In this episode of the Off Ramp, Bob and Marcia Smith discuss the natural habitats of Redwood trees, which grow in the United States and China, and the history of the Columbia Highway Hi-Fi system, a record player installed in cars in the 1950s and 1960s. They explore the origins of English words like “punch,” “shampoo,” and “loot,” which were adopted from India. They also delve into trivia about the tallest and shortest countries, the average heights of Americans, and the history of various words and phrases. Additionally, they touch on the longest-running plays and the origin of champagne showers in sports.
Outline
Redwood Trees and Their Distribution
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the countries where redwood trees grow naturally.
- Marcia Smith initially guesses England but then suggests a country near the ocean, thinking of mist.
- Bob Smith reveals that redwoods are native to the United States and China, with the Hubei province in China being a significant location.
- Bob Smith explains that Chinese Dawn redwoods were only known from fossils until 1941 when living specimens were found in China.
- Bob Smith shares that redwoods have been planted in multiple countries, including New York City, where a Chinese Dawn redwood was planted in Brooklyn in the early 1950s.
The Columbia Highway Hi-Fi System
- Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss the Columbia Highway Hi-Fi system, initially thinking it might be related to drive-in speakers.
- Bob Smith explains that it was a record player installed in cars, with Chrysler debuting the Columbia Highway Hi-Fi system in 1955.
- Marcia Smith mentions other companies like RCA Victor, Otto Victrola, and Phillips that also tried to make in-car record players.
- Bob Smith notes that cassettes and eight-track players eventually replaced these systems, leading to the decline of in-car record players.
Indian Words Adopted by English
- Bob Smith shares that the words “punch,” “shampoo,” and “loot” were stolen from India by the English.
- Marcia Smith guesses India, and Bob Smith confirms, explaining the origins of these words.
- Bob Smith reveals that over 900 Indian words are listed in the Oxford English Dictionary.
- Bob Smith explains the meanings of these words: “punch” means five, “shampoo” means to press or massage, and “loot” means to plunder or steal.
Trivia: Where in the World
- Marcia Smith and Bob Smith play a trivia game where they guess the location of various landmarks and cities.
- They guess the location of the world’s fastest roller coaster, the Formula Rossa, in Abu Dhabi.
- They identify Monaco as the city featured in Casino Royale and Austin, Texas, as the city where the microchip was invented.
- They discuss the average height of American women and men, comparing it to other countries like the Netherlands and Timor Leste.
Indian Origin Words in English
- Bob Smith continues to share more Indian words adopted by English, including “juggernaut,” “cummerbund,” “khaki,” “bungalow,” “thug,” and “jungle.”
- Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss the origins and meanings of these words, learning new facts about their origins.
- Bob Smith mentions that “jodhpurs” are named after a city in Rajasthan, India, and were popularized by the Maharajas’ polo team.
- They also discuss the history of the Bank of America, originally named the Bank of Italy, and its founder’s contributions to rebuilding San Francisco.
Historical Facts and Trivia
- Bob Smith shares that Victorian-era wallpaper could contain arsenic, leading to health issues.
- Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss the inspiration behind the character Yoda, combining features of Albert Einstein and Stuart Freeborn.
- They learn that the original name of Bank of America was the Bank of Italy, founded by Amadeo Giannini.
- Bob Smith shares that the word “dinghy” comes from the Hindi word for native boats of the East Indies, and “dungarees” come from the Hindi word for coarse cotton cloth.
Longest Running Plays and Sports Traditions
- Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss the longest-running plays in British and American history.
- They learn that Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap” holds the record for the longest-running play in the West End with over 30,000 performances.
- In America, “The Fantasticks” holds the record for the longest-running production, running for 42 continuous years.
- They discuss the origin of champagne showers for sports champions, starting with the 1966 Le Mans Auto Race.
Aka Bob: Baby Names 2018
- Marcia Smith plays “Aka Bob,” where Bob Smith has to guess popular baby names for girls in 2018.
- They guess names like Lily, Mia, Brooklyn, Avery, Grace, and Scarlet.
- Bob Smith shares that Scarlet Johansson and Scarlett O’Hara are famous people named Scarlet.
- They conclude the game with a fun and engaging discussion about popular baby names.
Origin of the Word “Touchstone”
- Marcia Smith explains the origin of the word “touchstone,” which was used to test the purity of coins by rubbing them on a hard, black stone.
- The color of the streak left on the touchstone revealed the coin’s true value.
- Bob Smith finds the history of the word “touchstone” fascinating, as it has evolved to mean a truth teller or defining example.
- They conclude the show with a light-hearted discussion about the value of knowledge and the importance of learning new things.
Bob Smith 0:00
Today, redwood trees grow naturally in just two countries. What are they?
Marcia Smith 0:05
And what was the Columbia Highway Hi Fi system?
Bob Smith 0:09
What the Columbia Highway Hi Fi system?
Marcia Smith 0:13
Yeah,
Bob Smith 0:13
Oh, okay, 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 0:19
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, you and I have been fortunate to have been around some redwoods when we made a big trip down the coast of California a number of years ago. So we know redwood trees grow in the United States naturally, but they grow in another country too. What other country is it?
Marcia Smith 1:04
Is it? Is it England?
Bob Smith 1:07
No.
Marcia Smith 1:08
I was just thinking of the water. You know why the redwoods grow so high and fast here? Because of the ocean. So I’m thinking,
Bob Smith 1:15
That’s right.
Marcia Smith 1:16
So is this some country on the ocean?
Bob Smith 1:18
It’s a country that’s near an ocean too.
Marcia Smith 1:20
Yes, has the mist. That’s where they get their water from, which fascinates, yes, but it doesn’t answer the question, Marsh, I’m dancing here. I’ll just say Italy.
Bob Smith 1:30
No, not Italy.
Marcia Smith 1:31
I don’t know.
Bob Smith 1:32
No, the answer is China,
Marcia Smith 1:34
Really?
Bob Smith 1:35
Yeah. They’re native to just two locations, a 450 mile strip of the United States, Pacific Coast, linking Oregon and California and the Hubei province in South Central China. But in the 20th century, the Chinese Dawn redwoods were only known from fossils. The Living specimens were finally found in China’s Hubei province in 1941 until that nobody had seen one in China for centuries.
Marcia Smith 1:59
That’s amazing.
Bob Smith 2:00
But fossils show they were once widespread across the northern hemisphere of the world. You could find Redwoods in North America, Europe, Asia, everything above the equator, even the Arctic Circle. Seedlings have been planted in multiple countries. And the most surprising location you’ll ever find one is New York City.
Marcia Smith 2:18
Redwoods in New York City?
Bob Smith 2:20
You’ve heard of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?
Marcia Smith 2:22
Yeah.
Bob Smith 2:22
Guess what? It is, a redwood. A Chinese Dawn redwood. And how did it get there? Well, by 1947 botanists from Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum and other institutions were distributing those seeds globally. So one came to Brooklyn. So that’s why there’s a tree planted in Brooklyn in the early 50s, that is a redwood.
Marcia Smith 2:42
Oh, that’s interesting.
Bob Smith 2:43
It’s already grown to over 100 feet.
Marcia Smith 2:45
Hey, I wish we had those instead of the walnut trees in our yard. Okay, Bob, what was the Columbia Highway Hi Fi system?
Bob Smith 2:55
The Columbia Highway Hi Fi system I’m thinking of poles like the drive in and they had the poles with the speakers on them. I’m thinking of something like that along a highway.
Marcia Smith 3:06
Yeah, that’s what it visually conjures up. But no, I can’t believe I never heard of this. And obviously you haven’t either. It was a record player installed in cars.
Bob Smith 3:16
Really!
Marcia Smith 3:17
A record player! A moving vehicle. Seems like the last place to put a record player.
Bob Smith 3:22
Absolutely.
Marcia Smith 3:23
Yet during the 50s and 60s, several companies tried to make it work. Chrysler debuted the Columbia highway Hi Fi system in 1955 and it played only specially made records that was followed by RCA Victor, Auto Victrola.
Bob Smith 3:39
No kidding. They called it that?
Marcia Smith 3:41
Yeah, which played a stack of 14 EPs in 1960
Bob Smith 3:46
Extended play records.
Marcia Smith 3:47
Yeah
Bob Smith 3:47
Wow.
Marcia Smith 3:48
And Phillips launched the Auto mignon.
Bob Smith 3:52
Really sounds like something you eat.
Marcia Smith 3:54
I don’t know.
Bob Smith 3:54
I’ll take an auto mignon – well done, please.
Marcia Smith 3:57
Which played one EP at a time in 1959 and what blew these out of the water cassettes and eight tracks,
Bob Smith 4:05
Yeah
Marcia Smith 4:05
The in-car eight track player was first offered by Ford in 1965
Bob Smith 4:11
Aand that’s what changed everything. The eight track first, and then the cassette.
Marcia Smith 4:15
Yeah.
Bob Smith 4:15
And then, of course, we had CDs, and now it’s just streaming.
Marcia Smith 4:19
And no longer need to put record players in cars.
Bob Smith 4:22
That’s funny, because I remember as a kid thinking there’s no way a record player would work in a car.
Marcia Smith 4:27
How did we never hear that?
Bob Smith 4:28
They tried it!
Marcia Smith 4:29
Didn’t I think we would have seen models of cars with record players.
Bob Smith 4:33
So this was called the Columbia Highway Hi, Fi system.
Marcia Smith 4:36
Three different companies had their own system.
Bob Smith 4:39
Okay
Marcia Smith 4:39
What do you got?
Bob Smith 4:40
I got some very interesting words, punch shampoo and loot from a country that the English stole them from. And what country would that be?
Bob Smith 4:50
That’s punch shampoo and loot all stolen from a country okay, that the English were in for more than 350 years.
Marcia Smith 4:57
Well, then I’ll say not India.
Bob Smith 4:59
Yea mean the punch, shampoo, loot?
Marcia Smith 5:01
Yeah, Africa?
Bob Smith 5:03
You were right the first time.
Marcia Smith 5:06
Why didn’t you say so?
Bob Smith 5:07
W well, I let you, you know, stumble around until you decide, just like you, let me stumble around.
Marcia Smith 5:12
You can’t give me a break.
Bob Smith 5:13
Okay, those all were taken from India. And guess how many Indian words were adopted by the British? How many do you think are in the Oxford English Dictionary?
Marcia Smith 5:23
Somebody counted them?
Bob Smith 5:24
Yes.
Marcia Smith 5:25
All right, I’ll say 1200
Bob Smith 5:27
You’re close. Over 900 words. Indian words are listed in the Oxford English Dictionary. I have to thank our friend Debashish Ghosh in India, somebody I worked with at Rockwell for years. He and I had a discussion online, and he was telling me all the words that were Indian words, and I was astounded by them. So that’s what I’m going to run through today, punch. What do you think punch means? It’s Hindi.
Marcia Smith 5:50
It’s Hindi. It doesn’t mean what we know.
Bob Smith 5:53
No
Marcia Smith 5:53
It means, okay, what?
Bob Smith 5:55
it means five. Five, yes, referring to the five ingredients in the original drink. Oh, really, yeah, punch had five ingredients, yeah, alcohol, sugar, lemon water and tea or spices. I’ll be done. Okay. Word punch means five, okay, okay.
Marcia Smith 6:09
Shampoo, that means pooey, sham?
Bob Smith 6:13
No, it’s also a Hindi word meaning shampoo means to press or massage. So originally, a shampoo was a head massage, later adapted to hair washing.
Marcia Smith 6:23
Okay
Bob Smith 6:23
Okay. Now loot. What does that mean? Give me a hint, it’s a crime.
Marcia Smith 6:28
It’s, oh, to loot something, yeah, of
Bob Smith 6:30
course, to plunder or steal. And that was basically what they accused the British of doing, looting their country. And they were right then. That’s where they came from. And I have other Indian origin words coming up. Some real fun ones that you wouldn’t think were from India. And what did they originally mean?
Marcia Smith 6:46
Are you ready for where in the world?
Bob Smith 6:48
Yes, where in the world?
Marcia Smith 6:51
Where in the world is card game. Okay? Clue one Bob, one, guess one. Clue this is home to the formula rasa, R, O, S, S, A, the world’s fastest roller coaster.
Bob Smith 7:01
Oh, my goodness. What about it? Yeah, where in the world is it? Yeah, oh, okay. What’s the name of it? Again, the world’s
Marcia Smith 7:10
fastest roller coaster, the formula rasa. The formula
Bob Smith 7:14
rasa, I’m thinking maybe Italy.
Marcia Smith 7:17
No clue to it houses the Capitol gate tower, the world’s furthest leaning man made tower,
Bob Smith 7:25
Pisa, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. No, okay, clue
Marcia Smith 7:28
three, all right, it’s your last chance.
Bob Smith 7:31
Yes, yes, I get it.
Marcia Smith 7:32
This is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates,
Bob Smith 7:37
Abu Dhabi. Yes, and that’s where the fastest roller coaster in the
Marcia Smith 7:41
world is they got a lot of interesting stuff. Okay, where in the world? Bob, ready? Clue one, this city gained independence from the Republic of Genoa in 1297,
Bob Smith 7:53
okay, so the Republic of Genoa was in Italy, so I’m going to say it is the city of let me see Genoa. I don’t know. What is it?
Marcia Smith 8:02
Clue two, okay, the second smallest country in the world.
Bob Smith 8:07
Oh, is this the Vatican? No, it’s not the Vatican, but it’s one of the other little countries within Italy. I’d call
Marcia Smith 8:13
it a city before it’s a country, okay, what is it? Clue three, it’s this. Will get it. It’s casinos. Were featured in Casino Royale.
Bob Smith 8:23
Oh, okay, one of those casino cities. What is the name of it? The country? Okay, I can’t think of it, Monaco. Monaco, okay.
Marcia Smith 8:31
One more,
Bob Smith 8:32
last more. We’re in the world where,
Marcia Smith 8:34
in the world, this one is a city. And that I know, the microchip was invented here in 1958
Bob Smith 8:41
the microchip invented in 1958 would that be in Texas? Yes, let’s see. Where would it be?
Marcia Smith 8:48
Austin, Texas. No clue to the city is home to the biggest state fair in America.
Bob Smith 8:54
It’s not Houston. It must be. It must be Houston.
Marcia Smith 8:58
Clue three, oh, geez, the city where President Kennedy was assassin in Dallas. Yes, yes, okay,
Bob Smith 9:05
and the microchip was invented at Texas Instruments. I believe. Was that? Right? Yeah, I didn’t know that. All right, Marcia, I have more Indian origin words, okay. This is a word we know, Juggernaut, that she’s like. This is a huge thing that you have to deal with. What did that originally mean.
Marcia Smith 9:20
It meant when you kept nuts in a jug.
Bob Smith 9:24
No, it’s not a juggernaut. A juggernaut. Oh, okay, I don’t comes from the jug enough. It refers to a massive chariot, an unstoppable force. It’s a juggernaut, yeah, nobody can stop this big thing. Okay, here’s one. I didn’t know this came from India, cummerbund, ah, cummerbund,
Marcia Smith 9:41
like the actor,
Bob Smith 9:44
no, okay, it means waist band. Yeah, I know what it means. Okay, well, that’s, that’s what it meant there, too. Oh, khaki.
Marcia Smith 9:51
Khaki is a color for pants, or it is pants. So I’ll say in India, it was a cloth, a kind. Cloth. No, it
Bob Smith 10:01
meant dust or soil. Okay, so that’s the color of khaki, Hindi, meaning dust or soil. Okay, here’s another one. Bungalow, bungalow. Did you know that was an Indian word? No, I didn’t either. It’s from Bangalore, meaning in the Bengal style, a Bengal style of architecture. Here’s another one thug, yeah. What did that mean? It meant a cheat or a swindler, originally referring to members of the thuggee cult, thug okay. And finally, for this round, oh, God, a tropical forest. What do
Marcia Smith 10:32
you call it? Tropical forest would be a jungle, Marsha, a jungle?
Bob Smith 10:38
Yes, of course. Well, the word jungle doesn’t mean tropical forest, it just means forest in India. Oh, okay, yeah.
Marcia Smith 10:45
Well, that makes sense. So all those words
Bob Smith 10:47
came from India. Okay,
Marcia Smith 10:48
Bob, how tall is the average American woman? Five?
Bob Smith 10:53
Let’s see five seven. Or is that too small? Five eight. Let’s say five eight.
Marcia Smith 10:58
Well, you’ll be surprised. Okay, I’m it five three and a half really?
Bob Smith 11:03
Yeah, I thought it was taller than so
Marcia Smith 11:04
did I. Average American woman is five feet three and a half inches tall. And roughly 11% of women in the United States are taller than five feet seven, and just 1% reached the height of six feet. And that’s the average height for WNBA players, women, so only 1% and the Netherlands The tallest country for both men and women. Did you know that
Bob Smith 11:29
no
Marcia Smith 11:30
women in the Netherlands stand an average of five feet seven inches, and their counterparts, women in Guatemala are the shortest, four feet 11. Isn’t that interesting. It’s estimated that 80% of a person’s height is determined by the DNA sequences that they’ve inherited, while environmental factors, especially nutrition, are responsible for the remainder.
Bob Smith 11:53
So what, again, is the percentage there 80% 80% of your height is DNA. Is your DNA. You just can’t escape it. Yeah. All right. Marcia, here’s a good question. How high can an insect fly? I found this out in a recent Smithsonian Magazine. I thought it was kind of an interesting question. How high can an insect fly? A one mile, one mile. Apparently, the answer is the sky’s the limit. They have actually found flies at altitudes higher than 20,000 feet above sea level. So that’s almost five miles, really. Yeah, there are three factors which can limit the maximum height an insect can fly. First is temperature. If an insect flies high enough and the air is too cold, it comes back down. Second is air density. If the air gets too thin, its wings can’t propel as well in the air, that makes sense. And the third is oxygen, which insects need, like we do, but there’s less of it at greater heights, even so, insects that live in mountainous areas have evolved ways to compensate for those environmental conditions, which is why flies have been collected higher than 20,000 feet, and some migratory butterflies intentionally ride wind currents, taking advantage of the lower energy cost of flying at the high altitudes by riding on wind
Marcia Smith 13:06
currents there. Yeah, that’s hard to believe too. Okay, I missed half of the other question I just gave you, Bob. Here’s the end of my last question as for men, how tall is the average
Bob Smith 13:18
American man? Okay, how tall I think the average American man is about 510, and
Marcia Smith 13:23
a half. That’s you, isn’t it? Well,
Bob Smith 13:24
it was before I started shrinking. Yes,
Marcia Smith 13:27
I would have said exactly the same thing. Five feet, eight inches, really? Yeah, while the average male height in the Netherlands is six feet, the average
Bob Smith 13:37
height in the Netherlands is six feet,
Marcia Smith 13:39
and the shortest country for men is Timor Leste. It’s an average of five feet three inches.
Bob Smith 13:45
It’s the shortest country. What you mean is that’s where the shortest
Marcia Smith 13:49
man is, five feet three inches is the average
Bob Smith 13:51
really? That’s their average height. Yeah.
Marcia Smith 13:54
And the tallest human who ever lived was Robert Wadlow, W, A, D, L, O, W, born in 1918 and died in 1940 and Chandra badur danji, a fellow. He was the shortest human who ever lived, really, yep. How tall do you think he was? Three foot five, maybe one foot nine inches. What?
Bob Smith 14:16
There’s a real human being that was only one foot nine inches. He was
Marcia Smith 14:20
born in 1939 in Nepali, and died in 2015
Bob Smith 14:25
geez, that’s amazing. It was
Marcia Smith 14:27
Napoleon, and he was, what is that? 21 and a half
Bob Smith 14:31
inches tall. That’s just, that’s like a baby’s height. You know, when a
Marcia Smith 14:34
baby’s born, he lived for 75 years, my goodness, in a remote village in Nepal.
Bob Smith 14:39
Well, that’s where I would go. Okay, wow.
Marcia Smith 14:43
Just a quick question, Bob, okay, are short men more likely to go bald? I thought
Bob Smith 14:49
you’re gonna say, are they sexier than tall men? And I was gonna say, Yeah, of course they are. But okay, are short men more likely to go bald? Yes, I’ll say yes.
Marcia Smith 14:57
You’re right. Really. George Costin. So was not a fluke. Shorter men really are more likely to go bald as the genes that cause each baldness and shortness, those genes are linked to one another. I didn’t know that. So there you go. Who knew?
Bob Smith 15:13
So, okay, that’s the short and tall of it. We’ll be back in just a moment. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith. We’re back with the off ramp here for the Cedarburg Public Library, Cedarburg, Wisconsin, and for our podcast platforms around the world. Marcia, I have a couple more words here that come from India caught a light bed or sleeping platform. British colonial officers adopted the term for their portable camp beds. It means a light bed in India. Cheetah originally meant spotted one, which, of course, it applies to the spotted cat, right? And Guru. Guru was a Sanskrit meaning heavy or venerable. Later, it meant teacher or spiritual guide. All of those come from India, as does avatar and pajamas, which means leg garment. That’s amazing. All these things came from
Marcia Smith 16:08
India. Well, that’s where did you think
Bob Smith 16:11
they came Fascinating? Well, I don’t know. Did you think all those words came
Marcia Smith 16:14
from India? I never thought. Well, now think about I am going to think
Bob Smith 16:17
about it. Keep thinking about it as I go through other ones we’ll be talking about
Marcia Smith 16:21
that’s enough. No, no, it is. No, here’s
Bob Smith 16:23
just one that your parents used to wear. Okay, job. First. Those are the tight at the calf flared at the hips past trousers for riding horses. They were originally named after Jad, for a city in Rajasthan, India, okay, popularized by the Maharajas polo team in the 1890s that’s where they came from.
Marcia Smith 16:40
That’s where Mom and Dad would play polo every weekend.
Bob Smith 16:44
Okay, maybe not. We’ve got a picture of Marsha’s mom and dad wearing job first, probably in the 30s, in their on their honeymoon, their honeymoon in Upper Wisconsin, yeah.
Marcia Smith 16:53
Okay, Bob, what 19th century decor could
Bob Smith 16:57
kill you? What 19th century decor could kill you decor, meaning a decoration, yeah. Could it be? Could it have been wallpaper that had arsenic in the face? How did you know that? I remember reading about this, that a lot of people had arsenic in their wallpaper and it made them sick over time.
Marcia Smith 17:16
Yes, in the Victorian era, wallpaper could, and sometimes did, kill you, but the culprit was in the colors. You want to guess what color it
Bob Smith 17:24
was really it was the colors, well, white, I’m thinking of arsenic, but that’s not it. Could it be yellow? No, all right, what were the colors?
Marcia Smith 17:33
It was one color, arsenical green.
Bob Smith 17:36
And the The hint is in the name there, right? Arsenical Green, yeah,
Marcia Smith 17:40
beginning in the late 18th century, chemists discovered how to make vivid green dyes from copper arsenite and they became fashionable favorites across the pond and here, Britain was producing 10s of millions of rolls of wallpaper each year. Thanks to new printing technology, brightly colored wallpapers could decorate even modest homes, lush leafy patterns became especially trendy, and we even had it in my childhood home. Oh, did they really Yes? I see pictures of it in the 1950s in our living room. And not all wallpaper was toxic, but those papers printed with those pigments were many manufacturers insisted that it was just harmless,
Bob Smith 18:23
harmless arsenic. What’s the problem?
Marcia Smith 18:24
Hear that before I have another cigarette. Still, doctors in Britain, however, and in the United States began reporting mysterious illnesses linked to rooms papered in green. Consumer pressure gradually forced manufacturers to abandon the pigments and made my mother tear it down and paint the walls in the living
Bob Smith 18:49
Marcia got a movie question. Okay, good, what famous scientist inspired the look of Yoda?
Marcia Smith 18:55
Oh, famous that. It was Einstein. Yeah, that’s exactly right.
Bob Smith 18:59
I guess that’s an easy one, isn’t it? I like it. When George Lucas was I got it. He conceived yoga as a bearded Moses like character, but his creature effects designer Stuart Freeborn created a different looking character by mixing his own facial features with those of the famous scientist Albert Einstein. So he’s a combination of Stuart Freeborn and Albert Einstein working for George Lucas on Star Wars.
Marcia Smith 19:23
It’s the only time he was probably considered adorable. I mean, yo day is adorable. Well, you have to
Bob Smith 19:28
remember that Albert Einstein, in the history of physicists, he had a lot of girlfriends, yeah, believe it or not, amazing, yeah.
Marcia Smith 19:35
Wasn’t he married when he did all Yes. Out of that he was Yeah, all right, Bob, what was the original name of Bank of America?
Bob Smith 19:43
Bank of America was originally the Bank of Italy,
Marcia Smith 19:46
for heaven’s sake.
Bob Smith 19:47
Well, I knew that because the Bank of Italy was around when they had the great fire. Yeah, he helped to basically rebuilt San Francisco and Giannini, I think is the guy’s name, yeah, owned the Bank of. Of Italy. He also is the man who bankrolled Walt Disney when he wanted
Marcia Smith 20:05
to do Fantasia. That’s why, you know, I’ll be darned well, yeah, and he was famous for giving money to the little fellow working class people ignored by other banks. It sounds like it’s a wonderful life. Mr. Potter versus Jimmy Stewart, the Bank of Italy came through with the bucks for the working class, and that’s how it began. And I had no idea you knew that, you little Dickens. So he started with one bank and San Francisco, and by the time he died in 1949 Bank of America counted more than 500 branches and 6 billion in assets.
Bob Smith 20:39
That was huge back then,
Marcia Smith 20:40
yeah, the bank of the little fellow, having clearly outgrown its roots to stand as the world’s then largest bank,
Bob Smith 20:47
still one of the largest banks in the world. All right. Marcia, I have some more words from India that you won’t know came from there. This is a word for a small boat from Hindi, dinghy, dinghy, yeah, referred to the native boats of the East Indies. It was adopted by British sailors, and it was expanded to mean any small auxiliary boat for other things. You know, dungarees. That word originally came from the Hindi Dungri, a coarse cotton cloth named after a bomb bay suburb Mumbai, is the word we use for that city now, but it was a suburb. Dungarees today, mean overalls. Here’s another one. This is from the Sanskrit Pandita, meaning learned man or scholar pundit. Oh, okay, when you’re talking about, well, what are the pundits thinking about this issue? Well, that came from India as well. Now I want to thank our friend di bashish Ghosh. He pointed me in the direction of where these were. It was fascinating.
Marcia Smith 21:39
Okay, Bob in British theater. What play has more performances than any other in British history. I think
Bob Smith 21:47
it’s called the what is it called the looking glass? Am I wrong? Is it something like that? No, it’s an
Marcia Smith 21:52
Agatha Christie, yes. Play.
Bob Smith 21:55
I’m trying to think of the name of it, the
Marcia Smith 21:56
mouse trap. The Mouse Trap opened in the West End in 1952 and it’s played over 30,000 consecutive performances. Wow, it holds the world’s record for the longest running play, 30,000
Bob Smith 22:09
times a live play.
Marcia Smith 22:10
Yeah, still running. Les Mis is the world’s longest running musical with over 16,000 performances. But in America, Bob, the undisputed longest running production is what?
Bob Smith 22:22
Oh, I know it’s the fan of the opera, isn’t it?
Marcia Smith 22:25
Nope, not even close. What is it? It’s the fantastic.
Bob Smith 22:28
Oh, the fantastic. Did you ever see that? No, but a lot of great songs came out.
Marcia Smith 22:31
A lot of great songs. I myself have seen it probably 20 times, because I worked at a comic opera house at the time, and saw it every night, and loved it. Bought the music. It ran for 42 continuous years. Geez, from 62 to 2002 at the Sullivan street Playhouse. So that’s pretty amazing.
Bob Smith 22:51
All right, my last question Marcia, what sport originated the champagne showers for champions? Where did it begin? When did that first happened, and why?
Marcia Smith 23:01
Oh, I’ll say back in the Roman No, no, Romans didn’t have champagne.
Bob Smith 23:05
No, it’s more modern than that. Far more modern, okay, 1966
Marcia Smith 23:09
Aha, I don’t
Bob Smith 23:11
know, high end Endurance Auto racing. Oh, yeah. 1966 after winning the 24 hours of the Le Mans Auto Race, driver Joe Seifert opened a bottle of champagne that had been left out in the sun, and the heated bottle unexpectedly sprayed bubbly everywhere, on to spectators. The next year, the Le Mans winner intentionally recreated that event, starting the tradition of champagne showers for Sports Champions so auto racing in 1966 and it was an accident, a champagne bottle left in the sun. Sometimes the best things in life are accidents.
Marcia Smith 23:46
Like, like, meeting you, what? Yeah,
Bob Smith 23:49
that was oh, meeting me was an accident.
Marcia Smith 23:51
And a wonderful one. It was okay.
Bob Smith 23:53
No, saying yes, was the accident.
Marcia Smith 23:56
All right. Time for aka Bob. It’s a card game called also known as and I give Bob a category, and he has to guess the word I’m looking for. And today’s category is the most popular baby names for baby girls in 2018 2018 2018 Okay, so if I say frog pad, what’s the name of the little girl? Lily? That’s right. Okay, Abba’s mama. Abba’s.
Bob Smith 24:21
Mama, Abba, Mama, Abba, like the group? Abba, correct, I
Marcia Smith 24:27
don’t know what that come on, Mama, What song did they sing?
Bob Smith 24:30
Mama, Mia, yeah, that’s it. Mia, well, Mia, the name,
Marcia Smith 24:32
Mia, I see, okay, one of the popular names, okay, name, the little girl’s name, dodgers, original, home, Brooklyn. Correct? Okay, the category, baby girls in 2018 label making company.
Bob Smith 24:46
Label making company. What is the name of that? Label making company? Found all your labels starts with an A doesn’t?
Marcia Smith 24:52
Yes, it does. What is that? Love your labels?
Bob Smith 24:55
Oh, I did love those labeled guns. They used to have.
Marcia Smith 24:57
What is the name of it? Fact, you put one on my forehead. One. That
Bob Smith 25:00
Avery, Avery, okay, so that is a name that’s popular for girls too.
Marcia Smith 25:05
Yeah, okay, Wisconsin’s capital, Madison, that’s
Bob Smith 25:09
right, yes, we’ve heard a lot of those,
Marcia Smith 25:10
calm under fire.
Bob Smith 25:12
Calm under fire. I don’t know what is that? Grace. Oh, Grace. That’s such a pretty name. I know
Marcia Smith 25:19
a lot of graces. And the last one, okay, hawthorne’s letter.
Bob Smith 25:23
Hawthorne’s letter, thinking of The Scarlet Letter, Scarlet.
Marcia Smith 25:26
That’s it. Okay, I didn’t know that was popular name. I don’t know any Scarlets.
Bob Smith 25:30
Oh, well, Scarlet Johansson is one. Oh, yeah. And Scarlet, who is, frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.
Speaker 2 25:37
That’s Scarlet O’Hara.
Bob Smith 25:39
Yeah, Scarlet O’Hara. What do you mean? You don’t know any names.
Marcia Smith 25:43
I mean personally,
Bob Smith 25:45
okay, sorry about that. Don’t get a chance to do my Rhett Butler very often. So that was fun. Okay, that’s
Marcia Smith 25:50
it for now. I’m gonna give you one more. Okay, what is the origin of the word touchstone? You know, touchstone is basically a truth teller for quality or a defining examples say Star Wars trilogy remains the touchstone for all modern science fiction, right, right. Okay, so isn’t it that stone in
Bob Smith 26:08
Scotland or Ireland? Where is it Dublin, where people would kiss the Blarney Stone? Is that the touchstone? No? Is it a place where the Oracle of Delphi gave the answers to questions people had no okay? Is it the word
Marcia Smith 26:21
goes back to ancient times when a special stone was used to guard against counterfeit money. Can you believe that? No kidding, many coins were mixed with cheap metals to pass off as authentic. So merchants would test the purity of coins by rubbing them on a hard, black stone. They called them touchstones, and the color of the streak left on the touchstone, disclose the coins true value. No kidding, isn’t that interesting? Yeah, it is. I love
Bob Smith 26:47
these word origin things, touchstone. So that was to determine the value that was claimed. Yeah, okay, all right. Speaking of value, we hope we’ve given you that, because that’s it for today. Don’t you want my quotes? Oh yeah, let’s do that. Speaking of value, let’s hear some of those quotes you normally give us at the end of
Marcia Smith 27:04
every show. Great. Save Okay. Dalai Lama, our prime purpose in this life is to help others, and if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them. Isn’t that nice? That’s good. And here’s a quote that also speaks to me. My favorite exercise is a cross between a lunge and a crunch. I call it lunch,
Bob Smith 27:27
all right. Well, we hope you’ve enjoyed what we’ve brought today, and you’ll come back again next time, when we return with more fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia. I’m Bob Smith. I’m Marcia Smith. You’ve been listening to the off ramp, 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
