Name of the job

The holidays are over. Time to get back to work. This week we look at a few unusual jobs and titles.

1 Ronald Klain is the latest American to be anointed by which East European title? Hint: often used by the US president for ad hoc executive positions to deal with a single important issue.

2 Who has served as the ‘Chief Belief Officer’ of the Future Group apart from being the author of many bestselling books and writing a regular column for Mid Day ?

3 Which organisation put out this advertisement in America in the early 20th century — “Wanted brave soldiers, to stir up rebellion in India. Pay — death; Price — martyrdom; Pension — liberty; Field of battle — India”?

4What kind of person has the designation, ‘Swiss Army Knife’?

5 Which prolific author and professor of Biochemistry at Boston University had as his job description the title ‘Natural Resource’? No, modesty was not one of his virtues.

6 To get this job, you need to be the citizen of a specific country, male, Catholic, have completed basic military training, aged between 19 and 30, and at least 174cm tall. Your normal uniform is blue, red, orange and yellow with a renaissance appearance. Name the job.

7 Which organisation has the following designations: Genii, Imperial Scribe, Grand Dragon, Hydra and Grand Scribe?

8 In 2009, in which job at the All England Lawn Tennis and Crocquet Club did Rufus replace Hamish?

9 For which specific culinary job do you need a licence and need to pass a written test and a practical examination after a two- or three-year apprenticeship. The pass rate is only 35 per cent, and the examination was instituted in 1958 after a series of mishaps.

10 Other than being writers, what professionally connects F Scott Fitzgerald, Joseph Heller, Dorothy Sayers, Helen Gurley Brown and Don DeLillo?

Answers

1. Czar — he has been appointed the ‘Ebola Czar.’ Former ‘Czar’ appointments include Nixon’s Drug Czar and Energy Czar.

2. Devdutt Pattanaik, who is actually a doctor by training.

3. The Ghadar Party. Prominent members included Lala Hardayal, Sohan Singh and Karim Bux. They got hundreds of applications.

4. A generalised gofer, deployed for any important job because of her/his versatility and strong commitment. Quite a few companies use the designation now.

5. Isaac Asimov, who has written over 500 books, which have been published in nine of the 10 categories of the Dewey Decimal Classification.

6. Swiss Guards, who are the official security unit of the Pope. There is still no evidence to support the popular theory that their uniforms were designed by Michelangelo.

7. All important positions in the Klu Klux Klan.

8. Rufus is a Harris Hawk who scares away pigeons from the venue. He works a couple of days a week throughout the year, and every day during the Wimbledon.

9. Fugu chefs, who are allowed to prepare the puffer fish, whose liver is extremely toxic.

10. All worked as copywriters. Fitzgerald is remembered for the immortal ‘We Keep You Clean In Muscatine’ slogan which ran in Iowa. Rushdie is the obvious omission.

Joy Bhattacharjya is a quiz master, Director - Kolkata Knight Riders and author of Junior Premier League — The First XI

Follow Joy on Twitter >@joybhattacharj

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW