Home » Episodes » 261 More Polar Vortex Trivia

261 More Polar Vortex Trivia

More cold questions. Plus, what U.S. landmark is bigger than Rhode Island? And what did the world’s oldest bird do recently? Hear the Off Ramp podcast.

Bob and Marcia Smith discuss the world’s oldest bird, Wisdom the albatross, who laid an egg at age 74 in 2024. They also explore the Grand Canyon, which is bigger than Rhode Island, and Lake Baikal, the world’s largest natural skating rink. The conversation covers the coldest inhabited city, Oymyakon, Russia, and the diamond capital, Yellowknife, Canada. They delve into historical trivia, including the origin of the phrase “leave no stone unturned” from the Oracle of Delphi. The episode concludes with a discussion on the history of desserts and famous quotes.

Outline

Wisdom the Albatross: The World’s Oldest Bird

  • Bob Smith introduces the topic of Wisdom, the world’s oldest bird, and her recent unusual activity.
  • Wisdom is an albatross banded by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in 1956, during the Eisenhower administration.
  • Albatrosses are among the world’s largest birds, with wingspans of 8 to 11 feet and the ability to fly up to 10,000 miles in a single trip.
  • Wisdom has laid 50 to 60 eggs in her lifetime and was spotted on the beach with one of her grandchildren in 2023.
  • In 2024, Wisdom laid an egg at age 74, and she is currently on her third lifetime mate, having outlived three partners.

Grand Canyon: Natural Landmark Bigger Than Rhode Island

  • Marcia Smith asks about a US landmark bigger than Rhode Island, leading Bob Smith to guess Yellowstone National Park or the Grand Canyon.
  • The Grand Canyon is revealed to be bigger, with a length of 277 miles and a width of up to 18 miles.
  • The canyon creates its own weather and requires nearly five hours of travel time from one popular rim to another.
  • Factoids about the Grand Canyon include the presence of 201,000 caves, five species of rattlesnakes, and 4.7 million annual visitors.
  • A new glass platform allows visitors to look down into the canyon, though Bob Smith is not keen on it.

Polar Vortex Trivia: Coldest Inhabited Cities and More

  • Bob Smith asks about the world’s coldest permanently inhabited city, which is Oymyakon, Russia, with a daily mean temperature of 51 degrees below 00.
  • Oymyakon holds the record for the lowest temperature ever recorded, 90 degrees below 00 Fahrenheit, in 1933.
  • Murmansk, Russia, is the largest city north of the Arctic Circle, with a population of 300,000 and year-round sea ports.
  • Barrow, Alaska, is the highest city in the Arctic Circle in the US, located 320 miles above the Arctic Circle.
  • The US VLF-7 transmitter, broadcasting a buzzing sound 25 times per minute, has been transmitting for over 40 years, with theories suggesting it might be sending encrypted messages to spies.

Human-Dog Eye Contact and Superstitious Building Floors

  • Bob Smith discusses the bonding effect of eye contact between humans and dogs, releasing oxytocin, the love hormone.
  • Having pets while working from home can enhance well-being by increasing oxytocin concentrations and reducing stress.
  • In Italy, the 17th floor is often skipped in buildings due to its association with bad luck in Roman numerals, which can be rearranged to spell “I have lived,” an ominous sign.
  • The 13th floor is skipped in many buildings due to its association with bad luck, dating back to the Last Supper and Judas.
  • In some Asian countries, the 4th floor is skipped, while in the US, the 13th floor is commonly skipped.

Historical Trivia: Explorers, Trading Hubs, and Natural Skating Rinks

  • Bob Smith asks about the explorer who reported seeing mermaids in the New World, which was Christopher Columbus, who mistook manatees for mermaids.
  • Timbuktu, located in Mali, was a major trading hub along the Silk Road and an intellectual and spiritual capital of Islam.
  • Lake Baikal in Russia is the world’s largest natural skating rink, forming each winter due to its depth of 5,387 feet.
  • The lake is too deep for ice fishing but is popular for ice skating.
  • The phrase “leave no stone unturned” originated from the Oracle of Delphi, advising on finding a hidden treasure.

Cold Facts: Canada’s Coldest Capital and Household Products

  • Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, is Canada’s coldest capital and the diamond capital of North America, with three diamond mines producing significant value.
  • A household kitchen product that can melt pearls is vinegar, due to its acidic content reacting with the calcium carbonate in pearls.
  • International Falls, Minnesota, is nicknamed the “Ice Box of the Nation” and holds the record low temperature of minus 55 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • The phrase “leave no stone unturned” dates back to 400 BC, originating from the Oracle of Delphi.
  • Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, had to borrow a horse to ride to a telephone after landing off-course in 1961.

Desserts and Historical Quotes

  • France is credited with popularizing the custom of having desserts after a meal, starting with delicate candied fruits and nuts in 1539.
  • George Santayana’s quote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” is discussed, along with quotes from Robert Heinlein and Abraham Lincoln.
  • The show encourages listeners to send in their thoughts or questions, with the possibility of receiving a pen as a thank you.
  • The episode concludes with a reminder to join them again for more fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia.

Marcia Smith 0:00
What us landmark is bigger than Rhode Island. Hmm, and what

Bob Smith 0:06
did the world’s oldest bird do recently? You won’t believe it the oldest bird answers to those and other questions coming up in this episode of the off ramp with Bob and

Marcia Smith 0:16
Marcia Smith. You

Bob Smith 0:33
Music. 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, the world’s oldest bird, recently did something unusual. A number of shows ago, we did a story on wisdom. Do you remember wisdom, the world’s oldest known wild bird? Wisdom is an albatross. Oh, no, I don’t remember. And we know wisdom is old because she was first banded by the US Fish and Wildlife Service on Midway Atoll in 1956 the service has been tracking her since the Eisenhower administration. No kidding, she’s been returning to that atoll annually to nest and layer eggs. First of all, how big are albatrosses? They’re pretty darn big. I know their eggs are huge. They’re among the world’s largest birds. Yeah, sea birds with wingspans of eight to 11 feet. Where did you say she lives Midway Island? She doesn’t live there. Where is she doesn’t live in one place? Those birds, don’t they glide and fly all the time. Okay? They can fly up to 10,000 miles in a single trip and circumnavigate the earth in 46 days. Wow. They can go for years without touching land, no landing on the water to feed, and then taking off again. Well, this is amazing. It is. They usually have lifespans of 50 years, and the Midway Atoll is perfect for them. That’s where that big battle was during World War Two, one of the biggest sea battles. It’s 1200 miles from the nearest people in Hawaii, and that’s perfect for the albatross to mate and nest. Wisdom has laid 50 to 60 eggs in her lifetime, and in 2023 she was spotted on the beach with one of her grandchildren. They know that because all those birds have been banded and they contract them. Yeah. So what did the world’s oldest bird do recently,

Marcia Smith 2:22
she moved into a senior living community. She

Bob Smith 2:24
laid an egg at age 74

Marcia Smith 2:27
Wow. Really, wow. Truly. She laid

Bob Smith 2:31
an egg on November 27 2024 she is unique. Said Dr Jonathan klisner, a supervisory wildlife biologist at Midway he says we don’t know of any other birds close to her age. She was born a few years after World War Two, and she’s she’s

Marcia Smith 2:48
still fooling around, still fooling around. Wow. She

Bob Smith 2:51
even outlived the ornithologist who banded her in 1956

Marcia Smith 2:56
he died in 2017 that’s why she’s living so long. Well,

Bob Smith 3:00
here’s why she’s living so long. She’s on her third lifetime mate. The albatross is mate for life, and researchers believe she’s outlived three partners. She’s hatched and raised chicks with an albatross named Akiha Kamani for decades, but he’s not been seen lately. So she began interacting with a new mate after she arrived at Midway in November, and she laid an egg the day after she arrived, November 27 researchers outfitted her new mate with a tracking band. He stayed on to incubate the egg. What’d

Marcia Smith 3:30
she go running. She headed back to sea. She just was trolloping around, huh? Little Dickens. So

Bob Smith 3:36
she’s back out to sea. Now, is that amazing? And how many miles you think she’s flown? They have an estimate

Marcia Smith 3:41
altogether in her life. Okay, what based on her being

Bob Smith 3:45
age 74 Yeah, she’s flown nearly 3.7 million

Marcia Smith 3:50
miles. Holy co mole in her life. Wow. That’s

Bob Smith 3:54
what the world’s oldest bird recently did. Wisdom. I thought that was a nice name they gave her. Wow.

Marcia Smith 3:59
Okay, well, moving on, Bob, what US landmark is actually bigger than Rhode Island.

Bob Smith 4:06
Bigger than Rhode Island? Is this a physical landmark somewhere, a building? No, it’s a well, what would it be if it’s bigger than Rhode Island, an island itself? No,

Marcia Smith 4:15
can you give me any kind of natural? You’ve been there a natural I’ve been there a natural landmark, okay, could

Bob Smith 4:24
it be something, something like Yellowstone National Park or the Grand Canyon? There you go. Oh, really, it’s bigger than Rhode Island. Yeah,

Marcia Smith 4:33
you know, Rhode Island is only 48 miles long and 37 miles wide. Oh, my goodness, did you know that? No, I did. I didn’t know that. And I’ve got people from there. I got people. The mile deep gorge is the centerpiece of such an expansive view that it’s too big to be seen all at once. It’s 277 miles long, as long, yeah, and up to 18 miles wide. It’s so large it creates its own. Weather. Well, it makes sense. In fact, getting a view from its two most popular rims, you know, also known as the top, yeah, requires nearly five hours of travel time from one to the other. Yeah. Anyway, here’s some factoids about the good old Grand Canyon, okay, estimated number of caves. How many you think number

Bob Smith 5:20
of caves, yeah, okay. There’s got to be a lot in those sides of those canyons. I would imagine, I don’t know, 201,000

Marcia Smith 5:29
jeez. There are five species of rattlesnakes found in the canyon. And how many visitors you think go?

Bob Smith 5:36
I would imagine, it’s in the millions, isn’t it? They go every year. Yeah, okay, 4.7 million visitors now, what they have now, since we were there is that Glass platform you can walk out on, like an infinity thing. You can look down, oh, my god, like that. I wouldn’t do

Marcia Smith 5:51
it. Would not like that at all. Okay, good to

Bob Smith 5:54
know. You know Marcia. The last show we did was polar vortex trivia. Remember, I had all the Yes, cold facts. Indeed you did. I found some more cold facts that I didn’t use.

Unknown Speaker 6:03
Lord

Bob Smith 6:04
Bob, so here’s a good question for you. Where is the world’s coldest permanently inhabited city? The coldest permanently inhabited you’re not

Marcia Smith 6:13
giving me any choices. There are 500 people. Mm, hmm. Is it in Antarctica?

Bob Smith 6:17
No, no. It’s not in Antarctica. It’s in another country, Russia. Yes, that’s it. Yeah, it’s called Oymyakon, o m, y, a, a, k o n. It qualifies as the coldest, permanently inhabited place on place on Earth, place on Earth, place on Earth. According to the Guinness Book of World Records its daily mean temperature is 51 degrees below 00. Lord, that’s the mean temperature. And in 1933 they registered a temperature reading of 90 degrees below 00. My Fahrenheit. Russia is also home to the largest city north of the Arctic Circle. How many people do you think live in this largest city north of the Arctic Circle? 72 No, no, it’s the largest city. It’s Murmansk.

Marcia Smith 7:04
They have 300,000 people living there. Well, that’s that’s big,

Bob Smith 7:07
yeah, inside the Arctic Circle, the average low during the coldest part of the year is seven degrees Fahrenheit. So it’s a little more moderate, thanks to the relatively warmer sea currents. Their Bay doesn’t freeze. They have sea ports that are open year round. What is the name of it again? Murmansk, M, u, r, M, a, n, s, k, okay. Just

Marcia Smith 7:24
gonna go do a little travel planning. Oh, no, I don’t want to

Bob Smith 7:28
go Arctic Circle. Just saying, well, what’s the city we have that is the highest in the Arctic Circle in in America? Yeah, the United States, we have a city located above the Arctic Circle in

Marcia Smith 7:40
Alaska, yes. What’s the highest one there? I don’t know. It starts with A, B, Burbank. Burbank. That’s California. It’s

Bob Smith 7:49
Barrow, Alaska. It’s located 320, miles above the Arctic Circle. You’ve probably heard of it. Okay, the sun fails to climb above the horizon for 65 days a year. Well, if you want to live in the dark there, the icy coastline is receding at rates of 30 to 65 feet per year. So it’s getting bigger, cities getting farther and farther away from the

Marcia Smith 8:11
sea. Oh, my Lord, okay, all right. Bob, the US VB, 76 transmitter has been broadcasting almost continuously, Bob for over 40 years, 40 years, and has been fascinating. Why? What is it? What is this thing? Okay,

Bob Smith 8:27
is it broadcasting from the moon? No, is it Broadcasting from One of

Marcia Smith 8:32
the poles? They don’t know where it’s broadcasting. Oh, you’re kidding. No.

Bob Smith 8:36
So this is a transmitter that’s transmitting, what noise, sound, tones, a

Marcia Smith 8:40
bunch of stuff. They nicknamed it the buzzer, and it broadcasts a buzzing sound 25 times per minute, wow, every minute of every hour of every day. It used to be a beep, but that changed in the 1990s on the hour, there is a double buzz. And every few weeks, get this, a male voice comes on reciting a short refrain of numbers and Russian names, oh, really, all transmitted on an am frequency of 4625 kilohertz. Wonder why it’s doing this. There are background noises and unintelligible conversation, suggesting maybe somebody left an open mic on somewhere, okay, for 40 years. Okay, that’s interesting. Russia claims to know nothing about it. Of course, we don’t know, yeah, they say we don’t know what you’re talking about. So nobody knows what this is about. But theories abound, including my personal favorite, which is this station is sending encrypted messages to spies in possession of a key code. That’s the one to me that seems the most you know, plausible and intriguing. Don’t you think? What a weird thing? Yeah, it just is non stop for over 40 years.

Bob Smith 9:59
So it’s been going. Since the probably 1982

Marcia Smith 10:01
cheese. Yeah, it’s just and it’s always consistent. The buzz is every so many seconds, and on the hour is the double thing. And it used to be a beep, then it became a buzz, and then the Russians talk a little bit. It’s

Bob Smith 10:15
like somebody just left something on in a building, yeah? But the consistency of the

Marcia Smith 10:20
guy, yeah, that’s too weird. That’s so weird. Okay, interesting

Bob Smith 10:23
communication. Information. Marcia, thank you. You’re welcome here. Speaking of communication. What happens when humans and dogs look each other in the eye? What happens when humans and dogs look each other in the eye? We fall

Marcia Smith 10:39
in love, kind of we bond, according

Bob Smith 10:42
to The New York Times, each species produces oxytocin, the same hormone that bonds mothers to their children. So when a dog looks at you and you look at a dog, you’re both generating this oxytocin. Actually, I went online and found data published on the National Library of Medicine’s website, it says having pets while working from home can enhance the experience because their presence increases humans oxytocin concentrations and reduces heart rate and blood pressure and between human beings cuddling, holding hands and gentle massages with a partner, release oxytocin and foster closeness, reduce stress and enhances well being. It’s known as the love hormone, and it’s happening between dogs and people.

Marcia Smith 11:27
Well, good to know, and maybe it even happens between us once in a while, Bob,

Bob Smith 11:35
at least you could give some energy to it.

Marcia Smith 11:38
Yeah, you’re right. Okay, to appease superstitious guests. Many US buildings, as you know, skip the 13th floor, right, right. And some Asian countries skip the fourth floor. But what floor do you think they skip in Italy? And why? I’ll give you choices. Okay, is it 17 413, or nine they skip this floor entirely in Italy, 17, 413, or nine. It’s, you know, in some building. So it’s not 13, no, okay,

Bob Smith 12:07
so it’s seven, four or nine. I’ll say 917. Four or nine. I’ll say 17. That’s it.

Marcia Smith 12:15
It is. And why? You don’t know why. Well, this, this is so random, weird. 17 is considered bad luck, because when it’s written in Roman numerals, X, v1, one, it can be rearranged to spell V, i, x, I in Latin Vixie, which translates to I have lived. It’s a play on words, essentially with Roman numerals, and it’s an ominous sign that says you’re about to die.

Bob Smith 12:43
Oh, okay, because I thought I have lived. Doesn’t sound but in

Marcia Smith 12:46
Italy, it’s saying you’re about to head out the big door. The big

Bob Smith 12:51
door. Yes, wow, I have lived, yes. So they get rid of that floor, yeah, because you write it in Roman numerals and Latin it

Marcia Smith 12:58
if you change the letters around that is so random, that is very random. So what is 13 all about? I don’t know. You know what that’s about? No, I don’t know why it’s an unlucky number. No, why? Oh, it goes back to the last supper and Judas and the 13th guy at the dinner. Oh, I see, okay, the 13th person, yeah. So it’s bad, Lucky. Brings on. I

Bob Smith 13:20
didn’t know that’s where it came from. I thought it went back to ancient times.

Marcia Smith 13:23
Oh no, it just goes before that. Christ time. Okay, all right. Marcia,

Bob Smith 13:27
what famous explorer reported seeing mermaids in the new world?

Marcia Smith 13:32
A famous explorer was it was it was it Columbus? Yes,

Bob Smith 13:36
it was. And he wasn’t thrilled either. He sighted them off the coast of what is now the Dominican Republic, and he complained they were, quote, not half as beautiful as they are painted in pictures. What? That makes sense, because he wasn’t seeing mermaids. What was he seeing manatees, large aquatic mammals that graze on plants in shallow waters off the Caribbean.

Marcia Smith 13:59
Chris, Christopher, uh, confused those with women. I

Bob Smith 14:02
know. Okay, they look like small whales. To me. They’re not. And, you know, they’re not half as pretty as mermaids looking paintings, that’s for sure. No

Marcia Smith 14:09
wonder he spent long time at sea by himself. That’s the problem.

Bob Smith 14:12
You’re spending that much time at sea. You Those look like mermaids to be over there. No, no, those are manatees. That’s funny, Admiral.

Marcia Smith 14:20
This is a short one. Okay, Tim Bucha was a major trading hub along the famous Silk Road, which was located in which country was it China, Mali, India or Mongolia? I think it’s Mongolia. No. China, no.

Bob Smith 14:36
I thought it was first. I thought it was Africa. So, all right, what were the choices again,

Marcia Smith 14:39
China, Mali, India or Mongolia, okay,

Bob Smith 14:43
Mali is the answer, Yes, correct. That is in Western Africa. That’s a long way from China. That’s amazing, yeah, isn’t it? I guess it was considered an intellectual and spiritual capital of Islam,

Marcia Smith 14:56
and you never think of Timbuktu as. Being in Africa. I

Bob Smith 15:01
always thought it was in Africa, but, yeah, I thought it was in eastern Africa, but apparently it’s in the Western African country of Mali. Wow, across the Sahara Desert. Okay, the caravan route. That’s fascinating. Yeah, do you know where? This is another cold fact, Marcia, where is the world’s largest natural skating rink. Now this is a huge

Marcia Smith 15:24
lake, Greenland. No, okay, a

Bob Smith 15:27
huge lake which forms a huge skating rink each winter. Then the hint is It’s the deepest lake on

Marcia Smith 15:34
Earth. It’s not in the US, no, because I know what that is, Crater Lake. Yes, no, it’s not that. Then I don’t know.

Bob Smith 15:42
It’s Lake Baikal, which is in Russia. It’s the world’s deepest lake. Reaches a maximum depth of 5000 feet. 5387

Marcia Smith 15:51
feet. People I skate there.

Bob Smith 15:53
Yeah, yeah. So it’s a mile deep from January through March of each year, it’s completely frozen over, forming the world’s largest natural skating brick,

Marcia Smith 16:01
but not good for ice fishing. No. Drill down that thing ice skating, but not ice fishing. Yeah. Oh my. Okay. You want to do AKA, before we take a break, I think we should take a break, and then I’ll come back and do AKA,

Bob Smith 16:15
okay, okay. AKA, aka, okay, all right, let’s take a break. We’ll be back in just a moment. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith,

Marcia Smith 16:25
we’re back, indeed, with more trivia. I have more cold facts, but I’m almost done with those. Marcia, okay, thank you. And you have something called AKA, which is also known as that’s our fun game. And this is something neither one of us watch, but you should know all these answers. Okay, soap operas is the category. So if I say generic infirmary, what soap opera am I talking about? General

Bob Smith 16:51
Hospital. I remember that one. Yeah. How about the youthful and the

Marcia Smith 16:55
sleepless? The Young

Bob Smith 16:57
and the Restless? That’s correct. Well, I do know some of

Marcia Smith 17:01
these. Yeah, I know. I told you you watched them in years. Did you watch? I

Bob Smith 17:05
remember watching him when I was home with you for, I don’t know, a short period of time when you were pregnant. The first time we were watching, I think it was General Hospital under one of those. And they were playing stings every breath you take, because this guy was stalking a girl. That’s what I remember.

Marcia Smith 17:19
Well, this is the rebirth you take over this one I’m about to give you. This is one that I started watching because of the sports writers at my newspaper all watched it at lunchtime, and I got hooked on it. So stupid, I said, What do you all you sports guys, watch it. Come here. Come here. Look at Sam. All right. What was it? My sons and daughters,

Bob Smith 17:39
my sons and daughters, all my children. That’s it very good.

Marcia Smith 17:43
This is good. The brazen and the attractive,

Bob Smith 17:47
the brazen and the attractive, the Bold and the Beautiful. Yes,

Marcia Smith 17:51
your birth, my wedding, June 12.

Bob Smith 17:54
What? Yeah, my birth, your wedding, June 12. Yeah. There’s

Marcia Smith 17:59
just three random what? These are the days of our lives, right? That’s the one my mother would watch every day. These are the days of our lives, how I learned about sex. But anyway, during, here’s one. What soap opera is this during Earth’s rotation,

Bob Smith 18:19
during Earth’s rotation, As the World Turns. Hey, you know, these are all recessed from when you’re a kid. Yeah,

Marcia Smith 18:27
they’re all in your brain. And the last one, this is good. No reincarnation. No

Bob Smith 18:33
reincarnation, right? No reincarnation. That one, I don’t know

Marcia Smith 18:39
one life to live. Oh,

Bob Smith 18:42
that’s pretty good. Yeah. You know, those are all interesting phrases, right? As the World Turns, yes, one life to live young.

Marcia Smith 18:48
That’s what we have here at this house. Yeah, the Bold and

Bob Smith 18:52
the Beautiful. No, it’s the old and the beautiful. Are they young and the rest? I’m the old one. You’re the beautiful

Speaker 1 18:56
one. Oh, let’s go with them. Okay? Marcia, darling,

Bob Smith 18:59
Canada’s coldest capital is North America’s top spot for what industry now, the name of the coldest capital in Canada is Yellow Knife in the Northwest Territories. Okay, it’s also known as the blank capital of North America. Is it rock, salt, coal, diamonds or Bitcoin?

Marcia Smith 19:20
Wow, really. Well, that’s a curious selection. Let me guess. Let me guess. Say them again.

Bob Smith 19:26
Is it rock salt, coal, diamonds or Bitcoin? I’ll say rock salt. I would have said that too, yeah, but it’s actually the diamond capital of North America. No kidding, yeah. Three diamond mines in the Yellow Knife area have produced enough value to place Canada third in the worldwide rankings of diamond production in 2010 a 78 carat diamond. Oh, my word was unearthed in Yellow Knife, holy commodity, and it’s a cold place to be, so at least you get something out of it.

Marcia Smith 19:57
Wow, man, I can’t hold your finger. Rub together that on your hand. Okay. Bob, ready. This is interesting. Okay, what household kitchen product can melt pearls?

Bob Smith 20:10
Can melt your pearls? Okay, I know what this is. This is vinegar. That’s right, yeah. I

Marcia Smith 20:15
didn’t know that pearls can be melted or dissolved by vinegar, due to the acidic acid in it, which reacts with the calcium carbonate that makes up the majority of pearls composition. The vinegar essentially breaks down the pearl structure, causing it to dissolve. I want to

Bob Smith 20:33
No, don’t do that to any of your jewelry. Don’t put any vinegar and pearls next to one another. Okay, good plan. Okay, I’m going to talk the ice box of the nation. This is my last cold question for the season. Okay, all right, which US city is nicknamed the ice box of the nation? Is it West Yellowstone, Montana, Green Bay, Wisconsin, Bismarck, North Dakota, or International Falls, Minnesota,

Marcia Smith 21:01
I will say international fall, that’s right. Thank you. It’s

Bob Smith 21:07
located on the Canadian border city of International Falls, Minnesota. It trademarked the title Ice Box of the nation in 2008 not a great postcard, even though two other US cities unofficially claim the nickname International Falls has a record low of minus 55 degrees Fahrenheit, and its average January temperature is just 4.4 degrees Fahrenheit. No kidding. So it’s proud of being the ice boss.

Marcia Smith 21:30
Oh, my Lord of the nation. Okay, all right, Bob, where does the phrase leave no stone unturned? Come from? Well, that’s a

Bob Smith 21:40
good one. Leave no stone unturned. That’s always what they tell you. When you have to search for something,

Marcia Smith 21:45
it goes back to 400 BC, oh, really, I didn’t

Bob Smith 21:49
know it went back that far. Either is this something like Aristotle or somebody said no,

Marcia Smith 21:54
the Oracle of Delphi. Oh, no kidding. Who, by the way, was a real person. Oh, I didn’t know that she had acquired great wisdom, supposedly through her communication with the gods, and she was asked how to find a general’s hidden treasure. Okay? She advised that the only way was to leave no stone unturned. And believe it or not, that phrase has been with us ever since.

Bob Smith 22:18
That’s amazing, that that would be the thing that lived through history. No kidding,

Marcia Smith 22:23
weird. Leave no stone unturned, and that was the Oracle talking. So it must have been wise. All

Bob Smith 22:27
right, Marsha, I have a follow up to a story we told recently. Okay, remember we discussed Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. Yes, he was the Russian cosmonaut who was the first man in space. And when he came back, his spacecraft landed off course, and he had to parachute into rural Russia. Peasants who saw him in his uniform and his helmet were frightened. They thought he was an alien. That’s not the full story. All right, according to britannica.com he landed in a potato field, and yes, a woman and her granddaughter who were planting when he landed, they thought he was a spy or an alien. But here’s the fact we didn’t know before, after convincing them he was a fellow Russian, he had to borrow a horse to ride to the nearest telephone to call authorities to come get him. What year was this? This is 1961 wow. So here he was the first man in space. He rode a powerful rocket to the stars, but when he came back, he had resort to horsepower to get to

Marcia Smith 23:22
a telephone to get a ride. Well, that’s serendipity, isn’t it, still

Bob Smith 23:26
he did it, and that was on April 12, 1961 here’s a little COVID added to that two years later, the Russians launched the first woman in space, Valentina trescova. She was in orbit for three days from June 16 to 19th. 1963 completed 48 orbits in 71 hours on her own. And at the same time, there was a male colleague orbiting in another spacecraft. But so they had a lot going on. They had a lot. And Valentin trescoba, the first woman in space, also turned out to be a good communist too, because in 2020 as a senior member of the Russian Parliament when she was 81 she is the person who introduced the constitutional amendment that removed term limits from President Vladimir Putin.

Marcia Smith 24:10
Well, see how that turned out. Yes. Yes. All right, Bob, what country made today’s custom of having desserts after a meal popular? What

Bob Smith 24:21
country did that you have to blame some country for the thing that makes you fat and happy and happy? Would that be? Would it be Italy? Because they got into ice cream? Yeah, good. Guess. No, okay. Is it China? Because, because why? I don’t know. No, because it’s China? No, it is not okay. Is it in another part of the world, other than China? It’s

Marcia Smith 24:45
not near China. Not near China. Is it Egypt? No, okay. Where is it? When you think about it, it should be your first guess, France, of course, it started with the world’s original foodies, in my opinion. No, they are the. Original foodies, yeah, they started to write about it as a thing in 1539 and they suggested, initially, delicate candied fruits and nuts people could snack on after a grand meal. And they went on, of course, to be the best pastry chefs in the world, to say the least, yes. So the others went crazy on it, yeah, but desserts picked up were very popular before. There were always sweets, but never part of the process of dinner. I didn’t know

Bob Smith 25:27
that. I thought it would have gone back before then. I thought that would have been much more in ancient times, you

Marcia Smith 25:31
know, yeah, well, 1500 is pretty well. It’s not that long. 1591

Bob Smith 25:35
is that what you said? Yeah. 1539

Marcia Smith 25:37
1539 that’s when they started to write about it. They might have been doing it for years.

Bob Smith 25:44
We have this thing called Z is there? Yes,

Marcia Smith 25:45
some fruit nuts. And yes, fruit and nuts for dessert, though, oh yeah, that’s good look at when we were in France, they have cheese they give you for dessert, which we don’t do here. Yeah, it’s just a big slab of chocolate cake.

Bob Smith 26:02
Very delicate. You got some thought for the

Marcia Smith 26:03
day? I do. We’re talking history. Bob, okay. And here’s a quote, a famous quote from George Santayana. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Oh, that’s

Bob Smith 26:15
a famous one, yeah, if you don’t know about the past, yeah, you’re gonna make it happen again. And

Marcia Smith 26:19
Robert Heinlein, he said a generation which ignores history has no past and no future. And one more from good old Abe Lincoln, the problem with quotes found on the internet is that they are often not true. Did Abe really say that maybe a far

Bob Smith 26:41
did they fit? Into the future? Oh, that’s funny. I love that. Oh, gosh, if you’d like to send us your thoughts or maybe an interesting question, you’d like one of us to ask the other person, we’d really like that you can do so by going to our website, the offramp dot show, and going into the menu and finding the contact us page and filling out the form and sending it on. We would love to do that. We’ll give you credit for what you contribute to and maybe

Marcia Smith 27:07
even a pen. Maybe even a pen. What is that called? Swag? Swag? You’ve got swag, not a whole lot. No, we’ve got some. All right, nice pen, though it is a nice pen. Okay, thank you for joining us. I’m Bob Smith. I’m Marcia Smith.

Bob Smith 27:21
Join us again next time when we return with more fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia here on the off ramp.

The off ramp has produced an association with the Cedarburg Public Library. Cedarburg, Wisconsin, visit us on the web at the offramp, dot show at.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai