BILL KURTIS: From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is WAIT, WAIT... DON'T TELL ME, the NPR News quiz. I'm Bill Kurtis. We're playing this week with Adam Burke, Luke Burbank and Roxanne Roberts. And here, again, is your host at the Chase Bank Auditorium in downtown Chicago, Peter Sagal.
PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Thank you, Bill.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Thank you so much. In just a minute, Bill becomes Franken-rhyme's (ph) monster in the Listener Limerick Challenge. If you'd like to play, give us a call at 1-888-WAITWAIT. That's 1-888-924-8924. Right now, panel, some more questions for you from the week's news.
Luke, The New York Times reported on significant tensions between the lawyers representing the president in the Russian probe. How did the Times reporter get this amazing scoop?
LUKE BURBANK: Oh, wow. This is the - this has to do with Don Jr.? That meeting? Or is this a different meeting?
SAGAL: No, no. This is a meeting that happened last week.
BURBANK: Can I have a hint please?
SAGAL: Well, let me think. It's, you know, it's don't - it's don't work where you eat.
BURBANK: They were bugging something. They - don't work where you eat, OK.
ADAM BURKE: Like the opposite of bugging someone.
BURBANK: Oh, they just overheard it, like in a restaurant or something. They were just talking about it in public.
SAGAL: Yes, right. They were - he overheard them talking loudly at a restaurant right next to him.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
BURBANK: Oh, God.
SAGAL: So this is a great story. The Times reporter Ken Vogel was having lunch when he noticed Ty Cobb - that's both the president's personal lawyer and the restaurant's signature salad.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: And he was talking loudly about the Russian probe with another lawyer representing the president. It is surprising these two men would allow themselves to be overheard discussing such sensitive stuff, but if you've ever eaten with one of us old guys, you know how it is. You say, can you pass the butter, and he replies, good question, I think we should burn all the documents.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: So this is great. So the reporter is sitting, like, at the next table, and he - and he overhears them talking. And he turns, and he recognizes them because they were both wearing T-shirts that said, I'm with Donald Trump's other lawyer.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: And he's like - he takes out his phone, and he's taking notes of the conversation. And they didn't notice that. So then he's just reaching over and stealing French fries because what the hell?
(LAUGHTER)
ROXANNE ROBERTS: The best part - this is around the corner from The New York Times bureau.
SAGAL: Yeah, it's down the street.
ROBERTS: Yeah...
BURBANK: So I think that they were all in the same Quiznos.
SAGAL: I know.
(LAUGHTER)
BURKE: I love the notion because they were complaining that - they were saying that people must be wearing wires. Otherwise, how would they know? You've got these special listening devices. They're flesh-colored. They wear them on the side of the head.
(LAUGHTER)
BURKE: They're called environmental auditory response systems. Ears? Yes, those.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: And this is - again, this is all true. So he's sitting there. He's listening to this incredibly sensitive conversation, taking notes. And these other New York Times reporters are, like, walking up and saying, hello, fellow New York Times reporter.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: What are you doing sitting here at this restaurant, furiously taking notes? And he's like, oh. And they still don't notice.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: You left out that he took a picture of them that he tweeted.
(LAUGHTER)
BURKE: Have you seen what Ty Cobb looks like? He must have been like, why is Wilford Brimley yelling about the Russian probe?
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: If you turned the animated character Foghorn Leghorn into a human, it would be Ty Cobb.
(LAUGHTER)
BURKE: And as successful a lawyer.
SAGAL: I know.
ROBERTS: And...
SAGAL: Roxanne, The Wall Street Journal reports that as American diners expand their horizons to more interesting, diverse international cuisine, a big problem has arisen for them. What?
ROBERTS: They are running out of foods to try.
SAGAL: No.
ROBERTS: They don't...
SAGAL: It's sort of - the much - the larger problem - the problem isn't so much eating it. The problem is ordering it. It's quinoa, not kwa-noa (ph).
ROBERTS: They can't pronounce it?
SAGAL: Exactly. Americans can no longer pronounce the foods on their menus.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Well, it's true. I didn't - you know it.
ROBERTS: I totally believe you.
SAGAL: Whether it's poke, shakshuka or the exotic Doritos Tacos Loco.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: We have fallen in love with food we cannot pronounce, and just - not just because there's so much of the said food in our mouths. Look, they can call us rubes, but maybe it's their fault. They should have named foie gras what it is, greasy goose guts.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Restaurants are coming up with solutions. They're providing phonetic spellings on menus, and they're training waiters to delay laughing at you until they are safely back in the kitchen.
(LAUGHTER)
BURBANK: I only found out about six months ago that it's not pronounced oh-ox-akin (ph) cuisine.
SAGAL: Yeah, that's a problem.
(LAUGHTER)
BURBANK: And that's not even a joke. I heard everyone was talking about this Oaxacan restaurant, and somebody else I knew had a recipe from oh-ox-aka. And I, one day, figured out those were the same thing.
SAGAL: Yeah.
BURKE: Wait, hold on. It's pronounced cuisine?
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: In any case, we can all agree the only thing worse than pronouncing it broo-shetta (ph) is the guy who tells you it's actually pronounced broo-sketta (ph).
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Seriously, what a dousk-bag (ph).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RAINING TACOS")
NERF HERDER: (Singing) It's raining tacos from out of the sky. Tacos, no need to ask why. Just open your mouth, and close your eyes. It's raining tacos. It's raining tacos out in the street. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.