# Episode 140 - Weavers, Wines & Wounds ft. Rajiv D'Silva

An episode of [Are You Quizzing Me?](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1663104901), 20 May 2026, 1 h 07 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/d7afa960/podcast/play/120217104/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-4-19%2Fc9c8b434-5293-5d25-9c60-066e18d94c99.mp3

Joining us on this episode is our guest quizmaster, Rajiv D'Silva! Do you know why were carpet weavers brought in during the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran, by the Iranian officials? Do you know where does the wine '19 Crimes' come from and why does it have that name? Do you know what discovery was enabled by Alexis St. Martin's near fatal wound and subsequent recovery in 1822? 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] In 2019, the UP Police launched a program where certain service
[0:07] members, certain cops would be rewarded for a specific act.
[0:12] The question to our audience is what policy or what rewards
[0:18] program did the UP Police launch in 2019 and what did the cops
[0:23] have to do if they wanted to be awarded that particular reward?
[0:28] This is the audience question and we will tell you the answer
[0:31] at the end of the episode. Welcome to episode 140 of Are
[0:34] You Quizzing Me? Here's the intro music.
[0:37] Welcome to Are you quizzing me? I am Vineet Nair with my Co host
[0:41] Aditya Kashyap. This is a quizzing trivia
[0:44] podcast show. Join us as we dive deep into
[0:48] history, science, pop culture and so much more.
[0:51] Let's get quizzing. Alright, welcome back to this
[0:56] episode of Are You Quizzing Me? And since I'm the one
[0:59] introducing you to it, you know that there's a guest who's
[1:02] joining us. But before I introduce the
[1:04] guest, a quick shout out to the person who answered the social
[1:10] media audience question of a previous episode, episode 139 on
[1:14] Instagram. The question was a visual
[1:18] question. It was the picture of a family,
[1:21] a father, a mother and a son and a daughter.
[1:25] Question was identify this American inventor and business
[1:28] magnate who named her invention after her children.
[1:34] The person who answered it first was Revolver under score 1966
[1:40] under score. And so this person, I'm not sure
[1:43] what their name is, but cool Instagram handle and they
[1:48] correctly identified it as being the picture of Ruth Handler.
[1:55] Ruth Handler, the inventor of Barbie dolls.
[1:59] She named her invention Barbie doll after her daughter Barbara.
[2:05] And of course, the accompanying male doll, Ken was named after
[2:10] her son Kenneth. So Ruth Handler, along with her
[2:15] husband Elliot Handler, was the creator of Barbie dolls named
[2:21] after her kids. Well done, Revolver under score,
[2:25] 1966 under score. Very, very quick answer.
[2:29] I believe in the matter of seconds the answer was posted.
[2:33] So yeah, pretty impressive. And there are a bunch of other
[2:37] visual questions as well that were answered by quite a few
[2:40] people. So, yeah, thank you so much for
[2:42] participating in this. There will be the smack and the
[2:46] accompanying visual connections with this episode as well.
[2:49] So go check it out if you haven't on Instagram.
[2:53] And now our guest for today, Rajiv Desilva.
[2:58] He leads the Goa based architecture and design firm
[3:02] Studio 1573, is also a self professed bird enthusiast and is
[3:09] very well known in the Goa quizzing circuit as an
[3:14] exceptional quiz master. We first had him on as a guest
[3:18] on this podcast for episode 64 and 65, and he contributed to
[3:24] episode 100 as well. Rajeev, thank you so much for
[3:27] coming back to this podcast. It's been a while.
[3:30] Yeah, I'm glad to be here. How long ago was that?
[3:32] A couple of years possibly. You were you were one of the
[3:35] first guests that we had and I remember Vineet was very
[3:39] excited. Oh, is it OK?
[3:41] And he kept telling me that he looks up to you so much as a
[3:44] quizzer. Well, I don't know about that.
[3:47] Both you and Annie, two people that he just couldn't stop
[3:51] raving about, Annie and you. And he's like, Rajeev has these
[3:54] fun bits of trivia that you would never expect.
[3:56] And then Annie phrases his questions in such interesting
[3:58] ways. And Annie was on the also on the
[4:00] broadcast, I think a couple of weeks later or something like
[4:03] that, right? He was.
[4:04] He was, yeah, Yeah. So we had to bring him on as
[4:07] well because I was like, this was too good an opportunity to
[4:10] miss up on. So thank you for coming back.
[4:12] And you know what? I'm not going to waste any more
[4:15] time. And let's get to the fun part of
[4:16] it. Why don't you start us off,
[4:18] Rajiv, with the question that you have?
[4:20] So having done this a couple of years ago, whatever time back it
[4:23] was, one of the things I've realized is that this format
[4:26] that you do you and we need to do is it's a little different
[4:30] about normal quizzing format. I think it allows you to set
[4:34] different sorts of questions. I think when we are normally
[4:37] setting questions in a quiz, we try to put in all the clues and
[4:40] everything in into that one 3 or 4 lines or something like that.
[4:44] But what I've realized is that in this format you can layer the
[4:47] clues. What you do is that you can ask
[4:51] multiple times and answer multiple times.
[4:53] So I think maybe I'm trying this time to take take advantage of
[4:58] the format a little bit that you and Vineet to do.
[5:01] Amazing. So one of the things about, as
[5:03] you know, Aditya, about setting questions is that there's always
[5:06] this little doubt. Is this funda already well known
[5:09] or do people already know this? Yes, yes.
[5:11] So. There's always a hope that, OK,
[5:14] this is not a known thing and people can work it out.
[5:16] But you know, one, one runs a risk of asking something that
[5:20] everybody already knows anyway. So I'll start off with what is,
[5:22] I think kind of a topical question.
[5:25] Emergency medical technicians, EMTs, particularly in North
[5:30] America who are training, who are being trained how to
[5:34] administer CPR. They are taught to repeat which
[5:38] line, which might be familiar to you from another context.
[5:44] I think I've. Heard of a few things which
[5:48] might fit the bill. Usually it is a pop song so that
[5:52] they can keep the tempo of of whatever you're supposed to.
[5:55] You know the rate at which you're supposed to be doing the
[5:58] compressions. I guess is the right word.
[5:59] Doing the compressions to kick start the heart.
[6:02] And if I'm not wrong it was the Bee Gees staying alive that
[6:07] they're supposed to be doing it too.
[6:10] Is that the tempo? Yeah.
[6:12] So that's a good guess because that is also related to, but
[6:15] that's not right in this case. OK.
[6:17] It is also related to to CPR but that's to keep keep the tempo.
[6:22] Right. Yeah.
[6:22] If if this thing staying alive, then they get the beats per
[6:25] minute or whatever, but this is they keep repeating is a certain
[6:29] line not singing. It's just a line that they have
[6:32] to keep repeating. It's part of their training.
[6:34] OK, but you are right, this is a pop culture quest.
[6:38] Interesting. OK.
[6:39] So this is, I'm assuming they're not trying to gauge whether the
[6:43] the the patient is responding. It's not like it's not one of
[6:46] those technical kind of questions like, oh, can you hear
[6:49] me? Let let.
[6:50] Surprisingly, it is kind of yes. Oh, OK, interesting.
[6:55] So it is in a way to test something to do with the
[6:59] patient. It's it's along those lines.
[7:01] It is also pop culture connect you said, and the tempo part we
[7:05] already eliminated, so it's not that.
[7:09] I'm assuming that it has to do with some sort of like gauging
[7:11] whether the person is conscious or not.
[7:13] Yes. So you're thinking along the
[7:15] right lines. And so I'll give you an
[7:18] additional clue at this stage. Usually when they're being
[7:21] taught CPR, they're performing on a dummy.
[7:24] Yeah, yeah. Does that bring any bells, or
[7:27] does that give you any additional clue as to what it
[7:30] might? Be OK Interesting doing it on a
[7:35] dummy. No, I can't think of anything.
[7:38] Oh. So OK, I'll give you another
[7:40] clue then, please. You know this is a quizzing fund
[7:43] wrapped in a quizzing. Fund up, OK.
[7:44] So the dummy has a name. Yes, yes, yes, I know this.
[7:48] This is some, I want to say some, some Jane Doe, John Doe
[7:54] kind of situation. And I was, I'm having some vague
[7:57] recollection of France being involved, somebody who died in
[7:59] the Sen or something, drowned and died and then they were you.
[8:03] I don't know why my head is going in different directions.
[8:06] But yes, there is a name that is attached to this particular
[8:09] dummy. Yeah, yeah.
[8:10] Go ahead, go ahead. Is it a, is it a French name?
[8:13] Am I right in thinking French? Is there French Connection
[8:15] there? There is a French Connection in
[8:18] the sense the face of the dummy was modelled on the which you
[8:21] rightly referred to. A body was switched out of the
[8:24] send and they they've modelled the face on the face of.
[8:27] That correct? Yeah.
[8:28] Yeah, but they also gave it a name which was not French, so
[8:30] that the standard CPR dummy is actually called Annie.
[8:35] Right, right, right, right, right.
[8:37] OK. Yeah, yeah.
[8:38] So what would the line be there? Oh is it?
[8:41] Oh my God, you have. You have found my biggest
[8:43] weakness that Vineet exploits all the time.
[8:46] My knowledge of English songs is woefully lacking.
[8:51] OK, you need to have a little bit of knowledge of English
[8:54] songs. Yeah, some song lyric with Annie
[8:56] in it. Yes, correct.
[8:58] OK, Well it's the the line that they repeat, they repeat while
[9:01] administering CPR. Is Annie, are you OK?
[9:04] OK is which song is that from? So this is one of Michael
[9:07] Jackson's most famous songs called Smooth Criminal, in which
[9:10] he repeats Annie, are you OK, Annie, are you OK?
[9:12] Are you OK, Annie? Oh my God.
[9:15] You know that that you heard it right.
[9:17] This is exceedingly embarrassing.
[9:19] And you said it's topical. I watched Michael like a week
[9:22] ago. That's.
[9:24] Why? It's topical, Yeah.
[9:25] And I've been listening to the music.
[9:26] It's just and yeah, you're OK. Oh, that's that's so cool.
[9:31] So they repeat that line again and again.
[9:33] So since you watch the movie, you must know, and from Michael
[9:36] Jackson's life a little bit, that he was exceedingly fond of
[9:39] hospitals. He was always in and out of
[9:41] hospitals, either for his own treatment because he liked to at
[9:44] least visit patients there, right?
[9:47] So and apparently on one of his visits, he he stumbled upon ACPR
[9:51] demo and they were saying, Annie, are you OK?
[9:54] So he took that line and he built a whole song around it.
[9:57] Oh. Yes, the CPR, the CPR routine
[10:02] line was was the foundation of his small song Smooth Criminal.
[10:08] Oh, wow. Oh, that's, that's so cool.
[10:11] That's fantastic. I love that.
[10:13] Yeah, I think one of my favorite pieces of trivia has to do with
[10:16] the. We have discussed this in an
[10:18] episode where the Super Bowl half time show where he had some
[10:23] sort of a cue that he had given to the technician that when I
[10:25] put on my shades I wanted to play the music.
[10:27] And he deleted for like took his own.
[10:29] Seat and like 2 minutes of standing there.
[10:31] Yeah, correct. Yeah.
[10:33] And he knew that. He commanded the audience with
[10:35] that. Yeah, yeah.
[10:36] Yeah, that was probably the first half time show that like
[10:40] launched the idea of half time show being the big deal, right?
[10:43] I broke some records and things. So cool, I love that.
[10:48] OK, so now we go go to do 1 of yours, right?
[10:51] Yep, alright, my dad, since we are doing something to do with
[10:56] pop culture, we were stateside. So I'm going to stick to
[10:59] America, do something which is pop culture and which is topical
[11:02] also, I guess. And that's enough of a segue.
[11:06] There is a play called Agamemnon, which was written in
[11:09] 458 BCE, before Common Era. The title character of Agamemnon
[11:15] returns from Troy and he's greeted by his wife.
[11:20] I'm probably going to mispronounce the name, but it
[11:22] spells something close to Clytemnestra.
[11:25] Clytemnestra. Clytemnestra.
[11:30] Yeah, Clytemnestra. Clytemnestra sounded wrong also.
[11:35] OK. Clytemnestra, the wife of
[11:39] Agamemnon, greets him when he comes back from Troy.
[11:43] There ensues in the play a couple of lines which describes
[11:47] something that she has done for him in anticipation of his
[11:51] return, and he is a little worried about the fact that she
[11:55] has made this gesture. He compares it to the fatal
[12:00] conceit that human beings sometimes have of being compared
[12:04] to God's. However, he ends up kowtowing to
[12:08] her demands and that does not end too well for him.
[12:11] Yes, that's a brief description of what happened in that scene.
[12:15] This has given rise to over the years, over the centuries, over
[12:19] the Millennium, rather has given rise to a pop culture staple in
[12:23] our life today, something that happens across the world, but
[12:28] definitely in the US of A. So my question is, what happens
[12:32] in this particular scene? What has Clytemnestra done in
[12:36] anticipation of her husband's return, which till date is
[12:40] practiced in a similar context but without, of course, the
[12:44] tragic consequences? Interesting.
[12:50] OK let me try and figure out. OK, my first instinct is I have
[12:53] no clue what this is, but so he returns from the wall and the
[12:57] wife is waiting and says I have done something for you.
[13:01] And he's kind of taken, taken aback, but he still says, OK,
[13:04] fine. Something like that.
[13:05] Yeah, it ends in tragedy, OK. But that that part is irrelevant
[13:09] because today, in today's context, there's no tragedy
[13:12] attached to it. But in the case of the play,
[13:14] yes, there is a tragic element to it.
[13:17] Well, my first guess is some probably wrong and a little
[13:21] ridiculous, but is it something to do with the with the phrase
[13:25] break a leg before a play? I I think break a leg comes from
[13:31] ballet if I'm not wrong. Something else?
[13:33] Yeah. And it has that context of
[13:35] basically thwarting the evil spirits by saying something
[13:39] unlucky so the unlucky thing doesn't happen.
[13:41] Doesn't happen. There is that idea to it.
[13:43] And then break a leg would be in the context would be said before
[13:47] you commence on a journey or you do something important.
[13:50] In this case, he's returning from Troy.
[13:52] Yeah, yeah. Correct, correct.
[13:54] OK, you, you have to give me another clue others.
[13:56] I can't work this out. All right.
[13:59] The modern version of this, the modern reimagining of this, can
[14:04] be traced back to 1902. So at the turn of the century,
[14:08] 1902, the New York Central Railroad had launched this
[14:14] newfangled thing called 20th Century Limited, right?
[14:18] It was the turn of the 20th century and they had launched
[14:22] this particular service and it was meant to attract the Porsche
[14:26] and the rich people, right? The New York Central Railroad,
[14:30] they kind of gave new life to the same practice that was
[14:36] referenced, that was referenced in the question that was done in
[14:39] Agamemnon the play. So that's my second clue.
[14:44] OK, so this is on a railroad, but they launched something for
[14:49] their customers or their passengers basically?
[14:51] Yeah, they were targeting the bourgeoisie, the rich, and to to
[14:56] give that sort of vibe that, you know, this is something fancy
[15:01] that you are going to be a part of.
[15:03] Let's say they reimagined that same practice from that Greek
[15:06] play. Man, I cannot think what this
[15:09] is. Again, I'll go with the week
[15:13] guests, let's put it. Is it like something like a like
[15:16] a menu card or something? So you know on on their dining
[15:19] cars, a menu card where you can kind of just choose whatever you
[15:23] want. That's a fair guess.
[15:26] That's a fair guess. I think my last clue should help
[15:28] you because the reason you're probably also not able to narrow
[15:31] down the potential answers because I said it is in pop
[15:34] culture. So that's too wide.
[15:36] I'll, I'll narrow it down further for you, and this
[15:38] probably should help you. The the biggest way that it
[15:43] became popular and is in current context used was with the 1922
[15:49] premiere of the film Robin Hood, which starred Douglas Fairbanks,
[15:54] a name that was very popular in that decade in Hollywood at the
[15:59] Egyptian Theatre in LA. So that is probably the most
[16:03] modern context of this practice that is done.
[16:07] So now you can think of something to do with
[16:09] celebrities, films, film premiere that should lead you to
[16:13] the answer. OK, I think I have a reasonable
[16:16] guess. Is it the?
[16:17] Is it the red carpet tradition? Indeed, it is the idea of laying
[16:22] out the red carpet. OK.
[16:25] The red. Carpet.
[16:26] Exactly. So in the Greek play, did she
[16:29] like, do it with her own blood? Is that what it is?
[16:32] No, I don't think there was an her own blood involved in it.
[16:34] There was some red paint or red color dye that shoes.
[16:37] OK, OK, because tragedy. I'll tell you what the context
[16:41] of it. So the lines in the play
[16:43] translated basically are now dearest husband, come step from
[16:48] a chariot, but do not set to earth, my Lord, the conquering
[16:52] foot that trod down Troy. Servants do as you have been
[16:57] bidden. Make haste carpet his way with
[17:00] Crimson tapestries. So the Crimson tapestry red
[17:05] carpet, that was the idea. And it was supposed to be
[17:09] something which honored him almost at the level of a God,
[17:12] right? And Greek plays often have this
[17:15] idea of like if human beings make the mistake of comparing
[17:19] themselves to God, they are faced A tragedy.
[17:21] I think soon thereafter he dies. OK.
[17:24] So initially he's a bit reluctant, she insists.
[17:27] He walks on the on that particular devastry, and then he
[17:30] dies soon thereafter in the play.
[17:33] This is the oldest known mention of the idea of laying out a red
[17:37] carpet in that context to welcome someone.
[17:40] OK, interesting. In 19 O 2, when New York Central
[17:43] Railroad launched the 20th century limited passenger train,
[17:46] they were hoping to invite a very posh crowd.
[17:49] They had a red. So they had a red carpet at the
[17:52] boarding point of the train. Right, right, right.
[17:55] So the rich people of New York would not have to walk on the
[17:58] dusty paths and they would be able to enter with their shoes
[18:02] clean and the Hollywood connection or the celebrity
[18:06] connection like you very easily. Cracked was started with the
[18:09] movie Robin Hood in 1922. Since then and it has become
[18:12] pretty mainstream. I think it was only in the last
[18:16] last 3-4 decades that that phrase became popular of Who are
[18:20] you wearing? Oh, is it OK?
[18:21] And I'm forgetting the name of the person, the first person who
[18:24] who asked that question. Google and see.
[18:26] Yeah, this is for our audience to go Google.
[18:29] But yeah, there's one particular reporter who started asking,
[18:32] started asking who are you wearing?
[18:33] And that became a thing. Yeah.
[18:34] Yeah. Correct.
[18:35] And the reason I said it is topical because the Met Gala
[18:37] just happened. And of course, everybody is
[18:39] talking about what people wore, what the Indian celebrities were
[18:44] wearing. So yeah, that's my question.
[18:46] All right, Rajiv, back to you. So I will do this should be
[18:50] actually a simple question. So let's see, OK.
[18:53] I mean, it's one of those things about phrases that we use all
[18:56] the time and maybe don't give it too much thought right, about
[18:59] where it came from. So I mean, we use the phrase on
[19:02] the dot a lot, you know, on the dot.
[19:06] So that phrase on the dot refers to a dot where Oh man, this is
[19:12] this is. Exactly the kind of question I
[19:14] love. Like it just makes me re
[19:16] evaluate my entire life because I use phrases that ever knowing
[19:19] what the meaning. Yeah, because of the context of
[19:24] it, I assumed it is that that mark which marks out the minute
[19:28] on the clock. That would have been my most
[19:31] obvious guess, that it's right at that minute, right at the
[19:34] second. Well, your obvious, your obvious
[19:37] guess is is obviously very correct.
[19:39] Oh, is it well done Aditya, you got it right on the first guess.
[19:42] Oh, it refers to the dot on that the minute you know, the the
[19:46] minute hand goes and sits on so, so on the dot means you are
[19:50] there exactly on time. So 3:00 on the dot or 315 on the
[19:53] dot means that the the hand will be exactly on the dot.
[19:57] Oh wow. OK, well done.
[19:59] You got. It on first shot.
[20:00] Good. Lucky there, but OK, great,
[20:01] great, fantastic. You know what, you want to ask
[20:04] another question? That was a quick one.
[20:06] You want to go for another question.
[20:07] Why not? OK, so let's do another kind of
[20:09] topical one. I mean, it's not topical because
[20:12] it's current, but it's topical because it's about Iran.
[20:14] And, you know, Iran is so much in the news nowadays.
[20:17] OK, so a little bit of a longish question, so you'll have to
[20:19] listen carefully. All right.
[20:21] So in the months after the 1979 Islamic Revolution that
[20:25] overthrew the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, that
[20:28] we've kind of read about a lot, a student group called the
[20:31] Muslim Student Followers of the Imams Line laid siege. the US
[20:35] Embassy in Tehran, where the CIA, who control the Shah, were
[20:39] headquartered. So basically they wanted to
[20:41] capture the embassy because the CIA was headquartered and the
[20:44] basically the US State Department and all the US people
[20:47] were in there after the Shah had already fallen.
[20:52] So eventually when the embassy was stormed and captured by the
[20:55] students, which also led to the very famous Iran hostage crisis,
[21:00] they found that they were faced with a problem in the sense they
[21:03] had a little bit of a, they wanted to do something and they
[21:06] couldn't do it because of something.
[21:08] And they saw that we're putting to work scores of members of a
[21:11] profession that they happened to have in plenty carpet weavers.
[21:16] So what did the students call carpet weavers to do once they
[21:20] had captured the US Embassy? Oh, interesting.
[21:25] OK. First, when you said that they
[21:27] want to achieve something but were unable to, I thought the
[21:29] obvious guess would be like some sort of translation issue to be
[21:33] able to communicate and to make that whatever demands to the
[21:37] Americans. But carpet weavers, then, has to
[21:41] be something else. This is because I love the film.
[21:46] Argo OK. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure there's
[21:49] references to it. Yeah, there is a scene in that
[21:51] and I don't know if they mentioned the profession of
[21:54] carpet viewers in it, but it kind of makes sense.
[21:57] I'm going to take that guess. I think they wanted to figure
[22:01] out the shedded documents. So what?
[22:03] They're trying to get the carpet viewers to put it back together,
[22:06] the shredded documents, piece it back together somehow.
[22:08] That is exactly right. Well done, Aditya again, Yes.
[22:11] So basically this in the last few hours.
[22:14] I mean, there's a long story, I think that that's been well
[22:17] documented. The CIA wanted to destroy all
[22:19] the documents because outlined exactly what they had done.
[22:23] Right. Of course, yeah.
[22:24] Then the first developed some malfunction so they couldn't
[22:27] burn it. Burning would have been easy so
[22:29] they started shredding everything.
[22:32] Right. And then the carpet weavers with
[22:33] their very limbal fingers were called in to piece together the
[22:37] shreds of documents to, you know, put it together because,
[22:41] you know, they used to deal with that kind of thing.
[22:43] So well done. So you've got two on two on the
[22:45] on first attempt. Now I think we should do one of
[22:47] yours. Fantastic.
[22:49] OK, that was a fun question and I remember it just because of
[22:52] the movie Argo, and that is a fun movie.
[22:54] So hey, pop culture recommendation in the middle of
[22:56] that. So yeah, moving on, let's let's
[22:59] preface this question by just testing the waters.
[23:02] How familiar are you with the American baseball?
[23:05] Baseball. Not very, not very.
[23:08] I might know some basic funders, but I wouldn't know like who's
[23:10] the greatest player? Oh, I mean, I know Mickey Mantle
[23:13] and whoever else a rod and all these people, but not not a lot.
[23:17] All right. But give it to me.
[23:18] Let's see. Fair enough.
[23:20] I The reason I ask is also because very often there is some
[23:23] topic which people are so well versed with that it becomes one
[23:26] of those question, no point even asking because they're going to
[23:28] crack it in a second. No, no, this is not one of those
[23:31] for me. OK, fantastic.
[23:33] I should be curious to find out what your topics are, but let's
[23:35] get to that later. Let's do this question 1st.
[23:37] I'm going to tell you the first name of this baseball player to
[23:42] start off, and maybe later I might give you his last name as
[23:44] a clue. So Lawrence was an American
[23:49] professional baseball catcher and he eventually became a
[23:52] manager and a coach as well. He played nineteen seasons in
[23:56] Major League Baseball. This is in the 40's, the 50s,
[24:00] and a little bit into the 60s as well.
[24:02] And for the most part he was part of New York Yankees.
[24:06] So these names should be familiar.
[24:07] Major League Baseball New York Yankees, most people know of
[24:09] them even if they don't follow right?
[24:11] He was an 18 time All Star, 110 World Series championships as a
[24:15] player, more than any other player in MLB history.
[24:19] So very decorated, very talented baseball player.
[24:22] He was given a nickname by his friend Jack McGuire, who saw a
[24:28] news reel about India. And then he looked at Lawrence
[24:34] and said that you resemble XX being the nickname.
[24:38] You resemble X whenever you are sitting and waiting for your
[24:42] turn to go down to the pitch. So when he's sitting and
[24:45] waiting, he resembles X and that's where Lawrence got the
[24:48] nickname X. Even for people who are not well
[24:52] versed with baseball, you might still know of this because he
[24:56] allegedly, because there was no official confirmation, he
[24:59] allegedly inspired a very famous cartoon character as well.
[25:04] So you just have to tell me what the nickname X was, which also
[25:08] eventually inspired unofficially.
[25:11] There's no official confirmation for this, but unofficially
[25:13] inspired a very famous cartoon character.
[25:18] Well, before you said cartoon character, I had already kind of
[25:21] thought what my guess would be based on what you had said
[25:24] before that of sitting and waiting for his turn.
[25:27] But now I can't think of any character that would be based on
[25:29] that. But I'll still go with my first
[25:31] guess. Was he called the Buddha
[25:33] sitting? Very close, very close.
[25:37] It is in that realm of things of not Buddha obviously, but in
[25:41] that realm of things you're, you're, you're pretty close.
[25:45] OK, so not the Buddha, but somebody who sits and somebody
[25:49] related to India that he who sits calmly and waits like the
[25:53] Buddha. Correct.
[25:54] Well, the only other one is Mahavir or something like that.
[25:59] Who else waits? So don't think of a specific
[26:02] person. Oh, he's not a specific person.
[26:05] Like a Yogi or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[26:08] X is Yogi. You got it that right.
[26:10] Oh, so this is this is this is Yogi Berra.
[26:13] Okay. He was Lawrence Berra.
[26:15] Exactly, exactly. I didn't know that.
[26:18] That's how he got his name. Yogi Berra.
[26:20] Lawrence Peter Berra. He was actually, when he was
[26:24] born, he was named Lorenzo Berra.
[26:26] Lawrence Berra was this decorated baseball player.
[26:31] More World Series championships than anybody else in in the
[26:34] history of the game. So many records to his name.
[26:39] He was told by his friend Jack McGuire that whenever you sit
[26:44] and wait for your turn to go down, you look a little sad for
[26:47] some reason, somber, and you have your arms and legs crossed.
[26:51] So he had just seen a documentary about India.
[26:54] And he was like, you know what? You, you're a Yogi.
[26:56] So that's where he got the name Yogi Berra from.
[26:59] And then when the cartoon character which came out around
[27:03] the same time, people allege and Hannah Barbara have apparently
[27:07] off the record said that it was based off of him, Yogi.
[27:11] But on the record there's no confirmation.
[27:13] So Yogi, because he was a pretty well known, commonly known
[27:18] household, you know, everybody would be familiar with him, kind
[27:21] of name Yogi Bear, Yogi Berra. I think the parallels were just
[27:25] right there. Yeah, yeah, he's obvious.
[27:28] Yeah. Yeah.
[27:28] I didn't think of Yogi Bear. Yeah.
[27:29] He almost sued them because he was like, oh, you know what?
[27:33] You're using my name and for whatever the popularity.
[27:36] Oh, so he wasn't, he wasn't happy with it, is it?
[27:39] I thought he would be kind of flattered or something.
[27:41] He considered swing it. He eventually he didn't do it.
[27:43] He didn't do it. And he has a reputation for
[27:46] being this this flippant kind of guy.
[27:48] So I think, I imagine eventually he didn't really care that much
[27:51] also. But yeah, at some point he had
[27:54] considered swing it, but eventually he decided not to.
[27:56] And Hannah Barbara kept claiming on the record that was a
[27:59] coincidence. Most people agree that probably
[28:01] wasn't. Yeah.
[28:02] The last fun piece of trivia attached to this is that Beras
[28:06] obituary in The Associated Press initially said, and there was a
[28:11] typo, that Yogi Bear had died. So when you you better passed
[28:14] away. In the typo, it said Yogi Bear
[28:18] had passed away. So yeah, that's the Yogi Bear.
[28:21] And in case anybody doesn't know, Yogi Bear is a very famous
[28:25] Hannah Barbara cartoon. It's been around since the late
[28:28] 1950s, sixties. And it was sponsored by
[28:32] Kellogg's, by the way, when it first came out.
[28:35] So it had that association as well.
[28:37] So that's the Yogi Berra, Yogi Bear connection.
[28:40] All right, Rajiv, you're done. OK, this is an interesting one.
[28:43] Also, this is slightly NSFW. All right, let's go.
[28:48] Nothing bleepable. I've kept it family friendly.
[28:52] The words, the ideas will form in your head, I guess.
[28:56] All right. So in 1985, a farmer named Dor.
[29:00] I'm trying to pronounce as best I can a farmer named Doorde
[29:04] Martinovich. Doorde Martinovich.
[29:08] It was indulging in what has been described as an act of self
[29:12] satisfaction. OK.
[29:15] In this field on the outskirts of a small European town called
[29:19] Again, I'm trying to pronounce this European town called Elan
[29:25] Elan. It is J.
[29:27] Sorry, GJILAN. OK, got it.
[29:30] Got it. That's not particularly
[29:32] relevant. It just maybe gives you a clue
[29:34] as to to think where it could be.
[29:36] OK, so basically he owned a field and he was walking in his
[29:41] field and he stuck a stick into the ground and then stuck an
[29:45] empty half liter glass, sparkling water bottle, glass
[29:49] bottle on top of that stick. And then basically he.
[29:53] SAT on it. Oh wow.
[29:54] OK, alright, alright, OK. Bold man, bold man.
[29:58] And he must have been enjoying it.
[30:00] He must have been enjoying it a bit too much because eventually
[30:03] the bottle broke. Oh.
[30:06] Broke under pressure and he was left with a broken glass bottle.
[30:10] Stuck up his rectum basically. Sure, sure, sure if.
[30:14] You're wondering where this is leading.
[30:15] You'll be surprised where it led to anyway.
[30:17] Yeah, I don't. Know where this previously?
[30:21] So he was taken to the nearest hospital, obviously dating
[30:25] profusely. This incident LED eventually to
[30:29] which or what major event of the 20th century this incident led
[30:35] to. Oh God, it did.
[30:40] Actually, this is one of our, you know, this is one of the fun
[30:43] things about being a quiz master and quiz is that occasionally
[30:47] you'll come up, you'll find these kind of facts which are
[30:51] just so mind blowing that wow, like you would never have known
[30:54] otherwise. But this is one of those, I
[30:56] think so man pleasuring himself in his field caused what major
[31:01] event of the 20th century kind of, you know, snowball effect
[31:04] and all that. Sure, sure.
[31:05] No, I because my first guess would have been something like
[31:09] but yeah, this is too late for that.
[31:11] I thought it would be something medical in nature.
[31:14] They discovered something about the human body.
[31:16] But I think 20th century for something that simple to be
[31:19] discovered is a little late. So it's and you said it's
[31:22] something major, so I'm assuming it's geopolitical in nature
[31:25] rather than physiological in nature.
[31:27] That is right. So it is geopolitical, not
[31:29] physiological or scientific or something like that.
[31:32] You didn't specify which country, right?
[31:36] No, I did not. OK, OK, OK.
[31:41] Martinovich. Martinovich.
[31:44] I'm trying to place it ethnically with that name, which
[31:51] it sounds it's either Russian or it's some Soviet country, I
[31:57] imagine just because Soviet comes to mind.
[32:01] Did it in any way lead to can't be the breakup of the Soviet
[32:07] Union? That can't be well.
[32:09] Is it connected to this? Well, you're wrong.
[32:12] OK, OK, OK. But also, you're quite right in
[32:16] a way, OK? It's just that you got the
[32:17] country wrong. Oh, so it is some sort of a wow
[32:22] national level schism we're talking about that this man
[32:25] caused That is some poetic justice is the wrong word.
[32:34] But yeah, some something funny there.
[32:37] OK, no. Let's try this.
[32:40] Some Soviet country. Is it something Yugoslavia?
[32:47] I'm thinking breakup of the country there.
[32:52] Well. You're you're there.
[32:53] So you know, I have to give it to you.
[32:54] That's correct. So it actually this incident led
[32:57] to the breakup of Yugoslavia. I see.
[33:00] OK, That is easy enough to guess with the clues that you gave me.
[33:03] But how does it connect? What?
[33:07] Yeah. So, so this guy Martinovich was,
[33:10] was Serbian. Oh.
[33:11] OK, OK. When he was taken to the
[33:13] hospital, rather than admit that he had done it to himself kind
[33:18] of thing, he was so ashamed of what he had done because
[33:20] obviously he'd been doing it for some time and nobody got him.
[33:23] He said that two Albanians came and threatened him and, you
[33:28] know, shove this up his. Oh my God.
[33:31] Say that whatever and he stuck to his story that Albanians
[33:35] threatened him. You know, there were already
[33:37] historical tensions when Albanians and Serbians.
[33:39] Sure. Yeah, of course, of course,
[33:41] yeah. But when this became huge news,
[33:44] you know, and then everybody started, there was this upswell
[33:47] of anger against the Albanians and then the Albanians also.
[33:51] So it kind of expose all the schisms in the Yugoslavian
[33:54] society. And by the time there was an
[33:57] actual investigation into all this and they found that he was
[34:00] lie and that he had done it to himself and there were no
[34:03] Albanians involved in it gone way out of the Pandora's box had
[34:07] already opened and there was already a thing.
[34:09] And eventually in in six years from 1991, you, you know, the
[34:13] Yugoslavia, whatever Yugoslav federation all fell apart all
[34:17] because of this guy using a bottle.
[34:20] Of course, they were already pre-existing tensions and things
[34:22] like that. But his his thing became like a
[34:24] catalyst or it sparked everyone saying that, you know, how can
[34:28] these two Albanians because Albanians were Muslims, he was
[34:30] whatever Christian, all that kind of thing.
[34:33] Well, so that's that is you have got another answer Aditya, well
[34:36] done. No, no pun intended, but that
[34:39] was the beginning of the end that.
[34:42] Is true. Yeah.
[34:43] Yeah. Oh.
[34:44] My God, that is ridiculous. Oh, that's funny.
[34:48] That's very funny. I think This is why you need
[34:51] comedians in society, just to point out the sheer absurdity.
[34:56] Yeah. Yeah.
[34:57] Like, again, I have, I have no personal dog in the fight.
[35:01] Like Yugoslav breaking up, whatever.
[35:02] That's history. Just the fact that it happened,
[35:05] this was a trigger point. It's just so funny and
[35:07] ridiculous. It's called ridiculous.
[35:09] Also quite a thing that a small thing I don't know what is.
[35:11] What do they call it? No, not butterfly.
[35:12] I can snowball effect I guess is what it's called.
[35:15] Snowball effect. This is a interesting segue
[35:21] because I thought initially that that that had to do something
[35:25] with the body, human body Physiology, and perhaps I was
[35:28] thinking of that because my next question pertains to it.
[35:31] All right, let's try this. Alexis St.
[35:33] Martin was a Canadian Voyager. He was part of the fur trading
[35:39] industry in 1800s somewhere there.
[35:42] So we are placing him somewhere in America and Canada, somewhere
[35:46] in that region as well, right? He had in 1822 a near fatal
[35:53] accident because of a gunshot. What major discovery did this
[35:59] particular incident lead to? 1824 trader was shot, which he
[36:05] didn't die from. He survived, right?
[36:07] It was near fatal for a while after that he it was touch and
[36:12] go. He was presumed that he would
[36:14] probably die because of how brutal the injury was, but he
[36:17] survived. Yes.
[36:18] And your question is what major discovery was made because of
[36:21] this incident? Yeah, and I gave the hint
[36:23] already that I'm talking about something to do with the human
[36:25] Physiology. Some very basic fact of the
[36:28] human body was discovered because of this specific
[36:32] incident. Oh, OK, a basic fact.
[36:34] So it was not a medical breakthrough like some sort of a
[36:38] treatment or something like that.
[36:39] It was something about the human body that was.
[36:41] Right. Yes, you're right.
[36:42] Yeah. So I mean, OK, my first guess is
[36:45] that he kind of lost a lot of blood and then they tried to
[36:49] give him a blood transfusion and then it didn't work.
[36:52] So because of that, they discovered that there are
[36:54] different blood types, something like that.
[36:57] Pretty good guess, but no, this has nothing to do with his,
[37:01] nothing to do with the treatment.
[37:03] He survived. They did whatever the treatment
[37:05] would have been at that point of time.
[37:06] I'm not sure the specifics of it.
[37:08] Vinit is probably the right person to tell you specific but
[37:12] they did something. Whatever was was probably the
[37:15] the recommended treatment. He survived thankfully, but
[37:19] there was let's say a a a a post accident complication or post
[37:24] accident development that happened which led to the
[37:28] discovery. And blood type was a good guess.
[37:30] But no, it has nothing to do with blood type, or blood
[37:33] actually at all. Post treatment complication,
[37:38] well again my guess would be something like PTSD was first
[37:41] documented case of PTSD. No, this is physiological.
[37:45] So not psychological. It's a physiological thing.
[37:47] Yeah, right. What else?
[37:51] Sometime later after after his treatment was done, something
[37:55] happened and people discovered something about the human body
[37:58] because of that. Yeah, All right.
[38:01] There's one specific doctor, actually.
[38:02] There was this man by the name of William Beaumont, William
[38:07] Beaumont, who was an American Army surgeon, and he was placed
[38:10] at a nearby army post, and he's the one who treated him.
[38:15] Even though St. Martin was very young, in his
[38:17] early 20s, most people assume that he'd pass away.
[38:20] Miraculously. He pulled through after a few
[38:22] days of, I think, being in a coma or something like that.
[38:25] There was a complication, however, that had that happened
[38:30] because of his injury. Yeah.
[38:32] And that complication led to the discovery.
[38:35] OK, so now it's a little too vague at this point.
[38:37] Let me help you a little better. So, yeah, the clue that I'll
[38:41] give you is that the near fatal accident was because of a
[38:44] gunshot. And the gunshot was near his
[38:47] torso, was on his torso. So something happened near his,
[38:53] let's be more specific than that, the nearest stomach.
[38:56] So there's something happened in his stomach, some complication
[39:01] happened in the stomach, which led to a very important
[39:03] discovery. OK, something happened in his
[39:08] stomach, so it was short for the stomach or near the stomach and
[39:13] something happened and led to important discovery.
[39:16] Interesting. Interesting, but I can't think
[39:19] of what it could be. OK, and maybe give me another
[39:23] clue if possible. All right, yeah, I'll give you
[39:25] one more clue. I'd said something happened.
[39:27] I'll give you a specific thing that happened.
[39:28] And again, I don't know how deep your medical knowledge and
[39:33] understanding is. Probably not very.
[39:37] There is a fistula that that was created for those of the
[39:40] audience members who don't know the fistula.
[39:42] Fistula is just some sort of aberration which connects a part
[39:45] of the body to another part of the body that is not technically
[39:48] supposed to be connected. So this can happen for a variety
[39:51] of reasons, in this case, a fistula or or man's terms.
[39:55] It was almost as there's an opening from his stomach that
[39:58] was open to the air outside, right?
[40:00] Like it, it was almost that was an exposed part of his stomach.
[40:03] So there's something in the digestion process that William
[40:07] Beaumont was able to perceive, notice and experiment on.
[40:12] I'm just talking about a very simple fact of the human body
[40:14] that he kind of gave conclusive proof for, because he could
[40:18] literally see this man's stomach in action every time food went
[40:23] inside. OK, OK, so it it's probably, I
[40:27] mean I'm thinking it's something that nowadays is assumed and
[40:30] known very well, but in all back in the 1820s was not?
[40:33] Yeah. I would imagine this would be
[40:34] like a fifth grade, 6th grade kind of science knowledge.
[40:38] Yeah. Very, very basic knowledge.
[40:40] Yeah. Well let me go with the basic 1.
[40:42] Is it that you know the stomach uses acid to digest?
[40:46] Exactly, yes. So the idea that gastric juices
[40:50] contain hydrochloric acid, and all of us probably remember some
[40:54] pH 2 is what we I remember being taught that that's the pH of
[40:58] that acid. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[41:00] So that acid, the idea that acid was a part of the gastric
[41:05] juices, the digestive system, had been theorized.
[41:08] Yeah. But in the early 18th centuries,
[41:10] when a surgeon was able to see it in action, it was a little,
[41:14] let's say, inconsiderate towards the patient in question, as a
[41:18] lot of these early medical experiments were.
[41:21] Because it sounds so brutal, because this man would literally
[41:24] dangle pieces of food using a thread into his mouth and then
[41:28] see it in action, oh God, while it entered his stomach.
[41:32] And he would then pull it out and see how much it had been
[41:34] digested and stuff like that. So this poor man who was
[41:37] illiterate, uneducated, was being put through the ringer
[41:40] just for William Beaumont's intellectual curiosity.
[41:44] Yeah, yeah, yeah. As sad as that was, it did lead
[41:46] to important medical breakthroughs.
[41:48] But you were right, it was probably PTSD as well because
[41:51] when he passed away he was trauma.
[41:53] He ran away at some point and he, he was just like, I'm never
[41:56] going back there. When he passed away, his family
[41:58] refused to even bury him because they were worried that people
[42:02] will dig him up and then conduct experiments on his body again.
[42:06] So they waited for his body to decompose.
[42:09] Yeah. Imagine they waited for his body
[42:10] to start decomposing before they buried him because they're like,
[42:14] you know what? Let it become as unusable as
[42:16] possible before we give him his final goodbye.
[42:19] So nobody can, you know, resurrect him, quote, UN quote,
[42:22] because there were people who showed interest in that.
[42:24] So yeah, the idea of acid being in the stomach was from this one
[42:29] specific accident in the the cold of Canada.
[42:34] America in the fur training post somewhere, right?
[42:38] OK, this should be also quite workable.
[42:41] I'll leave out for now a key piece of information in this
[42:45] question and see if you can work it out without that.
[42:49] If you can't, I'll tell you. What it?
[42:52] Is OK. So basically the key piece of
[42:54] information is the country of origin of this.
[42:58] I'm talking about a brand. There's a wine brand which you
[43:01] may have heard of like a like a wine label, which is called 19
[43:05] Crimes. I don't know if you've already.
[43:07] Heard of it? No.
[43:08] No. Not.
[43:09] Heard of it? No.
[43:10] So why is it called 19 crimes? I know there's a not a lot to go
[43:15] on, but the only thing you can go on now is I'm not telling you
[43:18] what country it is from because that would be a big clue. 19
[43:23] crimes and wine, Wine, obviously immediate responses in Italy or
[43:30] France thing, but I'm going to go in a different direction.
[43:34] I'm going to say the US because I'm thinking something to do
[43:37] with prohibition. Was there is it a wine that came
[43:40] up during prohibition crime, something like that?
[43:43] Nice guess it's something like that, but not not the right
[43:46] country. But you're right in thinking
[43:47] outside of Europe. It's a country that's well known
[43:50] for wine. Growing.
[43:52] But not Europe and not the US. OK, OK, so it was not Europe,
[43:56] not US, but well known for crime.
[43:59] Sorry, well known for wine but also crime.
[44:01] Maybe also also a crime possibly.
[44:03] Yeah, I was the other option always is Argentina, but I'm
[44:07] going to go with Australia, OK, Because of the whole history of
[44:11] people criminals being sent there during during the British
[44:14] Empire era. Is it like 19 criminals who came
[44:20] up with this and they were in Australia because of the crimes
[44:25] and that's the connection? Well, you're very close.
[44:27] So I think, I mean, I should give it to you.
[44:29] Very close. It's it is Australia.
[44:31] That's correct. OK, it's not 19 criminals you
[44:33] started, but basically back in the day there were a list of 19
[44:38] crimes that members of the British Commonwealth or
[44:42] something would commit. And if they committed one of
[44:45] those 19 crimes, they would be sent to Australia, which was
[44:48] then a penal colony. Oh.
[44:52] That's so cool. I love that.
[44:55] Yeah, so. Basically the wine label is
[44:56] saying that everybody, I mean at least all the white people in
[44:59] Australia, is there because one of the ancestors committed one
[45:03] of the 19 crimes. Oh, that's fantastic.
[45:08] Yeah, so that's why, that's why it's 19 crimes.
[45:10] I I didn't know that. There was a specific number of
[45:13] crimes that made you eligible to be deported to Australia.
[45:16] OK, Yeah. Yeah.
[45:18] So I mean, obviously it's not that every crime, possibly the
[45:21] most severe ones like murder and rape and like that, those are
[45:25] the people who got carted off to shipped off to Australia.
[45:27] I would imagine. And maybe the pickpockets and
[45:29] the and the white collar crimes were kept back in the UK, Yeah.
[45:35] I truly question the judgement of taking quote, UN quote, the
[45:39] worst of your society. If you're taking the worst
[45:41] society and shipping them off to a whole different land like that
[45:45] is. I don't know.
[45:47] Yeah. Like, what was the thought
[45:49] process at that point? I guess you thought the world
[45:51] was much bigger than now we know it to be.
[45:54] Yeah. Yeah.
[45:55] Australia probably feels like a different planet, I guess.
[45:57] Yeah, yeah. Just setting them away.
[46:01] Oh, I love that so much. I didn't know about this
[46:03] specific number 19. And that makes so much sense.
[46:06] Yeah. What a fun piece of trivia.
[46:08] And perfect segue for me because we'll, we're talking the British
[46:12] Empire. I'm going to talk to you about
[46:14] somebody English. So standard trivia question
[46:17] format. This person is X OK X studied
[46:22] chemistry at Oxford University and then went on to work in
[46:27] industry as a research chemist while working at J Leon and Co
[46:34] which was a British restaurant chain, food manufacturer and a
[46:38] bunch of other industries that they were part of.
[46:41] While working there as a research chemist, X co-authored
[46:46] a paper which talked about the saponification of alpha
[46:52] monostyrin, which is glycerol monostyrate.
[46:56] OK, very technical, not really relevant, but that was the
[46:59] domain of study that X engaged in while working as a research
[47:03] chemist. Question is very simple, who is
[47:06] X? That's it.
[47:09] OK. And you're not giving a timeline
[47:11] the. Paper came out in the year 1951.
[47:14] 1951 and you said saponification of something lesser all so
[47:18] something to do with soap. But the technicalities of it
[47:21] really don't matter. This this paper was eventually
[47:24] published in the Journal of Science of Food and Agriculture,
[47:27] which is decently well known. Science magazine.
[47:32] But yeah, the the technical parts of it don't matter.
[47:36] X is obviously a very famous person.
[47:39] Would not make sense to ask you this question otherwise.
[47:41] Correct. OK, so you're saying he
[47:44] published in 1951? It was a scientific paper, and
[47:49] you're saying the actual content of that scientific paper doesn't
[47:52] really matter? Yeah.
[47:53] Yeah. That's just additional details.
[47:55] My guess is the is this Erdos Paul Erdos?
[48:01] You know, because Paul Erdos is, is the guy who has published the
[48:05] most number of scientific papers and, and all scientists have
[48:08] what is known as Erdos number because it's like the Bacon
[48:11] number. Of scientists, Yeah.
[48:13] How far away are you from from that person?
[48:15] Yeah. Yeah, OK.
[48:16] Not him. No, my my first hint would be X
[48:20] is not really famous for the field of science.
[48:24] No, OK, he's not famous for the field of science 1951 and he
[48:28] worked for in a in a chemist company.
[48:32] Again, the details of that don't matter, but yes, research
[48:35] chemist for J Leon and Co, the British manufacturing food
[48:40] manufacturing restaurant chain. OK.
[48:42] And in, in the, in whatever you've said so far, there's no
[48:45] not much of A clue as to what field he's famous in or is
[48:49] there? I have not mentioned any field
[48:51] no. Well then it could be anyone 51
[48:58] Britain that I'll take the obvious guess.
[49:01] Is this Churchill's post war activities?
[49:05] I think Churchill comes up again.
[49:07] It's one of those people that shows up in trivia so much.
[49:10] Yeah, yeah, I know. But no, not not Churchill.
[49:13] And that that is a clue that I was.
[49:16] That was not part of my listed clues.
[49:17] But I'll just give it to you. This is in their youth so not
[49:21] like a post. Post this.
[49:23] This is before they became famous, before they became
[49:26] famous, 50s before they became famous.
[49:30] Well, could be a musician or something like that, or an
[49:35] actor, director for me, anything actually.
[49:38] Now this is where the clue might help, where excess degree in
[49:42] chemistry, excess scientific background actually played a
[49:45] pretty significant role in the 80s in their work because there
[49:51] was a huge scientific sort of a concern that was growing at that
[49:58] point. And excess scientific background
[50:01] kind of determined the direction that history would shape be
[50:06] shaped in. So that should give you a clue
[50:08] as to what what kind of a field they would be in because
[50:11] because, well, I'm sure musicians shape history, but
[50:14] not. Not like that shape history in
[50:18] the 80s. I mean, it's obviously we're
[50:20] talking about a world leader or something like that.
[50:23] There you go. OK, so it is a world leader 80s.
[50:27] Yeah. Well, now we have to figure out
[50:29] whether this is India or or some other place.
[50:34] You said England, but it could have been Indian studying in
[50:37] England. OK, so AD is England.
[50:40] I mean, there's only one person, it's Thatcher.
[50:43] Something to do with Thatcher? Margaret Thatcher.
[50:45] Margaret Thatcher was. Oh, it's right.
[50:48] Research Chemist. OK.
[50:50] Who wrote a paper in 1951 which had to do with the
[50:54] saponification of whatever Whatever OK.
[50:57] She had studied at Oxford University Chemistry.
[51:00] Nice. Yeah.
[51:01] So the reason that I mentioned that in 80s, when it came down
[51:04] to the ozone layer and people are talking about, you know,
[51:07] climate change and that era, she was one of the biggest
[51:10] proponents of it because she understood the science that was
[51:13] being spoken. Science.
[51:15] Interesting. And like a lot of leaders who
[51:17] probably need it translated for them, she understood the science
[51:20] of it. She apparently also, behind the
[51:22] scenes, played a big role in convincing Reagan also to come
[51:25] on board and the other world leaders to come on board because
[51:28] she was kind of that bridge between the scientific community
[51:30] and and politics because she had foot in both.
[51:34] So yeah, I had no idea Margaret Thatcher was a research chemist.
[51:38] Yeah, this is a surprise to me also.
[51:39] I didn't know. Yeah.
[51:41] And shared a published paper. Yeah, that's amazing.
[51:44] That's an amazing, amazing, amazing fact, yeah.
[51:47] All right. And by the way, you kept saying
[51:50] he, I had deliberately avoided mentioning the gender.
[51:54] I kind of assumed, which is possible or possibly not a great
[51:58] assumption, but yeah, somehow. Always, always the Achilles heel
[52:03] that we fall, that we pray to where we assume the genders.
[52:06] Yeah. That's.
[52:08] True, I've been a prey to this also because we need to pull
[52:11] this on me where he just didn't mention the gender and again,
[52:14] the inherent patriarchy in all of us.
[52:16] We just assume it's a man and then we find out that's true.
[52:19] Women have also done important. Stuff.
[52:21] Yeah, that's true. Yeah.
[52:22] OK. So shall I go with 1 then?
[52:24] Please. OK, here's one.
[52:26] Should be reasonably easy to guess, so figure out.
[52:30] I don't know if you have seen. I had frankly not noticed but
[52:33] once I read read an article about this and then I looked
[52:36] around and there is apparently a lot of stuff going around on
[52:39] this subject. So there is an urban myth, you
[52:42] know, a belief that spread on TikTok, and it's a recent.
[52:47] OK. That a certain practice, common
[52:50] household practice, affects the efficiency of a refrigerator and
[52:55] results in increased energy consumption.
[52:57] You know, there's this myth everywhere and it's become so
[53:00] widespread that last year the German appliances manufacture
[53:05] Bosch, they decided to step in and they actually appointed
[53:09] A-Team from the University of Zaragoza to study this supposed
[53:12] phenomenon properly, scientifically and give the kind
[53:17] of the result at the end of it. And I think after a few months
[53:20] or whatever, they actually came out with their findings and then
[53:23] they they finally published that there was no physical mechanism
[53:28] by which the practice that is being referred to could cause
[53:32] increased energy use. And even if there were, the
[53:35] forces involved would be so weak as to have very little impact.
[53:40] So what is this urban myth? What do many people believe
[53:43] causes fridges to consume more energy?
[53:46] Interesting. And Bosch had to come up it.
[53:49] Has been debunked by by Bosch. Basically, yeah.
[53:53] OK, I'll, I'll try the most obvious guess first.
[53:56] It's the repeated opening and but that seems logical.
[54:00] Of course that would affect the energy consumption.
[54:02] But yeah, does it have anything to do opening the door multiple
[54:05] times or something like that? Or extended periods of opening
[54:08] the door? No that that would be logical,
[54:10] but so that would actually cause energy loss.
[54:13] Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you open the door or leave it
[54:16] open. Yeah, yeah.
[54:17] Then it would actually cause energy loss.
[54:19] So that's a good guess since we're talking about fridges, but
[54:22] that's not what people believe. Exactly, and it has to be
[54:25] debunked. Yeah.
[54:27] OK, well, it's a fridge. So then the next obvious guess
[54:31] which could potentially be of an urban legend would be placing a
[54:35] certain kind of object or a certain food item inside which
[54:38] would quote UN quote leach the energy too much.
[54:41] Like is it like, I don't know the top of my head like milk,
[54:47] right? If you place milk, it sucks up
[54:49] too much energy. OK, that's also not a bad guess.
[54:53] Like saying that OK some food items consume more electricity,
[54:57] but not the correct answer again in this case.
[55:00] Oh, interesting. OK, OK, no, I think I'll need a
[55:05] hint. Do you have any hint for?
[55:07] Me, so I'll give you a hint. It's nothing to do with what you
[55:10] place inside. I figured.
[55:12] I figured that that would be very obvious, so probably not
[55:16] that. OK.
[55:18] And the next guest goes because I know I do this and my mom
[55:22] loves doing it. Is it fridge magnets?
[55:24] That is correct. Well done.
[55:26] I think everybody does it. So this is myth that is this
[55:29] myth that placing fridge magnets, because it's got
[55:32] magnets and there's magnet, they say it weakens.
[55:35] This because the. Door is also magnetic right, So
[55:38] they say that it it it weakens the seal and it does.
[55:42] I don't know all about you know, you just check out this all
[55:45] these videos on on YouTube and TikTok, which you know where
[55:49] people will will explain in great detail as to why the
[55:53] fridge magnet should not be placed on the fridge.
[55:56] So that is the correct answer, but of course debunked by Bosch.
[55:59] So placing fridge magnets on a fridge has no effect on energy
[56:03] consumption or anything to do which itself.
[56:06] Okay, well done, Aditya. Fantastic.
[56:11] Oh, wow. That is, you know, it's one of
[56:13] those things where it, it might make some sense if you,
[56:17] especially if you show me some false, you know, the scientific
[56:21] proof to it, I might bind it also.
[56:23] So yeah, maybe it makes some sense over that.
[56:25] So I can see why people would would fall prey to this urban
[56:28] legend. Yeah, yeah.
[56:29] So from what I see that it it sounds pseudo scientific and I
[56:34] think the main case that these people make is that the fridge
[56:37] magnets have an opposing kind of effect to the other the door
[56:42] magnets. So the door seal is opened up a
[56:44] little and the. Right.
[56:46] And the energy leaks out and things, but obviously it can't
[56:49] happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[56:50] Oh my God, that's so cool. And the idea that fridge magnets
[56:54] would affected me make so much sense that people would believe
[56:58] that. Yeah.
[56:58] Yeah, yeah. Well, fantastic.
[57:01] And on that note of fridge magnet, I think we are at the
[57:04] end of the episode. This is a winner.
[57:07] I like it. I like this was probably the
[57:08] most trivia dense episode we have done, at least in a while.
[57:13] Is it? No, I will tell you what you
[57:15] said at the beginning makes sense right where we are both
[57:17] trying to make sure that the other person doesn't immediately
[57:19] get it. So we come up with very
[57:21] convoluted questions and we go down like random roads and its
[57:26] fine. Its fun because then it takes
[57:28] other person like easily like 5-6 minutes to figure it out on
[57:32] the edit that becomes slightly shorter.
[57:34] But yeah, with the with the new person, it's like, you know
[57:36] what, I'm just going to throw fun trivia out there.
[57:38] If you get it immediately, so be it.
[57:41] Yeah, yeah. So yeah, it's been a trivia
[57:44] dense episode. I love it.
[57:45] And on that note, I'm going to end with the audience question.
[57:48] So Rajeev, tell me, do you know what reward did the UP
[57:53] government offer at 2019 that was offered to the Police
[57:59] Department of the state? So you're asking what reward and
[58:03] you're you're not saying? For what?
[58:06] Rather, what was being rewarded? What was being rewarded?
[58:09] That's a better way to phrase it.
[58:09] What was being rewarded? 2019 Well my my guess would be
[58:15] to have less kids or something like that.
[58:19] Well, that's the usual thing that people have.
[58:21] UPUP needs to control the population and all.
[58:24] That Oh, interesting, interesting.
[58:26] Yeah, I know. I think government, government
[58:28] policies, yeah, and population control, very common, but no
[58:31] this. And I would imagine that would
[58:33] also be like, maybe they'll try to cross the government, all
[58:36] employees. As a specifically to the cops,
[58:38] OK. Cops, yeah.
[58:41] I cannot think and specifically UP well could be because you
[58:47] know, the cops have this reputation of being pot bellied
[58:51] and overweight and stuff like that.
[58:52] So is it a reward for them to stay fit and and exercise?
[58:57] You're very close with the physical appearance angle to
[59:01] things, and again, I think I'm following a falling prey to my
[59:05] This is the thing that I mentioned about the patriarchy
[59:07] thing. I should specify because there
[59:08] are also women who are cops, so this was a reward that was
[59:12] specifically offered only to men that could only be availed by
[59:16] men. Oh.
[59:16] So it was it to be clean shaven or something, not to have a
[59:20] beard? Or moustache I I have to give it
[59:24] to you. I'll have to give it to you
[59:25] because it was actually the very opposite of it.
[59:28] Oh, for keeping a moustache. They were rewarded for sporting
[59:31] a heavy moustache, a very impressive big moustache.
[59:34] OK, interesting. So.
[59:36] The idea of it being authoritative and it being
[59:38] impressive, whatever the logic was, they were giving a monthly
[59:44] reward worth a monthly allowance to people who sported a very
[59:47] impressive mustache, especially if you are a little lower on the
[59:51] rungs of the ladder. That money was important,
[59:54] obviously. So yeah, there there was an
[59:56] incentive from the UP government for the men in the police force
[1:00:00] to grow impressive mustaches, A monetary reward for that.
[1:00:03] Amazing. So UP government offered that
[1:00:05] reward. And the last part of our trivia,
[1:00:11] which is the social media audience question.
[1:00:14] This will be posted on our Instagram and on our Reddit.
[1:00:17] So it is meant for you to go check it out, dear listener, see
[1:00:21] if you can take a crack at it. The first person who gets this
[1:00:25] one right will be given a shout out in the next episode.
[1:00:28] So some bragging rights. I'm not sure who you'll brag
[1:00:32] about this too, but go for it. And the question is, as usual, a
[1:00:37] visual question. In this case, it is a document
[1:00:41] issued by the United States government.
[1:00:44] It's a United States patent document.
[1:00:48] The patent number is 5255452 and the date of the patent is
[1:00:56] October 26th, 1993. There is a visual description of
[1:01:02] what the patent is for. There is also a textual
[1:01:07] description. The name of the person who this
[1:01:10] was awarded to has been blanked out and that is the question.
[1:01:15] Identify who filed this particular patent and who was
[1:01:19] this patent awarded to. Go for it.
[1:01:22] Give it a crack. All right, that is the end of
[1:01:26] the trivia. As always, you wrap up with some
[1:01:28] pop culture recommendations. So, Rajeev, I'll let you go
[1:01:30] first. Do you have any pop culture
[1:01:32] recommendation? Anything you've read, Anything
[1:01:34] you've seen, anything Many music, literally.
[1:01:36] Whatever catches your fancy. Whatever's caught your fancy in
[1:01:39] the recent past. Off the top of my head, the only
[1:01:42] thing enjoyable I've watched. I've watched Michael a couple of
[1:01:44] days back which was enjoyable, but it was a very sanitized
[1:01:48] version of Michael as as as you may have figured it also.
[1:01:51] Agreed. Agreed.
[1:01:52] Agreed. Feel good Michael which
[1:01:55] apparently because it was all produced and directed and
[1:01:58] written by the family, what you could expect.
[1:02:00] So that's not a recommended. But I did watch Devil Wears
[1:02:04] Prada the second part and I was surprised by how enjoyable it
[1:02:07] was actually. OK.
[1:02:08] And also I of course, the first one was 20 years ago, so I don't
[1:02:13] really remember what I felt about it, but I didn't expect to
[1:02:18] enjoy the second part and I did because I think they bridge the
[1:02:21] 20 year gap quite well. OK.
[1:02:23] And they also made it relevant to 2026.
[1:02:26] And it was just a good film in the sense it was fast-paced, it
[1:02:29] was witty, it was it had a reasonable plot, good
[1:02:33] performance. Meryl Streep can't go wrong with
[1:02:35] Meryl Streep. So that would be my pop culture
[1:02:38] recommendation to go and watch while it's still in the theatre
[1:02:40] I guess. Or whatever on OTT.
[1:02:42] I actually I realized because you you are a guest so you don't
[1:02:45] have to do this every week. So even if you have something
[1:02:47] from the past that you love, that you think most people have
[1:02:49] not watched or read and but you think they absolutely must, you
[1:02:52] can recommend that also if you want.
[1:02:53] I mean, there's a lot of music. There's a lot of music that is
[1:02:56] lovely and. Give us, give us, give us some
[1:02:58] music recommendation. You know, I'm pretty eclectic in
[1:03:01] what I listen to, and one of the recent bands that I've listened
[1:03:06] to a lot and which I like a lot is a band called Wet Leg.
[1:03:10] OK, OK. They're very edgy and it sounds
[1:03:13] great and the lyrics are great. And also, I mean, you can't
[1:03:16] describe music. So people should check out Wet
[1:03:18] Leg. I love the name already, so
[1:03:20] yeah, I'm gonna check it out, yeah.
[1:03:21] Yeah, they're British band from actually they're from the Isle
[1:03:24] of Man or one of those Isle of Wight I think.
[1:03:26] I think she they're from Isle of Wight got a very interesting ass
[1:03:29] front woman who writes and performs and things like that
[1:03:32] and very nice lyrics and stuff like that.
[1:03:34] So check it out if that kind of thing floats your boat.
[1:03:38] OK, OK, fantastic. So we have a topical
[1:03:42] recommendation of Devil Wears Prada too.
[1:03:43] And we have a music recommendation of Wet Legs.
[1:03:46] So people go ahead and indulge in that.
[1:03:49] From my side, I'll do something I watched recently.
[1:03:52] I watched 2 films recently. The first one was totally
[1:03:55] killer. Both these films fall into this
[1:03:57] category of justice, farcical horror and and brutality.
[1:04:02] So it's it's comedy, but also it has gore attached to it and not
[1:04:06] too gory in case you're that makes you squeamish.
[1:04:09] So it's not too gory, but a little bit of gore, but on the
[1:04:11] comedy side of things. So yeah, the first one was
[1:04:15] totally killer. It's funny, it's irreverent.
[1:04:18] It's just a movie that somebody recommended to me and I was
[1:04:20] like, let's check it out. Turned out to be quite fun.
[1:04:23] The other one that I think was popular when it came out, I only
[1:04:25] watch it 13 years later and that is this is the end it.
[1:04:30] It's one of those brat pack comedies where like you have you
[1:04:33] have those those very familiar faces of Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill,
[1:04:38] J Barshell. I think that's how it's
[1:04:40] pronounced his name James Franco.
[1:04:42] And it's it's a bunch of these men doing stupid stuff.
[1:04:46] And and it's it's funny because they're also playing fictional
[1:04:49] versions of themselves. Again, a light watch for a day
[1:04:53] where you don't want to watch something too intense.
[1:04:55] These two movies are good options.
[1:04:57] So I watched these recently and these are my pop culture
[1:05:00] recommendations for the week. OK, I shall definitely check
[1:05:03] those out. I've I have.
[1:05:05] I must admit I haven't even heard of those films.
[1:05:06] This is the end I might have remotely heard of.
[1:05:09] But not totally. Totally killer, that's how.
[1:05:13] How old would that movie be? Totally Killer is a recent movie
[1:05:16] 2023 and and it's a ridiculous name for a film like and you
[1:05:22] watch the film and the I don't know, I just didn't understand
[1:05:24] why it was called totally Killer.
[1:05:26] It's it's almost as if like a working title was never changed.
[1:05:29] Like they were using that as a working title and they went
[1:05:32] ahead and used it. Right.
[1:05:34] OK, so it has it has some fun elements of like this whole
[1:05:38] slasher genre of this crazy killer chasing young women
[1:05:42] trying to murder them. But it's also in a, in a 2023
[1:05:46] way, it's empowering also because because they fight back
[1:05:49] and of course, eventually they win.
[1:05:51] So that that's a fun element to it.
[1:05:53] So it's a it's a time pass film. I'm more I'm don't don't expect
[1:05:56] anything grandiose from it, but it's a fun watch.
[1:06:00] No, no, time pass is good, yeah. Exactly.
[1:06:02] Yeah, you need that sometimes in life.
[1:06:03] All right, so that brings us to the end of the episode.
[1:06:06] Thank you so much, Rajiv, for coming back.
[1:06:08] And hopefully we'll see you again and that next time with
[1:06:12] Vineet on board, since I'm sure he's going to be really jealous
[1:06:15] that I got to do this episode without him.
[1:06:17] Yes, thank you. Thank you so much for having me.
[1:06:19] Yeah, as usual, like, like the first time.
[1:06:21] It's been great fun and it's always nice, the banter.
[1:06:24] And I like the the kind of relaxed atmosphere in which you
[1:06:27] and Vinit do this. Unfortunately Vinit couldn't be
[1:06:30] here, but I think we had a reasonably good time without him
[1:06:33] so I have no complaints. I enjoyed it, Yeah.
[1:06:36] So no complaints at all. But hey, Vineet, next time show
[1:06:39] up. Yeah.
[1:06:40] Yeah. All right.
[1:06:41] See you guys next week. Bye.
[1:06:43] Bye. OK, bye, bye.
[1:06:55] Oh no, I forgot to record the smack.
[1:06:59] OK, we'll have to add it in post.

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