PETER SAGAL, Host:
Now, it's time to move on to our final game, Lightning Fill in the Blank. Each of our players now has sixty seconds in which to answer as many fill in the blank questions as he or she can. Each correct answer now worth two points. Carl, can you give us the scores?
CARL KASELL, Host:
Amy Dickinson has the lead, Peter. She has three points. Brian Babylon and Mo Rocca, they're tied for second. Each one has two points.
SAGAL: All right. Well, we have flipped a coin and Brian has elected to go second. So that means, Mo, you're up first. Please fill in the blank. Former President Bush declined President Obama's invitation to join him as he lay a wreath at blank.
MO ROCCA: The 9/11 World Trade Center site.
SAGAL: Yes, Ground Zero.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Last week the number of people applying for blank benefits surged to the highest levels in eight months.
ROCCA: Unemployment.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Saying it is quote "the most appalling spying machine ever invented" Julian Assange railed against the social networking site blank.
ROCCA: Facebook.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Because of a blown circuit in the fuse box, the launch of the next to last blank flight was delayed again.
ROCCA: Space shuttle.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: A Florida man attempting to shoplift a case of beer was foiled by blank.
ROCCA: His saggy pants.
SAGAL: Indeed.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: They fell. It's on video. Isabella and Jacob, two of the character names from the blank series, were 2010's most popular baby names.
ROCCA: They're part of a series of books?
SAGAL: They are. Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
ROCCA: The Harry Potter books?
SAGAL: No, the Twilight books.
ROCCA: Oh sorry.
SAGAL: In response to a 911 call, police in Salem, Massachusetts arrived at the house and discovered the call came from blank.
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
ROCCA: A bonobo.
SAGAL: No.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
ROCCA: It was hungry.
SAGAL: The house. It came from the house. It was an eerie scene when police slowly realized the call had come from inside the house. But how could an inanimate object with no fingers dial the phone? Apparently a burst pipe caused the phone system to short-circuit which triggered the 911 call. And the police then saved the house from destruction. However, that doesn't explain how the house then called Dominoes and ordered large pizzas for the officers.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Carl, how did Mo do on our quiz?
KASELL: Mo had five correct answers, for ten more points. He now has twelve points and Mo has taken the lead.
SAGAL: Well done, all right.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Brian, you're up next. Fill in the blank. In a change of position, on Monday Turkey urged Gadhafi to cede power and leave blank.
BRIAN BABYLON: Leave the country.
SAGAL: Yeah, well, which country?
BABYLON: Libya.
SAGAL: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: For the first time since the earthquake, workers entered the Number 1 reactor at the nuclear plant in blank.
BABYLON: Japan.
SAGAL: Good enough, yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Tribal leaders and Native American groups were offended that the code name used in the Osama bin Laden mission was blank.
BABYLON: Operation Geronimo.
SAGAL: Exactly.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: CBS announced that Scott Pelley would be replacing blank as the anchor of the CBS Evening News.
BABYLON: True.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Would be replacing blank?
BABYLON: Oh, Katie Couric.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Police arrested a South Carolina man who called 911 to complain that blank.
BABYLON: That he was too drunk to drive.
SAGAL: To complain that his crack cocaine dealer had given him incorrect change.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Claude Choules, the world's last surviving combat veteran of blank, died at age 110.
BABYLON: WWI.
SAGAL: Exactly right, World War I.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: As part of her "Let's Move" initiative, Michelle Obama visited a DC school and blanked with hundreds of middle school kids.
BABYLON: Danced.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: A Canadian man's online dating experience went bad when his blind date turned out to be blank.
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
BABYLON: I'm not going to say bonobo.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
BABYLON: His blind date was blind.
SAGAL: No, his blind date turned out to be his own girlfriend.
BABYLON: Terrible.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: If you're a fan...
AMY DICKINSON: Whoa.
SAGAL: Of the Pina Colada song, in which the man and his girlfriend reconnect through the personal ads, you'd expect this scenario to end with a few rueful chuckles.
BABYLON: Yep.
SAGAL: That was not the scenario for the man in question. His girlfriend did not like Pina Coladas. She did like throwing her caramel mocchachino in his face.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Carl.
DICKINSON: Well, wait a minute.
BABYLON: Wait a minute.
DICKINSON: She's awful.
BABYLON: Wait a minute.
DICKINSON: She also went on a blind date.
SAGAL: We spent like an inordinate amount of time trying to work this out. And the only thing we could think of is like she must have, like, answered the personal ad to trap him. That's the only thing we could think of.
DICKINSON: Oh, nice.
ROCCA: I didn't realize that that's what that song was about.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
DICKINSON: If you like - yeah.
SAGAL: Have you never listened to that song?
DICKINSON: And you like walks in the rain.
ROCCA: You know, the thing is I wasn't - yeah.
SAGAL: Well, he says...
DICKINSON: That's the personal ad.
SAGAL: He said I was tired of my lady or something like that.
DICKINSON: (singing) I was tired of my lady.
BABYLON: No, I think it was.
BABYLON: (Singing) Tired of my lady.
BABYLON: Yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: That is the ad. Do you like pina colada, do you like walks in the rain? And then he meets. You know, yes, I like pina, and then meet her and it's like, I didn't know you liked...
ROCCA: I thought he was just asking us these questions.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Oh Mo, it's always about you.
ROCCA: No, I though it was collectively.
DICKINSON: Do you like pina coladas, right?
ROCCA: And I was like, yes.
DICKINSON: And walks in the rain?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
ROCCA: No.
SAGAL: Carl.
ROCCA: It's a pollster song.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: It really is. Carl, how did Brian do on our quiz?
KASELL: Brian had six correct answers for twelve more points. Brian now has fourteen points and he's taken the lead.
SAGAL: All right.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: So how many then does Amy need to win?
KASELL: Six correct answers.
SAGAL: Here we go, Amy. This is for the game. Fill in the blank. On Thursday, Army head General Kayani said he would not tolerate a repeat of Sunday's covert operation in blank.
DICKINSON: Pakistan.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: President Obama and Seth Meyers both roasted Donald Trump at this year's blank last Saturday.
DICKINSON: Washington Correspondents' Dinner.
SAGAL: Right, White House Correspondents' Dinner.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Massachusetts senator Scott Brown has asked to be sent to blank for his National Guard duty this year.
DICKINSON: Afghanistan.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Government engineers blew up a third section of levee to relieve the threat of flooding from the blank river.
DICKINSON: Mississippi.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Thanks to a study in the journal Current Zoology, we discovered this week that red footed tortoises are not susceptible to blank.
DICKINSON: Athlete's foot.
SAGAL: Contagious yawning.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: "The Book of Mormon," a musical from the creators of TV's South Park, received 14 blank nominations this week.
DICKINSON: Tony nominations.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Twenty two year old Chicago Bulls player Derrick Rose became the youngest blank in NBA history on Tuesday.
DICKINSON: MVP, go Bulls.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING)
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: After a failed attempt to detain him, Buffalo police are on the lookout for a man who is blank.
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
DICKINSON: A failed attempt to detain him? He has greased himself, so he's very hard to catch.
SAGAL: No. They're on the lookout for a man who is handcuffed to a small chair.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: The man was taken in for questioning, and they handcuffed him to a chair, but they didn't handcuff the chair to anything.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: And he...
DICKINSON: Just walked out.
SAGAL: Police say they would like to have the chair back now.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Along with the suspect if possible.
ROCCA: Funny.
SAGAL: They also emphasized that it was a small chair, so stop bringing in men handcuffed to barcaloungers.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: It's not him.
ROCCA: It's probably on wheels.
SAGAL: Carl, did Amy do well enough to win?
KASELL: She needed six correct answers, Peter. She had six correct answers.
SAGAL: Well done.
KASELL: So with fifteen points, Amy Dickinson is this week's champion.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Bravo.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.