Up to date with new questions at 3:40 p.m. ET on December 23, 2025.
It’s a brief vacation week right here for Atlantic Trivia; I’ll be quizzing you Monday and Tuesday, after which we’ll half till the brand new yr.
However be aware that Anders Celsius developed his centigrade system for measuring temperature on December 25, 1741. The primary predicted return of Halley’s Comet was noticed exactly 17 years later. The eager thoughts can nonetheless accomplish rather a lot at Christmas.
In actual fact, who wants presents (I desperately ask as I notice that my on-line orders won’t arrive earlier than Thursday)? Isn’t data the best reward of all?
Discover final week’s questions right here, and to get Atlantic Trivia in your inbox every single day, join The Atlantic Day by day.
Tuesday, December 23, 2025
- To advertise his new table-tennis film, the actor Timothée Chalamet lately recorded a video atop what fittingly formed Las Vegas construction?
— From Shirley Li’s article on Chalamet’s full-throttle press tour for Marty Supreme - The Federal Theatre Mission was an arm of what New Deal company that aimed to make use of tens of millions of Individuals by means of infrastructure and cultural tasks?
— From Talya Zax’s essay on the democratic worth of publicly funded theater - What movie protagonist performed by Saoirse Ronan begins her eponymous film hating her hometown of Sacramento, the state of California, and even her personal title?
— From the Tradition desk’s checklist of 9 non-Christmas films to observe at Christmas
And by the best way, do you know that these beloved Christmas TV specials of the Sixties weren’t all the time funded by the studios themselves, however by company sponsors? We now have Coca-Cola to thank for A Charlie Brown Christmas, and we owe Rudolph the Pink-Nosed Reindeer to Basic Electrical, which type of is smart for those who think about Rudolph’s snout an equipment.
Paradoxically, How the Grinch Stole Christmas was sponsored by an trade group for banks. I’m guessing the worker tasked with confirming model alignment had already checked out for the yr and skipped proper over the message on the story’s coronary heart: “Maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a retailer.”
Have a cheerful vacation, and see you within the new yr.
Solutions:
- The Sphere. Chalamet hoots and hollers as a drone reveals him astride what seems just like the world’s largest Ping-Pong ball. There’s additionally, Shirley notes, the matter of the blimp—the Timmy-praising dirigible that has been circling the Los Angeles skies. Amazingly, she writes, Chalamet has managed to make his cocky self-promotion appear endearing, as solely he might. Learn extra.
- The Works Progress Administration. Zax writes that through the Nice Despair, Federal Theatre Mission performances reached some 30 million folks throughout america. Its work was daring—so, naturally, when the Home Un-American Actions Committee got here alongside, it defunded the FTP. However in Eire, the theater on which the FTP was modeled remains to be going robust. Learn extra.
- Girl Fowl. The Greta Gerwig film is about studying to acknowledge the worth of the place you’re from—a pleasant aspiration for vacation vacationers heading house. Or you’ll be able to watch the masked orgy in Eyes Large Shut. See the remainder of our picks.
How did you do? Come again within the new yr for extra Atlantic Trivia, or click on right here for final week’s. And for those who assume up an amazing query after studying an Atlantic story—or just need to share a truth—ship it my means at [email protected].
Monday, December 22, 2025
- What 41-year-old American downhill skier—the 2010 Olympic ladies’s gold medalist—this month grew to become the oldest competitor ever to win the game’s World Cup?
— From Sally Jenkins’s story about skilled athletes competing into their 40s - North of 66°30′ N, the solar stays above the horizon for a full 24 hours not less than yearly. This demarcating line is understood by what title?
— From Shayla Love’s story about timekeeping on the Norwegian island of Sommarøy - What Nineteenth-century American creator was greatest identified for his rags-to-riches tales that he hoped would “exert a healthful affect on his younger readers”?
— From Jake Lundberg’s story on a brand new Netflix sequence about President James Garfield
And by the best way, do you know that twice a yr within the tropics, the solar is positioned ever so briefly precisely overhead? Elsewhere on the earth, the solar by no means reaches true zenith, however within the band across the equator, its semiannual look produces the eerie impact of shadowlessness for objects on the bottom.
Lookup Lāhainā Midday (because it’s known as in Hawaiʻi) for those who want to be disconcerted by some apparently levitating site visitors cones and parking-lot stanchions. The magic lasts solely a jiffy; you then’re caught with the bummer of merely being in Hawaiʻi.
Solutions:
- Lindsey Vonn. The skier’s earlier World Cup win was seven years prior, Sally writes. Watching Vonn—or the literal grandfather recently throwing landing passes for the Indianapolis Colts—Sally wonders what number of “gladdening third acts” sports activities ageism has cheated us out of. Learn extra.
- The Arctic Circle. Sommarøy made worldwide information in 2019 when villagers petitioned to make the place a “time-free zone.” Love traveled there this summer time to spend 9 days determining whether or not folks can truly buck the clock. Learn extra.
- Horatio Alger. Garfield’s personal unlikely ascendance to his Gilded Age presidency was the topic of Alger’s From Canal Boy to President. Jake writes that Netflix’s framing of Garfield as “a superb man in an age of unhealthy politicians” is “hopeful however maybe too looking forward to our present second.” Learn extra.
