Because I am no longer an early riser, I miss the yard sales that I used to love. Instead, I get to enjoy two radio programs on NPR: Car Talk and Wait, Wail, Don't Tell Me. Sometimes, the only time I get to hear familiar Massachusett accents is by listening to Click and Clack give out their automotive advice. Most of the problems that people have with their cars, I have experienced at some time or other myself.. I think that if I had had the good fortune to hear their show years ago, I would have probably saved myself a lot of money.
But, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me is my favorite radio show. If you haven't heard it, you are in for a treat. Before you do, a trip to their internet site will fill you in on what its all about. Just google search for it and you will find a nice website with a video that shows you how the show is put together and what Peter and Carl and the other folks look like. Either there or at the NPR site, you can download copies of the show for free to put on your IPOD or listen to right from your computer.
I always learn a lot from the show. For instance, today I learned the following:
01. Way out in our galaxy, they have found evidence of ethel fornate, which is a chemical that allows us to smell raspberries. (Roy Blunt says that he went to school with a girl named Ethel Fornate, ... guess what else he said.)
02. Researchers have been working for months to try to find some kind of clothing item to take the place of the open-back gowns that hospitals subject you to. Besides being embarrassing, its gross-out time to see an old man in a gown doing rehab. During my recent bout at Mercy Hospital, I was pleased to see that they gave me 2 gowns, 1 to put on one way, and the other one the other way. That was very nice of them, but then again, I don't think that the Sisters of Mercy would have it any other way.
03. Tom Blunt said (relating to the statements that even though the torture methods may have been not exactly kosher, we did get good information from the practise.) .. that sounds like a person being accused of being a shoplifter saying: "call it what you will, but look at the great stuff I got."
04. There is an intersting story out of Stutgart, Germany, about sterility.
05. A researcher took fish on a plane trip to find that strong wave-like motion cause some of them to get seasick.. "they looked like they were getting ready to vomit."
06. Nazi-bred cow stock is being revived in Great Britain. "Someone saw these giant cows goose-stepping through the pasture."
07. An airline devoted to carrying animals is talking about its "pawsengers."
08. Susan Boyle says that she really has been kissed.
09. The Guinness brewery building, through the foresight of their founder 250 years ago, enjoys a 6,000 year lease.
10. Some people say that fish bladders are an ingredient in Guinness beer because the "fining agent" that makes it clear is made from those things. (I used it when I made beer and it didn't affect the taste in any way.)
11. In hearing the "strip search" case before the Supreme Court, one of the Justices mentioned that somebody had "put something" in his underwear when he was a kid.. "or not."
I hope that you are now interested enough to download today's program and listen to it.. I know you will like this classic show.
BTW: I forgot.. at one point a song was played and I finally learned the right English words to a song that I liked to sing at German and Polish functions:
In heaven there is no beer,
That is why we drink it here.
And when we're gone from here,
Our friends will be drinking all the beer.
Prosit! Salut! Cheers!
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