# 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:** 2237
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/44729 "2019-09-11T19:52:51Z")
The first Soviet nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, K-19, suffered a nuclear disaster from not having its backup cooling system installed. One of many differences between history and the Harrison Ford movie, other than the names and the mutiny scene, was that K-19’s crew members nicknamed her “Hiroshima”, not “Widowmaker”. ---
**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:** [September 11, 2019, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/44730 "2019-09-11T21:23:07Z")
Belpre and Seward, two Kansas towns 35 miles apart and about 100 miles WNW of Wichita, are connected by Kansas Highway K-19. gMap: [Google Maps](https://goo.gl/maps/nDKjpRr8mgF1MW2F6) ---
**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:** [September 11, 2019, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/44731 "2019-09-11T22:50:14Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > Belpre and Seward, two Kansas towns 35 miles apart and about 100 miles WNW of Wichita, are connected by Kansas Highway K-19. > > gMap: [Google Maps](https://goo.gl/maps/nDKjpRr8mgF1MW2F6) I’ve been to both of those towns. Total population of the two, according to the 2010 census, is 148. In play: William Seward was US Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869, serving under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. Seward was one of the targets of the 1865 assassination plot that killed Lincoln, and was seriously wounded by conspirator Lewis Powell. ---
**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:** [September 12, 2019, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/44732 "2019-09-12T00:31:56Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > I’ve been to both of those towns. Total population of the two, according to the 2010 census, is 148. Cool. You may want to chime in about that in the MPSIMS thread, [Places you’ve been. . .](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=881676). I’d be willing to bet no other Dopers have been there. In play: The annual Iditarod sled dog race follows the Iditarod National Historic Trail in Alaska. That trail is also known as the 1910 Seward to Nome Trail because it was frequently used in the 1910 Iditarod Gold Rush, Flat, Alaska, 1910–12, where gold was discovered by John Beaton and William A. Dikeman in 1908. Flat is close to the (now-abandoned) ghost town named Iditarod. On imgur, 4 pics of my family and me last winter. We were there for the Iditarod race: [Seward AK, winter 2018-2019 - Album on Imgur](https://imgur.com/a/Xsti9cZ) ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/44733 "2019-09-12T12:50:47Z")
The Iditarod commemorates a 1925 in which a relay of dogsled teams took diphtheria serum to the epidemic-stricken town of Nome. Although a musher named Gunnar Kaasen and a dog named Balto led the final leg and got all the fame and adulation, a musher named Leonhard Seppala and a dog named Togo actually went most of the way, including through the most dangerous stretch. ---
**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:** [September 12, 2019, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/44734 "2019-09-12T13:59:53Z")
Togo is a country in West Africa that has a total area of 22,000 square miles. It is one of the smallest countries in Africa. The total population of Togo is about 7.6 million people. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/44735 "2019-09-12T14:14:58Z")
The country of Togo, like much of western Africa (including Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, France, Gabon, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, and Senegal), is francophone by dint of French colonization. Although the French have been gone for a long time, French is still spoken in urban areas and some currencies are still backed by French banks. ---
**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:** [September 12, 2019, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/44736 "2019-09-12T15:25:30Z")
The TV Show Fresh Prince of Bel-Air has Wil Smith, son of Viola “Vy” Smith and one of the four Smith sisters moving in with his aunt Vivian Smith Banks, her husband Phillip Banks and their three children. However, in an episode Ben Vereen appears as Wil’s father Lou Smith. So apparently Viola Smith married Lou Smith, become Viola Smith Smith. ---
**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:** [September 12, 2019, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/44737 "2019-09-12T15:33:08Z")
When Eleanor Roosevelt married her fifth cousin once removed Franklin Roosevelt in 1905, she might have taken the name Eleanor Roosevelt Roosevelt, but she didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/44738 "2019-09-12T15:44:57Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > The TV Show Fresh Prince of Bel-Air has Wil Smith, son of Viola “Vy” Smith and one of the four Smith sisters moving in with his aunt Vivian Smith Banks, her husband Phillip Banks and their three children. > > However, in an episode Ben Vereen appears as Wil’s father Lou Smith. So apparently Viola Smith married Lou Smith, become Viola Smith Smith. What is the domino connection to my post? (I’m pre-coffee, so be gentle) ETA: never mind, I see it. ---
**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:** [September 12, 2019, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/44739 "2019-09-12T15:51:13Z")
Yes, and you can take it to the “BANKS.” In play: A 6-year-old Theodore Roosevelt witnessed the funeral procession of Abraham Lincoln from his grandfather’s mansion in Union Square, New York City where he was photographed in the window along with his brother Elliot, as confirmed by wife Edith who was also present. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/44740 "2019-09-12T16:00:03Z")
Theodore Roosevelt Sr. did not enlist in the Union Army, hiring a substitute instead, at great cost to his reputation, because of his wife’s Southern background and pro-slavery sympathies - she in fact led an informal pro-Confederate social circle out of their home, and had two brothers in the CSA. New York’s anti-war orientation in general could be attributed to its value as a port for trade with Britain, which supported its cotton supply. The only President between the terms of Andrew Johnson and TR Jr. who had not been a Union Army officer was Grover Cleveland, who likewise had hired a substitute. ---
**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:** [September 12, 2019, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/44741 "2019-09-12T16:05:15Z")
In the 1971 children’s book The Monster at the End of This Book, Sesame Street’s Grover goes to great effort to keep the reader from turning the pages of the book, because there is a monster on the final page. Grover nails pages together and builds a brick wall to block access; at the end it is discovered that the monster at the end of the book is Grover himself, who is mortified (“Oh, I am so embarrassed…”). ---
**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:** [September 12, 2019, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/44742 "2019-09-12T16:07:34Z")
President Grover Cleveland got along well with fellow Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, but not so much with those in the more conservative Senate. A joke from the period had it that Mrs. Cleveland woke him one night, saying, “Grover, I think there are burglars in the house!” The President sleepily replied, “No, my dear. Quite possibly in the Senate, but not in the House.” ---
**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:** [September 12, 2019, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/44743 "2019-09-12T16:15:14Z")
In addition to Donald Trump, Presidents with NO political experience whatsoever include Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S Grant and Dwight Eisenhower, all of who had extensive military experience. Unlike Donald Trump. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/44744 "2019-09-12T16:24:02Z")
Harry Thaw was a dissolute playboy who killed distinguished architect Stanford White, former lover of his showgirl wife, Evelyn Nesbit, setting up the first two Trials of the (20th) Century (hung jury/mistrial, acquittal/insanity). After his release, upon visiting cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post’s garish Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach (now owned by the above-mentioned), designed by Marion Syms Wyeth and furnished by Joseph Urban, Thaw exclaimed “My God! I shot the wrong architect!” ---
**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:** [September 12, 2019, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/44745 "2019-09-12T16:52:21Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > The Iditarod commemorates a 1925 in which a relay of dogsled teams took diphtheria serum to the epidemic-stricken town of Nome. Although a musher named Gunnar Kaasen and a dog named Balto led the final leg and got all the fame and adulation, a musher named Leonhard Seppala and a dog named Togo actually went most of the way, including through the most dangerous stretch. Thank you for this. Balto has a statue in NYC Central Park. Leonhard Seppala was saddened to see Balto getting a lot of praise and press, and not Togo. Togo is stuffed and in the Iditarod Museum in Wasilla AK. Yes, THAT Wasilla. I was there but could not see Russia (haha). [[Album] Togo. Iditarod Museum, Wasilla AK. ![](https://i.imgur.com/nyi5UDw.jpeg?fb "Togo. Iditarod Museum, Wasilla AK.") ](https://imgur.com/a/101TQLm) 2 pictures of when we were there (last winter) — of Togo, and of us in front of the museum. Comment only, not a game play. Thank you. ---
**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:** [September 12, 2019, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/44746 "2019-09-12T18:01:42Z")
Balto was also stuffed after his death, and can now be seen at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History: [https://www.cmnh.org/balto](https://www.cmnh.org/balto) ---
**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:** [September 12, 2019, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/44747 "2019-09-12T18:11:42Z")
In play: Missouri Democrat \*\*Harry \*\*Truman, President of the United States at the end of World War II, was particularly pleased that the Japanese signed the articles of surrender on the deck of the battleship USS _Missouri_. He later went aboard the ship several times, including during Fleet Week in New York City. The U.S. Postal Service recently issued a stamp honoring the warship, which is now permanently moored at Pearl Harbor. [https://store.usps.com/store/product/buy-stamps/uss-missouri-S\_478704](https://store.usps.com/store/product/buy-stamps/uss-missouri-S_478704) ---
**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:** [September 12, 2019, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/44748 "2019-09-12T18:14:23Z")
Once Harry Truman left the White House, his only income was his old army pension: $112.56 per month. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657.md?page=2236) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657.md?page=2238)