|
Dec. 31, 2005
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 Carl This Time?
Quote 1 (Listen)
CARL: "In the future [they] may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
That was from a 1949 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine. What did that publication think would soon -- maybe in our lifetime -- shrink down to the manageable size of a large car?
Hint: At the time, one of these things filled a whole room...
Hint: For all its size, it still couldn't download a single song!
• Answer 1
Quote 2 (Listen)
CARL: "Ours has been the first party... and doubtless to be the last, to visit this profitless locality."
That was a man named Lt. Joseph Ives, writing in 1861. He would have been amazed to see the minivans full of families now swarming to what natural wonder?
Hint: He just thought it was going to be another hole in the ground.
• Answer 2
Quote 3 (Listen)
CARL: "We don't like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out..."
That was a talent scout at the Decca Recording Company in 1962, denying what band a contract because their sound just wasn't 'in' enough?
• Answer 3
Who's Carl This Time? Round II
Question 4 (Listen)
CARL: "It's baloney!"
That was J. Edgar Hoover expressing one of his strongest beliefs... that what did not exist in America?
Hint: Honestly, they were all just importing olive oil. And operating perfectly legitimate waste disposal businesses.
Hint: Is it a coincidence that The Godfather was released just after Hoover died?
• Answer 4
Question 5 (Listen)
CARL: "She is the most dangerous enemy of the bureau... She might well have succeeded in interfering with the bureau's ability to contain the communist menace in the United States."
That was Hoover in 1941, talking about a woman he considered to be a threat to our way of life. Who?
Hint: It was intolerable to have a potential pro-communist sleeping with the president!
• Answer 5
Question 6 (Listen)
CARL: "They are dens of vice and corruption, haunted by nomadic prostitutes, hardened criminals, white slavers and promiscuous college students."
J. Edgar Hoover talking in the '30s... about what dens of corruption?
Hint: The bureau was trying to come up with a way for a tornado to wipe it out.
Hint: They're also really handy for hooking up your Airstream or your Winnebago.
• Answer 6
Limerick Challenge
Limerick 1: (Listen)
As pet owners, they really are traitors.
Flushed the reptiles when they weren't yet maters.
But the hatchlings survived,
And in wetness they thrived.
Now the sewers are home to grown ___________.
•Answer 1
Limerick 2: (Listen)
When the mic's on, don't let your guard down.
Don't say "bastards," but choose a nice noun.
Crazy red hair is fine,
But don't step out of line.
Just be happy. Carefree. Be a __________.
•Answer 2
Limerick 3: (Listen)
Neiman Marcus must think I'm a rookie.
Sure, the recipe's good, but, now, lookie.
Their billing's mistaken.
As much as I'm bakin',
That's still too much dough for a __________.
•Answer 3
|
