A list of puzzling questions: IPL edition
Editor’s note: Every week, 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: Think laterally and connect the following elements (the list is not exhaustive):
a) A celestial body of enormous size and luminosity
b) A film that brought international acclaim to the leading actor
c) By what name does an entire city know this yesteryear actor?
Two: Which unfortunate incident connects the two individuals below?
a) A presenter-commentator who has been associated with the IPL in different roles
b) An all-rounder from a neighbouring nation
Three: What event or development triggered a flood of creative memes (like the ones seen below) on social media. Identify it.
About last week’s quiz…
Here are the answers to the third edition of the splainer quiz:
One: Think laterally and connect the following elements (Note: the list is not exhaustive):
a) A popular social network
b) Winners of an annual event in the US
c) The corner points shown in this diagram
Answer: New York Times Games/Puzzles
The 3 elements are Letterboxed, Spelling Bee and Vertex.
Last year, the New York Times' puzzle and games section experienced an unprecedented surge in engagement, surpassing an astounding 8 billion plays. The newspaper has seen a boost in its online subscriptions since it acquired Wordle, the hugely popular puzzle created by Josh Wardle. Launched in 1942, and still going strong, The Mini Crossword was their first game. Offering nine games in total, NYT’s latest offering is Strands—a Scrabble-meets-word search. Check it out if you haven’t already.
Two: Name this futuristic vehicle—and its connection to the flagship venture of one of the leading tech mavens of the 21st century.
Answer: Falcon
Falcon 9 from SpaceX—the world’s first orbital-class reusable rocket—was named by Elon Musk in honour of the fictional Millennium Falcon from "Star Wars". The Millennium Falcon’s design was derived from various World War II planes, more specifically the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. Here is a list of Space X’s Falcon missions.
Three: Connect the following elements:
a) The founder of a holy grail for film nerds
b) The founders of a streaming service popular among gamers
c) The shooting of a production company’s iconic trademark
Answer: Amazon
The 3 elements are IMDb, Twitch, and MGM Studios, all acquisitions by Amazon.com, Inc.
Colin Needham wrote and published the first version of the IMDb software on October 17, 1990. On April 24, 1998, it became one of Amazon’s first acquisitions. Amazon spent $970 million to buy Twitch, the live-streaming platform in 2014, showing its belief in the future of gaming. You would have seen the MGM Studios “bumper”—the technical term for the little clip, showing the roaring lion before the film begins. Since the $8.5 billion acquisition by Amazon, the byline ‘An Amazon Company’ appears in the logo.
And the winners are…
Here are the top five scorers for the third week of March. Congratulations!
