PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Now, on to our final game, Lightning Fill in the Blank. Each of our players has 60 seconds to answer as many questions as they can, each correct answer now worth two points. Carl, can you give us the scores?
CARL KASELL: Charlie Pierce and Faith Salie have a tie for the lead, Peter. Each of them has three points, and Mo Rocca has two.
SAGAL: All right. Mo, you're in third place, so you'll go first. The clock will start when I begin your first question. Fill in the blank. On Thursday, BP agreed to plead guilty to negligence and misconduct charges and pay a record $4.5 billion fine in connection with the blank.
MO ROCCA: Deepwater Horizon spill.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Wednesday, President Obama held his first blank since the election.
ROCCA: Press conference.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Just weeks after Windows 8 debuted, the executive in charge of Windows at blank abruptly departed on Monday.
ROCCA: Microsoft.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: In a huge global recall on Wednesday, blank recalled 2.77 million Priuses this week.
ROCCA: Oh, Toyota.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Researchers in Taiwan have discovered that blanking is an effective way of guarding against the flu.
ROCCA: Oh geez. Sleeping.
SAGAL: No, smoking meth.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Actress Selena Gomez broke the heart of teen pop star blank this week by dumping him.
ROCCA: Justin Bieber.
SAGAL: It's not you, it's yo.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: The blue and white gingham dress Judy Garland wore in the movie blank sold for $480, 000 at an auction last weekend.
ROCCA: "The Wizard of Oz."
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Thanks to a Daylight Saving Time miracle, an Ohio man blanked.
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
ROCCA: Geez, something interesting happened.
(LAUGHTER)
ROCCA: Because of Daylight Savings Time, he missed getting hit by a train.
SAGAL: No. He was arrested twice for two separate DUIs at exactly the same time.
ROCCA: Wow.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: This is what happened. It's 1:08 a.m. Last Saturday night. Niles Gammon is stopped for drunk driving. He's arrested and released in the custody of a friend.
An hour goes by, the same cop who arrested him, driving his patrol car in the parking lot when some guy backs right into him. It's Niles Gammon, still drunk. And because the clocks had just been turned back, he was arrested, again, at 1:08 a.m.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Gammon says he's learned his lesson, and also found out his car is a time machine.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Carl, how did Mo do on our quiz?
KASELL: Mo had six correct answers for 12 more points. He now has 14 points and the lead.
SAGAL: Well done, all right.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: We have flipped a coin and Faith has elected to go second. You're up next. Here we go. On Thursday, Xi Jinping took over as the new leader of blank.
FAITH SALIE: China.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Wednesday, blank announced that she would stay on as House minority leader.
SALIE: Nancy Pelosi.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: In his first press conference since the election, President Obama defended the work of U.N. ambassador blank.
SALIE: Susan Rice.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Wanted by police in Belize, the man behind the computer security software company blank went into hiding.
SALIE: McAfee.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Now that the election is over, an Indiana man has finally admitted that his new blank might not have been a good idea.
SALIE: Romney tattoo on his face.
SAGAL: Yes, the Romney/Ryan logo right there.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: This weak People magazine named Channing Tatum of the movie "Magic Mike" this year's blank.
SALIE: Sexiest Man Alive.
SAGAL: Yes, indeed.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week Lance Armstrong officially cut ties with his cancer fighting charity blank.
SALIE: Oh, Livestrong.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: A California teen is recovering after she blanked while talking on her cell phone.
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SALIE: Stepped into a nest of rattlesnakes.
SAGAL: Yes, indeed, very good.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Oliphant, of course, was walking around, talking on her cell phone. Then, of my god, there are rattlesnakes.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Fortunately, she got great service in the rattlesnake pit and she was able to call for help and get to the hospital. Carl, I think Faith did really well on that. Did she?
(LAUGHTER)
KASELL: A perfect round, Peter. Eight correct answers, 16 more points.
SAGAL: Oh my god.
KASELL: She now has 19 points and the lead.
SALIE: Wow.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Here we go, Charlie, this is for the game. Employees of Target and other retailers posted petitions online in an attempt to stop their stores from starting their blanks on Thanksgiving Day.
CHARLIE PIERCE: The, what do you call them, Black Friday, crazy sales.
SAGAL: Yeah, the Black Friday sales.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Thursday, President Obama arrived in New York to tour the areas hardest hit by blank.
PIERCE: Superstorm Sandy.
SAGAL: Right
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Hostilities erupted between Israel and militants as blank as they both launched attacks against the other.
PIERCE: Oh, Gaza.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Chris Collins, a newly elected Republican member of Congress from New York, experienced some freshman awkwardness this week when he blanked.
PIERCE: Conceded.
SAGAL: No, when he showed up at a breakfast meeting for the Democrats.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Comedian Janine Garofalo was surprised to discover this week that she has been blank for 20 years.
PIERCE: Married.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Baseball fans in Miami were enraged after five key players were traded by the blanks on Wednesday.
PIERCE: The Marlins.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: A college student in Rhode Island had to be rescued by the fire department after she blanked.
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
PIERCE: Fell into a nest of rattlesnakes.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: No, after she stuck between two buildings.
SALIE: Horizontally.
SAGAL: Yes. Sure, the alley was only 8 inches wide, but young, drunk Courtney Malloy was pretty sure that if she ran real fast, she could make it through.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: She didn't. Firefighters arrived to find her - and this is true - wedged in the crease horizontally and two feet off the ground.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Imagine that. Carl, did Charlie do well enough to tie?
PIERCE: Not even...
KASELL: Charlie needed eight correct answers to tie, but he had just five correct answers. So with 19 points, Faith Salie is this week's champion.
SAGAL: Well done, Faith.
SALIE: Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.