Question - 665

Identify the women in the painting. Connect one of them to the second visual. The connect is slightly tangential.

Answer: The painting is that of Orpha, Ruth and Naomi from the Book of Ruth. Orpha is the given name of Oprah Winfrey whose friends found it too hard to pronounce it and changed it to Oprah. Orpah literally means turning back in Hebrew and Oprah turned her name backwards to name her production company Harpo. The picture is of course Harpo Marx. Question marks the conclusion of the wildly successful Oprah show and I was hoping the tags would help with the tough visuals. Krishna is the only one to get it. Bravo.

Question - 649

Where would you find this?

Answer: The town of Riverside, Iowa which declared itself the birthplace of James T. Kirk. Siddarth Pai, Krithi, Matti, Jamie, Divya, Deepanshu, Saket, Sharmistha Dutta and Divya Shankar got it. Well done.

Question - 621

A recreation (left) and a photograph (right) of the first few what of their kind?

Answer: These are the first few images transmitted on the television by John Logie Baird. Ameya, Iam, Divya Shankar, and Dinesh got it. Nicely done.

Question - 557

Identify the character.

Answer: This is Tek Jansen, a fictional character featured on the Colbert Report. mekie got it. Awesome!

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 - 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 - 545

What does this (non-exhaustive) collection of symbols represent?

Answer: The symbols are part of the Hobo code (made famous recently by the Emmy-winning drama, Mad Men). Divya Shankar, mekie, Jamie, Dinesh, and Iam got it right. Nicely done.

Question - 518

What is this the ad for?

Answer: Very creative ads for the gross Man vs. Wild. Pranav, Akshay, Mekie, Adi and Kar295rocks got it. Well done.

Question - 487

Connect.

Hint: Origin of the McMeme.

Answer: Gray's/Grey's Anatomy. On the left is Henry Gray, the eponymous author of the classic medical textbook Gray's Anatomy, now in its 40th edition. On the right is Shonda Rhimes, the creator of the popcult classic Grey's Anatomy -- which gave us McDreamy, McSteamy, and other McMemes. Dinesh, Mekie, and Kamal Rathi got it right. Well done.

Question - 479

This was the first of its kind and gave rise to the term that defines this genre. What term?

Answer: The term is "soap opera." Clara, Lu, and Em (shown above) was radio's first soap opera, so called because of its sponsor 'Super Suds', a Colgate-Palmolive-Peet product. Anand, Arvind, Adi, Iam, Mohan, Hirak, Avi, and Nemani got it. Well done.

Question - 478

Connect.

Answer: The connect is the MP3 audio compression format. Karlheinz Brandenburg (bottom left) used the song Tom's Diner by Suzanne Vega (bottom right) to test this compression scheme. The diner in the song is Tom's Restaurant (top) later made famous as Monk's Cafe in Seinfeld. Arvind, Rajesh, and Rajesh K. got it. Nice crack.

Question - 467

Identify the building.

Answer: The Pennsylvania paper & supply company's tower featured most prominently in the opening credits of The Office. paragbm, Nemani, Sumit, Mohan Phadnis, Raghu, Jaggi, Karthik, hotmanoj, NJ and Rajeev got it. Well done.

Question - 450

Today's question is more of a personal indulgence and is probably not a quiz question in the strict sense. Nevertheless, I wanted to spread the word and ergo the question - Identify the work from which these scenes are taken.

Answer: HBO's crime drama The Wire. It has gotten rave reviews with more than one critic calling it the greatest television series ever made (link) but for all this has never been quite popular. I thoroughly love the show (especially seasons 1, 3 & 4) and couldn't resist the question. Rajeev, Matti Tapaninen, Hirak, Manix and Rajesh K got it. Well done all and WATCH IT.

Question - 424

Identify the movie from the poster.

Answer: The movie is Late Shift, a made for TV movie about the messy struggle between Jay Leno and David Letterman to succeed Johnny Carson as the host of the Tonight show. After all these years, there is now again a controversy regarding the host of the Tonight show with Leno fighting it out with Conon O'Brien. Krithi, Hari, Ramki, Schmetterling, Raghu, Ajinkya, Rajesh K, Jaggi, nice try, Manix, rajesh, Amresh, Kaushik, Shweta, Iam and rajeev got it. Well done.

Question - 420

Today's question is courtesy Rajeev. Connect the 6 images.

Hint: Four correct replies so far. I will let it stay another day with a hint. The connect is television related and quite topical.

Answer: The visuals are in order Led Zeppelin's Album IV cover, the character 8 from "Battlestar Galactica", the 15 puzzle, a sixteenth note, Jim Carrey's movie "The number 23" and the 42 puzzle from HHGTTG (this was in fact the 42nd question on the blog). The numbers 4,8,15,16,23 and 42 form one of Lost's most prominent recurring themes. The much anticipated final season of Lost premiered on Feb 2nd. Ajinkya, Manix, Raghu and Amresh got it. Well done.

Question - 398

Identify him.

Answer: Chuck Norris - the West's answer to Captain Vijayakanth. He can divide by 0, order a big Mac from Burger King and can slam a revolving door. Arvind, Raghu, Iam, Hirak, Hari and Srivats got it. Well done.

Question - 396

Sketch of what?

Answer: This is the model of the spaceship serenity in the cult TV show/movie firefly. Raghu, Manix and Iam got it. Well done.

Question - 308

Which famous farewell message is this?

Answer: This is the message BJ leaves for Hawkeye in the final episode of M*A*S*H. You can see the shadow of Hawkeye's chopper in the bottom left. As of 2009, this episode still remains the single most watched television broadcast in US history. Karthik, Raghu, Iam, Ajinkya, Rajeev, Trevor Burnham and Adi got it. Well done.

Question - 279

Which role is the character in the TV screen playing? Where is this screenshot taken from?

Answer: This is big brother from Apple's famous ad (directed by Ridley Scott) during the 1984 super bowl. The ad is widely regarded as one of the best of all times and is influenced by Orwell's classic 1984. Hari, Iam, Raghu, Rajeev, Hirak, Trevor Burnham, Renuka (who went for the equally correct 2004 ad which had an ipod digitally added to the hammer thrower) and Johnny Walker got it. Well done.

Question - 271

The first visual shows a (now very small) religious group who are mainly known for their association with the tale depicted in the second visual. The third visual is also connected to the tale depicted in the second visual. Identify all visuals and connect.

Answer: The religious group is the Samaritans (now numbering less than 1000). The parable is that of the good Samaritan who helps an injured traveler. Most legal systems have a "good Samaritan" law which absolves those who choose to aid others who are injured or ill of any liabilities. In Seinfeld's finale, the four main cast members are arrested for violating the good Samaritan law by making fun of rather than helping a fat man getting robbed. Many of you made an alternate Seinfeld connection to an episode called the good Samaritan but the picture is from the finale. Hari, Avi, Mekie, Srivats, Raghu, nice try, Hirak and Rajeev got it. Well done.