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December 29, 2001
Welcome to Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, NPR's weekly news quiz program. Find out how well you know your news by playing the interactive online version below. You can also listen to this week's show with host Peter Sagal.
Who's Jean This Time?
Quote 1 (Listen with Real Audio)
JEAN: "I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe -- I believe what I believe is right."
That was a man stating his creed as clearly as he was capable of doing... and we mean that literally. Who was it?
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Answer 1
Quote 2 (Listen with Real Audio)
JEAN: "The White House and the GOP generally will be guilty of professional malpractice if they don't punish [him]. I know that it's illegal to sew a half-starved weasel into his small intestine, but there are some other options."
That's Jonah Goldberg of The National Review back when we thought our worst enemies were just politicians we disagreed with. What politician was Mr. Goldberg very angry at, back in May?
HINT: Jonah Goldberg, we presume, is a Republican.
HINT: The guy he was angry at isn't one, anymore.
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Answer 2
Quote 3 (Listen with Real Audio)
JEAN: "They served us fish heads, until they realized we weren't into fish heads..."
That was someone expressing his disdain for a Chinese delicacy. How did that person end up in China?
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Answer 3
Not My Job
Question 1 (Listen with Real Audio)
This year saw the passing of Gunther Gebel-Williams, the greatest circus animal trainer of them all. Over the years, the German-born Gebel-Williams stunned audiences world wide with his menagerie. Which of these was an actual trick he performed for adoring crowds?
A) A trained elephant would actually rear back and two legs and trumpet at the sight of a mouse.
B) He would handle a brace of horses in the center ring, while his wife did the same on one side, and his ex-wife on the other.
C) Three lions would roar on cue as he sang "My Way," self accompanied on the zither.
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Answer 1
Question 2 (Listen with Real Audio)
On May 9 of this year, the racing world lost Smokey Yunick, the legendary car mechanic. Among his many inventions and innovations - many of them designed to get around official rules and restrictions - was which of these?
A) An engine that ran entirely on animal fats, like melted lard.
B) The Mechanic's Inverted Harness, which suspended a mechanic upside down over an engine, for ease of access.
C) The Flintstone Gear, a pedal put into the floorboard which allows a driver an edge on standing starts by letting him push with his feet.
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Answer 2
Question 3 (Listen with Real Audio)
Hal Prieste died this year at the age of 104. At the time of his death, he was the oldest surviving Olympic medal winner in the world, having won the bronze in diving at the 1920 Antwerp games. He also was a bit of a jokester. What did he do at those games that earned him fame later?
A) He dribbled a quart of molasses on the 100-Meter track an hour before the final race.
B) He stole the original Olympic Five Rings flag, and kept in a suitcase for 80 years.
C) He swapped medals with the gold medal winner, who was color blind and didn't notice until he was back home in Buenos Aires.
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Answer 3
Limerick Challenge
Limerick 1: (Listen with Real Audio)
The budding musician was edgy,
"Our performance was limp, stale and hedgy.
Our beets, beg your pardon,
Are too avant garden.
They laughed while I tuned up my __________."
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Answer 1
Limerick 2: (Listen with Real Audio)
Houston, this is a disgrace.
See the crew's dionysian embrace?
The ship's called Apollo!
But that seems to ring hollow.
They took pregnancy tests out to __________.
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Answer 2
Limerick 3: (Listen with Real Audio)
The Maid Marian sighs in dismay.
"I can't get Robin's arrow to stray.
Much as I lead him on,
He prefers Little John.
It's too bad all the good ones are __________."
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Answer 3
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