Question - 378

Identify the two people in the foreground.

Answer: The guy in the umpire chair is Teddy Tinling, a tennis player/fashion designer and the woman facing him is the American tennis player Gertrude Moran who wore a dress designed by Teddy for the 1949 Wimbledon. She created quite a stir with an outfit short enough for her knickers to be visible, a first for any kind of tennis tournament. The press quickly dubbed her "Gorgeous" Gussie and the event caused such an uproar that it was discussed in the British parliament and got Tinling banned from the all England Lawn Club for 33 years. Ramki, Krithi and Jaggi got it. Well done.

Question - 377

This chess set was auctioned recently and fetched more than $140,000 (about 100 times the minimum bid) despite missing a piece. What's so special about it?

Answer: Hope all of you had a great vacation/weekend. This is the chess set used in the iconic scenes of death playing chess with a medieval knight (Max Von Sydow) in Ingmar Bergman's classic movie The Seventh Seal. In the movie, the knight knocks down the pieces in a scene which breaks the white king into two. AJ,Vetti, Paddy, Rithwik, Srivats, Krithi, Hari, Mrinalini, Rajeev, Arvind, Karthik, P, Corina and guessthelogo got it right. Well done.

Question - 376

This is a scene from a 1920s play. Identify the play.

Answer: The play is Karel Capek's R.U.R (Rossum's universal Robots) when the word Robot was used for the very first time. Karel Capek credited his brother Josef Capek with coining the word. Jaggi, Corina, Manix, P, biswagyan, Karthik, Srivats, Raghu and Renuka got it. Well done.

Question - 375

What has the event shown led to?

Answer: The painting shows Phillipides, an Athenian herald who supposedly ran 240 kms in 2 days between Greece and Sparaa and then a further 40 km from Marathon to Athens to convey the news of a Greek victory over the invading Persian army (with the famous word Nenikekamen) before dying of exhaustion. The marathon race was inspired by this possibly apocryphal story. Rithwik, P and Srivats got it without the added hint while Rajesh, AJ, Corina, Manix, Jaggi and Arvind needed the sports connection to figure it out. Well done all.

Question - 374

National Lampoon, a famous humor magazine ran this mock ad satirizing this particular incident. This resulted in a legal action from Volkswagen claiming unauthorized use of its trademark. What is the incident being satirized?

Answer: The chappaquiddick incident involving Sen. Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne when Ted Kennedy drove his car off a bridge and then left the scene of the accident. Mary Jo died in the accident and the fallout of the incident was a huge factor in Ted Kennedy not running for president in 1972. Even as late as 1980 when he finally did run, he wasn't quite able to live this one down. Jaggi, v. chandrashekar, Srivats, Raghu, Schmetterling, Rajesh K, Corina, mekie, Arvind, Manix, Mrinalini, Krithi, Debasish, guessthelogo, Arvind, P and Ramji got it. Well done.

Question - 373

Identify the man and this location which he called home for nearly 20 years.

Answer: Turns out the question wasn't really all that hard. This is Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian traveler who got stranded in Paris's Charles de Gaulle from August 1988 to July 2006. His story was the inspiration behind the Tom Hanks movie The Terminal. nice try, P, Hari, Rithwik, Mrinalini, anon, Srivats, Jaggi, Rajesh, Karthik and Iam got it. Well done.

Question - 372

Identify.

Answer: This is Guy Laliberte, the CEO of Cirque du Soleil. He recently went to space on board the Soyuz TMA-16 and in the process became the first space clown. He has quite a colorful career and is also an excellent poker player. Rajesh, Mrinalini, Anish, Karthik, P, raklodramA, Adi, Anurag, anon, Arvind, Swapnaa, Jaggi, Manix, Corina, Renuka, Srivats, Hari and Ramji got it. Well done.

Question - 371

Identify the person and the associated event.

Hints: No hits so far except one valiant attempt by Corina :) The zoomed out visual on the left might give you an idea of what she was up to. A film adaptation of her exploits is scheduled to come out in 2010 with Rachel Weisz (not Kristen Stewart) portraying her.

Answer: The picture shows Julia Butterfly Hill, an environmental activist who lived in a 180 feet tall coastal redwood tree for a mind-boggling 738 days to prevent it from being cut down by the Pacific Lumber company. Mrinalini, Manix, Corina, Iam and Jaggi got it. I suppose the originally posted picture provided no clues to work with. Well done all.

Question - 370

Connect the image on the left to the two gentlemen on the right.

Answer: The connect is the Leonid meteor shower which happens when earth's orbit intersects the debris left behind by the comet Tempel-Tuttle (the guys in the visual). Every so often, conditions conspire to produce a meteor storm when the number of meteors seen goes up by orders of magnitude. Among the most spectacular showers was the one in 1833 which supposedly produced about 100,000 meteors per hour (compared to 500 per hour predicted for this year's shower). That night has come to be known as the night the stars fell and a jazz standard called Stars fell on Alabama was composed inspired by that shower. This has since made its way to Alabama license plates as well. The 1833 shower had all kinds of mystical significance associated with it including forceful eviction of Mormons from Independence, Missouri. Karthik, Manix, Rajesh K and Swapnaa got it. Well done.

Question - 369

Where is this located? What occasion does this commemorate?

Answer: This is the memorial commemorating Douglas MacArthur's landing in Leyte Island, Philippines. A famous photograph of the event can be seen here. On returning to fulfill his famous vow, he declared "I have returned". Hirak, Karthik, P, Anand and Krithi got it. Well done.

Question - 368

Hint 1: No correct hits on this so far. It's a standard related question.
Hint 2: Map 2, a slightly more simplified version of the first map.


The Return of Dinesh: Dinesh is back starting tomorrow as the QM for the blog. Your truly is off to the Motherland and will be back in two weeks,  certainly well-fed and hopefully with more questions.

Answer: World GSM coverage. The frequencies are different for the Americas and the rest of the world.

Answered by: Corina and Anand

Question - 367

Identify the duelists.

Answer: Eugene Onegin and Vladimir Lensky by Repine. Arguably the most famous duel in literature was made more ironic by the fact that Pushkin himself died in a duel.

Answered by: Arvind, Corina, Ashwin, Swapnaa, Hari, P and Mekie.

Aside: For those interested in reading the poem, try Charles Johnston's version of Eugene Onegin. Despite V. Nabokov's quibbles in accurately translating Pushkin in English verse, he does an outstanding job in translating the meaning of poem while maintaining the rhyme and meter of the Onegin stanzas. {steps off soapbox}.

Question - 366

Patent drawing for what?

Answer: The first frisbee by Wham-o!

Answered by: Corina, Dinesh, Ashwin, P, and Swapnaa.
QM is a tad surprised at there weren't as many answers given the popularity of the sport in AA. Que?

Question - 365

Question: Path traces what?

Answer: Path traces the locations in James Joyce's Ulysses. I guess it's a happy coincidence the Leopold Bloom's path traces an inverted question mark. It's also known as the Joyce Walk in Dublin.

Answered by: Anish, Schmetterling, Adi, Manix, Corina, Raghu, Riskit, P, Paddy and Rajeev.

Question - 364

This jacket is an accessory to enable what legendary item's use?

Update: Man in pic is connected with this.

Answer: Jacket for listening to the Sony Walkman. Among the many accessories that come out in the wake of the personal stereo

Answered by: Q, Anonymous and P.

Question - 363

Which famous incident in sporting history is shown here?

Answer: Bellow's 'Dempsey through the ropes'. Jack Dempsey being knocked out of the ring by the Argentine Firpo. Dempsey was an unpopular champion and Firpo was the underdog the crowd wanted to see win. Despite the knockout, Dempsey won the bout.

Answered by: Anon, Corina, Swapnaa, Dinky, Paddy and P

Question - 362

Identify the couple.

Answer: Mr. Salvador and Mrs. Gala Dali.

Answered by: Dinky, Anand, Jaggi, Anonymous, Rajesh, Debashish, P, V. Chandrashekar and Swapnaa

Question - 361

Map showing what? (Question by: Manix)

Answer: Map shows the peak times for the fall foliage.

Answered by:Iam K, Rajesh, Corina, and P

Question - 360

Whose statue?

Answer:Stevie Ray Vaughan(SRV).

Answered by: hotmanoj, Karthik, Jaggi, Corina, ashwin, Adi, Rajeev (nice!), Rajesh, Paddy, P, Rahul, Abhiskek, and Iam