Atlantic Trivia on the Model T, the E Street Band, and More
And did you know that the world has lost the ability to make a movie in Technicolor?
Updated with new questions at 5:15 p.m. ET on January 30, 2026.
In Princeton, New Jersey, a short stroll from the university you have heard of, there lies a little campus home to the Institute for Advanced Study. It was founded in 1930 not to confer degrees nor—God forbid!—to make money, nor even to conduct research toward any end in particular. The institute proclaims that its purpose is “the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake.”
Founder Abraham Flexner reckoned that brilliant minds, once freed to pursue “useless satisfactions,” would stumble upon discoveries of “undreamed-of utility,” as he wrote in a magazine a few years into the institute’s work. It seems to have worked for Albert Einstein, who had an office there. J. Robert Oppenheimer, too.
Enjoy this week’s “useless” satisfactions. I look forward to your theory of everything the week after.
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Friday, January 30, 2026
- What film director put out the neo-noir thriller The Conversation in 1974—the same year he directed The Godfather Part II?
— From Rose Horowitch’s article on shortening cinematic attention spans - Tesla’s first sedan came out in 2012 under what model name, just one letter away from the name Henry Ford used in 1908 for the world’s first mass-produced car?
— From Patrick George’s article on the unceremonious end of Tesla’s first game changer - In 1989, Václav Havel became the first democratically elected president of what country—a job he held until becoming president of one of the two successor states the country split into in 1993?
— From Gal Beckerman’s essay on the long, successful history of dissidence
And by the way, did you know that the movie industry is no longer capable of producing a film in Technicolor? The Godfather sequel was the last major release to use the traditional dye-transfer process, which by the mid-’70s had become expensive and inefficient compared with newer methods. The Conversation was filmed with one such method, Eastmancolor.
Today, the Technicolor knowledge isn’t lost, but no manufacturer produces the necessary supplies. Digital replications are just as good, we’re told—but look long enough at a Hitchcock leading lady’s color-drenched gown, and you’ll know that nothing will ever quite touch Technicolor.
Have a great weekend!
Answers:
- Francis Ford Coppola. The Godfather Part II runs three hours and 22 minutes, whereas The Conversation is a crisp less-than-two. Yet one professor told Rose that he can barely get his students to pay attention to the latter’s climactic scene, let alone the whole movie. And not just any students—film students. Read more.
- Model S. George argues that the Model S—released a little over a century after Ford’s Model T—is the most important car of the 21st century so far. Elon Musk recently announced that Tesla will soon stop production of the car, a move fitting for a firm pivoting further and further from its original business. Read more.
- Czechoslovakia. Gal reflects on Havel’s understanding of dissidence as something motivated not by political desires but by “pre-political” ones, such as the basic wish to live a normal life free of violence and coercion. That is the best lens through which to see the protests still unfolding in Minnesota, Gal argues. Read more.
How did you do? Come back tomorrow for more questions, and if you think up a great question after reading an Atlantic story—or simply want to share a fact—send it my way at [email protected].
Thursday, January 29, 2026
- The recently released police drama The Rip stars what Hollywood duo, who rocketed to best-friend fame after co-writing the 1997 film Good Will Hunting?
— From David Sims’s story on what is missing from the pair’s on-screen reunion - Confederate forces fired the first shots of the Civil War in 1861 at what sea fort off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina?
— From Isaac Stanley-Becker’s interview with Tim Walz about a possible modern analogue - The protest song “Streets of Minneapolis” is the latest release from what musician known for other political music, including “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” “The Rising,” and one very famous song about the singer’s birthplace?
— From Spencer Kornhaber’s essay on the enduring weight of protest songs
And by the way, did you know that one of the first American protest songs was “Yankee Doodle”? In 1755, a British doctor put new words to a popular tune, mocking the American colonists as “doodles,” or simpletons, and “dandies,” or fops.
Once war broke out, British fighters taunted their American opposition with the song, but as the tide shifted, the Americans embraced it and began belting it back with proud defiance. And in 1781, when the British surrendered at Yorktown, some witnesses reported that the moment was set to the music of “Yankee Doodle.”
Until tomorrow.
Answers:
- Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The Rip, David writes, is “the kind of nostalgia-inducing star vehicle” that would be best served by leaning into its leads’ easy chemistry. Alas, its director appears too intent on faithfully depicting a police procedural to let audiences have much fun with the Boston buddies’ reunion. Read more.
- Fort Sumter. Walz, the governor of Minnesota, worries that the recent violence there by ICE officers cracking down on protests might cause a similar “national rupture,” Isaac writes. Walz also predicts that the chaos visited upon his state will spread to others soon. Read more.
- Bruce Springsteen. The artist’s new song is in the same tradition as his “Born in the U.S.A.” and so many other protest songs from Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and more, Spencer writes. “Who expected to be living this far in the future,” Spencer asks, “and yet trapped in the same old story?” Read more.
How did you do? Come back tomorrow for more questions, and if you think up a great question after reading an Atlantic story—or simply want to share a fact—send it my way at [email protected].
Friday, January 23, 2026
- What 2025 film holds the record for most Oscar nominations, including one for its star, Michael B. Jordan (yes, just one, despite his playing two roles)?
— From David Sims’s article on how the Oscars are rewarding Hollywood’s big bets - In 1848, President James K. Polk offered Spain $100 million to renounce its claim to what Caribbean territory—an offer the Spanish rejected, meaning that the United States never came to own the island?
— From Vivian Salama’s article on contemporary echoes of manifest destiny - The doctrine of foquismo—that a small group of guerrilla fighters can create the conditions for a revolution—was developed by what fighter of the 1950s and ’60s?
— From Jason Burke’s essay on the lessons of the previous century’s radicals
And by the way, did you know that the United States spent only $10,000 on the last land that it outright purchased? In 1944, the country bought Water Island, 500 volcanic acres in the Caribbean just south of St. Thomas; it had purchased the Virgin Islands (including St. Thomas) from Denmark a few decades earlier.
Water Island was not then owned by Denmark, but rather the Danish East Asiatic Company. By World War II, the United States wanted Water Island too, to support military operations on St. Thomas, so it scooped up the land for a bargain.
This, however, was not the last time the United States tried to purchase land, and not even that decade. Two years after the Water Island purchase, the Truman administration offered Denmark $100 million in gold to buy … Greenland.
Have a great weekend!
Answers:
- Sinners. The feting of Sinners and other swings for the fences (such as One Battle After Another) is a pivot for the Academy, David writes, which is coming off a yearslong tilt toward international and art-house movies. This is not a year, he says, in which the Academy will be struggling for relevance. Read more.
- Cuba. There’s a clear parallel to Donald Trump’s quest for Greenland—a proposed acquisition that now looks as though it’s not going to come to pass either. Vivian notes that Polk’s failure to annex Cuba turned Americans against expansionism for decades to come. Read more.
- Che Guevara. Burke argues that extremist movements always learn from their forebears; nothing comes from nothing. And history shows that absent a political outlet for radical change, violence will necessarily resurge, he writes. Read more.
How did you do? Come back next week for more questions, and if you think up a great question after reading an Atlantic story—or simply want to share a fact—send it my way at [email protected].
Thursday, January 22, 2026
- What establishment is known as the “nation’s attic” for its vast collection of American artifacts?
— From Lily Meyer’s article on the long-running argument over that attic - The Arabic word for “everything” is the name of what website that concerns itself with elections, sports scores, geopolitical happenings, and basically any other predictable event a user can think up?
— From Saahil Desai’s article on the danger of this sort of site - What political-science term describes a country with a weak government, an exploited working class, and an elite-controlled economy that usually depends on one (possibly fruity) commodity?
— From Marc Novicoff’s essay on looking for a label for Donald Trump’s governance
And by the way, did you know that the vaunted Athenians, inventors of democracy, most commonly selected their political officeholders by chance? Bronze tokens representing the adult men of Athens would be slotted into a carved-stone device called the kleroterion, then dice would be repeatedly dropped into the contraption to rule out tokens until only the number required to hold office remained.
The proper poli-sci term for this is sortition, which also applies to how the United States selects people for jury duty today. But imagine the rest of U.S. democracy working like that: You’re tossing out your junk mail when you notice a letter from the feds—congrats, the big government Plinko board has decided you’re serving one year in Congress. Good luck!
Answers:
- The Smithsonian. The world’s largest museum complex is, naturally, more than just dusty storage, and the “attic” moniker belies the power the Smithsonian Institution has to shape the narrative of the United States, Lily writes. The story matters more than all the stuff—so it’s no wonder people fight over it, she says. Read more.
- Kalshi. Like Polymarket, Kalshi is one of those sites that purports to be a “prediction market” and not a gambling platform—repeat, not a gambling platform. Except, Saahil writes, any forum for betting is definitionally manipulable; the media outlets that breathlessly report odds as determined by Kalshi had better beware. Read more.
- Banana republic. The term, typically applied to Latin American countries, doesn’t really fit the United States, Marc writes (although artificial intelligence certainly seems like the country’s banana right now), nor does authoritarianism, fascism, or kleptocracy. Rather, Marc argues, the United States might right now be a kakistocracy. Read more.
Wednesday, January 21, 2026
- The strangely shaped juhyo—“monsters” made where the wind sculpts snow around evergreen trees—appear each winter on Mount Zao, in a rural prefecture of what country?
— From Alan Taylor’s collection of photos of the phenomenon - The Trump administration this month posted images of politicians and celebrities sporting a particular type of mustache—a campaign intended to encourage consumption of what dietary item?
— From Yasmin Tayag’s article on one of the food world’s longest wars - In internet slang, what four-letter first name can be applied to any muscular, romantically successful “alpha male”? (Drop a letter, and you get a word for a man who behaves boorishly toward women.)
— From Thomas Chatterton Williams’s essay on the crisis of “looksmaxxing”
And by the way, did you know that—speaking of snow monsters—the U.S. State Department in 1959 issued guidance on yeti expeditions? It informed Americans who wished to hunt for the abominable snowman that they would have to comply with certain rules set by Nepal: They needed to pay for a permit, they had to share any photographic evidence they found, and they were allowed to capture the yeti alive but could kill it only “in an emergency arising out of self defence.”
Alas, this did not mean that State officials believed in the monster. Rather, they were trying to show their support for Nepalese sovereignty—and thus keep the country out of the clutches of a boogeyman that scared Americans even more than the yeti: communism.
Answers:
- Japan. The monsters make for eerie skiing in the mountains of Yamagata prefecture, the site of one of Japan’s oldest resorts. If a jaunt there is out of the question, the photos Alan compiled are a stunning substitute. See the pictures.
- Milk. The dairy ’staches are a throwback to the “Got Milk?” campaign launched in the 1990s. Now the Trump team wants everyone drinking whole milk specifically, Yasmin says—possibly to recapture America’s lost promise? The details are fuzzy. What’s clear, Yasmin writes, is that “the idealized era of perfectly safe, perfectly wholesome dairy never really existed.” Read more.
- Chad. (And your drop-a-letter answer is cad.) The Chad is one of the more legible elements of the corner of the internet devoted to “looksmaxxing”—the “monomaniacal commitment” to improving one’s appearance, as Thomas puts it. Reporting on this troubling, uncompassionate subculture, Thomas concludes that it might be the perfect distillation of the moral crisis young men face. Read more.
Tuesday, January 20, 2026
- Whereas Swedish institutions select the winner of every other Nobel Prize, the award for peace is conferred by a committee from what country?
— From Anne Applebaum’s analysis of Donald Trump’s threatening Greenland letter - What 1986 sports movie follows the boys of tiny Milan High School to their state-championship victory over Muncie Central?
— From Keith O’Brien’s article on the end of the underdog - The Barbz are—or were—the fan base of what “Anaconda” rapper, who recently alienated many of them when she appeared at a Turning Point USA event alongside Charlie Kirk’s widow?
— From Spencer Kornhaber’s essay on Trump’s ever-stalled effort to win the culture war
And by the way, did you know that throughout the history of the Nobel Prizes, there have been years so turbulent that the Peace Prize committee determined not to confer an award, even as other categories went on?
This happened in a few of the interwar years as Nazi Germany rearmed, Italy invaded Ethiopia, and peace generally disintegrated. It was also the case for the years of World War I, with the exception of 1917, when the committee recognized the Red Cross for its humanitarian aid. (All of the Nobel Prizes were suspended during the early years of World War II.)
The circumstances were a bit different in 1948, when the committee ruled that “there was no suitable living candidate.” The clear message was that the award—which by rule cannot be given posthumously—should have gone to Mahatma Gandhi, assassinated earlier that year.
Answers:
- Norway. Neither of those countries, you’ll note, is Denmark, the Scandinavian state that Greenland is a part of. Still, Anne writes, in a letter to Norway’s prime minister, Trump threatened invasion of the territory as a consequence of his not receiving a Nobel Peace Prize—never mind that Norway’s government doesn’t determine the winner, either. Read more.
- Hoosiers. The real-life miracle that immortalized Milan, Indiana, is perhaps the underdog story in sports. Indiana University’s win on Monday in college football’s national championship is, likewise, a great story, O’Brien writes—but no matter how many Hoosier comparisons commentators make, the victory is not the tale of an underdog. That storyline, at least in college football, is kaput. Read more.
- Nicki Minaj. Minaj’s appearance at AmericaFest was certainly a “plot twist,” Spencer writes, but it’s also in keeping with conservatives’ attempt to so disorient America that they can graft “a new zeitgeist” onto the culture. Alas—ask a Barb—culture is still too surprising and messy to control. Read more.
