Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
When I lived in London in the 1980s, I noted that remembering World War I, and the British soldiers who died in that war, was still a national preoccupation. Many knew of family members (almost all of them young men) who had died in that war, and occasionally Kate and I would see a televised interview with an actual World War I veteran. Seemingly, a generation of youths was lost. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission had listed 888,246 war dead for the U.K and Colonies, or about 2% of the British population at the time.
As I was studying poetry at the time, I noticed on Remembrance Day (November 11th) when this particular poem was posted in the Underground and on telephone poles to commemorate the Second Battle of Ypres (in western Belgium):
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Inspired by this poem authored by Canadian physician John McCrae, more people are wearing poppies on November 11th and on other remembrance days this year as we approach the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I.
Happy Memorial Day to you and your families.
Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on one or more of the topics raised above, as well as on beverages, favorite sources of music, long-standing conflicts, something rich and strange, team accomplishments, the ivy league, 13 letters in common, smiley people, a lot of nerve, reruns, multi-syllabic country names, babbles and snorts, Irish waiters, Doctors who make poor choices, fraternities, U.S. states, the evils of tobacco, unusual languages, lead characters, the idea of Switzerland, breakfast staples, colorful M words with many meanings, captains, the U.S. Supreme Court, monosyllabic liquids, Elvis, fancy problems, deans, people named after Greek heroes, spiky-haired reporters, and Shakespeare.
Tonight’s anagram contains the hint of sex, violence, and off-color language; nevertheless, it is still safe for family hearing. How will I pull this off? You and your team will have to join us tonight to find out. See you at 7!
Your Quizmaster
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Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:
1. Mottos and Slogans. What motto on the crest of what famous boarding school is “Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus” which of course translates as “Never tickle a sleeping dragon”? I wasn’t even going to translate the Latin, but someone suggested that the first question of the Pub Quiz shouldn’t require conjugating.
2. Actors and Actresses. What English-born Australian actor’s second, third, and fourth highest-grossing films were Clash of the Titans, Terminator Salvation, and Wrath of the Titans, which he later apologized for making? Somehow I missed all three of these movies.
3. Pop Culture – Music. What 33 year-old American singer-songwriter and actor has a hit this week with the song “Not a Bad Thing”? Some critics disagree.
4. Sports. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, basketball and WHAT cause the most sports-related eye injuries? Hint: Boxing and MMA matches only endanger two people at a time.
5. Science: Flora. Oak woodlands, pine woodlands, and, in California, walnut woodlands can all be described with what six-syllable adjective that begins with the letter M? I learned the answer to this question from Elaine Fingerett in the Davis Arboretum.