BILL KURTIS: From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME, the NPR news quiz. I'm Bill Kurtis. We are playing this week with Alonzo Bodden, Paula Poundstone and Luke Burbank. And here again is your host, a man who is 100% effective after just one dose. It's Peter Sagal.
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PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Thank you, Bill. In just a minute, Bill sings his favorite Olivia Rodrigo song, Rhymer's License. It's a heartfelt Listener Limerick Challenge game. 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. Paula, a businessman named John Cox is running for governor in California's recall election. And to generate interest in his campaign, he's traveling the state with a thousand-pound bear. So far, it's been pretty smooth, but Mr. Cox has one complaint. What?
PAULA POUNDSTONE: The bear is more popular than he is?
SAGAL: Essentially, yes. He is complaining that people are only talking about the bear.
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SAGAL: He got tons of attention this week with his publicity stunt, but by Wednesday, he was complaining that the media was only talking about, you know, that, saying, quote, "the coverage yesterday was all about the bear." Cox then told reporters that he wanted voters to focus on the changes he wanted to make in the state, which I don't really remember. It was something about a bear.
LUKE BURBANK: (Laughter).
POUNDSTONE: Yeah.
SAGAL: The bear, you should know, is part of Cox branding himself as, quote, "the beast," making current Governor Gavin Newsom the beauty. So I can't wait for his appearance next week with a special guest, a teapot.
BURBANK: Meanwhile, the bear is actually polling very strongly. He's in third place currently.
SAGAL: He is. Yeah, he's doing great.
ALONZO BODDEN: At what point, if you're traveling with a giant bear, do you think people are not going to be interested in the bear?
SAGAL: That - I mean, that's sort of the funny thing.
BODDEN: (Laughter).
BURBANK: I'll tell you this, if you rent a bear, don't get the full coverage. It's a total rip-off. Use your own bear coverage.
(LAUGHTER)
BURBANK: That's how they get you.
SAGAL: You know, the thing that I - what I hate is when they - hate when they just try to upsell you the extras.
BURBANK: No. It's like, I'm fine.
SAGAL: It's like, I can - you know, you've - I understand you've reserved the brown, but I can upgrade you into a grizzly for only, like, $14 more a day.
BURBANK: I've got this printout from Travelocity right here. It shows what I'm getting. Please just give me that.
SAGAL: (Laughter). Paula - Paula, a 19-year-old woman from Oklahoma was moving to Arkansas, so she found an apartment online. It looked great. She signed the lease before she even visited, which is why that she is now living where?
POUNDSTONE: I - in a nursing home.
SAGAL: Exactly right.
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SAGAL: She's living in a senior citizens residence.
POUNDSTONE: Wow.
SAGAL: She accidentally moved in this retirement home after signing a lease without viewing the property. It took her a full week, she says, before she figured it out. I wonder what tipped her off, the fact that all her neighbors were over 65, the fact that most apartments don't have help buttons on the wall, or the giant sign out front that said senior citizens apartments? So now she is the youngest person, by God knows how many decades. She says she likes that she can constantly, like, brag to her neighbors - oh, I've fallen, and I can get up.
POUNDSTONE: (Laughter).
SAGAL: Hey, serve me your chewiest steak.
BURBANK: Didn't she also say to one news outlet that was interviewing her that she can play her music as loud as she wants...
SAGAL: Yes.
BURBANK: ...Because no one else can hear it?
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SAGAL: She actually really likes it. She says that it's really fun. She enjoys it, you know? I mean, think of all the things she gets to hear about the war at every meal.
POUNDSTONE: Wow.
BODDEN: I'm just wondering how many gifts she gets from people who think she's their granddaughter.
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SAGAL: Exactly.
(SOUNDBITE OF PETER BJORN AND JOHN SONG, "YOUNG FOLKS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.