Bluff The Listener
NPR
Saturday, February 14, 2015
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Our panelists tell three stories about a person famous for one thing doing another noteworthy thing, only one of which is true.
Transcript
BILL KURTIS, BYLINE: From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is WAIT WAIT ...DON'T TELL ME, the NPR News quiz. I'm Bill Kurtis. We're playing this week with Tom Bodett, Roxanne Roberts and PJ O'Rourke. And here again is your host at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orlando, Fla., Peter Sagal.
(APPLAUSE)
PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Thank you. Thank you everybody. 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.
Hi, you're on WAIT WAIT ...DON'T TELL ME.
JESS LIEDKE: Hi, this is Jess Liedke from Hamden, CT.
SAGAL: Hey, Jess. How are you?
LIEDKE: I'm good, thanks. How are you?
SAGAL: I'm fine. I've been to Hamden. What do you do there?
LIEDKE: I'm a vision therapist.
SAGAL: A vision therapist?
LIEDKE: Yes. It's a therapy. It's kind of like physical therapy for your eyes and your brain.
SAGAL: Oh, I see. So it's not like you're helping me get in touch with my emotions by looking at things.
LIEDKE: Well, I do that too.
SAGAL: Jess, welcome to the show. You're going to play our game in which you must try to tell truth from fiction. Bill, what is Jess's topic?
KURTIS: You're even better than I thought.
SAGAL: It's hard enough to achieve even one great thing in life. At best, maybe you'll be able to finish that burrito at lunch. But this week we read about someone famous for one thing who turns out has done something even greater. Guess the real story, you will win Carl Kasell's voice on your voicemail. Ready to play?
LIEDKE: Let's go.
SAGAL: Let's do it. Let's hear it first from Roxanne Roberts.
ROXANNE ROBERTS: George Bush won the Iraq War, Al Gore invented the Internet, and now we can thank Kenny G for the Starbucks frappuccino. In an interview with Bloomberg, the smooth jazz musician explained that he helped create the iconic drink after his uncle introduced him to founder Howard Schultz. The company was just selling coffee when Kenny noticed that a competitor sold a popular blended drink. Quote, "I would always call Howard and say, Howard, there's this thing that they do there that's a milkshake or whatever." So I think that's part of the reason they did the frappuccino. I'd like to think I was partially responsible for that.
Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking typical celebrity hyperbole. Oh, you doubters. A Starbucks spokesman confirmed the story telling People magazine, Kenny is a dear friend of Starbucks and an early investor in the company. That's true.
SAGAL: All right. Kenny G claims to have invented the frappuccino. Your next story of a mother of invention comes from PJ O'Rourke.
O'ROURKE: OK, so there's this great person - Richard Nixon.
(LAUGHTER)
O'ROURKE: You don't love Nixon? Don't love Nixon? I guess you - you aren't political humorists.
(LAUGHTER)
O'ROURKE: I love Nixon. Watergate - the best two years of my life. I mean, it was wonderful. When have we had so much fun with American politics, you know? Got to love Richard Nixon. But he also created the rumba. Not the Roomba, but the rumba - the dance. Or at least he inspired it.
In the spring of 1958, then Vice President Richard Nixon went on a goodwill tour of Latin America. And found darn little good will toward him or the USA. In fact, he was attacked by rioting crowds everywhere he went. In Rio de Janeiro, he was nearly killed when protesters tried to flip his car. And Brazilian bandleader Elajo Baricon (ph) was there that day. And the repeated chants of the protesters - the staccato of fists pounding on the fenders of Nixon's Cadillac and the rhythmic push, push of hundreds of people trying to overturn that car - this gave Baricon (ph) an idea for a whole new beat in Latin music - the modern rumba. Huge, popular hit, and the singers in Baricon's (ph) band showed audiences the dance steps. And in Brazil, the music is still sometimes called the ricaro trucaro (ph) - tricky Dick.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: President Nixon involuntarily, at least, helped invent the rumba dance. Your last story of unexpected inventiveness comes from Tom Bodett.
TOM BODETT: Guiding souls through the gates of heaven is not entirely different from showing drunks the door at a bar, but it does require tools. When a young Pope Francis, then known as Jorge Mario Bergoglio took a second job as a bouncer at a Buenos Aires nightclub, his kind and gentle chair was not suited to the work, but he needed the money. Then one providential day, a minor lab accident involving cayenne pepper extracts sent Bergoglio and his coworkers gagging and cursing into the street. When I found myself saying Jesus H-baldheaded Christ, I knew this was a powerful sign from God, recalls the holy of holies. Jorge added the pepper extract to some CO2 two lab canisters and took them to the nightclub. Never again did the future pontiff have to use physical force to remove rowdy patrons, just a little seasoning, he says with a smile. And they always mention God in some fashion on (LAUGHTER)
O'ROURKE: Well, Jess...
SAGAL: Well, Jess, here's the thing, somebody you've heard of did something interesting that maybe you hadn't heard of. Was it from Roxanne, the story of how Kenny G, jazz musician, invented the Frappuccino? From PJ O'Rourke, how President Nixon helped invent the rumba, although he probably could never have danced it himself? Or from Tom Bodett, how the Pope in an earlier life as a nightclub bouncer invented pepper spray, or as it could be called, poper spray?
LIEDKE: As much as I wish the Pope story was true, I think it's number one from Roxanne.
SAGAL: You think it's Roxanne's story...
(APPLAUSE)
LIEDKE: Yeah.
SAGAL: ...About Kenny G? Well, to bring you the correct answer, we spoke with someone familiar with this real story of invention.
JAMES GREEBEE: And he provided feedback on the creation of the frappuccino. And he was part of the success.
SAGAL: That was James Greebee. He's a staff writer at Spin Magazine, talking about how Kenny G did in fact, or at least he has claimed to have helped invent the frappuccino. I'm sure that's the first time that Kenny G has been mentioned by a writer for Spin Magazine. Nonetheless, Jess, you got it right. You earned a point for Roxanne Roberts. You've won our prize. Carl Kasell, our old friend, will record the greeting on your voicemail. Well done.
LIEDKE: Awesome. Thank you.
SAGAL: Isn't it great?
(APPLAUSE) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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