Falling in love with an octopus, a dog, and Sally Field

From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm your judge and scorekeeper, classically trained by Judge Judy herself. I'm Alzo Slade, and here's your host at the Studebaker Theater at the Fine Arts Building in Chicago, Illinois, Peter Sagal. Thank you, Alzo. Oh, thank you, everybody. Wow. Wow. Thank you. Yes, it is exciting. We have a great show for you today. Later on, we are going to be joined by the legendary actor Sally Field. Yes. Herself. She was just nominated for an Emmy for her role in Remarkably Bright Creatures on Netflix. We have some fans. Okay. This is a movie where she co-stars with an octopus. Sadly, the Emmys snubbed the octopus. We promise to recognize your work, so pick up your phone and give us a call. The number is 1-888-WAIT-WAIT. That's 1-888-924-8924. Let's welcome our first listener contestant. Hi, you're on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Hi. I'm Quincy from Dallas, Texas, but currently living in Austin, Texas. Okay. So you're Quincy. You're from Dallas, but you're temporarily located in Austin. What made you do that? I'm a student at the University of Texas. Oh, great. Yes. And what are you studying, may I ask? I'm doing aerospace engineering. Are you? She's going to have a job. Are you, he said, in a way meant to subtly foreshadow some of the questions we have for you. Well, welcome to our show, Quincy. Let me introduce you to our panel. First up, she's an Emmy-nominated writer and comedian. It's Shantira Jackson. Hi, Quincy. Hi, Shantira. Next, he's a humorist and founder of Hatch Sports. She's also the director of the New Space Woodworking School and Community Workshop in Brattleboro, Vermont. It's Tom Beaudet. Hello, Quincy. Hi, Tom. And a comedian you can see in Munhall, Pennsylvania on September 25th, whose podcast is Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone. It's Paula Poundstone. Hey, Quincy. Hi, Paula. How are you doing? So, Quincy, you're going to play Who's Alzo? This time, Alzo Slade is going to read you three quotations from this week's news. Your job, correctly identify or explain. And two of them, you'll win our prize. Any voice from our show, you might choose on your voicemail. Are you ready to go? Yes, sir. Okay. Here we go, Quincy. Your first quote is from a NASA investigator. I think it will be a beautiful crater. That investigator was reacting to news that a rocket crashed this week into what? The moon. Yes, the moon. A SpaceX rocket crashed into the moon after being left in orbit. This happened at a bad time. For both of Elon Musk's companies, SpaceX and Tesla, their stocks tanked this week. But it is still impressive that even though this happened on the moon, the rocket still managed to take out several pedestrians. How does a rocket crash into the moon? I mean, did somebody fall asleep at a switchboard? No, no. This was a rocket stage. You know, the rockets have stages, these big parts, segments of the rocket. And this was left in orbit. And it's just been floating out there. And, of course, it's a rocket. And, eventually, its path crossed the path of the moon. And, well, you know, when two objects love each other very much. Well, this is a question for Quincy, being a scientist engineer. Now, don't things orbit, like, 200 miles up? And isn't the moon, like, further than, like, 250,000 miles up? Like, I don't think this was an accident. I'm not a conspiracy guy. You think somebody had it out for the moon? It's hard to hit the moon. There's a lot of math. And hitting it by accident is like winning the Powerball. To be fair, it is actually very hard to land a rocket safely on the moon. That's why we don't expect to be able to do it until 57 years ago. We've already put the first man on the moon. Maybe we want to put the first man in the moon. It's possible, yeah. Are all these tech guys not going to have to start crashing their rockets? In there? Like, now Bezos is going to send, like, a bigger rocket. Yeah, because they're constantly competing. Going a little faster. Yeah. Yeah. Look at my crater. You thought you messed up the moon. Watch me. The thing is, we all remember what Jeff Bezos' rockets look like. They're sort of cylinders that bulge out at the top. They're very indicative of something, some concern. I'm just imagining the image of that crashing, heading into the moon. It would be like one of those illustrations of how life begins. Can you. Oh, no. I'll never be able to unsee that. I know. I was going to say, can you imagine how hard the moon tries to get out of the way? Yeah. Wow. Quincy, for your next quote, here is a citizen of Mexico giving his opinion on an American burrito chain that just opened there. It's gringo food for gringos. So. What? American burrito chain just opened their first ever branch in Mexico. Is it Chipotle? It is Chipotle. Or, as they say in Mexico, Chipotle. America invading Mexico with Chipotle restaurants really puts the colon in colonize. And there is a chance to see the subtle differences between the American version of Mexican food and the authentic version. For example, in Mexico. In Mexico, they also have cyclospora, but there it's made with cane sugar. So, is this very recent? I mean, do we know how it's doing? Well, apparently, they opened it in the town of Monterrey, Mexico, in northern Mexico, which, because it's near the border, has a lot of American restaurants. People are used to that. It's not Mexican food. They know it's not, but it's tasty and decent fast food. I think I'm getting a spaghetti factory franchise for Rome. Well, you know, I wouldn't. I wouldn't do that, because there is a sad history here. They tried opening a pizza hut there once, and that's why they joined the other side of World War II. It was. They didn't take that well. All right, Quincy, your last quote is about a new device for new parents. Infants survive just fine before infrared night vision cameras. That was the New York Times talking about the new thing that everybody gets after they get their first baby. What is it? Is it like crib cam, baby cams? Yeah, it's like a baby monitor, but not just a baby monitor. The $400 Nanit monitor tracks your baby throughout the night on more than a dozen metrics, including their breathing, their movements, their so-called sleep efficiency. And also, this is true, it takes a photo of the baby's facial expression whenever a parent walks into the room, and then, without being told, it will edit those photos into a montage for you. Which is a great way to know which parent the baby likes more. So, it's a flop camera for babies. It really is. So, it's basically turning the nursery into an ICU. Pretty much, yeah. It's like the nurse's station's got a blue light and a buzzer out there when the blood pressure drops. Yeah, pretty much. It covers. It's like, it's a huge leap forward. Finally, a baby monitor that gives parents more things to worry about. Yeah. I used to. You know, I'd sleep on the floor. And my. I didn't know that. Yeah. You can't fall out of floor. And so, when my son was a baby, he also slept on the floor a lot. And so, he was taking a nap one day. Just an infant. But I'd put a blanket, you know, down on the floor for a minute. It was in the summer. It was wicked hot. But I'd put him on the blanket, and then I'd go downstairs. And we didn't have things like that. No, no. And in a while, I'd go up to check on him. And he's on the wood floor and not on the blanket anymore. And I'm like, oh, sorry about that. And I move him back. And then I go back downstairs in a little while. I go up to check on him, and he's on the wood floor again. Now, see, if I had had this camera, I would have realized how hard he tried to get to the wood floor. Yeah. Because it was cooler than that damn blanket. I see. He was a baby, but he wasn't a stupid baby. Now, this, of course, is AI, and it's connected to the Internet where they store all the data. Many parents are concerned about exposing their babies to so much surveillance, and they're worried about how all this data might be used. But the Nanit company says, don't worry, your baby loves it. We know because we're looking at him right now. So, Alzo, how did Quincy do on our quiz? She passed with flying colors. Three out of three. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you, Quincy. Good luck with your studies, and I'm sure your rockets will not crash into anything. Thank you so much. Bye, guys. Bye-bye. Bye. I've been thinking about you for hours My mind's racing with hearts and flowers I can't help it, I'm hooked on you I'm kind of thinking that you are, too Oh, oh, oh, oh Be my baby love Oh, oh, oh, oh I'll never let you go Oh, oh, oh, oh Right now, panel, time for you to answer some questions about this quiz. WEEK'S NEWS. we know all about the loneliness epidemic, but the Washington Post this week had some advice for making new friends. They say you should just become friends with who? Give me a hint, Peter. It might be friends with what? And I'll give you a hint. The first thing you should do is take down that thing in the field that scares them away. Oh, birds. Crows. Crows, yes. Make friends with a crow, everybody. Wow, that is helpful. According to the Post, more and more people are becoming friends with crows. They give the crows treats until the crow learns to start showing up every day. Some even take it further. They walk around with their new crow friend on their shoulder, which is great if you've always aspired to be an omen that whoever sees is about to die. I love crows because they're loyal. If they see somebody do something to you, that becomes their enemy. How do you know this? Because I'm a millennial. We all love birds. Really? Yeah. As soon as you turn 35, you gotta go get into birds. Really? Yes. Wow. You know what? I have an owl in my neighbor's tree that some nights hoots. And I go out and hoot back to it as best I can. I have recordings of it. It's kind of great actually. So, you know, he'll do you know, and then I, wait a second, I go. Do you think the owl likes that? Do you think the owl tells his owl friends, like every night, he says, watch this. Ready? No, really. It's really funny. Here we go. I sent the recording of it to my daughter and she wrote me back. She goes, Mom, be careful. You don't know what you're saying. Coming up, our panelists don't break a leg in her beloved The Listener Game. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT-TO-PLAY. We'll be back in a minute with more of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from NPR. I'm Alzo Slade. We're playing this week with Tom Bodette, Paula Poundstone, and Shantira Jackson. And here again is your host at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago, Illinois, Peter Sagal. Thank you, Alzo. Thank you, everybody. Right now, it is time. Right now, it's time for the Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me Bluff, The Listener Game. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT-TO-PLAY, our game on the air. Hey, Peter. This is Dan Blondo from Crozet, Virginia. Crozet, Virginia. Now, I don't know where that is. Where is it? It is just outside of Shenandoah National Park near Charlottesville. Oh, beautiful. I know that area. What do you do there? I am a communications consultant. Sounds fancier than it is. It's really not. I put words in other people's mouths. Right. It's not like you say to people, just speak a little slower, enunciate more, that sort of thing. Yeah, just like that. Just like that. Okay. Well, Dan, welcome to the show. It's great to have you. You're going to play the game in which you must try to tell truth from fiction. Alzo, what is Dan's topic? The show must not go on. We all know the old adage, the show must go on. At least that's what my producers tell me every week when I hide in the closet again. But, this week, we heard about a show that did not, in fact, go on. Our panelists are going to tell you why. Pick the real one and you'll get the weight-waiter of your choice in your voicemail. Are you ready to play? Yeah. First, let's hear. I'm ready. Okay, that's great. First, let's hear from Tom Bodette. In the Green Mountain State, there is a community theater company to fill every empty Grange Hall. These performers have been hardened by years of grinding out shows come Vermont heat, sleet, snow, and high water. But, the Essex Community Players Spring Production of Rocky Horror Show has been canceled while still in rehearsals due to the musical director receiving anonymous, threatening text messages. That must be hard. You're trying to do your job as a musical director, but you keep getting all these threatening texts. Plus, you have to spend all that time sending the threatening text to yourself. That's right. He was texting himself. Once the police discovered the text, he admitted to creating a false account and sending himself threats, so he had an excuse to step away from the production instead of the real reason, which is that he hated everyone so much. He had put up a Facebook post complaining about the cast and crew, and when confronted about it, he refused to apologize. Rocky Horror Show, dead. Passive-aggressive conflict avoidance in the arts, sold out shows daily across Vermont and beyond. A production of the Rocky Horror Show, the community theater in Vermont, canceled because the musical director sent threatening notes to himself because he just couldn't stand the drama. Your next curtain call-off is from Shantira Jackson. Move over, Sondheim. There's a new place to send in the clowns. For the past 25 years, Clownfest has taken over the streets of Paris, Tennessee. Sad clowns, happy clowns, and Bill Skarsgård all came together in one car to celebrate their craft. This year, things went a bit awry when the clown chorus had to cancel their annual clown concert at the Clown Brunch. With their makeup on and sheet music in hand, the audience watching was met with silence when it turned out that everyone who had volunteered for the clown concert was a mime. With dozens of completely silent mimes on stage pretending to sing, one onlooker described it as, quote, kind of weird. Organizers of Clown Fest apologized for the mimes and the uncomfortable silence by squirting everyone in the face with a little bit of water from a flower. The clown concert at Clown Fest 2026 ruined because all the clowns who were singing were mimes. Your last story of a stage gone silent comes from Paula Poundstone. When Long Island fiddler Greg Grinnell hit a rut in the fiddling business, he had to come up with something new. So he adapted with the times, or at least the times 60 years ago when Fiddler on the Roof came out. He thought, I'm a fiddler. I should get on a roof. He had never seen the musical. He invited everyone he knew, ex-girlfriends, fiddler friends, fiddler enemies, his mom. He picked the most beautiful roof in town, a gorgeous Victorian-style house with the perfect turret to perch upon. When the audience filled in, which was surprisingly large considering it was just a guy fiddling, Greg was nervous, but he grabbed his fiddle and crawled up the ladder to get in place. The crowd was going nuts. Fiddler! Fiddler! They were chanting. He started his first song and within seconds went tumbling off the roof, bouncing off the gutter, only to land perfectly atop a stabilizing bush. The show was cancelled, but since then, Greg has actually seen Fiddler on the Roof and agrees with the show. Tradition! Without traditions, our lives would be as shaky as a fiddler on the roof. So these are your stories of a show that did not go on. Was it from Tom Bodette, a production of the Rocky Horror Show in Vermont, cancelled because the musical director sent him self-threatening text just to get out of it? From Shantira Jackson, the clown chorus at the clown fest being ruined because all the clowns who showed up were mimes? Or from Paula Poundstone, a fiddler who decided to try being a fiddler on the roof without having ever seen the show. Which of these is the real story of a performance that did not happen? I'm going to go with A. Okay. So your choice is Tom's story, and to find out the correct answer, we spoke to someone who knows a lot about the real story. The threatening messages were coming from the musical director of the show. He just wanted to have it cancelled. That was Ian Curry, the intern reporter at Seven Days, Vermont's independent voice, who absolutely owns the story. Congratulations, Dan. You did get it right. Tom was telling the truth about his own state. You're going to point for him. Thank you, Dan. You've earned our prize, the voice of anyone you might choose in your voicemail. Congratulations. It was generally a very good time. Thank you very much. And now the game where we ask impressive people to do an unimpressive thing. We call it Not My Job. If you were going to name the most successful and acclaimed actor around, it would be hard to beat Sally Field. Her career has spanned more than 60 years. Wow. She has won two Oscars, three Emmys, so many awards. She has a separate Wikipedia page just for them. And she's got range. Who else has played both Gidget and Mary Todd Lincoln? She's up for yet another Emmy for her starring role in Remarkably Bright Creatures on Netflix, and she joined us now. Sally Field, welcome to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. So, first of all, congrats on the latest Emmy nomination. Did you know that you have a separate Wikipedia page just for your awards? No. No, I did not, because I don't oft times look for myself. I think that would be just a tiny bit weird if I wanted to Google myself. Yeah, I mean, you've done so many things in your extraordinary career, does anybody ever come up to you and say, say, oh gosh, Sally Field, I loved you in whatever it was, and you're like, that's wonderful, and you have no memory of doing it? No. No, it doesn't happen. You remember everything. Not really. I've done such strange things that I would have a hard time remembering, but they would not be things that anyone else would remember either. You know, I've done episodic things in the late 60s and early 70s, and you know what? We're all so old now. Anybody who watched it is like halfway brain dead at this point. Yeah, exactly. Sally, this is Paula Poundstone. Hi, Paula. Hi. First of all, I have you and Lily. My dog is beginning to bark at a squirrel out there, so just ignore him. We will. What's the dog's name? My dog's name is Dashiell Hammett. Wow. Do you think that he only really responds to da? And he responds to Dash, but he responds to Dashiell Hammett. He's a great crime writer. He doesn't respond to Dashiell Hammett. That's too long a name for a dog. Dashiell Hammett, get over here right now. Whenever we have an actor like you who's had such an extraordinary career, I'm always wondering what role they're most known for, and usually I can guess. In your case, I would have no idea. Is there one thing that keeps coming up, or does it entirely depend on the person, on their age, on their interest? All of that. It depends on the person, the age, and all of that, but I think the thing I'm most surprised about is The Flying Nun. Really? I'm most surprised. Like, I love young people. They're like in their 20s and 70s. They're in their, you know, teen, late teens, and they say, oh, they love The Flying Nun. I think, when? When? Oh, what? It's hard for me not to want to say. I've done other work, you know. I've grown as an actor, perhaps to look into it or not, you know, but yeah, it's, that's always surprising to me. I am, I am one of those people you mentioned earlier who's old enough to actually have watched that when it came out, and it took me a while to realize that I wasn't imagining it. There was this TV show on about this nun. Who flew, and I'm dying to know, how did they pitch this show to you? I would have rather just been a nun with my feet on the ground. Sure. Because that, that was scary and painful and stupid. Sally, you weren't actually flying. How did they make you fly? Why was it painful? It was painful because it was, it was still the 60s, and they hadn't really, upgraded how you can do this. There was no special effects, so it was wires, you know. I had wire, I had this harness with wires coming out of the, out of the habit, and they would, like, I was on a 50-foot crane some of the times, and they would fly me into the side of a building, and I'm like, I'm like, like Spider-Man. I'm like trying to like go, oh boy, here comes the building, and it was not something I should have been doing, you know. So, let's talk, I watched Remarkably Bright Creatures, your film on Netflix for which you were nominated for an Emmy. We have fans here, and it's interesting because, because you play a woman whose life is changed by a guardian angel that happens to be an octopus, which means you have acted opposite an octopus and Daniel Day-Lewis, which was more fun? Oh boy, that's hard to say. Was the octopus also very method, the octopus always insist on being an octopus even off set? Oh gosh, yes. Oh my gosh, yes. All the best actors do. So, there you go. That's, that's Daniel. And the dog has like decided there's a, there is a creature in the house that he's going to like bark at no matter what we do. There are scenes, many scenes in this film in which you, Sally Field, a real human being, are interacting with an octopus somewhat intimately. The tentacles, or you hold tentacles, or hold hands, hand tentacle, whatever. And I assumed, apparently this is true, that the octopus was CGI. Is that the case? It's hard to train an octopus to do this kind of thing. Right. And their rates are very expensive. I don't want to spoil anybody's vision if they haven't seen it, or if they're thinking of seeing it, or if they want to see it. But, no. It's all in my mind. I suspect she doesn't have a dog. All this time. We haven't seen the dog. She's referred to the dog. Let's see for a minute. He was running back that way. I'm sure. Oh, sure she was. Absolutely. Dashiell Hammett, the dog. Over here, right now. Dashiell Hammett, get over here and write us the name of the story. I have to ask one last question before we go to our game. You have done so many things. You have won so many awards. You have played such roles with such amazing people and directors. Is there anything left in your bucket list that you still want to do that you haven't done? Well, I'm doing it right now. Oh, there you are. Oh, my God. She's good. Well, Sally Field, it is a dream come true to talk to you. And we have invited you here to play a game that we're calling. Meet these remarkably dumb creatures. So, you starred in the movie Remarkably Bright Creatures, so we thought we'd ask you about some remarkably dumb ones. Answer two or three questions about some animals that will not be getting a Netflix movie made about them anytime soon. And you will win a prize for one of our listeners, the voice of anyone they might choose for their voicemail. Also, who is Sally Field playing for? Aaron Piotr and Tessa Holmes of Healdsburg, California. All right. You ready to play? Yep. Okay. Here's your first question. Talking into which animals had the smallest brains, we were shocked to learn that number four on the list was what animal? A, the bony-eared ass fish, B, the twiddling dumb bug, or C, the really slow loris? I'll just say one. Yes! That's it. It's the bony. Bony-eared ass? Ass fish? Yes, the bony-eared ass fish weighs as much as three pounds, but its brain is the size of a pebble. That's true. Here's your next question. Ostriches. Also, not very bright. Their eyeballs are each bigger than their brain. And their dumbness is a challenge for ostrich farmers. Why? A, they routinely get into fights with bushes, thinking they're rival ostriches. B, the male ostriches tend to fall in love with their human caretakers. Because they find them more attractive than female ostriches. Or C, not only do they eat pebbles because they look like seeds, they seem to prefer the pebbles. Yikes. It sounds like a few relatives of mine. I'm thinking it's three, that they just eat pebbles. They just eat pebbles. The audience agrees, but sadly it was two. They tend to fall in love with their human caretakers. They're not caretakers, because, you know, I mean, which would you choose, a human or an ostrich? They feel the same way. I would choose a pebble every time. There you are, every time. Yum. All right, that's okay, because you have one more. If you get this right, you win. Sloths aren't just slow, they're also dumb. In fact, they often injure themselves by doing what? A, jumping from one tree to another and falling asleep in midair. B, trying to take naps on top of predators. Or C, mistaking their own arm for a tree limb, grabbing on and then falling to the ground. Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy. It's a bevy of favorites. It really is. I have thought my arm was a tree and just, like, grabbed it. Yeah, I mean, so that's your choice? You're going to go with C, they grab their arm? I'm just going to go with it, because I have no freaking idea. Well, yes, you do, because that's correct. They have been observed to do this. Sloths who live in the jungles of Central and South America can sometimes be seen falling out of trees, holding firmly onto one arm with the other. Also, how did Sally Field do on our quiz? Out of all the awards she has, this might be the best one. She got two out of three. Absolutely legendary actor who is up for an Emmy for her latest role in Remarkably Bright Creatures, which is streaming on Netflix now. Sally Field, what an absolute joy. Give it up for Sally Field. Thank you. In just a minute, Alzo invites you out to a fancy steakhouse, but there's an odd dress code. It's our Listener Limerick Challenge. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to join us in the air. We'll be back in a minute with more of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. From NPR. I'm Alzo Slade. We're playing this week with Paula Poundstone, Shantira Jackson, and Tom Beaudet. Thank you, Alzo. Thank you all. In just a minute, Alzo assures us that it's rhyme o'clock somewhere. If you'd like to play, give us a call at 1-888-WAIT-WAIT. Right now, panel, it is time for more questions for you from this week's news. Tom, this week the New York Times published an in-depth, multi-part investigation into Talenti brand gelato. They used high-tech equipment and rigorous reporting just to try to explain what. Well, you know, I use the containers for keeping hardware in, and they've gotten a lot of them. They're a little flimsier, so I think it's the flimsy containers. Well, there's something about the containers. Specifically, they come in jars, and the question is, why are those jars. Tight. Hard to open? They're very hard to open, yes. The Times wanted to find out why the jars of Talenti gelato are so hard to open. Getting into a carton of ice cream is easy. I mean. You're not eating Talenti. No, it's like, you know, you hear about the mother who picks up a car to save her child. Opening ice cream is that same. Gland. Yeah. Just like the adrenaline. Yeah. Yeah. Also, Tom has power tools, so it's not a problem for you. Yeah. Yes. The paper that brought down Harvey Weinstein has turned its attention to figuring out why people can't open their fancy ice cream jars. And if you are about to write in to say, "No, no, Peter, it's gelato," that's why your arms are too weak to open a jar. They actually, this is true, to find out why the jars are so hard to open, they put one into a CT scanner. Did insurance pay for that? I don't know. What if it did? You'd find out that a jar of sorbet has better health insurance than you do. Yeah, more than likely. You're using a CT scan. Can you imagine you go in and you're like, you need your own diagnosis, and they say, "Oh, it has to be, can't do it till next week. There's cookies and cream using the machine right now." And this was part of the CT scan, which is part of this huge multi-part investigation into the brand's history and its decline, and its current flavors versus past versions, and because it's the New York Times, also something to do with polyamory in Brooklyn. And we, and no one can unearth the Epstein Files? No one really, no one. Maybe that's where they are, inside a Talenti jar that no one can open. Shadira, concert goers this summer are dealing with a strange and unpleasant new behavior in the crowd, and now artists like Olivia Rodrigo and Noah Kahn, among others, have had to publicly ask their fans to stop doing what during their concerts? Being tall and standing in front of short girls. No, but I appreciate that perspective. It's that people are very excited to get places really down front, and they don't want to give up those places for any reason at all. Oh, are they going to the restroom at the gate? They're going to the, well, yes. I think that's a very polite way of putting it. They're going to the restroom without actually going to the restroom. Wow. It's a global phenomenon, apparently. Concerts all over the world. People keep pooping on the floor during concerts. Wow. Wow. I thought you meant they wore diapers at least. No. No. I love Beyonce, but not that much. Oh. Wow. That's awful. Earlier this month, Olivia Rodrigo said that fans in the front row at her concerts were just doing that rather than go to the bathroom and give up their place by the stage. Then, other artists started coming forward and saying, "Yes, it's happening at my shows too." This is rough. The only musicians who should have people pooping their pants at their concerts is the Wiggles. Noah Khan doesn't even make any music that you need to do that to. Ooh, fighting words. No. His music is nice. You can just hold it. You don't have to. Everybody at Noah Khan's concert is so nice. You don't have to do that. They will let you go. They will let you go and they'll give you your place back because they're all very tired. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. They're very kind. I think he's from a mountain. Yes, he is. Wow. If any musicians are listening right now, if you want to make sure your fans leave to use the bathroom, you just need to say, "Well, now we're going to play some of our new stuff." Coming up, it's lightning fill in the blank, but first, it's the Game Rant. We're going to be talking about the game. this is a dream come true aim higher Lizzy she's just my baby baby baby she's all I need baby don't you ever leave me yeah she's my baby she's my valentine my valentine my valentine my valentine now on to our final game lightning fill in the blank each of our players left 60 seconds in which to answer as many fill in the blank questions as they can each correct answer is now worth two points Alzo can you give us the scores of course Paula has two and Sentira and Tom are tied for the lead at three okay so Paula that means that you are in second place so that means you're going to go first the clock will start when I begin your first question fill in the blank on Tuesday authorities arrested the man suspected of starting one of the blanks in Washington state fires right on the Wednesday space company blank made 900 million more shares available to investors start something the musk thing yeah the musk now the musk thing I'll give it to you it's SpaceX a man in Wales was arrested for climbing to the roof of a hospital and blanking and and and yelling I'm cured no putting on a grim reaper costume and just staring silently at all the patients coming into the hospital on Wednesday paleontologists in New Mexico identified a new species of blank dinosaur right this week a video of a street brawl in Detroit went viral because people noticed that blank was standing on the sidelines cheering the combatants on blank was blank was blank was Tom Holman no the police commissioner of the city of Detroit so a passerby caught this street fight on video and right there in the front of the crowd of all lookers is the police commissioner of Detroit who cheered and he kind of urged the fighters on you know while wearing his Detroit police hat when asked why he did not intervene in this rather brutal fight he said and I am not kidding I did intervene when the guy had had enough wow that feels very Detroit that's old school that's how they roll in Detroit also how did Paula do in our quiz she got three right for six more points total of eight and the lead all right wow that's all you'll give me also you used to be friends yeah you're not one of us anymore Shantira I'm going to arbitrarily pick you to go next fill in the blank as more states report outbreaks RFK Jr. said that parents should vaccinate their kids against blank measles right this week a Nobel Prize winning computer scientist warned that humans may soon be unable to outsmart blank AI right on Thursday former Senate majority leader blank was discharged from the hospital oh goofy McConnell goofy yes this week police in New Jersey were able to cite 74 drivers for traffic violations after they had their traffic cops blank do their job no disguise themselves as trees on the road on Tuesday astronomers released the most high resolution images ever taken of the surface of the blank right according to a new report the UFC lost 30 million dollars when they staged an event at the blank right in Arizona two people are recovering after being shot by a man who was blanking in the sandwich no he was they were shot by a man who was demonstrating the safety features of his gun two men were looking at a handgun at a yard sale when the owner came over to show off its various safety features while he was doing that he accidentally shot both of them wow okay it was an emergency they were harmed they were hurt they're fine but I hope they waited a while to call 9-1-1 because if there's ever a time to get somebody to pay the price you wanted a yard sale it is right after you have shot them I thought it was a bad shot but if he had hit both of them with the same bullet he might be kind of good also how did Shantira do in our quiz she did alright she got 5 right for 10 more points total of 13 and the lead alright then so how many then does Tom Bodette need to win 5 to tie 6 to win alright here we go Tom this is for the game on Wednesday officials in Iran pushed back on Blank's claim that peace talks were underway Trump right on Thursday Ukraine drone strikes hit two oil refineries deep in Blank's territory Russian territory right the latest movie in the Blank franchise is the fastest movie in history to make half a billion dollars Marvel the Spider-Man yeah Spider-Man yeah on Tuesday Abdul Al-Sayed won a closely watched Democratic primary in Blank Michigan right this week a woman in Utah is suspected of not wanting to get married after she was caught blanking the night before her wedding um uh like I don't know uh leaving town no attempting to burn down the church where it was supposed to happen she should have just left town it's true according to a new study watching too much Blank may actually rot your brain um like phone video stuff yeah TV basically on Wednesday a genetics company announced it had created a hypoallergenic Blank oh um dog right this week a man who was drowning in the Yellowstone River was saved by a blank that was nearby oh the Hoboken ass fish no dumb as they are they have their moments no the man who was drowning in the Yellowstone River was saved by a teenager who happened to be practicing with his lasso on the riverbank cool he'd been practicing his lasso you know roping things at the distance so much that I kind of think he pushed the guy in just to be able to throw a lasso and as he swept by and pull him to safety the kid was of course celebrated for saving this man but did he have to then hog tie him what a great story to have as a kid to tell the rest of your life well yep that's what I did also did Tom do well enough to win he did it he got six right for 12 more points total of 15 and he is the champion thank you wisdom of years thank you very much in just a minute we're going to ask our panelists to predict after that rocket crashed into it what will be the next big news from the moon but first let me tell you all wait wait don't tell me it's a production of NPR and WBEZ Chicago in association with Urgent Haircut Productions Doug Berman Benevolent Overlord Philip Godica writes our limericks our public address announcer is Paul Friedman our ops manager is Jasira Vardak thanks to the staff and crew at the Studebaker Theater BJ Liedemann composed our theme our program is produced by Jennifer Mills Miles Nornbos and Lillian King special thanks this week to Blythe Robertson Janie Hoffman Dom Banias and Peter Gross our third Peter this week is Peter Gwynn the third Emma Choi is our vibe curator technical direction is from Lorna White our CFO is Colin Miller our production manager that's Robert Newhouse our senior producer is Ian Chilock and the executive producer of wait wait don't tell me is Mike Maribeladanforth now panel what will be the next big news about the moon Shantira Jackson in addition to moon pies and moon cakes this holiday season she will be releasing a moon tiramisu Tom Beaudet Elon will abandon his plans for a moon colony explaining he didn't know random rockets and boulders and stuff could just crash down at any time and Paula Poundstone when it hits your eye it's nothing like a pizza pie of any size and if any of that happens panel will ask you about it on wait wait don't tell me thank you so much Alzo Slade thanks also to Tom Beaudet Paula Poundstone Shantira Jackson thanks to our fabulous audience here at the Studio Vicar Theater in downtown Chicago thanks to all of you for listening wherever you are I'm Peter Shager we'll see you next week this is NPR