What they really said
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What They Really Said — Daily trivia Friday, September 18, 2026: questions and answers
All 10 questions with answers and explanations. Play this daily
Q 01In which Disney film does the Queen say 'Magic mirror on the wall', never 'Mirror, mirror'?
- ASnow White
- BSleeping Beauty
- CCinderella
- DTangled
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Snow White
Snow White. The misquote is closer to the source: in the Grimms' German the queen asks 'Spieglein, Spieglein an der Wand', 'little mirror, little mirror, on the wall'.
Q 02Rousseau wrote the 'let them eat cake' story while which future French queen was a child in Austria?
- ACatherine de' Medici
- BEleanor of Aquitaine
- CMarie Antoinette
- DMary, Queen of Scots
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Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette. Rousseau pinned the line, about brioche, on an unnamed 'great princess', and there's no evidence she ever said it.
Q 03Which classic film's real line is 'Play it, Sam', never 'Play it again, Sam'?
- AGone with the Wind
- BCasablanca
- CThe Maltese Falcon
- DCitizen Kane
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Casablanca
Casablanca. It's Ilsa, not Bogart's Rick, who asks 'Play it once, Sam, for old times' sake' and then 'Play it, Sam', and nobody says 'again'.
Q 04Whose recorded warning at Lexington was 'The Regulars are coming out'?
- APatrick Henry
- BNathan Hale
- CEthan Allen
- DPaul Revere
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Paul Revere
Paul Revere, who almost certainly never shouted 'The British are coming!': colonists still saw themselves as British, and 'the Regulars' meant the king's soldiers.
Q 05Einstein never defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over, so where does that line come from?
- ATwelve-step groups
- BPhysics lectures
- CSales seminars
- DSports locker rooms
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Twelve-step groups
Twelve-step groups. Its earliest known print versions, from 1981, come out of Al-Anon and Narcotics Anonymous, decades after Einstein's death.
Q 06Which can-do saying began as mockery of a man claiming perpetual motion?
- APut your shoulder to the wheel
- BPull yourself up by your bootstraps
- CKeep your nose to the grindstone
- DHit the ground running
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Pull yourself up by your bootstraps
Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Its earliest known use, from 1834, jokes that the would-be inventor can now hoist himself over a fence by his boot straps; the can-do sense seems to come in the 20th century.
Q 07Shakespeare's Caesar says 'Et tu, Brute?' Which language do ancient accounts give instead?
- AEtruscan
- BEgyptian
- CGaulish
- DGreek
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Greek
Greek. Suetonius says Caesar only groaned, though some wrote he said 'You too, child?' in Greek, which educated Romans commonly spoke.
Q 08Pandora's famous 'box' was something else in Hesiod's poem, so what did she really open?
- AA chest
- BA basket
- CA jar
- DA sack
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A jar
A jar. Hesiod's word was pithos, a big lidded storage jar, and when she lifted the lid every evil flew out, leaving only Hope inside.
Q 09In Hamlet, the lady who 'doth protest too much' is loudly vowing never to do what?
- ATake the crown
- BSeek revenge
- CLeave Denmark
- DRemarry
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Remarry
Remarry. 'Protest' meant vow: the Player Queen swears she'll never wed again, and Gertrude, who hastily remarried after her husband's death, finds it too much.
Q 10In Richard III, the 'winter of our discontent' is over. Which royal house's victory ended it?
- ALancaster
- BStuart
- CYork
- DWindsor
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York
York. Edward IV, the 'sun of York', has won the crown, but Richard, 'not shaped for sportive tricks', resents the peace and resolves to prove a villain.
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