Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discussed the cultural impact of Apple’s 1984 Super Bowl commercial, with Bob expressing surprise at Steve Jobs’ involvement and Marcia providing context on the Day of the Dead celebration. They also explored the ethical implications of expensive restaurants like Sublime Ocean, which charges $4,700 per head for a 20-course menu. Later, they talked about the importance of sweat in personal hygiene and temperature regulation during exercise, and delved into the history of assassination attempts on US Presidents, with Marcia sharing insights on Edith Wilson’s presidency.
Outline
Oscar nominations and Super Bowl ads.
- Meryl Streep has the most Oscar acting nominations with 21, followed by Katharine Hepburn with 12.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the most famous Super Bowl TV spot of all time, Apple’s 1984 commercial.
Apple TV commercial and Mexican holiday.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the famous Apple TV 1984 commercial, including its initial airing in Twin Falls, Idaho, and its subsequent awards and recognition.
- The commercial’s advertising agency, Chiat/Day, ran it in Twin Falls to qualify for advertising awards, and it went on to win numerous accolades, including being named the greatest commercial of all time in 1995.
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith if Steven Jobs headed Apple Computer and wanted to run a spot on the Super Bowl. Marcia Smith confirms he didn’t know what the Super Bowl was. (25 words)
- Marcia Smith explains the Day of the Dead celebration, and Bob Smith mentions the Disney animated film “Coco.” (28 words)
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the actress who hurled a sledgehammer in the spot, and Marcia reveals that the actress, Ania, was an 18-year-old athlete who had thrown a javelin in school before landing the role.
- Ridley Scott, the director, and Steve Hayden, the copywriter, collaborated to write the dictator’s speech, which includes quotes from Mussolini, Hitler, and other dictators.
Sweating, Super Bowl commercial, and media literacy.
- Marcia and Bob discuss Victoria Falls, with Marcia correcting Bob’s answer and Bob expressing a desire to visit.
- Marcia explains that older people sweat less due to reduced collagen and thinner skin, but this can lead to difficulty regulating body temperature during exercise or heat.
- Bob Smith shares insights on the making of a memorable Super Bowl commercial, including the board of directors’ initial hesitation and Steve Jobs’ eventual approval.
- The copywriter behind the spot reflects on the idea’s potential to change people’s lives for the better, but also warns of the dangers of misinformation in the digital age.
Expensive restaurants and stock market history.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the most expensive restaurant in the world, Sublime Ocean in Spain, with a $4,700 per person price tag.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the length of time it took for the stock market to recover after the 1929 crash.
US presidents, assassination attempts, and fashion terms.
- Marcia Smith: Edith Wilson, wife of Woodrow Wilson, acted as President after his stroke, managing his office and signing papers.
- Bob Smith: Edith Wilson was the first female “president” in US history, with a story that has been the subject of much debate and intrigue.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the origins of the term “scuttlebutt” and “hot couture.”
- Bob explains that “hot couture” means high-quality, custom-made clothing in France, and that only 14 houses are considered Haute Couture.
- Marcia and Bob discuss odd facts and trivia, including the Great Pyramids and babies born before breakfast.
Marcia Smith 0:00
Who has the most Oscar nominations for acting?
Bob Smith 0:04
And what is the most famous Superbowl TV ad of all time? Ah answers to those and other questions coming up in this episode of the off ramp with Bob
Marcia Smith 0:14
and Marsha Smith.
Bob Smith 0:32
Welcome to the off ramp a chance to slow down. Steer clear of crazy take a side road to sanity and to get some perspective on life with fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia. Well, Marcia, let’s see who’s got more Oscar nominations than anyone else? Anyone? Anyone? 21
Is this a person who’s still alive? Yes. Is it? Yes, I think the woman who was Sophie’s Choice, that’s it. I can’t remember. What is her name?
Marcia Smith 1:04
It rhymes with barrel. Barrel. Meryl Streep. Oh yes, Meryl Streep. Rhymes with barrel but
Bob Smith 1:13
I never thought of barrel Meryl Streep has more acting nominations for Best Actor than anyone else.
Marcia Smith 1:19
Yes, she’s had 21 nominations and three wins. And she blows everyone else out of the water with the number of nominations. She’s had. Katharine Hepburn took home four Yes, acting Oscars. But over her lifetime, she only had 12 nominations. So that’s the second highest is 12. And she had 21.
Bob Smith 1:39
So Catherine Hubbard had more Oscars, Best Actor. She had four I knew that. And Meryl Streep has had more nominations than anybody by far but she’s already had three best actor. Yeah. Wow.
Marcia Smith 1:51
Yeah. Isn’t that sad? She is phenomenal. Both admire her tremendous everything
Bob Smith 1:55
she’s in has been good. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 1:57
she what is that? We were just birders in the building. She was hilarious. We were just watching her in that.
Bob Smith 2:02
That’s the TV series. Right. She’s great in that. Yeah. All right, Marsha. What is the most famous Super Bowl TV spot of all time? Now? What was voted this numerous times by numerous organizations? Well,
Marcia Smith 2:14
the one that comes to mind. My mind. Is that Apple commercial the woman with the big sledgehammer? Yeah, yes. Running down the aisle. Was that it? That’s
Bob Smith 2:24
it 1984 It was called 1984. And it ran in 1980. Is that right? He ran just after halftime of Super Bowl 18 on January 22 1984. And it announced the Macintosh computer and you’re right. It was loosely based on George Orwell’s 1980. Right. dystopian future ruled by a televised dictator. Yeah. Brother, I think get it right away. Well, you’re not the only one. It was unlike any other spot in Super Bowl history. Because why? They didn’t show the product. Yeah, they never showed the product. Then the spot a huge room of people are watching a dictator rant on a giant TV screen and suddenly a woman chased by authorities editors. She runs to the front of the room, hurls a huge Sledgehammer at the screen, exploding it. Then an announcer says
Speaker 1 3:12
on January 24, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984
Bob Smith 3:25
Is that great? But nobody knew what it was.
Marcia Smith 3:28
That’s very Yeah, it certainly caught everybody’s imaginations. So but the point of the commercial was, it’s going to free people for information. Yeah. And she by smashing that smashing all the old rules. Isn’t that
Bob Smith 3:43
the dictator and all that? Yeah,
Marcia Smith 3:44
I said I had to think about it for a while. Well, a lot of
Bob Smith 3:47
people did. And we’ll get into that a little later. I got some more fun stuff. Okay,
Marcia Smith 3:51
just going back to askers for a moment, who holds the record in best acting category for the most Oscar nominations without any win. Oh, doubt anywhere. Yeah. And we have a tie male and female Best Actress and Best actors tie. Okay. They both had eight nominations without any winning trophies. Wow. I don’t know who these people are. Okay. It’s Peter O’Toole and Glenn Close. Well, those are both good actors. Yeah, eight nominations. And coming in second is Richard Burton at seven and six was Thelma Ritter. Even though she said no, she used to see her when I was a kid on game shows or stuff. Deborah Carr and Amy Adams today’s a Beata Well, she’s very good. She has had six nominations and no wins yet. Yeah, we like her. She’s a good actress actor Richard
Bob Smith 4:46
Burton. That still puzzles me because he was a very good actor. Oh, yeah. I’m surprised he never won. Why? Yes. To been a political thing could have been Yeah. All right, Marcia. Back to this Apple TV 1984 commercial that ad is famous for only running on television. How many times once? That’s wrong, that’s what people believe you got my hopes up there. It actually ran first in 1983. Yeah, ran on December 31, in Twin Falls, Idaho. And that’s lasted, the last possible break before midnight on k and v t. Now why would they run it in Twin Falls, which at the time was a town of 138,000 people? Well, was
Marcia Smith 5:28
there some kind of rule? You could run a Superbowl ad? Unless it’s been seen somewhere before?
Bob Smith 5:34
No. But there was a rule like that for advertising contests. It had to run somewhere in the year prior. So that was the reason ChIAT day the advertising agency ran it. Oh, well, Paul’s Idaho just before midnight, on the end of 1983. So the advertising would qualify for the Clio awards last year, and did it win? Oh, it sure did. It also won at the con Film Festival. And then in 1995, Advertising Age and TV Guide, both needed the greatest commercial of all time. And in 2007, it was named Best Superbowl spot for the first 40 years of the Superbowl. Wow, that’s pretty high
Marcia Smith 6:11
praise.
Bob Smith 6:12
Now one question here. I’m going to ask you Did Steven Jobs head of Apple Computer? Did he want to run the spot on the Super Bowl?
Marcia Smith 6:18
Well, you wouldn’t ask me if he did. So I’ll say no, no, he didn’t
Bob Smith 6:22
know why he didn’t know why. Because even though there had been 17 of them, he didn’t even know what a Super Bowl was. Oh, come on. According to a New York Times article, Job said I want something that will stop the world in its tracks. And China at the advertising told him well, there’s only one place that can do that. And that is the Superbowl and Steve Jobs. The world’s biggest computer nerd ask,
Marcia Smith 6:45
what’s the Superbowl?
Bob Smith 6:49
In there media guy had to say well, it’s a huge football game and attracts one of the largest audiences of the year and Steven Jobs persisted. I’ve never seen a Super Bowl. I don’t think I know anybody who’s seen the Super Bowl. He might have been right, but they ran the spot there. That’s
Marcia Smith 7:05
fine. Isn’t that funny? I didn’t know that wonder if he watched it that year. Oh, I’m sure he did. He probably saw the price tag and said this damn, well better be a good
Bob Smith 7:14
audience and million dollars that year. Yeah. It’s much more than that today. All right.
Marcia Smith 7:18
What Mexican celebration is celebrated with face painting, sugar, skulls, and marigolds.
Bob Smith 7:25
Oh, my birthday every year. They do that down there. And I don’t know. It’s not the Cinco Demayo is it? No, it’s the Day of the Dead Sick Day of the Dead.
Marcia Smith 7:36
That’s it. I’ll DLD Laos mortos of the dead day of the two day celebration, reunites the living with the dead, while families create offerings to honor their departed family.
Bob Smith 7:50
And they’ve did remember there’s a Disney animated film and it was about that it was beautiful. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 7:54
Oh yeah. Coco
Bob Smith 7:55
Yes. That’s what it was. Coco. It was really a good film. It was very interesting and fun. It was
Marcia Smith 8:01
that’s how I learned a lot about it actually. Okay, Bob, which which of these islands are not part of the Polynesian triangle? Hawaii, New Guinea, New Zealand. Or Easter Island?
Bob Smith 8:13
Easter Island is not part of that.
Marcia Smith 8:16
What is it that Polynesian triangle? It’s not wrong. Oh, it is.
Bob Smith 8:22
It is part of the Polynesian triangle. Hawaii is not wrong. Oh, okay. New Guinea is not That’s correct. Okay. I
Marcia Smith 8:30
know I get it. Very only one you left out was New Zealand.
Bob Smith 8:34
Wait a minute New Zealand. That’s interesting. Because you know, the others like Hawaii is actually closer to those other two. Yeah, that Easter Island. I guess New Guinea he’s trying to is much closer to the coast of I’d have to America I’d have to look at a map. Okay, back to Super Bowl ads. Let’s go back to that famous when I got a few more fun things. All right. What was unusual about the actress who hurled the sledgehammer in the spot?
Marcia Smith 8:56
She was pretty muscular. Remember that? Yeah. That’s that’s kind of it.
Bob Smith 9:00
She was chosen for her athletic skill really, as well as acting? She did. Well, yeah, an audition went out for female actors who could throw a discus. That’s what they asked for. Okay, but they actually wanted somebody who could run up to a huge screen and spin in a circle and throw a sledgehammer and the auditions took place in Hyde Park, London. Most of the female actress has had problems though. Yes, hammer hits heavy one of them through the hammer. So far, it almost struck a passerby person. Oh, my word. She won the audition. She’s the one out she handled the hammer convincingly in her name was Ania, Russia. She was an 18 year old actress who had also been an athlete. She’d been a javelin thrower in school. So she thought well, I can do that. And eventually the producers decided throwing a real hammer wasn’t going to be wise. So they ended up making a paper mache one. Oh, so she Oh, she goes it doesn’t look like paper mache. So it worked out. Okay. She’s 58 years old now. Wow. And she was 18 then and there was a nice article on this in the New York Times recently and they interviewed some of the people, the copywriter, another person from ChIAT day, Ridley Scott who directed it and this woman who starred in it, okay, now the shouting dictator on the screen Did he ever say anything of consequence? What was he saying? I don’t remember that turns out he was speaking like an authentic dictator. If a copywriter Steve Hayden said the dictator speech didn’t exist in the original script director Ridley Scott called him a couple of days before they shot and he said, it’d be very useful if you could write 30 or 60 seconds worth of copy. So Hayden and his brother who was visiting from China, and who was a law professor in China, oh, he had a lot of good phrases, and they collaborated. So they wrote the script, the script has snippets of quotes from Mussolini mounsey tone, the People’s Daily Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbles, who is his Ministry of Propaganda anti Islam. So if you listen carefully, you can hear the phrases. Today we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification, garden of pure ideology secure from the pests of contradictory somebody who had understand what they say, We are one people we are one will one resolve one cause our enemies will tuck themselves to death, and we will bury them with their own confusion, and we shall prevail. That’s when the hammer hits the skirt. Oh, wow. So all those things were taken from from actual dictators, speeches, Mussolini, Hitler, and multitone.
Marcia Smith 11:32
We will be one this will be one that what they’re not making clear as the one is them. They are the wives,
Bob Smith 11:38
right? It’s just one person. It’s not us. It is a dictator. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 11:42
it’s me. Keep that in mind. Okay, Victoria Falls borders, which of these two African countries Zimbabwe and South Africa, Zambia and Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe or Rwanda and Burundi.
Bob Smith 12:00
I think it’s Zambia and Tanzania. Now, or Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Very good. Okay. I knew it was one of those.
Marcia Smith 12:09
Yeah. Have you ever seen?
Bob Smith 12:11
I’ve seen beautiful pictures of Victoria Falls. It’s one of those places I’d love to visit. But I know it’s hard to get there. Most of those shots of that are taking from airplanes. It’s
Marcia Smith 12:21
breathtaking. Yeah, yeah. Gorgeous. Well, maybe we’ll go there later. Okay, Bob. Okay. Do you sweat Bob more or less as you get older?
Bob Smith 12:31
I think you sweat more when you’re younger. Am I wrong?
Marcia Smith 12:34
No. You are right. Isn’t it nice to be right? Yes. As we age, our skin loses collagen gets thinner. And presses are sweat glands close to the surface of the skin. That process is a bit of a double edged sword. On one hand, because those glands are squeezed, it’s harder to sweat period to come out of the pores, okay, meaning older people sweat less. Overall, this may be a check mark in the pro column for personal hygiene. But it does come with a few negative side effects. With a reduced ability to sweat older people and have trouble regulating their temperature during strenuous exercise or excessive heat. You know, you get hot and cold and sure sweat plays an important role in healing too. It helps us stimulate wound closure.
Bob Smith 13:21
Oh, I never thought about that. So sweat actually helps you heal there. Yeah, it
Marcia Smith 13:25
helps us regulate you. But thankfully I lifetime a physical fitness can help slow down this process so you can sweat long into your golden years.
Bob Smith 13:35
Well, I’ve been sweating it out for a long time. I know. But it’s your I
Marcia Smith 13:39
know. I don’t sweat as much. Yeah, I never did hardly ever, but now Oh, well. Really rarely. Well, I’ve
Bob Smith 13:45
never sweat. I remember hearing people say that. I never sweat.
Marcia Smith 13:50
Well, that’s don’t break a sweat. You’re not trying hard enough. Right.
Bob Smith 13:54
Okay, my final tidbits on the greatest Super Bowl TV commercial
Marcia Smith 13:58
a lot out of that article.
Bob Smith 14:00
This spot almost didn’t get on the air.
Marcia Smith 14:02
Why? Ha I have no idea.
Bob Smith 14:05
The Apple computer board of directors hated it. The chairman of the board hated it. Did they say why? They played in and it was total silence after they played it
Marcia Smith 14:15
because it kind of looked like oh, what is the doom and gloom? Oh, yeah. You know, Hitler ish. They
Bob Smith 14:20
just had the Apple logo there no picture of the product. Yeah, he actually put his head down on the table and then raised up and he said we can’t run. Steve Jobs said he was afraid of it after seeing it. The board even says we don’t think you should run it try to sell the time. Even Ridley Scott, the director who made it was thinking, really? They’re gonna run this on the Super Bowl, and they don’t even know what it’s for.
Marcia Smith 14:42
What made him change their mind. Steve
Bob Smith 14:45
Wozniak did he love it? He loved it. He says I’ll pay for it. We’ll pay for it. So they decide okay, let’s do it. Anyway, it aired once for $7 million. And then it aired for free hundreds of times later on newscasts. Yeah, TV talk shows Actually it’s the reason the Super Bowl is considered the annual showcase where companies launch big new campaign
Marcia Smith 15:06
said the leverage, right I’m just amazed with all the nay sayers in Apple and Wozniak. I love that he was the only guy Hey, that’s cool.
Bob Smith 15:14
Oh, run it, I’ll pay for it. Wow, one haunting final thought on the spot. The copywriter said that while the idea of the spot was to promote a product that could change people’s lives for the better. The tools, the computers and the Internet that were originally intended to help you free you now are used as a way of enslaving you with conspiracy theories and unproven stories. Unsourced news. That’s not really news. We’re realizing Joseph Goebbels idea, getting people so confused, they have no idea what to believe other than an authority figure. In that sense. We have failed. Yeah, who said that? This is the copywriter who wrote the spot. No kidding. pretty damning. Okay. Okay. Let’s go to a happy place. Okay. What town in the United States is named happy? Where is it? Really? These are the choices? Oh, think Delaware, Texas, Ohio, Nebraska or Georgia? Where would I find the city or the town of happy?
Marcia Smith 16:10
Give me the states again?
Bob Smith 16:11
Delaware, Texas, Ohio, Nebraska or Georgia.
Marcia Smith 16:14
Several of those I don’t find happy at all. So I’ll say I don’t know. Delaware, though.
Bob Smith 16:19
It’s Texas. It’s a small farm town near Amarillo in northern Texas. And when you drive into it, you’re greeted by a big billboard saying welcome to happy the town without a frown. Great. Yeah. Yeah. Residents worship at several happy churches. They preach a nice my happy place restaurant. They gather in happy city park and they attend happy High School.
Marcia Smith 16:42
I love that. I go to happy High School.
Bob Smith 16:44
It’s actually named after happy draw a local stream that supposedly got his name from cowboys who were thrilled to discover it when they were on the air at Texas Panhandle. That’s
Marcia Smith 16:53
kind of charming. I mean, be sad all the time. If everything is called, if you live in a happy happy
Bob Smith 16:59
Texas Hello to all the folks who happy Texas there’s 650 happy people. They’re very sweet. Okay, now that we’ve been to our happy place. Let’s take a break. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob
Marcia Smith 17:12
and Marcia Smith.
Bob Smith 17:15
Welcome back. We’re here in our happy place. The off ramp. We do this show each week for the Cedarburg Public Library Cedarburg, Wisconsin’s internet radio station, and then it goes on podcast platforms around the world. Marcia, what do you got there?
Marcia Smith 17:29
Well, in 2023, prestige online.com named the 15 most expensive restaurants in the world. The winner of that dubious prize is place called sublime ocean in Spain.
Bob Smith 17:43
Sublimation, not sublimation. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That’s right.
Marcia Smith 17:47
And so Bob, how much for you to take me there on dinner for my upcoming birthday? This is just dinner for to deliver to
Bob Smith 17:55
so it’s going to be over $1,000 Okay, let’s say $1,000. For dinner for two for two.
Marcia Smith 18:01
Yeah, no. Okay. It’s 4700 62,380 per head at sublime motion. It is said that this establishment promises an experiential gastronomical trip. Well, it sure whether it should be for $4,000 It’s only open during the Spanish summer June 1 to September 30. And it only welcomes 12 unique guests.
Bob Smith 18:28
How many you need when you’re charging four grand ahead, right.
Marcia Smith 18:31
I hadn’t thought
Bob Smith 18:32
of that. So what makes this so special?
Marcia Smith 18:36
During the meal 25 People will present and guide you through a 20 course menu.
Bob Smith 18:42
25 people come up to the table Yeah,
Marcia Smith 18:44
2020 course menu. So while you’re dining on those 20 different items, you are immersed in a quote, sensory Wonderland, which includes a laser light show and virtual reality elements that transport you to new dimensions. Good Lord. So it all happens while you’re eating. You go through all this
Bob Smith 19:05
laser light show that can make you sick to your stomach sometimes.
Marcia Smith 19:08
Who are we to judge? If you mentioned my birthday, you think we’ll get a free cup? I don’t know it’s our birthday. Bring the cupcake. 25
Bob Smith 19:16
people 20 courses three hours time plus a laser lightshow laser
Marcia Smith 19:20
shot and a virtual reality. So
Bob Smith 19:23
are you eating virtual food? Is it real? For $4,000? We hope so. 760
Marcia Smith 19:28
almost five 4000 So do a tip on that is that 20% It’s
Bob Smith 19:35
gonna kill you. Oh my god. All right. What do you got? Marsha. When the United States had a depression? How long did it take for the stock market to get back to its happy place? You know the stock market crash on October 28 1929. How many years did it take to get back to where it was before that
Marcia Smith 19:54
to the same level? Yeah, Geez, that took a while. Okay, I’ll say 14 years. It took 29 years oh my gosh, to get back to the same level. The Dow
Bob Smith 20:04
did not return to its pre crash heights until November 1954. Is that amazing? Is the stock market crash? 1929 They had the depression then World War Two, but still the stock market didn’t get back to its optimistic happy place until November 1954. Okay, who am I? Right the Who am I segment? Can
Marcia Smith 20:27
you put an echo on that next time? I’d love it. Who am I?
Bob Smith 20:31
Let’s try it. Okay. 123. Time for Who are you happy with? Is your voice big enough now?
Marcia Smith 20:40
I love it. She has been called the Secret president and the first woman to run the government. This legend arose for her perceived role in affairs of the state after her husband suffered a prolonged and debilitating illness debilitating stroke. Yes. Well, I think you know who it is that don’t you know? Yes.
Bob Smith 21:02
It’s Woodrow Wilson’s wife. Yes. What is her name? Archie
Marcia Smith 21:06
Bunker’s wife?
Bob Smith 21:07
Edith. Yeah. Ed Wilson. Yes. Edith
Marcia Smith 21:11
Wilson was the second wife of Woodrow. And he was in office when they got married. Yeah, in 1915, during his first term, so they’ve been only married for years when he suffered a major stroke in 1990.
Bob Smith 21:28
Yeah, that was a result of trying to go over the country in the world trying to promote the League of Nations, which would have been the United Nations. And then he just run his health all the way down. And then he had the
Marcia Smith 21:39
stroke. This is my story. Oh, sorry.
Bob Smith 21:41
So how did that happen? Marsha. After
Marcia Smith 21:44
that Edith began, quote, managing his office. And she later described her role as, quote, stewardship. But my first thought was what happened to the Vice President?
Bob Smith 21:56
I think he was kept out of the room. I think everybody was kept out of the room. And
Marcia Smith 22:00
there was no 25th amendment right, which didn’t come for decades, which calls for the VP to take over for the President. If
Bob Smith 22:08
the cabinet determines that the President is in capacity. Yeah. Anyway,
Marcia Smith 22:11
VP, Thomas Marshall refuse to assume the role of presidency, he thought it would be unconstitutional.
Bob Smith 22:20
Well, he’s probably right. I think she was actually signing papers and everything. Yeah, she did
Marcia Smith 22:24
a whole bunch. So our first female presidents so to speak was Edith Wilson.
Bob Smith 22:30
Thank you very much. You’re welcome. All right. Now, speaking of presidents, when was the first assassination attempt on a US President?
Marcia Smith 22:38
I’ll say Theodore Roosevelt and your role.
Bob Smith 22:42
What if a three presidents had been assassinated by them? Oh, McKinley, Garfield and Lincoln,
Marcia Smith 22:46
then forget what I said. Okay. Before Lincoln,
Bob Smith 22:49
what was the first assassination attempt on a US President?
Marcia Smith 22:51
Oh, well, George, everybody’s trying to shoot him. Not when he was president. Okay. Then I will say Quincy Adams is after that.
Bob Smith 22:59
It was Andrew Jackson. Okay. And it was 1835, when an unemployed painter attempted to shoot Andrew Jackson. Oh, dear. This is interesting. Somebody should have done a movie about this. Just listen to this scene. And if you were there, how you would describe it, the pistol misfired. Jackson stormed his would be assassin swinging his cane. The painter pulled out a second pistol, which also misfired. Oh, my It’s believed damp conditions that day caused the gunpowder to fail. But Andrew Jackson and his supporters credited the two misfires to divine intervention. No Wow. But he came swinging his cane at the guy and the guy tried to shoot him again.
Marcia Smith 23:38
He’s got some Kahunas. Yeah, that’s good for him. Okay, Bob, why is gossip called scuttlebutt?
Bob Smith 23:47
Why is gossip called scuttled, but you ever think
Marcia Smith 23:51
about that? Once the scum of the office there, those
Bob Smith 23:55
are interesting terms, aren’t they? Yeah, but neither one of them sounds like elegant or now. I don’t think they come from Latin. scuttle, but wow, there’s got to be a story there. Tell
Marcia Smith 24:05
me okay. The word comes from sailors. Another sailor story. Oh, no kid of the British Navy. 19th century warships had large wooden casts with holes cut in the lid for drinking water. And the word scuttle was a term for that hole. Okay, call that the scuttle. And then the water cask itself was called a bucket. And so just as it is done by water coolers in today’s offices, sailors would hang around and talk about the latest gossip while getting a drink in the scuttled by Oh, no kid, and eventually it transferred. You know, what’s the scuttlebutt?
Bob Smith 24:42
I just got old. But isn’t that funny?
Marcia Smith 24:45
I love origins.
Bob Smith 24:47
And that’s colorful. Yeah. All right, Marsha, in fashion, the term hot couture. What does that mean?
Marcia Smith 24:56
What it means Hi,
Bob Smith 24:58
hi, and Hi Paul. That’s right. Yeah. And Cartier
Marcia Smith 25:01
is clothing, you’d
Bob Smith 25:03
mean sewing or dressmaking. The term literally means high sewing, or high dressmaking in France. Yeah, expertly handed custom made garments created with rare high quality fabrics crafted with meticulous attention to detail. And in France, the term now has a legal distinction. There are only 14 houses considered Hulk couture. Oh, really 14 they include Christian Dior, Chanel, le Saab, and Versace. None of which is in my closet. You may be wearing something that has been at one point, a high culture, the Haute Couture stuff eventually goes into department stores.
Marcia Smith 25:39
I get it at Old Navy. Now, I
Bob Smith 25:42
don’t know about Old Navy. That’s where you get in your scuttle. But that’s what you’re getting there.
Marcia Smith 25:48
What is the new la LUNUL? A
Bob Smith 25:52
la Nula? Yeah, that sounds like part of the throat compartment. Like a uvula? Yeah, Leah Talulah.
Marcia Smith 26:00
Now, it’s that little white area at the base of your fingertip. You know, is that right? Yeah, let’s do La La Nula. And what percentages of babies are born before breakfast? What percent?
Bob Smith 26:11
What? Percentage of babies born before breakfast? Yeah. I never thought of that. Of
Marcia Smith 26:15
course you didn’t. Well, my
Bob Smith 26:16
question is how many babies were conceived before breakfast? That’s more interesting. Okay, the how many babies were born before breakfast? I bet not many. I don’t think babies that many babies would be born that early in the morning. What is the percentage Bob 50% of babies are born before breakfast? 60. Really? Yeah.
Marcia Smith 26:35
And did you know that if you divide the Great Pyramids parameter by twice as high, you get pie to the 15th digit.
Bob Smith 26:44
That’s a lot of pie. I’m hungry now.
Marcia Smith 26:48
It’s just it’s just a bizarre fact that I found you
Bob Smith 26:51
always have some of these and it’s like that is a distinction without any significance.
Marcia Smith 26:55
It’s a stupid, isn’t it? But I wonder if they did that on purpose? Oh, I’m sure they did. I mean, everything was so precise. That’s why I think it was people from outer space. They’re
Bob Smith 27:04
like, you know, Emperor. You know, Pharaoh, if we build this this way. We’ll screw up people in the future.
Marcia Smith 27:09
Okay, I have a closing quote God, by Paul Sweeney. Okay. The difference between a chef and a cook is that a chef doesn’t have to clean up the kitchen. That’s
Bob Smith 27:19
the difference. That is the difference. Absolutely.
Marcia Smith 27:24
Want to be a chef? All right. We
Bob Smith 27:26
hope you’ve enjoyed our show today and join us again next time when we come back with more fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia. I’m Bob Smith and Marcia Smith. You’ve been listening to the off ramp. The off ramp is produced in association with CPL radio online and the Cedarburg Public Library Cedarburg, Wisconsin, visit us on the web at the off ramp dot show.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
