224 Eccentric Trivia

Marcia Smith 0:00
Where was the Lost Colony? And how did it get lost?

Bob Smith 0:04
Okay? And how do Muslim astronauts pray? answers to those and other questions coming up in this episode of the off ramp with Bob

Marcia Smith 0:13
And Marcia

Bob Smith 0:14
Smith.

Welcome to the off ramp a chance to slow down steer clear of crazy and take a side road to sanity with fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia. Well, Marcia, how do Muslim astronauts pray better yet? Did you know that the Son of a future Saudi King was an astronaut now on a NASA space mission when this was back in the 1980s? No kidding. Yes, in June 1985, the Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz became the first Arab, the first Muslim and the first member of a royal family to go into space. And because of the lack of gravity, how did he pray?

Marcia Smith 1:06
Ah, I haven’t a clue.

Bob Smith 1:08
Why would there be a problem with praying?

Marcia Smith 1:10
Well, isn’t that the direction he has to face east, isn’t it?

Bob Smith 1:13
That’s not the problem.

Marcia Smith 1:14
That’s not the problem. Oh, gravity, gravity. He can’t kneel down

Bob Smith 1:19
Yes he can’t kneel. Feil floating all around. So tell me what did he do? He had to strap his feet to the Space Shuttle floor to kneel during daily prayer. He could still face east because they’re on the space shuttle.

Marcia Smith 1:30
Yeah.

Bob Smith 1:31
But he had to strap his feet to the Space Shuttle floor so he can kneel. Let me tell you a little bit about this guy, because kind of interesting. He was born in 1956. He was educated in the United States. He went to he got a degree in mass communication from the University of Denver and a master’s from Syracuse University in social and political science. And then he went into the Saudi Royal Air Force. And he was chosen as a payload specialist for this mission that launched Arab sat that was the first Arab satellite that was launched by the seventh day Discovery mission. Okay, so he represented the Arab satellite communications organization. That was in 1985. And he’s retired now he’s in his 60s, his father became the king of Saudi Arabia in 2015. So we have the son of the Saudi King who was an astronaut. I never heard of him before. All those space missions that were going on, they became so blase for all of us who didn’t pay any attention to them. They had all kinds of interesting experiments. And there you had a Muslim astronaut, and he had to pray by strapping himself to the shuttle floor, so he could kneel. Got

Marcia Smith 2:36
it. Cell by where was the last colony and how did it get lost? Well, the

Bob Smith 2:42
last colony that was down in Roanoke, Roanoke Island, and that was off of North Carolina. Good for you. Now I know how they got lost. Okay, they established this this colony their men and women. This is like what 1590 or something like that. 1587.

Marcia Smith 2:57
Katie said you and your colonial history are good. Then

Bob Smith 3:02
the the leader who established it, I think his name was white.

Marcia Smith 3:06
I believe John White governor, John White, he had to go back to England.

Bob Smith 3:09
And then he got caught up in all the political stuff that was happening there. There were wars and everything. It took two years he came back. Everybody’s gone, including his daughter. Yeah, his daughter had a baby Virginia. Dara was the first baby. But they don’t know where any of these people. Yeah,

Marcia Smith 3:23
he found the island deserted, dismantled and perhaps plundered. theories abound. But no one knows for sure. What happened to the 117 colonists? Well,

Bob Smith 3:35
some people reported years later that they found Indians who had fair skin and their eyes looked different than they thought, well, these people just intermarried and blended in. Other people thought they were slaughtered. Hard to tell, you know,

Marcia Smith 3:48
I don’t know how long John White was gone before he came back. He was

Bob Smith 3:51
gone a couple of years. But still could the Spanish Armada and all that all that happened? They were at war with Spain. So they they Queen Elizabeth did not you know, they didn’t want any of their resources going to anything else except their wars. So he was not able to get permission to go back or the money to go back. Can you imagine that in your you know, your daughter’s there? Yeah. All these colonists and then to get back there and nobody’s there. Nobody says oh, your mind. And he looked for them for a while and some other people went but they had to, they had to turn around and go back teeth. So sad. It’s a tragedy. And to this day, there’s always people looking for clues. Are there yeah, all the time. It’s one of those enduring legacies of American early American history. Of course that predates Jamestown. It predates the pilgrims. I mean, that was one of the numerous colonies it failed, but that one’s the most mysterious because of that. Amazing. Okay, Marcia, how do Michelin stars for fine dining relate to Michelin tires for automobiles often wondered

Marcia Smith 4:50
about that, Bob, what’s got to do with stars and tires?

Bob Smith 4:55
Why did they get in the business of doing a restaurant review? Was

Marcia Smith 4:59
it different? Was it different branches of the Michelin family? No. Okay, then tell me same

Bob Smith 5:04
branch and it goes back to 1900. That’s how long they’ve been doing Michelin ratings of restaurants. For more than a century in the world of fine dining, Michelin stars have been the marks of excellence and the Michelin Guide, which issues restaurant ratings was first published by the Michelin tire company.

Marcia Smith 5:21
Oh, wait, can I guess? Yeah, because you needed a car to get to these restaurants. You

Bob Smith 5:26
wanted to promote tourism tires. And that leads to tire usage. Yeah. And I never put those two together. Isn’t that interesting? So that was that had to be considered a little wild here. Have an idea? Frank’s got an idea here. Mr. Michelin? I don’t know what you think of this. But Frank thinks we should do restaurant review. Well, what if people have to buy tires for their cars to get to the I think it’s a stupid tool I use? Oh, you think it’s a good idea to Mr. Michelin? I think it’s an excellent idea. I should have done it in French. Right. Go ahead.

Speaker 1 5:57
Miss your Michela. This cuckoo idea. Doing restaurant reviews. But I think it’s a stupid idea. What do you think it’s a good idea? See? magnific I agree. I agree.

Speaker 2 6:10
My husband is so cotton. Okay, Bob. So anyway, that’s how it got started. What about that Guinness

Marcia Smith 6:15
salesman who’s got them to make a book so he could you know, in trance the guys at the local bar?

Bob Smith 6:21
Fortunately, that was one of the presidents of Guinness, so that was sure, Mr. Guinness? Absolutely.

Marcia Smith 6:27
I mean, he was the one that did it. He the salesman. He was

Bob Smith 6:30
one of the actually one of the senior managers of Guinness, who came up with that idea. Oh, okay. That would be yes, of course. Whatever you think we should be doing?

Marcia Smith 6:36
Excellent idea. All right, Bob. This park in New York City was haunted to World’s Fairs and tourists can still wander the fairgrounds today. I’ll give you choices. Okay. Is it Battery Park, Central Park Flushing Meadows, Corona Park or Prospect Park? Well,

Bob Smith 6:54
I know it’s not Battery Park. I think there was a revolutionary war fight there. It’s not Central Park. It is Flushing Meadows. That’s where the World’s Fair was in 1965 or 64. When was it?

Marcia Smith 7:04
1964? Okay. You got it. That was

Bob Smith 7:09
I think where they had the telephones, the video telephone. So there was all kinds of stuff that they kind of pioneered there. Is that right? Yeah. I mean, they had video telephones before that. But that was a big big pavilion. So

Marcia Smith 7:20
that was the second one. When was the first one

Bob Smith 7:23
the first World Fair in New York was in 1939, or something like that. So two worlds bears in Flushing Meadows right to worlds fairs? 1939 and 1964. Speaking of flushing, Marsh

Marcia Smith 7:34
flushing, is this a toilet question?

Bob Smith 7:36
Sort of? Which organ of the body stores urine? I think you know the answer to that. How much does it hold?

Marcia Smith 7:43
The bladder? How much does it hold?

Bob Smith 7:45
Yeah. It’s something to keep in mind.

Marcia Smith 7:48
Is it in pints or ounces? denounces.

Okay, I’ll say 16 ounces.

Bob Smith 7:53
Hey, you’re right in the middle. Oh,

Marcia Smith 7:55
me too.

Bob Smith 7:56
It holds between 10 and 17 ounces. I’ll be darned. But you know, the urge to empty may come sooner. Depending on your experience. It’s one of those things they have at the end of a disclaimer, you know, Oh, yeah. Oh, that’s what do they say? How do they say that? Bladder usage may vary? Depending on your volume. All right. Flushing brought that to mind. So I thought I’d bring that up.

Marcia Smith 8:17
Talking fans who want to visit habit sites from the movies traveled to what country New Zealand? Excellent. I was gonna give you choices. Okay. Questions aren’t what are the choices to Australia? England, Ireland, or New Zealand? New Zealand? Very good.

Bob Smith 8:36
Okay, Marcia. Oh, weather question. What color is the best option to wear in order to stay cool on a hot summer day? Is it black? Green, blue or white? Right? That’s right. But is it really true? Is it really true? Yes. Oh, how do you know?

Marcia Smith 8:50
Can I see the reflection? Okay.

Bob Smith 8:52
There’s actually some experiments. I can quote here. The researchers at Japan’s national Institute for Environmental Studies, they put nine different color polo shirts out in the sun, the temperature was 86 degrees Fahrenheit. After five minutes, the black shirt hit 122 degrees Fahrenheit, while the white polo stayed roughly equivalent to the air temperature. Really? Yeah. So

Marcia Smith 9:15
how long did it take for that black

Bob Smith 9:16
five minutes it went from 86 degrees to 122. So when you’re out in the sun, do not wear anything near black. It’s been scientifically proven that is the fact

Unknown Speaker 9:27
Yeah, that’s amazing. That’s a lot.

Marcia Smith 9:29
Yeah, no, it was that big of a difference. I didn’t either. When were we these invented?

Bob Smith 9:35
We these is breakfast of champions. Yes. I think it’s in the 20s as I recall,

Marcia Smith 9:41
you’re right Bob that was 1921 we these were created accidentally when a Minneapolis Health Clinician spilled some of the brand gruel he was mixing onto a hot

Speaker 2 9:52
stove. That’s how cornflakes were discovered to Yeah,

Marcia Smith 9:55
well this is what we these are kind of cornflakes. Kind of cornflakes. Yeah. The Grill crackled into a crisp flake encouraged by its taste he took his new discovery to officials at the nearby and Washburn Crosby company. Where head Miller George Cormac tested varieties of weed before developing the perfect commercial flake. In 1924. The firm introduced the cereal I think it is the same story of the cornflakes it’s

Bob Smith 10:21
like it but it’s not the same because this is General Mills out of Minneapolis and the cornflakes were developed in Kellogg’s and Battle Creek Michigan.

Marcia Smith 10:30
And both of them is build brand grew while mixing on a hot stove.

Bob Smith 10:33
Let’s see the differences brand Wheaties are made of brand whereas cornflakes were corn. Okay, so that’s different. Okay, they’re different materials, but they had the same result. Yeah, crispy, crackly stuff that eagle. Now like, this is a mistake. No, let’s try to put milk with it. Again, one of those things where somebody was sitting in the background going Ah, now this is a bad idea that we should fire that guy. Whoever that guy is always walks in here with a bad idea. Thanks. All right, Marsha. True or False? Most people survive being struck by lightning.

Marcia Smith 11:04
I’ll say true. That’s

Bob Smith 11:07
right. Most people live. What’s the percentage of people who die from lightning?

Marcia Smith 11:11
I’ll say 26.5%.

Bob Smith 11:15
Only 10? Oh, really? Yeah, that’s

Marcia Smith 11:17
good news.

Bob Smith 11:17
About 10% of people who are struck by lightning die from it. Most of the current in a lightning strike passes over the skin in a phenomenon called flashover. The heat from the lightning, which is hotter than the surface of the sun can cause burns, but it lasts only a few microseconds. So there you go. All right. And one more on lightning. Okay, true or false? Lightning never strikes the same place twice. False.

Marcia Smith 11:43
I mean, true. No, that’s it. It happened. Well, what is it? What else? It does strike the same place? Why wouldn’t it? Yes. And

Bob Smith 11:51
we have real evidence of that, because skyscrapers are magnets for lightning between 2015 and 2020. This is the Willis Tower used to be the Sears Tower in Chicago. You know how many times that was struck by lightning in five years time? A lot. 250?

Marcia Smith 12:08
Yeah, you don’t want to hang out up there. Hey, don’t have lunch in the rain on the top of the bill. 50

Bob Smith 12:14
times the most of any building in the US. They had that thing up there now where you could walk out over the city, you know, stick? Yeah. Why don’t you get out there with a lightning hits? I don’t think that’s a good idea. Be out there. The lightning hits the thing melts in your God.

Unknown Speaker 12:29
I didn’t think of that. I did. Okay. All right.

Marcia Smith 12:33
A couple of quick questions about the Louisiana Purchase. Okay. Okay. How much did it cost? 10 million 15,000,020 25 or $30 million

Bob Smith 12:44
a day. Now, let me see here. I remember they kind of figured out what it come out to in terms of acreage and it was hardly anything but I’d say was it $30 million?

Marcia Smith 12:56
No. 10 million $10

Bob Smith 12:58
million dollars.

Marcia Smith 13:00
Yeah, the purchase was in fact a steal. The American negotiators and parents had been willing to pay 10 million for New Orleans the loan. So they were dumbfounded by the French offer us diplomat Robert Livingston. He was so certain that Washington leaders would welcome the agreement that he accepted it on the spot. $10

Bob Smith 13:20
million. We got all that lands. And the Louisiana Territory was more than what is today the state of Louisiana was everything west in the Mississippi.

Marcia Smith 13:29
Yes, all our parts of 15 states and two Canadian provinces were transferred in the purchase. Wow. And even in 20 $13, that would be less than 44 cents and acres. There you go. That’s, that was one of the best real estate deals hard to believe they put the real in the real estate hmm.

Bob Smith 13:50
And there’s a story I don’t know if it’s true or not. I’ve got some history books here. But apparently Napoleon was in his bathtub when the question came up to him and he said, sell it for 10 million.

Marcia Smith 13:59
So somebody get a bubble up as

Bob Smith 14:02
well. And why was he selling it? Well,

Marcia Smith 14:04
he needed the money

Bob Smith 14:05
for his wars. Yeah. sold all that land for his wars thinking this is nothing who knows what this? Yes. Yeah. He’ll never get over there.

Marcia Smith 14:12
With this. Yeah, it was an immediate need. And he didn’t think it through. And he was in the bathtub. And he was in the bathtub thinking probably sipping wine playing with his duck

Bob Smith 14:22
playing with this duck. Is that what you call it all?

Unknown Speaker 14:25
Rubber duck. Okay,

Bob Smith 14:28
so sorry about that. Alright.

Unknown Speaker 14:32
Jeez. All right. You’re

Bob Smith 14:33
listening to the off ramp with Bob Smith. We’ll be back in just a moment. We’re back. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith. We do this every week for the Cedarburg Public Library Cedarburg, Wisconsin, and it’s internet radio station. We’re on the air every Monday night and then we go out over the internet on all of the podcast platforms

Unknown Speaker 14:53
all over the

Unknown Speaker 14:55
world. Yeah,

Bob Smith 14:56
I trust you to say that okay. Okay. Morris. Check what city gave the world iced tea and I’ll give you choices. All right, London, Chicago, Beijing, St. Louis or Mumbai, India, which used to be called Bombay, Mumbai. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 15:13
I’ll say Chicago, Chicago, Chicago.

Bob Smith 15:17
It didn’t give us iced tea. No. Who did say Louis? Ah, it was the 1904 World’s Fair. You can thank that for popularizing that things happen. They’re hot tea was consumed for centuries. It wasn’t till the early 1800s, ice became widely available, and bartenders began mixing tea and their cocktails back in the 1800s. But a merchant named Richard blagden is widely credited for popularizing iced tea during a heatwave at the St. Louis.

Marcia Smith 15:47
Throw some ice in this and yeah, maybe people drink it. He was selling

Bob Smith 15:50
hot tea that day, and it just wasn’t selling really. So he thought, Well, okay, let’s throw in some ice. Well, that’s and that new drink just took off, particularly in the south where heaps of sugar were added to make it sweet tea. So, today 85% of tea consumed is iced tea in the United States stay in the United States.

Marcia Smith 16:09
Let me just change this right now to sell this stuff and he throws ice cubes in it. Yeah,

Bob Smith 16:14
pivot they call it now. Yeah, he pivoted Yeah, his hot tea to iced tea. Okay, nicknames for states. What state is known as the birthplace of a nation. I’ll give you clues. Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Maryland. The Birthplace of a nation. Now, all those things could name it. Rhode Island. No, I gave you the states Marsh I know. Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia or Maryland?

Marcia Smith 16:45
Pennsylvania, no, New Jersey.

Bob Smith 16:49
That’s not one of the states. You’re not listening again. Okay. Let me give you the answer. Thank you. All those states could claim it conceivably Massachusetts for the pilgrims, Pennsylvania for the Declaration of Independence. And Virginia for the first few presidents. But Maryland. Maryland is known as the birthplace of a nation because it’s one of two states that gave up land to create Washington DC. Oh, that’s right. And that is the that makes sense. That’s their nickname on their license plates his birthplace of it

Marcia Smith 17:18
is I should have noticed that. Yes. All right. Harriet Tubman and John Parker were prominent conductors. In what famous railroad that

Bob Smith 17:28
was the Underground Railroad, which wasn’t really a railroad but it was to convey the slaves to safety and freedom

Marcia Smith 17:35
that so called Underground Railroad assisted 1000s of fugitive slaves, and escaping to Canada and fried northern states in the years before the Civil War. I thought it happened during the war, too. So did I Yeah, well, now we’re enlightened. Okay,

Bob Smith 17:50
Marsha. I have a question for you. All right. Remember, I had all those things about islands about the most populous island the least populous island? Any idea what’s considered the most densely populated or most overcrowded island on Earth? Japan? No, I don’t know. Well, you probably heard of the name Santa Cruz. That’s a famous Yeah, but this is on the northern coast of Colombia. Now picture this. More than 500 people live there. Okay. It’s only the size of two football fields.

Marcia Smith 18:18
Oh my God.

Bob Smith 18:20
And the island has no toilets or sewage and drinking water, food and other necessary supplies have to be imported. They don’t have toilets. No. 12,000 square yards the size of two football fields for some reason. 500 people want to live there. Yes, really?

Marcia Smith 18:34
Well, that’s just interesting. Okay. And that is

Bob Smith 18:38
where again, that’s off the coast of Colombia.

Marcia Smith 18:40
Okay. Take that off the list of must do you don’t

Bob Smith 18:44
think you want to go there? No, not

Unknown Speaker 18:45
okay. Okay. Okay,

Bob Smith 18:46
Marsha. We recently we were talking about palaces and castles. What country is home to 3000 palaces and castles with you in the big buildings. I like big buildings. China, Poland, Turkey Belgium or India. What country is home to 3000 palaces and castles? China No, I That’s a good guess. I would have thought that two ancient more palaces. It’s Poland. Really. Poland is home to 3000 palaces and castles and the most popular is the Willa now palace in Warsaw built by King Yan the third Sobieski in the 17th century. 3 million visitors visited annually.

Marcia Smith 19:26
Okay, which famous museum I’ll give you choices. Would you visit to find Bata Charlie’s The Birth of Venus? Wow. Okay. The Hermitage in St. Petersburg. The Pitti Palace in Florence, a pity party ITT I don’t know. Okay, petit Palace, maybe. Okay. Yeah. The Prado Museum in Madrid or the you see gallery in Florence.

Bob Smith 19:51
Wow. Those are I’d say it’s either in Florence or in St. Petersburg, one of the to pick one. St. Petersburg hermitage

Marcia Smith 19:59
that sprung. Oh, it’s the you Fitzy gallery in Florence.

Bob Smith 20:03
Why would I know where that I really know what that painting looks like? Yes, you do the birth of

Marcia Smith 20:07
Venus. She’s in this half shell. It’s it’s a woman standing naked in a half shell. Naked.

Bob Smith 20:13
Okay, I remember it. No, but it’s a beautiful painting. Beautiful scene. Yes.

Marcia Smith 20:18
And that famous painting was done in 1480. Wow. And it depicts the goddess Venus arriving at the shore after her birth. It is a pretty one. I remember that notice. Yeah. Coming out naked in the half shell or the it’s been I didn’t remember the nakedness. I’m sorry. Good. I’m proud of you. Okay, movie question.

Bob Smith 20:37
What was the most expensive film ever to win an Oscar? Not to be made. But the most expensive film ever to win an Oscar. Lord of the Rings gladiator Titanic or avatar?

Marcia Smith 20:49
I will say it’s either avatar or I’ll say, Lord of the Rings.

Bob Smith 20:57
Will you set avatar at first? Yeah,

Marcia Smith 20:58
I think what’s avatar? It’s avatar. Ah,

Bob Smith 21:01
now the first movie to break. The world record as the most expensive film was The Titanic that had a $200 million budget. But the most expensive film ever to win an Oscar was avatar. Its production budget was 237 million in 2009. Now, what’s the title of the most expensive movie ever made? Ever Made?

Marcia Smith 21:22
Yeah.

Bob Smith 21:23
It was nominated for five Oscars and a one none. It had a $300 million dollar budget in 2003. Got none gotten on made by the Disney company.

Marcia Smith 21:33
Oh, okay. That narrows it down. Still, I don’t know. Tell me. Pirates

Bob Smith 21:38
of the Caribbean. You’re kidding. Most of that I think was Johnny Depp salary. Yeah, that’s the reasoning. Yeah. Okay. One no Oscars, but it’s the most expensive film from a budget standpoint.

Marcia Smith 21:49
Why? Don’t know, geez. Wasn’t that good? Well, it

Bob Smith 21:53
was fun. That one of those was really good. Yeah. The

Marcia Smith 21:55
first one I enjoyed after that. They

Bob Smith 21:57
kind of went downhill I thought, but Johnny Depp. He kind of did that, like Keith Richards. I think that’s why he was he was like he was drunk all the time. Oh, yeah.

Marcia Smith 22:04
Well, it was a funny kid. He was a funny character. There were all through history of showbusiness. I was somebody who played a drunk. You

Bob Smith 22:11
know, we know a lot of creative people are left handed people. Paul McCartney, for instance, is a left handed basis, you know, what is the percentage of left handed people in the world? Marshall? 30% 70% 50% or 10% 10. That’s it. That’s amazing, isn’t it? Yeah. The best estimate researchers have is 10% of the world population is left handed. They’ve done different research projects to show that most second and third trimester fetuses suck their right thumb and that their thumb sucking preference left or right predicts whether they will become left or right handed.

Marcia Smith 22:48
I didn’t know that. Yeah. Okay. I’ve

Bob Smith 22:51
got a question for you about ports. United States has ports on both sides of the country, facing both the oceans, right? What is the largest US port? Now? I’ll give you some suggestions here, New York, and New Jersey, Norfolk, Los Angeles, or Savannah? What’s the largest port in the United States where goods come in?

Marcia Smith 23:13
Los Angeles. That’s it. And you

Bob Smith 23:16
know what it stretches for more than 43

Marcia Smith 23:17
miles a day holy Come on, takes

Bob Smith 23:21
up almost 8000 acres of land. It’s the largest and busiest port in the country and Long Beach, which is located only 19 miles south of the Port of Los Angeles is the second largest. So that’s where all those Chinese goods are coming in from anything you order on Amazon Marsh. It’s coming through Los Angeles, I

Marcia Smith 23:37
assume? Yeah. Okay. All right. Who was the youngest person, Bob to hold the office of the US president?

Bob Smith 23:45
That was Teddy Roosevelt. I

Marcia Smith 23:49
thought for sure you’d say JFK? No, JFK was the

Bob Smith 23:52
all youngest elected Teddy Roosevelt became president as the vice

Marcia Smith 23:56
president. Why do I even try to get you on the presidential stuff? Okay, time that

Bob Smith 24:02
McKinley was killed. Yeah. 1901. Just so you know, all right.

Marcia Smith 24:08
It was the first baby boomer to be elected president Bob Smith.

Bob Smith 24:12
Let’s see. Wasn’t that Bill Clinton?

Marcia Smith 24:14
Yeah,

Bob Smith 24:15
I’ll say Bill Clinton. Was it? Yeah. Okay.

Marcia Smith 24:17
He was born after World War Two in 1946. And he was followed by the second Boomer was George W. Bush. That’s right. He was also a boomer born the same year 1946. But he was the second president to hold office. Okay. One more question. How many presidents Bob have they finally decided President FDR was related to,

Bob Smith 24:40
oh, how many presidents was Franklin Delano Roosevelt related to and that’s because of that Mayflower connection, I think, because he goes back to the Mayflower. So I think he was connected to about five or six presidents. Yeah, it

Marcia Smith 24:52
used to be but now they figured out he is related to a Levin by blood or marriage. And oh, kids have another Two former presidents and they are John Adams, James Madison. John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Harrison, William Howard Taft, and of course, his fifth cousin, Theodore Roosevelt.

Bob Smith 25:18
Wow. And I think the bush is actually a related. That’s,

Marcia Smith 25:22
that’s it’s Abraham Lincoln and George Bush were seventh cousins. Well, four times removed. Jimmy Carter and George Washington were ninth cousins. So yeah,

Bob Smith 25:34
that’s the American story. That’s what we really should have find fascinating about this country, regardless of whether we’re on the left or the right.

Marcia Smith 25:43
And I get Joe Schwartz from the tavern keeper. All right, you got anything else?

Bob Smith 25:51
Okay, Marcia, a question from the world of art. Do you know there’s only one work of art ever signed by Michelangelo? Where is it today? And what is it? Only one work of art ever signed by Michelangelo?

Marcia Smith 26:04
Was it a painting? Or was it a sculpture?

Bob Smith 26:07
It’s a sculpture.

Marcia Smith 26:09
Okay, is it David? Not David. Then all I can think of right off the top of my head. The piano,

Bob Smith 26:16
piano. Yes, that’s right. That’s the only piece he ever signed. And that is the statue and it’s located in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City that depicts the body of Jesus on the lap of his mother Mary after the crucifixion. It’s an amazing piece. The interesting story behind that legend has it that he overheard some onlookers saying that a different sculptor had made that statue and he wanted credit. So he signed the sash on the sculpture. Oh, really? That’s why he did it. Nobody knows for sure if he ever regretted doing it, but he never signed another piece after that.

Marcia Smith 26:49
I’ll be darned. Well, that’s interesting story all by itself. Oh,

Bob Smith 26:52
I did this. Yeah. So we got out of Magic Marker.

Marcia Smith 26:55
I shut up. I did this. Here’s my moniker. Okay. But here’s a closing quote by John Adams, okay. Because power corrupts society’s demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.

Bob Smith 27:14
Very good. Good. Imagine Paul Giamatti saying, Oh, dear. All right. We want to invite you if you have any questions or things you’d like to contribute, you can do so by going to our website, the off ramp dot show, and scrolling all the way down to contact us. There’s a box there, you can leave us information. Thanks for joining us for a fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia. Join us again next time when we return with more of them here on the off ramp. The off ramp is produced in association with CPL radio online and the Cedarbrook Public Library Cedarburg, Wisconsin, visit us on the web at the off ramp dot show.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai