Kai Ryssdal: This final note of a Friday afternoon. A chance to take a break from the big news of the week and catch up with what didn’t quite make the headlines. It comes to us courtesty of Rico Gagliano, Brendan Francis Newnam and the rest of the Marketplace staff.
Brendan Newnam: Stacey Vanek Smith, senior reporter for Marketplace. What’s your story?
Stacey Vanek Smith: Happy Girl Scout cookie season!
Newnam: Already, really?
Vanek Smith: I know!
Newnam: Wow, I didn’t get you anything.
Vanek Smith: The gift is self-evident, luckily, on this holiday — Tagalongs, by the way. And there’s something special this year about the Girl Scout cookie-buying experience: the Girl Scouts are now taking credit cards. Girl Scouts will have swipers and you can pay for them with plastic.
Newnam: So is this inconjunction with their new identity theft merit badge?
Rico Gagliano: Ethan Lindsay, producer of the Marketplace Morning Report. What story are you going to be talking about this weekend?
Ethan Lindsay: The new car smell, that mythical odor.
Gagliano: The perfume of the middle class.
Lindsay: Right. Well the Ecology Center, it’s a nonprofit group, came out and said that new car smell — it can kill you.
Gagliano: It can kill you?
Lindsay: It’s toxic. They’re spraying bromine and lead. That’s what smells so nice.
Gagliano: See, this explains why I’m so incredibly healthy.
Lindsay: Yeah, I have no problem getting into your car, Rico.
Gagliano: No, no. The rusting 2000 Corolla is completely — no one’s going to be made sick except to look at it.
Newnam: David Gura, Washington reporter for Marketplace. What story are you going to be talking about?
David Gura: This comes out of a magazine called International Living.
Newnam: Ah.
Gura: I’m not a subscriber to International Living.
Newnam: It’s kind of a broad topic.
Gura: Exactly. They have a message for retirees: Forget Florida — Ecuador. That’s where it’s at.
Newnam: Really?
Gura: They’re calling it the world’s top retirement haven. The magazine’s holding a contest, and the winner gets to spend a month in the Ecuador highlands, all expenses paid. All you’ve got to is tell the magazine why you want to spend your retirement in Ecuador.
Newnam: And so you have to be of retirement age, I’m guessing.
Gura: Yeah. And I think that this may be the most challenging part: You’ve got to tell them that in a three-minute video, which you’ve got to upload to YouTube. So good luck.
Newnam: So maybe if you have an ambitious grandchild who wants you to leave the country.
Gura: Get out of town, Grandma!
Ryssdal: The radio show that Brendan and Rico do is called The Dinner Party.
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