Bob and Marcia discuss various trivia and science questions on their radio show. They explore the largest houses in history, with the Royal Palace of Madrid having 3,418 rooms. They delve into the physics of supersonic flight, explaining how a China Airlines flight broke the speed of sound without creating a sonic boom due to strong tailwinds. They also cover historical presidential firsts, such as Teddy Roosevelt’s first flight and FDR’s establishment of the Presidential Library tradition. Additionally, they discuss the exploration of the Great Lakes and the ocean floor, noting that only 15% of the Great Lakes have been mapped in high resolution. The show concludes with a trivia game and quotes about death.
Outline
Elon Musk’s Hypothetical Mansion
* Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith how many rooms Elon Musk’s biggest house would need.
* Marcia Smith guesses 516 rooms, but Bob Smith reveals the Royal Palace of Madrid has 3418 rooms.
* Bob Smith explains the historical context of the Royal Palace of Madrid, built in the 1700s and sitting on a palace from 860 AD.
* Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss other large palaces, including Vienna’s Hofburg Palace and Versailles, and compare them to Buckingham Palace.
Portable Super Regenerative Receiver and Transmitter
* Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about a portable super regenerative receiver and transmitter.
* Bob Smith reveals it is a walkie-talkie, introduced commercially in 1934.
* Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss the military origins of the walkie-talkie and its use during World War II.
* Bob Smith mentions his father’s use of walkie-talkies during the war and the connection to FM radio.
Forbidden City and Physics Question
* Bob Smith mentions the Forbidden City in Beijing as the world’s largest palace complex, with 980 buildings and 9999 rooms.
* Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss the impracticality of maintaining such a large palace.
* Bob Smith presents a physics question about how a plane can exceed the speed of sound without creating sonic booms.
* Marcia Smith guesses the plane might fly lower, but Bob Smith explains it was due to strong tailwinds and the surrounding air moving faster than the plane.
China Airlines Flight 5116 and Jet Streams
* Bob Smith explains how China Airlines Flight 5116 broke records for speed in January 2024 due to strong tailwinds.
* The plane, traveling from Taipei to Los Angeles, landed more than an hour early and broke records for passenger air travel.
* Bob Smith mentions other flights that also broke speed records during the same time period.
* Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss the impact of El Nino on jet streams and the potential for future fast flights.
Presidential Firsts and Traditions
* Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the first president to fly on an airplane.
* Bob Smith guesses Teddy Roosevelt, but Marcia Smith corrects him, stating FDR was the first to fly on an airplane while president.
* Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the significance of FDR’s flight and its impact on presidential travel.
* Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the first president to ride in an airplane on official business, which was FDR.
Presidential Libraries and Death Slang Expressions
* Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the first president to start the tradition of the Presidential Library.
* Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss FDR’s role in starting the tradition with his Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York.
* Bob Smith presents a list of death slang expressions, including “dead as a door nail” and “bite the dust.”
* Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss the origins and meanings of these expressions.
Great Lakes Exploration and Ocean Depths
* Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the percentage of the Great Lakes that have been mapped in high resolution.
* Bob Smith reveals that only 15% of the Great Lakes have been mapped, leading to recent discoveries like sinkholes in Lake Michigan.
* Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the comparison to the exploration of the ocean floor, where only three people have spent three hours at Challenger Deep.
* Marcia Smith and Bob Smith express their curiosity about the mysteries of the ocean and the potential for future discoveries.
Denver International Airport and Colorado Landmarks
* Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about an American airport with a fabric roof.
* Marcia Smith guesses Denver International Airport, which has a series of white Teflon coated fiberglass roof peaks.
* Bob Smith explains the design and cost-saving benefits of the airport’s roof.
* Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss other Colorado buildings with mountain-like designs, including the US Air Force Academy chapel.
Famous Rock Bands and AKA Game
* Bob Smith and Marcia Smith play a game of “AKA,” where Marcia Smith gives clues to famous rock bands.
* Bob Smith correctly identifies bands like the Eagles, Kiss, Jefferson Airplane, and Radiohead.
* Marcia Smith challenges Bob Smith with more difficult clues, including “stereo skull” for Pink Floyd.
* Bob Smith and Marcia Smith enjoy the game, with Marcia Smith winning the final round.
Presidential IQ Test and Bottom Rated Presidents
* Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about a presidential IQ test conducted by C-SPAN in 2020.
* Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the top 10 presidents based on criteria like leadership, crisis management, and moral authority.
* Bob Smith mentions the book “Accidental President” by A.J. Baime, which highlights Harry Truman’s unexpected success.
* Marcia Smith lists the bottom-rated presidents, including William Henry Harrison, Donald Trump, Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, and James Buchanan.
Death Slang Expressions and Ending Quotes
* Bob Smith presents more death slang expressions, including “take the count” and “throw in one’s toe.”
* Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss the origins and meanings of these expressions.
* Marcia Smith shares quotes from Prime Minister David Lloyd George and Groucho Marx about death.
* Bob Smith and Marcia Smith conclude the show, hoping to return with more fascinating facts and trivia.
Bob Smith 0:00
If Elon Musk wanted to build the biggest house in the world, how many rooms would it have to have?
Marcia Smith 0:06
Oh, that’s a good one. And what is a portable super regenerative receiver and transmitter? Whoa,
Bob Smith 0:12
science. Speaking of science, I do have a physics problem. How can a plane exceed the speed of sound without creating sonic booms.
Marcia Smith 0:22
And you can’t have two teasers, buddy, yes, I
Bob Smith 0:24
can answers to all of those questions coming up in this episode of the off ramp, with Bob
Unknown Speaker 0:29
and marcia.
Bob
Very upset. Yes. Smith
Music.
Bob Smith 0:51
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, including three teasers today,
Marcia 1:04
Because he said so!
Bob Smith
You could have had another one.
Bob Smith 1:06
We do this every week for the Cedarburg Public Library, Cedarbrook, Wisconsin and its internet radio station, and then it goes out of her podcast platforms around the world. But today, today, we have two science questions that’s fascinating. But first Marcia, if Elon Musk, the man with the biggest ego in the world, and bankroll and bankroll, of course, they go together. I think, I guess, wanted to build a house bigger than any other. How many rooms would he need? Total rooms?
Unknown Speaker 1:37
Gosh, so
Bob Smith 1:38
now we have to go to the biggest palace in the world.
Marcia Smith 1:41
I’m thinking, I’m thinking 516
Bob Smith 1:44
516 rooms. Yeah, no, that’s peanuts. That’s nothing compared to the ego of the Spanish monarchy, the Spanish who got almost all their wealth from South America, gold mines and silver mines, they have the largest official residence in the world. The Royal Palace of Madrid, it has 3418
Marcia Smith 2:06
rooms. Okay, I was a smidge off
Bob Smith 2:08
and 1.5 million square feet of floor space dates from the 1700s but it sits on the side of a palace built in the year 860 ad, so that’s what he’d have to do, build a house that big with that many rooms, see how
Marcia Smith 2:22
far off I was. I can’t even comprehend things in that in that range. Well, you
Bob Smith 2:26
know, the index here that would be great to know is how many bathrooms? That always tells me, you know, yeah,
Marcia Smith 2:31
how many trips to Costco do you have to make a week just to get toilet
Bob Smith 2:35
paper for the royal palace of Madrid? But it’s only used for state ceremonies today. For the record, the second largest palace is Vienna’s Hofburg Palace, which is a 13th century building that has 2600 rooms. That’s downtown in Vienna. We went past that. Third is the French palace at Versailles, with 2300
Marcia Smith 2:55
rooms. I should have known that, yes, we visited that. That was a house at one time. Yes, of
Bob Smith 3:00
course, the French Palace, palace of the king and fourth place is little Buckingham Palace, which only has 775
Marcia Smith 3:08
rooms. Yes, it’s like a cabin in the woods. But if Elon
Bob Smith 3:11
Musk had enough money to build the biggest house in the world, it’d have to be as big as those Absolutely, which also makes you think you can’t really compare today’s egos to the egos of classic royalty. Most people were living in poverty and they were building places like this. Oh yeah. Just amazing, the arrogance of it all. Yeah. Okay,
Marcia Smith 3:32
all right. Bob, smarty pants, what is a portable, super regenerative receiver and transmitter that
Bob Smith 3:40
is a radio, a portable regenerative receiver, and super regenerative, and then it transmits and receives. Is it a is it a cell phone? A smartphone? Nope. What is it?
Marcia Smith 3:54
That’s what a walkie talkie was called when it was introduced commercially in 1934
Bob Smith 4:00
Oh, my God, it just rolls off the top. And you didn’t
Marcia Smith 4:03
see a lot of kids walking around with a portable, super regenerative receiver and transmitter. So somebody came up with walkie talkie.
Bob Smith 4:13
Isn’t that funny? That was just a slang term. It wasn’t the official name of it, originally, 34 and it was that Motorola that came up with that.
Unknown Speaker 4:20
I don’t know. I think they invented it. Yeah,
Bob Smith 4:23
it’s basically, it was portable. FM radio, is what it
Marcia Smith 4:25
was, and didn’t the military. Yes, for the military, that’s why there’s such a goofy name for it.
Bob Smith 4:31
That’s right, that’s right. And my dad used those in World War Two, and I didn’t realize till years later, that was FM radio he was using during war Yeah, I
Marcia Smith 4:39
never thought of it that way. Yeah, he was in communications. That’s right. That’s why you followed in his footsteps. My military I stumbled in
Bob Smith 4:46
my dad’s footsteps. Yes, I didn’t have the military career. I just wanted to go back to the largest palace, because somebody will come along and tell me, I’m wrong, the Forbidden City in Beijing now that is the world’s largest palace. Complex. It has 980 buildings and 9999
Marcia Smith 5:05
rooms, getting a little much. Yeah, cleaning lady would never go for that. Okay,
Bob Smith 5:10
all right. Marcia, okay, here’s the physics question I have. Okay, how can a plane exceed the speed of sound, which is 767 miles per hour without creating sonic booms. It happened several times in early 2024 and they are believed to be new records for speed.
Marcia Smith 5:32
This is a question from my nephew, the scientist Brian, how can
Bob Smith 5:36
a plane exceed the speed of sound without creating sonic booms. Well,
Marcia Smith 5:42
I don’t know. I pondered it for a nanosecond and let I should take a guess, though. Does it dip down? Does it fly lower? No, tell me.
Bob Smith 5:52
The plane itself was moving through the surrounding air at its normal cruise speed, 564 miles per hour. But the envelope, if you will, the surrounding air it was in was going at 826 miles per hour. Think of it like those pedestrian walkways in an airport. You’re tired, you gotta get to the next gate, and you get on one of those things, and you walk normally, but because it’s moving, it looks like you’re walking very fast. You’re not that’s what was happening to this plane. This is a passenger plane. This is not a military judge, my God, 826 miles per hour. That was in January 2024, it was a China Airlines Flight. 5116 it departed from Taipei and landed more than an hour early in Los Angeles, propelled by exceptionally strong
Unknown Speaker 6:40
tailwind. Just shoot me if I was on that plane. They
Bob Smith 6:44
believe it might have broken records for passenger air travel. It was a roaring Pacific jet stream supercharged by the El Nino climate pattern, no kidding. And after that happened, there were two or three other flights that same time period that all broke records.
Marcia Smith 6:59
Doesn’t disrupt anything or hurt the plane or anybody in it. It just goes really fast.
Bob Smith 7:04
Basically, you get an envelope that’s going so fast it’s going faster than you’re going, and it carries your plane faster than you’re actually going. No booms. So this China Airlines Flight 5116 flew its route, which was 7205 miles in just 10 hours and 18 minutes, which rounds up to an average speed of 700 miles per hour. That includes takeoff, landing at all the slower points in the journey. That’s the average speed it was going that fast. The jet stream is usually faster in the wintertime, and the world’s fastest jet stream tends to be over the Pacific. Now turn around and work against that jet stream heading in the opposite direction, like it could take 14 hours and 40 minutes from Los Angeles to Taipei, four hours longer. Don’t
Marcia Smith 7:49
they intentionally go for a jet stream?
Speaker 1 7:51
They do. But this is a El Nino. This is a supercharged wind that they got. And there were more super fast flights that Thursday and Friday, January, 25 and 26th there was a Philippines airline flight. 112, from Manila that went up to 819 miles per hour. One from Tokyo to Detroit, a delta 276, that went 817 miles. And then two more flights that were over 800 miles per hour, from Seoul to Atlanta and from Taipei to Los Angeles. They all were super fast flights. That was in January of 2024, first time planes were known to have broken those kinds of records. Okay, all right, yes, well, that’s the answer to your science question. Thank
Marcia Smith 8:29
you, Bob. How
Bob Smith 8:30
can a plane exceed the speed of sound without creating a sonic boom? Okay,
Marcia Smith 8:34
okay. Mr. President, okay. Presidential first, Bob, this is your wheelhouse. I’ll give you three presidential first. You tell me the president. Okay, who was the first president to fly on an airplane? The first president
Bob Smith 8:50
to fly on an airplane? Let’s see, was that? Teddy Roosevelt?
Marcia Smith 8:55
Gosh, good call. It was october 11, 1910, a year and a half after he completed his term in office, he took a four minute flight in a biplane built by the Wright brothers. I
Bob Smith 9:07
thought it was the Wright Brothers, that’s right. I
Marcia Smith 9:09
mean, that took some hoots I did
Bob Smith 9:11
because I think the next year, one of their planes crashed and killed an officer from the army.
Marcia Smith 9:16
FDR was the first president to ride in an airplane on official business. He went to Casablanca to meet with world leaders.
Bob Smith 9:24
They had to keep that plane flying very close to the surface of the ocean to avoid radar.
Marcia Smith 9:29
Yeah, that’s to discuss World War Two strategy.
Speaker 1 9:32
I’ve been in that plane. That plane is in Dayton, Ohio, at the Air Force Museum. Really, you can climb up into it. FDR Yes, my fingerprints right there next to FDRs. And so is the JFK plane that they flew his body back from the Air Force. One is in there too. Okay, yes, you can see all those things. And then we
Marcia Smith 9:51
were on Ronald Reagan’s Air Force. One Reagan has the whole damn airplane in the Presidential
Bob Smith 9:57
Museum right tilted. Like it’s getting ready to take on. Who gets
Marcia Smith 10:01
that? I mean, I some guys get papers. He got the whole damn airplane, and
Bob Smith 10:05
you’re not even president anymore. And your people call him and go, we like the plane. Well,
Marcia Smith 10:10
what are you gonna do with it? Right? And this, look how popular it was, the most popular thing in the in the library, yes. Okay, you know, I
Bob Smith 10:18
have to go back to what you said there, the first president who flew on a plane while President? Well, it was FDR, he was the first one. Yeah. So it took a long time then, yeah, almost 30 years, where no president or person who had been president ever flew on a plane. That’s interesting. That shows you how rare air transportation. That shows
Marcia Smith 10:35
you why our families, our parents, used to go to airports on Sunday afternoons to watch the airplanes take That’s
Bob Smith 10:42
right. And that was in the 50s. Yeah, we went as kids watching the airport. Yeah, I bet our kids don’t even know that, that that was recreation when we were kids, late 50s, 60s. And guess what? We dressed up to do that,
Marcia Smith 10:54
put on a tie to go to the baseball game. My dad wore a hat to the baseball game, but on
Bob Smith 10:59
your good clothes. We’re going to the airport to watch planes take off. It sounds ludicrous now, but it was recreation. Now
Marcia Smith 11:05
I have one more okay, and that is who was the first president in whose election women were allowed to vote.
Bob Smith 11:13
Okay? That was in 1920 I think, wasn’t it? Geez, I don’t know. And I think that was, that would have been who was in 1920 was that Calvin Coolidge? Was it his election? No. Oh, wait a minute, I know who it was. It was President. All the women thought was real handsome from Ohio. What was his name? They had the big scandal with the teapot, dome
Marcia Smith 11:35
warring G hard. That’s who it is. Is
Bob Smith 11:37
it they thought he was cute? Oh, they thought it was handsome. Women did well. He won,
Marcia Smith 11:40
smashing 60% of the popular vote because women were thankful to him for his support of the 19th Amendment granting them the freedom to vote. See,
Bob Smith 11:52
they thought he was cute and he was voting, voting right. He was like the John F Kennedy of his time. And so yeah,
Marcia Smith 11:58
and they took him over the top. Wow. Okay, third, yes, which President started the tradition of the Presidential Library?
Bob Smith 12:06
The first presidential library was FDRs, that’s right, and I was there when I was a kid. There was no others at the time, really.
Marcia Smith 12:13
That’s why you’re on this quest to hit all the libraries.
Bob Smith 12:16
I don’t know if I’m going to make them. He started
Marcia Smith 12:19
the tradition in 1939 when he donated his papers to the United States and asked the National Archives to administer them, his Presidential Library is where it
Bob Smith 12:30
what’s in New York? What is the name of that? Hyde Park? Hyde Park, yes,
Marcia Smith 12:33
it was dedicated in 1941 Okay, your turn, Bubba. Okay,
Bob Smith 12:38
we’re talking about dead people. So I’ve got a question. It’s funny. I found this thing on online the other day. It’s death slang sayings like, dead as a door nail. How far back do you think that expression goes dead as a dead as a door nail? How
Marcia Smith 12:52
far does it go back 1700s
Bob Smith 12:54
it goes back to 13.
Marcia Smith 12:56
Did they even have doors in 13? Of course, they
Bob Smith 12:59
had doors. Okay, lot of human creativity and terms for death. So I’ve got a few more here. Bite the dust. How far back do you think that goes? That goes back to 1749, kick the bucket. Goes back to 1820 feed the fishes. I thought that was a new one with the mafia. 1820s when that one freaking out? Here’s one I never heard of. He’s gonna hang up his hat. That’s 1854 and then just a few more that are funny to listen to here. There’s a whole list of, I don’t know there’s like 50 of them here, turn over the perch.
Marcia Smith 13:31
Never heard it. He’s
Bob Smith 13:33
gonna turn over the perch. Oh, that’s funny. Like a bird, bird expression, 1594 another expression, meaning you’re dying, put to bed with a shovel. Wow, 1707 that’s pretty brutal. Hand in one’s checks. That goes back to 1857 Okay, I like this. One. Lay down your knife and fork. Oh, wow. Last time you’re gonna eat 1864 stick one’s spoon in the wall. I don’t know what that is. That goes back to 1873 and then my favorite of all these is climb the golden staircase. Oh, well, that’s a good that goes back to 1883 All
Marcia Smith 14:09
right, ready? Yeah, we have talked in the past about only 5% of the world’s oceans having been explored, but what percent of the Great Lakes have been mapped in high resolution. I
Bob Smith 14:23
saw this statistic recently too. It’s, it’s almost as bad. There’s hardly any of the floor of the Great Lakes, yeah, hardly any of it has been explored. Take a take a stab of 2% now, 10% No, 15% good
Marcia Smith 14:35
for you. Okay. Only 15% which has led to discoveries recently of things like sinkholes in Lake Michigan, not far from us. That’s right, they found 40 so far. But the oceans are still such a mystery. As of 2023 only three people have spent three hours exploring Challenger Deep that’s the deepest known point in the ocean. While 12 astronauts have spent over 300 hours on the
Bob Smith 15:04
moon, wow, we’ve spent more time on the moon than the bottom of the ocean, the deepest part of the ocean, that’s what about seven miles deep, or something like that. Oh,
Marcia Smith 15:12
gosh. I don’t know. You’d think you would come up with technology that
Bob Smith 15:15
they do have, that they’ve used it, but I think it’s just so pitch dark, there’s no light. Yes,
Marcia Smith 15:19
they try to get the light and the temperatures, it’s, I can’t wait till they get down there. There’s so many creatures down there that we’ve never seen. I have a feeling maybe we don’t want to see maybe not just this prehistoric looking things laying down there. You know,
Bob Smith 15:35
I remember as a kid, we went to Mammoth Cave going through and on that tour down there, they would tell us that there are fish down here that have no eyes. They never needed eyes, you know,
Marcia Smith 15:45
oh, I’ve seen a picture of that. That is creepy, isn’t it? That
Bob Smith 15:48
sticks in your brain when you’re a little kid, like, there’s a fish with no eyes? Yeah, we don’t need it down here. There’s no light down here. Wow. So, yeah, it’s gonna be like that when they finally get the real exploration going in the oceans. And like you said, that’s probably going to be generations ahead of us. Okay, I think it’s time for a break. Okay, Doki, you’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith. We’ll be back in just one moment.
Marcia Smith 16:12
He made that sound very exciting. It
Bob Smith 16:14
is going to be exciting. 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, USA, and it goes out over their internet radio station weekly, and then we also put it on podcast platforms where it’s heard all
Unknown Speaker 16:33
over the world.
Bob Smith 16:35
Thought I would help you there. Thank you. You’ve missed a couple of in the last few shows, so
Unknown Speaker 16:39
I doze off. By Okay,
Speaker 1 16:41
all right. Marcia, this is an interesting question. What American Airport has a fabric roof, really? Now, most airports have normal steel roofs. In Hawaii, it’s not in Hawaii, fabric roof where could, in fact, it’s not where you would think a fabric roof might be. Now, fabric doesn’t mean it’s not solid feeling. Okay, one of those could be fiberglass, which it is. Oh, it is, but it is a, it’s an interesting look. So it’s an airport with a fabric roof. I don’t know it’s in the Rockies Denver, Denver International Airport. Its roof consists of a series of white Teflon coated fiberglass roof peaks.
Marcia Smith 17:22
I’ve seen them. Yeah, you see it coming in. So it looks like,
Bob Smith 17:24
kind of like the nearby Rockies and the snow capped mountains. It also evokes the early history of Colorado, when the Native American teepees were
Marcia Smith 17:32
located across the Great Plains. I think all that was intentional. It was
Bob Smith 17:35
designed by Fentress Bradburn architects, and they have a steel cable system, similar to the Brooklyn bridge design that supports the roof. So that was debuted in 1995 it was designed in just three weeks. Really, not only did it evoke the Rocky Mountains that saved the airport more than $100 million in the budget by sparing 1000s of tons of steel. Okay, now Denver’s airport isn’t the only Colorado building designed with peaks, suggesting mountains. There’s another famous one. Do you know what it is? In Denver?
Unknown Speaker 18:05
No at the airport, no.
Marcia Smith 18:08
In Colorado,
Bob Smith 18:09
the chapel found on the campus of the US Air Force Academy. It has 17 aluminum, glass and steel spires. They shoot 150 feet into the sky and resemble the mountains, but that is the most visited human made tourist attraction in the state that was built in 1962 okay, it’s beautiful. It really, it plays in, I haven’t, oh, yes, Colorado Springs, Colorado, okay,
Marcia Smith 18:30
I’ve been there, but I don’t recall seeing that. Well, well, well, it’s time for AKA, also known as my favorite card game. All right, the category is famous rock bands, famous
Bob Smith 18:43
rock bands. Oh boy. So if I lose these, it’s gonna be really very embarrassing. So
Marcia Smith 18:48
if I said the bald birds, what band am I talking about? The
Speaker 2 18:53
Eagles, that’s it, okay. All right, all right. One down, okay, the cops, the police, that’s it. Okay. Smooch,
Bob Smith 19:02
smooch. Kiss, that’s it. Oh, okay. Kiss, yes, of course. I was thinking kisses and like, I don’t remember a band name kisses, but yes, kiss, of course, of course, three in a row, yeah, okay, let’s go see
Marcia Smith 19:15
that’s it, you brag. There
Speaker 2 19:16
we go. And then we got the bad one. Thomas Jett, oh no. Now
Marcia Smith 19:21
you think about this. Thomas Jett, yeah, Tom jet you have trouble with these two different words, putting them together, yeah?
Bob Smith 19:29
Jefferson and starship. Jefferson Airplane, that’s
Unknown Speaker 19:32
it, okay, right? You
Bob Smith 19:33
did it. Starship was the second incarnation of the band. Oh, was it? Yeah? See, you know that you saw starship. We saw them a couple years ago. Oh yeah, that was last year. The guy, Mickey Thomas, I believe his name is, he sang around and fell in love and other songs around and fell he was also their vocalist, too.
Marcia Smith 19:50
He was great, okay, ready, also known as stereo skull. Is also known as stereo skull. Think about it. It’s funny. Twin
Bob Smith 20:00
to buy. I don’t know spice call head, something head, twin heads. I don’t know what is it? Radiohead,
Marcia Smith 20:11
Oh, God. Smarty Pants, magenta. Mayweather,
Bob Smith 20:16
that’s red. Magenta. Mayweather, red spring, yeah, the red spring band,
Marcia Smith 20:23
okay. Bruce Springsteen, Mayweather was a boxer. Magenta can be different forms of red,
Unknown Speaker 20:29
rocky something. Okay, pink. Floyd, oh,
Marcia Smith 20:32
we could be here all day.
Bob Smith 20:34
Magenta. Pink is magenta, bleached out red, yeah. Okay,
Marcia Smith 20:39
it’s kind of the second clue, Mayweather. You know the boxer, Floyd Mayweather. Oh, my God, that is, or is it Mayweather? Floyd? No, it’s Floyd Mayweather. That’s
Bob Smith 20:47
really obscure. No, not
Marcia Smith 20:48
if you know, oh yeah. Now it’s not, oh yeah, not if you know colors and very, very
Bob Smith 20:52
unfair, very unfair. All
Marcia Smith 20:54
right, this is just fun. Ready? Finally, the hose folds. The what the hose folds? F, o, l, D, S, the
Bob Smith 21:03
hose folds.
Marcia Smith 21:05
What do you call the folds? Crimps? No, you say, Oh, my hose has got a lot of what in it.
Bob Smith 21:13
Water,
Marcia Smith 21:15
famous band, the water, no. You always say, Oh, I got a kink in my hollow. Oh,
Bob Smith 21:20
the kinks. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well,
Marcia Smith 21:23
you got half Bob, Mr. Mr. Smarty Pants, yeah, yeah, Mr. Rock Band,
Bob Smith 21:28
Mr. Smarty Pants rock band. Okay, what do you get? All right, Marsh, I got another one on states. What US state got its name from a British Island? Say again, what US state got its name from a British Island. I’ll give you clues. Oh, thank you. Washington, Maryland. New Jersey, Virginia.
Marcia Smith 21:51
Virginia islands. No, not Virginia. Okay, then, I don’t know.
Bob Smith 21:55
New Jersey. New Jersey was named for the Isle of jersey off the coast of England. Yes. All right.
Marcia Smith 22:01
All right. Bob in 2020 1c span did a presidential IQ test, and they did a survey of historians, professors and professional presidential observers. They were told to rate presidents and give equal weight to 10 different qualities they thought presidents should have, like leadership, okay? Crisis Management, moral authority, international relations,
Unknown Speaker 22:26
okay, vision and so forth. So I’m supposed to give you the names of President, so
Marcia Smith 22:29
if you can, who do you think rates the top in those I got 10, but just name who you think is in that top 10.
Bob Smith 22:35
It’s not really an IQ test. It’s just what it’s not but they call it that. FDR was very good with the he’s number three executive abilities. I know that JFK is rated high from intellectual standpoint because he the way he’s spoken so
Marcia Smith 22:50
forth, but that’s he’s on it. He’s number eight, okay,
Bob Smith 22:53
of the 10. So is Bill Clinton. Was a Rhodes Scholar, so,
Marcia Smith 22:59
but he’s not on the top 10. Oh, interesting. He was up there. Okay,
Bob Smith 23:03
so let me go back to Eisenhower.
Marcia Smith 23:05
He is. He’s number five. Okay,
Bob Smith 23:07
well, that makes sense, because I mean, that man ran a war, yeah, he came back and then he ran the country. Are there any more recent presidents on there? Uh huh, okay, George Bush, the
Marcia Smith 23:16
first the elder. No, he’s not on the top 10. Okay, so
Bob Smith 23:19
let’s see, who else would you if you think
Marcia Smith 23:23
about it. Okay, go ahead in order, number nine, Ronald Reagan, and number 10, Barack Obama. Okay, that’s interesting. And number one and two is Abe Lincoln, George Washington, FDR, Teddy Roosevelt.
Bob Smith 23:37
I was going to do Lincoln and Washington. I didn’t know if they could be, yeah, rated by these modern IQ stories.
Marcia Smith 23:43
Just based on that 10 criteria, Harry Truman was number six. Number seven was Thomas Jefferson.
Bob Smith 23:50
I’d like to suggest, if anybody’s interested, there’s a book called accidental president by, I think it’s a J BAME, and it’s about Harry Truman, fascinating, really. And Harry Truman was not judged to be anything unusual or top notch at the time he was named president. But when you look back at all the things he dealt with United Nations, and the atomic bomb and, yeah, you know, trying to set up something for post war Europe, NATO, all that came about during his time. So
Marcia Smith 24:15
he got high, high quarter here.
Bob Smith 24:17
So who’s at the bottom of the list? Ah,
Marcia Smith 24:19
I have that in order, they are William Henry, Harrison, Donald Trump, Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson and James Buchanan, wow. Most of those are streets in our cul de sac
Bob Smith 24:29
we live in the subdivision of subpar presidents.
Marcia Smith 24:34
We always said that, and it’s true.
Bob Smith 24:36
These are the streets we have. Pierce, Polk Fillmore, Van Buren, Garfield and McKinley. Fortunately, they all eventually dump into Lincoln.
Speaker 2 24:46
That’s true. I never thought of that yes, the redeeming grace of Lincoln, yes. And of course,
Marcia Smith 24:51
our main street is like the name of main streets. And about a million towns in the US. What Main Street? Oh,
Bob Smith 24:57
it’s Washington. That’s right, yes, that’s. We do live near Hamilton, too. So there’s another American That’s right, a good American hero there,
Marcia Smith 25:04
that’s right. Okay, all right. Thank
Bob Smith 25:06
you very good. Yes, interesting. Going back to my final These are, again, more the slang expressions for, for death, uh huh. Take the count. Take the count. The counts like a, you know, like you’ve been counted out in a fight. That goes back to 1902
Marcia Smith 25:22
I would say, down for the count. Yeah, here’s
Bob Smith 25:24
one. It’s weird. Throw in one’s toe. I don’t get that that goes back to 1901 toe, go trumpet cleaning. Going to heaven. You’re gonna clean
Speaker 2 25:33
the that’s funny. I like that. Trumpets of the angels. That’s funny. 1915
Bob Smith 25:37
become a landowner. That’s got to be from a country where you can’t afford land. Oh, he’s going to become a lion donor. Now he’s dead. That’s funny. He’s got a little plot. 1916 answer the last roll call that goes to 1936 and two more hand in one’s dinner pail. That goes back to the depression. 1937 and climb the six foot ladder 1950 Wow. Those are all expressions, slang expressions for passing away. Well, it’s
Marcia Smith 26:07
a good segue to my ending quotes. Here’s one from Prime Minister David Lloyd George he said death is the most convenient time to tax rich people.
Unknown Speaker 26:21
He’s from the British peerage. That’s interesting. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 26:23
and Groucho Marx has his say. Either he’s dead or my watch has stopped.
Bob Smith 26:29
Oh, yeah, that was considered he ad libbed that once I believe movie or something. Yeah, everybody thought that was hilarious.
Speaker 2 26:38
Well, my watch has stopped when you go ludicrous, it’s funny. It is dumb, but it’s funny. Oh,
Bob Smith 26:43
my goodness. Well, we had some interesting things there today. We hope you don’t mind all the death we had in the show. We don’t death. We don’t plan on going away. We plan on being here for a little longer anyway. And we hope you join us when we return next time with more fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia here on the off ramp,
Bob Smith 27:16
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 offramp, dot show at.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
