Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
March 2nd is my own personal Day of the Dead. I think first of my best friend from my pre-teen and teenage years, Tito, and how often he pointed out that he was eight days older than me. Living less than a mile from each other in the Glover Park section of Washington DC, Tito and I were inseparable, clamoring for playdates and sleep-overs during our early years, and then just biking to each other’s homes once we became more independent. His family housed me on so many weekends during the slow dissolution of my parents’ marriage, and it was at Tito’s farm that I learned how to swim, shoot a shotgun, and handle a potentially rabid bat. Now that I am typing this out, I’m surprised that I even survived those trips to The Farm. But mostly we told stories, imagined the adventures of pirates and the denizens of haunted houses, and went exploring, without supervision, in ways that I would never let my kids do today. My times with Tito were some of the happiest and most care-free of my life.
Four times Tito popped unexpectedly into my adult life. Once while we were undergraduates he slipped into my high-security dorm and just appeared, unannounced and unexpected, at my dormroom door. We ventured out into Boston to play pool and to catch up. I don’t think he responded to the invitation to my wedding to Kate, but he did show up at my hotel room door as I was leaving in my tuxedo to take part in the ceremony. A seasoned pilot by then, he just flew his Cessna over to Chicago from DC for the event and reception, dancing the longest with whomever was available. Twice he visited Kate and me in Sacramento in the subsequent year, once while on his way to Alaska, his new home. And then 21 years ago I received the unexpected call from his mom; I don’t know how she held it together while telling me the story of Tito’s final (solo) flight. His birthdays keep passing, but to me my hero Tito will always be 26.
March 2nd also marks the ten-year anniversary of the death of my father. Watching the Oscars with friends is always bittersweet, for I remember well my discussions with Dad about the nominations before the ceremony, and the winners afterwards. A movie critic in Washington DC for decades, as well as a stage director of over 1,000 productions, my father knew more about the film and theatre than anyone else I knew. Having worked with so many actors in the 1950s and 1960s, he had personal stories about many of the stars that we would see in the Oscar telecast, and these stories made Hollywood seem less remote (or, more cynically, less irrelevant). While my brother Oliver was much better versed in jazz and sports, other discussion topics around the table on Adams Mill Road and Waterside Drive in Washington DC, I knew film, and knew that my father’s love of film would inform our weekly Sunday chats until the end of his days.
Tito died before world wide web took off, and my father lived in an analog world of film and telephone calls, so for future Googlers I shall name them both here, and thus let anyone encountering this page hereafter know that Montague David Lord, known to his friends and family as Tito Lord, and Davey Marlin-Jones are well remembered this week, that they are thoroughly missed, and that they are much loved.
Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on topics raised above, as well as on Shakespeare’s histories, final destinations, Forbes Magazine’s obsessions with the incomes of celebrities, number three, people named Robert Lopez, Emma, 33 prime numbers, garages, retirement ceremonies, strawberries, profiling, corny-hooded drugs, Caddyshack, vowels, Twitter, the non-fiction work of novelists, snakes, bodies of water, boots, The Ukraine, famous forests, icemen who were killed by arrows, baseball players, and current events.
My birthday is next Monday, and I intend to throw myself a little party after Pub Quiz. Details forthcoming. See you tonight!
Your Quizmaster
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Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:
1. Great Swedes. Swedes Named Carl. Who was the father of modern biological taxonomy?
2. Unusual Words. Starting with the letter C, what do we call the office of a chancellor?
3. Pop Culture – Dick Van Dyke. In songs in the film Mary Poppins, Dick Van Dyke’s chimney sweep repeatedly calls himself what L word? Hint: It’s not “lesbian.”
4. Another Music Question. What breakout alternative rock band released the single “Radioactive,” which Rolling Stone named “the biggest rock hit of the year”?
5. Television. Who announced last week that he would not return as a judge on The Voice?
P.S. I hope you will join us for Poetry Night this coming Thursday. Camille Norton from University of the Pacific will be reading some of her award-winning poems. We meet at the John Natsoulas Gallery at 8, and back at the Irish Pub for an after-party at 10. Details at Poetry in Davis. P.P.S. Did you see that the City of Davis now has an Art Garage?