PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Now it's time for 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 they can. Each correct answer is worth two points. Bill, can you give us the scores?
BILL KURTIS: Luke has two. Paula has three. And Alonzo has three.
SAGAL: All right, Luke, you're in third place. You're up first. The clock will start when I begin your first question. Fill in the blank. On Wednesday, the White House announced its support for waiving the patent protection for blank.
LUKE BURBANK: The vaccines.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, the Israeli opposition leader was given a chance to form a coalition government after blank failed to do so.
BURBANK: Benjamin Netanyahu.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Tuesday, the Department of Justice sent a letter detailing their concerns over an election audit in blank.
BURBANK: Arizona.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: After receiving over $200,000 in COVID relief money, a town in Japan spent it on blank.
BURBANK: A giant squid statue.
SAGAL: Exactly. And why not?
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Wednesday, an oversight board upheld Facebook's ban of blank.
BURBANK: D.J.T.
SAGAL: Exactly.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: According to a new study, the U.S. blank rate fell by four percent in 2020.
BURBANK: Birth.
SAGAL: Yes, birth rate.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, a boy in Minneapolis...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SAGAL: ...Was declared safe and also the envy of all his friends after he blanked at the airport.
BURBANK: Got to fly the plane.
SAGAL: No, better - rode the luggage conveyor belt. According to airport security, the 9-year-old and his family were placing their luggage on the belt when the boy decided that he also wanted to be misplaced somewhere between Minneapolis and Atlanta and dove in after it. He was found after a little while when he was taken home by another family who picked him up off the conveyor belt because he looked exactly like their kid, and who checks the tags these days?
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Every child has wanted to do this, and I know because I want to do it.
BURBANK: Yeah. Child? How about 45-year-old dude named me? I feel like on the other side of that, like, plastic curtain...
SAGAL: Yeah.
BURBANK: ...It's like the inside of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. There's a chocolate river. There's, like, a rainbow made of Skittles. Totally.
SAGAL: It's a world of pure imagination. Exactly. And they're just keeping it from us.
BURBANK: Yes.
SAGAL: Right.
ALONZO BODDEN: I don't know how much traveling you guys have done during the pandemic.
(LAUGHTER)
BODDEN: But I'm going to tell you the luggage carousel is the one place there was no COVID. Like, people just completely forgot about it when they got to the luggage carousel. There'll be no social distancing. There'll be - I'm grabbing my luggage. It was fascinating to watch.
SAGAL: It is true that, for some reason, at the luggage carousel there seems to be a general belief that the last person to retrieve their luggage from the carousel will be killed.
BODDEN: Absolutely. Absolutely.
SAGAL: And so you have to do everything you possibly can not to be that person. It can get vicious. Bill, how did Luke do on our quiz?
KURTIS: Well, he had six right, 12 more points. He now has 14. That gives him the lead.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE SOUND EFFECT)
SAGAL: All right. Let's arbitrarily say that Alonzo is up next. Fill in the blank. On Tuesday, President Biden announced a new goal to blank 70% of adults by the Fourth of July.
BODDEN: Vaccinate.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Thursday, the governor of Florida signed a bill heavily restricting blank rights in the state.
BODDEN: Voting rights.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: According to a new report, deaths from blank are likely to fall sharply by late July.
BODDEN: COVID.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: After trying to raise the money to buy the Colorado Rockies baseball team, a Denver-based brewery closed their fundraiser while short of their $1 billion goal by just blank.
BODDEN: Thousand dollars.
SAGAL: No, by $999,933,870. On Thursday, the Texas...
BODDEN: That's almost the same thing.
SAGAL: ...Almost. On Thursday, the Texas Senate passed a bill to allow people to carry blanks without a license.
BODDEN: Guns.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, a man in California...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SAGAL: ...Had the chance to witness a stunning flock of 800 birds when they blanked.
BODDEN: Attacked him?
SAGAL: No, when they flew into his house. More than 800 migrating birds decided, as a flock, to enter the chimney of Patrick Belleville's home. According to experts, this kind of bird likes to roost in trees and caves, and that's what they thought his chimney was, but they decided to stay in the home after seeing the tastefully appointed Spanish-Revival-style living room.
(LAUGHTER)
BODDEN: I'm going to go to the judges on that and say that if 800 birds come into your house, that qualifies as an attack.
BURBANK: (Laughter).
SAGAL: No, they were very nice.
BODDEN: No one ever had 800 friendly birds come down their chimney (laughter).
BURBANK: No, like that classic Hitchcock film, "The Friendly Birds," where those birds descend on a town and fix everything for people.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Bill, how did Alonzo do on our quiz?
KURTIS: He had four right for eight more points. He now has 11, but Luke still has the lead with 14.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE SOUND EFFECT)
SAGAL: All right. And how many, then, does Paula need to win?
KURTIS: Six to win.
SAGAL: All right, Paula, here we go for the game. On Wednesday, Republican Senator Jodi Ernst voiced her support for embattled GOP leader blank.
PAULA POUNDSTONE: Cheney.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Liz Cheney. On Tuesday, officials announced that blank had surpassed 20 million coronavirus cases.
POUNDSTONE: India.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, a federal judge struck down a nationwide freeze on blanks.
POUNDSTONE: Evictions.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Monday, a member of the Wisconsin National Guard was charged for participating in the riot at the blank.
POUNDSTONE: At the Capitol.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Last weekend, emergency responders in Pennsylvania were able to rescue a man after a tree fell and trapped him in blank.
POUNDSTONE: A port-a-potty.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: After the secretary of labor said that their workers should be classified as employees, ride share app blank's stock fell sharply.
POUNDSTONE: Uber?
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Wednesday, private space company blank successfully landed their starship prototype rocket.
POUNDSTONE: SpaceX.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: While the Ohio State legislator...
POUNDSTONE: ...Considered a distracted driving law, one representative blanked.
POUNDSTONE: Drove distractedly.
SAGAL: Yes, I'll give it to you. He actually joined a legislative meeting while driving.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
POUNDSTONE: Oh, geez.
SAGAL: The representative, Andrew Brenner, tried to hide what he was doing with a fake digital background of a living room behind him, but astute political observers noticed that he seemed to be wearing a seatbelt while in his living room.
POUNDSTONE: Oh, gosh.
SAGAL: When he was busted, he insisted that he had been parked for most of the meeting, but those same astute political observers also noticed trees and the sky whipping past the windows of his living room.
POUNDSTONE: (Laughter).
SAGAL: Bill, I think Paula did really well. Did she do well enough to win?
KURTIS: Look at Paula. She had eight right for sixteen more points so that, with 19, she is this week and maybe one of the overall champions. Congratulations.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE SOUND EFFECT)
SAGAL: You were, in fact, perfect.
POUNDSTONE: Wow.
SAGAL: I know.
POUNDSTONE: Wow.
KURTIS: Perfect score. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.