Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discussed the history and evolution of cities and expressions. Bob provided insights into the origins of the word ‘symposium’ and how it was initially used to describe a drinking party in ancient Greece. Marcia shared information about the oldest continuous inhabited city in the world, Jericho, and how archeologists have discovered settlements there dating back 9000 years. The speakers also explored various aspects of nature and culture, including the Rose of Jericho’s remarkable ability to survive without water, Mongolia’s sparsely populated status, and the origins and meanings of animal names in Chinese culture. Bob shared interesting facts about the Rose of Jericho, while Marcia provided information on Mongolia’s demographics. In the second part of the conversation, Marcia and Bob delved into the etymology of words related to toughness and muscles, with Marcia offering an interesting fact about the origins of the word ‘muscle.’
Outline
Movie tough guy’s female impersonator past and origins of the alphabet.
- Jimmy Cagney was a female impersonator in a Broadway play during World War I, dancing in a chorus of servicemen dressed as women.
- Cagney’s marriage to fellow dancer Francis Billy Vernon lasted 62 years, despite his Hollywood history and fame.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the origins of the term “alpha and omega,” with Bob incorrectly assuming it refers to the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet.
- Bob provides examples of exotic birds, such as parrots and cockatoos, which have been released or escaped into the wild in various locations around the world.
Movies, vegetables, and fast food.
- Marcia and Bob discuss a 7-hour movie trailer for a 30-day long film called “Ambiance,” with surreal dream-like journey.
- Cauliflower is the vegetable farmers can hear growing due to creaking sounds when pressing.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the value of pineapples in 19th century England, where they were so valuable that stealing them could result in hard labor in an Australian penal colony.
Idioms, postal codes, and houseplants.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the origin of the phrase “get someone’s goat,” which refers to a horse racing practice where a goat is used to calm a skittish racehorse before a big race.
- Bob and Marcia Smith discuss the two-letter postal abbreviations of states in the US, with Bob correcting Marcia’s mistake and providing fun facts about the history of these abbreviations.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the Rose of Jericho, a house plant that can go seven years without water.
- Mongolia is the least densely populated country in the world, with only 5 people per square mile.
Chinese zodiac, animal names, and city history.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the number of muscles in each finger, with Marcia revealing that humans don’t have any muscles in their fingers but instead use muscles in their forearms and hands to control them.
- Bob asks Marcia a question about a word associated with toughness that actually describes a mouse, and Marcia reveals that the word “muscle” comes from the Latin “musculus,” which means “little mouse,” due to the shape and movement of some muscles resembling mice.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, Jericho, with a history of over 11,000 years of continuous occupation.
- The “early bird gets the worm” expression is believed to have originated from ancient times, with no clear answer on how far back it goes.
Early bird expression and Abigail Adams’ letter to John Adams.
- Marcia Smith warns husband John Adams to “remember the ladies” and not abuse power over them.
- Marcia and Bob discuss their saved letters and first words to each other.
Bob Smith 0:00
We know drag queens and things like that are pretty controversial these days but what famous movie tough guy got his start as a female impersonator? Whoa.
Marcia Smith 0:10
I wonder and how did the alphabet get its name?
Bob Smith 0:16
answers to those and other questions coming up in this half hour of the off ramp with Bob Mr. Shaw Smith
Welcome to the off ramp a chance to slow down. Steer clear of crazy and take a side road to sanity. Well, Marcia movie tough guy guy that was Mr. Macho. He started out with skirts. He was a female in person.
Marcia Smith 0:55
Yeah, it’s not a new thing. That’s for sure. Right? No. Is this old movie star dead one an old dead movies dead Marvel. Classic. T Robinson. Yeah, she
Bob Smith 1:09
No, it wasn’t Edward G. Robinson, but he was from that era.
Marcia Smith 1:12
He was out here. Let
Bob Smith 1:13
me give you a clue. Okay, you dirty rags.
Marcia Smith 1:17
Jimmy Cagney. James Cagney.
Bob Smith 1:18
Yes, here’s the story. In 1919. While he was working at one of makers department store, this is before he got into show business really. A friend saw him dance and informed him about to roll in the upcoming production of every sailor that was on Broadway. That was a wartime play. Again, this is around 1918, 1919. World War One, a wartime play in which the chorus was made up of servicemen dressed up as women. So Jimmy Cagney auditioned for the chorus. He knew only one dance step. But it was a complicated one, the Peabody and he knew it perfectly. He bought the Peabody that was a dance step, and it was enough to convince the producers he could dance. So he copied the other dancers moves and added them to his repertoire while he was waiting to go on and he became a member of this cast and there was even a picture online of a very tough Jimmy Cagney dressed up as a actually good looking young woman. He said he didn’t find it odd to play a woman nor was he embarrassed. He said when he stepped on the stage. I am not myself. I’m not that fella. Jimmy Cagney and I certainly lost all consciousness of him. When I put on skirts, wigs, paint, powder, feathers and spangles. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 2:29
you know, it really has been around like some people are getting so alarmed these days. I remember Milton Berle. Yeah, when we grew up. He was always dressed like a woman on TV. It’s not like this has never happened before. Exactly.
Bob Smith 2:43
And it was the only time Jimmy Cagney had to do that. He was in that show for a couple of months. And then he went on to his next show. You’ll like this Marcia, his next show was called pitter patter and he was also in the chorus and that’s where he met a 20 year old dancer Francis Billy Vernon. They got married and their marriage lasted 62 years. 32 years right all of his Hollywood history and everything.
Marcia Smith 3:07
Oh, no. Wrong. Wrong guy.
Bob Smith 3:08
Yeah, no, no, it’s Jimmy. Jimmy Cagney. He was a female impersonator. Dirty Rat. That’s you making fun of my dress movie
Marcia Smith 3:17
with that prompt? That’s a good I liked that one. Well, Bobby is sad from it off my skirt. You dirty rat. You remember the name of the movie?
Bob Smith 3:26
I don’t know if that was the US citizen. What was that called that first for our Public Enemy? I think it was. Okay. My favorite was white heat. That was one where he stood up on top of this big petroleum tank and he shouted out top of the world MA and then the whole tank blows up. Oh, really? Oh, helium. I put away the dress and became a
Marcia Smith 3:47
man. All right, Bob alphabet. How did it get its name alphabet?
Bob Smith 3:52
Alpha meaning first, or top or best? I assume it’s it’s Greek, isn’t it? Isn’t that a Greek word? Yes. alpha numeric. I don’t it’s the order, right? Yes. Okay. I helped me
Marcia Smith 4:05
okay. It’s actually, you’re almost there. It’s alpha and beta. It’s the first two letters of the original Greek alphabet. Oh, okay. Because
Bob Smith 4:17
I always think alpha and beta. I always think first and last. But that’s Alpha.
Marcia Smith 4:20
That’s not my next question. What are Alpha and Omega?
Bob Smith 4:24
That’s Alpha and Omega. That’s the first and the last, the first
Marcia Smith 4:27
and the 24th letter of the Greek alphabet is omega. So I didn’t realize that the first two letters of the alphabet were alpha and beta. I didn’t know that either. So Don, yeah, I’m here to you. I
Bob Smith 4:39
hear you. You’re here to help me a lot. I aren’t. Okay, Marsha. We knew last week we heard about the hundreds of monk parents living in the wilds of New York City. Yeah. Isn’t
Marcia Smith 4:50
that weird? Well, I
Bob Smith 4:51
got a little more on that. All right. They don’t just live in New York City parents live in nearby Connecticut too. And monk parents and other species of parents aren’t Chicago, Miami Tampa, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin. Apparently it’s 60 out of the 380 parents species have breeding populations outside of their native habitats and it’s all a product of the pet trade and animal trafficking around the world. Oh, so
Marcia Smith 5:17
they get loose. Yeah. And then they breed they get loose
Bob Smith 5:21
or they escape or they leave their you know their homes. Oh, they must miss the jungle. The red mask parakeets live on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, Rosie face lovebirds decorate the palm trees of Phoenix and parrots are present in all of Mexico’s 10 largest cities, as well as get this Barcelona, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Rome and Athens. There’s even colonies of cockatoos living in Hong Kong, and Tel Aviv and Singapore,
Marcia Smith 5:49
but people let them go or they escaped. Apparently
Bob Smith 5:52
this has gone on for centuries, because they know Alexander the Great kept parrots he brought back from India. That was like the fourth century BC. And the Romans kept exotic parrots as pets. You know, because these birds are interesting, right? They’re social, they, they seem to talk so people love them, and they’re all over the world, not just where you would think parents are
Marcia Smith 6:13
right. Okay. Want to guess Bob? How long the longest movie trailer is?
Bob Smith 6:17
The current movie trailer or when that was from the past? Well, it came out a few years ago. Okay. Usually they’re anywhere from like 90 seconds to maybe two or three minutes. Was there something longer than
Unknown Speaker 6:30
that? Oh, yes.
Bob Smith 6:33
This must have been a very long movie. So they put out like 15 minutes of a trailer?
Marcia Smith 6:37
No, really? No. What was it? Seven hours and 20 minutes?
Bob Smith 6:41
That was the trailer for the film? Yes. What was the film’s length?
Marcia Smith 6:45
Isn’t that ridiculous? Yes, it was called ambiance and the trailer came out in 2016 for the movie, which was 720 hours long. The Hulk did yeah, he’s which is 30 days. I mean, how did we miss this at the low?
Bob Smith 7:03
I don’t know. I mean, couldn’t a bra chop that up into you know, a one hour segments or something that
Marcia Smith 7:08
the trailer came out but the movie I still haven’t figured out if it was all out, half out. It was supposed to come out on the 31st to December 2020. Or if
Bob Smith 7:19
it Petered out, perhaps that’s what happened.
Marcia Smith 7:22
And the Swedish director who wrote it and did everything with it, who did this 30 day long movie was Swedish director Anders. We Berg she’s 30 days. Yeah. Crazy. It’s about space and time, intertwined into a surreal dream like journey.
Bob Smith 7:40
Boy, it sounds like a laugh riot to me.
Marcia Smith 7:43
It really wasn’t meant to go to a theater. Anyway, he released little bits and pieces of it and he was supposed to be the only one that saw the whole thing. And he was any, any destroyed. Lord, or he said he did, but nobody knows. But the trailer got
Bob Smith 7:59
good review. Well, it was only how long?
Marcia Smith 8:01
Seven hours? 20 minutes.
Bob Smith 8:05
All right, Marsha. I have a food question for you. What vegetable can farmers hear growing?
Marcia Smith 8:11
Oh, really? Oh, that’s interesting.
Bob Smith 8:14
I think it’s one you’re familiar with. No. Can’t hear corn grain can’t hear lettuce. What vegetables can farmers hear growing because it
Marcia Smith 8:24
grows so fast. Yes. Oh, sunflowers.
Bob Smith 8:28
No, but it’s got flour in its name. Okay, what is it cauliflower. Really? Yeah, it can grow more than an inch every day. And britannica.com says when cauliflower florets press on each other. They emit a creaking sound that some farmers likened to the popping sound of Rice Krispies. No kidding. Yeah, well, that’s cool. So cauliflowers, our vegetables farmers can hear growing?
Marcia Smith 8:52
I think I’ll plant some just hear it. Would that be fine? That would be okay. Oh, Bob, Ukraine has requested an Iron Dome to deal with the Russian invasion. You know what an Iron Dome is? Yes.
Bob Smith 9:07
That’s the Israeli anti aircraft system basically that shoots down Yeah, aircraft for missiles and things like that. Good for you.
Marcia Smith 9:16
I didn’t have a clue. But I should have known you might have a clue. Okay. Yeah. And it was developed in Israel and it has a 96% success rate Amazing isn’t in intercepting rockets. And Ukraine wants it is asking for it.
Bob Smith 9:30
Let’s go a little farther Western Europe. And I’m gonna ask you this question. What is the only western European country without a McDonald’s restaurant? Western European. I’ll give you a choice here. Oh, thank you, France, Norway, Iceland, or Denmark.
Marcia Smith 9:45
Iceland.
Bob Smith 9:47
That’s it. Ding ding ding ding ding. Yeah. It’s the only country in Western Europe where you can’t grab a Big Mac and some fries. Why is that? Well, they had a currency called The Crone and it collapsed in 2009. during the global financial crisis, when that happened, McDonald’s closed its for Icelandic outlets because importing food products came at an extremely high cost. And McDonald’s couldn’t supply what they needed. So they collapsed all the restaurants and to this day, I can’t buy any McDonald’s food there
Marcia Smith 10:19
won’t be done. I just read the other day, I was reading the cost of a Big Mac and various countries. And I thought, you know, they’re pretty expensive here in America. Yeah, you know that? Well, I haven’t bought one in a year. I still thought they were around a buck 50 But now and you think
Bob Smith 10:36
everything’s a buck 50 Always offended at prices that have changed over the past 25 years. Hey, I got another question here. Just one more food question here. What fruit was once so valuable? You could go to prison for stealing it?
Unknown Speaker 10:52
How long ago?
Bob Smith 10:54
This goes back 200 years ago.
Marcia Smith 10:56
Oh, all right. So this isn’t recently
Bob Smith 10:58
No, but a man was. He was sentenced to seven years of hard labor for stealing some of these things.
Unknown Speaker 11:04
Really? Gosh.
Bob Smith 11:07
It’s a fruit. It’s not native to England. So it was something that had been an awkward
Marcia Smith 11:10
it’s not a truffle. I can no no he’s sent to so is it like chocolate or something? No. What was it?
Bob Smith 11:17
Pineapples? Really? Yeah, from the 16th to the early 19th century. Pineapples were so valuable in England that security firms were frequently hired to guard them. And I need to I need to team up here to guard my pineapples. Kind of shipment in Yeah, in 1807 A British man who stoled seven pineapples. He was sentenced to seven years of hard labor but not in Britain in an Australian penal colony got a shipped him all the way to Australia because he stoled seven pineapples that’s how valuable they were. That’s
Marcia Smith 11:52
almost as bad as John Val John and Les Miserables. Yes. Sold a loaf of bread. That’s true. Seven pineapples. Okay, Bob, you’ve heard the expression got his goat, meaning he gets upset. Yes, yes. Wonder where that came from one
Bob Smith 12:06
guy, his goat. I got his goat. That must have been some kind of country where goats were a commodity you traded in? Uh huh. So if you got somebody’s goats, that was probably like buying his car or stealing his car, horse or something. So that would be like somewhere in Switzerland, one of the Alpine countries where there goats up in the mountains. Very
Marcia Smith 12:29
good. Absolutely wrong, but very. But you’ll like this answer. I had no idea. It’s a term that comes from a horse trainers practice of putting a goat in a stall with a skittish race horse to keep him calm before the big race. Oh, really? Yeah, you think a goat would upset you? I would think it would upset a horribly racehorses kind of like it. But if an opponent of the horse or a gambler betting against the horse, he might arrange to have the goat removed by a stableboy which would upset the horse and reduce his chance of winning. Wow. So if you get his goat, it’s upsets the whole apple pie.
Bob Smith 13:09
I had no idea. that’s where it came from. Yeah, that’s really an old friend. very arcane. What an interesting story. I didn’t have any idea. That’s what God is good. And it came from the race race horse. Trade. Yeah. Okay. All right, Marsha. I have the name of four states. And I want you to tell me which one of these states name ends with the two letters. The post office uses as an abbreviation. This is like those numbers things you give me I give you letters here. Okay. Okay, let’s look at Iowa, Iowa. We used to live there. What’s Iowa’s two letter abbreviation when you write Ay ay ay ay. Okay. So one of these dates, which one’s name ends with the two letters of its official postal abbreviation? Okay. Illinois, Arkansas, Kentucky, or Alaska.
Unknown Speaker 13:59
Alaska. Hey. Well, that
Bob Smith 14:02
would be k Marsh. That’s the last two letters.
Marcia Smith 14:06
Oh, the last two letters. I’m sorry. I misunderstood. Yeah, Illinois, Arkansas,
Bob Smith 14:09
Kentucky or Alaska, which states name ends with the two letters that are its official postal abbreviation Kentucky. That’s right. There you go. Kentucky’s postal code is k y. And that’s the last two letters of its name. It’s also the first and the last letter of its name. Kentucky starts with
Marcia Smith 14:29
thinking as I noticed that those two letter
Bob Smith 14:31
abbreviations have been around since 1963 When the Post Office Department introduced the five digit ZIP codes. Only one abbreviation has been changed since the two letter codes were introduced. What state used to be N B but now it’s N E. Nebraska. That’s it. It was changed in 1969 to avoid confusion with New Brunswick, Canada.
Marcia Smith 14:54
Oh, okay.
Bob Smith 14:55
That was kind of fun. All right. It was fun Marsh you didn’t It was fun, but I thought it was fun. I’m
Marcia Smith 15:01
having great fun. Oh,
Bob Smith 15:02
yeah. Okay,
Marcia Smith 15:04
got a break. Well, it’s
Bob Smith 15:06
not time. All right time to take a break. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marsha Smith. We’ll be back in just a moment. We’re back. I’m Bob.
Marcia Smith 15:18
I’m Marcia. And
Bob Smith 15:19
you’re listening to the off ramp. We do this every week for the Cedarburg, Public Library. Cedarburg, Wisconsin for its internet radio station, and then we put it on podcast platforms, and we’re heard all over the world.
Marcia Smith 15:31
Okay, Bob, what house plant can go seven years without water?
Bob Smith 15:36
Wow. That’s my kind of house plan to say so Is it some kind of cacti or cactus? No, no, no. Is it something that I would know of? Is it obscure? Or is it Well,
Marcia Smith 15:47
I never heard of it. That means you probably haven’t heard of it.
Bob Smith 15:51
So this is the plant that lives for seven years without water. Yeah. And it turns
Marcia Smith 15:54
into something that we do both know a butterfly.
Bob Smith 15:57
Oh, no, I’m sorry. I’m just getting things mixed up.
Marcia Smith 16:00
Here. Let me tell you, okay. It’s called Rose of Jericho or the resurrection plant. It’s a native to northern Mexico, parts of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. If this plant dries out, it bounces around as a tumbleweed. Oh, no kidding. But once it gets water again, in just a couple hours, it spreads out ferns and turns bright green. Wow. And you can ignore this bit of flora for up to seven years. And it still will resurrect itself. Wow. That’s amazing. It is I don’t know if that means all tumble weeds. If they tumbled to some water, they turn green again.
Bob Smith 16:37
Gosh, it’s amazing. Nobody has promoted the fact that hey, you don’t want to put a watering in this thing for seven years. You think they would get it that way? What’s it called again?
Marcia Smith 16:49
The Rose of Jericho, the rose of Jericho or their resurrection plan? The
Bob Smith 16:53
resurrection plan. That’s appropriate. Okay, Marsha. We’ve talked about the most populated country in the world. What’s the most sparsely populated country in the world? Now? I’m talking about least dense population so a landmass that has hardly any people in it.
Marcia Smith 17:12
Is it in Canada? It’s not in Canada. I’ll
Bob Smith 17:14
give you a choice here. Okay. Mongolia, Chad, Russia or Australia.
Marcia Smith 17:18
Oh, could be Australia.
Bob Smith 17:21
But it’s not sure. I
Marcia Smith 17:22
Chad. It’s nice. It would be I think
Bob Smith 17:26
you got two choices left. Left Mongolia or Russia. Russia. No Marcia. Deductive reasoning dies a terrible death there. I could hear it screaming Oh my god, it’s Mongolia. That’s what I thought. On the fourth try. between China and Russia is one of the world’s least densely populated landmass. Mongolia has an average of five people per square mile, which is sparser than any other country, only a few people, people per square mile at the most. Now the population is pretty good size. 3.3 4 million, but it’s still one of the most sparsely populated countries on earth. Hmm. Interesting. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 18:08
I’ll be darned. You probably didn’t know that each finger has three bones. And I thumbs have to. But the question is, Bob, how many muscles does each finger
Bob Smith 18:20
have? How many muscles does each finger have?
Speaker 1 18:23
Mm hmm. I’ll
Bob Smith 18:26
say 2222.
Marcia Smith 18:26
Oh, my God. Why not? Got three bonds and 22 muscle? Yes, zero bb 00. No muscles at all in your fingers. human fingers are controlled by the muscles in your forearms and in the palms of your hands. They have none of their own. Huh? How about that?
Bob Smith 18:46
Well, okay, you told me I’ve got a question for you. What word that we associate with toughness actually describes a mouse. What word that we associate with toughness actually describes a mouse. Oh, guess what? Marsh? Wow. It’s the word you just asked about muscle. Really? Muscles contractable animal tissue bundles of fibers. The word muscle derives from the Latin musculus. Literally a little mouse. That’s because the shape and movement of some muscles like your biceps were thought to resemble mice.
Marcia Smith 19:21
No kidding.
Bob Smith 19:22
So that’s how it got its name I
Marcia Smith 19:23
would have never guessed that
Bob Smith 19:24
I was looking desperately for that when you were asking me about muscles get that kind of question here about muscle
Marcia Smith 19:29
really? Yeah. And you found it okay. You know that the Chinese name each year for an animal right but
Bob Smith 19:36
the year of the rat and all those I’m a rat What are you?
Marcia Smith 19:38
I don’t know. A donkey or
Bob Smith 19:40
something? No, not the year the donkey.
Marcia Smith 19:43
Anyway, you know I love following my year of the rat horoscopes on those Chinese placemats it gives us something to do waiting for our meal. Yeah, okay. But anyway, how did that come about naming different years by the names of different animals. You know the story behind that The
Bob Smith 20:00
Legend No, I didn’t know anything about
Marcia Smith 20:03
it at all. Not me either. The story goes back for centuries and centers around Buddha inviting all the animals on earth to visit him on New Year’s Day. Oh no kidding. But only 12 animals came the rat, the ox Tiger hair dragon horse, snake, sheep, Monkey, Rooster pig and the dog. They’re the only guys that showed up. According to this ledge, how many 12 as their reward, the legend says that Buddha honored each of the 12 with a year of its own I’ll be darned. So that’s how that all came about.
Bob Smith 20:37
I just remembered what I am on the year the rabbit are Yeah,
Marcia Smith 20:41
I remember that. Yeah, the bunny I always called you the bunny the year of the rat. So it’s the rat in the bunny and so far so good. The rabbit Marsh. Is that not manly enough for you? Bad boy. You
Bob Smith 20:52
could say the year of the hair. But I’m losing that. Alright, Marcia, another word question for you. All right. I do like those what expression for a serious meeting once described drinking parties. What word that describes a we would say Oh, this is a very serious meeting. once described drinking parties. You go to a conference and people have a sim,
Speaker 1 21:19
sim sim palsy symposium.
Bob Smith 21:24
I knew you get it. Yes. Mo poziom. Yes. symposium. today’s symposium is typically used to describe a meeting of experts or a published collection of articles on a subject but the word was first used in English to describe a sort of drinking party. The word originally comes from the ancient Greek sipping em meaning to drink together. But, you know, I know a lot of people go to symposiums and they drink. So
Marcia Smith 21:49
yeah, it works. And you and I can have a symposium later on today. That’s right. Okay. I know we’ve talked about old cities in the world. But what’s the oldest continuous inhabited city in the world, but I thought
Bob Smith 22:03
it was Damascus, Syria. Now or Jerusalem, one of those two know, very, very old cities. Could it be? Could it be a city in Iraq? No. What part of the world is it in Asia? Now? The Middle East? Yes. You’re so helpful with that. What’s that? Got that? Got it? What is that Marsh? What are you doing? The
Marcia Smith 22:27
walls came to
Bob Smith 22:27
Jericho. Jericho is one of the oldest cities in the world. continuously occupied? Yeah.
Marcia Smith 22:32
Yeah. It’s the oldest city in the world. Still with people in it. Archeologists have discovered settlements in Jericho part of the Palestinian territories. They had date back 9000 years before Christ. Yeah, they go back 9000 BC, the cities located near the Jordan river in the West Bank, and it’s home today to approximately 20,000 people. Jericho has been inhabited for more than 11,000 years. And the settlement there in 8000 BC is thought to have been inhabited by between two and 3000 people who lived within a stone wall built by the community on the walls came tumbling down. Yeah. So that’s where that song came from. So there were 2000 to 3000 people live there, and they built a wall.
Bob Smith 23:19
And that’s in the Bible, of course, you know, one of the ancient books of the world’s history. And yet, you know, they say human beings have been around for millions of years. What happened before 9000 BC? They were no cities?
Unknown Speaker 23:32
I don’t know. You know, I
Bob Smith 23:33
mean, why don’t we have any records of anything before about seven or eight or 9000 BCE? No writing or anything? You know,
Marcia Smith 23:39
what they hadn’t learned writing yet? What
Bob Smith 23:41
did they do? What did those people do? How did they survive if they couldn’t do anything for millions of years? A true picture? Oh, for God’s sake. Okay, one more. One more question on animals here. Okay. Where did the early bird gets the worm expression come from? Okay, how far back do you think that goes? Oh, gosh, it’s
Marcia Smith 23:59
an expression.
Bob Smith 24:00
There
Marcia Smith 24:00
were no birds and worms for mine until 200 years ago. So I would say, I don’t know, Bob, tell me. Okay,
Bob Smith 24:09
this goes back to 1605. In a book of Proverbs by William Camden. The idea behind the expression is that the birds that wake up the earliest have the best chance of catching a good meal. Uh huh. Since no other birds have gotten up to pick up the worms, and I never really thought about it, but that that’s what it means. But it’s so interesting that sometimes it’s just shortened to earlybird you know, well, I’m an early bird, or he’s an early bird. That’s why he’s doing so well. You know, that kind of thing. Have you heard
Marcia Smith 24:37
that bird outside our bedroom window? It starts like 330 No more drives me nuts to do I don’t read 30 In the morning, coming home from last call anyway,
Bob Smith 24:46
400 years ago, 1605, the book of Proverbs by William Camden. And that’s where the earlybird expression was.
Marcia Smith 24:54
Alright, I’m going to finish up with one longer than usual quote, by Abigail Adams.
Bob Smith 24:59
John Adams wife, yes,
Marcia Smith 25:01
she was quite something I had over time she fired this off in a letter to her husband John in 1774. While you are proclaiming peace and goodwill to men, John emancipating all nations, you insist on retaining absolute power over wives. Remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies. We are determined to foment a rebellion and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation. Oh, that was a warning of things to come, wasn’t it? 1774 And she’s firing this off to her husband.
Bob Smith 25:49
I could imagine her writing this down.
Marcia Smith 25:52
Don’t forget the ladies Johnny. We will rebel. But yeah, they did. And he was such an odd duck. Yes. I remember Paul Giamatti playing. Yeah, John Adams in that series was so good. Oh, my God, because he’s a strange guy. He is. And it was so fascinating. And John Adams was a bit of a strange guy.
Bob Smith 26:13
Well, she was headstrong, and they had a very good marriage. They wrote a lot of letters. They’re all kinds of letters that survived their marriage, because whenever he would go off to Congress, they would communicate that way. All the left kept all the letters. That’s amazing. It is it’s very cool. All right.
Marcia Smith 26:28
Did we ever keep any letters of ours just cards and things? I’ve kept everything you ever wrote me? You
Bob Smith 26:33
never kept anything in mind?
Marcia Smith 26:36
Including the first words you ever wrote me? I kept everyone. Your first words to me. Were five words. Want to go for a walk? Want to go for a walk? You left it on my computer.
Bob Smith 26:47
All right. And your first words to me were? Who the hell are you?
Marcia Smith 26:51
Yes, Bob. We’ve covered okay. But anyway, yes, I have saved everything you ever read.
Bob Smith 26:56
Oh, thank you so much. That’s so sweet of you. It
Marcia Smith 26:58
is isn’t it? Yes. Yeah. Yes. Well, I’ve
Bob Smith 27:00
saved yours too. Yeah. Your few cards and things. You’ve given me a
Marcia Smith 27:06
little bit of a verbal person a shred of
Bob Smith 27:08
thing here a little snippet of notes here. You
Marcia Smith 27:11
can listen to these
Bob Smith 27:12
a piece of paper over there.
Marcia Smith 27:15
All right, wrap it up and talk to our people. If
Bob Smith 27:17
you’d like to participate in our show by contributing a thought or a quote or a question for me to ask Marsha or hurt asked me. Go to our website the off ramp dot show the off ramp dot show. Yeah. Good. Love to hear from Yes, I’m Bob Smith. I’m Marcia Smith. We’ll be back in another week with more fun facts and tantalizing trivia here on the off ramp due to the rat.
Marcia Smith 27:41
Let it go bomb
Bob Smith 27:46
the off rep is produced in association with CPL radio online and the Cedarbrook Public Library Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
