My Own Quiznet Quizzes: Baker's Dozen

Originally posted on Quiznet in July 2004

1. According to myth, in the 7th century a dragon rose from the waters of the Seine River in France. Unlike the typical dragons, this one breathe water. The monster proceeded to lay waste to the countryside around Paris by drowning it. St. Romain, the Archbishop of Rouen, accompanied only by a condemned prisoner, set out to stop the beast. Upon confronting the monster, the Saint formed a cross with his two index fingers, taming it. The dragon was led back to Paris, where it was slain and burned. The head, however, was saved and mounted on a building. In commemoration of this event, architects began to design gutter spouts in the shape of the dragon, and eventually in the shape of all manner of bizarre creatures. Identify the word that derives from the name of this dragon.
Answer: Gargoyle. The name of the dragon was 'Gargouille'.

2. His first-class career lasted from 1900 to 1907. In all he played 10 matches for MCC - 18 innings, 6 not-outs, 231 runs, highest score 43, average 19.25. He also took one wicket for 50 runs. Identify him.
Answer: Arthur Conan Doyle. His only wicket in first class cricket was W G Grace.

3. This extinct volcanic mountain's Persian name 'Koh-i-Nuh' is 17160 feet high consists of two peaks that are seven miles apart. It stands in Turkish territory overlooking the point where the frontiers of Turkey, Iran and Armenia converge, and is about 25 miles in diameter. On September 7, 1829 Johann Hacob von Parrot, a German in the Russian service, made the first successful ascent. How do we know these mountains better as and what is its claim to fame?
Answer: It is 'Mount Ararat' where Noah's Ark came to rest. The Persian name means Noah's Mountain.

4. What is being referred to?
Director: Antoine Bardou-Jacquet
Voiceover: US author Garrison Keillor
Line: Isn't it nice when things just work?
Background Score: "Rapper's Delight" by Grand Master Flash & the Sugar Hill Gang
Possible Inspirations: Short film titled 'The Way Things Go" by Peter Fischli & David Weiss (or) Engineering of Caractacus Potts' breakfast-making machine in the Sixties film 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'.
Answer: Honda Accord - The Cog Commercial

5. This expression is derived from an ancient Greek expression: "ta syka syka, te:n skaphe:n de skaphe:n onomasein". This is first recorded in the Aristophanes' play 'The Clouds' (423 BC), and was used by Menander and Plutarch, and is still current in modern Greek. In ancient times the phrase was often used pejoratively, to denote a rude person who spoke his mind tactlessly. In the Renaissance, Erasmus confused Plutarch's 'skaphe:n' with the Greek word for 'digging tool', i.e., 'skapheion'. Hence, it was translated into English in 1542 by Nicholas Udall in his translation of Erasmus' version as what?
Answer: To call a spade a spade

6. Born in Austria in 1955, he graduated from Vienna's School of Graphic Arts in 1975 and worked for the Austrian National Bank until 1998. He became famous after certain designs of his, created on a Power Macintosh PC using Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Freehand software were selected ahead of 300 other competitors. Identify him and what did he design?
Answer: Robert Kalina, who designed the Euro Banknotes. One side of each bill depicts open windows and portals, as symbols of access and transparency. The other side depicts composite bridges reflecting various architectural periods viz., E5 - Classical, E10 - Romanesque, E20 - Gothic, E50 - Renaissance, E100 - Baroque & Rococo, E200 - Age of Iron and E500 - Modern.

7. Connect the following poem by the physicist James Clerk Maxwell with John Lennon.
Gin a body meet a body
Flyin' thro the air,
Gin a body hit a body,
Will it fly? And where?
Ilka impact has its measure
Ne'er a' ane hae I
Yet a' the lads they measure me,
Or, at least, they try.
Answer: Poem is a parody of Robert Burns' poem "Comin' Thro The Rye" - J D Salinger's "Catcher In The Rye" - Mark Chapman (John Lennon's assassin)

8. In the latter part of the 1770s, Franz Joseph Müller von Reichenstein was appointed Chief Inspector of all mines, smelters and saltworks in the tiny province of Transylvania. He began experimenting with the ores from his mines. An ore of gold, known as 'Aurum Album', caught his attention when he extracted a different metal from it. He and other chemists working on similar samples assumed it to be Antimony. By 1783, they realised that it was not antimony. What was it later named as?
Answer: Tellurium (Element 52)

9. The 1893 World Fair was held in Chicago to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus' landing in America. The Chicago Fair organizers wanted something that would rival the Eiffel Tower since Gustave Eiffel had built the tower for the Paris World Fair of 1889, which honored the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. Architect Daniel H. Burnham, who was in charge of selecting the project for the Fair, complained at an engineer's banquet in about having found nothing that "met the expectations of the people". Among the audience was George Washington Gale _______ Jr., owner of a firm that tested iron and steel. He had an inspiration and scribbled a design on a napkin during the dinner. What did he come up with?
Answer: Ferris Wheel. The person's surname was Ferris. It was considered an engineering wonder: Two 140-foot steel towers supported the wheel; they were connected by a 45-foot axle. The wheel section had a diameter of 250 feet and a circumference of 825 feet. Two 1000-horsepower reversible engines powered it. 36 wooden cars held up to sixty riders each. The ride cost fifty cents and made $726,805.50 during the World Fair. The original Ferris Wheel was destroyed in 1906.

10. In 1944, Japan realized that the Allied Navy was preparing to claw back the Philippines. Hence, they decided that what their country lacked in military might, it would make up for in fervor. That was how the XXXXX was formed, led by Admiral Takijiro Onishi a ruthless warrior and one of the heroes of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. The first strike came on October 25, 1944, off the Philippine island of Leyte, and included 26 fighter planes. It peaked with the start of the battle of Okinawa in April 1945. Admiral Takijiro Onishi, after seeing all his desperate attempts to ward off his country’s imminent defeat fall through and hearing the Emperor’s decision to capitulate, swam in a pool of blood for a whole 18 hours and died squeezing the hand of a close friend. Identify XXXXX.
Answer: Kamikaze

11. Juno, once saw her husband Zeus, with the nymph Io in the form of a cow and asked to have it as a gift and Zeus consented. She asked Argus who had a hundred eyes in his head, to keep watch on Io. Zeus was troubled at the sufferings of his mistress, and called, Mercury to go and despatch Argus. Mercury assumed the form of a shepherd and strolled on blowing his Syrinx or Pandean Pipes, which were supposed to lull people. As Argus slept, Mercury cut his neck and freed Io. Juno took the 100 eyes of Argus and did what?
Answer: She put them as ornaments on the tail of her peacock.

12. In the 1920s, the US Patent Office would only trademark emblems of manufacturers and merchants. Service companies were not permitted to trademark their emblem. This firm made a case to the US Copyright Office, arguing that its coat of arms was of unique artistic quality. It won and 'Truth Well Told' was copyrighted in 1926, making it the first emblem of a service company to be afforded government protection. Identify the firm.
Answer: McCann-Erickson

13. Connect: Samuel Purchas, Papaver Somniferum, Alph and Svlad Cjelli.
Answer: Kubla Khan by Samuel T Coleridge
Coleridge got the inspiration after reading 'Pilgrimage' by Samuel Purchas.
'Papaver Somniferum' is the biological name of Opium - Opium induced dream state.
Alph is the river by whose side Xanadu was built.
Svlad Cjelli is the real name of Dirk Gently (Douglas Adams' creation). Well, do I have to tell you the funda.

dhanu80@rediffmail.com

My Own Quiznet Quizzes: Greek Mythology

Originally posted on Quiznet in July 2002
Later appeared in the Fundamentals column of the Sunday edition of Asian Age.

1. He was the son of Telamon, one of the Greek heroes at Troy. When Achilles was killed, it was he who risked his life to rescue the body. But when the Greeks were deciding who should be awarded the arms of Achilles and it came down to Odysseus and him, they voted for Odysseus. Identify him.
Answer: Ajax
Ajax planned to attack the Greek army (and Odysseus in particular), but Athena drove him mad so that he killed cattle, thinking that he was killing the Greek leaders. When he came to his senses and realised what he had done and killed himself.

2. There are two versions of her family background. According to Hesiod's 'Theogony', she was one of the most ancient deities; born from the foam surrounding Ouranos' castrated genitals when they fell into the sea. In Homer's 'Iliad' she is depicted as the daughter of the minor goddess Dione. Who is she?
Answer: Aphrodite

3. She was so proud of her skill in weaving that she challenged Athena herself to a contest. The goddess came to her in disguise and competed with her. Angered at the mortal woman's skill she destroyed her work, whereupon she hanged herself. Who?
Answer: Arachne
On her death, the goddess turned her into a spider ('Arachne' in Greek), a creature that spins and hangs eternally.

4. Son of Priam and Hekabe he was also known as Alexandros. It was his arrow that killed Achilles. He himself is killed just before the end of the war by Philoktetes, with the help of Herakles bow. Who is he?
Answer: Paris

5. Son of Tantalos, who served him up to the gods, he escaped being eaten and was put back together, minus a shoulder, which was replaced by an ivory one. He later won the hand of Hippodameia by beating her father, Oinomaos, King of Pisa, in a chariot race. He won by bribing Oinomaos’ charioteer, Myrtilos. Who?
Answer: Pelops
He gave his name to the Peloponnese.

6. Identify: Son of Laertes and Antikleia and husband of Penelope he ruled over Ithaka, a craggy island off the west coast of Greece.
Answer: Odysseus
Some of his epithets are Polytropos, Polymetis, Polytlemon and Polymechanos.

7. Tantalus lived in Asia Minor at a time when gods and men mixed freely and even ate together. Tantalus abused this privilege and served up his son, Pelops, to the gods. They immediately realised what he had done, except one, who was so upset about Persephone that she inadvertently ate a shoulder. Who was she?
Answer: Demeter
Tantalus was punished in the 'Underworld' by being kept eternally just out of reach of food and drink (hence 'To Tantalise').

8. In Hesiod's genealogical classification system, she is the child of Echidna and Typhoeus. She is best known as the riddle-loving monster that terrorised Thebes until Oedipus came along and answered her question correctly. Who is she?
Answer: The Sphinx

9. Apollo was passionately fond of this youth who accompanied him in his sports, carried the nets when he went fishing and led the dogs when he went to hunt. One day they played a game of quoits together, and Apollo, heaved the discus. He watched it as it flew, and ran forward to seize it, when the quoit bounded from the earth and struck him in the forehead and he thus died. How did Apollo immortalize him?
Answer: The person was Hyacinthus. Apollo changed him into a flower.

10. They were monsters with the body of a lion, the head and wings of an eagle, and back covered with feathers. They found gold in the mountains and built their nests of it, for which reason their nests were very tempting to the hunters. Name them.
Answer: Griffins

dhanu80@rediffmail.com

My Own Quiznet Quizzes: Metallica

Originally posted on Quiznet in July, 2003

1. All of us know that Lars stole Ron Quintana's suggested name for the Metal Magazine, which Ron was starting and thus arriving at a name for the band. Tell me, what did the magazine end up being called?
Answer: Metal Mania

2. Since their heydays, this song written by Ennio Morricone (for a movie) has been used by the band as an intro to their shows. Identify the song and the movie.
Answer: 'Ecstasy of Gold' from the Clint Eastwood movie 'The Good, The Bad And The Ugly'

3. Dave Mustaine with Lars and James wrote a song that was initially titled 'Mechanix'. The original version was included on the first Megadeth album. The song was later modified, given a new name and included in the album "Kill 'em All". Identify the song.
Answer: The Four Horsemen

4. In 1989, Metallica won a Grammy for 'One'. The first person they thanked was Jethro Tull. Why?
Answer: The first Grammy for 'Best Metal Performance' was awarded in 1988 to Jethro Tull, who by no means qualified as a Heavy Metal artist. Hence, Metallica thanked them for not releasing a 'Heavy Metal' album that year.

5. The movie clips in the 'One' video is from a 1971 movie directed by Dalton Trumbo, based on his own book. The movie is about a soldier whose arms and legs are blown away by a grenade during World War I. Identify the movie.
Answer: Johnny Got His Gun

6. On August 8, 1992, the band was opening for Guns n Roses at Montreal's Olympic Stadium when their pyrotechnics went bad. James didn't know where he was supposed to be on the stage and wound up walking into a wall of flames. He suffered serious burns and one of the band’s roadies played the Rhythm Guitar. Who?
Answer: John Marshall

7. This song was inspired by a 1976 Al Pacino film about a lawyer sick of an unjust system where innocents are killed or convicted and murderers and rapists are allowed to go scot-free. Identify it.
Answer: And Justice For All

8. Kirk saw a photo while going through a collection of an artist's work at a bookstore. Later used on the cover of 'Load', it was done by mixing bovine blood and the artist's own semen between two sheets of glass. Identify the photo and the artist.
Answer: "Blood and Semen III" by Andres Serrano

9. Vintery, mintery, cutery, corn,
Apple seed and apple thorn;
Wire, briar, limber lock,
Three geese in a flock.
Connect the above mentioned song to Metallica.
Answer: The next lines of the song are -
One flew east,
And one flew west,
And one flew over the cuckoo's nest.
This is the song from where Ken Kesey took the name for his book, later made into a film by Milos Forman starring Jack Nicholson in the lead, which won the top 4 Oscar Awards in 1975. The film in turn was the inspiration for the song 'Welcome Home (Sanitarium)' from their album 'Master of Puppets'.

dhanu80@rediffmail.com

My Own Quiznet Quizzes: Etymology Quiz

Originally posted on Quiznet in June 2002

1. To understand this word, one has to go back to the days when movies were shown continuously in theaters and the audience was allowed to sit through multiple showings of the same movie – the start times were published, and if you came in late you simply sat through the next showing until you came to the point "where you came in". The coming attractions reel would be spliced onto the end of the last reel of the movie. What word is derived from the above-mentioned practice?
Answer: The word is 'Trailer'. For a person who arrived on time or a little early, the coming attractions would seem to appear before the feature, even though technically it was at the end.

2. As founder of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, Anthony _______ earned the dubious distinction of overseeing the destruction of 160 tons of literature and photos he deemed immoral. What word owes its origins to him?
Answer: The word is 'Comstockery', which means 'self-righteous or moralizing censorship' a la Navalkar. The person's surname was Comstock and he held special contempt for a G B Shaw play. Shaw returned the favor by writing a letter to the New York Times, which read in part: "Comstockery is the world's standing Joke at the expense of the United States. It confirms the deep-seated conviction of the Old World that America is a provincial place, a second rate country-town civilization after all."

3. Complete this Ariel’s song from 'The Tempest':
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made:
Those pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a ___-______
Into something rich and strange.
Answer: Sea Change

4. Richard Sheridan created this female character in his play 'The Rivals', which gave its name to a word in the English language. What was her name or the word?
Answer: Mrs. Malaprop, which was the origin of the term 'Malapropism'.

5. Guido d'Arezzo, an 11th century musician, devised a system of musical notation that was a precursor to our modern system of notes and staffs. His system had a six-note scale, represented on a higher and lower staff. This word is a contraction of the words for the lower staff and the lowest note. At some point, French musicians began referring to the whole scale (by then an octave) by this word. The term was then extended to refer to the musical range of an instrument or voice. By the 17th century, it was further generalized to mean an entire range of any kind.
Answer: The lower staff was known as 'Gamma' and the lowest note was 'Ut'. Thus, the word 'Gamut'.

6. In 1925, a person named Robert Link coined this term for the braided leather lanyards that every young Boy Scout was expected to make. It wasn’t the most useful skill for those youngsters to learn, but at least it kept them busy. During the 1930s, critics of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal scornfully applied this term to costly government projects, which, they argued, were a waste of time and money.
Answer: The word was 'Boondoggle', which means 'wasteful expenditure'.

7. Retired physician and self-appointed literary critic, he took it upon himself to tidy up the works of Shakespeare by removing those lines, "which cannot with propriety be read in a family." In his 1818 volume, 'The Family Shakespeare', he severely cut some speeches, omitted certain bawdy characters entirely and in the case of expletives, included the word 'God'. Name this person and the word.
Answer: The person was Thomas Bowlder and the word is 'Bowdlerize'. It means to remove or modify parts to which one has objections.

8. This ancient Greek Goddess, who was the daughter of Aeolus, God of the Wind, married a mortal. But when her husband was killed at sea, she too threw herself into the depths and drowned. Along with her husband, she was magically transformed into the birds. The gods took pity on the pair, declaring that during the week before and after the winter solstice, the seas would remain perfectly calm, so that the devoted pair to nest upon the waters and hatch their eggs. This is the origin of which word?
Answer: 'Halcyon' meaning 'calm and tranquil'. The Greek Goddess was Alcyone.

dhanu80@rediffmail.com

My Own Quiznet Quizzes: Band Name Origins

Originally posted on Quiznet in December 2002

1. (Starting off with a SITTER) John Entwistle once said: "XXX is a good name, isn't it? I made it up. Everybody says Keith Moon made it up, but he didn't. About four years ago I was really getting fed up with The Who.... And I was talking with a fellow who is the production manager for XXX now. I was talking to him down in a club in New York. And I said, 'Yeah, I'm thinking of leaving the group and forming my own group. I'm going to call the group XXX. And I'm going to have an LP cover with the Hindenburg going down in flames, and, you know, this whole business.' And two months later he was working for YYY and, they were looking for a name, and so he suggested XXX, and YYY liked it, and they came out with the same LP cover that I'd planned." Identify XXX.
Answer: Led Zeppelin
YYY was Jimmy Page. Another story is that Entwistle joked that the band would go down like a Lead Balloon.

2. Which band got its name from what the UFO's were called by the British and US fighter pilots during WWII?
Answer: Foo Fighters

3. They were originally called 'Earth', but there was a more popular band by the same name. They were on their way to practice, when they looked over at the local movie theatre and saw a movie called '_____ _______', directed by Boris Karloff. The members found it interesting that people would pay to get scared by a movie.
Answer: Black Sabbath

4. The band saw a poster advertise in the lead singer's room about the Inspiral Carpets playing at a club called '_____'. The band also learned that the Beatles had once played there. Hence, they chose that name.
Answer: Oasis

5. This band was named after the annoying gym coach of some band members, who enforced the 'Draconian' short hair policy at Robert Lee High School in Florida.
Answer: Lynyrd Skynyrd. The coach's name was Leonard Skinner. Alan Collins and Gary Rossington were often the target of his wrath. The band's original name was 'The One Percent'.

6. A popular myth is that the band got its name from a respelling of a Sinclair Lewis novel. But the group’s autobiography tells the story of how one of the members, when in school was sitting around with his girlfriend listening to a Harry Nilsson song, and he and his girlfriend thought of cool band names that had '____' in them. He thought up '________' and loved the name so much that he used to write it all over his school books. But the band he was with at the time didn’t want to use it. A much popular band later decided to use it.
Answer: Aerosmith
There are some other versions of the origin.
BTW, here is the entire funda from the group's autobio titled 'Walk This Way':
Joey Kramer was sitting with his GF listening to Harry Nilsson’s 'Aerial Ballet', and they thought of band names that had 'Aero' in them. He came up with 'Aerosmith' and would write it all over his school books. After he had joined Joe Perry and Steven’s band, they were sitting around and watching old 'Three Stooges' reruns and were trying to come up with a band name. Kramer remembered the word he used to write on his books. The band didn’t like it at first because they thought it was the title of the Sinclair Lewis novel 'Arrowsmith' they were forced to read in high school but Joey said, "No, no, A-E-R-O" and it stuck because they liked the connotation of power and the lift their music gave off.

7. The lead singer of this band was such a big fan of the Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles that he took the band name from the vampire world in her book 'The Vampire Lestat'.
Answer: Savage Garden

8. Which band took its name from that of a vibrator in the William Burrough's novel "The Naked Lunch"?
Answer: Steely Dan

9. Which band reportedly named themselves after a pipe sculpture in Seattle's Sand Point that makes unearthly howling noises in the wind?
Answer: Soundgarden

dhanu80@rediffmail.com

My Own Quiznet Quizzes: Business - I

Originally posted on Quiznet in July 2001

1. "The letter 'K' is forceful, direct and arresting. I decided to use it twice for emphasis, to begin the name and to end it. Then I filled in the other letters to make the word short and catchy as to sound." Who said this?
Answer: George Eastman about how he arrived at the word 'Kodak'.

2. In 1989, the State of California designated the Addison Avenue Garage as a California Historical Landmark and called it 'The birthplace of Silicon Valley'. Which company was founded in this garage?
Answer: Hewlett-Packard

3. Which corporate logo was designed by George Dexter?
Answer: The Golden Arches of McDonald's

4. David McConnell used to sell books door-to-door in Brooklyn and used tiny perfume samples to capture the interest of the homemakers. He quickly realised that the people were more interested in his perfumes. So, in 1887 he founded the California Perfume Company. How do we know this company as?
Answer: Avon Cosmetics Limited (The name change took place in 1928)

5. What is common to the following- 'Eagle' in Los Angeles, 'Spirit of Akron' in Ohio, 'Stars and Stripes' in Florida and 'Europa' in Rome?
Answer: These are the four Goodyear Blimps

6. He always gave 1/10th of his earnings to church charities and formed the American Bible Society, a group that dispensed free Bibles. He did this after a valuable family Bible of his was stolen. Who?
Answer: William Colgate (Founder of what else, but Colgate)

7. In 1907, Rolls Royce unveiled a car that was officially called 40/50. What did it come to be known as?
Answer: Silver Ghost.
Because of the silver-gray colour and it was so free of engine noise, that it ran as quietly as a ghost.

8. In 1952, this company decided to celebrate its 75th anniversary by awarding five shares of common stock to any employee who had a baby on October 15th. Name this company.
Answer: General Electric.
The company's guess that 13 GE babies would be born amounted to gross underestimation, since no less than 189 new GE babies were born that day.

9. "A Coke is a Coke, and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one, the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Coke's are the same, and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it." To which artist is this quote attributed?
Answer: Andy Warhol
He made as effective use of the Coca-Cola bottle in his art as he did of the Campbell's soup can.

10. James Ritty was the proprietor of a 'café saloon' in Dayton and found himself plagued by petty embezzlement. On an ocean cruise, he is said to have observed a machine that recorded the rotations of the ship's propeller on a dial. This gave him the inspiration to patent a device that recorded transactions on a similar clock face. What was this device?
Answer: The Cash-Register

dhanu80@rediffmail.com

My Own Quiznet Quizzes: General - I

Originally posted on Quiznet in September 2001

1. Michael Dudok de Wit received an Oscar in 2001 for the Best Animated Short Film. He also won a high definition TV set. For what reason?
Answer: For making the shortest acceptance speech of 18 seconds.
A side anecdote: Julia Roberts was jabbering away after receiving the Oscar and when prompted to keep her speech short, in the midst of her speech she retorted, "I already have a TV."

2. Who wrote the short essay 'The Nine Billion Names of God', about a Tibetan lamasery engaging the services of Western Computer experts to run through all the possible combinations of letters to come up with one that is the hidden name of God?
Answer: Arthur C Clarke

3. Name this painter (famous for his moustache), whose paintings usually contained watches bent in mysterious ways.
Answer: Salvador Dali

4. According to the author himself, his best works were the little remembered historical romances 'Micah Clarke' and 'The White Company'. Who was he?
Answer: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

5. These games held in Israel every two years are restricted to athletes of the Jewish faith. It features cricket among other disciplines at international level. What are they called?
Answer: The Maccabbee Games

6. Connect: Percy Shelley, Sylvia Plath, Uranus and 'The Tempest'.
Answer: The connection is Ariel.
Percy Shelley died in the boat 'Ariel'.
It was the name of a 1965 volume of poetry published by Sylvia Plath.
Ariel is one of the moons of Uranus.
The name of the principal spirit in 'The Tempest' was Ariel.

7. Paleontologists recently discovered a 70 million year old dinosaur in Madagascar and named it 'Masiakasaurus Knopfleri'. Why?
Answer: They named it after the Dire Straits vocalist Mark Knopfler, since the crew was listening to the band when they made this discovery. It means 'Knopfler - The Fierce Lizard'.

8. This Australian leg spinner made his debut at the age of 34 years. He played 37 Test matches and took 216 wickets. He loved Indian tea and wore a ring with a gemstone, on which was inscribed, 'Eyes of Allah'. Who was he?
Answer: Clarrie Grimmet

9. Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a book titled 'Gadsby'. What is unique about this book?
Answer: He did not use a single 'E' in the entire book.

10. It is considered to be the musical equivalent of the Nobel Prize. It was started in 1992 by the late Stig Anderson, the manager of ABBA. In 2001, the honour went to Burt Bacharach, an American songwriter. What is this award called?
Answer: The Polar Music Prize
Former winners include Ravi Shankar and Elton John.

dhanu80@rediffmail.com