Staff Notes

STAFF NOTE: This Was the Year That Was. We Hope You Were Paying Attention!

test your knowledge of everything that went down this year

Tom Giffey |

I love trivia. I may not always remember where I left my keys or my online banking password, but I remember the name of the sandwich cookie that inspired the Oreo (Hydrox) and what President Harry S. Truman’s middle initial stood for (nothing). You might argue such trivia takes up too much valuable space in my cranium, but I like to think such esoteric knowledge makes me a well-rounded person (and by “well-rounded” I mean “more likely to tell you about how Charles Darwin and Steve Irwin owned the same tortoise”).

My affinity for trivia means this is one of my favorite issues of Volume One each year. Turn to page 32 in our latest print issue, and you’ll find our annual Year in Review Quiz. A while back, we decided to replace our traditional yearly retrospective with a quiz to test how much readers have been paying attention. It’s a test for us as well: Twelve months can go by in a blur, so it’s difficult to sift out the noteworthy events, people, or things worth quizzing readers about. It’s also a challenge to come up with 20 questions that readers could conceivably answer. (Rejected question: “How many cars lined up before dawn the day Chic-fil-A opened?”) Whether or not you get any of the Year in Review Questions right, we’re glad you have taken the time to read Volume One in 2023, and we hope you stick with us into 2024 and beyond.