In this episode, Bob and Marcia explore historical trivia and fun facts. They delve into why singing “Auld Lang Syne” was a defiant act during Japanese occupation of Korea, noting its use as the Korean national anthem for 41 years. They identify Mildred Elizabeth Gillers as the first woman convicted of treason in the U.S., for broadcasting Axis propaganda. The pair discuss the impact of a typographical error in the King James Bible, known as the Wicked Bible, and the unusual method of measuring individuals for Guinness World Records. Additionally, they talk about the origins of paper sizes, methods of pregnancy detection, and the significance of historical cities like Hampton, VA, and Jerusalem. Finally, they examine the evolution of baseball management attire and conclude with quotes on leadership and learning.
Outline
Japanese Occupation and Singing “Auld Lang Syne”
- Bob Smith explains that during the Japanese occupation of Korea, singing “Auld Lang Syne” was an act of defiance because it was the tune used for Korea’s national anthem, “Eguka,” since 1907.
- The song was introduced to Korea by Scottish missionaries and appeared in church hymn books, making it familiar to Koreans.
- Japan suppressed everything Korean, including the Korean flag, language, and national anthem, leading to the symbolic act of humming “Auld Lang Syne.”
- The practice continued until 1948 when South Korea adopted its own identity, ending the 41-year tradition of using “Auld Lang Syne” as the national anthem.
First Woman Convicted of Treason Against the USA
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the first woman to be convicted of treason against the USA.
- Bob Smith initially thinks of Tokyo Rose but is corrected; it is Mildred Elizabeth Gillers, also known as Axis Sally.
- Mildred was an American broadcaster employed by Nazi Germany to disseminate pro-Axis propaganda during World War II.
- After her capture in post-war Berlin, she was convicted of treason and served 12 years in prison before being paroled and dying in 1988.
Training Astronauts in Historic Hampton, Virginia
- Bob Smith asks about the location where America’s Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronauts trained for spaceflights.
- Marcia Smith identifies Hampton, Virginia, as the oldest continuously occupied English settlement in the New World.
- Established in 1610, Hampton was chosen due to its proximity to the ocean and its historical significance.
- NASA’s Langley Research Center, established in 1917, played a crucial role in training astronauts and testing spacecraft components.
The Wicked Bible Typographical Error
- Bob Smith discusses a significant typographical error in the King James Bible printed in 1631, referred to as the Wicked Bible.
- The error occurred when the word “not” was accidentally omitted from the seventh commandment, changing it to “Thou shalt commit adultery.”
- The mistake led to severe consequences, including a fine of £300 (equivalent to approximately $70,000 today) for the printers, revocation of their printing license, and destruction of the affected copies.
- Only about 20 copies of the Wicked Bible are estimated to remain in circulation today.
Measuring Tallest and Shortest Individuals for Guinness World Records
- Bob Smith inquires about the number of measurements required to verify the height of individuals listed in the Guinness World Records for being the tallest and shortest.
- Marcia Smith reveals that individuals must be measured six times within a 24-hour period by a medical professional team.
- This is necessary due to humans shrinking throughout the day due to spinal compression.
- The process ensures accuracy in determining records for extreme heights.
Historical Significance of Paper Size Standards
- Marcia Smith explains the origin of standard paper sizes, specifically the dimensions 8.5 x 11 inches.
- The dimensions are traced back to the 1600s when Dutch paper makers used wooden molds to form sheets of paper.
- The molds were designed to accommodate the arm span of the workers, leading to the specific dimensions.
- The standardization helped ensure consistency in paper production and facilitated efficient handling and storage.
Frogs Indicating Human Pregnancy
- Bob Smith asks how frogs were historically used to indicate human pregnancies.
- Marcia Smith explains that before home pregnancy tests, doctors relied on rabbits and later frogs to detect pregnancy hormones.
- Female rabbits were injected with urine samples, and their ovaries were examined for changes indicating pregnancy.
- Frogs were used similarly, laying eggs when exposed to human pregnancy hormones, providing a visual indication of pregnancy.
Identifying Old Cities and Their Historical Importance
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith engage in a series of questions identifying various old cities and their historical significance.
- They discuss Jerusalem, recognized for housing the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Western Wall, and Miami, known for inventing suntan lotion.
- They also touch upon Sydney, Australia, noted for its historic landmarks and cultural importance.
- These discussions highlight the rich history and ongoing relevance of these cities.
America’s Largest Swamp and Its Evolution
- Bob Smith shares information about America’s largest swamp, located in Louisiana, known as the Atchafalaya Swamp.
- The term “swamp” refers to a wetland dominated by trees, distinguishing it from the Everglades, which is classified as a marsh.
- The Everglades, despite having trees, is characterized by its slow-moving grasslands.
- Both areas have undergone significant changes due to human activities, particularly drainage projects.
Musical Genre Identification Game
- Marcia Smith presents a game involving identifying musical genres based on cryptic clues.
- Bob Smith successfully identifies rock music, hot air balloon music (hot air), pop music, opera music, rap music, and the blues.
- Other clues include references to France/Mexico (Latin music) and Robin and Batman (R&B).
- The game demonstrates the versatility and creativity involved in categorizing different types of music.
Bob Smith 0:00
During the Japanese occupation, why was singing Auld Lang Syne in Korea an act of defiance?
Marcia Smith 0:07
And who was the first woman to be convicted of treason against the United States?
Bob Smith 0:13
Whoa, answers to those and other questions coming up in this episode of the off ramp with Bob
Marcia Smith 0:18
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, yes, this is an interesting question. During the Japanese occupation, why was singing Auld Lang Syne in Korea, an act of defiance?
Marcia Smith 0:57
Which part of Korea?
Bob Smith 0:58
It was one country at the time?
Marcia Smith 0:59
Okay.
Bob Smith 1:00
Why was singing Auld Lang Syne an act of defiance? That’s a Scottish song. Scottish folks, I don’t know, because starting in 1907 Korea’s national anthem, was sung to the tune of Auld Lang Syne.
Marcia Smith 1:17
Oh. It’s a lovely tune.
Bob Smith 1:19
The song was introduced to Korea by Scottish missionaries, and it appeared in church hymn books, so it was familiar to Koreans. And when Japan, in the 30s and the 20s, started taking over countries, the Koreans wanted a western style national anthem to stoke patriotism. Auld Lang Syne sounded formal and international, so they put their words to it, and the Korean national anthem was sung to Oleg sign for 41 years. Interesting. So when the Japanese formally annexed Korea, that means taking it over.
Marcia Smith 1:49
Yeah, it’s a nice way to say, we’re taking
Bob Smith 1:50
We’re annexing you!
Marcia Smith 1:51
Yeah
Bob Smith 1:52
They suppressed everything Korean. They got rid of the Korean flag, the Korean language newspapers and the Korean national anthem. So if somebody hummed that tune quietly at school, at church or social gathering, it was considered a symbolic act of defiance, a political act,
Marcia Smith 2:08
Okay
Bob Smith 2:09
To sing o Lang Syne. And that was that way until 1948 when they became the Republic of South Korea and adopted their own identity.
Bob Smith 2:17
Okay.
Bob Smith 2:17
But for 41 years, O lang syne, Scottish tune that was the Korean national anthem.
Marcia Smith 2:21
I wouldn’t have guessed that. All right, Bob, here’s something for you to ponder. Who was the first woman to be convicted of treason against the United States?
Bob Smith 2:30
OK, all right. Is this somebody who’s famous? I should know.
Marcia Smith 2:33
You might know her nickname.
Bob Smith 2:35
Oh, was it Tokyo rose?
Marcia Smith 2:37
Well, that’s where I would have gone. But no, it’s her counterpart, Axis Sally. That’s Mildred. Elizabeth gillers,
Bob Smith 2:44
Oh, really. Axis, so she was the same kind of thing, a broadcaster?
Bob Smith 2:47
Yeah.
Bob Smith 2:47
Okay.
Marcia Smith 2:48
Mildred, Elizabeth Gillers, she was an American broadcaster employed by Nazi Germany to disseminate access propaganda during World War Two. Wow. Following her capture in post war Berlin gillers became the first woman to be convicted of treason against the United States. She was paroled after serving 12 years in the Federal Women’s reformatory in West Virginia, and died in 1988 at the age of 88
Bob Smith 3:16
Pretty fascinating, all right, Marcia, I thought this was kind of interesting when America’s Mercury Gemini and Apollo astronauts trained for space flights, they did it in the oldest continuously occupied English settlement in the new world. Where is that?
Marcia Smith 3:33
they trained for – for what?
Bob Smith 3:35
To be astronauts
Marcia Smith 3:37
In the oldest –
Bob Smith 3:38
continuously occupied English settlement of the new world. Where is that?
Marcia Smith 3:42
Was it like Santa Fe
Bob Smith 3:46
No. On the East Coast!
Marcia Smith 3:47
The East Coast
Bob Smith 3:48
And it’s still a city today. Okay? Hampton, Virginia, okay, that was founded in 1610 it’s been a city for 400 plus years. Today, it has about 140,000 people, and there’s no way Hampton’s colonial founders would have ever dreamed the city would train men going to the moon, but it did. NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton was first established in 1917 as an experimental Aviation Center. It became one of America’s first air force bases, and then the Langley center just happened to continue its tradition of aviation, it trained the Mercury Gemini and Apollo astronauts, and models of the space shuttle were even tested in the wind tunnels at the Langley Research Center before going into production. But that originally was the oldest continuously occupied English city in the New World,
Marcia Smith 4:37
Okey dokey Bob, what typo shook the religious world in 1631.
Bob Smith 4:44
The typo that shook the religious world in 60 is this, that about the Bible. That’s it that was called the Devil’s Bible, or something
Marcia Smith 4:51
It was called the Wicked Bible.
Bob Smith 4:53
Wicked Bible. It was a word that was omitted by accident,
Marcia Smith 4:57
Yes.
Bob Smith 4:57
And it said, Thou shalt commit adult. Tree, that was it.
Marcia Smith 5:01
You even got the commandment, right?
Bob Smith 5:03
Well, I just kind of stuck in my mind.
Marcia Smith 5:05
Why is that?
Bob Smith 5:06
I don’t know.
Marcia Smith 5:07
It’s 1631 a small but significant typo shook the world in a reprint of the King James Bible by Royal printers Robert Barker and Martin Lucas, the word not was left out of the seventh commandment, Thou shalt not commit adultery. The typo appeared in only about 1000 copies before the government shut it down when the error was discovered, the ramifications were swift and severe. Bob, okay, the king fined the printers 300 pounds, which is about $70,000 today, revoked their printing license and proceeded to find and destroy as many copies of the Wicked Bible as possible, turning it into a rare collector’s item. How many copies you think remain in circulation?
Bob Smith 5:58
Oh, I don’t know, 1520.
Marcia Smith 5:59
Yeah, 20 copies. Very good.
Bob Smith 6:01
That’d be nice to get a Wicked Bible.
Marcia Smith 6:03
Well, you could make some money with that.
Bob Smith 6:05
Okay, Marcia, I have a question for you on the human body. How many times must record setters for the tallest and shortest men and women be measured for the Guinness World Records? This is kind of an anomaly.
Marcia Smith 6:17
How many times must they
Bob Smith 6:19
be measured? You don’t just measure them once for a I’ll
Speaker 2 6:22
say three.
Bob Smith 6:23
Okay? Why three? I don’t know. Okay. They must be measured by a medical professional team to qualify for the Guinness World Record. Yeah, not once, not twice. Six times six, okay, in a 24 hour period. You know why? Humans just shrink throughout the day as a result of spinal compression. So they have to be measured six times in order to qualify for the Guinness World Record as to whether they’re the tallest and shortest men and women in a 24 hour period.
Marcia Smith 6:51
Bob. Did you ever wonder why the average piece of paper, like the ones we’re looking at, are eight and a half by 11?
Bob Smith 7:01
There were different standards that had to be. I know there was, like Dutch standards, but it happened to do with, I think, a drawer, how they could fit into a drawer is that it No, what does it boil down to? It all boils down
Marcia Smith 7:15
to how far a 17th Century worker could stretch their arms. Oh, what really tell me the answer goes back to the 1600s When Dutch paper makers used wooden molds to form sheets of paper. Okay, so it was the Dutch okay from big vats of watery pulp, the molds had to be big enough for the VAT man, the worker handling the frame, to lift and shake comfortably through trial and error, paper makers settled on molds roughly 44 inches long. The average span of the workers outstretched arms in those days when that large sheet was quartered, the resulting pieces measured about 11 inches long. The origin of the width is less certain, but historians point to the molds original 17 inch dimension halved produced that familiar with eight and a half inches?
Bob Smith 8:06
Well, that’s interesting.
Marcia Smith 8:08
In other words, it all depends on how average the 17th Century worker could stretch his arms.
Bob Smith 8:14
It’s like the king’s foot, right?
Marcia Smith 8:15
Yeah. I forget what was that the king’s foot was that became the average length of a foot, right? Yeah, right.
Bob Smith 8:22
12 inches, yeah. Isn’t that interesting? Yeah. So this is the size of our paper, and it depended on a Dutch worker in 1600s Yeah. Okay, all right. Marcia, I got an interesting question for you. How did frogs once tell doctors if women were pregnant.
Marcia Smith 8:41
I don’t know. Did they jump off your belly if you were pregnant?
Bob Smith 8:44
No. What did they do? Okay, well, you know that before home pregnancy tests, modern doctors relied on rabbits to tell if a woman was pregnant. In the 1930s the big breakthrough was the rabbit test. You’ve heard about that, yeah, a woman’s urine injected into a female rabbit, and the doctors later examined the rabbit’s ovaries for changes caused by the pregnancy hormone hCG.
Speaker 3 9:08
I thought if the rabbit died, well,
Bob Smith 9:09
that’s the point. The rabbit always died, whether the test was positive or negative, really, yeah, not because the test killed it, but because the only way to check the ovaries was to kill it, the rabbit. Yeah, so even though the rabbit died, became code for the test was positive, the poor rabbit died, either way, then came a test upgrade the frog test, and from the 1940s to the 1960s labs used the African clawed Xenopus frog to test for pregnancy. This frog would lay eggs when exposed to the human pregnancy hormone, doctors can now inject a frog, wait a few hours, and if eggs appeared, congratulations, you’re pregnant, the frog lived and could be reused for years. And that’s how things were done, until 1976 when the first home pregnancy test became available.
Marcia Smith 9:57
7676 All right? Time for where in the world, where in the world, the world, you get up to three clues, Okay, today’s cases are all cities, okay. Clue one, this city’s name is Hebrew for founded in peace.
Bob Smith 10:13
This city’s name is Hebrew for founded on peace. It’s not Tel Aviv. Is it? No, okay. What is it? Clue two, okay,
Marcia Smith 10:21
forget about this. Always forget. Oh yeah, here we go. The Dead Sea Scrolls are housed in the city’s Museum.
Bob Smith 10:27
Okay. Where is that next clue, please.
Marcia Smith 10:31
Clue three, yes, home to the Wailing Wall, a sacred Jewish site.
Bob Smith 10:36
Oh, that’s Jerusalem.
Marcia Smith 10:37
Seriously, ding, ding, okay. On the third clue, okay, ready?
Bob Smith 10:41
Well, yeah, but the Dead Sea Scrolls were not found anywhere near Jerusalem, so that’s why that threw me off. That’s where the question, right.
Marcia Smith 10:49
Okay. Clue one, okay, where in the world is this city? Suntan lotion was invented here in 1944
Bob Smith 10:57
let’s see. Is that in Switzerland?
Marcia Smith 10:59
Somewhere? No. Oh. Clue two, okay, it is surrounded by two national parks, Biscayne National Park and Everglades National Park.
Bob Smith 11:12
Is it? Let’s see Fort Lauderdale. Clue three,
Marcia Smith 11:16
oh, dear Will Smith released a song about this city in 1997 that doesn’t
Bob Smith 11:23
help me at all. Okay, what’s the answer? Okay, Miami. So Miami is where suntan lotion was invented. Yeah, I recall we did a story on it being invented in Switzerland by mountain climbers. A mountain climber
Marcia Smith 11:34
double check that. Okay, third and last, where in the world? Okay? Clue one, one of this city’s bridges is nicknamed the coat hanger.
Bob Smith 11:44
The coat hanger because it looks like a coat hanger. One of the city’s bridges looks like a coat hanger. Okay, don’t know that.
Marcia Smith 11:53
Clue two, this is the capital of New South
Bob Smith 11:56
Wales, so this is in Australia. Yes. Is it Melbourne?
Marcia Smith 12:01
Clue three, the home of Bondi
Bob Smith 12:04
Beach. Where is it?
Marcia Smith 12:06
Sydney? Sydney. Sydney. Okay, hey, you didn’t get any of
Bob Smith 12:11
terrible that was just terrible. Sorry, honey. Back to this thing of Hampton, Virginia. Why is it considered the oldest continuous English speaking city in the New World, Didn’t he have Jamestown? Jamestown was founded in 1607, uh huh. Why doesn’t it qualify for that? I don’t know. Because it was abandoned. Oh, that’s right, it was eventually abandoned. It’s a historic site co managed by the National Park Service, but nobody lives there. But Hampton, founded in 1610 has been continuously occupied by English speaking people. And guess where they came from? Jamestown, by 1819, they had a minister in the first English speaking church in the Americas. They still use communion silver that was made in 1618, they bring out for their communion services, where you can take communion with liturgical objects that were already in use before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, before Shakespeare’s first folio was published. So it’s pretty remarkable.
Marcia Smith 13:08
Okay, Okay, continuing on with old cities. Yeah. What European capital celebrated its 2,000th anniversary in 1951
Bob Smith 13:19
European capital 2,000th anniversary, is that Rome? No, okay, Paris. Oh, really, yeah.
Marcia Smith 13:27
Compare that to the US oldest city, which is St Augustine, yeah. And they celebrated their 460th birthday in 2025 Yeah, right. And Damascus, Syria is seen as the oldest in the world, dating back to 2500 BC. So that’s got it over everybody,
Bob Smith 13:47
ancient, ancient, ancient. Yeah, you’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith. We’ll be back in just a moment. We’re back. We’re back with the off ramp here for the Cedarburg Public Library and for our podcast platforms around the world. All right? Marcia, what is America’s largest swamp ever? Think about that. America’s America’s largest swamp.
Marcia Smith 14:11
Isn’t that the Everglades? That’s what
Bob Smith 14:12
most people would say. But the answer is, in Louisiana, it’s the Atchafalaya swamp. America’s biggest swamp. Uchapilaya is an Indian word that means long river. So if the Everglades isn’t a swamp, what is it?
Marcia Smith 14:27
It’s a hot jungle.
Bob Smith 14:32
It’s a marsh. A swamp is a wetland dominated by trees. Remember that swamp trees? The Everglades, it too has trees, but it’s not a swamp. It’s a marsh, a slow moving river of grass. That’s how you can think about the Everglades. Yeah, okay, the big swamp in Louisiana is 1.4 million acres. The Everglades National Park is 1.5 million. And did you know the Everglades used to be twice as large as they are now more than 3 million. Million total acres until they began to be drained in the late 1800s through the mid 20th century.
Marcia Smith 15:05
It’s one place you and I never wanted to visit. Well, we did go there.
Bob Smith 15:09
We drove through there. We did, oh yeah. We drove through the Everglades on that highway that we had to make that one stop. And we went, Oh, this is a weird rest stop. Remember that? Okay, yeah. I forgot all about that. Marcia and I stopped at this rest stop in the Everglades, and it was like an abandoned World War Two bunker. It’s like, what is this place? Let’s go and get out of here.
Marcia Smith 15:29
Okay. Bob time for AKA, also known as, all right. All right. Today’s category is genres of music, something right in your wheelhouse, correct? Yes. So if I want you to say what this genre is, I would give you the clue of Boulder. What genre of music is it that
Bob Smith 15:48
would be rock music. That is correct, sir. That’s an easy one. Thank you for starting easy.
Marcia Smith 15:54
You’re welcome. Balloon puncture.
Bob Smith 15:57
Balloon puncture is hot air. Let me see that
Marcia Smith 16:00
famous genre of music, hot
Bob Smith 16:03
air music, yes. Balloon, puncture. Balloon puncture, yeah, okay,
Marcia Smith 16:07
I don’t get that one. What is the sound it makes when you
Bob Smith 16:11
pop Okay? Pop music. All right, there we go.
Marcia Smith 16:14
All right, okay, let’s try this one, phantoms location.
Bob Smith 16:18
The phantoms location. What kind of music
Marcia Smith 16:21
are we hinting at? Opera music, correct? Okay, cover a present. Cover a
Bob Smith 16:26
present that would be wrapping paper. That’s it. Rap music, very good.
Marcia Smith 16:31
Okay, how about this? Sunny Day skies, sunny
Bob Smith 16:35
day sky, what kind of
Marcia Smith 16:36
music Am I trying to get you to
Bob Smith 16:38
say sunny day skies, that’s not blue skies, yes. Oh, okay. The Blues, yeah, the blues, Okay, gotcha Okay,
Marcia Smith 16:47
Okay, how about France or Mexico? What kind of music are we talking Latin music?
Bob Smith 16:52
No, oh, not France. I’m sorry. Yeah, got that wrong.
Marcia Smith 16:56
You could say France or Mexico, Germany, different countries, Bob,
Bob Smith 17:02
country music, yeah, well, that, see, that doesn’t relate to country music at all.
Marcia Smith 17:06
Okay, well, that’s not the point. I guess not. I guess it’s okay. Last one, all right. Now think it through Robin and Batman’s monogram. Kind of music. Am I talking about
Bob Smith 17:19
Robin and bat? Would
Marcia Smith 17:20
they have on their towels, honey? I’m sorry. It’s just not connecting initials for Robin and Batman, R and B, oh, dear. I’m sorry you didn’t get it.
Bob Smith 17:33
I’m done. All right, I’ve got a fruit question for you. Who spread pineapples around the world, and where did pineapples originate? Where did pineapples originate?
Marcia Smith 17:45
Hawaii would be too easy. Yes, it would be okay. So I will say Wisconsin.
Bob Smith 17:50
No, we’re not in Wisconsin. Marsha, all right, tell me southern Brazil and Paraguay. Okay, that’s where they were, and they spread naturally through indigenous trade networks into the Caribbean. And then guess what happened? Then came the Spanish and the encounter of 1493 during his second voyage, Columbus found pineapples on Guadalupe took them back to Spain. They got their name because they called them the pinna de indies, the pine of the Indians. Oh, yeah, yeah. The first recorded transfer of pineapples across the Atlantic was from Columbus. And then, once the Spanish established the Caribbean colonies, they began moving them across their empire. There was a trade between Mexico and the Philippines for all kinds of things, including silver, and they put pineapples on those ships. So the Philippines got pineapples other parts of Southeast Asia, Europe, especially Spain and other courts, where it became a status symbol, also West Africa and the Canary Islands. And then after that, the Portuguese spread them to India, and the British to Malaysia. And then Spanish explorers likely took them to Hawaii, okay, after they spread them across the Pacific to other places.
Marcia Smith 18:59
All right, Bob, what famous Da Vinci painting has been restored over 11 times, and why?
Bob Smith 19:07
I think the famous one that’s restored 11 times was the last supper, and it was being restored because it was humidity from the waters and the building it’s in were deteriorating. The painting. Is that correct
Marcia Smith 19:20
contributing factor. But the main thing, it was painted in tempura instead of oil paint. Okay, can
Bob Smith 19:26
you explain tempura to people who aren’t painters?
Marcia Smith 19:29
Tempura features eggs, yeah, doesn’t have staying power of regular oil paints, right? It’s not a long lasting it flakes,
Bob Smith 19:37
doesn’t it? Yeah, but they didn’t know it
Marcia Smith 19:38
at the time, no, but it gave a cool
Bob Smith 19:41
look, vibrant colors because of the eggs. Now, Maxfield Parrish had the same problem with his paintings. They were all tempura, and they all started deteriorating as well. That is correct. Why didn’t Maxfield learn up from Da Vinci? I don’t know. Okay, he didn’t read the book. So that’s the famous painting. Then that’s been fixed,
Marcia Smith 19:59
restored a lot. 11 times, 11 times. Yeah. Remember, they cut off part of the bottom of it too to get it over the doorway.
Bob Smith 20:05
That’s right. We did a story on that. That’s right. It’s, it’s missing the feet, right?
Marcia Smith 20:09
Yeah, let’s just fit the Last Supper painting here over the door. Yeah, nobody’s
Bob Smith 20:16
gonna notice the feet.
Marcia Smith 20:18
I noticed the feet of Jesus are missing.
Bob Smith 20:20
So funny. Okay, Marcia today, dictionaries and encyclopedias are team efforts, but the first major American Dictionary was the work of one man. Who was he and how long did it take?
Marcia Smith 20:33
Was it Miriam?
Bob Smith 20:34
No, it wasn’t Merriam. Webster. Webster. What was his first name?
Marcia Smith 20:39
Oh, I thought it was Merriam? No, those are two last names.
Bob Smith 20:42
Merriam wasn’t his wife or his girlfriend. A person named Webster had the famous biblical name of the man who built the ship the ark.
Marcia Smith 20:51
Yes, that was what
Bob Smith 20:53
was his name. Who
Marcia Smith 20:54
built the ark? That was what’s his name, Bill?
Bob Smith 20:57
No, that was Bill Cosby, who had the routine about Noah. Noah, Noah, let me get back to the answer. Noah Webster. He was a Harvard graduate. He devoted more than 20 years to the dictionary. He started serious work in 1807 and he published it in 1828 and he personally defined more than 70,000 words and nearly 2000 pages. He worked alone, and he actually learned multiple languages, at least 20 languages, including Anglo Saxon Hebrew and Sanskrit to trace word origins. I was
Marcia Smith 21:29
wondering, do you get paid for those 20 years? How do you live?
Bob Smith 21:32
I don’t know, but he eventually did publish it, and it was a huge success, really. It was published in two volumes. Cost $20 that was significant back, yeah, I’ll say, imagine buying a dictionary today for $600 that’s what it would cost you. Well, the
Marcia Smith 21:47
libraries had them, and that’s where people
Bob Smith 21:49
would go two centuries after his dictionary. We all know Webster, at least the last name because of the dictionary.
Marcia Smith 21:55
Honest to God, I thought Merriam Webster was his whole name.
Bob Smith 21:58
Okay, what was something he did that. Made this dictionary very American versus British dictionaries. Think of the word
Marcia Smith 22:04
color, oh, he took out the U, and
Bob Smith 22:07
he took out the U, yeah, there used to be C, o, l, o, u, r. He took that out. And theater with an E R on the end, instead of r e, realized became I, z, E, not I, S, E, and other things like that. I didn’t
Speaker 4 22:19
know was one little guy fiddling around
Bob Smith 22:20
for 20 years. Oh, he was very interesting. You know, the words like public and music were spelled with a K on the end, yeah, P, U, B, L, I C K, public and music and U, S, I C, K, he said to add a K after C in such words is beyond measure absurd. So we just he took
Marcia Smith 22:36
them out himself. Wow, that takes some hoot spot. All right, Bob, true or false, you got a 50% chance here. All right, to redeem yourself. Okay, try. All right, a fresco is painted on dry plaster. True or False, Fresco
Bob Smith 22:53
is painted on dry plaster. Yes, false, Oh, geez.
Marcia Smith 23:00
Okay, you had two choices, but true Fresco is painted on wet plaster. Oh, really. So the colors bond as it dries, whereas when you paint on dry plaster, it’s called fresco secco, and it’s less durable. So fresco secco, S, E, C, C, O, OK, yeah, and it’s less durable, so the difference is wet and dry. Didn’t know that. Really.
Bob Smith 23:24
I knew al fresco that had nothing to do with painting, though, you know fresca. All right, two more questions. How many red blood cells do you create? Daily? Daily? 5000 5000 let’s forget daily and concentrate on the smallest measurement of time. Okay, okay, according to britannica.com the average human body creates 2 million, oh, my red blood cells every second. Oh, come on, that’s according to britannica.com Boy, was I wrong, yeah. Well, me too. I had no idea it was that fast. And then we were talking about the oldest English speaking European settlement earlier? Are there any pre European, Native American structures still being lived in? And if so, where are they? And how old are they? Well, I’d say
Marcia Smith 24:10
Adobe, Adobe houses in the southwest. You’re right,
Bob Smith 24:16
okay, and the place is the village of Sky City, New Mexico. It’s been in continuous use for 900 years, since the year 1150 so long before Europeans arrived. It’s 60 miles west of Albuquerque on a 365 foot high mesa. What Indian group, the Acoma Pueblo tribe. They live there today. They’re believed to be descended from the early Puebloans, the Mongolian and other ancient people. And guess what? The village still has no electricity, sewers or running water. The villagers collect rainwater in a natural hole in the middle of the village, just like their ancestors did Greek. It’s amazing. People have been living there for 900 years. On the American continent.
Marcia Smith 25:01
Okay with baseball season underway, you probably wondered, why don’t baseball coaches wear civilian clothes, like those in other sports, you know, they wear their uniforms. But other sports, you know, basketball, Oh, that’s true, yeah, Nobody wears the uniform.
Bob Smith 25:19
Yeah. Basketball, they wear suits. And football, they’re out there in jackets. Yeah, yeah. I never thought of that. I didn’t even so why do baseball coaches, they were original player coach teams. Is that it Yes?
Marcia Smith 25:30
Yes, in the 1800s baseball managers looked after travel and logistics while a uniform playing Captain guided the team on the field. Okay? Captains who had retired from playing kept their uniforms on in case they were needed as a player.
Bob Smith 25:46
So you have to sub in, yeah.
Marcia Smith 25:49
Eventually, the manager’s job expanded into coaching, and in 1957 there was a rule that no one without a uniform could enter the playing area.
Bob Smith 26:00
Oh, that’s a good idea. It’s like, kind of a security
Marcia Smith 26:03
reason, yeah, including base coaches and the managers.
Bob Smith 26:06
So it’s official you have
Marcia Smith 26:07
to wear. You have to wow. And Connie Mack, He always wore a suit and a tie. Oh, I didn’t know that, but how could he get away with that? Because he never came out of the dugout. Oh, no kidding, because
Bob Smith 26:20
it was against the rules. That’s so funny. And Connie Mack was a famous early baseball player.
Marcia Smith 26:25
Yeah, he managed the Philadelphia Athletics while wearing a suit and a tie, but he never left the dugout.
Bob Smith 26:30
Oh, that’s funny. He’s never out there, shaking his finger at the umpire. No, okay, all right, you got some Yeah.
Marcia Smith 26:37
Finish up. Yeah. From Roy T Bennett, great leaders. Create more leaders, not followers.
Bob Smith 26:43
Hmm, that’s a good one.
Marcia Smith 26:45
I like that. Yes. Think of you as a good leader. You created more leaders. You tried to and your bosses did too, and you’ve had good bosses. Oh, great bosses, like Ed and brandy, wonderful people, yeah. And here’s his friend, Liebowitz. Remember she said, in real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra.
Bob Smith 27:07
I thought about that when I
Marcia Smith 27:09
was taking algebra. You know, they always say, you’ll really appreciate this. When you’re in real life, you need these things. And I kept
Bob Smith 27:15
thinking, unless I’m an engineer, why am I going to need this? At the time, I didn’t like it. Algebra one was bad enough. Algebra Two is like, why am I going through this again? Okay, time to wrap it up here with the formula for success. Our off ramp formula for success is to get out at the end. So that’s what we’re going to do right now. Join us 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 you.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
