PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Now, it's 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. Bill, can you give us the score?
BILL KURTIS: Our newbie, Maeve, has 3. Adam has 3, and Helen has 1.
ADAM BURKE: Oh, my goodness.
SAGAL: Helen, you're in third place. You're up first...
HELEN HONG: OK.
SAGAL: The clock will start when I begin your first question. Fill in the blank. On Sunday, President Trump tweeted another attack on Attorney General blank.
HONG: Jeff Sessions.
SAGAL: Right...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: During congressional hearings on Wednesday, the heads of social media sites Twitter and blank defended their companies.
HONG: Twitter and Facebook.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, Ayanna Pressley won a primary victory over 10-term incumbent Michael Capuano for a House seat in blank.
HONG: In Massachusetts.
SAGAL: That's right...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Thursday, the blanks announced they were abandoning their newly announced best popular film category.
HONG: The Oscars.
SAGAL: Right. A man...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...In Indianapolis called the police this week to complain that his neighbor blanked.
HONG: Was mowing the lawn naked?
SAGAL: No. He called police to complain that his neighbor had changed her Wi-Fi password, and he could no longer steal her Wi-Fi.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: This week, millions of items were destroyed after a fire consumed the National Museum of blank.
HONG: Brazil.
SAGAL: Right. Best known...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...For films like "Smokey And The Bandit" and "Boogie Nights," actor blank passed away at the age of 82.
HONG: Burt Reynolds.
SAGAL: Right. This week...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...A man in Texas was taken to the hospital after he threw an...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SAGAL: ...Ax at a train and it blanked.
HONG: Hit the tires?
SAGAL: No, he threw the ax at the train, and it bounced off and hit him in the head.
HONG: What?
MAEVE HIGGINS: Aw.
SAGAL: According to police, the man was standing near the tracks around midnight when he hurled his ax at an oncoming train, as one does.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Well, it hit the side, rebounded, flew back to the man, hitting him in the head.
HONG: What?
HIGGINS: This is the deodorant that you were talking about...
SAGAL: Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Bill, how did Helen do on our quiz? I thought pretty well.
KURTIS: Yeah. She's climbing back. She got six right, 12 more points, a total of 13 and the lead.
SAGAL: Well done. All right.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: We now have a tie. Adam, we flipped a coin, and Adam has elected to go next. So fill in the blank, Adam. This week, former Arizona Senator Jon Kyl was appointed to fill blank's seat.
BURKE: McCain.
SAGAL: Right. Following...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...An uproar from other attendees, The New Yorker canceled blank's headlining appearance at their ideas festival.
BURKE: Steve Bannon.
SAGAL: Right. On Monday, a judge in blank sentenced two journalists from Reuters to seven years in prison for reporting on the Rohingya crisis.
BURKE: I want to say Burma, but that's wrong.
SAGAL: Well, it's...
BURKE: Myanmar.
SAGAL: Myanmar. Yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: After an investigation, Ottawa police concluded that blank was not a danger to the public.
BURKE: Beavers.
SAGAL: An old van with the words free candy written on the side.
(LAUGHTER)
HIGGINS: Oh, my God...
SAGAL: Russia's space agency said they're weighing the possibility that someone intentionally caused the oxygen leak in the blank.
BURKE: The ISS - the space station....
SAGAL: Space station. In an attempt...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...To make their fish seem more fresh, a market in Kuwait was caught blanking.
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
BURKE: Putting googly eyes on the fish.
SAGAL: That's exactly right, Adam.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
HIGGINS: (Laughter).
(APPLAUSE)
HONG: I knew that one, too.
SAGAL: I'll - yes. I'll have two pounds of your wackiest halibut, please.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: The owners have...
HIGGINS: Look at me.
SAGAL: ...Apologized and promised not to do it again. But they did breathe a sigh of relief that health inspectors did not notice that all of their chicken breasts were wearing falsies.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Bill, how did Adam do on our quiz?
KURTIS: Well, pressure's building. He got five right, 10 more points, 13, which ties...
SAGAL: All right.
AUDIENCE: Ooh.
KURTIS: ...Helen.
SAGAL: So how many...
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: ...Does Maeve need to walk in here and win the first time out?
KURTIS: Well, she needs five to tie, so she needs six to win...
HIGGINS: Six.
SAGAL: All right. Here we go, Maeve. This is for the game. Fill in the blank. On Tuesday, Robert Mueller's team say they would accept some written answers from blank on his campaign's ties to Russia.
HIGGINS: The president.
SAGAL: Right. On Monday...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...Nike announced...
HIGGINS: President Clinton.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: On Monday, Nike announced that former 49ers quarterback blank would be one of the faces of their new ad campaign...
HIGGINS: Colin Kaepernick.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Meteorologists are predicting that the first major blank of 2018 could hit the U.S. as early as next week.
HIGGINS: Snow storm?
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: No, not that bad - hurricane. On Wednesday, Kim Jong Un said he was ready to accept stronger measures to curb his country's blank program.
HIGGINS: Haircut?
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Nuclear. On Tuesday, online retail giant blank became the second company to reach evaluation of $1 trillion.
HIGGINS: Amazon.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: A burglar who stole eight shoes from a store...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SAGAL: ...In Virginia this week was likely disappointed when he discovered blank.
HIGGINS: That he had no legs.
SAGAL: No.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Oh, my God.
HONG: When did that happen?
HIGGINS: This is so disappointing.
SAGAL: That day, he was disappointed when he discovered that all the shoes he had stolen were all for the right foot.
(LAUGHTER)
HIGGINS: Aw. But at least they weren't for the wrong foot.
SAGAL: That's true.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Bill, did Maeve do well enough to win?
KURTIS: She got three points.
SAGAL: Well, there you are.
(LAUGHTER)
HIGGINS: Does that mean I won?
KURTIS: No, not exactly.
(APPLAUSE)
HIGGINS: (Laughter).
BURKE: (Laughter).
KURTIS: You've got a total of 9, which means our two 13s are the winner this week...
SAGAL: Congratulations.
(APPLAUSE)
HIGGINS: Congratulations. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.