Hi!

I have to admit, crafting this is giving me more joy than I thought it would. Also I remember someone in college sharing the name About Blank as a great branding opportunity for literally anything - turns out that it is not entirely false.

We also have a logo coming very soon! All thanks to the amazing person that is Sneha Sankar.

Check out her amazing work at: snehasanks.com

Okay, now let’s get down to business:

There are 10 trivia questions below; none of them require studying a particular topic
I would suggest that you read and re-read the question; the answer is only your first guess away
You can, if you want to, respond to this email with the list of answers that you think are correct; I will try to maintain a monthly scoreboard
I will share the answers for this quiz in the newsletter sent next week
For the recommendation, I have kept it simple - it is a song that has been stuck in my head for some time now, I hope it brings you the same joy that it has brought me over the past few years

Happy reading, and I welcome any feedback that you may have!

About Blank Trivia Quiz (Week of Sep 5, 2022)

A X is similar to a contraction, but contractions are formed from words that would otherwise appear together in sequence, such as do and not to make don't, whereas a X is formed by combining two or more existing words that all relate to a single concept. A X also differs from a compound, which does not involve the truncation of parts of the stems of the blended words. For instance, starfish is a compound, not a X. If it were called a "stish" or a "starsh", it would be a X.

What is X?
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.

Which movie title produced and directed by the Coen Brothers, based on the novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy fits the above blanks found in the first stanza of Sailing to Byzantium by W.B. Yeats?

Hint: Guest Appearance by Woody Harrelson

When the Spaniards arrived, they saw how the Filipinos used vinegar to marinate their chicken, pork, and fish. The Spanish word _____ refers to a marinade or pickling sauce. In his writings, Pedro de San Buenaventura labeled the Filipino version X de los naturales’ – X of the natives. The name stuck. As each region of the Philippines has its own produce and preferred flavor profile, there are different versions of X across the islands. Where seafood was plentiful, X ng pusit (squid X with squid ink) became popular. In Southern Luzon, where heat and coconut milk are popular ingredients, X ng gata (X with coconut milk and green finger chilies) emerged. There are countless twists on X, and around the Philippines you’ll find versions that include sugar, liver, potatoes, morning glory, laurel leaves, the list goes on.

What is X?

Fillet of a fenny snake
Eye of newt
Toe of frog
Wool of bat
Tongue of dog
Adder’s fork
Blind-worm’s sting
Lizard’s leg
Owlet’s wing

What connects the above? It is an exhaustive list.

Hint: Double, double toil and trouble.

We can see that X was fond of Latin too, seeing as the first half of his self-made curse, Y, is Latin for ‘having been cut’. The second part of the word, however, is fascinating. Because although Z isn’t a Latin word, it is very close to the word ‘semper’, which was known in the Latin phrase ‘semper fidelis’. This becomes a particularly big deal once you realise what it means: ‘always loyal’.

What are X, Y and Z?
X was founded in 1906 in Rochester, New York, as The Haloid Photographic Company. It manufactured photographic paper and equipment. In 1938, Chester Carlson, a physicist working independently, invented a process for printing images using an electrically charged photoconductor-coated metal plate and dry powder "toner". However, it would take more than 20 years of refinement before the first automated machine to make copies was commercialized, using a document feeder, scanning light, and a rotating drum.

What is X?
2006 - Tests (Returned within 2 weeks)
2010 - Tests (Final)
2011 - All formats (Returned within 5 months)
2015 - ODIs (Final)
2017 - T20s

What connects the exhaustive list above? What are we talking about?
When branding their new product Mateschitz referenced Krating Daeng's name as in Thai, daeng means a colour, and a krating which is a large species of wild bovine native to the Indian subcontinent. In 1987, the company sold its first can of _____ in Europe. In 1996 _____ began operation in the United States and has seen steady growth ever since. Both _____ and Kraeting Daeng use the same ______ on yellow sun logo while continuing to market their drinks separately in the Thai and Western markets.

What is being described here?
The cocktail was created by officers of the Presidency armies, the military force of the East India Company which operated on the Indian subcontinent. In the Indian subcontinent and other tropical regions, malaria was a persistent problem for Europeans, and in the 18th century, Scottish doctor George Cleghorn studied how quinine, a traditional cure for malaria, could be used to prevent the disease. The quinine was drunk in X but the bitter taste was unpleasant. Presidency armies officers in India in the early 19th century took to adding a mixture of water, sugar, lime and Y to the quinine in order to make the drink more palatable, and thus the cocktail was born. The officers were already given a Y ration as part of their rations, and the sweet concoction made sense. Since it is no longer used as an antimalarial, X today contains much less quinine, is usually sweetened, and is consequently much less bitter.

What is the name of the cocktail in question?
The Epoch Times compares the process to that of flushing a toilet, noting the similarities between the specific amount of holy water dispensed into the vessel and the amount of water that fills a toilet bowl after it’s flushed. Hero himself described the process in the book The Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria, noting the price for one allocation of holy water: a five-drachms coin. The book also includes a diagrammed illustration of his invention. Needless to say, it’s very different from the brightly lit X that populate airports, malls, and so many other places today.

What is being described here?
About Blank Recommendation
Like I mentioned, I want to keep this one simple. My recommendation for this week is a song by Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate called Mamadou Boutiquier.

It reminds me of the time when I was holed up with my close friends in Bengaluru, smack in the middle of the pandemic. No one really knew where we were headed, the air was speckled with gloom and it felt like all of us were in a continuous free fall. And in the middle of that, this piece of music was the parachute that I was thinking was a knapsack. It sprang hope and anchored thoughts - it proved to be the silver lining to a core memory that otherwise would have been darkened.

Anyway, I will not ruin it further for you. I hope you have a great week ahead and I will see you next week.

About Blank

About Blank - Chapter 1