Lightning Fill In The Blank

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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 now worth two points. Carl, can you give us the scores?

CARL KASELL, Host:

We have a tie for first place, Peter. Roy Blount, Jr. and Amy Dickinson each has three points. Alonzo Boden has two.

SAGAL: All right. Alonzo, you're in third place, so you're up first. The clock will start when I begin your first question. Fill in the blank. To replace Rahm Emmanuel, President Obama named longtime aide Peter Rouse as his new blank.

ALONZO BODEN: White House chief of staff.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: AIG announced it had reached a deal to repay the billions of dollars it received during the blank.

BODEN: Bailout.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: The Postal Regulatory Commission said no to a proposed rate hike that would have increased the price of a blank to 46 cents.

BODEN: Stamp.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: After being briefly hospitalized in Cleveland for a stomach ailment, blank was released on Thursday.

BODEN: Jimmy Carter.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: A pair of teenagers who stole a car in Colorado Springs were easily caught because blank.

BODEN: It was a police car.

SAGAL: No, they didn't know how to drive a stick shift.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Bon Jovi, the Beastie Boys and Neil Diamond were among the musicians nominated this year for induction into the blank.

BODEN: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: The show "Dancing with the Stars" showed extra footage to prove that crowds were not, in fact, booing blank.

BODEN: Sarah Palin.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: A police officer in California is under investigation...

(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)

SAGAL: ...for arresting a young man for the crime of blanking.

BODEN: Oh, arresting a young man for the crime of crying?

SAGAL: No, for the crime of dating his daughter.

AMY DICKINSON: Oh, yeah.

SAGAL: In full uniform, the officer went to the boy's home, slapped the cuffs on him, and told him he was under arrest saying, a cop's daughter is not somebody you mess around with. You're stupid. It turns out the stupid one was the officer, though, because the boy's parents were taping it on video the whole time. Carl, how did Alonzo do on our quiz?

KASELL: Alonzo had six correct answers for 12 more points. He now has 14 points and Alonzo has the lead.

SAGAL: That was really well done, Alonzo.

(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)

BODEN: Thank you, Peter.

SAGAL: Well done.

DICKINSON: Good round.

SAGAL: All right, we have flipped a coin. Amy has selected to go second. So here we go, Amy, fill in the blank. With temperatures reaching 113, a heat wave in blank broke the thermometer.

DICKINSON: Los Angeles.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: President Obama won no fans among kids this week when he suggested lengthening the blank.

DICKINSON: School year.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: There were far fewer casualties than originally feared as a result of this week's landslide in blank.

DICKINSON: Mexico.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: The Senate unanimously passed a bill that would require television companies to broadcast blanks at the same volume as other programming.

DICKINSON: Ads.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: The winning design for Taiwan's "Protect Copyright" poster design contest was disqualified after judges discovered blank.

DICKINSON: It was a copy of another...

SAGAL: Copyrighted poster, yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Gloria Stuart, the actress who became the oldest Academy Award nominee for her performance in the movie blank died this week at 100 years old.

DICKINSON: "Titanic."

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: A stone carver, a typographer and a television producer were among the recipients of this year's blank grants.

DICKINSON: MacArthur.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: The owner of a Denver strip club revealed she sends her employees to be, quote, "trained by blank."

(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)

DICKINSON: Wait, the owner of a Denver strip club sends her employees to be trained by seals.

SAGAL: No. To be trained by Mickey Mouse.

DICKINSON: Oh, I was so close.

SAGAL: In a revealing interview, Debbie Matthews of Shotgun Willie's Strip Club in Denver says customer service at her place is so good because her managers are trained at Disney.

DICKINSON: Wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, the name of the place is Shotgun Willie's?

SAGAL: Shotgun Willie's Strip Club.

DICKINSON: Would you go into a place called Shotgun Willie's?

ROY BLOUNT JR: It's a Willie Nelson song.

DICKINSON: It just sounds dangerous.

SAGAL: If there were naked ladies inside men would go into a club called Moldy Anthrax.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: Men would go into a club called Your Armed Ex-wife. What are you talking about? They don't notice the name is what I'm saying.

DICKINSON: Okay.

SAGAL: Carl, how did Amy do on our quiz?

KASELL: Amy had seven correct answers for 14 more points. She now has 17 points, and Amy has taken the lead.

SAGAL: Well done.

(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: That was a commanding performance, Amy. So how many then does Roy need to win? I'm guessing a lot.

KASELL: Seven to tie.

SAGAL: Oh, my gosh.

KASELL: Eight to win outright.

SAGAL: Here we go, Roy. This is for the game. Fill in the blank. Authorities announced that they had thwarted a Mumbai style terror plot in blank.

BLOUNT JR: In Germany.

SAGAL: Yeah, in Germany, all over Europe, in fact.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: This week, AirTran Airlines was purchased by rival airline blank.

BLOUNT JR: Oh, God, I know this, Southwest.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: On Tuesday, North Korea announced that the youngest son of blank had been promoted to general.

BLOUNT JR: Kim Jong-il.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

BLOUNT JR: His name is Kim Jong-un.

SAGAL: Yeah, that's true.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: After it was reported by multiple news outlets, the U.N. was forced to announce that they had not appointed an ambassador for blank.

BLOUNT JR: Appointed an ambassador for public relations.

SAGAL: No, for aliens. A study found that one in three British homeowners have gotten into heated arguments with their neighbors over blank.

BLOUNT JR: Dogs.

SAGAL: Their trash cans. Jimi Heselden, the owner of the Segway Company, died this week when he blanked.

BLOUNT JR: He backed his Segway off a cliff.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Ben & Jerry's ice cream company agreed this week to drop the phrase blank from its labels.

BLOUNT JR: Yummy.

SAGAL: No. All natural. Things at the Commonwealth Games could be getting a lot more exciting now that organizers have hired blank to help with security.

(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)

BLOUNT JR: The Hell's Angels.

SAGAL: No. Forty monkeys.

DICKINSON: Monkeys.

BLOUNT JR: Oh, really.

SAGAL: The large grey Langur monkeys will be patrolling the athletes' village keeping an eye out for light-fingered rhesus monkeys. The rhesus monkeys have been known to break into buildings and steal equipment. But the monkeys won't be working alone. After one athlete found a live cobra in his room - this is true - organizers immediately hired 50 snake charmers to patrol the grounds.

DICKINSON: Can't somebody get a robot to do all of those jobs?

SAGAL: Yeah, honestly.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: A robot with a bow.

(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: Carl, did Roy do well enough to win?

KASELL: Roy needed at least seven to tie, but Roy had just four correct answers.

BLOUNT JR: Oh, God.

KASELL: So with 17 points, Amy Dickinson is this week's champion.

SAGAL: Well done.

(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: Well done, Amy. In just a minute, we are going to ask our panelists to predict what interesting situation we'll next hear NPR News as background music for.

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