Bob and Marcia Smith discuss various historical and trivia topics. They explore the Brooklyn Bridge, which was stress-tested by 21 elephants in 1884, and the only president with military service in both World Wars, Dwight D. Eisenhower. They delve into the origins of terms like “jumbo,” “love seat,” and “confab,” and the Statue of Liberty’s construction. They also touch on the fastest human speed, achieved by Apollo 10 at 24,816 mph, and the origin of phrases like “dead as a door nail.” Additionally, they mention the rapid growth of bamboo and the unique habits of Alpine swifts.
Outline
Brooklyn Bridge Stress Test
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the famous high-tech bridge stress tested by 21 elephants.
- Marcia Smith guesses it might be in India, but Bob Smith reveals it was the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City.
- Bob Smith explains that PT Barnum offered to lead elephants across the bridge as a publicity stunt, which was initially rejected.
- The Brooklyn Bridge, built by John Roebling, faced skepticism due to 21 deaths during construction and its complex design.
- On May 17, 1884, PT Barnum led 21 elephants and 17 camels across the bridge, convincing New Yorkers of its safety.
Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Military Service
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the president with military service in both World Wars.
- Bob Smith identifies Dwight D. Eisenhower, noting his experience in World War I influenced his vision for the Interstate Highway System.
- Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss the 20-year gap between World War I and World War II, during which Eisenhower rose from a young officer to a general.
- They list 11 presidents who were generals, including George Washington, Andrew Jackson, and Ulysses S. Grant.
- Bob Smith mentions that James Buchanan and Abraham Lincoln never rose above the rank of private.
Jumbo the Elephant and Love Seats
- Bob Smith reveals that Jumbo, the elephant led by PT Barnum, was named after an African word meaning “chief,” not “large.”
- Marcia Smith asks about the origin of love seats, which were initially designed to accommodate women’s voluminous dresses in 18th-century Europe.
- Bob Smith explains that love seats were built for two people, not just for couples, but also for women with large dresses.
- They discuss the historical context of love seats and their evolution over time.
Statue of Liberty and Celebrities
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith how many pieces the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City.
- Marcia Smith answers that it arrived in 214 crates, each containing 350 separate parts, totaling 74,900 pieces.
- Bob Smith explains that the statue was built by private workers funded by donors from both France and America, not by the U.S. government.
- They discuss the historical significance of the Statue of Liberty and its symbolism of civic participation.
- Marcia Smith and Bob Smith talk about the origin of the term “celebrity,” which dates back to the 1380s and was shortened to “celeb” in 1907.
Alpine Swifts and Confab
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the Alpine swifts, which can stay in the air for up to 10 months without landing.
- Bob Smith explains that these birds fly to West Africa during winter to stay warm and spend 99.5% of their lives in the air.
- They discuss the fascinating adaptations of Alpine swifts, including their ability to eat, groom, and sleep while flying.
- Bob Smith explains the origin of the word “confab,” which comes from the Latin “confabulari,” meaning “to talk together.”
- They note that the term “confab” was shortened from “confabulation” in 1701.
Geography and Rich Families
- Marcia Smith plays a game of “Where in the World,” asking Bob Smith to identify cities based on clues.
- Bob Smith correctly identifies Edinburgh, Singapore, and Tel Aviv based on clues about their landmarks and buildings.
- They discuss the whims of wealthy families, including the Rothschilds, who had servants prepare salads and row boats to enliven their landscape.
- Bob Smith shares a story from Guy de Rothschild’s memoir about his grandmother being amazed by fallen leaves, having never seen a dead leaf before.
- They talk about the extravagant lifestyle of the Rothschilds, including miniature trains for serving food and shoes being broken in by employees.
Bamboo and Black Widow Spiders
- Marcia asks Bob about a tree that maintains a constant diameter and is the fastest growing in the world.
- Marcia Smith identifies bamboo, explaining that it grows straight up and never thickens at the base.
- They discuss the rapid growth of bamboo, which can shoot up 35 inches in 24 hours, earning it the Guinness world record for the fastest growing plant.
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the number of eyes on a black widow spider, which has eight eyes arranged in two rows.
- They discuss the physical differences between male and female black widow spiders, with females being larger.
Fastest Human Speed and Word Origins
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the fastest speed humans have ever traveled.
- Bob Smith identifies Apollo 10, which achieved a speed of 24,816 miles per hour while returning from its eight-day voyage.
- They discuss the need for such high speeds to escape the gravity of the moon and Earth.
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the origin of the word “cool,” which originally meant “fashionable” or “sophisticated” in the 1880s.
- Marcia Smith shares the origin of the phrase “dead as a door nail,” which dates back to 14th-century England and refers to nails that could not be reused.
Dating and Humor
- Marcia Smith shares a quote from Jerry Seinfeld about dating, describing it as a job interview that lasts all night.
- They discuss the convenience of online dating, which allows people to meet and break up without leaving home.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith express their enjoyment of the show and look forward to future episodes.
- They thank the Cedarburg Public Library for producing the show and encourage listeners to visit their website for more information.
Bob Smith 0:00
What famous high tech bridge was stress tested by 21 elephants?
Marcia Smith 0:06
Okay, and who was the only president with military service in both World Wars?
Bob Smith 0:12
Well, that’s interesting answers to those and other questions coming up in this episode of the Off Ramp with Bob
Marcia Smith 0:19
and Marcia
Bob Smith 0:20
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. Well, Marcia, what famous high tech bridge was actually stress tested by 21 elephants?
Marcia Smith 0:53
Well, that’s crazy. Was this like in India?
Bob Smith 0:56
No, it wasn’t. It was in the United States.
Bob Smith 0:59
What!
Bob Smith 0:59
Okay, it was in the 19th century, but it still it was a high tech bridge for its time.
Marcia Smith 1:03
I’m trying to think what city would have 20 elephants hanging around?
Bob Smith 1:07
That’s a good question.
Marcia Smith 1:08
I don’t know what’s going to be a big one. So San Francisco.
Bob Smith 1:12
No, not San Francisco,
Marcia Smith 1:13
New York City.
Bob Smith 1:14
That’s exactly right.
Marcia Smith 1:15
Okay.
Bob Smith 1:15
It was the Brooklyn Bridge, New York City,
Marcia Smith 1:18
I’ll be darned.
Bob Smith 1:19
And it wasn’t planned that way. P, T, Barnum, New York show men had offered to lead elephants across it as a publicity stunt for its grand opening, May 24 1883,
Marcia Smith 1:30
That’s a good one.
Bob Smith 1:31
But the bridge management said no, that would be undignified for their magnificent engineering achievement. People had doubts about that bridge. 21 people had died trying to build it, including its designer
Marcia Smith 1:43
Good God
Bob Smith 1:44
John Roebling. And it was a new high tech suspension bridge, a bridge whose deck was hung by cables, the longest such bridge in the world. And people doubted that the cables could hold the weight and the movement of the traffic.
Marcia Smith 1:55
And if all those people died during people thought it probably that it was cursed, or something.
Bob Smith 2:00
They probably did, and it was a very complicated looking thing. There are two road beds. The lower deck had four lanes of traffic, including horse drawn carriages and steam powered rail cars, which were running side by side but separated by dividers. So that was all brand new. And then there was an upper deck, which had a wide wooden pedestrian walkway, separated from traffic, with sweeping views of Manhattan and Brooklyn, accessible by stairs at either end of the bridge. Still, the bridge builders didn’t seem to need P, T Barnum, because on opening day, 150,000 pedestrians and 1800 vehicles crossed it, so it looked like everything’s fine. Then seven days later, tragedy struck. 15 to 20,000 New Yorkers were taking a memorial day stroll across the bridge’s Upper Promenade when a woman slipped down one of those staircases. She fell, and somebody screamed, the bridge is collapsed.
Marcia Smith 2:48
Oh, geez.
Bob Smith 2:50
And suddenly, 20,000 people stampeded. Scores were trampled in the ensuing panic, 11 people died.
Marcia Smith 3:01
How awful.
Bob Smith 3:01
Isn’t that horrible God?
Marcia Smith 3:03
And it wasn’t true. See, people just scream anything they think is happening, and then it’s not true,
Bob Smith 3:08
even though normal traffic did resume on the bridge throughout 1883 and 1884 the newspapers ran stories about strange vibrations and unexpected swaying and mysterious noises. So they they stoked all this anxiety.
Marcia Smith 3:22
So enter the elephants?
Bob Smith 3:23
So yes, the bridge trustees eventually realized people think this bridge is going to collapse, so they turned back to PT Barnum, whose idea they dismissed a year earlier. So on, May 17, 1884 almost a year later, PT Barnum led 21 elephants and 17 camels – some of them two humped camels, some of them one humped camels – across that bridge, leading the animals was jumbo, his famous six and a half ton elephant. And the parade crossed without incident. And that convinced New Yorkers the bridge was safe.
Marcia Smith 3:57
Very good, interesting story. I had no idea. All right, Bob, Mr. MC history, presidential boy who was the only president with military service in World War One and World War Two.
Bob Smith 4:12
That has to be Dwight David Eisenhower.
Marcia Smith 4:16
Yeah.
Bob Smith 4:17
I knew he was in World War One because that was when he had the experience with crossing the country and realizing how horrible the roads were.
Marcia Smith 4:26
Oh, yeah?
Bob Smith 4:26
And he thought, you know, someday this country should have a big highway system consistent across the country. Everything should be connected. And especially for a wartime situation, we need all these highways to connect. And that was the genesis for the Interstate Highway System, which he did sign into law as president.
Marcia Smith 4:44
But how many years between World War One and World War Two? How old was he?
Bob Smith 4:48
Well, World War One ended in 1918 World War Two began for the United States in 1941 so 20 some years, okay, goes by.
Marcia Smith 4:56
So he goes from like a young buck to a general.
Bob Smith 4:59
A middle aged man, yeah, exactly.
Marcia Smith 5:01
That makes sense. And he was the only general to serve as president in the 20th century. In our history, how many generals do you think have served as president?
Bob Smith 5:10
Okay, let me see. How many generals. You know, we got Washington. Of course, that was the first one. And we know General Grant. There were other people that were generals in there of various ranks. I think Zachary Taylor. Was he a general?
Marcia Smith 5:23
Yes, he was
Bob Smith 5:24
Okay, okay, so there’s three, so there’s four. Well, there may be more than that. How many were there?
Marcia Smith 5:29
11
Bob Smith 5:30
What?
Bob Smith 5:30
Yeah, you had no idea. Did you?
Bob Smith 5:32
11 generals have been President of the United States.
Marcia Smith 5:35
George Washington, Andrew Jackson, William Henry, Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses, s, Grant Rutherford, B, Hayes, James Garfield, Chester, a, Arthur and Benjamin Harrison
Bob Smith 5:47
Wow.
Marcia Smith 5:48
At the other end of the spectrum, James Buchanan and Abe Lincoln never rose above private.
Bob Smith 5:55
and yet they became presidents of the United States and commanded the armies.
Marcia Smith 5:59
And Abe was one of the all time greats, yeah? Now, so just shows you don’t give up if you’re a private
Bob Smith 6:05
So it’s interesting. He didn’t have practical experience as a general.
Marcia Smith 6:08
Yes, yeah.
Bob Smith 6:09
In fact, he read books to bone up on generalship when he was trying to figure out what’s wrong with this war. This isn’t going well.
Marcia Smith 6:17
He obviously did a darn good job.
Bob Smith 6:18
Yeah, yeah. Well, that’s fascinating. Marcia, 11 presidents as that’s got to be one of the major professions of presidents in the America’s history. It’s a close to a fourth of all presidents have served as generals. Interesting. Marcia, I got a question for you. Back on elephants, Jumbo’s name, you know, we talked about the elephants there. Yes, we did. Did you know that jumbo didn’t mean big at the time. That’s what we think of. We think jumbo is like the huge size, right? Yeah, in that century, since PT Barnum’s elephant debuted, the name jumbo has come to mean huge and gargantuan. We’ve heard of jumbo jets. We got jumbotrons, jumbo shrimp. But the name Jumbo didn’t originally mean large. It’s believed the name came from African words that sound similar, like Jimbo, that mean chief. That was the original meaning. It wasn’t named Jumbo because it was huge.
Marcia Smith 7:10
It’s because he was like the leader.
Bob Smith 7:12
He was the leader, and he was incredibly big.
Marcia Smith 7:15
Wow, okay
Bob Smith 7:16
But the name jumbo didn’t originally mean large.
Marcia Smith 7:19
So Bob, you know what a love seat is. So what were love seats originally designed for?
Bob Smith 7:24
What were love seats originally designed for? This is furniture
Marcia Smith 7:28
Built for two
Bob Smith 7:29
Yes, built for two people.
Marcia Smith 7:30
Not originally what was it designed for?
Bob Smith 7:32
I don’t know. What was it designed for
Marcia Smith 7:34
To fit women’s dresses.
Bob Smith 7:36
What? Oh those big dresses women used to wear
Marcia Smith 7:39
The two seater upholstered benches we associate with cozy couples were initially crafted with another duo in mind, a woman and her dress, fashionable attire. In 18th century Europe, they had some really wacky things back then had reached voluminous proportions, panniers, the type of hooped undergarment
Bob Smith 8:00
Okay?
Marcia Smith 8:01
Were all the rage, creating a wide hip silhouette that occasionally required wearers to pass through doors sideways because they were so big,
Bob Smith 8:08
Right, right
Marcia Smith 8:09
But not all women wore such full skirts. Some historians believe the average women of modest means owned a mere four dresses with narrower profiles meant for everyday work. But upper class women with funds to spare on trending styles adopted the billowing silhouettes that often caused an exhausting situation the inability to sit down. Every astute furniture maker caught on to the need for upsize seats that would allow women with such large gowns a moment of respite during their social cause.
Bob Smith 8:42
Okay
Marcia Smith 8:43
So here you go, sit on the big double wide,
Bob Smith 8:47
Not calling it a love seat. Back then.
Marcia Smith 8:49
No, no.
Bob Smith 8:50
Just your seat. Seat.
Marcia Smith 8:52
Your seat, seat.
Bob Smith 8:53
Hey, Marcia, this one comes from the Some Assembly Required category, the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City, in how many pieces?
Marcia Smith 9:03
Oh, really? Is it a lot?
Bob Smith 9:06
Well, I’m asking you.
Marcia Smith 9:07
All right, 26
Bob Smith 9:09
26 pieces
Marcia Smith 9:10
126
Bob Smith 9:11
126 pieces.
Marcia Smith 9:13
Two.
Bob Smith 9:13
Oh it gets revised right and left. When the Statue of Liberty arrived from France as a gift celebrating our independence, it didn’t come in one piece. It arrived in 214 crates.
Marcia Smith 9:25
Crates
Bob Smith 9:25
And each contained 350 separate parts.
Marcia Smith 9:28
No!
Bob Smith 9:28
So 74,900, pieces took four months to assemble.
Marcia Smith 9:35
This is like the IKEA of statues.
Bob Smith 9:37
That’s right, the IKEA of statues. So how much did the government pay to assemble all this?
Marcia Smith 9:45
Oh, they had to pay people to put it together. And where do you find all the people that know how to do this?
Bob Smith 9:49
Good questions.
Marcia Smith 9:50
Uh, how much did they pay? I don’t know, a million dollars.
Bob Smith 9:53
Well, the answer is not one cent. The Statue of Liberty was built by private workers paid for with private funds – on both ends. France donors paid French workers, American donors paid American workers, and the US government paid for none of the labor. And that’s one of the reasons the statue became such a powerful symbol of civic participation. It was literally built by the public, not by the government, not by the state. We don’t know that, most people don’t know that.
Marcia Smith 10:18
Those were the days France liked us.
Bob Smith 10:20
Yes
Marcia Smith 10:22
All right. Bob, ready for AKA?
Bob Smith 10:24
Sure.
Marcia Smith 10:25
All right. This is also known as a card game that you have to figure out what the heck I’m talking about in the category. And the category is fish.
Marcia Smith 10:34
Fish, okay.
Bob Smith 10:35
Okay.
Marcia Smith 10:36
And the first word is Boston’s cape. What is the fish?
Bob Smith 10:40
Boston’s Cape? Cod. Yes, okay’
Marcia Smith 10:44
Bird rest.
Bob Smith 10:45
What is bird rest? Perch, a perch?
Marcia Smith 10:47
Very good. Dangerous loan guy.
Bob Smith 10:51
A dangerous lone guy? What is the fish? A dangerous lone guy.
Marcia Smith 10:56
Come on.
Bob Smith 10:58
A predator, a criminal.
Marcia Smith 11:01
Veromm, Veromm
Bob Smith 11:02
What?
Marcia Smith 11:03
Veromm.
Bob Smith 11:03
I don’t know. What is it?
Marcia Smith 11:04
A shark.
Bob Smith 11:05
Oh, a shark. Oh, a dangerous, a dangerous L-O-A-N. I thought you meant a lone person.
Marcia Smith 11:10
Yeah, well, too bad. Okay, ready for this?
Bob Smith 11:13
Sure.
Marcia Smith 11:13
Holy fish.
Bob Smith 11:15
Holy fish. Uh, what would the holy fish, be. The pontiff fish, the, the priest fish.
Marcia Smith 11:25
Concentrate on the word holy. Holy! It’s an exclamation.
Bob Smith 11:29
I’m thinking of a word I don’t want to repeat on the podcast, comes after holy.
Marcia Smith 11:32
That’s not the name of it.
Bob Smith 11:33
Oh, I’m sorry, holy –
Marcia Smith 11:34
It’s a biproduct
Bob Smith 11:35
Holy mackerel!
Marcia Smith 11:36
That’s it.
Bob Smith 11:36
Okay.
Marcia Smith 11:37
Okay. Red mislead.
Bob Smith 11:40
Herring
Marcia Smith 11:41
Very good. And the last one, painter Jackson.
Bob Smith 11:45
Pollock.
Marcia Smith 11:45
That’s it.
Bob Smith 11:46
Wow. I did them all. I can’t believe that.
Marcia Smith 11:49
Me neither.
Marcia Smith 11:50
What?
Marcia Smith 11:51
Yes, I’m proud of you, honey.
Bob Smith 11:54
Thanks. All right. Marcia, how much gold is beneath the streets of Manhattan. This is a fact. I just learned the other day again, how much gold is beneath the streets of Manhattan.
Marcia Smith 12:06
No, come on, really. All right. Well, unless some robbers left it down there, buried, I don’t know how much. How do they know? If they know, why don’t they take it out?
Bob Smith 12:15
Well, here’s the story. Deep beneath the streets of Manhattan sits the Federal Reserve Bank gold vault. Really, it’s the largest gold storage vault in the world, located 80 feet below street level. It holds $90 billion worth of gold.
Marcia Smith 12:30
Oh, my God. Well, I thought that stuff was in Fort Knox.
Bob Smith 12:32
I thought so too. And apparently, most visitors walk right over it without realizing they’re passing above one of the most secure rooms on the planet.
Marcia Smith 12:39
I hear a lot of drill hammers going.
Bob Smith 12:42
I don’t know exactly where that is, in New York City, and maybe there’s a reason for that.
Marcia Smith 12:46
Yeah. Wow, wow. Okay, Bob, what famous author helped popularize skiing?
Bob Smith 12:54
That was Agatha Christie.
Marcia Smith 12:55
No.
Bob Smith 12:55
No? Oh, I know it was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Marcia Smith 12:59
Doyle, Doyle, that’s exactly right. How did you get that?
Bob Smith 13:02
I just read about him because I wanted to know about him, and I found out, yeah, he popularized skiing, and he would tell friends, this is a pretty interesting sport. You try it in the 1890s because I think his travels took him to Switzerland or the Alps.
Marcia Smith 13:13
Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the mega popular Sherlock Holmes series, decamped from his native Britain and took up residence in Davos, a town in the Swiss Alps, the change of scenery had medical motives, as his wife, Louisa, suffered from tuberculosis in the world before antibiotics, doctors suggested fresh mountain air as a remedy. It was during his time in that town that conan doyle became increasingly interested in ski running. He wrote an article on it, and he introduced skiing to Britain, and the winter sports eventually found its way to America today. Some of the best skiing in the world can still be found in the Swiss Alps and Davos remains one of Europe’s most beloved and historic skiing spots. Isn’t that amazing?
Bob Smith 13:57
So here’s a guy who’s detective character. They say he’s a boxer every once in a while, but you don’t think of him as a person who’s a very physical person. You think of a guy who’s thinking all the time, and you know, he’s got his pipe and all that. But here, his creator really was athletic, interesting. And I mentioned Agatha Christie, she was very athletic as well. Yeah, she popularized surfing before it was very popular. Oh, really. She was surfing before it became a big deal. They were very unusual. They were celebrities in their time. Yeah, they were speaking of that. Marcia, how long have we been calling celebrities celebs? When did we start saying celebs?
Marcia Smith 14:33
I’m trying to think, okay, all right, 1946
Bob Smith 14:36
1946 sounds like that. That’d be recent. That’d be post war, etc. No, it goes back before that. Oh yeah, okay. Celebrity was shortened to celeb back in 1907. So back during the time of Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, they were probably calling them celebs. You know, sounds more recent than that, but not celebrity. How long have we been using that word? I don’t know. Does that go way back? That goes way back two? Yeah. A Canterbury Tales by Chaucer published between 1387 and 1400 so the word celebrity is more than 600 years old. Who knew?
Marcia Smith 15:10
I did not Bob. What is the claim to fame for the birds known as Alpine swifts?
Bob Smith 15:16
The Alpine swifts? Yes, yes. Let’s see. Okay, so they’re in the mountains. They’re in Europe and Africa. So does it have anything to do with the Alps? No, or mountains? No. Okay. Where are they?
Marcia Smith 15:29
They’re swallow like bird, and can be found in Europe and Africa, a
Bob Smith 15:33
swallow like bird, yeah. What is their claim to fame? It can
Marcia Smith 15:36
stay in the air with uninterrupted flight for 10 months.
Bob Smith 15:41
What I’m getting really Yep, so it floats on the currents, apparently, because it’s so small, I would imagine,
Marcia Smith 15:47
stay in the air for 200 days, and they only come down to mate.
Bob Smith 15:51
I knew we had that once earlier that there was a bird, but I thought it was the turn Arctic turn, or some of those birds are like that. They leave home and they don’t return for months. So they’re up in the air the whole time.
Marcia Smith 16:02
They do everything up there. They eat insects, groom themselves, and sleep while they’re airborne. How do you How are you airborne? And sleep? They watch television. I can’t even sleep in the air.
Bob Smith 16:12
They surf the internet. They do everything up there that’s fascinating.
Marcia Smith 16:16
Alpine Swift’s native to Switzerland, will fly all the way to West Africa in order to stay warm during a winter. Wow. A distance of 1000 miles. That’s amazing. Yeah. So they spent in their life 99.5% of their time in the air.
Bob Smith 16:31
Now there’s an answer to a question, how do these animals survive the winter? They don’t they leave and go to Africa, going to Florida, in the United States, you know, yeah, oh, man, I’m Africa bound. I’ll be back in the spring. Okay? Marcia, how long has the word confab been around?
Marcia Smith 16:50
Let’s What does the word confab is gonna say? What does it mean? It means,
Bob Smith 16:54
let’s say. Somebody says, let’s have a confab. What does that mean to you? Talk, a talk, a talk. It does sound like a modern combination word for a short talk. I used to believe it meant con for conference and Fab for
Speaker 1 17:06
I don’t know what making up things, fabrication, yeah, baby.
Bob Smith 17:09
Confab is an abbreviation of a word that goes back more than 600 years to the 15th century. Confabulation, which has Latin roots. Here are the roots, con, which means together, and fabulary, which means to talk, to tell stories, to converse. So together, talk is what confabulari meant. And then confabulari eventually became confabulation, and then it was shortened to confab in, believe it or not, 1701, so even though that sounds like a modern, almost wireless, almost like internet, word confab that goes back to 1701.
Marcia Smith 17:46
Wow, that that is amazing. Okay, before we go to break, this goes out to all US geographically challenged Americans. We’re going to play where in the world. Okay, I’ll give you three clues, one at a time, see how fast you can get it. Okay, ready? Yes, this city’s Castle sits on a rock formed by ancient volcanic eruption.
Bob Smith 18:07
Let’s see, I believe this was actually in Scotland, and I believe it is, what’s the name of the major city up there? Am I right? Is it Scotland? Yeah. Okay, so it is the city of help me with the name, okay, Edinburgh. Edinburgh, that’s exactly what I thought it was. I found out about the volcano just recently. I was really surprised by it. Oh, really, I never think of volcanoes being up in Scotland, off the top of the British Isles. So Edinburgh. All right, all
Marcia Smith 18:36
right, because of air traffic regulation, buildings in this city cannot be higher than 280 meters.
Bob Smith 18:44
Hmm, that’s European or Asian, because you’re using meters. Is it London? No, is it Paris?
Marcia Smith 18:51
Clue two, home to the infamous raffles, hotel raffles, hotel R, A, F, F, L, E, S, raffles. Clue three, located to the south of Malaysia.
Bob Smith 19:03
I have no idea, Singapore. Oh No, kidding, yes. Okay, so there’s a restriction on the heights of buildings because of the air traffic,
Marcia Smith 19:11
among other things. Yes. Okay. Clue one Bob, home of the Hassan Beck mosque.
Bob Smith 19:17
The Hassan Beck mosque is this in let me see Syria,
Marcia Smith 19:22
no blue too. Okay, shalom. Meyer tower, Israel’s first skyscraper is located here.
Bob Smith 19:29
Okay, so this is Tel Aviv. That’s it, all right, there you go. Well, I got one of the three cities, all right. Time for a break. I need a break. Yeah, you’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith, we’ll be back in just a moment. We’re back, and I’m fully rested. 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 after that, we put it on podcast platforms where it is heard all over the world. You needed a rest too. I do. Too, you just took one, didn’t you? I just took a little nap. Okay, this is interesting. Marsh. You know, we were talking the other day about John D Rockefeller being so rich, you know, more rich in his time than Elon Musk to now, yeah. But some interesting facts, some rich and famous tales in the whims of fortune, yee de Rothschild’s memoirs, they revealed several examples of his family being rather out of touch. Okay, his family retained a servant whose sole job was to prepare salads, really, a different servant was ordered to row a boat across a nearby lake at meal times in order to, quote, enliven the landscape. Are you kidding? No. Rothschild also told a story about his grandmother one fine autumn day, she was visiting friends when she was struck by the sight of colorful fallen leaves strewn across a lawn. It’s magnificent, how beautiful. She cried. But where do you get them from? Oh, my God. Oh my god. Apparently being raised among manicured gardens, she’d never seen a dead leaf before.
Speaker 1 21:02
Well, it’s sad. Actually, it is sad.
Bob Smith 21:05
These are, again, from the Rothschild family. Rothschild meals traveled to the dining room by way of a miniature train running through a tunnel. Rothschild recalled hitching rides on that train as a child whizzing back and forth, seated between platters. So that was from Guy de Rothschild’s whims of Fortune memoir. This one I find ridiculous and stupid. Heiress, Eve Pell recalled that her grandfather dropped new pairs of shoes at his club. He dropped them off so that an employee with the same size feet could walk around in them until the leather was comfortably
Speaker 2 21:40
broken in. Oh, my God,
Marcia Smith 21:42
a shoe Walker. Well, honestly, how sad can you get? Tasteless people, okay, Bob, what tree maintains a constant diameter, diameter, diameter, the width, you know, the girth of it. It never changes, right? Okay? And, and is the fastest growing tree in the world,
Bob Smith 21:59
the fastest growing tree in the world, and it keeps a constant diameter, yeah, so it shoots up, it doesn’t grow wide, right, right? Is this like a birch tree or something like that? No, is it? Is it bamboo? Yes, okay, no kidding, yeah. So they never get thicker, no, at the base, no, I didn’t,
Marcia Smith 22:17
I don’t know that either. I was thinking of my brother’s little bamboo forest that he made. That’s right, that’s right. And it was all they were all identical and growing fast. I still
Bob Smith 22:26
remember, and this is recent times. This is in, oh, about 2003 seeing in Hong Kong, skyscrapers being built with scaffolding made out of bamboo. Yeah, I wouldn’t feel too secure, I know, but obviously it was time tested to go up multiple stories.
Marcia Smith 22:43
The fastest growing species of bamboo can shoot upward at a rate of 35 inches in just 24 hours. Good lord, really, it could grow three feet, three feet, and earning bamboo the Guinness world record for the fastest growing plant, geez, rather than having a stalk that progressively thickens. Bamboo is basically just a single stick that grows straight
Bob Smith 23:06
up that is pretty fascinating. Pretty fascinating, okay. Marcia, another nature question. This is the black widow spider. How many eyes does a black widow spider have eight? It is eight, very good, eight eyes arranged in two rows. Whoo. The males typically are half the size of the female. So if you see a big one, it’s a girl, okay, it’s a girl, okay.
Marcia Smith 23:30
Bob, who achieved the fastest speed humans have ever traveled. Okay.
Bob Smith 23:36
Now are we talking about the astronauts? Because they were going like 24,000 miles, like a second.
Marcia Smith 23:41
Are some astronauts? Okay, you don’t have to name them. But what voyage was it?
Bob Smith 23:45
I would say it would be, well, one of the moon rockets, because they had to shoot so fast to get outside of the atmosphere. So I’d say one of those Apollos.
Marcia Smith 23:54
Apollo 10, despite being described as a dress rehearsal for the first moon landing just two months later, Apollo 10 achieved something incredible in its own right, the fastest speed that humans have ever traveled. Astronauts Thomas Stafford, John Young and Eugene Cernan reached a speed of 24,816 miles per hour while returning from their eight day voyage on May 26
Bob Smith 24:19
Oh, that’s coming back. So those speeds were to escape the gravity of the places they were orbiting, first the earth and then the moon. Nobody ever got faster. Well, there’s no need to go that fast unless you’re getting out of the orbit of something right, right? You needed that force. Okay? Marcia, another word origin question for you. The word is cool. Now it’s meant cold, or slightly cold since the days of old English, but when did it begin to mean fashionable, sophisticated or inspired? You know, that’s cool. I love that. That’s cool. How far back does that go?
Marcia Smith 24:53
My brain tells me it’s like the 50s, judging from the old movies, but it probably goes back much farther. Year. So 1920s
Bob Smith 25:02
1920s that’s a good time, but it goes back before then it goes back another 40 years or so. That’s cool. D, a T, apostrophe s, cool was an expression of the 1884 era, huh? Farther back than most people would think for sure.
Marcia Smith 25:19
Okay, I too, have a word origin, Bob, okay. Where do we get the phrase dead as a door nail?
Bob Smith 25:25
Oh, that’s a good one. Dead as a door nail. Why is a door nail dead? Who killed it? Why? Who killed the door nail? Does that go back to Dickens? Didn’t Bob Marley’s face show up on a door, door handle or something like that. Is that where
Marcia Smith 25:41
it’s from? No, okay, but it does go back to 14th century England. 14th century, yeah. And it first appeared in 1350 in the piers. Plowman, I think, is that a magazine or something?
Bob Smith 25:53
You know, it sounds like a periodical for farmers, doesn’t it appears? Plow man,
Marcia Smith 25:57
yeah, I bet it was, yeah, the almanac, the Farmers Almanac, it refers to the medieval practice of securing doors with large hand forged nails. Those nails were driven through wood and hammered flat on the other side to lock them in place. Because it was hammered flat, it could not be removed and reused, and a nail that could not be used again was dead.
Bob Smith 26:20
Oh, no, kidding, dead as a door nail, and that expression goes back that far. Yeah, that’s before Christopher Columbus. For God’s sake.
Marcia Smith 26:28
It’s what amazes me when we do these origin stories, it’s stuff we say unconsciously all the time, oh, that’s dead as a doornail, you know. And none of
Bob Smith 26:36
us know what it means. We’re talking about the meaning of it goes back 400 500 years, and we don’t even know. We just use it. What’s wrong with us? Why don’t we think about these Why don’t
Marcia Smith 26:48
we wonder about these things? Yeah, that’s the trouble with us.
Bob Smith 26:51
All right, you got some thoughts for the day. Just a couple
Marcia Smith 26:54
on dating. Bob Jerry Seinfeld, dating is pressure and tension. What is a date, really, but a job interview that lasts all night. And here’s some humor I got off a napkin. Okay, online dating helps me meet and break up with someone without ever having to leave the house.
Bob Smith 27:14
There you go. It’s convenient. It’s remote dating. It’s a one stop show. Oh, my God. Okay, all right, I love that. All right. Well, we’re remote. You’re hearing us. You’re not seeing us, and we hope you’ve enjoyed the show, and we’ll come back later to listen to us again when we return with more fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia. I’m Bob Smith.
Marcia Smith 27:35
I’m Marcia Smith. You’ve been listening to the off ramp,
Bob Smith 27:42
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
