PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Now onto 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 now worth two points. Bill, can you give us the scores?
BILL KURTIS: Paula has 1. Roxanne has 2, and Peter has 4.
SAGAL: All right, Paula.
PAULA POUNDSTONE: Sir.
SAGAL: You are in third place. That means you go first.
POUNDSTONE: Oh, right.
SAGAL: The clock will start when I begin your first question. Fill in the blank...
POUNDSTONE: OK. Yeah.
SAGAL: On Monday, Indonesia declared a state of emergency as workers continue to search for survivors of the blank that hit that island's coast.
POUNDSTONE: The tsunami.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Sunday, officials in North Korea said the continuing U.S. sanctions made blank less likely.
POUNDSTONE: Getting rid of their nuclear weapons.
SAGAL: Exactly. Denuclearization. This week...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...A Navy veteran was arrested for sending a pair of suspicious letters to the blank.
POUNDSTONE: To the Pentagon.
SAGAL: Right. On Monday...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...The governor of California signed a law requiring that publicly traded companies include blanks on their boards of directors.
POUNDSTONE: Women.
SAGAL: Right. This week...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...Arby's began a promotion that offered blank to anyone who got a tattoo of their logo.
(LAUGHTER)
POUNDSTONE: I don't know. Free food?
SAGAL: No, nothing at all.
POUNDSTONE: Wow.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: On Thursday, The Recording Academy announced it was inviting 900 women and people of color to vote on this year's blank nominations.
POUNDSTONE: Grammys?
SAGAL: Yes. This week...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...An American Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SAGAL: ...Landing after a passenger refused to stop blanking.
POUNDSTONE: Bagpipes. Refused to play the bagpipes.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: No, he refused to stop doing pullups on the overhead bins.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: The man, who was already visibly intoxicated when he boarded the plane, started making trouble almost immediately. He ordered more drinks, stood in the aisle. And when the flight attendants asked him to sit down, he did what any drunk person does when confronted with their bad behavior and started screaming, I like beer.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: I still like beer. Bill, how did Paula do?
KURTIS: Pretty good. Five right. 10 more points. Total of 11 puts her in the lead.
SAGAL: All right. That was very good, Paula.
POUNDSTONE: Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Roxanne, you are up next. Fill in the blank. On Thursday, the Justice Department indicted seven Russian spies for a hacking plot tied to the leak of drug testing data from the blank.
ROXANNE ROBERTS: From the Olympics.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: After an international court ruled against new White House-backed sanctions, the U.S. chose to end a decades-old treaty with blank.
ROBERTS: Iran.
SAGAL: Right. This week...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...Four white supremacists were arrested in connection with last year's rally in blank.
ROBERTS: Charlottesville.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Monday, former President blank released a second set of endorsements for elections in November.
ROBERTS: Obama.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: For their pioneering research in treating cancer, American and Japanese researchers won the blank Prize for medicine this week.
ROBERTS: The Nobel.
SAGAL: Right. On Thursday...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...A blank outbreak tied to recalled eggs spread to its seventh state.
ROBERTS: Salmonella...
SAGAL: Right. After a year...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...Of anticipation, an exotic animal park in England...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SAGAL: ...Opened their new penguin exhibit this week, though zoogoers were disappointed to discover the animals were blank.
ROBERTS: They were stuffed.
SAGAL: Oh, you're so close. They were just cardboard cutouts.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: Aw.
POUNDSTONE: Wow.
SAGAL: The Telford zoo's new, much-hyped penguin enclosure was missing just one thing - penguins. They were unable to get any actual birds, so they just filled the whole thing...
ROBERTS: (Laughter).
SAGAL: ...With cardboard cutouts of penguins.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Bill, how did Roxanne do on our quiz?
KURTIS: Six right, 12 more points - 14 puts her in the lead.
SAGAL: All right. So then how many...
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: How many does Peter need to ruin Roxanne's day and take it from her?
KURTIS: (Laughter). Five to tie and six to win.
SAGAL: Here we go. Peter...
PETER GROSZ: We're going to tie.
SAGAL: ...This is for the game. Fill in the blank. On Wednesday, a judge in California blocked the White House from ending protections for 300,000 blanks.
GROSZ: Corporations.
SAGAL: No, immigrants. Following accusations that he had misled investors, blank stepped down as Tesla's chairman.
GROSZ: Elon Musk.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, Barham Salih, a moderate Kurd, was elected president of blank.
GROSZ: Iraq?
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, police in a small town in Ohio put out an advisory, asking residents to stop blanking.
GROSZ: Immigrants was the right answer last time. Immigrants.
SAGAL: No. To...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: They asked them to stop calling 911 to report seeing a coyote. It's just a coyote. It can live there. This week, police in a small town in Minnesota put out an advisory...
GROSZ: Oh, Jesus.
SAGAL: ...Asking residents to stop blanking.
GROSZ: Stop this coyote. Same reason?
SAGAL: No, stop calling 911 when they see a drunk bird.
ROBERTS: (Laughter). A drunk bird.
SAGAL: On Monday...
POUNDSTONE: Oh, yeah.
SAGAL: ...Amazon announced it would raise the minimum wage of its workers to blank.
GROSZ: Fifteen dollars an hour...
SAGAL: Yes. On Sunday...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...European golfers beat the U.S. golfers to claim their sixth consecutive blank cup.
GROSZ: Ryder Cup.
SAGAL: Right. This week...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...An FBI agent investigating a property in Oregon...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SAGAL: ...Was injured after he dodged a booby-trapped hot tub but was blanked.
GROSZ: He dodged a booby-trapped hot tub but was hit by a log that was a log...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: No, he dodged the booby-trapped hot tub but was shot by a booby-trapped wheelchair. According to the agent, the house was filled with so many traps, it was like an "Indiana Jones" movie. There were floors with spikes on them, a circular hot tub set on its side that was rigged to roll over any intruders, and, of course, a wheelchair that had been equipped with a shotgun. The agent is expected to make a full recovery right after he has some of this cheese that's just sitting here in this big wire thing, completely unguarded.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Bill, did Peter do well enough to win?
KURTIS: Well, he tried to close the gap. He got four right, eight more points. Total of 12 means Roxanne is our winner this week.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Bravo, Roxanne. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
