The famed Nineteenth-century lexicographer Samuel Johnson was a lover of studying. Because the dictionary maker as soon as wrote, he devoted his life “wholly to curiosity,” with the intent “to wander over the boundless areas of normal data.” (He was moreover a lover of becoming bored and transferring on, writing of how he “quitted each science on the first notion of disgust.” Respect.)
Maybe Johnson’s best legacy, although, was his ardent perception that one didn’t should know all of the solutions as long as one knew the place to seek out them. For Johnson, that place was normally in his reference books. For you and this trivia, it’s proper right here in The Atlantic.
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Monday, November 10, 2025
- The movie Bugonia takes its title from the traditional perception {that a} cow’s carcass might spawn what pollinatorswhose numbers have declined dangerously in recent times?
— From Shirley Li’s “An Intimate Portrait of Humanity at Its Worst” - Hours earlier than the federal government shutdown brought on tens of millions of Individuals to lose their meals stamps, Donald Trump hosted a decadent Halloween celebration at Mar-a-Lago with what F. Scott Fitzgerald novel as its theme?
— From Jonathan Chait’s “Senate Democrats Simply Made a Enormous Mistake” - Mark Twain as soon as stated that when a speaker of what language dives right into a sentence, you gained’t see him once more till he reaches the opposite aspect of the ocean, carrying in his mouth the verb—which this language continuously locations a lot later in a sentence than the place it could happen in English?
— From Ross Benjamin’s “The Prices of Immediate Translation”
And by the best way, do you know that deciphering by whispering real-time translations into somebody’s ear is named whispering? The phrase is French, so soften these ch’s into sh’s, make that g right into a velvety zzhhhand acknowledge simply how whispery the phrase itself sounds; that’s why the French fashioned it that method within the first place.
Till tomorrow/see you tomorrow!
Solutions:
- Bees. The phrase bugonia isn’t uttered within the Yorgos Lanthimos mission, Shirley notes, however the thought of life from demise—on a planetary scale—is central to his examine of a moribund civilization. Learn extra.
- The Nice Gatsby. I can’t say for positive that this was a cause public polling on the shutdown appeared so unhealthy for Trump, however I’ve a hunch, outdated sport. Jonathan writes that Democrats had been doubtless stunned that the shutdown they’d pressured was drawing political blood, and that they made an enormous mistake in withdrawing the knife. Learn extra.
- German. Benjamin writes that German’s delayed-verb construction invitations uniquely collaborative conversations for learners; his accomplice would usually provide on the very finish of the sentence the verb that Benjamin was greedy for. That type of magnificence will get misplaced when learners depend on machine translation. Learn extra.
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