Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
I spent my weekend making new friends and celebrating the wedding of one of my favorite couples.
Imagine standing in an outdoors clearing, called “the chapel” by the longtime attendees of a camp in the Napa Hills. The wedding Officiant directs those congregated to behold the trees, the topography, the wildlife, the stream that they had just passed over, and the many sounds of the birds and insects around them. The sensory data of such a place could easily overwhelm until we realize our great advantage of being in such a holy place on a Saturday: we don’t need to make sense of it. How marvelous to behold such natural wonders with the sensibilities of the child or the poet: totally unhurried, and blissfully disconnected from our phones and other screens.
Such a place is wondrous in part because of the unusual stillness of the place. We spend most of our lives rushing about. The bride and groom, for example, are two of the most accomplished people I know, and their gaits are as quick as their intellects. My wife Kate often remarks to me how impressively fast they walk, as if their enthusiasm for the sports they love drives their momentum. He on his skis, and she on her bicycle, they are lovers of speed. The poet Dante said “The wisest are the most annoyed at the loss of time,” and certainly this bride and groom waste no time. Wise people indeed.
A clearing gives one a moment to pause and reflect. The importance of a clearing is found in the contrast with what is found around it. We spend most of our lives walking though challenging terrain, crashing through the underbrush, becoming more accomplished and more impressive. Our resumes and our LinkedIn profiles grow and grow. Sometimes I find it a wonder that we have time to meet each other at all.
The bride and groom are much beloved, and the story of the birth of their relationship is well known to those who have gathered. Soon after they met (or re-met), he was leaving for a London visit to give some talks and enjoy some theatre. She asked for details: flight numbers and itineraries. Such bravery and confidence! Soon his departure date became their departure date. Ambitious, curious, and joyful: they have found adventure together.
And now in this magical clearing, they are, as Stevie Wonder would say, “Happier than the Morning Sun.” To each half of this lucky and esteemed couple, I say, you have met your match. I am honored to be one of many who applaud that union.
Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on the following topics: Joan Rivers, unusual sports, faraway republics, appliances, cruising in the slow lane, James and John, the right track, Hugo Weaving, Forbes’ obsession with salaries, coniferous gifts, Saskatchewan farmers, public mistakes, Elton John, women who walk in beauty, England, biological ubiquity, Russia, measurements in kilometers, Seth Rogen, bird books, Czechs, alphabetical athletes, Benjamin Disraeli, De Vere Ancestors, wordy fears of conservative politicians, openings, Hank Williams, the accused, California, poetry, and Shakespeare.
We had a couple open tables last week because of the September 1 transitions in Davis. I hope you will come fill those seats tonight!
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Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:
- Mottos and Slogans. What magazine’s motto is a phrase that in Davis might be considered an insult: “The Capitalist Tool”?
- Internet Culture. Apple’s planned introduction of a wearable product would mark Apple’s first entry into a new device category since the introduction of WHAT?
- Newspaper Headlines. President Obama told Vanity Fair in 2012 that he only wore blue or grey suits so that he would not waste any of his decision-making energy. Nevertheless, last week at his “we have no strategy” press conference, the President wore a suit of a different color. I am thinking of only one color that is the correct answer. Name the color.
- Four for Four. Bartenders are some of my favorite laborers, so let’s remember them on Labor Day. Which of the following rum cocktails, if any, have been designated as “IBA Official Cocktails” by the International Bartenders Association? Brass Monkey, Cuba Libre, Mojito, Sundowner.
- Headphones. In 2012, what company’s U.S. market share was 64% for headphones priced higher than $100?
P.S. Henry Renau will be our featured poet on September 18th. henry 7. reneau, jr. attended UC, Davis double-majoring in English and African/African-American Studies. He has been published in more than a 120 journals and anthologies, among them, Nameless Magazine; Mandala Literary Journal; The Chaffey Review; Rufous City Review; Black Arts Quarterly; The View From Here; Empirical Magazine; FOLLY Magazine: Entering: Davis Poetry Book Project Anthology; Tule Review; BlazeVOX; Suisun Valley Review; Tidal Basin Review; and Storm Cycle, 2013 Best of Anthology from Kind of a Hurricane Press. He was the winner of, and received an Honorable Mention, in the SN&R Student Poetry Contest for 2008. He was the 2nd place winner of an Academy of American Poets Prize (Celeste Turner Wright Poetry Prize, 2008), and placed 3rd in the 2009 Annual Jack Kerouac Poetry Contest. His upcoming poetry collection, freedomland blues (Transcendent Zero Press, 2014) will be released in September of 2014. He also has an upcoming e-book, physiography of the fittest (Kind of a Hurricane Press, 2014), to be released in November of 2014. Additionally, he has also self-published a chapbook entitled 13hirteen Levels of Resistance, and is currently working on a book of connected short stories.