'It had to do with Cuba and missiles'

Appearing on National Public Radio's light-hearted quiz show "Wait, Wait . . . Don't Tell Me," which aired over the weekend, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino got into the spirit of things and told a story about herself that she had previously shared only in private: During a White House briefing, a reporter referred to the Cuban Missile Crisis -- and she didn't know what it was.

"I was panicked a bit because I really don't know about . . . the Cuban Missile Crisis. It had to do with Cuba and missiles, I'm pretty sure."

said Perino, who at 35 was born about a decade after the 1962 U.S.-Soviet nuclear showdown.

So she consulted her best source.

"I came home and I asked my husband," she recalled. "I said, 'Wasn't that like the Bay of Pigs thing?' And he said, 'Oh, Dana.'"

From a Washington Post article by Peter Baker appearing Monday, December 10, 2007.

Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis