Our panel goes on shore leave with Maggie Smith

11:08Annie Rauwerda:That's it. But also for the listener at home, it's 90 degrees in here, so everybody's must-eat. Oh, yeah. Everybody's hooking up tonight.

11:15Mo Rocca:Okay, sounds like a pheromone maxer here.

11:17Maggie Smith:The pheromones are sticking the air here at the Rose Music Center.

11:23Shane Torres:So this pheromone maxing is just not bathing. Yes. Yeah. So this is like when the Uber came out and they're like, it's not taxi, it's ride share. Like they're just kind of, they're selling us something we already have. Exactly. Wow. The USS Abraham, my God. Can you imagine? Yeah. That port of call must have been crazy. What a den of lust it must be.

11:48Maggie Smith:coming up our panelists clutch their pearls at the fruit farm in our bluff to listener game call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT-TO-PLAY we'll be back in a minute with more weight weight don't tell me from npo

12:03Mo Rocca:this message comes from sattva have a big day coming up remember tomorrow starts tonight with the restorative sleep you need to perform at your best the kind every sattva mattress is designed for. So whether it's the first day of school, a new job, or an important presentation, Sattva helps you be the best version of you. And now save up to$625 on$1 ,000 or more at sattva.com slash NPR. That's S-double-A-T-V-A dot com slash NPR. This message comes from Mint Mobile. Cut your wireless bill. No catch. Go to mintmobile.com slash wait. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for 12 months.

12:46Mo Rocca:Plan required,$15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra, initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. Includes up to 20 gigabyte hotspot. Capable device required. Availability, speed, and coverage varies. See mintmobile.com.

13:02Annie Rauwerda:This message comes from Grainger. This is the story of The One. As a maintenance supervisor at a manufacturing facility, He knows keeping the line up and running is a top priority. That's why he chooses Grainger. Because when a drive belt gets damaged, Grainger makes it easy to find the exact specs for the replacement product he needs. And next day delivery helps ensure he'll have everything in place and running like clockwork. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com, or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done.

13:37Annie Rauwerda:From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Alzo Slade. We're playing this week with Mo Rocca, Annie Rarada, and Shane Torres. And here again is your host at the Rose Music Center in Huber Heights, Ohio, Peter Sagal. Thank you, Alzo.

13:55Maggie Smith:Thank you, everybody. Thank you so much. Right now it is time for the Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me Bluff the Listener game. Call 1-888-Wait-Wait to play your game in the air. Hi, you're on Wait-Wait, don't tell me.

14:07Shane Torres:Hi, Peter. This is Alex Urbanik from Peoria, Illinois.

14:11Maggie Smith:Beautiful Peoria downstate. What do you do there?

14:15Shane Torres:I'm actually a freelance software developer currently looking for more contracts and spend my time hiking and doing woodworking stuff.

14:25Maggie Smith:Woodworking stuff. Really? That's pretty cool. There might be more of the future in that because they haven't come up with a chat bot that can do that yet. That's exactly what I've been thinking. Yeah. Well, welcome to the show, Alex. You're going to play our game in which you have to tell truth from fiction. Alzo, what's Alex's topic?

14:41Annie Rauwerda:Drama at the fruit farm.

14:43Maggie Smith:Who doesn't love going to the fruit farm? Where else can I pay 50 % more for apples and have to pick them myself? But this week there was an unusual controversy at the Gravely family fruit farm in the United Kingdom. Our panelists are going to dish about it. Pick the real story and get the wait waiter of your choice on your voicemail. You ready to play? Absolutely. First, let's hear from Shane Torres.

15:09Shane Torres:The Gravely Fruit Farm Weekly Farmer's Market is normally family-friendly, featuring all the beloved Farmer's Market staples, produce, pastries, and a man playing guitar with no amplification. All of that came to a halt last weekend when two rival vendors had a war of words that turned into the British version of the OK Corral shootout, but with fresh produce. Alfie Cain, a mild-mannered baker, accused Andrew Buley, a pumpkin vendor, of taking his coveted spot in the middle of the market. But the baker wasn't having it. He took a three-day-old baguette, which is the hardest thing known to man, and smashed one of Cain's gourds before storming off.

15:48Shane Torres:Hours later, the fight elevated when a giant pumpkin flew through the air and smashed the baker's stand. Taste my orange revenge, yelled Buley. Cain did not know that Buley, outside of farming extremely large boards, was also a well-known British war reenactor. Such a serious one that he had a functioning replica catapult in his trailer. Buley sailed pumpkins through the air with vengeance. Mayhem reigned over the market for close to three hours with other vendors and patrons ducking for cover and building pumpkin bunkers out of what they could find. Finally, authorities showed up to stop the chaos, and for the next week, Gravely Farms has announced a new attraction, the Pumpkin Catamble, four pounds a shot.

16:35Maggie Smith:A food fight at the Fruit Farm. Your next fruit scoop comes from Annie Rowarda.

16:42Mo Rocca:When Farmer Jim and Mrs. Farmer Jane at the Gravely Fruit Farm finally finished their annual corn maze design, they were ecstatic. They couldn't wait to fly over it in their tiny plane and photograph the design from the sky. Their design was of a proud farmer woman holding two blue ribbon melons. It's based off a real event when Jane won the melon contest last year. So when they flew over the maze in their Cessna, they were shocked at what they saw. She didn't look like a woman with prized melons the fruit. She looked like a woman with prized melons the boobs. It was too late to change the corn maze.

17:26Mo Rocca:They could not make it less hot. The press was already there. When they unveiled the aerial photo to the crowd, people were aroused. And I mean, shocked when the local reporter, Robert Myers, asked, so what's this based on? And Farmer John responded, my wife. murmurs of respect, dude, and hell yeah, spread across the audience. The fruit farm is now proud of their busty corn woman. And the maze is the most popular one in history, with Royal Air Force planes buzzing over constantly.

18:08Maggie Smith:The corn maze at the Gravely Fruit Farm ends up being unintentionally R-rated. Your last story of a farm fresh frenzy comes from Mo Rocca.

18:18Shane Torres:A carnival ride in the UK is being pilloried as distasteful over its Titanic-themed ride and slide. The ride at Gravely Fruit Farm takes place inside a replica model of the doomed 1912 liner. During each run, the mechanical stern emblazoned with the name Titanic tilts into the air nearly straight up. Riders cling on for dear life before gravity takes its toll and they slide down to a crash mat. You know, just like that scene in the movie where passengers slide down the deck to their deaths. Somebody must have watched that and thought, that looks fun. In fact, visitors do seem to love it. I mean, this ride is no Andrea Snoria.

18:58Shane Torres:Still, many have taken to the farm's Facebook page to express outrage. So odd to have a children's ride themed around one of the worst tragedies in history, read one message. The farm had apologized, but has stuck with the ride's name. Why, said the farm's spokesman, we're keeping the memory of the Titanic alive and we're not making fun of the dead at all. Well, that's what I call a lame excusetania.

19:25Maggie Smith:All right, so something happened at the Gravely family fruit farm in the United Kingdom that got in the news this week. Was it from Shane, a food fight sort of went nuclear in their marketplace. From Annie, was it that the corn maze ended up being somewhat lascivious? Or from Mo Rocca, people are objecting to their new family attraction based on the sinking of the Titanic. Thank you. Thank you. Which of these do you think is the real story we heard about this family farm?

20:06Shane Torres:I'm pretty sure I actually saw a video of kids getting flung down on a Titanic ride this week. So I'm going to go with Mo.

20:14Maggie Smith:Okay. You're going to pick Mo's story. Well, to bring you the correct answer, please listen to this. We're keeping the memory of Titanic alive, and we're not making fun of the dead at all.

20:27Shane Torres:I think it's really good that we keep it as Titanic.

20:29Maggie Smith:There you are. That was Will Campbell-Gray, the manager of Gravely Fruit Farm. defending the Titanic ride to the BBC. Congratulations, Alex. You got it right. You earned a point for Moe. You've won our prize, the voice of your choice in your voicemail. Thank you so much for playing with us today. Thank you for having me. Thanks for being with us. Take care.

20:54Maggie Smith:And now the game we call Not My Job. About a decade ago, perhaps for the first time ever, a poem became a viral sensation. Good Bones by Maggie Smith was everywhere. That led to her best-selling memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful. Since then, she's written another New York Times bestseller, Dear Writer, Advice for the Creative Life. And she still lives in her hometown in Ohio, near Columbus. Maggie Smith, welcome back to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.

21:23Shane Torres:Thanks for having me.

21:24Maggie Smith:It's a pleasure to have you. It's nice to see you again. You joined us remotely when we were in Chicago some years ago. I did. Now we're here in your home turf. And I'm wondering, we're here in Ohio where you live. Are you a local celebrity? Do you get recognized?

21:37Shane Torres:No. I mean, sometimes. Okay. Sometimes. Yeah, sometimes. Every once in a while, like at the grocery store at the farmer's market or something, someone will pull me aside and say a little something.

21:49Maggie Smith:Like what?

21:50Shane Torres:Like, oh, I've been through something similar to what you've been through. Thank you for that book. And then I have to say, I'm sorry. Let me get to the express lane.

21:59Maggie Smith:Please. Yes. It's up for you because the express lane is for people with 12 issues or less. Exactly.

22:07Shane Torres:12 flags or less.

22:09Maggie Smith:Because your poem, the one that became viral in Meryl Streep, read that everybody was quoting Good Bones, was about your divorce, which you wrote about in your memoir. And I've heard that you've become kind of a divorce doula. And that people come to you and they seek you out because I know you've been through it and that you're wise and seasoned and you have wisdom. Is that the case?

22:31Shane Torres:Do I seem wise? Well, you seem relatively wise. I have joked that I've become sort of a divorce whisperer. That people, when they're going through a thing, will slide into my DMs. People don't slide into my DMs for any kind of fun reason.

22:47Maggie Smith:Right.

22:48Shane Torres:It's always like, do you know a good lawyer? How do you sleep at night? Does it get better? I know. I have a lot of fun at parties.

22:58Annie Rauwerda:These pickup lines are getting crazier and crazier these days.

23:02Shane Torres:Sometimes it works.

23:05Mo Rocca:Divorce doula is a kind of fascinating metaphor. I'm just imagining, like, I'm getting a contraction. My water broke. What do I do? Bear down.

23:14Maggie Smith:Yeah.

23:15Mo Rocca:Yeah.

23:16Maggie Smith:You do a lot of readings. I do. And I have to ask, do you, when you do your readings, do the classic poet reading their own work voice?

23:27Shane Torres:Oh, God.

23:27Maggie Smith:You know? Because I could not stop for death. It kindly stopped for me, that one.

23:34Shane Torres:I mean, we call it poet voice. Do you really? Yeah, it has a thing. I really hope I don't, but I worry I do.

23:42Maggie Smith:Really?

23:43Shane Torres:Yeah. Only because I think I have a certain amount of natural upspeak where I talk and it sounds like I'm asking a question, but I'm not asking a question. So that would be my version of poet voice. Like the uptalk. Uptalk, yeah. And so do I.

24:00Mo Rocca:and many great people do. I love that for us.

24:05Maggie Smith:I don't know. Because I could not stop for death, it finally stopped for me.

24:10Shane Torres:Right. Doesn't it make it feel contemporary?

24:12Annie Rauwerda:I think we should do the rest of the show in that voice.

24:15Shane Torres:I like this.

24:16Annie Rauwerda:From NPR and WPEC, Chicago.

24:20Shane Torres:I'm Alzo Slade. I've ruined this for everyone.

24:28Maggie Smith:So your latest book is called Dear Writer, Wisdom, Encouragement, Exercises for Writing. You've taught writing for a long time. And I want to know, as a teacher of writing, I've been one, I've met a lot, what is your philosophy of feedback? Are you brutally honest?

24:47Shane Torres:I'm not.

24:48Maggie Smith:No.

24:49Shane Torres:No.

24:49Maggie Smith:You do the compliment sandwich type approach. I. Well, most of the words are spelled correctly. That's great.

24:56Shane Torres:That's great. Yeah. Yeah. There are, there's text on the page. Yeah. That's a great head start. I do think the compliment sandwich is helpful. It really is. And not just in the writing classroom. Oh, in life. No, it just like, you know, with your spouse, with your children, anybody, your colleagues. No, I'm a questioner.

25:13Maggie Smith:All right.

25:13Shane Torres:So instead of like concrete feedback, I'm like, um, I would like to know more about this. Can you tell me more about X?

25:20Maggie Smith:Whoever told you you could do this?

25:24Shane Torres:Who the hell do you think you are? That's a good one. That's a great one. Why did you think you could waste my time?

25:31Mo Rocca:You guys, there is a literacy crisis. I think we can encourage writing poetry even if it's bad. And this is a question.

25:38Maggie Smith:I know this happened to me. This happened to me. This happened to me as a teacher. I'm sure it's happened to you. What do you do when someone who means the best and is going to do anything you ask is going to work hard, but they clearly have no talent for it. What do you do?

25:55Shane Torres:I will be super honest and say I've never had a student with zero talent. Really? I just don't think that's a thing.

26:03Annie Rauwerda:Oh, I thought that's what you told them. I was like, oh, my God.

26:08Shane Torres:You're the first. Yeah, exactly. Look, I've seen a lot of garbage in my day. But who? You? You are a no talent. Whoa. Whoa.

26:18Maggie Smith:We are here and near your home in Ohio. You've lived here your whole life.

26:23Shane Torres:I have.

26:23Maggie Smith:Is Ohio poetic? Does it inspire your work?

26:27Shane Torres:Is Ohio poetic, folks? Is Ohio poetic?

26:33Annie Rauwerda:Peter, you're about to get junked in the parking lot.

26:36Shane Torres:Ohio is incredibly poetic. We have amazing poets from Ohio. We have great musicians and songwriters from right here in Dayton, like Bob Pollard and Kim Deal.

26:46Maggie Smith:Yeah. They know what they do. You know, I don't know if you heard the news, but speaking of Ohioans,

26:55Shane Torres:Yes.

26:56Maggie Smith:Travis and Taylor have bought in. They got themselves a place up in Cleveland.

27:02Shane Torres:Yeah.

27:02Maggie Smith:Have you considered maybe writing a poem of welcome to Ohio?

27:05Shane Torres:I haven't thought of that, no.

27:07Maggie Smith:Yeah. No. Well, maybe we can come up with one right now.

27:15Shane Torres:Like a limerick?

27:16Maggie Smith:Yeah, for example. I ask for professional interest. Have you ever written a limerick?

27:21Shane Torres:No, I have not. I'm not very good at occasional poems. I have to have an idea that comes to me, unfortunately.

27:28Maggie Smith:And how are you with rhyming?

27:30Shane Torres:Poor.

27:31Maggie Smith:So we couldn't, for example, you couldn't improvise a poem right now?

27:34Shane Torres:No. No, not that. I mean, I could, but I'm not going to.

27:38Maggie Smith:Right.

27:40Shane Torres:Well, I think we would all love to hear you try.

27:43Mo Rocca:Roses are rust.

27:46Maggie Smith:Well, Maggie Smith, it's great to have you back on our show. And this time, we have invited you here to play a game we're calling...

27:53Annie Rauwerda:Oh, no, it's the Inverted Stomp Face Breaker.

28:00Maggie Smith:So we assume you could win a poetry slam, so we thought we'd ask you about body slams. Answer two to three questions about wrestling moves. You'll win our prize for one of our listeners. Alza, who is Maggie Smith playing for?

28:14Annie Rauwerda:Melissa Groveman of Dayton, Ohio.

28:21Maggie Smith:Here's your first question. The WWE's Santino Morella had a nearly unstoppable finishing move called the cobra. What is the cobra? Was it A, he'd wait until his opponent wasn't looking and then bite him in the ankle? B, he'd use a snake charmer's flute to hypnotize his opponent? or C, he'd put a snake sock puppet on his arm, which would become sentient and bite his opponent on the neck.

28:53Shane Torres:I really want it to be B. You want it to be B, the snake charmer. But I'm going to go with C.

28:59Maggie Smith:Okay, the sock puppet. Yes. That's right.

29:01Shane Torres:Okay. Okay.

29:06Maggie Smith:Lorella first introduced the Cobra Sock Puppet in a match against Mick Foley, who had his own fighting sock puppet, Mr. Socko. That was very good. You still have two more. Here we go. It's common to see foreign objects enter a wrestling ring, like your folding chairs, the occasional ladder. In 2022, Brock Lesnar raised the bar when he won a match by using what? A, a tractor, B, a jackhammer, or C, 25 ,000 M &M candies? They're like an A.

29:40Shane Torres:I'm going to go with tractor.

29:41Maggie Smith:You're right. It was a tractor. He drove in a tractor and he used it to lift up the whole ring, spilling his opponent out on the ground. Okay. Last question. Wrestling is huge in Japan, and if you don't want to watch the typical wrestling match, you can enjoy which of these? is A, big kaiju wrestling, where the ring is filled with a miniature cityscape and the wrestlers are all dressed as giant monsters. B, zen wrestling, in which the two combatants meditate in order to see who can achieve inner peace first. Or C, quote, American wrestling, in which the opponents shoot at each other with toy guns.

30:23Shane Torres:I'm going to go with the Godzilla cityscape.

30:26Maggie Smith:You're right, kaiju wrestling. They love it there. I would pay to see that. Now that I would be excited about. Also, how did Maggie Smith do in our quiz?

30:37Annie Rauwerda:Maggie Smith, you did great. Three out of three. Perfect score.

30:41Maggie Smith:There she is. Well done. Maggie Smith is an award-winning poet whose newest book, Dear Writer, is available now in paperback. She's also the co-host of the podcast You Could Make This Beautiful with our very own Faith Saley. Maggie Smith, thank you so much for joining us again on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Thank you. Give it up for Maggie Smith, everybody.

31:07Maggie Smith:In just a minute, Alzo has a wacky solution for anyone feeling burned out at work. That's in our Listener Limerick Challenge. Call 1-888-WIT-WAIT to join us on the air. We'll be back in a minute with more of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from NPR.

31:24Mo Rocca:This message comes from Mint Mobile. Cut your wireless bill. No catch. Go to mintmobile.com slash wait. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for 12 months. Plan required,$15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. Includes up to 20 gigabyte hotspot. Capable device required. Availability, speed, and coverage varies. See mintmobile.com.

31:53Annie Rauwerda:This message comes from BetterHelp. Imagine carrying a backpack every day. Inside it, every conversation, every mistake, every expectation. It is easy not to notice how heavy it is until someone asks if you want to put it down. Sometimes feeling better starts exactly like that. Better isn't one size fits all. Better is personal. It's therapy tailored to the individual to help lighten what you carry. Match with a therapist who truly understands. Visit BetterHelp.com slash NPR.

32:29Annie Rauwerda:From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Alzo Slade. We're playing this week with Mo Rocca, Shane Torres, and Annie Rarada. And here again is your host at the Rose Music Center in Huber Heights, Ohio, Peter Sagal.

32:47Maggie Smith:Thank you, Alzo. Thank you, everybody.

33:00Maggie Smith:In just a minute, Alzo gets crowned as this year's U.S. Limerick Laureate. It's our listener limerick challenge. If you'd like to play, give us a call at 1-888-WAIT-WAIT. That's 1-888-924-8924. Right now, panel, it's time for more from this week's news. Shane, this week, former Congressman George Santos, the first person ever to be expelled from Congress without being convicted of a crime, achieved another honor. he received the prediction market Calci's first ever what? He was banned. Right, the first ever lifetime ban. Santos had tweeted that he was looking forward to attending the State of the Union speech, which drove up the odds on Calci that he would, and then he himself bet that he wouldn't attend, didn't attend, and he won$17 ,000.

33:50Maggie Smith:dollars. By coincidence, the same day he was banned for life, a man named Serge Gantos won $20 ,000 by betting that would happen.

33:59Mo Rocca:Would you like to hear my George Santos story? Please. Not great, but I have an ex-boyfriend with whom I am on pretty good terms, and he bought me a cameo for my birthday from George Santos, because George Santos announced, for one and one time only, I will be doing cameos where I say a message to you, and it will never happen again, and because he is a perhaps pathological liar. I'm no psychologist. He has done it again and again and again and has lowered the price over and over. So it's a lot less special now. But I do have one, a personalized birthday message from him.

34:30Maggie Smith:What does he say?

34:31Mo Rocca:Happy birthday, Annie.

34:34Annie Rauwerda:That's it? That's deep. Yeah.

34:39Mo Rocca:Well, do you think it was worth$400?

34:41Annie Rauwerda:Oh, no.

34:43Shane Torres:You know where he put it?

34:45Maggie Smith:Couch. A lifetime ban, of course, doesn't mean much to a man who would fake his own death to get out of an awkward conversation.

34:52Shane Torres:Yeah, this guy's a load.

34:54Maggie Smith:God, he should do Amway.

34:56Shane Torres:Yeah, he's going to sell. Yeah, really. You know when you see somebody driving a pink Mary Kay Cadillac, and you're like, that's a sociopath.

35:09Maggie Smith:His next plan is to sell boy bands to small towns in the Midwest. Annie, this week Dyson announced their newest high-tech cleaning innovation. For just$500, you can now buy a state-of-the-art, AI-powered, camera-equipped what?

35:26Mo Rocca:Guessing here. Vacuum?

35:28Maggie Smith:No, they make a lot of those. This is a new product for them.

35:31Mo Rocca:Wall cleaner.

35:32Maggie Smith:I'll give you a hint. I don't know. Washing machine, sorry. It flosses, too. Oh, toothbrush. A toothbrush.

35:38Mo Rocca:An AI toothbrush?

35:39Maggie Smith:A$500 AI toothbrush. toothbrush, Dyson's new camera jet.

35:44Mo Rocca:This makes me feel like the very depressed caterpillar. Really? Why would you need that?

35:48Annie Rauwerda:I mean, you spent$400 on a Santos version. I didn't.

35:51Mo Rocca:I didn't.

35:55Shane Torres:Did you and your ex break up because he was a foolish spender?

35:58Mo Rocca:Yeah, it was complicated.

36:03Maggie Smith:Dyson's new camera jet toothbrush costs$500, uses AI to floss for you as you brush, It connects to your phone so you can live stream the cleaning as it's happening from inside your mouth, right? It has a variety of useful attachments, but even at that price, it does not come with anyone who would actually want to watch a live stream of the inside of your mouth. But this toothbrush is not just for making the grossest home movies ever. Dyson says that, quote, the camera jet's gap optical targeting system analyzes 28 live images per second to identify and target gaps between teeth in real time, unquote, which it then attacks with targeted jets of water.

36:42Shane Torres:Wow. How lazy are you going to get? You've got to hire a toothbrush to... Like, you're already there. Just do it. It's crazy. What are we doing with this? Like, what a useless invention. Welcome to America. Yeah. I know where I'm at.

37:06Maggie Smith:coming up it's lightning fill in the blank but first it's the game where you have to listen for the rhyme if you'd like to play on air call or leave a message at 1-888-wait-wait that's 1-888-924-8924 you can see us most weeks at the Studebaker Theater in downtown Chicago or catch us on the road we'll be in Omaha Nebraska on September 24th and in Kalamazoo Michigan on October 22nd for tickets and information to all our live events go to nprpresents.org Hi, Yaron. Wait, wait, don't tell me.

37:31Mo Rocca:Hi, this is Megan calling from Boyertown, PA.

37:35Maggie Smith:Boyertown, PA. Okay, I assume you mean Pennsylvania.

37:39Mo Rocca:Yes, Pennsylvania. Where is that? It is southeastern Pennsylvania between Allentown and Philadelphia.

37:46Maggie Smith:Okay, great. What do you do there?

37:48Mo Rocca:I am a healthcare IT analyst and a mom of three.

37:52Maggie Smith:Oh, really? And how's that going?

37:54Mo Rocca:It's going.

37:56Maggie Smith:It's going. Are you happy to have them back at school?

37:59Mo Rocca:Oh, yes. It's like Christmas in September.

38:03Maggie Smith:Yeah. Well, Megan, welcome to the show. Alzo Slate is going to perform for you three news-related limericks with a last word or phrase missing from each. If you can fill in that last word or phrase correctly, and two of the limericks will be a winner. Here is your first limerick.

38:18Annie Rauwerda:My old meaningless job had me down. Now I'm wearing an upside-down frown. My red nose and big shoes helped me kick off those blues. I have a new lease on life as a...

38:32Maggie Smith:Clown. As a clown, yes. The Wall Street Journal reports that an increasingly popular solution to career burnout is to go to clown school. They were inspired, people who do this, by one of the first people to think they were losing their mind at work and decided to try clowning. That's how we got Pennywise. Tinywise. People say the physicality and playfulness of clown school allows them to explore their feelings and take themselves less seriously. That's true. I just found out my doctor was secretly also a clown, and I have stopped taking him seriously. I was in Edinburgh at the Fringe Festival,

39:07Shane Torres:and I was housed with a bunch of clowns. Five of them. Oh, my God. It is the most endless sea of riffing you have ever seen. They are always playing. I would be up making eggs, and it was the longest morning of my life every day. You can't just sit and do something. Everything is a tool or a toy for these people. So like, oh, your wooden spoon is also a microphone, and you're the egg DJ. This is not a good riff. You're the egg DJ. Tell me more about that. But also Richard Kind lived with us for three days. Oh, wow. Yeah. So I came down the stairs, and I just heard him go, Who's up? And he was there in a gray towel.

39:49Shane Torres:And that's a big moment for me. I'm sure.

39:52Maggie Smith:Yeah. All right, here is your next limerick.

39:56Annie Rauwerda:The petting zoo's goats just had babies. I'll back off, though, because cuddles might slay me. If they nibble or bite, they'll snuff out my light. It turns out the goats all have...

40:09Maggie Smith:Rabies. Rabies, yes. You can applaud.

40:16Maggie Smith:Three adorable baby goats at the Farm Adventures Petting Zoo in North Carolina tested positive for rabies. Maybe more petting zoos should have a, you know, a sick animal wild card. We do things a little differently here. One of these llamas has Ebola. Megan, here is your last limerick.

40:34Annie Rauwerda:If I want my whole home to stay purdy, I need space where my clutter can't hurt me. This room takes the heat so my house can stay neat. It's a zone I allow to stay...

40:48Maggie Smith:Dirty. Dirty, that's right. According to organization experts, having a dirty zone or a designated messy area of your home can prevent clutter and mess from taking over the whole house. You're basically fighting a land war with your own clutter, and you have to make some sacrifices. Surrender the hallway closet in order to have strategic control of the living room. But this makes sense if you think about it, right? Like, instead of trying to keep your whole house clean all the time, just throw the stuff in like one place and the rest of the house can be clean.

41:18Shane Torres:But that's like, that really is, I don't know, that's a slippery slope, you know? That's like, you know, like people have a junk drawer or whatever, and then you're going to like make it a closet? Make it a junk room. Yeah. Like this is not good. This is one... This is one...

41:35Maggie Smith:It's a creeping...

41:36Shane Torres:Yeah. It's going to get bigger and bigger. It started off with, oh, I don't know what all these keys fit to. I'll just put them in this drawer. And then before you know it, you have 80 cats.

41:46Annie Rauwerda:Like that.

41:48Maggie Smith:Also, how did Megan do on our quiz?

41:50Annie Rauwerda:Megan did great. She got three out of three. Perfect score.

41:59Maggie Smith:Congratulations, Megan. That was well done. Thank you. Thank you so much. Take care.

42:10Mo Rocca:This message comes from Mint Mobile. Cut your wireless bill. No catch. Go to mintmobile.com slash wait. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for 12 months. Plan required,$15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. Includes up to 20 gigabyte hotspot. Capable device required. Availability, speed, and coverage varies. See mintmobile.com.

42:39Annie Rauwerda:This message comes from Grainger. This is the story of the one. As a maintenance supervisor at a manufacturing facility, he knows keeping the line up and running is a top priority. That's why he chooses Grainger. Because when a drive belt gets damaged, Grainger makes it easy to find the exact specs for the replacement product he needs. And next day delivery helps ensure he'll have everything in place and running like clockwork. Call 1-800-GRANGER, click grainger.com, or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done.

43:12Maggie Smith:Now it's on to our final game, Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank. Each of our players will have 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 score?

43:22Annie Rauwerda:Of course. Shane and Annie are tied at two, with Moe having the lead at three. All right.

43:31Maggie Smith:So, Shane and Annie are tied for second. I'm going to pick Shane to go first arbitrarily. Here we go. The clock will start when I begin your first question, fill in the blank. On Tuesday, the U.S. carried out more strikes against targets in blank. Iran. Right. On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that construction of the new White House blank could proceed. Right. This week, election officials said they have no time to comply with Trump's proposed rules for mail-in blanking. Voting. Right. On Wednesday, golf superstar Blank took a plea deal in his DUI case. Tiger Woods. Right. This week, CNN has apologized for accompanying coverage of the death of Dolly Parton with a photo of Blank.

44:07Maggie Smith:Oh, God. Loretta Lynn? No, a Dolly Parton impersonator. Oh. On Tuesday, a 91-year-old man named Dale Saunders became the oldest person to hike the Blank. Everest? No, the Appalachian Trail. On Monday, Tim Cook had his last day as the CEO of Blank. Apple. Right. This week, police in Indiana, responding to worried reports of two lions wandering the city, launched a full-scale investigation and found blank. Lions? No, two pigs that people kept mistaking for lions. Oh, Jesus. Though no nearby zoos have reported any missing lions, police took the report seriously and launched a high-tech search, utilizing both drones and thermal imaging cameras.

44:49Maggie Smith:In the end, officers were able to put the public's mind at ease, saying, quote, there's nothing to worry about. It's not a lion. It's just a pig whose mouth is covered in blood.

45:01Annie Rauwerda:Alzo, how did Shane do in our quiz? He got five right for 10 more points, giving him a total of 12. All right.

45:13Maggie Smith:All right, Annie, you're up next. Here we go. Fill in the blank. On Monday, the UN said that 4 ,500 people are still unaccounted for after the blanks in China and Nepal. Floods. Right. This week, Dwayne Davis was found guilty of ordering the 1996 murder of rapper Blank. Tupac. Tupac, yes. On Wednesday, the U.S. Mint began selling$1 coins with Blank's portrait on them. Trump? Yes. How did you know? This week, a Russian television station aired a congressional election debate, even though all six candidates Blanked. Died. No, did not show up for the debate. On Monday, soccer superstar Blank announced he was retiring from Argentina's national team.

45:56Maggie Smith:Yes, Messi. According to a new study, Blank drugs may increase hair loss in men.

46:00Mo Rocca:A GOP-1?

46:01Maggie Smith:Right. This week, a debate has risen over whether a hiker in New Jersey took a photo of Bigfoot or if it's just Blank. A pig. No. A chubby, naked, old guy in a bog.

46:13Mo Rocca:That was what I was going to say. I know.

46:15Maggie Smith:The figure in the photo that the hiker took in her iPhone camera was hairy and stooped with a prominent gut. people who believe that it's a cryptid are calling it the Syracuse figure, which is a phrase you really don't want to catch on. He has personalities at 10, but he's got a real Syracuse figure. It's better than a Utica pot.

46:38Annie Rauwerda:Yes.

46:41Maggie Smith:Alzo, how did Annie do in our quiz?

46:43Annie Rauwerda:She got five right for 10 more points. Total of 12. She's tied with Shane.

46:52Maggie Smith:All right, then. How many does Mo need to win? Mo, you need five to win, buddy. Mo, this is for the game. Fill in the blank. According to a new poll, only 14 % of people are in favor of renaming Lake Ontario blank. Lake America. Right. On Monday, a new study found that up to 25 % of football players may end up being diagnosed with blank. CTE. Right. On Thursday, feminist icon blank passed away at the age of 92. Gloria Steinem. Right. This week, Reese Witherspoon revealed that she was once made the foreman of a jury because the other juror is blank.

47:24Shane Torres:Oh, thought that she had gone to law school because of her legally blonde character? That's exactly right.

47:32Maggie Smith:It's a convincing performance. On Monday, paleontologists in Africa announced the discovery of another new blank. Dinosaur?

47:42Shane Torres:Yes.

47:46Maggie Smith:this week a woman in virginia having a dream about nuzzling with a cute mouse woke up to find blank that she was nuzzling with a cute mouse no that she woke up with a bat in her mouth apparently after somehow getting into her bedroom the bat thought her mouth looked like a nice cave and headed on in thankfully after she woke up her husband and caught the bat. Great job. You couldn't have caught the bat before it flew into your wife's mouth. Alzo, did Mo do well enough to win?

48:16Annie Rauwerda:Yes, he got five right for 10 more points, total of 13. With his chest hairs out, he is the winner. Thank you so much. No pictures, please.

48:29Maggie Smith:Coming up, our panelists predict, now that we're all fans of Needles, what's the next scary thing that we'll all come to love? Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me is a production of NPR and WB. EZ Chicago in association with Urgent Haircut Productions, Doug Berman, Benevolent Overlord. Philip Godica writes our limners. Our public address announcer is Paul Friedman. Our ops manager is Jasira Vardak. Thanks to the staff and crew here at the Rose Music Center. And special thanks to Luke Dennis and everyone at WYSO. E.J. Litteman composed our theme. Our program is produced by Jennifer Mills, Miles Groenbos, and Lillian King.

49:02Maggie Smith:Special thanks this week to Vinnie Thomas and Peter Gross and Janie Hoffman and Dom Banas. Peter Gwynn is our Simon called Peter. Emma Choi is our vibe curator. Technical direction is from Lorna White. Our CFO is Colin Miller. Our production manager is Robert Newhouse. Our senior producer is Ian Chillock. And the executive producer, wait, wait, don't tell me, is Mike Danforth. Now, panel, what scary thing will we love next? Shane Torres.

49:24Shane Torres:When people leave conversations, we will soon be giving catchphrases as we exit. Like O-H. O-H. Aww.

49:34Maggie Smith:You suck up. Annie Rowarda.

49:40Mo Rocca:Legionnaire's disease, because in the warming world, it's just nice to have AC.

49:45Shane Torres:And Mo Rocca.

49:46Annie Rauwerda:The original wellness remedy, leeches. And if any of that happens, panel, we'll tell you about it on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.

49:54Maggie Smith:Thank you, Alzo Slade. Thanks also to Shane Torres, Mo Rocca, and Annie Rowarda. Thanks to our fabulous audience here at the Rose Music Center. in beautiful central Ohio. Thanks to all of you for listening, wherever you may be. I'm Peter Sagal. We'll see you next week.

50:30Maggie Smith:This is NPR.

50:32Mo Rocca:This message comes from Capella University. That spark you feel? That's your drive for more. Capella University's FlexPath Learning Format lets you earn your degree at your pace, without putting life on pause. Learn more at capella.edu. This message comes from Prolon. Want to look and feel your best this summer? Prolon's five-day fasting mimicking diet is a clinically developed nutrition program with the goal of promoting fat loss while protecting lean body mass. Developed at USC's Longevity Institute, it aims to assist the body in entering a fasting-like state that helps reset metabolism, target visceral fat, and support healthy metabolic markers.

51:11Mo Rocca:Get 15 % off plus a bonus gift when you subscribe at prolonlife.com slash NPR. This message comes from Mint Mobile. If you're tired of spending hundreds on big wireless bills, bogus fees, and free perks, Mint Mobile is for you. Shop plans at mintmobile.com slash switch. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details.