Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discussed various topics, including trademarks and branding, entertainment, travel, and personal challenges. They shared knowledge on the origins of the term ‘quid,’ the difference between a registered trademark and a trademark, and the oldest registered trademarks still in force. They also talked about a mobile library service on donkeys, known as the Biblio burro, and the oldest capital cities in the New World. Later, they discussed the challenges of juggling work, family, health, friends, and spirit, with Marcia sharing a quote about the fragility of the other four balls and emphasizing the importance of prioritizing and managing these aspects of life. Bob shared a humorous anecdote about trying to learn a new language and Marcia corrected his incorrect answers about the number of counties in different states and the number of moons around Jupiter.
Outline
Trademarks, X-rated movies, and quid.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the history of the X rating in Hollywood films, including how it was used and lost due to lack of registration.
- Marcia asks Bob a question about a famous trademark that was lost due to lack of registration, and Bob provides an example of how this can happen.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the origins of the term “quid” and the history of registered trademarks, with examples including Pilsner beer and deviled ham.
Cruise ships, oldest capital cities in the Americas.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the history of cruise ships, I Love Lucy, and the largest cruise ship in the world.
- Marcia and Bob discuss cruise ship codes and the oldest capital cities in the Americas.
Libraries, including a unique book delivery service and the oldest capital cities in the New World.
- Marcia and Bob discuss a unique residential ship with 165 permanent residents, traveling to exotic locations year-round.
- A teacher in Colombia, Luis Soriano, uses two donkeys, Alpha and Beta, to deliver books to rural elementary schools, inspiring children to read.
- Bob and Marcia Smith discuss the oldest capital cities in the New World, including St. John’s, Newfoundland (founded in 1497) and Havana, Cuba (founded in 1519).
- Libraries used to chain reference books to prevent theft, with a dozen English libraries still using this method today.
Trademarks, generic terms, and language.
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about generic terms and trademarks, leading to a discussion on how some trade names have become generic (e.g., aspirin, cellophane, dry ice, escalator).
- Marcia Smith provides examples of trade names that have been genericized, including heroin and flip phone (originally a Motorola trade name).
- Bob and Marcia discuss the history of vice presidents in the US, with Marcia providing interesting facts and Bob responding with related questions and comments.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the saltiest body of water on Earth, with Marcia correcting Bob’s mistake about the location of the gate Allah pond in northern Ethiopia.
Language, trivia, and quotes.
- Bob and Marcia discuss a phenomenon where people develop foreign accents after head injuries, with Delaware having the fewest counties in the US (3).
- Bob and Marcia discuss new moons discovered around Jupiter, and Bob shares trivia about words introduced in English at the same time, including laundromat, linoleum, mimeograph, and Quonset.
- Marcia Smith shares a quote about her mind being like her internet browser, with multiple tabs open and no clue where the music is coming from.
- Bob Smith tells a story about a parable he heard from James Patterson about juggling five balls in life, with the added twist that the other four balls are made of glass and can be broken.
Bob Smith 0:00
What famous trademark was lost because it was never registered and was taken over by the pornography industry?
Marcia Smith 0:08
Okay. Why is the nickname for the British pound called a quid?
Bob Smith 0:13
answers to those and other questions coming up in this half hour of the off ramp with Bob and
Marcia Smith 0:18
Marsha Smith?
Bob Smith 0:35
Welcome to the off ramp a chance to slow down steer clear of crazy and take a side road to Saturday with fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia. Yeah, we do this this week for the Cedarburg Public Library and then put it out on the web going all over the world and we have some interesting questions today. In my first one Marcia deals with a trademark a famous trademark. It was lost because a certain organization never registered it and was taken over by the pornography industry. What was that? Gosh,
Marcia Smith 1:08
I’m thinking I’m thinking why No. It’s a famous Mark trademark porno movies or porno pornography
Bob Smith 1:14
movies? Yeah. coffee industry.
Marcia Smith 1:17
So okay, you got me Tell me the X
Bob Smith 1:20
rating. Oh, really? That was actually a trademark, but it was never registered. It was used by the Motion Picture Association, from 1968 to 1994. Films containing unsuitable content for children such as extreme violence, strongly implied sex and graphic language. And guess what? There were a lot of famous films that first got X ratings before they re edited their films. Okay, Midnight Cowboy. Oh, that was X medium cool. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, A Clockwork Orange, and Last Tango in Paris all received the X rating. And then after cuts, were later given our ratings. In fact, Robocop remember that film that had to be edited 11 times. In that thing, it had extreme violence. Still, yeah. And finally, when the Motion Picture Association decided to get away from it, they went to the NC 17 rating. Yeah, because so many major Hollywood films were having problems getting audiences or even being able to advertise. So they dropped the X rating. But because the X rating wasn’t registered, the pornography industry picked it up and started using it as x double x and triple.
Marcia Smith 2:30
So what you’re saying is porn movies, they just refer to themselves as X rated and that’s their term.
Bob Smith 2:37
That’s right. Now the MPAA did trademark nc 17 as a trademark only they can apply as well as the other rating. So they learned their lesson. But that’s just an example of if you’ve got a trade name, and you’re not registering it, it can be picked up by other people and used for some very bad purposes.
Marcia Smith 2:55
All right, Bob, we hear the term quit all the time.
Bob Smith 2:58
That’s because we watch those British television shows.
Marcia Smith 3:01
It’s usually around $1 above or below. So anyway, where did the term quid come from? That is a good question. It’s been around for centuries. Yeah, it goes back to the sovereign gold coin. What does it mean? One pound is equivalent to 100 pence. And when exchange for something of equal value? The deal getting something for something in Latin terms is called a quid pro quo. Of course, yes. Yeah. Which was then simply abbreviated to quid.
Bob Smith 3:29
I didn’t know it came from that expression was way back. This is something you think common people in the streets of London in the 19th or 18th century would not No,
Marcia Smith 3:39
no, they probably didn’t they just call it a quid. Yep. Okay.
Bob Smith 3:42
All right, Marcia, back to trademarks, what are the world’s oldest registered trademarks still in force? Now? What’s the difference between a registered trademark and a trademark?
Marcia Smith 3:52
I think we’re going to find out well, back in the medieval days,
Bob Smith 3:55
trademarks were used by medieval guilds, they protected the makers and the things they made. And then in the 19th century, in the 18th century, you had branding, you know, people using hot utensils to brand either merchandise or, or cattle, but registered trademarks, the idea of trademarks being registered with a governing body to get commercial protection. That was a new thing. And it didn’t happen until the mid 19th century. So registered trademarks don’t go back very far. The first known registered trademark, I’ll tell you when it came. 1859 Any idea what it was? Oh, is it?
Marcia Smith 4:30
Is it Guinness? No, it’s
Bob Smith 4:32
not Guinness. Guinness, though has been around for hundreds and hundreds of years. Was it blue jeans? No. Not blue jeans. But Pilsner Pilsner. That beer the Czech beer Pilsner, first trademarked in 1859 and the trademark is still in force. Okay. And then in the United States, one of the oldest is Vaseline for petroleum jelly also from the 1870s but the very oldest in the United States is deviled ham the devil Oh, isn’t that funny? The Underwood company which makes deviled ham. You mentioned jeans. Did you know that Levi’s trademark was never their name until 1928? Oh, okay.
Marcia Smith 5:11
I thought it went back farther.
Bob Smith 5:12
Well, they did go back farther. But what was their trademark before they use their name in 1928? I
Marcia Smith 5:18
don’t know. Before that it
Bob Smith 5:19
was a two horse logo talk. They use that still. They still show it. Yeah. This is like stretching a pair of jeans to show how strong they were. And until the registered trademark on Levi’s on December 4 1928. They were referred to as the two horse brand by most people really don’t buy that two horse branded pants over there. I’ll
Marcia Smith 5:40
be there. All right. So Bob name the star of this famous long running sitcom, whose mother was in the audience for every show, and can often be heard laughing and talking aloud in the background. Okay,
Bob Smith 5:54
so this was like, I Love Lucy or something. Exactly. That was her her mother. It was a disease mother.
Marcia Smith 5:59
Oh, it was her mother Didi ball. No kidding. And she never missed an I Love Lucy show. And she could often be heard saying oh in the audience and laughing loudly. You could often hear her laugh above the others. And just an aside, did you know the show was almost called I Love Lopez. No,
Bob Smith 6:20
I love Lopez. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 6:22
they were gonna call the main couple Lucy and Larry Lopez. Oh, God.
Bob Smith 6:26
Terrible name. I love Lopez. Yeah. Wow.
Marcia Smith 6:29
All right, Bob. The first pleasure cruise ship started in 1901. But they’ve come a long way. And today the biggest cruise ship in the world has 18 decks and holds many guests. 18 decks?
Bob Smith 6:43
Yeah. Holy cow. So it must be close to 10,000 people here, right?
Marcia Smith 6:47
It’s 7000. And it has more than 30 dining venues and amenities like a zipline and a rock climbing wall. And seven distinct themed neighborhoods. It’s like a floating city.
Bob Smith 7:01
That’s amazing. Yeah. It’s amazing that that’s a kind of entertainment that people want and can do.
Marcia Smith 7:06
Yeah. And you know that crew members on these cruise ships have their own code speaking in code so that passengers don’t get alarmed, I would assume yes, alpha or Sierra means a medical emergency. Oh, really? Bravo means there’s a fire on board. So you don’t want to hear that one. But in the event of someone going overboard, the word is Oscar is used Husker by Royal Caribbean ships. Other commonly heard codes are 3030, which is a code for maintenance to clean up a mess. And then PVI a public vomiting in
Bob Smith 7:43
public vomiting. Yeah. So
Marcia Smith 7:45
the staff is well aware of the secret codes so that
Bob Smith 7:48
you know, you gotta have those things. You know, you gotta be able to communicate things without people understanding. That’s why the police have all those codes.
Marcia Smith 7:54
Yeah, they do it at Walgreens, too. You never know what they’re talking about.
Bob Smith 8:00
Okay. All right, Marsha, you’re talking about pleasure cruises, and a lot of those take place in the Caribbean, correct? Well, that part of the world in the Americas is where some of the oldest cities in this part of the world are we think of the new world is well new. But how new is it? Let’s look at the oldest capital cities in the Americans have any idea how far back they go. For instance, the first capital city in the Americas was founded five years after Christopher Columbus made his first voyage. Is it Toronto, Canada, Havana, Cuba, St. John’s, Newfoundland or Santo Domingo? Santo Domingo, you know, I said all that stuff that throw you off know, the oldest capital city in the Americas is not in the Caribbean. It is St. John’s Newfoundland, which was founded in Canada in 1497 1497. It was a fishing base and a trade center for the Spanish and Portuguese and it’s named after John, the Baptists, St. John’s, Newfoundland. 113,000 people live there today. There are nine other cities that are the next oldest in the new world. I’ll give you some answers to those in a minute. Okay, I
Marcia Smith 9:09
can’t wait. Oh, yeah, right. Okay, speaking of cruise ships, which I just did, there is a cruise ship called the world. And it has an interesting singular distinction, Bob, what is it?
Bob Smith 9:22
It’s not of this world. It’s another world. Now. It’s called the world what’s the unique distinction? Yeah.
Marcia Smith 9:30
Well known amongst certain times that an entertainment distinction? Nope.
Bob Smith 9:34
Is it a navigational distinction? No. Is it a speed distinction knew what the hell is it?
Marcia Smith 9:41
It’s the world’s largest private residential ship. With 165 permanent residents on board. Wow. They travel to exotic locations year round with an itinerary determined by them and their captain each year. While this is different than timeshare. It’s not that different. It’s become particularly popular among Budget Savvy retirees. A pretty big budget. Yeah, many compare it to the cost of living in a retirement home and find it more economical. Aside from the obvious fact that one of these options is at sea. residential homes on the ship have notable similarities such as meals, organized activities and room cleaning. So
Bob Smith 10:24
it’s a retirement home where every day you have a new view, that’s
Marcia Smith 10:27
right. Ah, that’s a good idea to buy into this. It costs anywhere from two to 15 million what it depending if you want to studios, budget conscious singers, I don’t understand how they have 10 million, depending if you want a studio or two or three bedrooms suite has your room. And then of course, there’s an annual service charge which I could not find out what that was.
Bob Smith 10:50
After you pay your two to 15 million. Yeah, then you have to pay an annual service jar. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 10:56
they didn’t want plebeians like me to know exactly what that is.
Bob Smith 11:00
Well, that’s different. That’s a totally different lifestyle.
Marcia Smith 11:03
What can be cool though,
Bob Smith 11:04
which we will never, ever enjoy.
Marcia Smith 11:08
Okay, just saying. Okay, tell me about what is a bibley a whirl, a Biblio world Biblio Burro bu R R O B
Bob Smith 11:17
U R R O? Is that a place where you dig into the ground to read books. Biblio barrel? No,
Marcia Smith 11:24
that makes sense. It’s guy. Luis Soriano, a teacher from the rural northern Colombia town of La Gloria was determined to give his students access to books. So he set up a library on the backs of his two boroughs. Oh, that’s interesting. It is he owned two donkeys, whom he renamed alpha and beta combined, which is the Spanish word for alphabet, okay. And he loaded the donkeys with about 70 books from his own bookshelves. He did this 25 years ago, and he’s still doing it. He takes these books around to all the elementary school and make sure that the kids enjoy the joy of reading. Well, that’s wonderful. Yes. And even after a riding accident on his donkey left him with a prosthetic leg. He hasn’t stopped cheese. It hasn’t stopped this determined educator from inspiring young Colombian children to read.
Bob Smith 12:20
Well, that’s interesting. So it’s called the Biblio burro. Yeah. And that’s the donkey
Marcia Smith 12:25
to library on the bag of a donkey. Well, that’s
Bob Smith 12:27
a pretty cool term it is. I like that. I’m
Marcia Smith 12:30
not sure it ain’t your local bookmobile.
Bob Smith 12:33
Okay, all right. Let’s take a break. We’ll be back in just a moment. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob
Marcia Smith 12:38
and Marsha Smith.
Bob Smith 12:41
We’re back back with the off ramp. Bob and Marsha Smith. Marsha. I was talking about the oldest capital cities in the New World Cities that happened to be the capitals of countries or provinces or states. Okay. And we said what was the number one the oldest 114 87 quick quiz now. Okay. What was it? Newfoundland Marsh, St. John’s, Newfoundland. It
Marcia Smith 13:04
was on the tip of my tongue. First question. Yes.
Bob Smith 13:06
Forgot about it already. Okay, that was 1497. So I want to ask you, what is the next oldest capital city in the new world? Any idea? It’s also in the 1400s. It’s a capital of the Dominican Republic.
Marcia Smith 13:20
What would that be Santa Domingo.
Bob Smith 13:22
That’s right. That was founded in 1498. And 3.3 million people live there today. And number a third and fourth. They’re tied. Havana, Cuba and Panama City. When do you think those were founded? I have no idea. 1519. Then you have all these other states. None of them are younger than 1538. The 10th oldest capital in the Americas is Bogota, Colombia, founded as a Spanish naval base and 1538. And each one of these have millions of people living in them. 8 million people live in Bogota. And all these others are like anywhere from one to 5 million people. So the oldest cities in the new world are pretty old by these days. They
Marcia Smith 14:01
are they’re very old. Yeah. Okay, Bob, going back to libraries. What is the change library?
Bob Smith 14:08
The change library? Yeah. So library are not allowed to get into and they got chains across. It’s not that. Okay. It’s a library about chains. Yes. It’s got a lot of links to it. Yes,
Marcia Smith 14:18
yeah. It’s a term. There are a dozen chained collections that still exist in England. It’s the practice of chaining reference books to library shelves to prevent theft. Oh, that makes sense. Yes. They still got about a dozen libraries that still use this old method that goes back to medieval times. Everything was chained chained down because nobody was stealing this. Well, everybody just walk off with it. There was no system, okay. And so they were created to prevent thefts. And in England, there’s still a dozen libraries that have reference books chained to the wall.
Bob Smith 14:54
See, my other thought was that maybe it’s like a chain of library, like chain restaurants.
Marcia Smith 14:59
No that, isn’t it. Wow, that’s
Bob Smith 15:01
interesting. Okay, Marsha, I have another trademark question here. What is generic aside? Generic aside,
Marcia Smith 15:09
what is generic sided? It’s getting rid of all your relatives.
Bob Smith 15:13
No but side what does that usually mean? See I D side
Marcia Smith 15:16
like a herbicide. It’s a, something that kills something that kill
Bob Smith 15:23
right? Infanticide herbicides, right? What’s the genericized? What’s them on
Marcia Smith 15:27
that kills a generation of people is the death of a legally protected
Bob Smith 15:31
trademark through misuse, which then turns it into a generic term
Marcia Smith 15:35
you in your trademarks? It’s kind of fun. Okay,
Bob Smith 15:39
I’m gonna ask you what these terms have in common. Aspirin, cellophane, dry ice and escalator. What did they have in common? Yeah. Aspirin, cellophane, dry ice and escalator.
Marcia Smith 15:50
The Oh, I know. I know. I know. Those are all trade names, brand names that became common words
Bob Smith 15:57
that were genericized it
Marcia Smith 16:01
Okay, there you go. There’s cellophane
Bob Smith 16:02
cellophane was originally a trademark of DuPont. Dry ice that was actually a trade name back in 1925. The dry ice Corporation. Yeah, it’s a form of carbon dioxide. But that was a trade name. That wasn’t just a generic term. escalator. Originally a trademark of Otis aspirin was lost after World War One when the Germans lost the war because it was a generalized took over the Bayer company. Oh there and they took all their trademarks and everything. Now they gave the company back to the Germans and they still make aspirin but the trade name aspirin became generic generic trade name. Alright, as did another trade name, but the same year, it was also a trade name for the Bear Company. Heroin.
Marcia Smith 16:44
Oh, really? Yeah, that was a trade.
Bob Smith 16:47
That was a trade name, aspirin and heroin came out the same year. So those are just some of the trade names that have been genericized. I found a whole list of them and flip phone was originally a Motorola trade name. Did you know that?
Marcia Smith 17:00
Oh, sort of flip phone. Okay. So do you know that there are four presidents that for their entire term in office did not have a vice president? Who were they bob?
Bob Smith 17:12
Aha. See, I was gonna say, I was gonna say Harry Truman being one of those because he came into office when FDR died, right. And those for those three years he didn’t have a vice president. And when he ran again, he did have a vice president Alvin Barkley.
Marcia Smith 17:26
Okay. So I don’t know who the other four were. Well, wait a minute. Wait
Bob Smith 17:29
a minute. Do I know Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Gerald Ford didn’t have a vice? Oh, yes, he did. They they made Nelson Rockefeller vice president after I’m sorry, what’s the answer? I’m half right. Millard
Marcia Smith 17:42
Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur and John Tyler. None of them had vice presidents because they were all vice presidents under Presidents who died in office. I’ll be darned. Okay. We had 37 years of our 245 year history without a second in command until the passage of the 25th. Amendment in 1967. There was no procedure to fill the role if a commander in chief died in office until when? Until 1967. Geez, yeah, that’s hard to believe. Well, it’s
Bob Smith 18:15
amazing. It takes a long time to get things right, doesn’t it? Sometimes this democracy is a messy business
Marcia Smith 18:20
and we still haven’t gotten right on a lot of things
Bob Smith 18:23
are only half right. Didn’t you call me half right? Yeah. Okay. Okay, back to languages. Marsha. What about Portuguese? Where do most of the Portuguese speakers in the world live? And the answer is not in Portugal. Yes. Believe it or not. In the Americas. Marshall. Why
Marcia Smith 18:40
country? United States? No,
Bob Smith 18:42
Brazil, only 5% of Portuguese speakers actually live in Portugal. The other countries in addition to Brazil, are Angola, Equatorial Guinea and five more countries and territories. Also Mozambique, those are all Portuguese speaking countries. So that shows you the influence of Portugal is one of the first major explorers in the world. They sent boats out all over the world and all these countries. They had colonies. They were key factor. Yeah. Beginning of exports. Same thing with the Spanish look at all the Spanish speaking people in the world. And likewise, the English did the same back
Marcia Smith 19:17
in 1925. Robert, what American city claimed to be the seafood capital of
Bob Smith 19:24
the world 1925 Yeah, what American city? Was it Boston? Nope. 1925 Was it Miami or one of the southern states? It was a southern
Marcia Smith 19:32
city. Okay,
Bob Smith 19:34
let’s say it was Savannah, Georgia. No, it was Biloxi,
Marcia Smith 19:36
Mississippi. Oh, really. Back in the day seafood was so abundant in that area that they ship 20 million tons of seafood to the rest of the country every year 20 million tons. They had 40 canneries side by side in the area, while mostly women and children packed shrimp and shocked oysters for 10 cents an hour. Packed
Bob Smith 19:57
shrimp and shucked oyster So it’s not easy to say Martin
Marcia Smith 20:00
and I obviously didn’t say the
Bob Smith 20:03
speaking of water, what’s the saltiest body of water on earth? Well,
Marcia Smith 20:07
it has to be like the Dead Sea or the thing in Utah, the Salt Lake City.
Bob Smith 20:13
I would think that too. That would be where the largest body of salt water on Earth I’m
Marcia Smith 20:18
wrong, you’re wrong. It’s
Bob Smith 20:19
called gate Allah pond in northern Ethiopia. This is in 2005 Following an earthquake a new pond occurred. So it’s a pretty new place. It’s 200 feet long, 130 feet wide. And while the average percentage in salt by weight in the oceans is 3.38% Yeah, that pines percentage of salt is 43.3%. Wow, you can pretty well float on that one. And the water is hot 60 degrees centigrade, which is 140 degrees Fahrenheit because the heat is coming through a fissure from volcanic rock. So this is a pond. It’s the highest concentration of salt in the world. It’s a new Guinness world record at the gate Allah pond in northern Ethiopia. You mentioned the Great Salt Lake. Their salinity varies from five to 27% and the Dead Sea is at 34%. So this is even higher. It’s 43% until 2017, the saltiest body of water on Earth was thought to be the dawn one pond. Ever heard of that one? The Don Juan pond was a shallow and Arctic Lake lying in the dry upper right Valley of the continent. And its salinity was 40.2%. Okay,
Marcia Smith 21:28
Bob, what is FAS? Foreign Accent syndrome?
Bob Smith 21:33
F A S foreign accent syndrome. Well, this is an acronym that needs a T at the end fast.
Marcia Smith 21:39
But it doesn’t have it doesn’t have it. I
Bob Smith 21:43
would assume this is when people go into kind of a spell or a trance and they start speaking in almost tongues. They speak with a foreign accent. Yeah, even though they’re not from that part of the world. Yeah, it’s kind of a strange smell.
Marcia Smith 21:54
It’s not that common, but it often occurs after a head injury of some sort. And the person wakes up with a totally different foreign accent. A different from any place they’ve ever visited or lived there or suddenly speaking with Irish brogue or raw English accent and they’re American. And it’s not that common, but it happens enough that they gave it its own name f
Bob Smith 22:18
a s just we wrote them on flair.
Marcia Smith 22:22
They don’t speak the language. They just use
Bob Smith 22:23
the act. They just sound like they’re from France or something. And they can’t stop. That’s me when I was trying to learn a new language. Yeah, I would just irritate the hell out of people.
Marcia Smith 22:34
I can’t believe I know. It’s hard to believe.
Bob Smith 22:37
Okay, Marshall, what state has the fewest counties? They have three counties. That’s it.
Marcia Smith 22:42
All right. I’ll say Wyoming. No. Oh,
Bob Smith 22:44
way too big.
Marcia Smith 22:46
Oh, oh. Rhode Island.
Bob Smith 22:49
It’s not Rhode Island. I was gonna give you some clues. But Oh, give me some oh, here’s a clue Rhode Island. But you’re wrong. Vermont. No. It is giving you more clues. marshes slow down how shadow Rhode Island, Hawaii, West Virginia or Delaware. Delaware, Delaware. That’s it. They have three counties just three. The state with the fewest Rhode Island and Hawaii aren’t far behind. They have five counties each. And New Castle County, Kent County and Sussex County comprise the entirety of Delaware, which became the first state admitted to the Union in 1787. It’s 49th inland area. It’s the next smallest state. Okay, Texas, how many counties does it have? I’ll say 24. Texas has more counties than any other state.
Marcia Smith 23:35
Okay, any other than a double that 50 is five more
Bob Smith 23:39
counties than any other state Marsh?
Marcia Smith 23:41
75 more counties that 20 Well,
Bob Smith 23:44
I guess you’re never gonna get there. 254 Holy Come on. 254 counties in Texas. Okay, before
Marcia Smith 23:53
I get to my closers, hear astronomers recently discovered 12 new moons around which planet in our solar system? Wow. 12
Bob Smith 24:02
new moons? Yeah. Unless I’ve been asleep. It’s not the earth you were okay. Could it be? Jupiter?
Marcia Smith 24:10
That’s it. It’s the biggest planet in our solar system. And they just found 12 New Moons going around it for a total of 92 moons. Wow. Saturn is second. They have 83 moons 83 moons Yeah, and the rings they got a lot going on and
Bob Smith 24:26
sad. Think of all the tides that are controlled by moons.
Marcia Smith 24:29
That’s interesting to ponder. Okay, Marcia,
Bob Smith 24:32
what do these things have in common laundromat linoleum mimeograph Quonset their
Marcia Smith 24:38
words introduced into the English language at the same time? You’re wrong.
Bob Smith 24:45
No, this is back to the genericized Marsh these these word trademark … laundromat was a Westinghouse trademark at one point and they actually used it for a laundry machine and for coin laundry. But that was expired. Linoleum, which came out around the time of Abraham Lincoln was a trade name. Mimeograph, an invention of Thomas Edison that was marketed by the AB Dick company, and Quonset was a trademark of the Great Lakes Steel Corporation and a brand of those Quonset huts. Yeah, first built in Quonset point, Rhode Island
Marcia Smith 25:17
that really Yeah. Oh, my ex advertising guy. You’re just fooling about. That’s all right. Okay, pop. Here’s some almost last words of the famous writer Oscar Wilde, who died in a cheap dingy hotel in Paris. My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go. That’s classic Oscar Wilde as he peeled off and asked to go,
Bob Smith 25:42
that’s a good one. That’s a good one. I have a little story I’d like to read before the end of the show. And then you can come back with a funny quote, as you always do. I just finished reading James Patterson by James Patterson. That’s a book called The stories of my life. He told this touching parable he heard while working at J. Walter Thompson advertising and he’s used it in every one of his college graduation speeches he’s ever done. He says, imagine life as a game in which you’re juggling five balls in the air. let’s name them work, family, health, friends and spirit. Somehow you’re keeping all these balls in the air, juggling them, not an easy thing to do. Hopefully, you come to understand that work is a rubber ball. It’s the only ball that’s rubber and if you drop it, it’ll probably bounce back. But the other four balls, Family Health, friends and spirit. They’re
Marcia Smith 26:36
all made of glass. Oh, you can break any one of them. If you
Bob Smith 26:40
drop one of those, it will be irrevocably scuffed marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered? It will never be the same. Wow. So you can let that ball that’s work drop once in a while. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 26:52
that’s excellent. And I’m going to finish with a quote from an unknown person. But I like it. My mind is like my internet browser. At least 19 open tabs, three of them frozen. And I have no clue where the music is coming from.
Bob Smith 27:08
Oh, God, I hate that. Where is that thing that’s playing on my computer.
Marcia Smith 27:12
That’s my mind in constant disarray. And was
Bob Smith 27:16
that Oh, I hear music playing Marcia. Where’s that coming from? That must be our theme song. i Yes, it means it’s time to go. Okay. All right. That’s it for this week. I’m Bob Smith.
Marcia Smith 27:26
I’m Marcia Smith. You’ve been listening to the off ramp.
Bob Smith 27:32
The off ramp is produced in association with CPL radio online and the Cedarburg Public Library Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
