CITY GAMES PRESENTS THE SMUG REPORT

Know more. Gloat responsibly.

Monday, October 26, 2026 | 5-minute read

Good morning. A Pentagon scientist has looked at a cave and decided it needs a keyboard. Elsewhere, horses lose a communications contract, the Moon supplies seasonal lighting, and bats would like a word about their reputation.

Most people visit a cavern and admire the stalactites. Leland W. Sprinkle heard an instrument that had neglected to come with keys. During a 1954 tour of Virginia’s Luray Caverns, he watched a guide tap a formation to produce a musical tone. Sprinkle, a mathematician and electronics scientist who worked at the Pentagon, responded with a project that makes buying a piano seem almost suspiciously unimaginative.

Over the next three years, he searched the caverns for formations that could produce the notes he needed. This was not simply a matter of finding rocks already prepared to perform Bach. Selected stalactites were altered to tune them. Sprinkle installed electrically operated, rubber-tipped mallets and connected them to an organ console. Pressing a key triggers a mallet to strike its assigned formation. Your living-room keyboard may have more settings, but its middle C probably does not require a cave.

The result is the Great Stalacpipe Organ, with sounding formations spread across roughly 3½ acres. Here is the detail to keep: despite the name and console, it does not produce notes by pushing air through pipes. It strikes stone. A musician interviewed by PBS described it as a 37-note percussion instrument. In musical terms, it belongs with instruments whose solid material vibrates when struck. In real-estate terms, it is a deeply unreasonable thing to move.

The instrument can be played from the keyboard or run automatically. And when you hear it inside the caverns, you are standing among the parts that make the music, rather than merely facing a stage. That is the useful revelation: an organ-shaped console does not necessarily mean a pipe organ, and a cave tour can double as a visit inside a percussion instrument. Nature supplied the formations. A Pentagon scientist decided they needed a repertoire.

On October 26, 1861, the Pony Express officially ended, two days after completion of the first transcontinental telegraph line.

The service had operated for only about 18 months. Its enduring place in the American imagination is considerably longer than its actual business history.

The system relied on relays of riders and horses. The telegraph moved messages electrically. A magnificent horse remains a magnificent horse, but it is difficult to negotiate with a technology that makes your entire journey unnecessary.

Seth MacFarlane was born October 26, 1973. On Family Guy, he supplies the voices of Peter Griffin, Stewie Griffin, and Brian Griffin, among others.

That means an argument between the father, baby, and dog can involve one performer doing an impressive amount of workplace disagreement.

Birthday question: Which science-fiction series did MacFarlane create and star in as Captain Ed Mercer?

A) The Orville
B) Firefly
C) Farscape

Answer at The Answer Desk. Please use your own voice.

October’s full Moon falls today, October 26. It is commonly called the Hunter’s Moon, and it supplies a timely celestial backdrop for Halloween week.

The useful correction: a full Moon does not stay at its exact full phase all night. Fullness is a particular moment in its orbit, although it looks nearly full on neighboring nights. By Halloween, this one will be a waning gibbous.

Future trivia question: What name is commonly given to the October 26, 2026 full Moon?

A) Hunter’s Moon
B) Strawberry Moon
C) Snow Moon

The Moon is providing atmosphere. Any dramatic personal revelations remain your department.

Today’s theme: Your Halloween bats have retained a fact-checker.

SMUG: Bats are mammals, and they are the only mammals capable of true powered flight. Flying squirrels glide. The distinction is substantial, particularly if you are the squirrel approaching the next tree.

SMUGGER: Bats are not blind. Many use echolocation alongside vision. Having another way to find dinner does not mean their eyes have resigned.

SMUGGEST: Only three living bat species feed on blood. Many others eat insects, fruit, or nectar. An entire group of animals has been handed the reputation of its most alarming minority. Somewhere, a fruit bat is trying to explain that it brought a banana.

Three questions. Monday has already asked enough of you, but we have editorial obligations.

Liquid Assets: Which of these elements is liquid at 20°C?

A) Bromine
B) Copper
C) Sulfur

Monster Credentials: Who wrote Frankenstein?

A) Bram Stoker
B) Mary Shelley
C) Robert Louis Stevenson

Deeply Informed: Which is Earth’s largest ocean?

A) Atlantic
B) Indian
C) Pacific

Lock them in. Looking thoughtful does not earn partial credit.

Birthday Bragging Rights: A) The Orville. MacFarlane plays Captain Ed Mercer. Apparently creating a fictional universe is an effective way to secure a command position.

Future Trivia: A) Hunter’s Moon. Today’s full Moon supplies the answer. By Halloween, it will already be past full.

Liquid Assets: A) Bromine. It is liquid at 20°C. The periodic table contains more variety than a wall chart initially suggests.

Monster Credentials: B) Mary Shelley. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus first appeared in 1818. The full title came prepared for a more demanding book club.

Deeply Informed: C) Pacific. It is the largest ocean. You may now deploy “Pacific” with an entirely unnecessary air of authority.

Your standing:

3/3: Smuggest. Try to let someone else answer one tomorrow.
2/3: Smug. Your confidence has a reasonable foundation.
0–1/3: Better informed than you were five minutes ago. An excellent return on an email.

You have acquired a musical cave, a postal career change, and enough bat facts to complicate a Halloween conversation.

Put them to work with daily puzzles and trivia at City Games. Play directly on the website. No download required.

Bring your brain. Give the bats a fair hearing.

Know more. Gloat responsibly.