Paula Poundstone

Listening to Paula Poundstone is awesome. Although she had no idea who I was and had to be reminded in mid-interview what city I was calling from, Poundstone entertained her audience of one.

Here’s what 50-year-old Poundstone had to say when she answered the phone at her home in Santa Monica, Calif., on an August morning.

This day at home:

“It’s a bit chaotic. This morning a cat peed in the electrical outlet behind the microwave. I think they have done it before. But what attracted me to it at the time was this crackling noise.

“If you don’t have a damp rag in your hand at all times, you are going to go under here.”

15 cats in the house:

“I spend my whole life — probably a couple of hours of cleaning a day — just because of them. Fortunately, I’m fairly certain that shifting litter is a good exercise for mental health. So I feel good about that.”

Making small films:

“My Thanksgiving film, which was a tour de force, I did entirely by myself. Everything from the props, which was mostly squash, everything but for bird noises. Those were provided by my dog, who had a squeaky toy and happened to choose that moment to chew it. So I was forced to include bird noises.

“It’s really fun. I love the idea of getting rid of the gatekeepers. It’s not like anybody is watching. You know how you see how many people viewed stuff (on YouTube)? It’s pretty much me and my kids. And my son hasn’t even been doing his share of viewing.”

Social media:

“I do silly, stupid Twitter and silly, stupid Facebook and enjoy them all. But I do believe that both things are fads and will go away and will probably be replaced by something equally annoying.”

Support for libraries:

“Every now and then someone will say to me — I’ll be doing a radio interview and they will say: Why libraries? As if it was somehow a controversial choice of something to support.

“I haven’t really had to take a courageous stand on behalf of the libraries.”

Keeping pace:

“Years ago, when I was young and more stupid, I would sometimes feel some amount of chafing under my schedule and I would think to myself that I was somehow overworked and things were too difficult and there was just too much going on all the time.

“And then I realized one day that I totally assembled this. It’s not like I was knocked up unbeknownst to me. All of my children are adopted.

“No cat gave birth to kittens under my house, and then just sort of took over.

“So pretty much everything was by my doing. And then I realized that: Gee, the reason I did that is because I really like to keep a brisk pace.

“It turns out that I actually enjoy it.

“I also enjoy complaining.

“The two go really well together.”

“Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me”:

“At the 10th anniversary party for the NPR news quiz show in 2008, producers announced show trivia and stats. One of the statistics was: How many times had panelists got none right during the lightning round?

“And the answer was only one.

“And I’m sitting there — and I swear I’m not making this up —wondering and laughing because it’s such a funny idea.

“But the funniest part was that it turned out to be me, and it had happened two weeks before this dinner.

“I had no recollection of it. So if that had been in a lightning-round question, I would have gotten that wrong, too. And it was about me.”

Can she name all 15 cats, who will star in the paulapoundstone. com cat cam? “Oh heavens, yes. (Hey guys, she wants to know if I can name the 15 cats in the video.)

“Rutherford, Matilda, Clue for Inspector Clouseau.

“Brittle, Jem, Oreo.

“Laurel and Hardy. That’s almost cheating.

“I could be getting into troubled waters here.

“Belle, Harrison. How many is that?

“Wednesday, Theo, Luigi.

“Oh my. You know what’s really crazy? I have all these cats, right. And none are sitting in front of me.

“Severus

“Oh, and Thomas

“OK, don’t tell anybody, but we’ve got one more.

“Shamwow.”