# Episode 074 - Cows, Beer & Treasure Island

An episode of [Are You Quizzing Me?](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1663104901), 1 Jul 2024, 52 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/d7afa960/podcast/play/88659806/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2024-5-30%2F1fe1699e-763e-c976-8bc2-5fe0f8f37002.mp3

Do you know which ubiquitous word in modern medical parlance comes from the Latin for cow? Do you know which island in the Caribbean hosts two countries and is mentioned in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island? Do you know what unit of measurement is used by bartenders when they add 6-8 drops of an ingredient in a cocktail? 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 Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/areyouquizzingme Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@areyouquizzingme/podcasts

## Transcript

[0:00] Welcome to our you quizzing me. I am Vineet Nair with my Co host
[0:04] Aditya Kashyap. This is a quizzing trivia
[0:07] podcast show. Join us as we dive deep into
[0:10] history, science, pop culture and so much more.
[0:14] Let's get quizzing. Welcome to episode #74 of Are
[0:21] You Quizzing Me, your favorite quizzing and trivia podcast
[0:25] show. Aditya and I are back for
[0:26] another round of quizzing, and let's start it off without Much
[0:30] Ado. Welcome to episode #74 of Are
[0:34] You Quizzing Me, your favorite quizzing and trivia podcast
[0:38] show. Aditya and I are back for
[0:40] another round of quizzing, and let's start off without Much
[0:43] Ado. The audience question for today,
[0:45] which I will be answering at the end of today's episode, is as
[0:48] follows. In bartending, what is the unit
[0:52] of measurement used when a bartender adds 6 to 8 drops of
[0:56] an ingredient to your cocktail? Let me repeat the question in
[1:00] bartending, what is the unit of measurement used when your
[1:04] bartender adds 6 to 8 drops of an ingredient to your cocktail?
[1:09] I will answer this question at the end of today's episode.
[1:11] In the meantime, my dear audience, try and get the answer
[1:14] and see if you're right. I'll start off today's
[1:17] proceedings with a question that has kind of fascinated me.
[1:21] So Aditya, this is going to be a question from the realm of
[1:25] geography. X is an island in the Caribbean
[1:30] and is the second most populous island in the West Indies.
[1:36] It has been shown in many different movies, including the
[1:41] Fast and Furious series when Dominic Toretto and some of his
[1:47] allies settle on the island after their exploits and heists
[1:54] in Central America. My question to you is this,
[1:58] which island? What's the name of the island
[2:02] that I'm talking about? Second most populous island in
[2:06] the West Indies. It's the most populous island
[2:09] and the second largest in area after Cuba, so obviously it's
[2:13] not Cuba. Oh, so it's more populated than
[2:16] Cuba? Yes.
[2:18] Sit by any chance that island that contains Haiti and
[2:25] Dominican Republic? What's the name?
[2:28] First of all, I'm quite impressed that, you know that
[2:30] there's an island which is split and what it's called, which has
[2:35] both Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
[2:38] So I'm very impressed with that. But what is the name of the
[2:41] island itself? See, this is one of the trivia
[2:44] that I know but I'm forgetting. Is it the island of Santo
[2:50] Domingo? Because the capital is also
[2:52] Santo Domingo of Dominican Republic.
[2:55] That was an other, that was an older name, or that's another
[2:58] name that's not the current name.
[3:01] No, I don't know what the name of that.
[3:04] So I'll give you a clue. First clue is it's a very
[3:07] unimaginative name. That's my first clue.
[3:10] And the second clue is Stink Treasure Island by Robert Louis
[3:15] Stevenson. Oh boy, I love that book.
[3:19] What a great book. Oh definitely.
[3:22] All time classic. Treasure Planet.
[3:24] An underrated animated movie? Definitely.
[3:28] But anyways, that small trip down memory lane aside, should
[3:34] I? And an unimaginative name.
[3:38] I can't connect it to Treasure Island, but is it just like
[3:41] some? Oh, is it?
[3:42] Does it mean Treasure Island in Spanish?
[3:46] No, I don't know what treasure in Spanish?
[3:49] No, I have no clue at all. So just for our audience's
[3:54] information, Treasure in Spanish is Tesoro, apparently.
[3:59] But no, it's not regarding that. So my clue again, as I mentioned
[4:03] already, was that it's on Treasure Island.
[4:05] Let me just say the island is part of the story in name only.
[4:11] That's my second clue or third clue.
[4:13] Rather unimaginative. Honestly forgot forgotten the
[4:17] details of the book unfortunately, which means I
[4:20] should read it again soon. But yeah, no have to help me out
[4:25] here, I have no idea. OK, so this is a practical
[4:28] giveaway, but my question. I'll just ask you another
[4:31] question. The answer will answer both
[4:33] questions. So in the book, Jim Hawkins set
[4:38] sail with Captain Alexander Smollett.
[4:41] On which ship? Oh wow, you are really doing
[4:47] some deep cuts here into Treasure Island that I am
[4:53] woefully ignorant on. No, no idea at all.
[4:56] Nothing at all. A Treasure Island.
[4:59] OK, so then let's try the last. The reason I called it an
[5:03] unimaginative name is because the literal translation comes to
[5:10] the Spanish island. La Espanola, Espanola.
[5:16] Is it? OK, I'm going to sound a bit
[5:20] super. Is it by any chance Hispanola?
[5:22] Hispanola. Espanola?
[5:24] It is Hispanola. OK, OK.
[5:28] So This is why it was fascinating for me because I I
[5:32] read Treasure Island for the first time when I was very,
[5:35] quite young, and it's been one of my favorite adventure books
[5:38] of all time. And the the ship on which Jim
[5:41] Hapcock and travels is the Hispaniola.
[5:44] For a long time I thought of that as the name of a ship.
[5:48] Then it was quite later that I found out that it's an actual
[5:52] island. But then for some reason I was
[5:55] mistaken. There is an old name, older name
[5:57] for some other modern country or modern island.
[6:00] And it was quite shamefully on my part only recently that I
[6:04] came to find out that the it's an actual island that still
[6:07] exists. But we don't call it Hispaniola
[6:10] anymore because the island itself is divided into the
[6:14] Dominican Republic to the east and the hate French or Creole
[6:18] speaking Haiti to the West. And the island itself is called
[6:23] Hispaniola, which comes from the Spanish La Espanola, which means
[6:28] the Spanish island. Quite an unimaginative name.
[6:32] And I guess why Robert Louis Stevenson used that name is
[6:36] because the Spanish Empire controlled the entire island
[6:40] from the 1490s until the 17th century, when French pirates
[6:45] began establishing bases on bases on the western side of the
[6:48] island, which is the Haiti side of the island.
[6:50] So I'm guessing that's why he decided to use that as the name
[6:53] on the on the in the novel itself.
[6:56] Fascinating history, by the way, and how the fortunes of those
[7:00] two countries kind of diverge just based off of their colonial
[7:04] history. But yeah, that's a pretty,
[7:07] pretty good. Yeah.
[7:08] Love that. Another just piece of trivia,
[7:10] This is not the only divided island in the Caribbean.
[7:15] There is another island called San Martin which is shared
[7:19] between France which is called St.
[7:21] Martin or Saint Martin and the Netherlands which is called St.
[7:25] Martin, both meaning the same thing but it's divided so be
[7:30] divided between the French and the Netherlands, both of them
[7:33] calling it St. Martin in their own language.
[7:36] Nice. OK.
[7:38] Passing the baton on to you, Aditya, hit me with your
[7:40] question. So after that pretty lovely
[7:45] piece of history, I guess I'm going to do another question.
[7:49] The little bit of a historical twist to it, Vineet.
[7:55] I'm going to give you a list and I know how much you love it.
[7:58] Yes, yes, of course. Tell me, what is this?
[8:02] A list of illness? Mother's illness?
[8:06] Suffering with eye bit by a scorpion brewing beer?
[8:12] Wife or daughter's bleeding referring to menstruation.
[8:17] What is this a list of? Can you go through that list
[8:21] once again please? OK, so we have illness.
[8:26] Mother's illness suffering with eye brewing beer.
[8:32] Wife or daughter bleeding. Is there something new with any
[8:35] fictional character or the experience of character through
[8:38] a book or something like that? No, it's not got anything to do
[8:41] with any fictional. Illness.
[8:44] Mother's illness brewing beer. So then this is the experience.
[8:49] Are these like keywords from the experience of some key figure in
[8:52] history? No, I think you're trying to
[8:54] read too much into maybe the subtext of it.
[8:57] It's very, very, it's very on the surface, quite literally of
[9:03] what I'm saying. So what do you think these are?
[9:05] What do you think? Are these referred or do you
[9:08] think it's an exact? What are you think these are
[9:10] examples of? Euphemisms.
[9:13] No. These are not euphemisms or
[9:16] polite ways of saying different things.
[9:19] Illness. Mother's illness.
[9:21] For the second, when you told me mother's illness and then
[9:23] bleeding, I thought maybe these are all euphemisms for
[9:25] menstruation or something. But then brewing beer?
[9:28] I don't think so. And bleeding is pretty much on
[9:32] the nose if there's no euphemism.
[9:33] To it. Wow, no, I'm lost.
[9:36] OK, what if I told you that we have a modern version of this
[9:41] also that most of us, a lot of us do use on a pretty regular
[9:47] basis? What let?
[9:49] Me give you a few more examples of what it would be in the
[9:51] modern context. It would still be illness or
[9:54] family members illness or death of a loved one or car trouble,
[10:01] things like that. I'm tempted to say lame excuses
[10:05] for taking leave from work, but I don't think brewing beer
[10:09] would, you know, fit the criteria.
[10:13] Exactly. That wouldn't fit the criteria
[10:15] today. But like I told you, this was in
[10:18] a historical context. So you're right, you are right,
[10:21] these are excuses to be missing from work.
[10:26] But. I just, I'm, I'm sorry, I just
[10:32] suddenly thought of writing a leave letter asking for time of
[10:36] work because I'm going to be brewing beer.
[10:42] Yeah, that that that should go down well in your review.
[10:46] OK, so you, you got that part pretty accurately.
[10:53] It these are excuses or these are reasons to be missing work.
[10:56] But like I said, it's historical context.
[10:58] So you want to give me what historical context this might
[11:02] refer to? OK now because the reason being
[11:06] given is wife or daughters bleeding, mother's illness and
[11:11] brewing beard, I don't know. This is just something that's
[11:16] sparked. I have no idea.
[11:18] Are these like documented causes of leave from workers on the
[11:24] pyramids of ancient Egypt or something like that?
[11:27] Oh, perfect, that's exactly what it is.
[11:34] OK, the only reason that I, you know, I think my brain made that
[11:38] guy some kind of connection was because I dread somewhere that
[11:43] the people who built the pyramids were also paid in beer.
[11:48] Yeah, yeah, they they were slaves, but not in the term that
[11:53] we understand in the modern context.
[11:55] So they were paid not and miserly pay for their work as
[12:03] well. And yeah, so it was it was
[12:05] slavery, but perhaps better than what we have experienced in the
[12:11] last million year, I guess. This is actually from a tablet
[12:14] that was discovered and is at the British Museum, which dates
[12:19] back to 1250 BCE. And when they understood what it
[12:25] meant, when they kind of deciphered what the meaning on
[12:27] the tablet was, they realized it was just a limestone thing which
[12:33] kept track of the workers and how often they had showed up in
[12:37] that particular month. And a lot of these employees had
[12:42] excuses like, oh, I was sick or I was suffering with his eye.
[12:45] There was somebody who was suffering with his eye.
[12:48] Mother's illness was some kept somebody away for quite a few
[12:51] days. Somebody was bit by a scorpion
[12:54] that kept them away. Some employees had to take time
[12:58] off to embalm and wrap their deceased relatives.
[13:00] That's I would have to use that as AI would love to use that as
[13:05] a excuse. I have to embalm my deceased
[13:08] relatives. No, no, you have to, you have
[13:09] to, you have to put it in the Indian context, right?
[13:11] So it will be like dear Sir, as I will be embalming my dead
[13:15] relative. I will not be coming in for
[13:17] fuck. I will be mummifying them.
[13:22] Hope you can excuse me. Brewing beer was a common excuse
[13:28] because beer was a daily fortifying drink in Egypt and
[13:31] was associated with gods like Hathor.
[13:34] And apart from that there was also fetching stones or helping
[13:38] the scribe. That also took up time and of
[13:41] course wife or daughter bleeding.
[13:43] So in a way, these men had to help out at home when, say, the
[13:47] wise. Progressive that was given as a,
[13:50] you know they were given leave for that if requested for.
[13:55] For ancient Egypt, that is pretty progressive, I'd say
[13:57] yeah. It's pretty progressive for the
[14:01] current day. Like even now, if you applied
[14:04] for leave saying that my mother or daughter's menstruating,
[14:07] nobody's going to give you leave.
[14:09] Hmm, true, true, true. That is, I guess, something we
[14:12] can learn from the ancient Egyptian and also how they built
[14:15] those damp pyramids. Nice question, came all the way
[14:21] from ancient Egypt. I like it, so I want to go with
[14:25] something from our old favorite etymology.
[14:29] The word X once meant foolish from Old French or ignorant from
[14:39] Latin. Over the centuries, X went
[14:42] through a large number of meanings, including timid or
[14:47] faint hearted, fussy or fastidious, dainty or delicate,
[14:54] before finally arriving at its current meaning by the 19th
[14:59] century. My question is, which word am I
[15:02] talking about? Identify X.
[15:06] So could you repeat what all meanings has it held?
[15:08] So the original word meant foolish, which is derived from
[15:13] that meaning was derived from the old French version, or
[15:16] ignorant from the Latin version. Over the centuries it has, the
[15:21] meaning has kind of evolved and it has gone through multiple
[15:24] meanings such as timid or faint hearted.
[15:27] Another time it was meant fussy or fastidious, another time it
[15:31] meant dainty or delicate. But then finally, its current
[15:36] meaning was crystallized around the 19th century, and that is
[15:40] the meaning with which we know it now.
[15:43] That's quite the plethora of meanings to one.
[15:46] Yes, yes. No, because you haven't given me
[15:50] the modern meaning so I am completely in the dark now.
[15:54] OK, so the first clue I will give you is that this word, if
[16:01] pronounced differently, is also the name of a city.
[16:06] Pronounced Oh, nice, yes. Oh, interesting.
[16:13] Yeah, so for our audience, nice. If it's pronounced as nice, it
[16:18] is a city in France, but the spelling remains the same.
[16:22] So nice once meant foolish from Old French Nice or nice or
[16:27] ignorant from the Latin nicias. Over the centuries it's gone
[16:31] through a dizzying array of meanings, with stops at timid or
[16:34] faint hearted, fussy or fastidious, dainty or delicate,
[16:37] before finally arriving at pleasant or agreeable by the
[16:41] 19th century. OK.
[16:43] Very cool, you got that very quickly.
[16:45] Too quickly in fact. I should have thought of a more
[16:48] difficult clue. Well, I did consider a lot of
[16:52] other options. I I consider bath that.
[16:56] Yeah, I can think of Bath. Yeah, Bath was a good one.
[17:00] Bath is a city in England, so yeah, that had.
[17:03] But it also pronounced baths it. Is pronounced bath, Yeah.
[17:08] Well, OK, that was a fun question.
[17:11] Let me get back at you with Since you came at me with
[17:16] etymology, let me get back at you with a listicle again.
[17:20] Oh no. That's two in this episode.
[17:22] My kryptonite, Yeah. These are the four possible
[17:26] recommendations to be able to carry out X OK #1, the Y itself,
[17:35] and Y of course another unknown, the Y itself, the position
[17:39] directly above Y, the earth in general, wherever.
[17:45] What? That made no sense whatsoever.
[17:49] Four recommendations for how to do X, and number one was the Y
[17:54] itself, the position directly above Y #3 Earth in general #4,
[18:01] wherever. Wherever.
[18:05] How is that a part of a condition?
[18:07] How is that part of a condition? The moment you say wherever then
[18:11] it automatically negates everything, right?
[18:13] Or you're saying the earth itself.
[18:15] Dude, you'll have to be give me more than this.
[18:17] This is like, I'm like a blind man feeling up the trunk of an
[18:22] elephant right now, and I think it's a snake.
[18:25] So these are four options, 4 choices that one can use when
[18:31] trying to do X, if that helps clarify a little bit more about
[18:35] what X could be. Geo Tiger or Geo guesser?
[18:41] That is a very interesting chain of thought.
[18:44] You're not exactly there, but you are warmish.
[18:49] OK. So this was established in 2007.
[18:54] OK, 2007. OK.
[18:58] So let me give you a little bit more of a context, OK?
[19:01] Yeah. Sheikh Mussafar Sukhor Al Masri
[19:06] bin Sheikh Mustafa Long name for a Malaysian orthopedic surgeon
[19:11] who participated in a program. This program was in 2007.
[19:17] Before he went on this program, these options were recommended
[19:21] to him to carry out X this. Is The Amazing Race.
[19:28] No, it's not The Amazing Race. Wow, I'm my brain is just stuck
[19:33] on the earth and wherever I'm going to go with such a such a
[19:42] bad Indian stereotype here. Are these like places where you
[19:46] can take a dump? Take a dump.
[19:49] Oh no, no, no. Oh boy.
[19:52] You can take a dump there on the position of oh there, the earth,
[19:56] wherever you want. You know, this is extra funny to
[20:03] me because I know what the answer is and it's going to
[20:06] sound so wrong once you know what the answer is.
[20:11] But yeah, well, points for I guess.
[20:15] Creativity. But no, wait, are these OK?
[20:21] Now that now that you mentioned that and now this thought comes
[20:24] to my head, what I just said before is all the more so bad.
[20:28] But are these options of where he could pray towards Mecca or
[20:35] something? Very nice, very good, yes, So
[20:39] this is X would be prayers for a Muslim person and prayers in
[20:46] Islam, as a lot of people would know are done facing towards the
[20:50] Kaaba. Yes.
[20:54] So do you know what program was Sheikh Musafar?
[20:59] Participating in Master Chef? No.
[21:03] Why would I think Master Chef? I don't know.
[21:06] Maybe I have no idea why I'm thinking of Master Chef.
[21:10] Maybe our audience can remind me why I'm thinking of Master Chef.
[21:13] But jello, OK, no. So I'm guessing is this is this
[21:20] some kind of show barrier to go to Antarctica?
[21:23] For a lot of people, this might be common knowledge, but in case
[21:26] somebody doesn't know, you're supposed to face towards Kaaba,
[21:30] which is the sacred mosque in Mecca.
[21:31] So most of the places across the world, they do exactly where it
[21:36] is, or they're given directions, or you can look up a chart and
[21:39] then face in that direction and you have a compass and you can
[21:43] see that they're supposed to face S where southeast,
[21:45] northwest, whatever, right? So any other place like
[21:49] Antarctica would be clear enough I suppose.
[21:52] Yeah, but they they would still be able to figure out where the
[21:56] where Mecca is. So so then that's not did he go
[21:59] to space? Very well done.
[22:02] Yes, that is exactly what it was.
[22:05] So let's give you a little bit of a context here because you
[22:09] have cracked the question. Well done.
[22:11] Sheikh Musafar, Malaysian orthopedic surgeon, participated
[22:17] in an Expedition 16 crew aboard the Soyuz TMA 11 when he visited
[22:23] the International Space Station in 2007.
[22:26] Before his flight to the ISS, he requested the Malaysian National
[22:32] Fatwa Council to provide guidelines as to how he could
[22:36] conduct his prayers. The council wrote that the
[22:40] qibla, which is the direction towards Kaba, should be based on
[22:43] what is possible and recommended four options.
[22:46] And here's why. Here's where you get why.
[22:49] So why was Kaba? So they said number one could be
[22:53] you could face the Kaaba itself, wherever Kaaba would be.
[22:56] If you can figure that out, you can face the position directly
[22:59] above the Kaaba of the altitude of the orbit #3 was the Earth in
[23:04] general. If you can just face the Earth
[23:06] in general, or number four was wherever, it's like it doesn't
[23:12] matter. Just do your prayers and do them
[23:16] with sincerity and that's good enough.
[23:17] And I guess that's what counts when you're doing things like
[23:21] that. But yeah, that's that's what the
[23:23] official recommendation was. And that's how in outer space,
[23:27] person of Muslim faith could could do their prayers if they
[23:31] ever want. That's very interesting and I'd
[23:35] also like to take this opportunity to remind our
[23:36] audience that these questions are completely blind.
[23:39] I have. There is no pre planning, so
[23:42] when Aditya asks a question, I have no idea what the answer is
[23:45] going to be. So I would like to preemptively
[23:48] apologize for the fact that I guessed something quite crass
[23:52] which was only meant as a joke and I immediately regretted it
[23:55] when the right answer kind of clicked in my head.
[23:58] Please understand that it was not intentional and I apologize
[24:02] unreservedly. Hey, I hope the the people who
[24:11] listen to a podcast have a sense of humor.
[24:12] And yes, he did not know this, so oh, no fault of Vineet there.
[24:17] But Vineet, what is your fault is all your beautiful questions.
[24:21] So hit me with the next one. That was too cheesy that, that
[24:24] that was cheese to the Max. Like the, the, the cheese pull
[24:28] on that would go all the way from here to Saudi Arabia.
[24:31] That it was that cheesy. Okay, I'm going to ignore that
[24:35] cheesiness and then go to something very similar to
[24:38] cheese, or at least the source of cheese.
[24:40] The word X derives indirectly from the Latin for cow.
[24:45] See, now this is how you make a segue.
[24:48] The use of X has been traced back to China in the 10th
[24:53] century. It was introduced to England.
[24:57] Let me at least finish the question before you flex.
[25:03] You see, what I have to do is, you know, deal with on a weekly
[25:06] basis. This is what happens when you do
[25:08] quiz, you know, quiz programs or quiz podcasts with people who
[25:11] know too much. But anyway, I'm doing this for
[25:13] our audience. So audience, this question is
[25:15] for you. Ignore him for the moment.
[25:17] The word X derives indirectly from the Latin for cow, and the
[25:21] use of X has been traced back to China in the 10th century.
[25:24] It was introduced to England by Lady Mary Watley Montague in
[25:28] 1721. What is the word X?
[25:32] Now you may flex to your heart's content.
[25:36] OK, now I'm a bit confused based off of the last sentence.
[25:39] So that is a good reminder to me to stop trying to jump the gun
[25:44] because I don't know if my answer fits anymore.
[25:46] But when you said derived from the Latin word for cow and
[25:50] China, I briefly considered the answer could be vaccine.
[25:55] It is vaccine. Oh, OK.
[25:58] All right. Well, then I should keep
[26:00] flexing. No lesson was learned in this
[26:03] question. OK, for our audience, yes,
[26:10] Aditya, regrettably, is right. The word vaccine derives
[26:15] indirectly from the Latin for cow, waka.
[26:18] The story goes that just before the turn of the 19th century of
[26:21] British Doctor Edward Jenner observed that milk maids who had
[26:24] contracted cowpox or variola vaccine were much likely much
[26:29] less likely to contract smallpox, which could otherwise
[26:32] devastate entire communities. Jenna decided to introduce the
[26:36] pus from a woman's cowpox lesion into a cut he had made on an 8
[26:40] year old boy's arm. Luckily for Doctor Jenna the boy
[26:44] and the human race at large, the cowpox pus provided a strong
[26:48] degree of smallpox protection and the concept of a smallpox
[26:51] vaccine was born. The similarity between the word
[26:55] for vaccine and the word for cow in a number of romance to non
[26:58] languages can be noted today. Vacuna and vaca in Spanish,
[27:02] Vaccino and Vaca in Italian, and Vaccina and Vaca in Portuguese
[27:06] for example. Now you may have noticed that I
[27:09] did not mention Edward Jenner. I mentioned somebody else, Lady
[27:13] Mary Motley Montague in the question.
[27:16] Like again, this is not for the smug Co host sitting in front of
[27:20] me, but this is for our audience.
[27:24] The first recorded use of inoculation to prevent smallpox
[27:27] occurred in the 16th century in China, with earliest hints of
[27:30] the practice coming during the 10th century.
[27:34] The folk practice of inoculation against smallpox was brought
[27:37] from Turkey to Britain in 1721, way before Jenner, by Lady Mary
[27:44] Whatley Montague. The terms vaccine and
[27:47] vaccination are derived from Varioli vaccine, the term
[27:51] devised by Edward Jenner to denote cowpox.
[27:55] He used the phrase in 1798 in his inquiry in which he
[27:59] described the protective effect of cowpox against smallpox.
[28:03] In 1881, to honor Jenner, Louis Pasteur proposed that the term
[28:09] should be extended to cover all new preventive inoculations
[28:13] being developed. This was the start of vaccine
[28:16] development and the production term vaccinology.
[28:20] So that's where you can see it from.
[28:23] The word waka derived vaccine comes indirectly from the Latin
[28:26] for cow waka. The first major modern vaccine
[28:31] that we at least recognize is that of Edward Jenner's cowpox
[28:35] inoculations to prevent smallpox.
[28:37] So cows everywhere. Speaking of cows, Aditya, your
[28:42] question. Oh, I like this.
[28:48] That was mean. That was mean.
[28:51] I appreciate the sass. I like it.
[28:53] You know what? I'm I'm here for it.
[28:54] I'm here for it. Yeah, you're a little too smug
[28:57] and flexing with that question, so I had to needle something.
[29:01] I had to be taken down a few notches.
[29:03] You're right. Yeah, I'm absolutely with you on
[29:04] that. Speaking about people who need
[29:11] to be perhaps taken down a few notches, this person X graduated
[29:19] from California State University in 2001.
[29:23] He majored in filmmaking, specifically film and Electronic
[29:27] Arts, and had a special music playing when he took to the
[29:33] graduation stage to collect his degree.
[29:36] He also covered some credits in paleontology apart from his
[29:40] filmmaking. Who is this person X that I
[29:44] referred? OK, let's get something right
[29:46] out of the way. Is this a fictional character?
[29:49] Oh no, it is somebody very much real.
[29:52] Graduated in 2001. Yep.
[29:55] So he is in his 40s, Somebody in his 40s, filmmaking,
[30:02] paleontology, this Chris Pratt. No.
[30:06] OK, That is the only one I could think of.
[30:08] Filmmaking and paleontology coming together, you know,
[30:12] Jurassic Park and all those. OK, oh, I'll need some more
[30:18] clues or context. So he used some of his previous
[30:22] work to get his paleontology credits as well as his
[30:26] filmmaking credits. Oh, OK, I I see what you're
[30:31] doing here. You're throwing me off with the
[30:34] timeline. This is Spielberg, OK?
[30:37] This is Steven Spielberg, who notoriously did not graduate
[30:41] from, I think, whichever Caltech, California school of
[30:44] filmmaking or something. And then later he used
[30:47] Schindler's List as his thesis to finally get his degree.
[30:54] Vineet can't keep you in the dark for too long, clearly.
[30:57] Well done. Yes, Steven Spielberg is the
[31:00] right answer. He enrolled in California State
[31:03] University, or I should say, re enrolled and graduated in 2001.
[31:07] He went back to complete his degree, from which he had
[31:09] dropped out a few years, a few decades earlier actually.
[31:12] And he got Jurassic Park to get himself some credits for the
[31:19] paleontology course and the advanced filmmaking class.
[31:24] He passed thanks to Schindler's List, because the graduates do
[31:27] need to submit a 15 minute short film.
[31:30] But the school kind of waved it away given that, well,
[31:33] Schindler's List is Schindler's. So yeah.
[31:37] I mean, like he if anything, he did more than what's required.
[31:40] 15 minutes versus Schindler's List.
[31:44] That's like a dinner knife compared to a machine gun.
[31:48] Wouldn't you also call that a bit of a flex?
[31:50] Like literally pipe down a little bit?
[31:52] Like, who would want to be in your class if you're going to
[31:54] submit Schindler's List as your final project?
[31:59] True, true. That is very true.
[32:02] So that's a nice question. So this is my question for you.
[32:06] It's a little topical. Have you heard of a book called
[32:10] Show Business? It is a 1992 postmodern
[32:15] satirical fiction novel. Oh no, I don't know what that
[32:20] is. OK, so in this book from 1992,
[32:27] we are introduced to a Bollywood superstar actor by the name of
[32:30] Ashok Banjara. The character in many incidents
[32:34] of Ashok Banjara are inspired by that of Amitabh Bachchan.
[32:39] What happens in Banjara's career mimics a lot of what happens
[32:44] with Amitabh Bachchan. He's a superstar, enters
[32:46] politics, gets caught in a scandal, money laundering
[32:49] scandal which something which reminds people of Bofors.
[32:52] So there are a lot of similarities.
[32:55] Now remember this book was written in 1992.
[32:59] In the book, the author predicts or actually not other than
[33:04] prediction. In the book, he says that
[33:06] Banjara as a comeback decides to act in a mythological film X.
[33:13] And it is on the sets of X that Banjara meets with an accident.
[33:18] And that accident is kind of reminiscent of what happened
[33:22] with Amitabh Bachchan during the sets of Coolie where he famously
[33:26] got injured. So my question to you is, which
[33:30] movie X are we talking about and who is the author of this novel?
[33:37] Oh, so it's a famous author? Yes, it's a famous.
[33:41] Author And he is part of some mythological film, you said?
[33:46] Yes. So in the context of the novel,
[33:51] Banjara is caught in this kind of money laundering scheme,
[33:53] similar to what happened with Bofors.
[33:56] He quits politics, but he has lost his fortune and he has to
[34:02] now come back to acting quite similar to what Amitabh Bachchan
[34:05] had to do. But I think he did.
[34:07] That with Murthyu data, right In desperation, Banjara agrees to
[34:13] work in a mythological film, even though he does not like
[34:16] mythological film, and it's there that he has an accident.
[34:21] Oh OK so since you said this is topical and it is Amitabh
[34:26] Bachchan mythological film, I'm going to guess you are either
[34:31] talking Brahmastra which is well not very topical because it's
[34:34] been more than a year, or you are referring to Kalki to it
[34:41] like. It's very good.
[34:42] So the mythological film is indeed Kalki, which is in
[34:45] theatres now. So that leaves the next part of
[34:50] the question. Who is this author who predicted
[34:53] this way back in 1992, 32 years before Kalki happens?
[35:01] And he predicted in a novel that Amitabh Bachchan would be acting
[35:04] in a movie called Kalki. No idea absolutely because I've
[35:09] never even heard of this book before.
[35:13] Is there any other famous book by this author or something?
[35:15] OK, so I will tell you the name of a few other books.
[35:18] This author is quite prolific. He's written quite a lot of, you
[35:23] know, books. So I'll just give you a few of
[35:25] them. There's a book from 2001 called
[35:28] Riot. There's a book from 1990 called
[35:32] The $5 Smile and Other Stories. There's a book from 2005
[35:36] nonfiction called Bookless in Baghdad.
[35:40] There's a 2012 novel, the 2012 nonfiction novel called Pax II
[35:44] and the World of the 21st Century.
[35:47] His most recent book is a 2022 book called Ambedkar a Life.
[35:53] Pax India. Thanks, Indica.
[35:57] Yes, it is Shashi Tharoor. Nice crack.
[36:01] Nice crack. So obviously I left out the big
[36:03] name books obviously, which are the great Indian novel, One of
[36:07] my favorite satirical political novels ever written about India,
[36:10] Why I'm a Hindu and the struggle for India's soul and Inglorious
[36:17] Empire, what the British did to India.
[36:20] These are probably his most famous, though I think my
[36:24] favorite title would obviously be Tarurasaurus, which is a book
[36:30] he published in 2020. So it's like a thesaurus and he
[36:34] shares examples from his vocabulary.
[36:39] Nice. I don't know.
[36:39] He was so prolific. I've heard of one or two of
[36:41] these, but I don't know. No.
[36:42] No, he's he's written quite a lot.
[36:44] He's quite prolific, which I find really impressive given
[36:47] that he has such an active political life and prior to that
[36:51] he was quite active on the world stage of the UN.
[36:53] How does he find the time to write it?
[36:55] And these are not like small books, these are very well
[36:59] thought out books. Especially his fiction writing
[37:03] is quite well thought out, so I wonder how he finds the time.
[37:08] Pretty cool. OK, that was a solid question.
[37:13] Some lovely premonition over there.
[37:16] So I'm going to ask you hopefully what is also a good
[37:20] question to wrap up this episode.
[37:23] Vineet, Are you ready for an audio based question?
[37:25] I was born ready. No, no, don't take it seriously.
[37:29] I'm not flexing because I asked an audio question.
[37:31] Audio question. I am so going to bomb but still
[37:34] tell. OK, so before we play the actual
[37:36] music, let me set it up a little bit for you.
[37:40] This is a 19 O2 Spanish classical composition by the
[37:46] composer Francisco Tarega. It is meant for a solo guitar.
[37:51] Now we will not be playing the entire music, so it's a part of
[37:55] that composition. You will have to tell me how
[37:59] this composition is relevant to the world today, or how do we
[38:02] all know, and here goes. OK.
[38:17] And you want to know how we or how what's the relevance in the
[38:24] modern context? Yeah, how would you and I know
[38:27] this. Well, I would say.
[38:34] Oh, that was too quick. That was too quick.
[38:39] Yes, I am familiar with this particular piece, especially the
[38:44] interlude where he ends up with that iconic Nokia Hello tune
[38:49] ringtone rather. The iconic Nokia ringtone.
[38:53] So this, as we need said, is part of this particular
[39:00] composition, the Nokia ringtone that we are all familiar with.
[39:02] And as he brilliantly demonstrated, that's the one
[39:11] Nokia tune. But originally it was called
[39:14] Grand Walz. The entire composition is called
[39:16] Grand Walz, and it was first used in a commercial for Nokia
[39:20] 1011 in 1992. And since then it has been
[39:24] associated with Nokia. They released it in their
[39:28] subsequent models as a ringtone. And so many people have heard it
[39:31] right there. And well, for the benefit of our
[39:35] listeners, we will play that chunk of the music as well now.
[39:54] OK, so Vineet, that was a great and a quick crack.
[39:58] Well done. Thank you.
[40:01] Thank you. At least I had one question
[40:03] where I got the answer immediately today.
[40:06] So that's time for us to wrap up today's episode.
[40:10] So let's start by wrapping up our audience question, which I
[40:13] had asked at the beginning of today's episode.
[40:15] In bartending, what unit of measurement is used when your
[40:19] bartender adds 6 to 8 drops of an ingredient into your
[40:23] cocktail? Aditya, do you know the answer?
[40:28] No, I don't, and in my defence, I don't drink very often.
[40:33] I am a teetotaler. But I have no idea what is it
[40:38] called. Boring, so I'm sorry.
[40:43] The the unit of measurement is a dash.
[40:47] So when you're adding a dash of bitters or a dash of something
[40:52] else, it's usually in bartending parlance it means 6 to 8 drops.
[40:58] OK. The next time you see a recipe
[41:01] which calls for a dash of bitters or a dash of vodka, that
[41:06] literally just means 6 to 8 drops.
[41:10] I apologize to all cocktail enthusiasts.
[41:13] I know nobody adds a dash of vodka to anything, but you know,
[41:16] I was running out of. Examples to say Dash Vodka.
[41:19] OK, well, pretty cool. So so before we sign off for
[41:24] today, Aditya, what's your pop culture recommendation for this
[41:27] week? So I did recently watch the
[41:31] Talented Mr. Ripley. Oh, which version?
[41:35] The Matt Damon version, but a pretty, pretty good movie I
[41:40] would say. Yeah, solid movie and I enjoyed
[41:44] it a fair bit. So I would recommend that.
[41:46] I have also seen Ripley which is the TV series web series rather
[41:51] that came out more recently. And I would say both of these
[41:54] are pretty interesting takes on what is, I believe, 50s novel.
[42:00] A Patricia Highsmith novel. Exactly, so I would recommend
[42:06] people who have skipped out on either to check out Talented
[42:10] Miss Ripley or Ripley. And if you have time, why not
[42:13] both. Pretty interesting.
[42:15] Pretty different takes on the characters, but I enjoyed it.
[42:18] I really enjoyed Drew Blah's performance.
[42:20] Actually unexpected. Yeah, I actually, I was about to
[42:24] say, and when I was asking you which version I was about to ask
[42:28] you, did you watch the Jude Law version?
[42:29] Because frankly, he's more memorable in that movie than
[42:32] Matt Damon, to be honest. Matt Damon's a little vanilla in
[42:35] that, but Jude Law gives an outstanding performance.
[42:40] It is a pretty good well, I think you won an Oscar for that,
[42:43] if I'm not wrong. I don't remember.
[42:46] Yeah. A pretty good movie.
[42:48] Check that out. And the other film
[42:51] recommendation that I'm going to give is Civil War.
[42:54] Now this movie came out of nowhere.
[42:57] I did not expect anything from it, but it blew me away and
[43:01] shame on me for not expecting more from it because Alex
[43:05] Garland is a pretty talented director and his previous works
[43:09] have also been great. So well you can check out those
[43:11] as well, Ex Machina being one of them.
[43:15] And Civil War was 2024 offering and it is a brilliant take on
[43:23] the kind of divide that we have in the world today from the eyes
[43:29] of a journalist and a photojournalist to be specified.
[43:32] It's just very well made. I would say something worth
[43:36] checking out. Those are the two film
[43:38] recommendations. I realize I give a lot more film
[43:40] recommendations and we need the scholarly 1 amongst the two of
[43:44] us has the books for you so. I don't think that's exactly
[43:50] right because I do give more books, but I do put out of a lot
[43:54] of movie recommendations as well.
[43:56] And I agree with both of these recommendations.
[43:59] The talent. Mr. Ripley, The Patricia
[44:01] Highsmith novels is a classic. It's one of my favourites.
[44:05] Jude Law, obviously with the older version.
[44:07] I've not yet watched the new one called Ripley from Netflix but
[44:12] it's on my list of things to watch.
[44:16] Civil War was equal parts exhilarating and terrifying at
[44:21] the same time. I found it again as he mentioned
[44:24] I had 0 expectations from watching the trailer but it just
[44:27] blew me away and it actually seems a lot more.
[44:32] How do I put this closer now after watching the presidential
[44:35] debate between Trump and Biden? I.
[44:43] Really don't understand what the Democrats are thinking of.
[44:47] Neither do I understand what the Republicans are thinking of.
[44:50] I can understand Trump's appeal to a certain part of the
[44:54] population and they have valid reasons to be honest for
[44:58] supporting someone like him. But at the same time what I
[45:01] really don't get is why is Biden running again?
[45:06] He's already in his 80s. The man is 81 years old.
[45:09] I read a fact on I think it was somebody's Twitter post.
[45:13] I'm not. I don't remember exactly but I
[45:16] haven't fact checked this but it just seemed too crazy to be
[45:20] false. Clinton became president 30
[45:24] years ago, and he's currently younger than both Trump and
[45:28] Biden. Oh wow, boy that is
[45:32] embarrassing. And I don't see a way out of
[45:37] this. This is a no win scenario.
[45:39] You either have a president who's daughtering into senility,
[45:44] or you have a president who is, for lack of a better word than
[45:48] Patrick, crazy. Convicted criminal as of this
[45:52] point. A felon?
[45:53] A felon yes after watching that debate, absolutely don't see any
[45:58] way out for the US. They are in a no win scenario
[46:01] right now. I we can all just wait and
[46:04] watch. So moving away from politics, my
[46:08] pop culture recommendation today is actually not something that I
[46:13] have consumed recently. I was having a conversation with
[46:16] someone who listened to our podcast and one of the things he
[46:21] mentioned was that he liked a few of our recommendations
[46:26] because they brought out things that he had never heard of or
[46:29] reintroduced things that he had never heard of.
[46:31] So that sparked something. So I want to reintroduce.
[46:37] I may be being patronizing by saying that I'll be
[46:39] reintroducing this person, but I feel that a lot of the current
[46:43] generation may not have heard of him.
[46:46] So this author is a person by the name of Fred Saberhagen.
[46:51] He started writing in the 60s and wrote all the way up to the
[46:55] late 90s and maybe early 2000s. He passed away in 2007 and he
[47:01] wrote certain books which have never been made into any movies
[47:06] or TV series, so his exposure to the current crowd may not be as
[47:11] much. But I would like to bring the
[47:14] attention or at least recommend two sets of his fantasy series.
[47:20] So the first ever frankly fantasy series that I read when
[47:24] I was a wee little lad was the Ardney Sequence from Fred
[47:30] Saberhagen, which in itself is consists of three different
[47:34] series, which are the Empire of the East, the Book of Swords and
[47:37] the Books of Lost Swords. Immensely imaginative fantasy
[47:40] series which combines mythology with a kind of dystopian science
[47:46] fiction future. And it is quite, quite different
[47:51] from most other things that I've read.
[47:53] So that is one thing. I recommend the Artne sequence,
[47:56] which includes the Empire of the E series, the Book of Swords,
[47:59] and the Books of Lost Swords. But I think the one series of
[48:03] Hitch, which would be a gateway kind of series for anybody who's
[48:06] never read Fred Saberhagen, would be the Dracula series.
[48:10] So he has reimagined Dracula. The first novel, the Dracula
[48:14] tape, is kind of a retelling of Bram Stoker's version from
[48:19] Dracula's point of view. And in the subsequent novels are
[48:22] Dracula's travel through the 20th century, through the
[48:25] through the 19th and 20th century, meeting people and
[48:28] things like that. So there's the Holmes Dracula
[48:30] file where he needs Sherlock Holmes, an old friend of the
[48:33] family, which is just freaking cool.
[48:37] It is. I mean, like there's no way to
[48:39] describe that book other than it's just immensely cool.
[48:42] I can't understand why nobody's ever made into a movie.
[48:44] Then there's Thorn, Dominion and then the later books are not as
[48:49] great, like A Matter of Taste, A Question of Time.
[48:51] But these are all fantastic books which I would recommend.
[48:55] The Dracula Tapes, The Holmes, Dracula File, these are some of
[48:58] my old favourites. I haven't read many of them in
[49:01] more than a decade but I still remember the feeling when
[49:05] reading those books. So I would like to recommend
[49:09] Fred Saberhagen and his Dracula series and the Ardne Sequence.
[49:14] So that's my pop culture recommendation for this week.
[49:17] OK, cool, lovely, lovely recommendation.
[49:20] You also asked a very interesting question, which
[49:23] reminded me of another pop culture recommendation.
[49:25] So consider that by third and that will be a YouTube series.
[49:29] This is Vox Borders and this is a pretty great series that and
[49:35] it came out a few years ago, so maybe some of it is outdated
[49:38] now, but Vox Borders covers interesting borders that divide
[49:43] countries over the years and how they have shaped up and defined
[49:48] geopolitics. So it is something that you want
[49:51] to check out. It's hosted by Johnny Harris,
[49:53] who used to be part of Vox back in the day, isn't anymore.
[49:56] He does stuff independently, but his border series where he
[49:59] wasn't working with Vox is great.
[50:00] That's where I actually first heard about the island where
[50:03] Haiti and Dominican Republic are present together and Vox Borders
[50:08] is fantastic. And As for Vineet's little spiel
[50:12] on how the US is in a very hilarious position, honestly, if
[50:17] you think about it, brings me to a little bit of an Easter egg
[50:22] for next episode because we have a guest joining us for our next
[50:26] episode, so watch out for that one.
[50:28] That's going to be a fun little episode.
[50:31] Yes. So now we're going to be teasing
[50:34] our guest. Right now, I'm not going to be
[50:35] mentioning who our guest is, but I can mention that our episode
[50:40] will be coming out on the 4th of July.
[50:42] So make of it. Make of it what you will.
[50:46] Boy, that is going to be such a tough one to crack.
[50:51] OK, so that's all for this episode.
[50:53] Thank you guys for listening in. We hope you enjoyed the show and
[50:56] learn something new. If you liked what you heard,
[50:58] please consider subscribing to our podcast and leaving us a
[51:00] review on our favorite podcast platform wherever you're
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[51:08] Take two minutes after my spiel to just give us a 5 star review
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[51:13] feedback, suggestions, and even trivia.
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[51:43] the future. Thanks again for tuning in, have
[51:45] a great day. See you guys next week.

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