# 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:** 1916
**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:** [April 3, 2018, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/38309 "2018-04-03T21:37:33Z")
_Hart to Hart_ was a 1979 TV series starring Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers as two rich people who played at being detectives. It ran for five seasons. ---
**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:** [April 4, 2018, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/38310 "2018-04-04T02:10:00Z")
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas. Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk (“total work of art”), by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. Wagner had his own opera house built, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which embodied many novel design features. _The Ring_ and _Parsifal_ were premiered here and his most important stage works continue to be performed at the annual Bayreuth Festival, run by his descendants. ---
**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:** [April 4, 2018, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/38311 "2018-04-04T03:15:28Z")
J.R.R. Tolkien always stoutly denied that his book _The Lord of the Rings_ was intended to be a Cold War allegory, noting that he had begun writing it many years before the end of World War II. Many of his biographers believe that he drew on his World War I experiences, however, in writing about the relationship between Frodo and Samwise (analogous to the across-class-lines relationship between a British officer and his “batman” or personal aide), and the horrors of the Dead Marshes and Mordor. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2018, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/38312 "2018-04-04T03:55:42Z")
There was a hit single in 1967, “I Was Kaiser Bill’s Batman”, which was performed mostly by whistling, credited to Whistling Jack Smith, a play on Whispering Jack Smith, a successful baritone singer from the 1920s to the 1940s. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2018, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/38313 "2018-04-04T08:07:45Z")
Buffalo Bob, from the Howdy Doody Show, and Woldman Jack were both, in real life, named Bob Smith. Buffalo Bob was really from Buffalo, New York, and the Wolfman from New York City. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2018, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/38314 "2018-04-04T12:00:40Z")
Howdy Doody was an American children’s television program which was telecast on the NBC network in the United States from 1947 until 1960. It was a pioneer in early color production as NBC (at the time owned by TV maker RCA) used the show in part to sell color television sets in the 1950s. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2018, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/38315 "2018-04-04T12:41:33Z")
Howdy Doody had 48 freckles, one for each state of the union at the time of his creation. ---
**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:** [April 4, 2018, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/38316 "2018-04-04T14:08:05Z")
The kids’ TV show _Howdy Doody_ was affectionately spoofed in the 1999 Pixar hit _Toy Story 2_, when it was revealed that Sheriff Woody had been the star of a similar show, _Woody’s Roundup_. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2018, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/38317 "2018-04-04T14:37:43Z")
_Howdy Doody_ writer Edward Kean coined the word “kawabonga” as a greeting for the character Chief Thunderthud, which was later adopted by surfers as “cowabunga” and popularized by Snoopy, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Bart Simpson among others. ---
**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:** [April 4, 2018, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/38318 "2018-04-04T15:00:29Z")
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles originated in the early 1980s in Northampton, Mass., as two artist friends, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, would often get together and draw comics. Both creators were big art-history fans, and one of them tossed out the idea of naming their heroes after famous Renaissance artists: Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael. Donatello (after the Florentine sculptor) was nearly called Bernini, in honor of the great architect and artist. Laird, however, wanted another name that ended in “o.” ---
**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:** [April 4, 2018, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/38319 "2018-04-04T15:17:11Z")
The Laird Rams (named after the British shipyard which built them, Laird & Son Co.), a pair of turreted ironclad warships, were intended for the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War. After protests and veiled threats by the U.S. ambassador, Her Majesty’s Government seized them in 1863 for eventual service in the Royal Navy. > **[Scorpion-class ironclad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpion-class_ironclad)** > > The two Scorpion-class ironclads, HMS Scorpion and HMS Wivern, were ironclad warships ordered by the Confederate States Navy in 1862 and seized in 1863 by the British to prevent their delivery. This would have violated the Foreign Enlistment Act, which forbade British subjects to build or arm any ships for governments at war with governments friendly to Great Britain. The Scorpion class were masted turret ships, each with two gun turrets that were designed to mount a pair of heavy muzzle-load... ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2018, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/38320 "2018-04-04T15:28:15Z")
[The post-war international tribunal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama_Claims#The_tribunal)that resolved US claims against the UK for its support of the rebels became the basis for the codification of international law. The arbitration of the Alabama Claims (named for the Confederate warship CSS Alabama, built by Britain) was a precursor to the Hague Convention, the League of Nations, the World Court, and the United Nations. In Tolstoy’s _Anna Karenina_, Stiva Oblonsky has a dream that may show his having read of the Alabama Claims through the\* Kölnische Zeitung\*. ---
**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:** [April 4, 2018, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/38321 "2018-04-04T16:39:04Z")
Although not an eyewitness, French artist Édouard Manet painted the fateful June 19, 1864 battle of the U.S. steam sloop-of-war USS _Kearsarge_ and the Confederate commerce raider CSS _Alabama_ off the coast of Cherbourg, France. His painting now hangs in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. > **[The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_the_Kearsarge_and_the_Alabama)** > > The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama is an 1864 oil painting by Édouard Manet. The painting commemorates the Battle of Cherbourg of 1864, a naval engagement of the American Civil War between the Union cruiser USS Kearsarge and the Confederate raider CSS Alabama. Many spectators were able to see the battle from the coast of France and saw the USS Kearsarge sink the CSS Alabama. Not having witnessed the battle himself, Manet relied on press descriptions of the battle to document his work. In... ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2018, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/38322 "2018-04-04T16:45:36Z")
Catherine Deneuve, who later took on the modeling role of the French national symbol of liberty, Marianne, starred in the 1964 rom-com _The Umbrellas of Cherbourg_, as the daughter of an umbrella-shop proprietress who falls for a local auto mechanic. ---
**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:** [April 4, 2018, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/38323 "2018-04-04T17:10:12Z")
The Statue of Liberty appears in both _The Godfather_, in the distance during the “Leave the gun, take the cannoli” scene, and in _The Godfather Part II_, when a young Vito Corleone first arrives in New York City. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2018, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/38324 "2018-04-04T17:22:58Z")
The Godfather and The Godfather Part II are the only film and sequel to both win Oscars as Best Picture. They were also the vehicles for the only 2 actors to win Oscars for the same role - Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro as Vito Corleone. ---
**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:** [April 4, 2018, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/38325 "2018-04-04T17:34:37Z")
Marlon Brando, dangerously overweight in his last years, confined to his home and intermittently on different diets, would sometimes pay neighborhood children to go buy cheeseburgers and toss them to him over the fence. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2018, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/38326 "2018-04-04T17:42:54Z")
A video of [a drunken David Hasselhoff](https://youtu.be/QH3JAp7vMuo) trying to eat a cheeseburger was posted to Youtube by his daughter Taylor Ann, in an attempt to shame him into addressing his alcoholism. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2018, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/38327 "2018-04-04T17:50:14Z")
There are several competing claims as to who created the first cheeseburger. Lionel Sternberger is reputed to have introduced the cheeseburger in 1926 when he was working as a fry cook at his father’s Pasadena, California sandwich shop, “The Rite Spot”, and “experimentally dropped a slab of American cheese on a sizzling hamburger.” > **[Cheeseburger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheeseburger)** > > A cheeseburger is a hamburger topped with cheese. Traditionally, the slice of cheese is placed on top of the meat patty. The cheese is usually added to the cooking hamburger patty shortly before serving, which allows the cheese to melt. Cheeseburgers can include variations in structure, ingredients and composition. As with other hamburgers, a cheeseburger may include toppings such as lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard. > In fast food restaurants, the cheese... ---
**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:** [April 5, 2018, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/38328 "2018-04-05T03:52:05Z")
The Olympia Café was a fictional greasy spoon featured in a recurring Saturday Night Live sketch. The staff, led by John Belushi as Pete Dionasopoulos, were Greeks. As various guest stars discovered, only three items on the long menu could actually be ordered successfully: the cheeseburger (pronounced “cheeburger” by Belushi), chips (pronounced “cheep”), and Pepsi. According to Don Novello, who penned the first Olympia Café sketch, the diner was based on the Billy Goat Tavern on Lower North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, which is still operating. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657.md?page=1915) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657.md?page=1917)