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. Greetings, we are back for
episode #106 of are you quizzing me, your favorite quizzing and
trivia podcast show. Aditya and I are back for
another round of quizzing, and apologies in advance for any
rolls of Thunder that you may hear in the background, because
there's a thunderstorm going on right outside my window.
And before all my power goes out because of a lightning strike or
something, let's start the episode with a question that I'm
going to ask the audience and the answer for which I will
reveal at the end of today's episode.
What term is used in French cuisine to denote a dish with a
base of spinach? Not to be confused with a very
pretty looking southern European city or the restaurant which
serves the best chicken kafriyal in Goa.
Let me repeat that. What term is used in French
cuisine to denote a dish with a base of spinach?
Not to be confused with a very pretty looking southern European
city or the restaurant which serves the best chicken kafriyal
in Goa. I will reveal the answer to this
at the end of today's episode and now doubt our regular round
of quizzing. Aditya, why don't you start this
off? OK.
So today's question is a question related to history.
And this question has to do with a specific incident that
happened in very modern history. And that incident sparked 2,
let's say, significant outcomes. OK?
One of them is what I'm going to ask you.
The second one I'm just going to provide as a backup additional
trivia. OK.
Having given that context, here's the incident.
On 1st September 1983, Korean Airlines flight from New York
City to Seoul via Alaska was shot down OK by a Soviet
interceptor aircraft. This was a Sukhoi SU-15
interceptor aircraft. OK.
This particular Boeing 747 airline which was shot down, was
on the way from Anchorage to Seoul, but due to some error in
navigation by the crew, they drifted from the route and ended
up going through the prohibited airspace over USSR.
So 1983, that's when USSR was still around.
Yes, because of that particular error, they were shot down.
This was a very tragic incident because 246 people, the
passengers and 23 crew passed away almost immediately.
So this was a unfortunate incident in modern history.
However, it had two very specific outcomes.
Can you try to guess what were at least give me the one which
is perhaps more pertinent to everybody listening to this
podcast and most people around the world.
This won't be the flight recorder, right?
That's much prior to that. The black box is a little bit
older than that, yes. Older than that, yeah.
OK. Courier from New York to Seoul
via Anchorage, right? Correct.
And it was shot down over the USSR when it drifted off course.
Yeah, so the Soviet shooting down and South Korea's AUS ally.
OK now, because I was thinking of the hotline, you know, the
red phone they shown on cartoons and TV's.
But then I think that was also prior to that, it was during
Khrushchev and I think Kennedy when that was already there.
So then that's not it either. OK, I'll need a clue.
Give me a clue. OK.
So I'll just first, I'll just emphasize on what I already
said. This particular development or
this particular outcome has a very universal positive impact.
I would say this is something that is universally used and
applied. What year was this again?
1983. 83 went to trust, was in 92, so it's 88, so 84.
Yeah. So this would be just prior to
Reagan. OK, while shot in the dark,
Reagan's directive to make GPS free and to cast to the world
basically, instead of using it only for Reagan.
I think they did that in 84 or 85, I'm not sure which year.
Very impressive as always. Oh, thank you.
Absolutely right. The GPS project, the Global
Positioning System, practically everybody who uses a phone has
used it, and probably most people know about it as well.
The GPS project was started by the US Department of Defence in
1973. Yeah.
So it was used only for military purposes for the longest time.
When the Korean Airlines flight Double O 7 was shot down over
Soviet airspace, Ronald Reagan announced that the GPS system
would be made available for civilian use as of September 16,
1983, so pretty soon thereafter. It was 83.
I OK I kept thinking it's 84 for some reason if.
You did declare it that it should be used by then maybe it
came into proper usage maybe a year later or something like
that. OK.
Yeah, OK. This was an immediate press
release in the aftermath of the shooting.
And Ronald Reagan said that this once it is sufficiently
developed, it should be out there for the public good.
And that's what GPS came to be used by the public at large and
not necessarily just by the military.
And I would say that has been a largely positive impact of her
at the tragic incident that happened in 1983.
Yeah, OK. What was the other thing you
said you were going to keep in in the background just in case?
So I don't know how familiar you are with Lee Greenwood.
Lee Greenwood name does not particularly ring a bell.
The only reason I know Lee Greenwood is because John Oliver
regular listeners would know I'm a I'm a fan.
Last week tonight. Last Week Tonight has done in
Last Week Tonight episode about Lee Greenwood and Lee Greenwood,
a big Trump supporter and all of that, his politics aside, he's
known for his signature song, God Bless the USA, which Trump
has used quite often. It is used very often when
citizenship process is completed for people in the US and some of
them oh. OK, yeah, the oath taking
ceremony. Correct.
So during that it's very often used and so so the episode is
related to that. But anyways, coming back to this
pop culture trivia, God Bless the USA was written by Lee
Greenwood in response to his feelings about the shooting down
of Korean Airlines flight 007. Oh, OK.
He wanted to write something that was an honest reflection of
his pride. To be American.
That's how the song came to be. Nice.
Probably not as important or useful as the GPS, but still.
That was a great question. If my memory serves me right,
somewhere in the depths of our previous episodes, I've asked a
question very similar to this, Not regarding this particularly,
but with GPS. But for the life of me, I myself
can't remember what it was. I just remember I've asked it.
So listeners, if anybody can remember what I asked please.
I think we need an intern at this point just to keep track of
the question that I've been asked.
Yeah, it's just, it's just ridiculous at this point.
OK, so let me just preface this in advance that wow, Aditya.
So drinking from a vodka bottle straight from a vodka bottle,
this is so impressive. Yeah, during a podcast and still
being able to answer questions. Drunk histories for nerds.
We do drunk trivia now, but. We should really do a drunk
trivia once. We should.
We should, yeah.
OK, So this is a fun little question.
It's very open-ended question and it's fun.
It's just an anecdote. It's a legend.
So take it in that sense, right? So according to legend, Matthew
Boyer played a spectacular golf shot in 1987.
It was described as a glorious slice.
So if you're a golfer or an avid golfer or whatever, you should
probably know what a slice is. Don't ask me.
I just know that there's a shot called a slice in golf.
My question to you, Aditya, is what was the end result of that
shot? What did that shot end up
causing? Or it caused something?
Major when was this? This was 1987.
OK, the reason, I'll just give you a clue about the context of
why I decided to break out this particular piece of trivia
because for those who are listening, we are recording this
in the aftermath of the limited, so far limited India, Pakistan
conflict, which is currently in a ceasefire.
I don't know what the situation is when you're listening to
this, but as of right now, hey, ceasefire, peace reigns.
But I decided to break this out because of that.
Somewhat related in a very tangential.
Way what was the shot called? It was a slice.
No, that's just a piece of added information.
It's not going to give you anything more.
And the year was 1987, is it? 1987 Yes.
I'll give you another clue. It led to a Rube Goldberg esque
series of events. No idea.
I have absolutely no idea. OK, so let me just give you this
another clue. He was playing golf right next
to one of the national airfields of the country of Benin.
In Africa. Yes.
Does it have something to do with the India Pakistan issue or
is that not? That's reason.
I mean, like, you know how my brain works, right?
Goes on a tangent sometimes. So, OK, the the thing that kind
of sparked this, because I've had this in my pocket for some
time. I heard it a long, long time ago
on No Such Thing as a Fish. But I read a New York Times
article about satellite images of the actual damage that has
happened in the air wars that happened between India and
Pakistan and how India did most of the damage as according to
satellite images and things like that.
And that kind of sparked this in my head.
And then I also saw one of the press conferences of the
Pakistani air chief trying to answer questions from a
journalist. All of that together just
sparked. And I don't know if it's going
to spark anything for you but Matthew Boyer 1987, playing golf
next to a national airfield of the country of Benin.
OK, so I as far as I know, I don't think India or Pakistan
have any. No, no, it's nothing to do with
India or Pakistan to do with it. It's just that something OK,
People are just screaming at the radio right now.
This guy is nuts. This this question is useless.
I love how you assume that people are listening to us on
radio, but because my initial thought was that did have
anything to do with India, Pakistan directly, but I assume
that isn't the case. Which leads me to the next
possibility that it has something to do with the aerial
conflict. And did did this spark some sort
of skirmish? Border skirmish with Benin and
its neighbor. No it did not.
OK. But it did lead to a huge loss
to Benin. Did this short knock down some
radar or some some sort of equipment?
Oh, very close. OK, so knock down this.
OK, I'll give you the first step.
I'll tell you what the ball hit. OK.
So he teed off or whatever the term is and he sliced off maybe,
I don't know if that's a term, and the ball flew over and hit a
bird. And the bird then ended up
hitting a plane. There was a bird strike, the
plane crashed, something like that.
Oh, very good. Very good.
I'll give you this is this is the exactly So this is 1 of this
is the fun. One of the funniest stories
ever. Mr. Matthew Boyer playing golf,
poor fellow. 1987 hits the ball. Ball hits a bird.
Bird drops onto the windshield of a trainer jet whose pilot was
taxiing into position for take off.
Pilot loses control of his plane and plows into four shiny Mirage
jets, totally demolishing the entire Air Force of Benin.
Oh, that's that's unfortunate. Wait, is this real?
So Boya was jailed immediately for hooliganism, and his
attorney said he had no chance of winning a trial.
The country wanted Boya to pay $40 million to replace The Jets.
Since Boya only made $275 per year, he figured it would take
145,000 years to pay off his debt to society.
The News made a few papers in Africa and France in 1987 and
was also reported in Golf Digest magazine in 1988.
This is ridiculous. OK, alright.
This is where I have to put a damper on things.
I first heard about this, as I mentioned, on no such thing as a
fish. They mentioned it as a fact, but
after some a little detailed research, which means I
Wikipedia did it apparently turns out that this is not true
because the Benin Air Force never operated Mirage or any
other combat aircraft. Oh man, OK.
But it's a fantastic story. It is a fun story.
It's an urban legend, and my hope is that by perpetuating a
little bit of that legend that it stays alive.
So maybe 50 years from now, nobody will remember if Benin
ever had any Mirage jets. They'll just think like, oh,
Benin's entire Air Force way. I think there was a lawmaker
from Benin who once said Benin does have fighter aircraft,
which isn't. None of them work.
OK, well, that's a little sad. Yeah, some lawmaker from Benin
accepted that to be the case. Yeah, apparently, yes.
Fun question though, and I'm kind of not sure if I should be
proud of it, but we are perpetuating urban legends.
We're storytellers. All trivia nerds are
storytellers. It's just that we sell true
story, so once in a while let's perpetuate something which is
not strictly true. Some WhatsApp University stuff
once in a while. OK, actually WhatsApp University
is a very weird segue into this. Potentially going to get me
cancelled. Oh I love those questions so.
This question, as WhatsApp University forwards usually
claim, has to do with the world records.
Let me guess, UNESCO? Exactly, that is the vibe of
this whole thing. OK.
In the case of India, of course, it is very often things to do
with our great heritage and culture.
Our national anthem has been declared.
Our national anthem is apparently.
Best national anthem of all National anthem.
I wonder who is sitting and voting on national anthems
because I honestly apart from my own national anthem I have never
really paid attention to other countries national anthems.
Exactly. No, it would make sense that
India would win because if you would be voting only for your
own national anthem, that's true, Then India and China are
the only two options to win. Fair enough.
OK, so this one is entirely Again, we are going off of
Wikipedia, so let's keep our fingers crossed that Wikipedia
has got its information correct. I want you to tell me what are
the three largest temples in the world.
OK, first question, by temple do you mean Hindu temple?
Because there are other forms of worship which also have temples.
Very, very well caught. I'll have to accept the fact
that I was trying to get you there on a technicality.
Oh, thank God. By temple I mean something which
would be almost universally, because temple can be any place
of worship also in some definitions.
But in this case, I'm something that would be almost universally
called a temple, not necessarily just a Hindu temple.
OK. I doubt anybody in the world is
calling a church a temple or a mosque a temple.
No, but I think certain Jewish places they do call them temple
once in a while if I'm not mistaken.
You're right. Yes, they they do call it
temple. But in this case let's just say
Hindu or Hindu adjacent temple so.
OK, so the top 2 come to mind quite easily.
One would be Anchor. What?
Oh, very nice. Yeah.
So that is usually described as a Hindu Buddhist temple.
Yeah, my brother. For those who don't know, my
brother-in-law is in Cambodia, so.
Oh, I did not know that. OK.
Oh yeah. So he's in Cambodia.
So then my in laws had visited and they were telling me how
it's a huge Hindu temple and whatnot.
Anyway, original Hindu temple. Now I think it's Buddhist.
Yeah, so that's one. And the second one was, I think
there's the Akshardham temple in New Jersey, which was just, I
mean, like fairly recently inaugurated, which was supposed
to be the biggest temple right now.
And prior to that, I think there was a temple in Tamil Nadu
somewhere. And I think also that the
Akshardham temple on the border between Delhi and UP is also
pretty huge. So I'm guessing these 3 or 4?
Yeah, so I I assumed you would know Uncle, what is the second
one that I was hoping to also get you on, but.
No, no, no, no. Vineet is ungettable.
Yes you're right. This is the BAPS.
Or is it BAPS? I don't know how it's pronounced
but baps for this episodes purpose.
Swaminarayan Akshardham in Robbinsville, NJ is a 74 hectare
Hindu Mandir temple complex that was inaugurated on October 8th,
2023. It's a recent one I remember.
Year and a half ago and it is considered the world's second
largest Hindu temple. It is huge.
I remember thinking, because I think the the tagline in the
newspapers and the news at the time was it was, it's the
largest temple in the world, right?
That's what they were, you know, advertising it as.
And I remember thinking at the time, I know that there are a
lot of people in New Jersey, but are there enough people in New
Jersey that Hindu people in New Jersey that you would want such
a huge temple there? Maybe.
Maybe it's a drive to increase tourism.
Maybe some Hindu tourists would want to go visit the largest or
second largest, depending on how you can see it.
Temple in the world. Yeah, I was.
I was very surprised. Because I visited the Akshardham
temple, the Swaminarayan temple in Delhi, and it's a, it's a
pretty great experience. I think they accept people of
all faiths. You don't just have to be of the
Hindu faith to get in, but you have to be willing to stand in
line and you have to be willing to undergo some pretty invasive
security checks before you go in.
But once you do get in, it's pretty cool.
Literally in the heat of Delhi, the marble and everything, it's
pretty cool in a literal sense. As in a metaphorical sense.
I think that was also quite big, right?
It was it was one of the biggest when it was constructed, the one
in Delhi as well. Maybe one of the bigger ones.
Yeah, I had a similar experience in the Lotus Temple in Delhi
also, where I remember just being cool, quite literally.
Also just a cooling sort of effect, maybe because of the
construction of the architecture and just a lovely cool
experience metaphorically. So yeah, some nice temples in
Delhi. But you were right.
The third on the list, by the way, is the one in India.
So technically the third largest temple in the world is in India.
The 1st 2 are outside of India. The third one which you said
over in Tamil Nadu which is in Tiruchirapalli is Sri
Ranganathaswamy temple. Ranganathaswamy.
OK, that's Mahaveshwara temple. Have you visited?
Yes, I have. OK.
And it is considered to be the largest religious complex in the
world in active worship with a continuous historical presence.
OK, that's a lot of qualifiers, but yeah.
Yeah, a few caveats and qualifiers, but still, it has
some sort of standing in claiming the largest temple in
the world. Apparently, if I remember
correctly, it's one of the few temples standing today which
have a mention in the Ramayana. Apparently it's mentioned in the
Ramayana is what I'm told. When you go for these kind of
visits, temple visits, there are always these small bookstores
outside. Right.
Small bookstores which sell, you know, devotional hymns and
things which have written down. I remember buying one of those.
Interestingly enough, by the way #4 is also in India, This is in
Vellore, this is the Sri Lakshmi Narayani Devi temple.
OK, OK. I've not been, but I know of it,
yes. The fifth one is not in India.
Again, do you want to take a guess as to where the fifth one
is? Fifth one, is it there is a
Subramanya temple, that's a big Subramanya temple in Singapore,
right? Is it one of?
Is that? I don't think so, No, no.
Outside India, Nepal by percentage highest Hindu
population in the world. Yeah, decent guests, but no not
it is in the top ten. There is one of one of the
temples in top 10 is in Nepal. OK, the other I mean like I'm
trying to think of huge Hindu diaspora.
What? Simply Singapore?
Malaysia is what comes to mind like.
Historically large diaspora. Yeah.
So otherwise, oh, maybe it's one of the other ones like Fiji or
no Guyana or something like that.
No wait, Surinam I think also has a huge Hindu population,
right? All right.
No, no, you're not close right now.
It's in Asia. OK, that last clue will take you
there. If not, I'll give you the
answer. Asia.
Is it an active temple or is it like a historical one?
Like Anchor? What?
I would say it is a historical temple.
I'm not sure if they still have active worship happening there.
OK, so could it be one of those? I was thinking of the Bamiyan
Buddhas in Afghanistan. So then that's not.
No. Sri Lanka.
No. OK, I'll give you the answer.
This is in Indonesia. Oh yeah.
I mean, like, yeah, Indonesia does have a yes, they they have
a Ganesha on their currency. And the mascot of the Indonesian
spy espionage service is Hanuman.
Oh. Oh, wow.
OK, yeah. Trivia.
I did not know. Very cool.
This particular temple is in Yogi Karta.
Yogi Karta? I think it's pronounced.
OK, so that's Java I think. In Southern Java exactly and it
is dedicated to the Trimurti, so Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh.
OK and so in the top five. Three of the temples are not in
India. OK, so advance pop culture
recommendation is God's Guns and Missionaries.
It's the latest book by Manu Espalay, who is a historian and
author. I loved his book called The
Ivory Throne, which was about the royal family of Travancore,
and he's released a few others as well, which are quite
interesting. He makes for some very
interesting reading. God's Guns and Missionaries are
the reason I'm putting it in this context.
Is it goes quite into depth about how the modern Hindu
identity was shaped by colonialism.
He's not talking about the actual the points of faith.
We are not talking about the gods themselves or the Puranas
themselves or whatever, but how Hinduism took shape or the how
the modern Hindu faith was affected by colonial forces and
the powers and things that came through.
And an additional point, an additional reason why everybody
should be looking at Manu Pillai's book is because Manu is
a doppelganger for Aditya. Like you put Aditya in a pair of
glasses and they look pretty similar.
At least I think they look pretty similar.
They are both very lean, both have a very similar side of
beard and very lean facial features and whatnot.
So you should be flattered. Manu Pillai is a brilliant man,
so. I actually have heard about this
book. I've not read it yet.
He was on, I believe, Amit Verma's podcast Scene and
Unseen, which I've recommended in the past.
Oh, OK, OK. And think he was talking about
the book as well. And one of the things that stuck
with me, a lot of wonderful things that he shared, I'm sure
a bunch of it in the book as well, where he talked about how
the word Hindu, the definition itself, has changed so much over
time. Yes.
And at some point it used to only include the upper caste
people, not necessarily people from lower caste and scheduled
caste. Yeah.
Yes, Savarna and Avarna. Yes, yes, yes.
He mentions that in the book. Yeah.
I think that that points also been made by Shashi Tharoora in
the past, that rather than a very structural framework that
we see for Abrahamic religion. Abrahamic religion.
Yeah, Hinduism little more open source I think is the
terminology that would become where we adapt faiths because I
think this again, I'm this is not to just get cancelled.
It's just that I, I'm plumbing this from the depths of my
memory is that when I was a very small kid and my grandmother was
teaching me the Dashavatar right, she would always include.
So when it came to the final few, it was always Rama,
Balarama, Krishna and Kalki. So no Buddha.
Yes, So that was it. There was no Buddha.
I mean like, I don't remember anything about Buddha, but then
a few years later when I went past the stage of, you know,
this and trying to read things for myself, lo and behold, the
Buddha appears, which I've always found a little weird.
Right. No, it's interesting, right.
I think anything that ancient, any, any, any organization
entity, whatever you might want to call it, a religion synonym
that you can think of will have multiple variations, will have
changed something as old tradition dependent as as the
Indian culture was for the longest time.
It is bound to change over time. It is bound to have variations.
So yeah, this whole dash avatar, in some versions it includes
Gautam Buddh, in some it doesn't, is something that I've
read also. Yeah, yeah, you're right.
No, so that's what I'm I'm interested to know who it was
maybe 200 years prior, right. If we can get our hands on some
book or something from 200 years prior to that or prior to the
Buddha who was considered in the Dash avatar, it would be pretty
interesting to. And he also makes a point of the
Kalyuga that lot of the bad things happen in the Kalyuga.
So these are things that we have to deal with.
So similarly, the kind of adaptation that the Hindu faith
has gone through through these past Cup 200 something years is
also related to the Kalyuga that that particular concept allows
for that adaptation to take place.
Right, right, right. Also reminds you of the fact
that there are so many versions of the Ramayan as well, which is
also pretty fascinating, which is also very interesting.
And I remember watching a play and this is again, probably on
the on the cusp of, of getting cancelled.
This play was about this version of Ramayan where Ravan has come
to to abduct Sita and he is reconsidering it and he's
wondering if he should actually do it or not.
And Sita gets really upset and annoyed and she's like, you have
to abduct me. Otherwise the Ramayan doesn't
complete. Otherwise, how does my husband
prove himself to be the greatest man ever or whatever?
OK, cool piece of trivia related to religion and history there.
And let's move on to the next question that you have for me,
Vineet. OK, so talking about religion
and history, have you heard of Saint Clair of Assisi?
No. OK, I would be very surprised if
you had. Saint Clair of Assisi is widely
known as the patron St. of X. Sore eyes and embroidery.
OK. My question too is what is X?
What is she the patron St. of? What is the name again?
Saint Clair of Assisi. Assisi Yes.
Again, the name doesn't help. Assisi doesn't help.
What are the other two things that you told me about the
patron St. of? Sore eyes and embroidery.
No connection at all. Soul eyes and embroidery.
Maybe you're looking to close when you're.
No, I'm just making random connections.
I'll just tell you a little bit about her, OK?
Her original, her actual name was Chiara of Reduccio.
She was known as Claire of Assisi.
She was an Italian St. who was one of the first followers of
Saint Francis of Assisi. Inspired by the teachings of
Saint Francis, she founded the Order of Poor Ladies, which is a
monastic religious orders for women in the Franciscan
tradition. It was different from any other
order or convent because it followed this rule of strict
poverty. She lived between 1194 and
12:53. No, yeah, no idea.
OK, I will tell you the miraculous thing that happened
in her life which caused her to be declared as the patron St. of
so and so of X OK. In her later years, when ill and
unable to attend Mass, Saint Clair reportedly experienced a
vision where she could see and hear the Mass being celebrated
in her room. So Mass was being held in the
church, main church somewhere else, but she was too ill and
she was in her room and she had a vision of that same mass
happening in her room that led to her being declared as the
patron St. of something. Again, I feel like in this
episode we are bordering on getting cancelled again and
again. Is it the patron state of
hallucinations? No, not hallucinations.
OK, Patron St. of. I'll give you 2 more dates.
OK, so Saint Clair was declared to be a St., or rather, she was
beatified or canonized in 1255. OK, back then. 1255 by Pope
Alexander the 4th, but she was declared as the patron St. of X
in 1958. Very recently, in 1950.
Eight, yes. So there's a 700, almost a 607
hundred year gap between her canonization and her being
declared as the patron St. of X. 1958 hearing things are there
like something like radio? Oh, a little.
Late for radio? Very close.
Very close. 1950s would be television.
Yes, Saint Clair of Assisi is the patron St. of television.
Discuss. She could hear the mass
happening in another. Room OK, don't don't mock her
religious experience. Sorry, sorry, you know what, I'm
just going to get cancelled so hard in this episode.
But yes, OK, fair, so that that, but that is so strange to me.
Wouldn't it make sense to to make somebody more recent as the
patron St. for? OK, I have something to say
about that, but let me just complete this first.
OK. So Pope Pius the 12th designated
her as the patron St. of 1958, probably because of this thing
where she viewed she had a vision of the Mass happening as
and when it was happening in real time.
So it's like television, like literally television.
You know, the Mass is happening somewhere else.
She's seeing it live in her room.
So obviously she'd be more apartment as the patron St. of
television. Now you mentioned that wouldn't
make sense to have someone new or someone.
Someone who's interacted with the television has seen a
television and then whatever, something along those lines.
Yes. So there's something that's
going on right now that would give value to the words that you
said, because do you know who's going to be, or at least who's
currently popularly called the patron St. of the Internet?
Axo no, I have no idea. No.
Well, that would make sense. But no.
The patron St. of the Internet was originally designated by
John Paul the Second that was supposed to be St.
Isidor of Seville, who lived in the 6th and 7th centuries and
was known for his extensive writing and encyclopedic
knowledge. So because of that, Pope John
Paul the Second designated him as the patent service interest.
However, blessed Carlo Acutis who was an Italian teenager who
was beatified in 2020. He was born in 1991 and was
known for the deep love of the Holy Eucharist and his use of
technology to communicate his faith.
He is currently being dubbed as the patron St. of the Internet
and will probably be the first Millennial St.
His beatification process is happening on the way right now
and would probably be completed by 2025.
Very cool. So currently he's not St.
Carlo Acutis, he is the Blessed Carlo Acutis.
That is pretty cool. That is a neat piece of trivia.
Say. OK, again, I have no idea how
this works. I have no idea how they declare
patent St. of anything. I would imagine that that person
has had something to do with the thing that there are patronage
of. As I understand it, a patron St.
can be like those are declared by popes.
Like popes can designate Saints or blessed individuals as the
patron Saints of somebody so that they would act as
interlocutors for prayers to God for particular things.
Funnily enough, even the Archangel Gabriel is also
considered to be a patron of the Internet because he's one of the
communicators of God. Like fast communication, Fat
fat. Sure, I guess.
I don't know. I'm yeah not not a religion I'm
very familiar with, so I'm not sure about the intricacies of
it, but hey, good for good for Saint Clair of Assisi.
Still relevant I guess. And Carlo Acutis was born in
1991 and died at the age of 15. Oh, OK, wait, so so this person
is no longer with us. The person has passed away.
That's what. You can't be a St. while you're
still alive. Right.
That's true. That's true.
Science are declared after your death.
So he died at the age of 15, but his interest in using digital
communication was what is actually leading to people
calling him the patron St. of the Internet.
Yeah, that makes sense. He died of leukemia by the age
of 15. Unfortunate, but interesting
nonetheless. All right, on that note of
again, a religious question, I will ask you something that I
feel you have a religious passion for.
OK, that always worries me. Such a weird segue.
OK. Have you as a somebody who's
into typography and design, have you visited the website Ironic
Sands? Ironic Sands, No, I've not.
OK, again, this is the first time that I came across it for
this particular piece of trivia, but it seems like it was at
least popular in the last decade.
It was some sort of a blog, and something that came up on this
blog entered the lexicon for typography, at least to some
level. OK.
Do you know what is the term that is used to describe the
result of improper kerning? OK, Kerning is a space that you
get between letters. So the space we will add between
letters is cunning. If you don't do that well,
letters can appear very, very weird and very, very odd.
Improperly curled letters in properly curled words.
There's a term for that, and that came from ironic sciences,
what you're saying? Yeah, the blog Ironic Science.
But it has since then has had a life of its own, That particular
word. OK, I don't know.
I mean like yes, you'll have to give me as a clue for this.
All right, well, because this is are you quizzing me?
And I don't ask trivial unless it tickles something inside of
me. OK.
The fact that it is to do with the result of improper kerning
OK is very evident in the name itself.
It's obvious in the name of it, of the naming of the word.
Rather, the word itself makes it very obvious that there is
improper kerning. The word makes it obvious that
there is improper cunning. OK, listen, let's attack this
logically. If you're talking about
excessive space, then that would make sense because the word
would still remain the word, it will just look ugly.
If you have too little space, then words would come together,
letters would come together, which would make it difficult to
read. OK, so, but there are a lot of
combinations which can lead to that.
OK, one more hint. OK.
The word in question is derived
from the word kerning. OK yeah oh if you have improper
kerning between an R and an N, it can appear as an M if you are
using a sans set of script. So it would be cheming.
Very correct, Sir. Keming is the word used to
describe improper kerning. Oh, that's, that's clever,
that's clever. That's very clever.
Sir David Friedman is the author of this blog Ironic Sands.
I don't know how popular the blog itself was, but this word
became very popular. Since he came up with this word,
it made its way into textbooks or Google Easter eggs and other
places. So OK, nice.
It had a life of its own, nice and cheming, as Vineeth very
aptly described, is what would appear if there was improper
kerning in the word kerning itself, because R&N would be
very close together, which would maybe look like an M.
You know it would. It would look like a kerning.
Becomes cheming. Kerning is one of the most
important things, but I found mostly that especially in India,
you find words with improper kerning where you have too much
space between the writers, right?
In this case it is too less space.
Or sometimes it's not just the space itself, it's how much
space is perceived between the letters.
That's true. We have spoken about this in
another episode, yes. Yes, yes.
So go listen to that episode now.
Yes. Oh, by the way, just another
geeky typography fact. Another word for cunning is
more. Teasing.
More teasing. Very cool, very cool.
Yes, stop more teasing. Me and Vineet give me your last
question. Oh God.
OK, so the last question for today is as follows.
This film started out as a follow up to Space Jam, which
was released in 1996. It was going to be called Spy
Jam and was initially going to star Jackie Chan.
When that particular version failed to get off the ground,
the movie was reimagined and ended up starring X, who played
a stuntman who hated working with X, so he played a meta
version of himself who hated working with himself.
X gave up the opportunity to star in the sequel to his
breakout movie. Why?
X the character. X the actor.
So does the movie stars the actor X OK, who plays a stuntman
who hated working with the real X?
Got it. Now, X gave up the opportunity
to star in the sequel to his breakout movie.
Why? In order to act in this movie.
During the filming of the movie, X's impression of one particular
character, Z was so spot on that he ended up voicing that
character in the movie. Instead of the character's
current voice actor, Jim Cummings.
So I want you to identify XY and Z, who's the actor X, which is
the movie Y that he was supposed to act in, or the sequel to
which he was supposed to act in, and the character Z, who he
voiced in addition to acting in the movie.
You mentioned that Jack Jan was supposed to be part of what Spy
jam did you say? Yes, it was supposed to be
called Spy Jam. It was supposed to be a follow
up to Space Jam. I don't know if you remember
this movie. I know Space Jam, yes.
Which had the sequel eventually, yeah.
Yes, a horrible. One.
Yeah, apparently it was terrible.
I didn't watch it. Not that Michael Jordan's
original 1 was that great, but I remember buying the merchandise
when I was a kid. OK, no idea at all.
Absolutely no idea. OK, I'll give you the name of
the movie. With the movie about the
stuntman was released, that movie is out there.
No, that release that released. So I'll give you the name of the
movie which may give you a game. OK, so when Spy Jam failed to
get off the ground, the movie was reimagined and was released
starring X. The name of that movie was
Looney Tunes Back in Action. Oh, that sounds familiar.
It starred an actor, X, who played a stuntman who hated
working with the real X. I've I've heard of Lee Newton's
Back in action. Yes.
I must have seen it also. Probably.
Give me some hint, Give me some hint.
I think I'm very close, it's just the back of my head
nibbling. The X had a OK, You've heard of
the term Maconnaissance, right? The Maconnair Renaissance.
Yes, yes. So this person had a similar
kind of comeback very recently. Very recently, this person had.
Not very recently. Recently, let's put it that way.
I've reached this age in life where even 5-6 years ago is
still considered very recent for me.
It's in the last five years. Oh, this is Brendan Fraser.
Haha, very good. OK, so Brendan Fraser plays a
stuntman in Looney Tunes Back in Action who hated working with
Brendan Fraser. He was supposed to act in the
sequel to his breakout movie. Why?
Which he decided not to and instead acted in this movie.
So which of his breakout? Which breakout movie sequel are
we? I'm guessing mummy.
No, he acted in the mummy too. Oh Oh yeah, he was in the mummy
too. Yeah, but the The Mummy made him
an action star, but prior to that he was a *.
Oh, then George at the jungle. Very good.
So it he was supposed to act in a sequel to George at the
Jungle. Now during the filming of this
movie he did an impression of one particular character, Z,
which was so spot on that in the movie he ended up voicing the
character instead of the characters long time voice actor
Jim Cummings. OK, this would not.
He was parodying Tarzan and but I'm guessing not Tarzan, right?
No, no, we are talking about lonely tones.
Oh, OK, so not George the Rungel parody.
OK nevermind. In Looney Tunes Back in Action
you voiced the character which is otherwise voiced by another
actor. No, no idea at all.
I I know I probably have seen the film but I just can't recall
some iconic Looney Tunes character then.
Yeah, it is a Looney Tunes character.
Do you? Want me to give my very bad
impression so that you can try and guess?
Oh yes, of course, I want you to give your very well impression.
OK, let me just get myself ready.
Is that the, the, the dog? The the, the really ferocious
dog? Oh, what's his sum?
It's. Not a dog.
It's literally not a dog. It's.
Literally not a dog. Yeah, but looks like a dog.
The the, the, the the Tasmanian. Devil.
Very good task. The Tasmanian devil, yes.
Oh, so see, my impression was good enough that you were able
to get it. Yeah, that was a pretty good
impression, yeah. Thank you.
So I do have a follow up question, a little more serious
follow up question, a little more quizzy quizzery follow up
question, nerdy question to the same question.
So in the movie in looney tones back in action, there is a spoof
to Psycho like the Alfred Hitchcock classic Psycho where
Bugs Bunny pours a grey can of black Hershey's chocolate syrup
down the shower drain while the tune of the murder is heard in
the background. This was a reference to the fact
that Sir Alfred Hitchcock used Bosco's chocolate syrup in the
original scene to simulate blood in black and white.
Yeah, yeah. Why was this particular scene
and this particular reference to chocolate syrup included in the
movie? This is a very deep cut.
I don't expect you to get it, but I just want you to try.
Why? As in like, apart from the fact
that it's just a very iconic scene, there's.
A very meta reference here to the Psycho movie.
Like if you look at the Psycho movie itself, there's a meta
reference that you could possibly make out in this.
Something to do with the parallels between the
characters. Bugs Bunny as a parallel to that
the. No.
OK, why chocolate self? So the Bugs Bunny pours
chocolate syrup, right? So why did they choose that
particular sequence to spoof in the movie?
I know in in Psycho it was not the first times that you saw a
toilet being flushed. No, All of that is fine.
All of that is fine. Right.
OK, nothing like that. Yes.
So this particular sequence was chosen for a reason.
The chocolate syrup part of it is what is the question here?
Yes, that's exactly my question. OK, no idea.
No, no idea. OK, so let me just put it this
way. I'm going to walk you through
and see if you can get to the answer right.
Bugs Bunny is pouring down a very obviously labeled Hershey's
Chocolate syrup in a reference to Psycho.
Sure. In the original, Alfred
Hitchcock used Bosco's chocolate syrup to simulate blood.
OK. So there's a reciprocal
reference here and I wanted to try and get that.
Hitchcock, Bosco, Bugs Bunny, Hershey's.
What? No, I have no clue.
Did Bugs Bunny get dissed by her?
She's at some point? I don't know.
No, no, no, you missed the point a little bit.
But I this is going to be very deep cut.
I don't expect anybody to get this.
If anyone in our audience has got it, kudos to you because I
made this very confusing. So the for the meta reference
here is Bosco's chocolate syrup. OK.
Because not many people know that the very first loony tone
was Bosco, a character called Bosco who was supposed to be a
Negro boy. He was the first recurring
character in Leon Schlesinger's cartoon series and was the star
of 39 Looney tone shots released by the Warner Brothers in the
1920s and 30s. Very interesting.
I think his last appearance was in the late 30s.
After that, he's never appeared, except for once in 1990, because
it's a very regressive cartoon. Problematic cartoon.
OK, very interesting. Bosco was the first Looney Toon
and Alfred Hitchcock uses Bosco chocolate syrup, so they
lampolled that particular sequence in Luna Tones Back in
Action, where Bugs uses Hershey's chocolate syrup.
Really nice if you use like Alfred's chocolate syrup if
there was any brand called Alfred syrup.
Yeah, but I don't think Alfred's chocolate syrup is something
people would like. OK, very cool, very interesting.
That is. That is pretty cool.
Wouldn't have gotten it at all, but definitely ATIL for me.
Yeah, OK. So that's I think all the time
we have for our regular round of questions.
So before we will start winding up, there is the matter of the
audience question which I had asked at the beginning of
today's episode and the answer to which I will reveal once
Aditya has had his turn. The question was what term is
used in French cuisine to denote a dish with a base of spinach?
Not to be confused with the very pretty looking southern European
city or the restaurant which serves the best chicken caffriol
in Goa. I don't know about the Goa
restaurant. A pretty looking South American
city, did you say? Southern European city.
Southern Europe.
Nice. Is it something I'm thinking of?
French city. No, not French.
Oh, not a French city. OK, OK, no, no idea.
Too many. Too many options, too many
potential answers. OK, so the it's actually a more
descriptive term to get to the city, but still the answer is
Florentine. Oh, so does it have something to
do with Florence? No, it doesn't.
That's what I'm saying. OK, so the name for the in
French cuisine for a dish with the base of spinach is
Florentine, but it has nothing to do with the city.
So that's a descriptive sum for Florence.
OK. Right, but here it's a term for
any dish which is used with the base of spinach.
Chicken Florentine. I've had a chicken Florentine.
Yeah, I have had chicken Florentine.
Yes, which has spinach. If you're ever in Goa, there's a
bar and restaurant by the name of Florentine in Saligal which
serves, and I will fight you on this, the best chicken Cafrillal
in Goa. I will.
I will believe. You so much so that you don't
even have to order the item. You just go and say go in there
and say 1/2 and two boys. That's it.
You have to have it with the traditional poi bread which you
get, not the pow, the poi bread that you get and pass for a
little extra gravy. They give you the little extra
gravy and ask them to cut up the pieces and it is have it on a
plate. Well, I miss Goa right now.
That is a very neat segue into a recommendation segment, So thank
you for that recommendation. Yes, food recommendations are
are the best sort of recommendations in my opinion.
But since we do other pop culture recommendations as well,
let me just recall what all we have already recommended.
And the first one was the Manipulate book.
Yes, God's guns and missionaries.
God's Guns and Missionaries and what else would you recommend?
Vineet, What are the pop culture recommendations you have?
So I have two recommendations. This week 1 is a show that I saw
on I think it was Geo Hotstar. It's called Presumed Innocent.
OK. It's basically based of a very
old novel. By very old I mean the 80s by
Scott Taro, and I have watched a movie about the same thing.
It was, I think, a 1990s film. I saw it way back when starring
Harrison Ford. But this particular one changes
the ending a little bit and it was a nail biter.
It's a definite watch starring the very, very dependable Jake
Ellenhall. I think that's how we pronounce
his name. Ellenhall.
Ellenhall, Ellenhall, Ellenhall. That's one.
And the second recommendation is a show called Shard Lake.
Have you heard of Shard Lake? I have not.
So Shard Lake is a detective mystery series set in, I think
the correct term is, during the time of Thomas of Cromwell and
Henry the Eighth. So during that time, it sets
during the reign of Henry the Eighth.
So it's based off a series of novels by CJ Samson and Shard
Lake. The character Matthew Shard Lake
is a lawyer who has a hunchback, so he's known as Crookback in
the books and what not. He acts as a lawyer and as a
detective and the stories are positioned within real
historical events with real historical consequences and
things like that. And the show is very well done.
I would also recommend that single season out so far, so go
watch that Shark Lake and Presumed Innocent and Gods, Guns
and Missionaries by Monopoly and also recommend reading The Ivory
Throne by Monopoly. All of Monopoly books actually
are pretty great, yeah. Yeah, all of his books are
pretty good. I highly recommend it.
I'll check out the podcast episode on the scene and the
Unseen as well if you want an audio version.
Yeah, that I have to catch. I did not know that he was on
that podcast. I should definitely catch.
He has been there a couple of times, so he has actually
covered his previous books as well.
And all those podcast episodes are very great.
But if you read the books, you probably have gotten a great
sense of what he was talking about.
But let me talk about my pop culture recommendation.
And that is also a series and that is the studio.
My God, what a phenomenal series.
It is hilarious, it is incisive, it is satire.
It is just the right amount of everything.
It is out on Apple TV right now. Seth Rogen, I think is one of
the producers, one of the creators behind it and stars in
it as well. Phenomenal cast, stunning cast,
and just a funny, funny show to watch.
So check it out. Very well made, actually.
Apple TV is pouring some some heavy money into the shows that
it's making. Well, Apple TV shows are of very
good quality, by the way. Now, as I mentioned in a
previous episode, it's available to people in India now,
thankfully, who don't own Apple devices.
Maybe you had mentioned this. So yes, check out the studio as
well. And that brings us to the end of
the episode. Vineet your spiel.
Yes, yes, yes. So the spiel.
That's all for today's episode. Thank you for listening in.
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