Hi!

If you’ve been reading Now I Know for more than, say, a day or two, you know that I typically share unusual stories. And even if you haven’t been reading for a long time, you can probably understand, immediately, why world records are interesting to me — by definition, they are unusual. Over the years, I’ve written about world records at least a dozen times. (And that’s not a world record, as Guinness has me beat, and easily.)

But reading about world records and writing about them isn’t quite the same as setting one. And yesterday, I came across a way for all of us to help set a new one: “Most People Playing Solitaire Online in a 24 Hours.” (To be clear, I have nothing to do with organizing the attempt and am just riding on someone else’s coattails. But that’s fine with me!)

Solitaired is a website that, before yesterday, I had never heard of. It’s a site of solitaire games — nothing that really requires explanation. You click, you’re dealt some cards, and you play. Every day they have a Game of the Day. I’m sure a lot of people use it each day, but probably not enough to constitute a world record. So on September 24th or 25th, depending on where you are in the world, they’re looking to change that. They want as many people as possible to come to their website and play that Game of the Day between 8p ET on September 24th through that same time on September 25th. And hopefully, they’ll get enough people to set the record. (It doesn’t look like there’s an established top mark, so this should be an easy feat.)

If you want to participate, Solitaired has an FAQ up, here, with more information. And yes, you’ll get credit for being part of this — as that page notes, they’ll “email a certificate of participation along with the record number once it’s set.” I’ll also try to remember to remind you all on Tuesday’s and/or Wednesday’s newsletter next week.

May all your nines find tens to land on!

The Now I Know Week In Review

Monday: The Unlikeliest of Beer Runs: Sometimes, you just want to buy a friend a beer. Even if they’re in the middle of a war half a world away.

Tuesday: Why Is This Football Player Sitting in the Stands?: A really touching story, if you ask me.

Wednesday: Why the Big Bad Wolf Wouldn’t Be a Good Baseball Player: You can’t huff and puff, at least not in the general direction of the ball.

Thursday: Like Two Ships Not-Quite-Passing In the Night: “Sir, we hit something” is a bad thing to hear if you’re in a sub.

Long Reads and Other Things

Here are a few things you may want to check out over the weekend:

1) “Did Frank Sinatra Really Perform at My Grandma’s High School?” (Can’t Get Much Higher, 33 minutes, September 2024). Grammy Award-winning artist John Mayer performed at my high school, so it’s not entirely far-fetched that this author’s grandmother may have been to a Sinatra show at hers. But it seemed unlikely, so he dug into it — and I won’t ruin the story by telling you what he discovered.

2) “What Is Jeopardy!’s Future?” (Slate, 16 minutes, September 2024). The subhead is better than the title: “One day, I got a furious email from one of the show’s stars. It only got weirder from there.”

3) “Moleskine Mania: How a Notebook Conquered the Digital Era” (The Walrus, 11 minutes, August 2024). I admit to owning more than two moleskin notebooks, and having no idea why.

Have a great weekend!

Dan