# Trivia Dominoes III — Play Off the Last Bit of Trivia **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [April 12, 2025, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952 "2025-04-12T05:32:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 96
**Author:** ![knoodler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ccd318/32.png) [@knoodler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/knoodler)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2026, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/1901 "2026-06-22T21:34:30Z")
Erratic Rock State Natural Site is a state park in NW Oregon, and features a 36 ton block of argillite believed to be 600 million years old and originally part of a seabed. Geologists believe it was picked up and transported from Canada by way of pre-historic Missoula floods, when glaciers covered the region. It is the only rock of its type outside of Canada. [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/86/Erratic_rock_Oregon.JPG/960px-Erratic_rock_Oregon.JPG) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/86/Erratic_rock_Oregon.JPG/960px-Erratic_rock_Oregon.JPG) [!][Erratic Rock State Natural Site - Oregon State Parks](https://stateparks.oregon.gov/index.cfm?do=park.profile&parkId=96) ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/1902 "2026-06-23T07:48:31Z")
> [@knoodler](#): > > Erratic Rock State Natural Site is a state park in NW Oregon, and features a 36 ton block of argillite believed to be 600 million years old and originally part of a seabed. Geologists believe it was picked up and transported from Canada by way of pre-historic Missoula floods, when glaciers covered the region. It is the only rock of its type outside of Canada. _Very cool trivia! I’ve marked this on my map and plan to visit it when next I’m in that area._ In play — Erratic Rock State Natural Site is in Oregon’s Willamette Valley between McMinnville and Sheridan and northwest of Salem, and protects a 90-ton glacial erratic deposited by the Ice Age floods of Glacial Lake Missoula. This rock is the largest glacial erratic found in the Willamette Valley, and it came from the Northern Rocky Mountains some 500+ miles away. Oregon acquired the rock and land by purchase from private owners in 1956. Glacial Lake Missoula during the Ice Age held a volume of water equal to the combined Lakes Erie and Ontario. The water was held in check by an ice dam near Clark Fork ID, near present-day Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho’s panhandle. As the ice dam weakened during naturally-occurring global warming, the ice dam catastrophically failed and the contents of Glacial Lake Missoula violently rushed westward towards the Pacific Ocean and emptied in a matter of days. This violently rushing water caused unique erosion and created an area called the Channeled Scablands of eastern Washington state. The rushing floodwaters also created the Willamette Valley, and it carried the 90-ton glacial erratic to its current location at DD coordinates ▲ 45.14, -123.2929 Approach to this glacial erratic is gained by a trail leading from Southwest Oldsville Road near Highway OR-18 and located at DD coordinates ▲ 45.13753, -123.29083 in Bellevue OR. ---
**Author:** ![knoodler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ccd318/32.png) [@knoodler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/knoodler)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/1903 "2026-06-23T22:01:55Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > Very cool trivia! I’ve marked this on my map and plan to visit it when next I’m in that area. Thanks! And if you’re looking at quaint / funky places of lodging, try the Hotel Oregon in McMinnville. (This plays off Salem and McMinnville.) The Hotel Oregon, which opened in 1905 as the Hotel Elberton, was renovated and reopened in 1999 by the McMenamin Brothers. It features an outdoor rooftop bar, with excellent views of the town and surrounding area. The hotel also hosts an annual UFO convention, to tie in with the 1950 UFO sighting there. (On a personal note: the last time I visited, the rooftop was closed due to inclement weather but I was ushered downstairs to the cellar bar, which lacked the views but made up in kitschy, UFO-related themes.) The McMenamins have renovated a trove of unique and eccentric locales around the region, such as schools, churches, and defunct hotels, and reopening as brewpubs and taverns. [List of McMenamins’ establishments](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_McMenamins_properties) ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/1904 "2026-06-23T23:25:01Z")
_UFOria_ is a science-fiction comedy film, about a pair of small-time con artists who meet a UFO believer, which leads one of the con artists to create an alien-themed cult. The film, which starred Harry Dean Stanton and Fred Ward as the con artists, and Cindy Williams as the UFO believer, was completed in 1980, but shelved by 20th Century Fox as “unmarketable;” after the film was acquired by Universal, it was shown in limited release in 1983 and 1984, but not released broadly until 1985. (I saw it at a local sci-fi convention in the spring of 1984.) ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2026, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/1905 "2026-06-24T05:41:46Z")
> [@knoodler](#): > > Thanks! And if you’re looking at quaint / funky places of lodging, try the Hotel Oregon in McMinnville. Cool, thanks for that! In play — The 1977 Steven Spielberg movie _Close Encounters of the Third Kind_ describes how aliens in UFOs might contact us and communicate via music. In the movie the aliens meet us at Devils Tower in Wyoming, the first-ever US National Monument, established as such in 1906. Devils Tower was formed by an igneous intrusion, formed when magma penetrates existing rock, then crystallizes and solidifies. As its magma cooled, hexagonal columns formed that are up to 20 ft wide and 600 ft tall. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/1906 "2026-06-25T13:41:44Z")
John Williams composed the soundtrack for Close Encounters of the Third Kind, along with many other films, including Star Wars, Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and, his first, Daddy-O, which he wrote in 1959. ---
**Author:** ![Bicycle\_Bill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bicycle_bill/32/6208_2.png) [@Bicycle\_Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bicycle_Bill)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/1907 "2026-06-25T14:10:09Z")
John Williams (credited as Johnny Williams) also wrote the opening theme and ending song for the pilot episode of Gilligan’s Island – a calypso-styled track. The pilot wasn’t received very well, so the producer (Sherwood Schwartz) revamped the premise, changed around some of the actors, and went in an entirely different direction for the theme. Check it out [here.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx7A4sxJi7c) _ **-“BB”-** _ ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/1908 "2026-06-25T15:02:21Z")
John Williams is the most-nominated living person in Academy Award history with over 50 nominations and 5 wins. He is second only to Walt Disney for the most Oscar nominations of all time. He has also earned over 25 Grammy Awards for his musical contributions. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/1909 "2026-06-25T16:22:41Z")
Composer John Williams has hundreds of credits for music for movies and television shows, but only two acting credits: he appeared as a pianist in two episodes of the 1959 television series _Johnny Staccato_, and a cameo as bartender Oma Tres in 2019’s _Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker_ (the character’s name is an anagram of “maestro”). [![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GF1L0L2XAAA2ngJ.jpg) ](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GF1L0L2XAAA2ngJ.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/1910 "2026-06-25T19:08:04Z")
John Williams’s score for the 2002 Steven Spielberg movie _Catch Me If You Can_ was nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Original Score and the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media, but won neither. The first track, with the same name as the movie and played during the opening credits, was featured and parodied in the _Simpsons_ episode “Catch 'Em If You Can” later that year. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/1911 "2026-06-25T20:33:27Z")
_Catch Me If You Can_ (2002) is about the exploits of convicted felon and fraudster Frank Abagnale Jr. Abagnale began with check fraud and petty theft against individuals and small businesses in the US and Europe, and with his continued successes he ‘graduated’ or ‘evolved’ to also become a phony Pan American Airlines commercial pilot, a fake Attorney General in Louisiana, and a phony doctor at a Georgia hospital. He has served time in France, Sweden, and the US for his crimes. ---
**Author:** ![knoodler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ccd318/32.png) [@knoodler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/knoodler)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/1912 "2026-06-25T21:53:56Z")
In 1975, after ten years of fraud convictions and several incarcerations, Frank Abagnale, Jr., approached a bank and offered to educate its staff on the techniques used by check forgers, proposing that if they found his information unhelpful they would owe him nothing, and if useful, they would pay him a modest fee and recommend him to other banks. The arrangement worked, and it became the basis of a new career as a fraud prevention speaker and consultant. In 1976, he founded Abagnale and Associates, which advises corporations, financial institutions, and government agencies on document security and fraud prevention. (Per Wiki) ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/1913 "2026-06-25T22:21:40Z")
American actor Larry Linville had a long career, especially in television. His signature role was that of Major Frank Burns, the inept, cowardly martinet surgeon in the television adaptation of _MASH_. Linville appeared as Burns, the foil for Hawkeye Pierce and Trapper John McIntyre (and, later, BJ Hunnicutt) for the show’s first five seasons, but he felt that the role had become increasingly one-dimensional, and chose to leave the series after the fifth season. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/1914 "2026-06-25T23:40:46Z")
Marine Corps Sergeant Major Dan Daly was called “the fightinest Marine I ever knew” by Major General Smedley Butler. Daly is likely most famous for leading outnumbered and outgunned Marines in a counterattack at the Battle of Belleau Wood with the rallying cry, _ **“Come on, you sons of b-tches, do you want to live forever?!?!”** _ Daly received two Medals of Honor. The first was for single-handedly holding a wall in China as Chinese snipers and other soldiers tried to pick him off. The second was awarded for his role in resisting an ambush by Caco rebels in Haiti and then leading a dawn counterattack against them. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2026, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/1915 "2026-06-26T13:27:19Z")
Dan Dailey, Jr., was an actor and dancer. (He also served in the U.S. Army during WWII.) He was in Ziegfeld Girl, Give My Regards to Broadway, It’s Always Fair Weather, and There’s No Business Like Show Business, among other films. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2026, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/1916 "2026-06-26T15:41:08Z")
Bill Daily was an American actor, comedian, and musician. He had two signature roles, as “second banana”/sidekick characters on television sitcoms: astronaut Roger Healey on _I Dream of Jeannie_, and airline navigator Howard Borden on _The Bob Newhart Show_. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2026, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/1917 "2026-06-26T16:04:27Z")
Suzanne Pleshette played the role of Bob Newhart’s wife on _The Bob Newhart Show_, which ran from 1972-1878.. Tom Poston played the role of George Utley on _Newhart_, which ran from 1982-1990. Pleshette and Poston had been romantically involved in 1959, when they were both actors in the Broadway musical _Golden Fleecing_. They both went their separate ways and married others, but, after they were both widowed, they married in 2001 and remained married until Poston’s death in 2007. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2026, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/1918 "2026-06-26T17:39:38Z")
Suzanne Pleshette passed away the following year, in 2008 at the age of 70. She starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s _The Birds_ (1963) at the age of 26. _The Birds_ was set and filmed in Bodega Bay CA which is about a 90 minute drive north from San Francisco. ---
**Author:** ![knoodler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ccd318/32.png) [@knoodler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/knoodler)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2026, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/1919 "2026-06-26T18:18:44Z")
Tippi Hedren suffered cuts and lacerations to her face and arms when a panel of glass shattered during the phone booth scene in _The Birds._ Although the wounds were superficial, Hedren wanted to take a break to regroup but director Alfred Hitchcock demanded she do a few more takes, stopping only long enough for the makeup team to cover her still-bleeding scratches. Hedren (and her daughter, actress Melanie Griffith) have stated in interviews that Hitchcock used mechanical birds to strike harder on the booth’s glass, in a move to exact revenge on the actress for rebuffing the director’s sexual advances. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2026, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/1920 "2026-06-26T19:06:20Z")
In _The Birds_ Tippi Hedren drove a 1954 Aston Martin DB2/4 Drophead Coupé. Drophead is a British term for a convertible car. Often called a drophead coupé, it typically refers to a two-door, four-seater vehicle with a folding or retractable soft-top roof and a sloping rear. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952.md?page=95) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952.md?page=97)