I love NPR’s news quiz Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!. Each week’s program is posted online around 1 PM on Saturday, and I try to listen to it as soon as possible. But some weeks I find myself sitting at the computer, ready for my Wait, Wait fix too early.
Here are my suggestions for things to do while waiting for Wait, Wait to come on. They also work if you find yourself needing a midweek Wait, Wait pick-me-up:
Wait, Wait Archive, 1998-2005 — Listen to an old episode. You can use the calendar on the Wait, Wait site to browse back to shows from the last five years. But if you want to go back to earlier programs, try this link. I like listening to the really old ones, because the news quizzes are much harder five or ten years later, and bring back memories.
Wait Wait… Don’t Blog Me! — Check out the Wait, Wait blog for some brief, amusing facts, photos and stories more or less related to the program
Listen to my favorite segment, Mavis Staples doing Not My Job: Mavis Staples
The Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail is a self-guided walking tour of the Mount Pleasant neighborhood in Washington, DC. I really like these historical markers, which combine a map and text with photographs and other images from various time periods. This one shows Jimmy Dean on the accordion: “After World War II, Mount Pleasant enjoyed a brief heyday as a ‘hillbilly’ (country) music destination. Singer (and later sausage salesman) Jimmy Dean found fame hosting a local TV show, Town and Country Time, but Mount Pleasant knew him first as Jimmy Dean and the Texas Wildcats, the house band at the Starlite Restaurant….”
I’m sure a lot of younger people don’t know who Jimmy Dean was, confuse him with James Dean or only know the name as a sausage brand. But to me, Jimmy Dean means just one thing: “Big Bad John.”
Most of us have different groups of Facebook friends: co-workers and other colleagues, old buddies, family members, neighbors, etc. Some of these friends love to take pictures or (possibly worse) to scan old photos and upload them to Facebook. If they tag photos with your name, you’ll see them in your newsfeed, and so will all of your friends. This can be embarrassing, whether it’s party pictures from the weekend or old photographs of you as an adorable toddler. Those old ones might not be so bad if only there weren’t so many of them, but once your mother starts scanning the old album, there’s no stopping her. I know — I am one of those scan-happy mothers.
It’s easy to change your privacy settings to keep all your friends from seeing photographs of you uploaded by other people
Under Account, select Privacy Setting
Click on Customize Settings
Scroll down to Things others share and choose Photos and videos I’m tagged in
Produce Crate Labels — The Boston Public Library has added some more great fruit crate labels from the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s to their Flickr account.
There’s a lot of social and cultural history in these labels, and they’re also a study in marketing psychology. What kind of images do you think would sell fruit? Maybe those that evoke tradition, power and majesty, like this image of Queen Victoria with oranges, from the Victoria Avenue Citrus Association in Riverside, California. Or maybe the romance of the Scottish Highlands, like Tartan Brand lemons from the Corona Foothill Lemon Company, Corona. And then there are the patriotic images, like Golden Eagle oranges, the exotic ones, like Miracle Brand oranges, and cartoon labels, including an Up n’ Atom Brand carrots label featuring a Bugs Bunny lookalike.
Most of us have different groups of Facebook friends: co-workers and other colleagues, old buddies, family members, neighbors, etc. Some of these friends love to take pictures or (possibly worse) to scan old photos and upload them to Facebook. If they tag photos with your name, you’ll see them in your newsfeed, and so will all of your friends. This can be embarrassing, whether it’s party pictures from the weekend or old photographs of you as an adorable toddler. Those old ones might not be so bad if only there weren’t so many of them, but once your mother starts scanning the old album, there’s no stopping her. I know — I am one of those scan-happy mothers.
