# 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:** 1760
**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:** [June 14, 2017, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35187 "2017-06-14T23:01:53Z")
Richard Nixon became a very successful poker player while serving in the Navy during WWII, with many who played with him then describing him as not only the best player among the officers, but the best they’d ever seen. He left the Navy having won a significant amount from his fellow officers, and stated himself that the funding of his first campaign for a U.S. House of Representatives seat in 1946 was supplemented significantly by his poker winnings, estimated to be at least $7000. His monthly salary as a Navy ensign was $150. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35188 "2017-06-15T02:03:11Z")
To mark the 25th “silver” anniversary of the World Series of Poker in 1994, that year’s winner, Russ Hamilton, was awarded his weight in silver – a whopping 330 pounds, then worth $28,512. ---
**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:** [June 15, 2017, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35189 "2017-06-15T03:46:42Z")
Alexander Hamilton served on George Washington’s staff before being awarded a combat command of his own, and went on to win glory in the field during 1781 Siege of Yorktown. ---
**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:** [June 15, 2017, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35190 "2017-06-15T05:22:41Z")
The 1941 film “That Hamilton Woman” starred Vivien Leigh as Emma, Lady Hamilton and Laurence Olivier as Admiral Horatio Nelson. It was the only film that the two made as a married couple. It was said to be Winston Churchill’s favorite film. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35191 "2017-06-15T08:39:10Z")
When news came that Rudolf Hess may have landed in Scotland, Churchill is reputed to have continued watching a film until confirmation came: “Hess or no Hess, I’m going to watch the Marx Brothers.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35192 "2017-06-15T11:59:17Z")
Rudolf Hess was imprisoned by the British after his flight to Scotland, and later was imprisoned after conviction during the Nuremberg trials. He was the lone inmate in Spandau prison from 1966 until his death by suicide in 1987. The prison was then torn down to ensure it did not become a Nazi shrine. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35193 "2017-06-15T14:23:01Z")
Spandau Ballet was a British band from 1979 to 1990 with a #1 hit entitled “True”. The band was originally called “The Cut”. It was changed to Spandau Ballet after a friend of the band saw the words on a bathroom wall. According to Wiki: > [@](#): > > The expression “Spandau Ballet” was slang used by Allied troops in the trenches in the First World War referring to the twitching of the corpses hanging on the barbed wire and repeatedly hit by Spandau machine gun fire from the German lines.[7] The name also refers to Spandau Prison and the many hangings there, especially in 1945–46 of Nazi war criminals, when those being hanged would twitch and jump at the end of a rope. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35194 "2017-06-15T15:30:30Z")
Hermann Goering, who succeeded Manfred von Richtofen as commander of the Flying Circus, was able to commit suicide with a smuggled cyanide pill the night before he was to be hanged at Nuremberg. Heinrich Himmler did the same shortly after his capture by American troops while trying to escape in disguise. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35195 "2017-06-15T16:03:14Z")
Phooey. I missed the chance to say “Himmler did something simmler”. ---
**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:** [June 15, 2017, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35196 "2017-06-15T16:13:12Z")
Frieda, Baroness von Richtofen, was a distant cousin of Manfred von Richtofen. In 1912, she had been married to British professor Ernest Weekley for 13 years and had 3 young children. She met D.H. Lawrence, a former student of her husband’s, and they eloped. Lawrence’s _Lady Chatterley’s Lover_ was thought to be based partly on the couple’s own relationship, Frieda as an aristocrat and the working class Lawrence. ---
**Author:** ![ozziemaland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f07891/32.png) [@ozziemaland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ozziemaland)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35197 "2017-06-15T16:13:36Z")
[ElvisL1ves: “Phooey?” Or did you mean, “Grr,” as in who’s Goering now?] ETA: Apologies for a working class posting. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35198 "2017-06-15T16:34:15Z")
Working-class Lawrence, Massachusetts, full of now-mostly-abandoned textile mills that had been powered by the Merrimack River, was the site of the 1912 “Bread and Roses Strike” by mistreated workers, led by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, or “Wobblies”). ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35199 "2017-06-15T17:04:07Z")
Guns N’ Roses is an American band made up of lead vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan, and drummer Steven Adler. ---
**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:** [June 15, 2017, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35200 "2017-06-15T17:05:04Z")
The steam frigate USS _Merrimack_, scuttled by the U.S. Navy but captured after the abandonment of Gosport Navy Yard in the early days of the Civil War, was converted by the Confederate Navy into the ironclad CSS _Virginia_. She was unable to break the U.S. blockade in March 1862 due to the intervention of the ironclad USS _Monitor_, and was later blown up to prevent capture. ETA: The _Monitor_ had two guns. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35201 "2017-06-15T19:06:21Z")
The first refrigerator to see widespread use was the General Electric “Monitor-Top” refrigerator introduced in 1927, so-called because of its resemblance to the gun turret on the ironclad warship USS Monitor of the 1860s. The compressor assembly, which emitted a great deal of heat, was placed above the cabinet, and enclosed by a decorative ring. Over a million units were produced. Thanks, Wiki. ---
**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:** [June 15, 2017, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35202 "2017-06-15T19:17:35Z")
The General Electric “meatball” logo has been in continuous use by the company (with only slight variations), since 1899. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35203 "2017-06-15T19:27:44Z")
Folksinger Tom Glazer’s greatest contribution to American music was his novelty song “On Top of Spaghetti”, to the tune of “On Top of Old Smoky”. _… all covered with cheese, I lost my poor meatball, When somebody sneezed._ ---
**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:** [June 15, 2017, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35204 "2017-06-15T20:39:55Z")
Tom Cruise was born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV on July 3, 1962 in Syracuse, N.Y. A prominent Scientologist, he has been married three times. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35205 "2017-06-15T20:45:31Z")
Actor William Mapother, Jr., who has had starring roles in the TV series Lost and appearances in the series Supergirl and Grimm, is Tom Cruise’s first cousin. ---
**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:** [June 15, 2017, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35206 "2017-06-15T21:16:39Z")
The Brothers **Grimm** , Jakob and Wilhelm. are best known for the collection of fairy tales and folktales that bears their name; however, they saw themselves not as authors but as folklorists, researchers, philologists and preservers of peasant culture. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657.md?page=1759) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657.md?page=1761)