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 Luke Burbank, Peter Grosz and Bim Adewunmi. And here again is your host at the Chase Bank Auditorium in downtown Chicago, Peter Sagal.
(APPLAUSE)
PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Thank you so much, Bill. In just a minute, you can have your Sheratons and your Hiltons. Bill's staying over at the Rhymada (ph) in our Listener Limerick Challenge. If you'd like to play, give us a call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT. That's 1-888-924-8924. Right now, panel it is time for a game that we often call...
KURTIS: The Trump Dump.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Now, as you know, sometimes, the news squeezes out so many Trump stories, we have to cover them all rapid fire in one game. But once in a while, all those stories come from a particular dank sub-basement of the Trump Dump where all the gunky stuff tends to collect. So this time, we're calling it...
KURTIS: The Scott Pruitt Sump Pump.
(LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: (Laughter) So you guys, what we're going to do - we're going to ask you very quickly true or false questions about the embattled administrator of the EPA. Get it right, you get a point. Here we go. Peter, true or false? Scott Pruitt spent $1,500 of government funds to get fountain pens engraved with his signature.
PETER GROSZ: I'm going to say true.
SAGAL: It is true.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: It is not true, however, that the ink is the blood of endangered animals.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Bim, true or false? Scott Pruitt had an EPA employee set up a meeting to get his wife an El Pollo Loco franchise.
BIM ADEWUNMI: False.
SAGAL: It is, of course, false.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: It's ridiculous. It was a Chick-Fil-A.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Luke, true or false? Scott Pruitt called the police and requested a 24-hour security detail after someone taped up a photo of him in an EPA elevator with a mustache drawn on it.
(LAUGHTER)
LUKE BURBANK: I'm going to say false.
SAGAL: No, it's true. That's why he demanded the 24-hour security.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: You like you imagine the Secret Service agent diving in front of the kid with a sharpie, going, no.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Peter, true or false? Scott Pruitt has been accused of sending that very same security detail out to the Ritz Carlton to buy him moisturizing lotion.
GROSZ: Sure. True.
SAGAL: Well, it is true.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: It also would have been accurate to say instead Ritz Carltons because, apparently, the first couple of hotels they tried did not have it in stock. Bim, true or false? In a White House meeting, Scott Pruitt was criticized for spending too many hours working in his office.
ADEWUNMI: (Unintelligible) False.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: It is, of course, false.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: He was criticized for having too many meals over in the White House dining hall.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Luke, true or false? Scott Pruitt had an EPA employee who try to procure a used mattress from a Trump hotel for him.
BURBANK: That is absolutely true.
SAGAL: That is true.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: He did do that. He is currently being investigated by the House oversight and government reform committee for that and other, quote, "abuses of power." But the probe centers around this question -, if you had any power at all why would you choose to sleep on a used mattress from the Trump International Hotel?
GROSZ: Also, what is it about this administration and mattresses? Everybody has some weird mattress fetish.
SAGAL: It's true.
(LAUGHTER)
GROSZ: These things happen too frequently to get them all in. He also was revealed to be constantly sending out his employees to get him Greek yogurt and energy bars.
ADEWUNMI: That's cool. I feel like that's just him being healthy and conscious about, you know...
(LAUGHTER)
ADEWUNMI: All right, Mr. Pruitt. We'll give you that one.
GROSZ: But you don't know what he wanted to do with that Greek yogurt and those energy bars.
(LAUGHTER)
BURBANK: They were probiotics because he was having trouble with his Trump dump.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Now, panel, it's time for some questions about the rest of the week's news. Bim, at the Goat Island Lodge in Australia, a popular destination, one of the big attractions has been Pippa the dog, known for years for its habit of taunting another popular resident, Casey the crocodile. Well, this week, what happened to Pippa?
(LAUGHTER)
ADEWUNMI: I wish I could say that they eloped to Reno (ph).
(LAUGHTER)
ADEWUNMI: But surely, Pippa was eaten.
SAGAL: Yes, in fact.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Pippa the dog - little terrier - was known for her habit of tormenting and scaring the much bigger Casey the crocodile, much to delight of guests of the lodge. They used to come watch. In 2017, owner Kai Hansen described the famous rivalry to reporters, saying, quote, "You will see things that you do not believe possible," which was true until the day this week when everybody saw a thing that everybody believed inevitable.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: This week, after being - years of being tormented by this little dog, Casey got sweet revenge as a dozen tourists watched him eat Pippa like a furry, little granola bar.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: But look, kids. It's the circle of life.
(LAUGHTER)
ADEWUNMI: Is there any report on what's happened to Casey? Is she in rehab?
SAGAL: No. Actually, the owner was like, I'm totally fine with Casey. Casey was being a crocodile. That's what crocodiles do. It's, like, Pippa knew the risks.
(LAUGHTER)
GROSZ: She knew what she signed up for.
SAGAL: Of course, what happened was, for years - right? - this crocodile would crawl up out of its pond, and the dog would go (imitating dog yipping). And the crocodile would go aah and run away. And then just one day, apparently, the crocodile was like, wait.
(LAUGHTER)
GROSZ: I think every time it went back to the pond, its, like, friends were, like, that dog is making you look ridiculous.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CROCODILE ROCK")
BAHA MEN: (Singing) Oh, by crikey. It's Friday night. Just grab a croc, yeah. Hold on tight, man. Plan on rocking was the way to put things right. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
