On this week’s ‘Not My Job’ segment of the NPR quiz show Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, the guest contestant is actress Cynthia Nixon. She tells a bunch of fun stories in her conversation with host Peter Sagal, notably what it was like making Broadway history by being the first person ever to act in two Broadway plays at the same time.  As well as stories about starring in Sex in the City and its impact on the culture, and an amusing insight about costumes for the Victorian The Gilded Age.
 
This is the full Wait, Wait… broadcast, but you can jump directly to the “Not My Job” segment, it starts just before the 20:30 mark.

On this week’s Naked Lunch podcast, co-hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild write that they “are thrilled to welcome the legendary Smokey Robinson to a very special Naked Lunch with Brad Paisley. In Part 1 of this conversation we learn about Smokey and Brad's mutual admiration, discuss Smokey's new album, What The World Needs Now, that was released on April 25th, and hear great stories about Muhammad Ali, Marvin Gaye, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Beethoven, Diana Ross, Bill Withers, Berry Gordy and the culinary skills of the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, the 50th Anniversary of Smokey's "Quiet Storm" album and many more

From the archives.   The contestant this week is Riley McManus from New York, NY.  I was able to pick out the hidden song very quickly.  And to my happy surprise got the composer style, too.  So, it’s a rare double-win.

The guest on this week’s Al Franken podcast is journalist Dave Weigel of Semafor.  As the show writes, “We are approaching the longest government shutdown in American history with no end in sight. But it seems like this is exactly what the Trump administration wants. How much longer can this go on? We are joined by David Weigel to discuss the damage of the shutdown and how the White House believes it's winning this fight.  [NOTE: This was recorded before the elections this past Tuesday.]
 
“Weigel examines how the Trump administration seems to be disconnected from reality over the state of the economy despite concerns over tariffs, the cost of living, and, of course, the $300-million ballroom Trump is building after demolishing the East Wing of the White House.
 
“Plus, with 70% of Americans believing that the Democrats are out of touch, how does the party fix their broken image? Could a change in leadership be the answer Americans are looking for?”
 

​Yesterday, I wrote about the immediate reaction by MAGOP officials to the disastrous election results for them on Tuesday.  That response has covered several topics, though two, I noted, stood out – the first of which was New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
 
I realized that that didn’t do the response justice, because the focus on Mr. Mamdani wasn’t on equal footing to all the rest, but on a level all its own.
 
It's almost bizarre how much MAGOP officials have been whining about Zohran Mamdani.  "Almost" because it's not remotely unexpected.  After all, when your leader has a disastrous 37% approval after a bit over only nine months in office, and the public blames your party for the government shutdown by 10-15 points, and they hate Trump's handling of his signature issue of immigration, and hate his demolishing the East Wing of the White House, building a gold-and-marble bathroom and throwing a hedonistic "Gatsby" party (during the government shutdown while SNAP benefits are cut), you don't really have much on your party plate to crow about.  So, you grab whatever is close by that you can.

But when that's all you have, it usually means you're going to go incredibly far over the top.  And so we get Speaker Mike Johnson say something loony like, "Zohran Mamdani’s victory marks the BIGGEST WIN FOR destructive, dangerous, big government SOCIALISM in U.S. history — and a loss for freedom loving American people."

Mind you, among the many problems with this are --

1) Zohran Mamdani is not, in fact, a Socialist. He's a Democratic Socialist, which literally is totally different. Words actually matter.  As I've noted, it's like saying that being told you have an illness is the same as being told you have a terminal illness.  Words really do truly matter.  Even adjectives.

2) Johnson weirdly forgot that Bernie Sanders -- who is an actual U.S. Senator -- is a Democratic Socialist.  Far, far more powerful than the mayor of New York City.  Even more so because the mayor there has little power.  

3) Trump is BIGGEST WIN for FASCISM.  Which is an overwhelming great loss for freedom loving American people.  As we see almost daily, as Trump's ICE agents arrest American citizens only because they look Hispanic.

4) If Mike Johnson and any MAGOPS have a complaint with Zohran Mamdani winning his race, they should take their complaint to the American citizens of New York City, because they are the ones who used their most-precious Constitutional right to vote and elected him.

The thing is, I actually hope that MAGOP officials in Congress and the administration keep whining about Zohran Mamdani.

Most Americans hardly care about NYC, and care even less about who their mayor is (a position that doesn’t remotely hold the power it suggests). As an issue for the 2026 Mid-Terms, it doesn't even register on American actual concerns.

And so, the more MAGOPs whine, the more that Americans will see them ignoring the problems the public actually cares about and wants to see addressed.  Seeing Trump and MAGOPs ignore inflation, access to healthcare, SNAP benefits, the government shutdown, tariffs, military in cities, arresting Americans because they look Hispanic, and more.  Much more. 
 
The more that MAGOPs cry out about the mayor of New York City, and show off the elegant new, gold-and-marble bathroom in the White House, and hold a “Great Gatsby” party at Mar-a-Lago glorifying hedonism, and celebrate tearing down the East Wing of the White House, and shrug when Trump posts an AI video of him wearing a crown as he pilots a jet that dumps sh*t on American protestors and whine about the mayor of New York City and complain about the mayor of New York City and beat their breasts about the mayor of New York City and more – much more – then the more that Tuesday night’s election results risk seeming better than the Mid-Term tsunami bearing down on the party may end up being.
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I don’t know how to properly describe this to do it justice – but this is funny, weird, adorable, and inexplicable.  It’s mainly the latter, but you can’t leave out the first three.  I’ll just add that it’s highly-worth the 3-minute watch of the most enthusiastic pet fish you will have ever seen, so loaded with personality (yes, really) that acts like an excited puppy with its owner.  It loves being hand-fed and petted.  But it’s better than even that.  I don’t want to give more away, though, because there’s the fun of “Wait, what??!!” discovery.  But be sure to watch starting at the 2:45 mark when the owner talks about offers she’d had to buy the fellow.  This is ‘Snappy.’
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