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Panel Questions

PETER SAGAL, HOST:

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 Peter Grosz, Negin Farsad and Faith Salie. And here again is your host, Peter Sagal.

SAGAL: Thank you, Bill.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: In just a minute, Bill finds Amelia Earhart's rhyme-ains in our Listener Limerick Challenge game...

(GROANING)

SAGAL: ...And eats them.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: If you'd like to play, give us a call at 1-888-WAIT-WAIT. That's 1-888-924-8924 - right now, though, panel, some more questions for you guys from the week's news. Faith, the National Park Service has put out a notice telling hikers at Great Smoky Mountains National Park not to be alarmed by what that they might find coming at them on the trail.

FAITH SALIE: Oh, it is rolling dung.

SAGAL: Yeah.

SALIE: That - it appears to be animated scat.

SAGAL: Yes.

SALIE: And in fact...

SAGAL: Coming at them.

SALIE: Coming at them - and in fact, it is some kind of bug, some kind of insect, right?

SAGAL: Well, yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: So this is what happened. So yes.

PETER GROSZ: I love that that word for word was the answer.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Presumably reacting to panicked calls from the trail - what is this crap?

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Park rangers are telling visitors not to be alarmed by the rolling poop. They say that, no, the balls are not moving by themselves. Don't worry. They're getting pushed by giant dung beetles. According to park - according to the park service...

GROSZ: That's way scarier, by the way, giant dung beetles.

GROSZ: It is. According to the National Park Service, male dung beetles - or tumble bugs - make the dung balls in an effort to woo females.

SALIE: Because...

GROSZ: Remember - now, remember, guys, if you like it then you better roll a ball of poop towards it.

(LAUGHTER)

GROSZ: Hikers are seeing this, and noticing it? Like, a dung beetle to me is, like...

SALIE: But the ball...

GROSZ: ...Much smaller than my...

SAGAL: No.

GROSZ: ...Thumb.

SAGAL: It's a big dung beetle and a much bigger - the ball is like...

SALIE: It's like a baseball-sized thing.

SAGAL: Yeah - 10 times the size of the beetle.

GROSZ: Oh, well, that's impressive. What's his number?

(LAUGHTER)

GROSZ: I mean, that's, like, ridiculous. That is insane. That would be like me pushing, like, the boulder that almost killed Indiana Jones...

SAGAL: Exactly right.

GROSZ: ...Full of crap and being like, hey, ladies. Like, that's insane.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Peter, the Kinsey Institute has released the findings of a new study. They say people who do what tend to have more sex.

GROSZ: Lower their standards?

(LAUGHTER)

GROSZ: I'll take a hint, please.

SAGAL: You'll take a hint. Well, you know, basically, you just start with the eggplant and, pretty soon, happy face.

SALIE: Oh.

GROSZ: People who text a lot have more sex?

SAGAL: People who text with...

GROSZ: ...Emojis have more sex.

GROSZ: Yes, emojis.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SALIE: What?

GROSZ: According to the Kinsey Institute...

SALIE: Oh.

SAGAL: ...Those perverts...

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: ...People who frequently use emojis in their texts have more sex and a better dating life than people who do not.

SALIE: This is so disturbing.

GROSZ: But that's not...

SALIE: My dad uses lots of emojis...

(LAUGHTER)

SALIE: ...Like all the time.

SAGAL: Well, your dad's a healthy human being...

SALIE: Yes.

SAGAL: ...Just like everybody else. But apparently, it's actually good because signaling your affection via emoji is more, I guess, communicative than using just words because that is where we are now.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Chivalry is dead, but the peach emoji - very much alive.

(LAUGHTER)

SALIE: Whenever I text my husband the ovulation emoji, he races home.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: What? What is the ovulation emoji?

GROSZ: It's an egg?

SALIE: It's a ball of dung.

(LAUGHTER)

GROSZ: It's an egg and a slot (ph).

(SOUNDBITE OF DAFT PUNK SONG, "GET LUCKY") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.