FUNDAMENTALS
This week's special is a potpourri of questions. We will resume reader contributions from next week. Write to us senjam@gmail.com.
MIXED BAG
1. In what landmark event involved casher Sharon Buchanan and shopper Clyde Dawson at the Marsh Supermarket at Troy, Ohio?
2. The founder of which company commissioned the iconic Little Mermaid statue that sits on a rock in Copenhagen harbor?
3. In which city, would you find the maximum number of Brummies?
4. What transpired when photography business owner Joanna Ferrone and art director Sue Rose had met up for drinks at a New York bar in 1985,?
5. All Blaupunkt audio products carry the symbol of a Blue Dot. Why the blue dot?
6. Shaktiman trucks were the original bulwark of the Indian army carrying men and goods across the country. The name Shakti comes from Hindi for power. Where does 'Man' come from?
7. The Schengen vias allows you access into several European countries. Why is the visa called Schengen visa?
8. Which French opera composed by Léo Delibes is the story of love across ethnic and religious divides and features the daughter of Nilakantha, fanatical leader of a banned Hindu cult?
9. Which term coined by eminent economist Raj Krishna became history with the liberalization of the Indian economy in the 1990s?
10. A person from Oxford University is called Oxonian. What is a person from Cambridge university called?
11. What did Richland in New Jersey rename itself for a brief in exchange of five thousand dollars donated by Bacardi for recreational projects in the town?
12. During the heydays of cigarette advertising, Suresh Oberoi as the face of Four Square with tagline 'Live Life Kingsize'. ITC launched a short lived brand called 'Super Star' to counter Godfrey Phillip's Four Square in kingsize filter category. Which actor was the face of this brand?
13. There is no Nobel Prize in mathematics, but two prizes, one established by a Norwegian Government and other by the International Mathematical Union, is regarded as its equivalent. Name both?
14. Which place was originally called Bhubandanga after a notorious dacoit named Bhuban Dakat who flourished in the region?
15. Which famous geographical landmark features on the logo of Prudential Insurance of America.?
16. The first book written by Mahatma Gandhi was completed in 10 days on board a ship and is in the form of a dialogue between 'The Reader' and 'The Editor'?
17. Which island country originally named San Lazaro is named after the Prince of Asturias who later assumed another name when he became the king of Spain?
18. The National Portrait Gallery of London has a portrait of the first Deputy Commissioner of Hazara district in North West Frontier region of British India in which he is dressed as an Afghan noble. Name him and the town to which he lent his name?
19. What naming convention did Australian Clement Wragge start in the 19th century which began with names of Aussie politicians that he disliked like James Drake, Edmund Barton and Alfred Deakin?
20. Douglas Adam's 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' features an "ultimate question of life, the universe and everything". The solution is calculated by a supercomputer over a period of 7.5 million years