Bob and Marcia engaged in a lively conversation covering a range of topics, from the world’s longest coastline to unique time zones and the tallest buildings in the world. Bob shared interesting facts about the CN Tower and the origin of bagpipes, while Marcia inquired about the Kennedy Space Center and an unusual feature of a tree there. The conversation then shifted to lighter topics, including golf, the Gerber Baby, herbs and fragrances, belly buttons, and sports trivia. Bob and Marcia demonstrated their ability to engage in enjoyable and informative conversations on a variety of subjects, often with a touch of humor.
Outline
Longest coastline, video games, and moon trees.
- Bob and Marcia Smith discuss the world’s longest coastline, with Canada being the country with the longest coastline (125,567 miles long or 151,090 miles long, depending on measurement method).
- Other countries with long coastlines include Indonesia, Norway, and Russia.
- Bob Smith shares his memories of playing Pong in the early 70s and the inventor of the game.
- Moon trees are a lesser-known legacy of NASA’s Apollo 14 mission, with seeds carried by astronaut Stuart Roosa in 1971.
Various topics including golf, Gerber baby, synthesizers, and history.
- Marcia Smith: Gerber Baby Turner Cook died at 95, famous for charcoal drawing entered in Gerber contest.
- Bob Smith: Turner Cook’s face became famous after neighbor Dorothy Herb Smith entered her in Gerber Baby contest.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the history of the Gerber Baby and its connection to Hollywood actor Humphrey Bogart.
- Bob Smith shares his thoughts on how he wants to be buried, including with his favorite pipe and tobacco from Old Havana cigar boxes.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the history of herb struers, professionals who distributed herbs to keep royal residences smelling fresh.
- In 1922, an Irish Republican Army gunman shot a former comrade near Central Park, and all the gunmen escaped, including the shooter, who survived and moved his family between Canada, US, and England for safety.
Umbilical cords, bagpipes, and building heights.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the healing process of umbilical cord stumps, with Marcia sharing interesting facts about the size and shape of belly buttons depending on the healing process.
- Bob reveals that having an “Audi” (an innie belly button) is caused by a slight infection in the umbilical cord during healing, while Marcia finds it fascinating that 90% of people have an Audi due to this reason.
- Bob Smith: CN Tower in Toronto has world’s highest glass floor elevator (1135 feet).
- Marcia Smith: Bagpipes originated in ancient Sumeria, spread to Greece, Rome, and Scotland (1000 BCE).
Tallest buildings, landmarks, and sports milestones.
- Marcia Smith: Nepal has a unique timezone with 45-minute differences from others.
- Bob Smith: Top 10 tallest buildings in the world are in the UAE, China, and South Korea.
- Marcia and Bob discuss famous landmarks, including the Sydney Opera House and the Eiffel Tower.
- They also talk about the history of tall buildings, with the pyramids and European cathedrals being the highest structures for centuries.
- Marcia and Bob discuss a variety of topics, including a single spaghetti noodle and the first female play-by-play announcer in a major men’s professional sports team.
- Lord Beaverbrook’s famous last words are shared, and the hosts bid each other farewell at the end of the episode.
Bob Smith 0:00
What country has the world’s longest coastline?
Marcia Smith 0:04
And what occupation are you if your neck or upper of what? Neck or upper
Bob Smith 0:10
upper? Oh dear answers to those another questions coming up in this episode of the off ramp with Bob and Marsha Smith
Welcome to the off ramp a chance to slow down steered clear of crazy take a side road to Saturday and have some fun with trivia. Well, I can’t imagine what a knocker upper is March.
Marcia Smith 0:45
Okay, well, this will amaze and amuse back
Bob Smith 0:47
in the old days. You said he knocked her up. That was a different thing.
Marcia Smith 0:51
That was a different thing. This is a knocker upper and this is before the advent of the alarm clock.
Bob Smith 0:57
Okay, then I think I know what it is. What is it? It is person that would go around and wake people up in the morning? Yes. Excellent in England, wasn’t it?
Marcia Smith 1:05
Yes, industrial era workers who needed help waking up in time for work would hire people called knocker uppers. These these hearty souls would rise in the early hours of the day and patrol the street with sticks tapping on their clients bedrooms Windows each morning. I’ve got some knocker OPERS like Mary Smith, we’re not fans of the stick method. And she rouse the local sleepyheads by shooting peas at their window.
Bob Smith 1:34
So okay, Marcia, what country has the world’s longest coastline?
Marcia Smith 1:39
Is it Canada? Canada? Yes, Canada.
Bob Smith 1:43
Yes. and Canada has shores extending along the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific Oceans. I should have said what three oceans that might have been interesting. What country has three oceans, you have the world’s longest coastline? Now, just how long is controversial?
Marcia Smith 1:59
Why? Because other countries claim some of those shorelines? No. I don’t know why
Bob Smith 2:05
it depends on how you measure it. If you sail down past it and measure the miles that’s one thing. But if you tack in and out of every nook and cranny, it can be far longer. Oh, so here are the lengths Canada’s coastline is either 125,567 miles long. That’s the world Atlas, or it’s 151,090 miles long, based on Canada’s national statistical office, and they do the every nook and cranny. What are the three runnerup countries in the longest coastline? The three runnerup countries, one of them is a group of islands countries once a group of violent tell me just tell me, Indonesia, Norway and Russia. I wouldn’t think Norway would have more coastline than Russia. That’s interesting, right?
Marcia Smith 2:53
Or even as much that’s hard to fathom.
Bob Smith 2:57
Anyway, those are the statistics. I’ll be
Marcia Smith 2:59
darned. All right. But what was the name of the first video game? And what year? Did it come out?
Bob Smith 3:05
Well, I remember my parents had one of those who was like an arcade thing. It was like you set up with for a TV set. I had two little paddles to play games. Yeah. And Pong was one of those. So Pong had to be in the early 70s. Yeah, I remember seeing it when I graduated from college in 73. I got this is cool.
Marcia Smith 3:21
Yeah. 72 Yeah. And it’s if you look at it today, it is so slow. Oh, here it comes again. And Nintendo came out with that game. And until then, they were known for making playing cards. That’s right.
Bob Smith 3:38
That’s right. They were playing card company. Yeah. But there was an inventor. I think he was a scientist somewhere that came up with Pong. We invented it. Yeah, I believe so. Tendo got it. I think they turned it into a commercial game.
Marcia Smith 3:49
Yeah, that was the beginning of a whole new ballgame for them. multibillion dollar
Bob Smith 3:53
corporations. These game companies are now how much money they they’re worth. It’s amazing. Okay, Marsha, if you go to the Kennedy Space Center, what’s unusual about one of the trees there
Marcia Smith 4:04
at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida? Is it missing all its top branches because they’re singed when the
Bob Smith 4:11
rockets take off? No, no, that’s not it. What is it? It’s a moon tree. Oh, yeah.
Marcia Smith 4:17
Now what is it?
Bob Smith 4:18
Well, the astronauts of NASA’s Apollo 14 were the third group to land on the moon in 1971. But the mission had another lesser known legacy Moon trees. During the mission astronaut Stuart Roosa former US Forest Service smokejumper carried with him 500 seeds from loblolly pine, sweet gum, redwood, Douglas fir and sycamore trees. He took all those so after orbiting 34 times, the scientists went to see what would happen to those seeds, if anything, and they had 420 saplings from that, okay, they’ve decided they’re just normal trees. So they gave them to schools and parks.
Marcia Smith 4:56
They didn’t look or act any different and know that Oh, Okay, well that’s interesting schools
Bob Smith 5:01
and parks and government offices around the country. They’re called Moon trees and trees that have grown from their seeds are called halfmoon trees. Okay, so they’re all over the place. And a lot of their locations have been forgotten because they just look like regular trees. Nothing spectacular. The Sycamore at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, which was planted on June 25 1976, during the Bicentennial is called a moon tree. 23 states in the country have living Moon trees.
Marcia Smith 5:28
All right, Bob, what are the chances of scoring a hold and one, one out of how many? Is it in
Bob Smith 5:35
the hundreds or 1000s 1000s? Okay, I’ll say 2526 to one No, but
Marcia Smith 5:41
it’s one in 15,000, which is a lot. And that tees up my question from a listener. Paul, a listener in Monterey, California. Okay, what is par for the world’s longest golf hole? Par? Yeah, like some of the local ones around here are part five. The record longest hole is in Gunsan Country Club in South Korea, which we probably won’t get to this year. It’s third hole measures 1097 yards, which is a heck of a long way. What is it par seven. And Japan has Santo golf course. It also is a seven part and it’s right up there with 964 yard hole. So
Bob Smith 6:24
well, not being a golfer. I would have thought that those parts would be a higher number than seven.
Marcia Smith 6:28
Yeah. Remember, we stood on the 18th total of the Pebble Beach Golf Course. That was a par five and the longest power in us is par six in Virginia. So far seven is really quite a deal.
Bob Smith 6:42
I can’t appreciate that.
Marcia Smith 6:44
I know you don’t play golf, but Paul does and that’s the important. Okay,
Bob Smith 6:48
you’re right. Thank you, Paul. Okay, Marsha. There’s a lady who recently died. I’m gonna give you her name. And I’m gonna say you would recognize her face but not her name. Her name is Anne Turner cook. Because of a portrait you’ve seen many times over your lifetime. Do you have any idea who and Turner Cook was? Well, I
Marcia Smith 7:06
can I have? Era? Yes.
Bob Smith 7:10
She was born in 1928. And Turner cook. She just died. She was 95. Well, something happened when she was a very little child. And it made her face famous. Really? Yes. She’s
Marcia Smith 7:24
now you got what I’m dying to know what she was the actual Gerber Baby. Oh, she was yes. Oh, and my mom collected those pictures
Bob Smith 7:33
and Turner Cook who recently died at age 95 was the Gerber Baby and millions and millions of packages of Gerber Baby Food. Interesting story behind this whole thing. It was a neighbor who was a graphic designer and artist Dorothy Herb Smith, who did her face. And she entered it in the one of the first baby contests that Gerber Baby foods did. And it was a charcoal drawing. And she promised the judges if this wins, I’ll go ahead and finish the sketch. This is just the charcoal. I did have this baby friend of ours a couple of years ago. And they said no, we like it as is. Can you remember it was always a charcoal sketch. Oh,
Marcia Smith 8:12
I you know, I didn’t think of that. But you’re right. You know a mother in the world that didn’t love that Gerber Baby because she
Bob Smith 8:18
looked right at the end. I used her picture for 90 years. Oh my God. Now she did receive some money for it though. Yeah, when she was 23. She did accept a settlement from Gerber in the amount of $5,000. Now that doesn’t sound like much, but that was 1951. Okay, that’s equivalent to $58,000 in today’s money, and she used it to help make a downpayment on her first home. So she did
Marcia Smith 8:41
get something out of it. Not much in my book, but that is something she
Bob Smith 8:45
became a teacher for the rest of her life. And she didn’t ever tell anybody about it, especially her students because she didn’t want to get ridiculed and have a class distracted. Now there is a rumor that a famous Hollywood actor was the face of the Gerber Baby. Who was that?
Marcia Smith 9:01
Was it a boy or girl a boy?
Bob Smith 9:03
I don’t know Humphrey Bogart. Oh,
Marcia Smith 9:04
no. Yeah, no, I don’t want to have free on my baby.
Bob Smith 9:07
He was a baby on baby food. Turns out it yeah, he was a model, a baby model. Not for Gerber as it was for another company. And that was back in the 1920s. And his mother also was an artist too. So she submitted his face but it was for another baby food. Well, here’s
Marcia Smith 9:24
dribbling on you, kid. Okay, you should get this Bob named the album that introduced the world to the synthesizer. That was
Bob Smith 9:35
the switch on buck. Oh, you did
Marcia Smith 9:36
right off the bat. Yeah, cuz
Bob Smith 9:38
I remember our band director playing that for us in high school. Yeah. What year 68 or 67.
Marcia Smith 9:45
Ding ding. That’s right. It was a collection of Johann Sebastian Bach. That groundbreaking album switch down back. You know who the music pioneer was?
Bob Smith 9:54
It was Walter Carlos. Wendy. Well, now Wendy Walter is now Wendy. Really? transgender now. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 10:00
kidding. Yeah, well anyway, at the time, Walter used the Moog synthesizer to show mainstream music fans and executives alike that that technology had more universal application. You
Bob Smith 10:13
read famous rock musicians, so many of them. That was an inspiration. Yeah. But
Marcia Smith 10:18
it says here, it was the perfect marriage of the right technology and the right techniques at the right time.
Bob Smith 10:24
So we all think about when we die, how do we want to be buried? Everybody has that thought at some time in their life? How did Sir Walter Raleigh, the man who brought tobacco to Europe declare he should be buried?
Marcia Smith 10:34
Alright, so where did he want to be buried?
Bob Smith 10:37
How did he want to be buried? I said, I gave you a clue and you didn’t get it. How did Sir Walter Raleigh the man who brought tobacco to Europe want to be buried?
Marcia Smith 10:48
On a tobacco plantation somewhere in America?
Bob Smith 10:51
No, you wanted to be buried with tobacco? Oh my goodness with his favorite pipe a tin of tobacco. His coffin was also lined with wood from Old Havana cigar boxes. Every smoker in England was invited to attend his funeral and each received 10 pounds of tobacco and two pipes if they came.
Marcia Smith 11:10
No kidding. Okay, what is an erg?
Bob Smith 11:14
struer urb struer s t r e w er correct it’s
Marcia Smith 11:19
a profession that has fallen by the wayside herbs struer
Bob Smith 11:22
Now herbs are plant based and Herb struer So somebody who distributes herbs I don’t know. Yes, details please. Okay, before
Marcia Smith 11:33
the invention of the flush toilet by Mr.
Bob Smith 11:37
Thomas Crapper, Sir
Marcia Smith 11:38
Thomas Thomas Crapper, we’ll guy cities often smelled less than desirable. Yes, but if you were wealthy enough, in the 17th century, you could hire an herb struer. To keep the aroma fresh King Georgia third, for instance, employed Mary Rainer, a woman who spent more than 40 years Bob scattering flowers and herbs and other natural fragrances throughout the royal residents to make it smell welcoming, though God’s popular plants included lavender roses, camo meals, sweet Yarrow, basil, marjoram, and violets. And that’s all she did. She just walked around the palace, brewing those
Bob Smith 12:16
herbs showing those isn’t that a strange? What did the term stru come from? That would be interesting. Strv della, that
Marcia Smith 12:22
can be the next show.
Bob Smith 12:23
I think we should take a break now. Okay. We’ll be back with more in just a moment. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob
Marcia Smith 12:29
and Marcia Smith.
Bob Smith 12:32
We’re back. Welcome to the off ramp. And I’ve got a question for you from history. Marsha. In 1922, rebels from a foreign government track down and shot one of their own in what became known as the central park ambush.
Marcia Smith 12:46
Did you ever hear this now?
Bob Smith 12:47
I never did either. What country were the gunman from? I was very surprised when I heard about this. This is called the Central Park ambush. It’s from 1920 to 1922.
Marcia Smith 12:57
Italy.
Bob Smith 12:59
No,
Marcia Smith 13:00
ah don’t know.
Bob Smith 13:02
Ireland.
Marcia Smith 13:03
What were they doing their top
Bob Smith 13:05
gunman of the Irish Republican Army came to the United States stocked and gun down one of their own. Patrick Joseph Kruk C. O’Connor. Hey, Greg see as he left his apartment. He was a former Ira comrade who switched sides repeatedly in Ireland’s fight for independence from Britain. So he’s going back and forth. He became an informer. And so they tracked him down here because they blamed him for a switch of allegiance. I’ve got six Ira men killed, ah, came here got a hold of him, shot him near Central Park in 1922. Okay, now the interesting thing was, everybody got away, including him. He was shot for time. Oh my god. He’s survived bullet wounds to the backside, stomach and jaw and for the rest of his life. He refused to say who shot him even though he knew when he was asked he would just shake his head. And guess what? The Irish ran the docks in New York City. And they got all of those gunmen and sent them back to Ireland. Wow. And he actually moved his family back and forth between Canada, the United States and England for the next 30 years to make sure he was safe.
Marcia Smith 14:13
You think he would have been saved just because he didn’t squeal on who it was? Yeah, but
Bob Smith 14:17
apparently no, they were still gunning for him but apparently died finally in the 1950s Okay, and he successfully eluded them. But this is the central park ambush. I never heard of this at the IRA sent gunmen to the United States.
Marcia Smith 14:29
Never heard of it either. Okay, Bob, what is in umbilical? plasti?
Bob Smith 14:36
Umbilical plasti. Yes. So, plastic umbilical cord is what it sounds like, doesn’t it? Umbilical plasti. So this sounds like an operation or something?
Marcia Smith 14:45
Yeah, it’s an operation you can have to alter your belly button Search. If you have an Audi and one in any they can do it. Oh, that’s funny. Is your belly button Bob in any or Audi?
Bob Smith 14:59
It’s an any Any volunteers? Any? Okay?
Marcia Smith 15:03
And why do you think that is? Because
Bob Smith 15:04
they cut it? Who did? Well, the doctors, they snip it and then they tuck it back in.
Marcia Smith 15:09
Do they? Yeah. Who cut our kids umbilical cord? I did? That’s right. And did you determine if it wasn’t any route? No, but the doctors did. Oh, with the way they tied the knot. Yeah. Most people think that’s the truth. Okay, what’s the answer? The answer is, when you were born, the doctor cut the umbilical cord a couple of inches away from your belly. There’s no tying involved, actually, they clamp it is what they do. And once it’s clamped, the small section of umbilical cord dries up and falls off in about a week. If I recall, I remember that what’s left is that you build a case or belly button. But here’s the thing. The size and shape of the belly button depends entirely on the way your tummy heals, and the cord falls off. If you have an innie you probably had no infection. But if you had a slight infection, it would be an outtie. Really? Yeah, roughly 90% of people have innies. Isn’t that weird?
Bob Smith 16:03
So they only have an outtie if you had an infection,
Marcia Smith 16:06
A light infection in the umbilical cord, and it just causes it to be an outie. How about that?
Bob Smith 16:12
I didn’t know that. I could enlighten you, Bob. So we’re gazing at our navel here is the way
Marcia Smith 16:17
and so it’s the way the belly button heals. So if it’s slightly infected, it heals out. And if it’s not infected, it heals in. Alright.
Bob Smith 16:27
Alright, Marsha, if you travel, you see many interesting things. What building in the world has the world’s highest glass floor elevator? Oh, yeah. To glass floor, but a glass floor elevator. Now I’ll give you a choice. Okay, the CN Tower in Toronto cap the Oriental Pearl Tower, Shanghai, the Willis Tower, Chicago.
Marcia Smith 16:47
Oh, gosh. The one in Canada.
Bob Smith 16:51
That’s right, the CN Tower in Toronto. Can you imagine this, you’ll be able to see 1135 feet straight down to the ground from the 58 second journey to the top of the building. Oh, these glass floored elevators. They were the first of their kind when they were first installed. And how long ago 1994. So it’s been almost 30 years. And for those who do get queasy, the elevator operator can turn the floor into an opaque white surface, really with the flick of a switch. I would say that from the beginning. Yes, please. Turn the switch
Marcia Smith 17:24
The Twitch. Okay. Bagpipes, Bob, where did they originate?
Bob Smith 17:29
What country bag pipes? Let’s see now. I think of them in Scotland. I thought they were somewhere from the Middle East or something like why would you say that? I don’t I just remember reading that they were ancient and they came west through Europe, but I don’t know anything about it.
Marcia Smith 17:44
Yep. Okay. Well, they go all the way back to about 1000 BCE. Wow. in Samaria, which is Southern Iraqi.
Bob Smith 17:53
Yes. The Sumerian civilization. One of the first Wow, it’s kind of hard to imagine Iraqis walking around with bagpipes.
Marcia Smith 17:57
But nonetheless, they did. Anyway, from the Mideast. They found their way to Greece in Rome. And those rambling Romans are the ones who first used them in battle and marched themselves off to North Scotland, where they found a very welcoming home.
Bob Smith 18:13
I didn’t know that. So the Romans brought bagpipes to Scotland. That’s where they came from. Yeah. Wow. So that goes back to the very beginnings of British civilization.
Marcia Smith 18:23
To appreciate you waking me up in the morning with bagpipes. I’m going to get a an app that’s going to be the sound when
Bob Smith 18:27
That’d be awful to wake up to bagpipes. But when you think about it’s such a strange sound, right? Think of that your enemies have these weird sounding pipes and they when you hear those, you know, they’re on their way to you. It’d be scary as hell. Wow. Okay, another architecture question, Marcia. In 1930s. The Chrysler building was completed in Manhattan. That’s this beautiful art deco structure of it. It became the tallest building in the world. What building did it dethrone.
Marcia Smith 18:58
The Empire State Building? No, no, no.
Bob Smith 19:03
What? It dethroned the Eiffel Tower really? From 1889 to 1930. The Eiffel Tower was the world’s tallest structure. And that changed in 1930 with the Chrysler Building, which was first to reach over 1000 feet in height. 11 months after that the Empire State Building came Yeah, that was the 1931 and then that became the world’s tallest.
Marcia Smith 19:24
What’s the tallest one today? The Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
Bob Smith 19:28
That’s an amazing looking building. I don’t think I want to go that high though. That’s That’s awful.
Marcia Smith 19:33
It’s too much. Okay, my turn, my turn. What country Bob has the most unusual time zone?
Bob Smith 19:42
It has the most unusual time zone. Why would that be what would be unusual about a time zone? It’s an hour here an hour there?
Marcia Smith 19:48
It usually is. And in some countries, it’s a half hour. Oh, I didn’t know that. Yeah, but this is neither a half hour or an hour. How long is it?
Bob Smith 19:57
I don’t know.
Marcia Smith 20:00
are in Nepal, they have their time is divided by 45 minutes difference from everybody else. Why would they do that? Well, it deviates from the Coordinated Universal Time, which is the legal and scientific time by 45 minutes because of the meridian time that passes through their mountains of the Himalayas. So the countries around them, some of them which have that weird half hour time change, or the hour ones, they drive them nuts because they’re 45 minutes different. So it’s a 15 minute on both sides difference, but anyway, they’re proud of their unique timezone.
Bob Smith 20:38
It’s like Island time in the mountains. Yeah, well, they
Marcia Smith 20:41
call it Nepali stretch time. And they joke that it’s kind of a 15 minute grace period, in case they’re late for appointments. 45
Bob Smith 20:50
minutes instead of an hour. That doesn’t seem like that’s very helpful to the rest of the world. They’re
Marcia Smith 20:56
doing it scientifically. So the way it is, all right,
Bob Smith 20:59
you just mentioned where the world’s tallest building is. country by country. Where are the world’s top 10? Buildings? Can you give me a few of the countries? Well, Dubai, that’s the United Arab Emirates? Dubai. United
Marcia Smith 21:12
States, United States, someplace in Canada? No.
Bob Smith 21:16
The rest are all in Asia.
Marcia Smith 21:17
Are they okay? Shanghai, Hong Kong, China. Okay. Help me, okay.
Bob Smith 21:22
The top 10 tallest buildings in the world are in the United Arab Emirates. Second one is the Shanghai Tower in China. And from there you go to Saudi Arabia, South Korea, the US Taiwan. And then there are five other tallest buildings in the world in China, in China with only one tall building on the list in the United States. Wow. Amazing. And that one is the new One World Trade Center, sixth tallest building in the world. $6. And then you mentioned the Burj Khalifa that’s 2716 feet tall. And it has seven world’s records, including the world’s highest occupied floor and the tallest service elevator. How many floors? Do you think there are? 90 160?
Marcia Smith 22:09
I bet you they’re all apartments, people stacked up on top of each luxury
Bob Smith 22:12
residence hotels, bars, more than 1000 piece of artwork. The highlight on the 148th floor is a place called at the top, the highest observation deck on the planet. Amazing. Okay,
Marcia Smith 22:25
I’m gonna give you some nicknames for famous world landmarks. And you tell me what the landmark is. Okay. All right, the Iron Lady.
Bob Smith 22:34
That was Margaret Thatcher, but that must be I think that’s the Eiffel Tower. Yes.
Marcia Smith 22:39
The Mother Road.
Bob Smith 22:41
Is that the China the Silk Road from China. Now? Where’s the Mother Road? Is it in the United States? Yeah. Okay. That must be route 6660s. Exactly.
Marcia Smith 22:51
Okay. The Niagara of the West, the Niagara
Bob Smith 22:55
of the West. We’re talking another waterfall?
Marcia Smith 23:00
Yes. Okay. Where’s its Shoshone Falls in Idaho. Oh, it’s 45 feet taller than Niagara Falls. I had no idea that tall but it’s only 1000 feet wide compared to Niagara, which is 4000 feet wide. Wow. All right. This is my favorite. What landmark is called by locals. nuns in a scrum.
Bob Smith 23:24
nuns in a scrum. Is this a building? Yes. I think I’ve heard of this, but I can’t remember the building. I love it. It looks like white nuns heads, right? Something like that. Yeah. And they’re all kind of bent over.
Marcia Smith 23:35
Yeah. What is that? I’m gonna give you the country. Yeah, you’ll get it. They’ll bet. Australia.
Bob Smith 23:40
Oh, it’s the Sydney Opera House in a scrum. Yeah. Because it looks like they’re all got their heads bent down. Oh, isn’t that hilarious? It is very irreverent. All right. Another building question for you. Boy, you
Marcia Smith 23:53
really gotta
Bob Smith 23:54
get some buildings. Yeah. Okay, for nearly 700 years. 700 years. What were the tallest, most advanced buildings in the world?
Marcia Smith 24:05
While it had been the pyramids wondered? No, no. For
Bob Smith 24:10
700 years. They were the highest level of construction and planning in the world.
Marcia Smith 24:15
Don’t if it’s not the pyramids that can the Christian cathedrals
Bob Smith 24:18
of Europe. Oh, of course, they were the high tech buildings of their day, the Pyramid of Giza was only 481 feet, the largest structure in the world for over 3800 years until the construction of England’s Lincoln Cathedral in 1311 at 520 feet and from then on, from 1311 to 1884. For more than 670 years, the world’s tallest buildings were all churches.
Marcia Smith 24:46
I should have known that from Pillars of the Earth. Amazing and the Eiffel
Bob Smith 24:50
Tower was the first one that superseded those. Yeah, quite interesting.
Marcia Smith 24:54
Do you know about there’s a name for a single spaghetti noodle? No, I didn’t. Hey, there is according to Bon appetit. It’s called Spaghetti. Spaghetti. Oh, yeah, just for a single noodle. That’s what? It just reminds
Bob Smith 25:09
me of Spaghettios question a couple weeks ago. It’s so funny. Yeah, it’s just so so the spaghetti was a real name. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 25:17
I single spaghetti noodle. So if you’re on a real lean diet, pass the spaghetti. Oh, please.
Bob Smith 25:24
And then you have one noodle. Yeah, that’s all you’re going to. Okay, I got that. All right. All right. I have another question for you are on sports. Okay. What professional sports team had the first female play by play announcer first ever recently. Last year,
Marcia Smith 25:41
was it the NFL? No. Basketball? Yes. It was the next New York Knicks No, the Milwaukee Bucks. Really? Yeah.
Bob Smith 25:50
Did I miss that? Lisa Byington. She is the first full time female play by play broadcaster for a major men’s professional sports team. She really as a background, she was a sports anchor and reporter for Michigan TV stations. She’s done play by play for softball, field hockey, football, soccer, gymnastics, volleyball in college basketball, and Oh, yes. The very first woman to do play by play of men’s college basketball too. She did that for CBS and Turner Sports. That’s amazing. That’s a great goodness. That’s a great glass ceiling to break it. Yes, it is. And there was another milestone. There were two women calling the same pro ballgame for different networks. No kidding. Byington for the Milwaukee Bucks and Beth Molins. For ESPN. That was Sunday, October 8 2021. You go girls. All right. Okay, I guess that’s it for today. We want to thank Paul from Monterrey, California. Thank you, Paul. Yeah. And if you’d like to submit a question that you would like one of us to stump the other way you can do so by going to our website, the off ramp dot show going all the way down to contact us filling out the form there and telling us where you’re writing to us from we’d really appreciate that.
Marcia Smith 26:59
Okay. And now famous last words from a gentleman called Lord Beaverbrook, a British politician of the Conservative Party and also a newspaper proprietor, his famous last words were, this is my final word. It’s time for me to become an apprentice once more, I have not settled in which direction but somewhere sometime soon,
Bob Smith 27:22
that’s a big 30 that what they used to say 30 At the end,
Marcia Smith 27:26
that ever hashmark it could do either when your story was ended, so that everybody knew that was the end. That would have been funny. Just write out a hash mark on your forehead. Maybe that’s what I’ll do. And
Bob Smith 27:37
I’m off. I’m Bob Smith. I’m
Marcia Smith 27:39
Marcia Smith. Join us again
Bob Smith 27:40
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 Cedarburg Public Library Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
