165 Fanciful Trivia

Marcia Smith 0:00
What city has a giant baloney drop on New Year’s Eve,

Bob Smith 0:04
and why did Roman concrete last for 1000s of years? Well, modern concrete self destructs in a few decades. Answers to those and other questions coming up in this half hour of the off ramp with Bob and Marsha Smith, you

Unknown Speaker 0:19
Music.

Bob Smith 0:35
Welcome to the off ramp. A chance to slow down, steer clear of crazy and take a side road to sanity. Okay, Marcia, do you know what Opus chimanticium is? Say again, Opus chimanticium

Marcia Smith 0:50
Opus Tiki Okay, I’ll say creating a great piece of music in a tiki hut. There

Bob Smith 0:59
you go. Totally wrong. It’s the name the Romans gave to the concrete they used in building their temples and coliseums and roads throughout their empire. How

Marcia Smith 1:09
did I not know that so

Bob Smith 1:11
many of those things have survived 1000s of years? Why? Why? Well, there is new research about this. For years, historians believe the secret was volcanic ash from the Bay of Naples, because the Romans shipped that across their empire for construction to Africa and Middle East, everywhere they were building. Now researchers believe Roman concrete was more durable because it was designed to self heal. How does that work? They would heat the concrete mix up very hot, and they would add quick lime, which resulted in these chunks that you see sometimes in ancient Roman concrete, these chunks, when exposed to water, if cracks develop, these chunks then recrystallize and fill up the cracks. That’s crazy. They heal the concrete. How do they prove this? They produce samples of hot, mixed concrete that incorporated ancient formulations and deliberately cracked them, and then they ran water through the cracks, and within two weeks, the cracks had completely healed and the water couldn’t go through. So as a result, now this team is working to commercialize the modified cement material, which could mean higher quality, longer lasting concrete in the future. So maybe a better driveway Marsh. Wouldn’t that be nice? It would.

Marcia Smith 2:17
That’s pretty interesting. It

Bob Smith 2:19
is. The findings were published in the journal Science Advances. And our thanks to Robert P Rickman from Carbondale, Illinois, a listener, for turning us on to that story. Thank you, Robert, yes, sir.

Marcia Smith 2:30
Okay, Bob, what city has a giant piece of baloney drop on New Year’s Eve to bring in New York, dear.

Bob Smith 2:37
Baloney drop, see, I thought you were saying baloney drops, like chocolate drops, like, go to the, you know, cinema, like a box of baloney drops, please. But it’s not that,

Marcia Smith 2:47
okay. Oh, that would be discussed. So

Bob Smith 2:49
this is a big container. What is it? As it’s

Marcia Smith 2:52
100 pounds, Bob. It’s a six foot, 100 pound piece of meat. Geez. That has been a fixture in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, New Year’s for over 25 years. So

Bob Smith 3:04
this is a tradition of the past quarter century. Yes, for some reason they started dropping baloney. Well,

Marcia Smith 3:08
Lebanon Bob, in case you didn’t know, this is renowned for its Baloney, and it was first pioneered by the Pennsylvania Dutch. So the town’s meat based tradition kind of makes sense. Okay? Local baloney maker. Coots town bologna made 100 pound, six foot long piece of meat for the inaugural celebration, and it’s been a permanent fixture of New Year’s Eve ever since. Not

Bob Smith 3:30
the same piece of baloney, but new baloney every year.

Marcia Smith 3:33
I don’t have that information, dear God.

Bob Smith 3:36
Okay, let’s talk about Turkey Marsh. Let’s talk turkey. Let’s talk turkey the country. And if you start seeing and hearing a new name for the country, Turkey, it’s no accident. The US Board on Geographic Names has approved a new preferred spelling and pronunciation for the country. I’ll say this like Prince previously known as Turkey. The new spelling is t, u, r, k, i, y, E, yeah, and the new pronunciation is

Marcia Smith 4:02
Turkey, Turkey. Turkey is more accurate. That is okay.

Bob Smith 4:06
Those will now be used in diplomatic settings and communications by the US State Department. So you’ll be hearing those on news reports too. You

Marcia Smith 4:15
know, people request this change the country

Bob Smith 4:17
did yeah, yeah. The New York Times reports the Turks have used Turkey and the t, u, r, k, i, y, e spelling since the country’s founding in 1923 so it’s just been ignored. But President Erdogan opposes the anglicized name the West has used for his country for more than a century, and he’s pushing for the globe to drop it. And since every country deserves to choose its own name, we’re adopting it

Marcia Smith 4:40
too. All right, Bob, what is the infamous Voynich Manuscript?

Bob Smith 4:45
The Voynich manuscript, yeah.

Marcia Smith 4:48
You ever hear of it? How

Bob Smith 4:48
do you spell that?

Marcia Smith 4:49
V, o, y, N, I, C, H manuscript?

Bob Smith 4:53
No, I never heard of the Voynich Manuscript. It’s an early 15th century

Marcia Smith 4:57
document kept at Yale. University and is known as the world’s most mysterious book. Oh, why is that? Why is

Bob Smith 5:07
that? Marcia? It came to

Marcia Smith 5:08
light in 1912 after Wilfred Voynich, a rare books dealer in London, bought the manuscript in Italy. It had earlier belonged to the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf tomb, but since 1969 Bob. The manuscript has been kept in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale. What’s unusual about this man? Nobody can crack the code. Nobody knows what it says. Any attempts to decipher the unique text, which is made up of a mixture of handwritten letters, Latin letters, Arabic numbers and unknown characters, have so far failed. Everybody’s tried to crack it from World War One decoders and World War Two. There’s pictures too. They can’t figure out them. So it’s a mystery. It is a big mystery. There’s zodiac symbols, there’s plants floating heads, naked women, everything you’d want. Oh, I’m interested. Astronomical, yeah, they just can’t figure out the language. Some have even speculated that the whole thing could be a hoax. Could be a hoax, but others say nay. Nay never meaning. Well, speaking

Bob Smith 6:11
of ancient things, here’s a question, as the world celebrates the 100th anniversary of the discovery of King Tut’s tomb, how did King Tut once live in the White House,

Marcia Smith 6:23
his ashes. You mean, his parts, his, something, his The question is, I said the question very clearly, yeah, you’re making a face it. Oh, my king, very smart. Once lived in the White House. Did his mummified remains pass through? No, okay. How

Bob Smith 6:38
he was a presidential dog? Yeah, the 20th century, King Tut was a Belgium police dog, a four legged campaigner credited with helping Herbert Hoover win the 1928 presidential election. And according to National Geographic, during his year, he was only at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for a year. King Tut stuck to his police dog roots, often accompanying the White House policemen on their nightly rounds, and apparently he continued to remain top dog in what was described as an endless rotating menagerie of animals given to President Hoover by foreign dignitaries and political friends. They included Irish Wolfhounds, a possum and a pair of alligators. But King tuck was unquestionably Mr. Hoover’s favorite dog.

Marcia Smith 7:24
Good to know. Good to know. Mr. Smith Yes, the Library of Congress has a piece of wedding cake from the 1800s whose is it? Oh,

Bob Smith 7:33
that must be Queen Victoria’s Oh, no, no. Oh, I think there are pieces of Queen Victoria’s cake around,

Marcia Smith 7:39
not in the Library of Congress. Well, it could be in the Smithsonian because it was one of the first modern cakes, yes, and it was a huge

Bob Smith 7:46
thing. So this must be the wedding cake of Grover Cleveland.

Marcia Smith 7:50
Is it? No, okay, who? Tom Thumb. Oh, no kidding. Tom Thumb, we talked about him once before, sure he was the super small guy, 40 inches tall, real name Charles Stanton, and he married the queen of beauty. They called her Lavinia Warren, and she, too was about the size of Tom Thumb. She was a small person too. Yes, and their wedding attracted 1000s of onlookers trying to get a glimpse of the couple. And so P, T Barnum, who employed both these people made a fortune with them. Sold tickets to the wedding, 1000s of tickets, and he allowed guests to meet the pair in the receiving line. And ladies were handed a box slice of brandy soaked wedding fruit cake. Brandy soaked. Wow, that sounds good. Brandy soaked wedding fruit cake on their way out, apparently one was saved for the Library of Congress, okay, all right, didn’t see that coming.

Bob Smith 8:46
All right. Marsh, I’ve got a question for you. Which of these countries has no official language? Oh, yeah, no official language. Iceland, Costa Rica, the UK, the United States, or Switzerland? Well, that’s curious. Of those countries which has no official say, Iceland, Iceland has no official language. Okay, why would you

Marcia Smith 9:06
say that? Because I can’t think of one.

Bob Smith 9:09
Well, guess what? It’s the United States. Really. We have no official language. That’s half the countries of the world have an official language. The United States isn’t one of them. Why? Well, they’ve had debates about this, over whether we need an official language, going all the way back to 1750 because back then, Congress considered publishing US laws in English and German, because there were so many German people living here, but they decided not to. Some states have adopted an official language, but the United States as a whole has never declared an official primary language. Now, the definition of official language is one that is specifically referenced in the constitution of the country or the territory. There is none referenced in ours. Okay. Now there are two states that are officially bilingual which ones have any idea. Here’s a hint they both recognize and in. Indigenous language and English. Here are choices, okay, okay? California and Washington, New Mexico and Louisiana, Texas and Minnesota, or Hawaii and South Dakota, two of those states, I’ll

Marcia Smith 10:13
say Hawaii and South Dakota, that they are officially bilingual. Yeah, you’re right. Really, yeah,

Bob Smith 10:19
all right. In 1978 the Hawaiian state constitution made both English and Hawaiian the official languages, and in 2019 the South Dakota legislature passed a bill recognizing the indigenous language of the osite Sako in commonly known as the Sioux as an official language. That’s a lot easier, but those are the only two states that have, uh huh, bilingual official languages.

Marcia Smith 10:44
All right. Very cool. Bob, what bird is comparable to the chimpanzee for its intelligence?

Bob Smith 10:51
There’s a bird as smart as a chimpanzee, yeah. Which chimpanzees

Marcia Smith 10:54
are considered the most intelligent of the animal kingdom? Okay,

Bob Smith 10:58
I think it’s isn’t like a crow, because we were talking about that before. How crows are very intelligent.

Unknown Speaker 11:03
Close,

Bob Smith 11:04
okay, what a black bird?

Unknown Speaker 11:06
Close. What

Bob Smith 11:07
was it? Raven? Ravens? Okay.

Marcia Smith 11:09
Ravens are smart, really smart. Studies have shown that they can use tools, remember human faces, and even plan for the future. They

Bob Smith 11:18
have Raven plans. Yes, we have a five year plan, yeah,

Marcia Smith 11:22
and every time I plan, get more worms. Edgar. Edgar, Allan Poe’s favorite birds have demonstrated a tendency to both favorite people who show them kindness and hold grudges against those who treat them poorly. Oh, dear. No kidding. According to scientists, they can last for years. Whoa, Raven. Get a raven angry at you. That’s right. Raven intelligence is comparable in some cases, to that of chimpanzees, which are among the smartest of the animal kingdom. What’s more, other members of the corvid family, that’s what they are, namely, crows, jays and magpies, which you mentioned, yeah, have displayed exceptional intelligence as well. Yes. And I bet you didn’t know they mate for life, okay? And ravens do, yeah, okay, monogamous. And here’s one you’ll never get. What is a group of ravens called?

Bob Smith 12:12
Oh, what’s a group all these different names? It’s not a rage or anything. Is the rage of ravens? It’s

Marcia Smith 12:18
just weird birds

Bob Smith 12:20
wings. It’s the wing now,

Marcia Smith 12:22
okay, what is it? A group of ravens is called an unkindness.

Bob Smith 12:30
To me, that’s silly. Comes an

Marcia Smith 12:31
unkindness of ravens. That’s

Bob Smith 12:33
very interesting, an unkindness. Okay, here’s one for you. This is from the history books. What famous ruler always wanted to be a singer, and after coming to power, locked audiences into auditoriums to make them listen to him sing. That’s

Marcia Smith 12:48
not Fidel Castro. No, it’s not Fidel Castro, but it was he wanted to be a baseball player, okay, Hitler.

Bob Smith 12:55
No, not Hitler. Mussolini, not Mussolini. This goes way back Nero. Nero, that’s who it was. After becoming emperor of Rome, he wanted to sing in public. He took lessons in Rome. He made his debut in Naples, where an earth tremor shook the theater, and he lost some of his audience because of that. So did they die? No, because they were scared. No. So at later performances, he had the gates locked so nobody could leave while he was on stage. Wow. Some women even gave birth in the stands. Others had problems too, in just not well, not wanting to be there. So some men leaped over the walls. Three citizens tricked guards into letting them through an exit, one pretending to be dead, the other, the other two carried him out. So all three of them got out.

Marcia Smith 13:43
He was a bit, yeah, bullish. I mean, didn’t he fiddle while Rome burned? Yes,

Bob Smith 13:48
he was very self absorbed. I think so. No idea, no, that’s from the Isaac Asimov book effect. So apparently Nero was, he was a big egomaniac, really.

Marcia Smith 13:58
I it sounds like it, come. Hear me sing. You must hear me sing. Hear me fiddle. Hear me sing. Okay, Bob, in what country would you find a floating airport built on a human made land mass?

Bob Smith 14:12
A floating Airport? This is not Hong Kong’s airport, which is on an island. It’s not there. What part of the world is it? In Japan? Oh, really. Okay, I don’t know the answer to this one,

Marcia Smith 14:21
the floating airport of Kansai, K, a, n, s, a, i, it’s considered an engineering marvel. It serves the cities of Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe and kanzai, and it was the first airport built on entirely human made land mass. Construction began in 1987 it’s 2.5 miles long. Wow. It’s connected to the mainland by a Six Mile Bridge.

Bob Smith 14:48
Wait a minute, a Six Mile Bridge, which it by

Marcia Smith 14:51
itself, cost a billion. Oh, my God. The entire project was more than 20 billion. It’s one of the busiest airports in Japan today. Wow.

Bob Smith 15:00
Okay, let’s go back to language Marcia. I have another question about a US state. Which US state has 20 official indigenous languages, plus English? Which state one state has 20? Location it is in the north, the

Marcia Smith 15:18
North, the north of the United States? United States? I will say, I don’t know. I’ll say, Minnesota. Well,

Bob Smith 15:27
think about it a little bit now, where would there possibly be so many different peoples that you would New York? 20 languages? New York? No, no, no. Way up north. Way up, way up. No.

Marcia Smith 15:38
Like Canada? No, no, you’re talking us. State, us. State, way up north. Come on, Alaska. Alaska

Bob Smith 15:46
in 2014 the state gave 20 indigenous languages co official status with English, okay, all these Eskimo and Indian tribes and

Marcia Smith 15:57
so forth. I knew that somewhere in the recesses of my brain well, but

Bob Smith 16:01
you didn’t get it. Okay,

Marcia Smith 16:03
I’m not done with airports, Bob, I got a couple more ready. I’m

Bob Smith 16:06
not done with languages. Marcia, okay, but let’s wait and take a break and we’ll be back with more after this message. Okay, you’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith, Okay, we’re back today with questions on languages and on. What was that? Airport? Airports,

Marcia Smith 16:23
okay, more than that. Oh,

Bob Smith 16:25
we got a lot of other stuff. Ravens, we

Marcia Smith 16:27
got everything. Okay. Bob, what airport in the world features skateboarding and surfing activities for travelers. Oh,

Bob Smith 16:35
you mean as a way to be occupied? Well, airport, yeah, while you’re waiting surf, is it in the United States by a chance? No, okay. Is it someplace like Dubai or something like that?

Marcia Smith 16:46
That’s what I would have gone there. But no, it’s Munich, really? Yeah, in addition to a skate park and a 33 foot indoor wave pool, can you believe that? Wow, we just have ping pong in Milwaukee. The airport has air brow. It’s a Bavarian Brewery. That’s great. The world’s first airport brewery. During the holiday season, the airport also transforms into a Christmas market, complete with indoor ice skating rink and more than 450 beautifully decorated trees. Wow,

Bob Smith 17:16
that’s quite the place. Yeah, that’s

Marcia Smith 17:18
Munich. Have you ever been there? No, no, I never either. I’d like to go, just for the airport, just

Bob Smith 17:22
to see if we can get if we can get a flight that

Marcia Smith 17:23
goes through there. Yeah, kill some time.

Bob Smith 17:26
All right, more questions on languages, and this is sign language. Which of these countries recognizes sign language as an official language? I’ll give you the names, all right, Mexico, the United States, Australia, France or Peru.

Marcia Smith 17:40
I’ll say United States, you’re wrong. Marcia, then I’ll say Australia,

Bob Smith 17:44
you’re wrong again. Marcia, I’ll say, what were the other choices? France, Peru and Mexico? I’ll

Marcia Smith 17:49
say France wrong. Marcia,

Bob Smith 17:52
Mike it’s either Peru or Mexico. Marcia,

Marcia Smith 17:55
I’ll say, Peru,

Bob Smith 17:56
no, you’re wrong. Marcia, wow, how wrong can you be apparently, it’s Mexico in North America. Mexico is the only country that considers sign language, Mexican Sign Language, to be an official language. But worldwide, how many countries in total recognize sign languages as official languages? How many countries, I’ll

Marcia Smith 18:16
say 2641

Bob Smith 18:19
Okay, 41 countries recognize sign language with full legal distinction. There are an estimated 72 million deaf people in the world, and most languages have their own variation of sign language, such as the American Sign Language, ASL or Chinese sign language, but these are all recognized in many of these countries as official languages, in addition to the spoken language as well. Okay,

Marcia Smith 18:43
okay, all right, here’s my last airport Question of the day. Okay, I bet you’re worried about that. What us airport operates only 13 days a year.

Bob Smith 18:55
13 days a year. Is that because of weather? Nope. Is that because of where

Marcia Smith 19:02
it is? No, it’s because of something that happens in this location. So something

Bob Smith 19:06
is going on there 13 days a year. Oh, something is going on 13 days. Oh, is that the airport at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where they have the one, the big air show there? Yeah, no, okay. Well, what is it? Okay,

Marcia Smith 19:17
it is Black Rock City Municipal Airport in Nevada. It has an FAA approved landing strip built to serve the annual Burning Man festival. Oh, have you ever heard of that? Yes, I have. Yeah. It’s a 6000 foot runway built on a dry, Alkali Lake bed to accommodate 70,000 people that fly in or drive in. Wow, isn’t that something show huh? Yeah, tell me what you think the Burning Man festival is. Well, it’s like

Bob Smith 19:45
a mythical creature. They show that they set fire to. It’s a big burning creature, big puppet, yeah? And then they have bands, and they have all kinds of other things there, I believe, art festivals and so forth.

Marcia Smith 19:55
It’s like a tribute to art, okay? Quote, it’s one of the most famous events on the. Planet,

Bob Smith 20:00
yeah, I guess it is. A lot of these people

Marcia Smith 20:03
are rich. The tickets are over $400 Oh my. And certain types of celebrities who set up their campers. They even create high end neighborhoods, okay, everybody from Katy Perry to Jeff Bezos enjoy going to this. Oh, there’s

Speaker 1 20:19
all kinds of different subcultures. That’s right. Okay. And another question on languages, how many countries in Europe have German as the official language? I’ll give you a choice in Europe. In Europe, okay? Is it six countries, 15 countries, three countries or one country? How many countries in Europe have German as their official language six, that’s right. And you know what? They are, no in order, in alphabetical order, what are the answers? I’m sorry that you have to answer that too. Okay. They are Austria, Belgium, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Switzerland, and they all claim German as their official one surprises me. Well, parts of Switzerland speak Italian, French and German. So there are 74 million German speakers in the world. The second largest German speaking population resides next door in Austria. So Austria and Germany have most of the people who speak German in the entire world. Yeah. All right. You got a question on elephants?

Marcia Smith 21:20
Approximately Bob. How many muscles and tendons do you think are in an elephant’s trunk? Oh,

Bob Smith 21:26
that’s a good question, because there’s got to be tons of them there for all the way down for that trunk to move and everything and ripple.

Marcia Smith 21:34
Well, your thinking is correct. I bet

Bob Smith 21:36
there’s like 1000 muscles.

Marcia Smith 21:38
I’ll bet you’re right. Well, you’re wrong. Oh, 40,000 40,000 and tendons holy in the child, that makes it very strong and flexible, allowing an elephant to pluck a delicate flower or lift a huge dog, holy

Bob Smith 21:54
cow,

Marcia Smith 21:55
the trunk is used for touching, grasping, sucking, spraying, smelling and striking.

Bob Smith 22:00
That’s striking and slamming, it needs all

Marcia Smith 22:02
40,000 of those muscles and tendons. Can

Bob Smith 22:05
you believe that 40,000 muscles and tendons for everything that’s got to be one of the most highly evolved creatures in the world with that kind of musculature? You know? I mean, it’s amazing.

Marcia Smith 22:18
Yeah? Really? Yeah.

Bob Smith 22:19
Wow. Good question. Thank you. Bob, okay, word origins? Marshall, oh,

Marcia Smith 22:23
I was just gonna do one. Okay, where

Bob Smith 22:25
did the word hamburgers come from? From Hamburg, Germany. That’s right. That’s exactly right. Yeah. Germans came to America. They brought their popular hamburg steak, is what they called it. And there’s their cheap patties mixed with spices made famous by that seaside town. That’s where it came from, and that originated in Europe in the 1400s minced beef. They called it, yeah. One more lesbianism. Where does that term comes from? Lesbianism

Marcia Smith 22:50
from Lebanon. No, don’t know, the

Bob Smith 22:55
Greek island of Lesbos, L, E, S, B, O, S, okay. Yeah. That, of course, is a term used to describe gay women in the 1890s originally, that’s where the ancient poet Sappho lived with and wrote about her love for a group of women.

Marcia Smith 23:09
Well, that’s very interesting. Okay, I have a feeling you might get this. I’m not a fan of slapstick comedy. Bob as you know, and slapstick is what kind of a farcical physical physical comedy. Yeah, very broad humor. So what did the term slapstick originate because

Bob Smith 23:26
of the slapping of, you know, the characters? Ah, no, on stage, no, the fact that people would physically hit one another. No, that was the answer. Here’s my next question, okay, what’s the answer?

Marcia Smith 23:37
Desperate to be right, aren’t you?

Bob Smith 23:39
What is the answer? It actually

Marcia Smith 23:40
came from 1896 they had a device consisting of two sticks fastened together so as to slap loudly when a clown or actor hit somebody with it. Oh, so there was a slap stick, no kidding, and it was used to make a sound effect off stage. So that’s where it came from like

Bob Smith 24:00
a rim shot, almost exactly a slapstick so that was like a prop you depended on to help people or actor hits. I’ll be darn Okay. More language questions. Marcia, one South American country, has English as its official language. Only one in South America has English as its official language. Here’s a hint. It once belonged to Great Britain. Now these are the names of the countries. Is it Brazil, Guiana, Argentina or Chile? Guyana? Guyana, because that used to be known as British Guyana. British Guyana, you don’t say it as though you know what I’m saying. It is. It was British. Yeah, for years it was British guyan. It’s on the northern coast of South America and one of the smallest countries too. But it gained its independence in 1966 though its official language is English, and the only country in South America where that’s the case, the majority of the population speaks Guyanese Creole. That’s the other language. Yeah, that’s interesting. Okay, and one more language question.

Unknown Speaker 24:59
Question, what

Speaker 1 25:00
language is an official language in 29 countries on five continents, English? No, it’s not English. That was going to be my hint. My hint is, it’s not English. I’ll say these are the choices, okay, Hindi, Arabic, French or Chinese. It’s,

Marcia Smith 25:20
I have to think it’s French. Why is that? Because I couldn’t possibly speak any of the other

Bob Smith 25:28
Oh, I see all of your answers are based on your personal experience, as it should be. Well, it is French. French is spoken far and wide thanks to the French colonial history, and also, French was often the official diplomatic language in many countries. So today, French is an official or CO official language in 29 countries on five continents. And in addition to proper French, there are also numerous French based languages like Haitian Creole.

Marcia Smith 25:56
I was going to say Haiti Canada, French is very prominent. Yeah. Okay, well, bone swab, Bob, I’m going to ready for my quote. Yes, okay. It’s from E V Lucas. He said, I have noticed that the people who are late are often so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them.

Bob Smith 26:16
That kind of observation doesn’t really seem to take a

Speaker 2 26:18
lot of profundity. No. Everybody

Speaker 1 26:22
else is ticked that you’re not there. Of course. Yes, that’s it. That’s it. I’ll wrap things up with a funny piece of trivia. Then, okay, okay, a Spanish king once employed a servant to be an anthem. Man, what did he do?

Marcia Smith 26:37
Say it again.

Bob Smith 26:38
A Spanish king once employed a servant to be an anthem man. What did he do? He

Marcia Smith 26:44
would, he’d sing to the king. When he got up in the morning, he had a little I don’t

Bob Smith 26:53
know, tell me. King Alfonso, who reigned in Spain from 1886 to 1931 was tone deaf. So tone deaf, he couldn’t even recognize the Spanish National Anthem, so he hired a servant as an anthem, man whose sole duty was to tell the king, stand up, stand up whenever the national anthem was played. Really it was his anthem. Man, because the king couldn’t recognize music when he heard it.

Marcia Smith 27:18
Is that some kind of disease? Isn’t that weird? You couldn’t if it’s

Bob Smith 27:21
just a funny fact, Marcia,

Marcia Smith 27:25
indeed, it is. Bob. Okay, thank you for sharing.

Bob Smith 27:27
Well, that’s it for today. I’m Bob Smith.

Marcia Smith 27:29
I’m Marcia Smith. Join us again when

Bob Smith 27:31
we return next week with more fun 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, the.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai