Your Quizmaster — Home of the Quizmaster of Sudwerk Brewing Company in Davis

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Pop Culture – Music. Of the ten Jackson siblings born in Gary, Indiana, which was the youngest?

Sports. Born in Long Beach in 1943, what American former World No. 1 professional tennis player won 39 Grand Slam titles and founded the Women’s Tennis Association and the Women’s Sports Foundation?

Science. Starting with the letter G, what medical condition is caused by elevated levels of uric acid in the blood?

P.S. Congratulations to Portraits for winning the Pub Quiz last week. Soon I will let you know how you can win a copy of my 2016 Pub Quiz book. Happy holidays! I will see you tonight, and at the movies.

The Prescience of Al Gore Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on December 14, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Like many longtime residents of the city of Davis, I saw Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth at the Varsity Theatre on 2^nd Street. The owner of that theater, Sinisa Novakovic, told me that the Gore film was doing better in Davis than in most other cities. Some might consider us a city of scientists. The highly educated and aggressive citizenry of our hometown understood the importance of climate change, and appreciated the vice president’s exhaustively presented evidence that we all needed to be concerned.

Of course, not every city was as receptive to this message. When An Inconvenient Truth was released, we were in the minority. As we approach the 10th anniversary of the release of that film, we can look around and see that many more people agree with Al Gore today than did a decade ago. The wild and sometimes destructive weather that the earth has endured over the last decade has helped to convince many of the precarious state of our planet, and the role our energy policies have in bringing about these climactic causes for concern.

Although climate change talks in Copenhagen in 2009 failed for a variety of reasons, the world still made more progress there than they had with the Kyoto Accords, partially because the United States and other top polluters such as China and India would not agree to ratify any treaty that legally bound them to cut carbon dioxide emissions. According to a recent article in the New York Times, the Paris Accords were successful because of geopolitical changes in attitude about climate change, and because of all of the immediate evidence of coming climate calamities. The Times article also commends French diplomacy for getting the hundreds of participating countries to the table, and keeping us there until there was something for us to sign.

National Public Radio pointed out that the French president commended the early work of Al Gore, who was present for the announcement. When Al Gore stood up to be acknowledged, representatives from many countries cheered and applauded wildly. Many Davis children have added “World Peace” to their Christmas request lists for Santa. Although that possibility seems less and less likely these days, at least we have made some steps to fend off an equally dire threat to our planet. I hope our current and future leaders will have the imagination and fortitude to uphold the Paris Accords and future climate change prevention agreements.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on one of the topics raised above, as well as snow crystals, Olympic gold medals, national teams, starting gate success, Battlestar Galactica, vitamins in unexpected places, longtime allies, Irish heroes, happy countries, popular films, the difference between lightning and the lightning bug, mutant horses, Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters, celebrated rotundity, elfish delineations, high school musicals, rapid-fire questions, mathematics, witty remarks, the legacy of racism, medical conditions, grand slams, Santa Claus, the youngest of nine living siblings, Star Wars, musical problems, Facebook, the effect of black Friday, beloved poems, and Shakespeare. Make sure to have a member of your team reflect on each of these topics.

Speaking of Pub Quiz teams, I ran into one of the members of the perennially contending Moops at the Davis public library on Saturday. Somehow I imagined that he was conducting research for a pub quiz that I had not yet written. Unlike your Quizmaster, that quiz participant was thinking about library fines and a recent trip, rather than conducting research. What is your favorite way to prepare for a trivia contest? It’s important to read ahead, but this is not exactly an exam that one can cram for.

I hope you can join us tonight at the Irish pub.

Your Quizmaster

I hope you enjoyed all the H place questions last week. Some of you had forgotten about Hanoi, but almost all of you remembered Halifax. Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Mexico. Two creatures appear on the Mexican flag. One is an eagle. What is the other?

Pop Culture – Music. What perambulating band’s most popular hit has been the 2014 song “Shut Up + Dance”?

Sports. Born in 1935 and still alive today, Willie O’Ree broke the color barrier in what sport?

P.S. A Pub Quiz book should have questions and answers, certainly, but what else? How might a book best represent the fun we have Monday evenings? Send your ideas to yourquizmaster@gmail.com. Thanks!

The Prism of American History Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on December 7, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

When facing trouble and uncertainty, some people turn to leaders who offer certainties. Through charisma, self-praise, manipulation of the media, and patience for idolatry, the demagogue stirs up people’s fears, and promises himself as the force that can return order to the community.

It’s difficult not to think of Donald Trump when reading these words. A Sacramento Bee editorial from this past Friday, titled “Donald Trump is a demagogue and a danger to democracy,” explores these concerns, opining that “Trump is an accomplished demagogue and a clear and present danger to American democracy.”

The Bee argues that “We underestimate Trump at our peril. He is a master of 21st-century media, yet he must be seen through the prism of American history. He is the latest in a long line of thuggish public figures who incited hatred and sowed division.”

I appreciated that the Bee provided historical context for men like Trump, reminding us that during “the Great Depression, there was Father Charles Coughlin, the first to use the power of radio to promote bigotry. During the Cold War, there was Sen. Joe McCarthy, who recklessly smeared loyal Americans as Communists. During the 1960s civil rights movement, a racist Gov. George Wallace stood as a symbol of segregation.”

All of these American knaves needed perceived outsiders to blame for the uncertainty and threats facing the nation. After the recent senseless slaughter in San Bernardino—a couple killing many of the people who had hosted their baby shower earlier this year—the political rhetoric has become more intense and strident, and the focus of national political discussions has shifted. As many shaken Americans look to Muslims and people from the Middle East with greater distrust and fear, the standing of certain presidential candidates becomes solidified (Trump and Clinton), while others with less experience or braggadocio regarding foreign affairs (such as Carson and Sanders) are seeming to fade. The political discussions provide starkly differing opinions on what makes America exceptional.

Meanwhile, we all have much to learn about the participants in our multicultural society, whether you call America a melting pot (a term made popular by a 1909 play of the same name), or a patchwork quilt, as Jesse Jackson famously put it in a 1988 speech. My dad’s former workplace in Washington DC, TV station WUSA, recently shared footage of an angry man telling people at a community meeting in a Virginia mosque that “Every one of you are terrorists.” How does one respond to such an accusation? He added, “You can smile at me, you can say whatever you want, but every Muslim is a terrorist.”

This past Friday I attended some talks that explored what might be called the other end of the spectrum of political understanding and engagement. Assuming that we will confront terrorism, alienation, and isolating religious extremism with something other than merely sorties in Syria, we might wonder what approach we should take instead. One that focuses on education, suggests Keith David Watenpaugh, Director of Human Rights Studies at UC Davis. In his keynote address at a UC Davis conference titled “Syria’s Lost Generation: A Human Rights Challenge to American Higher Education,” Watenpaugh posited that young Syrian refugees are eager to seek out higher education in neighboring countries, in Europe, and in the United States.

With Watenpaugh and other cognizant and conscientious faculty here, UC Davis is well situated to shoulder our part of what I see as a universal responsibility to offer refuge to those escaping war, terror, and oppressive regimes. Insofar as ISIS wishes to foment dissension, seclusion, and animosity among American Muslims, I feel we can best defeat ISIS by challenging prejudice and inhospitality. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Pit race against race, religion against religion, prejudice against prejudice. Divide and conquer! We must not let that happen here.”

Meanwhile, as has happened too often, today we are given reason to reflect on the curtailed lives cut short by the gun of a madman or a misdirected fanatic. In silence or out loud, we read the names in the newspaper, or on memorial stones. A shadow has darkened the holidays. Rather than being swayed by demagoguery during this challenging time, let such occasions remind us of our shared values and fill us with resolve to be what Abraham Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature.”

Tonight’s pub quiz will feature a number of questions on geography, a perennial gap in the educations of Americans. In fact, Mark Twain once said, “God created war so that Americans would learn geography.” Expect also questions on sports teams named after animals, pollution, popular clubs from the late 1980s, faraway flags, Greek adhesives, speeches given by the newly-announced California Poet Laureate Dana Gioia, international courts, countries even less populous than Ireland, Horace Greeley, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, race relations, California cities, gold stars, countries that are not Hungary, misfit stranglers, music genres, Star Wars, high-value Scrabble letters, posthumous votes, visible light, color barriers, inspiration provided by The Police, Mexico, Netflix, welcome assessments, popular oils, presidential elections, and Shakespeare.

My first book of trivia will be published in 2016. If you have enjoyed the Pub Quiz and would like to say something nice about the questions I ask, or the Pub Quiz experience at de Vere’s Irish Pub, please drop me an email filled with quotable acclaim at yourquizmaster@gmail.com. I will be including some blurbs from local notables inside and even on the back cover of the new book, and perhaps I can include you. Thanks, and see you tonight!

Your Quizmaster

I hope you enjoyed all the Will Ferrell questions last week. Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Mottos and Slogans. Starting with the letter A, what company calls itself “The Company for Women”?

Internet Culture. The Raspberry Pi foundation has just released the latest in its series of credit card–sized single-board computers, the Raspberry Pi Zero. How much does it cost? $500, $50, or $5?

California Colleges and Universities. According to Google maps, the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California is a Jesuit university that is just over 100 miles from Davis if one takes 80 west and then 680 south. Name the university.

The Colorado Heartache Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on November 30, 2015

Colorado’s Garden of the Gods

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Like everyone, I am shocked and anguished by the shootings at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Although I haven’t spent more than a week of my life in Colorado, to me the attack felt personal.

I should say up front that I am a big fan of free or affordable health care. I know from choices made by my family and friends that preventative care can save us not only from aches, but from heartaches, and that choosing to neglect a nagging pain or discomfort can lead to diagnoses that are shocking to everyone except the person who concealed his ailment. For a society to add or event accept financial barriers to health care seems unscrupulous, and, in the long term, fiscally unwise.

Over the decades Planned Parenthood has stepped in to help many women and some men catch and treat a variety of ailments, often setting up clinics in neighborhoods that could benefit the most from additional medical and counseling personnel. Here’s how one of my university colleagues wrote about her experience on Facebook: “[Planned Parenthood] was there for me when I needed basic female care but could not afford it. If I had [had] cancer, thyroid disease, or any other illness, PP would have caught it through the important screening that they do. I was 27 before I had access to a health insurance plan. I too stand with PP.”

In the interest of full disclosure, I should quickly add that my wife (and hero) Kate worked for Planned Parenthood in Sacramento for many years. At her clinic she drew blood, gave test results, and counseled women on a variety of concerns and ailments, including treatments for cervical cancer. Later she came to coordinate the prenatal program at her clinic, counseling women on health, nutrition, and psychosocial topics, all in an effort to make sure that her patients gave birth to healthy babies. As someone who scheduled many Cesarean sections, she also ended up choosing the birthdays of many Sacramento babies, including some who are probably graduating from UC Davis this coming spring.

While Kate and her patients adored one another, there were also harrowing elements of working in a women’s health clinic. The view out her office window was partially obscured by a bullet hole. She and her colleagues regularly underwent precautionary trainings on suspicious packages and live shooters. Protesters have screamed awful things to her on the way to work, one of them nicknaming Kate “the baby-faced baby killer.” No abortions were performed in her particular clinic, but everyone there believed in and supported the right and freedom of a woman being able to make decisions about her own body. And in this way, they agreed with half of Americans (according to a May 2015 Gallup poll), and a majority of Californians.

People are free to disagree, and different political and faith traditions will ensure a variety of opinions on controversial topics of the day (immigration, the death penalty, gun control, as well as abortion). I am troubled, though, by the heated, inflammatory, and jingoistic rhetoric that we are hearing from some candidates for president, and I don’t just mean Donald Trump. Senator Lindsay Graham once said that as president he would unilaterally execute any American who he believes is “thinking about joining al-Qaeda or ISIL.” Due process? Speaking of the late racist from North Carolina, Ted Cruz once said, “We need a hundred more like Jesse Helms in the U.S. Senate.” Perhaps most famously, at the September Republican debate Carly Fiorina made up grisly narratives that could not even be found in the creatively edited secret illegal surveillance videos created by the misleadingly titled “Center for Medical Progress.” One wonders if such rhetoric inspires or justifies in some a violent response.

I disagree politically with Ted Cruz, but of all the Republicans running for president, he was the first and for a while the only leading Republican who shared a message of concern about the Colorado clinic attack, in which one police officer and two Planned Parenthood clients were gunned down with an AK-47. Ted Cruz said, “Praying for the loved ones of those killed, those injured & first responders who bravely got the situation under control in Colorado Springs.” As I read this, I wondered for a moment if Cruz deserved admiration and respect on this matter. I remember thinking that maybe he is a maverick who is willing to break substantively with his fellow candidates, if a mere expression of empathy and prayer can be considered a significant risk.

And then this afternoon, CNN reported this: “When a reporter told [Ted] Cruz that the suspect in the Colorado Springs killings is alleged to have mentioned ‘baby parts’ after his arrest, the Texas senator responded, ‘Well, it’s also been reported that he was registered as an independent and a woman and transgendered leftist activist, if that’s what he is.’” The political stridency once again obscures humanity, to the disappointment of us all.

Add me to the long list of people who today mourn the deaths of Jennifer Markovsky, mother of two; Ke’Arre M. Stewart, an Iraq War veteran and father to one; and Garrett Swasey, the police officer who had once won a gold medal in ice dancing in the U.S. junior national championships. Swasey was the father of two young children. Let’s all consider what we can learn from their lives, and the way they ended.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on companies with female CEOs, berries of various sorts (two questions), The Beatles, people named Henry, furious anger, baseball stories, metric measurements, sugar, The Louvin Brothers, navigable rivers, communication technologies indicators, sequel extravaganzas, the ocelot of words, the man upstairs, spoof actors, wailer grannies, people who have forgotten rule #5 and will be reminded of it this evening, Nielsen, musical theatre, complex words that start with the letter D, active cautioning, prominent Native Americans, frequencies, people who we think of as Americans but who were actually born in foreign countries (such as Ted Cruz), Jesuits, newspaper headlines, and Shakespeare.

I hope you can join us this evening for the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz!

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Pop Culture – Music. “(I Get Knocked Down)” is the subtitle of Chumbawumba’s biggest hit back in 1997. What is the one-word T title of this song?

Sports. What shooting guard had 53 points against the Pelicans on Halloween this year (2015)?

Science. Using its Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, the company SpaceX has recently won a NASA contract to fly astronauts to what?

P.S. It’s Poetry Night this coming Thursday night at 8 at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Will you join us?

The Jealous Nancy Pelosi Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on November 23, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

For the first time ever, I have relinquished my newsletter duty, handing it over to a Pub Quiz regular, Allie Rubin, a PhD student in Geology who is the team captain of that perpetually contending team known as Trivia Newton John. Let’s see what she has to say.
I have been granted one of the highest honors in the land! Dr. Andy has invited me to write a Pub Quiz newsletter. President Obama called this morning with his congratulations. “Not now, Obama!” I shouted into my phone. “I am very busy writing the Pub Quiz newsletter!” He said he understood, and we made a date to get brunch next week, which we will not be Instagramming because Nancy Pelosi always gets upset when we don’t invite her. Because I am a benevolent genius, I’ve decided to give you a quick rundown of some recent current events in case they’re the subject of any questions at the Pub Quiz this week:

Donald Trump: Mr. Trump is running for President in 2016. He is doing exceptionally well in the polls given that 1) he may actually just be a latex weather balloon filled with wig scraps and 2) his proposed policies are so fascist that he has already been cast as the villain in the next Indiana Jones movie. You should vote for Donald Trump if you think Mr. Potter is the true hero of It’s a Wonderful Life, or if you have ever burned a child’s lemonade stand to the ground.

Jimmy Iovine: Apple executive Jimmy Iovine recently said that Apple Music makes it easy to find new music, especially for women, because “women find it very difficult at times… to find music.” Mr. Iovine’s comments were denounced as sexist and insulting, but I found them insightful because I am a lady, and whenever I search for things on iTunes I always end up having to pull over and ask someone for directions. Once, I tried to download Adele and I ended up purchasing an actual Dell! I can’t buy the new Drake song even though I’ve sent multiple handwritten requests to both Drake and my computer! It is very hard to “have it all”!

Basketball: Basketball is possibly still happening. (I don’t know. I’m generally not prepared for the basketball questions. Like any true indoor kid, I prefer to sit quietly and wait for the Shakespeare question.)

Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching! Here are some things for which you should give thanks this year: coffee, the fact that George Lucas is not in charge of the new Star Wars movie, the rise of industrialism that has made it possible for me to buy clothes instead of weaving them from coarse natural fibers, One Direction, sleepy puppies, and olive oil.

Now that you have been armed with these exciting and 100% accurate facts, I hope you will join us at the Pub Quiz tonight. I’ve been attending the Pub Quiz for about four years, and as a scientist and an overly competitive person (no one wants to play Monopoly with me anymore unless a real estate lawyer is present), I’ve spent a lot of time trying to analyze why trivia is something I enjoy. Why do I experience genuine frustration and rage when I can’t remember the name of a Nicki Minaj song? Isn’t the fact that there are over 300 billion stars in the Milky Way enough to make my very existence, to say nothing of the amount of time it takes me to unscramble an anagram, seem meaningless? Why did de Veres’ decision to remove the pulled pork sandwich from their menu feel like a personal betrayal, when in fact a) it decidedly was not and b) I could make my own pulled pork sandwiches at home with just a modicum of effort?

As it turns out, there is no grand spiritual reason why I go to trivia each Monday. Sometimes it’s just fun to go to a crowded restaurant and turn off your phone and drink beer surrounded by your friends and fellow Davisites. It’s fun to participate in events that foster a strong sense of community, even if it is kind of bizarrely Ayn Rand-y that the prime objective of the Pub Quiz is for one small group to triumph over the rest of said community. And it’s fun to spend precious time and money glaring at your friends for two hours in the hope of winning a used DVD copy of Spy Game, something my team has done.

I hope to see you all at the Pub Quiz tonight, where the topics will range from hummus to famous Italian traitors to overrated shellfish. Also expect questions on barley, toe socks that cut off your circulation because they shrunk in the wash, and the rule of threes. As always, the winners will receive a $50 gift card to a defunct Borders in Newark; the losers will be tied to a chair and forced to moderate the comments on an NPR article about gun control.

Thanks to Allie for filling in admirably!

Here are the actual hints for tonight’s Quiz. Expect questions on Leslie Nielsen movies, injured superheroes, lilies, a rung Bel, Roman guides, ragtime music, taxi drivers, people named York, American inventors, funny ladies, populous cities, big farms, men who have won acting’s highest honor, nuns with funny accents, people named Harry, villains, wet and windy landscapes, Baptists, leftover rockers, money for nothing, comparing a month to a moth, rich people’s sports, space travel, Halloween pelicans, getting back up, respect, the difficulty of saying “thank you,” bard adaptations, places that start with B, football records, people who need no “haircut help,” styles of styli, imaginative slogans, and Shakespeare. Find other hints via social media.

Because Davis schools and other colleges now take the entire week of Thanksgiving off, tonight I anticipate our being awash with teachers and visiting alumni from Davis High and other schools. As a result, I encourage you to join us early to claim a table. My perambulating wife Kate and I will arrive around 6 to enjoy a Dr. Andy Salad, soon to be added to the Pub Quiz menu.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Sequels. This year in 2015 we saw the release of a sequel whose May 15–17 $69M opening weekend gross set a record for a first-time director, in this case Elizabeth Banks. Name the film.

Food and Drink. In South Africa, what T substance is used to give boiled white rice a golden color?

Pop Culture – Music. In what decade did the band New Order release the most albums and have the most hits on the US dance charts?

P.S. Have I told you that I am working on a Pub Quiz book? I hope the E-book will come out before the holidays, and the paperback in 2016.

The Golden City of Our Soul Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on November 16, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

As a child I found myself practicing grief in Paris, a city I have yet to visit.

At one time the saddest film I was allowed to see, and perhaps at times the most playful, was The Red Balloon by Albert Lamorisse. It presents a boy named Pascal who, at about the age I was when I first watched the film at summer camp, finds his only friend, a magical red balloon with a mind of its own. For 34 minutes of this short Oscar-winning 1956 film the red balloon follows Pascal through the Belleville neighborhood of Paris. Seemingly the boy’s only friend, the balloon joins the boy on many adventures before encountering a willful and violent end, as happens to many of our playthings. Sensitive and heartbroken for Pascal, I practiced grief while watching that film, exploring the pity and fear that Aristotle would come to warn me about.

Paris remained for me a city of beauty and magic that was marked by loss. An American in Paris, which I saw a year or two later, explored similar themes as the Lamorisse short, but with more dancing, and with kinder children. These films, and books with Paris settings that I had devoured during those years – I’m thinking of the Babar and Madeline book series – froze Paris for me at the mid-century, as if the city’s ancient cathedrals and majestic bridges would render it immune, and perhaps haughtily superior, to the noisy technologies of later eras. As was the case with my childhood hometown of Washington DC (which was modeled on Paris), citywide caps of tall buildings in the French capital would ensure that one could see the central Eiffel Tower, the sustaining symbol of an earlier age, from many distant Paris arrondissements.

Today the City of Lights, the city of cafes and art museums, of bridges and bookshops, this European mecca of culture, is wounded and reeling. We see the city and all of Europe just as we see our friends on social media, through our tears, and through the tricoleur flag of France. I remain grateful for the lessons our oldest ally taught our country’s founders about liberty, equality, and fraternity. In the spirit of all three, let us stand in solidarité with Paris during this dark hour. With candles in our windows, let every city be a city of lights.

At times of grief, we sometimes turn to the poets, those practiced at representing emotions deep and mixed. Here is a poem by the English poet and writer Wilfrid Scawen Blunt. It is titled “A New Pilgrimage: Sonnet VI”:

Away from sorrow! Yes, indeed, away!

Who said that care behind the horseman sits?

The train to Paris, as it flies to–day,

Whirls its bold rider clear of ague fits.

Who stops for sorrows? Who for his lost wits,

His vanished gold, his loves of yesterday,

His vexed ambitions? See, the landscape flits

Bright in his face, and fleeter far than they.

Away! away! Our mother Earth is wide;

And our poor lives and loves of what avail?

All life is here; and here we sit astride

On her broad back, with Hope’s white wings for sail,

In search of fortune and that glorious goal,

Paris, the golden city of our soul.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions about honey, comedy, bank notes, towns in Kansas, second rounds, presidents on trains, our happier cousins, Avenger rankings, cinematic typecasting, protagonists of notable books, foreign languages, transportation (five questions), unsanctioned joy rides, the ends of kings and doctors, bicycling alternatives, mononyms, California’s Central Valley, ballroom dancing, lists that end with shrubbery, wallet stalwarts, Twitter followers, musical numbers, silver and gold, sequels, South African cooking, the dance charts, iPhone sales, Scrabble scores of 21, current events and Shakespeare. There will be no questions on Charlie Sheen.

Do come join us tonight at the Irish Pub. If you come early, you and your team will be given a table where you can sit to tell stories over a refreshing beverage. Raise a toast to the people of Paris.

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Internet Culture. What does the fashion hash tag #OOTD stand for?

U.S. States. The home state of the longest-serving US Congressman, John Conyers, is also the Cherry Capital of the United States and home to the largest limestone quarry in the world. Above the Mason-Dixon Line, what is this state of almost 10 million people?

California Counties. The northwestern-most county in California has the largest percentage of residents living in economic distress. What is this county whose name starts with the letter D? Hint: Its name is the shortened Spanish nickname for “the land of the north.”

P.S. This coming Thursday I myself will be giving a poetry reading at the John Natsoulas Gallery. My old buddy Brad Henderson will join me. He and I, and I hope you, will be celebrating the tenth anniversary of our first poetry reading in downtown Davis, held in the E Street Plaza and sponsored by the Downtown Davis Business Association. Ten years of poetry readings, and it’s finally my turn! We start at 8, and it would be fun to see you there.

The Time Travel in the Classroom Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on November 9, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I’ve been asked to teach a short story class for the UC Davis Department of English this coming summer, and now I am filled with gleeful anticipation and planning. Pulling out my syllabus from the last time I taught the class, in 2009, I realize how much teaching has changed in the last few years. Although older faculty must negotiate the evolving distractions and electronic interruptions that accompany most of our students, most of these changes to teaching and learning are nevertheless welcome developments and opportunities.

When I first started teaching short fiction to college students in the early 1990s, student expected much from the lecture. As the most knowledgeable person in the classroom, I would focus on presenting complex and scintillating lectures, revealing like a storyteller the social, political, theoretical and historical contexts of the texts we read. I knew things that students didn’t know, in part because I had years of experience with such texts, access to a library full of secondary sources, and access to knowledgeable mentors (such as Professor Jack Hicks, who still today teaches California literature classes to lucky UC Davis students). I also counted among my peer group future award-winning professors such as Kirsten Saxton and Rebecca Bocchicchio, and they had much to share, even when we were all in our 20s.

Today the lecture as revelation of information is less foundational to a student’s education, for that student can find much of what an instructor might “know” in 30 minutes of informed web-searching (especially if taking full advantage of library databases). The instructor in this modern era of teaching still has the responsibility of presenting the lecture a cogent and challenging argument, something to be deliberated and even practiced, but also of devising and framing activities that students can engage in during class meeting time. If they are to learn something, students usually need something to do. I’ve learned over the years that even real-time assessments can provide students a learning experience.

This second focus on active learning transforms the instructor from “impressive” story-teller and argument-unfolder into a motivational speaker who teaches students how to take the reins themselves, to practice the leadership skills that UC Davis students are known for. As a mentor teacher at UC Davis, I’ve had the pleasure of teaching active learning to faculty at the graduate Nara Institute on Science and Technology in Nara, Japan. One of the challenges that my colleagues and I encountered in Nara was that students there are so respectful of their professors, their sensei, that they would dare not ask questions: to do show would be to show disrespect for a senior mentor. And yet questions are a foundational element of active (and thus successful) learning. For instance, I myself require that my students challenge something that I say at least once a quarter. By the end of the quarter, I sometimes must make increasingly outrageous statements in order to inspire the quieter students to fulfill their challenging quota.

I love both forms of teaching – the lecture and the hour of project-based learning – but I must admit that I learn more from the latter, with the students as co-instructors, even though the former requires me to memorize more and speak with greater practiced facility. Both approaches fill me with anticipatory delight. I think of my several conversations with Larry Vanderhoef before his first stroke: he had grand plans to teach a large (huge, really) GE science course, and he came to me for teaching tips and strategies. He also wanted to know what to expect from the millennial students in his classroom after his 25-year gap in teaching duties. UC Davis students offer so much!

Like Larry, I know that I would teach favorite classes such as “The Short Story” and “Writing in Fine Arts” even if I were fabulously wealthy, for the best rewards are not financial. Our students provide us energy, necessary in-class protestations, and reason to have faith in our future leaders, of those who will take care of us. As Henry Adams once said, “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” Teaching a class is like spending some time conversing with representatives of a future that some of us will not see in person. It is my favorite mode of time travel.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature some questions for those veterinary students who sometimes gather in good-natured and studious hordes, laughing at the simplicity of my questions about chemistry and biology. Expect also questions about endangered companies, Hamlet’s spies, former San Francisco heroes, Wilde, living legends, the well-paid peanut gallery, inaugural awards, money-makers, the packs that sorrows travel in, baseball leadership, odd-looking family members, science fiction, prions, the alphabet that is used the most, Chopin, Portland residents, three marriages and two and a half divorces, that which is neutered, occasions to release the vino, song that have been covered by superstars, Instagram hashtags, pilots, sarcastic and underachieving subordinates, favorite spices, forbearance, sleep habits, guards with excellent aim, sorry musicians, the land of the north, cherries, ten million people, World War I, newspaper headlines, fashion choices, and Shakespeare.

Nearby teams will recognize Pub Quiz participant Catriona McPherson by her infectious laugh and by the booksmart demeanors of her teammates. She has won a big bunch of awards for her mystery fiction, something she is hesitant to talk about when she comes on my radio show. This coming Saturday night her work will be featured at Stories on Stage Davis. You should add this event to your weekend plans.

See you tonight!

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Mottos and Slogans and Catch Phrases. What TV actor, playwright and activist released his own fragrance line titled “Eau My” (which also happens to be his catch phrase)?

Internet Culture: Video Games. What is the most famous video game that allows players to build constructions out of textured cubes?

American Cities. The city colleges in what American city include Harold Washington College and Malcolm X College?

P.S. The next Poetry Night on November 19^th will feature Brad Henderson, who met his beloved at the Pub Quiz, and, well, me. Details to come.

The 25-Hour Furlough Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on November 3, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Last night at office hours I met with a student who intended to squeeze every moment out of her 25-hour Sunday. Buoyed by the extra hour presented by the “fall back” in our clocks, she resolved, quixotically, to do 25 different things in her 25 hours, though she had to admit that sleep made this really difficult. When asked for evidence of her activities, she said that she was training for a half marathon (and she showed me a map of her morning run out to rural west Davis), that she has been practicing the piano – a new instrument for her – every day, and that this week she had plans to take the test for her driver’s license.

She repeatedly communicated her amazement and delight over all the freedoms that she enjoys as a 20 year-old woman in Davis. She told me with some relish that she can stay up as late as she likes, she can go wherever she wants in town, and she can make friends with any sort of person she wishes.

Back home in Saudi Arabia, she finds her natural introversion to be codified by local customs. When she returned home to Saudi Arabia last summer, she found herself quietly perturbed that one of her older brothers would have to escort her if she wanted to go to the library, the grocery store, or on a walk. Even with an escort, she has to ask her father’s permission to do such things, “and he can always say ‘no.’”

She told me that some of her friends’ parents do not let their daughters have electronic devices or access to the internet, “just as it is in your American prisons.” I reflected for a moment on my own unthinking freedoms and nodded as she told me, “I have it better than many.”

These visits home to Saudi Arabia have reminded my student that here in the United States she is like a prisoner on furlough. She beholds the grand cork oak trees on campus, the undergraduates racing around on bicycles, and the odd and sometimes shocking costumes women wear at night, even when it’s not Halloween. A student “sponsored” by a generous scholarship, she is expected to return home as soon as she graduates. She reflected out loud about her activities in Davis – two-hour runs along our greenbelts, extended laughter over coffee at Mishka’s Café, and her interactions with supportive peers and faculty – and told me that she hopes memories of these experiences will sustain her for decades into the future.

In a way, we are all on furlough. Shouldn’t we all try to fill our weekends – and our lives – as eagerly?

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will appear to scientists more than is typical. I am a film and book man, myself, but I like to appear wide-ranging and ecumenical when it comes to the variety of topics we cover on the quiz. Expect also questions about the Internet Movie Database, rivals who die too young, Italian vacations, equine studies, the question of invented horizontality, Canadian centres, middling football teams, wild things, really big creatures found in Louisiana, death in America, foreign provinces, War and Peace, surface collapses, the sixteen letters found in the answer to question 17, rock and roll without the roll, love letters, princesses, colorful targets, rocks and garbage, manifest destiny, fruits with angry sequins, the sports equinox, fame at 17, Beatles’ songs in German, Malcolm X, video games, unlikely fragrances, and Shakespeare.

Today’s rain is refreshing, and should be interpreted as an opportunity to join friends tonight in frivolous fun. See you at 7 at de Vere’s Irish Pub!

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Internet Culture. Recently Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook gave an overseas 30-minute speech in a language other than English. What was that language?

Newspaper Headlines. People this week are talking about a newly released song, “Hello,” from someone who is not named Lionel Ritchie. Name the singer-songwriter.

Norwegian Slang. What U.S. state with a lower case first letter is now a slang term in Norway for “crazy” or “out of control”?

P.S. Lynn Freed, twice winner of the O. Henry Award, our nation’s highest honor presented to writers of the short story, will be reading from recent work at the John Natsoulas Gallery this coming Thursday evening. Find details at http://www.poetryindavis.com.

The Airplane Passengers with a Watchful Incredulity Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on October 26, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Late yesterday evening I stood at the end of a really long walkway watching deplaning Sacramentans reuniting with those they love. Happy to escape the cramped seating of coach class, several people took selfies to offer social proof that they had arrived at this new city (or had finally arrived home). To my left, a portly man in his 30s stood with a bouquet of 24 roses, waiting for his beloved. She came down the gangplank, smiling, holding the hand of a yawning six year-old girl with ringlets of brown hair and a frilly dress. He bent down on one knee to look her in the eye, saying, some of these flowers are for you.

Was it his daughter? His future step-daughter? I couldn’t tell, but a bunch of young women who had traveled on the same plane with the ringletted girl slowed their walks to a sluggish stroll, smiling broadly and staring unabashedly at this reunion of three. While the man handled the matching Hello Kitty backpack and rolling suitcase, the division and dissemination of roses was negotiated on the tram from the security checkpoint to the baggage claim.

As I walked with my own daughter – arriving home from a cousin’s bat mitzvah in Seattle – I considered the relative majesty of Sacramento International Airport’s Terminal B. Unless one works at 555 California Street or the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco, one is unlikely to spend time in a building larger than our Sacramento Airport. Like one of our posh California supermalls, the airport’s marble and cleanliness gives the building an air of regal ascendancy. And like Arden Fair Sacramento or, even more opulent, the Westfield Galleria at Roseville, our airport now offers many of the shops of a standard tony mall, and most of the food options.

But as I gathered last night with the other greeters and huggers, I was focusing on the emotional resonance of the airport. As explored by the film When Harry Met Sally, some of us assert our worth as friends or as partners by providing a ride to the airport. It’s a symbolic benchmark in a relationship. As I saw last night, some people stage reunions at the airport. Others still see beloved friends or relations for the last time at SMF, giving a last hug before sending that person off to a faraway life, and perhaps a distance of years of virtual check-ins, the absence finalized by a regretful phone call, or, more likely today, a Facebook post by proxy.

In The Last Tycoon, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote meaningfully about the different functions that airports have for us, saying that “airports lead you way back in history like oases, like the stops on the great trade routes. The sight of air travellers strolling in ones and twos into midnight airports will draw a small crowd any night up to two. The young people look at the planes, the older ones look at the passengers with a watchful incredulity.”

As Fitzgerald suggests, we might be distracted by the novel aviation technologies – the invasive x-ray machines, the floatation seat cushions, or the impossibly complex array of dials and readouts that await the captain behind the secure door of the cockpit – or we might, if we are willing to watch carefully and silently, see the poetry that leaps from traveler to traveler, each of us embracing a moment of adventure, or wishing that we were.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature no questions on airports. Instead expect to be asked about all of the topics suggested by these abstruse and enigmatic “hints”: Gutian, young talent in California, Des Moines political gossip, lanterns, heroes named Peter, partially submerged homes, presidential reigns, welcome rain, retired boxers, famous doctors who have returned from their adventures, long poems, The Tonight Show, British immigrants who take our jobs, late night television, Christians, actors who dress in scantily cute clothes, eight-letter words with but two vowels, network television, coffees, Edmund’s questionable choices, discontent, ponies, bonding, California cities, Irish culture, noisy punks, the supernatural, dads like us, languages other than English, MOOCs, happy breathing, and Shakespeare.

I hope you can join us tonight.

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Books and Authors. The widely-regarded Man Booker Prize-winning book Life of Pi was not written by a manly tern, but it was written by a man whose name is an anagram of A MANLY TERN. Name him.

Film. The new Spielberg-directed film Bridge of Spies stars a 59-year-old Oscar-winning actor whose films have grossed over $8.4 billion internationally. Name the actor.

Irish Culture. What is the name of the national flag carrier airline of Ireland?

The Remembering Larry Vanderhoef Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on October 19, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I was scheduled to introduce Larry Vanderhoef on the evening that he passed away.

When Battle of the Books organizer Shelley Dunning and I were deciding a few months ago who would introduce whom at her wonderful October 15 fundraiser for the Hattie Weber Museum, I jumped at the chance to introduce former UC Davis Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef. I knew the other three authors (John Lescroart, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Naomi Williams) better than I knew the former Chancellor, but I chose Larry because he is one of the reasons that today I call myself a Davisite. To speak for a few minutes about the long-serving Chancellor of your favorite university requires that you speak about the university itself. During Larry’s time, the university grew in size, grew steadily in the estimation of competing sports teams and the U.S. News and World Report, and grew by millions the research and endowment dollars that poured into UC Davis coffers, giving our faculty more opportunities, and making the UC Davis experience more accessible for underrepresented students.

These are perhaps the most impressive accomplishments of Larry Vanderhoef, though none of them is the most important to me. When I think of Larry Vanderhoef, I admire the man the most for these four qualities:

Larry’s commitment to the arts. Who would expect that a biochemist from Perham, Minnesota, population about 1,500 when Larry was born there, would be responsible for the grandest center for the performing arts this side of the Kennedy Center in my former home of Washington DC? I would love to see more of our campus scientists follow Larry’s lead and pledge themselves to the arts that feed our souls.
Larry’s commitment to students. As a Chancellor, Larry was visible, accessible, and present for UC Davis students. A constant attendee to sporting events, a silent and affirming presence at the Undergraduate Research Conference, and a tireless proponent of student scholarships, Larry considered students in every decision he made. One of my star students from 2003 was nominated for a number of undergraduate scholarships and awards, and thus got to attend a number of award ceremonies with the Chancellor. For years thereafter Larry would ask me about Melissa, and I would always have an update to share that would make him smile.
Larry’s humanity. I attended the Chancellor’s fall retreat a week after the events of September 11^th, 2001, and at that event and thereafter I heard Larry speak often about his empathy for the students who, like all of us, were trying to make sense of the new challenges we were facing as a nation. More personally, the summer after he stepped down from his position as Chancellor, Larry attended all the talks I gave at the Summer Institute on Teaching and Technology, and during the lunch break asked me curious and sympathetic questions about Jukie, my son with special needs.
Larry’s humility. I had many conversations with Larry Vanderhoef, but my favorite Larry memory involved no words spoken by either one of us. A number of years ago Larry biked over to the Voorhies Hall courtyard to stand in the back of a crowd that was hearing celebratory talks about the 20 year anniversary of the lauded University Writing Program journal Writing on the Edge. Larry laughed when we laughed, applauded when we applauded, and then, just before we broke for refreshments, mounted his bike to head off to the next event in his busy schedule. Larry supported the writing program faculty by listening and by admiring the success of his campus colleagues, but without ever needing to take his turn behind the microphone, or even to be noticed that he was there.

What a fine man. I agree with Joseph Campbell, who said, “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” I am grateful to have known Larry Vanderhoef, and I stand with all UC Davis affiliates who will remember him as we long benefit from his extraordinary gifts.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions about patience, Andy Garcia and others of his ilk, animals in elevators, the cod diet, a household of daughters, that which pleases, loser jackets, people named Lucy, electromagnetics, the Spirit of rapid diminishment, important cities, modern-day zombie infestations, Oscar-winners, books you have heard of by authors you haven’t, contemporary politics, Alabama, BCS, foolish feuds, Juliet hailing Romeo, music facts pulled from the New York Times, Italian words and phrases, that which surrounds, American heroes killed by American authorities, conductors, coaches, people named after favorite professional wrestlers, cars in Connecticut, Californians, beverages, animal species, and Shakespeare.

I hope you can join us this evening for some raucous fun. An even better microphone has been ordered and tested to ensure that we can celebrate trivia without restrictions.

Your Quizmaster