CITY GAMES PRESENTS THE SMUG REPORT

Know more. Gloat responsibly.

Wednesday, October 28, 2026 | 5-minute read

Good morning. A Hollywood star has found a military application for player-piano thinking, the Statue of Liberty is celebrating a substantial anniversary, and your Halloween candy is about to become a botany lecture. Nobody said intellectual superiority would be socially convenient.

Hedy Lamarr had a Hollywood career. George Antheil composed music. In 1941, they submitted a patent application for a secret communications system intended to help protect radio-controlled torpedoes from interference. Apparently neither had received the memo explaining that attractive people should pose and musicians should remain near the piano.

The problem was straightforward: if an opponent could identify the radio frequency carrying guidance instructions, they could try to jam it. Lamarr and Antheil proposed changing frequencies in coordination. The transmitter and receiver would hop together, while someone trying to interfere would have a moving target. Think of two people switching meeting rooms according to a shared schedule while the person hoping to interrupt them keeps arriving at the wrong door.

The wonderfully specific detail comes from Antheil’s musical world. Their proposed mechanism used perforated paper records inspired by player pianos to coordinate the changes. The patent described a way to start the records together, keeping transmitter and receiver synchronized. It specified up to 88 frequency changes, a nod to a piano’s 88 keys. This was not a piano being fired from a ship. It was a familiar information-storage mechanism being recruited for a very different assignment.

The patent was granted in August 1942 under Antheil’s name and Lamarr’s then-name, Hedwig Kiesler Markey. Their contribution is recognized as an important development in wireless communications. Keep the distinction sharp when retelling it: “Hedy Lamarr co-invented a patented frequency-hopping system” is solid. “Hedy Lamarr invented Wi-Fi” compresses a long technological history into a much less defensible sentence. The real story needs no upgrade. A movie star and a composer saw a radio problem, borrowed an idea from musical machinery, and produced a genuine invention. Staying in your lane is occasionally how everyone misses the exit.

The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on October 28, 1886. Today marks its 140th anniversary.

It had been built in France, taken apart, shipped to New York in 1885, and reassembled atop its pedestal. International friendship evidently came with a substantial installation phase.

Its formal name is Liberty Enlightening the World. The tablet in its left arm bears July 4, 1776, rather than the dedication date. One date commemorates American independence; the other commemorates the enormous statue being ready for the ceremony. Both deserve their own calendar entry.

Elsa Lanchester was born October 28, 1902, making today the 124th anniversary of her birth.

In 1935’s Bride of Frankenstein, she played the famous Bride and a second role in the film’s opening. Her screen credit named that second character, while the Monster’s Mate received a question mark. A remarkably coy billing decision for the person supplying the title’s most memorable hair.

Birthday question: Who was Lanchester’s other character in Bride of Frankenstein?

A) Mary Shelley
B) Elizabeth Frankenstein
C) Queen Victoria

The answer awaits at The Answer Desk. Please keep the laboratory equipment switched off.

Today is International Animation Day, established by ASIFA to celebrate animation and its artists.

The October 28 date commemorates Émile Reynaud’s 1892 Théâtre Optique presentation in Paris. Animation’s public exhibition history stretches back well before the characters most of us initially picture.

For the 2026 celebration, Japanese animator Yoriko Mizushiri created the official poster for use around the world. ASIFA groups organize screenings and related events on and around the date, so this is a celebration rather than one simultaneous worldwide premiere.

Future trivia question: Who created the official International Animation Day poster for 2026?

A) Hayao Miyazaki
B) Yoriko Mizushiri
C) Nick Park

An entire art form deserves more recognition than “something to put on while we find the remote.”

Today’s theme: Your candy bowl has botanical credentials.

SMUG: Cocoa “beans” are seeds from the cacao tree’s fruit. They are processed into the chocolate surrounding your Halloween haul. A chocolate bar is not a vegetable, but it does have a more interesting family history than its wrapper suggests.

SMUGGER: Peanuts are legumes, related to beans, lentils, and chickpeas. The “nut” in the name has been doing very effective public relations. Your peanut-butter cup contains a botanical classification dispute beneath the chocolate.

SMUGGEST: Natural vanilla comes from the cured fruit of an orchid. Those dark pods are the result of a flowering vine’s reproductive efforts. Calling something “plain vanilla” is an astonishingly dismissive way to describe an orchid’s contribution to dessert.

Three questions. Enough range to discover whether your knowledge travels.

Gold Standard: Which chemical symbol represents gold?

A) Ag
B) Au
C) Gd

Dry Humor: Including polar deserts, which is Earth’s largest desert?

A) Sahara
B) Gobi
C) Antarctic Desert

Long Way Home: To whom is the ancient Greek epic The Odyssey traditionally attributed?

A) Homer
B) Virgil
C) Sophocles

Lock them in. “I knew that” is accepted only before the answers.

Birthday Bragging Rights: A) Mary Shelley. Lanchester plays the novelist in the opening and the Bride later. Author and creation, one performer. A compact arrangement with considerable hair variation.

Future Trivia: B) Yoriko Mizushiri. The Japanese animator created the official 2026 poster.

Gold Standard: B) Au. It comes from the Latin aurum. Ag is silver; Gd is gadolinium. Gold has declined to make its English spelling helpful.

Dry Humor: C) Antarctic Desert. Deserts are defined by very low precipitation, not mandatory sand and sunglasses. Antarctica is the largest; the Sahara is the largest hot desert.

Long Way Home: A) Homer. The epic follows Odysseus’s difficult return home. “Traditionally attributed” leaves room for the complex history of ancient oral poetry.

Your standing:

3/3: Smuggest. Please allow dessert before beginning your lecture.
2/3: Smug. An excellent person to have on the team.
0–1/3: Three new facts. Your Wednesday has acquired assets.

You now know why a player piano belongs in an invention story, what Lady Liberty’s tablet commemorates, and which orchid has been flavoring dessert.

Give that knowledge a little exercise with daily puzzles and trivia at City Games. Play directly on the website. No download required.

Bring your brain. Let the candy do its own public relations.

Know more. Gloat responsibly.