I am now working on adding in show descriptions for shows, filling the void between 2000 and 2004. This process will probably take a couple of weeks to complete. Thankfully, it isn’t quite as tedious as entering in the list of Not My Job guests. Please note that I am basing the show descriptions on what is listed in the show archives on NPR.org, so the level of detail may vary dramatically.

Once that has been completed, I will work on filling in the data for shows prior to 2000. It’s just easier to do it in chunks, particularly when the really early show information pages aren’t as easy to parse.

It is also unfortunate that a lot of the earlier show audio is no longer available through the Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! archives, so I will need to figure out other means to procure that information.

Next up? I’m going to try to finish filling in the Not My Job guest appearances.

The other additions to the page hint at an upcoming feature that I am currently coding up: statistics for both the show hosts and scorekeepers. At this point, I’m not sure exactly what statistics will be displayed. I don’t have a timeline on when I will have the new feature ready for release.

Tonight’s panelists were Peter Grosz, Roxanne Roberts and Roy Blount, Jr. (who has been one of panelists all three times that Wait Wait has been in Portland). Let’s just say that there were many, many hilarious moments and several not-so-PG jokes and comments; of which, only a few will probably make it on air.

For the Not My Job segment, Wait Wait had Colin Meloy of The Decemberists and he was tasked with answering questions about obscure protests. Why? Lookup “Decemberist revolt” on Wikipedia. Let’s just say that the audience helped Colin get his second point.

After the taping of the show, the producers had collected the sheets of paper that the audience members filled in and returned. They randomly selected one of the forms that had all three correct answers and had the audience member come up on stage. The audience member had to properly complete a limerick in order for the audience to get a small prize. Thankfully, the person got the last work of the limerick correct, and we all cheered.

Right after that, there is the usual audience Q&A session. After about 6-7 questions, I blurted out “Stats, man? What about stats?” (at least, that’s what I tried to shout but was really nervous and anxious). At which, Peter figured out that I was the maintainer of the Wait Wait Stats Page, asked me to stand up, and continued to explain to the audience about the page.

Once the Q&A session was over, I went up and asked for Carl Kasell’s autograph (which he graciously obliged) on the scratch score card I used to track points and scribbled notes. I got to also meet some of the guys and gals that help produce and edit the show. They stated how much they use the page and appreciated what I have done. Next up, the man himself, Peter Sagal. It was the very first time that I got to chat with him in person (though it wasn’t the first time I’ve seen him in person), was able to shake his hands and also got his autograph. He invited me to attend the aftershow meet and greet that OPB had for a select group of supporters.

I went up to the meet and greet, was able to meet and chat with Roxanne Roberts, and chatted with other audience and OPB members that had questions about the Wait Wait Stats Page. I chatted with Peter a little bit more, as well as Emily Ecton (one of the producers that asked if I wanted to be a listener contestant about five months ago).

I had a blast just being at the live taping of the show, but meeting Peter, Carl, Roxanne and the Wait Wait crew in person was unbelievably awesome. You know I’ll be waiting anxiously for the announcement of when Wait Wait will be back in town.

So, after a little bit of tinkering around with SQL queries, I was able to work out a view that I could query from the page’s PHP code. At first, the query included every show in which the panelist was on, including repeat and best of shows. The problem with that is not all best of shows have panelists associated to them, so the dates would not be as accurate as possible. A compromise was made to exclude appearances on repeats and best of shows.

The first draft was made available to the enthusiast with great appreciation. I have published an updated version of the page that links the first and latest panelist appearance dates to that show’s row on the page (more information about that feature was blogged recently).

I am looking at possibly turning each of the panelist listed for each show into a link that points to the panelist entry towards the end of the page. The only problem that I can foresee is that the panelist’s standing is already color coded and the link would alter that; otherwise, the link would not be evident. Maybe I’ll find a different way to handle that.

To link to a specific entry, you can use the following URL template:

http://closedsrc.org/_apps/waitwaitstats/#s<YYYYMMDD>

Replace “<YYYYMMDD>” with the show’s four digit year, two digit month and two digit day. For example, to create a link that points to the spot for the April 23, 2011 show, the URL you would use is:

http://closedsrc.org/_apps/waitwaitstats/#s20110423

I know, it’s a small update, but I hope someone finds it useful. :)