Planning is about to meet execution. Exhilarating. Terrifying. You can't move a muscle, you can hardly breathe, lest you (or one errant sneeze, or those bothersome gusts of breeze from the window) accidentally lay to waste your hours spent slaving over piece after piece. But now it is here, the moment of reckoning, as you prepare to fell your arch-rival... the domino, and all the troops behind him. One tiny touch, and clickityclackity, it's over.
More than just a child's garden of cause-and-effect --though the stacking and toppling of them is certainly a staple of American childhood-- dominoes are a gaming tiles originating from China as early as 1120 AD. They are derived from the 21 different pairing possibilities for rolling a duo of six-sided dice. Originally (that is, pre-PETA) they were made of bone or ivory with ebony inlaid on the dots. The name "domino" popped up when they arrived in Europe during nineteenth century; it was possibly derived from a similarly-named masquerade mask (though this must have been on opposite day; those dominoes were black with whites of they eyes showing through the eyeholes). Another etymological theory considers that domino is also the French word for a monk's hood, which were double-faced in white and black. Modern dominoes are much less likely to be crafted from the endangered animals; most companies manufacture the tiles out of wood or plastic.
Much like cards, there are a wide array of games that can be played with the traditional spotted tiles. The most common is a blind-draw multi-player game, with each person matching dominoes end-to-end in a chain. Endless variations include the chicken-scratch (which divides into three directions), the train (which lays them side by side) and several versions of solitaire for lone wolves and the socially ill-equipped.
Setting a domino chain in action is imminently filmic in its suspense and excitement. Among recent media using the image, there were human dominos on the Simpsons, and a particularly elaborate example on Malcolm in the Middle. Other famous dominoes include model/bounty hunter Domino Harvey, Derek and the Dominoes, Domino the late 19th century thoroughbred horse, Domino's Pizza, and Domino cookie brand (or as you may know them, the anti-oreos)
The most lasting influence the game has had on society is the concept of domino effect. Used as slang for a small change having an eventual effect on everything surrounding it, it came into popularity in politics during the Cold War. The Domino Theory attempted to strike a fear into the organs of every Democracy-loving American: if one country fell to the Communists, all neighboring countries would fall-- clicketyclackety-- like the first.
