A little business history and corporate espionage in today's quiz, to celebrate the fact that I'm taking the day off of work.
In 1900, the already profitable business of a European man named Jean passed into the hands of his son, Theodor, whose ambitions were to extend the company's reach. Shortly thereafter, Theodor's cousin, Emil, returned from a research trip armed with an Italian innovation which would soon become the center of the company's revamped production. By 1909, Theodor had introduced a new product, under a brand which combined the family name with a reference to the Italian origin of the product -- but a key element of its marketing was meant to celebrate Theodor's native country.
Increasing popularity followed; the company established U.S. offices in 1954. In 1980, scandal broke out at the firm as an apprentice tried -- apparently unsuccessfully -- to sell secrets concerning the process to a host of countries including Russia, China, and Saudia Arabia. Eventually, the company was bought by a large U.S. concern, which continues production today.
What was Theodor's surname?
First correct answer posted to comments wins a three-quarters-full bottle of blue fountain pen ink, originally purchased in 1987. No Googling, or consulting the Financial Times archive - - and if you are getting coaching from your better half, you might want to keep quiet about it. Please post only ONE guess per comment, but as always you may comment as frequently as fancy suggests.
I'll be checking in a little less frequently than usual -- enjoy.
The artist Stuart Davis's mural Men Without Women, rendered a panoply of "male" paraphrenalia, from smoking implements and barber poles to playing cards, cars, and sailboats. It has been claimed that Pablo Picasso used its composition in his positioning of the forms for Guernica. It was removed from its original location in the 1970s, but restored in 1999.
For what building was Davis' mural commissioned?
First correct answer posted to comments wins a packet of Peeps Spooky Cats left accidentally on a windowsill above a radiator. No Googling or paging Robert Hughes. One guess per comment, please, but comment as often as you like.
The following quotation (translated into English) is from the travel journal of an individual whose future fame would have surprised the two gentlemen he describes here.
The priests...entertained me with their stubborn clerical folles. I was amazed that such great arrogance and ambition, such great want of understanding, and such vulgarity, such obstinacy and meanness in discussion, should be found in a priest, who is commonly supposed to be an educated man; moreover, that anyone who had been a student for more than twelve years should not be better read. I understood only too well why these barbarians were kept far from civilization.
The pastor began to discuss the clouds in -----, how they sweep over the mountains carrying away with them stones, trees, and animals. I ascribed this to what it may well have been -- the violent winds, and said that clouds never lift anything. He smiled at me, saying I had never seen such clouds (who had never been in the mountains). Yes, I answered, when there is mist I walk in the clouds, and when the mist falls it immediately rains on me. At such sophistry he smiled sardonically. Still less acceptable was my talk on water bubbles which can rise into the air, etc., and he told me that clouds were solid. When I denied this he supprted himself with a scriptural text, smiled at my simplicity, and said that he himself would teach me how after rain a slime remains on the mountains where the clouds had descended on it. When I said that was called nostoc and was vegetable, I was judged, like St. Paul, to be made, too much science having made me crazy.... He advised me to trust people who understood such things and not, the moment I got home, write a thesis full of such nonsense.
The other (the pedagogue) reproached me for paying too much attention to worldly vanities at the expense of spiritual matters, and said that many souls were lost through hankering after learning. Both wondered at the Royal Society choosing such a student, instead of relying on a knowledgeable and responsible man on the spot who could explain all these things.
Who was the writer?
The first correct answer posted to comments wins a charming lacquered refrigerator magnet, which represents a seagull or perhaps a tern, which was folornly abandoned by the previous owners of our apartment. No Googling or consulting your tattered paperback copy of The History of Misconceptions Volume 53: Meteorology. One guess per comment, but comment as frequently as you like.
Tonight has been my first real opportunity in about a week to take a glance beyond the precincts of home (we're in a little gap between feedings here), and read some letters from abroad. I also found out that I was the last to know that there's a name for the weird little outbreaks of pr0n-advertising messages getting posted in the archive comments here.
But that's about it. Someone's awake...
In honor of Helena, the most impressive baby since Reed and Sue Richards had Franklin, we have a Montana-themed question today. The state has a rich history, from Lewis and Clark on through muckraking exposes of the Amalgamated Copper Company.
In 1972, something happened in Montana that doesn't happen very often in the United States. It did, however, also happen in Illinois in 1847, in Alabama in 1901, and in Michigan in 1962. What was this momentous event?
As ever, eschew the black arts of Google and research libraries, choosing instead to let the answer well up within you. One guess per post, but you may post as many times as you wish.
The winner gets a hand-crafted replica of the entire state of Montana, made out of copper and molasses.
Helena Charles Claire, 4 lbs., 8oz., well ahead of schedule and a joy in every particular, was born.
I couldn't make any sense out of Superb's explanation of the reasons this domain spent Saturday on hiatus from the Web, but if you haven't experienced, it, it is no fun to click on your own personal little bookmark and be directed to an evil Verisign page announcing that there ain't no such thing as a wombatfile, and maybe you're interested in seeing if they could whip one up for you?
Anyway, if you tried to send mail to the editor this weekend, you may have been rebuffed. Please re-submit your manuscripts, recipes, and floor plans. We apologize for any inconvenience.
James Augustus Henry Murray (1837-1915) is most widely remembered (or should be) for his role as the editor and guiding spirit of the first edition of that massive production of philology we now call the Oxford English Dictionary. Due to his acquaintance from a young age, however, with another Victorian gentleman, and to the fact that he taught this other fellow a few things which proved useful to his later endeavors, Murray is also by some claimed to be the "grandfather" of another 19th-century creation, for which this other person is credited.
What was this other Victorian achievement?
First correct answer posted to comments wins a collection of keys to unknown locks and a bag of mismatched screws which all should have been used in reconstructing various pieces of furniture but are head-scratchingly left over after the things have all been put back together. No Googling or consulting the back of old Encylcopedia Brown mysteries. One guess per comment, but comment as often as you like.