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For The Birds

OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

All right, let's bring up our next two brave contestants: Jess Beck and Chris D'Orso.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Jess, you're a senior at BU, studying health science.

JESS BECK: Uh-huh.

EISENBERG: Do you know anything about birds?

BECK: A little bit.

EISENBERG: A little bit.

BECK: I'm not a bird scientist though.

EISENBERG: Okay, well start thinking about everything you know about them right now. Chris D'Orso, you're a college admissions assistant at Stony Brook U, and you were a big nerd in high school, huh?

CHRIS D'ORSO: I still am to this day, ironically enough.

EISENBERG: Oh yeah, yeah. You watch a lot of...

D'ORSO: I'm on an NPR game show.

EISENBERG: Yeah, sure.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Oh, right. That's a nerdy thing. I keep confusing nerd with cool.

D'ORSO: Right.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Do you know anything about birds?

D'ORSO: My son has a bird.

EISENBERG: Oh, well, okay, excellent. Julian, what game are we playing?

JULIAN VELARD: This game is called For The Birds. I'm going to ask you to identify bird songs, by which I mean tunes that mention a specific kind of bird or which were recorded by an artist or band whose name sounds like a bird, like Sheryl Crow or Taylor Swift.

After the song, Ophira will follow up with a trivia question either of you can ring in for. The contestant who gets more right moves on to our final Ask Me One More final round at the end of the show. Here we go. For the first song, I'm going to ask you to complete these lyrics.

(SOUNDBITE OF SINGING)

VELARD: Maybe you're just like my mother; she's never satisfied. Why do we scream at other? This is what it sounds like...

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

VELARD: Chris?

(SOUNDBITE OF SINGING)

D'ORSO: "When Doves Cry."

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Correct, and well sung.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: In the Old Testament, Noah releases a dove after the Great Flood, in order to find land, and the dove brings back a leaf of what tree in his mouth? Wow, we found out that you guys never have read bibles.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Noah releases a dove after the Great Flood, in order to find land. The dove brings back a leaf of what tree?

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Jess?

BECK: Fig.

EISENBERG: That's a good idea, but nope.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: I'm going to ask if anyone out there knows.

(SOUNDBITE OF AUDIENCE YELLING)

EISENBERG: An olive tree.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

D'ORSO: Olive.

EISENBERG: Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

VELARD: For this one, you have to name the artist.

(SOUNDBITE OF SINGING)

VELARD: H to the izz-o, V to the izz-a. Fo'sheezy my neezy keep my arms so breezy. Can't leave rap alone, the game needs me.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

VELARD: Chris?

D'ORSO: That would be Jay-Z.

VELARD: You are correct.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Surprisingly, Jay-Z's "Izzo H.O.V.A" is not a tribute to Michigan State's men's basketball coach Tom Izzo, even though all the other songs he does is. What is the name of Michigan State's men's basketball team, which they took from a legendary group of warriors?

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Chris?

D'ORSO: The Spartans.

EISENBERG: Correct.

(APPLAUSE)

VELARD: Now I'd like you to name the title of this song.

(SOUNDBITE OF SINGING)

VELARD: Singing in the dead of night. Take these broken wings and learn to fly. All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arrive.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

VELARD: Jess?

BECK: "Blackbird."

VELARD: You are correct.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Oh, if you didn't get that right, that was going to be tough.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Many people confuse the small blackbird with the much larger crow and raven. It happens all the time.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Finish this line from Edgar Allen Poe's famous poem "Quoth the raven."

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Chris?

D'ORSO: Nevermore.

EISENBERG: Nevermore is correct.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Find a better raven is what he's trying to say. Find a more positive...

VELARD: Yeah.

EISENBERG: ...self-assured.

VELARD: A more life-affirming raven.

EISENBERG: Life-affirming raven.

(LAUGHTER)

VELARD: Name the recording artist.

(SOUNDBITE OF SINGING)

VELARD: And I ran, I ran so far away. I just ran. I ran all night and day. I couldn't get away.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

VELARD: Chris?

D'ORSO: Flock of Seagulls.

VELARD: You are correct.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: I feel like those lyrics are about running away from a flock of seagulls. Is that what that was? "I couldn't get away. They're just running." Okay. A Flock of Seagulls "I Ran (So Far Away)" was released in 1982, but it had a brief revival in 2002, when it was featured in an installment of what popular but violent video game, set in the 1980s.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Jess?

BECK: Grand Theft Auto.

EISENBERG: That is correct.

(APPLAUSE)

VELARD: Finish these lyrics.

(SOUNDBITE OF SINGING)

VELARD: Do, do, do, do. Do, do, do, do. Fly like - oops.

(LAUGHTER)

WILL HINES: It's not your fault. The song - it's not your fault, Julian, that song is too catchy.

(LAUGHTER)

HINES: You got entrapped...

VELARD: Steve Miller.

HINES: You got entrapped by the singability of Steve Miller.

(LAUGHTER)

HINES: Nobody can resist saying that.

EISENBERG: It's true. It's too hard.

HINES: David Bowie would sing along to that.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: It's okay. We're going to the next one.

VELARD: The next one.

(LAUGHTER)

VELARD: All right, this one I won't mess up. I'd like the name of the recording artist please.

(SOUNDBITE OF SINGING)

VELARD: Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, so take this wine and drink with me. Let's delay our misery. Save tonight and fight the break of dawn. Come tomorrow, tomorrow I'll be gone.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

VELARD: Chris?

D'ORSO: Eagle-Eye Cherry.

VELARD: Yes.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Excitement. During World War II, the British spread a rumor that their pilots were eagle-eyed, thanks to a steady diet of carrots helping to improve their night vision. The story was planted to explain the sudden increase in Nazi bombers being shot down. What was the invention and the real reason for Great Britain's newfound success? Hmm.

HINES: Hmm, eyebrows raised.

EISENBERG: All right, I'm going to throw it out there.

(SOUNDBITE OF AUDIENCE YELLING)

EISENBERG: Radar is correct. Okay, it looks like, Chris, you are our winner of this round. Congratulations.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: You are moving on to our Ask Me One More final round at the end of the show. Thank you so much, Jess, you were awesome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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