January 25, 2025 - "2025 Trivia Puzzle #2" - Derrick Schneider

Difficulty ● ● ◐ ○ ○

Puzzle Notes

Dear Friends:

For those of you that solve and submit via our Google form, you know that we include a spot to share feedback. Someone sent this recently: "I reverse engineered 4 of the answers based on what I surmised for the final answer. Is that kosher? Is that expected?"

And our feedback to that feedback: YES, ABSOLUTELY! We call this "backsolving," and it's a prominent feature of our themed trivia. We don't expect you to know every answer right away, so we try to craft puzzles with clues that emerge during your solve. Figuring out the theme may shine a new light on the previous questions. Similarly, if you already have a couple of right answers, then you have an advantage in identifying the theme. We like to think of it as a "whole is greater than the sum of its parts" thing. Or, a "no question is an island" situation. Either way, we encourage backsolving when needed.

AQCAG

Our first All Questions Correct Answer Getter for 2025 is the solving pair of Chelsea & Sean Blink. We'll be shouting out and sharing a fact from them on our Bluesky soon.

Trivia Puzzle #2

Today's puzzle is from Derrick Schneider, who has written for us before. Derrick (he/him) is a programmer who lives in Berkeley with his wife, daughter, and two cats. He enjoys reading, drawing, and tackling difficult British cryptic crosswords. He's serving you seven questions today. Dig in!



Until next time,

Aimee, T.J., Karen & the expanded AVCX crew

avxwords.com | @avcxword | @lilavcx | @avcxplus | @avcxtrivia

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