Up to date with new questions at 4:15 p.m. ET on November 7, 2025.
The 37-volume Naturalis Historia, written by the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder, is the world’s earliest surviving encyclopedia. Within the first century C.E., Pliny got down to accumulate the breadth of human information, and millennia later, it’s nonetheless a terrific doc for studying slightly bit about every thing. It has chapters on sugar, Germany, the rainbow, Cesarean births, the artwork of portray, and hypothetical antipodes.
It additionally makes delightfully obvious the place Pliny’s most passionate pursuits lay: Contemplate the chapters “Elephants (Their Capability),” “When Elephants Have been First Put Into Harness,” “The Docility of the Elephant,” and “Fantastic Issues Which Have Been Accomplished by the Elephant.”
I hope you discover a matter you get pleasure from simply as a lot on this week’s trivia.
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Friday, November 7, 2025
- Iranian legislation mandates the veiling of girls in public, a apply identified by what title?
— From Arash Azizi’s “The Battle Iranian Ladies Are Successful” - What athletic occasion was created in 1896 to tie the primary trendy Olympics again to historic Greece (the place, I would add, the determine stated to have accomplished the feat died on the finish)?
— From Mariana Labbate’s “The Marvel of Watching Individuals Run” - In a 1967 Beatles music, a younger Paul McCartney asks whether or not his lover will nonetheless be “mine forevermore … once I’m” what age, in accordance with the music’s title?
— From Arthur C. Brooks’s “Three Guidelines for a Lasting Comfortable Marriage”
And by the best way, do you know that the Beatles’ “Yesterday”—among the many most coated songs of all time—is itself however a canopy of McCartney’s unique model of the tune? As McCartney recounts it, he woke with the melody totally shaped in his head, and in order to not lose it, he slotted within the phrases scrambled eggs; the lyrics turned a long-running joke for the band.
A bit romance managed to slide into model one within the subsequent line: “Oh, my child, how I really like your legs.” However then, effectively: “scrambled eggs” once more. Taylor Swift, step apart.
Have a terrific weekend.
Solutions:
- Hijab. The centrality of hijab is why it’s so exceptional that the Iranian authorities has virtually misplaced the power to implement it, Azizi writes. The failure’s proof, he stories, is “seen all over the place,” and it’s solely a matter of time earlier than the regime’s different ideological pillars crumble too. Learn extra.
- Marathon. The 1896 race gathered 100,000 folks or so, and marathons have been convening us ever since to have fun human means, writes Mariana—who just isn’t a lot of a runner herself however adores the game nonetheless. Learn extra.
- Sixty-four. Brooks writes that such an final result is completely potential for {couples} who acknowledge that what first attracted them to one another just isn’t the identical factor that sustains long-lasting love. (Because it occurs, McCartney sketches a fairly good image in his music of the behaviors that do make love final.) Learn extra.
How did you do? Come again tomorrow for extra questions, or click on right here for final week’s. And if you happen to suppose up a terrific query after studying an Atlantic story—or just wish to share a wild truth—ship it my means at [email protected].
Thursday, November 6, 2025
From the version of The Atlantic Day by day by Conor Friedersdorf:
- Members of what ensemble identified for its “gorgeous-gams showgirl look” have to be 5 foot 5 to five foot 10.5 whereas standing in stocking ft?
— From Julie Beck’s “The Pantsless Pattern Reaches Its Logical Conclusion” - Twitter was three years outdated when it launched what button (and the phrase it coined for it) that may change into foundational to how the location labored?
— From Damon Beres’s “The Age of Anti-Social Media Is Right here” - Former New York Governor Mario Cuomo originated the political adage that “you marketing campaign in poetry” however “you govern in” what counterpart?
— From Jonathan Lemire’s “Mamdani Is the Foil Trump Desires”
And by the best way, do you know that the town of New York was as soon as known as New Amsterdam? I assume so. However extra vital, do you know that it briefly modified to a third title after it had already been New York for practically a decade?
The Dutch established New Amsterdam on Manhattan in 1625, and the English overtook it in 1664, renaming it New York. However then the Dutch received it again in 1673! They held it for under a matter of months—simply lengthy sufficient for the town to check out … New Orange. Then the Brits received it again, and it turned evermore New York in 1674. (Apparently surfeited of fruit, the town didn’t change into the Massive Apple till no less than the Nineteen Twenties.)
Solutions:
- The Rockettes. Radio Metropolis Music Corridor’s best have lengthy been all in regards to the leg, and the remainder of leisure seems to be catching up, Julie writes in her examination of the garment she’s calling the “style diaper.” Learn extra.
- Retweet. It’s straightforward to suppose that the AI die is solid, however Damon notes that ChatGPT is three now, too, and may likewise be anticipated to proceed refining itself. What appears superior now will develop solely extra refined—and tougher to withstand. Learn extra.
- Prose. Zohran Mamdani out-poetried Mario Cuomo’s son Andrew within the race for New York mayor. Now the prosaic challenges of governing, Jonathan argues, might be made much more tough by the uniquely highly effective enemy Mamdani has in Donald Trump. Learn extra.
Tuesday, November 4, 2025
From the version of The Atlantic Day by day by Will Gottsegen:
- The ballooning of college GPAs as professors give greater and better marks is a phenomenon identified by what title?
— From Ian Bogost’s “Why College students Are Obsessed With ‘Factors Taken Off’” - Some medical influencers recommend that irritation might be cured with what bitter herb used to taste absinthe and vermouth?
— From Jason Liebowitz’s “The Irritation Hole” - Yoknapatawpha County is the fictional Mississippi setting of all however a couple of of the novels by what American writer of the twentieth century?
— From Michael Gorra’s “The Man Who Rescued [REDACTED]”
And by the best way, do you know that the rationale folks shout “Geronimo!” when leaping from a terrific peak is probably going as a result of one World Conflict II–period Military non-public occurred to see a film about Geronimo the night time earlier than his first take a look at soar? His fellow troopers stated he’d be too scared the following day to even keep in mind his personal title; he did them one higher.
It’s a disgrace the troopers didn’t have the time to see one thing slightly longer—one other hour or so within the theater, and we might have all been screaming “Scarlett O’Hara!” each time we skydive.
Solutions:
- Grade inflation. Harvard lately took a stab at fixing the spiraling disaster, however undergraduates’ catastrophizing response confirmed simply how intractable the battle between college students and professors is, Ian writes. Learn extra.
- Wormwood. There’s, it is not going to shock you to study, not a lot in the best way of proof for this miracle remedy. However, as Liebowitz writes, the irritating, usually inexplicable nature of autoimmune illnesses and their accompanying irritation—all the time irritation—makes the simple solutions of different drugs onerous to withstand. Learn extra.
- William Faulkner. We consider Faulkner now as a tentpole of the American literary custom; Gorra argues that the American literary custom exists because it does now solely because of the critic Malcolm Cowley, who fostered Faulkner, John Cheever, Jack Kerouac, and extra. Learn extra.
Monday, November 3, 2025
From the version of The Atlantic Day by day by David A. Graham:
- What president who assumed workplace after the 1901 assassination of William McKinley constructed the unique West Wing and East Wing of the White Home?
— From Neil Flanagan’s “White Home Structure Was an Honor System. Trump Seen.” - What poetic meter consisting of 10 syllables per line was doubtless launched to English drama by Christopher Marlowe after which extensively popularized by William Shakespeare?
— From Isaac Butler’s “The Cussed Fantasy of the Literary Genius” - In baseball notation, a strikeout is represented by what letter—flipped backwards if the batter goes out with out swinging?
— From Steve Rushin’s “The Finest Postseason in Baseball Historical past?”
And, by the best way, do you know that the Athletics’ (previously of Oakland) mascot is—this one is for you, Pliny—an elephant? The origin of the mascot is a dig from a rival supervisor, who within the early twentieth century stated that the A’s had a “huge white elephant on their arms” within the type of a roster of pricy and ineffective gamers. These gamers and their followers took it in stride.
Solutions:
- Teddy Roosevelt. The low-slung annexes revered the design of the unique White Home architect, James Hoban, and the challenge established a norm for safeguarding the historic character of the advanced. However, as Flanagan writes, norms can all the time be ignored. Learn extra.
- Iambic pentameter. Shakespeare will get a variety of credit score for inventiveness, however Marlowe was the extra daring cultural vanguard, particularly in the best way he performed his life—“most likely homosexual, presumably a spy, usually in bother with the legislation,” Butler writes. It’s due to this fact straightforward for histories of him to veer into fantasy. Learn extra.
- Okay. The Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Trey Yesavage notched 12 Ks in Sport 4 of this yr’s World Sequence—essentially the most ever by a rookie in sequence historical past. Rushin writes that Yesavage was hardly the lone star in a postseason that proved baseball can nonetheless shock. Learn extra.