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 Karen Chee, Josh Gondelman and Maz Jobrani. And here again is your host, a man who just took a bite of sandwich - so let me extend this intro a bit so, well, he has time to finish it. OK, he's done - Peter Sagal.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE SOUND EFFECT)
PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Thank you, Bill. In just a minute, Bill reveals his favorite cat from "Cats" is Rhyme Tum Tugger 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. But right now, panel, some more questions for you from the week's news. Maz, a woman in New York was surprised when she looked behind her bathroom mirror and found what?
MAZ JOBRANI: Is it a camera?
SAGAL: No, that would be creepy.
JOBRANI: Can I get a hint?
SAGAL: Yeah, she's going to need more furniture.
JOBRANI: Oh, she's - it's a bigger - it's another room. It's another house. It's bigger.
SAGAL: It's another apartment. That's exactly right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: When a New York woman felt cold air blowing out of her mirror, she had to investigate it. And she documented the whole thing on TikTok. First, she discovered a huge gaping hole, which she decided to crawl through. And on the other side of the hole was a whole other vacant apartment. Score. Oh, your apartment has a lot of closet space? My apartment has a lot of other apartment space.
KAREN CHEE: If you watch the video, there's a moment where she's like, I have to go in. Like, I have to go into this hole. And if you're watching, you're like, don't go into that - what are you doing?
(LAUGHTER)
CHEE: Why would you do that?
JOSH GONDELMAN: Other apartment is best-case scenario, right? You crawl into a hole behind your mirror - you're praying it's other apartment and not just, like, a rat cave or...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Portal to another dimension filled with monsters.
GONDELMAN: Yeah, she really lucked out.
SAGAL: Maz, please listen to legendary newscaster Bill Kurtis.
KURTIS: Fart, boobies, arse.
SAGAL: Those are just a few of the words that may soon be banned from what game?
JOBRANI: You said fart, boobies and arse?
SAGAL: That's what he said.
JOBRANI: From - is it from Scrabble?
SAGAL: Yes, Scrabble.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: The makers of Scrabble say they will be removing a series of offensive words, causing some players to protest. But the real question is, why would you even play boobies when bazongas is worth so many more points?
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: The list of offensive words includes several British English words, like wrinklies and goolies, neither of which we are going to Google. But isn't booby OK in the United Kingdom? I mean, there, it just means policeman.
JOBRANI: Can you do booby trap or...
CHEE: No, those are called bras.
(LAUGHTER)
JOBRANI: Yes.
SAGAL: Kazing (ph), Chee.
CHEE: I'm logging off.
GONDELMAN: No, Karen, so much more show.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: So people - it turns out that, like, there are Scrabble players, and there is a very devoted international community of competitive Scrabble players, believe it or not. And they are very upset by this. They don't like having words taken away. They think it's unnecessary. What they really want is a new offensive term just for Scrabble, something that scores a lot of points. You jackquizoozer (ph).
GONDELMAN: Look. I am - I try to be very understanding about regulation and about new rules and new social mores going forward. But as you read this story, I did feel myself going right-wing. Like, you can pry my Scrabble tiles from my cold, dead hands if you think you could stop me from playing fart.
SAGAL: Yeah.
(LAUGHTER) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.