Question 1

Warsaw is the capital of Poland today — but Poland's most famous and historically celebrated royal capital is a different city. Which city served as Poland's royal capital for over 500 years?

Accepted Answer

Krakow. Krakow served as Poland's royal capital from the early 11th century until 1596, when King Sigismund III moved the court to Warsaw. The magnificent Wawel Castle and Cathedral on Krakow's hilltop remain Poland's most powerful symbols of royal history.

Question 2

What is the very core of a regulation MLB baseball made of?

Accepted Answer

A tightly wound rubber and cork composite. A regulation MLB baseball's core is actually a small sphere made of a cushioned cork pill surrounded by two layers of rubber — not pure cork. This core is then wound with layers of yarn and covered in cowhide. The 'cork center' is a common misconception.

Question 3

The word 'dashboard' on a car refers to the instrument panel in front of the driver — but where did the word originally come from?

Accepted Answer

A board that stopped mud 'dashing' up from horse hooves. Before cars existed, a dashboard was a wooden board on horse-drawn carriages that stopped mud and debris from 'dashing' up from the horses' hooves onto the driver. When automobiles arrived, the name transferred to the front panel of the car.

Question 4

Agatha Christie is the best-selling fiction writer of all time. Which of her novels holds the record as the longest-running play in theatrical history, still performed continuously since 1952?

Accepted Answer

The Mousetrap. The Mousetrap opened in London's West End in 1952 and ran continuously until COVID-19 paused it for 14 months starting in March 2020—before it successfully reopened in May 2021. Having surpassed its historic 30,000th performance, it remains the world's longest-running theatrical production by a massive margin.

Question 5

Gabriel García Márquez's 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' is one of the greatest novels ever written. In which Caribbean country is the fictional town of Macondo, where the story takes place, based?

Accepted Answer

Colombia. García Márquez based Macondo on Aracataca, the small Colombian town where he grew up — the novel's lush heat, banana plantations, and civil wars all mirror Colombia's real history, and García Márquez himself called the book 'a Caribbean novel.'

September 24, 2026 Trivia

1. Warsaw is the capital of Poland today — but Poland's most famous and historically celebrated royal capital is a different city. Which city served as Poland's royal capital for over 500 years?

2. What is the very core of a regulation MLB baseball made of?

3. The word 'dashboard' on a car refers to the instrument panel in front of the driver — but where did the word originally come from?

4. Agatha Christie is the best-selling fiction writer of all time. Which of her novels holds the record as the longest-running play in theatrical history, still performed continuously since 1952?

5. Gabriel García Márquez's 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' is one of the greatest novels ever written. In which Caribbean country is the fictional town of Macondo, where the story takes place, based?