# Trivia Dominoes: Play Off the Last Bit of Trivia **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [February 4, 2010, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657 "2010-02-04T08:12:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2105
**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:** [January 28, 2019, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/42089 "2019-01-28T10:31:04Z")
As a reporter in the 1950s, Brn Bradlee became close friends with then-senator John F. Kennedy, who had graduated from Harvard two years before Bradlee and lived nearby. In 1960 Bradlee toured with both Kennedy and Richard Nixon in their presidential campaigns. He later wrote a book, _Conversations With Kennedy_, recounting their relationship during those years. Bradlee was, at this point, Washington Bureau chief for _Newsweek_ magazine, a position from which he helped negotiate the sale of the magazine to _The Washington Post_ holding company. Bradlee maintained that position until being promoted to managing editor at the _Post_ in 1965. He became executive editor in 1968. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/42090 "2019-01-28T11:14:11Z")
_Le Bureau_, a 2006 French television show, was an adaptation of the popular British television series _The Office_, and part of the international _Office_ franchise. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/42091 "2019-01-28T13:32:22Z")
The bakery aboard the French Navy aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle can produce 2,000 baguettes a day. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/42092 "2019-01-28T14:24:40Z")
While the round brilliant cut is considered standard for [diamond](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_cut#Choice_of_cut), with its shape and proportions nearly constant, the choice of fancy cut is influenced heavily by fashion. For example, the step cut **baguette** —which accentuates a diamond’s luster, whiteness, and clarity but downplays its fire—was all the rage during the Art Deco period, whereas the mixed Princess cut—which accentuates a diamond’s fire and brilliance rather than its luster—is currently gaining popularity. Most fancy cuts can be grouped into four categories: modified brilliants, step cuts, mixed cuts, and rose cuts. ---
**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:** [January 28, 2019, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/42093 "2019-01-28T15:48:38Z")
King Felipe VI of Spain, who took the throne upon the abdication of his father King Juan Carlos in 2014, has two sisters and two daughters. His eldest daughter, Leonor, Princess of Asturias, is the heiress presumptive. Now age 13, she also bears the titles Princess of Girona, Princess of Viana, Duchess of Montblanc, Countess of Cervera and Lady of Balaguer. ---
**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:** [January 28, 2019, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/42094 "2019-01-28T16:21:23Z")
Mont Blanc (White Mountain) rises 15,777 feet above sea level and is the highest peak in the Alps. However, because the summit is a perennial ice-and-snow dome whose thickness varies, no exact and permanent summit elevation can be determined. The height of the summit is measured every two years. Mont Blanc stands on the border between Italy and France; both countries claim ownership of the peak. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/42095 "2019-01-28T16:27:51Z")
New Hampshire’s White Mountains are the setting for Nathaiel Hawthorne’s short stories “The Great Carbuncle,” “The Ambitious Guest”, “Sketches from Memory” and “The Great Stone Face”. The White Mountain region also figures prominently in the writings of Louisa May Alcott, including the novel Eight Cousins and its sequel, Rose in Bloom. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/42096 "2019-01-28T16:35:50Z")
The post-apocalyptic alien-conquest young-adult novel series _The Tripods_, by John Christopher, begins with _The White Mountains_. The title refers to the location of the Resistance base, organizing the efforts of humans who have escaped implantation with the Tripod overlords’ mind-control device. ---
**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:** [January 28, 2019, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/42097 "2019-01-28T17:55:14Z")
For almost a century after the Civil War there was an unofficial “Mountain Rule” in Vermont Republican politics that a governor from one side of the Green Mountains, which run roughly north-south through the state, would be succeeded by a governor from the other side. The state’s two U.S. senators also tended to be from different sides of the mountains. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/42098 "2019-01-28T18:01:02Z")
For as long as there were still significant numbers of Confederate veterans voting in national elections, the Democratic Party, which had been closely associated with slavery and the rebel cause, was said to remind them to “Vote like you shot.” Some historians attribute the saying to the Republicans, as a means to keep the Democrats from putting it behind them by “waving the bloody shirt” to their own supporters. ---
**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:** [January 28, 2019, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/42099 "2019-01-28T21:28:21Z")
Grover Cleveland of New York was the only Democrat elected President of the United States (and that, twice) between the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the election of Woodrow Wilson, who was born in Virginia but rose to political prominence in New Jersey, in 1912. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/42100 "2019-01-28T23:48:09Z")
Two US Presidents had previously been college presidents: Woodrow Wilson at Princeton, and Dwight Eisenhower at Columbia. Eisenhower’s brother Milton was president of Kansas State, Penn State, and Johns Hopkins. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/42101 "2019-01-29T00:47:19Z")
Nichols Hall is a building on the campus of Kansas State University. This building was originally built in 1911 and appears from the exterior as a castle with battlements. Its interior was destroyed by fire in 1968. The fire destroyed all of the band instruments and sheet music stored inside the building. By an odd coincidence, the music director, Phil Hewett, happened to have the music for the “Wabash Cannonball” in his briefcase the night of the fire. This was the only music available for the band to play in a game against Syracuse a few nights later. As a result, the song became one of the main fight songs of the university. ---
**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:** [January 29, 2019, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/42102 "2019-01-29T01:29:06Z")
The University of Texas Longhorn Band plays ‘Wabash Cannonball’ at the beginning of every fourth quarter during football season. The tradition began when Texas was in the Southwest Conference and Kansas State University was in the Big 8 Conference. Then-football coach Darrell Royal was asked if he had any songs he would like to hear the Longhorn Band play. His response was that they didn’t play enough country music and that he would like to hear ‘Wabash Cannonball’. A good-natured ‘band rivalry’ has developed since both schools joined the Big 12 Conference. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/42103 "2019-01-29T02:52:55Z")
The 1984 film _Cannonball Run II_ was panned by critics; Gene Siskel’s review called it “a total ripoff, a deceptive film - that gives movies a bad name.” Roger Ebert said it was “one of the laziest insults to the intelligence of moviegoers that I can remember.” However, it was noteworthy for the final feature film appearances of Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. Their appearances, with those of Sammy Davis Jr. and Shirley MacLaine, marked the final on-screen appearance of the old Rat Pack team. The film also featured Jackie Chan in one of his first Hollywood roles. ---
**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:** [January 29, 2019, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/42104 "2019-01-29T04:58:19Z")
The Burt Reynolds / Hal Needham _Cannonball Run_ films were inspired by the [Cannonball Baker races](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannonball_Baker_Sea-To-Shining-Sea_Memorial_Trophy_Dash), a series of no-holes-barred cross-country auto rallies organized by automotive journalist Brock Yates. Yates, who also wrote the script for the first Cannonball Run film, had come up with the idea for the Cannonball Baker race while writing for _Car and Driver_ magazine. The movie script was specifically inspired by the 1979 race – in that race, Yates and Needham competed in an ambulance (as Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise did in the film), with Yates’ wife posing as their patient. ---
**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:** [January 29, 2019, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/42105 "2019-01-29T06:56:51Z")
_The Gumball Rally_ (1976) was a movie about a road race across the USA. The movie was inspired by the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash run by Brock Yates, which inspired several other films, including _Cannonball_ (1976), _Cannonball Run_ (1981), _Speed Zone_ (1989); as well as an actual event, the American Gumball Rally and Gumball 3000 international race. Cannonball Run was an unofficial, unsanctioned automobile race run five times in the 1970s from New York City and Darien, Connecticut, on the East Coast to the Portofino Inn in Redondo Beach, California. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/42106 "2019-01-29T14:41:33Z")
Way back before he was a superstar, Andrew Lloyd Webber provided the soundtracks for Gumshoe (1971) and The Odessa File (1974). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/42107 "2019-01-29T14:44:24Z")
Dammit, ninja’ed ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/42108 "2019-01-29T14:47:01Z")
Odessa is the third most populous city of Ukraine. Odessa is sometimes called the “Pearl of the Black Sea”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657.md?page=2104) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657.md?page=2106)