Hi!

Everything seems to quiet down during the holiday season, which is a nice and needed break for many of us. Which also means it’s a good time to try some games. Here’s what I’ve been playing recently — some are things I’ve shared here before, some new. Give them a try and let me know what else I should looking to try myself!

• Solebon Solitaire, a free iPhone app. I’ve been playing “Baker’s Game” on it for years — and that’s not a joke. My stats are below. Those 449 hours? That’s 18 days of my life playing this game. (I installed it more than a decade ago, so that’s not awful… right?)

• Sway — It’s a live trivia game on your phone for real money (but like, not a lot of it). If you’re familiar with HQ Trivia back in the day, this is similar. Lots of live games throughout the day — some free, some needing “coins” to get in. You can earn coins through on-demand 1:1 free matchups.
• Best Guess Live by Netflix Games — This is a lot of fun, and they give away a lot of money… $15,000 last night! Download it and give it a try tonight at 8pm et. The rules are simple but I’ll let the host share them. (And I think tonight is being hosted by Howie Mandell.) This game is going to blow up because next week, they’re apparently giving away $1 million. You’ll need a Netflix account to play.
• Inkwell Games — The sponsored Now I Know recently but I’m truly a fan, playing every day. They have two games — Fields and Stars — and both are super-simple to learn and devilishly hard to master. If you’ve never played before, start with Monday’s game, as the puzzles get more difficult as the week goes on.
• Artisanal Sudoku — I’ve shared this before, too, but it’s a mainstay. Each week, James sends out three sudoku puzzles with non-standard rules like arrows, thermometers, even fog… and they’re great. He also curates three similar puzzles from the sudoku community. There’s enough sudoku to get you through a week, and that’s great, because he sends more the next week!
• Spark — a lightweight trivia app with three simple games tied to a theme each day. I’ve learned things through this app that have inspired a few upcoming Now I Know stories!

Enjoy!

The Now I Know Week In Review

Monday: The Accidental Igloo That Saved a Life: I’m shocked this guy survived.

Tuesday: The Checks That Saved 75 Christmases: An uplifting story for the season.

Wednesday: The Opposite of a Drive Thru Window?: This seems like a really bad idea on so many levels.

Thursday: Companion Companion: When your pet needs a friend, by law.

Long Reads and Other Things

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

1) “The Riddle That Seems Impossible Even If You Know The Answer” (Veritasium/YouTube, 17 minutes, June 2022). I may have shared this before. I can’t remember. Either way, it’s amazing — and the solution is not at all intuitive.

2) “A septic tank in this tiny Arizona town could crack a 2006 cold case” (Phoenix New Times, 20 minutes, May 2025). The subhead is “Keith King vanished 19 years ago in Seligman. A private detective thinks he knows where King’s body is – and who killed him.,” but the words “septic tank” are the important ones, right?

3) “A Very Big Fight Over a Very Small Language” (The New Yorker, 23 minutes, December 2025). The subhead: “In the Swiss Alps, a plan to tidy up Romansh—spoken by less than one per cent of the country—set off a decades-long quarrel over identity, belonging, and the sound of authenticity.

Have a great weekend!

Dan