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Panel Round Two

CARL KASELL: From NPR and WBEZ-Chicago, this is WAIT WAIT...DON'T TELL ME!, the NPR News quiz. I'm Carl Kasell. We're playing this week with Luke Burbank, Roxanne Roberts and Alonzo Bodden. And here again is your host at the Chase Bank Auditorium in downtown Chicago, Peter Sagal.

PETER SAGAL, HOST:

Thank you, Carl.

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SAGAL: Thank you everybody. In just a minute, Carl consoles Rick Santorhyme for his loss in Michigan in 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, some more questions for you from the week's news. Alonzo, possibly the worst case of cell phone use while driving ever happened this week, when a man tweeted while driving where?

ALONZO BODDEN: He was driving in a NASCAR race and there was, like, an explosion in front of him.

SAGAL: Right.

BODDEN: And he tweeted about the explosion.

SAGAL: That's exactly right.

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SAGAL: Yes, NASCAR drivers approach 200 miles per hour while racing and tweeting while driving is insanely dangerous in any case. But on the other hand, any pedestrian trying to cross Daytona International Speedway during a race has it coming.

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SAGAL: Driver Brad Kaselowski used his phone to tweet pics of a crash and interact with fans. And then he used the phone's GPS to get direction for the rest of the race. Left, left, left.

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SAGAL: Left. Now, to be fair to Mr. Kaselowski, the race was under a red flag, they were all stopped due to the crash. And the crash, though, was caused because NASCAR driver Tony Stewart was distracted, putting on mascara in his rearview mirror.

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SAGAL: You should also never do.

LUKE BURBANK: You should not have a guy who's driving a NASCAR car tweet at any point during the race. Do we need more, kind of like reinforcement that this is a good idea in the car?

SAGAL: I want to know, I mean don't know much about NASCAR but I know that they're not normal cars. They've got roll cages inside there. You're wearing these fire-proof suits and helmets and kevlar. And this guy is all kidded out to go race and he's like, oh, I got to bring my phone. What is he bringing his phone for?

BODDEN: That's what I wondered. Like, did the team even know? Because they check everything in the car, and they're like, he has a phone.

BURBANK: He has a thing he bought on Sky Mall. It's a little holder for the phone.

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BURBANK: OK, guys, he's not an idiot.

SAGAL: Luke, the Los Angeles Times told a story this week of a Las Vegas man who fancied himself a hit man for hire. And he was busted after he foolishly did what?

BURBANK: He was trying to be a hit man in Las Vegas?

SAGAL: Yes.

BURBANK: OK. Take a hit out on Siegfried and Roy. Too soon?

SAGAL: Too soon.

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SAGAL: Well it's the 21st century. What's the first thing you do to set up a business?

BURBANK: He had some kind of online business.

SAGAL: Yes, he created the website hitmanforhire.net.

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SAGAL: We assume...

BURBANK: What's amazing is hitmanforhire.com as taken.

SAGAL: Apparently.

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BURBANK: But he still went for it.

SAGAL: A note on the home page read: thanks to the internet, ordering a hit has never been easier.

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SAGAL: The Las Vegas poker dealer thought he had devised the perfect solution to his lagging killing for money business. It didn't' take long for the FBI to track him down. All they had to do was click on the arrest me link.

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SAGAL: On the home page.

BODDEN: Isn't this why the mob is truly going broke? First, they lose the gambling in Vegas. Now the hits are going online.

SAGAL: Yeah, it's going online. And it's such a shame because the bricks and mortar, mom and pop hitman businesses can't compete with the internet. They're undercutting their prices. It's terrible. I always shop locally for my assassins.

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SAGAL: It costs a little more but I think it adds to the community that we have people involved in retail murder.

BURBANK: I go down on Saturday mornings to the farmer's market to get mine.

SAGAL: Yeah.

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SAGAL: Because you want your hits locally sourced.

BURBANK: Yeah, right.

BODDEN: It's only a matter of time before Amazon is providing hits with free shipping.

SAGAL: Oh, it's terrible.

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SAGAL: Alonzo, people use Facebook to choose dates or parties to go to, but pretty soon you'll be able to use Facebook profiles to help you choose what?

BODDEN: Well they're coming out with this new ad campaign. So wouldn't it be to choose anything?

SAGAL: No, no, no, no, this is a specific purpose that Facebook is being put to. Excuse me. Let me give you a hint. I mean you'll be looking for someone when you go on Facebook to do this search. You're looking for someone who never needs to get up to use the bathroom and hates to even touch the shared armrest.

BODDEN: Oh, airline seats.

SAGAL: Yes.

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BODDEN: You can partner with somebody on an airline. You can find...

SAGAL: Exactly right.

BODDEN: If you have common interests or if they - women really like a creepy guy next to them.

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SAGAL: Right.

BODDEN: Talking for two hours as they're trapped in a seat. Because a lot of women are going to sign up for that.

SAGAL: Absolutely.

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SAGAL: The Dutch airline KLM is launching "meet and seat," which would also be a good name for a steakhouse. Users upload their Facebook data and you can look at it to decide who you want to sit next to. KLM hopes people will use it for networking. You know, you say, oh, look, it's an insurance salesman. I'm in need of insurance. I will sit next to him.

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SAGAL: But this is going to be a disaster, because if you think about it, the only thing worse than sitting next to a stranger for four hours is sitting next to a stranger who really wants to sit next to you.

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ROXANNE ROBERTS: So what's your strategy for politely not talking to the person on the plane next to you?

BODDEN: I actually get on the plane with my headphones on, and an angry look.

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SAGAL: The other thing you can do if this is imposed on us is leverage your Facebook profile to get a row all to yourself. Likes: frequent urination, airsickness.

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SAGAL: Dislikes: bathing.

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BURBANK: I had that guy on the way out here.

SAGAL: Did you really?

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SAGAL: Luke, a hospital in Stockholm, Sweden caused a bit of a stir when it posted a help wanted ad for nurses that are what?

BURBANK: My first just gut reaction is sexy.

SAGAL: Yes.

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SAGAL: They actually posted an ad...

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SAGAL: Looking for - and this is the standard they used - "TV series hot." If this seems wildly sexist and discriminatory, that's because it is. The sexy nurse is, of course, a classic, you know, trope, much like the sexy French maid or the naughty crossing guard or the magnetically attractive public radio host.

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SAGAL: Would having a sexy nurse - I mean having a sexy nurse wouldn't do anybody any good though, in the real world.

BODDEN: Under what circumstance would it be bad?

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(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.