Yesterday’s question was “Who were the models used by Grant Wood when he painted American Gothic?”

The answer is: Grant Wood (1891–1942) painted American Gothic in 1930. He used his sister, Nan Wood Graham (1899–1990, who also appears in a portrait he painted of her in 1933) and their dentist, Dr. Byron McKeeby (1867–1950) from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Nan told people her brother had envisioned the pair as father and daughter, not husband and wife, which Wood himself confirmed in a letter in 1941: “The prim lady with him is his grown-up daughter.”

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Today’s question: On the stock exchanges, companies are known by their ticker symbols: two- or three- or four-letter codes denoting the companies. With 26 possible letters in each slot, there are a very large number of possibilities. But there are also 20 companies with single-letter ticker symbols. How many of them can you name?

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Ian’s Tough Trivia is a daily feature of this blog. Each day, I post a tough question, as well as the answer to the previous day’s question. At some point, I’ll offer a prize for whoever has the most correct answers, and another for whoever participates most often (I’ll take into account people coming in after the start: regular participation starting later is just as good as regular participation starting earlier). There may also be a prize for the funniest or most amusing wrong answer. Simply comment on this post with your answer. I’ll approve the comments after the next question is posted. Sure, you can probably find the answers by searching the web, but what’s the fun in that?

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