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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 Jessi Klein, Luke Burbank and Adam Burke. And here again is your host, whose autobiography will now have a bunch of blank pages, Peter Sagal.
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PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Thank you, Bill. In just a minute, Bill finds a cure for his limericitis (ph) - a vaccine from GlaxoSmithRhyme (ph).
LUKE BURBANK: (Laughter).
SAGAL: It's our Listener Limerick Challenge. If you'd like to play, give us a call at 1-888-WAIT-WAIT - that's 1-888-924-8924. Right now, panel, it is time for some more questions from this week's news. Luke, the center console in the cockpit of the popular Airbus A350 airplane is being redesigned after multiple flights have had to make emergency landings when pilots did what?
BURBANK: Stubbed their toe on it.
SAGAL: No.
ADAM BURKE: Is it that there's no cup holder?
BURBANK: (Laughter).
SAGAL: As a matter of fact, Adam, that is, in fact, the problem.
BURKE: (Laughter).
BURBANK: Wait, what's - hey, wait. Can I get a hint?
SAGAL: That is the answer. The cup holders are so poor that this keeps happening.
BURBANK: Oh, they spill their drink all over the electronics.
SAGAL: Yes, exactly.
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SAGAL: They spill their coffee. Twice in the last eight months, pilots have spilled coffee on the center consoles of the A350, causing the engines to shut down mid-flight. The problem is the A350s - they cost more than $300 billion - they carry 400 passengers - and apparently, they were designed with cup holders that are too small, and thus the coffee spills.
BURBANK: Here's an idea - sealed coffee thermos. If it's good enough for me in my 2017 Tiguan...
SAGAL: (Laughter).
BURBANK: ...How about you use it in the airplane cockpit? That's insane to me that the system has been, here's a filled-to-the-brim cup of coffee that you will then place atop the thing that's keeping us all in the air.
JESSI KLEIN: Put it next to your bisque lunch...
BURBANK: (Laughter).
KLEIN: ...That's we've packed. I have to say...
SAGAL: Yeah.
KLEIN: ...This is very anxiety-producing information, and now I'm going to have to cancel all the trips I currently have planned. Oh, just kidding.
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SAGAL: Instead of spending millions of dollars to repair this, they're just going to give each pilot an enormous bag of rice to put the whole plane in.
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SAGAL: Luke, a driver in Kentucky was pulled over and fined after police noted something odd about his license plate. What?
BURBANK: Did it indicate his sort of nefarious ways or lawbreaking ways? Is that what...
SAGAL: No, like in the custom message, no. Vanity message - no.
BURBANK: Was it a vanity plate?
SAGAL: It was not a vanity plate. Well, I'll give you a hint.
BURBANK: OK.
SAGAL: It was a work that critics are saying he did during his fraud period.
BURBANK: Oh, it was a fake license plate.
SAGAL: Yes. It was a fake, hand-drawn license plate.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: When police officers pulled over this guy, they knew something wasn't right about the plate, but they couldn't quite put their finger on it. Then when they did put their finger on it, it smudged because it was drawn in a Sharpie. It's a pretty good drawing. It looked real. He drew the numbers and the Kentucky state logo. The only thing that gave it away - and this is true - is he forgot to draw the registration sticker. That's how you know he was a novice. The first thing you learn in art school is always draw the registration sticker.
KLEIN: Peter, I think you're being pretty generous in saying it was a good drawing. I saw the picture of this.
BURBANK: (Laughter).
KLEIN: They're not - you don't got to be Sherlock Holmes.
BURBANK: (Laughter).
KLEIN: The words child scrawl come to mind.
(LAUGHTER)
KLEIN: My son actually does love to draw license plates because he's obsessed with cars.
BURBANK: Get him ready for adulthood.
KLEIN: I would say he could give this guy a run for his...
BURKE: it didn't help that he wrote, this is a real license plate on it.
BURBANK: Yeah, right.
BURKE: So it's a dead giveaway.
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SIMON AND GARFUNKEL: (Singing) They call me baby driver. And once upon a pair of wheels, I hit the road, and I'm gone. What's my number? I wonder how your engines feel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.