# 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:** 1765
**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 23, 2017, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35287 "2017-06-23T12:58:59Z")
Several years ago, the law students at one Canadian law school (I think Osgoode) made up sweat shirts with the “Roots” logo with a beaver modified to “Moots” (also with a beaver). Roots was not impressed and threatened an action for trademark infringement ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2017, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35288 "2017-06-23T13:07:31Z")
The symbol of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is the beaver, reputedly because the beaver is the engineer of the animal world, while the MIT student is … ---
**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 23, 2017, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35289 "2017-06-23T16:01:07Z")
The bridge over the Charles River in Boston that is closest to MIT is the Harvard Bridge, which is known for being marked off in a non-standard unit of length – the smoot. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2017, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35290 "2017-06-23T16:05:21Z")
Oliver Smoot '62, who was laid end to end along the Harvard Bridge by his fellow Lambda Chi Alpha pledges, got his karmic justice by serving as Chairman of the American National Standards Institute 2001-02. ---
**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 23, 2017, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35291 "2017-06-23T17:35:56Z")
When President John F. Kennedy was awarded an honorary doctorate from Yale, he joked, “Now I have the best of both worlds: an education from Harvard and a degree from Yale.” ---
**Author:** ![ozziemaland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f07891/32.png) [@ozziemaland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ozziemaland)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2017, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35292 "2017-06-23T18:13:16Z")
Harvard scholar Lin Yutang wrote an essay titled “The Importance of Loafing” in his collection of essays titled _The Present Tense_, edited by Sharon Brown (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1945). Quotation from page 294: > [@](#): > > “Culture, as I understand it, is essentially a product of leisure. The art of culture is therefore essentially the art of loafing. From the Chinese point of view, the man who is wisely idle is the most cultured man.” ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2017, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35293 "2017-06-23T18:35:00Z")
In 1934, G.H. Bass (a bootmaker in Wilton, Maine) started making loafers under the name \*Weejuns \*(sounding like Norwegians).[9] The distinctive addition was a strip of leather across the saddle with a diamond cut-out. Initially only worn in the summer at home, the shoe grew in popularity in America to become a significant part of men’s casual shoe wardrobe; in Europe the style has never reached the same degree of ubiquity. The term penny loafer has uncertain beginnings. One explanation is when American prep school students in the 1950s, wishing to make a fashion statement, took to inserting a penny into the diamond-shaped slit on their Weejuns. Another theory is that two pennies could be slipped into the slit, enough money to make an emergency phone call in the 1930s. ---
**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 23, 2017, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35294 "2017-06-23T19:10:37Z")
The etymology of the word “penny” is unclear, although there are cognates in other Germanic languages, including \*pfennig \*in German. There is a theory that the word is related to “pawn”, as an indication of a token used in trade. ---
**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 23, 2017, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35295 "2017-06-23T20:04:29Z")
The Penny Ice Cap is a 2,300 square mile ice cap in Auyuittuq National Park on Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada. The ice cap is named after Captain William Penny, a whaling captain from Aberdeen in Scotland who pioneered over-wintering with native Inuit at Cumberland Sound in order to be able to start whaling (in the nineteenth century) much earlier in the season. ---
**Author:** ![ozziemaland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f07891/32.png) [@ozziemaland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ozziemaland)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2017, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35296 "2017-06-23T21:25:10Z")
In 1891, Thomas Edison built a Kinetoscope, or peep-hole viewer. This device was installed in penny arcades, where people could watch short, simple films. ---
**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 24, 2017, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35297 "2017-06-24T02:36:43Z")
In the rom-com “Must Love Dogs”, Christopher Penny plays the father of Diane Lane. At one family event, he recited “Brown Penny, Brown Penny” by W.B. Yeats. ---
**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:** [June 24, 2017, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35298 "2017-06-24T14:27:00Z")
While all the other Big Bang characters have had their full names revealed, Penny is still just Penny. And while Penny once referred to her father’s name as “Bob,” in the episode when he visited her, Leonard called him “Sir” until he said “Oh, just call me Wyatt.” She also once called Sheldon’s mother and said “Mrs. Cooper? This is Penny.” Anyone would have given their last name over the phone. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35299 "2017-06-24T18:16:41Z")
Not true; she’s Penny Hofstadter. 🙂 Or Lady Penelope when she’s gaming. Johnny Galecki (Leonard), Laurie Metcalf (Mary Cooper), and Sara Gilbert (Leslie Winkle) were all previously cast members on _Roseanne_. Metcalf and Gilbert will be on the resumed series this fall, but Galecki will be otherwise occupied. ---
**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:** [June 24, 2017, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35300 "2017-06-24T18:24:25Z")
In addition to Johnny Galecki (Leonard Hoffstadter) and Sara Gilbert (Leslie Winkle), The Big Bang Theory also has had former child actors Kaley Cuon (Penny Hoffstadter, previously Bridget Hennessy on 8 Simple Rules), Mayim Bialik (Amy Farrar Fowler, (previously Blossom Russo on Blossom), and Wil Wheaton (Evil Wil Wheaton, previously Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The NExt Generator). Wheaton, a reoccurring role, was on the episodes that first introduced the characters of Sara Gilbert and Mayim Bialik. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35301 "2017-06-25T00:22:08Z")
Sara ranks #162 in popularity of girls names in the U.S. in 2016. Gilbert ranks #960 in popularity of boys names in the U.S. in 2016. ---
**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 25, 2017, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35302 "2017-06-25T00:46:59Z")
Gilbert is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States and is located within the Phoenix metropolitan area. It was once known as the “Hay Shipping Capital of the World” and is now the sixth-largest municipality in Arizona. ---
**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 25, 2017, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35303 "2017-06-25T04:22:08Z")
John Hay served as a private secretary to Abraham Lincoln and, much later in life, Secretary of State to both William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. ---
**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 25, 2017, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35304 "2017-06-25T05:44:56Z")
Camp John Hay was established in 1903 as an R&R (rest and recreation) station for the US Armed Forces in the Philippines. The camp is in Baguio, the summer capital established by Governor General William Howard Taft in Luzon’s mountainous Cordillera Central. Its 5050 ft. elevation and average temperatures from 59 to 73 °F reminded Taft of the Adirondacks. The camp was bombed by attacking Japanese forces during World War II, served as an internment camp under the Japanese occupation and returned to American control in 1945. In 1991, it was turned over to the Philippine government, upon the expiration of the Philippines-U.S. Bases Agreement, and developers transformed the site into a tourist attraction. ---
**Author:** ![ozziemaland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f07891/32.png) [@ozziemaland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ozziemaland)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35305 "2017-06-25T18:16:34Z")
On April 21, 900, the earliest known written document of the Philippines, the _Laguna Copperplate Inscription,_ was signed by the Datu of Tondo on Luzon. It recorded the pardoning of a debt. ---
**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 25, 2017, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35306 "2017-06-25T18:42:19Z")
In the year 900, Edward the Elder, the son of Alfred the Great, was crowned King of England. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657.md?page=1764) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657.md?page=1766)