In this podcast episode of “The Off Ramp,” hosts Bob and Marcia discuss historical trivia. They explore why President and First Lady Harry S. Truman kept pistols under their pillows due to security concerns, particularly Eleanor Roosevelt’s activism in civil rights. They also delve into the history of the first wristwatch, commissioned by Napoleon’s sister Caroline Bonaparte Murat in 1810, which cost the equivalent of $109,000 today. The conversation touches on the origin of the phrase “pipe down,” the role of Queen Caroline of Naples in the excavation of Pompeii, and the development of the Cherokee written language by Sequoyah. They also cover various state capitals, the growth of the Earth’s population, and the unique characteristics of Lake Michigan.
Action Items
Outline
Presidential Security Measures and Eleanor Roosevelt’s Pistols
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the President and First Lady who slept with pistols under their pillows.
- Bob Smith speculates it might be Andrew Jackson and his wife, but Marcia corrects him, suggesting James K. Polk and his wife.
- Marcia explains that Eleanor Roosevelt had his and her pistols due to security concerns and death threats during World War II.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the timeline of Eleanor’s activism and the presence of pistols during the presidency.
Napoleon’s Sister and the First Wrist Watch
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about Napoleon’s kid sister and a wrist watch.
- Bob Smith explains that Caroline Bonaparte Murat commissioned the first wrist watch in 1810, which included a thermometer and a minute repeater mechanism.
- The watch was made by Swiss watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet and cost 5000 francs, equivalent to $109,000 today.
- Bob describes the complexity and intricacy of the watch, including its oblong case and thin profile.
Naval Origins of “Pipe Down”
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the origin of the phrase “pipe down.”
- Bob Smith explains that on early naval vessels, the boatswain would blow his pipe to signal the crew to settle down for the night.
- The term “pipe down” evolved from this naval signal to mean “keep it quiet.”
- Bob and Marcia discuss the historical context and the transition of the phrase into common usage.
Caroline Bonaparte Murat and Pompeii Excavations
- Bob Smith mentions that Napoleon’s youngest sister was the queen of Naples and her role in the excavations of Pompeii.
- Marcia Smith is surprised to learn about the queen of Naples and her influence on the excavations.
- Bob explains that Caroline invested heavily in the excavations and personally oversaw the work, including hosting dinners among the ruins.
- The Pompeii archeological website credits Caroline with sparking a renaissance in the excavations.
Bee Anatomy and Cherokee Language Development
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the number of eyes a bee has.
- Bob Smith is surprised to learn that bees have five eyes: two large compound eyes and three smaller ones.
- Marcia Smith then asks about a language that didn’t have a written form until the early 1800s.
- Bob Smith explains that the Cherokee language, developed by Sequoyah, had a written form by the 1830s, significantly reducing illiteracy among the Cherokee.
Historical Obelisk Shipment and State Capitals
- Bob Smith recounts the story of Egypt’s gift of a 3500-year-old obelisk to the United States in 1880.
- The obelisk was transported across the Atlantic and then hauled across Manhattan to Central Park, taking nearly a year.
- Bob and Marcia discuss the challenges and logistics of transporting such a large artifact.
- They play a game where Marcia provides clues for state capitals, and Bob tries to guess the correct answers.
World War II Spies and FDR’s Survival War
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about a famous musician who was a spy during World War II.
- Bob Smith identifies Josephine Baker, who worked as a spy for the French Resistance and carried secret intelligence reports in her sheet music.
- Marcia Smith is surprised to learn about Baker’s contributions as a spy.
- Bob Smith shares that FDR wanted World War II to be called the Survival War, reflecting his concerns for Great Britain and Europe.
Global Population Growth and State Borders
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the Earth’s population growth rate.
- Bob Smith estimates that the Earth’s population grows by about 75 million people per year.
- They discuss the United Nations’ projection that the global population will peak in the mid-2080s at around 10.3 billion.
- Bob Smith asks about the only state that borders just one other state, and Marcia Smith correctly identifies Maine and its border with New Hampshire.
Children of Presidents and Great Lakes
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about children of presidents who attended public school.
- Bob Smith identifies Quentin Roosevelt, Charlie Taft, and Amy Carter as the only children of presidents to attend public school.
- They discuss the challenges and security concerns of public education for presidential children.
- Bob Smith asks about the Great Lake that does not share a border with the US and Canada, and Marcia Smith correctly identifies Lake Michigan.
Sepia Tone in Photography and Space Liquids
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the reason for the sepia tone in 1800s photographs.
- Bob Smith initially guesses environmental damage, but Marcia Smith explains that sepia toning was used to improve the longevity of photographs.
- The process involved treating photographic prints with chemical solutions derived from the cuttlefish, making them more resistant to fading.
- Bob Smith asks about the shape of any free-moving liquid in space, and Marcia Smith explains that it forms a sphere due to surface tension.
Speaker 1 0:00
What President and First Lady slept with pistols under their pillows,
Bob Smith 0:06
and what did Napoleon’s kid sister have to do with that wrist watch you’re wearing? Oh, yeah, answers to those and other questions coming up in this episode ofThe Off Ramp with Bob
Marcia Smith 0:17
and Marcia Smith.
Bob Smith 0:34
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. It’s the podcast dedicated to lifelong learning, and to that end, we have very interesting history questions to start off with. Yours is fascinating? Marcia, tell me that. .
Marcia Smith 0:55
Okay, Bob, what President and First Lady slept with pistols under their pillows. They called them his and hers.
Bob Smith 1:02
His and her pistols.
Marcia Smith 1:03
Yes
Bob Smith 1:04
Okay, was this Andrew Jackson by any chance?
Marcia Smith 1:06
Ah, no.
Bob Smith 1:07
That’s right, because Andrew Jackson’s wife died before he got
Marcia Smith 1:11
probably shot herself in the head from having gone under the pillow.
Bob Smith 1:14
Okay, I’m gonna, I’m gonna say maybe James K Polk and his wife perhaps.
Marcia Smith 1:17
Why them?
Bob Smith 1:18
Well, he was kind of a militant kind of guy. Yeah, the Mexican War that was in his blood, okay, but was it? Let me just ask this 19th or 20th century?
Marcia Smith 1:28
It’s the 20th century.
Bob Smith 1:30
It’s not Franklin and Eleanor by any chance at all. Is it?
Marcia Smith 1:33
Can you see that?
Bob Smith 1:34
Well, it was World War Two. I’m thinking pistols under their pillows. It’s got to be a very dangerous time. I would think,
Marcia Smith 1:40
yeah
Bob Smith 1:40
For somebody to do that.
Marcia Smith 1:41
Indeed, it was, huh. They had great security concerns for the both of themselves. They didn’t feel they were protected enough. And nobody got more death threats than Eleanor, because she was very active in civil rights.
Bob Smith 1:54
Yes, she spoke out.
Marcia Smith 1:55
She spoke out. And so they just had his and her pistols in the old boudoir.
Bob Smith 1:59
No kidding
Marcia Smith 2:00
Yeah.
Bob Smith 2:00
And when did this start? Do you know? Was it before the presidency?
Marcia Smith 2:03
No, I don’t think so, because she didn’t start speaking out till during the presidency, according to my book.
Bob Smith 2:08
Okay, so it’s primarily during the war years.
Marcia Smith 2:10
I don’t know.
Bob Smith 2:11
Could have been during the depression then,
Marcia Smith 2:14
I don’t know. I don’t have the exact years. Bob.
Bob Smith 2:18
Well, that’s a failure.
Speaker 1 2:21
Okay? Speaking of failure, you have a question.
Bob Smith 2:25
All right! Marcia, what did Napoleon’s kid sister have to do with that wrist watch you happen to be wearing?
Speaker 1 2:33
That makes no sense. Well, what did she say? She said, Hey, nappy, let’s get rid of the sundial and put it on my wrist. I don’t know. What did she do?
Bob Smith 2:41
She did kind of that thing.
Marcia Smith 2:42
Yeah
Bob Smith 2:43
She commissioned the very first wrist watch.
Marcia Smith 2:46
Really?
Bob Smith 2:47
There was never a wrist watch before. There had been pendant watches, you know that you would hang from
Marcia Smith 2:52
Around the neck.
Bob Smith 2:53
The neck, there were pocket watches for ladies and men.
Marcia Smith 2:56
that’s right, guys did that. Usually
Bob Smith 2:57
And the ladies did that. But she commissioned a watch that would be on a bracelet.
Marcia Smith 3:02
Oh, okay,
Bob Smith 3:03
Specified all kinds of things for it. Her name was Caroline Bonaparte Murat. She was the queen of Naples. Did you know there was a queen of Naples?
Marcia Smith 3:09
No, I didn’t.
Bob Smith 3:11
I’ll go into that a little later.
Marcia Smith 3:13
Okay.
Bob Smith 3:13
She was wealthy, powerful, and she wanted a watch she could wear on her wrist, and that’s what she commissioned with Swiss watchmaker Abraham brigade in Paris, ordering it in 1810 but it wasn’t just any wrist watch Marcia. It was far more complicated than the ones most people wear today. In addition to its radical oblong case and ultra thin profile, she wanted a thermometer on it.
Marcia Smith 3:37
A thermometer?
Bob Smith 3:37
A capillary thermometer, so she could tell the temperature, I guess, okay, but the real technical marvel was a Minute Repeater mechanism. You know what that is? You ever heard of repeater watches?
Marcia Smith 3:48
No.
Bob Smith 3:48
Very, very expensive watches. They have repeaters, and that is where they chime the hours. Well, she wanted a Minute Repeater that would chime the time right down to the minute of the hour. How did that work?
Marcia Smith 4:03
Every minute?
Bob Smith 4:04
Every minute she could hit a button, and it would tell the time with sound.
Marcia Smith 4:08
Okay
Bob Smith 4:09
So here’s how it worked. It would chime the hours, the quarter hours, and the minutes with tiny hammers and gongs. This is why it took a year and a half to make this watch. It employed chimes with low tones for hours ding dong chimes known as double tones, ding dong for quarter hours and high tones for individual minutes past the last quarter. So say it’s 8:48pm, or am? It doesn’t matter. Here’s how that sounds with therepeater watch.
Bob Smith 4:41
There’s eight hours, three quarter hours, that’s 45 minutes, and that’s three minutes in the end. So that’s 848, that’s how it sounded. I mean, that’s how you could tell the time if you really wanted it. I mean, you wanted it on demand. You had to be wealthy.
Marcia Smith 5:00
Well, why don’t you just look at your watch?
Bob Smith 5:01
Well, I don’t know why. To me, it sounds intrusive to say –
Marcia Smith 5:05
So you’d say, Oh, gee, they’re ding dinging in front of me, and that doesn’t sound more annoying.
Bob Smith 5:10
But isn’t it amazing that that is on a little wristwatch, on a woman’s watch in 1812 I mean, the intricacy of it. mean the engineering of these horologists, they call them, you know, the clock makers was outstanding.
Marcia Smith 5:22
Crazy and that she wanted all that noise so she didn’t have to pick up her wrist and look at the time.
Bob Smith 5:29
Well, speaking of that.
Marcia Smith 5:30
Yeah.
Bob Smith 5:30
You know how rude it seems when somebody is looking at their phone when you’re talking to them?
Marcia Smith 5:35
Oh yes, yeah.
Bob Smith 5:35
Well, back in 1799 it was considered very impolite to consult your watch during social gatherings, and so Bregeutay invented the Montra a tact, a tactile or touch watch. It lets you tell the time without removing a watch from your pocket. You just turn the front dial clockwise until it went no further, and then you’d feel where the hour marker was positioned. Thanks to surrounding circles of jewels, these watches were expensive. This watch that she ordered in 1810 How much do you think it cost?
Marcia Smith 6:07
I’ll say $1,000
Bob Smith 6:09
5000 francs, and that was tied to the gold standard. So for today’s dollars, it would be a $109,000 watch. And back in those days, you could buy a small estate or feed a whole household for years on that kind of money.
Marcia Smith 6:22
Absolutely, now we know.
Marcia Smith 6:25
All right, Bob, what does the expression pipe down come from? Pipe down. Where does it come from? As in, telling your kids to pipe down and not be so loud, right, right?
Bob Smith 6:34
It has to be a physical thing to do with. Let’s see, pipe down. So is this something like on a naval ship, or something like that? Was it the Navy?
Marcia Smith 6:45
Yes.
Bob Smith 6:45
Okay, tell me what pipe down meant.
Marcia Smith 6:47
Very good on early naval vessels, the boat swains final function for the day was to blow his pipe or Whistle Down to the crew sleeping quarters as a signal for them to settle in and be quiet for the night.
Bob Smith 7:02
So pipe down meant he blew the whistle down.
Marcia Smith 7:04
They called it a pipe down and it meant, okay, that’s it. Keep it quiet down there.
Bob Smith 7:09
You could imagine how that turned into an expression like, yeah, hey, pipe down, yeah. Like, shut up. You know, you heard it. You heard it. It’s pipe down time. Yeah, wow. I had never heard that one.
Marcia Smith 7:18
Me either. I find that interesting.
Bob Smith 7:22
All right, Marcia May I mentioned that Napoleon’s youngest sister was the queen of Naples. Why was there a queen of Naples? Do you know why? Ever heard of that before?
Marcia Smith 7:33
No,
Bob Smith 7:33
Well, there were a lot of cities that were like states, city states, and Naples was one of them. It was a sovereign Kingdom. It had its own dynastic rules, and at times, women inherited the throne due to lineage. And one of the most famous queens of Naples was Joanna, the first way back in 1343, so this is 1800 10, when Napoleon’s kid sister was the queen of Naples. So it had gone on for five or 600 years. Okay? And I have something else about her. How do we have her to thank for the Pompeii we know today?
Marcia Smith 8:05
Did she?. Did she send out people to look for it?
Bob Smith 8:10
It had already been discovered.
Marcia Smith 8:11
Oh.
Bob Smith 8:12
And she was the queen of Naples and Pompei near Naples. So, so she invested heavily in the excavations. Okay? She channeled royal funds there and secured extra support to speed up the work. She wanted to get it uncovered within a few years. Of course, it took hundreds of years, but she wasn’t just content to write checks. She personally oversaw digs, directed workers, even arranged for soldiers to assist with excavation efforts. And this is fascinating. They had dinner among the ruins. She had famous people from around the world come and they’d have dinner among the ruins of Pompeii, and people would donate money to the cause. And she is so revered with regard to archeology that the Pompeii archeological website today has a page with this headline, how Caroline Moroz passion and Napoleonic influence sparked a renaissance. So they credit her with the Pompeii we have today. Apparently she would actually have artifacts brought to her apartments, really, yeah, which is not the right thing to do with archeology. Here’s some findings, madam.
Marcia Smith 9:13
Oh man!
Marcia Smith 9:14
All right, how many eyes Bob, does a bee have?
Bob Smith 9:23
I think eight eyes.
Marcia Smith 9:24
Am I here to tell you the answer?
Bob Smith 9:26
Yes, you are .
Marcia Smith 9:26
No, no, it’s not eight. It’s five.
Bob Smith 9:29
They have eyes.
Marcia Smith 9:30
Yes, they have two large compound eyes on the sides of their head and three smaller eyes on the top of their head. The compound eyes are used to detect motion and color, while the smaller eyes help with orientation and light intensity. So they all have their functions, but there’s five of them. Keep that in mind –
Bob Smith 9:48
Isn’t that amazing?
Marcia Smith 9:49
When you’re running down the alley.
Bob Smith 9:51
Running away from them? Yeah,
Speaker 1 9:54
which ones are looking at you? They’re using their compound eyes to follow you.
Bob Smith 9:58
Well, it’s kind of scary when you think about. That they’ve got how many eyes? Five Eyes, yeah, compound eyes. And I’m trying to just get away from them. Please stay away from me. All right, Marcia, let’s go back to language. This is a question, what language didn’t have any written words until the early 1800s this language had been around for centuries. It
Speaker 1 10:18
wasn’t hieroglyphics. No, it was, I don’t know. Okay,
Bob Smith 10:23
here’s a hint. Okay, it was on the North American continent,
Speaker 1 10:27
Alaskan, Inuit. It’s an Indian language, American Indian, yes. Oh, like Navajo. No, not Navajo. Menominee, well, Apache, no,
Bob Smith 10:41
but it goes back before that the Cherokee language. Ah, the Cherokee, the Native American tribe’s language, had been spoken only spoken for centuries, but in the early 1800s the Cherokee leader Sequoia, he believed that written language gave white people a considerable advantage, so he started creating a written language for the Cherokee. And by the 1830s this is interesting, the illiteracy rate among the Cherokee Indians was estimated to be 90% 90% of the Cherokees could read their own language at a time when Americans probably was less than half of that. Well, that’s fast
Speaker 1 11:16
could read English. Wow. Okay, I think it’s time for a break.
Bob Smith 11:20
We’ll be back with more in just a moment. You’re listening to The Off Ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith
We’re back with more questions. We do this every week for the Cedarburg Public Library, Cedarburg, Wisconsin, and then after that, we put it on podcast platforms where it is heard
Marcia Smith 11:37
all over the world.
Bob Smith 11:40
Okay? Marcia, speaking of the world, remember, we did a story recently on how Roman generals, after conquering Egypt, shipped Ancient Egypt obelisks to major European cities. Remember that we marveled at how difficult it must have been considering the technology available to the Romans. Well, here’s the story of a modern obelisk shipment. This was in 1880 when Egypt gifted a roughly 3500 year old obelisk to the United States in commemoration of the Suez Canal, that’s right, it was a big thing, very difficult. Even in the 1880s getting the 220 ton obelisk to Manhattan took nearly a year. This is in 1880 it traveled across the Atlantic via a specially modified ship, a 210 ton obelisk rolled out of the vessel through a hole cut in the ship’s hull, and they used cannonballs like ball bearings to get it to roll out. I can’t even picture that, isn’t it amazing? Yeah, and getting it from the dock to Central Park took another four months, specifically, 112 days. It was hauled across Manhattan with 32 horses Using a specially built system of wooden tracks, rollers and a steam powered winch, and it only crawled through New York streets at a rate of about 100 feet a
Speaker 1 12:51
day. Well, they were committed to getting that sucker up, weren’t they, that’s that’s amazing four
Bob Smith 12:56
months to get it from the dock to Central Park. It’s there today. It’s called Cleopatra’s Needle, and it was pulled up into place January 22 1881
Speaker 1 13:06
Beware of these big gifts, right? Oh, that’s great. But now, how do we do it like a white elephant gift? Yeah, can we just leave it down at the dock? John, I don’t know. Now
Bob Smith 13:15
today, if they had done that, there had been all kinds of graffiti on it on the way into Yeah. Can you imagine pulling it through New York 100 feet a day, stopping at night, and then the gangs would come out and they’re spray painting
Speaker 1 13:25
it. Well, that’s just sad. But yes, you’re probably right. It’s time for aka Bob, all right, also known as the card game that Marshall likes. This category today is us, state capitals. Okay? I mean, let’s just say, if I said Honest Abe, which capital are we talking about? Springfield,
Bob Smith 13:44
Illinois? No, well, that’s the capital of the state he was from,
Speaker 1 13:49
yeah, but that’s not the clue for the answer. Okay, this is what state capital?
Bob Smith 13:55
Oh, Lincoln. Nebraska, okay, I get it. Oh, now I understand. All
Marcia Smith 13:59
right, okay. And if I said American Discoverer
Bob Smith 14:03
Christopher Columbus, Columbus, Ohio, very good ash riser. Ash riser. You know this? Ash riser
Marcia Smith 14:12
rises from the ashes like
Bob Smith 14:15
Phoenix. That’s it. Oh, geez, Phoenix, Arizona, okay,
Speaker 1 14:19
this, you’ll have to think about Prego Ellen Page. Prego Ellen Page, yeah. You know what Prego means. It’s pregnant, yeah. And Ellen Page,
Bob Smith 14:29
yeah. She was the the actress in the film Napoleon Dynamite. No, what was that film called?
Marcia Smith 14:36
Yeah. And that’s the name of this state
Bob Smith 14:38
capital. Her dad was complaining about her shenanigans. I remember that. That’s it. You got it. I can’t remember Juneau, Juneau, Juneau, Alaska. That’s right, okay, purple grape, purple grape, purple grape.
Speaker 1 14:52
What kind of grape is? Purple Concord. That’s it. Concord. New Hampshire. There you go. Sanctified McCartney. You. A
Bob Smith 15:00
sanctified St Paul. That’s
Marcia Smith 15:05
it. Yeah, and pebble. Pebble
Bob Smith 15:08
Beach. No pebble Arkansas. What is it? What is a pebble? It’s a stone. It’s a rock. It’s what
Marcia Smith 15:16
kind of rock? Help me out here so
Bob Smith 15:19
little rock. Oh, there we go. That’s it. I was trying to think of the capital of Arkansas, Little Rock Arkansas, you go. All right, all right. Not bad, considering, not bad. That was pretty pathetic. I think. Sorry, my goodness. Marcia, what famous musician was a spy during World War Two? Oh,
Speaker 1 15:36
I knew this. Yeah, yeah. It was in a big band, right? She sang. She
Bob Smith 15:41
was a kind of a star on her own. It wasn’t Billie Holiday. No, this is World War Two. That’s right. Same era, though, yeah. Josephine Baker, famous African American singer. She moved to France in 1925 and she used her fame to work as a spy for the French Resistance during World War Two, she would often carry secret intelligence reports written in invisible ink on guess what, her sheet music. Oh, no, kidding, yeah, how cool is that? Yes, that’s wonderful. So a woman who was a patriot and in this country was really vilified because she was a black woman, yeah, black woman speaking the war I got another one here. What did FDR want World War Two to be called. You know, we think of it as the Second World War, right? He had a name. He wanted it to be
Speaker 1 16:26
called. Well, let me just take a guess here. I never heard this before. I don’t know Franklin’s folly. I don’t know what is it?
Bob Smith 16:33
No, in 1942 he wanted to call the ongoing global conflict, now known as World War Two, the survival war. Hmm. And I think he was thinking of Great Britain and Europe, you know, trying to survive. But, yeah, yeah, that was his idea for World War Two, or the Second World War.
Speaker 1 16:48
Hard to name things. If history has a different idea. Well, you
Bob Smith 16:52
don’t usually know till afterwards the First World War was called the Great War. While it was going on, right? It wasn’t the first world war because they hoped it would be the only world
Speaker 1 17:01
war. All right, ready? Yeah, how much Bob does the Earth population
Bob Smith 17:06
grow every year? How much in terms of percentage, or in terms of millions, in terms
Marcia Smith 17:13
the whole earth, okay,
Bob Smith 17:14
okay, the whole earth, yeah, we’ve got like 340 some million people here. I think it’s about 4 billion people worldwide, twice that. Really, it’s 8 billion these days, since I was born. Okay, so let’s say it’s about 50 million a year,
Speaker 1 17:30
75 million a year, 75 million more people every year. It’s the average we grow by that now. Okay,
Bob Smith 17:37
so that includes the number of people have died and the number of people have been born. And it do the math, and it comes out to 75 million. Yep, around 205,000
Speaker 1 17:45
a day. While the population continues to grow, it’s slowing down, and the United Nation projects that the population will peak in the mid 2080s and top out at around 10 point 3
Bob Smith 17:59
billion. So they don’t think more billions of people will be here than that ever.
Speaker 1 18:03
Yeah. They think it’s Yeah. They think it’s slowing down. That’s interesting. Yeah? Well, we see it in the US, for sure. Of
Bob Smith 18:10
course. Yeah. Marcia, what is the only state that borders just one other state?
Marcia Smith 18:16
Who do do that?
Bob Smith 18:19
What is the only state that borders just one other state. Yes,
Speaker 1 18:24
is it? Maine? That’s it, really, yeah, that ding, ding,
Bob Smith 18:28
ding, ding, ding, ding, Maine only shares one state border, and that’s with what’s the state it’s connected to, state
Speaker 1 18:34
that’s under it. Everybody knows, yeah. And what is that Marsh you know, sounds like? Sounds like? What? What does it sound like? What’s under there? New
Bob Smith 18:42
Hampshire, that’s it, Marcia. New Hampshire doesn’t sound like anything, yes, but it shares its northern borders with two Canadian provinces, Quebec and New Brunswick, and also connects with the Province of Nova Scotia. So it connects to three provinces of Canada, but one US state, one of the other us.
Speaker 1 19:02
I want to do that trip, go through the upper main area. What is that called New England? I want to go through New England with you in
Bob Smith 19:10
a car. Okay, that’d be fun. I’d love that. It’s beautiful, and especially in the fall, it’s beautiful, okay, okay. Who
Speaker 1 19:15
are Quentin Roosevelt, Charlie Taft and Amy Carter. And what do they all have in common? They
Bob Smith 19:22
are children of presidents. That’s correct. Carter was the one that got me. That’s Jimmy Carter’s daughter. They all have
Speaker 1 19:29
something less obvious in common that no other children of presidents have in common. They
Bob Smith 19:34
are the only children of those presidents. No, no, I
Speaker 1 19:38
don’t think that’s true. Okay, what is it? They were all presidents, kids who attended public school. Oh, no kidding. Nobody else did while living in the White House. No. So Jimmy was the last guy to say, Mike, my girl, he’s going to public children are going to public school. I it’s probably Holy hell when it comes to security, it’ll be holy hell, but I have to be that. Too bad. So. Charlie Taff and Quentin Roosevelt, because public education, public
Bob Smith 20:04
education, is peanuts compared to those expenses. Okay, Jimmy, I’m sorry, here we go. Which of the five great lakes does not share a border with the US and
Speaker 1 20:13
Canada? I would say Huron. Huron. Yes.
Bob Smith 20:18
Okay, so there are all these great lakes, lakes Erie Huron, Ontario and superior and there’s one more.
Marcia Smith 20:25
What lake would that be? The one I’m not answering? Yes,
Bob Smith 20:29
Lake Michigan. No, yes, that’s the only one entirely live on. It’s the only one that’s entirely within the United States borders. It doesn’t touch Canada, the other four Great Lakes, Lake Erie, Huron, Ontario and superior they all are shared with Canada. So as just to picture it, in case you’re geographically challenged, yeah, I’m looking at you. Lake Michigan touches four states, Michigan to its north and east, Indiana and Illinois to the south and Wisconsin to the west, but it’s in the middle of all those.
Speaker 1 21:03
Remember when we took our friend from England from the top to the bottom of Lake Michigan? She was just because all of this is the same lake, incredulous how big lake is. She loved it, yeah, she loved
Bob Smith 21:14
it. She couldn’t believe how big it was. Yeah, yeah. You’re looking at the same lake from Chicago all the way to the top of Wisconsin. Yeah. Couldn’t
Speaker 1 21:21
believe that. Okay, Bob, half the bones in our bodies, 50% are where, 50% 50%
Bob Smith 21:27
of the bones in our body are where, in two locations, actually, they’re in our feet and our hands. Very good, right?
Speaker 1 21:35
Yes, the lion’s share of those 206 bones in the human body are all in our hands and feet. Each foot contains 26 bones, and each hand contains 27 that’s a grand total of 106 in just those four extremities. Interestingly, the hand and foot are similar in terms of bone structure. Wonder if you lost a hand, if you could just transplant your
Bob Smith 21:58
foot? I think that would be rather awkward. Marcia,
Speaker 1 22:01
ugly too. It would be, yes, it was, your feet were really pretty. Okay. Does anyone have feet that pretty? No, I
Bob Smith 22:07
don’t think I always heard about that’s like her feet are so delicate. Really, I’ve never seen anybody’s feet that I thought were just the most beautiful things. Somebody
Speaker 1 22:14
complimented my feet once the girlfriend said I had very pretty feet, but I never heard it from you, Bob
Bob Smith 22:20
can let’s move on. I think your feet are just wonderful. Oh, my God. How do I get out of this?
Marcia Smith 22:28
You did it. That was okay. There’s another one. Marsh. Okay,
Bob Smith 22:31
okay. Another state question. The smallest state by area is Rhode Island. So what is the second smallest? In fact, what are the top five smallest states in square miles.
Marcia Smith 22:42
The five top you want me to name five states. I’ve given you one. You know what?
Bob Smith 22:46
One of them is, Rhode Island, okay. Number one, 20% you got 20% right now? Marsh, okay, tell me the other states that are small. New
Marcia Smith 22:55
Hampshire. That’s one. Connecticut, yep.
Bob Smith 22:58
Two more
Marcia Smith 23:00
in that area of the country, all over in the East there,
Bob Smith 23:03
yes, once across the river from New York, New Jersey. Yeah, okay. Said, and what? No, you didn’t. And the smallest state after Rhode Island is, sounds like, sounds like, it’s the place where there are more US corporations formed there than any other state, Delaware, Delaware, that’s right. So the top ones are the smallest state is Rhode Island. The next smallest is Delaware, with Connecticut, New Jersey and New Hampshire, rounding out the smallest five states.
Speaker 1 23:32
All right, okay, Bob, this will interest you. Why were so many photographs sepia tone in the 1800s
Bob Smith 23:41
I think that was just the technology at the time, or perhaps it was the way the photographs aged just like a rust.
Speaker 1 23:49
Oh no, that’s not it. Okay. What was it? Despite their remarkable ability to capture detail, early black and white photos were highly susceptible to environmental damage over time. Exposure to light, heat and air, caused the silver particles to oxidize, leading to fading and discoloration of photos. That’s exactly what I said. No, that reason that sepia tone was created was to end that damage. Oh, really, yeah, you were on the right track. Oh, okay, go ahead. To address this issue, photographers developed a technique known as toning, a process that involved treating photographic prints with chemical solutions, both to enhance their color and improve their longevity. Sepia Toning named after the ink. This is funny, the ink from the cuttlefish specie known as cuttlefish. Its official name is the sepia oficinalis. So that’s where sepia tone comes in. It became one of the most effective and widely adopted methods of toning. The whole process remained in widespread use well into the 20th century, allowing countless photographs to survive to the present day.
Bob Smith 24:56
So Sepia Toning was a way to arrest the degradation. In of the photograph kind of froze it in time,
Marcia Smith 25:03
right? Huh? And that’s from the cuttlefish.
Bob Smith 25:07
It funny. You said adding color. And I think that’s a lousy color to add to pictures, brown, yeah, but that was before Technicolor and all the other things came in. Well, that’s fascinating. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 25:17
You’re welcome, Bob, all right, here’s a little quickie. Bob, what happens to any free moving liquid in space? Any free moving liquid in space? What happens to it?
Bob Smith 25:26
I would imagine it kind of turns into bubbles and keeps floating. It dissipates.
Speaker 1 25:31
It turns itself into a certain shape. What is it?
Bob Smith 25:35
A trapezoid? No. A pyramid, no. An oblong,
Speaker 1 25:39
no. What circle a sphere? Because of the surface tension in outer space, any kind of liquid will automatically turn into a sphere. So
Bob Smith 25:49
everything becomes a ball. Yeah, I wonder if we become a ball, if our bodies would explode or something. Well, let’s go. No, no, no, no, there’s Bob out there. Bob the Bob. I see him. Bob the Bob, floating
Speaker 1 26:00
away. Time for my quotes. Bob, okay, okay, today it’s on marriage. Bob, and let’s see. These are all unknown authors, for obvious reasons, probably okay, marriage is like a walk in the park, Jurassic Park.
Bob Smith 26:18
I love that. That’s hilarious.
Speaker 1 26:19
This is us. 90% of being married is just shouting, what from the other rooms?
Bob Smith 26:28
I’m sorry, the other room, even on intercoms in our house. Why? What? I’m up here. What’s up? Oh,
Speaker 1 26:37
and this is a sweet one. A good marriage is one where each partner secretly suspects they got the better
Bob Smith 26:43
deal. Oh, that’s sweet. Well, that’s true. I think we both felt that way. We hope you felt you got a good deal by listening to us today. And we invite you to participate if you’d like to to send us interesting fact that you want me to stump Marsha with. Of course, that’s the preferred method. That’s the best method. Or if you want to give her something to stop me with, send us the question, the answer and where you got that information by going to our website, the off ramp, dot show and go to contact us and give us the information. We love to hear from you. Well, that’s it for today. I’m Bob Smith. I’m Marcia Smith. Please join us again next time when we return with more fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia here on The Off Ramp.
Bob Smith 27:34
The Off Ramp is produced in association with the Cedarburg Public Library, Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Visit us on the web at www.theofframp.show
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
