This document contains a "Not-So-General Quiz" with 20 multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank questions testing knowledge of history, literature, movies, music and more. The questions cover topics like famous battles, saints, songs, ciphers, books, movies, and more.

1. The Not-So-General Quiz
Prelims

2. 1. Name the trope.
• A trope commonly found in Television Shows, it is often necessitated
in procedurals and cop dramas as it is the only way to allow bigger
actors to make guest appearances that are more than cameos.
• According to Roger Ebert, you can often figure out who the murderer
is (in a badly-written murder mystery, at least) by checking the Law of
Conservation of Detail : The ________ is the only character who
doesn't seem to have any other reason for being in the story.

3. Chekov’s Gunman.
0.5 points for “Human Chekov’s Gun”

4. 2. What was this cartel of mainframe
manufacturers affectionately nicknamed
?

5. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

6. 3. Give X and Y. (Part Points  )
• The Battle of __X__, fought on 25 October 1854 during the Crimean
War, was part of the Anglo-French-Turkish campaign to capture the
port and fortress of Sevastopol.
• The infamous “Charge of the Light Brigade”, immortalized in poems
by Kipling and Tennyson, was a part of this battle. Caused by a major
miscommunication amongst the British, it lead to heavy casualties.
• James Brudenell, 7th Earl of __Y__, led the charge.
• __Y__ is a type of knitted garment modelled after the knitted
wool waistcoat that British officers supposedly wore during the war
• __X__ is essentially another name for a Monkey Cap

7. • X – Balaclava
• Y – Cardigan

8. 4. Connect (Hint: its not the Greek
Alphabets)

9. Amazon Prime Originals

10. 5. Spot the Saint.
• Since this particular Saint almost certainly never existed, the Catholic
calendar of saints for universal liturgical veneration was revised in
1969 to remove his feast day. Church of England, the Lutherans and
Eastern Orthodox churches however continue the tradition.
• Traditionally nothing much is known about him except the location
and date of his martyrdom. Even the manner of death was unknown
• He is also the patron saint of Plague and Epilepsy
• Chaucer’s Parlement of Foules was the first to establish his other
“roles”.

11. Saint Valentine

12. 6. un-Mask the Melody !
• Warner/Chappell Music is the world’s largest “Music Publishing”
firm, i.e. collecting royalties for Composers and Lyricists when their
songs are used.
• A certain song in their copyright collection is certainly not original
since it has been recorded to exist at the end of the 19th Century.
• According to the Guinness book of world records, it is the most
performed song worldwide and pulls in $2 Million worth of royalties
each year for Warner/Chappell.

13. • “Happy Birthday to you”

14. 7. Hint: Occam’s Razor of Ignorance
• What do Kerala, Yorkshire and New Zealand have in common ?

15. God's Own Country/County
• God's Own Country as a phrase was often used and popularised by
New Zealand's longest serving prime minister, Richard “King Dick”
Seddon.

16. 8. Name this bizzare-looking herbivore
Dinosaur species named after its discoverer’s
workplace.

17. Isisaurus, after the Indian Statistical
Institute
• Its discoverer Sohan Lal Jain, also has a species named after him
called “Jainosaurus”

18. 9. Eassssssssyyyyyyy!
• In 1997,When asked about the best way to turn around then ailing
Apple Computers, Inc. __X__ said: "What would I do? I'd shut it down
and give the money back to the shareholders“.
• In a case of karmic irony, in 2013, __X__ alongwith SilverLake Partners
paid back his own shareholders taking his company private as it was
repeatedly failing to meet investor expectations quarter-after-quarter.

19. • Michael Dell

20. 10.No racial bigotry here, y’all are equally
worthless.
• If the Glass Ceiling is "the unseen, yet unbreakable barrier that keeps
women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder” then
what is the corresponding term for Asians in western MNCs?

21. Bamboo Ceiling, Duh.

22. 11. Eyjafjallajökull
• During the latter years of the Punic Wars (circa 2nd Century BC), a
large number of Roman Senators employed the phrase ____ ___ ____
in almost all of their speeches.
• The most notorious of these was Cato the Elder, who used it to the
extent of absurdity. Ending each speech with “Ceterum
censeo ___ ___ ___”, meaning “Morever I advise ….. “
• It has often been trotted out in modified or original forms in many
war speeches.

23. Carthaginem esse delendam
• Carthage Must be Destroyed
• Alternate Latin: Carthago delenda est

24. 12. Connect. ( Short Stories )
• "Killer in the Rain" (Black Mask, January 1935)
• "The Curtain" (Black Mask, September 1936)
• "Mandarin's Jade" (Dime Detective, 1937)
• "Finger Man" (Black Mask, October 1934)

25. Cannibalized into “The Big Sleep”

26. 13. FITB.
"THAT is _______________. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees
– Those dying generations – at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect"

27. No Country for Old Men

28. 14.
• Dongri:Dubai::Byculla: ________ ?

29. • Bangkok
• Dongri to Dubai is S. Hussain Zaidi’s book on Dawood Ibrahim.
• Byculla to Bangkok is its sequel focusing on Chota Rajan and Co.

30. 15. Pioneer.
• Besides being “Father of Science” and discoverer of static
electricity, several anecdotes suggest that Thales of Miletus was not
solely a thinker but was also involved in business and politics. There
include different versions of a story about Thales predicting the
weather and making a killing on the subsequent Olive Harvest.
Aristotle explains that Thales' objective in doing this was not to enrich
himself but to prove to his fellow Milesians that philosophy could be
useful, contrary to what they thought. Depending on which version of
the story you believe, what did Thales end up creating ?

31. • Options (of a kind) or Futures.
• Case Options:
• He supposedly brought the right to use presses to extract oil from the olives
• Case Futures:
• He brought the presses outright.

32. 16. Robert Johnson, Ghost Rider!
• Given the inconsistencies concerning the account of X's
death, a theory has arisen centred on the notion that X may
have faked his death and then continued to write under the
assumed name of Y. However, orthodox academic consensus
rejects alternative candidates for authorship, including X. On
the other hand, in August 1819 an anonymous writer in The
Monthly Review asked, “Can X be a nom de guerre assumed
for a time by Y?” X is known for popularizing the classical
German legend of Faust in England.
• The folks?

33. • X- Christopher Marlowe
Y- William Shakespeare.

34. 17. The original Femme Fatale
• In several notable works of Western culture, X (usually described as
danced by Y) is one of the elaborations on the biblical tale of the
execution of John the Baptist. Although the Bible does not give the
dance a name, details enriching the story in later Christian mythology
include providing a name for the dance, and describing the purpose
of the dance as being to inflame King Herod with incestuous desire so
that he would grant Y her wish for the head of the Baptist.
• Y has been the topic of several popular tales of literature including a
famous play by Oscar Wilde. Give me X/Y?

35. • Dance of the Seven Veils; Salome.

36. 18. Alliterative, eh!
• What are these prehistoric
fish referred to as?

37. • Sabertooth Salmon

38. 19. Forget it Jake, it’s
Jerseytown.
• ID.

39. • Charles Lindbergh(The Crime of the Century)

40. 20. ID this WW2 cipher
or
Give me the 1st letter of the key assuming 7-
bit ASCII
Plaintext
NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD MEN TO COME TO
THE AID OF THE PARTY
Ciphertext
I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD THAT FLOATS ON
HIGH OER VALES AND H

41. Lorenz Cipher (Baudot Code + XOR)
• XOR is also an acceptable answer
• First Letter of Key will be char(7)