Bob and Marcia Smith celebrate their 300th show with tantalizing trivia and fascinating facts. They discuss the origin of Maybelline, named after Mabel Williams, and its founder’s innovative mascara. They explore Iceland’s high literacy rate and Christmas book tradition. Michael Phelps broke a 2000-year-old Olympic record with his 13th gold medal in 2016. They delve into the history of handshakes, New York City’s linguistic diversity, and the Hollywood sign’s pranks. They also correct a previous error about West Virginia’s panhandles. The show concludes with trivia on mollusks and slang terms.
Outline
Maybelline’s Origin and Evolution
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about a cosmetic brand named after its founder’s sister.
- Marcia Smith guesses incorrectly, and Bob reveals it is Maybelline, named after Mabel Williams.
- Bob explains the origin of Maybelline, inspired by Mabel’s kitchen accident and her homemade makeup.
- Thomas Lyle Williams, Mabel’s brother, founded Maybelline Labs to manufacture the first mascara product, Lash Brow Ine – the last name of the product referred to an ingredient – Vaseline. When he renamed his company after his sister he kept the Vaseline reference: Mabelline.
Iceland’s Literary Reputation
- Marcia Smith shares a trivia question about a country with more authors per capita than any other.
- Bob Smith guesses incorrectly, and Marcia reveals it is Iceland.
- Iceland is known for its high literacy rate and tradition of storytelling, influenced by Family Sagas.
- During the Christmas season, Icelanders give books, leading to a tradition called the Christmas book flood.
Michael Phelps’ Olympic Record
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about a 2000-year-old Olympic record broken in 2016.
- Marcia guesses it is related to running, and Bob reveals it is the total number of medals.
- Michael Phelps broke the record with his 13th individual Olympic gold medal in 2016.
- The previous record holder was Leonidas of Rhodes, who won 12 gold medals in 152 BC.
Handshakes and Their History
- Marcia Smith asks about the origin of handshakes.
- Bob Smith explains that handshakes originated in Babylonia around the 9th century BC as a symbol of peace and trust.
- The handshake was a nonverbal way to demonstrate that hands were empty and had no weapons.
- Bob mentions Confucius’s idea of not having weapons at the table, leading to the use of chopsticks in China.
Maybelline’s Marketing and Legacy
- Bob Smith shares more facts about Maybelline, including its early marketing strategies.
- Thomas Lyle Williams worked with film actresses like Gloria Swanson, Betty Grable, and Joan Crawford.
- During the Depression, Maybelline downsized its products to match consumers’ purchasing power.
- The company was sold to Plow Incorporated in 1967 for $136 million, enriching the Williams family and employees.
New York City’s Distinctions
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the population of New York City.
- Marcia guesses one out of 100 Americans live in New York City, and Bob reveals it is one out of every 38 Americans.
- New York City is the most linguistically diverse city on Earth, with more than 800 languages spoken.
- Four in 10 households in New York City use a language other than English at home.
Pinball Machines and New York City
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about a US city that prohibited pinball machines until 1976.
- Bob reveals it is New York City, which banned pinball machines due to their association with gambling.
- Marcia shares a personal story about having a pinball machine in her bedroom and dancing on the bar during New Year’s Eve.
- Bob mentions that New York City is home to 8 million people within its five boroughs.
Hollywood Sign Pranks
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about a prank involving the Hollywood sign.
- Marcia guesses it was related to the train station, and Bob reveals it was the Hollywood sign.
- In 1987, pranksters altered the sign to read Holywood to welcome Pope John Paul II.
- The city workers removed the tarp at 9am, 90 minutes before the Pope’s motorcade passed through the area.
West Virginia Trivia Correction
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss a correction from a listener about West Virginia’s panhandles.
- Charlotte Richards, an aficionado of West Virginia trivia, points out that the Eastern panhandle does not go to the Atlantic Ocean.
- The Mason-Dixon Line, not the West Virginia panhandle, goes to the ocean.
- Bob and Marcia thank Charlotte for the correction and appreciate her knowledge of West Virginia history.
Slang Terms and Mollusks
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the origin of the term “anti-virus.”
- Marcia reveals it was a medical term coined in 1914, long before computers.
- Bob shares that the terms “spaceship” and “astronaut” were coined in the 1880s, 23 years before the first airplane.
- Marcia provides random facts about mollusks, including that there are 50,000 known marine mollusk species and the biggest mollusk is a giant clam weighing 440 pounds.
Bob Smith 0:00
What famous cosmetic brand was named after its founder’s sister?
Marcia Smith 0:05
And this country has more authors per capita than any country in the world.
Bob Smith 0:10
Really? That’s interesting, Answers to those and other questions coming up in this episode of the off ramp with Bob and
Marcia Smith 0:16
Marcia
Bob Smith 0:17
Smith.
Bob Smith 0:17
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. And Marcia, bBefore we get started today, I have to remind you, this is our 300th show.
Marcia Smith 0:49
Wow, that’s amazing, and I’m ready for it.
Marcia Smith 0:56
All right, yes,
Bob Smith 0:57
Noise makers. Crazy noise makers.
Marcia Smith 0:59
And we’ll have an office party tonight and go out for a really nice dinner.
Bob Smith 1:02
Okay, that sounds good, but who’s going to clean up all this confetti you just threw all over everything? All right, here’s my first question, what cosmetic brand was named after its founder’s sister? Now, she had a kitchen accident. That’s what led to the cosmetics.
Bob Smith 1:18
It’s not Estee Lauder.
Marcia Smith 1:19
No, it’s not Estee Lauder.
Marcia Smith 1:20
Cause that was her.
Bob Smith 1:23
I’ll tell you what her name was. Maybe that’ll help you. Maybe her name was Mabel.
Marcia Smith 1:29
Oh, Mable cosmetics.
Bob Smith 1:31
Maybelline!
Marcia Smith 1:31
Oh, really? Yeah, I didn’t put it together.
Bob Smith 1:34
I never put it together either. But Maybelline was inspired by a young woman named Mabel Williams, and according to a book written by her grand niece, if Mabel had not singed the hair off her eyebrows and lashes in a 1915 kitchen fire, there would be no Maybelline eye makeup today.
Marcia Smith 1:51
That’s a good story
Bob Smith 1:53
Her brother was watching. They lived in Chicago. He was the entrepreneur. He was watching as she used a technique she had read about in photoplay magazine,
Marcia Smith 2:01
Oh, I read that.
Bob Smith 2:02
She mixed ash from burnt cork and coal dust and Vaseline, and she applied it to her missing eyebrows and lashes. And Thomas Lyle Williams, he was fascinated by how that enhanced her eyes. He replicated her homemade product. And then he started a company called Maybel Labs, in honor of his sister, to manufacture the first mascara product for American women, something called Lash Brow Ine – I N, E. And the last word spell I-N-E played off of Vaseline. So that’s where Maybelline comes from.
Marcia Smith 2:33
I hope she got a cut.
Bob Smith 2:34
Oh yeah, she became part of the company. We’ll talk about that a little later.
Marcia Smith 2:37
Okay, very interesting. Okay, Bob, this country has more authors per capita than any country in the whole world.
Bob Smith 2:44
Would that be a Western country like Western Europe, somewhere or or the United States, somewhere in the Americas? Maybe?
Marcia Smith 2:51
Nope, not in the Americas.
Bob Smith 2:53
Well, it’s not France or England or Germany. It’s something different than that, right? Could it be one of the Eastern European countries like the Czech Republic?
Marcia Smith 3:01
Nope.
Bob Smith 3:02
Oh. Okay, so we’re talking about Norway, Sweden, Denmark, somewhere up there?
Marcia Smith 3:06
North.
Bob Smith 3:06
I’ll say Denmark.
Marcia Smith 3:08
North.
Bob Smith 3:09
Finland.
Marcia Smith 3:10
North.
Bob Smith 3:10
Russia.
Marcia Smith 3:11
No
Bob Smith 3:12
Where?
Marcia Smith 3:12
Iceland.
Bob Smith 3:13
Iceland ?Okay
Marcia Smith 3:16
You got most of the world there, though, Bob,
Bob Smith 3:17
Yeah, I guess.
Marcia Smith 3:18
Iceland is often called the Land of Fire and Ice, describing two of the nation’s most prominent geological features, volcanoes and glaciers.
Bob Smith 3:26
Yes
Marcia Smith 3:27
But in recent years, the world’s 18th largest island has gotten a new reputation for readers and book lovers, and it’s because this country has more authors per capita than any country in the world.
Bob Smith 3:40
It’s got one of the most literate societies too,
Marcia Smith 3:42
Almost 100%
Bob Smith 3:44
Almost everybody knows how to read and write
Marcia Smith 3:46
100%. It’s estimated that on an island with a population of around 372,500 people, one in 10 of them will write a book.
Bob Smith 3:56
Wow
Marcia Smith 3:57
In their lifetime, they’re gonna publish a book.
Bob Smith 3:59
That’s amazing.
Marcia Smith 4:00
Not just write it, but publish it. Icelanders love of reading is culturally ingrained in the country, and it’s likely that storytelling became a tradition thanks to Family Sagas passed from generation to generations. That’s like the Indians passing on the stories, right?
Bob Smith 4:14
Yeah, yeah.
Marcia Smith 4:17
Describing how the first Icelanders found and adapted the land from 930 to 1030 CE Common Era. Anyway, poetry and storytelling became a popular way for them to keep their stories alive.
Bob Smith 4:30
And that’s why they have that kind of culture. Now,
Marcia Smith 4:32
that’s right, this is cute. On the holiday season, they have a tradition of giving their family and friends books on Christmas Eve, sort of like this house.
Bob Smith 4:42
Yes, yes.
Marcia Smith 4:42
And the holiday season, strain on publishers is so great and so many books are gifted that the tradition has its own name. Joe lab Baca flood, the Christmas book flood.
Bob Smith 4:54
Oh, really, the Christmas book flood.
Marcia Smith 4:57
The publishers can’t keep up at Christmas time.
Bob Smith 4:57
What a healthy thing to have happen in your country.
Marcia Smith 4:58
What a nice thing to be known for that’s great, besides ice and volcanoes.
Bob Smith 5:06
Well, that alone is an interesting thing too, to have volcanoes and glaciers, and then you have this culture of reading. Fascinating! Marcia. What 2000 year old Olympic record was finally broken in 2016?
Marcia Smith 5:20
Ah, it wasn’t for curling. Well, it has to be running, right?
Bob Smith 5:27
Actually, it’s the total number of medals. Someone broke the total number of medals record.
Marcia Smith 5:32
Okay
Bob Smith 5:33
In 2016 it was Michael Phelps.
Marcia Smith 5:35
Yeah, I was gonna say that.
Bob Smith 5:36
He won his record breaking 13th individual Olympic gold medal. And I’ll tell you who the previous record holder was. It was that famous athlete we all know, Leonidas of Rhodes.
Marcia Smith 5:48
Leonidas of Rhodes
Bob Smith 5:50
Leonidas who won his 12th gold medal in 152 BC,
Marcia Smith 5:54
Gee, Michael, imagine that you broke a 2000 year old record. That’s something to be proud of.
Bob Smith 5:59
Now, Michael Phelps’s medals came from four event types that he won multiple times, across the 2004 2008 2012 and 2016 Olympics, those were all variations of the butterfly, individual medley and freestyle swimming events. So I looked into Leonidas of Rhodes because I wondered what events he won.
Marcia Smith 6:17
Yeah.
Bob Smith 6:18
Well, I found the answer in an article on ancient.net there’s actually a website called that.
Marcia Smith 6:23
Was this one of your 4am scrolls?
Bob Smith 6:25
No this was recently, and the article is called The Greatest Runner You Never Heard Of. He won the same three foot races. The three events he won were in 164, 161, 156 and 152 BC. There’s actually records that go back that far ! The Olympics, the ancient Olympic records exist! So they know who won these things in 164, 161, 156 and 152 BC. They got medals back then. So Leonidas, or Leonidas of Rhodes,
Marcia Smith 6:55
Okay, Bob, I’m big on handshakes as an expression of Glad to meet you, thank you or whatever. So how long has civilization been doing this? And who started it?
Bob Smith 7:05
Handshakes. They go back thousands of years. Maybe it was the Greeks. The Greeks were, oh, wait a minute. I think it goes back to Babylon somewhere back there.
Marcia Smith 7:15
What are you reading my copy here?
Bob Smith 7:17
No, I’m not reading your copy. I read history all the time. Yes,
Marcia Smith 7:20
Yes, you do.
Bob Smith 7:21
Okay. Tell me,
Marcia Smith 7:22
Okay. The handshake originated thousands of years ago, with evidence dating back to the fifth century BC, and likely earlier in Babylonia, – the ninth century BC – as a symbol of peace, trust and binding agreements. It was a nonverbal way to demonstrate that hands were empty and had no weapons in them.
Bob Smith 7:25
Yes, yes.
Marcia Smith 7:30
Or to check for hidden daggers by grasping their forearms as you shook their hand.
Bob Smith 7:49
Oh!
Marcia Smith 7:49
Because those tricky Romans used to carry daggers in their right wristbands, and so they would grasp each other’s weaponed hand as a non threatening sign of goodwill. So it’s a way to check for weapons. That’s the origin
Bob Smith 8:05
We had that not long ago, about Confucius saying it was a good idea not to have weapons at the table. That’s why they went to chopsticks in China.
Marcia Smith 8:12
That’s exactly right.
Bob Smith 8:13
Just amazing, isn’t it?
Marcia Smith 8:14
Yes, it is.
Bob Smith 8:15
Okay. Marcia back to Maybelline. Some interesting facts about this. Back when he introduced mascara, he said in those days, only two types of women enhanced their eyelashes, actresses and women outside the pale of good society. In other words, ladies of the night. Very few women used rouges, lipsticks, eye beautifiers. Hence, the real job began. I was faced with the job of selling women on the idea it was perfectly moral to use eye beautifiers. So what he did was, he started working with film actresses, first with stars like Gloria Swanson in the silent era, then Betty Grable and Joan Crawford. And Maybelline flourished, and it remained a family business for 50 years. And here was an interesting thing, when the Depression hit, they downsized their products so the prices could match consumers’ purchasing power, which had been reduced. During the Depression, a smaller version of its original 75 cent mascara box could sell for 10 cents.
Marcia Smith 9:11
Oh, wow.
Bob Smith 9:11
That’s how they stayed alive, and that enriched the Williams family, including Mabel and her husband, and
Marcia Smith 9:17
you know, Bob, Maybelline, is still a very well priced product. It’s not very expensive, and it’s one of the best mascaras out there, bar none.
Bob Smith 9:25
He pioneered so many things celebrity faces before and after, advertising like here’s what she looked like before she had Maybelline. They were the first cosmetics company to do radio advertising, and that building where they were headquartered for years. The Maybelline M is still carved in stone above the door, you can find it’s just a normal office building. People walk by every day, and in that part of Chicago.
Marcia Smith 9:49
Oh, that’s very cool.
Bob Smith 9:50
Tom Lyle and the family sold Maybelline to plow Incorporated, which paid 136 million in cash and stock. It’s about a billion dollars in today’s money, and this was back. In 1967 and his niece just wrote a book about the Maybelline story. She idolized her uncle. She interviewed all these former employees, found out everybody liked him. Former employees say Tom Lyle made sure everybody benefited. Workers received generous sums for every year they’d been with the company, and the stockholders benefited even more. He had incorporated Maybelline in 1954 and he divided the stock among the family and the employees who’d been with them for years. So even a stock boy received a million dollars.
Marcia Smith 10:30
A stock boy?
Bob Smith 10:30
A stock boy,
Marcia Smith 10:31
A million. Oh, my God.
Bob Smith 10:34
So he was good to the people loyal to Maybelline. It was apparently a very good family company.
Marcia Smith 10:38
Wouldn’t you have hated to have left the company a few months before he sold it. You shoot yourself. Amazing.
Bob Smith 10:46
All right, there. So that’s a that’s the story of Maybelline. That book, by the way, is called the Maybelline story by Sherry Williams, Tom Lyle’s grand niece, published in 2010 by Betty young books.
Marcia Smith 10:59
Okay, ready for some quick where in the worlds.
Bob Smith 11:02
Okay, where in the world?
Marcia Smith 11:03
Three clues. Clue one Bob, the first city to receive a Royal Gold Medal for architecture by the Royal Institute of British architects in 1999 .
Bob Smith 11:15
1999?
Marcia Smith 11:16
Yeah. What city is this?
Bob Smith 11:18
So that’s recent.
Marcia Smith 11:19
Yeah.
Bob Smith 11:19
Thank God, architect. Is it one of the cities in the Middle East? It has all the buildings that are new?
Marcia Smith 11:24
No. Clue two, it is the home of God. Is Sagrada Familia?
Bob Smith 11:29
Well, of course, what the heck is that?
Marcia Smith 11:32
It’s a famous family G, A, u, d, i, s, okay. Clue three, this city’s football stadium is Camp Nou, n-o-u.
Bob Smith 11:42
Camp Nou, I don’t know.
Marcia Smith 11:44
It’s Barcelona.
Bob Smith 11:45
Oh, okay.
Marcia Smith 11:46
We don’t know much about that.
Bob Smith 11:47
Well, I know there’s a lot of beautiful design in Spain. There, really is. It’s amazing. You know, the Getty Museum’s got a place there.
Marcia Smith 11:54
Okay, clue one, the lion guarded Chain Bridge is one of this city’s most recognizable features.
Bob Smith 12:00
The lion guarded Chain Bridge.
Marcia Smith 12:03
Yeah
Bob Smith 12:03
Is this in Budapest?
Marcia Smith 12:05
Yes, figured you’d get that include,
Bob Smith 12:06
I remember that one.
Marcia Smith 12:07
We actually saw it.
Bob Smith 12:08
Yes.
Marcia Smith 12:09
Okay, last one.
Bob Smith 12:11
Okay.
Marcia Smith 12:11
Clue one. BMW has its headquarters in this city
Bob Smith 12:16
That’s in Germany. Stuttgart?
Marcia Smith 12:20
No, the City Central Square is the Marion Platz.
Bob Smith 12:25
Marion Platz. Gosh, where would that be? That’s not Berlin, is it?
Marcia Smith 12:28
Nope. Last, last clue, okay, home of the Oktoberfest.
Bob Smith 12:33
Oh, Munich, yeah. Oh, very good. Okay, good. Well, thank you. Thank you for giving me those.
Marcia Smith 12:39
You got one in one, one in three and one none. So that was a good spread out of your world knowledge.
Marcia Smith 12:46
Marcia, you grew up in a bar, right,
Marcia Smith 12:46
Correct.
Bob Smith 12:46
OK, well, and then you had pinball machine there too, didn’t you?
Marcia Smith 12:51
Yes.
Bob Smith 12:51
Okay, so I’m going to ask you a question about pinball.
Marcia Smith 12:54
Okay,
Bob Smith 12:54
What major U.S city prohibited pinball machines until 1976. You’ll be very surprised.
Marcia Smith 13:04
What US city?
Bob Smith 13:06
What US city would say, No pinball machines here.
Marcia Smith 13:09
It wasn’t Las Vegas.
Bob Smith 13:10
No, not Las Vegas.
Marcia Smith 13:12
Was it out west?
Bob Smith 13:13
No, it wasn’t out west.
Marcia Smith 13:14
Was it out east?
Bob Smith 13:15
It was out east.
Marcia Smith 13:17
New York City.
Bob Smith 13:18
That’s exactly right!
Marcia Smith 13:19
Really?
Bob Smith 13:20
I know it’s hard to believe pinball machines were against the law in New York City for more than 30 years, and here’s why, back in 1942 the city leaders considered pinball as a form of gambling. City leaders, being mayor, Fiorello La Guardia – had very big opinions on things. He ordered pinball machines banned. So for more than 30 years, they kind of disappeared from public view until 1976
Marcia Smith 13:45
it’s hard to believe. And you know, one of my fondest memories of living behind the bar is having a pinball machine put into my bedroom at night so there was room for dancing out on the bar.
Bob Smith 13:55
And that was when New Year’s Eve, wasn’t it?
Marcia Smith 13:57
Yeah
Bob Smith 13:58
It wasn’t like every night there was dancing on the bar.
Marcia Smith 13:59
No, it was dancing in the bar. Okay? Actually, nobody danced on the bar, except when Milwaukee Braves won the World Series and my mother danced on the bar.
Bob Smith 14:09
Okay, we have to tell that story, because that’s so hilarious.
Marcia Smith 14:11
Okay, I was a little girl, a very little girl, and I was kind of embarrassed living behind a tavern, and I was bringing a new friend home for the first time, and I was telling her and convincing her that my family was just like anybody else’s. We have a nice little home here, normal people, normal people. And we walked in to get into my house through the back of the tavern there. And we walked in and there was my mother wrapped in a red wool blanket with a full Indian headdress on her head, going,
Bob Smith 14:41
walking up and down the bar, skipping up and down the bar. And that was when the Braves won the World Series Yes.
Speaker 1 14:48
And my girlfriend said, Who is that? Is my mother.
Bob Smith 14:54
I thought I’d never get over it. One of the best stories I’ve ever heard anybody tell this
Marcia Smith 14:59
bringing a kid home. Them for the first time. Oh my god, seeing your family out of control.
Bob Smith 15:03
We’re absolutely normal. It’s just like your family. I don’t think so. All right, two more things about New York, Marcia, okay, roughly one out of how many Americans live in New York City?
Marcia Smith 15:14
Oh gosh, one out of 100
Bob Smith 15:18
now there’s 8 million people there, okay, one out of 500 No, no. One out of every 38 Americans live in New York City within its five boroughs. And what distinction does New York City have regarding languages?
Marcia Smith 15:32
It has more language spoken than any city in America.
Bob Smith 15:35
It has more languages spoken than any city on Earth. Oh, really, it’s the most linguistically diverse city on Earth. More than 800 languages are spoken there. In fact, four in 10 households use a language other than English. At home in New York City, that’s very American. They should tell us, this is really a nation of immigrants. Are we ready for a break? Yes, it’s time for a break. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith, we’ll be back in just a moment. Okay, we’ve taken a break, and now we’re back. We’re back. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith. We do this for the Cedarburg Public Library, Cedarburg, Wisconsin, every week. After that, we put it on podcast platforms where it’s heard all over the world. Okay, Marcia,
Marcia Smith 16:20
it’s time for AKA, also known as one of my favorite card games. And so I’m going to give you a word. It’s also known as something else. So for instance, the category today is types of beds. Types of beds, beds, beds. Keep in mind, beds can have many different meanings.
Bob Smith 16:38
That’s true. That’s true. Yeah, not just something to sleep on, correct?
Marcia Smith 16:41
Okay, if I said male monarch, what kind of bed am I talking about?
Bob Smith 16:45
A butterfly bed, a male monarch. Oh, a king’s bed, yes, okay,
Marcia Smith 16:52
okay, you got it? H, 2o
Bob Smith 16:55
a water bed. That’s right. Okay.
Marcia Smith 16:58
What about 24 hours a
Bob Smith 17:01
clock, bed, clock, bed, 24 hours a day bed. That’s it. Okay, very good. Okay.
Marcia Smith 17:08
You ever watch Bambi? Yes, of course. Okay, this is Bambi skunk. What kind of bed am I talking about?
Bob Smith 17:15
A flower bed. That’s it. You remember? Oh, I remember that. He says, My name’s flower Oh,
Marcia Smith 17:20
I had no idea what that was. Oh, I
Bob Smith 17:22
saw that as a kid. I never forgotten that that’s such a funny little Oh, it’s a character that laughs. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 17:26
Thing I did love that movie the late Mr. Phoenix. What kind of bed are we talking about? The late Mr. Phoenix? Yeah. Phoenix, yeah. He was an actor. He died. His first name was River.
Bob Smith 17:39
Oh, yes. River Phoenix, okay, so the bed is a river bed,
Marcia Smith 17:43
that’s correct. All right. How about a Minnesota baseball player? What kind of bed are we talking about?
Bob Smith 17:48
A twin bed, correct? And hey, I’m pretty good at this one. Okay. Oh, there he goes. That was a
Marcia Smith 17:53
mistake to say that. Here’s the last one, okay, uncarbonated What kind of bed are we talking about an
Bob Smith 18:01
uncarbonated bed, yeah, a flat bed.
Marcia Smith 18:04
That’s it. Okay, I had an extra clue for
Bob Smith 18:07
you, if you could, I was waiting for a flower bed. That’s the one I was waiting for you. Okay, okay. All right. Very good. Bob, all right. Marcia, I have a question about pranksters. Okay, how did Los Angeles pranksters alter the city’s most iconic landmark to welcome a visiting Pope. Now, this went back to 1987
Marcia Smith 18:27
Well, was it like the train station or something?
Bob Smith 18:30
No, what’s the most iconic thing that says Los Angeles?
Marcia Smith 18:33
Oh, it’s the Hollywood sign. Yes. Okay. What did they do for the Pope? Did that one defend him? I don’t know. What did they do?
Bob Smith 18:43
Okay? Well, for a few hours on the morning of September 15, 1987 the Hollywood sign read, Holywood.
Marcia Smith 18:51
Oh, that’s funny. They covered up one of the L,
Bob Smith 18:53
yes, a group of nine pranksters hiked up to the sign under the cover of darkness, and they covered the second L in the sign with a large sheet of black landscaping plastic. They effectively hid the L from view, and then they tied the plastic down with twine, and then they left. That’s great. And according to an anonymous caller, the job took all of 10 minutes, and for several hours, LA’s Hollywood sign read holy wood, a nod to that day’s visit from Pope John Paul the second. Now it was harmless enough, but the city had to react, of course. Oh, yeah. So the city workers removed the tarp at 9am 90 minutes before the Pope’s motorcade passed through the area. That’s too bad, so the pope never saw it. Oh, I think he would have left. Now, do you think there’s any other times they’ve ever altered that sign and what it’s happened to it? Probably okay. Any ideas? Nope. In 1976 an art student used $50 worth of bed sheets to turn the 2o into E’s, making it say Holly weed. That happened again in 2017 and in 2021 a group advocating Breast Cancer Awareness changed the W and D to. Bees. So the sign read Holly boob ways. The Hollywood Sign has been pranked over the years.
Marcia Smith 20:08
They’re very interesting. Speaking of interesting, we did hear from one of our listeners, didn’t we? Bob, Oh, that’s right, I’m sorry. That’s right, we have a correction to do on panhandles, I believe
Bob Smith 20:18
you’re right. Marcia, we did make a mistake. Okay, I made a mistake, and we got a very nice note on our off ramp Contact Form from our website, from a woman named Charlotte Richards. She is an aficionado of West Virginia trivia, and she knew I made a mistake. She goes Bob and Marcia. I love your podcast, but I hate to point this out in Episode 299 you spoke of West Virginia having two panhandles. Yes, it does, but the Eastern handle does not go to the Atlantic Ocean. The Mason Dixon Line does go to the ocean, but the border of West Virginia at the Panhandle connects to Maryland and Pennsylvania. So thank you so much to Charlotte for telling us that we do want to be corrected. Yes, and she said she’s sorry, but I do love my West Virginia history and knowledge. Thank you for sending that in. Thanks a lot, Charlotte. We appreciate you giving us that information and correcting us. Yes, we do want to know when we’ve made a mistake, or Bob has this well, especially when I’ve made a mistake.
Marcia Smith 21:17
Okay, Bob, why? Why are the abbreviations for pound and ounce, lb and oz, respectively. These are standard
Bob Smith 21:26
internationally, but they started in England, right? LB lib the answer to your question is no, oh, really. Okay, tell me the answer. I don’t know. The answer comes
Marcia Smith 21:35
from ancient Rome and was lifted from the Latin language a pound of weight was called Libra pando. Libra L, B, okay, that lifted that and an ounce. O, Z, for the word comes from medieval Italy and comes from the word onsa, O, N, Z, a, oh, really, which, back then, was 1/12 of the Roman pound. Today it’s 1/16 of a pound, but they kept the abbreviation still applies.
Bob Smith 22:03
Well, that’s interesting. That’s very good, cozy. All right. All right, Marcia, we’ve been to Los Angeles, and we’ve been to Rodeo Drive many times. Didn’t shop there, but we’ve been there. We look, we looked there, we looked so most people have heard of it, the exclusive shopping area in Los Angeles. And I was wondering the other day, how did it get its name? Was there a rodeo there at one time? That would be funny. So do you know the answer?
Marcia Smith 22:27
Did it have something to do with a famous cowboy back in Hollywood, way back when
Bob Smith 22:32
it goes back further than that, and it uses the correct Spanish pronunciation for the word rodeo. Is the way you pronounce it in Spanish. But Beverly Hills occupies land that was once part of the Spanish land grant known as Rancho rodeo de las aguas, which means ranch of the gathering waters. Now this confused me. Rancho means ranch Yeah. Agua means water yeah, the ranch of rodeo water. What did rodeo mean? Well, in standard Spanish rodeo comes from the verb rodir, meaning to surround or go around. So Rancho rodeo agua means where the water rounded together, it comes together in a basin. So that’s where Rodeo Drive gets its name, a ranch where water’s rounded together and the rodeos those competitive exhibitions of horseback riding and cattle handling skills. They began as round ups. So the word round is there too circling the cattle to bring them together.
Marcia Smith 23:31
Okay, Bob, who was Crispus at
Bob Smith 23:34
tux, he was a black man who was killed in the Boston Massacre.
Marcia Smith 23:37
See, I thought you say the inventor of Rice Krispies.
Bob Smith 23:42
No, he was Crispus Attucks, and he was one of the men who were killed when the British soldiers fired on the Americans who were throwing snowballs at them.
Marcia Smith 23:51
He was a man of African and wampanoagie Indian descent, and he was the first casualty of the Revolutionary War. Pretty ironic, isn’t it? Yes, those two descents of his at the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770
Bob Smith 24:08
that’s where the British soldiers overreacted. Crispus Attucks, but I never heard him, but you had, yeah, very well known name in American history. Okay, all right, Marcia, I have some slang words for you. Kind of interesting here. Okay, when do you think the word anti virus entered the vocabulary anti virus? When did it enter the was it 10 years ago? 50 years ago? 100 years ago? No, okay, it entered. It entered the it was a medical term coined in 1914, okay, so it’s long before computers. We think about that antivirus. I was thinking of sickness, medicine, yeah, well, it was back then. Oh, okay, 1914 by the way, was the same year that the term time travel was coined. All right, spaceship and astronaut. When did these terms come about? Any idea, what year were both of these terms invented? According to the Oxford in. English dictionary, spaceship and astronaut, I would think like the 20s or the 30s or the 50s, right?
Marcia Smith 25:06
All right. So, 1800s 1890s
Bob Smith 25:09
That’s right, 1880s there you go. Yeah. 23 years before the first airplane, the term spaceship and astronaut were used, and they were fantasy terms at the time. Oh, spaceship in books, literature, right? And I have one more for you. What slang word for business was coined when Abraham Lincoln was President, first coined when Abraham Lincoln was president the biz that was coined in 1862 by the American humorist Charles Farrar Brown, who we all better know as Artemis Ward, and he was a favorite of Abraham Lincoln in 1862 he coined the term biz writing. I must go forth to my biz that was in one of his books. So that’s when we started calling business biz. Like, give somebody the business or I got some biz to do.
Marcia Smith 25:53
Okay, yes, Bob, moving on to something a little more important. I’m going to give you some random facts on mollusks. Oh, I can’t wait. I’ll do it quickly and painlessly. Did you know there are 50,000 known marine mollusk species? I had no idea, 50,000 different ones. And how big do you think is the biggest? The biggest mollusk is a giant clam, and it weighs 440 pounds. Oh, my goodness. Now, that’s one hell of a mollusk. That’s a big mollusk. And my last one eggs produced by a female oyster each year. Bob, 50 to 100 million.
Bob Smith 26:31
Well, well, we’ve learned a lot about mollusks
Marcia Smith 26:34
on this show, female oyster, dear.
Bob Smith 26:37
All right, I think it’s time for some goodbye quotes.
Marcia Smith 26:40
Okay? Quotes. All right, finishing up with my quotes, this one is near and dear to our heart. Grandparenting. Tony Campolo said grandchildren are God’s reward for not killing your kids. Okay, here’s one from an unknown if I had known grandchildren, were this much fun. I would have had them first. That’s right, this one’s for you, Bob, a grandfather is someone with silver in his hair and gold in his heart.
Bob Smith 27:13
You had me crying with silver. All right, that’s sweet. I love that. Thank you so much, Marsh, and thank you for listening today. I’m Bob Smith and I’m Marcia Smith. Join us again next time when we return with more fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia here on the off ramp, mollusks, come on.
Marcia Smith 27:33
All right, come on. It’s important stuff to know this. I guess
Bob Smith 27:39
the off ramp is produced in association with the Cedarburg Public Library Cedarburg Wisconsin. Visit us on the web at the offramp. Dot show.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
