# 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:** 1773
**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:** [July 8, 2017, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35447 "2017-07-08T06:25:01Z")
The head of the Irish government is the Taoiseach, an Irish word meaning “chief” or “leader”. The position is similar to a prime minister in other parliamentary systems. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2017, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35448 "2017-07-08T11:38:31Z")
The current Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, is the son of an Indian doctor. Éamon de Valera, founder of the party Fianna Fáil, and who was head of government (President of the Executive Council, later Taoiseach) from 1932 to 1948, 1951 to 1954, and 1957 to 1959, was the New York-born son of a Spanish artist. ---
**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:** [July 9, 2017, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35449 "2017-07-09T03:27:57Z")
The name Éamon or Éamonn is the Irish form of the name Edmund. It comes from the Old English elements ead “wealth, fortune” and mund “protection”. ---
**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:** [July 9, 2017, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35450 "2017-07-09T14:20:35Z")
Edmund was the only one of the four Pevensey children who did not receive a gift from Aslan, because he had been tempted away by the White Witch’s offer of Turkish Delight. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2017, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35451 "2017-07-09T17:09:26Z")
The Turkic language group is spoken by much of the population of central Asia. Turkish is the most widely spoken of the group, but Turkic languages are spoken as far as 4,000 miles awasy from Istanbul, in northeastern Siberia. Several countries, besides Turkey, have Turkic national languages, including Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. ---
**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:** [July 9, 2017, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35452 "2017-07-09T17:41:43Z")
Among the ingredients in traditional Turkish delight is rosewater, a flavored water made by steeping rose petals in water, or, commercially, by steam distillation. ---
**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:** [July 9, 2017, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35453 "2017-07-09T19:01:53Z")
Steam is a digital distribution platform developed by Valve Corporation, which offers digital rights management, multiplayer gaming, video streaming and social networking services. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2017, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35454 "2017-07-09T21:22:49Z")
A mollusc valve is each articulating part of the shell of a mollusc. Each part is known as a valve or in the case of chitons, a “plate”. Members of two classes of molluscs: the Bivalvia (clams) and the Polyplacophora (chitons) have valves. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35455 "2017-07-10T00:53:34Z")
The logo of Royal Dutch Shell plc, its US subsidiary Shell Oil Co., and its other operations is a top view of a scallop shell. The name comes from a firm which merged with Royal Dutch Petroleum Company in 1907, “Shell” Transport and Trading Company (the quotation marks were part of the legal name). It was a British company, founded in 1897 by Marcus Samuel, 1st Viscount Bearsted, and his brother Samuel Samuel. Their father had owned an antique company in Houndsditch, London, which expanded in 1833 to import and sell sea-shells, after which the company “Shell” took its name. ---
**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:** [July 10, 2017, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35456 "2017-07-10T01:40:04Z")
The tongue twister “She sells sea shells by the sea shore” was supposedly inspired by Mary Anning, (1799-1847) fossil collector and self-taught paleontologist. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35457 "2017-07-10T11:13:59Z")
Sportscaster Chris Berman was famous for his made-up “nick-names” for ball players, such as Damon “Blue” Berryhill, and Jim “Two Silhouettes on” DeShaies. The practice was deemed “insensitive” and they made him stop doing it before the arrival of pitcher Steve “She Sells Seashells by the” Cishek. ---
**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 10, 2017, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35458 "2017-07-10T13:35:34Z")
The Far Side comic strip parodied a lyric from “Blueberry Hill.” A man is talking in a phone booth on top of “Blueberry Hill.” He says into the phone “Norm? This is Mitch. … You were right—I found my drill.” ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35459 "2017-07-10T16:10:28Z")
Blackberries are red when they’re green. ---
**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 10, 2017, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35460 "2017-07-10T16:19:42Z")
Canadian actor and musician Lorne Greene was born Lyon Himan Green on February 12, 1915 in Ottawa to Russian Jewish immigrants. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35461 "2017-07-10T16:35:35Z")
“Ringo” was a hit single for the Canadian-born actor, Lorne Greene, in 1964. The song’s sung lyrics are limited to the title word alone, performed by an unidentified male chorus, presumably The Jordanaires or the Mello Men. The rest of the vocal performance consists of a spoken-word, first-person account of a Western lawman and his relationship with a notorious gunfighter, Ringo. In keeping with Canadian practice, Greene recorded a French version on the flip side of the 45. ---
**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 10, 2017, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35462 "2017-07-10T16:51:48Z")
The “Ringo” in the song refers to Johnny Ringo, not Ringo Starr. ---
**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 10, 2017, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35463 "2017-07-10T16:51:50Z")
Stanton Park in Washington, D.C., named after the U.S. Secretary of War through much of the Civil War, Edwin M. Stanton of Ohio, does not actually have a statue of Stanton. It does, however, have an equestrian statue of Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Greene, a hero of the American Revolution. ETA: Neither was ever called “Ringo.” ---
**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 10, 2017, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35464 "2017-07-10T17:00:09Z")
Nathaniel Hawthorne was buried on what is now known as “Authors’ Ridge” in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts in 1864. His wife Sophia and daughter Una were originally buried in England. However, in June 2006, they were re-interred in plots adjacent to Hawthorne. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35465 "2017-07-10T18:31:25Z")
Herman Melville, after whom the seafood restaurant upstairs from Cheers was named, dedicated _Moby Dick_ to Nathaniel Hawthorne. > [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > ETA: Neither was ever called “Ringo.” As far as you know. 🙂 ---
**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:** [July 10, 2017, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35466 "2017-07-10T19:38:12Z")
The musician Moby, born Richard Melville Hall, claims to be a descendant of Herman Melville, and therefore used the name of Melville’s most famous work as his pseudonym. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657.md?page=1772) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657.md?page=1774)