Bob and Marcia Smith discuss pop music’s first concept album, “In the Wee Small Hours,” released by Frank Sinatra in 1955. They explore how Hollywood conditioned movie audiences to accept the Pacific Tree Frog’s “ribbit” as the prototypical frog sound, despite 6,000 other frog species. The Smiths delve into presidential inventions, noting Abraham Lincoln’s ship-lifting device and Thomas Jefferson’s dual pens and swivel chair. They also discuss the “President’s House” in Philadelphia, where Benedict Arnold lived before John Adams and George Washington. They explain the origin of “cheapskate” and the U.S.’s high tornado frequency. Finally, they cover the oldest known breakfast food – pancakes, and the unique Japanese coin that floats on water.
Outline
Frank Sinatra’s Concept Album
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the first musical concept album.
- Bob Smith explains that Frank Sinatra is credited with creating the first concept album, “In the Wee Small Hours,” released in 1955.
- The album aimed to create a pervasive feeling of loneliness and heartbreak, from the first song to the last.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the album’s cover art, featuring Sinatra leaning against a lamp post in a foggy downtown.
Hollywood’s Influence on Frog sounds
- Bob asks Marcia about Hollywood’s influence on the way we think of frogs.
- He reveals that since the 1930s, Hollywood has used the “ribbit” sound of the Pacific Tree Frog to the exclusion of most of the world’s other frog calls.
- The Tree Frog is only found in western North America – nowhere else in the world.
- The Smiths discuss how this sound became “the” frog sound effect, even though 6,000 other species have different calls.
Presidential Inventions
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about presidents who invented things.
- Bob Smith mentions that Abraham Lincoln invented a device to lift sunken ships, for which he was awarded a patent.
- Thomas Jefferson is credited with inventing a dual pen, a swivel chair, and a collapsible writing table.
- The Smiths discuss the significance of these inventions and their impact.
The President’s House in Philadelphia
- Bob Smith talks about the President’s House in Philadelphia, where George Washington and John Adams lived.
- The house was located a block away from where Congress met, and it had a unique history.
- Benedict Arnold lived in the house before Washington and Adams, making it a significant historical site.
- The location is now an outdoor museum managed by the National Park Service.
Origins of the Term “Cheapskate”
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the origin of the term “cheapskate.”
- Bob Smith explains that the term emerged in American English in the late 19th century, influenced by Scottish slang.
- The term “cheap” means not wanting to spend money, and “skate” likely comes from “skeet,” an older term for excrement.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the evolution of the term and its current usage.
Tornado Frequency in the United States
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the country with the most tornadoes.
- Bob Smith explains that the United States has the most tornadoes, with over 1000 reported annually since 1990.
- The central core of the United States, including the Great Plains and Mississippi River Valley, contributes to the high frequency of tornadoes.
- The combination of flat terrain, access to moisture, and cooler air from the Upper Great Plains creates conditions for frequent tornadoes.
The Oldest Known Breakfast Food: Pancakes
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the oldest known breakfast food.
- Bob Smith reveals that pancakes are likely the oldest breakfast food, dating back to the Paleolithic era.
- The first documented evidence of pancakes comes from Otzi the Iceman, a 5300-year-old human mummy found in the Italian Alps.
- Otzi’s last meal included wheat mixed with charcoal, suggesting he ate a pancake cooked over coals.
The History of Donuts
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the history of donuts.
- Bob Smith explains that donuts originated in New Amsterdam (now New York City) in the 17th century as “oily cakes.”
- The modern donut, with a hole in the middle, was invented by New England ship captain Hanson Crockett Gregory in the 19th century.
- The hole allowed the donuts to fry more evenly, making them more popular.
Japanese One Yen Coin
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about a country whose coins float on water.
- Bob Smith explains that Japan’s one yen coin, made entirely of aluminum, can float on water due to its light weight.
- The coin was first minted in 1955 and has been part of Japan’s currency for over 60 years.
- The coin’s ability to float on water is a unique feature of Japanese currency.
Types of Hats AKA Game
- Marcia Smith plays a game with Bob Smith, asking him to identify types of hats based on clues.
- Bob Smith correctly identifies a cowboy hat, a trucker hat, a Panama hat, a beanie hat, a bowler hat, a fez, and a deer stalker hat.
- The game tests Bob’s knowledge of various types of hats and their associations with different cultures and characters.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the history and significance of each type of hat.
Marcia Smith 0:00
Who is considered to have made the first musical concept album, and how
Bob Smith 0:05
did Hollywood influence the way we think of frogs? Answers to those and other questions coming up in this episode of the off ramp with Bob and Marsha Smith. You Music.
Bob Smith 0:33
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. Okay? Marcia, your question again, Bob,
Marcia Smith 0:45
who is considered to have made the first concept album, and you know what a concept album is, right? Well,
Bob Smith 0:52
yeah, like the Beatles Sergeant Pepper’s album is a concept album built around a theme, around a theme of a vaudeville band or abandon old time England, entertaining, okay, okay, there were a number of albums. A lot of rock albums came out like that, but this goes before that. I know one person I know is credited with it, and I don’t know what album it is, but Frank Sinatra is credited with doing that first in the early 50s. Is that who it is? Maybe,
Marcia Smith 1:22
maybe not. Yes, it is Frank, and the album is in the we small hours. It was 1955 he’s credited as one of the first artists to pioneer and popularize the modern concept album. Now, how is that a concept album? Pop records used to be simple collections of songs with one or two hits and little to no connective tissue between them, right? But Sinatra changed that with in the we small hours for his ninth studio album, he aimed to create a pervasive feeling of loneliness and heartbreak that stretched from his first song in the we small hours love that song to the last this love of mine, and even to the melancholy cover art. You remember what the cover was? I think
Bob Smith 2:07
he’s leaning against a lamp post. Yeah, yeah. When he has that hat on, of course. Oh yeah. And
Marcia Smith 2:11
it’s a foggy little downtown. Did you ever own this album?
Bob Smith 2:16
Oh yeah. We you and I own the CD as a CD. We bought it. And when CDs first came out, we bought a number of Frank Sinatra’s albums. The classics, yeah, that and another one were the first two CDs we bought, okay, Marcia. How did Hollywood influence the way we think of frogs? This is kind of a funny story. Played
Marcia Smith 2:34
talking frogs back. Let’s see early cartoon, Disney movie, sound movies, yeah, okay. And I don’t know, tell me,
Bob Smith 2:43
Hollywood conditions millions of people around the world to associate the sound ribbit, yeah, with a frog when, in fact, there are more than 6000 species of frogs, really, and 1000s of frog
Marcia Smith 2:55
calls, but they just picked that one, or made it up. Only one
Bob Smith 2:59
species in the world, is known to make a Ribbit sound. Which one the Pacific tree frog? It’s a frog only found in western North America, from British Columbia to the Baja Peninsula and from the California coast to Nevada, but nowhere else in the world. So how do we all associate that with a
Marcia Smith 3:17
frog? Some animated movie, not animated, but
Bob Smith 3:21
if you watch any film set in almost any part of the world, if there’s a night scene, chances are you’re gonna hear that Pacific tree frog. Because, according to the film website, I am B D, because California was where most movies used to be made. So when Hollywood sound recordists went outside at night to record nocturnal sounds to add to their movies, they often recorded their calls the Pacific tree frogs, and those sounds were added to the soundtracks of many films. They ended up in film sound effects libraries, LPs and CDs used by film sound engineers. Anybody they’re on our sound effect albums, any of us who done any kind of PowerPoint or a film or a commercial, we needed a frog. We always added the crack crack. They call it the crack crack, or the Ribbit ribbit sound. And the Pacific tree frog sounds became what filmmakers and audiences expected to hear, and what they expected to hear outweighed what really was out there, because it would destroy everybody’s illusion. Light would be a little that’s not a frog, that’s not a frog I’m used to, even though the frogs locally wouldn’t
Marcia Smith 4:22
do that, that’s so weird, isn’t it? Never really thought about it, but yes,
Bob Smith 4:26
so that mistake was made in the 30s on and repeated now into the 21st century. The website argues this quote, if the audience heard the sounds of the frogs that are really called for in a location, they would be confused. Nevertheless, hearing Pacific tree frog sounds in a movie that is set anywhere outside of the western part of North America is a mistake. So that’s how people around the world came to associate Ribbit with frogs, because Hollywood mistakenly used that sound in hundreds, maybe 1000s of movies. Now, well, what
Marcia Smith 4:59
do you. To Do you can’t, you know, use a whole bunch of different frogs that something has to be identified. So
Bob Smith 5:05
you’re part of the problem. That’s what I’m
Marcia Smith 5:07
hearing. All right, okay, I think you’ll get half this question, okay, I’ll be half right then, but not the whole, maybe you will. Which two presidents got into the act of inventing, and what did they invent?
Bob Smith 5:19
Abraham Lincoln invented. They it was a device that would lift a ship sunken in, usually in rivers. So he invented
Marcia Smith 5:28
that, that’s correct, yep. He was the only president to be awarded a patent for a system of Boeing vessels over shoals. Hmm,
Bob Smith 5:36
okay, and the other president, did he get a patent? Or he just invented something, if it must. He didn’t have a patent, okay, I think it’s Thomas Jefferson. He invented two or three things, one of which was a they were like, dual pens. He would write with a pen, and there’d be another pen, and it would scratch out whatever he was writing so he can make a copy of his letter. Yeah. He also invented the swivel chair, I’m told, Oh, yeah, the office chair. A swivel chair. I have two things here.
Marcia Smith 6:03
What is the other thing? There was a collapsible writing table, okay? And the other one, this blows my mind. Was a pedometer to measure his daily walks. Oh, no kidding, invented it
Bob Smith 6:14
was a Fitbit guy, yeah. What did you have? An apple? Watch
Marcia Smith 6:21
Jeff that TJ is Fitbit.
Bob Smith 6:23
TJ. Fitbit Thomas Jefferson. Oh, my goodness, I have a question about a president’s house. What’s unusual about the residence of, quote, the President’s House in Philadelphia, there used to be a house called president’s house, okay? George Washington lived there, and John Adams lived there at one time, from 1790 to 1800 was a modest home called the president’s house, about a block away from where Congress would meet. What’s unusual about that house being the president’s house? Gosh, Philadelphia and New York were the capitals when Washington was president, until they chose the place, Washington, DC, and he started building that okay, but he was never the president in Washington, DC, okay, so it was only a block away from where Congress met in Philadelphia. Now, what was unusual about the House involved one of its earlier residents, George Washington lived there. John Adams lived there. Who else lived there earlier? Some
Marcia Smith 7:21
revolutionary hero, or English,
Bob Smith 7:26
a revolutionary figure. Yeah, he was a hero for a while. I
Marcia Smith 7:29
mean, was oh, Benedict Arnold. Benedict
Bob Smith 7:31
Arnold, yes, a US General. He had lived in what later became called the president’s house, and it was in that house he made his treasonous correspondence with the British Army later Washington lived there, and so did John Adams. I wonder if they even thought about it being Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 7:47
that character
Marcia Smith 7:48
lived here. I don’t know. The real estate lady didn’t tell them, huh? Yeah. Today,
Bob Smith 7:52
the location of that house at the corner of sixth and Market Streets in Philadelphia is an outdoor museum managed by the National Park Service.
Marcia Smith 8:00
Huh? Okay, Bob, how did we get the term cheapskate for a stingy person unwilling to spend money? Well,
Bob Smith 8:07
because that person happened to like roller skates, so they skated away, yeah? And they were cheap, yeah, the cheap skates. Maybe skates were cheap. Maybe they were poorly made skates. And because of that, the cheapskates became synonymous with somebody who, you know, yeah, right. Cheated people,
Marcia Smith 8:25
absolutely, but no, the term emerged in American English in the late 19th century, probably influenced by Scottish slang, while cheap means not wanting to spend a buck the skate. Part of that term is likely a shortening of Skype or skeet. A Scott’s term for a contemptible person, a skeet, yeah, and this, in turn, comes from an older term that means excrement. Oh, my goodness. So put it all together and you got a cheap piece of doo doo.
Bob Smith 8:57
I’d rather say cheap skate. I had no idea that’s what it man, so cheap piece of doo. Doo, yeah. Holy cow. All right, okay. Marcia, what country has more tornadoes than any other country? Is
Marcia Smith 9:11
it us? Yes,
Bob Smith 9:13
United States,
Marcia Smith 9:14
it’s because we’re so surrounded by water. There’s
Bob Smith 9:17
a couple reasons for it. Now, since 1990 the US has reported more than 1000 tornados per year. That is more than any other country. Why? That’s your question? The main reason is the topography of the United States, a large central core with relatively flat terrain. The region the Great Plains and the Mississippi River Valley represents 1/3 of the country’s area. It’s right in the middle and the vast expanse of grasslands and crop lands that can heat up more quickly, which creates pockets of rising warm air. And then the flat central region also has access to moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, so all of that moisture released by the area’s vegetation and so forth, especially during the hot. Hottest days of the year and the cooler air from the Upper Great Plains in Canada, all that combines and you got a mess. That’s why you have tornadoes every summer and spring in the United States, okay, all those factors contribute to the frequent outbreaks of severe thunderstorms which spawn tornadoes. Okay,
Marcia Smith 10:15
Bob, I’m sure you were pondering this this morning over coffee, what’s considered to be the oldest known breakfast food,
Bob Smith 10:23
the oldest known breakfast food, yeah, hmm. Is it grains? Is it a grain? It can be, yeah. Okay, so is it oats? No rice. This is a concoction or a it’s a food that’s baked or something bread, it
Marcia Smith 10:43
is the pancake. Oh, really, yes, it’s likely that no breakfast food is as old as the humble pancake. Well, I had no idea. Yeah, they likely existed in the Paleolithic era. The Pale
Bob Smith 10:56
really cavemen like pancakes. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 11:00
Stone Age cooks probably created flour from nearby plants, mixed it with water and cooked pancakes on a hot rock. What
Bob Smith 11:07
kind of syrup did they use?
Marcia Smith 11:10
Tap a tree? The first documented evidence of the pancake comes from hatsi The Iceman, a 5300 year old human mummy encased in ice in the Italian Alps. In the Italian Alps, after his discovery in 1991 scientists examined his stomach and determined that his last meal contained wheat mixed with charcoal, suggesting Otzi had eaten a pancake cooked over coals. Well,
Bob Smith 11:37
I didn’t know that isn’t that amazing. So you find these people because, like, the glaciers are moving away, they’re starting to find people, you know, that died in mountains and stuff. So you can
Marcia Smith 11:47
sample what was in their stomach. What are these people eating? So he had a pancake,
Bob Smith 11:51
Otzi. They gave him a name, Otzi. That’s the funny thing. And he loved pancakes. Well, at least he ate pancakes that day. Yeah, wow. Didn’t know
Marcia Smith 12:00
you could put that on a hot must be a pretty hot rock. Well,
Bob Smith 12:04
you know, they had that hot rock that the what Mongols used to cook food on, yeah? Where’s that restaurant where you can go and eat food on a hot rock? Yeah, same thing. So there were hot rocks, okay, rocks that were heated up. How do you heat them? Build a fire under them. But Otzi didn’t have fire. Oh, Auntie. Had fire. They all had fire. They had fire for 1000s of years. Marcia to have no faith in our ancient friends, our ancient people came before us. These people came before us. And of course, they could do things all right. Could they electrocute their food? Is what I’m asking. Could they do that? Do you know what food is baked by electrocuting it?
Speaker 1 12:40
That’s microwaving, right? No, actually, electrocutes
Marcia Smith 12:44
the food. I don’t know.
Bob Smith 12:47
What have you ever tried? Popcorn? No pan co bread crumbs? Yeah, we got them. That’s a fixture of Japanese cuisine that’s made not by baking dough in an oven, but by sending electric current through the dough, which essentially steams it from the inside out and creates crustless lobes, no kidding, and that’s how panco bread crumbs are made. It’s the bread that’s used for it is electrified,
Marcia Smith 13:09
and it’s very tasty. Thank you.
Bob Smith 13:12
It tastes great. Okay, I think it’s time to take a break. It is. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith, and we’ll be back in just a moment. Okay, we’re back. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith. We do this each week for the Cedarburg Public Library, Cedarburg, Wisconsin. After that, we put it on podcast platforms where it is heard all over the world. Okay? Marcia, okay,
Marcia Smith 13:39
Bob, what are oily cakes?
Bob Smith 13:42
Oily cakes? Yeah, it sounds like something I
Marcia Smith 13:45
don’t want to eat. I know, but you do, but
Bob Smith 13:48
that’s probably just a nickname that somebody gave the oily cakes. Would this be like cinnamon buns or something like
Marcia Smith 13:55
that? The Dutch gave it this name. It’s good old donuts. The donut made its first appearance in North America in 17th century, New York City, then a Dutch colony known as New Amsterdam. This fried dough recipe was known in Dutch as oily cakes. It’s spelled dutchy, but it says oily cakes, okay, however, oily cakes were missing one important innovation of the modern donut. Guess what? That they didn’t have a hole. That’s right, the hole didn’t take shape until the 19th century. Although there are several competing theories, it’s likely that New England ship captain Hanson Crockett, Gregory. Why are all these people called Crockett
Bob Smith 14:37
instead of Bob Smith? I don’t know. Yeah, always bothered me.
Marcia Smith 14:40
Was spurred on by indigestion due to his mother’s oily cakes, he decided to cut out the doughy or part of the cake in the middle. Oh. He soon discovered that his mother’s cakes received a more even fry with the middle cut out. Okay, gotcha. And thus the modern donut was born. That’s one thought. There are others. That’s the more popular one. I like that one. Scott, yeah, okay, let’s get that whole out of there. What dairy
Bob Smith 15:07
product, Marcia can help you get a loan in Italy? Really? Cheese? That’s right. There is a bank in Italy that accepts cheese as collateral for loans from dairy farmers. In fact, they’ve got special vaults that can house 440,000 giant wheels of parmigiano reggiano cheese, really, 400,000 giant wheels. That’s a lot. Would you even want to walk into a vault that has that much cheese? I don’t know. It just seems weird, doesn’t it?
Marcia Smith 15:37
Yes, no, yes, it does. It seems very weird. Bob,
Bob Smith 15:41
okay, and one more question, What food do we know was not at the first Thanksgiving? We know it
Marcia Smith 15:47
always wasn’t there. Oh, God,
Bob Smith 15:50
I’m not talking post is Twinkies. We’re talking
Marcia Smith 15:52
real food, all right, candied yams, I don’t know. Well, you’re on the right track. A potato dish, potatoes.
Bob Smith 15:57
Potatoes were not there. We know no potatoes were at the Pilgrims first Thanksgiving because they didn’t exist in North America at the time. Oh, no kidding, yeah. Now wild fowl, like Turkey, was served alongside venison, eel and passenger pigeons. But no potatoes Good to know. No spuds. No spuds at the first Thanksgiving. All right, would you like a fry with that? All right? Marcia, most of the world’s currencies, they float in value based on the world economy. But what country’s coins actually float on water?
Marcia Smith 16:33
That sounds ridiculous. It does. Sounds like play money. Yeah, it does. You mean it’s so light that it floats?
Bob Smith 16:39
Yes, and it’s only one denomination of this country’s currency. It’s not everything they do. Is it in Europe? No, it’s not European.
Marcia Smith 16:47
Is it Cambodia? Not Cambodia, but it’s that part of
Bob Smith 16:51
the world, Asia.
Marcia Smith 16:53
Asia I Japan.
Bob Smith 16:57
It is Japan. Oh, that’s right, yeah, we know that the true value of the US dollar and the euro and the Japanese yen and the pound sterling and the Australian dollar and the Swift Frank, they all float up and down, but this country’s coins float for real on water. It’s the Japanese one yen coin. What’s it made? At it? Well, it’s made entirely of aluminum, and it weighs one gram. And if you carefully place it on water, it can actually float. Although the density of the coin is actually slightly greater than water, it’s just barely light enough that with a large enough surface area, it won’t break the surface tension of the water that is been water part of their currency, the pure aluminum coin was first minted in 1955 so it’s been part of their currency for well over 60 years now.
Marcia Smith 17:45
So if I said, float me alone, you could literally give me 10. Give you a yen. Yeah.
Bob Smith 17:52
Okay, one yen, yes. All right,
Marcia Smith 17:53
okay, Bob, yes. It is time for AKA, also known as this is your favorite card game. It is, and I like to dazzle you. Well, all right, try to trip you up with you do quite frequently. Frankly, you’re pretty good at this. Okay, the category for this week is types of hats. Types of hats, yes. So if I said Dallas football player, what kind of hat am I talking about? A cowboy hat, that’s it. Okay, okay, semi driver,
Bob Smith 18:21
semi driver, a truck driver, a truck hat. Truck your hat. Okay, trucker hat.
Marcia Smith 18:26
Trucker hats. Central American Canal Panama hat. Yeah, we have those. Don’t, although the
Bob Smith 18:33
Panama hats actually come from Ecuador. Did you know that? Oh, no, point of fact, oh, I just had that one off the top of my head, I had to say it, oh, my
Marcia Smith 18:41
god, please. Next, next question, yes. Okay, ready? Collectible babies,
Bob Smith 18:49
a beanie babies. So a beanie hat, that’s it. Okay, very good.
Marcia Smith 18:52
That’s what happens when you have children. You know these arcane things, right? Strike roller. Strike
Bob Smith 18:59
roller, oh, like a bowling, a bowler, that’s it. Bowler, okay, yep, those are English hats.
Marcia Smith 19:06
That’s correct. Do they still
Bob Smith 19:08
wear them in England? Ever? No Members of Parliament. I don’t still
Marcia Smith 19:11
wear white wig. So why not? Bowlers, all right, this, he won’t get but ready. Wilmers. Wilmers, 70s character, what you never watch this with me and the kids. It was the 70s show, okay? And the guys all had nicknames. Anyway, Wilmers nickname was Fez,
Bob Smith 19:29
oh, I remember that, yeah, yeah. And he’s on NCIS now. He plays the correct Hispanic investigator.
Marcia Smith 19:34
He’s one of the stars. And anyway, that so the hat is a fed
Bob Smith 19:38
a fez, that which is the middle eastern hat, or the Shriners.
Marcia Smith 19:41
Yeah, that’s all I know. Okay, and last one, Buck pursuer,
Bob Smith 19:47
Buck pursuer, Buck, meaning, like a deer, deer stalker, stalker head. That’s right, Sherlock Holmes, that’s the hat he supposedly wore.
Marcia Smith 19:56
He’s pictured with, ding, ding, ding, ding.
Bob Smith 19:59
Okay, Marcia back to money. What cities did Benjamin Franklin start savings accounts for? Did you know this? Yeah, he’s crazy. He started savings accounts for two cities in his life that were very important to him. All right, wow. The city he was born in Philadelphia. No, that was his adopted city. The city he was born in Boston. Oh, Boston and his adopted city, I don’t know, Philadelphia, I just told you. Oh, all right. So what he did was he bequeathed 2000 pounds, roughly $500,000 in today’s money, to the cities of Boston, where he was born, in Philadelphia, where he later lived, on the condition that the final disbursement of the money would not occur until 200 years after his death. Wow. Now it didn’t stay dormant all that time. He wanted parts of the money to be used as time went by, and so for the first 100 years after his death, money was used to make low interest loans to young tradesmen getting their start, just like he got started as a printer. Well, good for him starting in business. The rest was invested, and after 100 years, about one quarter of the sum would continue to be used to make those loans, but the remaining 75% that would be saved and then would later be used for public works in each city. After 200 years had passed. Well 200 years passed in 1990 and when that time came, the funds, divided between the cities, were worth $6.5
Marcia Smith 21:26
million which would buy one block of cement for all sidewalks. Actually, they
Bob Smith 21:31
created a lot of things in Philadelphia, the Franklin Institute, that’s the hands on science center that opened in 1934 that was started with his money. Oh, that’s cool. The Franklin Institute also reports millions of dollars have been used to support scholarships, educational institutions, symphonies and many projects in both cities. And when that 6.5 million was finally divided up on April 17, 1990 the 200th anniversary of Dr Franklin’s death, the Franklin Institute received its second gift of 850,000 now they also report these are actual, honest to God things in Philadelphia. If you live there, you know about them. They are the result of Ben Franklin’s money, the IMAX theater, the Tuttleman IMAX, the Bartol atrium and the Mandel Performing Arts Center on the campus of Drexel University in Philadelphia, all created with Benjamin Franklin’s money in the 20 and 21st centuries. That’s
Marcia Smith 22:25
pretty impressive. Good for him. Bob, My Little Pony, a favorite in this house with our little girl. That’s right, it’s in the news, really, yep, a little the toys the My Little Pony. Yeah. What happened? Oh, no. Oh, did it go into a hall of fame or something like that? No kidding, it made it into the My Hall of Fame, My Little Pony went into the winner’s circle, yes, along with transformers and card game 10, which I never heard of that one, but transformers, Transformers
Bob Smith 22:55
and My Little Pony have never been in the Toy Hall of Fame until now.
Marcia Smith 22:59
Their time has come, which reminds me, you didn’t know I went to a Transformers convention. Did you Bob? No, when was that? In Chicago? A little while back, what? I flew home, and boy, were my arms tires. Oh no. Oh dear. Some thought it was funny. Oh, gosh, that’s awful. I loved it, okay?
Speaker 1 23:18
My Little Pony. I remember that that was
Bob Smith 23:22
always on the Saturday morning cartoons, those ads for that stuff. Jeez. All right. All right, Marcia, if you take a can now, this is true. I found this out on the Purdue University physics department web page. I saw this statistic, and I had to find someplace I trusted they actually have a picture of this. If you take a can of regular soda and a can of diet soda and put them in water, one will sink while the other floats. Which one floats and why? Ah, the diet or the sugar soda.
Marcia Smith 23:54
The sugar sinks because it’s heavier than the chemicals in your diet soda. That’s right. How did you know that? Well, it just makes sense. Okay.
Bob Smith 24:02
Well, you’re right. Regular sodas which contain sugar are denser than water and they will sink, even though they’re inside that aluminum can, whereas diet soda which uses artificial sweeteners are less dense than water and will float. And again, you can find that demonstrated on the web page of Purdue University’s engineering school, speaking of water Marsha. Okay, here’s another one, this water system. Now, imagine this. This water system has 10,000 miles of shoreline. Now that is a lot of shoreline that’s more than the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States combined. So what water system? In what water system can you find 10,000 miles of shoreline?
Marcia Smith 24:45
I was going to say New Zealand or something, but a water system, which is something else? Well, New Zealand,
Bob Smith 24:51
you could say that. That’s a Yeah, that’s good to have a water system there. Okay? Europe, New Zealand, Asia, New Zealand. Yeah. No. I. You led me that didn’t lead you down the path at all. You said New Zealand, okay,
Marcia Smith 25:03
Australia, no, okay, I don’t know. Okay,
Bob Smith 25:06
this water system is within the North American continent, okay? It’s a place that contains 1/5 of the world’s fresh water supply. Well, that’s the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes, that’s right, they’re 10,000 miles of shoreline border, eight states and a Canadian province, and those shorelines that that shore is longer than the coast of the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans and the United States together. It, it’s more than those two combined. I can’t believe that. And speaking of surface, here’s the surface. They represent the surface of the Great Lakes, 95,000 square miles. That’s greater than all of these states combined. If you put New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Rhode Island together, and all the acreage, the square miles, yeah, not equal to the Great Lakes, no kidding, more than all those states combined.
Marcia Smith 25:56
All right, fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia. That’s it, all right? My quotes for the day. This was said by our own Sherlock, Holmes Bob, via the pen of Arthur Conan Doyle. And this is from the novel Valley of Fear, okay, which we know mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius. Oh,
Bob Smith 26:19
that’s good. That is about humility. Is what that’s about, too, isn’t it? People who are talented recognize other people who are talented. Where somebody who’s mediocre says, I’m the best, right?
Marcia Smith 26:29
I totally believe that code is true. The mediocrity sees nothing it and it doesn’t recognize it in itself. That’s correct. Doesn’t see that they’re okay. And one more by Sir Max beer bomb. Only mediocrity can be trusted to be always at its best.
Bob Smith 26:50
What’s that movie where they had the lady who sang poorly and she said, how was I? How was he? And he said, that was good movie. You never sounded better. Yeah, it’s good. She never would. That
Marcia Smith 27:01
was Florence Foster Jenkins. That’s the movie, yeah, stream and, yeah. What’s his name? HUGH GRANT, that’s right. That’s right. 2016 biography. It was a, how
Bob Smith 27:10
was I why you never sounded better? Yeah.
Marcia Smith 27:12
That’s, that’s a great what a compliment. Oh my goodness. That was, that was a good movie,
Bob Smith 27:18
yeah? And she was the epitome of mediocrity, mediocrity at its peak. All right, hopefully we were better than mediocre. Absolutely better than mediocre today. I’m Bob Smith, I’m Marcia Smith. Join us again next time when we return with more fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia here on the off ramp,
Bob Smith 27:41
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 you.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
