PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Now, on to our final game, Lightning Fill in the Blank. Each of our panelists has 60 seconds in which to answer as many fill in the blank questions as they can. Carl, please, what are the scores?
CARL KASELL: We have a tie for first place, Peter. Luke Burbank and Roxanne Roberts both have three points. Alonzo Bodden has two.
SAGAL: All right. Alonzo, you are up first. The clock will start will start when I begin your first question. Each answer is now worth two points. Fill in the blank.
This week Kim Jung Un, the new leader of blank agreed to suspend that country's nuclear programs.
ALONZO BODDEN: North Korea.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: In what turned out to be a case of mistaken identity, US officials arrested an Egyptian man suspected of being a senior leader in blank.
BODDEN: Al Qaeda.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Thursday, the Senate killed a bill that would limit employer coverage for blank.
BODDEN: Contraception.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Best known as the English member of the Monkees, adorable teen idol blank died on Wednesday at age 66.
BODDEN: Davy Jones.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: A soccer player in Georgia was arrested for theft after she was caught leaving a café with blank.
BODDEN: A laptop.
SAGAL: No, hash browns in her pants.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Stores across the country offered 29 cent specials and giveaways to celebrate blank on Wednesday.
BODDEN: Leap day.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: The Deer Park Police Station in Texas set up a top secret sting operation to investigate blank.
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
BODDEN: Reading.
SAGAL: No.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: They wanted to investigate who was stealing stuff out of the break room fridge. Those missing lunches and sodas were no joke to Deer Park Police Chief Greg Griggs, so he authorized a top secret sting, with decoy snacks and hidden cameras. After successfully busting a thieving cop, one of their own, and charging him with misdemeanor theft, Chief Griggs is now considering another sting to determine which lowlife officer is cooking fish in the staff room microwave.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Carl, how did Alonzo do on our quiz?
KASELL: Alonzo had five correct answers, for ten more points. He now has twelve points and Alonzo has the lead.
SAGAL: Well done. All right, Alonzo.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: We flipped a coin and Luke has elected to go next. So, fill in the blank. On Tuesday and Wednesday, communities in the Midwest were hit hard by a series of blanks.
LUKE BURBANK: Tornadoes.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Russia announced this week that it had thwarted an assassination plot against Prime Minister blank.
BURBANK: Putin.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Five million e-mails from the US based global security think tank Stratfor were the latest to be published by the anti-secrecy group blank.
BURBANK: WikiLeaks.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: A Southwest Airlines pilot caused panic on a flight last week when his birthday greeting to a quote "mom on board" was heard by passengers as blank.
BURBANK: Bomb on board.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Conservative blogger and web publisher blank died in Los Angeles Thursday at the age of 43.
BURBANK: Andrew Breitbart.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: A Texas man voluntarily surrendered to authorities in North Carolina, three years after allegedly embezzling blank.
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
BURBANK: Hash browns.
SAGAL: No.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Close. Meatballs and anchovy dip.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: The charges say that in 2009, while working at the Skibo Skillet restaurant in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the meatball embezzler quote "did fraudulently misapply and convert to his own use meatballs, corn on the cob, anchovy dip and trout whiting filet." Those close to the embezzler had become suspicious in the intervening years when he was always paying for everything with meatballs.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Carl, how did Luke do on our quiz?
KASELL: Luke had five correct answers, for ten more points. He now has thirteen points, and Luke has taken the lead.
SAGAL: All right.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Very good, Luke. How many then does Roxanne need to win, as I know she really wants to do?
KASELL: She needs five to tie, six to win outright.
SAGAL: Here we go, Roxanne, this is for the game. Fill in the blank. For the first time since 2008, the blank closed above 13,000 on Tuesday.
ROXANNE ROBERTS: The Dow Jones.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Because of a deteriorating situation between the government and civilians, on Tuesday the UN called for a humanitarian cease fire in blank.
ROBERTS: Afghanistan.
SAGAL: No, Syria. On Thursday, Maryland became the eighth state in the US to legalize blank.
ROBERTS: Same sex marriage.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: The silent film "The Artist" and Angelina Jolie's right leg were the big winners at this year's blank ceremony.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: Academy Awards.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: A man successfully robbed a string of banks near Washington by threatening the tellers with a blank.
ROBERTS: Chalupa.
SAGAL: With a nuclear weapon. Jan Berenstain, the coauthor of more than 300 books about the Berenstain blanks, died this week at age 88.
ROBERTS: Bears.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Melissa Gilbert and Jaleel White of Urkel fame were among those named as contestants on the next season of blank.
ROBERTS: "Dancing with the Stars."
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Scientists at CERN this week said that a discovery of a faster than light particle last year was caused by a blank.
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
ROBERTS: Like a bug or something.
SAGAL: No, it was actually a loose cable. So the reason the basic laws of the universe seemed to be overturned turned out to be the same reason you're not getting a good picture when you're watching Hoarders.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: The cable was loose.
ROBERTS: OK.
SAGAL: They screwed it in. Looking back, scientists now believe that it wasn't gravity Sir Isaac Newton discovered, somebody just threw an apple at him.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Carl, did Roxanne do well enough to win?
KASELL: Roxanne had five correct answers, for ten more points. She now has thirteen points. So she and Luke Burbank are this week's co-champions.
SAGAL: Well done.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Leaving our Alonzo.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.