Welcome to Are You Quizzing Me. I am Vineet Nair with my Co host
Aditya Kashyap. This is a quizzing trivia
podcast show. Join us as we dive deep into
history, science, pop culture and so much more.
Let's get quizzing and we're back for episode number 88 of
Are You Quizzing me? Your favorite quizzing and
trivia podcast show. Aditya and I are back for
another round of quizzing. And let's start off without much
further ado with the audience question.
The audience question for today, which I will answer at the end
of today's episode is as follows.
And I think, Aditya, that you like this particular question
because it's one of your type of questions.
It's a listicle. Yes, Aditya has brought me over
to the dark side. So the listicle for you, my dear
audience, is this. I'm going to give you a series
of names, and you have to tell me what, or at least you have to
guess what these have in common. And these are the names Pierre,
Bismarck, Augusta, Montgomery, Lincoln, Madison, Austin, and
Jackson. I will repeat the list.
Pierre, Bismarck, Montgomery, Augusta, Lincoln, Jackson,
Madison and Austin. What do these have in common?
What is in common with all these names?
I will answer this question at the end of today's episode.
At this point, I would also like to acknowledge a message that we
received from one of our loyal fans, Mr. Aryan Sapla, who
suggested that we should have questions for the audience,
which would be answered in the next episode.
Aryan, thank you so much for your message.
Unfortunately, the reason we don't do that is because we
don't always record our episodes in chronological order because
we do this by ourselves. We don't have a team backing us
or anything, so we do this completely solo.
So many times we have to work around each other's schedules so
we don't always record our episodes in chronological order,
which would make it difficult. If we have a live question
though, we are looking to do something maybe similar to that
on Instagram in the future, but nothings worked out as of now.
So it's just going to be a little tease for you.
But thank you Aryan for your messages and please be aware
that we are taking it into consideration and we may have
something for you in the near future.
So let me hand over the baton to Aditya and see if he has a
question for me which hopefully will stop me.
And that's not a flex or a brag of any kind.
I'm seriously feeling that I'll be stumped today.
Yeah, it just sounds like you do have a little bit of a sore
throat we need, but knowing you that should not value even one
bit. I expect, as always, sheer
brilliance and display. So, and just because of that,
I'm going to start with a question that I know both you
and I love. Since you gave me a listicle,
I'm going to give you something that you love as well.
And this is a little story. Tell me if you know how or what
etymology does the story lend itself to?
So the story goes, in 1709 the British writer John Dennis wrote
A Tragedy Appears and Virginia. It was a distinct reworking by
Dennis of an older play by the same name by John Webster.
It was not a particular success on its debut.
It so happened that the critics and the audience didn't quite
appreciate it or like it, and hence it was cancelled soon
thereafter. What followed this play at the
same venue was the Scottish play.
So Macbeth played right afterwards.
Interestingly, Macbeth decided to reuse something from appears
in Virginia and John Dennis, who was not aware of this particular
reusing of his play remnants. I guess keeping it a little
vague just in order to stump you, they'll feel like you'll
get it immediately. John Dennis not sure or not
aware that this this thing was happening.
He went to watch the play to support the odds, and as he was
watching the play and he realized that they were reusing
something of his, he stood up and yelled by God, the villains.
And then this particular phrase that I beseech you to tell me
what was its etymology to the 1709 incident?
I've heard the story somewhere, but for the life of me can't
remember what the place is right now.
Leave it to you to ask a theatre question in a theatrical
fashion. Notice.
OK, can you give me the phrase again though?
At least the first part of it that he shouted out.
OK, there are a couple of versions, a couple of people who
are attending that that that day of the plays enactment, remember
him standing up and shouting in indignant indignation this
phrase. And it went something like this.
He said damn them, they will not run my play or they will not let
my play run but dash. And it's a phrase, right?
Yeah. Flog a dead horse?
No. No, no.
They reused a prop. Was it something with the prop
or something or something? I know the story, everything.
I've heard the stories. You said, is it a prop?
Let me help you out a little bit over here.
It's not exactly a prop, but let's say it was some sort of a
technical small technical breakthrough, a little
innovation. Something wrong with the
lighting? Something to do with the sound.
The sound steal my Thunder. Yes, it was stealing my Thunder.
As the story goes, as the story goes appears in Virginia.
The play had a moment where they needed to be the sound of
Thunder. And this particular director had
devised this device, I guess, or whatever, some sort of an A way
to produce very convincing Thunder sounds for the theater
audience. And it was being used in apps in
Virginia till it was cancelled. And then when Macbeth was
playing over there, they decided to reuse it for one of the
scenes, one of the dramatic scenes.
They wanted that Thunder sound. And so they reused this, this
whatever this machinery or whatever it has that he had come
up with. So when he saw this, he stood up
and he cried. Damn them.
They will not run my play, but they steal my Thunder.
And that's how the most commonly accepted etymology of this
phrase is attributed to John Dennis.
OK, that's nice. That's nice.
It's a very how do I put this apartment description steal my
Thunder. For some reason it seems better
in many days even though it has a theatrical origin.
Let's move on from that to something for which I am very
sure I will get lynched because I'm going to cheat a little bit.
But let's see, because I really saw, I saw this fact and this
was the only way I could probably put this question and
give you the fact at the same time.
OK? While these are popular pets in
the US and many Western countries, it is illegal to own
one of these in Switzerland. The common name for these pets
is an actual misnomer and is not used by breeders who tend to
call them cavy, as in CAVY. What pet am I talking about?
Some sort of a pet? Is it some breed of a dog?
Some specific breed of a dog. No, not a dog, but it's as I
mentioned, I'm going to read the question word to word because
I'm that's my first. I'm not going to be able to
rephrase this question because this is practically the only way
I can ask this. While these are popular pets in
the US and many Western countries, it is illegal to own
one of these in Switzerland. The common name for these pets
is an actual misnomer, and it is not accused by breeders, who
tend to call them cavy, as in CAVY.
You know, Sir, recently I've been, and this is I guess the
pop culture recommendation as well.
This is Instagram page called Minute Cryptic and they do
cryptic crossword puzzles. The bane of my existence.
It's a cryptic crossword puzzles, Yeah, for those of you
might not know are are crossword puzzles, but they have this
little bit of world word play happening and you're supposed to
kind of rearrange, reformulate, do anagrams and stuff like that
based off of word. Just because you phrase this
question in a certain way, you said you're not allowed to own
one of these in Switzerland. It makes you think that you can
only own them in pairs. And I feel like I've heard this
about a certain type of pet in Switzerland, and I know it's not
dogs or cats. I, I want to say something
smaller. Is it like a hamster?
Are you, are you not allowed to own only one hamster?
No. Very close, Very close, very
close. I I OK, I would then point you
towards the second clue in the question, whether the common
name for these pets is an actual misnomer.
Like it's an actual misnomer. The name for these pets.
It's a misnomer. Name for the pet is misnomer.
That's that's that's. The common name, like breeders
call them cavi. But if you said cavi, do you
want a cavi F as a pet? You'd be like what?
But at the same time, if you said the common name, you'd be
like, ah OK, those are cute. Some sort of pet, and most pets
are cute. No, I I will disagree with you
there. I know people who own snakes.
Talk to talk to a snake pet owner and they'll tell you that
snakes are cute. Yeah, I'm not saying this is my
opinion, but I'm saying those own snakes as pets probably do
things snakes and I'm nobody to find them.
But anyways, coming back to this.
So let me just understand this. So if it was the answer was a
dog or if it was a hamster, you're saying the word hamster
is a misnomer. Is that what's made?
Yes, yes. Oh, interesting.
So the common name for this pet is a misnomer?
Yeah, What is that? I'm not even sure what that
means. So like, we've been calling it
the wrong name all along. Like a mouse is not actually a
mouse, but it's something. Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly.
That's that's what. That's exactly what it means.
That that clue confuses me. You know this has been happening
recently. Your clues have confused me more
than the actual question. It's just the question was
straightforward in the clue. I need to survive.
I'm taking like very common everyday facts and trying to
craft them into questions which will stump you.
Yeah, we are closing in on three digits on our trivia questions
episode, so we do need to get creative.
I get that. But anyways, coming back to this
cabbie. So, OK, it's not a hamster.
Something close. Mouse or mice.
I get mice. I don't think you need to be in
pairs. Turtles.
I don't think turtles. Goldfish.
No, I don't think it will be a goldfish either.
Because goldfish aren't technical technically, you know,
misnomers because they had to have a golden color and they are
fish. It's a misnomer.
This misnomer thing is very interesting.
Any other clue? Any other clue for what this pet
might be? It's also used as a metaphor.
The name of the pet itself is sometimes used as a metaphor or
the simile. That could apply to anything and
everything. You know, I mean, like, how many
times would you use a hamster as a metaphor?
Oh yeah, that wrong choice hamster wheel.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, that's a wrong choice. Wrong choice.
But yeah, you're right, most pets can be used as pets.
Yeah. OK, let me put it this way.
This is a giveaway, but these are very popular in the science
field or in the field of science, or at least when people
talk about the field of science. Mice, then the Lab Rats.
Yes, but if not Lab Rats, which one?
What do you think about? Not Lab Rats and regular rats.
They have the same function as Lab Rats, but.
If not Lab Rats, then just slightly under qualified rats.
Rats who did not study for the J JRE.
Labs rats without PhDs Pinky in the brain comes to mind.
So no what I'm thinking and OK, so this is the last and final
and very giveaway clue. When you say that you know
something somebody is like being experimented on, you would say
either that they are a lab rat or.
Rabbit. No, I mean like, what's the more
common kind of usage? Guinea pig, Guinea pig, Guinea
pig Guinea. Pig, Yes, yes, you got that.
You got that. Yes, it's a.
Pig. Yes, of course.
Oh yes, of course. That's a misnomer.
Right. Yeah.
So it's neither from Guinea, neither is it a pig.
So it's a complete misnomer. They belongs to a group of
animals called cabbies, right, which are type of rodents.
So the capybara, which are very, very cute Guinea pigs, they all
belong to that kind of category. But yeah, so these are Guinea
pigs, where the name itself is a misnomer because it's neither
from Guinea and neither is it a pig, and because these are
intensely social animals who are affected quite seriously when
they are held solo in Switzerland.
You can certainly buy just one Guinea pig.
It's not as they come in multi packs, like in a six pack of
beer. But Guinea pigs are very social
animals and according to the law may not be kept on their own.
You have to provide a mate. So you can't own just one Guinea
pig. You you can obviously buy one
Guinea pig, but that's only if you already have a pair ready
for it at home. I had to word that it's illegal
to own one of them in Switzerland.
You can actually own as many as you want, but you can't own just
one. 11 I've read this. One cool, so nice crack.
Awesome, great question, fun question and as I said, a
cryptic crossword. Go check it out on I think it's
called minute cryptic on Instagram.
This person does one cryptic crossword clue everyday.
Fun, fun little page to follow. Coming back to my question, I
would love to ask a question from an audience member and this
has been in my e-mail for a while, so it's been almost a
month. So apologies.
And this is from a listener who has sent questions before.
We have Doctor Rakesh back at it.
Oh. God I love it, Rakesh.
I love the fact that you keep sending questions, but why only
do this bugger? I'll tell you why, because
Doctor Rakesh has mentioned yet again, and I think he mentioned
in the previous episode as well that he misses my pun questions.
He misses my questions with all the puns.
And that is something of a tradition that are you accusing
me As for some reason discarded. And I can only blame one person
for this, and that is entirely me.
I have to take the blame. What it did was my decision to
stop it. But having said that, thank you
Rakesh, for, for saying that you enjoyed them a lot.
You know what? I'll throw in a pun, at least
one pun in this episode and that's dedicated just for you.
So rest of the listeners, I don't care if you don't like
that pun, if Doctor Rakesh likes it, that's that's achievement
unlocked right there. The rest of us are Guinea pigs.
See what I did there? I cannot believe once in a while
that's not about at. All I know it's not.
I realized at the moment he left my mouth, but then I was
committed to the blade. So.
Yeah, that is commitment. I appreciate that.
OK, so we are going to talk about a logo.
A logo designs. A lot of logo designs have
lovely trivia behind them. This one is particularly close
to home for us. This logo was designed by a
student of NID Ahmedabad, the National Institute of Design in
Ahmedabad in 1971. Shekhar Khamat is a designer
behind this logo. There has been as because you
already said that there's a misnomer in the previous
question. I guess I'm going to use that
for this one as well. There is some sort of a fake
origin story that has been doing the rounds for for this logo.
And the theory goes that the logo was inspired by the
Kankaria Lake in Ahmedabad, which supposedly has a
resemblance to the logo. If this has been debunked, this
has been fact checked. Shikhar Kamath himself has said
that that isn't the case. He has mentioned that it you
know what, I'm going to hold off on what it actually means
because I think that might be bringing you too close to the
answer. But the fake theory is.
I already know the answer no, no, but I you know, but this is
a, this is a big, this is a big TIL for me because I actually,
The thing is, I've never actually fact checked this, but
I have seen posts on Instagram and Facebook.
I mean it's been there for years where they put the logo and the
picture overhead picture of the lake side by side.
And then they say that the locals, I was like, wow, hence
the blue colour and blah blah blah.
I just accepted as a fact, but it's not true.
It isn't. It isn't.
It's not true. Shekhar Kamath himself has
debunked this. It's you can find that and
Rakesh sent it to me in the e-mail and he did mention that
it's not true. And then I did my own little bit
of research. Quint has it as well as
verifiably false. Go for it.
Tell us the answer is. Yeah.
So the SBI logo, the State Bank of India logo, it's got like a
circle with a slit, right, going towards the middle.
And that is like a small end. And I've seen pictures of this,
like in Ahmedabad, like I remember Gujarat.
It was very clearly and it does resemble it.
OK, so now you have to tell me what the actual inspiration for
this thing is. This is where it gets
interesting because Rakesh mentions in his e-mail the
answer is that it is inspired from the bank token we used to
get while waiting for our withdrawals in front of the
teller. I remember those.
I am from the generation where, yeah, we used to be.
I've seen those tokens. Exactly, exactly.
We've used those tokens in so many places apart from bank, so
I feel like I've used those in gaming arcades and stuff as
well. So those, those tokens that you
would have, that would that would probably be given in
whenever you had to stand in a queue somewhere.
However, Quint states that Shekhar Kamat has himself said
that the logo signifies a keyhole and has nothing to do
with Ahmedabad Lake. OK, now I'm more confused.
Yeah, so it's a keyhole like the.
For anybody who doesn't know, please go Google what the SBA
logo looks like. But for those of us who are
familiar, it's the blue circle with a little bit of a white
line in between. And that could look like a
keyhole, no? I agree it could look like a
keyhole, but then why a keyhole for SBI?
Yeah. So I think a BA bank token made
a lot more sense to me. But again, Quint is is is not
not a completely baseless organization.
I trust them for the most part. So I, I, I have, I'll give them
the benefit of doubt over here. But if somebody else has any
resources which can point us in the redirection, please do send
us an e-mail and, and let us know.
We would love to track check ourselves out for the next step.
And that is the origin for the SBI logo.
So yeah, that, that is a question from Rakesh.
Thank you so much. I do have one more question.
I'm going to save that for our next question for my next
question. So before that, I'll hand it
back to you, Vineet. OK, so I am going to go from
there to something. Absolutely.
I don't know. This is a weak segue.
Just pretend I said something clever and wow, what a great
segue. So in his autobiography, claimed
to have been the first author to write a novel's manuscript on a
typewriter. Specifically, his novel Y, which
was famously set in Saint Petersburg.
However, some historical facts dispute what X said, because Y
was actually published from a handwritten copy, not one that
was written on a typewriter. The handwritten copy is
preserved even today, so we know that it was not typed on a
typewriter. But again, X did submit a
typewriter novel for publication immediately after Y, and this
book was the first ever submitted to a publisher as a
typewritten novel. So you could say that X was
partly right, but he got the novel wrong.
So who is X? And which novel famously set in
Saint Petersburg did X claim to have been have typewritten as
the first ever manuscript? 1st of a manuscript.
This would have to be, I was going to say early 20th century,
but I'm thinking it might even be the late 19th century.
Is it by any chance? No, I think Sherlock Holmes is
too late for that. Yeah, this is a little earlier
than the than Sherlock Holmes. Too late for Jane Austen and
stuff. Yes, Jane Austen was during the
Regency period, so yes, this is much later.
So did you mention the gender of this person?
Did you mention if it's a man or a woman?
Yeah, I'm, I'm going to tell you it's a man.
I mean, like we are talking about that particular period of
time, not that many women writers who would have access to
a typewriter. But again, as I mentioned, the
novel is a very, very famous novel set in Saint Petersburg.
Saint Petersburg. Famously said in Saint
Petersburg. Sounds vaguely familiar.
Am I right in saying it is somewhere around the late 19th
century? Late 19th century?
No, slightly earlier than that, yeah, maybe the the third
quarter of the 19th century. Who were the novelist at the
time? Is it one of these?
Shelley. No, no, Shelley, Shelley, Mary
Shelley and or you, unless you're talking about.
Percy. Percy, I was saying Percy by
Shelley. Percy by Shelley.
No, it's not him. Mark Twain.
OK, so if it were Mark Twain, which I'm not agreeing to, but
which novel would it be? What novel did he write which
was set in Saint Petersburg? Interesting.
Mark Twain. OK, I like how you said you're
not agreeing to. Yeah.
Mark Twain because I honestly only reason I said Mark Twain
was because Mark Twain has that award that is given to the best,
to the greatest contribution comedy in America.
I think every year they give out a Mark Twain prize, a Mark Twain
award. It's called, I believe, and Jon
Stewart received it a couple of years ago.
And I remember thinking Mark Twain I never saw as like the
king of comedy or anything, but clearly he has it.
And that's wow. Tom Sawyer.
And that's the only thing I can think of it.
But that's not Petersburg for sure.
Huckleberry Finn. I will put you out of a misery,
it is Tom Sawyer. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is
set in the town of Saint Petersburg, which is a fictional
town based on Hannibal, MO. Now you, you did not all into my
trap because I very carefully tried to frame this question so
that you would think of Tolstoy. Okay, nice, nice nice.
Yes, I should have that that that doesn't say that I'm smart.
Honestly, that's just said I forgot I wasn't the same period.
Yeah, I think Russia. I was like which Russian?
Which author who could do this? I.
Was thinking, oh, he's going to say War and Peace and Anna
Karenina or something like that. But they I'm just waiting for
you to go to Tolstoy. And then you say Mark Twain.
And in my head I was like, oh fuck.
No, no. Can you?
Craft this question in this bugger character, yeah.
Definitely, definitely. I read One Piece once every week
for sure. I mean, I'm just that kind of
guy. Mark Twain claimed at his
autobiography that the first ever manuscript which was
submitted for publication of a novel which was typewritten was
his novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
But we know from historical fact and the fact that we actually
have the handwritten copy that it was submitted as a
handwritten copy and not typewritten.
However, Mark Twain did submit a typewritten novel called Life on
the Mississippi. This was published just after
Tom Sawyer. And this book is the first ever
submitted to a publisher and a typewritten novel format.
So Twain was partly right. I think he got himself confused
by the time he wrote his autobiography.
Lovely. OK, I'm, I'm, I'm really pissed
at you. You know, I'm really pissed at
you. I go to all this trouble to get
you to say Tolstoy and you just breeze past it.
Like you couldn't even put a stopover at Tolstoy.
Maybe like Tolstoy, but no, he's, no, I don't think he would
have had access to a typewrite. I mean, like something at least.
Like I feel very miffed. No, it's just what I tell you we
need. I'm just that smart.
You have you have to play the man.
You have to play the man that sometimes is extremely stupid
and forgets the Tolstoy is a full digital answer.
OK, OK, but talk talking about stupid people.
I'm going to move to somebody who's definitely not that.
And that brings you back to Rakesh.
And Rakesh's second question is also a beautiful gift.
So I'm going to have to ask that one as well.
Since you spoke about logos, the second question also has to do
with logos. And yet again, we talk about an
Indian company and its logo. So what is the shift that can be
seen in the old logo versus the new logo for this Indian
company? And you can maybe give me the
funda as as quizzes in India would put it.
The old logo had something to do with the older business that
this company used to do, and the new logo has something to do
with the new sector that this company has entered in more
recent times. The new logo?
How new is new because of the what I'm thinking of right now
is something from the 70s. So I because I the reason I'm
not saying is that is because that's part of a question that I
want to frame in the next episode of the episode after
that, which I have on my question is right now.
But the moment I say it, you will catch on to it very
quickly. So I'm keeping my mouth shut
until you tell me what the time. Is this is likely that we might
be talking about the same one, we might be thinking of the same
company. So I I apologize in advance for
stealing one of your questions, for stealing your Thunder, as it
were. This shift happened sometimes in
the 8. Oh, OK.
So then it's not my question is safe, It's not what you're it's
not what you're thinking of. OK.
So, OK, that that leaves me with the fact that I don't know the
answer to this. Something that shifted from old
business to new business that fits a lot of Reliance.
Is it something Reliance Industries?
No. So I'll, I'll tell you, because
Reliance, I don't know how much it has completely abandoned its
origins. It has expanded a lot.
Yeah. In this case, they have nothing
to do with their original business.
No, they're completely shifted. Yeah.
So this is like Nokia, which started out of as a paper mill
and then became an electronics manufacturer, that kind of shift
you're talking about. And they changed the logo also.
They changed the logo also. And the logo reflects that
particular shift in industry. Yeah, they would do that.
If any clues, something that would point me in the right
direction? So we know this company.
So the name of this company is an acronym or like I and
sometimes I confuse an acronym and abbreviation initialism.
But it's an acronym where you pronounce the initial letters of
of the whole phrase as one word, right?
As opposed to an initialism, which is like who, which is you
pronounce individual letters here you pronounce it as one
word. So we know the company as an
acronym. The expanded phrase of the
expanded name, at least what it was initially had something to
do with its original industry. And I'll tell you what the
industry was also, it was FMCG. An FMCG company, originally an
FMCG company. I'm blanking.
I'm only able to think of Unilever, but Unilever is not an
acronym of any sort. Yeah.
OK, let me tell you one more thing.
Then this company shifted to the IT sector.
Oh, this is Wipro. They used to make sunflower
right? Perfect.
Do you know what the original name was?
No, I mean, it was always Wipro, right?
Like they've been on the stock market for donkeys ages.
Yes, but it used to stand for initially, I guess Western
Indian Palm refined oils or Western Indian vegetable
products limited either of these, which should also be
Wipro in both cases, yeah, that's where the Wipro came
from. We thought they made sunflower
oil. I mean like they made all kinds
of oil or. I think.
I think they were a manufacturer of cooking oils in general.
Oh, OK. But sunflower oil was one of
their flagship products, which is why the original logo was the
sunflower. Yeah, yeah, the colourful
sunflower. Exactly the colourful sunflower.
It looks like a printing error I guess and which is not a great
thing for an IT company. And they moved to the dots.
If you know what the Wipro dots are, the logo.
That doesn't look all that great.
Well, in any case, it has and the idea behind this is as
Rakesh mentions, they changed the logo with a lot of dots
indicating that they are there to connect the dots for
customers. Yeah, it doesn't make sense
because the logo does not have any lines connecting the dots.
That's true. I guess they wanted to.
Say that there are a lot of dots.
You will get a lot of dots from us.
You want to connect. Connect the lines yourself.
Yeah, connect the dots yourself. Yeah, making you self reliant.
I guess we pro doesn't want you to be dependent on them.
Yeah. So these are two brilliant
questions. Thanks, Rakesh.
Thank you one more time. Yes, Rakesh, I appreciate the
fact that you are sending questions, but let me again put
it on the record that I am not a fan of you guys sending all the
questions to Aditya. Only I, I feel just like a
silent message that's being passed on to me.
You know that it's like like when they say that the mother
never has a favorite son. It's always false.
Mothers always have a favorite son and right now you guys have
shown that Aditya is the favorite son.
Now, if that piece of emotional blackmail doesn't get you
buggers to start sending me questions, why is your life a
little easier? Nah, What is wrong with you
people? Here's here's how I would put
it, actually. In fact, what they see is that
Vineet is just unstoppable. He is an unstoppable force,
yeah. Yeah, yeah.
So they, they, they just want to, they want to throw
challenges that we need to see how far they can push him.
And he comes back, fighting back hard as ever, every single time.
Yeah, sounds good. Not the truth.
Hello. Moving on from vegetable oil to
again insert clever segue here. The question is as follows, with
the market value at the time of $15,000.
The dress was first presented on the catwalk by model Amber
Valletta and was featured in Versace's main advertising
campaign that year. It was worn by Donatella Versace
to the Met Gala and then by Jerry Halliwell, famous Spice
Girl, at the NRJ Music Awards in France.
A month later, this dress unexpectedly put into motion
events which led to an Internet revolution.
A year later, put Funda. Internet revolution.
That just makes me think of the the white and gold, blue and
black dress. No, no, no, no, no.
This is not that. I don't.
Think that was worth $15,000 or anything?
Yeah. So you said Amber Valletta made
it popular, and you said who else wore it?
So it was first presented on the catwalk by model Amber Valletta.
It was featured in Versace's main advertising campaign that
year. It was won by Donatella Versace
to the Met Gala and then by Jerry Hannibal at the NRJ Music
Award. You know Jerry Hannibal, right?
So she's a it's raining men that her.
So yeah. So then a month later, this
dress unexpectedly put into motion events which led to an
Internet revolution. A year later, put funda.
To all those who don't know what put funda means, I mean like
since our majority of our audience is from India, you
probably do know. But if you are not from India,
put Funda is a very stereotypical Indian quizmaster
phrase which basically means make sense of whatever I just
said I. Don't know, I have no clue what
so I am not ringing anywhere. OK, OK, so my clue to you would
be think the 42nd Grammy Awards and think who did he?
Sean Coombs. Did he today just makes you
think of makes you think of crimes.
But 42nd Grammy, That's quite a while back, right?
I don't know. I'm not going to make things
easy for you. You already get, you know, all
the questions from the audience. Why should I make things easier?
For you, it is sort of remind our listeners that Vineet is
older than me. By a fair margin.
But but I like it. I like how people are not
defined by their age, not restricted by it.
I love I love this child like spirit in you Vineet.
OK, I think we are somewhere in the late 50s, early 60s kind of
Grammys. So I'm assuming it's like 42nd
is at least more than a decade ago.
Grammys. Did somebody wear a dress at the
Grammys that that broke the Internet that that went viral?
I'm, I have to automatically somehow go to Britney Spears or
probably like a Paris Hilton or somebody?
You're in the right direction. I've given you one additional
clue, so think about that. You said P Diddy and Sean Combe.
Yeah. P Diddy is generally just making
me think of crimes, right? What crime did he commit in the
early because he was just Oh God, I don't even know.
Sounds very scary. Whatever his answer could be,
oh, was he dating somebody in that face?
Aha, so now you caught on. Who did he appear with on the
red carpet at the 42nd Grammys? And what does that have to do
with our question? OK, it's definitely not Britney
Spears. Did he?
Don't think he dated Madonna would not be right.
Jlo, this is the only other female artist one that I
couldn't think of. OK, so you.
Cracked that you cracked that so then it was Jlo but.
OK. What is the Internet revolution
I was talking about? Oh, I thought it just went
viral. It just broke the Internet, is
that not it? No, no, it did go viral in the
sense, yeah, it was viral, but it directly led to something
which we take for granted today, but was a huge innovation at
that point of time. And it was inspired by this
dress and the events surrounding it.
Oh, did somebody ask? That can be it.
Did somebody ask Jlo who was she wearing?
No, they they've been doing that for decades.
Yeah, I would imagine that's a very old trend.
Some look at that Jlo war that was iconic.
I I would imagine this is something I would have
definitely seen. And that noise is not striking a
chord. No, you'll have to help me out a
little. OK.
So it was the innovation that I told you about was brought about
by a company that was only around 2 years old.
When Jlo wore those dress at the 42nd Grammys was basically a
startup, almost like in a startup phase.
Well, I don't know Myspace or something at that point.
No, no. OK, did it get its first own
Wikipedia page or something? No, no.
OK, I'll give you, I'll give you a clue.
So out of the two people in who are involved in bringing about
this basically Internet revolution or, you know,
innovation, let me put it that way, who were inspired by the
dress and the virality of the dress, there were two people
involved. And the second part, at least
one of them, the one that you may recognize, is Susan
Watchiki, who was the former CEO of YouTube from 2014 to 2023.
OK. So she was responsible for this
innovation. She was one among the team.
I think she was leading the team.
This is not. This is not YouTube.
It's not live streaming or something.
No, no, no. This is much before that.
Yeah, YouTube is much later. And the idea for that innovation
came from Jennifer Lopez's appearance on the Grammy.
Yeah, no, I'm, I'm completely stumped right now.
I have no idea what innovation you're talking about.
Like, OK, let's go back to the pre.
Like digital news every 5 seconds, Zamana.
And think about the early 2000s, right?
Or the late 90s, early 2000s. Now, if somebody told you, wow,
have you seen Jlo's appearance at the Grammys?
Like what would you do? I would hopefully turn on the
news and it's covering it or go to like one of the
entertainment. News and the news wouldn't be
like 24/7, right? You would have to wait for the
news to get to it so. Before the Internet era?
I don't know. I would not before.
I am talking about. The early days of the Internet.
Oh OK then I would I guess Google search for it.
And what would happen if you got a?
You did a Google search for it. Oh, did it?
Did it search for Google images as a search option?
Yes. So Google image search was born
out of this. So many people were searching
because it went like I don't know if you remember this dress,
it was a very daring dress. It was a green chiffon, very
daring dress. I think Jlo Re wore it a few
years ago, but it was so daring and it made the papers and it
was, you know, hugely popular, you know, and Jlo was, you know,
peak Jlo at the time. Right.
So many people were searching for it, and in those days, you
didn't get image results, you only got text results, right?
So when this happened, the two people who were responsible was
a recent college graduate, Hui Can Zhu, who was the engineer
and Susan Wajiki who is a product manager, and they worked
together to build it and single handedly almost launched it in
July 2001. So Halos green chiffon dress,
quite revealing. One in fact is responsible for
Google image search being gone. Now I can guarantee you that all
those people who are born post 2001 who listen to our podcast,
which let's be fair, a big chunk of our listeners are of that
age, will probably now be Googling Jlo Green Dress
Versace. And they'll get a picture
immediately thanks to Google Images, which in turn was
inspired by the green dress. So now I have completely closed
the circle. This is the tennis version of
the green dress. Except I feel like we have more
than closing circle really funneled it down to a very small
niche. Yeah, apparently it's still a
huge searched up. Like Jlo green dress is a still
a huge state. Searched up 20 years later. 2025
years later, yeah. I I just meant that I feel like
the are you quizzing me listener base is still a very niche
audience. I don't think it's making a
massive dent in Google search. Analytics massive dent.
Even one person does it, the loop is closed.
OK, fair enough then. Then please one person just for
we need say go and Google the green dress Jlo and we would
have closed the loop. Yes, so the I knew that if I
said Jlo, you would immediately probably catch on to it.
But not not a lot of people know that Spice Girl Jerry Halliwell
wore the same dress to the NRJ Music Award friend in France one
month before Jlo wore it, but she failed to receive as much
attention as Lopez did. Lopez arrived on the red carpet
of the 42nd Grammy Awards in the company of her then boyfriend
Sean PDD Coombs, who was dressed in a grey suit.
Very cool, very OK. That sounds like a lot of fun.
OK, so let's start winding up today's episode by answering our
audience question, which I asked at the beginning of today's
episode. So my question was what's common
in the following names? Pierre, Bismarck, Montgomery,
Augusta, Jackson, Lincoln, Madison and Austin.
What's common? I know Lincoln and Madison,
apart from being American presidents, are also, and he's
in Austin also. Austin, Pierre Pierre, Is there
a Bismarck? Is there Augusta?
If you're going to say Austin and Lincoln, I'm very intended
to say these are American state capitals.
Oh. Yes, these are all US state
capitals. Madison is the capital of
Wisconsin, Austin is the capital of Texas, Pierre is the capital
of South Dakota, Bismarck is the capital of North Dakota.
Beard that Pierre is a French name and Bismarck is Germany.
Lincoln, capital of Nebraska, Jackson, capital of Mississippi,
Augusta is the capital of Maine, and Montgomery is the capital of
Alabama. OK, OK, So that was our audience
question. Which are they cracked in record
time as usual, The favorite son after all.
So, Mr. Favorite Son, what's your pop culture recommendation
for today? OK, so I already mentioned
minute cryptic that is going to be once more recommendation.
So please do go check it out. It's it's a lovely Instagram
page that you should be following If you like crosswords
and you like to be stumped a little bit once in a while.
I'm going to recommend another Instagram account.
And I don't even know where to where to categorize this ads,
but check it out. It's called eavesdrop dot PNG.
So eavesdropping, I think is what they're going for.
So eavesdrop dot PNG it's kind of a show and very short.
Somebody says 2 old friends try staying friends and they post
content twice a week. Is this a beautiful slice of
life? Drama, romance, little bit of
comedy kind of space, pretty well acted.
I enjoyed the performances of these two actors and the
supporting cast as well. Well directed, well short.
So I because I love film, I love cinema, I am part of that world.
I thoroughly enjoyed these creators, these artists bringing
that world into Instagram and using the medium very
effectively to sort of bridge the gap.
Maybe not for everybody, but I would just checking it out and
start from the beginning. Honestly, even become episode
somewhere, somewhere in between. These are very bite sized, won't
take up too much time. Check it out eavesdrop dot PNG
eavesdropping and the other one has already mentioned minute
cryptic. The third recommendation I have
is for a live show and this is a dear friend of mine, Tarang
Hardiker. You might have seen some of his
reads go viral recently. He does a lot of observation
comedy, especially language based observational comedy.
The one that went massively viral was him talking about
being drunk and how that's just a very funny user of the word
that you have to drink so much that you are the past tense of
the verb. Suddenly you are drunk.
So I thought that was brilliant. And yeah, a lot of people have
loved it. So he's going on tour, he's
checking on multiple cities. So he just, I just attended a
show of his in Mumbai and he is going to be hitting Bangalore
and I believe Delhi and a bunch of other places as well.
So audiences across India, this is a chance to go check out a
dear friend of mine, but more importantly a phenomenal stand
up comic. Yeah, his one hour act is worth
your time. So go check that out.
That's a live show recommendation.
And I already mentioned 2 Instagram pages, minute, cryptic
and eavesdropping. Great.
I have two recommendations. Both are podcast
recommendations, which are diametrically opposite.
One is a podcast called Legacy. It's hosted by noted historian
Peter Frankepen. And it takes a very deep dive on
certain individuals to kind of look at their lives and also put
them in the modern context to see if their reputation or how
the way we think of them today is deserved or not, right?
So it's like an examining of the person, their personality, their
effect on history, and how that, you know, kind of applies to our
modern day and what we think of them.
Is it a deserved reputation or not?
So it's called Legacy. It's a fantastic podcast #2 I
would recommend a completely different podcast, which is a
horror fiction podcast, which is called 13.
And these guys do a phenomenal job.
So much so that I can't listen to more than a couple of them,
couple of their episodes at a time.
And their episodes are anywhere between half an hour to one hour
in length. But those are they do some
pretty intense and immerse stories, immersive stories.
And they can pretty much, I mean, like I, I, it's like
reading vintage Stephen King just listening to it.
So that's my recommendation for today for for this week.
Basically one is the podcast Legacy by Peter Peter
Frankelpan. And the second one is a podcast
called 13, which is a horror fiction podcast.
So those are my recommendations. That's all for this episode.
Thank you all for listening in. We hope you enjoyed the show and
learned something new. If you liked what you heard,
please consider subscribing to our podcast and leaving us a
review on your favorite podcast platform or wherever you get
your podcast. It helps us reach a wider
audience and allows more people to discover and enjoy the show.
Seriously people, 2 seconds. It takes you 2 seconds to give
us a five star review. Come on, you can do it.
I know you can. Or maybe if Aditya tells you
you'll do it, but in either way, I'm I'm hoping he will and you
will do it. You know, so we we'd also love
to hear from you feedback, suggestions and even trivia.
You can reach us on Instagram and are you quizzing me?
You can send us questions that you want asked on the show to
areyouquizzing@gmail.com with the name of the quiz master in
the subject line. We can also join our community
on Reddit, which is R slash, are you quizzing me?
Shout out to Ashwin Maskaranis who quite diligently keeps up
with that because it's him. It's almost single handedly
managing that Reddit subreddit. And you can also find a podcast
on YouTube, which is again something that I have to give
props to Aditya for. We appreciate your support and
look forward to sharing more episodes with you in the future
and interacting with you. Thanks again for tuning in and
have a great day. And Mr. Favored Son, please your
words as well, please repeat what I said that so people will
actually listen and do something.
I will do the needful. I will love for the audience to
recommend this to a friend. Send it to somebody.
Any piece of trivia that you love, just go tell a friend to
go listen to the episode. It is the best way for us to
grow. And yes, of course, if you did
like it, if you did enjoy it, rate US.
That's that's a lovely gift from you back to us.
And this one is only for Doctor Rakesh.
So everybody else can honestly just switch off the episode.
Go listen to something else. Go listen to Vineet's
recommendations. But Rakesh, this one's for you.
If the designer for the dress wanted to hand it to Jennifer
Lopez, the dress before she wore it and like just before she went
on to the Grammys and this designer was for some reason
from Haryana. What would the designer say?
Oh God, this is going to be something horrific, isn't it?
The designer would say Jlo. Oh God, I I hope Doctor Rakesh
appreciate some multilingual punnery.
Yeah, yeah. On that note, I'll see you guys
next week. Yeah, bye.