PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Now 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 they can, each correct answer now worth two points. Bill, can you give us the scores?
BILL KURTIS: Paula has two. Alonzo has three. And Tom has three.
SAGAL: Well, Paula, you are in second place, we'll call it, so you're up first. The clock will start when I begin your first question. Fill in the blank.
On Thursday, Shell announced their blank production had peaked and would now decrease every year.
PAULA POUNDSTONE: Oil.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Sunday, Representative Ron Wright became the first sitting member of Congress to die while diagnosed with blank.
POUNDSTONE: COVID.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, President Biden announced sanctions against the leaders of the military coup in blank.
POUNDSTONE: Myanmar.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Wednesday, Georgia prosecutors opened a criminal investigation of blank's attempts to overturn the election there.
POUNDSTONE: Oh, who's trying to overturn elections? Trump.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, a Massachusetts man who was arrested for cutting off his ankle monitor was released on the condition that he blank.
POUNDSTONE: Not cut off his ankle monitor again.
SAGAL: I'm going to give it to you because he's released on the condition that he wear an ankle monitor.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Monday, it was announced that blank would star in her own Netflix kid's show about eating healthy.
POUNDSTONE: Michelle Obama.
SAGAL: Yes...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: That's her cause. On Sunday, Tampa Bay beat Kansas City to win the 55th blank.
POUNDSTONE: Super Bowl.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: A virtual court hearing in Texas was disrupted this week...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SAGAL: ...When one of the lawyers couldn't figure out how to blank.
POUNDSTONE: Not be a cat.
(SOUNDBITE OF MEOWING CAT SOUND EFFECT)
SAGAL: Exactly right...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...To turn off the talking cat filter on his Zoom feed. The lawyer's daughter had apparently turned on the filter earlier in the day, so the Zoom hearing showed two very serious lawyers and one very serious cat.
(SOUNDBITE OF MEOWING CAT SOUND EFFECT)
SAGAL: Unfortunately, no one in the hearing could figure out how to turn the filter off, so the lawyer told everyone else, well, just go forward with it. Unfortunately, things only got more chaotic when he kept knocking off all his legal briefs off the table with a paw.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Bill, how did Paula do on our quiz?
KURTIS: Well, stand back and let me give you the score. She had eight right for 16 more points. She now has 18...
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE SOUND EFFECT)
KURTIS: ...And the lead. That's perfect.
SAGAL: Impressively good round.
POUNDSTONE: Thank you.
SAGAL: All right. Here we go. Alonzo, you're up next. Fill in the blank. On Sunday, President Biden said he wouldn't lift sanctions against blank until they stopped enriching uranium.
ALONZO BODDEN: Iran.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: According to Reuters, several high-profile Republicans had a meeting to discuss forming their own new blank.
BODDEN: Political party.
SAGAL: Right.
SAGAL: This week, all three main U.S. blank indexes closed at record highs.
BODDEN: Stock. Wall Street.
SAGAL: Yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Wednesday, the teachers union in blank reached an agreement to reopen schools.
BODDEN: Arizona.
SAGAL: No, Chicago. This week, a woman in New Zealand was sentenced for trying to enter that country while smuggling blank.
BODDEN: Americans.
SAGAL: No, almost 1,000 cactuses strapped to her body under her clothes. According to new numbers, 1 in 10 Americans have gotten at least their first blank shot.
BODDEN: Oh, vaccine - COVID vaccine.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Monday, Mary Wilson, one of the founding members of the Blanks, passed away at the age of 76.
BODDEN: Supremes.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: After a math professor in Singapore...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SAGAL: ...Completed a two-hour lecture over Zoom, he blanked.
BODDEN: Wow - passed away.
SAGAL: No. He realized he had been on mute the entire time.
POUNDSTONE: Wow.
SAGAL: The mathematics professor got through his entire two-hour lecture before realizing that his mic had been turned off. Because his students couldn't interact with him until the Q and A session at the end of the lesson, they were unable to let him know that no one could hear him, which I'm sure they would have done if they could. Am I right?
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Bill, how did Alonzo do on our quiz?
KURTIS: Alonzo had five right for 10 more points. He now has 13, but Paula still has the lead - wow - with an 18.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE SOUND EFFECT)
SAGAL: Wow. Very good. So how many, then, does Tom need to win?
KURTIS: Tom needs eight to win.
SAGAL: All right.
TOM BODETT: I just can see - can I just quit?
SAGAL: No, no, no.
KURTIS: (Laughter).
SAGAL: This is for the game. Fill in the blank. On Thursday, Dr. Fauci predicted that everyone would be able to get blanked starting in April.
BODETT: Vaccinated.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Monday, House Democrats began discussing plans to raise the blank to $9.50 by the end of the year.
BODETT: The federal minimum wage.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, the Federal Reserve said they'd keep blanks low until the labor market recovered.
BODETT: Interest rates.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Wednesday, President Biden had his first call with the president of blank since taking office.
BODETT: Putin.
SAGAL: No, China. After getting reports of a body lying in the snow, police in Amsterdam arrived at the scene and discovered the body was blank.
BODETT: It was just sleeping there.
SAGAL: No. It was just, quote, "a really weird snowman." Reversing Trump's push to force its sale, President Biden eased pressure on social media app blank.
BODETT: Parler - or...
SAGAL: No...
BODETT: ...TikTok.
SAGAL: TikTok - yes, I'll give it to you.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: A New York woman was shocked this week when her Nest security camera alerted her...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SAGAL: ...To a suspicious figure in her house, but was relieved when it was blank.
BODETT: Herself.
SAGAL: No, it was just a pillow with a dog wearing glasses embroidered on it.
POUNDSTONE: (Laughter).
SAGAL: The Nest security camera sends alerts about potential threats to your phone, so the woman was understandably frightened - at least, until she looked at the footage and discovered the camera had mistaken the embroidered dog pillow on her couch for an intruder. Clearly, Nest needs to work on what is considered a threat. A cute dog pillow - no. That entire box of Oreos just sitting there - definitely.
POUNDSTONE: (Laughter).
SAGAL: Bill, how did Tom do on our quiz?
KURTIS: This is for the history books. Tom had four right for eight more points, total of 11. But that's not enough to catch Paula. Once again, she's our champ with 18 points.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE SOUND EFFECT)
SAGAL: That's amazing.
BODETT: Well done.
POUNDSTONE: You know what? I am - I hope that this isn't too self-aggrandizing, but I hope to shave today's date into my leg hair.
(LAUGHTER) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.