Let's Fire Up Those Neurons!

Sorry, I missed that post!
Giveaway clue: Think grammar.

 

Spoiler

"QQQ"

 

???
Sorry Viswa, I don't see what you're getting at!
If you get the answer you'll recognize it.
Everyone eventually got pic #10, as intended ... that's why it was reinforced with three images.
Now all that remains is Pic #9!

 

His way of constructing a puzzle itself is worth researching and obtaining a Ph.D. But his patience in giving the clues sincerely one at a time shows he is a great teacher.

Viswa

 

OK, time to put this puzzle to bed, with a 'how to solve it':

Ten pics, ten clues. Draw ten columns, write keywords for each in the respective column, mix-n-match for searches.

(1) Easy -> search "sky is falling" you will hit "Chicken Little". So clue could be 'chicken' or 'little'. Here it's 'Little'.

(2) Trees, all with yellow ribbons on them. Clue is "Yellow".
Note that here, I could have gone with, say, yellow daffodils. However 'Yellow ribbon' is a phrase. It evokes the word 'yellow' in your mind (or should!) - at least in the US. It might not in India, unless you are a Tony Orlando fan.

(3) This clue is both high-value and easy. white tree-sap -> Rubber.

(4) This is also high value and completely easy; literal -> Ducks / Duckies.

(5) 5a is the famous (for Indians) Ashoka pillar (with a single lion atop) at Vaishali, with an Ashoka inset.
5b is Leonardo Decaprio. What could they possibly have in common? So, the intersection should be easy to arrive at: that pic is from the film "Great Gatsby". Ashoka the Great & Great Gatsby -> 'Great'.

(6) This was designed to be oblique and trick you. 'Australia' is a possibility, maybe even Indonesia or Paupua New Guinea if you have an overactive imagination, but note that most of the image is of the ocean! So the clue is 'Pacific'!

(7) This again is a trick. A lot of cattle, but then a lot of garbage too! Isn't this a very Indian thing, this wondering about cows that can eat movie and election posters, glue 'n all? Clue is -> 'Garbage'.

(8) Yes, it's indeed a pirate. Now how do we signify a pirate? How would you turn a drawing of an ordinary man into one of a pirate that even a child would recognize? What are the semiotic signs? I propose some subset the following, from head to toe: a tricorn hat, maybe a skull-and-crossbones symbol on it, a parrot on the shoulder, an eye-patch (!), a mustache/beard, a cutlass or a musket (or both), a hook for a hand and perhaps a wooden leg! What do you see here? Parrot, patch, pirate are potential clues. The clue is 'Patch'.

So Answer-1 is:
Little Yellow Rubber Duckies (on the) Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
You can read about them here and here. Google will lead you to many more articles.

TL;DR: A shipping accident resulted in the dumping of 28,000 rubber ducks into the pacific. The movement of these indestructible plastic toys revealed a lot about currents in the North Pacific Gyre, especially its periodicity, not known before the accident.

 

So when I was done with this, the 'grammar' of the 'sentence' struck me. I was reminded of something very interesting that all of us know without knowing. It is this, in the words of Mark Forsyth:

“Adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you’ll sound like a maniac. It’s an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out.”

Note: Little-yellow-rubber (size-color-material) - see the order?

We all use this rule automatically, without learning it! Isn't that amazing? How did we learn it without being taught?

So I tagged on the last row.

Clue #9 -> they are all adjectives! The clue is: 'Adjective'.
Obviously I knew everyone would miss this, as would I. This is just how our brain works. There are more than a dozen adjectives there and yet we miss the connection!

Clue #10a -> A Sergeant ordering a grunt.
Clue #10b -> A waiter taking an order.
Clue #10c -> Betty Boothroyd, the only female speaker of the UK parliament (who does not recognize that famous green chair?!) doing her 'Order, order, order' thing. Clue is "Order".

Together: "Adjective Order", which would have led you to the answer!

I hope you enjoyed that!

 

Yes, that was fabulous, an I enjoyed it immensely.
I am with Viswa in my admiration of not just your puzzles, but your patience in providing clues.

I would never have connected Great Gatsby to Leo DiCap. To me Gatsby always brings Robert Redford to mind. No wonder I was stuck.

 

For a puzzle, when you see Leonardo, you would google Decaprio, films and work from there!

 

I did that Dr. S... and somehow I zoomed to the movie, "The Wolf on Wall Street" and didnt budge from there.
Also spent hours wondering where in history did Emperor Ashoka exhibit wolfish traits (before Kalinga war) .
See, how many i place here.

Actually, I was connecting Ashoka's Lion to Leo ...