How I grilled Paula Poundstone on her 16 cats, NPR listeners, politics
I consider my sister Tree to be the world’s best cat-namer. She once named two “killer attack cats” Marlon and Brando.
But I give people a chance to rival her meowest prowess.
That’s why I asked cat-hero comedian Paula Poundstone, star of NPR’s quiz show “Wait Wait ... Don’t Tell Me,” whether she’s a good cat-namer. Poundstone performs Friday-Saturday at The Orleans.
Poundstone: Oh yes. … The only long-haired cat I have is named ShamWow.
Q: That’s a good one. Someone’s going to have to create an Obamacare for cats and animals.
A: If I paid for insurance for 16 cats and two dogs, I could pretty much cancel my kids’ education.
Q: I sometimes feel like I’m working for my cats.
A: I know exactly what you mean. I feel like a really unprofitable farmer.
Q: If I’m an FBI profiler, what’s the profile of NPR fans?
A: They’re well-informed, or seek to be. They’re polite and fun. There’s not a lot of head-bangers. I’m sure there’s some tattoos, but not as many as some might think.
Q: At this point, I could say you have a news background. Do you have any thoughts about the political season?
A: I wish it was illegal for them to even campaign, or bring it up at all, until like a year out. It went on so long last time. It was just such a beating-a-dead-horse feeling.
Q: I think the thing you’re talking about — campaign seasons being elongated — is similar to how I went to the store in August, and there was Halloween stuff up. Can everybody stop anticipating stuff that’s far, far in the future?
A: Really. And you know, let’s say your kid’s in the third grade. They spend the entire year talking about whether they’re going to be prepared for the fourth grade. You go, “Can they just be in the third grade right now?”
They told me when (her son) was 2 or 3, he was behind in his verbal skills. It’s like, “OK, how far behind can he possibly be?” He needed 20 words and he had 16. I said, “I’ll tell you what, we’ll work hard over the weekend.”
Q: I didn’t speak my first words until I was 2½.
A: You’re probably still behind.
Q: Do you ever get in a (taxi) and they’re playing “Wait Wait ... Don’t Tell Me”?
A: One time in a cab in Boston. And a few times, drivers recognize my voice, because they listen to radio a lot.
It’s nice to have somebody say (they like her comedy). I used to bus tables, and I was really good at it, but people infrequently applauded.
Q: Is there anything else you want to tell people?
A: I like to tell people I’m on stupid goofy Twitter (@paulapoundstone).
Q: Twitter started off as a personal thing. Now we’re all doing it for work.
A: I agree. It started out something I found almost a relief. It was so much fun to take a joke I just thought of and put it somewhere, to clear it out of my head.
Then my manager got involved and said, “Can you plug this or that?” And it would be foolish not to use it for that.
The New York Police Department is training their cops to tweet. That’s just depressing.
Maybe I’m misinterpreting what they’re doing, but it sounds like a PR scam. It is to modern life what “Dragnet” was to the LAPD.
Doug Elfman’s column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Email him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.
