RE Foster, Walter Hammond and…

Complete this exhaustive list:

RE Foster (Dec 1903), Walter Hammond (Dec 1928), Walter Hammond (Dec 1928), Walter Hammond (Dec 1936), X (Dec 2006).

Answer: (select the text below to show)

Paul Collingwood. These are the only instances of an Englishman making a Test double-century in Australia.

Question by Amit Varma

A German Virgin

In Texas hold ‘em poker, what two-card hand is sometimes called a “German virgin”?

Answer: (select the text below to show)

Two nines. (“Nein, nein!”)

Question by Aniruddha Gupta

The substance of fast food

This catchphrase was first used in the 1984 advertising campaign of a major US fast food chain. It has since become a popular expression in everyday speech, acquiring the meaning of questioning the substance of an idea or argument.

What is this phrase?

Answer: (select the text below to show)

Question by MadMan

“Aw, shut up, ya bilge rat”

Her first words to her future husband, spoken in 1929 after being discovered as a Stowaway were “Aw, shut up, ya bilge rat”. In February 1999, after a 70-year courtship, she finally said “ I do.” Who?

Errata: Profuse apologies—an absent-minded error led to our giving the wrong answer below. The answer is not Minnie Mouse. Sorry for this!

Answer: (select the text below to show)

Minnie Mouse. Olive Oyl.

Question by Samrat Sengupta

The mysterious Mr Fowler

Though his actual last name is Fowler, he uses his middle name as the last name in films. One of the standard entertainment urban legends is that he took that name by combining the first and last names of a two-time Oscar winning legendary actor. The urban legend has gained credence because of the coincidence that he himself has won 2 Oscars. But it is actually his mother’s maiden surname. And he probably uses that name because of problems with his father, who was violent, alcoholic, and allegedly a member of the American Nazi party.

Answer: (select the text below to show)

Kevin Spacey. The actor he was mistakenly believed to have taken his name from is Spencer Tracy.

Question by Gaurav Sabnis

When X dined alone at the White House

In 1962, John F Kennedy hosted 49 Nobel Prize winners at the White House. While welcoming them, he said, “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent and of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House—with the possible exception of when X dined alone.”

Name X.

Answer: (select the text below to show)

Question by Amit Varma

It sold a lot of Ray Bans

About which movie did Val Kilmer remark “It was a one-dimensional cartoon which sold a lot of Ray Bans?”

Answer: (select the text below to show)

Top Gun.

image

Question by Samrat Sengupta

A historic hand

Whose hand is this?

image

Answer: (select the text below to show)

Douglas Engelbart, the inventor of the computer mouse. And that’s the first mouse he’s holding!

(Picture courtesy Wikipedia.)

Question by Amit Varma

The good-natured wanderer

His most recognizable moniker is derived from his father’s, which meant “good-natured” or “simple”, and he was merely his father’s son.  During his extensive travels, he also picked up the label Bigollo, meaning “wanderer”.

His most famous contribution to mathematics was originally proposed by an Indian mathematician named Acharya Hemachandra, and was presented to the Western world as an example of place values in counting, which made the Indo-Arabic system superior to Roman numerals.

This work was published as Liber Abaci or The Book of Calculations in 1202.

Who is this person?

Answer: (select the text below to show)

Fibonacci (short for filius Bonacci, or son of Bonaccio).

Question by Sumant Srivathsan