What was the name of Bill Clinton's pet cat when he first came into office?

I was thinking earlier today about my dog Molly, and naturally, that got me thinking of pets.  Presidential pets frequently become famous in their own right, and President Clinton's pet was no different.  So, here is today's question, off of our Pocket Trivia: US Presidents game: What was the name of Bill Clinton's pet cat when he first came into office?  Muffin, Stripes, Fluffers or Socks?

Granted, any of those names sound cute/obnoxious enough to be a cat name, so unless you know this one straight up, guessing is going to be hard.

Anyway, the correct answer is Socks.  Socks (pictured left...yes, that's a real picture) was the Clinton's cat from the time Clinton served as Governor of Arkansas through Clinton's entire two terms in office.  He was the Clinton's sole pet until the Clinton's adoption of Buddy, a Labrador Retriever.  Apparently they got along like...cats and dogs ::snicker::

Anyway, when the Clinton's left the White House, they gave Socks to Betty Currie, President Clinton's White House Secretary.  Socks lived until 19, when he was euthanized after suffering from jaw cancer.  He did better than poor Buddy, however; Buddy was hit by a car and killed while "playfully" chasing a contractor off the Clinton's lawn.  As a dog owner myself, this is so sad!

What is the only part of the constitution that cannot be amended?

This one is a fascinating one.  The Constitution, as we all know, is an amendable document - every part of it can be amended - except one.  There is one part of the Constitution - and only one part - that its authors felt was so important that it could never be changed.  So, from our Pocket Trivia: US History Game: What is the only part of the Constitution that cannot be amended?  The ability of the federal government to print money, the repeal of prohibition, freedom of speech or each state having equal representation in the Senate?

The correct answer to this one is the provision requiring that every state in the United States have equal representation in the Senate.  This provision is found in Article Five of the Constitution.  The exact text is as follows:

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.

There you have it.  States can, if they chose, allow themselves to be deprived of their Senate seat, but no state can have their Senate seat removed without their consent.  It is interesting that this is the only section of the Constitution that is written as such.

Who was Bob Dole's running mate in 1996?

I'm watching football as I type this question, so this seems like a good one.  Not sure what I mean?  Then you may not get the answer right.  The question, off Pocket Trivia: U.S. History, is as follows: Who was Bob Dole's running mate in 1996?  Was it Dan Quayle, Lamar Alexander, Jack Kemp or Pat Buchanan?

Not Lamar Alexander.  Alexander ran for the Republican nomination in 1996 and 2000 - he had previously served as U.S. Secretary of Education  and Governor of Tennessee.  Alexander never won the nomination, but was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2002, then reelected in 2008, where he still serves.

No, not Quayle.  The former Vice President, perhaps best known for his infamous quotes and spelling ability, (potatoe, anyone?), was V.P. from 1988-1992, but did not run with Dole in 1996.

It wasn't Pat Buchanan either.  The conservative activist ran for President in 1992 (he actually scored a stunningly high 38% in the New Hampshire primary against incumbent President George H. W. Bush) and 1996 (this time winning New Hampshire against Bob Dole), but did not run on a ticket with Dole.

The correct answer is Jack Kemp.  The one-time Bills Quaterback and seven-time all-star made a transition to politics in 1970, when he was elected to Congress from New York.  Kemp ran unsuccessfully for President in 1988, ultimately losing to George H.W. Bush, but he was appointed as Secretary for Housing & Urban Development in the Bush Administration.  Kemp was picked to run with Bob Dole as his V.P. nominee in 1996, an election that they ultimately lost.  Kemp retired from politics after the unsuccessful run.  Kemp died of cancer in 2009.

We are done until Thanksgiving is over - so, Happy Thanksgiving, and we'll see you on Monday!

What former U.S. Vice President would later become Secretary of War for the Confederate States of America?

We did it yesterday, so let's keep the streak alive: another Civil War question, this one from our Pocket Trivia: U.S. Presidents game.  What former U.S. Vice President would later become Secretary of War for the Confederate States of America?  Was it James Polk, John Breckenridge, John Calhoun or John Tyler?

This one always interested me - it's amazing to think that a former Vice President of the United States could wind up becoming one of the highest ranking officials in the Confederacy?

Alright - not John Tyler.  Tyler was Vice President to William Henry Harrison and became President when Harrison died.  When war broke out, Tyler tried to stop it via a compromise, but to no avail.  Instead, Tyler was elected to serve as a Congressman in the Confederate Congress (!!!!), but died before he could serve.  Harrison became the only President whose death was not mourned in Washington.

Not John Calhoun.  Calhoun, a Senator and one-time Vice President, was an advocate for states rights and the rights of slaveholders, but died ten years before the Civil War.

Not James Polk either.  Polk was a Congressman, Speaker of the House and U.S. President, but never V.P. Polk died 103 days after he left the Presidency in 1849.

The correct answer is John Breckenridge.  Breckenridge was something of a boy wonder and elected Vice President at age 35 - the youngest V.P. in history.  He ran for President in 1860 and came in third, winning only border states, having been nominated by the southern wing of the Democratic party.  He was expelled from the U.S. Senate in 1861 for supporting the South and eventually served as a successful general.  Named Secretary of War during 1865, the final days of the confederacy, Breckenridge helped to oversee an end to the Civil War and negotiate an honorable surrender with Union forces.  Breckenridge fled the country and only reentered in 1869 after having been granted amnesty.

Who was President when West Virginia was admitted to the Union?

This question, courtesy of our Pocket Trivia: U.S. Presidents, is more interesting because of the history behind it.  It's Civil War related - so you know right away that there is probably some serious passion behind it.  Who was President when West Virginia was admitted to the Union?  Rutherford Hayes, Andrew Jackson, Benjamin Harrison or Abraham Lincoln?


Alright, I said Civil War, so that basically gives it away: it's Abraham Lincoln.

So, what happened that made West Virginia a state?  Again: the Civil War.  West Virginia was originally a part of Virginia.  However, it was most decidedly more pro-Union than the rest of Virginia.  So, when Virginia voted to secede from the Union, the people of West Virginia met in a Constitutional Convention, declared that the rest of Virginia had violated its constitutional oaths by voting to secede (and thus vacated their offices) and reorganized its government, claiming to represent the entire Commonwealth of Virginia.  They organized their own government, complete with a new Governor and two United States Senators (that were recognized in Washington D.C.).  Eventually, the government acknowledged that it represented only the West Virginia portion only.  It applied for statehood and was recognized by the federal government in 1863.

Yup.  West Virginia exists because of the civil war.

What is the term for an elector in the Electoral Collage who votes for a candidate they are not pledged to?

The Presidential election is now less than two years away (weird, right?).  So, we bring you this question off of our Pocket Trivia: U.S. Presidents game:  What is the term for an elector in the Electoral Collage who votes for a candidate they are not pledged to?  Is it a Lying Voter, Twisted Elector, Faithless Elector or Sockless Vote?

Sockless Vote?  I don't even know where I got that from.  I guess it sounds like something that could be true though.  History is sort of random.

Anyway, the correct answer is Faithless Elector.  As you may know, the U.S. population doesn't actually vote for a Presidential candidate, at least not directly.  Instead, they vote for a slate of electors that are pledged to a Presidential candidate.  Those electors then vote for the President - the first one to 270 wins.

In total, 164 electors have voted for a candidate they were not pledged to vote for.  A faithless elector has never actually decided the outcome of a Presidential election, though it came pretty close to happening in 1796, when a wannabe faithless elector was denied the chance to vote twice for Aaron Burr, costing Burr the election.  The most recent time this happened was in 2004, when a Minnesota elector voted for John Edwards for President, despite being pledged to Kerry (though this may have been in error).  Since Minnesota voted by secret ballot at the time (since changed), no one knows who actually did it.

Which state is home to the largest naval base in the world?

We're in a military frame of mind today - this question comes straight off of our Pocket Trivia: US History game. What state is home to the largest naval base in the world?  Is it California, Hawaii, Virginia or Massachusetts?


The answer is Virginia.  Some interesting comments here about the psychology of this question too, since some of these answers have elements of being trick question-like.  I went with Hawaii as a possible answer because just about everyone likely thought of Pearl Harbor when they saw that.  Nope - though I think you can make the case that Pearl Harbor is the best known U.S. naval base.  I also went with California since its one of the biggest states in America and would seem like a safe guess.  Wrong again.

Virginia is the correct answer, and the largest naval base in the world is Naval Station Norfolk, located in Norfolk, Virginia.  It serves as the garrison of the 2nd naval fleet, conducts over 100,000 flight operations a year, 150,000 passengers and 264,000 tons of mail.  That's a lot of mail.

What Vice President was the first to be elected President after fulfilling the term of his predecessor?

Welcome back everyone, and hope you had a good weekend!  It's Monday, it's cold, what's a better way to get back to work than with a nice, hot, steaming glass of U.S. Presidential Trivia?

Well, actually, I can think of several, but you probably don't want to work yet, so let's just move right along.  Today's question comes off of our Pocket Trivia: U.S. Presidents.  What Vice President was the first to be elected President after fulfilling the term of his predecessor?  Was it Harry Truman, Chestur Arthur, John Tyler or Theodore Roosevelt?

All of these men were Presidents, and all of these men were Vice Presidents that became Presidents after the President died.  But, only two of these men actually were elected President in their own right.

It isn't John Tyler.  Tyler became President when William Henry Harrison died (after serving barely a month in office).  However, Tyler proved to be such an unpopular President that he was expelled from his own party.  Almost his entire cabinet resigned in protest of his actions.

It wasn't Chester Arthur either.  Arthur became President after the assassination of James Garfield.  Arthur unsuccessfully sought the nomination for President by the Republican party - that went to James Blaine, who would lose to Grover Cleveland.

It wasn't Harry Truman either, though you'd be closer.  Truman became President upon the death of Franklin Roosevelt in 1945 and did win his own term as President in 1948.

Above:  Journalism fail.

Truman, however, was not the first.  That honor goes to Theodore Roosevelt.  Roosevelt was elected Vice President with William McKinley and became President when McKinley was assassinated in 1901.  Roosevelt was elected President on his own in 1904, but had promised not to run in 1908.  Instead, he helped elect his Vice President, William Taft. 

Who was the second man to walk on the moon?

Ahh the moon.  Made of pure swiss cheese and populated completely by gnomes.  When the Soviets aren't invading it.

Wait, what?

Above:  Not really under Soviet control...we think.

Well, not that the goofy stuff is out of the way, let's get on with the question of the day, this one off of our U.S. History game.   Who was the 2nd man to walk on the moon?  Neil Armstrong, Gus Grissom, Pete Conrad or Buzz Aldrin?


Not Neil Armstrong:  He was the first man to walk on the moon.  Interestingly enough, Armstrong actually botched his preplanned quote when he first stepped on the moon.  What he said was, "One strong step for man, one giant leap for mankind."  What he meant to say was, "One strong step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."  He walked on the moon.  We'll forgive him.

It wasn't Gus Grissom: One of the original Mercury astronauts, Grissom was the 2nd man to fly in space and the 1st to fly in space twice - Grissom, however, was tragically killed when the Apollo 1 caught fire during a routine test.

It wasn't Pete Conrad either, though that's close - Conrad was the third man to walk on the moon.  

The correct answer is Buzz Aldrin.  This was apparently due to the physical positioning of Aldrin in the spacecraft, as well as NASA's desire to have the first man on the moon be a civilian.

What President publically opposed slavery after his Presidency?

Slavery was the most controversial topic in American politics until it was outlawed in the 19th century.  Most American Presidents did little to stop the institution.  However, at least one publicaly opposed it - after his administration was over.  So, in a question that comes off of our Pocket Trivia: US Presidents game:

What President publicly opposed slavery after his Presidency? John Quincy Adams, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson or James Madison?

Well, it wasn't Thomas Jefferson - he owned slaves and likely had children with one.

Not Madison, though he was apparently very conflicted by slavery: one quote noted that the issue "undid him."

John Adams?  He did oppose slavery, but not actively or publicly after his Presidency.

The correct answer is John Quincy Adams.  After his Presidency, Adams was elected to Congress (making him the only former President to later serve in Congress).  In that capacity, Adams became a leading antislavery voice.

What Speaker of the House-designate had to step down after he admitted having an extra-marital affair?

This one comes to us courtesy of U.S. History Trivia.  It's one of those fun, scandal ones too.

What Speaker of the House-designate had to step down after he admitted having an extra-marital affair?  Was it Newt Gingrich, Roy Blunt, Dennis Hastert or Robert Livingston?

Correct Answer:  Robert Livingston

Some of these guys were just plain boring.  Roy Blunt was never Speaker of the House - don't worry though, it worked out for him, he was elected to the United States Senate last week.  Dennis Hastert was Speaker of the House from 1999-2007 - he only left office when the Republican Party was booted from power after the 2006 elections.  Hastert resigned in November 2007.

Newt Gingrich isn't boring, but he wasn't booted by a sex scandal either.  After leading the Republican Revolution if 1994, Gingrich served as Speaker from 1994 - 1998 and had many high profile controversies with President Clinton.  After the Republican Party took a beating in the 1998 elections, Gingrich stepped aside as Speaker, yielding eventually to Hastert.

Ahh, and here is where Mr. Livingston comes in.  After the 1998 elections, Livingston rounded up supported was was nominated as Speaker by the Republicans without opposition.  However, during this time period, Hustler Magazine (yes, that Hustler) discovered evidence of an extra-marital affair that Livingston had.  This was at the height of the Clinton impeachment trials, during which Clinton had admitted he had an affair with Monica Lewinsky.  Subsequently, Livingston announced his resignation, not only as Speaker but from Congress.  

How many Vice Presidents have resigned?

This question appears on our U.S. History Trivia game.  Here's the question:  How many Vice Presidents have resigned?  0, 1, 2, or 4?


Alright, so we're asking the question here, and this would be a pretty lame blog entry if the answer was 0.  Anyway, the correct answer is 2.  Who were they, and where'd they go?

Well, the first V.P. to resign was John Calhoun.  Calhoun was a hero of the south: Congressman, Secretary of War and two-time Vice President.  It was in his 2nd go-round as VP that Calhoun resigned.  A crisis developed between Calhoun and the President, Andrew Jackson.  In response to the Tariff of 1828 (the Tariff of Abominations), Calhoun believed that any state could impose nullification, a doctrine which held that a state could nullify a law it believed was unconstitutional.  Jackson opposed the doctrine.  This disagreement ultimately lead to Calhoun resigning as Vice President.  He was immediately appointed as Senator from South Carolina, where he became a states-rights leader.  The conclusion came to a head with the adoption of the Compromise Tariff of 1833 - however, the crisis ended Calhoun's national ambitions.

V.P. #2 to resign was good old Spiro Agnew.  Agnew was selected to be Nixon's Vice President in 1968 and was a favorite of the "law and order" types of the country.  Formerly the Governor of Maryland and Baltimore County Executive, Agnew developed a large base of conservative supporters who appreciated Agnew's tough, controversial statements.  Agnew resigned in scandal in 1973 - but this scandal was unconnected to Watergate.  Instead, Agnew found himself in trouble after being accused of accepting $29,500 in bribes from his time as Governor.  He ultimately plead no contest to charges of tax evasion from unreported income (you know, that bribe money).

Sources:

• James Calhoun
• Spiro Agnew

What President was the first to be interviewed by a female?

This one is one of my favorites, because it is one of the funniest.  It comes from our U.S. Presidential Trivia game.  What President was the first to be interviewed by a female? George Washington, Rutherford Hayes, Andrew Jackson or John Quincy Adams?


Answer:  John Quincy Adams.

Okay, so this is one of those standard first questions - this one happens to involve gender?  What makes this one so interesting?  It's how the reporter got the interview that makes this one absolutely hysterical.

The reporter was Anne Royall, a woman who is viewed by many as one of the first female reporter's in the United States.  In addition to being a reporter, Royall was the widower of a veteran.  However, according to federal pension law at the time, she actually had to travel to Washington to try and claim her husband's pension.  During one of those trips, Royall happened to catch President John Quincy Adams skinny-dipping in the Potomac, as he was known to do.  According to the story, Royall found the President and sat on his clothing, which was lying on dry ground.  She refused to move until he granted her an interview.

Adams, though annoyed, would later forgive Royall, later referring to her as a "vergo errant in enchanted armor."

Wonder what the Secret Service would think about that one.  I feel like it wouldn't end well.

Sources:

• John Quincy Adams
• Anne Royall
• HistoryBuff.com

How many Presidents met with Martin Luther King Jr.?

So, as promised, here is the first of a "look behind the question."  Our first question comes from our U.S. Presidential Trivia Game.  Here it is:  How many Presidents met with Martin Luther King Jr.?  0, 1, 2 or 3?


The correct answer would be three.

So, which three?  Dr. King met with President Dwight Eisenhower in 1958.  He did so with other black activists, including Roy Wilkins, A. Phillip Rudolph and Lester Grange.

In August of 1963, Johnson met with Kennedy and other civil rights leaders.

Last up, in 1966, Dr. King met with President Lyndon Johnson.  King had previously endorsed Johnson's bid for the Presidency.



















Sources:

• Timeline of Events in Martin Luther King Jr.'s Life
• Martin Luther King Jr.
• Kennedy meets with King, other civil rights leaders

Pocket Protector Games Blog: The Gritty Reboot

So, I realized that I'm pretty stupid.

I had been blogging about the process of creating a iPhone games and related entries.  Then, I realized something: if you play Pocket Protector Games, odds are that you don't care about iPhone development.  You care about trivia.

So, let's try this again.  Reader, meet Mr. Pocket.  Mr. Pocket, meet the Reader.  There, now, aren't we reacquainted?

So, how are we going to try again, you ask?  That's simple.  We're going to blog what you care about: the content of our Trivia Games.  From here on out, you can expect the story behind the question - background information, explanations and unique insight into some of the trivia questions in our games.

This should be interesting - and certainly much better!!