If the past three years taught us anything, it’s that “today’s date” is just a flimsy construct ginned up to sell calendars. Check out these news stories and ask yourself, “Did it happen in 2022?”

1. Facebook rebrands to Meta
2. Netflix releases Season 4 of Stranger Things
3. Jeff Bezos steps down as Amazon’s CEO
4. Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is assassinated
5. The container ship Ever Given blocks the Suez Canal
6. A Baltimore judge orders the release of Adnan Syed, subject of the podcast Serial
7. Canadian truckers paralyze Ottawa with weeks of protests against vaccine requirements
8. The James Webb Space Telescope is launched
9. Salman Rushdie is stabbed onstage
10. Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck get married in Las Vegas

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Answers: 1. FB became Meta in 2021. 2) Stranger Things Season 4 was released in 2022. 3) Jeff Bezos stepped down as CEO in 2021. 4) Shinzo Abe was assassinated in 2022. 5) The Suez Canal was blocked in 2021. 6) Adnan Syed was released in 2022. 7) Canadian truckers protested in 2022. 8) The James Webb Space Telescope was launched on Christmas 2021. 9) Salman Rushdie was stabbed in 2022. 10) Lopez and Affleck got married in 2022.

For this challenge, we’ve pulled some memorable quips from 2022 but removed one word. Given most of the quote, the speaker, and the context, can you guess the missing word?

1. “I think if he wanted, he would be playing here in ___ without a problem.”

—Rafael Nadal, on Novak Djokovic being denied entry to a country due to its Covid vaccination policy in January

2. “MAKE ___ ___ AGAIN. (stop trying to be tiktok i just want to see cute photos of my friends.)”

—photographer Tati Bruening, in a post shared by Kylie Jenner in July

3. “Next I’m buying Coca-Cola to put the ___ back in”

—Elon Musk, in a tweet in April

4. “[Our] visit should be seen as an unequivocal statement that America stands with ___, our democratic partner, as it defends itself and its freedom.”

—House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, on her contentious visit to a country in August

5. “A Negroni…Sbagliato…with ___ in it.”

—Actor Emma d’Arcy, naming their drink of choice in October

6. “I just ___ and played James Madison’s crystal flute from the 1800s.”

Lizzo, at a Washington, DC, concert in September

7. “___.”

—Costco CEO Craig Jelinek, on whether he would raise the price of the the store’s hot dogs in July

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Answers: 1) “Australia” 2) “INSTAGRAM INSTAGRAM” 3) “cocaine” 4) “Taiwan” 5) “prosecco” 6) “twerked” 7) “No.”

In this game, we’ve grouped four elements from 2022 events—with one suspicious entry. For each set, you must figure out which item doesn’t belong.

1. UK prime ministers in office: Theresa May, Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Boris Johnson
2. Championship-winning sports teams: Houston Astros (MLB), LA Rams (NFL), Tampa Bay Lightning (NHL), Golden State Warriors (NBA)
3. Some of the top 10 most common passwords in 2022: qwerty, guest, 000000, password
4. Movies in which Ryan Reynolds appears: Bullet Train, The Adam Project, Spirited, Black Adam
5. Retirees: Ben Roethlisberger, Jack Dorsey, Justice Stephen Breyer, Roger Federer
6. Celebrities named in a class-action lawsuit for promoting collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX: Larry David, Reese Witherspoon, Gisele Bündchen, Stephen Curry
7. No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 singles: “Lift Me Up” by Rihanna, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Encanto, “As It Was” by Harry Styles, “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” by Mariah Carey

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Answers: 1) Theresa May 2) Tampa Bay Lightning 3) 000000 4) Black Adam 5) Jack Dorsey 6) Reese Witherspoon 7) “Lift Me Up”

The global box office is forecast to hit $25.8 billion this year, a 21% jump from 2021, as crowds of moviegoers returned to sticky floors, scratchy seats, and Nicole Kidman ads. Can you guess these 2022 blockbusters from their release posters in other countries?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

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Answers: 1) Avatar: The Way of Water 2) Uncharted 3) Thor: Love and Thunder 4) Top Gun: Maverick 5) The Batman

New Year’s 2022 started off with a few scattered posts of black, green, and yellow squares in Twitter feeds. Those posts had some numbers, letters, and one name: Wordle. Over the next few weeks, the word game went megaviral, topping Google’s global search rankings and getting acquired by the New York Times at the end of January in a deal worth millions.

The game also inspired dozens of tribute sites. Some are now defunct (RIP Taylordle), but many of our favorite spinoffs are still going strong. Here’s a short list of them.

Heardle asks you to identify songs from only their opening seconds. Spotify acquired the game in July for an undisclosed amount.

Worldle asks you to identify a country from its silhouette, with hints like “kilometers you’re off by” and “direction to head in” after each wrong answer.

Sedecordle is for people who run three blackjack hands at once when they’re in Vegas. Several other multiple-Wordle options are available online (such as Quordle, with four words), but we prefer taming this 16-word-at-a-time beast instead.

Absurdle captures the thrill of arguing with Siri and transforms it into a Wordle experience. The Absurdle algorithm changes its answer as you continue making guesses, while honoring any correct letters you’ve entered.

Redactle makes you guess the words behind blacked-out text in Wikipedia articles to determine the subject.

Cloudle gives you a location and several weather emoji to choose from, and you have to predict the five-day forecast.

The Wikipedia Game: We know this one isn’t a spinoff, but we discovered it around the same time we got into Wordle and it slaps. Given two unrelated Wikipedia entries, find the shortest route to connect them.

In the last 365 days, Morning Brew solvers tackled almost 600 puzzles, trivia challenges, and crosswords. Here’s a look back at the most popular games among our readers.

Jigsaw of the year: We would have put our money on a baby hippo being a lock in this category, but Morning Brew solvers’ favorite was a more majestic shot from the James Webb Space Telescope.

Word Search champion: You all really love pictures from up high, don’t you? This category’s clear winner was our Word Search featuring aerial views of cities.

Turntable GOAT: In August, we asked you to build words that included “t” and some combination of d-g-h-i-m-n. This one-vowel challenge was our most popular Turntable.

Picdoku : This visual spin on Sudoku using pictures instead of numbers inspired much love from loyal fans throughout the year. The one that topped the charts used images of butterflies.

Crossword crown winner: For our Saturday 15x15 puzzles, holiday themes were a hit, with Halloween’s “Tricky Treats” and Thanksgiving’s “Customs” neck-and-neck for second place in this category. But neither could hold a tiny umbrella to the juggernaut of this summer’s cocktail-inspired “Beach Drinks.”