The Right Stuff Trivia Quiz

Answer: Triad

Put a T at the beginning of the word and we have TRIAD.

In medicine, triads are particularly common and help doctors quickly find the right diagnosis when time could be of the essence. Among the more known triads are Beck's, Cushing's, Dieulafoy's, Hutchinson's, Virchow's and Whipple's. A good memory for people's names is probably helpful.

Answer: Tried

We don't even need to rearrange, just change the A to an E and get TRIED.

One of the more frustrating facts of life is that "tried" is all too often followed by "but failed". However, when this seems to drag you down, remember that "and succeeded" can't happen without "tried". And if that isn't enough for you, start playing rugby - every single try is rightfully a success in that sport!

Answer: Bride

Change the T to a B and swap around the E and D and we'll get a BRIDE.

On the big day, every bride of course hopes she really found Mr. Right - and probably not in the sense of the 2015 movie of that name which pits Sam Rockwell and Anna Kendrick against all too many hitmen and winds up with a much worse weddings to funerals ratio than the 3 to 1 precedent set in 1994.

Answer: Wried

The life expectancy of that B wasn't that good - it has to immediately leave again to make room for a W to give us WRIED.

"Wry" is known more as an adjective for a kind of humor (and the Evil Twin would say the only right kind of humor), but it also exists as a verb, meaning twist or contort and, very importantly, providing me with just the right word for this question slot.

Answer: Ride

The D and E are getting dizzy by now - they have to swap places again, along with dropping the W, to get RIDE.

If you're a true roller coaster fan, see how you can secure some extra ride time at your favorite parks - those are hours in addition to the normal park opening times with only a limited number of guests and thus very short or no waits. If you do it right (which probably does not mean Disney's well-known "Extra Magical Hours" hotel guest perk but rather some ride time at a smaller park) and your stomach agrees with it, you can stay on your favorite coaster for an hour straight.

Answer: Rite

Change the D to a T and we get a RITE.

In Catholic parlance, a rite is a specific liturgy needed to celebrate mass just right. Over the centuries, six major rites have evolved - Latin, Byzantine, Alexandrian, Armenian, East Syriac and West Syriac. All six rites are however, unlike the protestant one, in communion with each other, so any Catholic can partake of mass and the Eucharist in any of the rites.

Answer: Write

Just prepend a W and you'll get WRITE.

In computing, memory can of course be read and written and while read-only memory was around from the beginning for program code, there is actually some marginal use for write-only memory (which seems to be really useless as it would never let the data be retrieved) as well - most prominently in circuit testing when you need a very large address space but can't or don't want to afford a huge amount of actual memory, right?

Answer: Writhe

WRITE + H gives WRITHE. Yes, this one's a bit on the edge in terms of "right"ness, but we need it.

Writhe does by the way not have to be a verb - the word also exists as a noun and describes a geometrical property indicating how coiled a knot (in the mathematical sense) is.

Answer: Wright

Drop the E for a G and we're right on track for the brothers Orville and Wilbur WRIGHT, whose historic first motorized flight in a biplane near Kitty Hawk gave a literal rise to a major industry sector and all its side effects in terms, both positive and negative.

Answer: Left

I surely hope you paid the right amount of attention, because this clue didn't talk about changing or dropping letters (and that maniacal laughter in the background is the Evil Twin. Just ignore him...). From east to north, you of course need to turn left - unless you are standing on your head!