Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! - Wait Wait's Letter from the Editors

Episode Date: November 11, 2020

A new podcast featuring material from Wait Wait's cutting room floor. This week: a fresh holiday treat and a quick recommendation.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

All right, ready when you are. Welcome to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me's Letter from the Editors, a new weekly podcast where we bring you stuff we recorded for the show, but had to cut. Three, two, one. Testing, testing. Test, test, Old Testament, New Testament, you know, blessing the mic. Testing, testing, one, two, three, four. Hello, it's me. That was very Testing, testing. One, two, three, four. Hello, it's me.

That was very nice, Maz. Hello, test. Okay. Unique New York. Unique New York. Okay, I feel pretty, I feel pretty good. We'll be right back. Hey, this is Mike.

I'm one of the producers of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. I'm here with Jennifer. Hello. There she is. And what we do is we edit the show. We put it together every week. And that means we know what bits were good enough for the radio

and good enough for this new bonus podcast made especially for you. There's a lot of reasons stuff doesn't make it on the show. Mostly just because the show's not long enough for all the goods. But this is one that we really hated to cut. So we're really glad to have it here for you now. So here's more from this week's panel, Maz Jobrani, Helen Hong, and

Dulce Sloan. The British retailer Marks and Spencer has a new Christmas themed pastry with a very unusual name. Do you know what it is? Christmas theme. Hmm. Well, I assume it has nothing to do with the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It does not. So, I'm thinking tree themed, Santa themed. Santa themed. Santa themed. It is Santa themed, yes. Santa paws?

No. Like a bear claw? No. Is it a criss-cruller like Kris Kringle? That's also a good guess, but you're all wrong. I'm afraid I will tell you what it is. It is the Santa's Yum Nut. It is a donut croissant hybrid.

And the slogan is, who wants a bite of Santa's Yum Nut? Wow. That's also what they say to threaten the elves when toy production slows down at the North Pole. Hashtag elves too.

Yeah. This is an American. This is not American. This is British. I thought not, because we would know better. Also, they don't even call him Santa. They call him Father Christmas.

That's true. They couldn't call it Father's Yum Nut, so I get it. That gets a little weird. Santa's Yum Nut is a flaky donut decorated to look like the top of Santa's pants with red legs and a belt buckle right across it. You think I'm joking. What? Google. But yes, Virginia, there is a Santa crotch. If hearing about Santa's yum nut puts you in the holiday spirit or made you hungry,

we have one more holiday themed question. This actually made the show a couple of weeks ago, but here it is with an alternate ending. See if you can tell the difference. We've got Adam Burke, Maeve Higgins, and Alonzo Bowden. Adam, according to the Wall Street Journal, the Trump administration planned to have a vaccine available by Thanksgiving, and they were going to use what important group of social influencers to convince people to take it? Oh, um, the Kardashians? No, they're not available. They're on their island. Oh, that's right. And they deserve it, Adam. No mockery. Sure. More old school group of influencers. Oh, the Mouseketeers? I don't know. I'll give you a

hint. Well, little girl, isn't what you really want for Christmas a strengthened immune system? Oh, is it like department store Santa Claus? Exactly right. Mall Santas. Trump appointing Michael Caputo developed this publicity campaign in which mall Santas this year would appear at events to promote the benefits of the Trump administration's COVID vaccine. And if they did it, they were promised early access to the vaccine themselves, which is a pretty sweet deal for a population who, if they're lucky,

might get early access to the Auntie Annie's pretzel counter. So the mall Santas with the children in their laps weren't creepy enough. Now they're going to actually know you don't want a new bicycle. You want a drug. And guess what I have? Now, how do we know about this? Mr. Caputo of the Department of Health and Human Services presented his plan to the chairman of the Fraternal Order of Real Bearded Santas. It's a real group.

And the king of all Santas recorded the conversation and gave the recording to the Wall Street Journal because the editor of the journal was a very good boy this year. By the way, real bearded Santas hold themselves as superior to the pretenders who glue on their beards. These guys stay in character as Santa all year. You can find out more by going to sexoffenderregistry.com. That's all the bonus material we have for you this week. But if you're looking for more great listening, we want to leave you with a new podcast recommendation.

One of our favorite podcasts around the Wait Wait offices is The Daily from The New York Times, which is why we're so excited to learn about this new podcast, a kind of stripped down version of The Daily. Check it out. From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This... We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today. Ah! Ah! That's all we have for this week. Come back next week for more stuff not quite good enough for the radio show, but certainly good enough for this

bonus podcast. That's what we've got for you this week. Come back again. I already said that.