I want to say thanks for all of the Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! fans that have visited my statistics page and my home page. It is amazing to look at the traffic graph over the past week or so in Google Analytics and with WordPress Stats. Let’s just say that the previous days and weeks look like nothing compared to this weekend’s traffic numbers (click on the thumbnail to see the full graph).
On this week’s Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, there was a three-way tie between Peter Grosz, Kyrie O’Connor and Mo Rocca at the end of the Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank round. Mo asked when was the last time there was a three-way tie. Well, looking at the statistics that I have been collecting, it was on 2008-09-27; where, Mo Rocca, Kyrie O’Connor and Tom Bodett tied with 14 points each. You’re welcome, Mo. :)
A bit over three years ago, I published the initial version of the Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! Statistics site. Since the site went live, I have made some changes and bug fixes over the years, but the general functionality hasn’t really changed. Another Wait Wait fan has taken some of the published statistics and ran and posted some analysis. In the post, the fan mentioned the lack of any notes on which panelist had the correct bluff and which one bluffed well enough to fool the listener, as well as displaying the points breakdown for the Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank round. I have some good news and some bad news: I have collected a good number of which panelist had the correct bluff, but not for all shows nor do have I collected which panelist’s bluff was chosen. I also have the points breakdown for …
Another night, another perusal of website statistics collected by Google, and another mention of my Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! Statistics page by Peter Sagal. This time, it was a Twitter reply to another user (granted, I don’t usually frequent Twitter unless something is of interest): @ward_hegedus An obsessive concordance of our show: http://closedsrc.org/_apps/waitwaitstats/ As a Wait Wait fan… w00t! I’m glad that my obsession is paying off and it is useful to all of the other Wait Wait fans out there.
It has been a while since I’ve checked out how well my site has faired on Google using their Webmaster Tools webapp. So it was surprising to see a link back to my Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! statistics page from a blog post by the host of Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, Peter Sagal… from two years ago! In his blog post, Peter wrote: However, such casual hostility does leave a bad taste in my mouth, so to wash it out, I take a look at this remarkable site, maintained by a fan who I shall not call obsessive, but merely devoted. Thank you, sir! All I can say about this is: “woot!”. This is enough to make up for not getting Carl Kasell’s message on my voicemail last year (as noted in an earlier post).
Being a fan of the NPR program, Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, and knowing that one of their live tapings would fall on my birthday (this past Thursday), I sent an e-mail to NPR trying to be picked as a listener that could get Carl Kasell’s voice on my voice mail. Well, I was one of the listeners that was selected, but instead of answering at least two of three news questions or limericks correctly, or to try to find the true story in the Bluff the Listener round… I was selected for the Not My Job segment (of which the chances of winning isn’t very good) with tennis legend Monica Seles. Unfortunately, Monica came up with goose eggs when trying to answer questions about the Guinness Brewing Company. So… I won’t be getting Carl Kasell’s voice on my voice mail this time (which …