Tuesday, July 31, 2012

F5. This character from Marvel Comics is based on which ancient Egyptian deity associated with healing and preservation (her name may have meant "she of the ointment jar"?

A. Bastet (not, as far as I know, prefixed by the Egyptians with a "bleddy..."), also known as Bast or Ubasti.

Tough one this time -- garnered only a couple of correct answers, and some very wild guesses!

Monday, July 23, 2012

A3. For a long time, our very own Bhagwat Chandrashekhar was the holder of a unique record which was a staple of sports quizzes -- the only player to have taken more wickets in Test cricket than the runs he scored (167 runs versus 242 wickets in a 58-Test career). The chap in the picture has joined him -- though he's still playing, the likelihood that he will leave this august company of two is very low. In 65 Tests so far, he has scored 112 runs and taken 218 wickets. He also holds the record for the highest number of pairs in Test cricket history, with 6 (Chandra, poor fellow, had only 4). Name him.

A. Chris Martin of New Zealand

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

G4. In 2009, this Website took over as official sponsor of NASCAR driver Bobby Labonte's No. 96 car, seen in the picture (I have blanked out the site name, obviously, wherever it appears on the car). It later also became the official search engine of NASCAR. Rated the No 4 search engine behind Google, Yahoo and Bing, the site uses a natural-language question-and-answer format for its queries. It is owned by InterActive Corp, which also runs the sites Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, and Reference.com. Name it.

A. ask.com

Friday, July 13, 2012

C4. Though the drinking of tea is often parodied as a typically British pursuit (in 'Asterix in Britain', for example, the Britons call off the battle at five every evening in order to indulge in this 'national pastime'), it was introduced into British high-society in the 17th century by the Queen of King Charles II -- the lady shown in this statue in Lisbon, Portugal. Name her.

A. Catherine of Braganza

Monday, July 9, 2012

B5. The name for what kind of professional comes from the Latin word for 'lead', because in the Roman era when the name came about, the material such people worked with was often made of or coated with lead?

A. Plumber (from the Latin 'plumbum', which gives the metal its elemental symbol 'Pb')

Thursday, July 5, 2012

F4. This still from 'Gone with the Wind' shows a female character who is the sister of Ashley Wilkes and a rival of Scarlett O'Hara. The given name of the character was reasonably popular among daughters of aristocratic families in England during the heyday of the British Empire. Which British colony were these girls named after?


A. India