Dear Friends,
Happy Sleepy Monday! That’s what some researchers are calling the workday after we set our clocks forward, causing all our appointments to start an hour earlier. According to a recent USA Today article, today “our risk of having a car accident will rise about 6%, research shows, as will our chances of being in a workplace accident.”
Last night I met with students from 9-11 at a downtown café, and then had an early-morning appointment at my daughter’s school before my 10 AM class. As a result, this “sleepy” correspondent is publishing the newsletter later than usual, surely disappointing some regular readers who like to pour over the hints after having poured a cup of coffee.
Despite the lateness of this newsletter, I’m not worrying about filling the Irish Pub this evening, for I have invited a few extra friends to join us, both during the Pub Quiz, and for an after party. I plan to party as if it were my birthday. In fact, I can drop the subjunctive: today is my birthday, and I am paying for the party.
Here’s how I wrote about my Native American potlatch tradition in the newsletter from this week two years ago (back when I used to write more ambitious paragraphs):
“Thanks to all of you who sent me birthday greetings on Saturday. Today’s will be a special edition of the Pub Quiz, for it will conclude with a party, that is, even more of a party than we usually hold on a Monday evening. Starting at about 9pm, the hard-working staff of the Irish Pub will emerge from the kitchen with all sorts of finger food, the phrase that we Americans use instead of “hors d’oeuvres.” Although I will be paying for the extra food myself, in honor of the Native American tradition of potlatch, you will have to purchase your own drink. Gifts (to me) of any sort are specifically discouraged, but if you are feeling particularly generous, I encourage you to consider one of my three favorite local charities as a focus for your generosity: community radio station KDVS (which holds its annual fund-raiser next month right after Picnic Day), The Cultural Action Committee of the City of Davis (which supports my poetry efforts in the community, as well as all the public art that you’ve seen popping up in the last two months), and Writing on the Edge, the local (and nationally famous) writing journal that is sponsored by the University Writing Program at UC Davis. Subscriptions to WOE are only $20 a year, a real bargain when you consider the incredible writers who one sees interviewed, and whose work is published, in every issue.”
This year I will also be encouraging folks to donate to the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome Foundation (SLOSF). My book of poetry (with my wife’s essays) comes out later this month. Titled Where’s Jukie, the book explores the joys of raising a child with special needs. All the profits from book sales will be donated to the SLOSF, so I will be reminding you often to make the $10 investment once the book is released.
And as an added bonus, while a small buffet will be unveiled around 9:30, my favorite news of the day is that the incredible all-woman a cappella group The Spokes will be performing a couple songs at about 10 this evening. What fun! I hope you can join us.
Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on tragic royalty, beloved daughters, doors, Oscar-winners, civil rights benchmarks, playful slogans, dreaming of profit, Androids, Disney firsts, thought leaders, women in film, tombs, the National Safety Council, NASA, internal angles (math question), Swedes with degrees, Bacardi, 11-letter words that begin with the letter Z, martial arts dialogues, hypnotist collectors, televised journeys, a party for Ringo, parallel lives, centrifugal forces, old names, shoes on the table, utopias, incumbents with raised rifles, cucumbers, current events, and Shakespeare.
See you tonight for the Pub Quiz, and the after-party!
Your Quizmaster
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Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:
Pub Quiz for Monday, March 10, 2014
- Mottos and Slogans. There are 50,254 locations of an international chain of stores that refer to the afterlife in its commercial slogan. Name the chain.
- Newspaper Headlines. Last night Frozen song “Let It Go” composer Robert Lopez became an EGOT winner, joining the likes of Whoopi Goldberg, Mel Brooks, and Audrey Hepburn. What do the letters EGOT stand for?
- Davis Garages. The Art Garage was christened on Saturday morning, with hundreds of Davisites working on the 120-foot mural. One of the biggest garages around, the art garage is found at the corner of a letter and a number street in downtown Davis. Name either the letter or the number.
- Pop Culture – Music. What four-syllable one-word named British alternative rock band had 1997 and 1998 hits with “Tubthumping” and “Amnesia”?
- Sports. The number of Allen Iverson was retired last week, joining in the rafters those worn by Charles Barkley and Julius Irving. In what city did this retirement ceremony take place?