Today’s LL Study Guide ranges from the real Scottish king Macbeth, who killed Duncan I near Elgin in 1040 and ruled until his own death in 1057, to the New Orleans po’ boy born in a 1929 streetcar strike, H.G. Wells’s 1895 coinage of the term “time machine,” and Spain’s largest Balearic island, Mallorca. You’ll also meet Ugandan-born Columbia professor Mahmood Mamdani, whose post‑9/11 book Good Muslim, Bad Muslim dissects how the Cold War and U.S. foreign policy shaped modern terrorism debates, and learn how the Japanese word tsunami (“harbour wave”) and the shoreline “withdrawal” that can precede it have become crucial parts of global hazard awareness.

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Study Notes

Question 1: Macbeth, King of Scots

WORLD HIST - What legend of history and drama, mormaer of Moray, became king after slaying Duncan I in battle near Elgin in 1040, before his defeat and death at the hands of Duncan’s son in 1057?

The answer is MACBETH, the historical king of Scots who, as mormaer (earl) of Moray, killed King Duncan I in battle near Elgin in 1040 and ruled until he was slain by Duncan’s son Malcolm (later Malcolm III) in 1057. His career later inspired Shakespeare’s Macbeth, though the play turns a battlefield killing into a bedroom murder and amplifies his tyranny and guilt for dramatic effect.

A mormaer was a high-ranking Celtic noble, essentially equivalent to a provincial earl or “high steward,” which fits the clue’s title and helps link this figure to northern Scotland.

Connections

  • Shakespeare’s tragedy – Macbeth transforms the historical king into a ruthless usurper who murders Duncan in his sleep and is driven mad by prophecy and guilt; the play is among Shakespeare’s shortest and bloodiest tragedies and central to school curricula and theatre repertory.
  • “The Scottish Play” superstition – Theatre people often avoid saying “Macbeth” inside a theatre, calling it The Scottish Play instead, due to a long‑standing superstition that the play is cursed; rituals to undo the “curse” include leaving the theatre, spinning and spitting before re‑entering.
  • Film adaptations everywhere – Orson Welles’s 1948 film Macbeth, Justin Kurzel’s 2015 version starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, and Joel Coen’s stark 2021 The Tragedy of Macbeth with Denzel Washington all re‑imagine the story on screen. Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood (1957) relocates the plot to feudal Japan and is widely praised as one of the greatest Shakespeare adaptations.
  • Ongoing cultural life – New productions keep the legend current: for instance, Outlander star Sam Heughan is set to play Macbeth for the Royal Shakespeare Company, following in the footsteps of Ian McKellen and Judi Dench and explicitly addressing the play’s superstitious reputation.

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Question 2: The New Orleans Po’ Boy

FOOD/DRINK - A popular sandwich was reportedly invented in New Orleans in 1929 by restaurant owners and former streetcar workers Bennie and Clovis Martin, who served it free of charge to striking streetcar workers who were low on funds. What name is used for this sandwich (influenced by the strikers themselves)?

The sandwich is the PO’ BOY, a long New Orleans French‑bread sandwich traditionally filled with roast beef or fried seafood and dressed with lettuce, tomato, pickles and sauce. According to local lore, former streetcar conductors Bennie and Clovis Martin coined the term “poor boy” for the large, inexpensive sandwiches they gave free to striking streetcar workers during the 1929 New Orleans streetcar strike, a phrase that evolved into “po’ boy.”

Connections

  • Labour history on a plate – The 1929 strike, involving more than 1,000 streetcar workers, is widely credited with the creation of the po’ boy, with the Martin brothers’ shop feeding strikers and local baker John Gendusa developing the distinctive long loaf used for the sandwich.
  • New Orleans cultural icon – Today the po’ boy is considered one of the city’s signature foods alongside gumbo and muffulettas; classic shops like Domilise’s, Parkway Bakery & Tavern, Guy’s Po‑Boys and many others are celebrated in local and national food media.
  • Television and celebrity chefs – Po’ boys are frequent stars on Food Network’s Diners, Drive‑Ins and Dives, where Guy Fieri has highlighted New Orleans spots like Mahony’s and even a Los Angeles po’ boy shop run by a New Orleans native; Emeril Lagasse and other chefs push game‑day po’ boy recipes in national outlets.
  • Festival culture – The Oak Street Po‑Boy Festival in New Orleans attracts tens of thousands of visitors annually, with dozens of vendors serving creative variants and proceeds benefiting local nonprofits, underscoring how a strike‑era “poor boy” became a civic symbol.
  • On screen in Treme and beyond – Restaurants like Li’l Dizzy’s Café in the Tremé neighborhood, known for po’ boys and Creole soul food, feature both in real life and as locations on HBO’s Treme, where food becomes a lens on post‑Katrina New Orleans culture.

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Question 3: Wells’s “Time Machine”

LITERATURE - An 1895 novel by H.G. Wells introduced (and in fact used in its title) a term that later became commonplace in science fiction and fantasy. Identify this two-word term.

The term is TIME MACHINE, introduced and popularized by H. G. Wells’s 1895 novella The Time Machine, in which a Victorian inventor travels far into the future using a mechanical device of his own creation. The phrase “time machine,” coined by Wells in the title and text, has since become the standard word for any fictional device that allows intentional travel forward or backward in time.

Connections

  • Foundational sci‑fi text – The Time Machine is one of the earliest major works of science fiction and is credited with popularizing time travel as a scientific rather than purely magical phenomenon, influencing countless later stories.
  • Film adaptations – George Pal’s 1960 film The Time Machine and Simon Wells’s 2002 remake both directly adapt the novella, dramatizing the Time Traveller’s journey to the distant future and his encounters with the Eloi and Morlocks.
  • Back to the Future’s DeLorean – In the Back to the Future trilogy, Doc Brown converts a DeLorean sports car into a time machine powered by a “flux capacitor”; the car itself has become iconic and is now in the U.S. National Historic Vehicle Register, showing how Wells’s concept evolved into pop‑culture machinery.
  • Doctor Who’s TARDIS – The TARDIS (“Time And Relative Dimension in Space”) in Doctor Who is explicitly a time machine and spacecraft, disguised as a 1960s police box and “bigger on the inside,” illustrating how Wells’s idea merged with space travel in long‑running television.
  • Phone‑booth time travel – Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure uses a phone‑booth time machine that lets two California teens collect historical figures for a school report, a comedic twist on Wells’s serious scientific romance.
  • Wells’s own experimentation – Before The Time Machine, Wells had already explored mechanical time travel in his 1888 story “The Chronic Argonauts,” which Wired has described as a prototype for the modern time‑travel genre.

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Question 4: Mallorca, Largest Balearic Island

GEOGRAPHY - What is the fitting name of the largest island in the archipelago known as the Balearic Islands?

The island is MALLORCA (also commonly spelled Majorca in English), the largest of Spain’s Balearic Islands in the western Mediterranean. Its capital, Palma de Mallorca, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands, reinforcing its central place in the archipelago.

Connections

  • Sun‑drenched TV crime – The BBC crime drama The Mallorca Files follows a British and a German detective solving cases on the island; the series is filmed on location and recently moved its third season to Prime Video, emphasizing Mallorca’s appeal as a glamorous backdrop.
  • Prestige thriller setting – John le Carré adaptation The Night Manager used Majorcan locations like La Fortaleza (near Port de Pollença) and a restaurant at Cala Deià as the opulent Mediterranean compound of arms dealer Richard Roper, making the island synonymous with luxury and intrigue.
  • Literary haven: Robert Graves – English poet‑novelist Robert Graves settled in the Mallorcan village of Deià, where he wrote works including I, Claudius and The Greek Myths; his home Ca n’Alluny is now a museum, and the village became a magnet for writers and artists.
  • Joan Miró’s chosen home – Modernist painter Joan Miró moved permanently to Mallorca in the 1950s, building his dream studio (the Sert Studio) in Palma; today the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró in Mallorca preserves his studios and thousands of works, and a major 2025–26 exhibition across Palma museums celebrates his legacy on the island.
  • Film backdrop – The Spanish film Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake (Pan de limón con semillas de amapola) tells the story of two sisters who open a bakery together in Majorca, with much of the film shot in the Mallorcan town of Valldemossa, highlighting the island’s cinematic potential.

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Question 5: Mahmood Mamdani

CURR EVENTS - The Ugandan academic and commentator who is currently a professor in the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University in New York, and is known for his influential post-9/11 book Good Muslim, Bad Muslim, has the first name of Mahmood. What is his last name—a name which has emerged from relative obscurity in the past year?

The scholar is Mahmood MAMDANI, a Ugandan‑born academic who is Herbert Lehman Professor of Government and a professor in Columbia University’s Department of Anthropology (among other cross‑appointments), specializing in African history, colonialism, and the politics of violence. His 2004 book Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror critiques post‑9/11 “culture talk” and argues that political Islam and contemporary terrorism grew out of Cold War–era U.S. and Soviet proxy wars rather than timeless religious essence, making it a widely cited intervention in debates about the War on Terror.

Mamdani’s surname has become especially visible recently because his son, Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist politician in New York, won the 2025 mayoral election and is the mayor‑elect of New York City, often profiled as the son of academic Mahmood Mamdani and filmmaker Mira Nair.

Connections

  • Linked to cinema through Mira Nair – Mamdani is married to acclaimed director Mira Nair, whose films such as Mississippi Masala, Monsoon Wedding, The Namesake, and The Reluctant Fundamentalist explore themes of migration, race, and post‑colonial identity that overlap with Mamdani’s scholarly concerns.
  • Family in the headlines – Zohran Mamdani’s rise from New York State Assembly member to mayor‑elect has generated extensive coverage emphasizing his background as the son of a Ugandan political theorist and an Indian‑American filmmaker; recent pieces discuss how his parents’ activism and art shaped his worldview.
  • Post‑9/11 intellectual conversation – Good Muslim, Bad Muslim is often read alongside other post‑9/11 works on Islam and the West, such as Gilles Kepel’s The War for Muslim Minds and cultural texts like Nair’s film The Reluctant Fundamentalist or documentaries such as New Muslim Cool, all probing how “good” and “bad” Muslims are socially constructed.
  • Recognized public intellectual – Mamdani has been listed among the world’s leading public intellectuals; for example, a 2008 poll by Prospect and Foreign Policy magazines ranked him ninth in their “Top 20 Public Intellectuals,” underscoring his global profile before his surname became widely known in U.S. city politics.

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Question 6: 津波 (Tsunami)

SCIENCE - The Japanese characters 津波 refer to what natural phenomenon, which is often preceded by an event known as a “withdrawal” or “drawdown”?

The characters 津波 are read tsunami and literally mean “harbour wave” (tsu 津 = harbour, nami 波 = wave); in English the word now refers to the series of long‑wavelength sea waves generated by undersea earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions or other disturbances. A classic natural warning sign for some tsunamis is a sudden, dramatic fall in sea level—often called a withdrawal, drawdown, or drawback—when the ocean recedes hundreds of meters before the first large wave arrives.

Connections

  • Global disaster awareness – Tsunami science and terminology became widely known after events like the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, with public‑education campaigns stressing that strong shaking and a sudden rise or fall of the sea are nature’s own “tsunami alerts.”
  • Withdrawal/drawback examples – The SMS Tsunami Warning service explains “drawback” as the visible sea‑level drop preceding some tsunamis and notes that curious onlookers who walk out onto the newly exposed seafloor are at extreme risk when the wave returns—exactly the kind of “withdrawal” the question references.
  • Documenting survival: The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom – The Oscar‑nominated short documentary The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom follows survivors of the 2011 Tōhoku disaster as they rebuild their lives, juxtaposing scenes of devastation with the seasonal return of cherry blossoms as a symbol of resilience.
  • Dramatized in The Impossible – The 2012 film The Impossible dramatically recreates the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami as experienced by a family vacationing in Thailand; praised for its realistic wave sequences and based on survivor María Belón’s story, it kept the mechanics and human impact of tsunamis in the pop‑culture spotlight.
  • Language and borrowing – Linguists note that tsunami entered English reporting in the late 19th century for Japanese “harbour waves,” and that it largely replaced the misleading term “tidal wave,” reflecting the shift from folk description to scientific understanding.

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