Panel Round Two
NPR
Saturday, January 30, 2016
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More questions for the panel...Ewwwlogy; iNebriate
Transcript
BILL KURTIS: 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 Peter Grosz, Tom Bodett and Shelby Fero. And here again as are host at the Chase Bank Auditorium in downtown Chicago filling in for Peter Sagal, the host of The Gist podcast, Mike Pesca.
(APPLAUSE)
MIKE PESCA, HOST:
Thank you, Bill. Thank you, Bill. In just a minute, Bill looks like a typical tractor-trailer, but he's actually Optimus Rhyme in our listener limerick challenge. If you would like to play, give us a call at 1-888-WAIT-WAIT - that's 1-888-924-8924 - but right now, panel, some more questions for you about today's news. Shelby, this week we lost a Broadway star just beginning her career. Who was that star?
PETER GROSZ: If I know it's Abe Vigoda, can I just jump in?
(LAUGHTER)
PESCA: I'll give you a hint - the Broadway star was set to star in an adaptation of Pixar's "Ratatouille."
SHELBY FERO: Oh no, did a rat die?
PESCA: A rat died.
FERO: Also, a rat was going to star in the Broadway production of "Ratatouille"?
PESCA: Yeah, that's not acting.
GROSZ: Talk about typecasting.
PESCA: That doesn't show range.
GROSZ: I want to play a bird. Wait, so what's the real story? Was it real?
PESCA: The real story is that the white rat who appeared in the Broadway hit "The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime" was in a freak accident - or, to a rat, a thing that happens every day...
(LAUGHTER)
GROSZ: The hero is like - this rat understudy is like, I'm finally getting my shot on Broadway.
(LAUGHTER)
GROSZ: So there's a great - that's a good upside.
TOM BODETT: You're right, there is a happy ending.
PESCA: Peter, the Wall Street Journal reported this week on a growing sector in tech. A number of firms are developing products to help people stop doing what?
GROSZ: It's not something simple like overeating, right?
FERO: It's something simple.
GROSZ: Well, I mean, like, something that's, like, obvious, sort of.
PESCA: It's something that happens that after you overeat,
but the excessive emojis that result another type of overindulgence.
GROSZ: From - oh, they're developing tech that weeds you off of tech or something like that?
PESCA: They're developing tech that stops you from drunk texting.
GROSZ: Oh, from drunk texting.
FERO: Wait, that exists. Google has a plug-in for that. On Google, it makes you solve, like, simple math problems, and if you get too many wrong, you don't get to send an email.
PESCA: Yeah, right.
GROSZ: That's amazing.
PESCA: Or if you can't solve the math problems, you can just, you know, drive home and use your computer. Wait, wait. So this is called the Drunk Text Savior app. It analyzes the language in your text, in your tweet, in your email, and it detects misspellings or nonsense or explicit language. And then it says, wow, you're either drunk or Sarah Palin writing your Donald Trump endorsement.
(LAUGHTER)
GROSZ: That's incredible. So it's like a lock on your...
PESCA: Yeah.
GROSZ: That will lead to so many amazing fights with people screaming at their phones. Drunkenly screaming...
PESCA: ...I'm not drunk.
GROSZ: I'm not drunk. You let me text that I want to go have sex with that person.
FERO: I'm sorry, phone, I didn't mean it. You've always been there for me.
GROSZ: I love you, phone. I'm so sorry.
BODETT: So what - who makes the - what makes the judgment that you've been drinking or not?
PESCA: It's just the language. Once the language starts to become really skewed or, if it's a text where you spell the word you using both the y and the o - that's never done in a text - that sort sort of thing.
GROSZ: Any time it's after midnight and the words you up are in the text, it's like, no, no, shut down. Shut down. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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