Animal Instincts

Transcript

OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

Now we're going to crown our comeback grand champion. From "Playground Nationals," Margaret Bortner.

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EISENBERG: From "This, That Or The Other," Maryann Aita.

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EISENBERG: From "I Saw The Sign," Rich Steeves.

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EISENBERG: And from "Take Me Out To The Ballgame," Drew Kostic.

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EISENBERG: I hand it over to our puzzle guru, Greg Pliska, for our final round.

GREG PLISKA: Well, contestants, welcome back to your second chance final round. Each correct answer will be a famous person whose name contains an animal somewhere within it. For example, if we said this actor played a prep-schooler in 1989's "Dead Poets Society" and a father in 2014's "Boyhood," you'd say Ethan Hawke. Now, the pressure is on because you are playing for the right to have John Cameron Mitchell personally paint your face like the rock star Tommy Gnosis from the Broadway show "Hedwig And The Angry Inch."

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PLISKA: And yes, after that your face will be plastered all over our Facebook page. Let me remind you that we're playing this spelling bee style, so one wrong answer and you're out. You will only have a few seconds to give us an answer, and the last person standing will be our ASK ME ANOTHER grand winner. All right, here we go. Margaret, a key figure in 1990s gangster rap, he is known for collaborations with Dr. Dre, like "Nothing But a G Thang."

MARGARET BORTNER: Snoop Dogg...

PLISKA: That is correct.

BORTNER: ...Or Snoop Lion.

PLISKA: Or Snoop Lion. We would've accepted that as well. Thank you, Margaret.

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PLISKA: Maryann - the youngest golfer ever to achieve the career grand slam, he had a tabloid scandal in 2009.

MARYANN AITA: Tiger Woods.

PLISKA: That is correct.

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PLISKA: Rich - he both preceded and followed Conan O'Brien as the host of "The Tonight Show."

PLISKA: Jay Leno.

PLISKA: Very good.

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PLISKA: And Drew - his Wild West show made him internationally famous by the end of the 19 century.

DREW KOSTIC: Buffalo Bill?

PLISKA: That is correct.

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PLISKA: Margaret - this longtime CNN anchor has hosted several programs, including "The Situation Room."

BORTNER: Wolf Blitzer.

PLISKA: Correct.

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PLISKA: Maryann - the Texas-born the first lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969.

AITA: Lady Bird Johnson.

PLISKA: Very good.

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PLISKA: Rich - the writer-director of the movies "Say Anything," "Jerry Maguire" and "Almost Famous."

RICH STEEVES: Cameron Crowe.

PLISKA: Yes, very good.

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PLISKA: Drew - this 19 century inventor of steel plows founded an agricultural equipment firm that still bears his name

KOSTIC: John Deere.

PLISKA: You are correct.

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PLISKA: Margaret - this member of the boy band NSync once trained to accompany Russian cosmonauts to the International Space Station.

BORTNER: Lance Bass.

PLISKA: That is correct.

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PLISKA: Maryann - she is the Pulitzer and Nobel prize-winning author of "The Good Earth" and other novels about life in China.

AITA: I don't know. Aimee Phan, I don't know.

PLISKA: No, I'm sorry, that's not correct. Rich, do you know this one?

STEEVES: I do not.

PLISKA: OK, Drew?

KOSTIC: The Tiger mother?

PLISKA: No, that's not correct. Margaret, do you know this?

BORTNER: Is it Pearl S. Buck?

PLISKA: Yes, that is correct.

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PLISKA: And Margaret, that makes you our champion. Drew and Rich and Maryann, thank you very much.

EISENBERG: Pearl S. Buck was wondering what the hell does she have to do for you to remember her?

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EISENBERG: But Margaret, you're our big ASK ME ANOTHER big winner.

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EISENBERG: You win a Hedwig swag-bag and also the right to have John Cameron Mitchell paint your face.

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EISENBERG: And that's our show. Thank you so much for listening. If you would like to be a contestant, find us on Facebook or Twitter, or just look around for NPR ASK ME ANOTHER. And you can be a puzzle player anytime, anyplace by downloading our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher or TuneIn. ASK ME ANOTHER's puzzle guru is Greg Pliska.

PLISKA: Hey, my name anagrams to sparkle gig.

EISENBERG: The house musician is Jonathan Coulton.

PLISKA: Thou jolt a canon.

EISENBERG: Filling in for our puzzle editor Art Chung is senior writer Dan Schofield.

PLISKA: Nacho fiddles.

EISENBERG: With additional puzzle writing by Mary Tobler, Glenn McDonald, Matt Foster, James Ramsey and Greg Lightman (ph). ASK ME ANOTHER's produced by Jesse Baker, Josh Rogosin, Eleanor Kagan and Jess Miller, along with Portia Robertson Migas and Eric Nuzum. We are recorded by David Whittemore, Kristin Moeller and David Hertgen. We'd like to thank our home in Brooklyn, New York, the Bell House.

PLISKA: Hot heel blues.

EISENBERG: And our production partner, WNYC. I'm her ripe begonias.

PLISKA: Ophira Eisenberg.

EISENBERG: And this was ASK ME ANOTHER from NPR. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.