A New Trivia Game That Kicked My You-Know-What

Hi!

I have something fun to share with you today — a new, daily trivia game that I didn’t make, but wish I had. It’s called Thrice, and it’s built by the pub trivia-hosting company Geeks Who Drink. It came out this week and they gave me a preview, so I’ve played a few times. And it’s fun.

Here’s how they describe it:

5 rounds of brain gymnastics, each from a different category

3 questions per round, all with the same answer (how convenient!)

Go ahead and guess, a wrong answer is the same as passing.

Scoring:
1st try = 3, 2nd = 2, 3rd = 1
After that, well… better luck next question!

It’s a ton of fun. I’ve played a few times during their quiet soft launch and without fail, my results are one 3 (if that), a bunch of 2s, and usually a 1 (and maybe a zero). The first clue is typically hard enough that it’s not much of a clue, and the third one gives me just enough to make an educated guess if I truly have no idea. 

Each day is a brand new game and you can’t play yesterday’s game today. Because you can’t play yesterday’s game today, I’m not going to “play along” — and no, I haven’t done today’s game yet. (I scheduled this email to send last night.) But I want to give you a tour of the game, because you should try it!

Let’s start with a screenshot.

I was pretty sure the answer was “Two” because I thought of Romulus and Remus, and was a bit surprised that I got it wrong. But the second clue made my mistake obvious:: “‘Tex-Mex Dip’ was Family Circle magazine’s original name for an appetizer with how many layers?” 

Yeah, seven hills in Rome, oops. I earned two points out of the three max. For sake of completeness, the final clue was “A cocktail with lemon-lime soda and Seagrams is called a 7 and WHAT?”

That earned me two points. Thrice uses a series of dice to show your score; here’s what mine looked like yesterday after answering all five questions.

I think my score was mostly deserved, for what it’s worth. I needed two clues to get question two right and I was certain (and this time, correct) about my answer for question 3. I should have gotten question four on the first clue (“‘Here rests in honored glory…’ So begins an inscription on what D.C.-area monument?”) but I debated between two answers and got it wrong. The second clue (“Since 1921, soldiers of the ‘Old Guard’ have constantly patrolled what site in Arlington National Cemetery?”) made the answer clear.  As for the last one? It was a lucky guess on the third and final try, so that luck balances out with my bad luck for question 4… right?

Yeah, I’ll go with that.

In any event, the game is fun and, like Wordle and Connections and similar games, has an easy-peasy share feature. Hit that “Share” button and you’ll get the below:

Thrice Game #129 → 10 points!
🎲: 2️⃣2️⃣3️⃣2️⃣1️⃣
https://thricegame.com

It also shows you how you did compared to the rest of the Thrice-playing universe. Yesterday, I ranked in the top 49% of all players — above average, but only barely. I’ll take it.

Anyway, go play! It’s five minutes of fun. 

The Now I Know Week In Review

Monday: You Is Now Welcome in Sweden: A story about Swedish grammar, but it’s still interesting, I promise! And congrats to the handful of you who wrote in to tell me you noticed the Monty Python joke. Your prize is … well, that you noticed the joke. 😊

Tuesday: The Great Puffin Toss: I can’t believe this is real and that it’s a good thing for the puffins. But it is!

Wednesday: The Largest Man-Made Accidental Explosion: Yikes.

Thursday: A Creative Way to Stop a Celebrity Stalker: Creative, yes. Smart? Not so much, even thought it worked.

And some other things you should check out:

Some long reads for the weekend:

1) “The World According to Norman Lear” (Esquire, 35 minutes, August 1981). Norman Lear passed away this week at the age of 101. If you’re not familiar with him, you’re still almost certainly familiar with his work — he was the television producer behind many of the groundbreaking TV shows of the 1970s, like “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons.” This is a story/interview from the peak of his success.

2) “For decades, a Florida woman had no sense of smell. Can she get it back?” (Tampa Bay Times, 23 minutes, November 2023). In 1986, Barbara Walker was in a car accident and her olfactory nerve was severed, robbing her of her sense of smell. There was no fix and still isn’t. But somehow, in 2021, it seems to have at least partially came back — and no one is sure why.

3) “Everybody Knows Flo From Progressive. Who Is Stephanie Courtney?” (New York Times Magazine, 20 minutes, November 2023). She’s a mascot, but unlike most brand mascots, she’s also a real person. This is her story.

A happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate, and to all, have a great weekend!

Dan