What was the first kitchen appliance to come in colors. And how did a tariff change one food’s classification from fruit to vegetable? Hear the Off Ramp podcast.

271 Knee High Trivia Summary

Bob and Marcia discuss the first kitchen appliance to come in colors, revealing it was a stove in 1949 by the Chamber Company. They explore how tariffs influenced the classification of tomatoes as vegetables in 1893. The American Film Institute’s top 10 films include “Citizen Kane,” “Casablanca,” “The Godfather,” and “Gone With the Wind.” They delve into the history of Cheerios, initially named Cheery Oats, and Twinkies, originally filled with banana cream. The conversation also covers the origin of phrases like “so long” and “goodbye,” and the surprising fact that Las Vegas is the brightest city on Earth.

Outline

First Kitchen Appliance in Colors

  • Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the first kitchen appliance to come in colors.
  • Marcia Smith guesses it might be a refrigerator, stove, toaster, mixer, or microwave.
  • Bob Smith bets it was something small, like a mixer, but it was actually a stove.
  • In 1949, the Chamber Company in Indiana introduced stoves in colors like red, black, blue, gray, yellow, and green.

 

Tariffs and Food Classification

  • Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith how tariffs changed the classification of food from fruit to vegetable.
  • Marcia Smith explains that fruit had tariffs, and vegetables didn’t, so tomatoes were classified as vegetables.
  • Bob Smith elaborates that in 1893, the US Supreme Court ruled in Nix vs. Hedden that tomatoes were vegetables because they were commonly used as such.
  • The decision established a legal precedent for classifying foods based on common usage rather than botanical classification.

 

Top 10 All-Time Films

  • Marcia Smith mentions that the American Film Institute recently listed the top 10 all-time films.
  • Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss their favorite films, including “It’s a Wonderful Life” and the top 10 list.
  • Bob Smith guesses some classic films like “The Wizard of Oz,” “Gone With the Wind,” and “Citizen Kane” are on the list.
  • Marcia Smith lists the top 10 films, including “Citizen Kane,” “Casablanca,” “The Godfather,” “Gone With the Wind,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “The Graduate,” “On the Waterfront,” “Schindler’s List,” and “Singin’ in the Rain.”

 

Original Names and Flavors of Foods

  • Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the original name for Cheerios.
  • Marcia Smith guesses “whole oats” or “circle oats,” and Bob Smith confirms it was “Cheery Oats.”
  • Bob Smith asks about the original flavor of Twinkies filling, and Marcia Smith guesses vanilla frosting.
  • Bob Smith reveals that the original flavor was banana, and James Dewar invented Twinkies using strawberry shortcake machines.

 

Historical Phrases and Terms

  • Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the origin of the phrase “so long” and its connection to the Arabic word “salaam.”
  • Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the origin of the term “obelisk,” and she guesses Rome.
  • Bob Smith explains that Rome has more obelisks than any other city, and they were shipped there by the Roman army.
  • Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss the history of obelisks, including their use in Egypt and transport to Rome.

 

Things People Put in Their Hair

  • Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about things people put in their hair, including “arrow shooter” and “Bullwinkle.”
  • Bob Smith guesses “bow” and “moose,” respectively.
  • Marcia Smith continues with “kick the bucket” and “The Beatles,” and Bob Smith guesses “foot” and “band.”
  • Marcia Smith asks about “Mr. Flay’s ATM password,” and Bob Smith guesses “bobby pin.”

 

Space Facts and Chinese Space Missions

  • Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the number of human space flights China has launched.
  • Marcia Smith guesses 215, and Bob Smith confirms it was 15, with the latest launch in April 2025.
  • Bob Smith explains that China developed its own space station due to US restrictions on space collaboration.
  • Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss the Chinese space station’s name, “Tiangong,” and its scientific investigations.

 

Animated Mickey Mouse and Carrot Colors

  • Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about an animation rule for Mickey Mouse’s ears.
  • Bob Smith guesses they must be rounded and always facing forward, and Marcia Smith confirms.
  • Bob Smith asks about the original color of carrots, and Marcia Smith guesses purple.
  • Bob Smith explains that the Dutch bred purple carrots to create orange ones, supposedly for William of Orange.

 

Canal Systems and Oyster Dishes

  • Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the city with the most extensive canal system in the world.
  • Bob Smith guesses Venice, but Marcia Smith confirms it’s Cape Coral, Florida.
  • Bob Smith asks about an oyster dish named after an American industrialist, and Marcia Smith guesses “Rockefeller.”
  • Bob Smith confirms it was named after John D. Rockefeller by restaurateur Jules Alciatore.

 

Fast Food Chains and Roman Soldiers

  • Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the world’s biggest fast food chain.
  • Marcia Smith guesses McDonald’s, but Bob Smith reveals it’s a Chinese bubble tea and ice cream chain.
  • Bob Smith asks about Roman soldiers being paid in salt, and Marcia Smith guesses spice.
  • Bob Smith confirms that Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt, and the term “salary” comes from this practice.

 

Las Vegas and Obelisks

  • Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the brightest city on earth.
  • Marcia Smith guesses Las Vegas, and Bob Smith confirms it.
  • Bob Smith asks about the tallest obelisk in the world, and Marcia Smith guesses Washington, DC.
  • Bob Smith confirms it’s the Washington Monument, standing 550 feet tall.

 

Pound Cake and Stonehenge

  • Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the ingredients in the original pound cake.
  • Marcia Smith guesses a pound of butter, flour, sugar, and eggs, and Bob Smith confirms.
  • Bob Smith asks about an English lawyer who bought Stonehenge at an auction.
  • Marcia Smith confirms it was Cecil Chubb, who later donated Stonehenge to the British people.

 

Random Quotes on Narcissism

  • Marcia Smith shares some humorous quotes on narcissism, including “My ex and I are divorced for religious reasons. He thought he was God, and I didn’t.”
  • Bob Smith and Marcia Smith find the quotes amusing and conclude the show with a light-hearted note.

 

Bob Smith 0:00
What was the first kitchen appliance to come in colors? Hmm, and how did tariffs change the classification of a food from a fruit to a vegetable? Oh, yeah, the Supreme Court did it in 1893 okay. Answers to those and other questions coming up in this episode of the off ramp with Bob

Marcia Smith 0:19
and Marcia Smith.

Bob Smith 0:36
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. Yes, we do try to dedicate ourselves to lifelong learning. Do we?

Marcia Smith 0:52
Okay? Yes, all right, Bob, the first kitchen appliance not to be offered in just plain white. Was it the refrigerator, the stove, the toaster, a mixer or a microwave.

Bob Smith 1:04
I’ll bet it was something small. I’ll say a mixer. And it was probably Kitchenaid came out with colors.

Marcia Smith 1:10
Yeah, I would have said something like that, but no, what was it? It was a stove, really. In 1949 the chamber company, a small Indiana stove factory, startled consumers everywhere. What’s that color? By offering stoves in red, black, blue, gray, yellow and green. Wow, that was probably pretty cool at the time. Absolutely, it was a smash hit of an idea for the post war customer ready to jazz things up.

Bob Smith 1:41
Oh my goodness. Can you imagine that? What was it before black and white? And that was probably,

Marcia Smith 1:45
I think they were all white, but to have yellow and green and red, that was just blow your mind.

Bob Smith 1:52
Well, we’ve seen that when we’ve gone up to the Kohler museum nearby here, Kohler Wisconsin, with a Kohler company that makes all the plumbing equipment. The toilet museum, we call it. Well, you call it that. And they have examples of those when they first put color to them in what the 1920s or 30s, and what a change that must have made for households. This is a competitive differentiation. Colors had nothing to do with the function of the product, yeah. So they probably had gone through all kinds of changes technologically to make the product better, and then, well, let’s just make it a different color. You know, I’m sure all the other stove manufacturers started making theirs in different colors too, after that, immediately,

Marcia Smith 2:29
yeah, and I’m sure that the Chamber company in Indiana did not be the leader for long after everybody saw the consumer rush to buy those, but it

Bob Smith 2:39
was a big thing for them. Probably at the first trade show, they showed everybody’s like,

Marcia Smith 2:44
Oh my god. Why didn’t we think of that?

Bob Smith 2:47
Okay, tariffs have been in the news here recently. And how did tariffs Marcia, how did tariffs change the classification of food from fruit to vegetable? Why did the US Supreme Court do that?

Marcia Smith 2:59
They changed it from fruit to vegetable. Yeah, well, fruit had tariffs and vegetables didn’t, so they renamed a bunch of stuff

Bob Smith 3:06
just the opposite. Oh, okay, it happened in 1893 in a case called Nix versus headen. The US Supreme Court voted to classify tomatoes as vegetables instead of as fruit. And the case occurred because a new federal law applied different tariffs to fruits versus vegetables. It imposed a 10% tariff on imported vegetables, but not imported fruits. And an importer, John Nix, sued the Port of New York, challenging the tariff on tomatoes, arguing they’re fruits, therefore they should be exempt from a vegetable law. And his attorneys read from three dictionaries declaring tomatoes were fruits. Guess what? The Supreme Court said, Yeah, but, and it was a unanimous decision delivered by Justice Horace Gray, tomatoes were commonly used as vegetables in cooking and on the dinner table, not as fruits. So they said, Let’s go by how these things are used. These are used as vegetables, even though technically they’re fruits. Gray cited a case earlier where it had been claimed that beans were seeds. In that case, a court found that while a bean is botanically a seed, a bean is seen as a vegetable in common parlance. So that decision established a legal precedent for classifying foods based on their common usage, rather than their botanical classification. Okay, I don’t know. It just doesn’t seem right to me. It’s like, hey, if it’s a fruit, it’s a fruit. I still think I don’t care how it’s used. Well, that’s how tariffs affected the classification. Yeah, tariffs can affect a lot of things, not just prices. Tomatoes.

Marcia Smith 4:36
There’s always been this thing. Did you know tomatoes were actually a fruit?

Bob Smith 4:41
They are a fruit. Technically speaking, yeah, I know where the seeds are and all of that, yeah. Okay,

Marcia Smith 4:46
despite the subject being highly subjective, the American Film Institute recently said these films make the top 10 All Time list. Okay. I mean, every year they come out with the best of all time, right? How many? Can you name hint, we’ve seen all of them. And number 11, I was just going to make you do the top 10, but number 11 is our favorite movie. Which is our

Bob Smith 5:08
favorite movie? We have a favorite movie ourselves.

Marcia Smith 5:12
It’s a Christmas thing. Oh, I see it’s

Bob Smith 5:15
the one with Jimmy Stewart, yeah, Frank Capra is. It’s a

Marcia Smith 5:18
wonderful That’s right, yeah, that’s number 11 consistently. But anyway, we’re talking top 10. Okay, so

Bob Smith 5:22
I’m going to say these are three that are classics I know are on there, the Wizard of Oz, correct, Gone With the Wind. Citizen Kane, then from there, it gets kind of murky. I think Titanic is on there, isn’t it? No, no, okay, so I don’t know what the others are.

Marcia Smith 5:37
Okay, I’ll just run through it real quick. Citizen Kane, 1941 Casablanca, 1942 The Godfather. 72 Gone With the Wind. 1939 Lawrence of Arabia. 1962 Wizard of Oz. 1939 the graduate. 1967 on the waterfront. 1954 Schindler’s List. 1993 and singing in the rain. 1952 not

Bob Smith 6:03
a whole lot of recent films there. That’s interesting. There’s none. No, there is Schindler’s List. Well, that’s still 1993 Well, you’re right. It’s the last 30 some odd years. Yeah, wow. And

Marcia Smith 6:14
the graduate, 68 wasn’t it? 6767 Yeah. And some of these, I really think, really, the greatest films of all time. They were really good. But are they the greatest films of all time? I can see Citizen Kane that had a lot of things going on, the godfather that was a change. Change maker, Casablanca was good, but I don’t know, was it what was so and people will argue with you for that ever on that one. But yeah, okay, you did very well on that. Well, you got three,

Bob Smith 6:44
okay, I’ve got some questions for you on food. What was the original name for Cheerios?

Marcia Smith 6:48
Cheerios, I’ll say whole oats. Well, it had oats in the name, circle oats, cheery oats. Oh, that. Cheery oats.

Bob Smith 6:57
Yeah. They debuted in 1941 wow. Cheery oats. But that led to a conflict with Quaker Oats. They sued them and said, You can’t call it cherry oats. Oh, because they said it was a trademark infringement, you can’t trademark the word oats. So in 1945 cherry oats became cheery oats. So they were only Cheerios for three years. Okay? What was the original flavor of Twinkies filling Do you know what it is? Now, no vanilla frosting. So what was it original? That’s what’s in it, Twinkie. That’s what they call it, vanilla frosting. Yes. What was the original flavor of Twinkies? Filling?

Marcia Smith 7:33
I have no idea. I never ate them. It was a banana filling at the time. Oh, that sounds better than frosting. Yeah, the cream inside

Bob Smith 7:41
was banana flavored. James Dewar invented the snack while he was trying to come up with a way to make use of the continental baking company’s Strawberry Shortcake machines for the 10 months of the year when strawberries were out of season. I actually interviewed him during the 50th anniversary of the hostess Twinkie in 1980 and he said this,

James Dewar (telephone interview excerpt)1 8:01
I was a young manager of the hostess cake bakery in Chicago, which one of the largest steak breakers in the country, and we had all kinds of layer cakes and bar cakes what have you. But you know, in 1930 and 1929 they were very lean years, and I figured if I had a another two pack Snack Cake, like cupcakes, would help us a whole lot. So, you know, the dough part, the sponge we’ve always had the sponge cake, even before we got the Twinkie, not a sponge cake. We used to pack six of those in the package, and we’d sell them to the stores, and the ladies would buy them, put their strawberries on top of but the strawberry season Those years were very slim. We’d only get strawberries in here last about two months, and then all the bakeries would have all these pans down the basement doing nothing. So I said, Why not take one of these sponge cakes, sponge fingers, and I went and get a knife, and I put some nice filling in there, cream filling, icing, and I start passing them around to the awkward force and sales department. So they all thought, oh, boy, that’s a hot number on and so now what we need is a good name. So I have to be in St Louis on a business trip with another gentleman, and I saw a big billboard that says, Twinkle toe, Twinkle toe shoes for children. But I said, Well, I’m going to suggest we call them Twinkies. Year or two after that, that made me a vice president and gave me about eight more plants to take care of. Some small things came great things for you. They did.

Bob Smith 9:41
What’s his name? James Dewar.

Marcia Smith 9:42
All right, moving on, Bob. We’ve talked before about the phrase goodbye and how it came about. It’s derived from God be with Ye, yes, right? And over the years, it’s abbreviated written form and pronunciation became goodbye. That’s right, yeah. Yeah, but what about another term for leaving so long, so long, so long, so long,

Bob Smith 10:06
good to know you. I never thought about that. And why so long? How? What a strange thing to say when somebody is going away. So long, yeah,

Marcia Smith 10:15
as I never have to see you again, I’ll be happy. It sounds like it.

Bob Smith 10:19
I don’t know where that comes from. I can’t even think of the circumstances that would lead to so long being a term for goodbye. Well,

Marcia Smith 10:27
it came to Britain with their soldiers who had spent time in Arabic speaking countries where the perfect expression of good will is salaam, the unfamiliar word to Englishmen started to sound like and became so long. Oh, really? Salaam salon. Salaam

Bob Smith 10:45
was the term in the Arabic speaking countries, yeah. And

Marcia Smith 10:49
Brits called it so long. Oh, how interesting. That’s how it carried over

Bob Smith 10:53
version of the way it sounded, yeah. Okay. Marcia obelisks. You know what obelisks look like? Do? They’re generally tall stone towers with a pyramid at the top. That is correct. Bob obelisks were invented by the ancient Egyptians. What city has more of them than any other? And why? I

Marcia Smith 11:10
would say someplace in the Middle East. No, no. All right, then Rome. No. Rome? Yes.

Bob Smith 11:18
Really it? Yeah. Now, if you’ve ever seen photos of St Peter’s Basilica and the square or the Vatican in Rome, you’ll notice that in the center is a very tall stone tower, 131 feet tall. It’s the Vatican obelisk, but it’s not Christian, Italian or Roman in origin. It’s Egyptian. In fact, the oldest structure standing in Rome, 3500 years old. It’s Egyptian too. There are eight ancient Egyptian obelisks in Rome. How did they get there? How did they get there?

Marcia Smith 11:52
Well, I don’t know. Didn’t the surveyors or the No,

Bob Smith 11:56
no, no, no. They were shipped there by the Roman army, really? Yes, yes, yes. Once Rome took over a country, everything was up for grabs, everything, including 400 ton obelisks. After the Roman Emperor Augustus conquered Egypt in 30 BC, he started shipping obelisks by sea to his grand capital in Rome. I see obelisks were originally erected in Egypt as religious monuments, often dedicated to the sun god Ra and the largest one in Rome, and the last one to get there is 150 feet tall. The Lateran obelisks 3500 years old, 450 tons. How did it get there? Good Lord, it was transported from Egypt in 357 ad, on a massive ship, one of the largest ever built at that time, powered by 300 rowers.

Marcia Smith 12:50
300 rowers. They were volunteer

Bob Smith 12:54
Constantius, the second, the son of the Emperor Constantine, shipped it, right? It’s not like an Amazon delivery, really. You know, your obelisk is here. Where am I gonna put this thing? Not to mention, we have 300 growers. We have to feed,

Marcia Smith 13:09
give them the Twinkies. Well, okay, all right, it’s time for AKA, also known as Okay. Today’s topic is things people put in their hair, in their hair, in their hair. Okay, okay. So, if I said arrow shooter, Arrow

Bob Smith 13:27
shooter. What is it? Was a bow that

Marcia Smith 13:29
is correct in the hair. Think you got this figured out? I think so. So, if I said Bullwinkle, Bullwinkle, what’s do I put in my hair some

Bob Smith 13:38
moose? That’s it. Not a big moose, but a little moose, oh, dear, yes. How about kick the bucket? Kick the bucket. Kick the bucket. Yeah, foot. Put your foot in the hair. Put your feet if

Marcia Smith 13:52
you kick the bucket. What are you doing? So a metaphor for dying,

Bob Smith 13:56
yeah. Oh, you dye your hair. Okay, gotcha

Marcia Smith 14:00
All right, musical group, a musical group, The Beatles,

Bob Smith 14:06
a band. That’s it. The band, okay,

Marcia Smith 14:07
and you put your Mr. Flays ATM password, Mr. Flay FL why? You know who that is? No, there’s a celebrity chef, and his name is Bobby Flay, okay, so knowing that Mr. Flays ATM password, don’t know the answer is bobby pin. Oh, she’s a bobby pin. Okay, that’s funny. Okay, last one ready. This is funny, fake feces.

Bob Smith 14:35
I have no idea what that would be. I don’t even venture a guess. Sham poo. Oh, oh, dear, oh, my goodness. Okay, take us to break. Bob, it is time for a break. Marcia and who are we listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith, pause, pause. 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, and then we put it on podcast platforms where it’s heard all over the world. Yes, we do have people listening to us in different parts of the world. All right, feel very fortunate about that. Okay, Bob, I think it’s my turn. Marcia, Oh,

Marcia Smith 15:16
indeed, fine. Go ahead.

Bob Smith 15:21
All right, Marcia, here is a space fact most of us have been ignoring. How many human space flights has China launched?

Marcia Smith 15:29
Geez, I didn’t even know they did. Yeah, I know it’s fascinating. Oh, geez.

Bob Smith 15:33
How many human space flights is

Marcia Smith 15:35
China launched? I’ll say 215.

Bob Smith 15:39
Oh, boy. They just recently launched their 15th space flight. That’s right, one, 515, it launched in April of 2025. And six and a half hours later, they docked with China’s Tiangong space station for a six month stay there. Three astronauts there, three more will be there from this new ship, and they’ll be there together for a while conducting 60 science investigations, and then they’ll leave the name Tian Gong means Heavenly Palace. Is that a great name for a space station? You sure didn’t

Marcia Smith 16:08
read much about this. I think they’re kind of keeping this all on the down low.

Bob Smith 16:11
Well, they’re not. The interesting thing is, how, why doesn’t China participate in the International Space Station? To me, that’s what I find interesting. I want to share. No, it’s not. China is not part of the International Space Station due to a US law. US restrictions on space collaboration with China. Members of the space station from the European Union invited China to participate, and in 2011 the US Congress passed a law prohibiting NASA from working with the Chinese Space Agency. Why concerns over national security and about intellectual property? Well, Russia is up there. This effectively barred China from participating in the ISS program. So as a result, China developed its own space station. So that was

Marcia Smith 16:53
a mistake. I think if Russia can be up there, what’s the difference? And

Bob Smith 16:57
China has opened its space station to cooperation with scientists of all countries. They’ve hosted experiments from Germany, Switzerland and Russia. So everybody’s working with China, except us. Again, this is the 15th manned space mission. It lifted off from China’s chi Quan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China in April 2025, okay, and they’ve had five missions to the space station already. Well, like you said, we don’t even pay attention to

Marcia Smith 17:23
this. Yeah, and I read a lot of different things, but I haven’t even read that. It kind of

Bob Smith 17:27
popped up on my screen, and I thought, what? And they had videos. When the new guys got there, they all celebrated, just like you see it on the International Space Station. It was a cool thing.

Marcia Smith 17:36
Here’s one you’ll like Bob in animated versions of our beloved Mickey Mouse. There is an animation rule for his ears. What is it?

Bob Smith 17:45
Wow, and there’s an anime I know there’s a rule for his fingers. He’s got like, three fingers and a thumb or something. How many? Okay, the rule for his ears, they have to be rounded. Yeah, I don’t know what would be the

Marcia Smith 17:59
rule they have to always be facing forward. Oh, no, kidding, in an animated cheat, and even coded into the programming, no matter what Mickey’s doing, his ears are always facing front and center, really, because it looks better. His ears always have to be parallel, even in 3d animated space. It helps to maintain the integrity of the traditional Mickey Mouse. Look. Take a look at all the Mickey pictures his ears. They don’t go to the side or this or that. Well,

Bob Smith 18:28
they never flop over. That’s for sure. They’re always erect. Yeah, like cups, yeah. Okay. Marcia, I have a question for you on color. What color were most carrots before the late 16th century?

Marcia Smith 18:40
I’d say

Bob Smith 18:43
purple. Why would you say that? I

Marcia Smith 18:45
don’t know. Because I there’s purple carrots, orange, red. I don’t know. I think that’s their natural color. Well, you’re

Bob Smith 18:51
right, Marcia, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, well, thank you. Purple was the original color of carrots, yeah. Was it bred out of them, or what? Well, we have the Dutch to thank for orange carrots. Prior to the 16th century, carrots were mostly purple in color, with some natural mutations resulting in yellow or white. But the Dutch took mutated purple carrots and bred them together with wild carrots to create orange variants. You know, they were very adept at doing this with flowers, you know, cross breeding things, and that was for William of Orange, supposedly. Oh, really, yeah, yeah,

Marcia Smith 19:22
honestly, yeah, we have orange carrots because of William the orange. Yes, they

Bob Smith 19:27
wanted to pay tribute to the leader. Oh, my God, dear leader, William of Orange.

Marcia Smith 19:31
How bizarre. Okay, what city Bob has the most extensive canal system in the world. I’ve

Bob Smith 19:39
heard of this, and I didn’t know it, I thought it would be Venice, right, right, Amsterdam, but it’s New York City, isn’t it? Nope, underground. No, I guess not. No. Is it in China? No. Where is it Florida? Oh, no kidding, Cape

Marcia Smith 19:52
Coral, Florida. It has over 400 miles of canals, whereas Venice, which most of. US would have guessed has only 150 miles of Canal, jeez, and it’s the primary mode of transportation there. So I found that look, it’s more than twice of what Venice had.

Bob Smith 20:11
That is quite interesting, isn’t it? Yeah, I thought so. Okay. Marcia, another food question, an oyster dish was once named after an American industrialist. It continues to have this name today. Say that again, an oyster dish named after which American industrialist?

Marcia Smith 20:27
Oysters. That would be how I had it in my head.

Bob Smith 20:33
An oyster named after an American industrialist. It was the industrialist. Yeah. Rockefeller, that’s right. John D Rockefeller, oysters. Rockefeller a popular dish named after him. Why? Well, the dish was created by restaurateur Jules alciatore in 1899 It features a sauce so rich he chose to name it after the richest man in the world at the time, Bonnie.

Marcia Smith 20:58
That’s good transition. John D Rockefeller of Standard Oil. Wow, do you ever had oysters? Rockefeller? No, I haven’t. I don’t think I have either. I used to like oysters. I don’t know if I still do. Okay, Bob, name, what is the world’s biggest fast food chain?

Bob Smith 21:14
The biggest fast food chain, I would think it would be McDonald’s. Measured by

Marcia Smith 21:18
number of locations, of location, is it McDonald’s?

Bob Smith 21:21
No, oh, it’s not. Is it Kentucky Fried Chicken? No, is it? Wait a minute, what would it be? I don’t know. See,

Marcia Smith 21:29
we go all to the American chains. It’s mi Shu ice cream and tea, a Chinese bubble tea and ice cream chain. Well, that’s not fast food ice cream or tea. It is, according to this while McDonald’s is still a dominant player, Michou now has more than 45,000 locations worldwide, compared to McDonald’s 42,000 Wow. Yeah, it’s a bubble team and ice cream chain. So it’s a fast food chain where you can get your bubble tea and bubble tea and ice cream, not something that jumps into my want list. Okay, okay,

Bob Smith 22:05
another food question. Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in this type of seasoning. It gave its name to something we deal with money today. What is the thing?

Marcia Smith 22:15
Tea? No, no. Spite. Is it a spice? Yeah. Is it ginger? No, no, it is it? Tell me

Bob Smith 22:23
no. Oh, Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt. Oh, really, yeah. At the height of the Roman Empire, salt was considered a valuable commodity, so much so Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt instead of money, and the allowance was called solarium Sal being Latin for salt, and that was the term that eventually inspired the term salary used today comes from the fact that Romans were paid solariums or salt. Here’s a

Marcia Smith 22:51
can of Morton. Go off your way. Can a Morton Salt. Okay, that’s funny. Okay. Bob from space, what is the brightest city on

Bob Smith 23:00
earth the brightest, isn’t it? Las Vegas? Yes, yes, because it’s got more lights going at any given time it out.

Marcia Smith 23:07
Does Paris, the city of lights, with its concentration of neon lights from hotels, casinos and other structures along the Vegas Strip? You can see numerous pics of Las Vegas captured from the International Space Station. And it just is just putting gorgeous looking, yeah, it from there. You can just see where it is immediately. But

Bob Smith 23:27
a lot of people see that as light pollution. You

Marcia Smith 23:30
know, all that stuff on the ground Las Vegas is what it is,

Bob Smith 23:33
okay? Marcia. We were talking about obelisks earlier. I told you that that one obelisk at 100 and I don’t know, 50 feet tall in Rome was the second tallest in the world. What’s the tallest obelisk in the world? Oh, gosh, and it’s here in the United States. Is it in DC? It’s in Washington. DC. It’s the Washington Monument. That’s exactly right. It stands at 550 feet tall, a course completed in 1884 to honor George Washington. All right, Marcia, pound cake. How many pounds of ingredients were in the original pound cake?

Marcia Smith 24:05
A pound of butter, a pound of flour, a pound of sugar and

Bob Smith 24:09
a pound of eggs. So four pounds, yeah, four pounds for a pound cake.

Unknown Speaker 24:14
It ain’t easy. Okay? That recipe

Bob Smith 24:17
emerged in the 1700s in Europe, and by 1795 the dense dessert was ubiquitous in the United States. Huh?

Marcia Smith 24:25
Okay, Bob, in 1950 English lawyer Cecil Chubb went to an auction to buy his wife some dining chairs. But he came home with, what? Instead instead of dining chairs, instead of dining chairs. What did he come home? Old chub.

Bob Smith 24:41
Isn’t that the guy that bought Stonehenge? How did you know that I remember the name?

Marcia Smith 24:45
Yes. Funny. We all make impulse buys from time to time.

Bob Smith 24:50
I had to buy one. Came back with Stonehenge.

Marcia Smith 24:55
You had one job. Bob. You. So yeah, most of us don’t make quite these kind of impulse buys. The 39 year old lawyer who reportedly arrived at a 1950 auction to buy a set of dining chairs at the behest of his beloved wife, wound up buying stone hedge. The fact that the monument was being sold at an estate sale in the first place is pretty crazy. Oh, that’s ridiculous. That was because it was privately

Bob Smith 25:23
owned. Yeah, there was no such thing as the National Trust back then. Yeah,

Marcia Smith 25:26
no one was especially keen on buying it. Gentlemen, it is impossible to value stone hedge said the auctioneer, when the bids had increased only 1000 pounds over the starting price of 5000 surely he said, 6000 pounds is poor bidding, but if no one bids me anymore, I shall sell it at this price. Will no one give me more than 6000 so Chubb put up his little hand and went, 6600 pounds, and he got it, and then he later gave it to the government, didn’t he did the equivalent in today’s money be about a million. But he donated it three years later to the British people, and he wrote quote, the nation would like to have it for its own and would prize it most highly. So thank goodness for Chubb and his wife, who needed dining room chairs.

Bob Smith 26:18
You know, they’re still doing research and finding out things about that monument, like, what’s it purpose and everything? A couple of years ago, they go, Well, this stone came from 100 miles away, and this stone came from 200 now they know one of the other stones came from 450 miles away. And they how were these things transported from Scotland? It had to take a ship around and to get to where it is. So now they’re thinking that this was intentionally created with stones from all over England to celebrate all of the different cultures at the time. That’s how smart they were back in the Neolithic times, they were even thinking that that’s quite fascinating, isn’t it?

Marcia Smith 26:52
Yeah, it’s just bizarre. Okay, all right, I’m going to finish up. Here’s some random quotes on narcissism. Okay, my ex and I are divorced for religious reasons. He thought he was God and I didn’t.

Bob Smith 27:08
I like that one. And here’s

Marcia Smith 27:09
one narcissism helpline. How can you help me?

Bob Smith 27:14
I like that one too. Those are funny. And

Marcia Smith 27:16
there may be no I in team, but there are three in narcissist. Oh, that’s great

Bob Smith 27:21
too. Oh, my Well, I hopefully we weren’t selfish, and we gave you some fun stuff during the show today. Yes, it was nice having you visit, and we hope you join us next time when we return with more fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia. And remember, we do it for you on our non narcissistic show

Unknown Speaker 27:39
the off ramp.

Bob Smith 27:46
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