Editor’s note: We’ve kicked off a brand new thing to delight all of you who adore quizzes. Every Tuesday, we feature three questions from our quiz master Shantanu Sharma—who is a researcher-writer and has a side hustle as a professional quiz guru. He’d love to hear from you—so send your feedback/suggestions or just say ‘hi’ over at sharmashantanu312@gmail.com or @shantorasbox on Twitter.
How this works: Every correct answer is worth 10 points. If a question has multiple parts, each is worth 5 points. You have until Friday 12 pm to send in your answers to talktous@splainer.in or via DMs on Insta or Twitter. The correct answers will be published every Tuesday—as will the monthly leaderboard. The grand prize for the winner at the end of the month: a quarterly subscription for anyone of your choice—including the option of adding three months to your sub. That’s Rs 899 in value—so it’s pretty darn good:) Rule to note: this is all about who sends in the correct answers first.
The answers: to the previous week’s quiz are at the bottom.
One: Abdul Kareem (in the pic below) was the last registered owner of this cultural icon.
It is synonymous with a certain city—and is celebrated for its unique look (see below). Which two—coloured entity—though uncomfortable and noisy at times—has faithfully served its customers for decades?
Two: This is an image of an ancient fort in central India. Its great claim to fame is a 876 AD temple with a fascinating connection to the ancient history of mathematics. Hint: The royal scion from this region is in the news these days—for reasons that have to do with a very different kind of math.
Three: Think laterally and connect these four seemingly unrelated elements below to a long list of ‘sweet’ releases rolled out by a human-shaped robot.
About last week’s quiz…
Here are the answers to the third edition of the splainer quiz:
One: When the main character in the sci-fi novel (cover shown below) comes to Earth from Mars, he brings his language with him. One Martian word in particular has entered the English vocabulary since the novel was first published in 1961. It has now come to mean “deep understanding.” What’s the word, much in news because of a product launch by a tech titan—though he cites a very different source for it?
Answer: Grok. Elon Musk recently unveiled Grok–an artificial intelligence chatbot with a “rebellious streak.” While Musk borrowed the name from ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’, Merriam-Webster dictionary attributes the word ‘grok’ to Robert A. Heinlein's 1961 science fiction novel ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’. In the novel, it meant “to drink," but has since gained a broader meaning: “to take something in so thoroughly that it becomes part of you" or "to understand profoundly and intuitively.”
Two: Following his graduation, Bryan (seen below) worked as a morning show planner, investigative producer, and a broadcast reporter, winning not just awards but also battles against depression and alcohol addiction. But he now has a new and unusual gig following just one person, whose powerful influence is shaking up everything from culture to business and the economy?
Answer: Taylor Swift. Bryan West is joining The Tennessean and USA TODAY Network as a dedicated Taylor Swift reporter. According to Gannett exec Michael Anastasi, “Taylor Swift is a singular cultural force who is shaping our world in arguably unprecedented fashion, chronicling her story, her impact, her influence takes unique expertise and experience and we’re confident Bryan is the right journalist for this moment."
Three: Think laterally and connect the three elements below (no points for IDing an individual). What do they have in common?
- The two men on the top row—starting from the left—are cognitive psychologists who laid the foundation of behavioural economics.
- At the top right is a sports professional who has been a big name in baseball in a variety of roles.
- The bottom pic shows one of the youngest (former) billionaires in the US.
Answer: Michael Lewis or subjects of books by Michael Lewis—who is the bestselling author and financial journalist of a number of books. These include:
‘Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game’ (2003): about the MLB team Oakland Athletics’ sabermetric strategy led by general manager Billy Beane. This was made into the 2011 film Moneyball where Brad Pitt played Billy Beane.
‘The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds’ (2016): which tells the story of friendship and collaboration between two friends Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. Together, they wrote a series of breathtakingly original papers that invented the field of behavioural economics.
‘Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon’ (2023): that documents the rise of former crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried—who was recently convicted of criminal fraud.
And the winners are…
Here are the top five scorers for the third week. Congratulations!
