In Murmansk, part of the Northern Fleet headquarters for the Russian navy lost phone service for a week; at Polyarnye Zori, a nuclear power station had to be shut down; in Prokopyevsk, a "bright explosion" left 12-year-old Maksim Naumenko horribly injured. Three episodes, one cause—name it. 

Send your answer by noon ET Wednesday to newsquiz@slate.com.

Monday's Question (No. 417)—"Rushdie's Rush":

"[It] rushes in on you from every direction; I'm suffering from a kind of overload," said Salman Rushdie as he did something for the first time in over a dozen years. What?

"Oh, please. The rest of us have to pay taxes every year."—Peter Lerangis (M.G. Lord had a similar answer.)

"Smothered his head in the welcoming bosom of Gertrude Himmelfarb."—Noah Meyerson

"Lost money in tech stocks."—Joel Grus

"Air hockey."—Angus MacDonald (similarly, but Asteroids Deluxe Jon Drumwright)

"He accepted far too many Upper West Side Seder invitations."—Michele Siegel

Click for more answers.