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 is now worth two points. Bill, can you give us the scores?
BILL KURTIS: Well, Tom and Adam have two, and Negin the newcomer has three.
SAGAL: Oh, my goodness. I think there's been a brilliant bluff.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Well, we have flipped a coin. Tom's elected to go first. The clock will start when I begin your first question. Fill in the blank. On Wednesday, a federal judge in Hawaii blocked President Trump's revised blank.
TOM BODETT: Travel ban.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, thousands of flights were canceled nationwide as a blank hit the Northeast.
BODETT: Storm, big snowstorm.
SAGAL: Yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: According to newly released records, former Trump adviser Michael Flynn was paid over $68,000 by various companies with ties to blank.
BODETT: Russia.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Monday, the newly impeached president of blank left the presidential estate.
BODETT: Oh, that's in South Korea.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: After Google would not send Street View cars to map the Faroe Islands, residents there blanked.
BODETT: They did it themselves.
SAGAL: No, they strapped cameras to their sheep and let them wander around.
(LAUGHTER)
BODETT: Isn't that the same thing?
SAGAL: No, the sheep did it.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Defending national champion Villanova was named the number one seed for the 2017 blank.
BODETT: The basketball final tournament thing.
SAGAL: Yeah, NCAA, technically.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
BODETT: Right.
SAGAL: After rescuing a man who was stuck in the air vents of a sandwich shop, police in Napa had realized he was under the influence when he did what?
BODETT: Oh, he - I - you know what? I don't know.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: When he told them he thought the vent was a magical wishing well.
ADAM BURKE: Obviously.
SAGAL: Obviously. Robert Turbidy told police he may have had a bit too much to drink when he decided to climb onto the roof of a local sandwich shop with a makeshift rope and lower himself into the ventilation system. He also told police that he believed that the vents were actually a magic wishing well. What's weirder, though, is that apparently he thought he was a penny.
(LAUGHTER)
BODETT: Now, that would lead me to think of something other than alcohol.
SAGAL: That's true. Bill, how did Tom do on our quiz?
KURTIS: Tom got five right, 10 more points, and right now he's leading with 12.
SAGAL: All right then. Adam, you are up next. Fill in the blank. This week, incumbent Prime Minister Mark Rutte declared victory over the far-right challenger in elections in blank.
BURKE: In the Netherlands.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, Elon Musk announced he was hoping to raise $1 billion to start production of the blank model 3.
BURKE: His spacecraft.
SAGAL: No, this time it's...
BURKE: No, Tesla. Yeah, it's the...
SAGAL: It's the car this time, yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Monday, officials in blank announced they would seek a second referendum on independence from the U.K.
BURKE: Scotland.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, blank the unmanned sub, named by an internet poll, embarked on its maiden voyage.
BURKE: Boaty McBoatface.
SAGAL: Boaty McBoatface.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL, APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Aye, sir, it's Boaty McBoatface. In a speech on Tuesday, Joe Biden called the fight against blank, quote, "the only bipartisan thing left."
BURKE: ISIS?
SAGAL: No, cancer. This week, the acting president of Brazil moved his family out of the official residence because blank.
BURKE: Because he can't stand it.
SAGAL: No, they moved out because they are convinced the house is haunted. The president and his wife both said they felt the presence of ghosts in the house and they could not sleep. According to the couple, their 11-year-old son is the only member of the family who actually likes living at the house, to which the press responded, 11-year-old son? Why, your son's been dead for 20 years.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Ooh. Bill, how did Adam do on our quiz?
KURTIS: Well, he had four right, eight more points, total of 10, trailing Tom now by two.
SAGAL: All right. How many, then, does Negin...
NEGIN FARSAD: Oh, God.
SAGAL: ...Need to walk in here like a boss and take it all away?
KURTIS: Five to win. Only five to win.
SAGAL: You can do this, Negin. Here we go.
FARSAD: OK. I just want you to know that these things make me really nervous. OK, go ahead.
SAGAL: All right, here we go. Fill the blank, Negin. This is for the game. This week, Trump unveiled the 2018 budget, which called for a $54 billion increase in blank spending.
FARSAD: Military.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Monday, U.K.'s Parliament gave the British government permission to start blanking.
FARSAD: Brexiting (ph).
SAGAL: Brexiting.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Wednesday, federal prosecutors charged two Russian spies with compromising the accounts of 500 million blank users.
FARSAD: Yahoo.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: After several incidents of rowdiness and, quote, "inappropriate behavior," officials in Massachusetts canceled blank.
FARSAD: Town hall.
SAGAL: Bingo night at the senior center.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: On Monday, the American Society of Civil Engineers ranked the U.S. blank with a D.
FARSAD: Infrastructure.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, the journal Nature reported that global warming has severely damaged huge sections of Australia's blank.
FARSAD: Barrier reef.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: California residents, upset that a sinkhole in the road has taken so long to get repaired, blanked this week.
FARSAD: Pissed themselves.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: No, they threw the sinkhole a first birthday party.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: The town of Moraga approved $3.3 million to fix the sinkhole last May. Upset over the time that was taken, citizens took to the streets on Monday to celebrate the sinkhole's first birthday. They hung balloons, streamers and a handwritten sign on the chain-link fence surrounding the hole. If you think that's over the top, just wait until the sinkhole's 16th birthday, when the residents will all pitch in to buy it a new car to swallow.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Bill, did Negin do well enough to win?
KURTIS: She needed five. She got five. Ten more...
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Oh, my God. She walks in...
KURTIS: That means she wins with 13.
SAGAL: ...And shows us how it's done.
FARSAD: Thank you.
(APPLAUSE) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.