odds and ends

Conducted by:

Debasish Bhattacharjee

The word X, comes from Italian meaning “of a cave”.

The word was first used of paintings found on the walls of basements of Roman ruins.

These "caves" were in fact rooms and corridors of the Domus Aurea, the unfinished palace complex started by Nero after the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64, which had got overgrown and buried, until they were broken into again, mostly from above.

Which word meaning bizarre comes from the name given to these paintings?

ANSWER

Grotesque; from the Italian “Le Grotte”

Scene from the movie “Hable con Ella” by Pedro Almodovar.

The lady (in white dress) has a few English dialogues in a movie where she predominantly speaks in Spanish.

Her father spoke English in only five movies.

ID her or her father.

ANSWER

Geraldine Chaplin; Charlie Chaplin

Manuel Benítez Pérez more commonly known as El Cordobés (The Cordovan) was a famous matador of the 1960s who brought to the bullring an unorthodox acrobatic and theatrical style.

He retired in 1971 as the highest paid matador ever at that time.

He began his career though, as an “espontaneo”, a practice allowed in the sport, but despised by fans.

Who or what is “espontaneo”?

ANSWER

A spectator who illegally jumps into the ring and attempts to bullfight for his own glory

The book in the pic was written in 1945, a decade before the co-authors being famous individually.

Written in the form of a mystery novel, the book consists of alternating chapters by each author writing as a different character; one character being named Will Dennison and the other Mike Ryko.

Name the authors.

ANSWER

This is “Allegory of a Painting” by Vermeer (next slide).

The subject is supposed to be X, evidenced by her wearing a laurel wreath, holding a trumpet, possibly carrying a book by Herodotus or Thucydides.

What name connected with the world of advertising has been given to the lady in the painting?

ANSWER

Clio

Betabrand, the US clothing crowd-funding platform is now selling shirts embellished with an on-point, optical-style _____ print based on an emoji.

As the product description explains: “If you are a gentleman – a thoughtful, passionate gentleman – for whom form and function are like lovers inexorably intertwined in a sultry garden of orchids at dusk, then, by all means, we invite you to order this _____-covered shirt.”

The shirt costs about £50 and was successfully crowd-funded before Christmas.

Fill in either blank or explain which emoji we are talking about (blanks are not the same, but synonymous).

ANSWER

The poo emoji (blanks are poo and turd)

Comedian Amy Schumer cheekily poses in a scene suggesting a threesome with two characters highly unlikely to be “turned on” by the alluring sight.

This image is part of a photo-spread for the August issue of the GQ magazine.

ID the characters blanked out.

The two characters blanked out in the previous slide are believed to have been based on the two characters shown in this pic.

ANSWER

Will Brooker, a film and cultural studies expert at Kingston University, would spend a few months at a time experiencing specific moments of X’s 40-year career – from adopting his eating habits and poring through the literature he read, to visiting the same places as the English singer-songwriter.

Brooker – currently living in X’s 1974 Philadelphia soul period and wearing thick blue eye shadow with a shock of orange hair – has already been to Brixton, Bromley and Beckenham, and plans to go to Berlin next month.

ID the persona that he is impersonating (Brook’s costumes in the next slide).

ANSWER

David Bowie

X has given his fans a sneak peek at his desk – and home-based office – on his website, accompanying the visual tour with descriptions of his deliciously quirky objects.

“The bobblehead figurine is Yasuhiro ‘Ryan’ Ogawa, who is the young ace of the Yakult Swallows baseball team that I support. His nickname ‘Ryan’ alludes to Nolan Ryan, because of the way Yasuhiro lifts his leg when he pitches a ball.”

Whose desk?

ANSWER

Haruki Murakami

People have been walking past me in the street doing that face. It makes me a bit self-conscious – ‘What have I got on my face?’ – but it’s been good fun, I’ve quite enjoyed it. I certainly didn’t think about doing it or plan it. It was just genuine amazement…I saw Theo Walcott doing it, I’ve got a Twitter video from LancsUnder-12s all doing it. It’s a bit strange.

Who is talking about what?

ANSWER

Stuart Broad; talking about his expression after Ben Stokes pulled off a blinder to get Adam Voges out

It’s a compilation of four open-ended conversations at the studios of radio station WBAI in New York, produced between July 1966 and January 1967 (they were also published as a book).

The effect is of eavesdropping on two of the most brilliant minds and personalities of the 20th century talking about the ideas, music, people, philosophy, art – and much, much more – that matter to them.

The compilation lasts four hours, 13 minutes and 28 seconds. One of the participants is Morton Feldman. Who is the other?

ANSWER

John Cage

Mussolini had inherited the Italian colony of X from the European “scramble for Africa” that began in the 1890s.

For Mussolini, Asmara the capital city was the nexus in his new Roman Empire – and the administrative centre of his Africa Orientale Italiana. He called the city “La Piccola Roma” – Africa’s little Rome.

One of the most striking photos to have come out of this country in recent times is this “graveyard of used tanks”.

ID this country which still retains a profound Italian architectural influence.

ANSWER

Eritrea

In answer to someone who asked him if he had read Daniel Deronda, he replied, "When I want to read a novel, I write one.“

From his trilogy, the book subtitled Two Nations stands out.

The opening scene captures the eve of Derby day at Crockford's. "I rather like bad wine," says MrMountchesney. "One gets so bored with good wine." Having begun in a London club, the author moves swiftly to explore the two nations of the subtitle.

ID the author who is more famous in a different walk of life.

ANSWER

Benjamin Disraeli; the book being Sybil

Dozens of spoof posters placed figures including Kim Jong-un, Gollum, Saddam Hussein, and the Minions at the conference.

One fake poster features Chinese president Xi Jinping – born 10 years after the meeting. Another carries the image of blind dissident lawyer Chen Guangcheng who fled China in 2012 after escaping from house arrest.

What is all this a response to?

ANSWER

The Cairo Declaration – a big-budget war movie produced by a company with ties to China’s military – hits cinemas this month in China

Mao Zedong is portrayed as having attended the 1943 Cairo conference to discuss postwar Asia. But it was Chiang Kai-shek who had actually represented China.

Which “organization’s” homepage has the following lines at the end?

“Self-driving cars? Flying cars? Self-flying cars? A space elevator? A cure for the AIDS virus? A non-polluting engine that runs on the AIDS virus? Are these things even possible?

Well…at _______, we are in active discussions about the long-term feasibility of these, as well as many other projects”

ANSWER

The week before, he planted a tree. Two days prior to the important day, he got a haircut. The night before, he watched a movie.

What happened on the bus on the all important day that made him step out, thus starting a tradition?

ANSWER

Yuri Gagarin needed to pee; thus starting a “tradition” for every Russian space traveler

U.S. pioneers made objects out of bone in the early 19th century to deal with this menace.

A 1916 medical journal even recommends dousing the affected area in “gasoline, or kerosene and vinegar, equal parts”.

In recent times, researchers have attributed the growth of this menace to widespread use of pyrethroids, a family of insecticides used to kill indoor and outdoor pests, from mosquitoes to bed bugs. The more often insects get exposed to these compounds, the greater the chances some will mutate and develop resistance to the drugs.

Which menace which females are more likely to deal with than males, is being talked about?

ANSWER

Increased lice infestation

The colours depict the male to female ratio of users, with red representing areas where more than 85% of the users are men.

India is the only country which seems to show a trend reversal where women form the majority.

What are we talking about?

ANSWER

Ashley Madison users

From H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, people with X have been portrayed as evil or mysterious.

In the rural villages of Tanzania, those with X are seen not as villains, but are coveted for their bones – local superstitions say that they can bring wealth and riches.

People suffering from X are in constant danger of murder or dismemberment. The situation is so serious that protected villages have had to be constructed for them.

What disorder is X?

ANSWER

Albinism

The British Museum has one such object. On their website, the piece is accompanied by the note that "It is probable that the great majority of examples now existing were made in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as curiosities for the prurient, or as jokes for the tasteless.“

This object is also depicted in a satirical German print from the 1500s (pic in next slide).

What object are we talking about?

ANSWER

Chastity belt

In the pic, the young, mostly naked woman is bidding her husband farewell. As she does so, she hands him a key, to the locked belt around her waist, her only bit of clothing. In the shadows lurks another man with a second key, the man leaving has the donkey-ears of a cuckold and is visually compared to a fool in the corner attempting to keep fleas in a basket, a doomed attempt.

The object was first introduced in the early 1950’s. Its creator, an entrepreneur named Gilmore T. Schjeldahl, actually intended it to store food and liquids for a long period of time.

Schjeldahl envisioned that the thermoplastic lining could be sealed with a hot iron to keep food inside fresh.

Its original use has undergone radical changes as the same industry in which it was first used, discovered a different purpose for it.

What is the modern day avatar of this product?

ANSWER

Vomit bag used in flights

A female only experiences one ovarian cycle per year. During that time, which is usually between March and May, there is a window of about 36 hours when she can become pregnant.

If she does get pregnant, the embryo will develop through a process called embryonic “dispausal” or delayed implantation. This means that the embryo will pause development for the following three to five months to allow the mother to give birth at the optimal time.

Which animal follows this rather complicated breeding process, which might explain its endangered status?

ANSWER

Panda

Elysium has released an offer at a discount price of $9,950 for the first 50 people to sign up for the service.

After that, the special promo is over and the prices start at $11,950.

Another company in the same business, Celestis, has options starting at $12,500. As a “key differentiator” Celestis also offers the service for pets at a more generous $4,995.

What business are these two companies in?

ANSWER

Space burials; where they send a portion of the deceased’s cremated remains into space

I don't care if a thousand people look at me," said Xof oglers she attracted on a walk down King Street. The only unforgivable sin was to mistake her for Y.

"We are as different as a fine race horse and a goat," X said, without specifying which is which.

ID X and Y.

ANSWER

X: Gina Lolobrigida

Y: Sophia Loren

Square pegs were possibly used to tie on the roof beams.

Magnificent cave entrance into the "Princess Tower" is fitted with highly polished masonry. Fine workmanship indicates it was for royalty.

The bath with the "tub" being about a foot deep.

Where do we find these?

ANSWER

Machu Picchu

According to an often-repeated story, the body of the young woman was pulled out of the Seine River at the Quai du Louvre in Paris around the late 1880s.

Since the body showed no signs of violence, suicide was suspected.

A pathologist at the Paris morgue was, according to the story, so taken by her beauty that he had a wax plaster cast death mask made of her face.

She has since been referred to as L‘ Inconnue de la Seine (the unknown woman of the Seine).

How has her death since been responsible for saving numerous lives?

ANSWER

Resusci Anne, also known as Rescue Anne, ResusciAnnie or CPR Annie, is a training mannequin used for teaching cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

The distinctive face of Resusci Anne was based on L'Inconnue de la Seine.

In his biography, X reveals that he had taken to jogging.

On his daily runs he would encounter a hooker on the kerb, who would shout out “50 pounds” at him. “50 cents” he would fire back.

This routine went on for a few days. To add to the fun, his wife decided to join him for a run one day.

Quite expectedly, X approached that run with trepidation and sure enough the hooker stood in wait. Just when he was bracing himself for the “50 pound” approach line, the hooker in a brutally frank statement said “See what you get for 50 cents”.

ID X.

ANSWER

X and Bubbles is a porcelain sculpture by Jeff Koons. It was created in 1988 within the framework of his Banality series.

Who has been blanked out?

ANSWER

Since X is more than 200 years old when he is introduced, it stands to reason that he and Ywere not always friends.

Expanded novels about Y suggest that he met X while working as a pilot on an Imperial slave ship.

After Y refuses orders to flay X, Y and his new pal escape with the help of rebels and the eight-foot-tall X swears a life debt to his saviour.

X and Y sil-vous-plait?

ANSWER

X: Chewbacca

Y: Han Solo

Gary Gilmore, a noted murderer was the first American executed by the state when capital punishment was reinstated in 1976. Norman Mailer’s book “The Executioner’s Song” is based on Gilmore.

According to family lore, his grandmother, who performed in Vaudeville under the name Fay La Foe, had an affair with X around the time of World War I. The affair produced Gilmore's father, Frank. La Foe described X as a "pip-squeak and a cheap tramp" and also claimed to have taught him the tricks that made him famous.

Who was X?

ANSWER

Harry Houdini