Monday, April 1, 2013

I-CoaT#1 – top 10

Congratulations to Rajiv for topping the leaderboard for the first online Inter-Connectedness of all Things quiz, with a commanding margin. He cracked several Themes and the Master Answer when this was barely a fledgling contest, and after that there was no catching up with him. Given that he's top of the SEQC leaderboard at the moment as well, looks like it's going to be Rajiv's year.

Coming in second was Doc Murali, who cracked 40 answers but didn't get a single one of the Themes! The rest of the top 10 are listed below.

I-CoaT#1 Final Standings (top 10 only)

1. Rajiv D'Silva....75
2. docmurali.........40
3. Groucho...........37
4. Ajachi..............32
5. Chirag..............32
6. Srijit.................29
7. Harman Singh...27
8. Atharv Joshi......26
9. raklodramA......23
10. anjali...............22

The entire leaderboard can be accessed here.

Thank you to everyone who participated, even if it was for a single question only, and even if you checked out the questions without sending in any guesses.
That's it for the first online I-CoaT! Here are the Theme and Master Answer explanations:

Theme A: 'Phantom'
A1: Vilayanur Ramachandran is the author of 'Phantoms of the Brain' and generally writes a lot about phantom limbs.
A2: The jewel thief in the first two Pink Panther films (played by David Niven and then by Christopher Plummer) goes by the nom de plume of the Phantom.
A3: The New Zealand fast bowler Chris Martin is nicknamed the Phantom.
A4: The fourth film in the Star Wars franchise was titled 'Episode 1: The Phantom Menace'.
A5: In the comic series by Lee Falk, Walker (derived from 'Ghost Who Walks') is the surname that the Phantom adopts when he goes to the city.
A6: Rolls-Royce has used the name Phantom for various series of cars since its inception till the current day.


Theme B: 'Joseph'
B1: Sepp Blatter, B2: Ze Roberto, B3: Pep Guardiola, B7: Pepe Jeans, B11: San Jose -- all their names are variants of Joseph.
B4: Pope Benedict's real name is Joseph Ratzinger.
B5: Plumber was a reference to Joe the Plumber, who came into the limelight somewhat during the 2008 US elections as an everyman kind of person.
B6: Catch22 was written by Joseph Heller.
B8: GI commonly goes with Joe.
B9: Verdi's first name was Guiseppe, the Italian version of Joseph, but besides that he also masqueraded under the name Joseph Green, an English translation of his name.
B10: Yousuf Youhana – again, if you took the English versions of this name, it would be Joseph John (a name our Mallu brethren would be well able to identify with).

Theme C: 'Bombay'
C1: Kaizad Gustad directed 'Bombay Boys'
C2: Blood type was a reference to the rare Bombay blood type, which came into public view due to references in last year's hit film 'Kahaani'.
C3: Mira Nair directed 'Salaam Bombay'.
C4: The wedding of Catherine of Braganza to Charles II resulted in Bombay being given as dowry by the Portuguese to the British.
C5: Duck refers to Bombay duck.
C6: Mani Ratnam directed 'Bombay'.
C7: Mumba Devi is what Mumbai is supposedly named after.
C8: Bollywood = Bombay

Theme D: 'Evita/Eva Peron'
D1: Eva Duarte was the star of a popular Argentine radio drama when she first caught the eye of her future husband, the nation's President Juan Peron.
D2: She met Peron when she was invited to a gala organised to raise funds for victims of an earthquake.
D3: Her fight with and eventual death at the age of 33 from cervical cancer added to her mythos.
D4: Madonna played her in the movie version of 'Evita'.
D5: Argentina is self-explanatory.
D6: Juan Peron ditto.

Theme E: 'Jesus Christ'
E1: Mount refers to the Sermon on the Mount.
E2: Basilisk – besides being the name of a mythical creature, the term is also used for the Common Basilisk, a lizard that is nicknamed the Jesus Christ Lizard for its ability to run on the surface of water.
E3: Fish refers to the Miracle of the Fishes. Also, the fish was a secret symbol used by the early Christians to identify with each other while avoiding persecution. It is also a strong part of the symbology of Christianity – Christ referred to Peter as a 'fisher of men', and as a result, the Pope wears the Fisherman's Ring.
E4: The Last Supper and E5: cross are quite obvious in their connection.
E6: Galilee was where Christ grew up; he is sometimes referred to as the Man from Galilee.

Theme F: 'Cats'
F1: Tuxedo is a variety of cat.
F2: The chariot of the Norse goddess Freyja is drawn by two cats, and she is otherwise connected with cats as well.
F3: Peter Cat was a feline that lived at the Lord's Cricket Ground from 1952 to 1964, and is the only animal to be given an obituary in 'Wisden'. For some reason unclear even to the management, there is a popular restaurant called Peter Cat in Calcutta.
F4: India was the name George Bush gave to a pet cat that the family adopted when they were in the White House, leading to a ridiculous furore in parts of our great nation.
F5: The Egyptian goddess Bast or Bastet (with or without a 'bloody' in front) was closely identified with the cat family and is often depicted with a cat's head.
F6: Felix is one of the commonest names for cats in the Western world (a 2006 survey showed it to be no 2 in the UK, no 1 in Germany, and no 4 in Canada), perhaps rooted in the name of a very popular cartoon cat from the 1920s.
F7: Cheshire as in the Cheshire Cat from 'Alice in Wonderland'.
F8: Calico and F9: Persian are two other cat breeds.

Theme G: 'Jeeves'
G1: The Junior Ganymede is the valets' club that Jeeves is a member of.
G2: Spinoza is one of his favourite authors.
G3: C. (for Cyril, if you're interested) Northcote Parkinson was a naval historian who also authored a fictional biography of Jeeves.
G4: Ask.com started live as AskJeeves.com.
G5: Stephen Fry played Jeeves in the television series 'Jeeves and Wooster'.
G6: A valet is what Jeeves is (not a butler).
G7: P.G. Wodehouse – if I need to explain this, you shouldn't be reading this.

And the Master Answer is:
Musicals by Andrew Lloyd-Webber, which include 'The Phantom of the Opera', 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat', 'Bombay Dreams', 'Evita', 'Jesus Christ Superstar', 'Cats' and 'Jeeves' (revised later as 'By Jeeves').