Random, Petey, and Elendil’s Heir are all correct on the four I posted (516-19).
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That would be Sam Rayburn.
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Nicholas Longworth for this one.
Alice Roosevelt Longworth outlived her husband by decades and was a fixture in Washington society, famed for the sardonic bons mots she would come up with: “If you can’t say anything good about anybody … come sit here by me!” 
Incorrect.
Polycarp, you’re correct in your two answers. Alice Roosevelt Longworth even had that remark embroidered on a pillow!
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This first Speaker of the U.S. House hailed from Pennsylvania.
Frederick ? Muhlenberg -
He ruled with an iron fist, gave his name to a House office building and demanded that the House restaurant always offer his beloved bean soup.
Joe Cannon
They said it
525. *Open, in the name of the Great Jehovah & the Continental Congress
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Get there the firstest with the mostest
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Come on, you wolverines.
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Though we have lost a son, let all the boys of California now be our sons. [This is a very, very close approximation- I can’t come up with the exact quote]
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I have always been fond of this West African proverb . . .* giving you the proverb would be too easy.
Both correct. Muhlenberg’s middle name was “Augustus.”
- Ethan Allen, at Ft. Ticonderoga.
- Nathan Bedford Forrest’s (apocryphal) tactical advice.
- George Armstrong Custer during the Civil War - at Gettysburg?
- Got me there.
- Theodore Roosevelt, the proverb being “Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.”
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Not in 1959
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Not in 1972; there were still about 600 men drafted in the year of 1973 when the all-volunteer armed services started.
I followed that stuff fairly closely as I turned 18 in 1973.
- I don’t believe that Edward Hermann played FDR in a one-man show. Or if he did, that is not whom I am thinking about.
Correct as usual; didn’t remember the “you will go far” part though. That quote just so happened to be the Final Jeopardy answer in my UToC appearance a couple years ago. :o
- Speaker Dennis Hastert had this nickname, a relic of his earlier career
Coach. (He was a wrestling coach, I believe at the h.s. level.)
Stanford?
Robert Vaughn, who also once portayed a young Harry Truman in a TV movie.
I suppose it’s time for me to give back to this thread.
Disasters:
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This event drowned more passengers than were lost when the Titanic sank. Ironically, a safety measure enacted because of the Titanic disaster caused the subsequent event.
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This earthquake was more intense than any in the contiguous USA, but caused few deaths (if any).
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This epidemic caused (by far) more deaths than any other.
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Among the claimed causes of this disaster are a meteorite and a domestic animal. (I make no claims to the credibilty of either theory.)
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Although not a calamity in the sense of the others (loss of human life or widespread property damage), this disaster was probably caused by snakes on a plane.
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The capsizing at harbor of the M/V Eastland. To say the disaster was caused by the additional lifeboats is a bit misleading - the Eastland had major stability issues its whole career - even through at least one name change. Overloading, and a poorly designed trim system had a lot more to do with the disaster. Which doesn’t mean that the additional weight of the added lifeboats made her more stable, of course.
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The New Madrid Earthquake. I think of 1821.
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The Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918-1919.
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The Great Chicago Fire. Though I’d never heard the meteorite theory. Cool.
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Noooo clue.
Hmm… a few more disasters:
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This steamer disaster was the most deadly nautical disaster in US history.
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This steamer disaster in the waters around NYC is largely forgotten, in part because of the ethnicity of the victims.
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One of the causes for the high fatality numbers for the disaster in question 536, was that the life vests and belts were both rotting and filled with lead or steel scraps to make weight standards. How many people were convicted of murder for these deadly frauds?
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The USS Akron and USS Macon were both lost, within a few years of each other, in very similar circumstances. Why is the death toll so much higher for the Akron’s loss?
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The following Navy commands were unusual: USS Shenandoah, USS Los Angeles, USS Akron, USS Macon, and a fifth command whose name I cannot recall at this time, dammit. What was so unusual about these commands?
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Correct. Yeah, it probably would have been more accurate to say “contributed to” instead of caused.
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Correct, although IIRC , your date is about a dozen years too late. (Also, there were at least two earthquakes in the series, but that’s nitpicking.) If these took place today, they’d be truly terrible events.
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Correct. Another catastrophe that could easily take place again.
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Correct. (Although it is far from proven, the meteorite theory is somewhat supported by the fact that there were serious fires the same day in Wisconsin and Michigan. The Wisconsin fire, which was the subject of a previous question in this thread, actually killed many more people than the Chicago fire.)
- This steamer disaster was the most deadly nautical disaster in US history.
Damn, I’m spacing the name. It was a boiler explosion and fire aboard a paddlewheel boat on the Mississippi.
538. The USS Akron and USS Macon were both lost, within a few years of each other, in very similar circumstances. Why is the death toll so much higher for the Akron’s loss?
Hydrogen instead of helium?
- The following Navy commands were unusual: USS Shenandoah, USS Los Angeles, USS Akron, USS Macon, and a fifth command whose name I cannot recall at this time, dammit. What was so unusual about these commands?
[/QUOTE]
They were blimps/airships.
That’s what it was, but I really am looking for the name.
Nope. Both airships were using helium as lifting gas.
True. Actually, they were all rigid hull airships, or dirigibles.
You are correct, sir. Kinda ironic, in the light of the glurge about Leland Stanford and his wife. The story is the very plainly dressed and humble Mr & Mrs Leland Stanford went to Harvard U to try to donate funds get a statue dedicated for their recently deceased son. The high & mighty Harvard President curtly dismissed the couple. Smarting from the snub, the Stanfords decided to build the University that bears their names to honor their son.
The story is untrue, far from being humble & plain- Leland Stanford was a notorious rail baron. He was well received by the Presidents of several Ivy League colleges.
The irony is Stanford’s true quote about looking out for the young men of California is never mentioned in the glurge.
Correctamente. Would you like to make any attempts at my other unanswered questions?