# Trivia Dominoes III — Play Off the Last Bit of Trivia **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [April 12, 2025, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952 "2025-04-12T05:32:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 114
**Author:** ![knoodler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ccd318/32.png) [@knoodler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/knoodler)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2026, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/2261 "2026-09-04T00:07:05Z")
The notion that human urine is antiseptic has been debunked. Until as recently as 2000, some medical professionals believed urine could counteract germs and neutralize animal or insect venom. It’s now clear that urine, while containing ammonia, is full of bacteria collected in the urinary tract and can actually make you sick if it comes into contact with open wounds. It can also exacerbate the venom of bites and stings (wasps and jellyfish, I’m looking at you). So don’t be like Monica Geller or Joey Tribbiani. ---
**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 4, 2026, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/2262 "2026-09-04T01:36:02Z")
According to the Mayo Clinic the best first-aid treatment for a jellyfish sting is to rinse the area with vinegar (or seawater if vinegar is unavailable), remove any visible tentacles using tweezers or gloved hands, and soak the skin in hot water. ➜ [https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/jellyfish-stings/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20353290](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/jellyfish-stings/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20353290) ■ ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2026, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/2263 "2026-09-04T03:50:57Z")
Arthur Conan Doyle featured a giant jellyfish in one of his Sherlock Holmes stories, “The Lion’s Mane”. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2026, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/2264 "2026-09-04T13:25:05Z")
Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini started out as friends, but their relationship deterioriated as Doyle leaned deeper into spiritualism, which he enthusiastically and passionately believed in. Houdini was, of course, a skeptic and could see right through it. The beginning of the end of their freindship took place in Atlantic City, where Doyle’s wife, Lady Jean, “channeled” Houdini’s mother through “automatic writing” and produced a 15-page missive from beyond the grave. In English. With Christian messaging. Houdini’s mom was the wife of a rabbi and spoke almost exlusively in German and Yiddish, and Harry knew a scam was afoot. This set into a motion a decades-long public rivalry that included some pretty pointed jabs, such as Houdini calling Doyle “senile and easily bamboozled.” ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2026, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/2265 "2026-09-04T15:07:39Z")
Famed magician Harry Houdini’s birth name was Erik Weisz (which was later also spelled Ehrich Weiss when the family emigrated to the U.S.); he was born in Budapest to a Jewish family. The surname of his stage name was inspired by that of influential French magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin; “Harry” may have been an homage to American magician Harry Kellar, but may also have come from “Ehri,” a family nickname for him. ---
**Author:** ![knoodler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ccd318/32.png) [@knoodler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/knoodler)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2026, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/2266 "2026-09-04T15:36:38Z")
Erik Thorvaldsson, also known as Erik the Red (due to the color of his hair and beard), was a Norse explorer who led the first successful settlement of Greenland in 982 CE. An earlier expedition had been the first to “officially discover and map” the unnamed land mass west of Iceland, but attempts to settle were unsuccessful for reasons not known (probably weather and/or accessibility). Erik proposed calling it _Grœnland_ (“Greenland”) to differentiate and hopefully draw people to it from Iceland. ---
**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 4, 2026, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/2267 "2026-09-04T21:32:54Z")
The Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, commonly known as the Red Army, was the Soviet Union’s primary military force from 1918 to 1946, when it was renamed the Soviet Army. It suffered more than eight million casualties during World War II and arguably did more than any other armed force to defeat Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. ---
**Author:** ![knoodler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ccd318/32.png) [@knoodler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/knoodler)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2026, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/2268 "2026-09-05T03:08:50Z")
It is estimated that 35 to 45 million people died in Russia/USSR in the first half of the 20th century because of the Russian Revolution and Civil War (1917-1922), the Soviet Famines and Repression (1920s - 1930s), and WWII (1939 - 1945). ---
**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 5, 2026, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/2269 "2026-09-05T11:09:14Z")
At its peak, the Soviet Union covered nearly one-sixth of the Earth’s land surface, making it the largest country in the world by area. It was also one of the most diverse, with more than 100 distinct nationalities living within its borders. The word Soviet comes from the Russian sovet, “governing council,” and its Greek source, symboulion, “council of advisors.” After the Russian Revolution (1917), the term soviet was used for local governments elected by workers, as well as the higher councils that those local soviets elected in turn. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2026, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/2270 "2026-09-05T17:32:22Z")
“[CCCP 1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0691969/)” was a 1981 episode of the Canadian sketch comedy television series _SCTV_. In the episode, the broadcast signal of the fictional SCTV is replaced by the signal for a Soviet television station, “CCCP 1.” The show’s segments are parodies of life and culture in the Soviet Union, including a game show, “Uposcrabblenyk” (a Russian version of “Scrabble,” with extremely long words), “Tibor’s Tractor” (a spoof of “My Mother the Car,” in which a Soviet farmer’s tractor has been taken over by the ghost of Nikita Khrushchev), and “What Fits Into Russia?” (a talk show in which two men brag about how very large the Soviet Union is, by demonstrating that other countries could fit inside of the USSR on a map with room to spare). ---
**Author:** ![Bicycle\_Bill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bicycle_bill/32/6208_2.png) [@Bicycle\_Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bicycle_Bill)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2026, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/2271 "2026-09-05T21:28:57Z")
Ferruccio Lamborghini made his initial fortune building tractors from surplus military equipment after World War II. It wasn’t until 1963, after being frustrated by recurring mechanical issues with his personal Ferrari and had his concerns summarily dismissed by Enzo Ferrari – who reportedly told him, “You’re just a tractor maker!” – that Lamborghini decided to design and build his own superior sports car. _ **-“BB”-** _ ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2026, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/2272 "2026-09-05T22:12:06Z")
> [@Bicycle\_Bill](#): > > Ferruccio Lamborghini made his initial fortune building tractors from surplus military equipment after World War II. It wasn’t until 1963, after being frustrated by recurring mechanical issues with his personal Ferrari and had his concerns summarily dismissed by Enzo Ferrari – who reportedly told him, “You’re just a tractor maker!” – that Lamborghini decided to design and build his own superior sports car. OUT OF PLAY: I know that Ferrari gatekeeps its products in a variety of ways, all designed to keep their cars from New Money (or something). But he sold one to a tractor maker. So either the company didn’t gatekeep its products in those days or he figured Ferruccio Lamborghini was wealthy enough (though just a lowly tractor maker) to deserve a bite at the apple. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2026, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/2273 "2026-09-05T22:22:06Z")
One bit of old science fictional technology was the tractor beam, which pulled spaceships into a space station like a magnet. The classic _Hardware Wars,_ parodied this by showing a cartoon tractor. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2026, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/2274 "2026-09-06T00:10:19Z")
Science fiction film parodies have been around for quite some time- Dark Star (John Carpenter and Dan O’Bannon), which IMHO is the vest best film ever made with that sort of tiny budget- is a little known one. Then there was Quark, about a trash collecting ship as a summer fill-in show- the ratings were good enough they were asked about being a regular network show- but they had already dismantled the sets, etc. Spaceballs of course, and then a couple shows that were good enough to work outside of being a parody- Galaxy Quest and The Orville. ---
**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 6, 2026, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/2275 "2026-09-06T03:59:13Z")
Not in play — > [@HeyHomie](#): > > OUT OF PLAY: I know that Ferrari gatekeeps its products in a variety of ways, all designed to keep their cars from New Money (or something). But he sold one to a tractor maker. So either the company didn’t gatekeep its products in those days … That was a very long time ago. So I believe they did not gatekeep their cars back then. ---
**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 6, 2026, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/2276 "2026-09-06T16:36:01Z")
Although the show never stated canonically that the titular starship in the Seth MacFarlane sf dramedy/adventure series _The Orville_ was named after American aviation pioneer Orville Wright (1871-1948), Capt. Ed Mercer, MacFarlane’s character, kept a small model of the Wright _Flyer_ on his office desk. ---
**Author:** ![Bicycle\_Bill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bicycle_bill/32/6208_2.png) [@Bicycle\_Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bicycle_Bill)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2026, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/2277 "2026-09-06T18:32:21Z")
The first successful powered flight of the Wright Flyer was on December 17th, 1903. The question as to which of the brothers would make the first attempt was decided by flipping a coin, with Wilbur winning the toss. However, on his attempt, made on the 14th of December, he oversteered the Flyer immediately after it left the launching rail, causing it to stall and resulting in a minor crash that slightly damaged the aircraft. Three days later, after repairs had been made, it was then Orville’s turn – and as every schoolchild knows, his 12-second,120-foot journey put him into the history books as the first person to successfully make a sustained and controlled powered flight in a heavier-than-air craft in history. _ **-“BB”-** _ ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2026, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/2278 "2026-09-06T18:37:51Z")
Radio Flyer is an Chicago-based toy manufacturer, best known for its red toy wagon of the same name. The Radio Flyer wagon was introduced in 1930; its name was a tribute to two famous men of the era: “Radio” was for pioneering radio engineer Guglielmo Marconi, while “Flyer” was for aviator Charles Lindbergh. ---
**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 6, 2026, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/2279 "2026-09-06T22:27:33Z")
The RMS _Titanic_ carried two civilian wireless operators, Jack Phillips and Harold Bride, at the time of the liner’s April 14, 1912 collision with an iceberg in the North Atlantic. They were not part of the White Star Line crew but were employed by the Marconi International Marine Communication Company. Both helped send distress signals. Phillips was lost at sea; Bride survived. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2026, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952/2280 "2026-09-07T03:32:09Z")
In the 1958 film _A Night to Remember,_ the _Titanic_ wireless operator Harold Bride was portrayed by Scottish actor David McCallum. Bride was 22 years old in 1912, and McCallum was 24 when he played the role. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952.md?page=113) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-iii-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/1016952.md?page=115)