Up to date with new questions at 2:40 p.m. ET on October 16, 2025.
Atlantic Trivia reaches Week 3, which is by definition probably the most trivial of all: The phrase trivia initially referred to locations the place three (tri-) roads (-via) met in a crossing. If these slouch Romans had been extra industrious builders, we is perhaps enjoying quintivia and even septivia at this time.
That three-way intersection semantically drifted to imply “an open place,” which morphed into “public,” which was “commonplace”—therefore, trivial. Learn on for questions which are something however.
Discover final week’s questions right hereand to get Atlantic Trivia in your inbox day by day, join The Atlantic Day by day.
Thursday, October 16, 2025
- The U.S. navy command generally known as STRATCOM is primarily answerable for what obligation—which one will surely hope entails the cautious considering advised by the command’s title?
— From Tom Nichols’s “Kathryn Bigelow’s Warning to America” - Humbert Humbert is the protagonist of what novelnamed after the a lot youthful woman to whom he’s attracted?
— From Vauhini Vara’s “Why So Many Folks Are Seduced by ChatGPT” - What directorwhose 2019 film was the primary of its type to win Greatest Image on the Oscars, stated, “When you overcome the one-inch tall barrier … you’ll be launched to so many extra superb movies”?
— From Stephanie Bai’s “A (REDACTED)-Movie Starter Pack”
And by the way in which, do you know that the music “Pleased Birthday” was copyrighted till 2016? The try to take care of licensing over the preferred music within the English language led to some nigh-on absurd conditions through the years, together with in 1996 when a performance-rights group demanded royalties from Lady Scout troops that needed to sing the music at campfires.
So many brazen lawbreakers through the years—with Marilyn Monroe doing it proper in entrance of the president, no much less!
Till tomorrow, everyone.
Solutions:
- Nuclear deterrence. Tom not too long ago watched Kathryn Bigelow’s new film, A Home of Dynamitea nuclear-disaster flick he says fairly precisely depicts STRATCOM and its folks—and can hopefully knock a little bit terror right into a populace inured to the opportunity of Armageddon. Learn extra.
- Lolita. Vara remarks on how Humbert Humbert beguiles readers in Vladimir Nabokov’s novel, regardless of his predilections, and on how Ishmael retains Moby-Dick readers by all of the spermaceti speak. That is what good fictional characters do, she writes—and why it’s so harmful that ChatGPT is one with out an writer. Learn extra.
- Bong Joon Ho. The South Korean director’s Parasite was the primary foreign-language movie to win Greatest Image, and his quote refers to subtitles. Stephanie requested a number of Atlantic staffers the place somebody serious about exploring overseas movies ought to get began. Learn extra.
How did you do? Come again tomorrow for extra questions, learn beneath for earlier ones, or click on right here for final week’s. And when you assume up a terrific query after studying an Atlantic story—or just wish to share a putting truth—ship it my method at (e-mail protected).
Wednesday, October 15, 2025
From the version of The Atlantic Day by day by Nancy A. Youssef:
- A phrase from historical Rome that describes superficial appeasements meant to maintain the general public from changing into too dissatisfied with its authorities refers to what two choices?
— From Sally Jenkins’s “The MAGA-fication of Sports activities Continues” - Across the flip of the twentieth century, a U.S. senator from Wisconsin—the Dairy State—described what meals product invented just a few many years prior as “matured beneath the nippiness of demise, blended with vegetable oils and flavored by chemical tips”?
— From Olga Khazan’s “Avoiding Extremely-Processed Meals Is Utterly Unrealistic” - The comic Marc Maron’s industry-revolutionizing podcast, which ended this week after 16 years, was recognized by what widespread (nicely, relying on the coarseness of your social circle) three-letter initialism?
— From David Sims’s “The Radical Empathy of a Low-Key Chat Present”
And by the way in which, do you know that the primary generally accepted occasion of a flag being lowered to half-mast in mourning was in 1612, when a Greenlandic Inuit killed a British explorer (apparently in revenge for the kidnapping of different Inuit by Brits), and the chap’s ship sailed again to London with its flag hanging low?
That appears late to me! However boy, have we made up for it: In simply the previous 15 years, New York State alone has set the flag to half-staff greater than 250 instances. A minimum of one Atlantic contributor thinks we have to dial it again.
Solutions:
- Bread and circuses. The mixed-martial-arts cage match to be held on the White Home grounds in June would possibly seem to be this, however Sally says it goes deeper, proper to the guts of sports-audience psychology: Donald Trump needs folks to image him as an absolute winner. Learn extra.
- Margarine. Clearly, we’ve been maligning ultra-processed meals for a really very long time now—and to be clear, Olga is just not saying that they’re good! Simply that they’re fairly dangerous however completely unavoidable—so the place do eaters (and fogeys of eaters) go from right here? Learn extra.
- WTF. Fittingly, the present could possibly be grouchy, David writes, however greater than the rest, it was weekly proof of the facility of human connection. The finale wasn’t the most effective WTFbut it surely was arguably the most WTF. Learn extra.
Tuesday, October 14, 2025
From the version of The Atlantic Day by day by Will Gottsegen:
- What actor wrote in one in every of her memoirs that it was second nature for her to play “birdbrains,” together with characters whose sentences had been stuffed with “ums,” “you-knows,” “oh-wells,” and, maybe most famously, “la di da, la di das”?
— From Adrienne LaFrance’s “The Romantic” - Russia’s new messaging, file-sharing, and money-transferring app, Max—now required by authorities order to return put in on each new cellphone bought within the nation—has prompted analogies to what Chinese language “every thing app”?
— From Justin Sherman’s “Putin Has a New Software to Monitor Russians” - Together with the much less acidic, extra bitter robusta bean, what species of espresso makes up nearly all international espresso manufacturing?
— From Ellen Cushing’s “The Drink That Individuals Received’t Give Up With out a Battle”
And by the way in which, do you know that a few of the historical author Sappho’s poetry—most of which was misplaced—was found on bits of papyrus stuffed inside a mummified crocodile? I want to assume that this was to imbue the mother with a love of magnificence or another advantage, like placing a allure in a Construct-A-Bear. Extra seemingly, the stuffer simply needed the croc to maintain its form, and Sappho’s verse was helpful scrap paper. Please no one inform her.
Solutions:
- Diane Keaton. The star, who died Saturday, typically “unconvincingly” downplayed her skills, Adrienne writes. Insecurity dogged Keaton, however she readily noticed magnificence within the folks and issues round her, and spent her complete life chasing it. Learn extra.
- WeChat. Sherman writes that Russia’s app is a step towards the device-level surveillance China achieved with WeChat, which its residents use for social media, digital funds, and a thousand different components of day by day life—and from which the federal government can pluck what information it likes. Learn extra.
- Arabica. Due to tariffs, futures for the species have gone up almost $1 since July, Ellen experiences, and occasional typically is sort of 40 % costlier in the USA than it was a 12 months in the past. Coverage makers are scrambling as a result of, I don’t know when you’ve heard, however Individuals want their espresso. Learn extra.
