Good afternoon. In today’s edition:

• 🪖 Operation Don Quixote
• 🧩 New puzzles
• 🪂 GOAT outdoor adventure activity

…and much more.

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P.S. We’ll be off on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Each of the following events happened on January 16. Your challenge is to put them in the order in which they occurred by year, earliest to latest. Answers at the bottom!

• A) Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote is published. The book is considered by many to be the first modern novel, and one of the greatest novels of all time.
• B) The Persian Gulf War begins after the UN’s deadline for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait expires, with the Pentagon preparing to commence Operation Desert Storm.
• C) Ivan the Terrible is crowned tsar and grand prince of Russia. Ivan’s nickname largely stems from his infamous paranoia, temper, and activities as a conqueror.
• D) The 18th Amendment to the US Constitution is ratified by the requisite number of states, starting the Prohibition era in America.

Hint: Don Quixote centers around a duo

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If you can’t get the first clue, today’s Conjoiner may feel like you're downstream with no way back. Can you piece the hints together and make it to shore?

The first clue of today’s sequence is: “Waterway you find yourself on with no oars; also lingo for a bad situation (sometimes with an expletive)”...

Mini

To start today’s mini, you must first bow to your sensei. Fight through the clues to complete the puzzle below:

• Play today’s mini crossword here.

Sudoku

End the week on something true. Solve this grid, and call it through.

• Play today's puzzle here.

Every vote builds your personal GOAT List, ranking the toys that didn’t just entertain you, but defined how you played.

Some toys sparked imagination. Others delivered chaos. A few somehow survived every generation and still matter today. Now they’re going head-to-head on GoatWars in the Greatest Childhood Toys of All Time league, and this one hits way closer to home than expected.

Showdowns include:

• LEGO sets 🆚 Action figures
• Game Boy 🆚 Nerf Blasters
• Barbie dolls 🆚 Hot Wheels

🛳️ Up to $1500 Savings 10-Day Netherlands River Cruise… Sail round trip from Amsterdam through Netherlands and Belgium. Book by 1/31 here.

💂 Save $500 7-Day London & Country Guided Tour… Visit Stonehenge, Shakespeare Country, Oxford, and more. Book by 1/31 here.

🏛️ Save $500 8-Day Classical Greece Guided Tour… Experience ancient sites in Athens, Olympia, and Delphi. Book by 1/31 here.

🪂 THE GREATEST OUTDOOR ADVENTURE ACTIVITY OF ALL TIME

1. Scuba diving
2. Skiing
3. Mountain biking
4. Kayaking
5. Whitewater rafting

Explore the full list.

Note: Results are as of the published time; these lists are dynamic and may change.

C, A, D, B

• C) 1547 – Ivan the Terrible is crowned tsar and grand prince of all Russia.
• A) 1605 – Don Quixote is published. The novel heavily influences other great novels like Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy and Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
• D) 1919 – The 18th Amendment is ratified. America’s Prohibition Era lasted just 13 years before the amendment was repealed.
• B) 1991 – The Persian Gulf War begins. Just over a month later, an international coalition launches the Desert Storm ground offensive that liberates Kuwait in just 4 days.