Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
Today on a Chicago River water taxi I imagined a play based on current events.
Imagine a posh wedding that is attended by a panoply of familiar faces from the worlds of politics and entertainment. A prominent older couple poses for a picture with the bride and groom, making tongues wag. The groom admires the couple, frequently talking to the press about his admiration for the couple’s professional activities, once event calling the woman in the couple “a really good person and woman.”
The groom and the older couple eventually stumble upon a number of conflicts, and even though the groom had looked up to both members of the older couple, he finds reason to disparage them cruelly and publically. People who once took the groom seriously read about him fabricating increasingly outrageous claims about the older couple, and turn away from him. Others flock to the groom, enjoying the comedy and the spectacle.
At one point, the groom suggests that one member of the couple will make imprudent decisions that will affect us all, and that maybe she should be killed. Who knows what sort of misguided follower of the groom might infer from his remarks that he is ordering the mom in the couple to be shot, to keep her from making those decisions?
One thinks of the phrase allegedly spoken by Henry II about the top priest in Britain; usually the lines is “Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?” Sometimes the line is translated or remembered as this, but a more accurate phrase from the time suggests a more nuanced relationship with Thomas of Beckett: “What miserable drones and traitors have I nourished and brought up in my household, who let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a low-born cleric?” Either way, four soldiers interpret King Henry’s words as a kill-order, and Beckett is killed in the very sanctuary where he preached as the Archbishop of Canterbury.
How will the play end? If in violence, how would the sarcastic groom feel after inadvertently suggesting that his rival should be assassinated, and discovering as Henry did that his idle talk leads to death? Will the woman’s followers exact revenge, such as what happens in Romeo and Juliet when Mecutio and Tybalt are killed, hardening feelings and the likelihood of violence between rivals and their followers?
Or will the groom recognize the folly of inciting violence against his former friend, and make amends for his rash and dangerous remarks? Can such remarks be “taken back,” given the quick and fiery temper of the followers of the groom? Will the play explore de-escalation, an uncomfortable status quo, or a violent tragedy?
I haven’t yet written the end of the play yet. Maybe you (and others) could help me come up with an ending. Maybe it’s not too late.
Tonight’s Pub Quiz, hosted by Jason, will feature questions on most of the following topics: Chicago, Space X, cartographers, tree bark, posh Americans. MLB, Beyoncé, foreheads, magical beginnings and gustatory endings, volcanoes, tree calamities, Hawaii, superhumans who play no soccer, lovely wives, gold medals, curses, applied theories, words that start with the letter Q, big numbers, female spirits, places to trade, complicated engines, ice and Shakespeare. Thanks to Jason for composing this quiz.
Please join us tonight. Jason enjoyed substitute-hosting to a full house last week. I’ve missed chatting in person with all of you last Monday evening. Luckily, I myself will return to Davis in time for the August 22nd de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz!
Your Quizmaster
https://www.yourquizmaster.com
http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster
http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster
Here are three questions from a June, 2016 Pub Quiz:
- Mottos and Slogans. Who used the commercial slogan “So easy a caveman could do it”?
- Internet Culture. The second most-popular website in the world is the third most-popular website in the U.S., after Facebook. What is the second most-popular website in the world?
- Newspaper Headlines. Today Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency because of oncoming tropical storm Colin. Of what state is Scott governor?
P.S. Allegra Silberstein will be the featured poet at Poetry Night Thursday. Timothy Nutter will play guitar and perhaps sing some songs. Join the fun on August 18th at 8 PM at the John Natsoulas Gallery. See you next week!