Atlantic Trivia on Table Tennis and Imaginary Lines
And did you know that twice a year, Hawaiʻi makes shadows disappear?
Updated with new questions at 3:40 p.m. ET on December 23, 2025.
It’s a short holiday week here for Atlantic Trivia; I’ll be quizzing you Monday and Tuesday, and then we’ll part until the new year.
But note that Anders Celsius developed his centigrade system for measuring temperature on December 25, 1741. The first predicted return of Halley’s Comet was observed precisely 17 years later. The keen mind can still accomplish a lot at Christmas.
In fact, who needs presents (I desperately ask as I realize that my online orders will not arrive before Thursday)? Isn’t knowledge the greatest gift of all?
Find last week’s questions here, and to get Atlantic Trivia in your inbox every day, sign up for The Atlantic Daily.
Tuesday, December 23, 2025
- To promote his new table-tennis movie, the actor Timothée Chalamet recently recorded a video atop what fittingly shaped Las Vegas structure?
— From Shirley Li’s article on Chalamet’s full-throttle press tour for Marty Supreme - The Federal Theatre Project was an arm of what New Deal agency that aimed to employ millions of Americans through infrastructure and cultural projects?
— From Talya Zax’s essay on the democratic value of publicly funded theater - What film protagonist played by Saoirse Ronan begins her eponymous movie hating her hometown of Sacramento, the state of California, and even her own name?
— From the Culture desk’s list of nine non-Christmas movies to watch at Christmas
And by the way, did you know that those beloved Christmas TV specials of the 1960s were not always funded by the studios themselves, but by corporate sponsors? We have Coca-Cola to thank for A Charlie Brown Christmas, and we owe Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to General Electric, which kind of makes sense if you consider Rudolph’s snout an appliance.
Ironically, How the Grinch Stole Christmas was sponsored by an industry group for banks. I’m guessing the employee tasked with confirming brand alignment had already checked out for the year and skipped right over the message at the story’s heart: “Perhaps Christmas doesn’t come from a store.”
Have a happy holiday, and see you in the new year.
Answers:
- The Sphere. Chalamet hoots and hollers as a drone shows him astride what looks like the world’s biggest Ping-Pong ball. There is also, 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 seem endearing, as only he could. Read more.
- The Works Progress Administration. Zax writes that during the Great Depression, Federal Theatre Project performances reached some 30 million people across the United States. Its work was daring—so, naturally, when the House Un-American Activities Committee came along, it defunded the FTP. But in Ireland, the theater on which the FTP was modeled is still going strong. Read more.
- Lady Bird. The Greta Gerwig movie is about learning to acknowledge the value of the place you’re from—a nice aspiration for holiday travelers heading home. Or you can watch the masked orgy in Eyes Wide Shut. See the rest of our picks.
How did you do? Come back in the new year for more Atlantic Trivia, or click here for last week’s. 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].
Monday, December 22, 2025
- What 41-year-old American downhill skier—the 2010 Olympic women’s gold medalist—this month became the oldest competitor ever to win the sport’s World Cup?
— From Sally Jenkins’s story about professional athletes competing into their 40s - North of 66°30′ N, the sun stays above the horizon for a full 24 hours at least once a year. This demarcating line is known by what name?
— From Shayla Love’s story about timekeeping on the Norwegian island of Sommarøy - What 19th-century American author was best known for his rags-to-riches stories that he hoped would “exert a wholesome influence on his young readers”?
— From Jake Lundberg’s story on a new Netflix series about President James Garfield
And by the way, did you know that twice a year in the tropics, the sun is positioned ever so briefly exactly overhead? Elsewhere in the world, the sun never reaches true zenith, but in the band around the equator, its semiannual appearance produces the eerie effect of shadowlessness for objects on the ground.
Look up Lāhainā Noon (as it’s called in Hawaiʻi) if you wish to be disconcerted by some apparently levitating traffic cones and parking-lot stanchions. The magic lasts only a jiffy; then you’re stuck with the bummer of merely being in Hawaiʻi.
Answers:
- Lindsey Vonn. The skier’s previous World Cup win was seven years prior, Sally writes. Watching Vonn—or the literal grandfather lately throwing touchdown passes for the Indianapolis Colts—Sally wonders how many “gladdening third acts” sports ageism has cheated us out of. Read more.
- The Arctic Circle. Sommarøy made international news in 2019 when villagers petitioned to make the place a “time-free zone.” Love traveled there this summer to spend nine days figuring out whether people can actually buck the clock. Read more.
- Horatio Alger. Garfield’s own unlikely ascendance to his Gilded Age presidency was the subject of Alger’s From Canal Boy to President. Jake writes that Netflix’s framing of Garfield as “a good man in an age of bad politicians” is “hopeful but perhaps too hopeful for our current moment.” Read more.
