Wait Wait...

Last night Yvonne & I went to see Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! at the newly-renovated Memorial Hall.

First of all, they did a really beautiful job on Memorial Hall! I don’t know what it looked like before — the construction on it has been going on since before I moved here — but it’s a very functional space that’s also very attractive. Nice big lobby, comfy seats, terrific architecture that they did a nice job of emphasizing with good paint colors. Also in the lobby & hallways there are memorial markers for various important people in the history of UNC. There are some cool names, & some really great epitaphs. Idea for the Wilson library: create an online exhibit of those!

Second, the show was freaking hilarious. I haven’t laughed that hard in a while. Charlie Pierce was in rare form. Also, of course, Carl Kasell is a UNC-CH alumnus, so the audience was especially appreciative. (Incidentally, I tried looking up Carl Kasell in Faculty/Staff Central and was disappointed that he isn’t listed in the Registrar’s database. Maybe it doesn’t go that far back?) They had taped another show on Thursday night, which aired earlier today. The show we saw will be an evergreen, to be aired at some indeterminate future date when the cast is on vacation or something. Since the show was an evergreen, it wasn’t about the week’s news, but about historical events — specifically bad ideas through history. “Extreme tourism” in a gulag, fun! Apparently Freud is responsible for bacon & eggs for breakfast… but sometimes a sausage is just a sausage. They mined the collection of the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices (could I make that up?) for the Not My Job segment. As a result, some of the funniest bits are things that I feel fairly sure are no way going to make it into the broadcast. Nancy Drew and the Case of the Prostate Gland Warmer. Not to mention Clyde Edgerton’s visuals to illustrate the use of this thing. Radio, the most visual of media!