CECIL BALDWIN, BYLINE: From NPR and WNYC, live from The Bell House in beautiful Brooklyn, N.Y., it's NPR's hour of puzzles, word games and trivia, ASK ME ANOTHER. Here's your host, Ophira Eisenberg.
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OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:
Thank you, Cecil. Eight lucky contestants are here to play our nerdy games, but only one will win our ASK ME ANOTHER prize, which is provided by our VIP guest. And this guy is a distinguished actor who you've seen in "Garden State" and "An Education" - many films. In his new film, "Experimenter," he plays Stanley Milgram, a psychologist who conducted these experiments in the '60s where subjects delivered electric shocks to strangers just because an authority figure told them to.
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EISENBERG: Now, today, Stanley Milgram wouldn't be a social psychologist studying the reasons behind human cruelty. He would be a visionary, a top television producer and creator of a hit reality series, called, Shocking With The Stars.
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EISENBERG: We'll be talking about this and more with the actor that plays him in this new movie 'cause our VIP is Peter Sarsgaard.
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EISENBERG: Our first game is called Edit, Please, and here to play it are Melissa Aragon and Tatyana Gershkovich.
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EISENBERG: Tatyana, if you could edit out any part of your life, what would you choose?
TATYANA GERSHKOVICH: I came to the U.S. from Russia...
EISENBERG: Yeah.
GERSHKOVICH: ...For last year of high school.
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EISENBERG: Just the last year.
GERSHKOVICH: And that's just not fun.
EISENBERG: Yeah. It's hard to fit in at the very end, right?
GERSHKOVICH: If you have an accent...
EISENBERG: Oh, yeah?
GERSHKOVICH: It was rough.
EISENBERG: I assume it's gotten better ever since.
GERSHKOVICH: Absolutely.
EISENBERG: OK. Melissa, how about you?
MELISSA ARAGON: I had a really bad haircut in first grade.
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EISENBERG: I like that. Everything after that has been smooth sailing.
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ARAGON: You know, once you get past that, you really - you can't turn around, you know?
EISENBERG: Yeah.
ARAGON: Yeah, it's all good after that.
EISENBERG: OK. So as you know, even the best writers benefit from an editor who knows how to cut down words. And we are about to prove that using the titles of some well-known television shows. So we are going to give you an overly-written, way-too-literal version of a television show's title, and you just have to provide the simpler, actual name of the show. So for an example, let's go to our special guest puzzle guru. You know him as the voice of the popular podcast Welcome To Night Vale, Cecil Baldwin.
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BALDWIN: So if I said, oh, I love that show The Benevolent Female Spouse, you would say, "The Good Wife."
EISENBERG: So ring in when you know the television series. And of course, our winner will move on to our final round at the end of the show. Here we go. The Books In Which Those Who Suck Blood Keep A Daily Record Of Their Experiences.
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EISENBERG: Tatyana.
GERSHKOVICH: "Vampire Diaries."
EISENBERG: Exactly correct.
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EISENBERG: One Hundred And Forty-Four Divided By Six.
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EISENBERG: Melissa.
ARAGON: Is it "24?"
EISENBERG: It is "24." I know, I know, we're fancy here. We could've said six times four, but no, no, no. We are very clever with our math.
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EISENBERG: You are correct. Tarzan's Partner Who Has Never Had Intercourse.
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EISENBERG: Tatyana.
GERSHKOVICH: "Jane The Virgin?"
EISENBERG: "Jane The Virgin," yeah, exactly. Yeah.
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EISENBERG: Village Full Of Large American Wildcats With Plain, Tawny, Grayish Coats.
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EISENBERG: Tatyana.
GERSHKOVICH: "Cougar Town?"
EISENBERG: "Cougar Town."
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EISENBERG: Adjusted The Printed Words On A Page So That The Edges Form A Straight Line.
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EISENBERG: Tatyana.
GERSHKOVICH: "Justified?"
EISENBERG: Yes.
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EISENBERG: Yeah. If only that was what the show was about.
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EISENBERG: About typographers (laughter).
BALDWIN: That's right.
EISENBERG: Just, like, yeah that kerning episode.
BALDWIN: Oh, yeah.
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EISENBERG: That was...
BALDWIN: Or they really get to the bottom of why you put TK in manuscripts.
EISENBERG: Yeah, exactly. One of them is always...
BALDWIN: You don't know.
EISENBERG: The Part Of An Animal's Body Used For Flying In The General Direction Of Sunset.
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EISENBERG: Melissa.
ARAGON: "West Wing."
EISENBERG: Exactly.
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BALDWIN: That's pretty accurate, actually.
EISENBERG: (Laughter) Do you think that?
BALDWIN: That's all that show was about, right? It's just birds.
EISENBERG: It's just birds circling...
BALDWIN: For hours...
EISENBERG: Doing the...
BALDWIN: ...By Aaron Sorkin.
EISENBERG: ...the hop and chirp.
BALDWIN: So it's really snappy birds.
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EISENBERG: (Laughter) Really smart, acerbic birds.
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EISENBERG: All right, this is your last clue. Pieces Of Hard, Whitish Tissue Comprising The Skeleton In Humans And Other Vertebrates.
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EISENBERG: Melissa.
ARAGON: "Bones."
EISENBERG: "Bones." That's right. Special puzzle guru Cecil Baldwin, how did our contestants do?
BALDWIN: They both did excellent, but, Tatyana, well done. We will see you in our final round at the end of the show.
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