatened violence.
- Marcia Smith: The 1970s saw mob violence in Milwaukee, including the murder of Colombo’s rival Joey Gallo, highlighting the relevance of the Godfather’s themes.
- Bob and Marcia play a riddle game, with Bob struggling to solve the riddles.
Lake Nicaragua, apples as a coffee substitute, and nautical expressions.
- Bob and Marcia discuss Lake Nicaragua’s unique features, including sharks, swordfish, and Tarpon, and how it was once part of an ocean cut off by a volcano.
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the origin of the expression “under the weather,” which has a nautical origin related to sailors feeling ill and going beneath the bow of a boat to escape bad weather.
- Marcia Smith shares a fun fact about apples being a great coffee substitute, citing a book that explains how chewing an apple can stimulate the central nervous system and wake someone up, just like drinking coffee.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial movie trivia.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the making of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, including the original name picked by Steven Spielberg and the inspiration behind the movie’s suburban setting.
- Marcia shares interesting facts about the movie’s product placement and the impact of Reese’s Pieces on sales, as well as the original name chosen by Spielberg for the movie.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss chewing gum, with Bob sharing a story about how long people have been chewing it (9000 years) and Marcia mentioning that she stopped chewing gum because of the way people look while doing so.
- Marcia Smith shares that the world’s first constitution was written in Ukraine in 1710 by a Cossack leader named Pilate Orlick, emphasizing values such as equality and human rights.
History, dating, and the human body.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the discovery of Pompeii, and the largest plane ever built, with Bob providing interesting facts and Marcia sharing her thoughts.
- YouTube was originally conceived as a video dating site in 2005 by three PayPal employees.
- Marcia and Bob discuss Barack Obama’s Twitter bio, gun control, and Yoda’s quote on failure.
Bob Smith 0:00
How does recycled tin help you
Marcia Smith 0:02
prevent cavities? And the bird logo for Twitter has a name. What is it?
Bob Smith 0:08
Oh, answers to those another questions coming up in this half hour of the off ramp with Bob
Marcia Smith 0:14
And Marcia Smith
Bob Smith 0:31
Welcome to the off ramp a chance to slow down steer clear of crazy. Take a side road to Saturday and get some perspective on life with fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia and Bob and Marcia. Okay, Marcia, how does recycled tin help you prevent cavities? Well,
Marcia Smith 0:50
well, what is it in? Toothpaste that they say chloride stannous fluoride prevents cavities so maybe is that an element of tin?
Bob Smith 1:02
It’s made up of 10 Yes. stannous fluoride Ding ding ding ding ding ding Yes, Marcia, you are right. stannous fluoride the cavity fighting ingredient in toothpaste is made from recycled tin. The fluoride does two things. It reduces the ability of bacteria to make acids and it re mineralizes Tooth areas that have been attacked by acid so you can think recycled tin for better teeth.
Marcia Smith 1:26
I will thank them later in a in a personal letter. Okay. Okay, Bob. You know that little blue logo bird on Twitter. Right, right, right. There’s a name it has a name. Do you know what it is? Tweety. Tweety Bird. No, it doesn’t I don’t put it dead. No, it’s Larry. Larry. Larry Bird. Larry Bird.
Bob Smith 1:47
He was a basketball
Marcia Smith 1:48
very good Bob to many people surprised Larry Bird was the inspiration for the Twitter bird. I had no idea Larry Bird is a Hall of Fame basketball player. Yeah. And the Twitter director Biz Stone from Boston Biz Stone that’s quite a name, named the bird after his hometowns biggest basketball star in 2006. The Twitter bird was originally thinner and a little different. And he was bought as a stock image for $15 So
Bob Smith 2:17
Kitty to stock image. Oh my goodness. It’s like the swoosh that was designed for $35 course they gave that one stock later but I bet the stock image company didn’t get any stock from Twitter for this
Marcia Smith 2:30
apparently said that Twitter bird was originally thinner and a little bit different. So they beefed it up a little bit. Yeah.
Bob Smith 2:37
Okay Marsha word origins turn a blind eye. Where does that come from? turn a blind eye.
Marcia Smith 2:44
Where does it come from? It comes from the 1776 battle.
Bob Smith 2:49
Let’s start again. All right, where does it come from?
Marcia Smith 2:52
I don’t know.
Bob Smith 2:57
All right. Well, it goes back to 1801. And it’s commonly accepted that turning a blind eye comes from a comment made by the British Admiral Horatio Nelson. He was blind in one eye and he had an eyepatch and an 1801. He was in a battle he led the attack alongside Admiral Sir Hyde Parker. Oh, okay, the Battle of Copenhagen. Now this is funny. Parker communicated to Nelson via flags that they needed to retreat and disengage. Nelson however, it was convinced they could prevail if they just pushed onward. So he held the telescope to his blind eye and pretended not to see the signal. I don’t see the flags. Making a slight comment to a fellow officer about reserving the right to use his blind eye every now and then. Wow,
Marcia Smith 3:43
that’s diabolically amusing. I don’t Okay, Bob. What do the following birds, birds, Bob,
Bob Smith 3:53
man birds. Is that is that a topic for you today? Yes,
Marcia Smith 3:55
this is the second and last bird Question of the day. Okay. Ravens are eagles cardinals, and beautiful Falcons. But about them. What do they have in common?
Bob Smith 4:09
Ravens, eagles, falcons, and cardinals and cardinals. They’re all athletic teams. Specifically, though, wasn’t at the Baltimore Ravens at one point. Yeah, but specifically
Marcia Smith 4:22
what sport football good for you. I didn’t think you’d get that. Okay.
Bob Smith 4:28
Little Miss smarty pants a hurricane. You find the world’s most expensive ice cream and how much is it? Okay. New York. Dubai. Shanghai, China or London England. Is
Marcia Smith 4:38
it New York? I remember doing a story once on them having the most expensive Pizza pizza right and cheese cake so I’m gonna go for ice cream too low. You’re
Bob Smith 4:47
wrong. Oh, you have to head to Scooby cafe and Dubai to sample the world’s most expensive ice cream scoop. You know what it costs? Tell me it retails for an eye popping eight hundreds 17 US Dollars Lord, it features made from scratch Madagascan vanilla ice cream topped with a heavenly medley of Italian truffles, saffron and 23 karat edible gold flake.
Marcia Smith 5:12
Oh those again go eggs again in
Bob Smith 5:14
the food. You may only get one scoop but you get to keep the elegant black Versace designed bool
Marcia Smith 5:20
oh that is Isn’t that awful? That is so sad. It’s
Bob Smith 5:24
far from the most expensive desert in the world which is in New York and is at the cheesecake. Let’s see luxurious gold infused Sunday at New York City’s serendipity three restaurant they added this to the menu the luxurious gold infused Sunday in 2007. That cost $25,000 I
Marcia Smith 5:44
think that’s pathetic if people left you got it. You might if you got it, hold it. Or maybe help somebody Well, that’s true. You can still have you know toys but yeah, that is Salinas. Okay. It’s ridiculous. Okay.
Bob Smith 5:59
All right. Wouldn’t you like to taste of it? Just to see what it tastes them?
Marcia Smith 6:03
I don’t think gold flakes have a flavor. No, no,
Bob Smith 6:05
I mean, the whole desert. Doesn’t it sound delicious? Other than the gold flakes now? Okay.
Marcia Smith 6:10
All right here this I expect you to get let’s see if you do
Bob Smith 6:13
I expect this from you. civility. All right,
Marcia Smith 6:17
dear. Named the three most closely related pairs of precedents. Pairs
Bob Smith 6:23
of precedent. Yeah. Who are the three? Well, the Adams’s who are that’s John Adams and John Quincy Adams. Father and son. The two bushes. That’s George Bush and George W. Bush father and son. Correct. And then there’s another pair there is? Are they the Harrisons? That is that’s William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harris and who is Ben Benjamin was the grandson of William Henry Harrison. Excellent. Oh. Ding ding. Me. That’s my boy. Okay, Marsha. I don’t know if you noticed this, but there is a series that’s on one of the streamers about the making of The Godfather. When he began shooting the film, The Godfather, what was director Francis Ford copied his greatest fear. The greatest fear he had when he began shooting the Godfather was
Marcia Smith 7:13
was was Marlon Brando wouldn’t show up well,
Bob Smith 7:17
as probably was one fear. I don’t know. It was that the mob violence in the story was outdated out. That’s what critics claimed they knew that this book was going to be made into a movie and they said, Oh, that’s outdated stuff stuff. Well, he had no reason to worry. Because when Paramount said it was going to go ahead with the filming anyway, violence began. The producer Al Reddy’s car windows were shot out. threatening phone calls came into his office, strange cars began following him and bomb threats evacuated the headquarters of Paramont’s parent corporation Gulf and Western twice, and the problem was traced to the Italian American civil rights League. They went out and said we’re mistreating Italian Americans and movies and there were parades and marches. Well, that league was a mob front, headed by Joseph Colombo, who is an actual mob boss. He was definitely claimed to be a legitimate real estate agent. And then 1971, this Paramount producer met with him and said, Okay, how can we do this movie, you know, your groups very upset about things? What do we need to do? He gave them a copy of the script that producer did and said the film’s not going to embrace any stereotypes. And Joseph Colombo and his son said, Well, that’s not good enough. You can’t mention the mafia or La Costa Nostra in the script. They’re outdated terms. He also demanded all of the proceeds from the movie premiere go to the Italian American League. And so the producer agreed and he got fired. But he was hired back later. But here’s the interesting thing. Colombo, this guy was seen as a showboat by a lot of other mobsters. Yeah, he’s out there. What is he doing? Yeah, out there in public San all this stuff. So Columbo was gunned down at a rally of his Italian American League. A man disguised as a press photographer shot him three times. He went into a coma. And then a year later, as payback for the shooting, Colombo’s rival Joey Gallo was killed while eating at a restaurant for his birthday. And suddenly Francis Ford Coppola didn’t need to worry about this outdated violence because it was right up to date when the movie opened in 1972.
Marcia Smith 9:21
I was gonna say the 70s in Milwaukee there was mob violence the mafia was traded in all sorts of places
Bob Smith 9:30
the problems that the movie makers had when they were making the Godfather are depicted in the Paramount plus TV series The offer that’s what it’s about. See that? Yeah, so it’s all about this stuff. Yeah, but that went
Marcia Smith 9:40
on. Okay. I gave you a couple of easy squeezes. Now. I’m gonna give you something you hate. What’s that? Two riddles. Oh, god. Yeah, read. Okay, Bob. I’ll give you two easy riddles in 14 states, including Utah. It is legal for a man to marry his widows. Sister true or false?
Bob Smith 10:02
It’s legal or illegal. It is legal for
Marcia Smith 10:05
a man to marry his widow sister. True or false?
Bob Smith 10:09
I think it’s legal. Why wouldn’t that be legal? Because
Marcia Smith 10:11
if he has a widow he’s dead
Bob Smith 10:17
okay, I’m stupid. Okay call me stupid.
Marcia Smith 10:20
Okay. And so
Bob Smith 10:21
I don’t know really call me that.
Marcia Smith 10:23
No, you’re my honey bunny. Okay, all right homers mother has four children, mom. Three of them are named spring, summer and autumn. What is the fourth named?
Bob Smith 10:38
We could have said he has three so there’s not four. No,
Marcia Smith 10:41
almost mother has four children. Three of them are named spring, summer and autumn. So Homer is the fourth one. Good for you. You gotta read.
Bob Smith 10:51
Oh, boy. All right.
Marcia Smith 10:53
That’s, I’m delighted for you. It’s time
Bob Smith 10:55
for a break.
Marcia Smith 10:56
Okay.
Bob Smith 10:59
I’m on a high note I am I’m quitting on the riddle. Okay, I’m writing the riddles. Hi, this is Bob Smith. Along with Marcia Smith. You’re listening to the off ramp. We’ll be back in just a moment. Okay, Marcia, back again. With the off ramp. I’ve got a question about geography. All right, I’m gonna give you choices. Okay, just like you’d give me in the riddle. Okay. You may have never heard of it, but Lake Nicaragua. It’s the largest freshwater lake in Central America. Okay, think of freshwater lakes like Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, Lake Erie and think and bow K. And Lake Superior. But Lake Nicaragua. What makes it different from the Great Lakes of North America? Is it volcanoes? Is it nearer to the ocean? Is it sharks and swordfish?
Marcia Smith 11:49
Really?
Bob Smith 11:49
What is it?
Marcia Smith 11:50
Is it a freshwater lake?
Bob Smith 11:52
It’s a freshwater lake. It’s known as the sweet see down there. Sweet. See, it covers 3149 square miles about that said have sharks? Yes, it does. Wow. But not just that. It’s all three. More than 40 Rivers drain into it. And it’s believed it was once part of an ocean but it was cut off by a volcano erupting a long time ago. In fact, there are two volcanoes in the lake today, a third on its western edge. And according to Britannica, Lake Nicaragua is the only freshwater lake in the world containing sharks, swordfish, and Tarpon. They’re all ocean dwellers who adapted to freshwater adapted adapted to freshwater over time. Yeah, I’ll
Marcia Smith 12:34
be dang I would have guessed that. I never heard of that before. Now. Fascinating. Yeah. Remember the Neil Diamond hit song? heartlight? Yes. Turn on the heartlight. He wrote it with Carole Bayer Sager and Burt Bacharach. Yes. What precipitated the writing of that song?
Bob Smith 12:50
I thought it had to do with et You’re right. Oh, three of them
Marcia Smith 12:55
saw the movie ET came out at two right. ETS beating heart did light up through his little translucent torso. At is never mentioned by name and in the song. But the lyrics reference a certain bicycle across the moon. Well, universal executive sued. I didn’t know that for copyright infringement and diamond settled for $25,000. Oh, that’s not much money. No, but he settled and
Bob Smith 13:24
he probably made the case that hey, this is going to help your film and they said, Well, we still need a nominal some probably.
Marcia Smith 13:32
Wow, in your heart. That’s interesting.
Bob Smith 13:34
I had no idea that he got sued for that. All right, Marcia, tell me why apples are a great coffee substitute. Well, regular apples,
Marcia Smith 13:44
all I can think of is it has some kind of properties that perk you up. That
Bob Smith 13:48
would make sense. Yes. But it’s the process of eating them. Oh,
Marcia Smith 13:52
it expends energy and wakes you up? That’s right. Chewing
Bob Smith 13:56
an apple is considered just as effective at waking you up in the morning as drinking a cup of coffee. Because the act of chewing works to stimulate the central nervous system that comes from a book called that’s a fact Jack and I assume it is a fact. So just you know, get up in the morning, go to the refrigerator, get an Apple just start eating it that you don’t need. Like
Marcia Smith 14:20
we should have had him this morning. And since we didn’t have a coffeemaker that work. Oh, don’t get into that. Lots of swear words. Sounds
Bob Smith 14:27
like somebody’s still a little upset about the coffee not being okay today.
Marcia Smith 14:32
All right, a quickie Bob, Harrison Ford played a high school principal in a smash hit from the 80s. But he wound up on the cutting room floor. What was it? He played a principal? Yeah, in the 80s. High School Principal.
Bob Smith 14:47
It wasn’t one of the Back to the Future films or something. No, no, no. I don’t. Can you tell me who starred in the film?
Marcia Smith 14:54
I’ll tell you the year 82. Well, that doesn’t help much. Yes, it does. It does. If
Bob Smith 15:01
he wasn’t a high school principal in the town where Jaws was shot,
Marcia Smith 15:06
now film okay, but you got the right director. It’s et again. Oh, no kidding. Yeah, he was 1982. Remember I said, okay 40 years ago, but yeah, he played out in one of the characters High School. One of the characters High School, he was the principal. Oh, no kidding.
Bob Smith 15:22
So that was like a favor to Spielberg or something. That must have been cameo or Yeah, that’s probably because Spielberg he worked with him and he did something and maybe you’re right. Okay, Marcia, this expression is one that has a nautical origin. Okay. Naughty, nautical, meaning the sea feeling under the weather? What’s the origin of that expression?
Marcia Smith 15:45
Under the weather under the weather? Feeling under Tell me?
Bob Smith 15:49
Well, when a sailor was feeling ill he would go beneath the bow, which is the front part of the boat. And this would hopefully protect him from adverse conditions, as he was literally under the bad weather that could further sicken him. So a sailor who was sick could be described as being under the weather. Ah, oh, he’s down there. He’s under the
Marcia Smith 16:09
weather. Okay. Oh, that makes sense. Yeah. Anna arcane kind of well. All right.
Bob Smith 16:12
Most of these are arcane. Yes. That’s why we asked them on the podcast. Oh,
Marcia Smith 16:17
and I got a couple more here. Et was one of your all time favorite movies. It is. What is not what did you drive me crazy with when we first met the T fun? Yes. Oh, it was such a turnout.
Bob Smith 16:34
Hey, yeah,
Marcia Smith 16:35
you were in a commercial. I
Bob Smith 16:36
wrote a commercial and it was the year that et came out and actually won Best of Show at an anti awards. Yes. And
Marcia Smith 16:44
that was your voice in there at phone? Yes. And yet. So here’s the question. Okay. Yes. What was the original candy chosen to be Reese’s Pieces follow me trail.
Bob Smith 16:56
I know the answer to this. It was m&ms and m&ms would not they didn’t want to pay the product placement fee. Well,
Marcia Smith 17:03
that’s not the info I have. Okay, what’s the info you have? Mars wanted to read the final script. Oh, and universal said ne ne. And they also didn’t like the look of the alien. But her she jumped in with their brand new peanut butter filled bits called Reese’s Pieces. I’ll be Tara and the company said sales increase 65% Two weeks after the movie came out? Well,
Bob Smith 17:29
it’s I believe it because remember, Reese’s Pieces when they just started? That’s just an m&m copy. Movie. Oh, they
Marcia Smith 17:35
made the movie made it? Well, you
Bob Smith 17:38
know that script was so tightly guarded. There were all kinds of NDAs people had to sign Yeah, that’s why they wouldn’t give him the script wouldn’t leave the set and everything because they were worried about the ending being known
Marcia Smith 17:49
that Eminem people I think that’s a lack of forethought, don’t you? That
Bob Smith 17:53
was yeah, that was short sighted. That’s but they were worried about their reputation. What kind of film is this? But it’s Spielberg. You’re worried about going into the throat of a jaws are excited?
Marcia Smith 18:03
Yes. Okay, one more quickie T question. Okay. Do you know that original name Spielberg picked for his movie? It wasn’t at
Bob Smith 18:13
it wasn’t et now? Did it have more than one word? Yeah, two words. Okay. Kid, alien, alien, kid, alien, punk, punk alien. That would be it was called
Marcia Smith 18:23
growing up. Oh, no kidding. It was inspired by his adolescent feelings of alienation. In his childhood, he had a move to Arizona and his parents divorced. Yes, the movie turned out to be very relatable to a whole lot of kids because of those aspects of the movie.
Bob Smith 18:41
Well, she was a single mom. Yeah, yeah. And it was in the suburbs. You know?
Marcia Smith 18:45
That’s true was that it took those two aspects at for the first time. I mean, did you ever see a movie take place in the suburbs? With a kid riding his bike? I hadn’t. And I go to Lassie, I guess but that was the farm. It was the farm anyway, it was called growing up.
Bob Smith 19:01
Hmm. Okay. Well, one thing we did as kids was chew gum. Remember that? Did you chew gum? Did you like gum? Bubble gum? Yeah.
Marcia Smith 19:09
What kind of gum Bubble? Oh, bubble gum make big bubbles. Did you during class? Did
Bob Smith 19:13
you save the trading cards that came with a bubble gum or did you buy a better brand gave
Marcia Smith 19:17
them to boys to curry their favor?
Bob Smith 19:21
Okay, and the question is did that work? No. Good lord. Okay, well, how long have people been chewing gum is the question. Well, that’s
Marcia Smith 19:30
a good question.
Bob Smith 19:31
This is because archaeologists found some guy. Okay. A long time ago. All right.
Marcia Smith 19:35
I’ll say 1500 years ago. 1500 years.
Bob Smith 19:39
You think people have been chewing gum that long? Yeah. Wow, that’s not enough. Okay. At least 9000
Marcia Smith 19:46
years. Wow. Can you see ancient civilization walking around?
Bob Smith 19:51
Well, in Sweden apparently the Swedish scientists recently found what they believe to be a birch resin chewed and spit out by a Neolithic man. They dated it at 9000 years old. So apparently that is an old old bad habit chewing gum. I used to chew gum until my middle age and then one of my dentist said, What are you trying to do wear out your jaws and I thought, Oh, I never thought of that. Yeah, you could wear out your jaw.
Marcia Smith 20:18
You know why I stopped chewing gum? Why? I just don’t like the way people look chewing. Yeah, it is kind of its ugly. Ugly. I think so. Okay. What country had the world’s first constitution?
Bob Smith 20:30
I thought it was the constitution of Iceland, wasn’t it? No, not Iceland now. Okay. Was it Greece now? So this is the first country that wrote down a constitution right?
Marcia Smith 20:41
And it beat the US by 77 years old.
Bob Smith 20:45
No kidding. Okay, where was it? Ukraine? No kid. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 20:50
In 1710, a Ukrainian Cossack leader named Pilate Orlick, wrote what is considered the world’s first constitution. It was written in Ukraine, and it set for three branches of government legally stress certain values. For example, the first constitution emphasize the value of equality and human rights. Historically, when you look at this written document, it also guarantees free elections.
Bob Smith 21:18
Wow, that’s pretty fascinating. In Ukraine of all places, well, I never thought of that me either. Okay, Marcia. I have a question for you about an ancient civilization. And how long did it take for its ruins to be rediscovered? POM pay 894 years? 942 years? 1056 years or 1600 69 years?
Marcia Smith 21:42
I’ll take the last one. You are absolutely right. Yeah.
Bob Smith 21:45
1600 69 years, 1669 years, the city of Pompeii Italy, laid buried in its ash covered tomb. And it was rediscovered in 1748 by a surveying engineer. It was destroyed by Mount Vesuvius. You know the date the year? No, I do not 79 A D. So it was a time capsule essentially. Because it was incredibly preserved. Yeah. Yeah. Isn’t that fascinating? 2000 residents of the city were killed in a black cloud of smoke and ash which suffocated them that’s what it was. Yeah. Yeah. 79 ad and then it was rediscovered in 1748. Okay, so 1669 years later.
Marcia Smith 22:28
48 Okay. Seems like we’ve heard about that all our lives and seen pictures of it and stuff. Okay. Keep discovering things. Yeah, they do. Okay, Bob, where is the site of the largest plane ever built?
Bob Smith 22:41
The largest plane ever built? Where’s the sight of
Marcia Smith 22:44
it? Yeah, you can say what country I was just I thought
Bob Smith 22:47
it was in the United States, San Diego and it was the Howard Hughes plane.
Marcia Smith 22:52
Goose that Spruce Goose Yes. Is where it is. No, no. Until February when it was destroyed by the Russian army. It was in Kyiv. Ukraine.
Bob Smith 23:03
Oh, that’s right. I know. They had a huge plane. Yeah, they only made like one or two of them.
Marcia Smith 23:06
One, okay, Antonov fan, two to five. Mariah plane had a wingspan of around 290 feet. It was immense. And impressive, to say the least. And it weighed over 1400 pounds. The largest plant was built during the Soviet era of Ukraine’s history. And, and then until the Russians destroyed it.
Bob Smith 23:30
It was in a museum or it was being curated. It was being kept. It was being kept. Yeah, I read about an article about the guy who’s responsible for that. That’s a shame Ukrainian
Marcia Smith 23:39
officials vowed to rebuild the plane. Okay, I’ve
Bob Smith 23:42
had a number of questions over the past few episodes about dating and online dating. I have a whole bunch of stuff. So I’m just dribbling it out here. So I’m going to ask you what popular website was originally conceived for online video dating, but that idea was scrapped. Say it again? What popular web site or web service was originally conceived for online video dating?
Marcia Smith 24:07
Was it Facebook? No. Okay.
Bob Smith 24:12
Think of the big sites out there now.
Marcia Smith 24:14
Yeah, wasn’t tick tock. No, Twitter. No. What else? Is there? I Instagram? No. Okay, tell me those
Bob Smith 24:20
are all great guesses.
Marcia Smith 24:21
Thank you darling, but they are all wrong.
Bob Smith 24:25
The answer is YouTube. Oh, I should have thought in 2005. Three Pay Pal employees dreamed up a video dating site called Tune In hookup tune in hookup was like the photo voting site hot or not. But with user uploaded videos, they scrapped that idea and instead created YouTube. But originally they thought of it as a video dating So
Marcia Smith 24:49
yeah, that makes sense. And it would have probably worked but nothing is big as YouTube is today. Speaking
Bob Smith 24:55
of dating again, what is the invention that mobilized online Eating because there was online dating before there was a smartphone. So what invention mobilized online dating? The iPhone, launched in 2007. It was the first smartphone it had helped online daters communicate on the go on the go dating apps soon followed. Okay,
Marcia Smith 25:18
look at this hat guy while I’m grocery shopping at Piggly Wiggly. DREW. All right, that’s speaking of social media who lists himself on his Twitter account as dad, husband, President, citizen, dad,
Bob Smith 25:34
husband, President and citizens that Barack Obama Yes. That
Marcia Smith 25:39
is his Twitter bio. And he has the most followers of anybody on social media with 132 million followers. That’s interesting. I like his. It’s cute. Yeah, it has been president citizen in
Bob Smith 25:52
order of what do you think’s important? Yeah, apparently,
Marcia Smith 25:55
on my Facebook page, I have Zen Master Master. Okay, okay.
Bob Smith 26:02
I have a question. One more question about the body here today. What is your body’s largest organ? And how much does it weigh compared to your brain?
Marcia Smith 26:11
Its skin is your largest are true. And how much does your skin weigh? Compared to your brain? I’ll say, golly, four times as much two to three
Bob Smith 26:21
times heavier. Okay. Yeah. weighs eight to 10 pounds. That’s what your skin weighs. Okay, that’s two to three times heavier than your brain. Well,
Marcia Smith 26:28
I was pretty dang close. Very close, Marcia. Very good. Okay. All right. I got a quote here. Bob. Chris Rock on gun control. We don’t need gun control. I think if every bullet cost $5,000 We won’t have any innocent bystanders.
Bob Smith 26:43
Oh, wow. Yes, he’s
Marcia Smith 26:45
got a point.
Bob Smith 26:46
I thought he was gonna say slapping is free. Oh,
Marcia Smith 26:48
I think he said this before the slap You’re right.
Bob Smith 26:52
Okay, this is kind of a long quote. But it’s kind of fun and interesting. And it’s from Yoda ha from The Last Jedi episode eight The Last Jedi Star Wars it says Hey, pass on what you have learned strength, mastery. But weakness, folly failure also, yes, failure. Most of all, the greatest teacher failure is
Marcia Smith 27:15
I like and it’s true. It is true,
Bob Smith 27:19
as I know, because I’ve learned so much from from my failures. That’s it for today. I’m Bob Smith. I’m Marcia Smith. Join us again next time when we return with more fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia here on the off ramp. The off ramp is produced in association with CPL radio online and the Cedarbrook Public Library Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
