History, Etymology, Literature and Mythology Quiz

QMs- Omkar and Anshul

Pounce +15/-10

Bounce +10/0

Some filler slides contain memes, but are quite normie-tier, in order to compensate for yesterday’s onslaught of crazy memes.

God? God who?

Solar Lottery is Phillip K. Dick’s first published novel. It takes place in a world dominated by logic and numbers. Loosely based on a numerical military strategy employed by U.S. and Soviet intelligence called minimax (part of game theory), the X, head of world government, is chosen through a sophisticated, computerized lottery.

X is a title. Name it.

Quizmaster

● In the olden times, as part of camping tradition, new and inexperienced campers were told stories about an imaginary bird called the X as well as a usually preposterous method of catching it, such as running around the woods carrying a bag or making strange noises such as banging rocks together. They were then sent on a “X hunt”. This was a type of practical joke in which a camper was made to embark on an impossible search.

● This story was however based on a real bird species called “Wilson’s X”, who were very difficult to catch even for experienced hunters.

● The verb "to X" originated in the 1770s among soldiers in British India in reference to _________ a X, which was considered a challenging target.

● In the year 1824, the noun Y came into existence. The word Y traces it’s etymological roots to this bird, X.

● Id Y.

Y = Sniper (derived from the word “snipe”)

OP is a ….● X is a humorous short story or vignette ending in a pun (typically a play on a well-known phrase) where the

story contains sufficient context to recognize the punning humor.

● This storytelling model apparently originated in a long-running series of short science fiction pieces that appeared under the collective title "Through Time and Space with Ferdinand X", published in various magazines over several decades, written by Reginald Bretnor under the anagrammatic pseudonym of 'Grendel Briarton'. The usual formulae the stories followed were for the title character to solve a problem bedeviling some manner of being or extricate himself from a dangerous situation. The events could take place all over the galaxy and in various historical or future periods on Earth and elsewhere. In his adventures, X worked for the Society for the Aesthetic Re-Arrangement of History and traveled via a device that had no name but was typographically represented as the ")(". The pieces were usually vignettes only a few paragraphs long, and always ended with a deliberately terrible pun that was often based on a well-known title or catch-phrase.

● Isaac Asimov used the song "Give My Regards to Broadway" to form an elaborate story pun in his short story "Death of a Foy".He uses the Marseillaise in the short story "Battle-Hymn" for the same effect.

● Comic strip writer Stephan Pastis often includes Xs in his strip Pearls Before Swine.

OP is a Feghoot.

2meta4you_kek

Interestingly, feghoots are quite popular on 4chan (enough meta- humor for a quiz, I guess), with “They see me rollin, they hatin”, and “Skyrim belongs to the nords” being top posts at r/4chan of all time (and of course, never gonna give you up).

Bring your daughter son to the slaughter!

C O N N E C T

"'Heaven'—is what I cannot reach!/The Apple on the Tree—/Provided it do hopeless—hang—/That—'Heaven' is—to Me!"

- “Heaven”, Emily Dickinson

Tantalus

Shit-tier Shakespeare memes.

X is an idiom to describe an extreme level of shock or an intense level of surprise, and is expressed as the vicarious sentiment of a deceased person.This hyperbolic figure of speech is used to describe the upset, disgust, horror or anger of a deceased person if he or she were alive to hear of a certain news story, action or idea – especially a negative one.The earliest known example is a 4th November 1801 House of Commons speech by a Mr. Windham warning Britain against giving too much power to France during the preliminaries to peace following the revolutionary wars: "Thus have we done a thing altogether unknown in the history of this country ; a thing which would have scared all former politicians ; a thing, which, if our old Whig politicians were now to hear, they would _______________.

To turn in one’s grave

Guess, guess! Apologies for the randomness though.

A popular joke told at that time was, following the defeat of the Spanish Armada, Sir Francis Drake sent a message to Queen Elizabeth I consisting of just one word “Cantharides”. So what is the English name of Cantharides?

No part pts, want specific answer here.

Spanish Fly

● The first documented use of the word X was in a 1703 publication that discussed condemned men approaching towards their death.

● The text was written in the Tyburn locality in London, where frequent public hangings took place until 1783. Back then, the drop method of hanging was not in use, so some men paid people to pull their legs to hasten their death. However, men who would rather go through the lengthy and slow death process were referred to as X.

● In the 20th century, the meaning of the word X evolved into it’s current definition after some members of the Conservative Party in Britain named themselves the Xs.

● Id X.

X = Die-Hard

Id the work being alluded to. (650-810)

The Tell-Tale Heart by Poe

Homicide, Highway Patrol, Arson…..● In the 14th Century, most goods were transported by ships, all over the world. In these ships, there

were certain barrels whose contents were dry and were expected to remain so. These dry barrels were specifically used for the transportation of medicines, dried herbs and spices.

● In the Dutch language, the phrase “X-vate”, meaning “dry barrels”, was used to refer either to barrels that had to remain dry or those that carried dried substances, often medicine. The contents of these barrels soon became called by the words printed on the barrels themselves.

● Another theory states that this word is derived from the Old French word X, which means “stock”.

● Over a period of time, there was a gradual shift in the spelling of this word, which is directly derived from the word X.

● What word am I talking about?

Drug (derived from the word “droge”)

Jeice brings the bantz.

X was a Hawaiian king. He conquered most of the Hawaiian Islands, formally establishing the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi in 1810. By developing alliances with colonial powers, X preserved Hawaiʻi's independence. He is remembered for the Kānāwai Māmalahoe, the "Law of the Splintered Paddle", which protected the human rights of non-combatants in time of war.

The title is an indirect reference to the answer, if you can figure it out. Gimme X.

Kamehameha I / Kamehameha the Great

Apparently, Toriyama could not decide on a name for his "Kame" attack, so he asked his wife, who came up with the name. She told Akira that it would be easy to remember the name of the attack if he used the name of the cultural Hawaiian king named Kamehameha (lit. "the very lonely one" or "the one set apart" in Hawaiian language).

Fear of the...In the anime series Tokyo Ghoul, the main protagonist Kaneki undergoes a transformation after being tortured heavily. This physical transformation, seen in the photos is based on an actual physical condition that X went through, hence being named X syndrome. It was noted that X went through a similar transformation during her capture after an ill-attempted flight during the _____.

Witnesses noted her going through the transformation at least on three different occasions during _____.

X syndrome is thought to be a variant of alopecia areata diffusa, and occurs in people undergoing heavy stress, periods of fear and sorrow, and unexpected news.

Marie Antoinette

As heat and cold met in Ginnungagap, a living jotunn (frost giant), X, appeared in the melting ice. He is widely regarded to be the greatest of all giants, and the father of all the jotunns.

Referenced widely in pop culture, “X Fritz” was the name chosen by Hajime Isayama for the first of all the titans, in the manga Attack on Titan. [there are, of course, many other references, this is simply one of them]

X?

Ymir

Rand reviews children’s literature!

Written +10/0 Bonus +10 for getting all correct

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I found this series about a boy who does not know his own worth less than compelling. “Twenty-five cents a day, plus expenses”? Set your value higher, boy.

I did, however, enjoy the fact that “no one gets away with crime in Idaville because of one boy.” All progress has only ever come from one corner – from the individual. The police in Idaville, rightly, exist only to prevent men from stealing from one another by force. An individual (God’s greatest gift to mankind was the individual) solves all other crimes through personal application, and is given money in exchange for his intellectual labor.

I imagine that Sally Kimball longs for nothing more than __________ _____ to master her physically, as he already does intellectually. Sally, you have found your equal and your mate; stand with him against the tides and rages of the universe, offer him your body as a votive and a sacrifice, and you will find you are standing on solid ground - Two Stars.

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These mice exist under conditions of the rankest collectivism and religious dogma. Altruism, sexual repression and vegetarianism rule the day. It is no accident that these toothless beasts eschew technology and everything that has lifted man above the life of a hunted animal; they are opponents of progress and of greatness. There are no trains in this story. They have seized the very concept of personal property and insist that all goods are to be held in common, which makes them no better than burglars. A vile little book. - No Stars.

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What sort of wages does this magical woman make? Why does she allow her unique and extraordinary gifts to be wasted on children, who have no money at all? Why does she permit them to associate with a public factotum, who has never mastered steel to his own will? Absurdities on absurdities. This magical woman should be the iron mistress of a steel foundry, or the consort to a leader of men, not tending to the worthless offspring of a visionless banker. --No stars.

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Excellent. The obviously unfit individuals are winnowed out through a series of entrepreneurial tests and, in the end, an enterprising young boy receives a factory. I believe more books should be written about enterprising young boys who are given factories. —Three and a half stars. (Half a star off for the grandparents, who are sponging off the labor of ______ and his mother. If _______ ____can dance, _______ ____ can work.)

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A farmer allows sentimental drawings by a bug to prevail over economic necessity and refuses to value his prize pig, Wilbur, by processing and selling him on the open market. Presumably, the pig still dies eventually, only without profiting his owners. The farmer’s daughter, Fern, learns nothing except how to become an unsuccessful farmer. There is a rat in this movie. I quite liked the rat. He knew how to extract value from his environment.

—Two stars.

EXCHANGE SHEETS

1

I found this series about a boy who does not know his own worth less than compelling. “Twenty-five cents a day, plus expenses”? Set your value higher, boy.

I did, however, enjoy the fact that “no one gets away with crime in Idaville because of one boy.” All progress has only ever come from one corner – from the individual. The police in Idaville, rightly, exist only to prevent men from stealing from one another by force. An individual (God’s greatest gift to mankind was the individual) solves all other crimes through personal application, and is given money in exchange for his intellectual labor.

I imagine that Sally Kimball longs for nothing more than __________ _____ to master her physically, as he already does intellectually. Sally, you have found your equal and your mate; stand with him against the tides and rages of the universe, offer him your body as a votive and a sacrifice, and you will find you are standing on solid ground - Two Stars.

Encyclopedia Brown

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These mice exist under conditions of the rankest collectivism and religious dogma. Altruism, sexual repression and vegetarianism rule the day. It is no accident that these toothless beasts eschew technology and everything that has lifted man above the life of a hunted animal; they are opponents of progress and of greatness. There are no trains in this story. They have seized the very concept of personal property and insist that all goods are to be held in common, which makes them no better than burglars. A vile little book. - No Stars.

Redwall

3

What sort of wages does this magical woman make? Why does she allow her unique and extraordinary gifts to be wasted on children, who have no money at all? Why does she permit them to associate with a public factotum, who has never mastered steel to his own will? Absurdities on absurdities. This magical woman should be the iron mistress of a steel foundry, or the consort to a leader of men, not tending to the worthless offspring of a visionless banker. --No stars.

Mary Poppins

4

Excellent. The obviously unfit individuals are winnowed out through a series of entrepreneurial tests and, in the end, an enterprising young boy receives a factory. I believe more books should be written about enterprising young boys who are given factories. —Three and a half stars. (Half a star off for the grandparents, who are sponging off the labor of ______ and his mother. If _______ ____can dance, _______ ____ can work.)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

5

A farmer allows sentimental drawings by a bug to prevail over economic necessity and refuses to value his prize pig, Wilbur, by processing and selling him on the open market. Presumably, the pig still dies eventually, only without profiting his owners. The farmer’s daughter, Fern, learns nothing except how to become an unsuccessful farmer. There is a rat in this movie. I quite liked the rat. He knew how to extract value from his environment.

—Two stars.

Charlotte’s Web

Object? Don’t question the QM’s decision● In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth was an elaborate maze-like structure designed and built by the

legendary inventor Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. It’s main function was to hold the Minotaur, a half-man and half-bull monster. Daedalus had so cunningly made the Labyrinth that even he could barely escape it after he built it.

● According to a Greek Mythology story, the hero Theseus was sent inside the Labyrinth to kill the Minotaur. He was given a ball of thread, called Y in ancient Greek, to help him find his way out of the Labyrinth of Minos. By following the trail of thread he left behind him, he was able to navigate his way to the exit.

● The modern day word X traces it’s etymological roots to this word Y.

● Id X.

X = Clue (derived from the word “Clew”)

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a 1968 British musical adventure fantasy film, based on Q's 1964 novel Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car. Q wrote the novel as a bedtime story for his son Caspar, when Q was recovering from a heart attack. Unfortunately, Q died two months before the book was published, on Caspar’s 12th birthday.

Q is famous as the creator of one the most successful book series of all time, which also

translated spectacularly onto the big screen, giving us one of the most recognisable fictional

characters of all time.

Identify Q.

Ian Fleming

● Jim Jones was a cult leader. He was a very charismatic and influential leader. He was the leader of the People’s Temple in Jonestown. On November 18, 1978, Jim Jones ordered residents of the commune to commit mass suicide. Around 918 people committed mass suicide by drinking _________________ laced with potassium cyanide. Those unable to comply, such as infants, and those unwilling to comply, received involuntary injections ahead of the main group. Jim Jones had previously had many rehearsals for the event in which the drink contained no poison, which led to cult members believing the drink was harmless on the day that it did contain poison.

● The above mentioned incident gave birth to a modern day figure of speech commonly used in North America that refers to a person or group holding an unquestioned belief, argument, or philosophy without critical examination. It could also refer to knowingly going along with a doomed or dangerous idea because of peer pressure.

● What figure of speech am I talking about?

Drinking the Kool-Aid

Mythology through postage stamps

Country might mislead you.Written +10/0 Bonus 10 for all correct

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6 ID Both. There are two possible sets of answers.

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Exchange Sheets

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Iris

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Ekalavya

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Leda

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Thoth

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Siddhartha/Lord Buddha

6 ID Both. There are two possible sets of answers.

Heracles (Hercules), Nemean Lion; Samson and the Lion

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Eight Immortals crossing the sea

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Rahu

● This phrase dates back to the US Civil War. One of the first recorded uses of this phrase was at the Confederate prison at Andersonville. To keep the prisoners from escaping, a _____ was drawn 6 meters from the heavily fortified walls of the prison. An order was given to the prison guards stating that any prisoner who came near the _____ or attempted to cross it should be immediately shot down.

● Unfortunately, the guards used the order as an excuse to execute prisoners at will. An eyewitness confirmed that prisoners were killed on a daily basis by the guards, who claimed that their victims tried to cross the _____ even though they were well within it.

● By the 20th century, various meanings for the phrase began to appear. At one point, it was a printing terminology. Later, it was used to define the age limit of church ministers, who were expected to retire at age 50.

● What phrase am I talking about?

Meeting a deadline

On 12th September 2016, the Oxford English Dictionary added 6 entries to its latest edition, in honour of X’s centenary celebrations. Three of the entries are

Human beanScrumdiddlyumptiousWitching hour

Identify X

Roald Dahl

The other words are Dahlesque, Golden ticket and Oompa Loompa

● The etymological idea underlying the word X is that of soaking. The modern word X derives from the Old French words Y and Z, both of these words mean “soaking”. These French words were used in England at the end of the Middle Ages, and, has remained in the English language in its original form and with much its original sense.

● When cooks in the Middle Ages spoke of X, what they and the people for whom they were cooking really understood was a dish comprising primarily a piece of bread or toast soaked in a liquid or over which a liquid had been poured. The bread or toast was an important part of this dish. It was a means by which a diner could consume the liquid efficiently by soaking it up. The bread or toast was, in effect, an alternative to using a spoon. X was important in the medieval diet. The dish that the cook prepared often consisted of both the nutritious liquid and the means to eat it.

● Nowadays, X is served without a bread or a toast.

● Id X.

X = Soup

The following is a scene from Sandman#13, Men of Good Fortune.

Who is the guy accompanying Morpheus and Will Shaxberd in the picture?

Christopher Marlowe

● In the 19th Century, a man named X Hoag and his wife, Melinda, were robbers in New York City. They developed a con that involved Melinda posing as a prostitute and luring innocent customers into a dark alley. While making out with the unsuspecting victims, she’d slyly steal valuables from their pockets and hand them to X Hoag, who used to be hiding nearby. The duo, knowing that some of their victims would report to the authorities, struck a deal with several police officers to split the valuables with them.

● X Hoag stopped giving the police officers their share after he ran into some financial troubles. To avoid suspicion, he came up with a new idea. In this new scheme, Melinda would instead lead the victims to their apartment, where she would have them take off their clothes and give a subtle signal. X Hoag would emerge and secretly take the valuables from the clothes before leaving through an exit. Then, to the horror of the victim, X Hoag would knock on the door. Melinda would tell the victim that it was her husband, who had returned from a business trip earlier than expected. The victim would quickly pick up his clothes and escape through the window.

● The police soon discovered the couple’s new scheme and subsequently arrested and jailed them. The nickname Y X was given to X Hoag by the police officers mocking him for trying to outsmart them, and it soon became widely used in the decades that followed.

● Id the nickname.

Smart Aleck

Webcomics referring to anything Lit n’ Myth

Written Round+10/0Bonus +10 for all correct

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EXCHANGE SHEETS

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Emily DickinsonTHE CHARIOT

Because I could not stop for Death,

He kindly stopped for me;

The carriage held but just ourselves

And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,

And I had put away

My labor, and my leisure too,

For his civility.

We passed the school where children played,

Their lessons scarcely done;

We passed the fields of gazing grain,

We passed the setting sun.

We paused before a house that seemed

A swelling of the ground;

The roof was scarcely visible,

The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries; but each

Feels shorter than the day

I first surmised the horses' heads

Were toward eternity.

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‘The Raven’ by Poe

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Sisyphus (duh.)

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The Bronte sisters

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Jules Verne and H.G. Wells

I consider [H. G. Wells], as a purely imaginative writer, to be deserving of very high praise, but our methods are entirely different. I have always made a point in my romances of basing my so-called inventions upon a groundwork of actual fact, and of using in their construction methods and materials which are not entirely without the pale of contemporary engineering skill and knowledge. ... The creations of Mr. Wells, on the other hand, belong unreservedly to an age and degree of scientific knowledge far removed from the present, though I will not say entirely beyond the limits of the possible.

— Jules VerneGordon Jones, 'Jules Verne at Home', Temple Bar (Jun 1904), 129, 670.

I do not see the possibility of comparison between his [H. G. Wells] work and mine. We do not proceed in the same manner. It occurs to me that his stories do not repose on a very scientific basis. ... I make use of physics. He invents. I go to the moon in a cannon-ball, discharged from a cannon. Here there is no invention. He goes to Mars in an airship, which he constructs of a metal which does not obey the law of gravitation. Ça c'est très joli ... but show me this metal. Let him produce it.

— Jules VerneQuoted in R. H. Sherard, 'Jules Verne Re-Visited', T.P.'s Weekly (9 Oct 1903).

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● John X Scotus was a philosopher and theologian whose thinking was so profound he was given the nickname Doctor Subtillis, or the Subtle Doctor. His teaching attracted a group of students and admirers who became known as Xmen, or Xers.

● John X Scotus’s teaching remained influential from the 14th century until the Renaissance when more modern theories gained prominence. People who clung desperately to his teaching were mocked for their seeming inability to modernize, or learn at all.

● Eventually, the Xers were called Y, and a new word was born.

● Id Y.

Y = Dunce (derived from the name John Duns Scotus)

Fawkes v/s Moltres● This is an extract from a famous book written by X -

● "Towards the end of my visit, I went to the Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island in East Coast, Virginia. This place was the base for NASA's sounding rocket programme. Here, I saw a painting prominently displayed in the reception lobby. It depicted a battle scene with a few rockets flying in the background. A painting with this theme should be the most commonplace thing at a Flight Facility, but the painting caught my eye because the soldiers on the side launching the rockets were not white, but dark-skinned, with the racial features of people found in South Asia. One day, my curiosity got the better of me, drawing me towards the painting. It turned out to be Y’s army fighting the British. The painting depicted a fact forgotten in Y’s own country but commemorated here on the other side of the planet. I was happy to see an Indian glorified by NASA as a hero of warfare rocketry.”

● Id Y.

Y = Tipu Sultan

● Which Indian surname has it’s origins from the Portuguese word meaning “master”?

● It is believed that the Portuguese bestowed upon this surname to the constructor community due to their exceptional skills in fort building, which was apparent while they were building the Fort of Diu in the 16th Century.

Mistry (from the Portuguese word “Mestre”)

Excerpt from which book? Also, name X

The orderly arrived promptly in his well-pressed loose green tunic, good-morninged cheerfully, and bustled around locating bedroom slippers and dressing-gown. He helped Odin out of bed, which was a little like rolling a stuffed crow out of a box, and escorted him slowly to the bathroom. Odin walked stiffly, like a head hung between two heavy stilts draped in striped Viyella and white towelling. The orderly knew Odin as Mr Odwin, and didn't realise that he was a god, which was something that Odin tended to keep quiet about, and wished that X would too.

X was the ______________ and, frankly, acted like it. It was inappropriate. He seemed unwilling, or unable, or maybe just too stupid to understand or accept...Odin stopped himself. He sensed that he was beginning mentally to rant. He would have to consider calmly what next to do about X, and he was on his way to the right place for a good think.

Excerpt from “The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul” by Douglas Adams

X is Thor

Blanked out portion is “God of Thunder”

Strange connects, eh?

When X was thinking about the title of the 3rd book in his series, he suddenly found particular significance for a word of magic introduced in the first book.

The word is an old Norse word which comes from the Brísingamen necklace of the goddess Freyja. As per the myth, Freyja was entranced by the necklace, and in a moment of insanity forgot about Odur, her husband, her two fair daughters. She forgot that she was a queen amongst the Æsir and agreed to marry the dwarves who made the necklace.

As per dwarven custom, she was wedded to the seven makers for a day and a night - for such a short space of time is a marriage among the Dwarfs of Svartalfheim.So, name the word which is the title of the 3rd book in a popular series. Also, name the story which was inspired by the tale of the Brísingamen necklace.

Brisingr by Paolini

SW&t7D

● There are various theories on how the phrase X came into existence. Some of them are as follow -

● In the Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, X is defined as a method by which brewers once tested the temperature of a batch of beer.

● Another possible origin of the phrase comes from measurement, in particular in agricultural fields. The plants need a fairly precise depth to seed properly, whether planted from seed or being replanted, but the depth can sometimes be estimated using the _________.

● In the 17th century, Sir Francis Buller, an English judge passed a law that limited the maximum thickness of a stick with which it was permissible for a man to beat his wife. The rule allegedly stated that it was okay for a husband to beat his wife with a stick, given that said stick was no wider than his _________.

● Id X.

X = Rule of Thumb