PETER SAGAL, HOST:
We want to remind everyone to join us here most weeks at the Chase Bank Auditorium in beautiful downtown. For tickets and more information, go to wbez.org, or you can find a link at our website, waitwait.npr.org. Right now, panel, time for you to answer some questions about this week's news.
Charlie, we know a lot of celebrities have been writing books for children, people like Madonna or Jamie Lee Curtis or J.K. Rowling. But we were surprised when someone this week announced he'd be throwing his crayon in the ring. Who is writing a book for kids?
CHARLIE PIERCE: It's not Gene Simmons, but it's like somebody like Gene Simmons.
(LAUGHTER)
PIERCE: Nothing like Gene Simmons, at all.
Think more messed up.
(LAUGHTER)
PIERCE: Oh, it's Keith Richards and his daughter.
SAGAL: It is Keith Richards. Keith Richards, yes.
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SAGAL: The Rolling Stones guitarist - very good, Keith Richards, yes.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: The Rolling Stones guitarist, who amazingly is now 70 years old, which is crazy because he looks like he's been dead that long...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: He's announced he's writing a kid's book called "Gus & Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar." It's the first in a series of children's books by people you wouldn't let anywhere near your children.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: It's illustrated by his daughter, it's co-written by two of his friends...
PAULA POUNDSTONE: It's co-wrote?
SAGAL: Yeah, he's writing it with his daughter, who is also illustrating it.
POUNDSTONE: Well how many - it's a book called, you know, "My Grandfather and Me" or "Gus and Grandfather." That sounds like not a chapter book. And it's got illustrations, right? How many words - it sounds like one of those books that's largely pictures and then a couple of lines of text.
PIERCE: Well, he only remembers about 23 words.
(LAUGHTER)
POUNDSTONE: Well, this is what I'm saying. It's co-written by two other people. This reminds one night when my kids were little, I was cleaning up, and I went to put away "The Book of Shapes," and it was a cardboard book, it had six pages. It got as sophisticated as oval.
(LAUGHTER)
POUNDSTONE: And it was co-authored.
(APPLAUSE)
POUNDSTONE: I guess sometimes you just need somebody to bounce your ideas off of.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Circle, and the other guy goes no.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Triangle. Oh yes, triangle, triangle. How about triangle and square? And then the book comes together.
CINDY SHUPACK: What you don't know is it was four people to begin with, and two were kicked out. Like they didn't make the cut.
SAGAL: Creative differences.
POUNDSTONE: They just weren't making enough contributions. Squiggle? Get out, just get out.
(LAUGHTER)
POUNDSTONE: Yeah, one guy goes, I don't know, I'm just spitballing, but green? OK, get out, get out.
SHUPACK: You're out.
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SAGAL: Coming up, our panelists purr like little kittens in our Bluff the Listener game. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to play. And the man who is about to jump off the top of Mount Everest in a wing-suit joins us to do something way more exciting than that.
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