PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Now onto our final game, Lightning Fill in the Blank. Each of our players...
PAULA POUNDSTONE: It's my favorite part.
SAGAL: 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: Maz and Adam each have two. Paula - listen to this - has three.
SAGAL: Oh, my goodness.
(APPLAUSE)
POUNDSTONE: Yeah.
SAGAL: We have flipped a coin. Adam has elected to go first. Adam, the clock will start when I begin your first question. Fill in the blank. On Monday, the State Department released over 7,000 additional pages of blank's emails.
ADAM FELBER: Hillary Clinton.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced Tuesday that the U.S. would send a commando force to fight blank in Iraq.
FELBER: ISIS.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Monday, Donald Trump said he wouldn't participate in the next blank unless CNN gave him $5 million dollars.
FELBER: Yes, that's true.
SAGAL: In the next blank.
FELBER: Oh, debate.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Thursday, Swiss police arrested two more officials from blank on corruption charges.
FELBER: FIFA.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: It was announced this week that Coldplay would play at the 2016 blank.
FELBER: Super Bowl.
SAGAL: Yes, halftime show.
FELBER: Halftime show.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: A Florida man is recovering after being shot while standing behind a blank.
FELBER: Target range.
SAGAL: Yes, he was standing behind a target at a gun range.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
FELBER: Wow.
SAGAL: Aaron Acklan was with his brother at the shooting range when, for reasons that aren't quite clear, he chose to stand behind one of the targets without telling anyone. His brother then shot at the target and accidentally hit Aaron in the leg and the torso. Aaron is recovering now and his brother feels awful, both for the shooting and for the insistence that they go to the only range in Florida with targets shaped like his brother.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: I like the fact that he got hit twice. 'Cause after the first time he was like, ow. Well, I can't imagine was just happened to me, standing behind a shooting range target. I'll just continue to stand here. Ow again.
POUNDSTONE: Yeah, he said what are the odds?
FELBER: I really did not think my brother was that good a shot.
SAGAL: Bill, how did Adam do on our quiz?
KURTIS: Adam got six right. Twelve more points, that's right. And now he has a total of 14, and he's in the lead.
SAGAL: All right, Maz, you are up next. Fill in the blank. Presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley all called for stricter gun control laws after she shooting in blank.
MAZ JOBRANI: San Bernardino.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Thursday, a congressional committee released a report detailing several lapses in security by the blank
JOBRANI: Secret Service.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week the IMF named the national currency of blank as a world reserve currency.
JOBRANI: China?
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: According to a new poll from Quinnipiac University, former GOP front-runner blank has slid to third place.
JOBRANI: Ben Carson.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Sunday, Amazon released the design for their new delivery blank.
JOBRANI: Drones.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that Paralympic gold medalist blank was, in fact, guilty of murder.
JOBRANI: Oscar Pistorius.
SAGAL: A filmmaker in Niger released his remake of the Prince film "Purple Rain." It's called blank.
JOBRANI: In Niger. "Purple Rain" is now "Pink Drizzle."
SAGAL: No.
JOBRANI: Oh, I wish.
SAGAL: The film is called "Rain: The Color Of Blue With A Little Red In It."
POUNDSTONE: Wow. That should have been the name to begin with. That's good.
SAGAL: Yeah.
JOBRANI: Yeah, very catchy.
SAGAL: Director Christopher Kirkley said that his remake of "Purple Rain" had a lot of obstacles to overcome, especially considering the Toareg language that they speak over there in Niger does not have a word for purple. He's planning on following up with a remake of "The Color Purple," or "The Color Blue With A Little Why Do I Keep Choosing The Worst Possible Films To Make In Niger."
(LAUGHTER)
FELBER: I don't want to criticize anybody who's building a language out there, but that's kind of a major oversight.
SAGAL: (Laughter) Really.
FELBER: It's a big secondary color, people.
SAGAL: So, Bill, how did Maz do on our quiz?
KURTIS: He got six right, 12 more points, total of 14. We've got a tie going.
SAGAL: Oh, wow. So how many then does Paula Poundstone of Santa Monica, Calif., need to win this game?
KURTIS: Six. Only six, Paula.
SAGAL: You can do it, Paula. Here we go. This is for the game.
POUNDSTONE: All right. All right, I'm on it.
FELBER: Go Paula.
SAGAL: Paula, fill in the blank.
POUNDSTONE: All right, I feel strong.
FELBER: Paula, Paula.
SAGAL: This week, the parliament in blank approved a proposal to join the U.S.-led air campaign against ISIS.
POUNDSTONE: England.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Sunday, the NSA officially ended its blank collection program.
POUNDSTONE: Phone records.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Following weeks of protest, Garry McCarthy stepped down as blank's police superintendent.
POUNDSTONE: Chicago.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Thursday, former coal industry CEO Donald Blankenship was found guilty of violating safety standards stemming from a fatal blank explosion in 2010.
POUNDSTONE: Coal mine.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: During Sunday's football game between Washington and the New York Giants...
POUNDSTONE: Oh, now I'm in.
SAGAL: The closed captioning text referred to quarterback Eli Manning as blank.
POUNDSTONE: Big stupid guy who pushes people down.
SAGAL: No.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: He was referred to as Eli Man Penguin Boy.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Selling almost four million copies in its first week, blank's new album broke multiple sales records.
POUNDSTONE: Adele?
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: After receiving reports of a man shouting, I'm going to kill you and die, die at 2 a.m., Australian police raided a house just to find blank.
POUNDSTONE: Adult gamer in his parent's basement.
SAGAL: No, they came, and they found a squished spider.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Police arrived on the scene. They didn't know what they were going to find. The man who lived there claimed all the ruckus was about a spider. The police said, we heard someone saying I'm going to kill you. He said, that was me. They were like, people also recorded a woman screaming. He said, that was also me.
(LAUGHTER)
FELBER: You know what the hardest part about being an investigator on that case is?
SAGAL: What?
FELBER: Drawing that tiny little chalk outline.
SAGAL: Oh, that's terrible. It's cute though.
JOBRANI: Getting the little yellow tape.
FELBER: Yeah.
SAGAL: Bill, did Paula do well enough to win?
KURTIS: No. She was one short. So our winners this week, Adam and Maz, take a bow.
SAGAL: There you are. In just a minute, we're going to ask our panelists what surprising thing the Zuckerberg billions will fund. But first let me tell you that support for NPR comes from NPR stations and the PajamaGram Company, offering matching holiday pajamas for the entire family, even the cats and dogs. Over 27 family sets online in knits, fleece and flannel at pajamagram.com. Home Instead Senior Care with a range of in-home senior care services to keep aging loved ones at home from companionship and help around the house to medication reminders and Alzheimer's care at homeinstead.com/npr. And LifeLock, reminding consumers that while shopping online or in stores this holiday season, a trail of personal information is left behind, increasing rick of identity theft. More at lifelock.com. WAIT WAIT ...DON'T TELL ME is a production of NPR and WBEZ Chicago in association with Urgent Haircut Productions, Doug He Might Be Important Berman, benevolent overlord. Philipp Goedicke writes our limericks. Our intern is Candace Mittell It Like It Is. Our web guru is Beth Novey. N.J. Leiderman composed our theme. Our program is produced by Miles Dornboss. Special thanks this week to Nadia Wilson. Technical direction is from Lorna White. Our CFO is Ann Nguyen. Our production coordinator is Robert Neuhaus. Thanks to the crew at the Dolby Theater. Our senior producer is Ian Chillag. And the executive producer of WAIT WAIT ...DON'T TELL ME is Mr. Michael Linwood Danforth. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.