# 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:** 2262
**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:** [October 27, 2019, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/45230 "2019-10-27T22:01:42Z")
President Barack Obama was sworn in for a second term in office on Jan. 20, 2013 in Washington, D.C. Unlike at the inauguration ceremony four years earlier, he and Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts did not mess up the inaugural oath. ---
**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:** [October 28, 2019, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/45231 "2019-10-28T03:54:32Z")
Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning both came from families with property in the West Indies, and very possibly had some African ancestry. Robert’s grandmother is described as a “Creole” in early biographies; Elizabeth herself stated that her heritage included “the blood of the slave.” The title of her most famous work, _Sonnets from the Portuguese,_ is derived from Robert’s nickname for her. Because of her dark hair and skin he called her “my little Portuguese”. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2019, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/45232 "2019-10-28T04:12:29Z")
Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s prolific output made her a rival to Tennyson as a candidate for poet laureate on the death of Wordsworth. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2019, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/45233 "2019-10-28T04:14:14Z")
The “Mailliard reaction” is a chemical reaction between certain amino acids and reducing sugars, which gives browned food a distinctive flavor. The reaction typically occurs at food temperatures between 280-330F. It is responsible for producing flavor in a wide variety of foods and beverages, including seared steaks, pan-fried dumplings, breads and baked goods, roasted coffee, and the malted barley used in beers and whiskeys. ---
**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:** [October 28, 2019, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/45234 "2019-10-28T14:05:33Z")
A compilation I’ve seen of the foods and beverages mentioned by American author George R.R. Martin in his fantasy series _A Song of Ice and Fire_ runs to five single-spaced pages. ---
**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:** [October 28, 2019, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/45235 "2019-10-28T14:53:09Z")
The HBO series _Game of Thrones_, which was based on _A Song of Ice and Fire_, reportedly cost 560 million dollars to produce. The final season, season 8, consisted of six episodes and cost 90 million dollars. ---
**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:** [October 28, 2019, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/45236 "2019-10-28T15:10:41Z")
Emilia Clarke, the British actress who played Daenerys Targaryen on HBO’s _Game of Thrones_, is now 33. She made her Broadway debut as Holly Golightly in a production of _Breakfast at Tiffany’s_ in 2013. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2019, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/45237 "2019-10-28T16:04:55Z")
In the early 1980s, George R.R. Martin (who would later go on to write the fantasy series _A Game of Thrones_) ran a campaign of the superhero role-playing game _Superworld_ for a group of science-fiction authors in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The other players in Martin’s game were Victor Milan, Gail Gerstner-Miller, John J. Miller, Melinda M. Snodgrass, and Walter Jon Williams. The campaign formed the initial inspiration for a “shared-world” anthology, based on the superhuman characters from that game, called _Wild Cards_, which was edited by Martin, and which featured stories by most of the game’s players. It became a highly successful series, with new installments still being published today. Shortly after the initial _Wild Cards_ volume was published, English author Neil Gaiman approached Martin, and pitched an idea for a story about a character who lived in a world of dreams, for inclusion in the series. Martin declined, as Gaiman was not yet an established author; Gaiman went on to use the concept for his breakthrough comic series _The Sandman_. ---
**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:** [October 28, 2019, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/45238 "2019-10-28T17:29:22Z")
George R.R. Martin, as a child growing up in New York City, once, to his mother’s horror, got fleas when he saw a movie in a dank old theater. ---
**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:** [October 28, 2019, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/45239 "2019-10-28T20:29:33Z")
The color puce (a reddish brown) was popular in the court of Marie Antoinette. Supposedly, when Louis XVI saw the new fashionable color, he described it as the color of a flea, \*puce \*in French. Various shades of flea were described as “flea’s belly”, “flea’s thigh” or “old flea”. ---
**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:** [October 28, 2019, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/45240 "2019-10-28T21:32:30Z")
Introduced in 1958, the box of Crayola 64 Colors Crayons ([picture of the crayon box, with sharpener! – this’ll bring back memories for ya](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Crayola_crayons#/media/File:Crayola_1st_No64_open.jpg)) included strange-sounding color names like Puce, yes, but also Goldenrod, Bittersweet, Maize, Aquamarine, Periwinkle, Mulberry, Mahogany, Burnt Sienna, and Sepia. Commentary – At my young age then, my vocabulary must’ve doubled upon reading the names of those colors! 🙂 ---
**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:** [October 28, 2019, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/45241 "2019-10-28T22:58:20Z")
The Republic of Siena was an independent state consisting of the city of Siena and its surrounding territory in Tuscany. It existed for over four hundred years, from 1125 to 1555. The Republic of Siena surrendered to the Spanish Empire on 21 April 1555, marking the end of the republic. ---
**Author:** ![atimnie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atimnie/32/11_2.png) [@atimnie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/atimnie)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2019, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/45242 "2019-10-28T23:05:16Z")
!@#$% ninja’d ---
**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:** [October 29, 2019, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/45243 "2019-10-29T02:02:36Z")
Siena College in Loudonville NY is about 3 miles south of Latham Ridge Elementary School in Latham NY, and about 4 miles west of RPI, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy NY. It is a small private college with about 3,000 undergraduate students, and it was established in 1937. Siena College was named after Bernardino of Siena, a 15th-century Italian Franciscan friar and preacher. Its sports teams are named the Siena Saints, and its fight song is _When the Saints Go Marching In_. ---
**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:** [October 29, 2019, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/45244 "2019-10-29T04:06:39Z")
Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas, “the Rock of Chickamauga” and “the Sledge of Nashville,” a Virginian who remained loyal to the United States at the outbreak of the Civil War and then never lost a battle, died five years after the war ended. He was buried in Troy, N.Y., his wife’s hometown, having been disowned by most of his pro-Confederate family. President U.S. Grant was among the mourners. ---
**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:** [October 29, 2019, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/45245 "2019-10-29T04:19:32Z")
Troy NY is the hometown of Uncle Sam. Troy residents claim that a local 19th century meatpacker named Samuel Wilson was the guy. Samuel Wilson, the urban legend goes, was called “Uncle Sam” around Troy because he employed a lot of nephews and was an amiable, honest fellow. When the War of 1812 broke out, Wilson answered a classified ad in the Troy newspaper and got a job packing his meat into barrels and shipping it eight miles downriver to the Army, which was preparing to go to war with Canada. Rations of fresh meat were rare in those days, and the soldiers asked who had supplied it. “Uncle Sam” was the answer, and because “U.S.” was stamped on the barrels, the goodness of “United States” and “Uncle Sam” became synonymous. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2019, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/45246 "2019-10-29T06:17:16Z")
“Troy weight” is a system of units of mass which originated in 15th century England; the system is still in limited use today, primarily for measuring precious metals. Troy weight is not to be confused with the “avoirdupois weight” system, which is the primary system for measuring mass (ounces and pounds) in the U.S. There are 12 troy ounces in a troy pound, while there are 16 avoirdupois ounces in an avoirdupois pound. A troy ounce weighs about 10% more than an avoirdupois ounce, but a troy pound weighs about 20% less than an avoirdupois pound. ---
**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:** [October 29, 2019, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/45247 "2019-10-29T10:13:19Z")
The word _avoirdupois_ is from Anglo-Norman French _aveir de peis_ (later _avoir du pois_), literally “goods of weight”. This term originally referred to a class of merchandise: _aveir de peis_, “goods of weight”, things that were sold in bulk and were weighed on large steelyards or balances. Only later did the term become identified with a particular system of units used to weigh merchandise. The avoirdupois weight system is thought to have come into use in England around 1300. It was originally used for weighing wool. ---
**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:** [October 29, 2019, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/45248 "2019-10-29T13:53:26Z")
The nursery rhyme Baa Baa Black Sheep was first printed in Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book, the oldest surviving collection of English language nursery rhymes, published c. 1744 with the lyrics very similar to those still used today: ``` Bah, Bah, a black Sheep, Have you any wool? Yes merry have I, Three bags full, Two for my master, One for my dame, None for the little boy That cries in the lane. ``` In 1951, together with “In the Mood”, “Baa Baa Black Sheep” was the first song ever to be digitally saved and played on a computer. ---
**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:** [October 29, 2019, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/45249 "2019-10-29T13:53:33Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > The word _avoirdupois_ is from Anglo-Norman French _aveir de peis_ (later _avoir du pois_), literally “goods of weight”. This term originally referred to a class of merchandise: _aveir de peis_, “goods of weight”, things that were sold in bulk and were weighed on large steelyards or balances. Only later did the term become identified with a particular system of units used to weigh merchandise. The avoirdupois weight system is thought to have come into use in England around 1300. It was originally used for weighing wool. I always wondered, but never looked it up. Thanks, **Bullitt**! In play: The Lord Speaker of the British House of Lords sits on the Woolsack, a special seat intended to remind the nobles of the key role wool played in the British economy. In 1938, it was discovered that the woolsack at that time was actually stuffed with horsehair. That was soon set right. > **[Woolsack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolsack)** > > The Woolsack is the seat of the Lord Speaker in the House of Lords, the Upper House of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Before 2006, it was the seat of the Lord Chancellor. > In the 14th century King Edward III (1327–1377) said that his Lord Chancellor whilst in council should sit on a wool bale, now known as "The Woolsack", in order to symbolise the central nature and great importance of the wool trade to the economy of England in the Middle Ages. Indeed, it was largely to protect the vita... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657.md?page=2261) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657.md?page=2263)