What marketing decision finalized the design of the QWERTY keyboard? And where in the world is it against the law to smile on July 8th. Hear the Off Ramp podcast. (Photo: Raimond Spekking, Wikimedia Commons)
Bob and Marcia Smith discuss the origins of the QWERTY keyboard, revealing it was a marketing decision by Remington to spell “typewriter” with one row of keys. They also explore the legal prohibition on smiling in North Korea on July 8, the anniversary of Kim Il Sung’s death. The conversation shifts to historical bans, such as the early Catholic Church’s prohibition on sausage, and the rarity of tetrachromacy, a genetic condition allowing some women to see nearly 100 million colors. They touch on various trivia topics, including the Himalayan jumping spider’s habitat, the completion factor in airlines, and the etymology of phrases like “tide me over.”
Outline
QWERTY Keyboard Origin
* Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the origin of the QWERTY keyboard, revealing it was a marketing decision by Remington, not a practical one.
* Bob explains that the first keyboard layout was a two-row piano keyboard, but it had issues with keys locking due to poor spacing.
* Remington hired a German clockmaker to fix the issue, resulting in a four-row keyboard with QWERTY as the first row, but with the period and R keys in unusual positions.
* The marketing decision to move the R key to the top row was to allow salespeople to spell “typewriter” using just one row of keys, enhancing its appeal.
Legal Restrictions on Smiling in North Korea
* Marcia Smith asks where it is illegal to smile on July 8, revealing it is North Korea due to the anniversary of former leader Kim Il Sung’s death.
* Bob and Marcia discuss the severe penalties in North Korea for breaking this law, including being sent to a concentration camp or killed.
* Marcia mentions the book “The Girl With Seven Names” to highlight the strict surveillance and consequences in North Korea.
* Bob humorously notes that he would not visit North Korea for a vacation due to these restrictions.
Historical Ban on Sausage Consumption
* Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the historical ban on sausage consumption by the early Catholic Church, which was later lifted.
* Bob explains that sausage was a Roman secret weapon used by Julius Caesar to preserve meat for his army, while the enemies had to hunt for food.
* The early Catholic Church associated sausage with pagan behavior and banned it, but smuggling made the enforcement meaningless.
* Marcia and Bob agree that civil disobedience often makes laws moot, using the example of prohibition.
Tetrachromacy and Its Implications
* Marcia Smith introduces the topic of tetrachromacy, a genetic condition allowing some women to see nearly 100 million colors.
* Bob learns that tetrachromacy results from having four types of cone cells in the retina, a mutation passed down via the X chromosome.
* Marcia describes the enhanced color perception of tetrachromats, who can see colors within colors and detect tiny changes in hues.
* Bob humorously suggests that tetrachromats could use their supervision as a secret weapon in a hypothetical war between men and women.
Modern Sausage Naming and Himalayan Jumping Spider
* Bob Smith explains that many modern sausages bear the names of Roman cities due to the contributions of Italians and Germans in developing the modern sausage.
* Marcia and Bob discuss the Himalayan jumping spider, the only known permanent resident of Mount Everest, which survives on flies and other insects blown to higher altitudes.
* Bob expresses concern about being bitten by the spider during a climb, highlighting the spider’s adaptation to its harsh environment.
Airline Completion Factor and Historical Trivia
* Bob Smith introduces the term “completion factor” used by airlines to measure the percentage of scheduled flights that are not canceled.
* Bob notes that the completion factor does not account for late flights, lost luggage, or other passenger concerns, but the government tracks on-time flights.
* Marcia and Bob reminisce about their travel experiences, including a memorable touchdown in Minneapolis and Bob’s habit of sleeping through flights.
* Bob asks Marcia about the origins of the names of the months, with Marcia explaining that March is named after the Roman god of war, Mars.
Lighthouses and Geothermal Activity in Reykjavik
* Marcia Smith asks Bob about the country with the most lighthouses, revealing it is the United States with over 700 lighthouses.
* Bob and Marcia discuss Michigan’s claim to the most lighthouses due to its location on four of the five Great Lakes.
* Bob introduces the topic of Reykjavik, Iceland, known for its geothermal activity and the name “steamy bay” in Old Norse.
* Marcia explains that more than half of Reykjavik’s hot water is geothermal, providing a significant source of heat for the city.
Eavesdropping Laws and Mother Lode Terminology
* Bob Smith and Marcia discuss the legality of eavesdropping in Oklahoma, where it is considered a misdemeanor with a $1 fine.
* Marcia explains the origin of the term “mother lode,” which refers to the main vein of metal ore in a mining camp.
* Bob and Marcia agree that the term “mother lode” signifies the origin of all other veins in the region.
* Marcia shares a quote from Calvin Coolidge about persistence, emphasizing its importance over talent or education in solving problems.
Video Conferencing Booths and Final Thoughts
* Bob Smith recalls the early days of video conferencing in the 1990s and the dedicated rooms built for this purpose.
* Marcia and Bob discuss the recent trend of companies like Logitech and Steelcase reintroducing dedicated video call booths with modern features.
* Bob expresses skepticism about the necessity of these booths, preferring traditional laptop-to-laptop meetings.
* Bob and Marcia conclude the episode by inviting listeners to submit questions or facts and thanking them for tuning in.
Bob Smith 0:00
What marketing decision gave us the QWERTY keyboard?
Marcia Smith 0:05
And where in the world is it against the law to smile on July 8?
Bob Smith 0:10
What? Answers 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, take a side road to sanity and have some fun with trivia. Well, Marcia, we’ve all heard that colliding typewriter keys gave us the QWERTY keyboard. Strange thing we use when we type anything. But it was actually a marketing decision, not a practical one, that finalized the design. What was the decision?
Marcia Smith 0:57
I didn’t know that. I’m trying to remember it back to the history. Okay, what was the marketing decision? Bob?
Bob Smith 1:04
Well, we know that Scholes and Glidden, these are the fellas in Milwaukee that came up with the idea for the typewriter, the modern one, the first keyboard that Remington saw when they took that to the company was like a piano keyboard. It was a two row piano keyboard, and the keys were laid out alphabetically. And then it went through all those gyrations where we knew they hired a German clock maker to keep those bars from banging into each other and so forth,
Marcia Smith 1:31
They would lock because it wasn’t well spaced.
Bob Smith 1:35
So finally, they had this new keyboard. It had four rows of keys, top row being numbers, just like today, below that were three rows primarily of letters, just like today, starting with Q, W, E, but there was one big difference in that first row of letters., Q, W and E were followed by a period, a period in the middle of the first row of letters, really? Where was the R? Where was the R? It was the last key on the very bottom row. Well, anyway, after purchasing the machine, the Remington company made several changes, including this one. They switched the period and the R keys. Why bring R to the top row? That Q, W, E, R, T, Y, i, o, u, p. Why did they bring that r to the top row? You’ll love this Marcia.
Marcia Smith 2:15
Because R is the first letter in Remington?
Bob Smith 2:19
No, because R was one of the letters in their trade name for this thing, Typewriter, and if they bring that r to the top row, the salespeople could impress customers by spelling out the word typewriter using just one row of keys. So that was the marketing decision, not a practical one, that Remington made to finalize the layout of the QWERTY keyboard, and we’ve been living with it ever since wirh computers.
Marcia Smith 2:43
Everybody, we
Bob Smith 2:44
all have it. So keep that in mind. You can type out the word typewriter with that row of keys. I never would have thought how valuable that is for you today.
Marcia Smith 2:54
It is, as is this bit of trivia, where in the world is it against the law to smile on July 8,
Bob Smith 3:00
Four days after the Declaration of Independence. Maybe it was a British law. You cannot smile about this thing you’ve come up with. Why would it be July 8? Being a day you can’t smile? Was that some kind of a religious holiday you had to observe?
Marcia Smith 3:17
Not for most people? No, hmm, okay, I don’t know what’s the answer. It’s good old North Korea. Oh, geez. You can Bob be sent to a concentration camp or just plain killed, if you smile, on July 8, which is the anniversary of their former leader, Kim Il songs death. Oh, geez. And he, as we know, is the proud papa of Kim Jong Un the current leader who created this anti holiday so
Bob Smith 3:45
you you cannot smile on the anniversary of the death
Marcia Smith 3:49
of his dad. Oh, God. And not only can you not smile, but on this day, you cannot be loud, indulge in drinking or have a birthday party,
Bob Smith 3:57
no fun. My dad died on this day, and believe me after, yeah,
Marcia Smith 4:02
that’s right. And believe me, after reading that book, The Girl With seven names, she escaped from North Korea. Yeah, you can bet your boots that people are watching to see if you’re breaking the law. Anything, any law to turn you in. Yeah, it is really creepy. So no smiling, all right, keep
Bob Smith 4:20
that in mind if I ever go to North Korea for that, that vacation I’m longing for,
Marcia Smith 4:25
do they have a river cruise, a Viking cruise or something? I don’t
Bob Smith 4:29
know. Hey, it was a secret weapon of the Romans, but it was banned by the early Catholic Church. What food are we talking about? Early food banned? Well, the secret weapon of the Romans, but banned by the early Catholic Church?
Marcia Smith 4:43
Well, they banned hamburger on Friday. Now it’s not a sin anymore, but they banned the regular do they eat it?
Bob Smith 4:49
It’s eaten everywhere today. You love it. Your German family grew
Marcia Smith 4:53
up on this. I don’t know.
Bob Smith 4:56
Bratwurst, yeah, sausage, right? Sausage. Sausage. It became popular in the first place because it was one of the few ways to preserve meat prior to refrigeration. And the word sausage comes from the Latin salsas, which means salted or preserved meat. Julius Caesar used it as a secret weapon. He gained advantages over barbarian armies by issuing preserved meats to his army while the enemies lost precious hours hunting game in the forests. Oh, really, yeah. Oh, that’s clever. The Romans like sausage so much. No festification was considered complete without it. So much sausage was served at feasts accompanied by hilarity, joy, partying and drunkenness. Not in North Korea that the early Catholic Church associated sausage with pagan behavior, so it banned it. It prohibited sausage consumption by Christians and the rest of the Roman world.
Marcia Smith 5:47
Can you believe that? No, no, no.
Bob Smith 5:50
But just like our prohibition experience, there was so much smuggling of the contraband substance that enforcement of the law was meaningless, and the sausage prohibition was stricken from the books, where there’s the will. Bob, yeah, civil disobedience will just make any law a moot
Marcia Smith 6:05
point. Is that a sausage in your pocket or nevermind? Okay? Bob, about 1% of the world’s population has supervision, also known as tetrachromacy. What is it?
Bob Smith 6:16
Supervision is somebody observing what you’re doing, as in North Korea. Oh, this is something
Marcia Smith 6:21
else. 1% of the world’s population has this supervision with us, not x ray vision, yeah, its scientific name is tetrachromacy. Tetrachromacy, okay, so
Bob Smith 6:31
this has something to do with colors, then Chrome, right? Maybe, so they can see invisible colors. Is that what it is or no,
Marcia Smith 6:42
you’re close, though,
Bob Smith 6:42
okay, what is it?
Marcia Smith 6:43
Although exceedingly rare, this genetic condition allows people to see nearly 100 million colors. Oh, my goodness, yes, or 100 times as the rest of us see. Did you know? You know that? Yeah, that we have, we can see a million, a million colors. But, and not only that, only women have this thing, of course, this superpower tetrachromacy is the result of having four types of cone cells in the retina, rather than the usual three, because of the way the condition is passed down via the X chromosome. The mutation occurs exclusively in women. One woman describes her supervision this way, if you look at a leaf, I may see magenta running around the outside of the leaf, or turquoise in certain parts where you would only see dark green everywhere, wow, where the light is making shadows on the walls, I see violets and lavenders and turquoise, you’re just seeing gray. In short, we see colors within colors, and even the tiniest change in the color balance of a particular hue, will it be apparent to me? Well,
Bob Smith 7:52
I see if there’s ever a war between men and women, women could use this as a secret weapon. Then how so well you could signal each other with colors that men couldn’t see All right, when the magenta appears on the leaves, it’s time to attack. You know, men are just sitting there going, huh? What’s going on? What are you doing, babe? What’s wrong?
Marcia Smith 8:11
The force wouldn’t be very large, though, 1% of the world
Bob Smith 8:15
and only women have that. Yeah, wow, yeah. Okay, another loss for guys, hey, I got one more thing about sausage here. The reason many of our sausages today bear the names of Roman cities, such as Milano, Romano, Genoa and Bologna, it’s because the Italians and the Germans were responsible for developing the modern sausage we have today. They realized how enticing meat could be by blending meats with various spices creating the different dried sausages. Very interesting. Bob,
Marcia Smith 8:44
can I go now? In other words, you
Bob Smith 8:45
didn’t think that was interesting at all? No, I did. Oh, okay,
Marcia Smith 8:49
I do like sausage. Bob, what’s the only living thing that resides permanently on Mount? Everest,
Bob Smith 8:57
the only living thing that resides permanently? I mean, it’s, it’s
Marcia Smith 9:01
up there all the time. Is it a bacteria? No, it’s an animal, really a bird,
Bob Smith 9:07
a certain kind of bird. No, that flies way up there. No, no, not a bear. No. Had to climb way up there. All
Marcia Smith 9:14
right. What is it the Himalayan jumping spider? Oh, geez.
Bob Smith 9:18
Oh no. If you go up there, you might get bitten by one of those and have an anaphylactic shock attack. Oh, God.
Marcia Smith 9:24
It’s the only known permanent resident on Mount Everest, so
Bob Smith 9:28
it’s the Himalayan Jumping Spider. There is such a thing.
Marcia Smith 9:32
It makes it one of the highest living species on Earth. Aren’t you going to ask me, What does it eat? What
Bob Smith 9:37
does it eat? Marcia, well, yeah, that’s a good question. What does it eat if it’s living up there alone? Yeah,
Marcia Smith 9:43
well, apparently flies and other insects get blown up to the higher altitudes when there’s a big wind, and that’s what they survive on. Oh for
Bob Smith 9:51
goodness. So they’re not resident up there, but the spider is, yes, he’s got a house with a postage number and everything
Marcia Smith 9:59
else he’s waiting for. The wind to come. So the shoes, what
Bob Smith 10:02
kind of life is that you have to wait for the wind to come before I can get my food? I
Marcia Smith 10:06
think by its very nature, it’s usually pretty windy. Well, I imagine so, and you don’t want to be a fly going, Oh, where am I going? Oh, wow.
Bob Smith 10:13
Hey, Marcia, ever heard of the term completion factor?
Marcia Smith 10:18
Well, you mean, like when the dishes are done in the house? No,
Bob Smith 10:22
but it is a term being used by an industry, the airline industry, when they’re bragging about what they do. And here, these are the good things about our airline, that completion factor. You know what it means. Historically, airlines have been ranked by on time flights, you know, on time, departures and arrivals, but now they’re focusing on completion factor. It’s the percentage of scheduled flights that are not canceled. What a dubious distinction. Oh, man, yeah, things that hinder completion factors include bad weather and technical limitations, like the computer problems that Southwest Airlines experienced during the Christmas 2022 holiday week was a debacle. So that’s the new term the airlines are touting the completion factor, the percentage of scheduled flights that are not canceled. Unfortunately, that doesn’t account for what matters to most passengers, late flights, late arrivals, late departures, lost luggage. But the good news is the government does track and publish the number of flights that depart and arrive on time. And I found the website you can go to to find that information. It’s bts.gov, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics website. And
Marcia Smith 11:29
you know what I’ve noticed when we travel more and more that they arrive early, and that’s because they’re stretching out. There’s time in the air. So you get the feeling that you’re actually ahead of time, but you’re just really right on time, right?
Bob Smith 11:44
I don’t know, but as long as we get there safe, that’s all I
Marcia Smith 11:47
care about, too. Okay, remember the touchdown we had in? What? What state was that in on the way to Boise, we Minneapolis. It was, oh yeah, it was Minneapolis. The best touchdown I’ve ever had. Oh my god. It was barely noticeable. I actually thanked the pilot.
Bob Smith 12:03
In my years of traveling and business, I used to actually fall asleep and wake up and we’d already be on the ground.
Marcia Smith 12:09
Oh, I know that’s you. Yeah, I’m just sitting there terrified, grabbing your arm, okay, but you can sleep through everything like that.
Bob Smith 12:16
I have two names, names of months, you know? How did the months get their names? March? Where did that come from?
Marcia Smith 12:23
That’s my birthday month, the Pisces March. Where does March come from? It gets from the March. Ides of March. It so it goes back before the Romans. Actually, it
Bob Smith 12:34
is the Romans. They named it. Yes, the Roman god of war was named Mars. And March is the time of the year when military campaigns resumed following the dead of winter. So the mythological god was an obvious source of inspiration to name the month, March. Okay, all right. Now, April. What does April mean? April is,
Marcia Smith 12:52
was when the apes? No, okay,
Bob Smith 12:56
let me just give you a little eye roll on that one. Okay, no, okay. The Latin word a prior means to open the spirit of blossoming flowers, and that led to the naming of the month aprilis. So April means to open in Latin, okay? Makes sense for flowers.
Marcia Smith 13:13
It does okay. It does Okay. Bob, what country has the most lighthouses?
Bob Smith 13:19
Oh, that’s interesting. What country has the most lighthouses? Well, a seed have to have a long coast, I would think, and a rocky coast. So could be the United States. It had a big, long, rocky coast with a lot of lighthouses on the East Coast. Is that it? You’re
Marcia Smith 13:35
right, okay, okay, we are home to over 700 lighthouses, more than any country in the world. And what state do you think has the most lighthouses? Hmm,
Bob Smith 13:48
could it be Wisconsin? No, I thought maybe being a great lake state, maybe Michigan or Wisconsin? Michigan, okay? And why you say because of the Great Lakes and
Marcia Smith 13:58
the rocky coast, they’re on four of the five great lakes, that makes sense? Yeah. Michigan is surrounded by four of the five great lakes and is home to 130 lighthouses, including the remote lighthouse on Stannard rock, nicknamed the loneliest place in North America. And those
Bob Smith 14:15
were very lonely places. The lighthouses were manned by usually a man, then their families would live there. Sometimes the man would die and the woman would take over and be the lighthouse person, and whatever. And they, some of those places were only accessible by boat to get to them, you know, because they were like on islands. All right, we’ll be back with more in just a moment. 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 for the Cedarburg public library every week, and it goes out of her podcast platforms all over the world. So Marcia, I’ve got two celebrities, three celebrities now. I can tell you their names now, or I can tell you their names originally, and you can tell me what their names are now, which is what I’m. Going to do Bucha tell me who Elizabeth stamatena Fay is? Elizabeth stamatena Faye, she’s
Marcia Smith 15:07
Tammy Faye.
Bob Smith 15:08
Tammy Faye, no, Tina Fey,
Marcia Smith 15:11
oh, really, yeah, she’s
Bob Smith 15:12
she has a Greek middle name, and she shortened that. She shortened it to Tina Fey, so Elizabeth stamatena Faye is her name, all right, this woman’s name is Vera Mindy, Chaka Lingam. Vera Mindy, Chaka Lingam, it’s
Marcia Smith 15:26
not Mindy, is it? Mindy? Mindy, I’m trying to remember the Indian woman. Yes.
Bob Smith 15:32
She’s the comedian. Yeah. Mindy. Kaling Kaylee, yes, yes. She noticed that MCs used to butcher her last name or mock it, so she shortened it, and she also chose to go by her middle name, Mindy. Her mother chose that for her because she watched a lot of Mork and Mindy. Oh, really, yeah. Oh, that’s adorable. All right. And tell me Spike Lee’s original name,
Marcia Smith 15:53
jeez, oh gosh,
Bob Smith 15:55
his name is Lee, uh huh, but his first name is actually Shelton. Shelton. He doesn’t look like a shelter. His mother’s maiden name is Shelton, so he took that she gave him the nickname spike when he was a baby, because he was tough.
Marcia Smith 16:09
Oh, that’s cool. Okay, I’ve got one. Where did we get the phrase holy cow? Oh, that’s
Bob Smith 16:15
one I use a lot. Uh huh, yeah, that’s I used to swear a lot. Then I started using Holy Cow instead. So anytime I say Holy cow, you know, I’m actually swearing holy cow. That probably comes from India, because of the cattle being revered and being and being sacred, right? No,
Marcia Smith 16:35
oh, okay, according to how stuff works, actually, it’s exactly how you use it. It’s called a minced oath. It’s when you substitute a kind of, maybe similar ish sound for a taboo word. Okay, that’s why we have freaking and dang it and shiz. In this case, cow is probably a stand in for Christ, so the speaker won’t take the Lord’s name in vain. See, it’s the same kind of thing. It is just exactly why you do it. And I always do uh Oh fudge all the time. Yes,
Bob Smith 17:07
I had a teacher that used to say that, a literature teacher, she’d say, Oh, fudge, just like that. Like I know what you’re saying. Teacher, these
Marcia Smith 17:18
minced oaths, they find proof of them written down in from back in the middle of the 19th century, where they saw variations on the holy theme
Bob Smith 17:27
is that minced M, I, N, C, E, D, yeah,
Marcia Smith 17:31
I’ll be there. It’s called a minced oath. The minced substituting a similar ish word for the taboo word,
Bob Smith 17:37
son of a gun. Same thing with son of a gun. Okay, so Marcia, where can you find a beach known as the Jurassic Coast? I will give you choices here. It’s either in South Carolina, Hawaii, Hawaii, England, Namibia or Turkey. The Jurassic Coast. Turkey? Nope, the Jurassic Coast, Hawaii, Kauai. No, the Jurassic Coast, you’re wrong. Okay, it’s in England, believe it or not, it’s actually Dorset beach on the English Channel. It’s a 96 mile coastline in southern England. And you’ll find rock formations from the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, really. So that’s where the Jurassic Coast is, of all places, okay,
Marcia Smith 18:24
I got a question kind of similar, Okay, where is the lowest point on Earth? In other words, land area that is below sea level. I
Bob Smith 18:32
always thought it was the Dead Sea. It is, okay. It’s 1412
Marcia Smith 18:38
feet below sea level. Yeah, it blows all the contenders around the world out of the water, so to speak. Did you know The Dead Sea is considered one of the oldest health resorts patronized, even by Herod, the great No kidding, yeah. Anyway, still, tourists flock to the shores to float in the sea that is almost 10 times more salty than the ocean.
Bob Smith 18:57
Yeah, you can float because the buoyancy is different there. That’s right. And why
Marcia Smith 19:01
is it so far below sea level, you ask? Why is it so far below sea level? Marcia, natural evaporation and the harvesting of sea salt.
Bob Smith 19:09
By harvesting sea salt, they’ve lowered the level of the land
Marcia Smith 19:13
around it. Yeah, kidding, yeah, wow. It just keeps bringing it down. So
Bob Smith 19:16
they mined it, yeah. Speaking of mining,
Marcia Smith 19:19
that was your transition. I’m
Bob Smith 19:21
looking at this item going, I can, I can link mining to this. Okay, this is a statistic that should give you some thought. Nearly half of the world’s reserves of cobalt, that is a mineral essential to the batteries of smart devices and electric vehicles, that’s mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where more than three fourths of the population lives below the poverty line. So Isn’t that ironic where this most precious metal is going all these smartphones for all these rich people, we’re all rich people who have smartphones. We might not think we are, but in all these developed countries, that mineral is required from this country, where three fourths of the population. And lives below the poverty line and works the mines. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 20:02
that’s just it’s sad. It is very sad. Okay, Bob, which of these cities means steamy Bay, thanks to its geothermal activity? Is it Naples, Italy, Honolulu, Hawaii, Reykjavik, Iceland, Quito Ecuador,
Bob Smith 20:21
I think it’s Reykjavik. Why? Because they have the steamy geothermal features.
Marcia Smith 20:28
Yeah. How’d you know that? Well,
Bob Smith 20:29
I’m a man of the world Marsh. Yes,
Marcia Smith 20:31
you are. That’s why I married you. The name of Iceland’s capital translates literally to steamy bay or smokey Bay in Old Norse language, which you probably studied when you were a kid.
Bob Smith 20:43
I studied that in junior high school. Old Norse.
Marcia Smith 20:47
The Vikings would have seen the steam that rises from the hot spring in the valley east of downtown Reykjavik. That’s why they chose the name. More than half of the hot water pouring from the city is pure, unfiltered geothermal water that comes straight from the ground. Geothermal,
Bob Smith 21:02
yeah, so that’s the source of heat for a lot of the people, is the hot water that comes out of the ground in Iceland, yeah,
Marcia Smith 21:11
more than half of the hot water isn’t that weird? Yes, it
Bob Smith 21:14
is okay. Marcia, why is it illegal to scare a pigeon in Massachusetts? Well, you know,
Marcia Smith 21:20
I was thinking about that earlier. Since 1848
Bob Smith 21:23
it’s been illegal in Massachusetts to not only kill a pigeon, but also to purposefully frighten one from the beds that have been made. I would say
Marcia Smith 21:32
it goes back to some horror perpetrated in 1848 by a freaked out pigeon, by kids pooped on a mayor’s head or something?
Bob Smith 21:42
No actually, the law was made to protect hunters because they created beds for the purpose of giving them pigeons a place to nest. Because back in those days in the 19th century, pigeons were both a food source for residents and used in target shooting too. So here’s what it is. You face up to a month in prison as well as a $20 fine, and you’re also liable for the actual damages to the owner or occupant of the pigeon beds. So whatever you do, don’t scare a pigeon in Massachusetts, okay,
Marcia Smith 22:13
it’s like smiling on July 8, North Korea, okay? Why is the discovery of sudden riches or a big win lottery called the mother lode.
Bob Smith 22:23
The mother lode, l, o, d, e,
Marcia Smith 22:26
i, on the mother lode. Well,
Bob Smith 22:27
isn’t that the name they use for a vein of silver in in the ground. They call it the mother lode. Well, come
Marcia Smith 22:33
on. How did you know that?
Bob Smith 22:35
Well, it’s, I’m a man of the world. Marshall, you said that already. You
Marcia Smith 22:39
don’t get to say it twice. Okay, the term mother lode comes from the mining camps a load is a mining term for the vein of metal ore, the discovery of which would be very exciting. But if you add the word mother to it, it means you found the origin of all the veins in the region. So there’s a mother vein, and then the rest all come out of that, and the mother lode is literally an abundant source of supply. Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, it is. It’s one that actually makes sense.
Bob Smith 23:08
Okay. Marcia, why is eavesdropping forbidden in Oklahoma? Aha,
Marcia Smith 23:14
well, we know where the term came from due to my research a few weeks ago, eavesdropping,
Bob Smith 23:18
yeah, it’s been people living next to the eaves during a rainstorm and hearing much going on hiding
Speaker 1 23:23
under the eaves. Okay, yeah, yeah, not get wet. Um, okay.
Bob Smith 23:27
What was the question? Eavesdropping is forbidden, and why?
Marcia Smith 23:30
Because, tell me why. Well,
Bob Smith 23:33
we don’t know why. Here’s what the state law says. This is 1910, every person guilty of secretly loitering about any building with the intent to overhear discourse therein and to repeat or publish the same to vex annoy or endure others, is guilty of a misdemeanor. It’s $1 fine. So, you know, don’t worry. It’s not too bad. Yeah, you
Marcia Smith 23:57
vex me when you’re listening to people talking next to us in a restaurant or something. If they’re talking about something interesting, I see you tuning into them instead of me,
Bob Smith 24:05
you say Vex.
Marcia Smith 24:06
I say Vex. I’m gonna
Bob Smith 24:06
give you $1 fine for swearing. Now that’s also in Oklahoma, dollar fine for eavesdropping and swearing and, oh, really, yeah, both of them I’ll be doing.
Marcia Smith 24:17
Notice what I did there. You
Bob Smith 24:18
minced your swear word. I’m learning a lot on this show, okay, okay, a lot on this episode. All right.
Marcia Smith 24:24
Before I get to my quote, If you’re short of cash, you might ask someone to tide you over with a loan. Where does that phrase come from? Tide, Tide me over.
Bob Smith 24:36
I always thought it was tie me over. No, tied. Oh. So it has to do with the water being at a certain height, then, yes, good
Marcia Smith 24:43
deduction. That’s
Bob Smith 24:44
the reason they call it that.
Marcia Smith 24:45
Yes. Okay, well, I guess I don’t have to give the I guess not. I guess that’s the answer. It’s a nautical term, and when a boat or ship wants to enter a river from the ocean at low tide, it will be blocked by the accumulation of mud or sand that is swept down. And accumulated at the mouth of the river, and when the predictable tide rises, the boat can continue on its way, just like the person you just gave them money to to tide them over. And hence the phrase tide them over. Yes, you always thought it was what I thought it was, tie you over. Oh, yeah, gonna
Bob Smith 25:19
tie me over? Yeah, that
Marcia Smith 25:20
sounds kind of nasty.
Bob Smith 25:23
Okay? Marcia, 30 years ago, when video conferencing was still in its infancy, big companies built dedicated rooms in company offices around the world so employees could meet easily without traveling and expending all that money, participants would sit like for a breast facing a wall with a large screen, and we’d see people in another room, sounds like sounds like the Hollywood Squares. But it worked. It worked. It was a brand new way to meet, so new that when I worked for Rockwell in 1992 I had to write a flyer to explain the concept. I titled it how to meet in two places at once. Very clever. Yeah. That was until about 2000 or so when Skype brought video calls to personal computers, well, Logitech and its furniture partner steel case have decided they’re gonna bring those dedicated rooms back, a cozy booth complete with a sofa, a table, a green plant and a big screen. Opposite you who would need these things? Well, you know, it’s
Marcia Smith 26:17
for the Zoom calls, right, I
Bob Smith 26:19
guess. But can’t you do that with just people on different laptops? It’s interesting that they think that’s necessary in the corporate life. So why do you think Logitech and Steelcase think we need dedicated rooms for video calls? Could it be they need to sell more tech gear and furniture? I think so. Okay, call me a skeptic, but until a demonstration convinces me that an immersive video call booth is a better way to meet remotely. I’ll do a laptop to laptop meetings or FaceTime calls any day. All
Marcia Smith 26:46
right, I have a quote I really like, and it’s from Calvin Coolidge, of all people, okay, all right, nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent, genius will not unrewarded. Genius is almost a proverb. Education will not. The world is full of educated derelicts. The slogan press on has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. Well, they’re
Bob Smith 27:18
probably right about that perseverance more than anything. All right, if you would like to submit a question or a fact, we’d love it. You can do so by going to our website, the offramp. Dot show, scrolling all the way down to contact us and do it. I’m Bob Smith, I’m
Marcia Smith 27:32
Marcia Smith. Join us again next
Bob Smith 27:34
time when we return with more fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia, right 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
