Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I take a walk with my son Jukie every day. Last year his walks with me averaged over six miles a day, while this year we have dropped down to a mere five miles a day.  For both of us, these walks provide most of our exercise.

Living with profound autism, our bearded explorer has been attending a therapeutic “boot camp” (as we nicknamed it) in Elk Grove this year to work on behavioral and communication concerns. As he spends more than four hours a day outside the house, this leaves less time for us to walk. We make up for it in the afternoon, including during my walking commute to the UC Davis campus, where I teach writing and literature classes.

Davis greenbelts can be traversed as a series of wide loops, the largest of these loops being in South Davis. As we live on such a greenbelt, I can let Jukie lead the way and pick our route when we head out of the house without our having to worry about car traffic. Every 20-something likes to express their agency by making undirected choices, and Jukie expresses his by insisting on frequent walks that start with a large, clockwise loop.

Jukie prunes even more than Chauncey Gardiner ever did, breaking off small branches from the trees and bushes that we pass on our walks. When Jukie and I try to walk more than 30 miles over a long weekend, we typically encounter the denuded branches and detritus of leaves that resulted from our previous walks over the same footpaths. My younger son Truman recently remarked that when he steps outside, he can easily follow Jukie’s most recent path, for he leaves behind leaves the way that Wall-E leaves behind rolling earthen footsteps on The Axiom.

I consider what lessons Jukie has to teach me, such as lessons about presence, about love of nature, and about quiet fortitude. From his tree-trimming obsession, I learn lessons about concentration and prioritization. Consider what Ralph Waldo Emerson shares in his essay “Power,” in which he advises “stopping off decisively our miscellaneous activity, and concentrating our force on one or a few points; as the gardener, by severe pruning, forces the sap of the tree into one or two vigorous limbs.” It’s funny to think of Jukie strengthening all the reachable trees of Davis greenbelts, encouraging the concentration of all that sap.

Emerson is connected to Jukie via a direct intellectual influence lineage. Emerson mentored his godson William James, the father of American psychology, who taught and influenced Josiah Royce and George Santayana at Harvard. Royce taught T.S. Eliot, while George Santayana was a subject of Eliot’s undergraduate thesis at Harvard. Eliot, and his focus on poetic and literary ambiguity, directly influenced the British New Criticism critic and poet William Empson, author of Seven Types of Ambiguity, a book that quotes Eliot approvingly. At Cambridge University, Sir Christopher Ricks was deeply influenced by William Empson, whom he called “a genius” whose “prose is at least as well written as good poetry.” Even when he was chosen as the Oxford Professor of Poetry, Ricks continued to praise Empson. And Sir Christopher Ricks taught me classes on Beckett, Eliot, Shakespeare and Tennyson at Boston University, writing me a letter of support of my start at UC Davis as a graduate student. 

And I am my son Jukie’s most constant teacher, most often out on our nature walks. Sometimes during these walks, I return in thought to the writing of Ralph Waldo Emerson, reflecting on how his lessons might apply to our wordless boy. 

As Jukie pauses to behold fast moving clouds changing the light in a ring of trees where he has been happily pruning, I think of that quotation from Emerson’s essay “Nature”: “The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship.”

As I wonder to myself what Jukie might be thinking on our long walks, I consider Emerson’s words again: “The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other.”

As I try not to lament to two-way conversations that Jukie and I will never share, at least using words, I remember what Emerson said, also in “Nature”: “In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows.”

These daily walks—quiet, habitual, deliberate, and sometimes sparked by “wild delight”—prune away distraction for Jukie and me, thus letting the vital sap of communal presence rise.

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The weather tonight will be warm for late May, so I invite you to join me outside at Sudwerk tonight, perhaps in the shade. On such days, I especially love hosting an outdoor Pub Quiz at sunset as we all get to enjoy the cooling temperatures together. Others feel the same way, for we had almost 40 teams compete last week. I plan to move the quiz along quickly, even though the quiz is longer than usual. 

In addition to topics raised above and below, expect questions tonight on the following: straps, vitality, drug companies, southern states, timeouts, musical seasons, targets, the warmth of Luke, inspiring and depressing writing, famous 19th century families, birth states, people named Ray, kings that we don’t resent, toys and birds, Oscar nominees, pickup games, body temperatures, the requested dog topic, outlaws, dad jokes, international scholars, medications, new additions to new collections, seals, words that are thirteen letters long, butlers, insurance reminders, remakes that are not sequels, female pioneers, pollinators, the founding of European cities, Turin discoveries, peanuts, raspberries, veterans, misremembered titles of Miles Davis albums, huge movie stars, Texan birds, U.S. cities, geography, current events, and Shakespeare.

For more Pub Quiz fun, please subscribe via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/yourquizmaster.

Thanks to all the new players joining us at the live quizzes and to all the patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. We have over 60 Patreon members now, including the new paid subscriber Meebles! Thanks especially to new subscribers Bill and Diane, Tamara, Megan, Michael, Janet, Jasmine, Joey, Carly, The X-Ennial Falcons, and The Nevergiveruppers! Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. Maybe next week it will be you! I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, Still Here for the Shakesbeer, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the conversationally entertaining dinner companions and bakers of marvelous and healthy treats, The Mavens, whose players or substitutes keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules and the cost of avocado. Thanks in particular to Ellen and to my paid subscribers on Substack. Thanks to everyone who supports the Pub Quiz on Patreon. I would love to add your name or that of your team to the list of pub quiz boosters. I appreciate your backing this pub quiz project of mine! 

Best,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Three “original names” questions from last week:

18.          The city once known as Byzantium and later Constantinople is now called what?  

19.          What actor who was Oscar-nominated for Bugsy (1990), Sexy Beast (2000), and House of Sand and Fog (2003) was born in 1941 with the name Krishna Pandit Bhanji?  

20.          What breakfast cereal was originally named “Sugar Smacks”?  

P.P.S. “In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” – John Muir

Favorable circumstances can make any day of the week feel like a Friday.

For instance, a week ago Tuesday one of my heroes, David Page, visited me in Davis for the first time in 25 years, and our long conversation brought me back to similar exuberant and carefree conversations that we had as high school students in Washington, D.C. in the 1980s. All of us were less beset and distracted back then, so we could focus on the friendships that meant everything to us.

Even in high school, Dave was working as an emergency medical technician and paramedic, a path he continued while studying at Brandeis University (where I visited him and met his college cohort) and later at Macalester College, where he met his wife Liz and near which the Pages and their three sons live today.

Today Dave is the Director of the Prehospital Care Research Forum at the UCLA Center for Prehospital Care as well as the Chair of the International Paramedic Registry. He expressed enthusiasm about a program he created that sends him to different locales in California where he teaches local instructors how to recruit EMT trainees from historically underserved and under-represented populations, including former foster children. A Trendsetter, Dave Page has likely saved more lives than anyone else I know.

Dave and I resolved to put on a mini-reunion for the other Trendsetters from our high school. Every time I see such friends, I am reminded what Cicero said: “Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.”

And then this past Monday my son Truman flew into Sacramento Airport. To arrive at the Ithaca Airport by 4 AM, he set his alarm at about 11:30 PM Sunday night, California time. He was bumped to first class for one of his three flights that day, and then by Monday night he was dining outdoors with us at one of our favorite downtown Mexican restaurants, telling us hilarious stories about his classes, his peers, and the Ithaca College graduation ceremony that he attended as an event manager. Disney CEO Bob Iger was the keynote speaker, and special guest David Muir, the anchor of ABC World News Tonight, also an Ithaca College graduate, surprised everyone by showing up to introduce his boss and mentor.

Truman was full of energy at dinner. Young people seemingly need far less sleep than the rest of us. In preparation for a radio interview, today I was messaging with Kevin Smokler, author of Break The Frame: Conversations with Women Filmmakers. Kevin tells me that he is an early riser and that he has dinner early, enjoying those early bird specials. No wonder he is such a productive “Hustler of Culture.”

Walking to that Monday dinner with Truman, Geneva, and my wife Kate, Jukie and I ran into our favorite Crepeville employee, Courtney, whom we have known for more than a decade. After catching up a bit, I told her that we had to press on to participate in the family reunion downtown.

Then I yelled this to Courtney: “Enjoy your weekend!” She laughed and told me she would try. I guess every Monday feels like the weekend when you spend it with the friends and family you love.

---

The weather tonight will be warm for May, so I invite you to join me outside at Sudwerk tonight, perhaps in the shade. On such days, I especially love hosting an outdoor Pub Quiz at sunset. Others feel the same way, for we had almost 40 teams compete last week. I plan to move the quiz along quickly, likely possible because the quiz is 873 words long, if you include the answers. 

In addition to topics raised above and below, expect questions tonight on the following: low incomes, Santa competitors, the letter I, cities in England, adventure boys, Eastern Europe, notable smiles, regrettable bruising, separatists,  UCLA accomplishments, mispronunciations for beautiful, unlikely winners, new names, California housing markets, jazz singers, stolen words, entomologists, expelled cities, seriousness, hello Dwingers, The American Film Institute, challenging locations, neurologists, German dishes, notable gangsters, rising oceans, ambitious mayors, former rulers, tabletop games, visor demands, percussion instruments, U.S. cities, geography, current events, and Shakespeare.

For more Pub Quiz fun, please subscribe via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/yourquizmaster.

Thanks to all the new players joining us at the live quizzes and to all the patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. We have over 60 Patreon members now! Thanks especially to new subscribers Bill and Diane, Tamara, Megan, Michael, Janet, Jasmine, Joey, Carly, The X-Ennial Falcons, and The Nevergiveruppers! Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. Maybe next week it will be you! I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, Still Here for the Shakesbeer, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the conversationally entertaining dinner companions and bakers of marvelous and healthy treats, The Mavens, whose players or substitutes keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules and the cost of avocado. Thanks in particular to Ellen and to my paid subscribers on Substack. Thanks to everyone who supports the Pub Quiz on Patreon. I would love to add your name or that of your team to the list of pub quiz boosters. I appreciate your backing this pub quiz project of mine! 

Best,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Three duo questions from last week:

16.          Who was the American member of the comedy duo Laurel or Hardy?  

17.          Ike and Tina Turner were both born in America, but Tina Turner later became a citizen of what country?  

18.          Who moved to Brooklyn at age nine: Shakira or her musical partner, Wyclef Jean?  

P.P.S. “I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.” Vincent van Gogh 

P.P.S. Our next Poetry Night on May 1 will feature Oswaldo Vargas and Patrick Grizzle, President of the Sacramento Poetry Center! Oswaldo was proposed by one of our Pub Quiz regulars! Plan to join us at the Natsoulas Gallery! 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Do retired people miss the meetings, waiting for their phones to chime a reminder to sit down to Zoom?

Tonight at 7 I host a pub quiz at Sudwerk. It will be my ninth meeting / obligation of the day.

Once at the 20^th anniversary celebration of the UC Davis journal on writing and the teaching of writing, titled Writing on the Edge, Chancellor Vanderhoef biked over to join us for the outdoor ceremony. He wasn’t obligated or even formally invited, but he wanted to show his support, standing in the back, his trouser-protecting bike clips in hand.

He joined us for only about half an hour, but everyone there remembers his consideration. Aesop reminds us that “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”

As I write this from an Elk Grove office building, two women about 30 feet from me have taken a break from their laughing to harmonize with a Reggae song on the loudspeakers. Like an act of kindness, singing out loud can be its own reward.

As has been pointed out to me, kindness is always invited, but that’s not always the case with singing.

When I have no time to write a newsletter, I look to a recent poem and quote it the way that columnist Bob Dunning quotes emails from his readers.

For instance, as you can see from what follows, every poem I write about my Kate, the super-mom to our three children, becomes a love poem, even if its prompting occasion was our most recent holiday, Mother’s Day. 

Let the Sun Rise on Us

A swatch of auburn rises,

visible even though the curtain’s drawn,

my eyes adjusted to the night,

but never may they adjust to this.

Let the sun rise on us.

How she pauses and stretches,

framed like a canvas in the doorway,

tall and drowsy, a whisper of fabric

moving as she moves, unhurried.

Let the sun rise on us.

See her big eyes, wide and wise,

still glinting from the night’s stars,

catch my glance in the morning hush,

her half-smile blooming like a secret.

Let the sun rise on us.

A horizontal lump, small as a shadow, 

the French bulldog snores

softly before the dawn, dreaming

of even more sleep against her side.

Let the sun rise on us.

I reach for her long frame,

but a finger to her lips casts a spell,

keeps me rooted under the covers

that, even in sleep, she is readjusting.

Let the sun rise on us.

We share the same dreams 

through the long hours of silence,

our synchronous breaths whispering

that love is made of listening.

Let the sun rise on us.

I wish for this simple night,

the best of all nights,

to linger in our earned stillness,

but still,

let the sun rise on us.

Happy belated Mother’s Day to all the mom readers of this newsletter, including Terry, Pat, Heghnar, Kris, Elaine, Kerry, Kate, Caitlin, Myra, Myrna, Peggy, Ellen, Leah, Diane, Angie, Carrie, Kathy, Niki, Kari, Lois, Sherri, Lisa, Yvonne, Lynne, Christine, Brook, Meagan, Donna, Michelle, Janet, Julie, Kim, Jennifer, Bridget, Amy, Ellen, Gena, and Kathy. Forgive me if I left off the names of any moms who regularly read this newsletter!

---

The weather will be pleasant this evening, but not as warm as it has been, so I invite you to join me outside at Sudwerk tonight, perhaps in layers. On such days, I especially love hosting an outdoor Pub Quiz at sunset. Others feel the same way, for we had almost 40 teams compete last week. I plan to move the quiz along quickly, likely possible because the quiz is 835 words long, if you exclude the answers. 

In addition to topics raised above and below, expect questions tonight on the following: TV networks, names that start with N and J, pianists, record companies, historians, the journal Nature, expensive robots, notable hotels, Spanish artists, elimination games, Jon Stewart, duos, Harlem, relevant dots, Chinese innovations, trickery, birds, bands, televised football, jests, presidents, skeletons, populous cities, people who were born in 1994, the costs of plus, suits, paraders, fans of metal, bluebooks, libraries, foxes, South Korea, U.S. cities, geography, current events, and Shakespeare.

For more Pub Quiz fun, please subscribe via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/yourquizmaster.

Thanks to all the new players joining us at the live quizzes and to all the patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. We have over 60 Patreon members now! Thanks especially to new subscribers Bill and Diane, Tamara, Megan, Michael, Janet, Jasmine, Joey, Carly, The X-Ennial Falcons, and The Nevergiveruppers! Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. Maybe next week it will be you! I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, Still Here for the Shakesbeer, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the conversationally entertaining dinner companions and bakers of marvelous and healthy treats, The Mavens, whose players or substitutes keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules and the cost of avocado. Thanks in particular to Ellen and to my paid subscribers on Substack. Thanks to everyone who supports the Pub Quiz on Patreon. I would love to add your name or that of your team to the list of pub quiz boosters. I appreciate your backing this pub quiz project of mine! 

Best,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Three crop questions from last week:

1.             Is the 2021-dollar value of all crops grown worldwide closest to $100 billion, $1 trillion, $10 trillion, or $100 trillion? 

2.             Compared to wheat, is sorghum typically higher or lower in protein content?  

3.             What G word do we use for the sort of gardening that involves raising food, plants, or flowers on land that the gardeners do not have the legal rights to cultivate?  

P.P.S. Poetry Night on May 15 features Mary Mackey! Join us on the Natsoulas Gallery roof at 7 PM.

P.P.P.S. Find bonus hints hidden in this odd and experimental poem.

Transitions

Does any poet moving to Brooklyn at age nine

See the slumping and porous skeleton 

of a refugee in his every rhyme? 

Something waits in white silence,

The vanishing point of the slow march.

Scars mark the remembered wound.

Ask the wincing tailored Vaudeville son 

of the broken Confederate hero 

If Harlem is more than a state of mind.

A fruitless bird scratches in the desert sand,

Inches above a pyramid’s buried apex,

Its hieroglyphics still undecoded,

The last sandblown workers having long 

ago dotted one by last one across the desolation

like darkling beetles carving erasable sand angels.

Our overstuffed carry-ons packed,

Surrounded by clearcuts, we’ve forgotten the old games: 

A pox, a needle, a memory.

Everyone eyes the door.

According to family lore, my great Aunt Lilah used to sell pianos from the back of a horse-drawn wagon in Snyder County, Pennsylvania. She didn’t own the horses, the wagon, or the pianos. Instead, she had this job because of her prowess on the piano, something I saw in action at my childhood home in the 1970s and 1980s.

One strategy of any piano salesperson is to guess her potential customer’s age, do some math, and then play a song that was a hit the year the customer graduated from high school. The listener would be filled with such nostalgia and affection for the song that he might want to buy the piano right then, if only more easily to revisit that era when he was young, hopeful, and surrounded by friends who shared his musical tastes.

You might take a few minutes to review Wikipedia for the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of the relevant year to you. Having just looked over the top singles of 1983, for example, I now gratefully have David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” stuck in my head. Later I plan to listen to “Back on the Chain Gang” by The Pretenders.

Some of my wealthier friends from high school spent a lot of time and a lot of their parents’ money at concerts watching their favorite artists performing their top radio hits live. They had gripping stories to tell – about the majesty of arenas, about the impressive choreography. By contrast, I would see musical performances at small venues such as The 9:30 Club (because the drinking age in Washington, D.C. was 18 when I turned 18, which meant that I could start enjoying live music in clubs, even though I didn’t drink alcohol back then). That’s where I learned “What is Hip?” from Tower of Power.

In the summer of 1986, a bunch of my best friends and I saw Bob Dylan perform with The Grateful Dead and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, a memorable show. And to think that we thought Bob Dylan was old back then! My good friend Bob the Deadhead joined me for that show, so I got to learn the cultural and historical context of each song.

Because I was so enjoying the company of my fellow music-lovers, even though she was sitting in our nosebleed section of RFK Stadium, I did not approach my friend Margaret whom I had worked with three years previously at the Tenley Circle Movie Theatre. I figure I would have other opportunities to catch up. That was almost 40 years ago, and I haven’t seen Margaret since. Such fleeting moments flicker by us, sometimes sticking with us, and sometimes immediately freeing themselves of any future importance.

Fast forward to Davis, California, and this past Friday night I enjoyed a backyard concert by my favorite local musical duo, Misner and Smith. We had so enjoyed a similar concert about three years ago, but this time the songs were more artful, more tightly orchestrated, and with even more haunting and resonant melodies. The Davis musicians – Sam Misner on guitar and Megan Smith on stand-up bass – shared some favorites from their previous backyard performance, some songs from their new album, titled All is Song, and some recognizable covers, such as “America” by Simon and Garfunkel, a song that opens with the itinerant absurdist lyrics: “Let us be lovers, we’ll marry our fortunes together / I’ve got some real estate here in my bag.”

As someone who has hosted almost 500 poetry readings, I especially appreciated the original tunes. Songs such as “Sadie’s Song,” “Anthem,” and “Silence of the Sun” featured simultaneously precise and complex melodies as well as lyrics that alluded to or echoed some of my favorite poets, such as Dylan Thomas. What’s more, the sound quality was perfect, almost studio quality. We are lucky to have such soulful consummate professional musicians in our hometown. 

Although I heard no covers of my favorite songs from the early 1980s, I felt like I was haunted by the salesman spirit of my Great Aunt Lilah. Rather than a piano, I immediately wanted to buy a guitar and start learning a few tunes. I felt joyful and grateful to have been present for such a performance.

Although Plato wanted to bar poets from his ideal republic, I do agree with him regarding the power of live music: “Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the Universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything. It is the essence of order, and leads to all that is good and just and beautiful.”

---

The weather will be pleasant this evening, but not as warm as it has been, so I invite you to join me outside at Sudwerk tonight, perhaps in layers. On such days, I especially love hosting an outdoor Pub Quiz at sunset. Others feel the same way, for we had almost 40 teams compete last week. I plan to move the quiz along quickly, even though the quiz is 886 words long, if you exclude the answers. 

In addition to topics raised above, expect questions tonight on the following: macros, sweetness, the American spelling of omelet, sketches, frogs, grasshoppers, English aristocrats, gulfs, video games, animated films, prisons, brine, expectations, carpenters, eight decades of TV, mountains, grunge rockers, bonanzas, unaided eyes, large animal selections, pianos, sad sacks, torque, actors n their 80s,  agreements, reactions, cultivars, crops, the letters DBMCSLFS, burgers, cosmetics, subscribers, dragnets, websites, New York City, witty feuds, famous thieves, mononyms, wheels, Germans, Scots, Joan of Arc, U.S. states, geography, current events, and Shakespeare.

For more Pub Quiz fun, please subscribe via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/yourquizmaster.

Thanks to all the new players joining us at the live quizzes and to all the patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. We have over 60 Patreon members now! Thanks especially to new subscribers Bill and Diane, Tamara, Megan, Michael, Janet, Jasmine, Joey, Carly, The X-Ennial Falcons, and The Nevergiveruppers! Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. Maybe next week it will be you! I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, Still Here for the Shakesbeer, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the conversationally entertaining dinner companions and bakers of marvelous and healthy treats, The Mavens, whose players or substitutes keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules and the cost of avocado. Thanks in particular to Ellen and to my paid subscribers on Substack. Thanks to everyone who supports the Pub Quiz on Patreon. I would love to add your name or that of your team to the list of pub quiz boosters. I appreciate your backing this pub quiz project of mine! 

Best,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Three lamb questions from last week:

1. Did God instruct the Israelites to sacrifice a spotless lamb and mark their doorposts with its blood? 

2.             When people eat young sheep meat, the meat is called lamb. What is old sheep meat called?  

3.             The 1915 film The Lamb marked the screen debut of which actor, later called “The King of Hollywood,” who also co-founded United Artists with Charlie Chaplin and others and first played the vigilante Zorro?  

Photo of Joshua Clover by Elise Kane

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Joshua Clover was especially good at the Pub Quiz. Back when the English Department professor was living in Davis, he would sometimes come to Bistro 33 to write while sitting at the bar.

Amused (and perhaps a little perplexed) to see one of his Voorhies Hall colleagues hosting a pub quiz for a crowd of maybe 40, the first time Joshua “participated” in the quiz he tried to catch my eye after every question, primarily to roll his eyes at me over how unbearably easy all my questions were. 

Widely and deeply read, Joshua knew pop culture from his many years as a music writer for Spin Magazine, as well as the whole of world literature, current events, and the history of social and economic theory.

The next time I found Joshua at the bar late on a Monday evening (back then we started the PQ at 9 pm, if you can believe that), I insisted on adding the progressive firebrand to a team. And thereafter, any team he played on won the quiz, even back when a team called, coincidentally, “The Ice Cream Socialists” dominated the competition. 

---

Soon after he was hired, I visited Joshua’s office to welcome him and to talk about poetry. We were both studying at Boston University at the same time, him as an MFA student and I as an undergrad. I studied primarily with our more traditional professors, such as Sir Christopher Ricks, William Arrowsmith, and Roger Shattuck, while Joshua stuck close to the playful formalist George Starbuck.

Our most memorable shared professor at BU was Carolyn Williams, who had taught me a 20^th century fiction and non-fiction class that had introduced me to J.D. Salinger (especially “For Esme, with Love and Squalor”), Maxine Hong Kingston (whom I later met on several occasions in California) and Zora Neale Hurston (whom I later taught).

As I was listing influential professors and came to the name Carolyn Williams, Joshua stopped me. Professor Williams had also had a transformational and inspiring effect on Joshua’s work as a poet and scholar. We all can recall teachers who have benefitted us significantly, and Joshua got a kick out of the fact that he and I could both point to the same scholar who helped to shape our lives and inspire our careers.

---

Joshua got a kick out of every audience who attended one of his book talks or readings. I just checked Amazon to confirm the date of his event for his second book, The Totality for Kids, and I was reminded that “You purchased this edition on April 8, 2006,” two days before the book was released on April 10. He was so amused by his own allusions during his reading on the fourth floor of Hart Hall at UC Davis that he couldn’t help but laugh in places, so we laughed with him. His poems were a torrent of cleverness.

My mom visited Davis at the time of a Joshua reading, so we went. About halfway through the event, she volunteered that “I can’t tell when your poems start or end!” As I cringed down into my seat, Joshua responded with something like, “Mission Accomplished.” And then he and my mom shared a laugh.

I got to attend his book talks in 2004 for his book on The Matrix, in 2009 for his (non-fiction) book titled 1989: Bob Dylan Didn’t Have This to Sing About, and in 2016 for his book Riot. Strike. Riot: The New Era of Uprisings. I got to host him for readings at Bistro 33 and, in 2015, for the release of his poetry book Red Epic. A hero to students because of his activism, Joshua always drew a crowd.

---

After the death of Joshua Clover this past Saturday, April 26^th at the age of 62, his friends and former students shared their love and appreciation.

Megan Kaminski, a poet I had known as she was earning her MFA at UC Davis, wrote this: “Deeply sad to hear of Joshua’s untimely death. He was my grad advisor at UC Davis and became a friend. I am forever grateful for what he taught me about being a poet through his example: an expansive and fierce intellectual curiosity inextricably devoted to creating real change in the world. Lots of memories over the 20 years that I’ve known him, sharing this one from a reading we gave together at KU when I was a new Assistant Professor. RIP, Joshua.”

Another poet I knew at UC Davis, Wendy Trevino, wrote this:

“Joshua Clover was one of the – if not *the* – most important mentors I’ve ever had. He was also a comrade & loyal friend. I’ve learned so much from & with him over the years, I don’t even know where to start. But this part of an email he sent me shortly after my first arrest (which he was there for) – I think about it a lot – more than anything b/c there is something really beautiful about it:

‘If we are reaching into history, I am still very fond of the very simple formula, ‘the truth is the whole.’ That’s Hegel. Of course, I never will know the whole (which I admit makes me sad; that sadness is my hubris), but it remains very uncertain that because the whole is unknowable, one shouldn’t try. ‘The whole’ is a kind of horizon, or limit. I am not so into giving up in the face of its great distance from us. I swim in that direction.’”

Someone posting under the name “Snax” wrote this on X: “[Joshua Clover’s] ideas have had a more powerful influence on me & the people closest to me than maybe anyone. He was a towering political & intellectual force. But he never stood above any of us; he stood alongside us & allowed himself to be transformed by struggle, with us. A true comrade.”

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I’ve seen Joshua outside cafes in downtown Davis in recent years, often deep in conversation, such as with Kim Stanley Robinson. Even when engaged with others, he always made a point to acknowledge me as he saw me walking somewhere with Jukie, sharing a wave and the wry smile that he was known for. I will always think of that smile as I fondly remember our friendship. Whether in a poetry reading or at a pub quiz, Joshua displayed the same brilliance, mischief, and moral clarity. I admire Joshua Clover’s work as a poet and scholar, and I honor his fierce advocacy for the intellectual, political, and economic lives and rights of our students.

---

The weather will be pleasant this evening, but not to warm, so I invite you to join me outside at Sudwerk tonight. On such days, I especially love hosting an outdoor Pub Quiz at sunset. Others feel the same way, for we had almost 50 teams compete last week. I plan to move the quiz along quickly, even though the quiz is 874 words long, if you exclude the answers. 

In addition to topics raised above, expect questions tonight on the following: lambs, The San Diego Zoo, global trade turmoil, sabreteeth, superhero origins, ribbons, Olympians, album covers, famous generals, wooing in April, French cooking, disputed territories, frightening names, winds, unpleasantness, composers, more common words, baseball teams, musical hedonism, friends, rebellions, railroads, rare earth metals, radicals, wide receivers, California Kings, carnivore preferences, sacrifices, the absence of city dusts, U.S. states, geography, current events, and Shakespeare.

For more Pub Quiz fun, please subscribe via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/yourquizmaster.

Thanks to all the new players joining us at the live quizzes and to all the patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. We have over 60 Patreon members now! Thanks especially to new subscribers Bill and Diane, Tamara, Megan, Michael, Janet, Jasmine, Joey, Carly, The X-Ennial Falcons, and The Nevergiveruppers! Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. Maybe next week it will be you! I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, Still Here for the Shakesbeer, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the conversationally entertaining dinner companions and bakers of marvelous and healthy treats, The Mavens, whose players or substitutes keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules and the cost of avocado. Thanks in particular to Ellen and to my paid subscribers on Substack. Thanks to everyone who supports the Pub Quiz on Patreon. I would love to add your name or that of your team to the list of pub quiz boosters. I appreciate your backing this pub quiz project of mine! 

Best,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Three Wildcat questions from last week:

1.             The DC Comics superhero known as Wildcat was a long-time member of the JSA. What does JSA stand for?   

2.             The Grumman F4F Wildcat was an American Navy fighter plane that was used primarily during what war?  

3.             What Bob Dylan song, which was an even bigger hit for Jimi Hendrix, concludes with these lines: “Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl / Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl”?  

P.P.S. Our next Poetry Night on May 1 at 7 PM will feature Oswaldo Vargas and Patrick Grizzle, President of the Sacramento Poetry Center! Oswaldo was proposed by one of our Pub Quiz regulars! Plan to join us on the roof (dress warmly) of the Natsoulas Gallery! 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Our memories are fallible. We regret the gradual loss of life’s treasured details, even if we have the wisdom to see that nudging towards the present rather than the past as a kind of unburdening.

Upon returning from my coast-to-coast Kerouacian cross-country car trip from Washington, D.C. to Berkeley, California, I could recite to anyone who didn’t stop me what states and sites we saw on each day of our adventure. This was true, but with less detail, a year after our trip. And then two years after our trip – and mind you, I was still a nimble-brained undergraduate at the time – I realized that I was forgetting key elements of our trip, so I recorded each stage of our odyssey in a hardback journal. 

I have forgotten what happened to that journal.

Doing some work in my campus office in January, I came across a notebook where I kept all my notes from an anthropology class. The class notebook was also filled with genial messages passed back and forth with a classmate. As the end of the spring semester was approaching, I asked her for her address so I could send her a postcard over the summer, so she wrote her name and address. With her first and last name recorded, my 2025 self could look her up.

The obituary revealed that she had passed away from cancer about five years ago—decades sooner than anyone might have expected. She was survived by her parents, her husband, and two children. I thought about writing to her husband, but I realized how little I remembered about his wife. Aside from the affection in our notes, I can’t recall much—not even whether I sent that promised postcard.

After my mom passed away this past September, my wife Kate put together a beautiful short film made up of “live” photos (Apple’s term for three-second snippets of video) that she had taken of one of our previous visits with mom. You could see mom smiling and laughing with her grandkids, offering evidence of her love and humor. I miss such moments with my mom, so I treasure the snippets of video.

My late father was the most filmed person I knew personally. As a film and theatre critic on Washington, D.C.’s CBS affiliate, he appeared on television just before Walter Cronkite—so often that my friends and strangers alike recognized him on the street. Nearly 38 years after his last broadcast, we have almost no surviving footage. In the 1990s, when those appearances were still fresh in our memories, we didn’t notice the loss. Now, I wish I could show my kids their “Grand-Davey” in his prime.

We have posted many digital memories online. Though I don’t get on Facebook to post so much these days, I am touched by the long-ago pictures and video of our kids that I encounter there sometimes.

Determined to preserve new memories—especially with summer adventures ahead—today I bought myself a DJI Osmo Pocket 3. This compact camcorder, with a built-in gimbal and self-facing camera, is popular with vloggers for its smooth footage and portability.

The Buddha teaches us that “All conditioned things are impermanent,” and who could argue. That said, I have some capturing and, eventually, some sharing to do. We will see how the output of my new toy will inform my fleeting future memories, or those others who might also seek to remember.

---

Speaking of memories, this week’s newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Bill Roe, an unparallelled champion of Davis civic life and the arts in Davis, and a friend to many, including myself. May his memory be a blessing to all who knew him.

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The weather will be pleasant this evening, but not too warm, so I invite you to join me outside at Sudwerk tonight. On such days, I bring layers and especially love hosting an outdoor Pub Quiz at sunset. I plan to move the quiz along quickly, even though the quiz is 965 words long, if you exclude the answers. 

In addition to topics raised above, expect questions tonight on the following: college basketball, park districts, South Americans, the circus, Nobel Laureates, pursuits, homebodies, countries in Europe, archbishops, chocolate, howling winds, planes, superheroes, favorite reptiles, continents, slams, Bay Area sites, Spotify, Emmy history, young men, floods, rushes of events, iterations of mathematics, masters of public health, disappointing numbers, estuaries, rabbits, morning stars, military hierarchies, U.S. states, geography, current events, and Shakespeare.

For more Pub Quiz fun, please subscribe via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/yourquizmaster.

Thanks to all the new players joining us at the live quizzes and to all the patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. We have over 60 Patreon members now! Thanks especially to new subscribers Bill and Diane, Tamara, Megan, Michael, Janet, Jasmine, Joey, Carly, The X-Ennial Falcons, and The Nevergiveruppers! Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. Maybe next week it will be you! I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, Still Here for the Shakesbeer, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the conversationally entertaining dinner companions and bakers of marvelous and healthy treats, The Mavens, whose players or substitutes keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules and the cost of avocado. Thanks in particular to Ellen and to my paid subscribers on Substack. Thanks to everyone who supports the Pub Quiz on Patreon. I would love to add your name or that of your team to the list of pub quiz boosters. I appreciate your backing this pub quiz project of mine! 

Best,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Three questions from last week:

1.             Mottos and Slogans. What used clothing and gifts store calls itself “The Happiest Store in Davis”?  

2.             Internet Culture. Both the most and second-most popular AI apps start with the letter C. Chat GPT is the first. What is the second? Hint: It’s not Copilot or Claude.  

3.             Newspaper Headlines. The number of U.S. measles cases recently topped 700, with more than 540 of those cases in what U.S. state?  

P.P.S. Our next Poetry Night on May 1 will feature Oswaldo Vargas and Patrick Grizzell, President of the Sacramento Poetry Center! Plan to join us at the Natsoulas Gallery! 

Dear Friends,

I am grateful to Bill Buchanan, host of the KDRT radio show and podcast, Davisville. In our fractured media landscape, we need shows like Buchanan’s to inform local listeners about their community and, in doing so, help the population of Davis feel more inter-connected, whether to each other or to local civic leaders and thought leaders.

Recently I binge-listened to a number of Bill Buchanan interviews, including interviews with former Davis mayor Brett Lee, now President of Downtown Davis (also known as the Downtown Davis Business Association), and with Bob Dunning and Wendy Weitzel, well-known Davis Enterprise columnists who left the newspaper to find financial success and a devoted following on Substack.

I was lucky to know Bill when he was head of communications for Information and Educational Technology. In fact, about 15 years ago I served on his hiring committee. I’ve joined him for many meetings and conversations, both in person before the pandemic and then via Zoom after March of 2020. A couple years ago, we also served in the same jury pool, taking time to catch up over lunch at a Woodland Indian restaurant. 

During jury selection, Bill was reading a Robert A. Caro Lyndon Johnson biography, indicative of the same abiding curiosity that informs the thoughtful questions he asks guests on his radio show (and that he has asked me during my Davisville appearances). One of the best parts of being an (paid or unpaid) journalist is that you have license to reach out to people, schedule a conversation, and then satisfy your curiosity through the asking of insistent questions.

One regrettable result of the fracturing of the media landscape, with so many of us gathering information about the topics that affect our lives from disparate (and sometimes distant) sources is that we have fewer shared experiences. I myself have been stepping back from political news over the last few months, a result from my feeling alienated from my country and the (mostly) men who run it, but I still know what’s going on. By contrast, I know some people who stay so uninformed that my every attempted conversation with them makes me feel like an mansplainer who must offer primers on the world in which we live just to have shared topics to discuss.

I hope that this widespread feeling of disconnect from national news topics would at least lead us to care deeply about our own local communities, communities that might benefit from our efforts to lead and contribute, or, in my case, distract us with a pub quiz, a poetry reading, or a local radio show. In such an environment, we (should) depend all the more on radio shows like Davisville, shrinking newspapers like The Davis Enterprise (where I have a small weekly column), and new initiatives like Wendy Weitzel’s Substack newsletter “Comings and Goings,” to which I am a paid subscriber. As playwright Arthur Miller said, “A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.”

If you would like to support one of my efforts to contribute to the community, I invite you to make a tax-deductible donation to KDVS during its yearly April fundraiser, happening this week. My radio show, Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour, airs every Wednesday at 5 PM, and this week during that hour my impressive producer Dyson and I will attempt to raise $500 for the station. With your help, we might reach our goal! 

Thanks for considering this request and for supporting local media and local reporters.

---

The weather will be pleasant this evening, but not to warm, so I invite you to join me outside at Sudwerk tonight. On such days, I especially love hosting an outdoor Pub Quiz at sunset. Others feel the same way, for we had almost 50 teams compete last week. I plan to move the quiz along quickly, even though the quiz is 874 words long, if you exclude the answers. 

In addition to topics raised above, expect questions tonight on the following topics: artificial intelligence, man-made objects, hairspray, famous kings, infinite monkeys writing, neighbors, princes, birds, happy places, international game fish, old groups, federal funding, favorite poets, exhaust gasses, doves, world capitals, autobiographies, thin people, gifting, millionaires and billionaires, female athletes, spices, factories, booms, beats, new world leaders, philosophical happiness, Pixar films, lakes, memorable dahlias, infections, U.S. states geography, current events, and Shakespeare.

For more Pub Quiz fun, please subscribe via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/yourquizmaster.

Thanks to all the new players joining us at the live quizzes and to all the patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. We have over 60 members now! Thanks especially to new subscribers Bill and Diane, Tamara, Megan, Michael, Janet, Jasmine, Joey, Carly, The X-Ennial Falcons, and The Nevergiveruppers! Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. Maybe next week it will be you! I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, Still Here for the Shakesbeer, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the conversationally entertaining dinner companions and bakers of marvelous and healthy treats, The Mavens, whose players or substitutes keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules and the cost of avocado. Thanks in particular to Ellen and to my paid subscribers on Substack. Thanks to everyone who supports the Pub Quiz on Patreon. I would love to add your name or that of your team to the list of pub quiz boosters. I appreciate your backing this pub quiz project of mine! 

Best,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Three questions from last week:

26.          Science. Keratitis in inflammation of what crucial part of the human body that starts with the letter C?  

27.          Books and Authors. Ernest Hemingway’s first (and some say his greatest) novel has been in print since its publication in 1926. Name the novel.  

28.          Current Events – Names in the News. Joko Widodo’s name is not in the news, but it does deserve a place in the pub quiz. From 2014-2024, he was the 7th president of what country found in Southeast Asia and Oceania?  

P.P.S. Our next Poetry Night on April 17 will feature fan favorite Julia Levine! Plan to join us at the Natsoulas Gallery! 

One of my favorite Boston University professors—and a British national treasure—is Sir Christopher Ricks. Though he graduated from Cambridge University, he now calls Cambridge, Massachusetts home. W.H. Auden once called Ricks “the kind of critic every poet dreams of finding,” and after four classes with him, I wholeheartedly agree.

In a T.S. Eliot seminar I took in 1988, Professor Ricks remarked, “I value cities according to the quality of their used bookstores.” That comment stuck with me. I had recently returned to Boston after a year in London, and I had also just read the epistolary novel 84 Charing Cross Road about an American author’s relationship with the staff at a famous bookstore. I was already primed to believe that a good bookstore could define a city.

Studying abroad in London, I spent countless hours in the antiquarian bookstores along Booksellers’ Row, especially the stretch of Charing Cross Road between Leicester Square and Tottenham Court Road. At Foyles—once the largest bookstore in the world—I read through the entire Collected Letters of Dylan Thomas over a matter of weeks. I recall that most of those letters involved him asking friends or literary celebrities for money.

As much as I loved London booksellers, I have spent much more of my youthful years in American bookstores, especially these five:

1. Olsson’s Books and Records at 1239 Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown. Because my mom was a librarian, most of the books I read as a child belonged to the D.C. Public Library system, but when I spent my allowance on books, it would be at Olsson’s, a long nearly 5000 square foot haven for books that was always a stop on any trip to Georgetown (about a 30 minute walk from my childhood home). Later I bought my first 45 RPM records there, including “Lay Down Sally” by Eric Clapton and “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas.
2. Second Story Books at 2000 P Street (Dupont Circle) in Washington DC. In high school, I caught the D2 bus to return to Glover Park from Dupont Circle where The Field School was back then. Sometimes I would miss my bus because of all the time I spent at Second Story Books which sold exclusively used books, including the hundreds of science fiction novels that I bought in the early 1980s. Sometimes I would encounter a favorite writing professor Marcia Clemmitt here. I was pleased to discover today that this bookstore (unlike most of the ones on this list) is still in business!
3. Crown Books (3040 M Street) in Georgetown. I worked at this bookstore (selling new and discounted books) during the summer before college, gaining an understanding of the book industry from the point of view of a salesman who had to find, categorize, and answer questions about books. I enjoyed making friends there with the sort of people (smokers and parolees) that I typically avoided in high school. I think these folks influenced my behavior, for during my break from work I would usually jog across the street to our favorite pizza and gyro place, once receiving two jaywalking tickets in quick succession (one there, and one back) from the same female police officer who told me, the second time, “we have to stop meeting like this.”
4. The Harvard Bookstore (1256 Massachusetts Avenue) in Cambridge, across the street from Harvard University. As I did in DC and London, I spent much of my available time and pocket money at favorite bookstores, especially this one. The poetry books were in the basement, and I was so familiar with the shelves that on the weekends I could usually identify books that had arrived during the previous week. 
   
   I continue to be grateful to Frederick Danker who sold SO many poetry books back to the Harvard Bookstore and which are now found in my collections, still stamped with “From the Library of Fred Danker.” I learned today that Danker was an English professor at U. Mass Boston.
5. Black Oak Books (1491 Shattuck Avenue) in Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto neighborhood. When I moved to California in 1989, I landed in a basement apartment in a beautiful home on San Mateo Road, just a few doors down from the famous Indian Rock, just a 20-minute walk from our local bookstore, Black Oak Books. 
   
   Around the bookstore, one saw large photographs of the giants of 20^th century literature who gave readings at Black Oak, including Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie, Alice Walker, Gore Vidal, Isabel Allende, Carlos Fuentes, Czesław Miłosz, Edna O’Brien, Edward Said, Tom Wolfe, Barry Lopez, Robert Pinsky (a former professor of mine), and Alice Waters. During the year that I lived in Berkeley, I saw Milosz, Anne Lamott, Maxine Hong Kingston, T.C. Boyle and Julian Barnes.
   
   Inspired by this Black Oak reading series, I resolved to create my own poetry series after I graduate school, something I did starting in 2006 and which continues now as the Poetry Night Reading Series at the John Natsoulas Gallery in Davis.

These were my youthful favorites, meaning that I am excluding bookstores that I would haunt in Sacramento, San Francisco, and Davis, especially Bogey’s and The Avid Reader.

I remember feeling jealous when a friend told me about encountering John Updike in a Boylston Street (Boston) bookstore. I’m so grateful for the many meccas of book culture where I spent so much of my time as a student, as well as of the books of John Updike, who once said that “Bookstores are lonely forts, spilling light onto the sidewalk. They civilize their neighborhoods.” 

I am curious to know if you have any bookstore stories. Please share!

—

The weather will be especially pleasant this evening, so I invite you to join me outside at Sudwerk tonight. On such days, I especially love hosting an outdoor Pub Quiz at sunset. I plan to move the quiz along quickly, even though the quiz is 927 words long, if you exclude the answers. 

In addition to topics raised above, expect questions tonight on the following topics: Oceania, greatest novels, genres of music, funny names, really awake people, hot tubs, televised bands, harsh sounds, U.S. presidents, leaders of troops, franchises, international visitors, believers,  eternal lines, people named Kate, inflammation, bad dad jokes, Easter colors, Sacramento area retailers, hungry characters, surgical procedures, ESPN research, teams whose names start with the letter C, dukes, Hawaii, beer gardens, electric cars, halls of fame, chips, shoes, geography, current events, and Shakespeare.

For more Pub Quiz fun, please subscribe via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/yourquizmaster.

Thanks to all the new players joining us at the live quizzes and to all the patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. We have over 60 members now! Thanks especially to new subscribers Bill and Diane, Tamara, Megan, Michael, Janet, Jasmine, Joey, Carly, The X-Ennial Falcons, and The Nevergiveruppers! Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. Maybe next week it will be you! I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, Still Here for the Shakesbeer, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the conversationally entertaining dinner companions and bakers of marvelous and healthy treats, The Mavens, whose players or substitutes keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules and the cost of avocado. Thanks in particular to Ellen and to my paid subscribers on Substack. Thanks to everyone who supports the Pub Quiz on Patreon. I would love to add your name or that of your team to the list of pub quiz boosters. I appreciate your backing this pub quiz project of mine! 

Best,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Three questions from last week:

1. Canada. The easternmost province joined the confederation of Canada in 1949. Name it.  

2. Science. Starting with the letter E, what do we call animals that can maintain their internal body temperature regardless of the environmental temperature?  

3. Books and Authors. Which poet teaches us that “April is the cruelest month”?  

P.P.S. Our next Poetry Night on April 17 will feature fan favorite Julia Levine! Plan to join us at the Natsoulas Gallery!

Challenging Defeatism in the Parking Lot and Online

Dear Friends,

Davis is a beautiful city in a temperate part of the country, so I try to walk everywhere I go. I enjoy the time with my wordless walking buddy, with the forests and greenbelts of south Davis, and with books on tape that edify and delight me. The people my son Jukie and I encounter on our walks uniformly greet us with friendly smiles. 

Sometimes we end up in downtown Davis, stopping by the Davis Food Co-op or Upper Crust Bakery for a snack. The shoppers and especially the employees in these places are gracious and welcoming. Last week in the Co-op, a city leader saw that I was buying a mutual friend some necessities, and she quipped that “it takes a village” to extend the safety net to our fellow Davisites.

When I am driving, however, the other drivers in our village are not nearly as accommodating. Behind the wheel of a car, some of those kind people who might just have smiled while passing Jukie and me in the produce aisle will impatiently insist on exiting the parking lot before we do.

Somehow the time we spend behind the wheel can even change our personalities. As George Carlin says, “Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?”

Social media can have a similar effect on people online. Recently my wife Kate commented on an acquaintance’s Facebook post that, despite the lamentations she was reading there and elsewhere about America (this Facebook friend had moved out of the country), Kate was not ready to give in to cynicism or defeatism, no matter how dark things seem for civic discourse and democracy in the United States. Furthermore, Kate said, Most Americans care deeply and actually are paying attention to the recent Signal-Gate scandal, and that Americans are organizing and mobilizing, such as with the Hands Off! Sacramento Fights Back rally that happens this coming Saturday. Kate pointed out that at a time like this, cynicism and defeatism are unhelpful at best.

Like an otherwise kind supermarket shopper who had packed up her groceries and wanted to escape the parking lot, this friend did not take kindly to this differing perspective. Two friends meeting in person over crepes could have discussed their differences with patience and understanding, but this friend responded in ways that reflected the stress that we all feel.

To represent the Facebook wall exchange fairly, I would like to quote this friend’s response to Kate’s expressions of hope, resolve, and resistance, but I cannot, for the friend unfriended and blocked Kate, unfriended and blocked me, and then unsubscribed from my weekly newsletter on Substack. 

When I searched for this friend’s name on Facebook, I came across my own post from a few years ago when I thanked her and others for contributing to Jukie Jones Duren Endowment in support of the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation. This friend also bought a copy of my first pub quiz book – feeling like Santa’s elves, Jukie and I delivered it to her Davis home just before Christmas. Her past kindness and care for us has manifested in many ways.

Now, I can see why this friend would feel dispirited and despairing about America. Social services programs of all sorts have been cut, thus alarming and traumatizing rural communities, low-income families, and the disabled. Public health and environmental safety have been threatened by the current administration’s deregulatory approach to governing, leaving billionaires and corporations to elevate financial concerns above the common good. Implemented and announced cuts to funding for scientific research, to colleges and universities, to library grants, and to the arts foundations represent an attack on American strengths and values. We have rapidly lost the respect of our allies, emboldened authoritarian regimes, and sowed discord at home, weakening trust in governmental and civic institutions.

About ten years ago, my youngest son Truman read his fortune cookie fortune to the family after dinner. It read, “How dark is dark?” The current answer: Opaque.

Nevertheless, I agree with Kate that we can still find cause for hope. Consider New Jersey Senator Cory Booker who, heroically, recently stood in the U.S. Senate chambers for 25 hours, speaking about the challenges I just listed, and including myriad examples from his constituents, many dealing with the challenges of caring for disabled children or parents.

Booker warned us about the erosion of democratic institutions, criticized the increasing influence of billionaires (and one billionaire in particular) in shaping American policy, and invoked the legacy and moral courage of civil rights leaders such as John Lewis, arguing that if he were alive today, Lewis would be making good trouble in response to the challenges caused by federal malfeasance and corruption. For 25 hours, without food or a bathroom break, Booker emphasized the need for all of us to practice vigilance to protect democracy, fairness, and the truth.

Like many in our cynical age, I found hope and encouragement in Booker’s earnest efforts to draw attention of distracted, apathetic, or forlorn Americans to these bedrock American values. Rather than giving into defeatism or dividing ourselves into camps according to our differing attitudes about or responses to our current slide towards dystopia, Booker offers himself and other American heroes whom he had platformed and amplified as embodiments of the spirit of resolve, resistance, and optimism that we and the world need.

I thank everyone who speaks out, mobilizes, organizes, and acts to confront authoritarianism, illiberalism, totalitarianism, censorship, and xenophobia in all their forms, including many local and faraway readers of this newsletter. May we find encouragement and resolve in our active and optimistic communities. 

I stand with Robert F. Kennedy (Sr.), who, in his 1966 “Day of Affirmation” address in South Africa, spoke about individual actions against injustice. He said, “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.” 

May you feel those ripples of hope, and may they form an unstoppable wave that will wash away all our feelings of defeatism and despair.

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The weather will be pleasant this evening, so I invite you to join me outside at Sudwerk tonight. On such days, I especially love hosting an outdoor Pub Quiz at sunset. I plan to move the quiz along quickly, entirely possible because it is only 722 words long, if you exclude the answers. 

In addition to topics raised above, expect questions tonight on the following topics: Sacramento area retailers, switches, fresh water, rare onions, queens, painters, merchants, contracts, races, poets, warm animals, millionaires and billionaires, traps, space pilots, places that start with the letter B, simplistic months, second languages, mathematical spaces, parties likely to cause noise violations if they were to be held in Davis, counties with rivers, Moses, revelations from today’s newspaper, sizable paychecks, strategists, rich and poor countries, current events, and Shakespeare.

For more Pub Quiz fun please subscribe via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/yourquizmaster.

Thanks to all the new players joining us at the live quizzes and to all the patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. We have over 60 members now! Thanks especially to new subscribers Bill and Diane, Tamara, Megan, Michael, Janet, Jasmine, Joey, Carly, The X-Ennial Falcons, and The Nevergiveruppers! Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. Maybe next week it will be you! I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, Still Here for the Shakesbeer, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the conversationally entertaining dinner companions and bakers of marvelous and healthy treats, The Mavens, whose players or substitutes keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules and the cost of avocado. Thanks in particular to Ellen. Thanks to everyone who supports the Pub Quiz on Patreon. I would love to add your name or that of your team to the list of pub quiz boosters. I appreciate your backing this pub quiz project of mine! 

Best,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Three questions from last week:

1. Books and Authors. Born in New Hampshire, what living novelist won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for his script of the 1999 film adaptation of his novel The Cider House Rules?  

• Film. Victor Fleming directed what 1939 fantasy film?  

• Youth Culture. What TV show made the phrase “Chrissy, wake up!” and Kate Bush’s song “Running Up That Hill” viral?  

P.P.S. Poetry Night on April 3^rd at 7 features Clarence Major!