# 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:** 91
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/1801 "2010-03-09T18:18:45Z")
Anton Chekhov spent three months in 1890 living in the penal colony at Sakhalin Island but not as a convict; he was a census taker. He wrote volumes about his observations there and was sickened by the conditions, particularly for the female inmates. ---
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/1802 "2010-03-09T18:23:43Z")
Nellie Bly was the pen name of a reporter who went undercover as a female inmate at an asylum to write an article about conditions there. There is an amusement park in NYC that bears her name. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/1803 "2010-03-09T19:26:54Z")
The building formerly housing Bethlem Royal Hospital (“Bedlam”) in Southwark, London is now the site of the Imperial War Museum. ---
**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:** [March 9, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/1804 "2010-03-09T19:57:52Z")
The Imperial War Museum runs the Cabinet War Rooms, the underground bunker in London where Prime Minister Winston Churchill rode out the Blitz and directed the British war effort. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/1805 "2010-03-09T20:29:06Z")
Winston Churchill was America’s biggest best selling author in the early years of the 20th century, with novels like **Richard Carvel**. A young British newspaper writer had to use the byline of Winston S. Churchill so people wouldn’t be confused. ---
**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:** [March 9, 2010, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/1806 "2010-03-09T21:02:14Z")
The USS _Winston S. Churchill_ is one of a handful of American warships ever named after foreigners. President Bill Clinton announced the ship’s name during a speech to the British Parliament in 1995. [![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USS_Winston_S._Churchill.jpg) ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USS_Winston_S._Churchill.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/1807 "2010-03-09T21:05:04Z")
John Lennon occasionally made guest appearances on other artists’ records under the name “Doctor Winston O’Boogie.” ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/1808 "2010-03-09T21:06:50Z")
A small grove in Central Park across the street where Lennon lived and was shot was named Strawberry Fields in his honor. ---
**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:** [March 9, 2010, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/1809 "2010-03-09T21:07:52Z")
After moving to the U.S., John Lennon was watched closely by the FBI, the director of which, J. Edgar Hoover, apparently considered him a threat to national security. Lennon’s FBI file, when disclosed under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act, was voluminous. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/1810 "2010-03-09T21:20:43Z")
Because he was Cuban born, star of the Number 1 show in America, and married to a woman named in the HUAC investigations (because her grandfather who she grew up with was socialist and to please him she had registered as socialist when she was old enough to vote) Desi Arnaz also had a massive FBI file (part of it [online here](http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/arnaz.htm)). Desi’s famous comment when he addressed Lucy’s political affiliation was “The only thing red about my wife is her hair and that ain’t real”. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/1811 "2010-03-09T22:05:06Z")
Ramsay MacDonald was the first socialist to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. ---
**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:** [March 9, 2010, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/1812 "2010-03-09T22:34:46Z")
Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy were best known for co-starring in eight movie musicals in the 1930s and 1940s. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/1813 "2010-03-09T23:09:37Z")
Jeannette MacDonald popularized the song “San Francisco (Open Your Golden Gate)” in the 1934 movie “San Francisco”, co-starring Clark Gable and featuring earthquake special effects created by Cecil B. DeMille. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/1814 "2010-03-09T23:25:11Z")
In his 1923 silent film of _The Ten Commandments_ Cecil B. Demille created the effect of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea by filming two “walls” of Jell-O and splicing in live action footage of extras walking to create the effects of walking between two quivering walls of water. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/1815 "2010-03-09T23:27:17Z")
Jell-O is reputedly the top-selling dessert dish in Utah. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/1816 "2010-03-09T23:39:05Z")
Julius Rosenberg gave his brother-in-law David Greenglass (the brother of his wife Ethel Rosenberg) half of a Jell-O box with the instructions that anybody who approached him about spying who came from from Julius would have the other half. Both men and their wives were arrested for spying; the Rosenbergs were executed, David Greenglass, who is still alive, served 10 years (his sentence reduced for providing evidence against his sister that he later admitted was false). ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/1817 "2010-03-10T01:28:45Z")
The Marx Brothers’ nicknames were based on their personalities or habits. Julius, the moody one, was named “Groucho.” Adolph, a harpist, was named “Harpo.” Leonard was named “Chico” (pronounced “Chicko”) because he was a ladies’ man and chick magnet. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/1818 "2010-03-10T01:37:41Z")
(Playing off CHICo or CHICk): Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the president of Mexico best known for having killed Davy Crockett and the other Alamo defenders, later lived in exile in NYC where his habit of chewing chicle (fruit from the sapodilla plant) intrigued his American secretary, Thomas Adams. After first trying to use it as a rubber substitute (unsuccessfully) Adams later patented some flavored versions of the substance and the chewing gum industry was born. ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/1819 "2010-03-10T01:46:08Z")
Raymond Chandler’s “It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen” was admired as good writing by Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/1820 "2010-03-10T02:12:56Z")
> [@AppallingGael](#): > > Raymond Chandler’s “It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen” was admired as good writing by Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Mary Tyler Moore had a recurring role as Sam, Richard Diamond’s sultry answering service girl, on _Richard Diamond, Private Detective_ (1957). Her performance was particularly notorious, because her legs (usually dangling a pump on her toe) were always shown instead of her face. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657.md?page=90) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657.md?page=92)