Pop culture · October 26, 2026

Puzzle #18 answers

The five places from Where Was It? Pop culture #18, and the story behind each one.

1. 01

   TV

   In Gilmore Girls, Rory turns down Harvard to study at this Ivy League university.

   Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

   

   Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, founded in 1701, is the third-oldest university in the United States. Rory Gilmore studies there from the fourth season of Gilmore Girls.

   41.311, -72.927

2. 02

   Music

   K-pop's BTS, whose name means 'Bulletproof Boy Scouts', formed in this city, also home to Blackpink and Twice.

   Seoul, South Korea

   

   BTS, also known as the Bangtan Boys, is a South Korean boy band formed in Seoul in 2010: Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V and Jung Kook.

   37.560, 126.990

4. 03

   Film

   Neill Blomkamp filmed District 9 (2009) around this cylindrical 173 m residential tower in Johannesburg.

   Ponte City Apartments, Johannesburg, South Africa

   

   Ponte City is a 173 m skyscraper in Johannesburg's Berea district, built in 1975 and long Africa's tallest residential tower. It appears in District 9 and in Blomkamp's Chappie.

   -26.191, 28.057

5. 04

   Books

   In Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, the Joads find refuge in a government camp based on this Depression-era migrant camp.

   Arvin Federal Government Camp (Weedpatch), California, USA

   

   The Arvin Federal Government Camp, or Weedpatch Camp, was built by the Farm Security Administration south of Bakersfield in 1936 to house migrant workers. Steinbeck's 1939 novel portrays it.

   35.306, -118.906

6. 05

   Anime

   Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama was born in 1955 in this city in central Japan.

   Kiyosu, Aichi, Japan

   

   Kiyosu is a city in Aichi Prefecture, next to Nagoya. Akira Toriyama (1955–2024), the manga artist behind Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump, was born there.

   35.213, 136.848