Lightning Fill In The Blank

All the news we couldn't fit anywhere else.

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 now worth two points. Bill, can you give us the scores?

BILL KURTIS: Yes, Paula and Faith each have two. Peter has three.

SAGAL: All right. We have flipped a coin. Paula has elected to go second. So Faith, you're up first. Here we go. The clock will start when I begin your first question. Fill in the blank. This week, a federal judge ordered that the blank in Michigan be stopped.

FAITH SALIE: Voting recount.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: On Wednesday, the remaining survivors of the USS Arizona gathered in Hawaii to mark the 75th anniversary of blank.

SALIE: Pearl Harbor.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Officials are still looking for the cause of a deadly warehouse fire in blank.

SALIE: Oakland.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: North Carolina man was arrested for firing a rifle inside a D.C. restaurant he believed was part of a debunked conspiracy theory known as blank.

SALIE: Pizza gate.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: In an update to a story on last week's show, Domino's issued a press release saying they will not be using reindeer to deliver pizza because it turns out that blank.

SALIE: Reindeer are very hard to control.

SAGAL: That's what they said. Who knew?

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: On Tuesday, Google announced that by 2017 they would run entirely on blank.

SALIE: Cheese.

SAGAL: No, renewable energy.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: For the first time ever, analysts say that blank sales outperformed digital music downloads,

SALIE: Record?

SAGAL: Yeah, vinyl records.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Police in Maryland say that combatants is involved in a brawl last week suffered much greater injuries because they were blanking.

SALIE: Doing the mannequin challenge.

SAGAL: No, because they were fighting on top of a bunch of Legos.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: After receiving calls about a possible disturbance, Maryland police arrived on the scene to find a group of men fighting on top of a pile of Legos. They were able to break up the fight. Officers report that one of the fighters suffered a broken arm and tiny rectangular bruises.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: And one little guy got pulled clean in half but was somehow still smiling.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Bill, how did Faith do on our quiz?

KURTIS: Six right, 12 more points, a total of 14 and the lead.

SAGAL: That was pretty impressive there, Faith. All right.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: Paula, you're up next. Fill in the blank. On Wednesday, a union leader in Indiana said that Trump's deal with blank would not actually save 1,000 jobs.

PAULA POUNDSTONE: Carrier.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: This week, President Bashar al-Assad rejected a ceasefire proposal from the rebels in blank.

POUNDSTONE: Syria.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: On Thursday, former U.S. senator and the first man to orbit the Earth, blank, passed away at the age of 95.

POUNDSTONE: John Glenn.

SAGAL: Ohio's own.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: This week, a Florida man was arrested for breaking into his neighbor's house in order to blank.

POUNDSTONE: Oh, to email his mother. I don't know.

SAGAL: To pet their cat.

(LAUGHTER)

POUNDSTONE: Right. I knew that.

SAGAL: New research this week showed that legalized blank was cutting into beer industry profits.

POUNDSTONE: Pot.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: With nine total nominations, including album of the year, Beyonce led this year's nominees for the blank awards.

POUNDSTONE: Grammys.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: This week it was reported that a New Zealand woman was detained in Kazakhstan because officials there blanked.

POUNDSTONE: Because officials there love New Zealand.

SAGAL: No, in fact because officials there did not believe that New Zealand was a real country.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: So this woman is, like, trying to hike through Kazakhstan. She gets detained. She gets brought in to a border office. They say we don't believe you're from New Zealand. She says well, no. Look at the map. And she points at a map on the wall - this is true - in the border office of the world and there is no New Zealand on the map.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: So, Bill, how did Paula do?

KURTIS: Pretty good - five right, 10 more points, a total of 12. But Faith still has the lead.

POUNDSTONE: All right.

SAGAL: All right. So how many then does Peter need to win?

KURTIS: Six to win.

SAGAL: This is for the game, Peter. Fill in the blank. On Sunday, the Army Corps of Engineers blocked the proposed route of the blank.

PETER GROSZ: Dakota Access Pipeline.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: On Wednesday, Matteo Renzi, the prime minister of blank, officially resigned.

GROSZ: Italy.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: This week, the EU threatened lawsuits against four countries where blank sold their emissions cheating cars.

GROSZ: Volkswagen.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: On Tuesday, Representative Keith Ellison announced he would resign from Congress if elected blank.

GROSZ: The DNC chair.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Last weekend, in Cuba, the public funeral procession of Fidel Castro was interrupted when blank.

GROSZ: When somebody carrying the casket died.

SAGAL: No.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: When the car carrying his ashes broke down and had to be pushed by soldiers.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: On Thursday, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature added giraffes to the blank watch list.

GROSZ: Endangered species?

SAGAL: Yeah, pretty much.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: This week, the Danish Medical Association recommended that no boy under the age of 18 should be blanked.

GROSZ: Circumcised.

GROSZ: Yes, we'll explain that to Paula later.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: After being asked...

GROSZ: Every week, the Jewish boys get circumcised.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: After being asked during a live interview to name the prime minister of South Korea, British Secretary Of State Boris Johnson blanked.

GROSZ: He, like, didn't know it and ran out of the room or something.

SAGAL: He ran away, yeah.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: I'm sure you'd expect the head diplomat in the U.K., the foreign minister as they call it, to know the name of every world leader. But when Mr. Johnson was asked by his interviewer to name the prime minister of South Korea, a major ally, he instead removed his headset and made his getaway.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: We shouldn't have been surprised, though. Boris Johnson was one of the leaders of the Brexit movement. So we know when confronted with something that he doesn't understand, he panics and leaves.

(LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: Bill, did Peter do well enough to win?

KURTIS: He did great. Seven right, 14 more, total of 17 and the win.

SAGAL: Peter Grosz.

[POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: During this segment, John Glenn is mistakenly called the first man to orbit the Earth. In fact, on Feb. 20, 1962, Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man to orbit the planet, on April 12, 1961.]

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