1. 210 years ago, the Governor of the Massachusetts State in the United States signed a controversial bill that created an electoral district in an area within the State with the shape that resembled that of a mythical amphibian. This act, creating electoral boundaries to serve partisan ends, later got its name from the governor and his action. What word?

2. This compound, extremely hazardous in its concentrated form, nevertheless plays a major role in helping fertilize soil for increased yield of crops the world over. It was mistaken to be a salt by the Roman author and philosopher Pliny, who had initially given its name because of where the salt was first found by him —in a Roman province that was close to the Temple of Jupiter Amun. Name the compound.

3. This word lends itself to a comic character created by Harold Tucker Webster for his cartoon series titled The Timid Soul. The character, himself named after bland food, is a mild-mannered person who is seen to be meek and the word is now used pejoratively to refer to such persons. What is the word and the name of the character?

4. Named after a con artist from Italy who worked in the U.S. and Canada in the early 1920s, this form of financial fraud was first committed in the late 1800s by other fraudsters. The person also lends his name to a concept in economics that describes “a government that continuously defers the repayment of its public debt by issuing new debt: each time its existing debt arrives at maturity, it borrows funds from new and/or existing lenders in order to repay its existing debt”. Name the person and the financial fraud that goes by his name.

5. This art form representing images of animate/inanimate things as a solid shape or a single colour presented on a white/light background derives its name from a French administrator in the early 1700s. His name was also used to denote things that were seen to be cheap/ austere because of his austerity policies as a Treasury Chief. Name the art form and the person it is named after.