2. Who once claimed to have had the following dream?
“Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a
corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were
stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and
there was a throng of people, some gazing
mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered,
others weeping pitifully. ‘Who is dead in the White
House?’ I demanded of one of the soldiers. ‘The
President’ was his answer; ‘he was killed by an
assassin!’ Then came a loud burst of grief from the
crowd, which awoke me from my dream.”
5. In the 1960s they were a relatively new phenomenon
that raised eyebrows among some parents who saw
them as the dangerous tools of a reckless generation.
The “sport” wasn’t always familiar to adults who
worried about their safety, sounds, and impacts on
urban spaces.
So, in 1966, a Canadian filmmaker made a
mockumentary about what he called The Devil’s Toy,
a look at the ultimate weapon in the battle between
kids and adults.
What was this “devil’s toy”?
8. In Rome, for the past 500 years, has stood a pedestal supporting
the marble torso of a decrepit statue named Pasquino.
Cardinal Oliviero Carafa, an enemy of Pope Alexander VI (better
known to us as Rodrigo Borgia), decided to dress the statue up
and cover it with witty little sayings in Latin.
Other similar statues around the city are known as the “talking
statues of Rome”.
What have these “talking statues” been historically used for?
10. To spread slander. If one has to criticize a
neighbor, the govt etc, he simply writes down his
message on the statue.
This also gives rise to the Italian slang
“pasquinate”, which means an anonymous insult
in verse or prose.
11. This recipe was invented in Antoine’s Restaurant in New Orleans in
1899, a time when many chefs aimed to create foods that were “rich”
and “luxurious” in flavor.
The oyster dish is set apart by a secret butter sauce that garnishes the
raw oysters.
What is the signature color supposed to represent?
14. The term “combat medic” didn’t exist during the
Civil War or for decades afterward. Instead,
enlisted men were pulled from the ranks to serve
as “hospital stewards”. Although these men
received some first-aid training, there was really
one main requirement.
What was this basic requirement?
16. They had to be able to read the doctor’s notes
17. In June 2015, the
lift and trapdoor
was used to
transport a wolf as
part of shooting a
documentary
called “Roman
Death Trap”.
What was being
replicated?
19. Transportation of ferocious beasts from the
passageways and dens under the Colosseum,
known as the hypogeum, up to the arena for
gladiatorial fights
20. In September 1943, Elfriede, a fashionista dressmaker living in
Dresden, was turned in by her landlady and arrested by the
Gestapo for “defeatist talk” and “subversion of military
strength.” On December 12, Elfriede was beheaded by
guillotine.
In pronouncing the decision the judge allegedly stated: ‘We
have sentenced you to death because we cannot apprehend
your brother. You must suffer for your brother.’
X would dedicate his 1952 novel to Elfriede, but in a final twist,
it was omitted in the German version, a snub orchestrated by
those who still saw him as a traitor.
Who was the famous brother?
23. “swimming with all possible grace near the shore. The
upper part of her body resembled that of a woman…she
had large eyes, rather too round, a finely-shaped nose (a
little too short), well-formed ears, rather too long…and
her green hair imparted to her an original character by no
means unattractive…[but] from below the waist the
woman gave way to the fish.”
This is the account of a 17th century traveler who is more
famous for something else and not this supposed
mermaid sighting.
Who?
26. The Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve in Lynn Valley, Vancouver, has by
one recent account played everything from the Ecuadorian highlands to the
taiga forests of eastern Siberia. In one instance, it even stood in for a mid-coma
dreamscape.
It has played host to devil worshipers, killer fungi, and Neanderthal women. It
has also stood in for both a forest in Kazakhstan and Virginia’s Shenandoah
National Park.
Where would one expect to come across all these locales?
29. Lieutenant Weissman is a decadent German army officer
stranded in the former South-West Africa seven years
after it ceased to be a German colony.
He is a mysterious, occasionally transvestite figure who
appears to be engaged in a sadomasochistic relationship
with the German agent Vera Merovering.
He is sneaky too, potentially drugging and then stealing
from another character, Kurt Mondaugen.
Whose debut novel is he featured in?
32. The item pictured is a red metal contraption holding four paper cones.
One has breaded shrimp, the next fried battered fish, and the third “hush
pups” which are deep-fried tumours of fish with sweetcorn.
The waiter is trained to tell patrons that the cones aren’t full of these items.
They are laid on top of chips.
In which restaurant by Picadilly would you come across this much
recommended dish?
35. This graphic novel which won a Pulitzer in 1992 and was published in Russian
in 2013, is an anti-fascist narrative about the Holocaust told through the
memories of his father, a Polish Jew who moved to the United States.
The novel portrays Jews and Germans as two creatures representing the hunter
and the hunted.
Earlier this year bookstores in Moscow withdrew copies of the Art Speigelman
book – in an attempt to comply with a law banning Nazi propaganda.
Name the book.
38. Biologist Richard Dawkins dedicated his book The
God Delusion (2006) to X, writing on his death that
"Science has lost a friend, literature has lost a
luminary, the mountain gorilla and the black rhino
have lost a gallant defender."
X was born on 11 March 1952 in Cambridge, England.
The year after X was born, Watson and Crick
famously first modeled DNA at Cambridge
University, leading X to later quip he was DNA in
Cambridge months earlier.
Who?
41. In 2013, a number of members of the Unhasu orchestra
were reported to have been executed for violating
pornography laws.
This was in a bid to protect the reputation of a lady who
once worked there as a singer.
Who is the singer’s influential hubby?
44. The story of the “Scopes Monkey Trial,” began in April, 1925, when a Dayton
businessman read an advertisement placed in a Chattanooga newspaper by the
recently established American Civil Liberties Union. The ad promised legal
assistance to anyone challenging the state’s new Butler Law.
John Thomas Scopes was Dayton’s high school football coach and believed the
law was unjust. The town leaders were able to persuade him to stand trial for
their cause.
Their aim was simply to draw visitors and their wallets into town for the trial.
The men’s PR instincts were right, if misguided. The State of Tennessee v. John
T. Scopes turned out to be a national spectacle.
But why was the Butler Law construed as unjust in several quarters?
46. The law banned the teaching of evolution—
specifically, “any theory that denies the story of
the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible,
and to teach instead that man has descended from
a lower order of animals."
47. If one listens closely
while waiting for the
Disneyland Railroad at
the New Orleans Square
station, a tapping sound
can be heard coming
from the Telegraph Cable
Office.
This tapping is actually a
message coded in
Continental Code.
What is the content of the
message?
49. Walt Disney’s famed opening day speech. In
order for it to be ready to go for July 17, 1955, a
memo was distributed on July 8 with an early
draft of Disney’s remarks.
50. In 1910, Korea became a Japanese colony. From then until the 1940s, the
Japanese government used hundreds of thousands of Koreans as forced
laborers, often making them work in miserable conditions. One of these sites
where this occurred is Hashima Island, popularly called“______ Island” due to
its resemblance to a certain object.
The bid for it to be a World Heritage Site was met with controversy due to this
history.
What is the popular name of the island?
53. The African bontebok is a
medium-size antelope. At one
point only 17 of these animals
existed in the world, but now the
species seems to have come back
from the brink of extinction.
The bontebok owes its bounce
back to one particular physical
inability that stands out. It's the
thing that both nearly killed, and
ultimately saved the species.
What is the inability?
55. It cannot jump.
By the early 1800s, only one herd still lived on the
Cape, on the farm of a man named Alexander van
der Bijl. Those last 17 remaining bontebak,
couldn’t escape his enclosure. Since they couldn’t
escape, they couldn’t be hunted.
56. Researchers on _____ ism write:
“Real ______s report that without occasional feeding, their overall
health and well-being suffer. Hence, the term _______ism is used
to describe the feeding process. Real _______s may or may not
find interest in mythical _______ or pop culture _______ism; these
seem to be irrelevant to their self-identified ________ism.”
They explain that while some people who identify as _______s do
participate in role-playing games or enjoy wearing specific
clothing, others are ________s simply in their belief that they
need to feed off the energy of others. Most of the time, consensual
donors are to be found.
Fill in the blank. (All blanks are the same)
59. In 2008, when Pluto was downgraded from a
planet to a dwarf planet, LA Dodgers player
Clayton Kershaw was particularly upset.
Who is Kershaw’s famous great uncle?
62. This is a portrait of Gertrude
Stein by Pablo Picasso which
is housed at the
Metropolitan Museum of
Art, New York City.
When someone commented
that Stein did not look like
her portrait, what was
Picasso’s brief and witty
response?
65. Former CNN presenter and Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan celebrated his
50th birthday in July 2015, with a theme that is typically in-character.
Synchronised swimmers, Folies Bergere-style dance troupe, boaters, white
suits and more than a few celebs joined Morgan at his house.
What theme with a literary bent was Morgan living through on that landmark
day?
68. A four-metre, concrete copy of
X has been erected in the front
yard of a private home in
Caroline Springs, Melbourne,
and drawn the ire of some
neighbours.
It has been called “vulgar”,
“tacky” and an “eyesore” and
there has been a reported
increase in street traffic as
drivers stop to take photos.
What is the “eyesore” in
question?
71. She married Reginald Hargreaves, a
cricketer who played for Hampshire,
on 15 September 1880, at the age of
28 in Westminster Abbey.
They had three sons: Alan Knyveton
Hargreaves and Leopold Reginald
"Rex" Hargreaves (both were killed
in action in World War I); and Caryl
Hargreaves, who is believed to have
been named after a much older
gentleman she was close to.
ID the girl and the much older
gentleman that she named one of her
sons after.
73. This is Alice Lidell, the real life inspiration for
Alice in Wonderland.
The older gentleman that she was close to was of
course, Lewis Carroll.
74. In October 2013, Monet's paintings, L'Eglise de
Vetheuil and Le Bassin aux Nymphease, became
subjects of a legal case in New York against NY-
based Vilma Bautista after she sold Le Bassin aux
Nymphease for $32 million to a Swiss buyer.
Bautista's lawyer claimed that the she sold the
painting for X but did not have a chance to give
her the money.
Either ID X or the reason for the legal action.
76. X is Imelda Marcos
The said Monet paintings, along with two others,
were acquired by Imelda during her husband's
presidency and allegedly bought using the
nation's funds.
77. On July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of
Independence, political rivals X and Y died just hours
apart. Maintaining a steady correspondence throughout
their final years, X a Federalist and Y a Republican had
grudgingly become friends. "You and I ought not to die
until we have explained ourselves to each other," X wrote.
But with his last breath as the story goes, he worried that
his rival had outlived him. “Y survives," were purportedly
X’s final words.
But Y had died just hours ahead of him.
X and Y please.
80. Runnymede in Surrey is a
low-lying, lush green
meadow cut through and
watered by the Thames.
The ground is soft and
muddy; and boots are
likely to sink if one stood
too long here.
Every 90 seconds a plane
roars overhead.
Why is this desolate spot
significant?
83. Monroeville styles itself “the Literary Capital of
Alabama.”
The town boasts that it has produced two
celebrated writers, who grew up as neighbors
and friends, X and Harper Lee.
The latter has also collaborated on X’s book “In
Cold Blood”.
ID X.
86. According to myth, the Greek poet Simonides of Ceos invented
the technique after attending a banquet gone wrong. Simonides
stepped outside to meet with two young men.
But when he arrived outside, the young men were not there
and the hall was collapsing behind him.
Though his fellow banqueters were too badly crushed by the
collapse for their remains to be identified, Simonides was
supposedly able to put a name to each body based on where
they had been sitting in the hall.
What is the technique applied by Simonides known as now?
89. X’s memorial tablet, which
stands near her tomb, was
erected during her years as
empress in the expectation that
her successors would compose
a magnificent epitaph for it.
Instead, it was left without any
inscription–the only such
example in more than 2,000
years of Chinese history.
ID X.
94. Extracts fresh water from the air, in a place where
drinking water is always a problem
95. This is the busy square Largo
de Torre Argentina which
stands where a theater once
was.
It wasn't until recently, in 2012,
that archaeologists found
definitive physical proof, in
the form of a concrete
structure, that the theater in
question did indeed once
stand in the square.
What is arguably the most
talked about incident to have
taken place in that theater?
97. The assassination of Julius Caesar.
Pompey’s theater being the structure in question.
98. This is the tomb of Dr. John
Sappington, a Confederate
General, situated near Arrow
Rock, the epitaph on which
reads:
"A truly honest man is the
noblest work of God; He lay
like a warrior taking his rest”.
Who is his more famous
descendant originally named
Virginia Katherine McMath
(lady in the pic) ?
102. This is Margaret Hamilton
standing next to listings of
the actual Apollo Guidance
Computer (AGC) source
code.
Hamilton was later given
NASA’s Exceptional Space
Act Award for her work on
the Apollo mission’s in-
flight software.
What two word term is she
credited with coining?
105. Joe DiMaggio said after facing
him in a 1936 non-league
game that Leroy Paige was
the greatest pitcher he had
ever batted against.
After two decades in the
Negro leagues, what record
did he set when he debuted
with the Cleveland Indians in
July 1948?
108. This is a stock image that is available online: of re-
enactors, not actual SS soldiers.
The picture created a controversy recently leading to a
tweet being deleted and a “young intern” being blamed.
What happened?
110. On closer inspection, the soldiers in this Donald
Trump campaign image are not American but
bear Nazi insignia and uniform. It was apparently
copied from the net by an intern who didn’t know
better
111. The plaque is placed outside a former Baskin-
Robbins in Chicago.
Who is the plaque “dedicated” to?
114. “For years, ____ ______ was sold as a fiesta where
anything goes, where you can do whatever you
want and there are no consequences,” said Zuriñe
Altable of the Platform of Women Against Sexual
Violence.
Which annual event, the scenes from which have
been provided in the next slide?
118. The Cremaster Cycle is somewhere in between a
traditional film and an art installation. It isn’t too easy
divining a plot, but each entry offers a great deal of
“business” to follow, usually oddly dressed
characters trying to accomplish some sort of strange
task.
This can range from chopping up a room full of raw
potatoes with bladed shoes to a kit of pigeons
bringing a man’s penis to erection with ribbons.
(Pics in the next slide)
What is Cremaster?
121. The Cremaster Cycle is named after the muscle
that controls the height of the testicles
122. Pierre Coffin, the creator, has revealed his reasoning.
“Seeing how dumb and stupid they often are, I just
couldn’t imagine X being girls.”
He didn’t explain how they reproduce however.
Their language according to Coffin comes from a
mixture of sources. “It’s gibberish. It’s a mixture of all
the languages of the world and it’s about finding a
particular magical rhythm and melody that makes the
nonsense make sense.”
What is X?
