Bob and Marcia Smith discussed the origins and evolution of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, sharing insights into their history and commercialization. They also explored unconventional topics such as the possibility of elephants being self-domesticated animals, US frontier expansion, and the importance of salt in the human body. The speakers presented historical context and unique characteristics of elephants, and discussed their personal experiences watching historical events. The conversation highlighted the importance of considering multiple perspectives and insights when exploring unconventional topics.
Outline
Mother’s Day origins and commercialization.
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith which finger has its own pulse, leading to a discussion on the uniqueness of the thumb’s artery.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith explore the origins of Mother’s Day and why its creator attempted to abolish it.
- Anna Jarvis created Mother’s Day in 1908 and campaigned for a national holiday, but became disillusioned with its commercialization.
- In 1910, Sonora Smart Dodd suggested Father’s Day to honor her Civil War veteran father, William Jackson Stewart, and it became a national holiday 62 years later.
- Mother’s Day generates billions of dollars in revenue for industries such as jewelry, flowers, and restaurants, while Father’s Day has a more low-key celebration.
Unusual facts and traditions, including vodka ban in Russia and cheese-powered electricity in France.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the most boring day in the 20th century, which was April 11, 1954, according to history.com.
- Bob asks Marcia why some Asian golfers carry insurance against holes in one, and Marcia explains it’s a tradition in Japan and South Korea to buy dinner and drinks for other players and spectators after a hole-in-one.
- Marcia Smith: Tsar Nicholas II banned government sale of vodka in 1914 to reduce financial dependence on alcohol sales.
- Bob Smith: Cheese is used to generate electricity in France through a biogas-powered plant in Albertville.
Band names, Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, and Yellowstone’s buffalo.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the origins of band names, including Nickelback, ABBA, and Black Sabbath.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss Time Magazine’s Person of the Year award, including the first time a non-human recipient was chosen (a computer in 1982) and the first woman to receive the award (Angela Lansbury in 1937).
- In 1927, Charles Lindbergh was the first person to fly across the Atlantic Ocean and was named Time Magazine’s Man of the Year.
- Bob and Marcia Smith discuss the unique distinction of Yellowstone’s buffalo, which are the only continuously living prehistoric bison population on Earth.
US frontier growth, animal domestication, and TV ratings.
- Marcia and Bob discuss bison, including their size, speed, and aggression, with Marcia expressing admiration and Bob providing cautionary advice.
- Elephants are considered self-domesticated, with scientists citing their reduced aggression, increased social behavior, and complex vocalizations as evidence.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the growth of the US frontier, with Bob stating that it grew at a rate of fewer than two miles per year in the first 150 years following Jamestown (1607-1760).
- Marcia Smith asks Bob about the most watched news event in US history, with Bob answering that it was the Apollo 11 moonwalk in July 1969, which was watched by between 125 and 150 million viewers in the US and more globally.
Sports, money, and health.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the Super Bowl, with Bob sharing his thoughts on the appeal of sports events and Marcia providing information about the most watched Super Bowl.
- Bob and Marcia also discuss the US government’s response to the attack on Pearl Harbor, including the issuance of special currency in Hawaii to prevent it from being used by enemy forces.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss geography questions, including the state with only 77 miles of Great Lakes shoreline (Pennsylvania).
- The off ramp is a radio show that airs on CPL radio online and the Cedarburg Public Library in Wisconsin.
Marcia Smith 0:00
Which finger has its own pulse?
Bob Smith 0:02
Hmm. And why did the creator of Mother’s day try to abolish it really answers to those another questions coming up in this episode of the off ramp with Bob and Marsha Smith
Welcome to the off ramp a chance to slow down steer clear of crazy. Take a side road to sanity and get some perspective in life with fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia. We do this each week for the Cedarburg Public Library. And today, we look into the mysteries of the finger.
Unknown Speaker 0:49
What is your question again?
Marcia Smith 0:51
Which finger Bob has its own pulse?
Bob Smith 0:54
There’s a finger that has its own pulse different than other pulses. You mean like the other fingers have pulses, but they’re different than the
Marcia Smith 1:02
one? No, none of them have their own pulse except this one digit on your hand.
Bob Smith 1:07
Okay, is that your index finger now? Is it your ring finger? No. Okay, what is it your thumb?
Unknown Speaker 1:12
Oh,
Bob Smith 1:13
okay. It’s not a finger.
Marcia Smith 1:15
I knew you’d say that. That is I looked at Nate, consider the thumb of and you could have said which for Linji. Yes, I would have said thumb but that’s hottie hottie and I could have said digit, but I thought finger, okay, so go with the information. Okay, it’s the thumb. If you’ve ever seen someone track their pulse, you see that they use their index finger in their middle finger on their neck, you know, to to count your heartbeat, right? Or on your wrist. The nurse does that or doctor because that’s where the heart artery runs. But you can’t use your thumb because it has its own exclusive artery, which makes it biologically unreliable as a pulse reader, because you’ll feel its pulse instead of the artery. Oh,
Bob Smith 1:57
I see your heart. That’s why you’re not using that particular. Yeah. I know when you smash your thumb, boy, you can feel the pulse of them. Yeah, that’s true.
Marcia Smith 2:06
Right? It’s throbs. Maybe
Bob Smith 2:08
we should move to the subject of Mother’s Day.
Marcia Smith 2:11
And why is that Bob? What’s
Bob Smith 2:12
the question? Why did the creator of Mother’s Day eventually tried to abolish it?
Marcia Smith 2:17
Because they became teenagers? No, no, that’s not
Unknown Speaker 2:21
it. Okay. I don’t know. Well,
Bob Smith 2:22
way back in 1907, a woman named Anna Jarvis held a memorial service to honor her mother and Jarvis who had organized what she called Mother’s Day work clubs to improve sanitation and health for Union and Confederate soldiers during the Civil War typhoid epidemics. She later campaign for a national data on her mother’s but she died. So her daughter took up the cause, and in 1908, helped start the first Mother’s Day. And then Woodrow Wilson turned it into a national holiday in 1914.
Marcia Smith 2:51
But does that tick her off? Why did she try to take it away then, because
Bob Smith 2:55
nine years later, after the first official celebration, Mother’s Day becomes so commercialized, she spent the rest of her life trying to get rid of it. Really, she was so upset, she spent all of her inheritance and the rest of her life fighting it. She hated greeting cards. She saw that as a sign of being too lazy to write a personal letter. She was even arrested in 1948 for disturbing the piece while protesting the commercialization of Mother’s Day.
Marcia Smith 3:21
Well, what year did she come up with that? 1908. So
Bob Smith 3:23
40 years later, she’s like raging against it. She said, I wish I’d never started that day because it got out of control. And she died later that year.
Marcia Smith 3:31
Wow. That’s a lot of anger. Now, today, Mother’s
Bob Smith 3:35
Day is considered one of the most commercially successful holidays there is. It’s the most popular day of the year to dine out at restaurants. So it’s a big day for restaurants generates a lot of money for the jewelry industry. They have mother’s rings, you know, and and flowers, America spend $2.6 billion on flowers for Mother’s Day, and 1.5 3 billion on pampering gifts like spa treatments, and 68 million on greeting cards. In fact, it’s been argued that because it’s so commercially successful, it saves the holiday because there were others about the same time like a Children’s Day Ever heard of that? No. temperates Sunday that went by the wayside. I had a drink to that drink to temperance day. So she the woman who created Mother’s Day turned against it within 10 years. What the hell is this? You know, we’ll make any money up on Mother’s Day. Well,
Marcia Smith 4:26
you know, like, the jewelry and the flowers and all that and what do you get on Father’s Day? You get commercials for cargo shorts at Target for him. But for her there’s the jewelry and the flowers in the restaurant.
Unknown Speaker 4:40
Oh yeah, it gets really romantic for mothers remember when
Marcia Smith 4:43
we were traveling a couple of weeks ago on Father’s Day, the real cheap restaurants on our trip are all filled up on Father’s not
Bob Smith 4:51
the expensive restaurants. Oh, this hopefully well every action has a reaction. What inspired Father’s Day? Well, the Mother’s Day probably That’s right. The inspiration came well a woman was hearing a church sermon about the newly recognized Mother’s Day at Central Methodist Episcopal Church in Spokane. Her name was Sonora smart died and her father was William Jackson Stewart. He’d been a Civil War veteran who actually raised her and her five siblings after their mother died in childbirth and she tried to he deserved he deserves a day. So she suggested to the Spokane ministerial alliance that it fall on her dad’s birthday, June the fifth, the Alliance chose the third Sunday in June instead. And it’s been that since 1910. Well, I didn’t realize that been around that long. But it took a while to become a national holiday. Like it only took three or four years to become a national holiday for Mother’s Day once it was the first Mother’s Day. He took 62 years. Really when do you think Father’s Day became a national holiday?
Marcia Smith 5:44
Well, I’m doing the math 1960 1972 Oh, my that’s amazing. All right, Bob, what was the most incredibly boring day in the 20th century?
Bob Smith 5:56
How do we measure that? Well, I’m
Marcia Smith 5:58
getting to that was the day I was born. Let me get. Let me rephrase this. Okay. The most incredibly boring day in the 20th century, was April 11. Of what year? April
Bob Smith 6:11
11. Haha, the boring day,
Marcia Smith 6:14
the most boring day in the world. It was 1954 this and why a guy named Tunstall, pedo, pe D O, we found nothing Noseworthy this day on a search engine that he personally built. And it contains over 300 million individual facts that he put into this search engine and a use an algorithm to scan through each day of the 20th century. Okay, so
Bob Smith 6:39
he did this recently. He didn’t do this and 54 Right, okay. Okay. So
Marcia Smith 6:43
even the births and deaths on that day were just average people and nobody of note Nothing happened. Nothing substantial. So according to history, facts.com the most boring day in the 20th century was April 11 1954.
Bob Smith 6:59
Marcia, why do some Asian golfers carry insurance against holes in one?
Marcia Smith 7:04
No, yes. Why? Why would they? I don’t know this because
Bob Smith 7:08
of a custom. According to britannica.com. It turns out that in Japan and South Korea too, they throw their club up in the air. There’s a tradition that the golfer who hits a hole in one is expected to buy dinner and drinks for all the other players and spectators. Well, that’s rare. Now the odds are 12,500 to one. It’s an expensive tradition. So many Japanese and Korean golfers carry holding one insurance to cover it just in case they’re lucky enough to get the perfect shot. You’re
Marcia Smith 7:36
kidding. That is oh my goodness, six. Why don’t you just go with treating your you know, your party, your golf party? Well,
Unknown Speaker 7:45
all right. Be a cheapskate. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 7:49
Okay, Bob, when and why was it against the law to drink vodka in Russia?
Bob Smith 7:54
When and why? Yeah. Was it during the Bolshevik Revolution? Oh, you are good. Was it during that time?
Marcia Smith 8:01
When was that
Bob Smith 8:02
that was about 1917 1818. Pretty
Marcia Smith 8:06
close. Yeah. And
Bob Smith 8:07
what was the reason?
Marcia Smith 8:08
Okay, well, Russia and vodka are almost synonymous Bob with each other. For better or sometimes worse. The problems associated with overconsumption have been known to Russia’s leaders for a long time. So long in fact that Tsar Nicholas the second announced his intention to ban the liquor on September 18 1914, just like okay and it telegram that read simply I have already decided to abolish forever the government sale of vodka in Russia, he did so at considerable financial risk as the government centuries old vodka monopoly was responsible for the country’s third of its revenue if you can believe that. And he felt it was important that the Treasury was no longer dependent on the ruination of the spiritual and economic forces of quote my faithful subjects. He wasn’t totally altruistic, though, because Russia’s 1905 loss in the Russell Japanese war was attributed in part to soldiers, drunkenness, and Nicolas didn’t want to see a repeat of that in the looming conflict we now know is World War One. So he saw a war coming. And he knew that they lost the last one because all his soldiers were drunk. The prohibition law was repealed following the ascendance of Joe Stalin. Yeah, we reinstated the government monopoly in 1925. So the
Bob Smith 9:30
communists brought back Bukka Yeah, okay. So and it was needed with them in power. Oh,
Marcia Smith 9:37
my gosh, yeah. So they control all the sales and all that. So
Bob Smith 9:41
where did vodka come from? What’s the potato? That’s right. It’s a food. So Marsha, what food?
Marcia Smith 9:46
Is that? Your transition? Okay, what
Bob Smith 9:49
food can be used to make electricity?
Marcia Smith 9:52
Well, a potato. Well, that’s
Bob Smith 9:55
right in very small way.
Marcia Smith 9:57
Yeah, little you can get some current going there apples. No,
Bob Smith 10:01
it’s being used to this day to make electricity to this day. Yes.
Marcia Smith 10:06
Well I know you can put refuse into a tank and mix it up and makes fuel. Alright
Bob Smith 10:11
the answer Wisconsin girl is cheese. Really it’s happening right now in one of your ancestral nations France. According to britannica.com, a power plant in Albertville, France generates electricity thanks to cheese. Here’s how it works. The process of making Beaufort cheese a local specialty creates way as a byproduct. The way is mixed with bacteria to produce biogas, which is methane and carbon dioxide. And that’s used to turn turbines to generate power. So I’ll be damned cheese is being used in France. Cheese is big in France, Cheez Whiz,
Marcia Smith 10:46
that’s amazing to make electric power. All right, I like it. You use the sun and the cheese use what you got. Yes. Okay. Okay, Bob, let’s talk about the origin of three different bands, okay, bands
Bob Smith 10:58
or brands band name or band names. Okay. All right.
Marcia Smith 11:03
All right. Here’s somebody we like Nickelback. How did they get their name?
Bob Smith 11:06
You know, Paul McCartney asked that guy how they came up with that. And he told him and I don’t remember what the interviewer said. I don’t know.
Marcia Smith 11:14
The band got its name from the bass players experience as a Starbucks employee. He spent endless frustrating days he says telling customers here’s your Nickelback.
Unknown Speaker 11:26
Right? Yeah. Oh, that’s hilarious. And that’s how they got their Nickelback. That’s how the band got its name. Yeah. Okay. All right.
Marcia Smith 11:33
How about ABA?
Bob Smith 11:35
Aba, ABA, that is the acronym of the names of the members of the
Marcia Smith 11:39
band, right? Good. Agnetha, beyond Benny and Annie, Fred. Okay, that’s ABA. And last one, Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath. How did they get their name? That’s
Bob Smith 11:51
a good one. Black Flag they’re playing with insecticide? I don’t know. How did they get their name?
Marcia Smith 11:56
Well, the group was originally known as Earth until they were inspired by a 1963 horror movie with Boris Karloff called Black Sabbath. Well, it gave them their name and the title for its first original song.
Unknown Speaker 12:10
That’s funny. I had no idea so the movies did.
Marcia Smith 12:13
Did you ever see that? Black Sabbath with Boris? Karen? No,
Unknown Speaker 12:16
I didn’t know me either.
Bob Smith 12:20
Marcia, I want you to think back. Back. All right. Tell you 40 plus years ago,
Marcia Smith 12:25
I’m still working on this morning. Oh, I’m
Bob Smith 12:27
sorry. Okay. But 40 plus years ago, who was Time Magazine’s Person of the Year in 1982. And what made that year’s award so unusual. Time Magazine, was it a hated person? No, it wasn’t a hated person.
Marcia Smith 12:43
Okay, because they usually get a lot of flack for putting someone that’s not happy. It’s
Bob Smith 12:48
always a newsmaker. That’s the idea. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 12:51
And it’s what led to it was
Bob Smith 12:53
the first time that Time Magazine did with
Marcia Smith 12:56
a woman. No, I dog know what it
Bob Smith 13:00
was the first year Time Magazine didn’t give a Person of the Year Award to human being. In 1982. Time named the computer machine of the year. It was the first inanimate object to win the award, which had been given to a man or a woman for 50 years before that. The image of a personal computer appeared on the cover of the June 3 1983 issue. And although the article referenced the rise of PC sales, which had gone from 700,000 units, wow, in 1980, to nearly 3 million units in 1982, they focused in San on Lisa, which was Apple computers first PC with a graphical user interface that would be released two weeks later, but that was the machine of the year. Only one other non human recipient has received the time end of the year award. And that was a 1988 Any idea what that was? What year 1988
Marcia Smith 13:53
That was an animal. Nope.
Bob Smith 13:55
Uh, place. A big place.
Marcia Smith 13:57
A big place.
Bob Smith 13:58
A big round place.
Marcia Smith 14:00
Big round place. Yes. 88 big round
Unknown Speaker 14:03
place with water and clouds and that
Marcia Smith 14:07
was it that severe it was the earth honey. That’s what I said the sphere it
Bob Smith 14:14
was the earth. Okay. Yes. sphere. Yeah. All right, who was the first man of the year for Time magazine? The year was 1927. Don’t know, he won the award for being the first person to fly across the Atlantic Ocean Berg, Charles Lindbergh, who was times first woman of the year. That was 1937.
Marcia Smith 14:32
How was how what’s her name? Oh, yeah,
Bob Smith 14:36
that was what’s her name? Yeah, everybody knows it.
Marcia Smith 14:38
Everybody does and her name and not Angela. It was give me your initials. No. Yeah.
Bob Smith 14:44
Who were you thinking the female ABA ABA Tris. No, it wasn’t her. It wasn’t no. This was a social eight and future wife of King Edward the eighth. Wallis Simpson. Oh, she
Marcia Smith 14:55
abdicate. He abdicate abdicated for her
Bob Smith 14:58
fourth of January. In 1837 issue of time, that’s right. He stepped down as King of England for the woman I love.
Marcia Smith 15:06
All right, that was good. All right, shall we take a break?
Bob Smith 15:09
I think we should be listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marsha Smith. We’ll be back in just a moment. We’re back. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marsha Smith. We do this each week for the Cedarburg Public Library Cedarburg, Wisconsin. And it’s internet radio station, Cpl. Radio, it plays Monday nights. And then after that it goes on podcast platforms and is heard all over the world. Alright, Marsha. Recently there was a yet another article on a human being gored out at the Yellowstone by a buffalo, an 80 year old woman was three years old people get out of their cars, they want to go up to the animals.
Marcia Smith 15:46
It’s sad. She didn’t know better. I
Bob Smith 15:48
don’t know. Anyway, what is so special about the bison, the buffalo at Yellowstone they have a unique distinction. The Yellowstone as a unique distinction with regards to bison or Buffalo. Well, I’ve
Marcia Smith 16:00
been there saw them.
Bob Smith 16:02
So that’s it. Marcia Smith was there at one time.
Marcia Smith 16:04
That’s not on my sheet. Next to one,
Bob Smith 16:07
what is unique about Yellowstone and the buffalo? I don’t know it is the only place on Earth where bison have lived continuously since prehistoric times. Kidzania a number of Native American tribes revere Yellowstone’s bison as pure descendants of the vast herds that once roamed the grasslands. And it’s the only place bison have lived continuously since prehistory. That’s
Marcia Smith 16:31
fascinating is now they’re not contained there. They can leave right yeah, they can wander they can go to Jackson Hole for a drink or something.
Bob Smith 16:39
I think they yes, they can. But there are no fences there. Yeah, yeah. Well, that
Marcia Smith 16:44
is very cool. That’s it. They’re
Bob Smith 16:45
dangerous. They oh, gosh, they can run up to 35 miles per hour. 55 kilometers if you’re European. And they can, they can also pivot very quickly because their big strength is in their front legs. Their back leads are lighter, so they can really Yeah, so if you decide I’m going to zigzag they can zigzag with you.
Marcia Smith 17:02
I’ll keep that in mind. Robert,
Bob Smith 17:04
how much can they weigh? These are stupid to go up against.
Marcia Smith 17:08
Oh yeah, people do it. Still do it all the time. Go touch one and take a picture of me
Bob Smith 17:13
a male bison a bull can weigh up to 2000 pounds and stand five feet tall. Well, female cows can weigh up to 1000 pounds and reach a height of four to five feet so neither one do you want to mess with
Marcia Smith 17:26
all right, Bob. What animals besides human and bonobos, you know but bonobos our kind of know it’s abominable? It’s a it’s a kind of monkey. The phenom at the zoo, we saw some in LA. Remember that? Yes, have domesticated themselves have domesticated themselves animals and humans, we domesticated ourselves as a decorating apartment. So self domestication means you reduce your aggression, you increase your sociability. Okay, it’s increased playfulness, you socially regulate some of your behavior to live within a group. Okay, gotcha. So, so far, only humans and bonobos, but one has been added to that group. You want to guess? Chimpanzees? No, elephants? Oh, really? Yes, there is some controversy around that statement. But many scientists believe elephants exhibit the features associated with self domestication such as the things I just talked about reduced aggression and being more social extended juvenile period,
Bob Smith 18:28
okay, and having tee time, things like that
Marcia Smith 18:30
they do you ever see the elephants do that. And also, complex vocal behavior is a sign of self domestication. And socially regulated cortisol levels can among other things dictate how you respond to stress. So you can bring your stress levels down trying on your own to do it. So you don’t you know, throw yourself at me when you’re mad.
Bob Smith 18:56
Used to do that, no longer hurt yourself.
Unknown Speaker 18:59
That was difficult. Okay, so
Marcia Smith 19:01
that’s it. Right now. There’s some controversy, but elephants are also considered self domesticated. Okay.
Bob Smith 19:07
Marsha, how many miles a year did the US frontier grow? How many miles a year?
Marcia Smith 19:13
Oh, I’ll say there
Bob Smith 19:16
were two periods. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 19:17
I’ll say 500 miles a year.
Unknown Speaker 19:19
That’s a lot. That would be okay. 200
Marcia Smith 19:21
miles a year. That’s a lot. 200 Okay, defeat.
Bob Smith 19:25
Here we go. In the first 150 years following Jamestown, this is 1607. The frontier grew at fewer than two miles a year. You know how far people will go really two miles a year, the first 150 years following Jamestown, so 1609 to about 1760. That’s 150 years roughly. The frontier had only crept along at a rate of about two miles per year. People just didn’t go very far. They didn’t trust what was on the other side of the Alleghenies. There were a lot of Indian Julius people there, there were no settlements. So nobody went very far from the East Coast. But from 1800 to 1850, they reached the west coast in short a 50 years, stopping only for the gold rush of 1849. Wow. Before that they went only a couple miles per year. Wow. Okay,
Marcia Smith 20:19
I guess I was a little off. Not too much. Okay. This is according to the Nielsen ratings. You You know who they are? Yes. Right. All right. We got some little questions on that. Bob, what is the most watched news event in US history?
Bob Smith 20:36
The most watched news events in US history. I would think that would have been 911. Hmm. Yeah. The attacks on New York City and the Pentagon and yeah, they weren’t? No. Was it the Kennedy assassination? No. Okay. What was it Apollo 11. Oh, of course, that makes sense landing
Marcia Smith 20:53
in July 20 1969. Between 125 and 150 million viewers watch that event
Bob Smith 21:02
that’s in the United States. Yeah. But more than that around the world. Well, the good thing about that is it was a positive news event. Yes. It wasn’t a negative thing. Where
Marcia Smith 21:09
were you watching the Apollo? Well, with
Bob Smith 21:11
my parents and my aunts and uncles, I think they were with our at our house. And it was in the evening. Actually, I was down in the basement. We had two TV sets. We had one in the basement. And from there I was always recording things audio off of TV that kind of clicked your trigger there. Yeah. So I recorded the audio from the moonwalk and all of that. I watched
Marcia Smith 21:29
it in a dive bar playing playing chess with an old boyfriend and you call it a Milwaukee pub marshy wasn’t it was a dive. Okay, hooligans playing what? chess playing chess? Yeah,
Bob Smith 21:41
in a dive bar. Yeah, got darts. A
Marcia Smith 21:43
sophisticated dive. Wow.
Bob Smith 21:45
I didn’t know the dive bars had chess I thought they’d had raucous games. No walkie
Marcia Smith 21:49
honey, we had all levels of sophistication. All right, but let’s switch to non news events. Okay, um, the 30 most watched telecast of all time. 27 of them are what have the what now again, of the 30 most watched telecast of all time of all times when he saw the seven of them are what
Bob Smith 22:11
they would not be a word shows would they know sporting events? Which one? Oh, probably World Series or the Super Bowl. That’s it. Good for you. 27 hours, the Super Bowl. Wow. Three
Marcia Smith 22:25
that weren’t the Super Bowl were the mash finale. Dallas who done it? And the Seinfeld finale
Bob Smith 22:30
that just shows you how much football has grown over. It’s amazing. And
Marcia Smith 22:34
the most watched Super Bowl was 2024. Super Bowl 58. With 123 point 7 million viewers, just under the moon landing. It was the 40 Niners and the Kansas City Chiefs. And it was a thrill because Casey won in overtime with a field goal.
Bob Smith 22:52
That’s right. That’s right. That
Marcia Smith 22:53
was a great Superbowl.
Bob Smith 22:55
You know, it’s funny. It’s interesting. Once my program director, when I was in radio, he says the great thing about sports is it’s unlike any other televised event because you don’t know the outcome. Yeah, everything else. Almost everything else you watch. It’s been recorded, or you pretty much know what’s going to happen. But in sports, you don’t. And that’s why it’s got such great appeal to people. All right, Marcia, back to history, after Pearl Harbor was attacked. What did the US government do to the money circulating there?
Marcia Smith 23:23
Say again,
Bob Smith 23:24
after Pearl Harbor was attacked? Yeah. What did the US government do to the money circulating in Hawaii? Gosh, this is a little activity that was taking place that we don’t even think about things happening. You know, we put Japanese citizens in concentration camps. But after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States issued special currency to be used in Hawaii only really these bills resembled the typical US currency but had the word Hawaii printed in large block letters now why? That’s what I was gonna ask what was done. So if Hawaii was invaded and captured, and money fell into enemy hands, it could quickly be declared worthless, non legal tender.
Marcia Smith 24:04
Wow, that’s interesting.
Bob Smith 24:07
I never heard that. That was the farthest outpost except for Manila in the Philippines. That was also a US territory at the time, but Hawaii because it had been attacked. They thought, well, let’s just flood it with this currency that we can say is bogus. If something happens, and it’s taken over. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 24:22
very interesting. Okay, Bob, can you live without salt? You and I are very careful about our intake of salt. But if we didn’t use it at all, can you live without it? No, you
Bob Smith 24:33
need that in your chemistry of your body. You need that to balance things out.
Marcia Smith 24:36
You’re right by sodium helps your body manage water and without it, your cells can start to swell, and it’s a condition called hyponatremia. hyponatremia is often caused by medication and certain underlying health problems, but it can also be caused by drinking too much water which is very hard to do, and too much alcohol
Bob Smith 24:58
which is not hard to do. I thought those two things
Marcia Smith 25:01
can put you in that state of WoW, badness. hyponatremia.
Bob Smith 25:05
That sounds like a country I’ve
Marcia Smith 25:07
been to. All right. Okay. All right. All right.
Bob Smith 25:10
I have a final question for you my Friday. I actually two final geography questions. I always like to make things difficult for you. What state has just 77 miles of Great Lakes shoreline? Now there’s a lot of states surrounding the Great Lakes they have hundreds of
Marcia Smith 25:28
that’s got to be the smallest right?
Bob Smith 25:31
It has only 77 miles of shoreline and it has one port, just one port.
Marcia Smith 25:37
I don’t know is that Indiana? Not Indiana. Not Ohio. Can’t be Michigan. Can’t be as farther east. Yeah, I’m thinking, I don’t know. Tell me. It’s Pennsylvania. Bill. I would have thought they had more.
Bob Smith 25:51
Nope, only 77 Miles its port is Erie, Pennsylvania. That’s the only port and it came to Pennsylvania thanks to the Erie triangle purchase ever heard of that? The what? Erie triangle now. It’s spelled just the way it sounds Era II but like Erie, Pennsylvania, its land in the shape of an upside down triangle along the coast of Lake Erie. The federal government acquired this land and sold it to Pennsylvania so we could have a freshwater port on the Great Lakes. I’ll be darned most Pennsylvania. 77 miles of shoreline came from this sits up top of western corner of Pennsylvania like a smokestack. And it was the subject of several Colonial Era claims, including Native American tribes, but eventually was acquired by the federal government sold to Pennsylvania so they could have access to a freshwater port on Lake Erie. And guess what? That port today sees 600 to 700,000 tons of goods pass through it annually. So it was a goodbye small
Marcia Smith 26:49
but mighty. Yes. All right. Here’s a closing thought for the day from Dalai Lama. All right. compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength. Very good. Nice. Yeah,
Bob Smith 27:02
that is nice. All right. Well, we hope you’ve enjoyed this half hour of Fun and frolic we’ve been frolicking we’ve
Marcia Smith 27:09
been frolic. Yeah. Like crazy here.
Bob Smith 27:11
Yeah. I’m just going through the weeds here. I mean, probably the cornfield. No, no
Marcia Smith 27:14
pool in the pool championship. Yeah. All right. Do we have a pool? No,
Bob Smith 27:17
I didn’t think so. Too bad. Got
Marcia Smith 27:19
a hose.
Unknown Speaker 27:20
There we go. We’re on our way.
Bob Smith 27:22
All right. We hope you’ve enjoyed this half hour of fun and merriment, you can contribute to our show by going to our website, the off ramp dot show, and dropping us a question or thought or a fact we’d love that we’d love to hear from you. In the meantime, I’m Bob Smith. I’m Marcia Smith. Join us again next time when we return with more fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia here on 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
