On Saturday, June 28th, 2025, at approximately 1:23 p.m. EST, loud noises of destruction rang out and people ran over to witness the carnage as the Brooklyn Bridge lay in thousands of pieces. A redshirted terrorist sat beside the rubble, ready for the repercussions of his actions, red-faced and red-handed. He was surrounded by similarly clad accomplices, while the families of tourists watched and worried what this would mean for their weekend trip. No one seemed concerned for the potential loss of life or the astronomical cost of construction for a replacement; after all, no one really believes you can put a price tag on the Brooklyn Bridge.
Where were the sirens? The emergency responders? The authorities? It was only the assembled crew of assemblers with their sole dissembler in the cordoned off zone, while we all stood by helplessly in the distance.
Would the 2 p.m. show still go on?
And could you travel around the world in 80 days without stopping by New York’s famous connector? We would wait and see.
Maryland Science Center’s Domino Day started some six days earlier, with a team of topplers working tedious hours setting up the spectacle, arranging man-made wonders of the world from Egypt to India (sphinx and pyramids, Taj Mahal), to London and New York (Big Ben, and the NY BB previously mentioned); Rangoon to Hong Kong, a doomed Titanic, scenic trains, flying birds, a wall of waves and more. All set for the final topple at 2 p.m., or so we were told.
While waiting, the kids tried their hands at their own arrangements on provided pads a floor above. They experienced the annoyance of dominos prematurely dropping and/or failing to launch their next in line. After maybe thirty minutes, both Teddy and Catherine were ready for something different and explored the other parts of the Science Center. Maybe they lacked the patience and persistence needed to be domino dominators, or maybe they just knew that the little pieces would only lead to further frustrations. There are plenty of other scientific toys to be enjoyed, beyond the obvious losing battle against gravity, as my sagging everything can attest.
There were no announcements of a change in plan for the big domino drop at 2, and there was no frenzied attempt to reconstruct the 71st stage of Phileas Fogg, causing consternation for those concerned with perfection. Alas, every journey has its hurdles, only adding to the adventure and making things more interesting.
By 1:40 we wormed our way into a semi-decent vantage point to see the show, as the rails of the overlooks were quickly filling up. After taking Teddy to the toilet, he insisted upon seeking a higher position. We headed up to the top tier of the MSC, where we would have a more expansive view of the array below, except for the crowd that beat us to the spot.
At 1:58 p.m., two minutes to the scheduled showtime, Sai called me to complain that Catherine was a handful (which is news to no one), and to tell me that I had to take her to a literally last-minute bathroom break of her own. I instructed Teddy to hold his meager position and to try not to get abducted while I ran down the stairs and across the venue to retrieve his sister, so that mommy could watch the domino show alone while we would hear its distant tinkling from the nearest toilet.
Fortunately, thanks to the misfortune of the early toppler mentioned at the top, 2 p.m. came and went without a single additional fall, and Catherine and I were able to rejoin Teddy at his crowded position before things officially started. Teddy was getting pretty antsy, asking why I lied when I told him it would start in seven minutes over twenty minutes earlier. It was so much easier when he didn’t understand time.
Finally, at 2:29 p.m., the starter started a ten second countdown, and the knockdown began!
With Catherine on my shoulders to see above the heads of the kids equal to my measly height, my balance was less than perfect as I tried to aim my phone to capture the magic of the show below, causing me to quickly give up the video. So you’ll have to take my multitude of words for it, that it was pretty neat.
“Pretty neat?!” What kind of weak description is that?! After 700+ words of preamble, there should be better prose for the dominos that covered the floor of the science center. The Maryland Domino Topplers put on an awesome display. Their handiwork was artistic and impressive. When the dominos do their thing, it is almost magical. But…
The dominos don’t always listen, even to the experts.
When we were playing with the “Hey, Try This!” pad and pieces, we were given little plastic dividers that would shield sections of dominos from accidental early overages (premature loss of erections?). These ingenious obstacles minimized one false move from toppling the entire assembly.
The pros below employed similar restraints. They also left out key connectors between sections of cool compositions. For instance, there would be a line of dominos from a British flag to a steamship crossing to its Trans-Atlantic destination, but they would keep a few critical pieces from the line until the last (thirty or so) minutes, so that if some dipshit somehow knocks over an east coast city, at least he doesn’t destroy the entire week’s worth of work.
Dominos fall along planned paths, until they don’t. It is an art, not a science, which makes it weird that it was happening at the science center and not at an art museum. In short, this means that oftentimes they don’t do what you want them to do, much like my kids. In a field of tens of thousands of dominos, if just 1% falls left instead of right, we’re still talking about hundreds of problem children, derailing expectations.
Aside from the early blowup of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Sphinx lay in only half ruins at the end; the monotonous crossing of Nebraska stopped midway; some towers withstood the pressure of little plastic attackers and stood proud. The single topple that started it some ten minutes before had to be supplemented by further unplanned human interference at the end to send the rest of the pieces to the floor.
But so what? There was a lesson in there somewhere. From the crying guy who fumbled the bridge to the other assemblymen who came out at the end to upend a few straggler structures, everyone involved should have been proud of their efforts. Flawless is a flawed expectation, though a noble goal for us all.
The domino show was really cool. Jules Verne, author of the classic inspiration and the artist represented in black and white domino image, would have been proud of the homage. My kids, and the hundreds of others in attendance, were all impressed. As were us old people. They did a great job!
[My one complaint, because I always have complaints, is that there was a celebrity sighting, and it was a disappointment. We did not happen upon this event by luck or accident; Sai found it and knew the kids would be interested. We have watched multiple awesome domino videos on YouTube, ever since Teddy received a set of pieces for Christmas a couple of years ago. There is one girl in most of the videos, easily searchable under “domino girl” who seems to be the star of these shows. And either she or her doppelganger happened to be in Baltimore on this glorious day… but the girl was completely disinterested! She sat on the sidelines, staring at her phone like a teenager (she’s no longer a teenager), for the entire time! I expected her to be on her hands and knees like the rest of her helpers, making the minute adjustments to make sure the show would go on, on time and without a hitch, but she couldn’t seem to care less. Admittedly we only arrived two hours before the finale of the week’s worth of efforts. Perhaps Lily spent six straight days doing the lioness’ share of the setup and needed a break. Maybe she used her phone to secretly communicate with her underlings of where to go and what to do, and was not just checking Facebook or TikTok, or whatever it is that these damn young ‘uns do these days. Maybe the event was really the purview of the local domino team and she was only there for moral support. It is also possible that it wasn’t even her that we saw, and it was just some other bored looking nerdy Asian girl. But the perception was that the star player felt this event beneath her time and talents and didn’t even feign any effort. Bad showmanship. Kudos to the rest of your team, but my kids will be encouraged to find a different role model. Lucky for them, there are plenty of other nerdy (at least half) Asians they can aspire to emulate.]
In the inspiring, partial lyrics of Chumbawamba, “I get knocked down.”
Traipse Reports - Trips and Races 