Bob and Marcia Smith discussed the origins and cultural significance of New Year’s resolutions, as well as various historical and cultural firsts. Bob highlighted successful New Year’s resolutions throughout history, while Marcia questioned their effectiveness. They also explored the Lunar New Year in China and the origins of cultural and historical firsts, such as the term ‘Dixie,’ cement pianos, America’s first spa, and New York City’s first street cleaners. Through their conversation, the speakers emphasized the diverse and complex nature of cultural and historical events and the importance of understanding their origins and evolution.
Outline
New Year’s resolutions and their origins, with a focus on Julius Caesar’s successful resolution to reform the Roman calendar.
- Bob and Marcia discuss New Year’s resolutions, with Bob sharing statistics on their success rate.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the history of New Year’s resolutions, from ancient Babylonian times to Julius Caesar’s 46 BC changes to the Roman calendar.
- Bob highlights Julius Caesar’s successful New Year’s resolution to reform the Roman calendar, which lasted for centuries and addressed issues with the previous 355-day calendar.
Julius Caesar’s calendar changes and TV series popularity.
- Bob Smith: Julius Caesar invented January 1 as New Year’s Day, and Romans began offering sacrifices and resolving to conduct themselves better on this day.
- Marcia Smith: Julius Caesar’s calendar reforms included lengthening the year to realign with the sun, dividing it into 12 months, and inventing the leap year.
- Bob and Marcia discuss Game of Thrones, a popular TV series, and its creator George R. R. Martin.
- Marcia asks Bob about the origin of the term “Dixie,” which Bob explains is a $10 French banknote and later became a battle song for the Confederacy.
New Year’s resolutions and cultural celebrations.
- Bob Smith provides statistics on New Year’s resolutions, including that 38.5% of US adults make them and that young adults are more likely to make resolutions than older people.
- Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss the phrase “beside himself,” with Bob suggesting it may have psychological origins related to comparisons and Freudian theory.
- Marcia and Bob discuss ancient beliefs about the soul leaving the body and the opportunity for the devil to fill the void.
- They also share insights on New Year’s resolutions, top movies of 2023, and their love for popcorn.
- Bob and Marcia discuss Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations, including food, travel, and cultural significance.
Lunar New Year in China and Sir Francis Bacon’s death.
- Marcia Smith explains the poem “Against Cold Meats” and its historical context.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the history of the Chinese Lunar New Year and cement pianos.
History, trivia, and interesting facts.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the first spa in America (Berkeley Springs, WV) and the first street cleaners in New York City (Joe Adagio and Ricky Ramirez).
- Bob and Marcia discuss the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and Taylor Swift’s record on the Billboard Album Charts.
- Bob and Marcia discuss various animal facts and trivia, including snake movement, elephant trunks, and vomiting.
Bob Smith 0:00
What leader made the most successful new year’s resolution in history? That’s interesting.
Marcia Smith 0:06
And when did New Year’s resolutions begin answers
Bob Smith 0:09
to those and other questions as we head into a new year here on the off ramp with Bob and Marsha Smith?
Welcome to the off ramp by chance to slow down, steer clear of crazy take a side road to Saturday and get some perspective on life. That’s kind of what a New Year’s Day does for you, doesn’t it?
Marcia Smith 0:44
Yeah, it does.
Bob Smith 0:46
Do you make New Year’s resolutions Marcia
Marcia Smith 0:47
that anymore? No.
Bob Smith 0:49
You used to do it?
Marcia Smith 0:50
Yes.
Bob Smith 0:51
And why did you stop doing why do you think? Because you failed. You failed Marsha.
Marcia Smith 0:56
Yes. All right, was so successful, it didn’t matter anymore.
Bob Smith 0:59
Oh, well, I never thought of that they
Marcia Smith 1:00
do tend to get redundant. So moving on. Well, you
Bob Smith 1:04
know, how many people do resolutions every year? How many people do you think make New Year’s resolution? I’d
Marcia Smith 1:10
say, of the world population? 68.9? No,
Bob Smith 1:15
it’s just generally around half the people, at least in the United States. It’s about 45% of Americans. But overall, 38.5% of adults seem to set new year’s resolutions yearly, based on studies conducted over the past five years, how many of them are successful with a resolution of that? Of that? 38 to 45% 20% 10% 10%?
If only it was that good? 5%? Really 8% only about 8% of people are successful in achieving their goals. I’ve got some thoughts on how to do it right, based on some research, and we’ll get to that in a moment. But first, Marsha, your question was When did New Year’s resolutions begin? Yes, ma’am. When
Marcia Smith 2:02
did they begin? Well,
Bob Smith 2:04
I imagine it goes back to the old times the old days before the landline
Marcia Smith 2:10
before there wasn’t such an ancient time as before the before. Yes,
Bob Smith 2:15
sir. Was before the telegraph before the landline before all the technology we have today. Yeah, I would imagine it goes back 3000 years at least. That’s good.
Marcia Smith 2:24
It’s 4000 4000 4000 and when the Babylonians remember them, celebrated a 12 day festival called Akka to at the start of the new agrarian year,
Bob Smith 2:37
okay, so dealt with the planting year agrarian year. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 2:41
during the festival, they would make resolutions to their gods during the vernal equinox. Okay, that was the start of the farming season to plant crops crown their King and make promises to return bottle farm equipment and pay their debt Return Borrowed farming? Yes, that’s hilarious. pay their debts. So that was their resolution. Well, every year apparently they had the same ones.
Bob Smith 3:05
So that came from the Babylonian times. So we’re talking about what is now Iraq, but 4000 years ago? Yeah. Wow.
Marcia Smith 3:12
Do we have stuff in the garage? Our neighbors have shovels? rakes or something?
Bob Smith 3:16
Do we owe them any shekels? All right, well, what leader in history made what is arguably the most successful new year’s resolution?
Marcia Smith 3:26
I would say it’s got to be some head of some country that vowed to end the war some war that year.
Bob Smith 3:33
Well, it goes back a long ways you want to hit? Yeah, let’s try 46 BC.
Marcia Smith 3:40
Was he fiddling? Did he talk about getting new?
Bob Smith 3:43
Was it during Nero’s time now? Okay,
Marcia Smith 3:44
now what?
Bob Smith 3:46
Julius Caesar? Yeah. Now, here’s why he was so successful. I mean, in 46 BC, he had a New Year’s resolution. That was four changes that have lasted a lifetime for all time, to our time.
Marcia Smith 4:00
Do you have any idea what they were talking about the calendar? That’s Yes,
Bob Smith 4:03
that was one thing. They were all about. The calendar actually had
Marcia Smith 4:06
time. Calendars, month. Number of why they have Well, no, no,
Bob Smith 4:13
wait. Sorry. That’s no, that’s you’re thinking of some other thing? Yeah, tell me. Okay. Well, unlike our problems today, this problem wasn’t that he ate too much or that he exercised too little or that he spent too much time on social media. It wasn’t any of those things. His problem was the Roman calendar. That was a 355 day calendar. And it was a combination five 355 days, a combination of lunar and ancient calendars and it was a mess. The priests of Rome had to manipulate the calendar continually to adjust the dates to match the natural seasons. And by the time he came to power, the harvest fest no longer fell during the harvest times. Things were really screwed up. We’re
Marcia Smith 4:56
screwed up.
Bob Smith 4:57
So in the year 46 BC, Julius user did something unprecedented. He declared a year of transition the longest year in history. How long was the longest year in history? I’ll
Marcia Smith 5:07
say 375 days no longer than that. 85 to 8500
Bob Smith 5:15
he lengthen the year 46 BC, to make it 455 days long enough to realign the calendar with the sun. He wanted to make the following year begin at the right time. After the winter solstice, you can only do these things if you’re a dictator,
Marcia Smith 5:30
boy, no kidding. But he had some good guys around him that told him this is what’s wrong. And this is how we can fix it. So he looked like a genius. That’s
Bob Smith 5:38
exactly right. He used the best astronomy, mathematics.
Marcia Smith 5:42
He believed it. That’s what made him good leader then and he
Bob Smith 5:44
tinkered with the calendar to make it the solar year that followed the sun, not the phases of the moon 365 days plus a few hours. And guess what he divided the calendar in the 12 months. So it was his regime that made that change to months, whose Roman names we still use. And He also invented the leap year, they knew that the Calendar wouldn’t be perfect. So they added an extra day to the calendar every four years to prevent it from falling out of alignment. What is the fourth and actually most important thing he invented regarding New Years. Cheez Whiz, he invented a day
Marcia Smith 6:19
that would didn’t exist before
Bob Smith 6:21
he invented January 1 As New Year’s Day. Okay, deciding that was the turn of the new year. And those are four major accomplishments. You could also say we can credit Julius Caesar with making it the day of New Year’s resolutions. Why it had to do with the name.
Marcia Smith 6:37
January, January, Janice, Janice was
Bob Smith 6:41
a you know, Roman god. Yes, very good. I like this. We’re doing our own version of what’s a game we used to play with the kids fill out a sentence, and the spaces lived Mad Libs funny. Because he named the first month of January after the Roman god Janus had two phases, one that looked forward one that looked backwards. So Romans believed that Janus symbolically looked backwards into the previous year forward into the new year. So they began offering sacrifices and resolving to conduct themselves better on January 1, and that’s how the, the real celebrations that relate to the January 1 Day began began going on for well over 2000 years ago, so 4000 years ago was New Year’s resolutions, but they began being done on January 1 More than 2000 years ago. Okay, so that’s why you can credit Julius Caesar as the leader with the most successful new year’s resolutions in history. Okay, thank
Marcia Smith 7:36
you, Bob. Next
Bob Smith 7:37
question.
Marcia Smith 7:38
What is the world’s number one TV series?
Bob Smith 7:42
The world’s number one TV series today
Marcia Smith 7:44
more people watch this. It’s actually over but it’s a series that people have watched. Oh, it’s just been completed that I it is complete. I do this complete. Oh, but it’s what is the number one TV series in the world from
Bob Smith 7:58
the United States? Yeah.
Marcia Smith 8:01
We never watched it. Okay. What is it Game of Thrones? Oh, yes,
Bob Smith 8:05
of course. It’s
Marcia Smith 8:06
a story about nine noble families fight for control over the lands of Westeros while an ancient enemy returns after being dormant for a millennia, and we never got into that, but it sure
Bob Smith 8:20
was pretty violent. But yes, I
Marcia Smith 8:21
hear it’s compelling. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting, interesting,
Bob Smith 8:24
written by a gentleman named Martin who was a former professor at the University of Dubuque or Clark College. When you and I were working there. No kidding. Yeah. Since doing that and making billions and you and I are here, so.
Marcia Smith 8:37
Hey, we got our podcast that’s right for the library
Bob Smith 8:40
doesn’t have a podcast for the Cedarburg Public Library. That’s very funny. Back to Julius Caesar. One more thing about that, Julius Caesar doing all this stuff, changing things, and a political enemy, Cicero joked, this man now wished to control the very stars, which rose according to his new calendar as if by edict.
Marcia Smith 9:01
Yeah, I imagine everybody being so ticked off what’s wrong with this guy trying to dictate the calendar when
Bob Smith 9:08
the sun rises and sets, but it was the right thing to do. Why,
Marcia Smith 9:13
Bob, why are the southern states called Dixie land?
Bob Smith 9:18
Why are the southern United States called Dixie line because they are south of the Mason Dixon Line?
Marcia Smith 9:23
What’s the first sentence I have here? It’s not because of the Mason Dixon Line, but it’s
Bob Smith 9:28
not because of the Mason Dixon Line. Okay, tell me the answer.
Marcia Smith 9:33
And that line is the boundary between the free states and the slave states. The territory south of Jeremiah Dixon’s boundary line, but according to Big Book of answers, it comes from the word Dixie, which was what southerners called a French $10 banknote.
Bob Smith 9:52
Oh, that’s right. Have heard about that. D IX means 10 in French Oh, okay. So a Dixie is a $10
Marcia Smith 9:58
bill and in New Orleans, they Use the Dixie is and it was already in use in 1859 when Daniel Emmett or Northern man introduced his song Dixie with the South snick name, and somehow it became a battle song for the Confederacy. He
Bob Smith 10:13
was a white man who had entertainers and they did blackface minstrel shows and sang. And he wrote that song, but he wasn’t a black man. He was a white man. And he wasn’t from the south. He was from Ohio. Interesting, okay, you
Marcia Smith 10:26
knew a lot about him. But you didn’t know. I just forgot about that
Bob Smith 10:29
aspect of that. All right, we were talking about resolutions that failed 88%. This is from a University of Bristol study of 3000 people. One thing they say was that small, measurable goals lead to greater success. So instead of saying, I’m going to lose weight, you say, I’m going to lose a pound a week, or I’m going to lose a pound the first two weeks
Marcia Smith 10:49
or my case, I’m going to get up in the morning.
Bob Smith 10:55
That’s your resolution? Oh, my God. Good chance. So are you in the percentage of people who resolve not to do anything Correct? Well, I still do I bet you do will still fail. You know, about a year ago, I had a real long list about five things. That’s my guy. The longer the list, the worse. I think I got one of those things started. So this year, my resolution is to read entire books, instead of skipping through them, which I tend to do. I think that social media and the internet is ruined my attention. So I need to start with one book and make sure I read all the way through before it open another one because I usually have like five of them going at any given time. They’re
Marcia Smith 11:32
in the Smithsonian Institute in your bathroom. Okay.
Bob Smith 11:36
Right. Let me ask you this question. So I do have statistics on how many people do set resolutions 38.5% of all US adults do have a New Year’s resolution 52.6%, focus on one resolution 47.4% do multiple resolution. So most people do one resolution, that’s probably why it’s better. But age predicts whether you’re going to actually do them or not. Young adults do resolutions more often than older people. 59% of young adults 18 to 34 have resolution. You know why that is? Because they haven’t lived long enough to know it doesn’t work. That’s right. People over 55 are three times less likely to have resolutions compared to younger people. But 54% of parents do make New Year’s resolutions. Hmm. If you’re a parent, especially of young children, you’re more likely to do a resolution. Okay.
Marcia Smith 12:33
Okay, Bob, a person who is extremely distraught is often said to be beside himself. Yes. Where does that phrase come? Oh,
Bob Smith 12:42
that’s interesting. I hadn’t thought of that. I just when you said that I thought of a psychological thing. You know, here you are. And here’s this other person, that is you as well. You know,
Marcia Smith 12:53
who say Wow,
Bob Smith 12:54
well, you know, it’s like, here’s what I’m gonna say, here’s what I really think. It’s kind of like that to different people. Is it a psychological thing that that come from psychological comparisons, like Freudian or something like that?
Marcia Smith 13:05
It’s way before 40. Okay, back to the ancients. They believe that under extreme distress, that the soul left a person’s body and stood beside him in human form.
Bob Smith 13:18
Wow. So you’re actually beside yourself. It
Marcia Smith 13:21
left the subject literally beside himself when he would leave his body. It was believed this absence of the soul gave the devil an opportunity to fill the void. Whoa, apparently extreme pleasure could also cause this condition. The Greek word ecstasy means to leave the body. Oh, no kidding. Yeah. Wow. So extreme happiness or just extreme
Bob Smith 13:47
pleasure. Make you beside yourself.
Marcia Smith 13:50
Yeah. Who’s that guy over there smiling.
Bob Smith 13:54
beside himself over there.
Marcia Smith 13:55
Oh, my goodness. Anyway, that goes back to ancient times. All right,
Bob Smith 13:59
one more thing on the New Year’s resolutions. This is from a Google Maps project called Zeitgeist. They found that in the US and Egypt health related resolutions took priority. But if you live in Australia or Japan, you’re looking for love. Oh, really? Yeah. And in India career goals top the resolutions? What is it in the US in the US it’s health related? Okay. And in Russia, it’s all about education. Different
Marcia Smith 14:25
countries different needs. All right. Bombs. domestic box office movies. Can you name any the top five movies of 2023?
Bob Smith 14:35
Man I have a hard time with this anymore. I would say two of the top are Oppenheimer and Barbie. Correct. Okay, Barbie
Marcia Smith 14:41
was number one, Oppenheimer number five. Following Barbie is Super Mario Brothers. We didn’t see that. Oh, geez. Spider Man across the spider reverse. Okay. And Guardians of the Galaxy, which we did see of the galaxy.
Bob Smith 14:55
Well, we saw some of those movies. Yeah, three of them. All right. I think it’s time to Take a movie break. All right, and
Marcia Smith 15:01
this cat means popcorn, doesn’t it? Yes. Go
Bob Smith 15:03
pop the popcorn. We’ll be back in a minute. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith. We’re back, but we lied about the popcorn.
Marcia Smith 15:13
Bob gets mad if I chew on the microphone. Yeah, we
Bob Smith 15:15
just can’t do that when we’re doing our show, listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marsha Smith. We do this every week for the Cedarburg, Public Library, Cedarburg, Wisconsin, and it’s internet radio station. And then after it’s aired on the radio station, it goes out all over. It goes on podcast platforms all over the world. Thank you very harsh. I
Marcia Smith 15:37
was off
Bob Smith 15:38
in dreamland at first and we’re beside yourself there. Say, you know, if you like New Year’s celebrations, what country’s culture is best for you? Any idea? What country’s culture would be the best for you? Close. China, China. Really Chinese Lunar New Year is 15 days. Wow. So you can celebrate a long time. But actually, it’s not the Chinese New Year. It’s the Lunar New Year. It’s celebrated in multiple Asian cultures. It starts with the first new moon of the year last 15 days. And it’s celebrated with cleaning gift giving feasts and parades. Spring Cleaning is the thing it’s mostly associated with you’d love that
Marcia Smith 16:18
when you Oh, I’m all in but
Bob Smith 16:21
it has to do with the switchover from winter to spring. Ancient farmers when they began another season for planting crops. They would get rid of things clean things out, get rid of the bad luck and all of that. Okay, big meals to Marcia. Yeah, how many courses you think a Chinese Lunar New Year meal might be? 17
not that big. 12 888 is a lucky number. So many meals consist of eight course do you haven’t listed they may include dumplings that resemble ancient coins in northern China sticky rice cakes in southern China. Other traditional foods include fish, tangerine and uncut noodles. Uncut noodles signify a long life. Did you know that? Yeah, and lots of fireworks, lots of noise. And it culminates in the lantern festival. And this is the big statistic I’m surprised at travel. Travel is very big during the Lunar New Year. We think in the United States we have nightmare traffic jams and Thanksgiving and Christmas. They pale by comparison to Chinese Lunar New Year travel. An estimated 3.2 billion trips are taken Oh my word by the Chinese over a six week period. It’s been called the largest seasonal migration of people and they go they visit friends and family wherever they are J in and out of China. All
Marcia Smith 17:40
right. I like this one. Okay, what inspired this witty little poem in 1626 All right. against cold meats. He was insured for frozen chickens. He procured brought on the illness he endured. Oh, and never was the bacon cured.
Bob Smith 18:00
What?
Marcia Smith 18:01
What inspired that
Bob Smith 18:03
poem that sounds like some kind of infection or something based on food that wasn’t prepared, right?
Marcia Smith 18:09
Well, it’s actually about a person who died long before Clarence Birdseye pioneered frozen food which we’ve talked about on the show, Sir Francis Bacon, a philosopher, an English statesman have many titles. Yes. gave his life to the cause. He died after contracting pneumonia during an experiment stuffing a chicken with snow test its preservative properties.
Bob Smith 18:35
No kidding. So hey, maybe this will make the chicken last longer. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 18:40
he got it. Oh, can I average the poem again? Oh, my God. Now that you know what it’s about against cold meats. Was he insured for frozen chickens? He procured brought on the illness he endured and never was the bacon cured.
Bob Smith 18:54
Wow. Man. So we got pneumonia. That’s what he died from. Yeah, it was cold. Yeah. Oh, my goodness. Cold bacon. Who wants that? Okay. All right. Two more things about the Lunar New Year in China. Okay. Did you know that at one point, the Chinese Communist government tried to dissuade people from celebrating the Lunar New Year. They did that for years while Chairman Mao was in power from 1949 A great idea Cinti 49 Till the mid 60s, early 70s. They tried to stop people from celebrating it and they cracked down on lion and Dragon dances and traditional greetings. You could really get in trouble big trouble just by celebrating what was the holiday that had been in your history for your country in your culture for centuries. But after he died, things were liberalized and since 1996 The Chinese Lunar New Year has been designated as a week long vacation so it’s okay now. Now, before the Lunar New Year, no one in China knew how to tell time. They didn’t know what year it was.
Marcia Smith 19:57
Okay. Did you know that? No, didn’t they? have the little placemat said but the restaurants not like we have now.
Bob Smith 20:05
Know according to history.com no one really tracked time in China until Emperor Wang D invented the lunar solar Chinese calendar that was 2637 BCE. In until recently, the Chinese never concern themselves with numbering sequentially. They numbered things in cycles. But today year one in Chinese history corresponds to the suppose at first year of wine DS regime, which was 2698 BCE. That was year one in Chinese history. Wow. And all this is related to the new year. Yeah, quite interesting. It’s a rich history all over the world of different cultures. But Bob,
Marcia Smith 20:45
I have a question. Okay. Who was the brainiac who invented cement pianos?
Bob Smith 20:50
Why? Cement pianos? I never heard of that. There
Marcia Smith 20:54
was a patent for it. This is in the patents that should be still pending chapter is good old days. My Asper Oh, that’s hilarious. So who came up with the palette for cement? It has
Bob Smith 21:07
to be Thomas Edison. That’s right.
Unknown Speaker 21:11
Because Because he
Bob Smith 21:12
invented Portland cement the the process for portlets and wondering
Marcia Smith 21:16
if you’d put the two together. Oh, dear. Yeah, not everything he touched, turned to gold. He had 1093 patents, Bob. Well, there had to be some dogs in there. Among his more half baked ideas was an obsession with making things from cement, not just building but pianos and phonograph cabinets. He even formed there, as you said the Edison Portland cement company to pursue history of cement products, but it never lived up to a concrete reality.
Bob Smith 21:45
Oh my god. Did you actually say that never became a concrete reality.
Marcia Smith 21:50
Some nevermind.
Bob Smith 21:53
All right, Marcia, some firsts. Where was America’s first spa? Now? Both Thomas Jefferson and George Washington visited the hot waters any idea where it was? Thomas Jefferson and who? And George Washington. Can I give you choices? Sure. Right Springs, Arkansas. Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. moccasin spring South Dakota or mystic Hot Springs, Utah. We can roll the last one out. Neither one of them ever went that far.
Marcia Smith 22:18
Yeah. I’m going with the closest to them Virginia.
Bob Smith 22:21
Well, it was Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. Yeah. Located in the mountains of the western portion of what was then Virginia, frequented by the founding fathers. It’s still there. Thomas Jefferson was the first to mark the warm mineral waters on a map in 1748. He labeled it medicine springs, and then George Washington visited in 1748. And it became a getaway for him. Of course, Native Americans had known about it for centuries before the Europeans arrived. Today the SPAS mineral waters are heated to a constant 74 degrees Fahrenheit. They fill ancient stone pools where visitors can wait. So that’s the first American spa. Berkeley Springs West Virginia.
Marcia Smith 23:01
Okay, Bob, who Bob who were the first street cleaners in New York City.
Bob Smith 23:06
You mean by name? Okay, Joe Adagio. And I think the other guy was Ricky Ramirez or something like, I don’t know Marsh. Okay. The first ones in New York City is are we talking about an ethnic group? Are we talking about animals? Were the animals, animals, animals, the animals that swept the streets? What were the pigs? Okay. Okay, because they cleaned Wall Street right there were pigs. So
Marcia Smith 23:32
filthy was the growing city of New York that herds of pigs were pressed into service to scavenge the ever mounting trash. She’s Dickens even wrote a poem about it. He came to visit and he saw all these following his carriage they were all these pigs and he wrote a thing about it. He really Yeah.
Bob Smith 23:49
Was there a Tiny Tim and that one too? Or was it? No, God
Marcia Smith 23:53
blesses everyone. How many? How many of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World Can you name? Well,
Bob Smith 24:01
there was the Hanging Gardens of Babylon one, the pyramids of Egypt of Giza? Correct. That’s to the lighthouse at Alexandria. Excellent. That’s three and I don’t know what the other ones were.
Marcia Smith 24:14
Mazel Liam, of halachot. Narcissus, the Temple of Artemis, Colossus of Rhodes, and the statue of Zeus at Olympia.
Bob Smith 24:26
The only one that’s left today is the pyramids. Yes. Is that amazing?
Marcia Smith 24:31
Yeah, that is a wonder of the world for sure. Okay. Well, with the turning
Bob Smith 24:35
of the new year, there’s a new record in pop music. So I’m going to ask you this question. What solo artist has now spent more weeks at number one in the Billboard Album Charts than any other? Miss Taylor Swift? That’s exactly right. For more than 50 years, the answer to that question was Elvis Presley. But the week the world entered 2024 Taylor Swift broke that record. As the year transition she had spent 68 weeks atop the billboard 200 Album Charts at number one surpasses Elvis Presley for the most appearances and the top slot for a solo artist of all acts only the Beatles had been at number one more times on that chart give her another year 132 times for the Beatles in the history of billboards album chart that goes back to 1956
Marcia Smith 25:23
All right, I’m gonna give you three quickies How fast can aggress snake travel?
Bob Smith 25:29
How fast can aggress snake travel? Is this in terms of miles per hour? Yeah. Wow.
Marcia Smith 25:36
When you thought it was even a mile? No. Is it? Is it half a mile per hour?
Bob Smith 25:41
Or is it is it three miles per hour? It’s
Marcia Smith 25:45
netspot Gas snake What is it 4.2 miles per hour? Geez amazing when you
Bob Smith 25:51
think about that that’s pretty fast for a snake to travel through the grass. I
Marcia Smith 25:55
had this I thought about it and that’s why I put it is it really think about it. How do snakes travel through grass? They
Bob Smith 26:00
don’t have legs to propel them they moved the is that interesting, though you’re but we should do a little story on how to snakes make it through the grass. How
Marcia Smith 26:07
much water? How much water can an elephant’s trunk hold? Whoa,
Bob Smith 26:11
a bit that significant? Let me say I’ll say six gallons. But I bet it’s more than that.
Marcia Smith 26:18
No, four, four gallon gallons of water. It’s four gallons is a lot of what is heavy. Yeah. And what biological reflex? Are horses and rapids on able to do? What
Bob Smith 26:30
biological reflex? Are they unable to do? They can both move their ears. Rabbits and horses can’t do they can both eat. One can hop one can trot. They can’t walk downstairs.
Marcia Smith 26:46
Uh huh. I don’t know. What is it? They can’t vomit?
Bob Smith 26:49
Well, that’s a useful thing to not have.
Marcia Smith 26:53
Horses and rabbits. Who knew not the cat throw
Bob Smith 26:55
up the cat vomit. What do they do then if it gets sick? Well, that’s
Marcia Smith 26:58
a good question. And that’s another show. Oh, okay.
Bob Smith 27:01
Any thoughts for the new year? Yes. Oh, that’s
Marcia Smith 27:04
actually from Joshua Gabor. Oh, okay. Yes. She said, A man in love is incomplete until he is married. Then he’s finished.
Bob Smith 27:17
I think it’s best that I do not say anything. I don’t agree with that. That’s that’s when life begins. Oh, well
Marcia Smith 27:25
done.
Bob Smith 27:26
Dinner for that. Okay, it’s time to go be a first we hope you’ll join us again next time when we return with more fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia for the off ramp. The off ramp is produced in association with CPL radio online and the Cedarburg Public Library Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
