PETER SAGAL, HOST:
We want to remind everyone to join us most weeks back at the Chase Bank Auditorium in dreary, cold Chicago, Ill. For tickets and more information, go to wbez.org. And 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 - Maz, this week, scientists finally confirmed what everybody believes that doing what is really, really bad for public health?
MAZ JOBRANI: Eating bacon?
SAGAL: No, not that. I'll give you a hint, "Seinfeld" was right about this.
JOBRANI: "Seinfeld" felt was right about - (imitating Jerry Seinfeld) what's up with what, doing that?
SAGAL: Yeah, saying...
JOBRANI: ...Is that bad for...
SAGAL: I'll give you a hint. Watch out for the salsa, it has jalapenos and Jeff's (ph) germs.
JOBRANI: Dipping...
PAULA POUNDSTONE: Yeah, but...
JOBRANI: ...The chips - the double-dip?
SAGAL: Double-dip...
JOBRANI: Thank you.
SAGAL: The double-dip.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: A team of researchers at Clemson University have determined that dipping your chip in the dip, taking a bite and then dipping it again for more dip - known as double-dipping is really disgusting. It's roughly the equivalent of taking the whole bowl of salsa into your mouth, sort of gargling with it and then spitting it back into the bowl.
POUNDSTONE: OK, that's not the same at all.
ADAM FELBER: No.
SAGAL: No, they found...
POUNDSTONE: What kind of a - so that's a study?
SAGAL: That's a - well, what they did, Paula...
POUNDSTONE: They had chips.
SAGAL: Paula...
POUNDSTONE: OK, OK.
FELBER: I want to say there's a solution to this.
SAGAL: What?
FELBER: And this is why, if you come to my house, my homemade salsa...
SAGAL: Yeah.
FELBER: ...Is tomatoes and onions, salt, pepper and Purell.
(LAUGHTER)
POUNDSTONE: Yeah.
SAGAL: Now, Paula, this one's fair. What they did was they got some dips...
POUNDSTONE: I didn't say it wasn't fair. I said it's stupid.
SAGAL: It's not stupid.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Let me defend the scientists, you know, for once.
POUNDSTONE: Yeah, they're scientists involved in the chip study.
SAGAL: They took a dip. They measured it's bacteria level. They had somebody...
POUNDSTONE: They measured it's bacteria level?
SAGAL: Yeah. They had somebody dip in the dip with a chip, have a bite, put the chip back in the dip, take another thing. They did that, and then they tested the bacteria level again. And they found that it was filled with bacteria and other germs from the person's mouth.
FELBER: Which is why you should always just make your dips with bacteria to begin with.
JOBRANI: Or they should get a guy who's not that bacteria infested to do the thing.
POUNDSTONE: Honestly.
SAGAL: Yeah.
POUNDSTONE: Yeah, who the hell had the chip?
JOBRANI: Yeah. This guy...
POUNDSTONE: Yeah, some flu-seized...
FELBER: yeah.
JOBRANI: Student that needs that 50 bucks to do the...
POUNDSTONE: Honestly right, exactly because he's donated more plasma. He doesn't have any cells left. And now...
FELBER: Yeah.
POUNDSTONE: ...He's moved over to the chip study. So OK, everybody knows anyways not to do that. What I do is I dip it in, I bite and then I switch the side that I'm holding.
SAGAL: So it's fresh...
POUNDSTONE: Exactly.
SAGAL: ...The unbit side.
POUNDSTONE: And then I spit in the bowl because...
(LAUGHTER)
POUNDSTONE: ...I'm not looking after the people around me. That's not my job.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Coming up, attention shoppers, it's our Bluff the Listener game. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to play. We'll be back in a minute with more of WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME from NPR.
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