Searching for beauty with brains.
A divine beauty witty
Or at least, an erudite Aphrodite.
Or so I fantasized.
But my poet's dream capsized
When I realized
That erudite
Doesn't rhyme quite
with Aphrodite!
- Thomas Jay Cubb
JUST-IN-CASE LEXICON
1. Aphrodite (pronounce afro-die-tee) - Goddess of love and beauty and daughter of Zeus in ancient mythology; identified with Roman Venus
2. Erudite - Having or showing profound knowledge
Friday, June 30, 2006
Thursday, June 29, 2006
The Five Commandments - Effective Email
Labels:
Tips
Five rules to follow if you want to communicate effectively using email and get the response you need.
1. Fill in the subject line of your email suitably.
a) If you cannot title the email properly, then it is probably better not to write it! Talking to the addressee(s) over the phone or, if possible, face-to-face about the things you want to discuss will be more effective.
b) It is very confusing to see important, unrelated things discussed in a mail innoccuously titled "Hi" or "Re: my vacation". Subject lines like "Re:Re:Fw:Re:" are, at best, irritating .
2. Do not discuss more than one important point in an email.
Put in more points and it is guaranteed that many of your "important" points will be ignored. If it is really necessary to do so, then make sure that all of them fit the email's subject line, assuming that you have obeyed the First Law.
a) As far as possible, ask only one question in an email...
b) Put your question at the end of the email for maximum impact.
c) Ask the questions in a questionnaire-like form with numbering or bulleting, if you absolutely must ask many questions in your email. When more than one question is asked in an email people get confused as to which of the questions are more important and how to answer and so on.
d) Do not forget the question mark!?
3. Time for response/action is inversely proportional to the number of people on the CC list.
If you want immediate action on your email, put lots of people in the CC list. The more important the people in your CC list are than your main recipient, the faster the response will be.
4. Keep your email as short as possible.
(Explanation intentionally short)
The attention-spans of most people are goldfish-like, so make your emails concise and precise.
a) As short as possible...but no shorter!
Cryptic emails are the worst! Make it concise, but not too concise. (Point proven!) :-)
5. Read before you send!
As the adage goes, look before you leap. Typos and grammatical errors are major put-offs for recipients. Use the grammar-check or spell-check tool, if needed; but remember, you are your best checker if you read what you have written impartially. Make sure that you have said only what you mean. Use emoticons if appropriate, otherwise reword. Leave no scope for ambiguity.
- Thomas Jay Cubb
1. Fill in the subject line of your email suitably.
a) If you cannot title the email properly, then it is probably better not to write it! Talking to the addressee(s) over the phone or, if possible, face-to-face about the things you want to discuss will be more effective.
b) It is very confusing to see important, unrelated things discussed in a mail innoccuously titled "Hi" or "Re: my vacation". Subject lines like "Re:Re:Fw:Re:
2. Do not discuss more than one important point in an email.
Put in more points and it is guaranteed that many of your "important" points will be ignored. If it is really necessary to do so, then make sure that all of them fit the email's subject line, assuming that you have obeyed the First Law.
a) As far as possible, ask only one question in an email...
b) Put your question at the end of the email for maximum impact.
c) Ask the questions in a questionnaire-like form with numbering or bulleting, if you absolutely must ask many questions in your email. When more than one question is asked in an email people get confused as to which of the questions are more important and how to answer and so on.
d) Do not forget the question mark!?
3. Time for response/action is inversely proportional to the number of people on the CC list.
If you want immediate action on your email, put lots of people in the CC list. The more important the people in your CC list are than your main recipient, the faster the response will be.
4. Keep your email as short as possible.
(Explanation intentionally short)
The attention-spans of most people are goldfish-like, so make your emails concise and precise.
a) As short as possible...but no shorter!
Cryptic emails are the worst! Make it concise, but not too concise. (Point proven!) :-)
5. Read before you send!
As the adage goes, look before you leap. Typos and grammatical errors are major put-offs for recipients. Use the grammar-check or spell-check tool, if needed; but remember, you are your best checker if you read what you have written impartially. Make sure that you have said only what you mean. Use emoticons if appropriate, otherwise reword. Leave no scope for ambiguity.
- Thomas Jay Cubb
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Queuriest - X
-------------------------------------------------------
QUEURIEST - X
Keep Guessing - Johnnie Guesser
-------------------------------------------------------
1. Let's start at the very beginning, which is a very good place to start . What are Aretinian syllables?
*
2. Cryptic question worth a thousand words! Vietnam : Kim Phuc, Afghanistan: Sherbet Gul , Gujarat Riots : ________ ?
*
3. The name of which highly addictive substance means "acid-former"? Hint: The leader of the Chalcogens!
*
4. Netizens! Expand IAKI. (You'll probably say this after you find the answer! :-)
*
5. Perhaps not absolutely strange, but pretty strange all the same. What is common to the writers John H Watson, Eugene Pota and Kilgore Trout? (list by no means exhaustive)
*
6. Where would you find Guala Caps? No, no clooz!
*
7. Very unambiguous question actually. If aardvark is the first, what is the last?
*
8. Time to get really, really specific. In which video game did Mario make his debut?
*
9. Elementary question again. Which place has four elements named after it?
*
10. Sitter. In Alice In Wonderland, what is the name of Alice's cat?
*
11. Which drink gets its name from Dutch for `burnt wine'? It is, maybe, a label unknown.
*
12. Real scorcher in Santiago. What is measured in scoville units?
*
13. Question for old & young alike? If you underwent a rhytidectomy, what would be removed?
*
14. Hardly an original question. In advertising, what is a 'ripomatic'?
*
15. Matchbox labels: Phillumenist:: Penang lawyers: __________?
*
16. A bit arbit perhaps, but a chance for you to let your imagination run free. Where would you find "Miss Sibyl Thornton in her flowing nightie"?
*
17. Coda was a posthumous release of studio and live recordings of Led Zeppelin compiled by Jimmy Page in 1982. What is a 'coda'?
*
18. If Keralites speak Malayalam and Americans speak English, who speak? Ameslan?
*
19. Which African country gets its name from Greek for, you guessed it, Africa?
*
20. "Last words are for fools who haven't said enough!", whose last words?
*
---------------------------------
Try not. Do or do not.
There is no try - Yoda
--------------------------------
hi everybody!
welcome to the final episode of Queuriest.
20 questions for you to crack - more than the usual ten. Some are discards from previous episodes - stuff that could not be included, because they were similar to the Qs already asked etc. More questions, sitters galore means a chance for you to boost your tally...
not too many people sent in intros in response to the previous episode, do send them in if you haven't already done so...All I'd meant was that the letters should've a personal touch...Sometimes one wonders about the person behind the mail...and sometimes, whether there IS a person! (answers only, terse, no comments)...perhaps you could tell me something about urself - about ur favourite bits of trivia/info, questions u've enjoyed , general comments....anything!
Answers in 10 days time.
What's YOUR score?
luv
thomas
ANSWERS
---------------
hi folks!
21 responses in all = the floccinaucinihilipilification (though redundantly) of an already trivial Queuriest? really, was expecting more responses :-( ...but used that word in context at last! :-)
=> new Q : What do Walter Scott and I have in common?
A lot of you wrote in saying maybe I owe you an intro as well. But I believe most of you know me fairly well by now - as to how my mind works, my interests - evident from the way I frame the questions. (Nothing defines one so well as the questions one asks! - TJ ) There have even been complaints that I was getting too predictable! I am, but an open book! ...and because it is open, some details must be missing! (some things can be judged only from the cover! ;-)
Well, the name is Thomas Jacob and I am a final year student of Computer Engineering from Kerala. My interests are reading (favourite authors: Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut,Garrison Keillor), writing (poems,pieces,stories- humour mostly, any one of you care to get a sample, just write in! ), crossword puzzles (you guessed it!) and rock music(fav artists - Tom Petty, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Pearl Jam, Eagles)
Enough about me. Go read the answers!
This is The End of Queuriest - where quizzing met crosswords.
luv
thomas
-------------------------------------------------------
QUEURIEST - X
Keep Guessing - Johnnie Guesser
-------------------------------------------------------
1. Let's start at the very beginning, which is a very good place to start . What are Aretinian syllables?
* Aretinian syllables are the do, re, mi . . . notes. Let's start at the very beginning is from the Sound Of Music song that goes Doe a deer,... The most widely answered question of the quiz. ( = When you know the words to search, you can find 'most anything? ;-) Almost everybody told me that these referred to Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, used by Guido d'Arezzo in the eleventh century for his system of hexachords AND that ut later became do AND that hexachord means scale of six notes! So that just HAS to be authentic information! ;-)
2. Cryptic question worth a thousand words! Vietnam : Kim Phuc, Afghanistan: Sherbet Gul , Gujarat Riots : ________ ?
* Nasiruddin Ansari
Many of you managed to work out what the question was, only a couple, got the name of the crying man, whose photograph appeared in most of the newspapers, after the riots. Kim Phuc is associated with the Vietnam war and Sherbet Gul was the `Unknown Afghan' girl on National Geographic. These were photographs which defined the crises/situations...Most probably you would have seen these photos.
+I: Nick Ut photographed Kim Phuc
+I: Steve McCurry took Sherbet Gul's
don't know about Ansari's. fill me in, anyone?
3. The name of which highly addictive substance means "acid-former"? Hint: The leader of the Chalcogens!
* Oxygen
Who said nicotine and heroin are the only addictive substances?! ;-)
+I:Chalcogen refers to the group of the periodic table to which oxygen belongs. Just like the Halogens..
4. Netizens! Expand IAKI. (You'll probably say this after you find the answer! :-)
* I Already Know/Knew It
There! You're saying it now... ;-)
5. Perhaps not absolutely strange, but pretty strange all the same. What is common to the writers John H Watson, Eugene Pota and Kilgore Trout? (list by no means exhaustive)
* These are all fictional writers.
John H Watson is our dear Dr. Watson from Doyle
Eugene Pota - created by Joseph Heller
Kilgore Trout - features in Kurt Vonnegut's novels
6. Where would you find Guala Caps? No, no clooz!
* On Liquor bottles
RP: That irritating piece of plastic that restricts the quick flow of booze & hence makes 1 drink slower (5 sec.s downtime!). Supposedly to prevent the adulteration of alcohol.
KSJ: It's the tamper proof, unidirectional valve cap on Booze bottles
7. Very unambiguous question actually. If aardvark is the first, what is the last?
* Zoril, a kind of African weasel, is the last animal in the dictionary. Also called zorilla.
I was not asking for the last word in the dictionary, as `a' is the first word in the dictionary, not 'aardvark'. Some of you mentioned that I could've been asking for the last topic in an encyclopaedia. Again, same arguement holds, plus 'Aachen' comes before `aardvark'. Aardvark is just the first animal in the dictionary. So it was, as I said, unambiguous!
+I: Last word in most dictionaries: Zymurgy
+I: There is an animal called zebu- which is a sort of domesticated ox used chiefly as a draft animal in _India_? and east Asia!
8. Time to get really, really specific. In which video game did Mario make his debut?
* Donkey Kong
Not too many takers on this one.
9. Elementary question again. Which place has four elements named after it?
* Ytterby.
teaser for you: Can you name the four elements? ytterbium and yttrium are the obvious ones but what are the other ones? Clue for starters, they do not start with Y!
10. Sitter. In Alice In Wonderland, what is the name of Alice's cat?
* Dinah
And no, the Cheshire Cat did not belong to Alice - it was a VERY independent sort of cat! ;-)
One of you mentioned that the cat Dinah features only in Through The Looking Glass. But I believe it does appear in the first one also...
11. Which drink gets its name from Dutch for `burnt wine'? It is, maybe, a label unknown.
* Brandy
Could've been worked out from the clue : Brand Y
+I: Dutch word: brandewijn
12. Real scorcher in Santiago. What is measured in scoville units?
* The degree of hotness of chillies
+I: measure of capsaicin (the chemical in hot peppers that is responsible for their heat).
13. Question for old & young alike? If you underwent a rhytidectomy, what would be removed?
* Rhytidectomy is an operation to remove wrinkles and other signs of ageing from your face. Old becoming like the young...
14. Hardly an original question. In advertising, what is a 'ripomatic'?
* When you put together a new version of an ad by piecing together clips of the same ad- for eg, to create a shorter version of the same ad.
15. Matchbox labels: Phillumenist:: Penang lawyers: __________?
* Rabdophilist
The toughie of the quiz. Only a couple or so came anywhere close - cracking the Penang lawyer part. Penang lawyer is a term for a walking stick/canes. A collector of walking sticks is called a rhabdophilist. Yeah, I agree with you, that was a real twisted one! And why were there no clues?!...
16. A bit arbit perhaps, but a chance for you to let your imagination run free. Where would you find "Miss Sibyl Thornton in her flowing nightie"?
* On a Rolls Royce.
It is the Rolls-Royce emblem variously known as the Silver Lady, or the Flying Lady, popularly called "Spirit of Ecstasy". Eleanor Thornton was the model on which the figure was based. Sibyl, I guess, was what Eleanor was called at home - the explanation for the Sibyl part.
Very few takers on this one.
17. Coda was a posthumous release of studio and live recordings of Led Zeppelin compiled by Jimmy Page in 1982. What is a 'coda'?
* Coda is the closing section of a musical composition.
18. If Keralites speak Malayalam and Americans speak English, who speak? Ameslan?
* Ameslan is sign-language used by the deaf/dumb people. That's what the question mark after the word speak was for! ;-) Speak? Ameslan?
19. Which African country gets its name from Greek for, you guessed it, Africa?
* Libya
One of you mentioned that it was actually Latin, but as far as I know it is Greek.
20. "Last words are for fools who haven't said enough!", whose last words?
* Karl Marx
(apocryphal, though famous) He said this, when asked by his housekeeper, eager for her 15 minutes, what his last words would be, when on his death-bed. What else could he have said! ;-)
---------------------------------
Try not. Do or do not.
There is no try - Yoda
--------------------------------
The scores (in chronological order)
1. Debashree Mitra - 8 (How'd ur quiz go?)
2. Rexy Joseph - 5 (King Of Quizzes!)
3. Rahul Pandey - 4 (california was a good guess)
4. Vijay Nidhi - 4.5 (some good tries in there boss)
5. Kunal Malhotra - 11 (nice, solid effort)
6. Rohaan Pereira - 11 (my regards to Cindy! ;-)
7. Ghevarghese Daniel - 7 (zorilla pretty cool ;-)
8. KS Jaishankar - 4.5 (good guessing)
9. Thejaswi Udupa - 12 (rocking hard!)
10. Shom Biswas - 6 (i did!)
11. Vijay Krishnan - 4 (100% hitrate)
12. Bhaskar Singh - 3 (Thornton was a real snorter though)
13. Kartick Suriamoorthy -14 (thanx for the tidbit)
14. Sandeep Unni - 12 (chase to be the Queuriest?)
15. Prasun Ramakrishnan - 7 (nice effort)
16. Sreeram - 7 (It's aardwolf.)
17. Venkateshwar K.R - 4 (Four pennies!)
18. Manish Chiddarwar - 3 (too bad it's not zephyr)
19. Syam Prasad - 7 (good show)
20. Mamatha Balasubramanian - 4 (thanx for tidbits)
21. Prithwiraj Mukherjee - 5 (enjoyable effort!)
--------STATS ------------explained-------------------------
Funnest! -
(well-phrased answers or just plain funny ones.)
I Almost Knew It on IAKI
All the 'dumb' Americans on Ameslan
Burndt Vijn on Brandy
All had professions of creators on Fictional Authors
what??...someone collects lawyers from Penang on Collector
-----------------------------------------
Ridiqulest! -
(answers that deviated from the real one so much, possibly good guesses (no insult intended), misled by clues - sometimes leaving me clueless!)
Female fortune-teller on Rolls Royce
Narendra Modi on Gujarat Riots
The Moon On Guala Caps
The Moon On Spirit Of Ecstasy (QM - what's this moon coming to?)
------------------------------------------
Guessest!-
(nice, educated guesses, good use of the clues, which, though wrong, are laudable)
Beer on Scoville units
Yucky on IAKI
Sun,California on Ytterby
Zymurgy on Zoril
Tunisia, Egypt on Libya
-----------------------------------------
* All questions except 15 were cracked
* TU & SU top the quiz with 12 points
* Average score :
-----------------------------------------------------------------
<<<<<>>>>>>>
Your performance throughout the series...
(in alphabetic order)
Abhinandan LN --- XXX7XXXXXX ==7
Abhishek Hariharan --- XX 2XXXXXXX ==2
Acharya Rajib --- XXXXX7XXXX == 7
Aishwariya V --- XX34XXXXXX ==7
Ajay Sahoo --- XXXX0XXXXX ==0
Amit De---XX5XXXXXXX == 5
Anand Sivashankar--- XXXXXX3XXX ==3
Ananya Deb--- XXX5.5X4XXXX ==9.5
Aniruddha Gupta---XXXXX7XXXX==7
Anish--- XXXX4.5XXXXX ==4.5
Ankur Jain--- 9X7X6.5XXX6X ==28.5
Anoop Radhakrishna--- XXXXXXXX5X ==5
Anshuman Mishra --- XX5XX5XXXX ==10
Arjun Siva --- XXXXXX49.5XX ==13.5
Arun Prashanth --- XXXXXX2XXX ==2
Aseem--- XX4XXXXXXX==4
Asish Koshy---XXXXX7XXXX ==7
Avik Chatterjee---XXXXX2XXXX ==2
Avinash Iyer---XXXXX3XXXX ==3
Avjit Chaudhuri---XXXXX7XXXX ==7
B. Sreeram---X465534427 ==40
Bharat Jayakumar---X042213X1X == 13
Bhaskar Singh---XX22X04.5XX3 ==11.5
Binoj George---7.5XXXXXXXXX ==7.5
Biswabijoy Sen---XX5X3X3X3X ==14
CoolDude9456---XXXXXXX1XX ==1
Debanjan Ghosh---XXX5XXXXXX ==5
Debashree Mitra---XX66.564343X ==32.5
Devilcat---XXXXX4XXXX ==4
Dhananjay Shettigar --- XX3.5XXXXXXX ==3.5
Dhiraj Ramakrishnan --- XX2XXXXXXX ==2
Dinesh Krithivasan --- XXX6.5X5.5XXXX ==12
Gaurav Lochan---XXXXXXXX2.5X ==2.5
Gautham Ravichander--- XX2XXXXXXX==2
Ghevarghese Daniel---XXXXXXXXX7 ==7
Girish Bhat---XXX3XXXXXX ==3
Harish J Prabhu---XX6XXXXXXX ==6
Husain Poonawala---XX40.5X1XXXX ==5.5
I___I 666---XXXXXX2XXX ==2
Ian Anderson---XXXXXX 8XXX ==8
Indraneel Sikdar---XXXXXX21XX ==3
Jaishankar KS---XXXXXXXXX4.5 ==4.5
Kamal---XXXXXX5XXX ==5
Kamal Rathi---65XXXXXXXX ==11
Karthik Ramgopal---XXXXXXXX8X ==8
Kartick Sriamoorthy---XXXXXXXXX14 ==14
Kasthuri---XX6.5XXXXXXX ==6.5
Kensy Joseph---XXXXX3X23X ==8
Kewl Kittein---XXXX2XXXXX ==2
Koushik Vedaraman---XXXXX5XXXX ==5
Krishna T---XX 1.5XXXXXXX ==1.5
KrisSriram---XXXXXX3XXX ==3
Kunal Malhotra---X4.5XX48X6511 ==38.5
Lahar Appaiah---XXXXX5XXXX ==5
Madhu M---XX 2XX2XXXX ==4
Mahesh M Nair---XXX5.57X5XXX ==17.5
Mamatha Balasubramaniam---XXX3 221.5X44 ==16.5
Manish Chiddarwar---XXXXXXXXX3 ==3
Minhaj Alam---XXXXXX2X2X ==4
Mohit Sud---XX 6.5XXXXXXX ==6.5
Naveed Mohammed---9X7XXXXXXX ==16
Navneet Bal---XXXXX5XXXX ==5
Nilesh Sinha---XXXXXXX 1XX ==1
Nithin---XXXXXXXX4X ==4
Parmitaghosh---XXXXXXXX4.5X ==4.5
Partha Sengupta---XXX1X331XX ==8
Paul Ahmitough---XXXXX9XXXX ==9
Pauline Daniel---XX2451X13X ==16
Prakash Pillai---XXXXXX5XXX ==5
Pramod R---XXXXX1XXXX ==1
Prasenjit Sengupta---XXXXXX42XX ==6
Prasun Ramakrishnan---XXXXXXXXX7 ==7
Prasun Ratn---XXXXX1XXXX ==1
Prithwiraj Mukherjee---XXXXX3.51325 ==14.5
Priyambad Pattanayak---XXXXXXXX3X ==3
Quizgeek---XX6XXXXXXX ==6
R. Krishna---XX778.58XXXX ==30.5
Raghav Narayanan---6.5XXXXX3XXX ==9.5
Raghavendra Achar---1X1XXXXXXX ==2
Rahul Chattopadhyay---XXXXXX6XXX ==6
Rahul Guha---XXXXXXXX3.58 ==11.5
Rahul Jayanthi---XXXX8XXXXX ==8
Rahul Pandey---XXXXXXXXX4 ==4
Rajaram Sethuraman---XXX1XXXXXX ==1
Rajesh Malviya--- 1.5X3.5XXXXXXX ==5
Rajiv Rai---XXXX 5XXX3.5X ==8.5
Ramkey---XX3XXXXXXX ==3
Ramkumar Shankar---XXX 3X1XXXX ==4
Ramsu---XX7XXXXXXX ==7
Ranganathan Sairam---XX 4XXXXXXX ==4
Ranjith---XXXXXX4X1X ==5
Ravikiran Rao---XXX3.5XXXXXX ==3.5
Rexy Joseph---XXXXXXXX45 ==9
Rinks S---XXXXXXX3.5XX ==3.5
Rohaan Pereira---XXXXXXXXX11 ==11
Ryan Michigan---XXX8.5XXXXXX ==8.5
Sameer Baxi---XX7XXXXXXX ==7
Samir Bora---XX4.5XXXXXXX ==4.5
Samrat Sengupta---XXXXX2XXXX ==2
Sandeep Unni---XXXXXXX4612 ==22
Sankle Pradesh---XXXXX3XXXX ==3
Santhosh D'Souza--- XXXXX9XXXX ==9
Sathish K---7.56.55X5.5XXXXX ==24.5
Satyajit Chetri---XXXX51XXXX ==6
Sharad Singh---XXXXX4XXXX ==4
Shashi Shekar--- 0X6X8.5X1XXX ==15.5
Shashi Thutupalli---XXXXXX34XX ==7
Shiraz---XX7X997XXX ==32
Shobhana Balakrishnan---XX2XXXX24.5X ==8.5
Shom Biswas---3.5X5XXX2246 ==22.5
Shrijit Plapally---XX2X1XXXXX ==3
Shrinath Nagarajan --- XXXXXXX2XX ==2
Siddharth K---XX2.5XXXXXXX ==2.5
Sivaramakrishnan---XXXXXX3XXX ==3
Sourabh Issar---XX11.5XX1XXX ==3.5
Stephen Mathew---XXXX3XXXXX ==3
Sujith Vijay---XXXX69XXXX ==15
Sukhamaya---7.5XXX6.54XXXX ==18
Suki---XXXXX1.5XXXX==1.5
Sundeep Venkatraman --- XXXXXXXX3X ==3
Suranjan Chakrabarty--- XXXXX6XXXX ==6
Syam Prasad --- XX4.54754X37 ==34.5
Sylvia---XXXX1XXXXX ==1
TalonX the Surreal --- XXXXX22XXX ==4
Thejaswi Udupa---XX8.5X6.57X7.57.512 ==49
U Damodaran---XXXXXX5XXX ==5
Udayan Chakrabarti---XX2.5XXXXXXX ==2.5
Usha Ramaswamy---XXXX1XXX 0.5X ==1.5
Vaidyanathan---XX57XXXXXX ==12
Venkateshwar KR---2.5X20 20X224 ==14.5
Venu Gopal---XXXX6XXXXX ==6
Vijay Anand Menon---6XXXXXXXXX ==6
Vijay Krishnan---XXXXX2XXX4 ==6
Vijay Nidhi---XXXXXXXXX4.5 ==4.5
Vilayannur Viswanathan---XXXX4XXXXX ==4
Vimal Vikrant Vardhan M---XXX2.51XX0.50.5X ==4.5
Vinay Sriganesh---XXXXXX0XXX ==0
Vittal Avinash---XXXXXXX2XX ==2
-----------------------------------------------
The toppers are
1. Thejaswi Udupa - 49
2. Sreeram - 40
3. Kunal Malhotra - 38.5
Thanks for all the support folks!
So, until the next time...
Bye!
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Coming soon!
ORACLIQUE
Are you in yet?
oracle- A shrine where an oracular
god is consulted
clique -1.An exclusive circle of
people with a common
purpose
2.Completely interconnected
graph
This will be my next series. Should
hit quiznet by April or May.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
QUEURIEST - X
Keep Guessing - Johnnie Guesser
-------------------------------------------------------
1. Let's start at the very beginning, which is a very good place to start . What are Aretinian syllables?
*
2. Cryptic question worth a thousand words! Vietnam : Kim Phuc, Afghanistan: Sherbet Gul , Gujarat Riots : ________ ?
*
3. The name of which highly addictive substance means "acid-former"? Hint: The leader of the Chalcogens!
*
4. Netizens! Expand IAKI. (You'll probably say this after you find the answer! :-)
*
5. Perhaps not absolutely strange, but pretty strange all the same. What is common to the writers John H Watson, Eugene Pota and Kilgore Trout? (list by no means exhaustive)
*
6. Where would you find Guala Caps? No, no clooz!
*
7. Very unambiguous question actually. If aardvark is the first, what is the last?
*
8. Time to get really, really specific. In which video game did Mario make his debut?
*
9. Elementary question again. Which place has four elements named after it?
*
10. Sitter. In Alice In Wonderland, what is the name of Alice's cat?
*
11. Which drink gets its name from Dutch for `burnt wine'? It is, maybe, a label unknown.
*
12. Real scorcher in Santiago. What is measured in scoville units?
*
13. Question for old & young alike? If you underwent a rhytidectomy, what would be removed?
*
14. Hardly an original question. In advertising, what is a 'ripomatic'?
*
15. Matchbox labels: Phillumenist:: Penang lawyers: __________?
*
16. A bit arbit perhaps, but a chance for you to let your imagination run free. Where would you find "Miss Sibyl Thornton in her flowing nightie"?
*
17. Coda was a posthumous release of studio and live recordings of Led Zeppelin compiled by Jimmy Page in 1982. What is a 'coda'?
*
18. If Keralites speak Malayalam and Americans speak English, who speak? Ameslan?
*
19. Which African country gets its name from Greek for, you guessed it, Africa?
*
20. "Last words are for fools who haven't said enough!", whose last words?
*
---------------------------------
Try not. Do or do not.
There is no try - Yoda
--------------------------------
hi everybody!
welcome to the final episode of Queuriest.
20 questions for you to crack - more than the usual ten. Some are discards from previous episodes - stuff that could not be included, because they were similar to the Qs already asked etc. More questions, sitters galore means a chance for you to boost your tally...
not too many people sent in intros in response to the previous episode, do send them in if you haven't already done so...All I'd meant was that the letters should've a personal touch...Sometimes one wonders about the person behind the mail...and sometimes, whether there IS a person! (answers only, terse, no comments)...perhaps you could tell me something about urself - about ur favourite bits of trivia/info, questions u've enjoyed , general comments....anything!
Answers in 10 days time.
What's YOUR score?
luv
thomas
ANSWERS
---------------
hi folks!
21 responses in all = the floccinaucinihilipilification (though redundantly) of an already trivial Queuriest? really, was expecting more responses :-( ...but used that word in context at last! :-)
=> new Q : What do Walter Scott and I have in common?
A lot of you wrote in saying maybe I owe you an intro as well. But I believe most of you know me fairly well by now - as to how my mind works, my interests - evident from the way I frame the questions. (Nothing defines one so well as the questions one asks! - TJ ) There have even been complaints that I was getting too predictable! I am, but an open book! ...and because it is open, some details must be missing! (some things can be judged only from the cover! ;-)
Well, the name is Thomas Jacob and I am a final year student of Computer Engineering from Kerala. My interests are reading (favourite authors: Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut,Garrison Keillor), writing (poems,pieces,stories- humour mostly, any one of you care to get a sample, just write in! ), crossword puzzles (you guessed it!) and rock music(fav artists - Tom Petty, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Pearl Jam, Eagles)
Enough about me. Go read the answers!
This is The End of Queuriest - where quizzing met crosswords.
luv
thomas
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QUEURIEST - X
Keep Guessing - Johnnie Guesser
-------------------------------------------------------
1. Let's start at the very beginning, which is a very good place to start . What are Aretinian syllables?
* Aretinian syllables are the do, re, mi . . . notes. Let's start at the very beginning is from the Sound Of Music song that goes Doe a deer,... The most widely answered question of the quiz. ( = When you know the words to search, you can find 'most anything? ;-) Almost everybody told me that these referred to Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, used by Guido d'Arezzo in the eleventh century for his system of hexachords AND that ut later became do AND that hexachord means scale of six notes! So that just HAS to be authentic information! ;-)
2. Cryptic question worth a thousand words! Vietnam : Kim Phuc, Afghanistan: Sherbet Gul , Gujarat Riots : ________ ?
* Nasiruddin Ansari
Many of you managed to work out what the question was, only a couple, got the name of the crying man, whose photograph appeared in most of the newspapers, after the riots. Kim Phuc is associated with the Vietnam war and Sherbet Gul was the `Unknown Afghan' girl on National Geographic. These were photographs which defined the crises/situations...Most probably you would have seen these photos.
+I: Nick Ut photographed Kim Phuc
+I: Steve McCurry took Sherbet Gul's
don't know about Ansari's. fill me in, anyone?
3. The name of which highly addictive substance means "acid-former"? Hint: The leader of the Chalcogens!
* Oxygen
Who said nicotine and heroin are the only addictive substances?! ;-)
+I:Chalcogen refers to the group of the periodic table to which oxygen belongs. Just like the Halogens..
4. Netizens! Expand IAKI. (You'll probably say this after you find the answer! :-)
* I Already Know/Knew It
There! You're saying it now... ;-)
5. Perhaps not absolutely strange, but pretty strange all the same. What is common to the writers John H Watson, Eugene Pota and Kilgore Trout? (list by no means exhaustive)
* These are all fictional writers.
John H Watson is our dear Dr. Watson from Doyle
Eugene Pota - created by Joseph Heller
Kilgore Trout - features in Kurt Vonnegut's novels
6. Where would you find Guala Caps? No, no clooz!
* On Liquor bottles
RP: That irritating piece of plastic that restricts the quick flow of booze & hence makes 1 drink slower (5 sec.s downtime!). Supposedly to prevent the adulteration of alcohol.
KSJ: It's the tamper proof, unidirectional valve cap on Booze bottles
7. Very unambiguous question actually. If aardvark is the first, what is the last?
* Zoril, a kind of African weasel, is the last animal in the dictionary. Also called zorilla.
I was not asking for the last word in the dictionary, as `a' is the first word in the dictionary, not 'aardvark'. Some of you mentioned that I could've been asking for the last topic in an encyclopaedia. Again, same arguement holds, plus 'Aachen' comes before `aardvark'. Aardvark is just the first animal in the dictionary. So it was, as I said, unambiguous!
+I: Last word in most dictionaries: Zymurgy
+I: There is an animal called zebu- which is a sort of domesticated ox used chiefly as a draft animal in _India_? and east Asia!
8. Time to get really, really specific. In which video game did Mario make his debut?
* Donkey Kong
Not too many takers on this one.
9. Elementary question again. Which place has four elements named after it?
* Ytterby.
teaser for you: Can you name the four elements? ytterbium and yttrium are the obvious ones but what are the other ones? Clue for starters, they do not start with Y!
10. Sitter. In Alice In Wonderland, what is the name of Alice's cat?
* Dinah
And no, the Cheshire Cat did not belong to Alice - it was a VERY independent sort of cat! ;-)
One of you mentioned that the cat Dinah features only in Through The Looking Glass. But I believe it does appear in the first one also...
11. Which drink gets its name from Dutch for `burnt wine'? It is, maybe, a label unknown.
* Brandy
Could've been worked out from the clue : Brand Y
+I: Dutch word: brandewijn
12. Real scorcher in Santiago. What is measured in scoville units?
* The degree of hotness of chillies
+I: measure of capsaicin (the chemical in hot peppers that is responsible for their heat).
13. Question for old & young alike? If you underwent a rhytidectomy, what would be removed?
* Rhytidectomy is an operation to remove wrinkles and other signs of ageing from your face. Old becoming like the young...
14. Hardly an original question. In advertising, what is a 'ripomatic'?
* When you put together a new version of an ad by piecing together clips of the same ad- for eg, to create a shorter version of the same ad.
15. Matchbox labels: Phillumenist:: Penang lawyers: __________?
* Rabdophilist
The toughie of the quiz. Only a couple or so came anywhere close - cracking the Penang lawyer part. Penang lawyer is a term for a walking stick/canes. A collector of walking sticks is called a rhabdophilist. Yeah, I agree with you, that was a real twisted one! And why were there no clues?!...
16. A bit arbit perhaps, but a chance for you to let your imagination run free. Where would you find "Miss Sibyl Thornton in her flowing nightie"?
* On a Rolls Royce.
It is the Rolls-Royce emblem variously known as the Silver Lady, or the Flying Lady, popularly called "Spirit of Ecstasy". Eleanor Thornton was the model on which the figure was based. Sibyl, I guess, was what Eleanor was called at home - the explanation for the Sibyl part.
Very few takers on this one.
17. Coda was a posthumous release of studio and live recordings of Led Zeppelin compiled by Jimmy Page in 1982. What is a 'coda'?
* Coda is the closing section of a musical composition.
18. If Keralites speak Malayalam and Americans speak English, who speak? Ameslan?
* Ameslan is sign-language used by the deaf/dumb people. That's what the question mark after the word speak was for! ;-) Speak? Ameslan?
19. Which African country gets its name from Greek for, you guessed it, Africa?
* Libya
One of you mentioned that it was actually Latin, but as far as I know it is Greek.
20. "Last words are for fools who haven't said enough!", whose last words?
* Karl Marx
(apocryphal, though famous) He said this, when asked by his housekeeper, eager for her 15 minutes, what his last words would be, when on his death-bed. What else could he have said! ;-)
---------------------------------
Try not. Do or do not.
There is no try - Yoda
--------------------------------
The scores (in chronological order)
1. Debashree Mitra - 8 (How'd ur quiz go?)
2. Rexy Joseph - 5 (King Of Quizzes!)
3. Rahul Pandey - 4 (california was a good guess)
4. Vijay Nidhi - 4.5 (some good tries in there boss)
5. Kunal Malhotra - 11 (nice, solid effort)
6. Rohaan Pereira - 11 (my regards to Cindy! ;-)
7. Ghevarghese Daniel - 7 (zorilla pretty cool ;-)
8. KS Jaishankar - 4.5 (good guessing)
9. Thejaswi Udupa - 12 (rocking hard!)
10. Shom Biswas - 6 (i did!)
11. Vijay Krishnan - 4 (100% hitrate)
12. Bhaskar Singh - 3 (Thornton was a real snorter though)
13. Kartick Suriamoorthy -14 (thanx for the tidbit)
14. Sandeep Unni - 12 (chase to be the Queuriest?)
15. Prasun Ramakrishnan - 7 (nice effort)
16. Sreeram - 7 (It's aardwolf.)
17. Venkateshwar K.R - 4 (Four pennies!)
18. Manish Chiddarwar - 3 (too bad it's not zephyr)
19. Syam Prasad - 7 (good show)
20. Mamatha Balasubramanian - 4 (thanx for tidbits)
21. Prithwiraj Mukherjee - 5 (enjoyable effort!)
--------STATS ------------explained-------------------------
Funnest! -
(well-phrased answers or just plain funny ones.)
I Almost Knew It on IAKI
All the 'dumb' Americans on Ameslan
Burndt Vijn on Brandy
All had professions of creators on Fictional Authors
what??...someone collects lawyers from Penang on Collector
-----------------------------------------
Ridiqulest! -
(answers that deviated from the real one so much, possibly good guesses (no insult intended), misled by clues - sometimes leaving me clueless!)
Female fortune-teller on Rolls Royce
Narendra Modi on Gujarat Riots
The Moon On Guala Caps
The Moon On Spirit Of Ecstasy (QM - what's this moon coming to?)
------------------------------------------
Guessest!-
(nice, educated guesses, good use of the clues, which, though wrong, are laudable)
Beer on Scoville units
Yucky on IAKI
Sun,California on Ytterby
Zymurgy on Zoril
Tunisia, Egypt on Libya
-----------------------------------------
* All questions except 15 were cracked
* TU & SU top the quiz with 12 points
* Average score :
-----------------------------------------------------------------
<<<<<>>>>>>>
Your performance throughout the series...
(in alphabetic order)
Abhinandan LN --- XXX7XXXXXX ==7
Abhishek Hariharan --- XX 2XXXXXXX ==2
Acharya Rajib --- XXXXX7XXXX == 7
Aishwariya V --- XX34XXXXXX ==7
Ajay Sahoo --- XXXX0XXXXX ==0
Amit De---XX5XXXXXXX == 5
Anand Sivashankar--- XXXXXX3XXX ==3
Ananya Deb--- XXX5.5X4XXXX ==9.5
Aniruddha Gupta---XXXXX7XXXX==7
Anish--- XXXX4.5XXXXX ==4.5
Ankur Jain--- 9X7X6.5XXX6X ==28.5
Anoop Radhakrishna--- XXXXXXXX5X ==5
Anshuman Mishra --- XX5XX5XXXX ==10
Arjun Siva --- XXXXXX49.5XX ==13.5
Arun Prashanth --- XXXXXX2XXX ==2
Aseem--- XX4XXXXXXX==4
Asish Koshy---XXXXX7XXXX ==7
Avik Chatterjee---XXXXX2XXXX ==2
Avinash Iyer---XXXXX3XXXX ==3
Avjit Chaudhuri---XXXXX7XXXX ==7
B. Sreeram---X465534427 ==40
Bharat Jayakumar---X042213X1X == 13
Bhaskar Singh---XX22X04.5XX3 ==11.5
Binoj George---7.5XXXXXXXXX ==7.5
Biswabijoy Sen---XX5X3X3X3X ==14
CoolDude9456---XXXXXXX1XX ==1
Debanjan Ghosh---XXX5XXXXXX ==5
Debashree Mitra---XX66.564343X ==32.5
Devilcat---XXXXX4XXXX ==4
Dhananjay Shettigar --- XX3.5XXXXXXX ==3.5
Dhiraj Ramakrishnan --- XX2XXXXXXX ==2
Dinesh Krithivasan --- XXX6.5X5.5XXXX ==12
Gaurav Lochan---XXXXXXXX2.5X ==2.5
Gautham Ravichander--- XX2XXXXXXX==2
Ghevarghese Daniel---XXXXXXXXX7 ==7
Girish Bhat---XXX3XXXXXX ==3
Harish J Prabhu---XX6XXXXXXX ==6
Husain Poonawala---XX40.5X1XXXX ==5.5
I___I 666---XXXXXX2XXX ==2
Ian Anderson---XXXXXX 8XXX ==8
Indraneel Sikdar---XXXXXX21XX ==3
Jaishankar KS---XXXXXXXXX4.5 ==4.5
Kamal---XXXXXX5XXX ==5
Kamal Rathi---65XXXXXXXX ==11
Karthik Ramgopal---XXXXXXXX8X ==8
Kartick Sriamoorthy---XXXXXXXXX14 ==14
Kasthuri---XX6.5XXXXXXX ==6.5
Kensy Joseph---XXXXX3X23X ==8
Kewl Kittein---XXXX2XXXXX ==2
Koushik Vedaraman---XXXXX5XXXX ==5
Krishna T---XX 1.5XXXXXXX ==1.5
KrisSriram---XXXXXX3XXX ==3
Kunal Malhotra---X4.5XX48X6511 ==38.5
Lahar Appaiah---XXXXX5XXXX ==5
Madhu M---XX 2XX2XXXX ==4
Mahesh M Nair---XXX5.57X5XXX ==17.5
Mamatha Balasubramaniam---XXX3 221.5X44 ==16.5
Manish Chiddarwar---XXXXXXXXX3 ==3
Minhaj Alam---XXXXXX2X2X ==4
Mohit Sud---XX 6.5XXXXXXX ==6.5
Naveed Mohammed---9X7XXXXXXX ==16
Navneet Bal---XXXXX5XXXX ==5
Nilesh Sinha---XXXXXXX 1XX ==1
Nithin---XXXXXXXX4X ==4
Parmitaghosh---XXXXXXXX4.5X ==4.5
Partha Sengupta---XXX1X331XX ==8
Paul Ahmitough---XXXXX9XXXX ==9
Pauline Daniel---XX2451X13X ==16
Prakash Pillai---XXXXXX5XXX ==5
Pramod R---XXXXX1XXXX ==1
Prasenjit Sengupta---XXXXXX42XX ==6
Prasun Ramakrishnan---XXXXXXXXX7 ==7
Prasun Ratn---XXXXX1XXXX ==1
Prithwiraj Mukherjee---XXXXX3.51325 ==14.5
Priyambad Pattanayak---XXXXXXXX3X ==3
Quizgeek---XX6XXXXXXX ==6
R. Krishna---XX778.58XXXX ==30.5
Raghav Narayanan---6.5XXXXX3XXX ==9.5
Raghavendra Achar---1X1XXXXXXX ==2
Rahul Chattopadhyay---XXXXXX6XXX ==6
Rahul Guha---XXXXXXXX3.58 ==11.5
Rahul Jayanthi---XXXX8XXXXX ==8
Rahul Pandey---XXXXXXXXX4 ==4
Rajaram Sethuraman---XXX1XXXXXX ==1
Rajesh Malviya--- 1.5X3.5XXXXXXX ==5
Rajiv Rai---XXXX 5XXX3.5X ==8.5
Ramkey---XX3XXXXXXX ==3
Ramkumar Shankar---XXX 3X1XXXX ==4
Ramsu---XX7XXXXXXX ==7
Ranganathan Sairam---XX 4XXXXXXX ==4
Ranjith---XXXXXX4X1X ==5
Ravikiran Rao---XXX3.5XXXXXX ==3.5
Rexy Joseph---XXXXXXXX45 ==9
Rinks S---XXXXXXX3.5XX ==3.5
Rohaan Pereira---XXXXXXXXX11 ==11
Ryan Michigan---XXX8.5XXXXXX ==8.5
Sameer Baxi---XX7XXXXXXX ==7
Samir Bora---XX4.5XXXXXXX ==4.5
Samrat Sengupta---XXXXX2XXXX ==2
Sandeep Unni---XXXXXXX4612 ==22
Sankle Pradesh---XXXXX3XXXX ==3
Santhosh D'Souza--- XXXXX9XXXX ==9
Sathish K---7.56.55X5.5XXXXX ==24.5
Satyajit Chetri---XXXX51XXXX ==6
Sharad Singh---XXXXX4XXXX ==4
Shashi Shekar--- 0X6X8.5X1XXX ==15.5
Shashi Thutupalli---XXXXXX34XX ==7
Shiraz---XX7X997XXX ==32
Shobhana Balakrishnan---XX2XXXX24.5X ==8.5
Shom Biswas---3.5X5XXX2246 ==22.5
Shrijit Plapally---XX2X1XXXXX ==3
Shrinath Nagarajan --- XXXXXXX2XX ==2
Siddharth K---XX2.5XXXXXXX ==2.5
Sivaramakrishnan---XXXXXX3XXX ==3
Sourabh Issar---XX11.5XX1XXX ==3.5
Stephen Mathew---XXXX3XXXXX ==3
Sujith Vijay---XXXX69XXXX ==15
Sukhamaya---7.5XXX6.54XXXX ==18
Suki---XXXXX1.5XXXX==1.5
Sundeep Venkatraman --- XXXXXXXX3X ==3
Suranjan Chakrabarty--- XXXXX6XXXX ==6
Syam Prasad --- XX4.54754X37 ==34.5
Sylvia---XXXX1XXXXX ==1
TalonX the Surreal --- XXXXX22XXX ==4
Thejaswi Udupa---XX8.5X6.57X7.57.512 ==49
U Damodaran---XXXXXX5XXX ==5
Udayan Chakrabarti---XX2.5XXXXXXX ==2.5
Usha Ramaswamy---XXXX1XXX 0.5X ==1.5
Vaidyanathan---XX57XXXXXX ==12
Venkateshwar KR---2.5X20 20X224 ==14.5
Venu Gopal---XXXX6XXXXX ==6
Vijay Anand Menon---6XXXXXXXXX ==6
Vijay Krishnan---XXXXX2XXX4 ==6
Vijay Nidhi---XXXXXXXXX4.5 ==4.5
Vilayannur Viswanathan---XXXX4XXXXX ==4
Vimal Vikrant Vardhan M---XXX2.51XX0.50.5X ==4.5
Vinay Sriganesh---XXXXXX0XXX ==0
Vittal Avinash---XXXXXXX2XX ==2
-----------------------------------------------
The toppers are
1. Thejaswi Udupa - 49
2. Sreeram - 40
3. Kunal Malhotra - 38.5
Thanks for all the support folks!
So, until the next time...
Bye!
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Coming soon!
ORACLIQUE
Are you in yet?
oracle- A shrine where an oracular
god is consulted
clique -1.An exclusive circle of
people with a common
purpose
2.Completely interconnected
graph
This will be my next series. Should
hit quiznet by April or May.
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