BILL KURTIS, BYLINE: From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is WAIT WAIT ...DON'T TELL ME, the NPR News quiz. I'm Bill Kurtis, and we're playing this week with Faith Salie, Tom Bodett and Roxanne Roberts. Here again is your host at the Benedum Center in Pittsburgh, Peter Sagal.
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PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Thank you. Thank you all. Right now it's time for the WAIT WAIT ...DON'T TELL ME Bluff The Listener game. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to play our game on the air. Hi, you're on WAIT WAIT ...DON'T TELL ME.
MARGARET RIECK: Hello. This is Margaret Rieck.
SAGAL: Hey, Margaret, where are you calling from?
RIECK: Fairfield, Connecticut.
SAGAL: I've been in the fair fields of Connecticut, as well. What do you do there?
RIECK: I sell champagne.
SAGAL: Oh, are you one of the people who get upset when other people refer to champagne as stuff that doesn't come from Champagne?
RIECK: Sadly, I am that person.
SAGAL: I see. Margaret, welcome to the show. You're going to play our game in which you must try to tell truth from fiction. Bill, what is Margaret's topic?
KURTIS: You don't get what you don't ask for.
SAGAL: It takes a lot of guts and courage to go after something you really want. Or maybe you're just stupid. Either way, we're on your side. This week, we read a story about someone taking the initiative and going for it. Guess the real story, and you will win Carl Kasell's voice on your voicemail. First up, let's hear from Roxanne Roberts.
ROXANNE ROBERTS: PTA President Beth Ann Schulte was determined that her 7-year-old daughter, Olivia, would raise the most money in her classroom's annual wrapping paper fundraiser - so determined that when she saw the "Frozen" themed Christmas paper, she called the distributor and scooped up all 10,000 roles for $50,000. The delighted Schulte immediately listed her stash for sale at cost on Craigslist and eBay causing a flood of Princess Elsa fans to her door.
But then her neighbors called the police and the city of Dallas charged her with running an illegal business out of her home, reports the Dallas Morning News. Undaunted, Schulte contended that all the wrapping paper was for friends and personal use and she covered her garage door, her mailbox, her kitchen, her bath and the dog crate with it to prove it. A Dallas county judge ruled last week that Schulte is engaging in, quote, "a temporary charitable endeavor," unquote, and not profiting. So she's in the clear. Oh, and he ordered five roles for his granddaughter.
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SAGAL: A woman making sure that her kid wins the wrapping-paper-selling contest buys it all. Your next story - the squeaky wheel getting that grease - comes from Faith Salie.
FAITH SALIE: Jordan Abreu really loves his girlfriend, Charlotte. Charlotte really loves her dog, Devil. So Jordan decided to use her dog in his foolproof plan to get Charlotte to marry him. Except, it turns out, the devil's in the details. Jordan and Charlotte met as undergrads at Duke University. Therefore, obviously, the most romantic proposal Jordan could imagine was to kidnap her dog and send Charlotte anonymous messages telling her that if she wanted to see her little dog alive she had to show up on the field at the Duke Blue Devils football game at halftime.
I thought it would be really funny because she hates sports, Jordan said - and also really cool to cut out individual letters and glue them into a retro ransom note. He made sure that stadium officials met the distraught Charlotte to escort her onto the field so the Jumbotron could catch all the action. When Charlotte saw Jordan at midfield on bended knee holding her beloved shih tzu, she burst into tears. When she noticed that Jordan had thoughtfully died her Devil dog blue and strung a diamond ring around his collar, her heart started pounding - like really pounding - like with the kind of hyperventilation that comes from a panic attack. She grabbed her dog, kicked Jordan in his blue devils and ran off the field.
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SAGAL: A man decides that he will propose to his girlfriend via Jumbotron, no matter what. And your last story of somebody taking that bull by those horns comes from Tom Bodett.
TOM BODETT: St. Paul, Minnesota city worker, Megan Campbell, had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. First, while driving a supply van back from a city storage building, she hit a parked car causing serious damage. Darn it. Then she discovered that her personal vehicle, a 13-year-old Nissan Pathfinder, had just been hit by a city supply van driven by none other than herself.
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BODETT: Double darn it. She couldn't believe her bad luck. But in a burst of that old Minnesotan can-do spirit, she decided to take the lemons life had handed her and squirt them in everybody's eyes.
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BODETT: Because I was working for the city and driving a city vehicle, she wrote in her claim for damages, I feel the city is responsible for the damage done to my car.
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BODETT: With winter approaching, Twin Cities snowplow drivers with aging personal vehicles are watching the outcome of the claim closely and parking on the street.
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SAGAL: All right. One of these three people was our hero this week for simply not taking no for an answer. Was it, from Roxanne Roberts, a woman who was so determined that her child would win the wrapping-paper-selling contest that she bought it all herself and then wrapped everything with it? From Faith Salie, a guy who needed to get his girlfriend on the field so he could propose to her via Diamond Vision, even though she hated sports. Or from Tom Bodett, a city worker who smashed her own car, and then sued the city because a city worker had smashed her car.
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RIECK: Well, while I think I may know a couple of people who might actually do the wrapping paper thing, I actually read about the woman suing the city for hitting her own car. So I'm going with Tom Bodett.
SAGAL: Did you? You're going to go with Bodett. So you actually are claiming knowledge here?
RIECK: I'm afraid so, sorry.
SAGAL: All right.
BODETT: That's like cheating on this show.
ROBERTS: It screws up the game, Margaret.
SAGAL: You've chosen Tom's story. Well, to bring you the correct answer, we spoke to someone familiar with it.
NELSON IRESON: A woman was driving a rented city van. She turned a corner and ran head-on into her own vehicle and has now filed a claim against the city for the damages caused to her vehicle.
SAGAL: That was Nelson Ireson, senior editor for motor authority, talking about the remarkable woman who, working for the city of St. Paul, smashed a city car into her own car then sued the city 'cause some negligent city worker smashed her car.
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SAGAL: She will go far in life - pretty much just down the block until she hits another car. So you got it right. You earned a point for Tom simply by telling the truth. It's so simple for him. And you have won our prize - Carl Kasell recorded greeting on your voicemail. So well done. Congratulations.
RIECK: Excellent. Thank you.
BODETT: Thank you, Margaret.
RIECK: Bye bye. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.