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Conducted by: Debasish Bhattacharjee

Spare Tyre

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Conducted by:

Debasish Bhattacharjee

Walter and Tom Davies of Llanelli, Wales, invented the ____ ____ in 1904.

At the time, motor cars were made without ____ ____.

Their company, X Iron Mongers, had agents distributing through the United States, Belgium, France, and Italy.

The word X is sometimes used interchangeably in India with ____ ____.

What is X?

ANSWER

X: Stepney

The blanks are “spare tyre”

In the earliest days of cricket, batsmen were expected to leave the bat at the crease on being dismissed so that the batsman coming in next could use it.

This practice leads to the coinage of a three word phrase, that refers to a commendable feat on the part of the batsman.

Which phrase?

ANSWER

Carrying the bat

This phrase, an obsolete one, except in India, used to be of significance during the British Rule.

The East India Company used to post its officers to particular “______s”. When they used to be away from their duty ______s, the officers used to be referred to as “____ __ _______”.

Which three word phrase? (The first two blanks are the same as the third word in the phrase)

ANSWER

Out of station

Scene (next slide) from the movie “Todo Sobre mi Madre”, where the poster depicts a play which plays a significant part in the movie.

This play is a Spanish version of a famous English play of the 1940s, which was later made into an Oscar winning movie.

The line “Whoever you are.. I have always depended on the kindness of strangers” said by the character Huma Rojo in the Spanish movie, is actually a repeat of a famous line from the original play.

Name the play.

ANSWER

A Streetcar Named Desire

X was a Seventh-Day Adventist, a branch of Protestant Christianity that promotes a vegetarian diet among its followers.

X became a health guru, opening a health resort in his home town of Battle Creek, Michigan where he advocated a lifestyle of vegetarianism and exercise for good health and moral fiber.

It was at the Battle Creek Sanitarium where X and his younger brother, Will, accidentally invented _______ _______by leaving some boiled wheat lying around for a little too long.

Either ID X or his invention.

ANSWER

John Harvey Kellogg; Breakfast Cereal

The Large Blue butterfly and the red ant called Myrmica — have a unique relationship.

The caterpillar fools the ant into thinking that it is a misplaced grub from the ant’s own nest. It does this by mimicking the posture of an ant larvae and chemically cloaking itself in a scent that seems like the ant.

Once the caterpillar has been "returned" to the nest, it starts clucking. This ensures that the ants will leave it alone when it starts munching the nest’s own larvae.

Why does the caterpillar cluck?

ANSWER

The sound imitates the queen ant.

The ants themselves use their larvae as a food source when times are tough, so for their queenly guest to behave like a cannibal may not strike them as all that abhorrent.

The elytra is a hard case that plays no role in the flight.

The hind wings are where flight originates.

These wings, or alae, are four times the size of the X itself and can move independently of each other.

Each of these alae can move up and down, forward and backward. The alae are inter-laced with veins, which the wings fold along when packed up inside of the elytra.

What is X?

ANSWER

BBC broadcasters alerted authorities about the issue after the start of the program BBC Radio 4 every night proved to be an indication to the problem.

The error amounts to 6 seconds and technicians tend to correct this by stacking pennies on the affected object.

In 1947 a flock of starlings caused a delay of 4.5 minutes.

What is being talked about?

ANSWER

Slowing down of the Big Ben

In the late 1980s, the Indian government announced a plan to release specially bred flesh-eating turtles for a specific purpose.

Some 25,000 flesh-hungry turtles later, the plan was a failure.

“It was plagued by corruption and mismanagement, and though plenty of forethought was put into raising the turtles, not so much attention was paid to seeing that they survived in the wild after their release, and as a result, they were poached and killed in large numbers”.

Why were these turtles bred?

ANSWER

To be released into the Ganges to “clean up” the river of partially burned corpses

Initially only 50,000 copies of the Guinness book was printed.

The copies even had waterproof covers.

What was the practical reason for this waterproofing?

ANSWER

To protect them from the inevitable spills at pubs, where the books were most likely to be used

What connects the following books?

ANSWER

These children’s books use “gentle hypnosis” through cues and dialogues in the book to induce a certain desired behavior

Originally invented in 1868, X (two words) was given its modern form by Joseph Glidden’s improvements in 1874.

Prior to this, farmers often used Osage Orange, a small thorny tree found in Texas.

Nicknamed “Devil’s Rope” by Native Americans, the X proved highly effective on cattle, but also destructive against an entire ecosystem. One notable example: By impeding the American buffalo’s access to grazing land and water, it became a major factor in the near-extinction of the once-prominent creature.

This small museum (pic in next slide) in Texas details the history of X.

What is X?

ANSWER

X’s debut novel starts with the line “Things started to fall apart at home…” which was a nod to Y, who she idolized.

X actually grew up in the same house that was once occupied by Y, in the university town of Nsukka.

After X’s debut novel was published, Y left a message hinting that he was impressed and that X could call him.

X was still too shy to call up Y.

ID X or Y.

ANSWER

Fear of X is referred to as pediophobia.

Some X makers blame Hollywood films for the creepy X stigma, and there’s no doubt that moviemakers have used X to great effect.

Before Hollywood, “The Sandman” is a case study in the uncanny. The story, published in 1816, involves a traumatized young man who discovers that the object of his affection is in fact a clever X, the work of a sinister alchemist who may or may not have murdered the young man’s father; it drives him mad.

What is X?

ANSWER

Dolls

This extraordinary attraction in Parma, Italy is the brainchild of Italian art collector, bibliophile and art magazine publisher Franco Maria Ricci.

In 1998, he sold his publishing house and invested the money, hoping to create a destination that would inspire wonder and curiosity, among other emotions.

The inspiration for creating the X came from Ricci’s long-time friendship and collaboration with the late Argentinean writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges. Ricci admired Borges’ work, and the writer frequently contributed to his magazines. One evening in 1977, Borges was staying at Ricci’s country home when the conversation turned to how X are a metaphor for the human condition-a favorite theme in Borges’ writings.

What is this, the largest of its kind in the world?

ANSWER

Maze/Labyrinth

“Some said that I was a spook, but I just knew a few,” he told the Guardian in 2001 – but an extract from his memoir in the Sunday Times reveals how in late 1968 a “member of the Firm” - MI6 – called Ronnie sought him out.

The Nigeria-Biafra conflict had been ongoing for 15 months, and Ronnie needed “an asset deep inside the Biafran enclave, what he termed ‘someone in on the ground”.

Who finally confessed to having worked as an MI6 agent in addition to have been an RAF pilot?

ANSWER

Frederick Forsyth

These were introduced in the UK in 2007 for low-value transactions. More of these transactions took place during 2014 than the previous six years combined.

More than £2.5bn was transacted in the first half of this year.

What is being talked about?

ANSWER

Contactless card transactions

The menu was saved by Abraham Lincoln Salomon and is signed on the back by Isaac Gerald Frauenthal from New York who probably had eaten lunch with Salomon that day.

The menu also included corned beef; mashed, fried and baked jacket potatoes; a buffet of fish, ham and beef; an apple meringue pastry; and a selection of eight cheeses.

Where was this menu served?

ANSWER

The harbor of the town of Odense, Denmark has a huge painting of a tuna fish and a cormorant.

In 1994 the local football team OB beat Real Madrid to qualify for the Uefa Cup quarter-finals in a fairy tale run. It’s probably the team’s most memorable victory. A lot of people in the city remember the match, especially if they see OB’s old away yellow and black jersey.

But who is the most famous person to have hailed from this town?

ANSWER

Hans Christian Andersson

Originally named The Poet (French: Le Poète), it was initially a figure in a large commission, begun in 1880, for a doorway surround called The Gates of Hell. It was based on The Divine Comedy of Dante, and most of the many figures in the work represented the main characters in the epic poem.

Some critics believe that X, at the centre of the composition over the doorway and at about 70 cm high larger than most other figures, was originally intended to depict Dante at the gates of Hell, pondering his great poem.

What is X?

ANSWER

The Thinker

Disguising him in fancy dress

Hop across the Kensington rooftops to a helipad, or get lost in the crowds in Harrods

Appoint him Ecuador’s representative to the UN and move him out in an official car under the protection of diplomatic immunity

What were these ideas for?

ANSWER

Smuggling Julian Assange out of the Ecuadorean embassy in London

What has been depicted in the pic in reference to the year 1665?

ANSWER

Deaths owing to the Plague of London

“For heaven’s sake, it’s a movie. When I got the script, it was typed in black on paper of the deepest red so you couldn’t photocopy it. I got a hangover just reading it.”

He was censured by the studio recently for mentioning on Twitter a fellow actor.

Either ID him or mention his greatest claim to fame.

ANSWER

Anthony Daniels, most famously known for playing C3PO

To maintain their sacred status, these are rigorously policed: regulations state they must hang from a wall with nothing else on it – no other decorations are allowed – in a prominent and central position in the room.

Frames must also be hung high up, so that no one can stand higher.

The only rooms that are exempt from these rules are in hotels.

If dust is found on them, you’re subject to pay a fine –the thicker the dust is the more you have to pay.

What are we talking about?

ANSWER

Portraits of the two Kims in North Korea

A controversial sculpture by artist Anish Kapoor, on display in the gardens of the Palace of Versailles has been vandalized quite a few times in the past few months.

Officially known as “Dirty Corner”, the sculpture comprises a huge steel funnel, which the 61-year-old British-Indian artist has described as “very sexual”.

What is the informal and possibly the more “popular” name of this sculpture?

ANSWER

Queen’s vagina

A study in The Lancet Psychiatry shows that if a child is a committed X, he is three times more likely to self-harm than other teenagers.

Xs come in various forms but the Oxford Dictionary definition is: “A member of a subculture favouring black clothing, white and black make-up, and X music.”

What is X? (a word that can be connected to Asterix adventures and also architecture)

ANSWER

Goth

There is the oft-spun yarn that he earned his nickname as an infant when Harry Houdini, no less, saw him fall down the stairs and exclaimed: “That was a real _____!”

More outlandishly, he and his parents claimed that aged just 20 months old, he was sucked out of his bedroom window by a tornado, spun and deposited, unharmed, in a nearby field.

Who is X, for whom it was almost second nature to “land like a cat”?

ANSWER

Buster Keaton

This means that you, like all the descendants of Ibn Rushd, Muslim, Christian, atheist or Jew, are also partly of the jinn. The jinni part, being far more powerful than the human part, is very strong in you all, and that is what made it possible for you to survive the otherness in there; for you are Other too.

“Vow,” he cried, reeling. “It isn’t bad enough being a brown dude in America, you’re telling me I’m half fucking goblin as well.”

Excerpt from which book that also includes walk-on parts for Isaac Newton, Henry Ford, Mother Teresa and Harry Potter?

ANSWER

Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie

Recent pics show migrants waiting to be registered by the police after arriving at the port of X.

Homer refers to the island as "Macaros edos", the seat of Macar. Hittite records from the Late Bronze Age name the island Lazpa and must have considered its population significant enough to allow the Hittites to "borrow their gods" (presumably idols) to cure their king when the local gods were not forthcoming.

What is X, also a tourist destination for a certain group of people.

ANSWER

Lesbos; the island which gives its name to lesbianism and is frequented by many of the ilk.

Two "hidden" images formed by the horse appear in X.

A human skull overlays the horse's body. A bull appears to gore the horse from underneath.

The bull's head is formed mainly by the horse's entire front leg which has the knee on the ground. The leg's knee cap forms the head's nose. A horn appears within the horse's breast.

The bull's tail forms the image of a flame with smoke rising from it, seemingly appearing in a window created by the lighter shade of gray surrounding it.

What is X?

ANSWER

Guernica