# Episode 124 - Eat Pray Love

An episode of [Are You Quizzing Me?](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1663104901), 16 Dec 2025, 1 h 03 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/d7afa960/podcast/play/112742665/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-11-16%2F414524019-44100-2-313951d170f18.mp3

Do you know which antibiotic medicine is eaten (taken?) to deal with Staphylococci, and was first stumbled upon by a missionary in Borneo? Do you know what iconic pop culture thing was inspired from the blessings of a Jewish priest praying? Do you know who is the child of Judith Love Cohen, an American aerospace engineer, born on the day she was troubleshooting problems for NASA? Tune in to the episode 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] UB Lakpi is A7 player aside traditional football game played
[0:06] in Manipur which has some notable similarities to rugby.
[0:11] It is said to have started as a ceremonial reenactment of the
[0:15] celestial snatching of the pot of nectar after the
[0:19] samudramantal. UB lakpi literally means
[0:23] snatching X. The X serves the purpose of a
[0:29] ball. To score a goal, a player has to
[0:32] approach the goal from the front with his oiled X and pass the
[0:38] goal line. At the end of the game, it is
[0:41] offered to the king or the judges who just sit behind or
[0:45] beyond the goal line. What is X that is used in place
[0:50] of a ball? This is our audience question,
[0:53] which I will answer at the end of today's episode.
[0:56] Welcome everyone to are you quizzing me?
[0:58] Your favorite quizzing and trivia podcast show.
[1:00] And this is episode 124. Queue the music.
[1:06] Welcome to are you quizzing me. I am Vineet Nair with my Co host
[1:10] Aditya Kashyap. This is a quizzing trivia
[1:13] podcast show. Join us as we dive deep into
[1:17] history, science, pop culture and so much more.
[1:20] Let's get quizzing. I'm a little peeved with myself
[1:24] because I just realized that I could have made a 12 ka 4 joke
[1:27] here instead of just saying 124. I'm surprised you didn't
[1:31] honestly because I was considering naming it 1-2 ka 4
[1:35] because the last episode was called Ek do Teen.
[1:37] And by the way, just random related I guess trivia, do you
[1:41] know the name? The name of the song is Ek do
[1:43] Teen Char and not Ek do Teen. Wait, I didn't know that.
[1:47] Yeah, on Instagram, I was trying to just add music to the post
[1:50] and I was looking for the song and it showed up only as Ek do
[1:53] Teen Char. And of course, I'm talking about
[1:55] the iconic Madhuri Dixit song where her dance became popular,
[1:59] which is Ek do Teen Char. Tera trying to recall how long
[2:05] it goes. Yeah, it goes all the way till
[2:06] Tera 13. That reminds me, I saw on Reddit
[2:10] somebody seemed upset that I am biased towards maybe Hindi films
[2:15] because because I am I am a Hindi speaker, my mother tongue
[2:19] is Hindi and English films because well I was educated in
[2:22] English which is fair. Yes, those two languages I am
[2:25] fluent in so I do watch more content in that language.
[2:28] But I do try to up my snobbery every once in a while by
[2:33] watching like movies and languages I don't understand.
[2:38] Somebody complained on Reddit that I haven't seen Malayalam
[2:40] films given that my Co host is Mallu and I would like to say
[2:45] not just my Co host but a lot of people in my life are Mallu.
[2:48] I lived in Abu Dhabi, there were a lot of malus there when I was
[2:51] in Singapore. There were a few Malu friends in
[2:53] college as well. So I have been made to watch
[2:56] Malayalam films and, and no, no regrets whatsoever because Malu
[3:02] Cinema I truly believe is the best cinema in India right now.
[3:09] And somebody explained it to me, somebody from the film industry
[3:12] explained it to me that they haven't gotten as big as
[3:15] Hollywood and Tollywood and Bollywood that still is like the
[3:21] young kid in town. I mean, they've been around for
[3:23] a while, but they aren't as big in numbers perhaps.
[3:25] Which means that they're willing to experiment a lot more, which
[3:27] means they're willing to do things which big budget films
[3:31] don't dare to do. And I have seen proof of that.
[3:35] So here are the two films that I had from the top of my mind, I
[3:38] could recall, top of my head, I could recall, which is Avisham,
[3:43] which is oh so good, so good. And I am surprised I have not
[3:48] recommended it before. I think 2024 it featured on my
[3:51] Spotify playlist rap because I was listening to the music quite
[3:55] a bit. And Farhat Fasil just is a
[3:56] phenomenal actor. Like, I don't know, I don't have
[3:59] to say this. Nobody has to say it.
[4:01] He doesn't need my approval. Nobody needs me to confirm that
[4:04] fact. He's phenomenal.
[4:06] Him dressed in all white and just being the bad ass cyst of
[4:11] badasses was cinematic. Just genius.
[4:16] So that and the other Malayalam film I've seen, Drisham Drisham.
[4:20] I was told very specifically by my very good Mallu friend who
[4:24] said do not watch the Hindi film.
[4:26] First watch the Mallu film and then watch the Hindi film.
[4:29] I think she made me watch it in person.
[4:31] She sat me down and she's like no, you'll not watch it.
[4:34] And she made me watch it when the Ajay Devgan Bollywood
[4:36] version came out and she's like no, first we watched this.
[4:40] So I did. And I'm glad she made me watch
[4:42] it because as much I like the Hindi version, I think the
[4:45] Malayalam 1 takes the cake. OK.
[4:48] So don't stone Aditya. And to the Reddit user, we'd
[4:52] have to scrap our plan of banishing Aditya to another
[4:55] universe, or at the very least blocking him in a room with
[4:57] Kumblangi Nights. I have to watch that, yeah.
[5:01] Yes, we have an announcement to make that going forward once a
[5:05] week, every Thursday, we will be posting a question on Reddit for
[5:12] our audience to kind of interact.
[5:14] So we'll be doing more of this where we'll be interacting with
[5:16] you, and because we are quizzes and have no other social skills,
[5:20] at least me, we will be doing it by, you know, asking you
[5:23] questions. So we'll be putting up a
[5:25] question on Reddit and you will have the chance to fight it out
[5:29] in the comments section. Hopefully I don't make them too
[5:31] easy so that you crack them immediately.
[5:33] And please participate. And if you already haven't,
[5:36] please join our Reddit community.
[5:37] The subreddit is R/R. You quizzing me?
[5:41] And also because the Reddit is a community page, I would
[5:44] encourage listeners and trivia enthusiasts otherwise also to
[5:49] post questions. I would recommend posting visual
[5:51] questions because those we rarely if at all ask on our
[5:55] podcast. If you have non visual
[5:57] questions, send it to us. But if you have visual
[5:59] questions, go ahead and ask it on the Reddit page.
[6:01] It'll be fun to get community questions as well.
[6:04] I would love to crack a few if I can.
[6:06] Oh yes, definitely. So Speaking of, are you quizzing
[6:10] me? Let's get to the quizzing
[6:11] portion of today's podcast. Aditya, why did you start us
[6:13] off? Sounds about right.
[6:15] And perfect segue time because we were talking about Reddit and
[6:20] our Reddit page. As always, a huge shout out to
[6:23] Ashwin Mascaren as AKA Leaked Zebra, who started the page I
[6:28] think like a year ago or maybe longer, and has been the most
[6:31] consistent person on the Reddit page in both Vinita and I don't
[6:35] post anywhere close to how much he posts.
[6:37] So thank you so much. I totally grateful I met him in
[6:40] person. It was so good.
[6:41] It was so much fun. We got some coffee, we hung out.
[6:44] So now I've met like a bunch of people through this podcast,
[6:47] except Vineet. Yeah, we should continue that.
[6:51] Ashwin, apart from doing all these wonderful things, is also
[6:53] a doctor. He reminded me when I met him as
[6:55] well and in the e-mail that he is from the same college that
[6:59] Doc Vector Vineet Nair also studied at.
[7:02] So he's a junior of Vineet and because of this medical
[7:07] profession connection that he has with Vineet, he asked me to
[7:10] ask him questions related to the medical field.
[7:13] He sent me 3 questions. The first two, I swear I, it
[7:17] just, I was just like, I can't ask this because I don't
[7:19] understand this. It's too much effort for me.
[7:22] Thank God, OK. The third one I somehow made
[7:25] sense out of it and I have dumbed it down for for my level.
[7:30] So Vineet, hopefully this will be a cakewalk for you.
[7:33] Now both you and Ashwin have this overinflated opinion of my
[7:36] ability to crack this kind of questions and people keep
[7:39] sending medical questions and it's a nightmare for me because
[7:43] it's a no win scenario. If I do answer it, well it's
[7:46] like, oh, it's because he's a doctor.
[7:48] If I don't answer it, it's like he's a doctor.
[7:50] How could he know now not know that?
[7:51] So please stop sending medical questions.
[7:54] Next time choose a profession like improv.
[7:57] What are people going to ask you?
[7:59] Like what? What trivia people are going to
[8:01] send? Well, OK, you know what?
[8:04] That's a challenge. I, I challenge everybody to send
[8:06] questions to Vineet related, to improve, to ask me and for me to
[8:11] embarrass myself. Now, coming back to this, the
[8:14] history goes. In 1952, missionaries on the
[8:18] island of Borneo, which is in Southeast Asia, sent a sample of
[8:23] dirt to Doctor Edmund Cornfeld. He was an organic chemist who
[8:28] worked at Eli Lilly, one of the biggest pharmaceutical company.
[8:32] There was an Organism that was isolated from that sample, which
[8:36] produced a substance that was effective against a lot of
[8:39] bacteria and hence an antibiotic was synthesized from this
[8:44] particular sample from that Organism specific OK before
[8:48] clinical trials began. The compound is called
[8:52] Mississippi mud because of the brown colour.
[8:55] Literally came from soil sample but later the purified version
[9:00] was named X&X is how the world knows it.
[9:05] Everybody in the medical profession definitely knows it
[9:07] and people like me also have heard of it.
[9:10] So what is the name of the anti antibiotic X?
[9:15] When you started with Eli Lilly, I thought this would have
[9:17] something to do with insulin, but it's not.
[9:20] So it's an antibiotic and it's an antibiotic that you would
[9:24] also know. I mean I'm I'm not, I'm not the
[9:27] most knowledgeable, but I'm pretty sure insulin is not an
[9:30] antibiotic. No, it's not.
[9:32] It's not, it's not, no, because when you said Eli Lily, I was
[9:34] like, oh, OK, he's going towards incident.
[9:36] This is it's a roundabout way of getting to the incident, but no.
[9:38] OK. So it's an antibiotic that you
[9:42] are also familiar with isolated from soil samples from Borneo,
[9:49] correct. Soil samples.
[9:50] Is it was it from a funk, you know, was it from a fungus or a
[9:54] bacteria that they were able to isolate?
[9:55] I think it's a bacteria you mentioned.
[9:58] This is why I was not asking the other questions because I don't
[10:02] know enough. Hold on, let me quickly look
[10:04] this up. So X is made by the soil
[10:09] bacterium. I'm not giving you the name yet
[10:11] because that might be too easy for you, but it is made from
[10:13] soil bacterium. OK.
[10:15] Actually you you can explain this to me.
[10:17] Soil bacterium can be an antibiotic like it can kill
[10:20] other bacteria I guess. No, no.
[10:22] So usually what happens is either the bacterium either
[10:25] secrets a material or it has something which produces
[10:28] something which can be used as an antibiotic.
[10:30] So bacteria in general, like any kind of organisms in general
[10:33] that you have like defense mechanisms, right?
[10:35] So many of these defense mechanisms are useful in other
[10:38] you know. You are speaking Latin to me
[10:40] right now, but you are obviously on the right part.
[10:48] It is an antibiotic. You already got the bacterium
[10:50] part. Eli Lili is a hint, and how big
[10:53] a hint it is. It is a pretty huge
[10:55] pharmaceutical company. I'll give you the first hint
[10:59] that I have in this list. OK.
[11:01] It was approved for medicinal use in the United States in
[11:04] 1958, and I assume it followed through for the rest of the
[11:08] world after that. It is also on WH O's World
[11:14] Health Organization's list of essential medicines.
[11:18] List of essential medicines. That's a long list, actually.
[11:23] I'm still stuck on the fact that, you know, this antibiotic,
[11:25] which would make it something like, I would have thought
[11:30] something like tetracycline or an amoxicillin, but I don't
[11:34] think it needs any of those. I do know those as well.
[11:38] OK, you don't know those. OK, No, no, you'll have to give
[11:41] me some clue because this is something I don't know at all.
[11:45] The hint I was going to give you was that X, it refers to the
[11:49] antibiotics ability to completely destroy bacteria.
[11:53] Naming of medicines is often done in a way where it isn't a
[11:58] word that already exists, obviously, but it evokes a
[12:02] certain feeling. So they are inspired by existing
[12:05] words and they kind of, you know, modified.
[12:07] I was listening to a podcast or this also where they're talking
[12:09] about how Ozempic came to be like Ozempic kind of reminds you
[12:14] of Olympic and hence, like you know, was a good weight loss
[12:18] drug also in a way. In this case, X refers to the
[12:21] antibiotic's ability to completely destroy bacteria.
[12:24] And the example that Ashwin gave us Staphylococci, which is
[12:28] penicillin resistant, which I didn't know Staphylococcus
[12:31] bacteria. I got it, which is destroyed by.
[12:35] XI have the answer, I have the answer.
[12:37] It is excited. Hit me with the answer.
[12:39] OK, so I'm guessing this is vancomycin?
[12:42] It is. Vancomycin you want to explain
[12:44] the logic? Vancomycin I'm guessing comes
[12:46] from Vanquish because you're vanquishing it.
[12:48] So Vancomycin, it's a critical antibody because when you there
[12:51] is, there is a very, there's a strain of Streptococcus Auris
[12:55] which is specifically resistant to a lot of other drugs.
[12:58] It's called MRSA. Oh, I know this.
[13:00] So vancomycin is the treatment of choice for MRSA.
[13:03] MRSA. Yeah.
[13:04] Why do I know the MRSA? You might have heard it on
[13:06] medical shows in The American IS.
[13:07] Staph infection that. Staph.
[13:09] It's a staph. It's a methicin and resistant
[13:11] staph audience. My God, am IA doctor.
[13:14] Also, am I part of the group now because Doctor Eric Foreman
[13:23] unfortunately didn't diagnose a patient properly in house season
[13:27] 2 I believe and that person died of a staph infection.
[13:30] Oh my God. You are right, Vancomycin is the
[13:34] answer that you're looking for. Vancomycin comes, or at least is
[13:38] in some way concocted from the word Vanquish, which was meant
[13:43] to refer to the ability to completely destroy the bacteria
[13:47] like theflocochi, which is penicillin, the most common
[13:50] antibiotic, I guess, or the oldest antibiotic, and it is
[13:52] resistant to that. So vancomycin would step in over
[13:55] there and consider it a very essential medicine by WHO and
[13:58] by, I guess, most health organizations across the world.
[14:02] Well done. We need good job cracking it.
[14:04] I took a little too long with that one, but thank you, Ashwin
[14:08] for that question. And I'll see you when I see you
[14:12] and we'll have a small discussion about you sending
[14:14] these medical questions. OK.
[14:16] But moving on, I'm going to give you a taste of your own
[14:20] medicine. Or rather, oh, I multiple puns
[14:23] on multiple levels. I love it.
[14:25] I'm proud of myself. OK, so in the late 19th century,
[14:31] a pioneering microbiologist developed vaccines for cholera
[14:36] and eggs and established A renowned laboratory in India,
[14:41] which later became a key Center for vaccine research and was
[14:44] eventually named after him. In the 1930s, microbes which
[14:49] cause eggs from this laboratory were used in a shocking murder
[14:54] attempt in Calcutta, marking one of the first documented cases of
[14:59] biological war crime in India. My question to you is what is
[15:04] the name of the laboratory and what is the disease X?
[15:08] This sounds like a spy novel that you would love.
[15:11] I love it. Sounds great.
[15:13] Can you tell me the timeline again so late?
[15:16] 19th century developed the vaccine for cholera and also the
[15:20] vaccine for X. It was the murder who took place
[15:24] in the 1930s. Well, no idea at all.
[15:28] I you said the murder happened in Calcutta, did you mention?
[15:32] Yes. Is the lab also in Calcutta or
[15:37] is there anywhere geographically nearby or?
[15:40] No, no, no, no, no, no. I asked this question
[15:43] specifically because you are on the other end of the question.
[15:48] Oh, so is it somewhere in the West?
[15:51] Yes. Difficult for me because I'm not
[15:55] a field of knowledge I am aware of except for how safety related
[16:01] knowledge. So no, no idea.
[16:06] The first clue about the institute, which might help you
[16:10] because it is something of a name, is that it's located in
[16:14] Paris. I hope you've heard of this
[16:18] because I have heard of it and as you know, everything I've
[16:22] heard of, you've heard of so. Yeah, that's that's how life
[16:25] goes is. Yeah, absolutely.
[16:27] Yeah, that, that's definitely true.
[16:29] No, yeah, no idea at all. Nothing is ringing right now.
[16:32] Take care. So I maybe you don't get the
[16:35] name of the institute, but let's see if you can get the name of
[16:37] the disease X. OK.
[16:39] There was a an outbreak of X in Bombay and the Indian government
[16:46] or rather the British government which was ruling India at the
[16:49] time, had requested this person to create a vaccine for X, which
[16:55] is how we ended up with a vaccine for the disease.
[17:03] Is it a respiratory disease? Is it?
[17:06] I would not like to call because that's not a clue I would give
[17:09] you because there are multiple presentations for this, but the
[17:12] the way you know it, it's not particularly.
[17:15] OK, cholera is obviously off the table because you already
[17:19] mentioned cholera. Early 20th century, late 19th
[17:23] century Spanish flu comes to mind.
[17:25] No, no, no. Another clue.
[17:29] Yeah, yeah, I'm completely lost. I'm fairly sure you were born by
[17:34] then, but we have also seen an outbreak of this particular
[17:37] disease in India during our lifetime, definitely in my
[17:40] lifetime. In my memory, the few outbreaks
[17:44] I remember, Chikungunya was a big thing when I was in school.
[17:48] You are so much younger than me, so I will now give you my final
[17:53] clue because I don't have any other clues to give after this.
[17:55] I mentioned that the use of this particular disease or the
[17:59] organisms that causes the disease was the first instance
[18:01] of biological crime in India. If you look historically, this
[18:08] disease has also been used for biological warfare much before
[18:12] that. Have you heard of the Siege of
[18:15] Kafa? I have.
[18:18] Oh, you have so then it makes it easier.
[18:20] No, but I don't remember the biological warfare component of
[18:23] it. OK, so the siege of Kafa was
[18:26] when the Mongol forces right laid siege to the Crimean port
[18:32] of Kafa, which was held by Genoese traders.
[18:34] When people in the Mongol army contracted this disease, they
[18:42] put them on trebuchets or catapults and catapulted them
[18:45] into the city so that the people inside Kafa would eventually be
[18:51] affected by this disease. Oh man, trust the Mongols to
[18:55] come up with insane strategies. Yeah, just always reminds me of
[19:00] John Green's Crash Course history.
[19:03] Everything has an exception. It's always the Mongols.
[19:06] The Mongols, yeah. It just came to mean and not
[19:08] because the kafa hint, but I leprosy would be standard guess.
[19:14] Leprosy is a little too slow acting for something like this.
[19:17] I'm thinking of big diseases that have caused epidemics over
[19:21] there. Okay.
[19:23] Or then the plague. I mean, what else apart from the
[19:25] bubonic plague? I can't think.
[19:27] Yes, finally. Yes, yes, it is the bubonic
[19:29] plague. The Black Death.
[19:31] Yes, the Black Death itself. The reason I wasn't, I didn't
[19:34] want to clarify on this thing is because there are two types of
[19:36] plague. We specifically says the
[19:37] pneumonic plague and there's the bubonic plague.
[19:42] So we are talking specifically about the bubonic plague here.
[19:45] OK, so you've got one part of the question, you've got X.
[19:47] Do you have any idea about the Institute?
[19:50] No, no, I have no idea at all. I didn't know there's a
[19:52] institution like that. You probably may not have heard
[19:55] of it, but there is a famous institute called the Hafkin
[19:57] Institute in Mumbai. No, I'm not heard of it, no.
[20:00] OK, yeah, so there is a Hafkin Institute.
[20:02] So let me put it all into perspective because I love this
[20:06] particular piece of trivia. Ready.
[20:08] Voldemar Nikkei Hafkin was a pioneer microbiologist born in
[20:12] Odessa, Ukraine in 1860. He was of Jewish descent and
[20:17] faced significant anti-Semitism in his early life.
[20:20] OK. He studied natural sciences at
[20:22] the University of Odessa, but due to restrictions to Jewish
[20:26] students he moved to Switzerland to continue his education.
[20:30] He later worked in Paris under Louis Pasteur, where he
[20:35] developed a deep interest in bacteriology and vaccines.
[20:39] In the late 19th century, Hafkin was invited to India to address
[20:43] the devastating cholera and plague epidemics.
[20:47] He developed the first effective cholera vaccine in 1892 and the
[20:51] plague vaccine in 1896. His work was ground breaking
[20:57] because these were the first ever vaccines for these diseases
[21:00] and he personally tested them on himself before administering
[21:03] them to others. Oh wow.
[21:05] Hafkin then established the Lake Research Laboratory in Bombay in
[21:11] 1899, which later became the Hafkin Institute.
[21:15] The institute is a major Center for vaccine research and
[21:18] production, and in 1933, a shocking murder repair attempt
[21:23] in Calcutta involved the use of microbes sourced from the Hafkin
[21:28] Institute in Mumbai. The plot was orchestrated by
[21:31] Taranath, then, who sought to murder his brother Amrendra
[21:36] Chandra Pandey by injecting him with the bubonic plague
[21:40] bacteria. Taranath, posing as a
[21:42] researcher, sent multiple requests to Hafkin asking them
[21:46] for life cultures of the bacteria.
[21:49] But he was, you know, he was rebuffed for this.
[21:52] Thank God for that. Oh no, no, you haven't heard the
[21:55] half of it yet. 103rd He travelled to Bombay where he
[21:58] bribed 2 doctors from the Hafkin Institute and they quietly
[22:02] handed over a vial of live plague basilite which Taranath
[22:07] used to infect his brother at Howrah railway station.
[22:13] Oh God, this is true. The victim died shortly after
[22:16] and the crime was eventually uncovered by the police, who
[22:19] traced the source of the bacteria back to the Hafkin
[22:21] Institute. This is recognized as the first
[22:24] documented case of biocrime in India.
[22:28] Coming back to Waldemar Hafkin, he faced a significant disgrace
[22:33] in 19 O2 following what's known as the Mulkovol Disaster, where
[22:37] 19 people died from tetanus after receiving his plague
[22:41] vaccine. The tragedy led to a swift
[22:44] inquiry and Hafkin was blamed and suspended from his position
[22:48] and removed from the Indian Civil Service and was sent back
[22:50] to England in disgrace. Yeah.
[22:52] Further investigations revealed that the contamination likely
[22:55] occurred not in Hafkins lab, but at the inoculation site where an
[23:00] assistant failed to sterilize equipment properly.
[23:03] Despite his official exoneration, the stigma lingered
[23:06] in India and Hafkins reputation never officially recovered.
[23:10] The institute continues to be a leading Center for vaccine
[23:13] research, production and public health initiatives, and it's one
[23:16] of the oldest vaccine manufacturing institutes in the
[23:19] world. I was talking about the bubonic
[23:23] plague. Many of our listeners may be too
[23:25] young to remember this, but there was an outbreak of bubonic
[23:28] plague. There was a plague epidemic in
[23:31] Surat in 1994. OK, no, I don't remember that at
[23:35] all. 1994 is too young for me to remember.
[23:37] And going back to the siege of Kafa.
[23:39] So when the Mongol horde were besieging the besieging the
[23:43] city, some of their soldiers fell I'll with the plague and
[23:47] died from it. And the Mongols apparently
[23:50] catapulted the dead their dead bodies into the city so that the
[23:54] citizens also would be affected with plague.
[23:59] Wow, very interesting. And I really love this trivia.
[24:02] Yeah, it sounds great. And like all of this intrigue
[24:05] and drama and murder straight up happening is is pretty, pretty
[24:09] interesting. I can't.
[24:11] I blame you for finding it fascinating.
[24:13] Yeah. And Mr. Sain, do you realize
[24:16] what he was trying to do? Oh my God, this is going to be
[24:18] horrible. Everybody brace yourself.
[24:20] He was trying to half his kin. Oh my God.
[24:27] Oh, that is, that is painful. That is so painful.
[24:31] We're just starting to do a little.
[24:33] Bit of better on two brothers. One died.
[24:35] Yes, yes, we get it. Oh God.
[24:43] You have outdone yourselves. All our new subscribers are
[24:46] going to literally go unsubscribe.
[24:48] I would not blame you. I had to.
[24:50] I had to do this. OK, so hit me.
[24:52] Perfect secret time yet again, because you were talking about
[24:56] this very, very impressive, but I guess eventually a little
[25:01] disgraced gentleman, Jewish gentleman, and I'm going to talk
[25:04] about a Jewish ceremony or a Jewish blessing.
[25:08] So a blessing performed by the Jewish kohanim.
[25:12] Apologies for mispronunciation, but Jewish kohanims are the
[25:16] Jewish priests. So a blessing performed by a
[25:18] Jewish priest or Jewish kohanim which represents shadai, it's
[25:23] spelled SHA, double Dai. So a blessing performed by a
[25:27] Jewish priest or Jewish kohanim, which represents shadai, or
[25:31] Almighty God, has become permanently etched in pop
[25:36] culture because it inspired something.
[25:41] Vineet. What is this pop culture thing?
[25:45] OK, so a Jewish blessing which is gone into pop culture.
[25:52] Yep. Is this something in Yiddish or
[25:55] Hebrew? It isn't in a.
[25:58] A language is not the way that you would know this.
[26:02] A language isn't why I would know this.
[26:04] That is my vague, vague clue for now, because you asked me is it
[26:10] Yiddish? Is it Hebrew or whatever XYZ
[26:12] language? Yeah, primarily this pop culture
[26:18] iconic thing is not in any language.
[26:24] Is it a piece of music na na na na na na na na na na na that the
[26:30] thing that they played during? What do you call it?
[26:33] The bar mitzvahs and things like that.
[26:35] Very iconic piece of music that a lot of Jewish occasions use.
[26:39] Yes, you're right. You're right as in like it is
[26:42] iconic. But no, not not the answer in
[26:44] this case. OK, cool, then I'll need a clue,
[26:47] my boy. Something a little more specific
[26:50] than that week, whatever it is that you gave me just now.
[26:53] You are going to enjoy this trivia is my not clue, but just
[26:59] I I have a strong feeling you're going to enjoy it.
[27:01] In June 2014, an emoji was introduced to which honoured
[27:07] this pop culture reference. Emojis.
[27:13] I'm a very infrequent user of emojis, so I wouldn't know.
[27:17] Rather than thinking of a specific emoji, because of
[27:19] course there are, like whatever the Unicode standard has, I
[27:23] imagine at least thousands. Yeah, I don't expect to know all
[27:27] of them. Think about what emojis
[27:28] represent, right? Emojis aren't.
[27:30] Emotions. They do have emotions, but they
[27:36] are very rarely. There is a very rarely text in
[27:38] them, right? Most often it is a pictorial
[27:41] representation of something. Yeah, think of what could be a
[27:45] pictorial representation of. OK, broadly, off the top of my
[27:47] head, emojis are very commonly faces, flags.
[27:51] Yeah, maybe objects, buildings, food items.
[27:54] Buildings are gestures. So it is in this category that I
[27:59] need you to think, which is very broad admittedly, but nothing to
[28:02] do with anything. Textual something.
[28:06] I'm just trying to imagine what a blessing would have to do with
[28:08] an emoji. Yes, my next clue.
[28:11] OK, in 1968, the New York Times described this pop culture
[28:20] landmark as a reference to or as vaguely attributed to Churchill.
[28:29] OK, it is a modified version of something associated to
[28:35] Churchill. Wait, wasn't it one of
[28:37] Churchill's letters or letters to Churchill that the word OMG
[28:40] was first used? Again, I think you're thinking
[28:42] of more word based, language based, text based things.
[28:46] It's not that. It's not a Yamaha, right?
[28:49] It's not like a an emoji of a Yamaha.
[28:52] The the the pop culture version of this is has got nothing to do
[28:57] with the Jewish culture apart from the fact that that's where
[29:01] it is inspired from. It has nothing to do with it.
[29:04] This is annoyingly vague. This is so good because when you
[29:08] know the answer, you're going to.
[29:10] Love it. Do you think I know this?
[29:11] I mean like, is it something I know of?
[29:13] Let me make a wild estimate. 93% of our listeners know.
[29:19] You know what? 98% of our listeners know this.
[29:22] 2% is just an error margin. 98% of our listeners know this.
[29:26] They don't know the They might not know the trivia of it or
[29:29] this connection to this Jewish gesture.
[29:32] Let me give you another clue. The person who is primarily
[29:36] associated to this in their 1975 autobiography said that they
[29:43] were inspired by their childhood.
[29:45] And when they went to a synagogue with their grandfather
[29:49] and saw a priest perform the blessing, it stuck with them.
[29:54] Beauty or the power or or the significance of that moment
[29:57] stuck with them. And which is why many years
[30:00] later it became primarily associated to them.
[30:04] OK, I don't know why, but suddenly The Beatles hairstyle
[30:07] came to mind. The those ridiculous bone cuts.
[30:10] No, OK. I kind of did inadvertently give
[30:15] it away, a part of the clue that I was not intending to go away
[30:18] yet, but I said gesture. So we are talking about a
[30:21] gesture specific. Oh wait, it's a peace sign.
[30:23] It's a peace sign. It's a peace sign.
[30:25] The V for no it's not peace and the V for victory sign.
[30:28] The V for victory sign is associated with, I mean, I don't
[30:31] know if it originated with Churchill, but it's very
[30:33] iconically referenced to Churchill.
[30:35] I said this pop culture thing is a modified version of that, is
[30:40] how New York Times described it in a 1968 interview.
[30:44] So it's a gesture for sure. Yes.
[30:47] What gesture? You got you got the Churchill
[30:50] reference. Now think of a modified version
[30:52] of that. OK.
[30:54] Do I reduce one finger? Specifically the four finger?
[30:58] No, no, OK, Because I don't think there is any one person
[31:03] associated to it who would have written an autobiography in
[31:05] 1975. Just.
[31:09] Clarify No. I'm just completely, I, I can't
[31:11] think of any gestures, man. I'm I'm blanking completely.
[31:14] This is one of those questions. It just escapes me completely.
[31:18] I'm so excited. I'm so excited for you to find
[31:20] out what it is. Oh my God, what is this?
[31:24] This is going to hopefully give you the answer.
[31:26] Let me describe it. OK, OK.
[31:29] We were talking about a priestly blessing performed by the Jewish
[31:33] Kohanim. The way that they do it, the
[31:36] Jewish priest, the way they do it is with both hands, and it is
[31:40] supposed to represent the Hebrew letter shin, which has three
[31:45] upward strokes. And that is roughly the position
[31:50] of the hand in the blessing, which shows 3 upward strokes.
[31:55] That's how the gesture is performed.
[31:58] That's how the priests bless in this particular setting.
[32:02] OK. And that almost exact gesture is
[32:06] what this person. I had not mentioned the gender.
[32:09] I'll just say it's a man. This man said in his 1975
[32:13] autobiography that he who is Jewish remembers going to
[32:18] synagogue. His grandfather took him to an
[32:20] Orthodox synagogue and he saw the blessing being formed and
[32:23] was impressed by it. Just two hands.
[32:26] So how three? Dude just just put me out of the
[32:30] misery. I'm I'm completely lost here.
[32:31] I cannot think of anything right now.
[32:33] All right, you don't know who the person is.
[32:36] OK. Leonard Nimoy.
[32:39] Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?
[32:43] Live long and prosper. The Vulcan salute salute is
[32:49] inspired by a Jewish blessing do.
[32:52] You want to hear the worst of this?
[32:53] Please tell me. I read this a long time ago and
[32:56] forgot about it the moment you just said it.
[32:58] It just it just hit me so hard. I read about this a long time
[33:02] ago. There was a documentary about
[33:03] Leonard Leonard Nimoy which was done by his son.
[33:06] I think it's in that or somewhere else but I have read
[33:08] this before. I've heard of this before.
[33:10] The iconic, iconic gesture by the very iconic Leonard Nimoy,
[33:14] who played Spock in Star Trek. For anybody who doesn't know, he
[33:18] wrote an autobiography in 1975. The name of the autobiography is
[33:21] I Am Not Spock. Yeah.
[33:23] In that he spoke about specifically how he came up with
[33:26] this gesture. So the gesture is itself is
[33:29] attributed to Leonard Nimoy and the associated words with it,
[33:33] which you said very correctly. Live long and prosper.
[33:36] That part was obviously written by Theodore Sturgeon.
[33:40] Sturgeon. I guess that's how it's
[33:41] pronounced. Who was the American author who
[33:45] wrote primarily fantasy, science fiction and horror and was also
[33:50] responsible for the original script or the original series
[33:53] scripts? For start, I'm 3798% of the
[33:57] people listening to this podcast have seen it. 2% might not.
[34:00] Yeah. And the 1968 New York Times
[34:04] interview described the gesture as a double fingered version of
[34:07] Churchill's victory sign. The victory sign is obviously
[34:10] off. And that is the Vulcan salute,
[34:12] which is the blessing gesture. In case of the blessing, it is
[34:15] done with both the hands. The Vulcan salute is usually
[34:17] done with one hand. The blessing, the Jewish
[34:19] blessing, is done with both the hands.
[34:21] And Leonard Nimoy, who was Jewish, attributed it to his
[34:24] childhood. Yeah.
[34:28] Now you know. I mean, you already knew, but
[34:31] now you again know. I really hate myself right now.
[34:35] It's all right, Vineet, as Spock would say, live long and
[34:39] prosper, OK? Don't.
[34:40] Don't stress yourself. Spock could also kick ass.
[34:44] I was I love finding out these lovely piece of trivia.
[34:48] OK, let me redeem myself. Go for it.
[34:51] Let. Me put you on the chopping
[34:52] block, moving from pop culture to another pop culture.
[34:55] Hit me. X is the only author who has had
[35:00] a number one best seller book, a number one film of the weekend
[35:04] box office, and ATV show that topped the ratings list in the
[35:08] same year. Let me repeat that.
[35:11] X is the only author who's had a #1 bestseller book, a number one
[35:17] film at the weekend box office and ATV show that topped the
[35:21] ratings list in the same year. In fact, X did it twice, once in
[35:28] 1995 and once in 1996. Who is X?
[35:34] Oh man, OK. And bonus points if you could
[35:37] tell me the name of the books, movie and TV show.
[35:39] I was gonna say Gone with the Wind, the movie and the novel,
[35:43] but that is obviously on 1995 S and no.
[35:48] TV shows at the time was 9080. 5 was a great year for Hollywood
[35:52] cinema, right? 94, I think the year you're
[35:54] looking for was 94. The Forrest Gump year.
[35:58] Forrest Gump Schindler, not Shawshank Redemption.
[36:03] You know what? I'm gonna make a guess this has
[36:05] to be Stephen King. It's not.
[36:08] Oh, 'cause I was thinking Green Mile I think is in the 90s
[36:13] somewhere there. No, it's later.
[36:15] I think it's somewhere in 9899. But not Stephen King book, movie
[36:20] and ATV show. Consecutive years.
[36:25] Actually, I never asked. It is a Hollywood associate
[36:28] trivia. Is this somebody from the US?
[36:30] Basically. Yes, yes.
[36:31] This is, this is, this is the US.
[36:32] This is the US. Because Indian I would struggle
[36:35] a lot more somehow. Yeah, no.
[36:38] And the biggest clue here is the fact that this author had ATV
[36:43] show. That's interesting.
[36:44] How many authors do you know had TV shows?
[36:47] Literally all I could think of was Stephen King.
[36:49] There have been TV shows which are based on Stephen King
[36:51] novels. Yeah.
[36:52] Yeah, adapted from his work, I'm sure.
[36:54] Yeah, there has been that. But this was kind of an original
[36:57] work. It was not based off any of his
[36:59] books, it was based off his own experiences.
[37:04] I know RR Martin. RR Martin was writing stuff.
[37:11] I think he was writing for TV also.
[37:14] I. She has written for TV, but this
[37:17] is not George RR Martin. And George RR Martin movies?
[37:23] Not so much. Movies.
[37:25] I don't, yeah. This author is known for being
[37:29] freakishly tall. I would have to look this up but
[37:32] I believe he was around 6-7. That's the thing with authors,
[37:35] you don't really know too much about that physical appearance.
[37:40] He was probably one of my favorite authors during high
[37:44] school. I devoured his books.
[37:48] You have been a voracious reader for as long as I've known you,
[37:51] so that doesn't help me. Also, you read a lot.
[37:55] I wish you were more like me. Read a little less.
[38:00] I was going to say, this guy the the medical mystery guy, What's
[38:04] his name? Robin Cook.
[38:06] Cook. Yes, Cook.
[38:08] I don't know any of his if he's worked in film.
[38:10] It's not Robin Cook. I got the name just came to me
[38:13] and slipped out. What is this?
[38:14] It's so annoying. If it turns out to be that, I'm
[38:17] going to be so annoyed. The name just popped up and it
[38:20] disappeared. OK, I was going to say Michael
[38:23] Crichton. Very good.
[38:24] It is Michael Crichton. Oh God, I would have been so
[38:28] annoyed. If that I had not recalled it
[38:31] OK. Yes, it is Michael Crichton.
[38:33] Sorry, how do you pronounce it? Crichton.
[38:36] OK. So for all those in our audience
[38:39] who may be too young to know, or who may have not been exposed to
[38:41] him, Michael Crichton is, in my opinion, one of the finest
[38:45] science fiction writers of the latter half of the 20th century.
[38:50] His books were extremely accessible and he has written
[38:54] some hanger books. If you've heard of a little
[38:59] known franchise called Jurassic Park, yeah, he wrote that.
[39:02] Yeah, maybe, maybe a little bit, yeah.
[39:05] The Andromeda Strain timeline, these are all books of his.
[39:10] I love his books. Now, I mentioned that you if you
[39:14] there are bonus points if you can, and this is a little bit of
[39:17] a deep cut. Some of these are a little deep
[39:18] cut, some of them are very easy. So if you can tell me which
[39:21] movie, which TV show and which book in which in 1995 and 1996?
[39:26] Oh, the separate I was going to say Jurassic Park.
[39:28] The novel must have come back into the bestseller list when
[39:30] the movie came out. No Jurassic Park, the novel was
[39:34] late 80s early 90s but it is Jurassic Park related.
[39:40] So The Lost World is I don't know the name of the books too
[39:43] well. The book is The Lost World.
[39:45] It's The Lost World. It was released in 1995.
[39:47] Very good. And so in that case, which would
[39:49] be the movie, do you know? Jurassic Park, right?
[39:52] No. No, Jurassic Park was 9394.
[39:55] Oh, the sequel. The sequel came in 97 or 98 or
[40:01] somewhere around that time. I'm forgetting his famous works.
[40:06] I'm assuming it's some adaptation of his work, only
[40:08] that was a film. Think Gorillaz and lasers.
[40:13] There's no King Kong movie in that.
[40:15] No, no, no, no. So there's there's a movie
[40:17] called Congo, there's a novel and a movie called Congo.
[40:20] There's a novel that he wrote called Congo, and there's a
[40:22] movie on. I know of the novel.
[40:23] I know of the novel and I I think I've heard of the movie,
[40:26] but wow, it was a, it was that popular movie.
[40:29] I didn't know that. Yeah, it was, It was.
[40:31] It was a number one film at the weekend box office.
[40:34] Wow. And 96 Can you tell me the name
[40:37] of the book and the movie? We haven't What is ATV show 95?
[40:42] We'll get to that. OK, 96 no, I generally I know
[40:49] he's a guy who's written Jurassic Park, which is why I
[40:51] thought books and movies made sense.
[40:53] But no, I have no idea what 96 works are attributed to.
[40:57] OK, so I'll tell you the name of the book because it's very
[40:59] unlikely unless you're a deep cut Michael Crichton fan, that
[41:02] you would know the name of the book.
[41:03] So the book is Airframe. OK, no, I haven't heard of it.
[41:06] But the movie you definitely know because it recently had a
[41:09] sequel. It had a sequel that's like
[41:14] every movie ever. I don't know what does the.
[41:17] Sequel starred Glenn Powell, if that helps.
[41:19] Oh, the the tornado one. Yes.
[41:24] What is the original 1 called? What is it called?
[41:27] Tornado. No, no, it's tornado.
[41:29] The movie is about tornadoes. Typhoon, the cyclone, Hurricane,
[41:33] just name it. Twister.
[41:35] It was Twister. Yes.
[41:40] Typhoon. Typhoon.
[41:41] Seriously. OK, so you've gotten those right
[41:44] out of the way. The TV show is the same in 95
[41:46] and 96. Oh yeah.
[41:48] Can you guess the name of the TV show?
[41:49] What genre is it? I'll not give you that right
[41:52] now. I'll give you that as the next
[41:53] clue. The TV show is extremely famous
[41:55] for having launched the career of one of Hollywood royalty,
[41:58] frankly speaking. ER.
[42:01] Very good. So who was the actor?
[42:03] Who's, I was going to say ER because I've been, I've been
[42:05] thinking of ER for a while recently because I've been
[42:07] watching the pit recap and the new season is going to come out.
[42:11] Yeah. The Pit is a spiritual sequel to
[42:13] ER. The actor that you were talking
[42:15] about is George Clooney. The other actor who gained fame
[42:17] was Noah Wiley, who is in who is in ER now.
[42:21] Yeah. OK, so let me just put this all
[42:24] together. Michael Crichton was a famous
[42:25] scientific science fiction author who predominantly wrote
[42:28] science fiction. He did write other things, but
[42:30] he wrote predominantly science fiction.
[42:33] He was, by the way, if you didn't know, he was freakishly
[42:35] tall. He was like 6 foot 76, foot 8,
[42:37] something like that. He was very, very tall.
[42:38] He was a medical student who started writing under a
[42:42] pseudonym when he was in Harvard just so that he could make some
[42:45] extra money. And then he started out writing
[42:48] under his own name. And his first big hit was the
[42:50] Andromeda Straight, which has also been adapted multiple times
[42:53] in TV and television. Another little known work of his
[42:57] that you may or may not have heard of was Westworld.
[43:00] Yes. Yes.
[43:01] So the original, I think 1970s movie of adaptation of Westworld
[43:09] was the first movie I believe to have used computer generated
[43:12] imagery, CGI. And another book of which I've
[43:18] recommended in the past is Fear and they made in a movie
[43:21] starring Dustin Hoffman and Samuel Jackson.
[43:24] Again, something to look at. So those are also my pop culture
[43:27] recommendations. Please go read the entire of
[43:30] bibliography of Michael Crichton.
[43:33] And he passed too soon, frankly. Timeline.
[43:35] Another fantastic novel. Really bad movie though, but
[43:40] really, really interesting now. So this is Michael Crichton.
[43:44] I'm so glad I remembered the name because I would not have
[43:46] been able to sleep peacefully tonight.
[43:49] All right, talking of very impressive people and people who
[43:53] have dabbled in, well, in this case, not science fiction, but
[43:57] what would seem like science fiction even to the people who
[44:01] are alive at the time. Have you heard of a person by
[44:04] the name of Judith Love Cohen? Judith Love Cohen name does seem
[44:10] to ring up in somewhere, but not immediately.
[44:12] OK. Let's please, please don't,
[44:14] don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't.
[44:15] Don't ruin my question by thinking too much, OK?
[44:17] Let me do this question, OK? If you get the answer, save it
[44:21] till the end of the question, OK?
[44:23] Judith Love Cohen was born in 1933, passed away in 2016.
[44:29] She was an American aerospace engineer.
[44:32] She was also an electrical engineer and she worked on some
[44:36] very impressive projects, right? Just just give you a sense of
[44:41] what else she worked on. She worked on the Hubble Space
[44:43] Telescope. She worked on the Apollo space
[44:45] program, the Apollo 13, which is also the movie where there was
[44:49] that malfunction. The reason that that's not so
[44:52] able to come back was because of something some feature that she
[44:56] had worked on that that rescue part of it or something that
[45:00] Judith Love Cohen had worked on. Just an overall very impressive
[45:03] woman was working in rooms where she was probably the only women,
[45:07] very often surrounded by a bunch of men because it was a male
[45:09] dominated industry even back then.
[45:12] Obviously even back then she worked on the Minutemen missile,
[45:17] She worked on tracking and data relay satellite.
[45:20] So there's a bunch of things related to NASA and and some
[45:23] cutting edge technology. Back in the 60s and the 70s.
[45:28] She was the mother of computer scientist and engineer Neil
[45:32] Siegel. So in the early 1950s, Cohen
[45:35] married a fellow engineer by the name of Bernard Siegel, whom she
[45:39] had met while she was a freshman in engineering school at
[45:41] Brooklyn College in Brooklyn, and they had a couple of
[45:44] children. One of them is an engineer
[45:46] scientist by the name of Neil Siegel, who has done some
[45:49] important work in the space as well.
[45:52] She's also the mother of X Vinit already knows the answer, but
[45:56] fine. She's also the mother of X&X,
[46:00] was from Cohen's second marriage.
[46:02] So Cohen had already divorced her first husband, Bernard
[46:05] Segal, and she'd married another man.
[46:07] And X was a child from the second marriage.
[46:10] So Neil Segal has spoken about the birth of X.
[46:13] In a memorial tribute, he mentions that she was
[46:15] troubleshooting problems with schematics on the day she went
[46:19] into labor and called her boss to let him know she had fixed
[46:23] the problem and then went ahead and delivered the child X in
[46:28] question. As you would have already
[46:30] surmised, X is a famous person and X is who you have to guess.
[46:35] And just to kind of put things in, put things into context, X
[46:39] is born in. I already know the answer, you
[46:41] can just stop the question, right?
[46:45] Now I know, I know, I know. Stop showing off OK?
[46:51] X was born on 28th August 1969 and 1969.
[46:56] July is when Apollo 11 happened. So presumably I didn't know if
[46:59] she specifically worked on the Apollo 11 machine, but she was
[47:02] around at that time doing work. So she was potentially in her
[47:06] eighth month of pregnancy when Apollo 11, the iconic moon
[47:10] landing happened. So who is X Vineet Do it?
[47:16] So X would be the suspenders and shorts wearing, guitar playing,
[47:23] rocking out with school children, lead singer of
[47:26] Tenacious D and the Kung Fu Panda himself, Mister Jack
[47:31] Black. Very nice, very well done.
[47:35] You knew this piece of trivia. I'm guessing you're you're read
[47:37] it somewhere. I hit Jack Black the moment you
[47:40] say don't, don't let me ask the question.
[47:42] And I was like, OK, I'll let him ask the question.
[47:44] Oh man. I'm going to put up a picture on
[47:48] a video podcast right now because I just googled Jack
[47:51] Black birth date and his picture popped up and my God, he looks
[47:55] like just an American version of you vineet like especially
[47:58] because he has like a very nice grey beard now going.
[48:01] Oh, he's got a very, very, very big beard, Yeah.
[48:03] Yeah, yeah, a little bit more of a artsy version of you.
[48:10] And I would also recommend people to go online and there is
[48:15] this fantastic bit he does with a toy saxophone.
[48:19] Oh my God, it's so funny. It is so funny.
[48:23] Amazing. It's amazing.
[48:25] He's he's done it on the Jimmy Fallon.
[48:28] Yes, yes, I've seen the Jimmy Fallon.
[48:30] Yeah, so it's just, it's just fantastic.
[48:32] So yeah. So it's Jack Black.
[48:35] You crack that way too quickly. My hint was going to be that
[48:38] this person has been associated to the iconic moon landings with
[48:43] something in 2022. I don't know if you know of it.
[48:48] That I don't. Know OK well this is an
[48:50] additional part of that same trivia in 2022, an American
[48:54] animated coming of age comedy drama film was released which
[48:59] was directed by Richard Linklater, the nominal director
[49:01] of love is films with starred Jack Black and the name of this
[49:05] film was Apollo 10 1/2 a space age childhood.
[49:09] So this was inspired by Linklater's own life.
[49:12] I just love the fact that it had to do with the Apollo 11
[49:16] landings and a child who lives near NASA.
[49:19] And right after the landings happened a month later Jack
[49:23] Black was born and his mother was literally working with the
[49:27] Apollo Apollo missions. So yeah, in some way he's part
[49:32] of the film. He actually plays the adult
[49:34] version of the child. So Stanley is the name of the
[49:37] protagonist of the film. Jack Black plays the adult
[49:39] Stanley. And if I haven't seen it, but
[49:42] that's the that's the movie. Very nice, very nice.
[49:47] So let's move on to the last question of today's episode.
[49:50] Slightly long one, but hopefully you do already probably 90% know
[49:55] this. I'm just asking it on the off
[49:56] chance that you don't. All right.
[49:59] Macassar oil was a popular hair product in the 19th and early
[50:03] 20th centuries. Originally compounded from
[50:05] ingredients like macassar, Ebony oil, coconut oil, and other
[50:09] scented oils, it was primarily used by Western European men to
[50:13] groom and style their hair, and it became especially famous
[50:16] through Rowland's Macassar Oil, a brand created by London Barber
[50:20] Alexander Rowland in 1793. The oil was heavily advertised
[50:25] and widely used for its claimed benefits, including hair
[50:27] thickening, growth stimulation, and even curing baldness, though
[50:31] these claims were often exaggerated.
[50:33] The name macasar came from the port of macasar in the Dutch E
[50:38] Indies, where the original ingredients were thought to be
[50:40] sourced. Macasar oil then soon became a
[50:43] generic term for men's hair oil and the product has seen a
[50:46] recent revival a as a beard oil in modern barbering.
[50:51] One very annoying property of this oil led to the development
[50:55] of something which is quite commonly seen in Indian homes.
[50:58] Most people don't even know the name of the item or that it was
[51:01] named directly as a result of Microsoft oil.
[51:04] What am I talking about? South product in Indian homes
[51:09] that Indians a lot of us are not aware of the name of it.
[51:14] Yes, not just in Indian homes, it's seen around the world, but
[51:18] I've seen especially in Indian homes, especially my mother, my
[51:22] aunts, they all definitely use it.
[51:25] They hate it when I don't use it because I find it very annoying.
[51:31] But then that's just me. But yeah, so you you find this
[51:34] very commonly in Indian homes and most people don't even know
[51:39] that this is called the particular name.
[51:42] And that name came from as a direct result of Microsoft oil.
[51:46] Is this a hair product that is used in in the current context
[51:50] in our homes? Is it used as a hair product?
[51:52] Let's just say it's hair adjacent.
[51:53] Hair adjacent Oh. You're going to love the gloom.
[51:57] Yeah, so well, in this case I already don't know the answer.
[52:00] Let me repeat one part of this question again.
[52:02] One annoying property of this oil led to the development of
[52:06] something which is quite commonly seen in Indian homes.
[52:09] Most people don't know the name of the item or that it was named
[52:12] directly as a result of Macassar oil.
[52:16] If it is so commonly used, how can people don't know the name
[52:18] of the product? Like we call it by something
[52:19] else? Is it shit usually just
[52:22] described? Like I, I did not know the name
[52:25] for this until I heard about this in a podcast a couple of
[52:27] years ago. But it's just described.
[52:30] It's just something you use and people just describe it.
[52:33] They have different names for it.
[52:34] People call it by different names or whatever.
[52:36] It's just there. Hair adjacent.
[52:39] I'm thinking shower, I'm thinking loofah.
[52:42] I mean, I don't know, like all of those things, They we have a
[52:45] name for it. Like that's not like we, no.
[52:47] No. How do I think of something we
[52:48] don't listen So interesting that I'm trying to think of something
[52:50] we don't have a name for, at least a commonly known name for.
[52:54] Like there are multiple names, like your mother might call it
[52:56] something, my mother would call it something else, you might
[52:59] call it something else, but I can see that you don't have it.
[53:04] So far, people listening, I'm in my living room, which means that
[53:07] it is, I'm thinking something Carpet again, We have a word for
[53:10] it. The clue is I can literally see
[53:14] right now that you don't have it.
[53:16] Hotels in living room that I don't have currently.
[53:18] I don't have a carpet, I don't have a throw on the sofa.
[53:22] OK, what could be the annoying property of oil, of this oil?
[53:25] Of this hair oil. Oil.
[53:27] It's greasy. I don't know what it just.
[53:29] Did follow that thought process? Yeah, but I'm wondering what
[53:33] then what uses it in a household.
[53:35] Wow, this is very interesting that we all have it.
[53:37] We don't have a name for it. We all call it by different
[53:40] names potentially. At least not by it's proper
[53:43] name. We don't call it by it's proper
[53:44] name. OK, give me some other.
[53:46] The reason that this thing was developed was because Microsoft
[53:51] oil was very thick and greasy and had this annoying habit of,
[53:54] you know, getting transferred onto other things.
[53:58] So I'm thinking something like basically to protect the surface
[54:02] I'm. OK, now put two of my clothes
[54:05] together. The annoying property was that
[54:07] this was greasy and it could transfer onto other things and I
[54:11] said it was hair adjacent. A washcloth.
[54:14] I don't know what it is like in the living room.
[54:15] There might be, I guess. It is technically a washcloth.
[54:19] It's a It's technically a washcloth, but it's usually more
[54:21] decorative than that, and it has a very specific place in the
[54:24] household. Oh oh so it is like supposed to
[54:29] like protect the headrest or something of the sofa?
[54:33] Yes. So this is the thing that you
[54:36] put on the head on chairs and sofas to protect upholstery from
[54:39] hair stains so that you know, it's a thing that you know, our
[54:42] moms are, we used to put, at least my mom used to do that.
[54:44] Got it, got it, Got it, got it, got it, got it.
[54:47] Yeah, of course, because I've seen him growing up.
[54:49] I don't think I have had it ever, but yes, I've seen him
[54:51] growing up. So for those who are listening,
[54:54] an anti macasar is the kind of washable cloth or decorative
[54:58] lace or whatever you want to call it.
[55:00] It's available in many forms which is placed on the head of
[55:03] chairs and sofas to prevent the upholstery, protect the
[55:07] upholstery from stains that may transfer from your head when you
[55:11] lean back on your sofa or chair. And this all came about because
[55:15] macasar oil was notorious for transferring from hair to
[55:18] furniture and because of that they developed or invented the
[55:22] anti macasar, which would prevent Microsoft oil from
[55:26] transferring. Very imaginative naming.
[55:29] It's called an anti Microsoft. So, but have you ever heard of
[55:33] anybody actually referring it to as an anti?
[55:35] Microsoft you would be a weirdo if you call it an anti like just
[55:39] people would look at you and. Yeah, my mom would be like a
[55:41] sofa American, which literally means that bring that thing that
[55:47] we put up the head of the sofa. Fair enough.
[55:50] Yeah, I think even when I did have it in my house and growing
[55:53] up, I don't think I remember a word for it.
[55:56] So Sofia Capra, Yeah. Exactly.
[55:58] The cloth of the sofa is how that would be referred to as
[56:02] yeah. So listeners of this podcast, if
[56:05] you want to impress. People.
[56:08] No, no, no. Or more likely, be ostracized
[56:10] for being a weirdo. Exactly, just just annoy people
[56:14] by being that person, by being that guy.
[56:16] Yeah, yeah. Which?
[56:18] Is a description of our podcast just that?
[56:20] Oh, here's a cool piece of trivia.
[56:21] I've heard this thing that you don't care about.
[56:26] Then go ahead and tell people about this.
[56:27] I'm going to officially launch the Anti Microsoft Challenge.
[56:30] If any of our listeners can throw out this fact during a
[56:35] first date and then get a return second date, please let us know.
[56:40] You will officially win the Anti Microsoft Challenge.
[56:42] You'll be the first and only ever win of the Anti Microsoft
[56:44] Challenge. Here's how I would do it.
[56:46] OK, listen, I used to like this podcast called Are you Quizzing
[56:50] Me? And I've stopped listening to it
[56:51] because they give me anti Macassar challenge and I have
[56:56] completely given up on that podcast now.
[57:00] That's the way I would bring it up.
[57:01] And that's how your date would be like.
[57:03] Oh, at least he's not a weirdo who who follows weird challenges
[57:07] from podcasts. That's how you win a second
[57:11] date. Just some dating tips.
[57:13] OK, so that is all the time we have for our episode.
[57:19] So before we wind up there is the little matter of the
[57:22] audience question which I asked, which was Luby Lupi.
[57:25] Sorry. Lakpi is A7 side traditional
[57:29] football game played in Manipur which is a notable to
[57:32] similarities to rugby. It is said to have started as a
[57:34] ceremonial reenactment of the celestial snatching of the pot
[57:38] of nectar or amrit after the Samudra Mantan UB Luck.
[57:42] P literally means snatching of X.
[57:44] The X serves as the purpose of the ball.
[57:47] To score a goal, a player has to approach the goal from the front
[57:49] with his oiled X and pass the goal line.
[57:51] The X is then offered to the king or judge who just sit
[57:55] beyond the goal line. What is X Aditya?
[57:58] Do you have any idea? I mean, because you said that
[58:01] the Samudra Mantan, I know, I believe it was an avatar of
[58:06] Vishnu or a former Vishnu which which assumed the Mohini and was
[58:11] it had a, what we call it sort of a vessel.
[58:14] Yes. Something like an urn?
[58:16] I would thought like an urn or something like that.
[58:18] No, no, this is, this is, this is a ball.
[58:20] Shaped item. OK, so something spherical in in
[58:23] shape, yes. Sounds like it is steeped in
[58:27] cultural roots and historical roots.
[58:29] Perhaps I would go with something more naturally
[58:32] available, in which case I would go with perhaps.
[58:38] Come on, you're almost there. Watermelon stuff I think would
[58:41] fit the bill. Something a little harder,
[58:43] something more tough exterior. This particular item has a state
[58:49] named after it in India. Oh.
[58:52] Coconut, very good coconut. And the state and the state is
[58:56] I'm guessing. Jesus Christ, that's myself,
[59:03] Kerala. Yes, it is Kerala.
[59:07] Kerala is coconut. Thank.
[59:09] God. And Kerala means land of
[59:11] coconut, so. Yes, I knew that, but I was
[59:13] like, I don't want to be insensitive.
[59:15] It just doesn't say coconuts to Kerala.
[59:17] Well, I should have pumped you for that.
[59:18] I should really can't hear you. But now anyway, it is coconut.
[59:21] So yes, the traditional game of UB lakti is played with a
[59:25] coconut. Emma Levine, an English writer
[59:28] on little known Asian sports, speculated that perhaps this was
[59:31] the root of modern rugby. Many Manipuris are quite adamant
[59:35] that the the modern world stole the idea from them and made it
[59:37] into rugby. This game, which has been around
[59:39] for centuries, is so similar to rugby, which evolved a great
[59:42] deal later, that it must be more than a coincidence.
[59:47] The sport is played barefoot, where players wear just a pair
[59:50] of shorts and no shirts. Before the match starts, players
[59:53] smear their body with oil to make it slippery when others try
[59:57] to catch them. The coconut used is also soaked
[59:59] in oil before the start. At the start of the match, seven
[1:00:03] players line up on each side of the field.
[1:00:04] A referee tosses a coconut to begin the play.
[1:00:07] Each player individually tries to score goals by carrying the
[1:00:10] coconut, and other players try to tackle the coconut carrier
[1:00:13] and snatch the coconut away. The player that scores the most
[1:00:16] goals in the match receives an award.
[1:00:20] OK. All right.
[1:00:21] OK, so we've prattled on long enough, so let's wind up Aditya.
[1:00:25] What's What are your pop culture recommendations?
[1:00:28] My top pop culture recommendation for today is man
[1:00:31] on the inside. I've recommended it in the past.
[1:00:33] I'm recommending it again because the second season is out
[1:00:36] and I watched it. It's a gentle watch.
[1:00:39] It's an easy watch. It's something you can do almost
[1:00:42] as AI hate to use the word second screen.
[1:00:46] So don't do it as a second screen thing.
[1:00:48] But when you're not in the mood to watch something too intense,
[1:00:50] watchman on the inside. The second season is out now It
[1:00:53] is in case you I haven't heard the previous episode where I
[1:00:56] recommended it. A recap is basically that it is
[1:00:59] Ted Danson who is in the character is always also in his
[1:01:04] 70s. I believe Ted Danson is also in
[1:01:06] his 70s and he goes undercover in season 1 in an old age home
[1:01:10] in season 2 and 2A university and he's trying to investigate
[1:01:14] some crime. So he's basically API in both
[1:01:16] these cases and it's made by Michael Shore.
[1:01:20] Yes, people who are fans of sitcom the would know him as the
[1:01:22] creator of Brooklyn 99 of Good Place.
[1:01:25] I think he was a writer on the office and been associated with
[1:01:29] a bunch of these very popular shows.
[1:01:32] So and you also might remember him as the guy who played
[1:01:36] Dwight's brother in the office. So he also acted in the show and
[1:01:41] otherwise he's been the creative force behind a lot of these
[1:01:43] shows. So Michael Shore is the one
[1:01:45] who's created the show as well. It's very cute.
[1:01:47] Ted Danson, he was great in Good Place, which is also Michael
[1:01:51] Shore, and he clearly loves working with Ted Danson, so he
[1:01:57] brought him back as a lead for the show.
[1:01:59] The second season is out. Go check it out.
[1:02:01] OK, very nice. Coming back to Michael Crichton,
[1:02:03] I would recommend The Andromeda Strain.
[1:02:05] Definitely go read that. It's a fantastic read.
[1:02:08] It still holds up even after around 50 years.
[1:02:11] Then Jurassic Park, obviously the original.
[1:02:13] The book is very different from the movie Lost World, Very, very
[1:02:16] different from the movie Disclosure.
[1:02:19] It's a very it's a very strong drama, thriller, airframe,
[1:02:24] timeline and Congo. And frankly, read anything of
[1:02:28] Michael Crichton's. He was a genius at it.
[1:02:32] OK. And that's all the time we have
[1:02:34] for our regular episode. Thank you all for joining in and
[1:02:38] we hope you enjoyed the show. Please consider subscribing to
[1:02:40] us on YouTube or Spotify or wherever you're listening to us
[1:02:43] this podcast too. I would also recommend that you
[1:02:45] go join our community on subreddit.
[1:02:48] Like I mentioned, every Thursday from now on we will be posting a
[1:02:51] question on Reddit for our listeners to enjoy and try and
[1:02:56] crack. That's all the time we have for
[1:02:58] today's episode. We'll see you next week.
[1:03:01] Bye. it.
[1:03:14] You can cut it out.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.