Comments on: Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!

By: Robert Carnegie

Robert Carnegie — Mon, 07 May 2007 11:36:02 +0000

Should I listen first? I understand there is one manual camera in orbit, dropped accidentally by Sunita William – if it hasn’t crash-landed since. Anything you drop will come back on the same orbit eventually, right? Leaving out atmospheric drag.

From Googling this information, I understand Greg Olsen lost his digital camera -inside- the ISS. It floated off somewhere. I don’t know if they found and returned it later.

By: csrster

csrster — Mon, 07 May 2007 08:45:12 +0000

I’m such a geek I immediately twigged that the mooning-the-moon story just wouldn’t wash technically – how could Aldrin get out of his spacesuit in a depressurixed LM when he was expected to join Armstrong on the surface a few minutes later ??? Otoh, the sandwich thing just sounded like a typical astronauty thing to do.

Still it was a pleasant surprise to hear your podcasted voice emerging unexpectedly from my mp3 player on the bus to work this morning.

By: jer

jer — Sat, 05 May 2007 02:03:15 +0000

I heard it a few days ago and recognized you immediately… interestingly enough, the crowd went nuts, and it really seemed like some of them recognized you too. Maybe they were just rooting for that story to be truem but I really think you were getting some love.

By: Kevin Stebleton

Kevin Stebleton — Fri, 04 May 2007 21:14:44 +0000

I was casually listening to Wait Wait and was SURPRISED when I too heard the BA answer the question.

Great show – although, the BA would make a great guest on a number of NPR shows – Fresh Air, Science Friday, or any news program.

Would the BA be interested in doing a media tour to promote his coming writings? One of those deals where you make an appearance on a number of news channels, TV and Radio, and plug your wares. You’d do well and help sell a bunch of BA BS.

By: The_Bad_Astronomer

The_Bad_Astronomer — Fri, 04 May 2007 07:07:17 +0000

I HAVE YOUR MONEY!

By: Chuck Anziulewicz

Chuck Anziulewicz — Thu, 03 May 2007 14:37:02 +0000

As a fan of “Wait Wait” as well as a part-time announcer for a public radio station that runs the show, I was absolutely delighted to hear Phil talk about the corned beef sandwich in space! You GO, Phil!

By: Laurie D. T. Mann

Laurie D. T. Mann — Wed, 02 May 2007 14:59:05 +0000

I was actually reading your blog during “Wait Wait” last week, I knew the sandwich story was the true one, and was amused to hear you on the radio immediately thereafter.

I have to agree that Paula’s story was funnier.

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Wed, 02 May 2007 14:07:02 +0000

Gee, a polymath, in this Blog? Who’d a thunk it?

My brother, the retired rocket scientist(from Rockwell), insists that humans HAVE had sex in space, but of course, NASA has to disavow those stories. Americans MUST be protected from the knowledge that people in space may be HORNY.
The English should have hung all the Puritans, then maybe we wouldn’t have had all these sexual hangups,,,

GAry 7

By: DennyMo

DennyMo — Wed, 02 May 2007 13:10:18 +0000

I’m downloading the mp3 of the show now, look forward to hearing it. In the meantime, I think another candidate would have been the origins of the term “percussive maintenance”. I think it’s from the SkyLab days, when one of the astronauts was giving precise instructions on where and how hard to hit one of the radios with a hammer to get it functioning properly. Or at least that’s what I remember from the National Geographics article when I was a kid.

By: The_Bad_Astronomer

The_Bad_Astronomer — Wed, 02 May 2007 07:53:45 +0000

Yeah! (suckers)

By: Dean Baird

Dean Baird — Wed, 02 May 2007 06:26:52 +0000

Thanks for the correction, Jeffrey. Mine was a rusty recollection from a moment in “For All Mankind.” Here’s the correct quote (via Wikipedia): “Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that’s a long one for me.”

By: dan

dan — Wed, 02 May 2007 03:35:59 +0000

also: here it is in mp3 form.

By: dan

dan — Wed, 02 May 2007 03:24:42 +0000

frickin’ fantastic.

i love that show, so i know exactly what you’re talking about. it’s the part where they go “let’s listen to someone who knows a little something about the TRUE story…” or something, then they play a news clip or interview or what have you.

excellent. this is one of my “NPR podcasts” stored in the queue for my walks to and from work. can’t wait to hear ya.

By: yd

yd — Wed, 02 May 2007 01:32:56 +0000

Chalk me up as another voice recognizer. I listened to the WWDTM podcast on my run yesterday, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear your voice as the expert describing the story. I should have assumed you’d be the one to talk about it when I heard the topic.

Hopefully they pull you in for a Not My Job segment in the future.

By: Jeffrey Cornish

Jeffrey Cornish — Wed, 02 May 2007 01:01:56 +0000

Actually it was Pete Conrad who made the bet with a reporter at a party months prior to the launch to prove NASA wasn’t scripting the words the astronauts were saying as they stepped off the LM.

Buzz Aldrin’s first words after stepping on the Moon were “Magnificent Desolation”

No, I don’t compulsively reference the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal at http://history.nasa.gov/alsj/frame.html

Really.

Jeffrey

By: Dean Baird

Dean Baird — Wed, 02 May 2007 00:17:45 +0000

How sad is it that I, too, recognized your voice on the show?

By the way, one thing Buzz Aldrin *did* do (and this was left out of the official transcript) relates to Neil’s historic moment. Buzz was the second man to walk on the moon. When he jumped off the bottom rung of the LM’s ladder, he proclaimed, “That might have been a small step for Neil, but it’s a big one for a little guy like me.” He’d bet someone $500 he’d say that (in 1969, when $500 was real money).

By: Jeff Fite

Jeff Fite — Tue, 01 May 2007 23:48:07 +0000

Okay, the BA got to reveal the correct answer, and that’s cool and all, but Paula Poundstone’s fake NASA story nearly killed me! Literally–I was up a ladder at the time.

It seems–so the story went–that there were nekkid buttock prints on the inside of the Apollo XI lunar module. Buzz Aldrin was suspected of displaying his backside to Neil Armstrong during Armstrong’s historic first steps, thereby becoming the first man to ‘moon’ the first man on the moon!

I love that show.

By: Supernova

Supernova — Tue, 01 May 2007 22:41:19 +0000

Oh no! I missed that part of this week’s show — will have to go back and listen online. How cool!

By: AstroSmurf

AstroSmurf — Tue, 01 May 2007 22:28:15 +0000

Personally I think Alan Shepard’s “golden” Mercury launch has it beat, but that might not have been suitable for radio…

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 01 May 2007 22:28:03 +0000

I listen to the podcast every Monday, and as soon as you came on I was all “that’s our BA!” and teared up.

None of my coworkers knew what the hell I was talking about but that’s OK, who cares about them.

By: Tim G

Tim G — Tue, 01 May 2007 22:06:23 +0000

Soâ€¦what was the urban legend?

By: hale_bopp

hale_bopp — Tue, 01 May 2007 20:36:58 +0000

They had Ken Jennings (70 some time Jeopardy champ) on Not My Job twice. The first time they asked him questions a Mormon shouldn’t know the answers to. Example: You wake up in the morning and find yourself in bed with someone whose name you don’t remember. What should you do? They funny part is he went 3 for 3 and got them all!

The second time they had him on, they went the opposite direction and asked him questions a geek should know the answers to such as the name of a group founded to oppose the game Dungeons and Dragons. He only got one right that time.

So do you really think you are more of an all around genius than Ken Jennings? Guess you will have to win a couple of hundred times on Jeopardy if you book doesn’t sell well enough

Rob

By: Harvi

Harvi — Tue, 01 May 2007 20:12:29 +0000

ooh, I’ll have to go listen on my iPod.

Love, love, love that show!

By: JRY

JRY — Tue, 01 May 2007 20:07:47 +0000

Heard you on a rebroadcast Sunday morning. It was definitely a cool moment.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 01 May 2007 20:06:14 +0000

I heard you on there Saturday on CPR. I recognized your voice and thought ‘no way.’ Pretty cool. I got the right answer too.

Some helpful (sort of related) info for when you move to Boulder. You’ll find Colorado Public radio’s news on 1490am in Boulder (1340am if you’re running errands in Denver for whatever reason). Their classical music is on 90.1 fm. They air wait wait on Saturday afternoons.