cover image Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me!: The Oddly Informative News Quiz

Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me!: The Oddly Informative News Quiz

NPR. Rodale Press, $12.95 (192pp) ISBN 978-1-57954-653-3

In Boston, a turtle named Max Schell was called for jury duty; a North Carolina court made it illegal to use profanity within earshot of the dead; a robbery attempt in Berlin was foiled by a clerk wielding a can of sauerkraut; and hard times in the American economy translate to good news for the video rental industry. For lovers of trivia and oddball facts like these (""Hey, we could never make this stuff up,"" hoots host Peter Sagal), this paper version of the popular NPR quiz show is sure to please. Wait, Wait regulars such as (in the words of Blount's foreword) the ""sultriest of polymaths"" Roxanne Roberts and the ""globe-trotting party animal"" P.J. O'Rourke introduce sections with themes including ""Education: Why Johnny Can't Read but Feels Really, Really Good about Himself Anyway"" and ""Politics: Adventures with Windbag Politicians."" Questions come in the form of fill-in-the-blanks, multiple choice, limericks and ""bluff news stories""-e.g., which of three wildly implausible tales is true? It's jolly good fun, but don't expect to earn high scores: as Sagal writes, ""most of this stuff surpasseth human understanding.""