Where in the world can you find a boiling river? And why do we call exercise weights dumb bells? Hear the Off Ramp Trivia Podcast with Bob & Marcia Smith. (Photo – stmu scholars)
Bob and Marcia discuss various trivia, including the boiling River Chennai Tembeshka in Peru, the origin of the term “dumbbell” from medieval England, and the oldest civilization identified as Aboriginal Australians. They explore the Panama Canal’s $150,000 average toll and the unique flora and fauna of Australia. They delve into historical figures like King Tut’s gold-inlaid coffin and the Earl of Carnarvon’s connection to Downton Abbey. They also cover human body facts, such as elephant hearts beating slower than mice, and the history of mail delivery in the U.S. The conversation concludes with trivia about the coldest inhabited place, Oymyakon, Russia, and the first Grammy Awards in 1959.
Outline
Boiling River and Dumbbell Origins
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the location of a boiling river, leading to a discussion about Yellowstone, Australia, Indonesia, Peru, and the correct answer being the Peruvian Amazon jungle.
- Marcia Smith inquires about the origin of the term “dumbbell,” and Bob explains its history, tracing it back to the Middle Ages in Canterbury, England, where novices used heavyweights to practice ringing church bells.
- Bob shares a story about an English pub, “Ye Old Trip to Jerusalem,” claimed to be the oldest in England, with a history dating back to 1189.
- Marcia Smith mentions the first known person whose name we know, Kushim from Iraq, who recorded barley storage on a 5000-year-old clay tablet.
Additional Senses and Oldest Civilization
- Bob Smith introduces the concept of additional senses like equilibrioception (balance), nociception (pain), thermoception (temperature change), and proprioception (sense of self-movement).
- Marcia Smith and Bob discuss the oldest civilization, with a DNA study by Cambridge University identifying Aboriginal Australians as the oldest, dating back 50,000 years.
- Bob asks about the U.S. state flag with the Union Jack, and Marcia Smith correctly identifies Hawaii as the state with this distinction.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the high tolls for ships passing through the Panama Canal, with the average toll being $150,000 and the record holder being the MOL Benefactor at $829,400.
Human Body Trivia and Unique Flora
- Bob Smith asks about the amount of mucus humans swallow daily, and Marcia Smith humorously guesses a quart.
- Bob shares a trivia fact that men find the smell of women’s tears unattractive, according to studies.
- Marcia Smith correctly identifies Australia as the country with around 80% unique flora and fauna, including koalas, kangaroos, and venomous snakes.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the nickname “Malibu of the Midwest” for Sheboygan, Wisconsin, due to its surfing culture and the annual Dairyland Surf Classic.
King Tut’s Coffin and Limelight Origin
- Bob Smith asks about the unusual features of King Tut’s coffin, and Marcia Smith correctly states it was inlaid with gold and rubies, weighing 243 pounds.
- Bob explains the origin of the term “limelight” from the early days of theater, where lime was added to gas lamps to make them more intense.
- Marcia Smith and Bob discuss the unique dagger found with King Tut, made of iron believed to have come from a meteorite.
- Bob connects Downton Abbey to King Tut through the Earl of Carnarvon, who funded the archeological excavations.
Animal Heart Rates and Leap Day History
- Marcia Smith explains that larger animals have slower heart rates than smaller animals, with elephants beating 25 to 35 times per minute compared to mice at 450 to 750 beats per minute.
- Bob Smith asks about the introduction of Leap Day to the calendar, and Marcia Smith correctly identifies Julius Caesar as the person who introduced it.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the mathematical abilities of ancient people and their impressive knowledge of the solar calendar.
- Marcia Smith shares that English poet John Milton coined more new English words than anyone else, with 630 new words and phrases, including “debauchery” and “pandemonium.”
Mail Delivery and Grammy Awards
- Bob Smith asks about the frequency of mail deliveries in the past, and Marcia Smith recalls that some cities had up to seven deliveries per day in 1905.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the introduction of daily mail delivery in the U.S. during the Civil War in 1863.
- Marcia Smith shares that the first Grammy Awards were given out in 1959, with Domenico Modugno winning for his song “Volare.”
- Bob and Marcia reflect on the early Grammy Awards, noting that rock artists were often overlooked, and the awards were seen as a popularity contest among the record industry.
Coldest Inhabited Place and Final Thoughts
- Marcia Smith identifies Oymyakon, Russia, as the coldest inhabited place on Earth, with winter temperatures often around 45 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.
- Bob Smith shares a quote by Jan Chozen Bays about the negative impact of negative news and the benefits of silence, beauty, and loving friendship.
- Marcia Smith ends with a humorous quote from Winnie the Pooh about doing nothing.
- Bob and Marcia invite listeners to contribute to the show and provide contact information for submitting interesting facts.
Bob Smith 0:00
Where in the world can you find a boiling River,
Marcia Smith 0:04
and why do we call an exercising weight a dumbbell? Answers
Bob Smith 0:08
to those and other questions coming up in this episode of the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith, you
Music. Welcome to the off ramp. A chance to slow down, steer clear of crazy, not always, not always, no, no, not always, and sometimes take a side road to sanity. Well, where in the world can you find a boiling River? Marsha, yeah, I
Marcia Smith 0:46
know there are boiling you know, little ponds or sinkholes or places you can jump into, but a whole river, yeah, you
Bob Smith 0:54
got things like that at Yellowstone, for instance, right, right, right. Not a boiling River.
Marcia Smith 0:59
Let’s take a canoe ride down the boiling river today, honey. But let me just guess I will say, Australia.
Bob Smith 1:06
Okay, I was gonna give you some choices, choices, Australia, Indonesia, Peru or Saudi Arabia.
Marcia Smith 1:14
Oh, golly. I’ll say, well, Indonesia sounds more exotic than Australia. Well,
Bob Smith 1:19
no, it’s not that. It’s
Marcia Smith 1:21
Australia. No, it’s
Bob Smith 1:22
not. It’s not that, okay, it’s in Peru. Yes, it’s called Chennai, timiska, which is a legendary river that’s so hot the waters kill anything that fall into it, really, including people, I assume, yeah, and animals. It’s the world’s largest thermal River, and it’s located in the Peruvian Amazon jungle. How big is it? It’s only about four miles long. The part that’s boiling, and it’s mystified scientists for years, because boiling or near boiling, rivers in other parts of the world are mostly near volcanos, but the nearest volcano to this place is 400 miles away, so they’ve now determined it’s fed by hot springs, some of which are actually hotter than 212 degrees Fahrenheit. Wow, the river runs for about four miles over several thermal waterfalls, creating this unique natural phenomenon. And yes, the banks of the river are littered by the bodies of small animals unlucky enough to fall in. So again, the river is called Chennai. Tempeshka, okay,
Marcia Smith 2:23
in Peru. All right, had no idea. Okay, why do we call an exercising weight a dumbbell? Dumbbell?
Bob Smith 2:30
I always thought that was because of people who used to frequent gyms. Uh huh.
Marcia Smith 2:35
No, it’s much more interesting than that. Okay, at Canterbury, England, we’re going back to the Middle Ages. Bob, it took 24 men to ring those very large church bells. Okay, yes, okay. To do that, you had to build up your strength and develop skills. And novices used a silent or dumbbell without a dog in it to practice. It was a heavyweight suspended by a rope from a pulley on a scaffold, and people who wanted to build up their physiques soon copied with dumb bells of their own. So they were bells without the ringers. Yeah. Well, that’s pretty interesting. Yeah, it took 24 guys to ring the bell. That
Bob Smith 3:14
is amazing, yeah, and that’s in merry old England, and that’s
Marcia Smith 3:17
how we got the name dumb bell. Well, speaking of England, I
Bob Smith 3:21
just recently got this from my English cousin Paul Cupid. Now, Paul is the guy who alerted us to the ye old fighting cocks in St Albans, England. That was a pub that recently closed. They claimed they’d been in business for 1200 29 years. Remember that? Yes, yes, I do. Recently that claim was challenged. But he just told me about a new place. He said, this is another pub that lays claim to being the oldest in England. Bob, I was at university in Nottingham, and spent many an hour in this pub. This place is called, ye old trip to Jerusalem. This supposedly goes back to 1189, when King Richard the Lionhearted and his men gathered there before they journey to Jerusalem for the Crusades.
Marcia Smith 4:04
Amazing stop here. Throw in a cheeseburger. It
Bob Smith 4:07
was also said to be a local hideout for Robin Hood. It’s called ye old trip to Jerusalem. Where is that? This is in Nottingham, England. Supposedly goes back to 1189, gosh,
Marcia Smith 4:18
I always laughed when we came back from England to our historic town here, Cedarburg, which is everything is from the 1800s nothing
Bob Smith 4:26
was 200 years old here. Yeah, that’s right, different
Marcia Smith 4:29
definition of historic. Okay, Bob, the first person in history whose name we know may have been a guy named Kum, K, U, S, H, I m from Iraq. Okay, so who was he?
Bob Smith 4:44
Kushim Kusum. Kusum from Iraq,
Marcia Smith 4:48
in what was then, Iraq. Okay,
Bob Smith 4:49
so Iraq goes back to the Sumerian civilization and all of that. He was a king. He was a Crown Prince. Okay,
Marcia Smith 4:55
that’s where that the brain goes. It’s like an unwritten rule that. Everyday people’s stories are lost. That’s right, Bucha was an accountant. Okay,
Bob Smith 5:06
so his name is on something apparently, 5000
Marcia Smith 5:08
years ago, he was in charge of the barley count, and he signed this 5000 year old clay tablet his name. And some think that’s not his name, that’s actually the name for accountant. Oh, I see the guy who kept tabs on on all the barley bales going in and out. But anyway, that’s it. Cushion. He recorded barley storage.
Bob Smith 5:30
Basically a bureaucrat. His job was record keeping. Yeah, cushion. Cushion. Wonder what cushion did in his spare time? Yeah,
Marcia Smith 5:38
well, that’s, I imagine that took up a lot of his time,
Bob Smith 5:42
you’re too serious. I know I all right, all right. Marcia, I have some nerdy questions here. Okay, what are equilibrio exception, nociception, thermoception and proprioception, which is also known as kinesthesia. What
Marcia Smith 5:59
are these terms? Oh, my God.
Unknown Speaker 6:03
What are these? James mentioned?
Marcia Smith 6:06
Well, different states of mind. There
Bob Smith 6:09
are five additional senses that scientists say we have, really hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch. Those are the five that we normally think of. Yeah, but scientists say we also have equilibrioception. Do you know what that is? You
Marcia Smith 6:24
know when you’re out of balance, that’s it. That’s right. Sense of
Bob Smith 6:27
balance. Very good. Nociception,
Marcia Smith 6:32
no idea at all of the surroundings. No. It’s
Bob Smith 6:35
a sense of pain. Oh. This one is called kinesthesia, or proprioception. This is sometimes called the sixth sense, yeah, the unknown, ability to sense things, sense of self, movement. And then there is thermoception, temperature change. Very good. Uh huh, yeah. So those are considered additional senses that we have. And I bet it goes beyond that too. Oh
Marcia Smith 6:58
yeah, beyond the big five. Okay, Bob, where will you find the oldest civilization in the world,
Bob Smith 7:04
the cradle of civilization that would be in Mesopotamia? No,
Marcia Smith 7:09
uh huh. No, no, no,
Bob Smith 7:12
not anymore. No. Where do they think it is in
Marcia Smith 7:14
2016 an extensive DNA study by Cambridge University deduced that Aboriginal Australians are the world’s oldest civilization, really. Yeah, indigenous Australian and pop open ancestral groups migrated to prehistoric subcontinent in present day Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania about 50,000 years ago, 50,000
Bob Smith 7:39
years ago. That’s a long time. You are in awe of that number. 50,000
Marcia Smith 7:45
years ago, eventually, rising sea levels caused the separation of the islands and forced the Aboriginal peoples into genetic isolation that developed into unique communities. So they’re considered, now, in this day and age, the oldest civilization. Well,
Bob Smith 8:00
I didn’t know that. Now you do. Were there palaces and things like that, huh? And civilization? Huh? Okay, what us? State’s state flag has the Union Jack in the top left corner?
Marcia Smith 8:14
Really? Yeah, have. I’ve never, gosh, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that. I haven’t either, is it? And we’ve been there we have, yes,
Bob Smith 8:23
I’ll give you a choice, okay, okay, Massachusetts, New York, Alaska or Hawaii. I’ll say New York, that makes sense. But no, no, it’s not. It’s Hawaii, really, yeah, that is a mark of the Royal Navy’s historic relationship with the Hawaiian Kingdom, which began in 1795 when the British explorer Captain James Cook and King camellia met. Okay, but I was surprised that Hawaii has the only flag of the US flags with a Union Jack in it, and it dates back to Captain Cook.
Marcia Smith 8:59
Well, that is a surprise. And so is this, what do you think, Bob, is the average toll for the average ship traveling through the Panama Canal?
Bob Smith 9:08
Oh, that’s interesting. I never thought of how much that would cost. It’s like toll booths going
Marcia Smith 9:12
into Illinois, those
Bob Smith 9:15
Yes, on the Illinois or the New York Thruway or something like that. Yeah. Huh, okay, uh, is that like $1,000 is it in the 1000s of Yes, it is okay. So let’s say $10,000
Marcia Smith 9:27
that’s a lot, but the average toll is $150,000 Oh, my goodness, on average, it takes around eight to 10 hours for a ship to travel through the Panama Canal, as opposed to two weeks if it made the journey around Cape Horn
Bob Smith 9:42
at the edge of South America, correct. Okay, however, there’s
Marcia Smith 9:46
a hefty fee for the convenience. Each commercial ship that passes through the canal has to pay a toll based on its weight. So the average toll is around 150,000 but some larger ships pay much more. The record is held by a car. Ship called the MOL benefactor from Hong Kong, and they paid $829,400 to pass through. Oh, my goodness, I
Bob Smith 10:08
had no idea they cost so much.
Marcia Smith 10:10
While ships, regularly, even privately owned boats, have to pay between 830 200 the lowest toll ever paid was paid by an American man named Richard Alberton, he swam the length of the canal in 1928 and they charged him based on his weight, 36 cents. So there’s the long and the short of the
Bob Smith 10:31
long and the short of it, the heavy and the light of it. Yeah, that’s interesting. So now that cost goes on anything that you buy that happens to go through the Panama Canal. Wow. I didn’t know it cost that much. Well, the well, that keeps the canal in
Marcia Smith 10:44
business. Then that’s a lot of money. It’s got
Bob Smith 10:47
to be for maintenance and upkeep of the canal. Can you can imagine these huge ships going through. There’s damage every once in a while. All right, I’ve got a couple more human body questions here. Okay, so you’ve got a sinus condition, that’s usually when you detect mucus flow. But how much mucus actually do we swallow daily?
Marcia Smith 11:06
Oh, my God, I’ll say, I’ll say a quart.
Bob Smith 11:10
That’s right. Is it a quart of mucus? Or, as my source says, a quart of snot a day. That’s from that’s a fact jack. This is one from the You better not cry. Category studies show that men find the smell of women’s tears unattractive. There’s a smell. There’s apparently an aroma for human tears, and men find it unattractive. Don’t cry. Happy. Girls Don’t Cry.
Marcia Smith 11:39
No, I didn’t know that. I
Bob Smith 11:40
didn’t either. I never, I never heard of that. Okay,
Marcia Smith 11:42
all right, Bob, what country has around 80% unique flora and fauna
Bob Smith 11:50
that is Australia. Oh, good for you. Yeah, that country’s got the animals, the plants. It was so isolated for millennia, and all of it developed independently. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 12:01
80% of its plants and animals can be found only there. That includes the cuddly koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, wombats and the feisty Tasmanian devil. And also, just for fun, they have about 100 venomous snakes that live there. Hey, that’s
Bob Smith 12:17
a good time. Always a good time. Yeah, this, I found this very interesting. What city is nicknamed the Malibu of the Midwest, the Malibu of the Malibu of the Midwest?
Marcia Smith 12:30
Is it in Wisconsin? Yes, it is. Is it in the Door County?
Bob Smith 12:35
No, it’s not. Is it? It’s Sheboygan, Wisconsin, believe it or not, no kidding. Well, they
Marcia Smith 12:41
just they surf there.
Bob Smith 12:43
That’s the idea. Yeah, they can get it brought
Marcia Smith 12:45
worst and surf. I
Bob Smith 12:46
was unaware of this. This is only 40 miles north of where Marsha and I live, and we’ve been there many times. Sheboygan, it’s called the Malibu of the Midwest for its popular surfing culture. Locals have been surfing Lake Michigan for more than 50 years, and for the past quarter century, they’ve hosted the annual dairy land surf classic. We have so many fun things in Wisconsin, the dairy land surf classic over Labor Day weekend. It’s the world’s largest fresh water surfing competition. So do you know why surfing is so great on the coastline.
Marcia Smith 13:21
Something about the geography there in the rocks that the waves are higher there than other places. It’s because
Bob Smith 13:26
Sheboygan juts out five miles into Lake Michigan, which creates waves in four directions with dangerous breakpoints along the coastline. Isn’t that interesting, huh? Yeah,
Marcia Smith 13:38
I love it.
Bob Smith 13:39
They do have surfing year round there, but the peak season runs from late August through early April. It’s
Marcia Smith 13:44
lovely when it’s all ice chunks. Okay, time for a break. Bob.
Bob Smith 13:49
All right, you’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith, we’re back. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith. We do this every week for the Cedarburg Public Library in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, and then it goes out on podcast platforms all over the world. So I have another world history question here, Marcia, thrilling. Now, even though King Tut was a minor King, those who discovered his tombs were astounded by the wealth set aside for him, what was unusual about his coffin, was it? Now, this just comes from National Geographic recently did a issue story, yeah, because it was a 100th anniversary of King Tut’s tomb, and they have brand new pictures of all these artifacts, and there’s a huge new museum opening up. It was Egypt too. It
Marcia Smith 14:35
wasn’t his his coffin inlaid in gold and rubies
Bob Smith 14:39
gold. Do you have any idea how many pounds it weighed? Oh,
Marcia Smith 14:43
I will say 200 pounds. 243
Bob Smith 14:47
pounds of solid gold. Solid Gold. It was inside this immense sarcophagus, which was cut from a single piece of rare quartz. And then inside that there were three. Three mummy shaped coffins nested, one inside the other, and the innermost was not only solid gold. 243 pounds of solid gold.
Marcia Smith 15:10
Okay, Bob, why are vain people said to be looking for the limelight? What’s the origin of limelight? The
Bob Smith 15:16
Limelight that comes from the old show business, lights they used to use, and they would put lime in them and burned the lime, and it was a very bright light. Well, you
Marcia Smith 15:25
know this, yeah? Oh, darn well. I
Bob Smith 15:27
know a lot of that show business trivia. It’s interesting, though, isn’t it? It is the lime light, yeah,
Marcia Smith 15:31
okay. In the early days of theater, the actors were lit by gas lamps hidden across the front of the stage, early in the 20th century, which isn’t that long ago, it was discovered that a stick of lime, if it was added to the gas light, it became more intense. So stage managers began to use the limelight to illuminate the spot on the stage where the most important action took place, and all the actors wanted to get in the
Bob Smith 15:57
limelight. Yes, well, that was a unique distinction, yes, to be in the limelight, yes, and probably was pretty bright. Hurt your eyes and so forth. Lot of those CLIA lights from the early film days caused damage to people’s eyes. Oh, did they so bright? Okay, Marcia, back to history. What famous ruler had a sword that was out of this world.
Marcia Smith 16:20
This is a real, this is a real ruler from out of the, I don’t know, King. Tut, again, I can,
Bob Smith 16:27
yes, they found two daggers, and one of the two daggers on his mummy was made of iron that scientists believe came from a meteorite, really. Yeah. And they have found other ancient swords made of that kind of metal, which was considered very prized and very unique, and they came out of media rights.
Marcia Smith 16:46
They probably found that, you know, hanging out in the desert or something. I was, what is this? Let’s make a sword. Okay,
Bob Smith 16:51
another question for you about king? Tut, yeah. What does Downton Abbey have to do with King? Tut, well, that’s a good question. Downton Abbey one of your favorite PBS TV shows that was fun. Hi, Claire Castle, that’s the grand country estate, 50 miles west of London, which was the setting for Downton Abbey that was owned by the man who bankrolled the King Tut archeologist Harold Carter. Oh, okay, George Edward Stanhope, the fifth Earl of carnavon. How
Marcia Smith 17:18
did I not get that? My goodness, he
Bob Smith 17:21
was a rich kid who had a car crash. Oh, really, yeah. You know, they always had the Downton Abbey airs always had these cars. It was true, he had a near fatal car accident, and that badly injured his lungs. So that’s when his doctor advised him to begin spending time in Egypt to escape the cold, damp winters. And it was there that he befriended the archeologist. And then he said, I can help fund these things you’re doing here. Okay, and so that’s how Downton Abbey and all of that came to intersect with King Tut.
Marcia Smith 17:49
I vaguely remember reading something about that. Okay, all right, Bob, here’s a quickie. Do larger animals hearts beat slower or faster than small animals?
Bob Smith 17:58
I think they beat faster? No, no, I think small animals beat. Wait a minute. I could, I could justify this more than one way. Yeah, there is I’ll say they beat faster than small animals, uh,
Marcia Smith 18:10
larger animals. Yes, yes, absolutely wrong. Elephant hearts beat 25 to 35 times per minute, drastically slower than a mouse heart, which pumps 450 to 750 times per minute. Jeez, that’s pretty rapid. Scientists believe size is a factor in how fast the heart works. In bigger bodies, it has to work more efficiently to power every cell without wearing out. Well,
Bob Smith 18:37
isn’t that interesting? That’s fascinating. How many times does a mouse’s heart has to pump
Marcia Smith 18:42
450 to 750 times per minute.
Bob Smith 18:45
That’s its pulse. Yeah. Holy cow, yeah. Think of this. Can you imagine seeing that on the machine at at the fitness club? What’s wrong with me? Or Mr. Smith,
Marcia Smith 18:55
your EKG is a little off, jumping off the charts there. But like I said, it has to pump more efficiently to power every cell in your body if you’re bigger without wearing out, so it slows down.
Bob Smith 19:08
That is amazing. That’s very fascinating. Okay, I have a question for you. We’re in the month of February, and February is the leap month. You know, we had to add days to the month in order to get the calendar in order. I’ve heard that All right, so what is not a term for people who are born on Leap Day, okay? Leapers, leapings, leap babies, leapsters.
Marcia Smith 19:35
I like leapsters, leapsters, that’s
Bob Smith 19:37
not one of them. I was right.
Marcia Smith 19:38
Is that what you’re trying to say? Yeah. Okay. Thank
Bob Smith 19:41
you so who introduced Leap Day, Marcia to the calendar?
Marcia Smith 19:45
Who introduced someone I know, I’ll give
Bob Smith 19:47
you choices here. Okay, thank you. The general time convention of 1883 Benjamin Franklin, the Mayans, Julius Caesar, or Alexander the Great, I’ll say the Mayans, leap. Day and leap year go all the way back to 45 BC and Julius Caesar. Wow. He reformed the calendar system based on the Egyptian solar calendar. The Julian calendar added an extra day February 29 every four years to ensure the calendar corresponded with the Earth’s movement around the Sun, which takes a little more than 365 days. Isn’t it interesting that even that far back, they could measure things? I’m astounded instruments. Did they have to know?
Marcia Smith 20:26
I must astounded that the mathematical ability of people back then? Well,
Bob Smith 20:31
we always, I think, Miss judge ancient peoples and how smart they were, how brilliant they were, just as brilliant as people are today. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 20:38
Okay, all right. Bob, who, in history, coined more new English words than anyone else. Well, we
Bob Smith 20:45
always think it’s Shakespeare, yeah, he’s second, second, yeah, second. So who was the first? The first person see, is it somebody in recent times? No, okay, so it’s ancient, not ancient. Well, Aristotle, somebody like
Marcia Smith 21:00
that. Okay, who? English poet John Milton, oh, no kidding, yeah, yeah. And he created 630 new words and phrases, 630 Yeah, including such words as debauchery, which we use here all the time, fragrance and pandemonium. What was that? One Frank fragrance? Fragrance, really, he came up with that term and pandemonium. It’s the name of Hell’s capital city in Paradise Lost an epic poem retelling the biblical allegory of Adam and Eve is considered to be one of the finest pieces of English literature. So Milton leads the pack, but William Shakespeare had 500 word coinages to his name, pretty close 630 versus 500 Milton holds the key. Have you ever read Bob paradise?
Bob Smith 21:46
No, I haven’t have you. No, you sound like you don’t think it would be good to read. Well, I
Marcia Smith 21:52
don’t know what situation I would say. Oh, today I’m going to start Paradise Lost. Okay, all right.
Bob Smith 21:58
Marcia, mail delivery at one point, there were more than one mail deliveries to most cities and towns in the United States per day. Did you know that?
Marcia Smith 22:08
Yeah, sometimes it was twice a day, because it’s in Sherlock Holmes, they were getting mail all the time, okay?
Bob Smith 22:14
But in the United States, twice a day, yeah? And sometimes it was up to six times a day. What? Yeah, the number of daily trips made by letter carriers from main post offices in 1905 these are cities that had at least five deliveries per day back then. Okay? Buffalo, New York, Cincinnati, Ohio, Cleveland, Ohio, Detroit, Michigan, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh and St Paul and Philadelphia had seven, really seven, deliveries of mail per day in that city to most parts of the city. Now here’s a question for you, when was daily delivery begun in the United States? You mean the year? Yeah, before this year, citizens picked up their mail at the post office, wherever they live. Okay?
Marcia Smith 23:02
I’ll say after the Civil War,
Speaker 1 23:05
it was during the Civil War 1863 okay, that’s when free mail delivery was authorized in cities where the income from the local postage was more than sufficient to pay for all expenses. Before this year, citizens picked up their mail at the post office, and I have to make a correction here in 1905 letter carriers working out of New York City’s main post office made nine daily deliveries per day. What the hell happened to that service? Why can’t we have that kind of service now,
Marcia Smith 23:34
just you’re on a constant loop on your route, that is, and some places had Sunday deliveries. Okay? Well, that’s fascinating. You know, Bob, it is Grammy time. Okay, that doesn’t mean graham crackers. I’m talking about the Grammy records,
Bob Smith 23:47
the Grammy Awards for for music around,
Marcia Smith 23:50
okay, yes, yes, the first Grammys were given out. And you know what year? I think it
Bob Smith 23:55
was 1966
Marcia Smith 23:59
something like that. It’s actually 1959, 59 okay, I didn’t know that. And the top award winner, the very first top award winner that year, went to an Italian guy. Can you name the song? Bennett? Can you name the song or the singer? I think Tony Bennett was not. It wasn’t Tony Bennett. No, okay. Who was it? Domenko mendunio for his famous song. You know this song? VO
Bob Smith 24:23
LA, Rey, oh yes, I remember that song, but I didn’t know, didn’t know his name. Yeah, me either. I
Marcia Smith 24:29
didn’t remember the name, but certainly the song, because a lot of people sang it. And some other winners that first year the chipmunk song, oh yes, yes. David Seville, Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie one for some various albums, catch a falling star, by Perry Como Yes, yes, tequila, remember that? By the Champs and the Kingston trills, hang on your head. Well, Dooley, yes, that
Bob Smith 24:53
was a great song. Yes.
Speaker 1 24:55
I remember growing up thinking, well, these, uh, these Grammys are kind of political. Because. Back when we were listening to rock music, hardly any rock artist got them. I don’t know if Elvis Presley ever won a Grammy. So they were kind of a popularity contest among the people who ran the record business. Kind of determine who got those awards. Rock groups were not getting those those awards
Marcia Smith 25:16
at all, and they should have, yeah, rock and roll was a thing that was going to pass quickly. That’s right, it was never gonna amount to anything. That’s right. Just like I predicted rap would only be here. That’s right, you’re
Speaker 1 25:25
always so good about predicting those things. Brilliant, brilliant, okay, Marcia, what is the coldest inhabited place in the world, Antarctica? It is not in Antarctica, the coldest inhabited town on Earth, town,
Marcia Smith 25:40
town place? Yeah,
Bob Smith 25:41
it’s a village.
Marcia Smith 25:43
Takes a village to freeze to death. Is it in Russia?
Bob Smith 25:47
Yes, it is. Takes a village to freeze to death. Okay, what’s Amy Khan?
Marcia Smith 25:52
Ah, how did I, which sounds like
Bob Smith 25:54
some kind of software you might buy today, or it does, or an app I’ve got the Amy Khan app on my No, Amy Khan is a Siberian village, 500 hearty souls. They have no hotels, despite an increase in tourism, really, yes, so visitors are warmly welcome to stay in local homes. How cold is it? Well, winter temperatures often hover around 45 degrees below zero, Fahrenheit, without the wind chill factor. That’s nippy. You can catch a flight from Moscow or the nearby city of yacht. From there, you simply hire someone to drive you over the infamous Road of Bones. That’s a 44 mile journey. Don’t ask me about that. Oh my gosh, but that is the coldest inhabited place in the world. O, y, m, y, a, K O N, am you? Khan?
Marcia Smith 26:42
All right, I’m going to finish up with a quote Bob. This is by Jan chosen base, a steady diet of negative news makes the mind ill. Give the mind the good medicine of silence, beauty and loving friendship.
Bob Smith 26:55
Well, those are all good antidotes to negative news, right? Yeah.
Marcia Smith 26:59
And I’ll finish up with Winnie the Pooh. From Zen to Winnie the Pooh. All right, people say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.
Bob Smith 27:10
I love that one that’s great. Well, we hope we’ve done a little more than nothing for you today. We love doing the show, and we invite you to contribute. If you have some thoughts or an interesting fact you’d like us to point out you can do that by going to our website, the offramp dot show and scrolling all the way down to contact us. That’s it for today. I’m Bob Smith, I’m
Marcia Smith 27:31
Marcia Smith.
Bob Smith 27:32
We hope you join us 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, the.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
