WWDTM: Carissa Moore, Bob Costas, and Jim Rice

Support for NPR and the following message come from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, investing in creative thinkers and problem solvers who help people, communities, and the planet flourish. More information is available at Hewlett.org. Hey, it's Peter Segal. We are almost at the end of 2025, and if I may, I will speak for everybody at NPR, in natural local stations, and in public media, and say, good riddance. But despite the laws of federal funding for public media, despite attacks on the free press, we are still here for you, and we will be next year. With your support, NPR will keep reporting the news, and here at wait, wait, we will try to, you know, lighten the low. At the end of the week, with some jokes about the news and some fun conversations with interesting people, and yes, the occasional far joke. If you are already an NPR plus supporter, thank you so much. We see you, and we are so grateful for you. If not, please join the community of public radio supporters right now. Before the end of the year, at plus.NPR.org. Signing up, unlocks a bunch of perks like bonus episodes, and more from across NPR's podcasts. Plus, you get to feel good about supporting public media. Wow, you'll listen. Visit plus.NPR.org today. And thanks. From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR news quiz. I'm the gift you get for the person who has everything. How's those slate? And here's your host at the Student Baker Theater in the Fine Arts Building in Chicago, Illinois. Peter, say go. Thank you, also, and thank you, everybody. Thank you, Sons of being with us. Well, everybody, we made it. We made it through 2025 a year that began with terrible apprehension about the future and has ended the exact same way. My motto is, instead of worrying about what's about to happen, enjoy some things already be. So this hour, we're going to relish the great things we got to do in 2025, such as talking to the legendary sportscaster Bob Costas, which we did in September, along with guest scorekeeper, Che, Ryan Fest Smith. Now, I asked Bob if, as perfectly Shay, he had started talking about sports because he couldn't play them. You know, I wouldn't say that I failed. I wasn't that bad by school yard standards, but I couldn't make my high school baseball or basketball team and the baseball coach who was also a math teacher, that's the way it works in high school. He actually said to me something to the effect of you're not bad with the glove and you can run a little bit, but I don't think you can hit your weight and I don't think you weigh 130. I tried to prove what I was 16 years old, and then he actually said, you know, you're always talking about baseball and you know more about baseball than any of my players. Have you ever thought about broadcasting? And I said, that's pretty much all I think about. And he actually said, is if it was a movie, good, try that. That's awesome. And have you ever gone and like found any of the guys who didn't make the team and say, how long did your career in sports class? One of them actually pitched in the major leagues for two years. He did make it to big leagues. The rest of them have scattered to the four wins and I'm sure they're aware of me and I'm not quite aware of where they are and I don't care. And you went off to Syracuse University, right? The New House. To learn your trade, this is of course, if you don't know, it is the Harvard of Broadcasting Schools. But I'm curious is like, how do you learn to do sports broadcasting? Like what are the skills you have to study? You know, you cannot learn it in a classroom. You want to get as good and as well-rounded an education as you possibly can and to be a reader because it improves your appreciation of language and turns of phrase and the broader your frame of reference is, the more you can bring to bear where appropriate in a sports broadcast or any kind of broadcast. But the only way you actually learn to be a broadcaster is by doing it. You can't sit there in a classroom and learn it. You just have to find out if you have a knack and then you work on that knack as you move along. So, okay, you're a Hall of Fame broadcaster, an absolute legend in the industry. Nobody's perfect all the time. Can you remember a time when like you just blew it on live TV? Oh my, yes. Now I realize it's NPR. Yes. Do you want the unedited version? Yes, yes. Give us the MTV version. Go ahead Bob. What are they going to do? Defund us? There you go. Now if everybody clapping could give $5,000. That would be really wonderful. Get, get. All right, so here's the deal. My first job out of Syracuse. I did minor league hockey in my first senior year at Syracuse, $30 a game. But I was lucky. Right after that at age 22, to go to St. Louis, big station, KMOX, 50,000 Mod Station, to broadcast the games for the spirits of St. Louis in the old ABA. The first night they play on a Friday night, they have a big lead with about two minutes to go and the game slips away. They're up by seven and somehow the game slips away. Two nights later, they're playing at home again and they're ahead by five with like a minute to go. And I turned toward the analyst who was a wonderful gentleman named Bill Wilkerson. And I said the following. Bill, it appears as if the spirits have this game well in hand, but Coach Bob McKinnon taking a time out here wanting to take no chances because the last thing he wants to see is a repeat of Friday night's blow. I actually said that. You did. I actually said that. They blew the game and you know, you just got kind of mangled, right? Well, I mean, if you think about it, I mean, it is his job. And if he blew the game, it just sort of comes naturally to that phrase, doesn't it? My thought is I looked at Wilkerson. Yes. And he looked at me and his eyes got as wide as saucers. And the engineer just made that circular thing with the index finger like, keep on going, keep on going. We can't have all this dead air. And I was 100% certain that the next morning, I'd be on a flight back to Syracuse. But the station manager took pity on me and said, don't ever let this happen again. I certainly will try not to. A lot of people called in and they were like, can we get more of that Bob Kastis guy? I have been a fan. I'm a baseball fan and not on your level, but I've been watching a lot of you over the decades, Brock has baseball. And I remember vividly your reaction, the first year they had the wild card in the playoffs in baseball. So you're against that. You're also against the designated hitter. Now there are six wild card teams every year and everybody has a designated hitter. What is it like to be that influential? You know, it's just another small indication of the general decline of Western civilization. Let me ask you this. Over the years, obviously not just baseball and NFL games, NBA games, horse races, and the Olympics, of course, for many, many years on NBC. So out of all those things, can you tell me like what the weirdest or most unusual sport is you've ever had to broadcast and comment on? Well, I didn't do play by play as the host of the Olympics, but you're commenting on and showing highlights of almost everything. Curling in the winter Olympics. You know, think about getting a gold medal, an Olympic gold medal for an activity in which you can drink beer while doing it. Yes, but even more so in the summer Olympics, race walking is a staple. Now there may be, I don't know, 200 race walkers in the United States, but in parts of Eastern Europe, like in Romania or something, you know, race walkers are like Michael Jordan apparently. So 1992 in Barcelona, I'm hosting the Olympics and there's a package of highlights and it ends with a bunch of race walkers. And you know what it looks like, right? Yeah, it looks like it looks like gotta go, gotta go, gotta go right now, but it looks like 15, 15 minutes shorts are really need to use the rest of my understanding. Right, exactly, but so I come off, but I think it's completely harmless and the people on the set laugh, I said, isn't a competition to see who can walk the fastest, a little bit like a contest to see who can whisper the loudest. Eventually, don't you just like cross over and start running? Now you would think that was completely harmless, but the very small race walking community wanted my head on a plate. And that's why you can never go back to Romania. That's correct. Well, Bob Costes is in such a pleasure to talk to you and we have asked you here today to play a game we're calling. And the Emmy goes to we are right now in the eye of the Emmy storm, the creative arts Emmys were last weekend, the prime time Emmys are this weekend. So no one is talking about anything, but the Emmy awards. Ooh, we're going to ask you three questions about these JV Oscars, answer two correctly in one of our prize, one of our listeners. Ryan Fest, who is Bob Costes playing for? Bob is playing for Matt Johnson of Houston, Texas. Ready to play? Here is your first question. Where does the name Emmy for the award come from? Is it A, it's the initials ME for Mamie Eisenhower, who presided at the first awards? Is it B, strangely, it is named after our own panelists, Emmy Flotten, or C, it was named for the image Orthagon tube, an important bit of early TV technology. I'm going with C. You're going to go with C and you are right. The image Orthagon team is known as Emmy, huge events, TV technology, so much so that Emmy was named for it. Here's your next question, the whole point of the Emmys, of course, as you know, is to promote TV, but at the 2015 Emmys, Andy Sandberg went above and beyond to encourage people to watch the HBO show Game of Thrones. How did you do it? A, by wearing a handmade 15-foot-long dragon costume on stage, B, by giving out to the live international audience his actual HBO, login, and password, or C, by playing a video in which his head was CGI'd onto every character in every sex scene from that season. You know, I should know this, but somehow I miss that particular telecast. I'm just going to guess B. You're going to guess B. He gave out his HBO login and password to the universe. He did. Yes. And people report everybody first immediately ran over to their televisions or whatever, and it worked for a few days. All right, very good, Bob. Here is... Two for two. Two for two, right. As someone in your profession might say. Yes. You're bad in the sales. Yes, he's bad in the sales. Let's see what he does with this pitch. In Dame Helen Mirren's acceptance speech after winning an Emmy for her performance as Queen Elizabeth the first, she said that her greatest triumph was what? Was it A, making her Queen Elizabeth the first for recognizably different from her Queen Elizabeth the second? B, the voiceover work that she had done for the film Legends of the Guardians, the owls of Gablul, for which she was unfairly snubbed. Or see, she said her greatest triumph was, quote, not falling ass over tit as she climbed the stairs to the podium. It is without question. You're right. You called your shop, as you might say. And allegedly the sensors were manning, you know, that bleep button were so charmed by Herb-Rish accent that the remark made it to air and now again to us. Right, Fest, how did Bob Costa do on our quiz? Bob got three for three. He got him all right. Congratulations. It's, it's the trifecta. It's the hat trick. It is. It's the triple crown. What's, that's a good thing. Part of your job is coming up with catchphrases and names. What should we call it when someone goes three for three on this, on this game? The costee. There you go. Bob Costa is a Hall of Fame broadcaster and not coincidentally the winner of 28 Emmy awards himself, Bob Costa's. Thank you so much for joining us on Great Lakes. I'll tell me. Thank you Peter. Thank you everybody. Take care Bob. Bye bye. Go on. When we come back, we warm up the winter with a return to Hawaii and to talk with one of the greatest surfers of all time. That's when we return with more of, wait, wait, don't tell me from NPR. This message comes from Wise, the app for international people using money around the globe. You can send, spend and receive an up to 40 currencies with only a few simple taps. Be smart. Get Wise. Download the Wise app today or visit Wise.com. TZNC's apply. Support for NPR and the following message come from the William and Flora Hullet Foundation, investing in creative thinkers and problem solvers who help people, communities and the planet flourish. More information is available at huelet.org. From NPR and WB Easy Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR news quiz. I'm Alzo Slade, filling in for Bill Curtis and here's your host at the Studebraker Theater in the Fine Arts Building in Chicago, Illinois. Peter Sego. Thank you, Alzo. Thanks everybody. Thank you so much. So it is late December in Chicago and the days are short and the winds are cold, so we are all getting nostalgic for the trip. We took to Honolulu Hawaii in October. We had such an amazing time. It's hard to choose a favorite moment. Not for me. The best thing I saw in Hawaii was me standing there in Hawaii. That's right. Alzo and I were there. We did two shows in the Aloha state and now we're going to hear part of that never before broadcast. Second show. We saved it for a moment when we needed it most like now. First, a bluff the listener game with panelists Shane O'Neal, Dosey Sloan and Helen Hong. And then a visit with one of the greatest surfers ever, Honolulu native and Olympic champion, Karissa Moore. It is now time to play the Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, Bluff the listener game. Call one, Triple eight, Wait, Wait to play our game on the air. Hi, you are on. Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Aloha. Aloha. Aloha. Yes. My name is Rich. Hello, Rich, where are you calling from? I'm calling from Kailua, Oahu, Hawaii. Can't beat it. You can't beat it. What do you do there? I'm recently retired and I'm very active in Rotary and I volunteer as a mediator at the Mediation Center of the Pacific. Really? Really? I'm sorry. I mean, I know I'm a visitor to these lovely islands but I can't imagine anybody ever has a problem they need to mediate. It just, it's all seems like a happy place. Well, Rich, great to have you with us. You're going to play our game in which you have to tell truth from fiction. Also, what is Rich's topic? Carpe Diem. Sometimes you have to seize the day. Climb that mountain. Tell her you're in love with her. Move to Europe forever because things got really awkward after you told her you're in love with her. This week we heard about somebody really going for it. Pick the one who's telling the truth and you'll win the weight weight of your choice and your voicemail are you ready to play? Yes. I'm sorry. Did somebody in the room with you have to tell you to say yes? No, no, that didn't happen. That didn't happen. Okay, never, never. No, I didn't happen. Didn't happen. Standing there on your own, your own talents, brains, brought to this, no help at all. Let's first hear from Shayna O'Neal. Kristen Elliott of Maple Bluff, Wisconsin is a busy woman. A resident of UW Hospital, she puts in 24 hour shifts in their emergency room. She goes to Pilates classes three times a week and volunteers at the soup kitchen at her local church. But when an invitation came for an ex-boyfriend's wedding, she knew she needed to squeeze in one more thing into her busy schedule, finding a date. So last Saturday, she set up 18 hours worth of mini-dates. That's 180 dates in one day. She kept track of the marathon day with a spreadsheet, adding numerical ratings in columns for physical attributes, red flags, hygiene, and whether they showed up in a fleece quarters zip. Sadly, none of these dates seem suitable. So she plans to schedule a second day of seven minute long second dates. Unfortunately, with the extra two minutes, I can only book 73 dates in a day. She said sadly, before strapping on a helmet, climbing onto her scooter and rolling off to a sipping paint party where she plans to finish half a bottle of wine and no fewer than three paintings and two ceramics pieces. A woman ceases the day by scheduling 18 hours of speed dates during the next story of someone capturing the moment comes from Dulce Sloan. Rusty Albert, son of Cleveland, Georgia, retired from being a middle school geography teacher for 47 years. His wife, Jeannie, also retired from nursing and now they finally have the time and money to travel. Growing up in Cleveland, Georgia, Rusty was always fascinated that the names of cities can repeat in other states or even countries. So Rusty wondered if there were any other Cleveland. Much to his excitement, there are seven other Cleveland's in the United States for a total of eight Cleveland's. As a fan of the rap group, Bone Thugs at Harmony, he always wanted to visit Cleveland, Ohio. But now there are six other Cleveland's for Rusty's Cleveland tour. Jeannie, on the other hand, was less enthusiastic. She said, well, I thought he meant traveling to somewhere fun, like all the cities named Paris or Miami, to which Rusty supplied all the Miami's. Hmm, I don't mind going to Indiana or Missouri, but I'll be damned if I ever go to Texas. A man sets off in his dream to visit all the towns in the country named Cleveland. Your last DM a carpeide comes from Helen Hall. It's not easy getting a Guinness world record. You might have to hold your breath for 20 minutes or eat 80 hot dogs in one sitting, or you could create your own original world record and make it uniquely painful. That's what Gabriel walled it when she chose to set the first ever record for the fastest 100 meter sprint barefoot on Lego bricks. I know. Her training included jumping up and down in a kitty pool filled with Legos. While also went barefoot for months, and when she explained that she was training to sprint over Legos, people inevitably asked, why would you do that? Why? Naysayers notwithstanding wall completed the spiky sprint in 24.75 seconds. Her husband immediately presented her with fluffy pink slippers that she'll probably never take off again. All right. Hear them, Rich. Our three stories of someone seizing the moment. Is it from Chano-Neal, someone to trying to maximize their chances, having speed dates for 18 hours all fit into one day? From Dolce Sloan, a man determined to live out his dream of visiting every Cleveland in the country beside his own Cleveland, or from Helen Hall, a woman who fulfilled a lifelong dream by setting a world record, in this case, the land speed record for running on Legos. Which of these was the real story we found in the week's news? I got to go with number three, the Lego lady. I'll tell you she... she meets them all. She does. And you figure that out all by yourself. All by myself. All right, you're going to choose then. You're going to choose... You're going to choose Helen's story about the Lego run. Well, we spoke to someone who actually had the inside dope on this particular story. She wanted to set a world record, so she decided that she would run over Lego bricks. That was Kyle Melnik, is a reporter for The Washington Post talking about the record-breaking Lego run. Congratulations, Rich. You got it right. Yes! Helen was telling the truth. She's going to win a point. You're going to win. You're going to win our prize, the voicemail of anyone you choose. Thank you so much for calling. Thank you. You could share it with your back up. Yeah. And now the game where we ask people who were really, really good at one thing about another thing, we call it not my job. So not far from us right now in Honolulu, there is a 100-foot high mural on the side of a building with two people painted on it. You've seen it. One of the two figures is Duke Kahana Moku, the legendary father of surfing. He introduced the sport around the world in the 1930s. And the other is Karissa Moore, the first ever female Olympic gold medalist in shortboard surfing, and generally acclaimed as the greatest woman ever to ride waves. And one of those two icons joins us now. Karissa Moore, welcome to Weight Weight, don't tell me. I'm so happy to have you. Since I brought up the mural, I got to ask, what is it like, could you live in Honolulu, Stowe, you grew up? What is it like to drive around and see your own sort of visage painted next to one of the great national heroes and you're in front of him? I definitely have to pinch myself. It's super surreal. I can't believe they still have it up. Really? Yeah. It's like somebody painted a 100-foot high painting that don't just wait a couple days and paint over it. You know, like a racet. Well, yeah, I hope it stays up for a little while longer. I want to show my daughter one day and be like, that's mom. Yeah. Definitely take a lot of selfies. You know it'd be great. I don't know if this is true, but if there were a liquor store across the street and you went in and they asked you for ID and you just pointed it. It's a dream. It's really good. You grew up here in Honolulu. You grew up surfing at YKK, right? Which was basically the birthplace of surfing. There's the statue of Duke right there. And you got famous pretty early, right? I saw an interview of you, an interview with you, that was done when you were seven years old surfing at YKK. And you said to the interviewer, you liked surfing because, and I will quote you, I like it because it's different each day and it's not always the same. So I ask you now. Do you still stand by that? Yeah, I thought I sounded pretty good. Yeah, it was so weird. You look pretty good. They said, you know, it's interesting. You were seven. And they were already in the local news and people were saying, this is going to be a professional surfers someday. And so that was something that you knew was perhaps on your path early on. I don't know if I knew, but my dad knew. And he's here tonight. Is it really? Yeah. I don't know where he is. He's somewhere. He's somewhere. He was an athlete himself, a great swimmer. Yes, he was. He's in that report, by the way, paddling out with you. So I got to see him. I know about stage moms, right? The classic. Are there surfer dads? It's like you're going to catch one more wave. Get back out to the break. Maybe. Maybe. No, but he is the best. He still paddles out with me. He does. Wow. Do you? Yeah. Really, at your level of achievement, your world championship status, you have to paddle yourself out. Nobody paddles you out. Nobody volunteers. No, we do surf together all the time, still. And I feel really lucky that we get to continue to share this journey together. Right. Do you ever just for fun literally surf circles around him? There's this nice dance that we both have out there, for sure. You see, I don't know a lot of surfers, but I had always thought of surfers as being very outgoing, very confident, because it's a dangerous and difficult thing that you do pretty much for fun. But you see, you don't seem that way. You seem kind of like not particularly egotistical and you're the best in the world. That seems weird to me. I struggle with confidence. I really, yes, I doubt myself and overthink everything all the time. You remember when I said the best in the world thing just a moment ago. Like, championships, world championships, Olympic gold medal. Yeah, you could keep telling me that, but somehow I don't believe it. I think you should wear the medal every day. Like wear the medal on the daily. Just wear it around everywhere. Well, that's interesting, because surfing is not easy to begin with. And in the level you compete at, all around the world against the very, very best surfers in the world where you get like one chance to like do it or wipe out. Did you like psych yourself up? How did you get yourself out of this lack of confidence of what you mentioned and get yourself into the right headspace? I like to have random dance parties before I go out surfing. So actually right before I paddled out for the Olympic final in Tokyo in 2020-2021, I faced time to my husband and we did a dance to Ed Sheeran. You did a dance to Ed Sheeran with your husband over a face time. Yeah. It just helps me like get out of my head a little bit. Right. And is it true that like you were rather pregnant during your last competition? I was pregnant. Yes, I was 10 weeks, so she was really tiny. Right, because we saw a video of you when you were much more pregnant and it's like, how did you get on the board to like paddle out? It is a wonder of the world. It really is. Watching me do that. Yes. Yeah. Because I just imagine, I mean I didn't see it, but I imagine you know, you're very pregnant and you're life-based out on the board and your hands can't reach the water. My butt is really high up in the air and I'm kind of like an inch worm and I can't like lift my head. It's really quite a sight. And your daughter, yes, is how old? Seven months. Seven months. Yeah. Whoa, congratulations. Thanks for your new mom. Is there a surfboard equivalent to a jogging stroller? Can you like strap her in and go out and surf with her? Well, I'm like the human strap. Right. It's a lot of just going straight and just making sure that she's safe. Yes. And she's not upset. Yes. And she's enjoying it. Does she enjoy surfing? Yeah, I think she does. I mean, there's no crying. Yeah, that's important. Is her first word going to be gnarly? I hope it's mom. Oh, that would be bad. But then gnarly. Well, charisma more. It is such a pleasure to talk to you. We have asked you here to play a game that this time we're calling. Shortboard meet really bored. So you're one of the greatest shortboard surfers ever. But what do you know about being bored? We're going to ask you three questions about boredom. Answer two out of three correctly. And to win our prize, one of our listeners. Alzo, who is charisma more playing for? A Lisa plant of Tom Water Washington. Here's your first question. Buzzfeed once published among there are many lists. A guide to things you can do if you're bored, including which of these activities. A, making adorable little dolls out of your cat's hair. B, opening four browser windows and watching Netflix, Hulu, Apple TV, and HBO Max at the same time. Or C, seeing how much soap you can put in your pasta sauce before you can taste it. I think I'm going to go with A. You are right. You're right. Yes. Buzzfeed suggests buying a book called crafting with cat hair. All right, that's good. You got one right. Beloved children's TV host, Mr. Rogers, Fred Rogers would often get restless and bored in the company of adults. His widow says that when a grown-up gathering a party of some kind got dull, Rogers would liven things up by doing what? A, bring out a puppet he always carried with him. This one called Prince Eric the Drunk. B, change into his leather cardigan. Or C, start farting. I kind of think it's A, but I like the way you said leather cardigan. I might have to go with B. So you like A, which is the puppet, he's the Prince Eric of the Drunk who didn't normally appear in the kingdom of Make Believe, but you liked the way I said leather cardigan. Yes. Are both of those wrong? Are both the are both wrong. So is it B? It is. Okay, cool. Let's go see it. You're right. You're safe. Yes. Fred is farting. He what? That's what he would do. His widow, Jean, says, quote, he would just raise one cheek and he would look at me and smile. This makes me love him even more. Even more. How could you and you thought it wasn't possible? How fair is it? You have one more question, Karissa. Here we go. Just this year, a man in Illinois admitted to a police officer that he did something on purpose because he was bored. What was it that he did? Was it A, he crashed his car into the back of the policeman's car. B, he went outside in February and intentionally stuck his tongue to a frozen flagpole. Or see he had a cubs uniform printed up with his name in the back and managed to spend two innings in the dugout before somebody caught him. I think it's A. You think it's A? It was A. It was that he crashed his car just through the back of the policeman's car. He was like, what the hell was that? I was like, I don't know, I was bored. And then he wasn't bored anymore. Also, how did Karissa more do in our quiz? She was gnarly. Three out of three. Yes. One, two, three. Karissa more is the first ever winner of the Olympic gold medal in women's shortboard surfing, a world champion and a living treasure here in our hometown of Honolulu. Karissa more, thank you so much for joining us. I'm going to go down the road. Karissa more. When we come back, baseball hall of fame, or Jim Rice explains his complex approach to becoming one of the greatest hitters ever and pay attention because it happens pretty quick. That's when we come back with more. Wait, wait, don't tell me from NPR. From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR news quiz. I'm Alzo Slade and here's your host at the Studebricker Theater and the Fine Arts Building in Chicago, Peter Seigl. Thank you, Alzo. Thanks, everybody. So, we've been having a lot of fun this week because this week we decided to focus on the past and completely stop thinking about tomorrow. Go to hell, Fleetwood Mac. Here's some more remarkably fun moments we have with our panelists this year. Alonzo, according to a frightening new study, more than a quarter of 18 to 35 year olds who drink beer do what? Wash down their weed, I don't know. Let's see, can you give me a hint? Yeah, it's perfect if you love your beer cold and watery. Oh, they put ice in there. They put ice in their beer, according. Wow, well, the entire city should be Chicago. We can do it. Depredations, crimes of all kinds, autocrats, planning to live forever. Ice and beer, though, and you're like, that's too far. Yes, according to a new survey, 28% of young adults put ice in their beer, completely spitting in the face of decades of put the glass in the freezer technology. The problem here is, of course, that your ice cubes will melt kids and it will water down the beer, which you really want to do, is decant your buttlight and drink it at room temperature, so it really opens up. Did they actually do these things just to annoy previous generations? Probably. Like, what do we do? Hey, grandpa, watch this. Plink, plink, plink. Seems like there's an obvious solution here to the problem of warm beer, if you feel that's a problem. Step one, Google does beer freeze. Step two, make beer ice cubes. Step three, forget about the beer ice cubes that you made. Step four, be like, why are these ice cubes so disgusting? Shane, according to Realtors, before deciding to buy a house more and more people are asking to do what? Oh, just use the restroom. Oh, more than that. Oh, spend a night with the Realtor in the master bedroom, the main bedroom. I'm going to give it to you, although the Realtor is not necessarily invited. People want to have sex in the house? He just went there. You went there, you went right there. No, people want to spend the night in the house. Okay, yeah. Some of us sleep at night, Shane. More and more home buyers are asking to spend the night in the house before they fully commit to buying. And it makes sense, you're spending your life savings, right? You should get the chance to make sure everything works, and see what it's like at night, change the locks, and then sell all the current owner's possessions. What is the rationale? Is it just to see if it's all right? Well, basically, well, sort of. I mean, they want to see what it's like. Some people say, well, I want to see what it feels like to be there alone. I want to see if there's noises at night. And some of the Realtors are like, well, that's okay. Some of them are like, no, because of liability. I mean, what if something goes wrong? And if something really goes wrong, bang, now they have to sell a house that's haunted. Yeah. My childhood home was for sale. And I went to look at it. And the Realtor did not know that I had grown up in this house. And it had been on the market for a really long time. And she said, you know, I wonder if something bad happened in this house. I was like, I could tell you. This is the last time I got stored. Lots of bad things happened in this house. Emmy, after an airplane passenger posted photos of the snack or seatmate brought on the flight, people are arguing over whether it is okay to eat what on a plane? Wheatkins? A wheat thing's in a wheat thing's in a long time. I'm holding. A wheat thing's problematic in your view. What are wheat things? Like commute? How much time do we have? Is that like a communion wave? Well, I think sort of if Trisket hadn't less hair. Oh boy. Ghibisco, have I got the slogan for you? Ball Trisket's. Ball Trisket. No, I will. I will. Ball Trisket? That's good. Thanks. No, I will give you a hint, Emmy. What was amazing was she had all these, but she didn't even bring dye to make Easter eggs or anything. Over the soft boiled, hard boiled eggs. Hard boiled eggs. I'm going to go hard boiled eggs. Yes, she had seven hard boiled eggs. And I also would have accepted. That's a no. Corn in the cob and an entire whole boiled potato because those were the side dishes. So she only know how to boil things? Like, what is she, a pilgrim? Who is eating that? We got to get this lady an oven. Who brings this kind of food on a plane? Even paleo bros are like lady too far. Also, it sounds like a meal my dog wants to be left alone with stuff. I know. That sounds like witchcraft. Did she, were they pre-peeled? Because if you have to sit there, this is the thing. No, this is the thing. According to the person who posted the picture, she said four of them were peeled. Three of them were not yet. Witchcraft. That's witchcraft. Man, that's wicked stuff. Yeah, that just made all our astrological science change. Yeah. So clearly our theory is this woman bought too many eggs about a week ago and now she's going to go out of town on a long trip. She didn't want to waste them. Or she's a mongoose. Alex, this week we learned about a new technology that promises to improve your life by monitoring your health and your wellness all by placing a tiny camera in your what? Perineum? I don't know. Naturally, you're not far off. From that? No, come on, man. Yeah, no, it's that's part of the view. It's like you take the lens cap off and you put the toilet. Not toilet. Yes, in your toilet. Dang it. The legendary bathroom fixture company, Kohler, introduced the decoda. That is a $600 camera that you clamp to your toilet seat. You point it down. And it analyzes your waist to give you valuable health data. Visually? Point it up and your dreams will be haunted forever. What can it tell? It can analyze your gut health and hydration levels and also whether or not you've had beats. Now, I'm unclear on how you actually get to see the photos. I hope it's not that you walk out of the bathroom and there's like a big screen with them all on it like after the roller coaster ride. No, actually, of course, you this will not be a surprise. You have to subscribe to their service. You pay them $7 a month and you get to see the photos and your health data. No, I would pay not to see the photos. If you don't pay them, everybody else sees them. I just feel like there's always like data leaks and like no fun internet. I don't want this to come back to bite me in the butt. Yeah, well, I'll show fun. There's no way of talking about this without eventually arriving there. Yeah, I would buy this if it let you know when you set a personal best. Finally, in May, I got the thrill of a lifetime. We visited Boston where I spent much of my childhood and we got to talk to one of my childhood heroes. Hall of Famer Jim Rice of the Boston Red Sox. As soon as Peter stopped giggling like a 10 year old boy, he asked Jim what it's like to walk the streets of Boston like a god among men. Do you do? I'm assuming you get well. Of course, you're also on TV, we're helping to broadcast Red Sox. I'm assuming you get you get recognized a lot. Yes, this is a very sports-minded city. Regarding baseball football, but they know they know who you are. We hear about Boston, I am one. A Boston Red Sox fan. That we can be a little abrasive. Does anybody ever give you grief for anything or are you way beyond that? No, when I first got here being from the South, I was brought up that you speak to everyone as you walk down the streets and things like that. And someone stopped me and said, we don't do that here. I make that adjustment being a Southern guy and being hospitable and thinking like, we don't speak. You came up here and you had manners and they're like, that's not what we do in Boston. That was it. So Jim, you played in front of the Green Monster. It fenced away for people who don't know. That's this very high, close-in wall that makes left field and fend away, particularly hard to play. Did you just like enjoy yourself and opposing teams who would go out there and watch them screw it up? We did. But as a player, this is like your house, which we knew that time we hit the ball, we knew we had a chance to get a double. Now, the opposing team, they didn't have any idea how good I was. They were getting a single. LAUGHTER Yeah. So this would happen, right? I mean, it happens sometimes at this day that an opposing player will hit the ball high off the wall. That's a hard hit ball. They're like, I'm taken too easy. And the next thing you know, you've got it in to second base before they're even rounding. Well, we had a team hit other day. I guess they called themselves the Metz I believe. I've heard of them. And that was a guy, a Soto making all this dough. And he hit one out. He stood there. And he tried to style a little bit. Yeah, he was admiring his very own style. He did work out pretty good. No. It's a really high wall. Yeah, it is. It really is. You are in the baseball hall of fame, a rare and extraordinary achievement. Thank you. You were elected in your last year of eligibility, 15th year. I got in my last year. Yeah. And what were you doing when you got the call? Well, I have to say it. I believe you do. You do? OK. My mom and I, she was a general hospital. And I was a general hospital, young and arrested. And so, now I'm serious. And so, my whole career, I watched young and arrested. So when I got the call, I was watching young and arrested. And I was asked, well, you just made it to the hall of fame. I said, look, I'm looking at the young and arrested. Call me bag lady. I swear to God. I'm going to get for you. I'm going to get for you. And I, like they call you this day, Mr. Rice. I'm calling from Cooperstown. And you're like, wait a minute. Just turned out that's not Denise. It's Denise's evil twin. I'll call you back. Well, I knew that because they said, if you get in the hall of fame, you'll call you at a certain time. Right. Don't bother me at 12.30. 12.30 to 1.30? No. Yeah. It couldn't wait for Bolden Beautiful. Well, I don't know. Believe it or not, young and arrested are much better than Bolden Beautiful. Oh, I believe in it. You go from your young and arrested to the Bolden Beautiful. I'm vice versa. And so if you watched the guy named as Victor, and I have it on my phone, he's very famous actor. He did this role for me. I have it on my phone. And he called me and said, Jim, I know you watch the young and arrested congratulate you in the hall of fame. So you got to call him Victor? I have it on my phone. That's a great, great title phone. But you said you said that you watched it your whole career. Yeah. So what did you do during like day games? It's like, Jim, you're up. You're like, no, my stories are wrong. No, no. You could have a tape, but a good friend of mine bought my gun free, which was behind call for this. We played golf a lot. And he asked me one day, he said, why we always have to play golf and be back at 4.30? Really? Yeah. I didn't smoke. I didn't drink. And I didn't really have lunch because I was very nervous. I was so antsy about the game. So I didn't really. And so that was my downtime to watch young and arrested. Have you ever thought of doing a walk on? I thought about that, but I'm too. Like, yeah, my hands are sweaty now by being up here. I can play in front of a crowd, but this here is terrified. I'm really. Yeah. Honestly, yeah. I'm sweaty. I'm sweaty. Because I'm not accustomed to this. You're not accustomed to the sitting in. Oh, yeah. I got a quick question, too. I never had a chance to talk to Hall of Fame hitter. You guys, it's about what? Less than a second to decide to hit the ball. So what, like, what's, can you talk us through the mechanics of when you decide to swing and don't? And how does that work? Seaball, hitbow. Seaball, hitbow. Seaball, hitbow. That leads to gentlemen. And that leads to gentlemen is what we called analytics back in the day. Well, Jim Rice, it is an absolute thrill for me personally to talk to you. And we have invited you here to play a game that this time we're calling, Watch Out for These Green Monsters. So as we said, you're one of three Hall of Famers so far to play in front of the green monster in Fenway Park. So we're going to ask you about actual monsters that are green. Answer two to three correctly. You'll win a prize for one of our listeners, Bill, who is the legendary Jim Rice playing for? Colton Johnson of Boston, Massachusetts. You got this. Here's the first question. The very green, incredible Hulk has been smashing things since his appearance in the comics in 1962. But one of his most exciting adventures happened in the 1990s, which saw the incredible Hulk taking on what enemy? A. 100 baby ducks. B. The boy band, New Kids on the Block. Or C. Marvel's quarterly financial report and future projected earnings. See question, answer question. Exactly. Number three. Number three. You're right. Yeah. The Marvel annual report, which was printed that year as a comic book in which the Hulk discussed publishing revenues with stockholders. Here's your next question. That's very good. In Dr. Suss' book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Grinch is shown in black and white. And The Grinch only became green for the animated TV version. How did animator Chuck Jones decide The Grinch should be that shade of green? A. It happens to be the exact same shade as stomach bile. B. It was the same color as the really ugly rental car he took to meet Dr. Suss. Or C. His ink supplier was having a sale on that shade the week they went into production. I'll go with C. You're going to go with C. His ink supplier was having a make-em-green. It's cheated. No, it was actually the color of the rental car. Nonetheless, I mean, you're used to this. You get a couple of chances to get a hit. Okay. Here's your last question. Sesame Street's Green Monster Oscar the Grouch has been living for decades in a trash can that never gets emptied, which is a good thing because which of these according to Sesame Street lore is in that trash can. A. Three tons of Big Bird Guano. B. Seventeen Elephants, a bowling alley, a skating rink, and an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Or C. 36 human bones. B. B. B. And ladies and gentlemen, he hits it out of the park. Yeah. It is B. Oscar's trash can, canonically, is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Bill, how did Jim Rice do in our little game? Two out of three. Holla Famer. That's the win. Jim Rice is a baseball Holla Famer. He's got his whole career playing for the Boston Red Sox and will never pay for his own soda in Boston. Jim Rice, thank you so much for joining us. What an absolute honor to be here. Thank you so much for being here. Jim Rice, ladies and gentlemen. That's it for facing the future while looking backwards edition. Wait, wait, don't tell me he's a production of NPR and WBEC Chicago, an association with urgent haircut productions, Doug Berman, Benevolent Overlord. Bill Acotica writes our Limericks. Our public address announcer is Paul Friedman. Our tour manager is Shayna Donald. BJ Lead, who has been composed by our theme. Our program is produced by Jennifer Mills, Miles Dernboss and Lillian King. Special thanks to Monica Hickey, Peter Gwynn is the chains we forged in life. Our visuals host is Emma Choi. Technical direction is from Lorna White. Our CFO is Colin Miller. Our production manager is Robert Neuhaus. Our senior producers, Ian Chilock and the executive producer of Whitway, don't tell me, is Mike Danforth. Thanks to everybody you heard this week. That would be our panelists, our guests, Bill Curtis, of course, as well as his able backups, Alzo Slade and Chey, rhyme fest Smith. And thanks to all of you for listening. I'm Peter Sagan. We'll be back with you next week. This is NPR. 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