BILL KURTIS: From NPR and WBEZ Chicago this is WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME, the NPR news quiz. I'm Bill Kurtis. We are playing this week with Faith Salie, Adam Burke and Tom Bodett. And here again is your host, at the Chase Bank Auditorium in downtown Chicago, Peter Sagal.
(APPLAUSE)
PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Thank you, Bill. In just a moment, Bill pays tribute to his favored speaker of the House, Paul Rhyman (ph).
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SAGAL: It's Listener Limerick Challenge. If you would like to play, give us a call at 1-888-WAIT-WAIT. That's 1-888-924-8924. Right now, panel, some more questions for you from the week's news. Adam, since John Boehner retired from the House of Representatives in 2015, he's been able to enjoy his hobbies - chain-smoking and chain weeping. But John Boehner this week announced he's finally gone back to work doing what?
ADAM BURKE: Well, funny enough for someone who likes to tan as much as he is - it's something brown and sticky that he's into, right?
SAGAL: Yes, that's right.
BURKE: He's become a spokesperson for legalizing weed.
SAGAL: Indeed, that's right. He's going to be selling pot.
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SAGAL: Specifically, Mr. Boehner joined the board of a company that grows and sells medical cannabis. It's surprising because Mr. Boehner once said he was, quote, "unalterably opposed to legal marijuana" - unquote. But his thinking, he says, has evolved, especially when he started talking to people about one of the drug's benefits - making him a lot of money.
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BURKE: It also proves - I mean, it also proves some of the dangers. Like, how high do you have to be to go, hey, let's get John Boehner as the spokesperson?
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SAGAL: And then Boehner tries pot and is like, wow, if you pronounced my name the way it's spelled, it's dirty.
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TOM BODETT: But it's brilliant marketing. You can imagine the meeting like, OK, who's the last person anybody would imagine?
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SAGAL: Adam, a new study has discovered that it takes 100 hours to do what?
BURKE: Can I get a clue?
SAGAL: Yes, well you'll know the 100th hour is up when James Taylor suddenly appears and tells me you've made one.
BURKE: You are vastly overestimating my knowledge of James Taylor.
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FAITH SALIE: Do you know "The Golden Girls" theme song?
BURKE: Sure, yeah, I know that. Oh, to be someone's friend?
SAGAL: Yes, to make a friend requires 100 hours together.
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SALIE: What?
SAGAL: Researcher out of the University of Kansas shows that it takes around a hundred hours of time spent together to have an actual friend. The study shows that 50 hours with somebody creates a casual friendship, 100 hours together means you are friends, and 200 hours constitutes a close friendship. More than 200 hours together means that your friend probably died a while ago because frankly, you're just not that great.
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SALIE: Now wait a minute, do you think this is about accurate? This is crazy. Who has the time?
BURKE: Also, even this question that it takes a hundred hours to make a friend - I have people who are friends precisely because I haven't spent a hundred hours with them.
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SAGAL: By the way, a couple of notes - the 100 hours should not be consecutive. Don't do that. And it only counts if the other person knows you're there.
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BURKE: Oh, yeah, I've got a lot of friends.
SAGAL: But this is useful, though, because you can use it like, oh, you know, would you drive me to the airport? No, we've only been friends for 95 hours.
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SAGAL: Tom, thanks to a ruling handed down by a judge in Australia, we now know that doing what in the workplace is not considered bullying under the laws of that country?
BODETT: Oh - what would they do in Australia not considered bullying - like just, like, slapping you in the back.
SAGAL: No.
BODETT: Slapping you on the stomach?
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BURKE: How much slapping do you think goes on?
BODETT: Slapping at all - no.
SALIE: Slapping you in a way that doesn't involve body parts - just...
BODETT: Is it verbal or physical?
SALIE: It's neither.
BODETT: Oh, farting.
SAGAL: Yes.
BODETT: Why would that ever be considered bullying?
SAGAL: Well, let me explain what happened. This was an actual legal case in Australia, Hingst v. Short. An employee...
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BODETT: Did this set precedent?
SAGAL: It apparently did that will be cited forever in Australian law. An employee accused his boss of, quote, "repeatedly lifting his bum and farting at him."
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SALIE: But that's because he was short.
SAGAL: Well, this is of course - it's a strange claim to make in Australia where lifting up your bum and farting is the country's traditional greeting.
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BURKE: This is the most Australian story ever.
SALIE: But, guys, this was an 18-day trial.
SAGAL: It was.
BURKE: After which, they were all friends.
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BODETT: Exactly.
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SAGAL: According to court transcripts, things got so bad around the office that Hingst brought in a bottle of spray deodorant, which he used anytime his boss, who we nicknamed Mr. Stinky, let one go. It's nice that through all this, Hingst still respected the office hierarchy enough to call his boss mister.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AGAINST THE WIND")
BOB SEAGER AND THE SILVER BULLET BAND: (Singing) Against the wind – we were running against the wind. We were young and strong. We were running against the wind. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.