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Wait Wait is in Austin, Texas this week, and so we've invited country singer Dale Watson to play our quiz. Watson has that true Austin sound — not to mention his own honky-tonk bar.

We've invited Watson to play a game called, "Elementary, my dear Dale!" Three questions about the immortal detective, Sherlock Holmes.

Copyright © 2014 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

PETER SAGAL, HOST:

And now the game where we travel the country to find people who at least didn't have to leave home to do this. To many, Austin, Texas means music - specifically country music - and by that, we don't mean the stuff they pedal in Nashville. We mean the down home twanging songs about cold beer and true misery. Dale Watson has got the true Austin sound...

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: ...He's got the tats, he's got the pompadour, and he's got his own honky-tonk right here in Austin. Dale Watson, welcome...

DALE WATSON: Thank you.

SAGAL: ...To WAIT WAIT ...DON'T TELL ME.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: Austin City Limits - that's the great music program out of Austin - they call you Austin's king of country music. Does that sound right to you? Do you accept that title?

WATSON: Oh, no, I couldn't do that.

SAGAL: Really?

WATSON: No, but I'm very honored. I play Ameripolitan music.

SAGAL: I've read about this - Ameripolitan music. You have decided that the word country music has been what? Degraded? Misused?

WATSON: Well, no, it just doesn't describe what I grew up to know as country music anymore. I'd like to say that the definition is original music with prominent roots, influences - started with Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams and, you know, Kitty Wells. So it started there and it goes on. And if you can hear the influence of an artist in another artist, than that's your roots.

SAGAL: Right.

WATSON: And to me, the mainstream stuff coming out of from Nashville has got their roots firmly planted in midair. They have no roots whatsoever.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: But, so...

FAITH SALIE: Hey, Dale, how do you feel about the banjo?

(LAUGHTER)

WATSON: There's a thing called perfect pitch. You ever heard of perfect pitch?

SAGAL: Yeah, people who can hear a note and know exactly - sing a note...

WATSON: No, no, no, no, no. It's when you throw an accordion in a dumpster...

(LAUGHTER)

WATSON: ...And it doesn't hit the rim and it lands on a banjo.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: For people, Dale, who are not lucky enough to have heard you play around Texas where you play all the time or your own club in Austin, what songs are you known for?

WATSON: Probably "I lie when I drink."

(APPLAUSE)

WATSON: (Singing) I lie when I drink. I drink a lot.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: When I told people you we were going to be on the show, the people from Austin who I told, they said, well, you got to ask him about his Sunday gig every Sunday. And I know it's going to be difficult...

WATSON: Chicken poop bingo.

(APPLAUSE)

WATSON: For a poultry $2 donation, you can win...

(LAUGHTER)

WATSON: You can win over $100 if the same number that's in the bag, you draw, is the same number the chicken picks in her chicken picking way.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: All right. So you've got some sort of like dirt thing on the floor?

WATSON: It's free hot dogs and...

SAGAL: Free hot dogs?

WATSON: ...And $2 Lone Stars.

SAGAL: All right.

BOBCAT GOLDTHWAIT: Well, it'd be weird to eat chicken in front of the chickens.

SAGAL: Yeah, I know.

GOLDTHWAIT: It wouldn't really motivate them.

SAGAL: So the way this works is you've got like, it marked down on the floor - maybe a dirt floor - I haven't been there. I'm guessing.

WATSON: No.

SAGAL: No, not dirt floor?

WATSON: Cement floor.

SAGAL: Cement floor. And you got to mark that with numbers. Cement, that's what they have here in Texas.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: So you got your cement floor. You got it marked out with numbers. And you have chickens...

WATSON: No, no. There's a board that we put on the pool table...

SAGAL: OK.

WATSON: ...And it's got numbers on it. And if the chicken picks that number - that one you draw out of a bag - then they won the money.

SAGAL: And the chicken picks the number by relieving itself on the number?

WATSON: There is a line ticket, which, you know, is the luckiest ticket.

(LAUGHTER)

WATSON: In case it crosses into a line.

GOLDTHWAIT: Sure, I got you.

SALIE: Is at the same chicken every week?

WATSON: Yeah, well, actually we've been doing it for so long I think we're on our sixth chicken now.

(LAUGHTER)

TOM BODETT: Do you have a lucky chicken?

WATSON: Doesn't everybody?

(LAUGHTER)

WATSON: No.

GOLDTHWAIT: That's rather personal, Tom.

WATSON: Well, you know, the thing is we've had them pass away. I never knew how long a chicken could live, but they can - they be a good long time.

GOLDTHWAIT: Yeah, they're tenacious.

(LAUGHTER)

WATSON: We've had one killed by the chupacabra.

(LAUGHTER)

GOLDTHWAIT: That'll happen.

SAGAL: You have a...

GOLDTHWAIT: Did the chupacabra lose the week before?

SAGAL: Did the chicken actually killed by the chupacabra?

WATSON: Oh, yeah. His...

GOLDTHWAIT: Are you drunk now because you said you lie when you drink.

SAGAL: I want to hear about the chupacabra eating your chicken.

WATSON: Well, we assume it was 'cause the chicken's body was still in the chicken coop and the head was on the outside.

GOLDTHWAIT: Could've been the Mafia.

WATSON: Could've been the Mafia - the Texas Mafia.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: And you know how they thought it was the Mafia? 'Cause it's feet were in a little tub of cement.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Now you are dressed - is this the rig you perform in - what you're wearing now? 'Cause you're wearing really shiny cowboy boots. And you've got fabulous hair. You've got this beautiful white pompadour.

WATSON: Well it didn't used to be white, it used to be pretty black.

(LAUGHTER)

WATSON: It's getting whiter as this show goes on.

SAGAL: Yeah I know.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Dale Watson, we are so enjoying talking to you, but we have asked you here to play a game we're calling...

BILL KURTIS, BYLINE: Elementary, My Dear Dale.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Should've seen this coming.

WATSON: I love the way Bill says that.

SAGAL: Don't you? I love the way he says anything. So you are a Watson, but what do you know about Holmes? We're going to ask you three questions about the immortal detective Sherlock Holmes. Get two right, you'll win our prize for one of our listeners, the voice of Carl Kasell himself on their voicemail. So Bill, who is Dale Watson playing for?

KURTIS: Elizabeth Day of Austin, Texas.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: She's out there somewhere.

WATSON: Elizabeth - let me just first say Elizabeth, I will make this up to you.

(LAUGHTER)

GOLDTHWAIT: All the free chicken bingo you can handle.

SAGAL: There's nothing I want to right more with my life than go to play chicken bingo on Sunday.

GOLDTHWAIT: I have a confession - I'm the chupacabra.

(LAUGHTER)

GOLDTHWAIT: I owe you a chicken.

SAGAL: Here is your first question Dale. The BBC version of "Sherlock" - you might've seen it, it's a huge hit in China. They lovingly refer to the stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman by nicknames which are what? A, Rizzoli and Isles; B, the Captain and Garfunkel; or C, Curly Fu and Peanut.

(LAUGHTER)

WATSON: OK.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: You're thinking.

WATSON: I am. I'm not used to it.

(LAUGHTER)

WATSON: I'm going to go with Curly.

SAGAL: Curly Fu?

WATSON: Peanut.

SAGAL: Curly Fu and Peanut is the right answer.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Curly for Benedict Cumberbatch's luxurious hair and Fu is the Chinese derivation of Holmes, apparently. All right. Two more questions. "Sherlock Holmes..."

GOLDTHWAIT: Wait. What's the Peanut for?

SAGAL: Well, Peanut is Martin Freeman. I guess he's smaller - he's a rather short man so I guess that's where that comes from.

GOLDTHWAIT: Oh, OK.

SAGAL: Sherlock Holmes, some believe, is the most filmed character ever, right? More movies with Sherlock Holmes than any other human character. Which of these is the title of a real "Sherlock Holmes" film? Is it A, "Tom And Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes;" B, "Sherlock 2: Sherlocker;" or C; "Holmes On The Range"?

(LAUGHTER)

WATSON: Those - one of them is real?

SAGAL: One of those is real.

(LAUGHTER)

WATSON: Well, now could one of them be a cartoon, is that what you're talking about?

SAGAL: One of them could be a cartoon.

WATSON: OK, well, I'm going with a Tom and Jerry.

SAGAL: You're right, "Tom And Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes."

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

WATSON: Wow.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: Now one more question. Let's see if you're perfect. Hundreds of people around the world right to Sherlock Holmes.

WATSON: Oh, I'm not perfect.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Do you want to talk about it?

WATSON: No.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: We're all friends here if you want to discuss anything.

BODETT: Sing about it.

SAGAL: I'll ask you the question. Hundreds of people around the world write to Sherlock Holmes for help each year. And these letters end up at the Sherlock Holmes Museum in London. Now most are - please to help solve mysteries, oh, please Mr. Holmes. There's one letter on display at the museum that is what? Is it an e-mail from a Nigerian Prince asking for Sherlock Holmes' help in a business opportunity? Is it B, a postcard from a local optician reminding Mr. Sherlock Holmes it's time for his checkup? Or is it C, a J.Crew catalog addressed to Sherlock Holmes and advertising their fall collection of deer stalker hats?

(LAUGHTER)

WATSON: All right. I'm going to say the catalog.

SAGAL: The catalog. No, I'm afraid it was the optician.

WATSON: Was it really?

SAGAL: Yep, an optician wrote to Sherlock Holmes saying you're ready for your next eye appointment. When their last one was, we don't know.

(LAUGHTER)

WATSON: Didn't he have just one thing - monocle?

SAGAL: No, no, no, you're confusing him with somebody I can't even imagine right now.

GOLDTHWAIT: With Mr. Peanut.

SAGAL: That was Mr. Peanut, yes. Bill how did Dale Watson do on our quiz?

KURTIS: Two out of three and that's a winner Dale.

SAGAL: Yes it is.

(APPLAUSE)

WATSON: Good.

SAGAL: Congratulations.

WATSON: Thank you.

SAGAL: Well done. Dale Watson is recording in January for Red House Records. Then he's heading out on an East Coast tour with Reverend Horton Heat and Rosie Flores. Dale Watson, thank you so much for being on WAIT WAIT ...DON'T TELL ME.

WATSON: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHISKEY OR GOD")

WATSON: (Signing) Whiskey or God, going to bring me relief. Believing or not, bending my elbow or my knees.

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The Salt

Chowing Down On Meat, Dairy Alters Gut Bacteria A Lot, And Quickly

From Swiss to cheddar, cheeses depend on the action of microbes for their flavor and aroma. But it's far from clear how these teams of microbes work together to ripen cheese.

To a cheese-maker, that's just the beauty of the art. To a scientist, it sounds like an experiment waiting to happen.

A handful of scientists who study cheese recently gathered to share their latest findings at a farm in the English county of Somerset. They know cheese well here — after all, Somerset invented cheddar.

Somerset cheese-maker Jamie Montgomery hosted the conference. "We've been making cheddar here for three generations," he says. "My grandfather bought the estate in 1911."

Montgomery's cheese is particularly microbe-rich. That sets it apart from most supermarket-bought cheese, which is made from milk that is pasteurized to kill any potentially harmful bacteria. Then a few microbes are added back in to ferment the cheese.

But Montgomery and many other artisan producers never pasteurize their milk – it's raw. The milk's natural microbial community is still in there. This microbial festival gives it variety and richness that commercial cheeses can't copy.

"That's our defense, that's where the artisan cheese-maker is always going to have an edge," Montgomery says.

It's this complex community of microbes that intrigues the scientists and cheese-makers gathered in Somerset. For Rachel Dutton, whose lab at Harvard University studies everything from tangy stilton to creamy brie, cheese is a very cooperative subject, she says.

"I wanted to find a microbial community to study that I would be able to grow the organisms in the lab, deconstruct and reconstruct these communities," she says.

Dutton's team just finished a study of more than 130 different cheese samples from around the world. Different types of cheeses have different microbial tenants – less to do with geography, and more to do with cheese-making method, like whether you wash the rind of the cheese with brine, or age it, or keep it in a moist room.

Whatever type you favor, Dutton says that cheese could be affecting the microbes in your own body. Our guts are teeming with bacteria that help us digest food, and many of the bacteria found in fermented foods make it through the digestive tract unscathed.

But whether they interact much isn't clear, she says. "What they're doing, if anything, I think is still a wide-open question."

Cheese lovers would like to think that – like other microbe-rich foods – cheese could be good for us.

"There's a very good chance that consumption of them will influence the gut microbiome, and could in turn have some positive benefits," says microbiologist and cheesemaker Dennis D'Amico, who traveled to the meeting from his base at the University of Connecticut.

Those gains could include boosting metabolism, or stopping "bad" bugs from taking hold. But there's no evidence for this yet, because the microbes in our guts and in our foods are so complex that it's hard to work out how they affect each other.

Farm owner Jamie Montgomery is delighted that his cheese will be keeping scientists busy for a while yet. "They're all saying that in cheese, they're probably only scratching the surface. And I love that."

microbiome

cheese making

microbes

cheese

People often get flummoxed around death. Some get teary, others emotionally distant from the inevitable. An exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Death Becomes Her: A Century of Mourning Attire," embodies that tension with mourning fashion from the mid-1800s to the early 20th century. It has multi-layered fabric, tight bodices and enveloping head gear that emulates the garb of cloistered nuns. Even the faces of the ghost-white mannequins seem closed off, demure and unshakable. This is death at its most bloodless.

"I wanted Victorian melodrama; I wanted widows collapsing on the floor," says Harold Koda, curator in charge of the museum's Costume Institute. Still, Koda, who worked with a co-curator, says he would have liked a bit more juice in the installation. "You see an inert dress on a stiff mannequin. How do you get the fact that this was because somebody died, you know?"

i i

Joanna Ebenstein, creative director of the Morbid Anatomy Museum, poses with a taxidermy two-headed duckling. Liyna Anwar for StoryCorps hide caption

itoggle caption Liyna Anwar for StoryCorps

Joanna Ebenstein, creative director of the Morbid Anatomy Museum, poses with a taxidermy two-headed duckling.

Liyna Anwar for StoryCorps

Across the river, in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, the Morbid Anatomy Museum tells a different story. Creative Director Joanna Ebenstein describes a scene from the museum's gallery walls: "You see here four women weeping into handkerchiefs. Their faces are obscured by their handkerchiefs and they're standing around a column in black. To me, that sums up the romanticism of Victorian mourning."

Ebenstein is a very serious woman in her 40s; she wears glasses and shoulder-length, straight hair. Standing in the museum's front gallery, she points to a box with a glass top.

"What we're looking at here is a large, framed shadowbox and in that shadowbox is a wreath of brown flowers," she explains. "And if you look closely, each of those flowers is made from hair coiled around wire. And this is probably a whole family's hair; you can tell from the different colors — you can see gray, you can see black, you can see brown."

Part of the beauty, she says, is its permanence. "What symbolizes mourning more than a floral wreath? This is a floral wreath, made of the hair of the family, that will never decay."

i i

This shadowbox, which features a floral wreath of human hair, is also part of the museum's "Art of Mourning" exhibition. Shannon Taggart/Courtesy of the Morbid Anatomy Museum hide caption

itoggle caption Shannon Taggart/Courtesy of the Morbid Anatomy Museum

This shadowbox, which features a floral wreath of human hair, is also part of the museum's "Art of Mourning" exhibition.

Shannon Taggart/Courtesy of the Morbid Anatomy Museum

There can be beauty in death, but there's tragedy here too. One vitrine has photographs of dead infants, many of them swaddled in their mother's arms. To Ebenstein, none of this is morbid.

"My whole life I've been called morbid for thinking about death and I used accept that," she says. "And at a certain point, I began to think: Well, why is it morbid to look at death? If we're all going die and every single culture but us seems to have some sophisticated, aboveboard way of talking about it in art and philosophy, why don't we? And why should I be considered morbid for being interested in what I consider the greatest problem of being a human being, which is foreknowledge of our own death?"

Ebenstein seems to have come by this obsession naturally. In a back room of the museum, there's a library of books, bones, ephemera and specimens in jars (hence the museum's name). One jar holds a bat, another a snake and yet another a pig fetus, and they're all stored in a cabinet once owned by her grandfather, who was a doctor.

The Morbid Anatomy Museum's staff seems to be a kind of extended Addams family. Tracy Hurley Martin, the museum's CEO and board chair, grew up around death. She says, "Our uncle Vito had a funeral home and he lived in it and he treated people like they were deli meat."

For Morbid Anatomy Museum Founder, Spooky Things Are Life's Work Oct. 31, 2014

The museum's attraction is partly its creepy funereal vibe. The black painted building is no Metropolitan Museum of Art, but it's become a destination. Cawleen Cavanis lives in Queens, a 40 minute subway ride away. She brought a visiting friend and was checking out the gift shop's offerings: a diaphanized mouse, sugar skulls, museum T-shirts and books, including The Morbid Anatomy Anthology, with essays about stuffed humans and demonic children. "It looks like just a lot of interesting specimens here, you know," Cavanis says. "It's definitely worth the trip."

But if you're wondering about taking selfies in the museum, Joanna Ebenstein points to a sign on the door to the galleries: "Photograph taking, digital, analog, video, spirit, is absolutely forbidden."

For those visitors who want to do more than admire, or acquire, the Morbid Anatomy Museum has lectures and workshops on making a bat in a jar and Victorian hair art.

Wait Wait is in Austin, Texas this week, and so we've invited country singer Dale Watson to play our quiz. Watson has that true Austin sound — not to mention his own honky-tonk bar.

We've invited Watson to play a game called, "Elementary, my dear Dale!" Three questions about the immortal detective, Sherlock Holmes.