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 Faith Salie, Tom Bodett and Alonzo Bodden. And here again is your host at the Straz Center in Tampa, Peter Sagal.
PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Thank you, Bill. Thank you, everybody.
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SAGAL: Glad to be back with you. It is time for the WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME Bluff the Listener game. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to play our game on the air. Hi, you're on WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME.
ANDREW HENKE: Hi, my name is Andrew Henke. I'm from Atlanta, Ga.
SAGAL: Hey, Atlanta. We love Atlanta. How are things there?
HENKE: Actually finally cooling off.
SAGAL: I'm glad to hear it. I'm glad to hear. What do you do there?
HENKE: I'm the manager of a violin shop.
SAGAL: That's pretty awesome. I've always wondered about this. How many people need a violin? When somebody buys a violin, they have their violin. So how do you make a living selling more violins?
HENKE: Well, a lot of them go to, you know, students. But a lot of people kind of dabble and they love it and do it on their own. And they upgrade, and they buy an even better instrument.
SAGAL: Or maybe violins get smashed at the climax of really, really crazy violin concerts.
TOM BODETT: No, they're smashed by the people who live with them.
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HENKE: They do that. They do that.
SAGAL: Well, Andrew, welcome to the show. You're going to play our game in which you must try to tell truth from fiction. Bill, what is Andrew's topic?
KURTIS: We shan't see their like again.
SAGAL: We've lost so many greats this year - Prince, David Bowie...
HENKE: Right.
SAGAL: ...Brangelina. But sometimes someone who is at the top of their field doesn't make the headlines until their obituary. Our panelists are going to tell you about one such giant we lost this week whose passing went, perhaps undeservedly, unnoticed. Guess the one who's telling the truth and you'll win our prize, Carl Kasell's voice on your voicemail. Are you ready to play?
HENKE: I am ready.
SAGAL: First let us hear from Tom Bodett.
SAGAL: Zamboni drivers at ice arenas enjoy a celebrity all their own, cheered and teased at rinks around the world. So this week, hockey players big and small will bang their sticks like monkeys in tribute to the passing of the original Zamboni driver, Robert Pattison of Bellwether, Calif. In 1949, the young Pattison drove the first Zamboni out of the factory in nearby Paramount, took it down the block and back to the plant, where it was checked for leaks and sold. He drove the next one, too, and the one after that, and the 12,000 of them after that until last Friday, when he cruised down to the corner and back for the last time.
When Robbie didn't show up on Monday, we knew something was wrong. He never missed a day in 67 years, said co-worker Natalie Anner. Every Zamboni you see was in his hands first. People don't realize that without ice, there would be no hockey or figure skating. When told people probably did realize that, she said, but I bet they didn't know Rob Pattison's butt is the one all the Zamboni seats are designed for. So in the ways that really matter, Rob Pattison will always be with us.
SAGAL: The man who drove the first and every Zamboni...
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SAGAL: ...Passed away this week. Your next story of a great person passing to the great beyond comes from Faith Salie.
FAITH SALIE: When Caroline Strickland (ph) came to the Yankee Candle company in 1974, they sold just three scents - Rose Garden, Cinnamon Stick and Christmas. But all that changed when Strickland stuck her nose in their business. This was the woman who lifted Yankee Candle from prosaic odors to newfangled beloveds like Fluffy Towels and Peach Melba. Strickland died peacefully in her Norwood, Mass., home this week at the age of 92.
Her legendary nose was matched only by her progressive imagination. It was Strickland who insisted that Yankee Candle stop smelling so WASP-y (ph). For Hanukkah 1988, she created a limited edition candle named Sizzling Latkes. It was such a hit that the following year, she created a special Mother's Day scent for Jewish mothers called I'm Fine, Don't Worry About Me.
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SALIE: Pet lovers away from home can burn one called Dog Bed. Vegans go nuts for Yankee's unmistakable version of Asparagus Tinkle.
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SALIE: She had the best nose in the business combined with an uncanny sense of what would become popular, says Yankee Candle CEO Randy Oshard (ph). So we called her Nose-tradamus (ph).
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SAGAL: The genius...
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SAGAL: ...Who created all those unusual scents for the Yankee Candle company. Your last story of someone leaving the world without the fanfare they might have deserved comes from Alonzo Bodden.
ALONZO BODDEN: Mike Davis wasn't the world's most successful businessman. In fact, his oil business eventually went bankrupt. But when he died this week, we lost the man who may have been the world's grumpiest boss. His memos from his glory years have been saved and passed around for generations. For example, quote, "Do not speak to me when you see me. If I want to speak to you, I will do so. I want to save my throat. I don't want to ruin it by saying hello to all of you."
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BODDEN: And another favorite, there will be no more birthday celebrations, birthday cakes, levity or celebrations of any kind within the office, the boss wrote on February 8, 1978. This is a business office. If you have to celebrate, do it after office hours on your own time. His longtime associate Robert Fogelson once said, Tiger Mike could have been an angry TV police sergeant with a heart of gold, except there was no heart of gold.
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BODDEN: Mr. Davis had opinions on everything. More quotes - "Handwriting takes much longer than a typewriter. You're wasting your time, but more importantly, you're wasting my time. If you don't know how to type, you'd better learn." And another quote, "Anyone who lets their hair grow below their ears to where I can't see their ears means they don't wash. If they don't wash, they stink. And if they stink, I don't want the son of a bitch around me."
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BODDEN: Some former employees were said to have gone to his funeral just to make sure he was really gone.
SAGAL: All right.
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SAGAL: Somebody passed on this week, leaving behind a legacy that may not have been recognized enough in their lifetime. Was it from Tom Bodett, the man who drove every single Zamboni from the first to the last, at least once down the block, from Faith Salie, the woman who gave Yankee Candles their amazing lineup of unusual scents or, from Alonzo Bodden, the worst boss who ever lived? Which of these was the real story of a noteworthy obituary in the week's news?
HENKE: I think the grumpy boss one is real.
SAGAL: You're going to go for the grumpy boss.
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SAGAL: All right, you chose, then, Alonzo's story of the world's grumpiest boss who might have passed on this week, if he was telling the truth. To find out if he was, well, we spoke to someone familiar with this real departed great.
CATHY PROCTOR: He had some legendary memos, and they have been circulating around for a couple years.
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SAGAL: That was Cathy Proctor, a reporter at the Denver Business Journal talking about the man deemed, in fact, the world's grumpiest boss. Congratulations, Andrew. You got it right.
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HENKE: Awesome.
SAGAL: You earned a point for Alonzo and you've won our prize. Carl Kasell will record the greeting on your voicemail. Well done, sir, indeed. Congratulations.
HENKE: Thank you very much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.