Bob and Marcia Smith discuss the introduction of the 24-second shot clock in NBA basketball in the 1950s, which transformed the game from a slow, low-scoring sport to a fast-paced one. They also reveal that author Robert Galbraith is a pen name for JK Rowling. The conversation shifts to the high cost and rarity of Super Bowl footage, with the first Super Bowl in 1967 costing $11-$12 per ticket. They explore the complex construction of brasseries and the origin of the phrase “pop the question.” Additionally, they touch on the challenges of long-distance space travel to Mars, the history of language systems, and the evolution of taxi colors in New York City.
Outline
NBA’s Shot Clock Revolution
- Bob Smith discusses how NBA basketball in the mid-1950s was a low-scoring, boring sport.
- Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss the introduction of the 24-second shot clock, which changed the game.
- Bob Smith explains that before the shot clock, teams could hold onto the ball as long as they wanted without shooting.
- The shot clock was introduced to prevent slow, stop-and-start games and to increase excitement.
- The first game with the new shot clock was on October 30, 1954, when the Rochester Royals defeated the Boston Celtics 98-95.
Robert Galbraith’s Identity
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the identity of author Robert Galbraith.
- Bob Smith initially thinks Robert Galbraith is a real name but is corrected by Marcia Smith.
- Marcia Smith reveals that Robert Galbraith is actually a pen name for JK Rowling.
- JK Rowling wrote crime novels under the name Robert Galbraith to avoid being judged based on her previous success with Harry Potter.
- Rowling has been writing under the pen name since 2013.
Super Bowl Ticket Prices and Recordings
- Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss the high cost of Super Bowl tickets and the lack of recordings from early games.
- Bob Smith mentions that the first Super Bowl game in 1967 was not sold out, and tickets cost $11 to $12.
- The first Super Bowl game was between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs, with the Packers winning 35-10.
- Bob Smith notes that the first known recording of the first Super Bowl broadcast was done by a fan, not the NFL.
- The NFL owns the rights to the tape but has not bought it from the owner.
Flags and Clothing Complexity
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the most uncommon color in national flags, which is purple.
- The Dominican Republic’s flag features the purple plume Cicero parrot, an endangered bird.
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the most complicated modern clothing item, which is a brassiere.
- The construction of a brassiere requires 30 to 40 separately sourced pieces.
Proposing and Space Travel
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the origin of the phrase “pop the question.”
- Bob Smith explains that the phrase dates back to 1573 and was used metaphorically by an English poet.
- The phrase took on a romantic meaning for proposing by the 19th century.
- Bob Smith discusses the challenges of long-distance human space travel to Mars, including orbital geometries and radiation hazards.
- The closest Earth will be to Mars in 2033, and it takes three years to get there and back.
Early Language Systems
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the first civilizations to develop complex language systems.
- Bob Smith mentions the Sumerians, who developed cuneiform, the world’s oldest known writing system.
- The Egyptians used hieroglyphics, and the Akkadians spoke the extinct language of the Babylonians and Assyrians.
- These early languages were considered a mark of sophistication.
Technological Milestones
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the first commercial screening of sound on film, which was in 1923.
- The technology combined Thomas Edison’s kinetophone with the gramophone.
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the American company that started as Sound of Music.
- The company was rebranded as Best Buy in 1983, originally founded by Richard Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966.
Lucy’s Grape Stomping Scene
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about an incident in the famous grape stomping scene from I Love Lucy.
- Bob Smith reveals that Lucille Ball almost drowned during the scene due to a misunderstanding with the Italian actress.
- The actress thought they were supposed to fight, leading to a dangerous situation for Ball.
Famous Sandwich and Park Animal
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the food named after an aristocrat who liked to gamble.
- Marcia Smith identifies the Earl of Sandwich, John Montague, as the person behind the sandwich.
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the animal that injures more people in Yellowstone National Park.
- Marcia Smith reveals that bison have injured more people than any other animal in the park.
Peanut Butter Inventor
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the inventor of modern peanut butter.
- Marcia Smith initially thinks George Washington Carver but is corrected by Bob Smith.
- Bob Smith reveals that Dr. John Harvey Kellogg patented the process for creating peanut butter from raw peanuts.
- The National Peanut Board confirms Kellogg’s invention.
New York City Taxi Colors
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the color of taxis in New York City before they were yellow.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the history of taxi colors, including red and green, and the eventual standardization to yellow.
- By 1970, licensed cabs in New York had to be painted yellow to distinguish them as permitted cabs.
Bob Smith 0:00
By the mid 1950s NBA basketball had become a boring low scoring sport. What rule change led to the fast paced high scoring games we love today?
Marcia Smith 0:11
And who is author, Robert Galbraith? Robert Galbraith,
Bob Smith 0:15
yeah, hmm, answers to those and other questions coming up in this episode of the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith.
Welcome to the off ramp, a chance to slow down, steer clear of crazy and take a side road to sanity with fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia. Well, Marcia basketball, hard to believe, was once kind of a boring game in the early 1950s late 1940s.
Marcia Smith 0:56
Really.
Bob Smith 0:59
What was the rule change that led to the fast paced, high scoring games we love today. Hmm, a rule change will change, just like there was a rule change in baseball. Reason,
Marcia Smith 1:09
Oh, thank god, yes, they shortened the time. Hmm, is that what they did in basketball? Yeah.
Bob Smith 1:14
How the 24 second shot clock? The clock that runs after you get possession of the ball, gives you 24 seconds you have to shoot the ball at some point before 24 seconds end, they always had that no, no. Before that, the original rules allowed the team with the possession of the ball to maintain it as long as they wanted to. They didn’t have to shoot, oh, that’s a snoozer. That’s what happened back in the 1950s some of the pro teams started adopting this new breed of basketball because there were great players coming up, and they thought we got to keep that ball away from that guy. So it was a game of keep away. And then, of course, what happened was the opposing team would foul to get the ball, and then that would stop the game. So the games became these really slow, stop, start things. If you look at some of the old newsreels, you could see people were reading newspapers and walking out of NBA games before they’re done. Oh my god. So the NBA, some of the people in the NBA thought we got to do something about this. And one of them was the owner of the NBA Syracuse Nationals team. His name was Danny Baez, own, and he and his coaches came up with the idea of a shot clock, another clock that would run, and it would count down, and everybody would be able to see this thing, coaches, the fans, you’d put pressure on everybody.
Marcia Smith 2:25
You get the excitement going. Then that’s right. How’d they come up with 24 seconds?
Bob Smith 2:30
Aha, it’s interesting, because it’s a very simple formula. A game is 48 minutes. Yeah, that’s 2880 seconds. Teams in the NBA were averaging 60 shots per game, times two teams, 120 shots per game. So they just divided the 2880 seconds by 120 got 24 seconds. There you go. They thought, that’s good, that’ll keep the game interesting. And it did, and it still does, but it took a while. It took three years to convince the league, really, but the first game after that. Fantastic. I
Marcia Smith 3:02
think the first time you see one of your fans in the stands reading the paper is a sign something is wrong.
Bob Smith 3:07
Yeah, all the games have gone down to one game that was only 19 to 18 was the win. Wow, for a whole game in basketball, that’s
Marcia Smith 3:15
nothing. So now they’re like 100 to something. The very first game
Bob Smith 3:18
on the new technology, October 30, 1954 the Rochester Royals defeated the Boston Celtics. 98 to 95 big difference. So that began modern basketball, and the big scores we have today. Well, that’s the 24 second clock, okay? And that clock is in a museum now, and we’ll have to go right. That’s at the Noreen real Falcone library at Moines College in Syracuse, New York, the city where it all began. That’s my brief history of the shot clock. All right,
Marcia Smith 3:47
so Bob, who is author Robert Galbraith,
Bob Smith 3:52
Well, isn’t that his real name? No, oh, Robert Galbraith is not his real name. No, oh, I thought you were telling me the real name was Robert Galbraith. No, okay, so that’s a pen name for somebody, correct?
Marcia Smith 4:02
And who is it? It’s a very well known person, a writer,
Bob Smith 4:05
professional writer. Yes, okay. What kind of things does he write? Does he write mysteries? Does he write, you know, fiction, non fiction,
Marcia Smith 4:13
the person writes crime novels today. Okay, it’s a person. It’s not a he, so it’s a woman who’s writing, that’s right, so very famous woman. Who is it? It’s JK Rowling. I was
Bob Smith 4:25
wondering if it was JK Rowling. She wrote Harry Potter and all that. Yes. Now she writes crime as this man’s name. Yes.
Marcia Smith 4:32
She had, you know, crazy success, as everyone knows, with the Harry Potter series. And she was worried she couldn’t be taken seriously writing crime novels okay with a natural audience that she would get without any pressure, expectation or hype. So her own editor read and enjoyed one of her first efforts, called CUCKOO’S CALLING, and she had no idea. JK Rowling was Robert Galbraith,
Bob Smith 4:58
well, that tells you if she can. Different styles, yes, yes. She
Marcia Smith 5:01
was absolutely sure it was a guy. She couldn’t the editor you, yeah, okay. She had no idea that it was JK. And
Bob Smith 5:08
how long has JK? Rowling been writing by this pen, since 2013 Yeah. All right. Marcia, why is it hard to find footage from Super Bowl?
Marcia Smith 5:15
One my beloved Green Bay Packers are in that that’s the ice
Bob Smith 5:19
bowl game, right? January 15, 1967
Marcia Smith 5:24
was that the first or second the ice bowl
Bob Smith 5:26
the January 15, 1967 game, well, I don’t know. Was the
Marcia Smith 5:30
film destroyed? They didn’t have it on backup, or nobody could record it. The NFL
Bob Smith 5:35
did not save it. They did not say that’s real far
Marcia Smith 5:39
sighted, isn’t it? In fact, there’s
Bob Smith 5:41
only one known recording of the first Super Bowl broadcast, and it was done by a fan. The owner of the tape, whose father recorded the game off of television, is prevented from selling it to anyone except the NFL, because they legally own the tapes content. But apparently they’re not interested in buying the tape. Why not? I don’t know that’s from britannica.com What a weird fact. Yeah, so it remains in private hands, but it can’t be sold. You think the
Marcia Smith 6:07
Packers would have something? I would think so somebody was busy recording it or something. Gosh, I can’t believe that. You think one of the team members, anything
Bob Smith 6:15
you’ve ever seen has been essentially bootlegged, you know, from that game, I’ll be darned. What do you think the tickets were for that first
Marcia Smith 6:22
oh, gosh, I’ve actually seen it. I can’t remember. I don’t know. People were outraged
Bob Smith 6:25
at the high cost of the tickets for this football game. $11 $12 you’re right. It was expensive. It was the only Super Bowl in history that didn’t sell out too really. Yeah, the attendance was 61,000 but there were 100,594 seats available.
Marcia Smith 6:44
The Packers get that in pre games now at their in their own state. Isn’t that interesting? Yeah.
Bob Smith 6:49
And who did they beat? They beat the Kansas City Chiefs. 35 to 10. Wow. And it was broadcast simultaneously by more than one network. The game was several, several networks, 51 point 1 million viewers, and nobody saved the tape.
Marcia Smith 7:06
So the Chiefs got to be proud. They were in the first Super Bowl,
Bob Smith 7:09
Super Bowl too. They realized we spent a lot of money on this game. We should raise prices. So they again charged $12 for the game. But that time it was a sell out. Okay? They played. They played at the Miami Orange Bowl the second game, and they beat the Oakland razors. Okay, 33 to 14 again, the Packers winning the first time the ticket prices peaked at $100 was in 1988 Super Bowl. 22 they’d never be less than that. Any
Marcia Smith 7:36
idea what they cost today? No. Well, the cheapest seats, regular ticket price, not scalping. 2900 that’s amazing. The first row baby. $25,000
Bob Smith 7:47
Lord Almighty, that’s a long way from $12
Marcia Smith 7:50
that’s inflation. Are we that personified? Personified talking
Bob Smith 7:55
to your dad when you were a kid, he’d say, yeah, a loaf of bread cost a nickel. And you say, how
Marcia Smith 7:59
could it cost so little? Yeah, yeah. That’s just crazy. I mean, $12 in our lifetime, 25,000 $5,000 yeah. So you don’t see your average Joe going to the game. It’s all special people, really special people. Very rich people. Bob in all the flags of the world, red, white and blue are the three most common colors. But what Bob, what is the most uncommon color use? In fact, it’s only in one country’s flag. What color is it the
Bob Smith 8:31
most uncommon color for a flag? Are we watching Sheldon Cooper’s
Unknown Speaker 8:36
fun with flags? Yeah, from the
Bob Smith 8:38
Big Bang. Remember he used to do that show. It was so funny. It was very funny. Gee, I don’t know what it would be. Is it a combination color, like a turquoise or something like that? No, no, no, it’s not black. Is it? No, it’s not white. No, because white is used in a lot of Yeah. Okay, what is it? It’s purple. That’s the most uncommon color in the flag. Yep, it’s the
Marcia Smith 8:57
rarest color on a national flag. And you’ll see it only on the flag of the Caribbean island nation of Dominican. The flag features the country’s national bird, the purple plume Cicero parrot, also known as Amazon Imperialis. Wow, that’s strange. Yes, this endangered bird is one of the oldest Amazon parrot species and the world and can be found only in the remote forests of Dominica, geez.
Bob Smith 9:24
So it’s a very unique thing to put on their flag, the color and the bird itself, yeah. All right, Marcia, I’ve got a question for you about clothing, okay, just kind of an interesting little factoid, what modern clothing item is one of the most complicated in terms of its construction. This is something that’s assembly and construction requires many multiple pieces, a wedding gown. No, this isn’t everyday clothing item. It is a modern brassiere. Yes, it is the modern brassiere. Its assembly and construction require 30 to 40 separately sourced pieces. It. Including under wires and strap adjusting sliders so that stuff you wear, pretty complicated stuff,
Marcia Smith 10:05
I guess so. Bob, why do we say pop the question? When someone gets a proposal, when did that start? The expression pop the question, yeah. What did that come from? That’s a
Bob Smith 10:16
good one. Why would that be pop the question, instead of just ask the question, or come up with a question, pop? Did it have anything to do with balloons or something like, No, that’s a good guess, though. Does the word pop mean explosion? The first recorded
Marcia Smith 10:29
use of that phrase goes back to 1573, wow. An English poet George gassioni, how do you spell that? G, A, S, O, I, g, n, e, oh, dear. He said at the last per go, popped this question onto him. Pergo is the guy’s name. I take it. Hmm. It wasn’t a proposal, but it was more metaphorical, like the last per go. Pop this question. Yes. Okay. They didn’t put any commas or anything. No punctuation, right? Pop the question. Not in 1573 by the 18th century, the phrase started to take on a romantic meaning for proposing, and by the 19th century, it was exclusively used for that. I’ll be done. There you go. That’s the
Bob Smith 11:11
Yeah, I think that’s the only context I’ve ever heard of. Pop the question, me too. All right, hey, I was on a NASA website the other day, and this is what I found. Houston, we have a podcast. Yeah, that’s the name of the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center. And they’ve been doing this since 2018 and they did a five part series back then on the hazards of long distance human space flight, how to stock food. I listened to a little bit. It’s quite interesting, because we’re talking about Mars, how do we get to Mars? All the things we have to do in order to get to Marsha. But I loved it. Houston, we have a podcast, okay,
Marcia Smith 11:47
Bob, what city is famous for anime, Magna and video games? It’s also the country’s capital. I
Bob Smith 11:55
think it’s Kyoto, Japan. Ah, no, well, where is it?
Marcia Smith 11:59
Tokyo. Tokyo, Japan. Okay, the right country, though, that’s right, yep, they do all of that. Then they’re pretty famous for that. We’ve had anime around for a while, haven’t we? Right?
Bob Smith 12:07
I knew that was where it was big was Japan, and I thought Kyoto was the capital, or that was one of the capitals Tokyo
Marcia Smith 12:13
is, yeah. Okay, what do you got? I’ve got a question.
Bob Smith 12:16
And this is an interesting science question. I never thought of this. Again, we’re thinking about Mars here. What factor complicates the round trip to Mars? What
Marcia Smith 12:26
factor besides it’s a little ways away, that’s quite a
Bob Smith 12:29
distance away, and that’s part of it, but there’s a specific reason why it can be very close and very far away. I don’t understand. Its distance changes. Oh, okay, it’s never the same distance. Okay? I mean, it makes sense. Everything’s orbiting. You know, you go from one planet to another. You can be on the wrong side of the sun. It’s going to take a lot longer to get there. So they call it orbital geometries. Oh, cool. This is something you have to take into consideration when they figure out, how are they going to get from here to there? Our orbits around the Sun are not circular. They’re elliptical. Ours is and so is Mars, and when Earth and Mars are both the farthest from the Sun, we’re the farthest apart from each other, 250 million miles. And on average, we’re 140 million miles from Mars. I checked today we’re 67,000,060 7 million miles away. For comparison, Earth is only 239,000 miles to the moon. So it may be only three days to get to the moon. It takes three years to get to Mars, even when we’re at our closest and we’re never closer than 33 point 9 million miles from Mars. And guess what? That happens only once every 15 years, 2033 that’s when it’s going to be the closest. So they’ll take off either then or a little sooner. In a nutshell, that’s the problem. Again. It takes three days to get to the moon, three years one way to get to Mars. Do you think it’ll happen in the near future? I don’t know. There’s so many problems with going there. NASA has identified in this podcast, I told you about five different hazards about going long term space travel. There’s a radiation problem. You know, space radiation is considered one of the most hazardous aspects of space flight. They don’t know for sure how bad that’s gonna be. Of course,
Marcia Smith 14:06
we have Mars rovers up there. Yeah,
Bob Smith 14:08
we landed stuff on Mars, but we’re talking people now. Yeah, well, it’s gonna take three years to get there, three years to get back. I’d get a little cranky. Your organs, your bones, your inner ear, has to adjust to new gravities on the space station, and then spacecraft, and then, you know, maintaining a safe ecosystem inside a spacecraft, temperatures, pressures, lighting, how much food you gonna take? How much can you take? How much do you have to grow? What kind of clothes do you take? I mean, it’s fascinating, when you think about it, I don’t want to go. Do you? No, I don’t Okay. Don’t want to be there. And it’ll take 20 minutes for a message to get one way to Mars and back. So if you say I need your help, by the time the answer comes back, 40 minutes have gone. Geez,
Marcia Smith 14:46
I forget my underwear going to Yellowstone National Park. Imagine what I’d leave behind going to Mars. Did you forget your under that we had to get up the next morning go to a store because I forgot all night. Oh, I didn’t remember that. Yeah, my book club remembers, oh my that was our first day there on the trip. Yeah, and you had no underwear, no. Well, now the whole world knows about it. Marsh, all right, Bob, roughly, oh dear, did we go to
Unknown Speaker 15:11
a break now? Well, I think it’s time. Okay?
Marcia Smith 15:15
TMI, that’s for
Bob Smith 15:17
sure. Too much information. All right. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith. We’ll be back in just a moment.
Speaker 1 15:26
We’re back and no more underwear stories, Marcia, promise no more. All right. All right, what you got there?
Marcia Smith 15:30
All right, Bob, roughly 5000 years ago, you remember that? Thanks a lot. Humans started to speak to one another. Ancient civilizations in regions around the world began to develop complex language systems, starting at least as early as 3200 BCE historians generally agree on a few early tongues that pioneered use of both written and verbal communication. Can you name any the top three? The first three you’re talking languages now, yeah, that had written and verbal communication. Written and verbal communication, yeah, you know two of these. The third one is a little obscure for me anyway.
Bob Smith 16:09
Well, are we going back to the we’re going back cradle of civilization. I’m talking about Baghdad, that whole area there of Iraq, with the the Mesopotamia, they had language
Marcia Smith 16:18
there. Yeah, yep. That is the Sumerians. Sumerians, they had both verbal and written language. The Sumerians developed the world’s oldest known writing system, cuneiform. It’s consisted of wedge shaped characters carved into clay tablets correct. The script was later used to denote the spoken Sumerian language. In lieu of any sort of alphabet that’s one
Bob Smith 16:38
Egyptian, Egyptian would be the other one. I would think of yes with the hieroglyphics, yes.
Marcia Smith 16:42
And the third Akkadian. Okay, you know that one? Yes, I didn’t know that one. It’s now extinct language that was spoken by the Babylonians and assyrians of Mesopotamia. Yeah. Also from the Middle East, modern day Iraq and Syria. That’s the area. So those are the first three languages that had writing and speech, and that was considered the mark of sophistication. Well, yeah, written in verbal communication. I’ve took it, took in, I’ve taken a lot of classes.
Bob Smith 17:06
Did you took on a lot of classes? Okay, I’ve got a couple facts here about technology. One was the first commercial screening of a sound on film, movie, 1896 1907 1913
Marcia Smith 17:20
1923 what was the first 118? 118, 97 I’ll say that. No, you’re wrong. You say that always was gusto, first
Bob Smith 17:29
commercial screening of sound on film, not in something in a lab, the first time it was ever shown to an audience. And
Marcia Smith 17:35
that’s a whole different ball of twine. 1906 No,
Bob Smith 17:39
it was 1923 Oh, okay, that’s when the first sound, picture, sound on film technology, you know where you have the you basically have the etching of the film, so that every time you played it, you know the soundtrack was there, as opposed to it being separated. Okay, that was made possible by bringing together Thomas Edison’s kinetophone with the gramophone. The other question, what American company was first founded as Sound of Music is known as a place to go to buy electronic stuff. Oh,
Marcia Smith 18:05
well, that makes sense. That’s a clever name. Sound of Music. Is it Best
Bob Smith 18:09
Buy, Target or RCA Records?
Marcia Smith 18:12
I’ll say RCA, no, Target, no. Okay, then it was the other one, Best Buy really, yeah, that’s right.
Bob Smith 18:21
It’s originally founded by Richard Schultz and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store, no kidding, called Sound of Music, and that was rebranded under its current name, with an emphasis on consumer electronics Best Buy in 1983 huh? Well,
Marcia Smith 18:37
that’s, that’s very interesting, okay, according to Lucille Ball Bob, what almost happened to her in the famous grape stomping scene in her I Love Lucy show. I
Bob Smith 18:48
think she almost fell. She almost fell into that VAT, didn’t she? Or maybe she did
Marcia Smith 18:51
in the episode it was still running on TV. Oh yeah, I don’t know. What did she almost do? She almost drowned. What? Yeah, wow. Plenty of people are familiar with the classic grape stomping episode of I Love Lucy, but not everyone knows that filming the scene proved dangerous. The Italian actress who appeared alongside her spoke very little English. She was instructed to act out a fight via an interpreter, but the details might have got lost in translation, as ball recounted on The Dick Cavett Show, she said, quote, I got into the VAT, and she had been told that we would have a fight, but I slipped, and in slipping, I hit her accidentally, and she took offense until she hauled off and let me have it. She got me down by the throat. What I had grapes up my nose, in my ears, and she was choking me. Oh, my God, I’m really beating her to get her off. She didn’t understand that she had to let me up once in a while. So she was holding her up. Oh, my goodness, I was drowning in those grapes. Oh, that’s terrible. Yes, that’s terrible. It is.
Bob Smith 19:59
I had no idea. Yeah, okay, wow. You don’t get that from the everybody’s laughing at the time when that’s happening. Watch that episode. Again. Famous episode. Okay, all right, Marcia, what food was named after an aristocrat who liked to gamble as he ate? This is a one of those questions that I could ask it in another way, and you know the answer right away. So I’m just giving you a different way to look at this. This is an aristocrat who liked to gamble as he ate, they named a food for him. I got four answers here. Okay, is it nachos? Is it pizza? Is it toast, or is it Sandwich? Sandwich? Earl of Sandwich, that’s right. John Montague was his name. He was the fourth Earl of Sandwich. Oh, okay, and he was an 18th century British aristocrat. He liked to gamble and play cards, and the story goes that during long games of cribbage or at public gambling houses, he’d asked the cook to deliver slices of salt beef between two pieces of toasted bread. Outrageous, outrageous. And with this handheld snack, he could continue to gamble while he was eating without the need for a fork or the worry of the meat turning his hands greasy and getting on his playing cards. So that’s why they started calling what he did a sandwich. There you
Marcia Smith 21:12
go. Isn’t that funny? Yes, it is, and it’s infinitely good sense. I mean, if I want to do two things at once, you gotta have a sandwich. That’s right, all right, okay, Bob, what animal injures more people than any other in Yellowstone National Park? Is it the wolf, the moose, grizzly bear or bison? Okay, what’s the question again? Which animal injures more people in Yellowstone National Park? Okay? The wolf, the moose, grizzly bear or bison,
Bob Smith 21:44
I would imagine it’s bison, isn’t it? You’re right.
Marcia Smith 21:47
Okay, Buffalo have injured more people in Yellowstone than any other animal. They’re unpredictable and can run three times faster than human beings. Oh, jeez, you should always stay at least 25 yards away from the bison. Don’t be one of those idiot tourists that goes out. Smile. Yeah,
Speaker 1 22:04
right with your phone. Let me get a selfie with this thing.
Marcia Smith 22:09
Approaching bison threatens them, and they may respond by bluff charging, head bobbing, pawing, bellowing or snorting. Those are warning signs people that you are too close and that a charge is imminent. Bluff charging. Is that what you said? Yeah. What’s that mean? I guess that they look like they’re pretending to charge, but they don’t, then they do.
Bob Smith 22:29
Oh, okay,
Marcia Smith 22:32
it’s scary either way. Yeah, that’s from history facts and they wouldn’t lie. Wow.
Bob Smith 22:35
All right, Marcia, this is one of those debunking questions, okay, which food Pioneer is credited with inventing modern peanut butter? What, which? What? Which food pioneer, yeah, is credited with inventing modern peanut butter? Mr. Peanut? No, it’s not Mr. Peanut. Is it George Washington Carver, yeah. Is it Edward Perkins, John Harvey Kellogg, Samuel Porcello or forest Mars? Was it Carver? No, it wasn’t. We all think of that. Yeah, we assume George Washington Carver did it, but he didn’t invent peanut butter. He was one of the great inventors in American history. He discovered more than 300 uses for peanuts, including chili sauce, shampoo, shaving cream and glue
Marcia Smith 23:19
up one morning and say, I’m going to think of all the ways, too many things can I use
Bob Smith 23:23
this for? It’s amazing. It’s just like Henry Ford did that with soybeans, same kind of thing. Yes, he made, he actually made seat covers out of soybeans. Did he really? Yeah, and he made coverings for steering wheels out of soybeans. Okay, but this is peanut butter. So who is the person who actually came up with this, he invented modern peanut butter. You’ll never believe it.
Speaker 1 23:43
All right, who he was, Benjamin Franklin, Dr John
Bob Smith 23:47
Harvey Kellogg. Oh, they have the Kellogg cereal. Creator of the Kellogg cereal, he actually patented a process for creating peanut butter from raw peanuts before anyone else, and he marketed it as a nutritious protein substitute for people who could hardly chew on solid food. The source for that is the National Peanut board, Marcia. And as you said, they wouldn’t lie. That’s right. Okay, I didn’t know we had a National Peanut board to do that. No, Oh, speaking of that. What was peanut one? Do you know what peanut one was no peanut one. Peanut
Marcia Smith 24:20
one, I don’t know, think of Air Force One? Yeah, peanut one, was that what Mr. Peanut flew around in?
Bob Smith 24:26
Well, Mr. Peanut being Jimmy Carter, really? Yeah, yeah. He did this during his first campaign in 1976 That’s hilarious. Peanut one was the headquarters when he was on the move. It had specialized computer equipment designed to keep the campaign operating from 30,000 feet. Remember David S Broder, Washington Post reporter, Yeah, apparently he called it Peanut one. Okay,
Marcia Smith 24:47
that’s hilarious. Yeah. All right, Bob, what color were taxis in New York City? Before they were yellow,
Bob Smith 24:53
before they were yellow, there was a different color.
Marcia Smith 24:57
What was the first color? Was it red? Red and white, red and red and blue. No, I don’t know what red and green, red and green. Oh, God, that sounds awful. Christmas. Bob, yeah, but you have to have white in there
Bob Smith 25:11
to make red and green work. In fact, when
Marcia Smith 25:14
businessman Harry Allen imported the first gas powered taxis to New York from France in 1907 the cabs appeared in shades of red and green. His cabs were the first in the Big Apple to feature toll calculators, also known as taxi meters. Okay, they were a huge hit. Within a year, the business man had expanded from 65 to 700 cabs, jeez. But he wouldn’t hold a monopoly long, because lots of problems and regulations followed. People were jumping in with all sorts of colors. Competing cab companies cropped up to stand out. They began painting their cars yellow, orange, green or white and black, checkered trim. Remember that? Remember those? Yeah, the checkered pattern, right? Yeah. But by 1970 licensed cabs in New York had to be painted yellow, specifically, DuPont color M, 6284 that’s legislation for you. Okay? The reasoning the bright color could help passengers pick out permitted cabs which all charge the same fare rate. Well, then
Bob Smith 26:19
that’s also was due to a study they did back in the 30s or 40s. They determined yellow is the best color for this kind of thing. The
Marcia Smith 26:25
thing was yellow cabs distinguished them as permitted cabs charging all the same fare, and distinguish them from unlicensed.
Bob Smith 26:33
So it was kind of a standardization thing. If you saw a yellow cab, you knew what you were getting into, you knew what you’re going to be charged,
Marcia Smith 26:38
and you weren’t allowed to paint your cab yellow if you weren’t licensed. Yes,
Bob Smith 26:43
official Yellow Cab. I think it’s time for a thought for the day,
Marcia Smith 26:48
my quotes for the day on honesty. Thomas Jefferson, honesty is the first chapter in the Book of Wisdom. Seems like Jefferson was big on wisdom. Don’t you think? It seems to me, I had a lot of quotes by him. Okay? Warren Buffett, honesty is a very expensive gift. Don’t expect it from cheap people. That’s interesting. And here’s honesty in its purest form. Yes, officer, I did see the speed limit sign. I just didn’t see you.
Bob Smith 27:16
That is real honesty. That’s kind of honesty that cop might say, I’ll just give you a warning. I’m just gonna give you a warning. Then you’re so honest with me, that’s funny. Oh, dear. All right. Well, that’s it for today. We hope you’ve enjoyed the fun facts we like to bring to you, and we hope you’ll join us again when we return next time with more fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia. I’m Bob Smith.
Marcia Smith 27:40
I’m Marcia Smith, you’ve been listening to the off ramp.
Bob Smith 27:45
The off ramp is produced in association with the Cedarburg Public Library, Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Visit us on the web at the off ramp. Dot show at.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
