MIKE PESCA, HOST:
Now on to our final game, Lightning Fill In The Blank. Each of our players will have 60 seconds in which to answer as many fill in the blank questions as he or she can. Each correct answer is worth two points. Carl, can you give us the scores?
CARL KASELL: We have a tie for first place. Roy Blount, Jr. and Tom Bodett each has three points. Kyrie O'Connor has two.
PESCA: Kyrie, so you're in third place. You're going to go first. The clock will start when I begin your question. Are you ready?
KYRIE O'CONNOR: I am ready.
PESCA: All right. Fill in the blank. On Thursday, President Obama unveiled new surveillance rules for the blank.
O'CONNOR: NSA.
PESCA: Correct.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
PESCA: On Thursday, Connecticut became the first state in the country to raise the blank to $10.10 an hour.
O'CONNOR: Minimum wage.
PESCA: Got it.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
PESCA: Three members of President Obama's blank were sent home from Amsterdam after one was found passed out in a hotel hallway.
O'CONNOR: Secret Service detail.
PESCA: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
PESCA: Because of its handling of its cars' faulty ignition switches, multiple lawsuits were filed against automaker blank.
O'CONNOR: GM.
PESCA: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
PESCA: A wealthy owner just claimed his luxury yacht from a Swedish harbor after leaving it there because he blanked.
O'CONNOR: He forgot where he parked.
PESCA: Absolutely correct.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
PESCA: Forgot he had a yacht.
(LAUGHTER)
PESCA: As a settlement for price fixing, customers of Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other retailers received credits this week for past blank purchases.
O'CONNOR: E-books.
PESCA: Correct.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
PESCA: On Tuesday, singer P. Diddy announced he was changing his name back to blank.
O'CONNOR: Puff Daddy.
PESCA: Correct.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
PESCA: This week we learned a teacher in Belgium...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
PESCA: ...keeps his students from misbehaving by threatening them with blank.
O'CONNOR: Justin Bieber tickets.
PESCA: Game of thrones spoilers.
(LAUGHTER)
O'CONNOR: Whoa.
PESCA: The teacher has read all the books, so he knows exactly who's going to die how they're going to die, where to send the raven, and for every infraction another death spoiler goes up on the blackboard. This has proven a lot more effective than when he threatened to write down the character who gets naked in the new episode of "Girls."
(LAUGHTER)
PESCA: Good round, Carl. How did Kyrie do?
KASELL: Kyrie had seven correct answers for 14 more points. She now has 16 points and Kyrie has taken the lead.
PESCA: All right.
(APPLAUSE)
PESCA: OK. We've flipped a coin. Roy has elected to go next. Roy, fill in the blank. First lady Michelle Obama and her daughters fed pandas on the last day of their visit to blank.
ROY BLOUNT JR.: China.
PESCA: Correct.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
PESCA: The operator of that train that derailed this week at Chicago's blank airport admitted to dozing off before the crash.
JR.: O'Hare.
PESCA: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
PESCA: A report released commissioned by Chris Christie this week said that there was no evidence to implicate blank in the New Jersey bridge closing scandal.
JR.: Chris Christie.
PESCA: Correct.
(LAUGHTER)
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
PESCA: After just 25 games, all the fans who signed up to win a billion dollars by picking a perfect blank bracket were eliminated.
JR.: NCAA.
PESCA: That's right, March Madness Bracket.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
PESCA: After she choked on a piece of hard candy, a woman in Britain was saved when her dog blanked.
JR.: Did, you know, the Heimlich.
PESCA: That is right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
(LAUGHTER)
JR.: Oh, really?
PESCA: This week the IRS announced that the digital currency blank will be taxed as property.
JR.: Bitcoin.
PESCA: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
PESCA: In a blog post on goop.com titled conspicuous uncoupling, actress blank announced her separation from Coldplay singer Chris Martin.
JR.: Gwyneth Paltrow.
PESCA: Correct.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
PESCA: An Australian man who threw his drug stash out of his 14th story...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
PESCA: ...window during a police raid was busted anyway when it blanked.
JR.: Bounced.
PESCA: Landed on a cop's head.
JR.: Oh.
(LAUGHTER)
PESCA: The man thought he'd be in the clear if he threw his drug Tupperware out of the window, but no. As for the policeman below, it was like that classic weather girls song, it's raining meth.
(LAUGHTER)
PESCA: Carl, how did Roy do?
KASELL: Roy had seven correct answers for 14 more points. He now has 17 points and Roy has the lead.
PESCA: All right.
(APPLAUSE)
PESCA: Set the stage, if you would, Carl. How many does Tom need to win?
KASELL: Seven to tie, eight to win outright (unintelligible) .
PESCA: All right, Tom. This is for the game. Fill in the blank. On Thursday, President Obama traveled to Rome for his first meeting with blank.
TOM BODETT: The Pope.
PESCA: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
PESCA: Treacherous conditions hindered rescue efforts after homes were destroyed by a blank in Washington State.
BODETT: Mudslide.
PESCA: Correct.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
PESCA: After it paid 2 billion dollars for a virtual reality company, stock prices for the social networking site blank fell.
BODETT: Facebook.
PESCA: Correct.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
PESCA: This week jurors in New York convicted the son in law of blank on terrorism charges.
BODETT: Osama bin Laden.
PESCA: That is right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
PESCA: In Michigan, the tables were turned when a large pothole swallowed a blank.
BODETT: Oh, it's the pothole maintenance crew's truck.
PESCA: That's right. A pothole repair truck.
(LAUGHTER)
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
PESCA: Astronomers announced this week that they've discovered a new blank on the edge of the solar system they've nicknamed Biden.
BODETT: Oh yeah, it's a heavenly body and it's a planetoid I think is the...
PESCA: Yeah, OK. Dwarf planet. We'll take planetoid, yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
PESCA: The magazine Vogue was criticized this week for its cover featuring blank blankdashian and blankye blank.
(LAUGHTER)
BODETT: I think even with all those hints I might screw this up. I think it's Kanye West and Kim Kardashian and...
PESCA: That is correct.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
BODETT: ...and maybe the kid, I don't know.
PESCA: Indiana police suspected a man may have been drunk driving when they found him behind the wheel blanking.
BODETT: Driving drunk.
(LAUGHTER)
PESCA: Wearing his pants as a shirt.
BODETT: Whoa.
(LAUGHTER)
PESCA: According to the arresting officers, Bryan Hill was quote "wearing only a t-shirt, underwear and one sock. He did have pants on, but they were on his arms. Both arms were inserted into the legs of his jeans."
BODETT: Oh boy, we've all been there, yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
PESCA: Well, as I call a Thursday. Police say the man tried to make them think he was sober, but they could tell he was just talking out of his ass.
(LAUGHTER)
JR.: That's not drunk driving. That's just drunk dressing.
(LAUGHTER)
PESCA: Carl, how did Tom do? Well enough to win?
KASELL: He had seven correct answers so co-champions are Roy Blount, Jr. and Tom Bodett.
O'CONNOR: Good work, guys.
(APPLAUSE)
PESCA: In just a minute, we will ask our panelists, now that Russia's out of the G8, what will they join? But first let me tell you... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
