Question - 672

Which company's headquarters? The building is supposed to reflect the company's motto.

Answer: Vodafone HQ in Porto, Portugal reflecting the company's logo "Life in motion". Question inspired by Apple's new proposed HQ. Siddarth Pai, Jamie, Ramki, Matti and Krishna got it. Well done.

Question - 639

Identify the guy.

Answer: Frank Zamboni, the guy who invented the eponymous ice resurfacer. Siddarth Pai, Iam, giantamoeba and Matti got it. Well done.

Question - 613

What started this way?

Answer: The modern Miss Universe contest started out as the International Pageant of Pulchritude in Galveston, Texas in 1926. Ameya, matti tapaninen, Krithi, Dinesh, Saket, and Iam got it.

Question - 600

What began this way?

Answer: DC comics. Manasi, Saket, Riskit got it. Dinky cracked the meta connect (DC=600). matti tapaninen and Ameya came close by identifying the protagonist of the first DC comic, Jack Woods.

Question - 584

Who is the guy in the middle upending the table?

Question - 574

Which organization's logo?

Answer: Wikileaks. Dinesh, matti tapaninen, Anand, v.chandrashekar, Krithi, mekie, Iam, Divya Shankar, and bhawsheel got it.

Question - 552

Connect.

Answer: The connect is the TV show 30 Rock (highly recommended). The show creates a complicated and fictional corporate history connecting its studio NBC, and its parent company GE - hence the GE Building/30 Rockefeller Plaza reference, to such firms as the Sheinhardt Wig Company and Kabletown ("thats Cabletown with a K"). Vetti, Krithi, Dinesh, and Anonymous got it. Great job.

Question - 549

Connect.

Answer: The connect is Banana Republic. The clothing retailer of the same name originally started as a travel-related store with a travel/tropical-themed catalogs and magazines (top left). The term was first used to describe a dysfunctional, agriculture-dependent country by the American writer O. Henry in his book "Cabbages and Kings" (top right). The bottom cartoon is Herge's famous depiction of such a country, San Theodoros, in the Tintin comics. Iam, Dinesh, matti tapaninen, and mekie got it. Nice job.

Question - 546

Identify and connect.

Answer: The "Chairmans" of the popular cooking show Iron Chef - from the Japanese and American versions, respectively. Dinesh, Jamie, Rajesh K, and Krithi got it.

Question - 507

Today's question is courtesy Manix. What product is this ad for?

Answer: The ad is for Xerox 914 photocopied which recently celebrated its 50th birthday. Mekie, Jamie, Anirudh Patil and Swapnaa got it. Well done.

Question - 502

Today's question is courtesy Krish. Identify the blanked out portion of the first visual. For bonus points, connect the answer to the second visual.

Answer: Bibendum is the Michelin man. In the French version of Asterix in Switzerland, the man holding the chariot wheel is the logo of the oil company Antar. It was replaced by the Michelin man in the English translation. Obelix says in the next panel, "Call me fat! Did you see HIS spare tyre?". Priceless!!! Karthik, White Jack and Black Lagoon, Anirudh Patil, Semisimplicity, Kamal Rathi, Lt Col Shankar, Jamie, anon, Krithi, Pranav, Hirak, AJ, Manix, Adi, Mainak and Ramki got it. Well done.

Question - 500

Matti Tapaninen wants you to identify what this is and who it is named for.

Akshay M. R. wants you to identify what the ad is for.

Vateez didn't really send this as a guest question but I really like the question. Identify this place.

Answers: 1) Vespasian - a street urinal named for the Roman emperor. Anon, Jaggi, Krithi, Kamal Rathi, Rajesh K and Jamie got it.

2) The ad is for Guinness. Akshay, anon, Jaggi, Krithi, Kamal Rathi, Rajesh K and Jamie got it.

3) Kowloon walled city. Jaggi and Kamal Rathi got it. Well done all.

Aside: Yaay!!! Finally got to number 500. Thanks to all who have contributed to the blog. Send in any comments and questions you have.

Question - 477

Identify him.

Aside: I will be pretty busy this coming weekend and probably even into next week. Expect the updates to be sporadic/non-existent till at least next Tuesday . Raghu Kainkaryam, a regular of both the UM quiz club and the blog will be the quiz master for the next week or so.

Answer: This is Adi Dassler, co-founder of Adidas. Ameya, Manix, Anand and Arvind got it. Well done.

Question - 452

Connect.

Answer: The guy on the left is Clarence Long, the original Marlboro man. He was the highlight of a great ad campaign that transformed Marlboro cigarettes from a woman's cigarette brand to a macho brand. The guy on the right is Lance Corporal James Miller whose close-up photograph became famous during the Iraq War in 2004. He has been dubbed the Marlboro marine. Hari, DrDate, Matti Tapaninen, Rithwik, V.Chandrasekhar, Karthik and Ramki got it. Well done.

Aside: I accidentally pressed the comment reject button and only a quick print screen saved the names of the people who had answered. Blogger has no way of undoing a reject apparently.

Question - 319

Connect the three pictures.

Lateral/Oblique hint: Fibonacci series!!!

Answers will be posted tomorrow. No questions tomorrow - in the spirit of the Rose Parade - "Never on a Sunday".  See u folks Monday.

Answer: Playboy. Monroe and Peter Sellers were the first woman and man to grace the cover of this venerable magazine. The map shows the locations were the magazine has editions and can be legally obtained.

Note on hint: I thought it wasn't too much of a stretch to go from Playboy - bunnies - rabbits - multiplication - Fibonacci.


People with rather catholic reading tastes: Dinesh, Anirudh, Iam, Anonymous, and Keshav.
Honorable mention: Very interesting attempt by Major Shankar.

Question - 281

Early Sears catalogs contained a number of advertisements such as the one shown here as part of a marketing campaign for which fictional company? (all blanked words are the same).

Answer: The company is Acme from the roadrunner cartoons. The name supposedly stands for A company that makes everything. Rajesh, Raghu, Hirak, anon, nice try, Schmetterling, tsp, Divya and Srivats got it. Well done.

Question - 230

Identify the person and the controversy connecting the other two visuals.

Answer: Li Ning, the Chinese gymnast who lit the Olympic torch in the 2008 Olympics. He runs a shoe company which is a huge rival of Adidas, the official sponsor of the games. This created an ambush marketing for his company much to Adidas' dismay. Vetti, Vijay and Rajesh got it. Well done.

Question - 229

The top visual shows an early 20th century ad for this famous product. The product is named after and used to be produced from the tree in the bottom left. A part of the manufacturing process is shown in the bottom right. Identify the tree and the product.

Answer: The ad is for Chicklets, named so for the Chicle tree shown in the bottom. Raghu, Vetti, Swapnaa, Iam, Adi, Avi, Shweta and Vijay got it. Well done.

Question - 31

Identify and connect.

Answer: These are all brand names that feature frequently in Quentin Tarantino's movies. They are in order the Fruit Brute cereal (this one is not fictional but is no longer in production), G.O. Juice, Big Kahuna burger (perhaps the most famous of the five featuring prominently in a pivotal scene in pulp fiction), Red Apple cigarettes and Teriyaki donuts. Samrat, Ramji, Divya and Rajesh got it. Well done.