# Episode 048 - Horses, Rhombus & Delhi Roads

An episode of [Are You Quizzing Me?](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1663104901), 19 Dec 2023, 55 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/d7afa960/podcast/play/80214629/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2023-11-19%2F093c29d1-a8d5-0e91-3ab6-84d24dacd333.mp3

Which carbonated drink has a different colour depending upon which part of the world it is sold in? When was the first submarine ever constructed? Do you know to preserve and restore what did 9 donors come together in 1978 at the Playboy Mansion? Tune in to find out! You can reach us at Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/areyouquizzingme/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/areyouquizzingme Email: areyouquizzingme@gmail.com

## Transcript

[0:01] Welcome to Are you Quizzing Me? I'm Malik Nair with my Co host
[0:05] Aditya Kashim. This is a quizzing trivia
[0:07] podcast show. Join us as we dive deep into
[0:10] history, science, sport, pop culture, and so much more.
[0:13] Pesky Quizzing. And we're back for episode #48
[0:21] of Are You Quizzing Me? Your Favorite Quizzing Trivia
[0:24] Podcast Show. Aditya and I are back for
[0:26] another round of quizzing. But before we get to the
[0:29] regularly scheduled programming where we torture each other with
[0:32] trivia questions, there is a small matter of the question
[0:35] that Aditya had asked last week. So Aditya, please go ahead with
[0:39] your question from last week. OK, so I had asked last week
[0:45] that if Flintstones the TV show the cartoon was made today, who
[0:50] would be a great sponsor for it today instead of Winston
[0:53] Sieglitz? It should definitely be Amazon,
[0:57] which should be sponsoring it because they could sponsor it
[0:59] with their brand, Firestick Flintstone.
[1:04] Nice Firestick would gel so well.
[1:11] Should make perfect sense. And in an Are you quizzing me
[1:13] first? I had also added an add on to
[1:16] your question as to who would be the brand ambassador for The
[1:20] Flintstones if it was produced today and with the very cheesy
[1:23] dad joke answer for it would be Dwayne the Rock Johnson, because
[1:28] he's the Rock. And I knew that.
[1:32] I honestly knew that was the answer.
[1:34] There's one of those times where I don't even know why I know
[1:37] this because it's not trivia, But I guess after 48 episodes
[1:42] you you just kind of understand each other.
[1:44] I will leave the clever answers to you and stick with the trivia
[1:47] from this episode onwards. But before we go into our
[1:51] regularly scheduled programming, that is the matter of the
[1:53] audience question. Today's audience question, which
[1:57] I will answer at the end of today's episode, is as follows.
[2:01] A biologist, an astrophysicist and an electrical engineer walk
[2:06] into a bar, meet a graphic designer and they leave it,
[2:12] becoming one of the biggest bands ever.
[2:15] What is the band I'm talking about?
[2:17] Let me repeat the question. A biologist, an astrophysicist,
[2:20] and an electrical engineer walk into a bar where they meet a
[2:24] graphic designer and when they leave, come out as one of the
[2:27] biggest bands ever. Which band am I talking about?
[2:32] So let me just start off today's episode.
[2:35] So this question and related piece of trivia was sent to us
[2:38] by Duncan, who's a long time listener to the show, often
[2:42] provides very valuable suggestions for us.
[2:44] So thank you Duncan for sending in the question and he wanted me
[2:47] to ask you this question. Aditya, let me just put this
[2:51] out. I had to rephrase his question
[2:52] to make it a little more tough for you to answer, but here
[2:55] goes. The question is as follows.
[2:59] This carbonated drink is found all around the world, but unlike
[3:05] its contemporaries, it has a different color and ingredients
[3:10] depending upon where it's sold, the major difference being
[3:14] between Europe and the United States.
[3:17] Which carbonated drink am I talking about?
[3:22] Interesting. So let me just clarify from the
[3:26] beginning that I'm not talking about something like Pepsi and
[3:29] Pepsi Blue, right. So in this case, if it were
[3:33] Pepsi, Pepsi would have a different color in the US and in
[3:38] parts of Europe, and it would have different, completely
[3:40] different ingredients as well. OK, I want to say Fanta for some
[3:50] reason. OK, so I knew this would happen
[3:54] because when Duncan had told me, you know, when he sent me the
[3:57] question, he had messaged me saying that what do you do?
[3:59] You think Aditya would know the answer.
[4:01] And I was like, I wouldn't put anything past that bugger.
[4:03] He will know this answer, but I'll ask it anyway.
[4:06] So the yes, the answer is of course Fanta.
[4:09] Do you know what the changes are and what the colors are between
[4:13] the countries and whatnot? No, I wouldn't know specifics,
[4:16] but I feel like this is just an experiential thing.
[4:19] Having lived in a few countries, I feel like I've noticed that
[4:21] there's a difference. I never quite thought about it,
[4:23] so it's still atil for me. Go ahead, tell me.
[4:27] So Fanta is more yellowish or actually yellow in your parts of
[4:32] Europe, and it's deeply orange in the US and other countries.
[4:37] I think even in India we get that deeply orange version, the
[4:40] difference being and according to the ingredients in Fanta
[4:44] orange which is sold in England, there is an ingredient which is
[4:47] not used in the American version.
[4:49] Can you guess what? Something not used in the
[4:52] American version. Yes.
[4:58] I don't know orange. Orange juice.
[5:00] Yes, actual orange juice. So Fanta in England.
[5:05] Basically, it has carbonated water and sugar along with
[5:09] orange juice. It includes orange juice from
[5:12] orange concentrate, citrus fruit from concentrate, citric acid,
[5:16] carrot and pumpkin, vegetable extracts, sweeteners,
[5:19] preservatives, natural orange flavorings, and other natural
[5:22] flavorings in addition to other ingredients.
[5:25] Italian Fanta on the other hand is made of water, orange juice
[5:30] from concentrate, sugar, carbon dioxide, citric acid, acidifier,
[5:35] natural citrus flavorings, Acacia gum and ascorbic acid
[5:38] which is vitamin C Now the American version Now listen to
[5:42] this and the American version has carbonated water, high
[5:46] fructose corn syrup and less than 2% of the following, like
[5:52] all of this combined, is less than 2% citric acid, Natural
[5:56] flavoring, sodium benzoate, modified food, starch, glycerol,
[6:00] Ester of Rosen Yellow 6 and red 40 and not a drop of orange
[6:04] juice. So that's the difference here.
[6:09] I would say the UK and Italian version is much healthier.
[6:11] Comparatively. The American Fanta, and I think
[6:16] probably the Indian version also reads like the ingredient list
[6:19] reads like that of a shampoo, right?
[6:21] Right. OK, cool.
[6:23] That's fun. Real TL for me.
[6:26] Thank you, Duncan. That brings me to my next
[6:29] question. Because it is a question which
[6:32] probably you can only guess the answer at, I'd be very surprised
[6:35] if you know the answer. Oh, I like these.
[6:37] I like these. Put it past you.
[6:39] So I'm going to describe something and tell me what I'm
[6:42] describing. Aviation outlet says that X&X is
[6:47] what you have to guess. Aviation Outlet says that X is a
[6:51] converted Boeing 727200 when X isn't.
[6:56] When carrying horses across the country, it can be quickly
[6:59] changed into your average cargo jet.
[7:03] X has a maximum carrying capacity of 12 horses at a time.
[7:08] X provides better services for horses and their owners than
[7:11] other shippers. USA TODAY says that while UPS
[7:16] and FedEx also offer equine travel, it doesn't provide the
[7:20] same authentic experience. The rates for X are $5000 for a
[7:26] one way trip focuses on animal comfort, making sure that the
[7:32] horse doesn't get startled while flying by using a specially
[7:35] designed stall. So as you can tell, it's
[7:39] basically an aviation service that is aimed at horses.
[7:46] Question is, do you know what X is?
[7:50] I have two guesses, neither of which I think I write, but I
[7:53] feel I should put them out there.
[7:56] The first question. The first guess would be, does
[7:59] it have anything to do with the Red Bull?
[8:00] No. No.
[8:05] Because I thought maybe horses wings.
[8:07] Red Bull gives you wings. I don't know.
[8:09] OK #2 is this the vomit rocket? The 0G thing that goes up and
[8:16] then comes down and gives you weightlessness and what not.
[8:20] No, no. This is a regular plane and it
[8:22] is meant to transport horses. Interestingly, very often it
[8:26] does so for the Kentucky Derby. So your athletes need the best
[8:32] in air travel and hence X steps in for the horses for Kentucky
[8:37] Derby. But here's the question, what is
[8:41] X? And the reason I said that X is
[8:43] something you might have to guess is because X might not be
[8:46] a very commonly known thing, but X really hit something deep
[8:51] inside of me, The same part of me which which answers the
[8:55] question at the beginning of every episode, which makes a
[8:58] stupid pun. X is basically a funny little
[9:03] name for this airline. Anything to do with Pegasus?
[9:11] No, you're thinking too classy a name.
[9:14] It's a lot Dumber. OK, let's see.
[9:18] The thing is, I've never, I've never been good with puns or
[9:21] word play, but let me just give it a crack here.
[9:24] So. Neither was this person who
[9:26] named this. OK, OK, let me channel my inner
[9:33] Aditya horses and flying. Is it a horse flying?
[9:43] America. No, no, no.
[9:46] That's a big guess. But think America, think horse,
[9:51] and think flying. Bojack Horseman Airlines.
[9:58] No America famous plane horse. America famous plane and horse
[10:16] Something to do with the horses? Ass No.
[10:19] OK. No, what's the most famous plane
[10:22] when it comes to America? Air Force One, Air Force horse.
[10:26] That's it, Air Horse One. OK, I find that very much more
[10:39] funny than it has any right to be.
[10:43] I know, I read. I read this and I thought it was
[10:46] hilarious. That's called Air Horse One.
[10:51] Why am I laughing at this is so silly?
[10:57] OK, that was a nice 10. God, give me a second.
[11:07] Yeah, it took me. It took me a few minutes to
[11:09] recover from that when I done. It as well it's.
[11:14] Air Horse One, you can go read all about it.
[11:16] There are multiple news outlets which have done reports and news
[11:21] pieces on it. So good Chicken Air Horse One.
[11:27] OK, OK, let me bring word play down from the trivia to
[11:34] etymology. This word, for all practical
[11:39] purposes refers to a thin rhombus, A rhombus with acute
[11:45] angles of 45°, But it's also used as a synonym for any type
[11:50] of rhombus. So this word for all practical
[11:54] purposes refers to a thin rhombus, but can be used as a
[11:57] synonym for any type of rhombus. However, today this word is
[12:02] known for its use in a medical context.
[12:07] What word am I talking about? I was initially going to say
[12:11] kite, but I don't think that makes sense for medical context.
[12:15] No, it's not. It's basically, yeah, it's got a
[12:17] medical context and let's say an over the counter context when it
[12:21] comes to medicine. Interesting.
[12:24] You wouldn't need a prescription or anything for this.
[12:28] So is it a specific name for a medicine?
[12:31] Are we looking for like a? It's not a specific name for a
[12:34] medicine, it's a general name for a particular type of
[12:38] something that you would use, especially during the winters
[12:42] maybe. Something like a paracetamol.
[12:46] No, that's a little too much. It is not acetaminophen, which
[12:51] is the actual chemical name for that, not that something that a
[12:55] normal person would know or call it.
[12:59] You see it in every medical store and even in supermarkets.
[13:05] Before I tripped an answer, I gotta say, being in the
[13:08] entertainment industry, I meet a lot of people and I am very
[13:12] guilty of it myself. People tend to name drop a lot,
[13:15] right? Oh, I hung out with XYZI, went
[13:17] to that person's party. And you?
[13:19] Just did the Medicine Man version of it.
[13:23] Just casually name drop like a casually name.
[13:26] Drop the chemical compound. Pass it on.
[13:30] We get it beneath. You're really smart.
[13:32] OK, No, let me try it. Let me try this out.
[13:38] Tablet also doesn't seem to quite fit the bill.
[13:41] You're close with tablet but not tablet.
[13:46] You said I wouldn't need a prescription for this.
[13:52] Do you want a clue? Sure.
[13:54] I was just going to say cream, but that doesn't make any sense.
[13:57] No. So this word, as I'm told you
[14:00] now, it comes from an old French word which literally meant
[14:02] rhombus. Like the meaning was a rhombus,
[14:04] right. It got its kind of medical or
[14:08] quasi medical usage because the first product was in the shape
[14:13] of a rhombus. The 1st of this type was in the
[14:18] shape of a rhombus. So it got that name and now the
[14:21] old French name for a rhombus. Basically, the Middle English
[14:24] for rhombus is now used for this product or this group or
[14:29] category of product. OK, anything which holds shape,
[14:33] which basically means that it is unlikely that it's something
[14:37] like a syrup or a cream. Yes you would, which is why I
[14:40] said you'd be closer with tablet.
[14:42] But let me also clarify that the original product, the original
[14:46] of the first of its kind was rhombus shaped, but now you get
[14:49] it in mostly in a round shape, but you can get in still the
[14:55] rhombus form as well. But you most of most people
[14:57] would have seen the round one. Especially in India you would
[15:00] have seen the round one more commonly than the rhombus shaped
[15:04] one. Though someone as well traveled
[15:06] as your as your as yourself would have seen the rhombus
[15:09] shaped version as well. I'm right now trying to think of
[15:11] French sounding words. No, it basically came from Latin
[15:15] to French to English, and now that's the way it is.
[15:18] Is it lozenge? Very nice.
[15:22] It is lozenge. So the first lozenges were you
[15:26] know rhombus shaped. I think even now in countries
[15:29] like in the Middle East I have seen you know I think it was VIX
[15:32] or some which had these kind of rhombus shaped lozenges that you
[15:35] used to get. But now we see the strep cells
[15:38] and and all which are all round, right?
[15:41] So lozenge is from the Middle English lozenge from which came
[15:46] from the Old French lozenge meaning rhombus, which came from
[15:49] the previous Old French named loss, which meant flagstone, and
[15:54] from the vulgar Latin lausa. So the next time you see a
[15:58] lozenge, just remember it was named for a shape.
[16:01] Very cool. Yeah.
[16:03] I I don't know why, it just sounded vaguely French to me, so
[16:07] I thought worth a shot. Pun intended.
[16:11] OK, great question. I love etymology obviously.
[16:16] And this brings me to my next question.
[16:19] Perfect segue. We are going to talk about the
[16:22] origin of a name of a place. Here I have to give a shout out
[16:25] to HK person. Regular listeners would have
[16:29] heard on a podcast a few times and HK.
[16:33] So again listeners will not know this.
[16:36] But currently I'm travelling. I'm not in Mumbai in my regular
[16:39] home. I was in Delhi for a few days
[16:40] and I was staying with HK and he shared a lovely piece of trivia
[16:43] that he has also shared with me in the past.
[16:46] And he brought it up again because we were going around
[16:48] Delhi and we crossed this iconic Rd. that I will let you guess if
[16:55] you have been around Delhi, or at least our Delhi listeners
[16:57] might know of this road. It is a very famous Rd. which is
[17:01] near Khan Market again, one of those iconic locations that a
[17:06] lot of people would have heard of.
[17:08] And it was basically a typo, A clerical mistake that somebody
[17:14] made decades ago and that's how this particular Rd. got its
[17:20] name. So a lot of these roads near
[17:23] Khan Market have very famous names and obvious origins.
[17:26] So Akbar Rd. Ashoka Rd.
[17:28] Shah Jah Rd. Shah Rd. clear name origins.
[17:31] There's this specific Rd. which has a Hindu mythological origin,
[17:38] except that you would not know that because there was a typo
[17:42] made or there's a clerical error that was made.
[17:44] This story came out when Delhi's chief commissioner AV Asquith.
[17:50] He was irked by its uncommon name and decided to dig deeper.
[17:54] He submitted a query to the New Delhi Municipal Corporation
[17:58] asking for details. In their reply to the Chief
[18:00] Commissioner, the corporation revealed that the original plan
[18:03] was to call the road something from Hindu mythology and then
[18:07] there was a clerical error which gave us the current name.
[18:11] OK. So we need.
[18:12] Do you want to try to guess the name of the road?
[18:17] Wow. I've been to Delhi quite more
[18:20] than once but I wouldn't know the roads around Khan Market
[18:24] enough to, I mean like the I'm very bad at orientation and you
[18:28] know routes and whatnot. So.
[18:31] But is there a So you said something from Hindu mythology?
[18:35] Yes. OK, something from Hindu
[18:39] mythology which was misspelled is what you said, right?
[18:43] It was misspelled and there was a typo.
[18:47] OK, so let me help you out here because if I was in your place I
[18:51] would not know the answer either.
[18:53] This is from Mahabharat. Firstly, that's your first clue.
[18:57] The second clue I'm going to give you was that it was AV that
[19:02] was somehow in the clerical error, translated to an R or
[19:07] erroneously copied into an R So the V became an R and that's how
[19:12] this road gets its current name. OK, I'm blanking on roads from
[19:20] Delhi, so I'm just going to and the Mahabharat.
[19:24] It's the longest epic in the world.
[19:27] So that does in hundreds of characters.
[19:29] First one that comes to mind is Eklavya.
[19:32] So is it Eklavya Road or something?
[19:36] No, obviously not. Wow.
[19:43] We got transcribed into an R right?
[19:47] So Vidor would become Ridor. Is there a ridor Rd.
[19:53] No, right. OK, you're thinking names of
[19:56] specific people. It is a name referring to a
[20:00] group in the Mahabharat. Oh, Pandara Rd.
[20:07] Yes, it is. OK, when I heard of Pandora, OK,
[20:11] oh, it was supposed to be Pandava Rd.
[20:13] So Pandora Rd. was supposed to be Pandava road, and there was
[20:17] some clerical error back in the day.
[20:20] Decades ago. Somebody made a mistake and
[20:23] wrote down the V as a lowercase V as a lowercase R, and if you
[20:30] think about it you can see how. That, yeah.
[20:32] Yeah. I can see it happening.
[20:33] I can see it happening, yeah. Wow.
[20:35] So Pandara Rd. gets its name from a clerical error, which was
[20:39] originally supposed to be Pandava Rd.
[20:43] Oh, very nice, Very nice question.
[20:44] I really like that one. So last episode I had asked a
[20:49] couple of questions, which Aditya demolished like right
[20:54] away, right, like the 1st 3D movie and all those.
[20:57] I have a couple more of those, right?
[21:00] And hopefully, audience, I hope you're on my side with this.
[21:03] That Aditya will not be able to demolish this one as easily, so
[21:07] I need you to give me ±50 years is acceptable.
[21:13] OK, when was the first submarine ever made?
[21:20] First submarine ever made, yes. We spoke about the first
[21:24] torpedo. I remember in a previous
[21:26] episode, first submarine. I'm going to try and guess this
[21:32] is we're looking for a decade, right?
[21:35] No 50 years. So you can give me the latter
[21:38] part of the the first half of the second-half of a century
[21:42] would be acceptable. I'm going to say this has to be
[21:50] something to this has to have something to do with the steam
[21:52] engine. So I'm thinking industrial
[21:56] revolution. I'm going to guess, is it the
[22:02] second-half of 18th century or the first half of 19th century,
[22:07] one of them second-half of 18th century?
[22:10] Of course, no. That's strike one.
[22:12] You have two more strikes left to guess this.
[22:15] OK. Am I?
[22:16] Am I too soon or too late? Oh, that would be telling.
[22:22] See with the, with the competitor as strong as you, I
[22:25] have to give myself a little handicap here.
[22:27] All right, all right. I see you're not going to make
[22:31] this easy for me. OK, I'm inclined to think or or.
[22:37] My gut says that it should be the first of 19th century, but
[22:42] then that would be too easy. Why would that be too easy?
[22:46] Too easy an answer. Not not too easy to build a
[22:49] submarine. I'm not saying that building a
[22:51] submarine first of 19th century was very easy and everybody
[22:55] should have done it. And if you're not building
[22:57] submarines, you're a waste of time.
[22:58] That's not my point. What I'm trying to say is, I
[23:00] think you I'm trying to read you right now and.
[23:04] Play the Play another game. Exactly.
[23:07] So I'm going to go further back and I'm going to say so first
[23:12] half of the 18th century. No.
[23:15] Oh boy. Oh man.
[23:17] OK, then it has to be the first half of the 19th century.
[23:22] And of course it is not now would you believe.
[23:27] Tell me it was like the 7th century or something.
[23:30] Would you believe it was the first half of the 17th century?
[23:35] No way. In the 16th 20s, yes.
[23:39] So there was this gentleman, an English gentleman by the name of
[23:42] Cornelius Drabel. He built the first navigable
[23:46] submarine in 1620 when he while working for the English Royal
[23:52] Navy, he manufactured A steerable submarine with a
[23:55] leather covered wooden frame. Between 1620 and 24 dribble,
[24:00] successfully built and tested two more submarines, each one
[24:04] bigger than the last. The final or third model had six
[24:08] ORS and could carry 16 passengers.
[24:12] The model was demonstrated to King James the 1st in person and
[24:16] several thousand Londoners. The submarine stayed submerged
[24:20] for three hours and could travel from Westminster to Greenwich
[24:24] and back, cruising at a depth between 12 and 15 feet, 4 to 5
[24:30] meters for those who are paying attention.
[24:34] Drebel even took King James in the submarine on a test drive
[24:37] beneath the Thames, making King James the 1st the first monarch
[24:42] to travel underwater. So technically, he was back.
[24:46] To me, but explain this to me. How were they?
[24:50] What was the form of power that they were using because?
[24:54] Yeah, so that's the thing. We know this happened.
[24:56] There are records of this happening, but they were tested
[24:59] many times after that. But we still don't know exactly
[25:02] how he got it to work. But do we know that it did
[25:05] happen and that King James did travel in it?
[25:07] Thousands of people witnessed it and the submarine was tested
[25:10] many more times in the Thames, but it couldn't attract enough
[25:14] enthusiasm from the Admiralty and so was never used in combat.
[25:17] I'm. Just not able to even imagine
[25:23] how that would work. That's how bad an engineer I am
[25:27] that I can't even figure out how.
[25:29] But to be fair, you are a software engineer, right?
[25:31] It's not like you're a mechanical engineer and you
[25:33] can't figure it out. Now that would be embarrassing.
[25:36] Fair enough. But if you ask me about the
[25:38] first software that was created, I doubt I'll be able to crack
[25:41] that either. This is really cool though.
[25:44] I like it. I like it.
[25:44] Yeah, very cool. I wouldn't have guessed that.
[25:49] Follow up to the second of my to guess the time questions and in
[25:54] this case I am going to ask you to give me within ±2 years.
[26:01] OK. OK.
[26:01] So within five years, if you give me a Grange within five
[26:05] years, I'll accept that. OK.
[26:07] This I know you will get it because it's too easy for you,
[26:10] you being who you are. So if you were to classify a
[26:15] phone with a touch screen and with multi functions, multiple
[26:21] functions especially helping you in business as a smartphone,
[26:25] when was the first smartphone released in the market?
[26:29] Bonus points if you can tell me which company did it.
[26:32] I know this is, but it's a touchscreen, yes, so we're not
[26:38] talking a BlackBerry. Also, OK, the first touchscreen
[26:45] has to be in the 90s, and since you've given me a window of five
[26:50] years, I have to basically tell you if it's the first half of
[26:55] 90s or the second-half of the 90s, I'm going to say the first
[27:00] half of the 90s, so between 90 and 95.
[27:03] And you would be right, it was 1995.
[27:07] Do you know which company? Interesting.
[27:13] I think Apple is still a few. Yes, they were.
[27:16] They were way behind on this. This was technically the like,
[27:21] right now, people retrospectively looking back at
[27:24] it, they say that this was the first true smartphone because it
[27:28] did have a touchscreen and it had all these business functions
[27:31] and whatnot. It didn't have apps as we know
[27:34] them today, but it was still good enough, especially for
[27:38] 1995. Then I'm going to make a guess.
[27:43] Since you're saying it had smartphone capabilities, I'm
[27:46] going to guess not a mobile company.
[27:48] I'm going to guess computer, then maybe IBM.
[27:52] See, This is why you are the Aditya.
[27:54] Yes, it is IBM International Business Machines.
[27:58] So the IBM Simon personal communicator, known as the IBM
[28:01] Simon was a handheld touch screen PDA designed by IBM and
[28:07] manufactured by Mitsubishi. It was released in 94 and it was
[28:12] one year later that the term smartphone was coined in 1995,
[28:17] but not in the context of the IBM Simon, but because of its
[28:21] features and capabilities. It has retrospectively been
[28:24] referred to as the first true blue smartphone.
[28:28] See what I did there Blue IBM. I did not see that till you
[28:34] pointed it out. But yeah, I salute the effort.
[28:39] OK, so I'm going to move from something that occupies a lot of
[28:43] my time today, which is a smartphone, to something that
[28:47] used to occupy a lot of my time growing up.
[28:50] X is a game that is over 300 years old.
[28:56] Now, we're not quite sure what the origin of X is because the
[29:00] historical origin of X is quite vague.
[29:04] There are, however, two paintings that carry visual
[29:07] reference to X 1687, Princess Sobi, spelled SOUBISE, so I'm
[29:15] pretty sure that's not how it's pronounced.
[29:18] But Princess. So Sobui Sobui by by Claude
[29:23] Auguste Beret. And the other painting is the
[29:28] Lady of Quality. And then a second-half to the
[29:32] name which references X itself, a lady of quality playing X.
[29:40] So these are the two paintings which refer to XX was very
[29:44] common growing up in India, except that people in India, at
[29:48] least where I was growing up at the time I was growing up, did
[29:51] not refer to it as X. However, they did refer to it as
[29:55] Y. So most people in India would
[29:57] know it by the brand name Y rather than X X&Y obviously
[30:03] refer to the same game. It is a one person game that is
[30:06] over 300 years old as I mentioned.
[30:08] Can you try to guess what X&Y are?
[30:12] OK, you said one person game, and the first painting you
[30:18] mentioned sounded vaguely French, so I'm going my first
[30:23] guess is going to be Solitaire. Very cool.
[30:27] Because I had mentioned the name of the painting, the Lady of
[30:31] Quality Playing, and I hadn't mentioned the last part in that
[30:34] name. It is basically solitaire.
[30:36] But it's not exactly solitaire. It's a slight modification of
[30:42] solitaire. So X is basically something
[30:45] solitaire. If you give me Yi, will consider
[30:49] that as a valid response to the entire question if you can tell
[30:52] me what the name is in India. The names in India, but it is
[31:00] technically like a card game that they play by themselves.
[31:05] OK, all right, so here's what I'm going to do.
[31:07] I'm going to tell you what X is. X is peg solitaire.
[31:10] It's not played with cards. Peg solitaire.
[31:14] Yeah. What is peg solitaire known by
[31:16] in India? I'm ashamed to say I don't think
[31:20] I have ever played Peg Solitaire.
[31:24] You might have played the Indian version of it.
[31:27] I'm hazarding a guess here. OK, I don't know, maybe it was
[31:31] just me, maybe it was just my family.
[31:33] But it was a blast from the past when I came across this
[31:36] recently. Peg Solitaire.
[31:40] Single person game all. Right, let me give you a hint.
[31:45] The goal of Peg solitaire is to jump one peg over another,
[31:49] removing those jumped and leave the last one in the middle hole.
[31:54] This isn't Checkers, right? No Chinese Checkers.
[31:57] No, a total of 32 pegs are needed for this game.
[32:03] I can officially say I don't think I've ever played this
[32:05] game. Oh, OK, so this might be a very
[32:07] niche question. It might just be me indulging
[32:11] myself and my own. Chat at this point, please do.
[32:15] Have you heard of the game called Brain Beta?
[32:18] I have not. Actually, I'm ashamed to say I
[32:22] have not. Again, I'm OK.
[32:25] So I'm very curious about then I guess our listeners can help us
[32:29] out by telling me if they have heard of it.
[32:31] Was it very common? Because I grew up playing a lot
[32:34] of Brain Vita. It is basically in the shape of
[32:37] a plus sign and there are a bunch of holes in it and people
[32:41] put marbles. So this Brain Vita thing is done
[32:43] with marbles, and so there are a bunch of empty holes, and then
[32:48] you can put all of the marbles in it.
[32:50] And once you put all the marbles, there'll be a center
[32:52] hole which will still remain empty.
[32:53] And now you can start jumping 1 marble over the other adjacent
[32:57] one, and that removes the marble that you've jumped over.
[33:01] OK, let me take that back. I have played this, but I don't
[33:05] remember. But I still stand by the thing.
[33:07] I've not heard of Brain Vita. But now that you've described
[33:10] this, I have this vague memory of playing this with somebody
[33:13] when I was a kid. But I don't remember the name
[33:16] Brain Beta because I to be honest, again, I haven't had
[33:19] that. It's much exposure in India when
[33:20] I was a kid because I grew up outside India.
[33:24] But yes, I now and I completely understand the game we are
[33:28] talking about. I have played it, but the brain
[33:31] Vita thing is, was it like a thing from Bourn Vita?
[33:34] Was it? Was there any particular reason
[33:35] it was called Brain Vita? I think it's a brand name and I
[33:39] have not been able to find too much history about Brain Vita.
[33:42] That's how I was searching about it.
[33:44] I figured out that it's called Peg Solitaire.
[33:46] In the rest of the world, only in India is called Brain Vita.
[33:49] But I remember my mother introducing the game to me and
[33:51] she referred to it as Brain Vita.
[33:53] So that's how I still remember that.
[33:56] Nice. Nice.
[33:58] And yeah, it is, I guess like it just rang a bell for you.
[34:03] It was a game that I played a bit growing.
[34:06] Up. Very nice.
[34:07] Very nice. I'm going to go and drop some
[34:11] names now in this story. You have to tell me how the
[34:15] story became relevant later. OK Barry Ira Geller was a comic
[34:22] and science fiction fan. He adapted Roger Zelesny's book
[34:27] The Lord of Light into a screenplay.
[34:32] Have you read Roger Zelesny, The Lord of Light?
[34:35] Fantastic science fiction, fantastic science fiction book.
[34:39] It uses a lot of Hindu mythology in it.
[34:43] It's quite it's a very innovative concept, what he's
[34:45] done and I'm not going to spoil anything.
[34:47] Go read that if you have a chance.
[34:48] But that's not relevant here. The story is not relevant here.
[34:51] Just know that Roger Zelesny's book A Lot of Light was adapted
[34:54] into a screenplay by Barry Aragella.
[34:57] He then got Jack Kirby of Marvel fame to illustrate the
[35:02] screenplay. Author Ray Bradbury, architect
[35:07] Paolo Soleri and Buckminister Fuller were also involved in
[35:12] this project. OK.
[35:15] During this process, he also got involved with the science
[35:17] fiction theme park in Aurora. The theme park failed, and his
[35:23] plan to convert A Lot of Light into a movie was also derailed.
[35:28] However, Barry's screenplay and Kirby's illustrations were
[35:34] pivotal in something that happened later on.
[35:39] Can you tell me what? Jesus Christ, those are some big
[35:44] names you dropped. Yes, so science fiction project.
[35:53] For a movie, let's break it down to the bare bones.
[35:55] Roger Alesny's book A Lot of Light adapted into a screenplay.
[36:00] Jack Kirby illustrated it. The people also involved in this
[36:04] project to make the movie included Ray Bradbury, architect
[36:07] Paulo Soleri and Buckminster Fuller.
[36:10] However, the movie got derailed and the screenplay and Kirby's
[36:15] illustrations were later used in a pivotal point in history,
[36:21] something which was the inspiration for an Oscar winning
[36:24] movie in the last decade. Oscar.
[36:27] Winning movie. Yes, that's my first clue to
[36:30] you. And you said science fiction
[36:33] illustrations. Yes.
[36:36] Is it Argo? Oh yes, yes, you are on A roll
[36:40] today. Yes.
[36:41] So these illustrations were used for setting up Argo, the
[36:45] fictional movie that the CIA used to rescue the hostages from
[36:49] Iran. OK, very cool, very cool.
[36:53] So wait, was this part of the original project or only for the
[36:56] movie? Did they use the illustrations?
[36:59] So the illustrations were made for the original project, right?
[37:02] OK, But then that got derailed. And those were illustrations and
[37:06] the screenplay was languishing. And then when they were going
[37:08] through projects to set up this fake movie, they came across
[37:12] these and they used it. Hence Argo was born.
[37:16] For the actual rescue project, not for the Ben Affleck.
[37:21] No, no, no for the actual rescue project.
[37:24] So the original Argo in that was used by the CIA were based off
[37:29] these illustrations, and that entire thing was made into a
[37:32] movie by Ben Affleck called Argo of the same name.
[37:36] Right. I really like the Argo.
[37:38] Great film. Oh, it's very tense.
[37:40] Very tense. My God, that movie was so tense.
[37:44] He does do that very well. Ben Affleck has done some great
[37:47] work in holding tension and Argo was one of his lighter films.
[37:52] His other films are a lot hit a lot harder.
[37:55] Yeah, but my favorite of all of them is still Argo.
[37:59] That scene and the final scene at the airport where they get
[38:02] called into the Revolutionary Guards interrogation room.
[38:06] Oh my God, that one. Really.
[38:09] That was like sphincter clenching.
[38:11] It was literally sphincter clenching.
[38:14] I remember the scene where the kids or whoever are the ones
[38:16] putting together the shredded. Oh, yes, yes, yes.
[38:19] The shredder factory. Yeah.
[38:21] And they finally put that piece of paper together and they're
[38:23] rushing in. And from what I know and I've
[38:26] read the IT was obviously very fictionalized and there was no
[38:29] such tense at the gate moment where somebody was rushing to
[38:33] stop them. And also the real life figure,
[38:37] the guy who Ben Affleck plays was a portly Hispanic gentlemen.
[38:45] Very cool, very cool. That's a really good question.
[38:48] The question I'm going to ask you, since you did name drop a
[38:51] fair few names, I'm going to ask you what are these nine names
[38:57] connected to? OK.
[39:00] Terence Donnelly, who was the publisher of the Hollywood
[39:04] Independent newspaper Alice Cooper Singer.
[39:08] Yes, Les Kelly, founder of the Kelley Blue Book.
[39:13] Gene Autry, an actor. Hugh Hefner, obviously founder
[39:18] of Playboy. Andy Williams singer.
[39:22] Giovanni Matza, an Italian movie producer and Co producer of
[39:27] Panaria film Warner Brother Records.
[39:31] So technically not nine people. Well, eight people and one
[39:34] entity. And Dennis Litke, businessman.
[39:39] Litke, Alice. Copper Warner Records?
[39:48] Nope. Yeah, nothing.
[39:50] Is it like a super band or something?
[39:52] Did they form like like what do they call a super group?
[39:56] I will give you another hint now.
[39:58] OK, OK, so they all donated 27,000 dollars, 778 twenty $7778
[40:07] each in 1978 for a campaign. What was this campaign for?
[40:14] Warner Records, Alice Cooper? Dennis Litke.
[40:17] Who else? Who else did you mention with
[40:19] the other names? Terrence Donnelly, Gene Autry,
[40:22] Hugh Hefner, Andy Williams, Giovanni Matza. $27,000 each,
[40:30] right? Yes.
[40:32] In 1978, anything to do with the 27 club?
[40:37] No. OK, nothing to do because I OK,
[40:43] what is Hugh Hefner doing in the same 1978?
[40:55] Any other clues? So basically this happened at a
[41:00] fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion hosted by Hugh Hefner,
[41:04] and individual items were being auctioned off at that price
[41:08] point of $27,000. So nine such items were bought.
[41:17] Yes. 9 Something to do with 9 and 1978?
[41:28] Some kind of memorabilia. You could say it is very iconic.
[41:34] I don't know if it qualifies as memorabilia, but it is something
[41:38] that is very iconic. Movie related?
[41:41] Music related? Can you point me in that
[41:43] direction? Movie.
[41:46] Wait, when did Star Wars come out?
[41:50] This has nothing to do with Star Wars.
[41:52] Nothing to do with Star Wars. They bought nine such things,
[42:01] $27,000 each, 1978. Wait, did they buy a role or
[42:09] something like screen time in a movie or something like that?
[42:14] Though I don't know which movie Alice Cooper and you have now
[42:16] would have appeared in No Shaking Your.
[42:19] Legs go as broad as possible, so it's not even one specific
[42:22] movie, it is movies. And said the Playboy Mansion,
[42:28] right? Are these like famous dresses
[42:30] worn by actresses? So like Ursula, Anders Bikini
[42:34] and. No.
[42:36] No, it was a. Public campaign initially and
[42:40] eventually it became campaign by just these few people to restore
[42:46] something. Is this Frank Capra's World War
[42:56] 2 footage? No, something a lot more iconic.
[43:01] Oh God, I think a lot more iconic 1970s.
[43:06] Honestly, the most iconic thing you can think of.
[43:10] Oh God. Now you're just beating me with
[43:12] this clue. Oh God, the most iconic thing
[43:15] you can think of when it comes to movies.
[43:18] Film related and there are 9. Walt Disney's the He had like
[43:31] nothing like that. No.
[43:32] The Seven Dwarfs? No.
[43:33] No, no, I was thinking of his. He had like 9 old men or 12 old
[43:38] men. They used to call them the
[43:39] original animators of Disney. I thought maybe they've got some
[43:43] of their work or something. No, but you said the most iconic
[43:46] in movies in general I. Didn't say in movies.
[43:51] I'm not saying in movies. I'm saying the most iconic
[43:53] thing. When you think of movies,
[43:57] American cinema, what is the most iconic thing you think of
[44:00] when you think of? American cinema, most iconic
[44:02] thing. Westerns.
[44:03] Basically, you're talking of Westerns.
[44:06] Most iconic thing, Most iconic thing when you think of American
[44:10] film. When you think of American film,
[44:15] you think of. What is the physical
[44:17] manifestation of American cinema?
[44:21] This was originally created in 1923.
[44:24] In 1978 it was restored. In 1923 you would have needed
[44:32] thirteen people, but in 1978 you only needed nine.
[44:38] What? It is something physical.
[44:40] It is something that everybody thinks of and they think of
[44:43] American cinema. It is in Los Angeles.
[44:49] The Hollywood star. You're there, except you're not
[44:54] there. What am I missing?
[44:57] OK, we'll tell you the answer. I'm going to put you out of a
[44:59] misery is the Hollywood sign. Is the Hollywood sign.
[45:04] So it was Hollywood land and then it became Hollywood.
[45:08] So there were 13 and then there are 9.
[45:11] Yes, and these are the 9. These are the nine who paid to
[45:15] restore it in 1978. I kind of hate you for that
[45:20] question, and I kind of hate myself more because I knew that
[45:24] it was Hollywood land. I didn't know that it became
[45:26] Hollywood. I know that it was restored.
[45:28] But for the life of me, it just doesn't come when I need to.
[45:33] It's like the opposite of that Henry James Horror Story
[45:36] whistle. And I will come.
[45:38] This is like no matter how much I whistle, nobody comes.
[45:40] No ghost, no nothing. I will tell you this is not your
[45:43] fault. I also phrased it in a specific
[45:46] way, which in retrospect might have led you down the wrong path
[45:49] because I was trying to get you to the fact that it's a physical
[45:52] scientific. Manifestation.
[45:53] I was thinking Captain America. John Wayne.
[45:56] What possible? Yeah, No.
[46:00] But nice. Nice.
[46:01] In your in your defense entirely, there are a bunch of
[46:05] actually related trivia to this which I didn't want to create a
[46:09] whole new question for. But so anyways to wrap up the
[46:13] question, all of these people ate people in one entity.
[46:17] They paid $27,000 to restore the sign in 1978 and which totalled
[46:23] around quarter of $1,000,000 back then.
[46:26] That's how the Hollywood sign was restored.
[46:29] There have been multiple occasions where the Hollywood
[46:32] sign has been altered and do you know of these instances?
[46:35] Do you know of any of these instances?
[46:38] The Hollywood sign has been altered.
[46:40] Yeah. Wait, did they remove it once?
[46:44] I remember reading something about them removing it
[46:46] completely because of something. So there have been a few.
[46:51] There was Hollyweed, where the last two O's were transformed
[46:54] into E This was done in January of 1976 and January of 2017.
[46:59] In 1976, it was because California decriminalized
[47:03] cannabis. In 2017 was because they
[47:07] legalized. Legalization of cannabis?
[47:09] Yeah. OK, Hollyweed.
[47:10] So Hollyweed was and you can find pictures of Hollyweed.
[47:15] It's really cool. There has been an instance in
[47:20] 1987 where they changed it to Hollywood.
[47:23] So the H was removed and this was for protesting the hero
[47:29] worship of Oliver North during the Iran Contra hearings.
[47:34] There is another instance rather two of them Hollywood where one
[47:39] of the L's was removed and this was in April 1976 and September
[47:42] 1987. In 1976 it was for Easter
[47:46] sunrise service and was viewable from the Hollywood Bowl.
[47:50] In 87 it was for Pope John Paul 2 because he was visiting the
[47:54] second L was covered. I really want to find this in
[47:59] 1990. Apparently it was changed to
[48:02] read Oil War. I'm curious how they did that.
[48:06] This was protest the Gulf War in 1990.
[48:10] In 1990, yeah. Wait, who's doing this?
[48:13] That's what I mean. Like, who controls this?
[48:15] Who decides? Like I can change this?
[48:19] So some of these have been actually guerrilla attempts
[48:22] where it has been done unofficially, somebody has gone
[48:25] up there and modified it slightly and some of these have
[48:28] been done officially. So there was Holly Boob, which
[48:34] was done in 2021 and it was done by a YouTube and Instagram
[48:39] influencer to challenge censorship on Instagram.
[48:43] So I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but there has been some
[48:46] controversy about how much nudity is considered nudity and
[48:50] the differences from male. And yeah, I had heard about it.
[48:52] Yeah, yeah. Social media So Holly Boob was
[48:56] one of them. Jolly Good was in 1993.
[48:59] It is unknown who did that, so there have been quite a few
[49:02] instances of. I wonder how these people would
[49:06] manage it. The sign is pretty big, right?
[49:08] It'd be like they're like a couple of stories tall.
[49:10] How do they manage to change it? Like even in 2021 if you wanted
[49:14] to do boob, you would have to replace AW with AB and AD with
[49:18] AB. Yeah, I'm not sure because I
[49:21] couldn't find pictures of all of these instances.
[49:24] Hollyweed is something you can easily find.
[49:26] You can actually see. I just Google it.
[49:29] You can actually see Holly Boob. So that's the end of today's
[49:35] episode. But let me first ask Aditya,
[49:39] what is your question for this week?
[49:43] So the question that I'm going to ask for next week is if
[49:47] lozenges were not made wherever they were made.
[49:53] I'm actually not sure where they were made for the first time,
[49:55] but they were not named with the French origin, but instead an
[49:59] Indian origin. What would they have been
[50:01] called? Instead, OK, you heard it here
[50:05] 1st, and to hear the answer for it first, join us next week.
[50:09] Let me go to the our question, the audience question for today.
[50:12] The question was a biologist, an astrophysicist and an electrical
[50:15] engineer walk into a bar where they meet a graphic designer and
[50:19] when they leave the bar come out as one of the biggest bands
[50:21] ever. Which band am I talking about?
[50:24] Aditya? Do you have any idea?
[50:27] This would have to be queen. Yes, it is.
[50:32] Can you match the member to their profession?
[50:36] Why so? The only reason I know this is
[50:38] because I saw Bohemian Rhapsody in the movie.
[50:41] Yes, I get out for my life. Remember who was who in that?
[50:46] OK, Freddie Mercury was the graphic designer.
[50:50] Brian May was an astrophysicist, basically had a degree in
[50:54] physics and did graduate work in astronomy.
[50:56] Roger Meadows, Trader the drummer who had a degree in
[50:59] biology, and John Deacon, who played the bass, earned a degree
[51:03] in electronics with first class honors.
[51:05] It's a very educated bunch, but I would expect nothing less from
[51:09] the band that came out with Bohemian Rhapsody.
[51:14] The. Only proper rock opera, I would
[51:19] argue. So what's your pop culture
[51:24] recommendation then? I just recently finished a novel
[51:27] which I thought was a lovely little piece of literature.
[51:30] It's called The Stationary Shop in Tehran.
[51:34] It's a love story and it talks about the revolution in Tehran
[51:39] back in 1953 and it it it's a moving story and I would
[51:44] recommend that to anybody who wants to read something
[51:46] different. It's an English, it's an
[51:50] English. Obviously I do not read any
[51:52] Persian or I don't know any Pashtun or Arabic for that
[51:57] matter, so go check it out. I also want to recommend films.
[52:01] So we were talking about Ben Affleck and his filmography.
[52:07] I agree Argo might be his best work, but The town a great film.
[52:12] Gone Baby Gone. A really good film.
[52:16] Both films really, really keep you at the edge of your seat, so
[52:20] check those out. Yes, obviously.
[52:23] And my recommendation for this week is a YouTube channel by the
[52:28] name of Bullets and Blockbusters.
[52:32] So this YouTube channel called Bullets and Blockbusters, which
[52:35] releases these 10 to 15 minute videos on movies that never got
[52:40] made or the versions of movies that we'll never get to see.
[52:45] So I find it fascinating that he's built an entire channel
[52:48] around this. If you want to know what Steven
[52:51] Spielberg's version of Interstellar would have been,
[52:54] because Interstellar was first being developed for Spielberg.
[52:57] If you want to know what Spielberg's original idea for
[53:00] Jurassic Park 3 or Jurassic Park Four was going to be, if you
[53:03] want to know what the unreleased Batgirl movie was about, what if
[53:09] you want to know what Tim Burton's ideas for his original
[53:12] third Batman movie was going to be.
[53:15] So all these things, he covers all of these in separate videos.
[53:18] It's a very nice channel. I really enjoy it.
[53:21] If you're a movie fan like myself, it's a gold mine of
[53:25] information on that. Gotta check it out.
[53:29] Pretty cool. That's all for this episode.
[53:32] Thank you for listening in. We hope you enjoyed the show and
[53:34] learned something new. If you like what you heard,
[53:37] please consider subscribing to our podcast and leaving us a
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[53:42] Just take two seconds after listening to this to hit the
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[53:52] feedback, suggestions and even trivia.
[53:55] If you want questions of yours to be asked on the show, please
[53:58] just send us an e-mail or DMS on Instagram.
[54:01] E-mail is preferred because that way we can keep it anonymous.
[54:05] Just send us a question and in the subject line, name the quiz
[54:08] master you want to ask the question.
[54:09] Whether it's me or Aditya. The other will definitely not
[54:12] look at the question and we can go in blind.
[54:14] As with all our other questions where you can reach us on
[54:16] Instagram at Are you quizzing me?
[54:17] And our e-mail ID is are you quizzing me@gmail.com?
[54:20] We appreciate your support and look forward to sharing more
[54:22] episodes with you in the future. Thanks again for tuning in and
[54:25] have a great day. See you guys next week.

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