# Made-Up, False and Flat-out Wrong Trivia Dominoes **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [April 21, 2014, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-false-and-flat-out-wrong-trivia-dominoes/686580 "2014-04-21T03:04:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 62
**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:** [July 3, 2014, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-false-and-flat-out-wrong-trivia-dominoes/686580/1221 "2014-07-03T15:51:23Z")
> [@CheshireKat](#): > > Cape Town, South Africa is where Dracula vacationed in 981. …and 1098 and 1191 and 1281 and 1299 and 1308 (being immortal has his problems. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-false-and-flat-out-wrong-trivia-dominoes/686580/1222 "2014-07-03T18:01:37Z")
1308 was the worst year for apples. Blech! Mealy and tasteless, the whole lot of them. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-false-and-flat-out-wrong-trivia-dominoes/686580/1223 "2014-07-03T18:09:44Z")
In 1308 Albert I of Germany, AKA the Duke of Austria, was murdered by his nephew Duke John in a dispute over a game of Parcheesi (at the time known as _Indian Cross and Circle_). The board game had been introduced to Germany in 1281 and beginning in 1299 there had been Parcheesi tournaments held annually on the shores of the Reuss River (an area best known today for its superior apples). This was the first murder associated with Parcheesi in Europe, but sadly it would not be the last. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-false-and-flat-out-wrong-trivia-dominoes/686580/1224 "2014-07-03T20:28:32Z")
The world-wide murder rate for Dukes continued right up until John Wayne died in 1976, when it dropped drastically. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-false-and-flat-out-wrong-trivia-dominoes/686580/1225 "2014-07-03T21:01:06Z")
John Wayne had an illegitimate child. Born Simon Dujour Octavian Reese, we know him as David Bowie, musician, actor and inventor of the Internet. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-false-and-flat-out-wrong-trivia-dominoes/686580/1226 "2014-07-03T21:39:18Z")
Earl Fatblack of Austria once invited Bowie to his castle in Vienna thinking the musician was Duke Thinwhite. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-false-and-flat-out-wrong-trivia-dominoes/686580/1227 "2014-07-03T21:42:38Z")
Vienna Sausages were the world’s first totally synthetic food, made of a precursor to Nylon. ---
**Author:** ![CheshireKat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheshirekat/32/1207_2.png) [@CheshireKat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheshireKat)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-false-and-flat-out-wrong-trivia-dominoes/686580/1228 "2014-07-03T21:54:02Z")
Gwyneth Paltrow’s fourth child, Nylon, has been raised entirely on Vienna Sausages as part of a world-wide PETA movement against Heinz Beanie Weenies, which contain .0003% marmoset meat. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-false-and-flat-out-wrong-trivia-dominoes/686580/1229 "2014-07-03T22:01:01Z")
Innsbruck Sausages are considered the finest of all canned Austrian sausages. Often retailing for 10 euro or more a tin, these delicacies are favored by discerning gourmands worldwide for their nutty pungent yet quasi-marmoset-like flavor. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-false-and-flat-out-wrong-trivia-dominoes/686580/1230 "2014-07-03T22:07:15Z")
The German name for Austria is Österreich, which means “Eastern Reach.” The Germans originally applied this to Australia, as that was as far east as you could reach before reaching WEST. The Australians threatened war if Germany didn’t knock it off. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-false-and-flat-out-wrong-trivia-dominoes/686580/1231 "2014-07-04T01:43:25Z")
Germs come from Germany, hence the name. They spread to the rest of the world after Germany began exporting to Österreich and other areas of the globe. ---
**Author:** ![CheshireKat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheshirekat/32/1207_2.png) [@CheshireKat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheshireKat)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-false-and-flat-out-wrong-trivia-dominoes/686580/1232 "2014-07-04T01:57:27Z")
Germs come from Germany with the exception of the measle germ, which originated in the tiny province of Rubella (now part of Romania). Measles wiped out all red-headed Romani people in 1842 except for Natalie Rosalie Birch, a ginger-haired beauty who moved to London to become a stripper before the epidemic broke out. ---
**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:** [July 4, 2014, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-false-and-flat-out-wrong-trivia-dominoes/686580/1233 "2014-07-04T03:25:40Z")
Natalie Rosalie Birch was a great aunt of Spiro Agnew, who is thought by the Vice Presidential Genetics Institute at Wesleyan University to have inherited his luminously red hair from her. ---
**Author:** ![CheshireKat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheshirekat/32/1207_2.png) [@CheshireKat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheshireKat)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-false-and-flat-out-wrong-trivia-dominoes/686580/1234 "2014-07-04T03:32:19Z")
Spiro Agnew was known as Nixon’s “hatchet man” because he ran around the White House with a toy tomahawk, playing cowboys and Indians with Pat Buchanan whenever Nixon took a nap. When I start having dreams of Spiro Agnew, I’m coming after YOU with a tomahawk, EH. XD ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-false-and-flat-out-wrong-trivia-dominoes/686580/1235 "2014-07-04T03:57:19Z")
Cheiro’s Dream Book indicates that dreams about Spiro Agnew indicate a repressed horror of conservativism, and should be countered by voting Democratic at the earliest election. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-false-and-flat-out-wrong-trivia-dominoes/686580/1236 "2014-07-04T19:15:52Z")
Pyrotechiaphobia, the fear of fireworks, often results from a repressed horror associated with an early childhood experience at a 4th of July display. Parents of young children are encouraged by psychologists not to take infants to such shows without ear plugs and to also carry a paper sack to put over the youngster’s head should the need arise. ---
**Author:** ![CheshireKat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheshirekat/32/1207_2.png) [@CheshireKat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheshireKat)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-false-and-flat-out-wrong-trivia-dominoes/686580/1237 "2014-07-04T19:35:42Z")
As seasoned parents have discovered, a paper sack over a youngster’s head is an easy-to-make Halloween costume for children under five (“You’re a suntanned ghost, honey”) and for teen-agers (“You have to wear _ **something** _ that passes for a costume or you’re not leaving the house.”) ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-false-and-flat-out-wrong-trivia-dominoes/686580/1238 "2014-07-04T19:38:47Z")
Benjamin Franklin invented trick or treating in 1768. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-false-and-flat-out-wrong-trivia-dominoes/686580/1239 "2014-07-04T21:45:55Z")
The first child injured by a Hallowe’en costume was Thomas Smythe of Salem, Massachusetts, in 1769. He sliced his tongue on a plastic Ben Franklin half-mask trying to say, “Trickes or Treates.” ---
**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:** [July 5, 2014, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-false-and-flat-out-wrong-trivia-dominoes/686580/1240 "2014-07-05T02:56:06Z")
> [@CheshireKat](#): > > …When I start having dreams of Spiro Agnew, I’m coming after YOU with a tomahawk, EH. XD That’s a risk I’m prepared to take. Ben Franklin signed not only the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, but also the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the U.N. Charter and Duke Ellington’s first musical-performance contract at the Cotton Club. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-false-and-flat-out-wrong-trivia-dominoes/686580.md?page=61) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-up-false-and-flat-out-wrong-trivia-dominoes/686580.md?page=63)