# 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:** 1783
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2017, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35647 "2017-08-01T11:25:46Z")
Gustave Eiffel, the most eminent civil engineer in the world for his Paris tower and for the structure of the Statue of Liberty, was briefly imprisoned for financial fraud during the collapse of Ferdinand de Lesseps’ Compagnie Universelle, formed to cut a sea-level canal through Panama. The US government bought all the assets and finished the project, with a system of locks. > [@jtur88](#): > > The Nurburg Ring in Germany… was made famous by the British automotive TV series Top Gear. I’m pretty sure it could have been called famous long before that. 😉 ---
**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:** [August 1, 2017, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35648 "2017-08-01T14:29:24Z")
According to David McCullough’s award-winning history _The Path Between the Seas_, enough rock and dirt was moved in building the Panama Canal to fill a freight train long enough to circle the Earth four times at the equator, or to build the equivalent of 63 Great Pyramids of Giza. ---
**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:** [August 1, 2017, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35649 "2017-08-01T14:35:54Z")
David McCallum introduced his wife, actress Jill Ireland Bronson when both were filming The Great Escape in 1963. Bronson and Ireland began an affair that year, which contained until McCallum left Ireland in 1967 to marry model Katherine Carpenter. Bronson and Ireland would marry the following year, and stay married until her death in 1990. ---
**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:** [August 1, 2017, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35650 "2017-08-01T17:45:03Z")
The Harp is the official Emblem of Ireland, not the Shamrock. ---
**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:** [August 2, 2017, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35651 "2017-08-02T07:04:16Z")
Thomas Moore’s song “The Harp that Once Through Tara’s Halls” was written while Ireland was still under an unwelcome British rule. Moore uses Tara to symbolize the seat of Irish government and the rule of Ireland. The harp, the traditional musical instrument of Ireland, represents the Irish people, culture and spirit. A more commonly heard song by Moore is “The Minstrel Boy”; he composed the song in remembrance of friends whom he met while studying at Trinity College, Dublin and who were killed during the Irish Rebellion of 1798. The melody is frequently played, typically on bagpipes, at funerals of members and/or officers of Irish regiments and Irish American organizations who have died or been killed in service. [My kids had to play this song in their middle school marching band and were a little upset to find out that it was about a dead boy] ---
**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:** [August 2, 2017, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35652 "2017-08-02T13:49:38Z")
The heraldic harp of Ireland appears on the standards of both the Sovereign of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of the President of Ireland - although not, as one might expect, on a green field in either case. > **[Royal Standard of the United Kingdom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Standard_of_the_United_Kingdom)** > > The Royal Standards of the United Kingdom refers to either one of two similar flags used by King Charles III in his capacity as Sovereign of the United Kingdom, the Crown dependencies, and the British Overseas Territories. Two versions of the flag exist, one for general use in Scotland and the other for use elsewhere. > Although almost universally called a standard, such flags when used in the United Kingdom are banners of arms, as they comprise the shield of the Royal Arms. From the 1960s until... > **[President of Ireland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_Ireland)** > > The president of Ireland (Irish: Uachtarán na hÉireann) is the head of state of Ireland and the supreme commander of the Irish Defence Forces. > The president holds office for seven years, and can be elected for a maximum of two terms. The president is elected directly by the people, although there is no poll if only one candidate is nominated, which has occurred on six occasions to date. The presidency is largely a ceremonial office, but the president does exercise certain limited powers with ... ---
**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:** [August 2, 2017, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35653 "2017-08-02T13:55:10Z")
Turlough O’Carolan, who lived from 1670 to March 25, 1738 was a blind Irish harpist, composer and singer whose great fame is due to his gift for melodic composition. Although not a composer in the classical sense, he is considered by many to be Ireland’s national composer. ---
**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:** [August 2, 2017, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35654 "2017-08-02T14:45:28Z")
The National Gallery Art in Washington, D.C., dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 17, 1941, stands on the former site of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station, where in 1881 a disgruntled office seeker, Charles Guiteau, shot President James Garfield. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35655 "2017-08-02T15:14:34Z")
In a review of Sarah Vowell’s _Assassination Vacation_, about her fascination with and love of the quirker parts of American History (you \*must \*read it, preferably in audio), [the Washington Post said](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35780-2005Apr7.html): > [@](#): > > Viewing Garfield – “Mr. Loner McBookworm” – as a proto-slacker who cared principally about leisure, she is charmed by a diary entry in which "he raves about an afternoon spent rearranging his library in a way that reminds me of the druggy glow you can hear in Lou Reed’s voice on ‘Heroin.’ " ---
**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:** [August 3, 2017, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35656 "2017-08-03T07:13:05Z")
James Garfield was a nurturing, fun-loving father; on the morning of his assassination he woke his teenage sons early, spoke to them about the responsibilities of the presidency, sang lines from a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, did back-flips and roughhoused with them. ---
**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:** [August 3, 2017, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35657 "2017-08-03T13:14:16Z")
Irish singer Gilbert O’Sullivan was voted the top UK male singer of 1972 by the music magazine Record Mirror. ---
**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:** [August 3, 2017, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35658 "2017-08-03T19:09:48Z")
The Daily **Mirror** is a British national daily tabloid newspaper founded in 1903. On 2 April 1996, the Daily Mirror was printed entirely on blue paper. This was done as a marketing exercise with Pepsi-Cola, who on the same day had decided to relaunch their cans with a blue design instead of the traditional red and white logo. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2017, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35659 "2017-08-03T19:29:41Z")
_Der Spiegel_ (“The Mirror”) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner, a British army officer, and Rudolf Augstein, a former Wehrmacht radio operator who was recognized in 2000 by the International Press Institute as one of the fifty World Press Freedom Heroes. ---
**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:** [August 3, 2017, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35660 "2017-08-03T21:42:18Z")
The symphonic poem Finlandia by Jean Sibelius has become a deep expression of patriotism for Finns. Sibelius wrote it in 1899 for a rally defending freedom of the press, a covert protest against increasing censorship from the Russian Empire. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2017, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35661 "2017-08-03T23:17:40Z")
Kathleen Sibelius, the former governor of Kansas, was the daughter of Jack Giligan, a former governor of Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2017, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35662 "2017-08-04T01:42:52Z")
“Gilligan’s Island” creator Sherwood Schwartz named the S.S. Minnow after former Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton Minow, who was best remembered for calling television programming “a vast wasteland”. ---
**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:** [August 4, 2017, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35663 "2017-08-04T03:50:55Z")
The original pilot episode of Gilligan’s Island had Kit Smythe as Ginger. She was replaced by Tina Louise in the regular series, and Smythe went on to appear in multiple episodic television series and as late as 2005 was working in a musical review in Palm Springs. ---
**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:** [August 4, 2017, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35664 "2017-08-04T17:41:40Z")
“Hope springs eternal in the human breast” is a line in Pope’s _Essay on Man_. The poem is a major piece on the theme of philosophical optimism. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2017, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35665 "2017-08-04T18:02:41Z")
Ernest Thayer’s baseball poem “Casey at the Bat” begins \*The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville nine that day: The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play, And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same, A pall-like silence fell upon the patrons of the game. A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest Clung to **the hope which springs eternal in the human breast;** They thought, “If only Casey could but get a whack at that— We’d put up even money now, with Casey at the bat.”\* ---
**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:** [August 4, 2017, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/35666 "2017-08-04T18:12:35Z")
(I’m an Ohioan and never heard of Gilligan (not “Giligan”) referred to as “Jack”). One-term Ohio Governor John Gilligan and his daughter Kathleen are the only father-daughter pair of governors in U.S. history. Both are Democrats. Gilligan served in the United States Navy during World War II as a destroyer gunnery officer. He was awarded a Silver Star for gallantry in action at Okinawa. ETA: There is no town in Ohio named Mudville. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657.md?page=1782) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657.md?page=1784)