# Trivia Dominoes: Play Off the Last Bit of Trivia **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [February 4, 2010, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657 "2010-02-04T08:12:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 124
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/2461 "2010-03-30T23:59:21Z")
The Byzantine emperor Basil II is famous for one particularly bloody act: he brought thousands of captive Bulgarians into Constantinople (accounts range from 4,000 to 15,000) where he blinded 99 out of every 100; every 100th man he blinded in one eye only so they could lead the rest back home, where it is said the Tsar of Bulgaria died of heart failure upon seeing those who returned. He is known as Basil the Bulgar Slayer. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/2462 "2010-03-31T00:38:01Z")
There are an estimated 50 to 150 varieties of basil. The types most commonly used for cooking are varieties of sweet basil. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/2463 "2010-03-31T00:53:26Z")
_Isabella, or The Pot of Basil_ was a poem by John Keats based on a story Boccacio’s _Decameron_. ---
**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:** [March 31, 2010, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/2464 "2010-03-31T04:24:19Z")
Isabella Rossellini, daughter of Ingrid Bergman, starred in David Lynch’s surreal thriller _Blue Velvet_. She was dating Lynch at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/2465 "2010-03-31T05:04:51Z")
Ingrid Bergman’s pregnancy with Isabella Rosselini’s older brother, Renato, was one of the greatest scandals of any Hollywood star to that time as she and Roberto Rossellini were openly cohabiting while both were separated from but legally married to other spouses; a speech denouncing her and calling for her deportation was read into the Congressional record as she was one of the first stars to openly give birth out of wedlock. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/2466 "2010-03-31T05:10:16Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Ingrid Bergman’s pregnancy with Isabella Rosselini’s older brother, Renato, was one of the greatest scandals of any Hollywood star to that time as she and Roberto Rossellini were openly cohabiting while both were separated from but legally married to other spouses; a speech denouncing her and calling for her deportation was read into the Congressional record as she was one of the first stars to openly give birth out of wedlock. The closest that anyone comes to saying “Play it again, Sam” in _Casablanca_ is during this exchange involving Ingrid Bergman’s character, Ilsa: **Ilsa:** Play it once, Sam, for old times’ sake. **Sam:**"I don’t know what you mean, Miss Ilsa. **Ilsa:** Play it Sam. Play “As Time Goes By” ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/2467 "2010-03-31T06:31:56Z")
Sydney Greenstreet, Signor Ferrari in _Casablanca_, was in real life a former tea planter, brewer, and failed businessman who did not make his first film appearance until he was 62 (_The Maltese Falcon_); George Lucas’s original Jabba the Hutt was an obese elderly human and was based on Greenstreet. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/2468 "2010-03-31T13:11:02Z")
Jabba the Hutt appears in three of the six live-action _Star Wars_ movies; episodes I, II, III and VI. He is a crime lord who has a bounty out on Han Solo because Solo owes him money for dumping illegal cargo. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/2469 "2010-03-31T14:22:35Z")
Jabba was originally supposed to be in episode IV on Tatooine as well, and was added in the digitally remastered version. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/2470 "2010-03-31T14:29:23Z")
The title of Terence Rattigan’s play, _ **The Browning Version** _, refers to a copy of Robert Browning’s translation of Aeschylus’ play _ **Agamemnon,** _ which a student gives to a schoolteacher as a gift (or bribe, depending on your interpretation). ---
**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:** [March 31, 2010, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/2471 "2010-03-31T14:53:51Z")
The Browning Automatic Rifle was designed by John Browning in 1917 and used up until the 1960s. ---
**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:** [March 31, 2010, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/2472 "2010-03-31T15:20:09Z")
Baseball slugger Pete Browning, who played for Louisville in the National League in the 1880s, was the recipient of the first Hillerich and Bradsby baseball bat (made to his specifications by Hillerich). Hillerich later named his bats “Louisville Sluggers.” When Browning signed with Pittsburgh in 1891, the team got the nickname “The Pirates” for the players (including him) that they took from other clubs. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/2473 "2010-03-31T16:54:53Z")
Hall of Famer Joe Sewell, the record holder for lowest strikeout rate in a single season and career, had 2226 hits in his career - all with the same bat, which he conditioned with tobacco juice rubbed into it with a Coke bottle. He replaced Ray Chapman as Cleveland’s shortstop after Chapman’s death from beaning, which led to the batting helmet rule. ---
**Author:** ![Indyellen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/indyellen/32/4176_2.png) [@Indyellen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indyellen)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/2474 "2010-03-31T17:38:01Z")
The Coke contour “hobble skirt” bottle was designed in 1915, and produced for the first time in 1916. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/2475 "2010-03-31T18:54:29Z")
_Misery_ (including its famous hobbling scene) by Stephen King was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1988. It was later made into a movie and an Off-Broadway play. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/2476 "2010-03-31T19:15:29Z")
Kathy Bates (who won an Oscar for _Misery_) and Jessica Tandy (who won for _Driving Miss Daisy_) were the first two consecutive Oscar winners to star in a movie together (_Fried Green Tomatoes_) as their first post-Oscar venture. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/2477 "2010-03-31T19:22:01Z")
A 2001 study found that Oscar winners liver 3.9 years longer than non-winners. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/2478 "2010-03-31T19:26:01Z")
Katharine Lee Bates, who wrote the poem that became the lyrics to the song _America the Beautiful_, was a professor of English literature at Wellesley. While living at the college, she shared a home with Katharine Coman, the founder of the school’s economics department. Whether their relationship was lesbian or platonic is the source of debate even today. ETA: Bates’s patriotic verse was famously sung by Ray Charles, who was depicted by Jamie Foxx in the film _Ray_, for which Foxx won an Oscar and thus potentially prolonged his life by 47 months or so! ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/2479 "2010-03-31T20:01:25Z")
The line “Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimm’d by human tears” is thought to have been inspired by Bates’ visit to the “White City”, an arrangement of white-painted classical-style buildings surrounding a central “Court of Honor”, at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. ---
**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:** [March 31, 2010, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/2480 "2010-03-31T20:08:34Z")
Norman Bates, the “nice boy” killer in Alfred Hitchcock’s **Psycho** , comes from a novel by the same name by SF writer Robert Bloch, and is based upon the mass murderer Ed Gein [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657.md?page=123) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657.md?page=125)