Panel Round One
NPR
Friday, April 11, 2014
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Automotive Overtures.
Transcript
PETER SAGAL, HOST:
We want to remind everybody they can join us here most weeks at the Chase Bank Auditorium in beautiful downtown Chicago, Illinois. For tickets and more information, please go to WBEZ.org or you can find a link at our website, which is WaitWait.NPR.org. Right now, panel, it's time for you to answer some questions about this week's news. Amy, Smart Cars, those are those tiny, easily parkable vehicles. They've become quite popular in cities across the country. In San Francisco, citizens have welcomed the increasing presence of Smart cars by doing what?
AMY DICKINSON: Pushing them down the hill? No.
SAGAL: Almost.
DICKINSON: OK.
SAGAL: I guess they couldn't find any cows in the streets of San Francisco so they...
DICKINSON: Tipping them over.
SAGAL: Indeed.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
DICKINSON: Yeah.
SAGAL: Smart Cars are the choice for urban dwellers who prioritize parallel parking over surviving a car wreck or ever getting a date.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Well, a group in San Francisco has been walking around, picking up the cars and flipping them over. Now, while it may seem funny to you or to me, it's also funny to everyone everywhere.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: And yet, we all know that when you see one of these cars parked, we all want to turn it over after. These people aren't vandals, they just have slightly worse impulse control than the rest of us.
(LAUGHTER)
LUKE BURBANK: You know how they say that it - sometimes in a terrible predicament where let's say, a car was on top of her child, a mother could...
SAGAL: Yeah, yeah.
BURBANK: ...Lift the car off? I feel like the predicament wouldn't have to be as intense for her to lift a Smart Car.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: That's true.
DICKINSON: Right.
BURBANK: Yeah, there's a French fry under there. Hold on, let me get that.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: I actually don't see the problem 'cause of you're a Smart Car driver and you come back and someone has flipped your Smart Car, you just flip it back.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: What's the problem?
CHARLIE PIERCE: Well, they're like a bug though when they get on their back. The Smart Car can't get over.
BURBANK: The wheels spin and it's...
PIERCE: Yeah. Terrible.
BURBANK: ...Really kind of pathetic.
DICKINSON: They hold two people, right?
SAGAL: Yes, they hold two people. Just two people.
BURBANK: Well, one person and their shame.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU SPIN ME ROUND")
DEAD OR ALIVE: (Singing) You spin me right 'round, baby, right 'round like a record, baby, right 'round, 'round, 'round. You spin me right 'round, baby, right 'round like a record, baby, right 'round, 'round, 'round.
SAGAL: Coming up, this does not compute. It's a low-tech bluff the listener game. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to play. And filmmaker Errol Morris joins us to play Not My Job. Support for NPR comes from NPR stations and Arizona State University with more than 60 campus degrees now available 100 percent online at online.ASU.edu. Esurance, insurance for the modern world with online tools that provide customers with 24/7 advice and support. Learn more esurance.com. And Angie's List, providing reviews of local roofers, painters, landscapers and plumbers to keep the consumer informed. More at Angieslist.com. We'll be back in a minute with more of WAIT WAIT ...DON'T TELL ME from NPR. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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