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

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Mottos and Slogans. What sort of breakfast cereal, if you can call it that, purports to be “magically delicious”?

Internet Culture. Presented just last week, the twelfth major release of OS X was named after a large two-word rock formation that begins with the letter E. Name it.

Newspaper Headlines. South Carolina is being battered by a series of serious storms, and parts of the capital are still being evacuated. What is the capital of South Carolina?

Four for Four. Which two of the following species of oak are native to California? Cork Oak, Engelmann Oak, Scarlet Oak, Valley Oak.

Find the Commonality. What word that refers to a robot and an operating system is also the name of a Green Day song and a 1982 science fiction film starring Klaus Kinski?

P.S. I have been assured that the mic will be working this evening.

The Literary October Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on October 5, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Sir Winston Churchill purportedly said, “Success is the ability to move from one failure to another without loss of enthusiasm.” I say “purportedly,” because although the quotation is widely attributed to Churchill, scholars can’t find the phrase anywhere in the estimated eight to ten million words found in his speeches, books, and newspaper pieces. Like President Obama, and, say, Hillary Clinton, writing for Churchill was his primary source of income (though I am sure that all three did well on the lecture circuit).

As someone who has taught writing at UC Davis for 25 years (as of this month), I myself haven’t figured out how to make living from what I publish. The Sacramento Bee has paid me for a few pieces, and I once earned $250 for a long essay on Allen Ginsberg and the Beat Generation for the journal Art, Ltd. I don’t know that I ever broke even on my first book of poetry, Split Stock, and my most recent book, Where’s Jukie?, represents part of my charity work: all profits from books sales are donated to medical research.

Nevertheless, as Churchill didn’t say, I push on from one “failure” after another with no loss of enthusiasm, in part because of all the people I get to meet at book events, and because of all the literary and theatrical performances I get to enjoy resulting from my work as a writer. More specifically, I get to participate in seven literary events over the coming two weeks, all of which are worth recounting here:

October 9th – Sandra McPherson reads at the Wardrobe, 206 E Street, beginning at 7 PM. Expect refreshments.

Sandra McPherson, professor emerita and founder of Swan Scythe Press, will be reading new poetry at The Wardrobe, across the street from de Vere’s Irish Pub. I would consider this an event not to be missed. In addition to authoring about 20 books, McPherson’s honors and awards include three National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, a Guggenheim fellowship, two Ingram Merrill grants, an Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and letters, and a nomination for the National Book Award. She could be called the most decorated poet in Davis.

October 10th – Dr. Andy Jones and Kate Duren Perform from Where’s Jukie? at Stories on Stage, Davis, at the Pence Gallery, 212 D Street starting at 7:30. $5 cover.

Kate and I will PERFORM poems and essays from our book Where’s Jukie? on Saturday. Also, Capital Public Radio personality Devin Yamanaka will read an excerpt from Brenda Nakamoto’s memoir, Peach Farmer’s Daughter. Cookies and wine will be available, as will an expanded edition of our latest book (which I pick up on Thursday). One almost never gets to see Kate at the microphone – that’s what I am most excited about.

October 15th – Battle of the Books at St. James Memorial Center, 1275 B St., starting at 6 PM. $10 cover. A fundraiser benefiting the Hattie Weber Museum. Note that there will be no Poetry Night on this evening.

Top Davis Authors will be present, speaking about their books and having fun in a quiz show format, hosted by beloved Davis Enterprise columnist Bob Dunning. Which books? The Fall by New York Times bestselling author John Lescroart; Aurora by acclaimed science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson; Indelibly Davis by UC Davis Chancellor Emeritus Larry Vanderhoef; Landfalls by first-time author Naomi Williams; and the aforementioned Where’s Jukie? by Andy Jones and Kate Duren. I hope to have Naomi’s book finished by the 15^th, and I’ve already read two and a half of the others.

October 16th — The Jack Kerouac Poetry Prize Revelation Ceremony and Reading at the John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street. 8 PM

Like the Oscars, but for Poetry. Cash prizes will be given out, and the runners-up and winning poets will read their selected works before a jazz trio. A night of poetic adventure and fun, and a kick-off of the 2015 Jazz Beat Festival. I will be hosting this free event.

October 17th – Beat Poet and San Francisco Legend Michael McClure Reads in Davis. John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street. 7 PM

The evening finale of the Jazz Beat Festival is a performance by the canonical Beat poet, playwright, and lyricist, Michael McClure. At the age of 22, Michael McClure gave his first poetry reading at the legendary Six Gallery event in San Francisco, where Allen Ginsberg first read Howl. He has been called the role model for Jim Morrison, and for a generation of literary radicals and rebels.

Thanks to organizers such as Heather Caswell, Shelley Dunning, and John Natsoulas, in October Davis rivals San Francisco with its literary prowess. I hope to see you at some of these events. If you attend them all, I will buy you a drink at the October 19^th Pub Quiz. If you attend none of them, one day you may wrestle with regret.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on various and sundry politicians, including questions on where they live and congregate. Expect also questions about good cops and bad cops, successful sequels, tender affections, biodiversity, Saturday Night Live, breezy homonyms, monumental authors, Michael Dukakis, mighty oaks, rock formations, consumable acids, words that start with E, the luck of the Irish, South America, math facts, success stories born in 1934, Canadians, Emily Blunt, 89 and 93, Arab countries, Martian contests, front runners, approaches to appealing to activists, U.S. states, former job titles, “successful” marriages, blind heroes, the state of a family, leftists and progressives, metaphysics, rich ladies, gradual development, Green Day, fashion design, and Shakespeare. I haven’t even written the anagram question yet, for I am teaching a Writing in Fine Arts class on Monday mornings. First things first.

Congratulations to the Moops who won last week’s quiz with a score of 28 points out of 30. See you tonight.

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Mottos and Slogans. TV commercials for what brand of antacids asked us how we spelled relief? Regrettably, my knowledge of this fact leaves less room for other more worthy facts. I’m sure you know this feeling.

Internet Culture. The nickname of Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, CA also starts with the letter G. What is that nickname?

Newspaper Headlines. What three main American cities did Pope Francis visit last week? I wonder if Francis will be canonized in my lifetime.

Four for Four. Which of the following H cities, if any, are found in Northern California? Hawthorne, Healdsburg, Hercules, Hesperia. Of these, I’ve only visited Healdsburg.

Presidential Candidates. Of the shrinking number of Republicans running for U.S. President, which one is a 57 year-old former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania? Both he and I hope you won’t have to Google this one (but for different reasons).

The Avid Reading Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on September 28, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

How lucky are we to have independent bookstores in our city of Davis! When I first moved to Davis in 1990, I reveled in my visits to the half-dozen or so independent bookstores we had to choose from. As I biked from store to store 25 years ago, I was reminded of why I had previously chosen to study in Boston, London, and Berkeley: the intellectual stimulation of bookstores!

Back then I was also a bit of a book hoarder. As a graduate student, I displayed a superfluity of stocked bookshelves in every home where I lived, and many more books boxed away in the garage or closets. Having recently read about “The Private Book Collections of 10 Famous Readers,” I feel that tinge of desire to start collecting all over again, especially when I discover that Charles Darwin owned intriguing titles such as The Physiology or Mechanism of Blushing by Thomas Henry Burgess and The American Beaver and his Works by Lewis H. Morgan. Imagine the illustrations!

Eventually the floorboards of our various homes creaked with the weight of all that learning, the commodification of the world’s ideas. And then came Jukie, our son who as a toddler had the same attitude towards books as the Emperor Aurelian had towards the now lost library at Alexandria. The most precious books, many of them signed, were boxed up, and gradually I gave the rest away to my undergraduates and friends, as well as to the Davis Branch of the Yolo Public Library and the Sacramento Poetry Center. My wife Kate reminded me that if I ever wanted a book in the future, I could just buy it.

My favorite place to purchase books in Davis is The Avid Reader, the bookstore on 617 2^nd Street that stocks so many fresh titles, hosts a number of readings and talks by local and traveling authors, and co-sponsors so many literary events in town. Although I have seen literati speak in bookstores in all the aforementioned cities, as well as DC and New York, by now I have seen the most live book events at our own Avid Reader.

One upcoming event that the Avid Reader is cosponsoring has been organized by Shelley Dunning, and the beneficiaries include all of us who read local authors, and especially the Hattie Webber Museum. To quote a recent article in the Davis Enterprise about the October 15^th “Battle of the Books,” the books to have been read will include the following: “’The Fall’ by New York Times bestselling author John Lescroart; ‘Aurora’ by acclaimed science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson; ‘Indelibly Davis’ by UC Davis Chancellor Emeritus Larry Vanderhoef; ‘Landfalls’ by first-time author Naomi Williams; and ‘Where’s Jukie?’ by popular husband-and-wife authors Andy Jones and Kate Duren.” Of these books, I have read and enjoyed The Fall and am now reading and loving Landfalls. Both are highly recommended.

Landfalls author Naomi Williams is a regular substitute on the Pub Quiz team The Mavens, while John Lescroart has attended a number of pub quizzes with his friend Glenn and their wives. Kate Duren attends every week, and of course I follow her wherever she goes. Bob Dunning will be MCing this Battle of the Books event, with all the authors present, and a number of “softball” questions to be asked about the books and authors, and about the city of Davis. You should visit http://thedavisstore.com/events/battle-of-the-books-2015/ to register your intent to participate in this event. The entrance fee is a mere $10, and I think all of us who participate plan to consume more than $10 worth of food and drink at the event. Local businesses such as The Davis Store and The Avid Reader will be donating prizes, and all the money raised will support the Hattie Webber Museum.

Speaking of which, I hear that Avid Reader owner Alzada Knickerbocker and a team of book-lovers and bookstore employees will be attending tonight’s Pub Quiz. As one can discover at Davis Wiki, in 2006 “Alzada Knickerbocker was named state Small-Business Champion of the Year by the National Federation of Independent Business,” so she sticks up for all us who would prefer to shop locally in stores by local business owners. She also runs a number of contests and outreach events to encourage a broader knowledge and understanding of the U.S. Constitution. Schoolchildren across the United States are pleased that our constitution is the shortest of just about any country’s in the world. Nevertheless, much can be learned from its momentous words, originally penned on parchment.

I hope you will also join us tonight. Expect questions on the following topics: animal lovers, people who say “Bravo,” lunchbox favorites, impudence, associated with The Great Gatsby, trials, furry animals who are never spotted in tea stores, Germany, conservative and progressive rock, fiction, candidates for U.S. president, hailing Romeo, cities in California, the nicknames of buildings, relief, book collecting, competition for Cleopatra, questionable sports, dinosaurs, bookstores, whiskey, actors who are also dancers, castles, Greek philosophers, first words, founding fathers, numbers that are divisible by 9, parchment, menu items, and Shakespeare.

In addition to our friends from The Avid Reader, we will be joined tonight by one of the all-star teams of yesteryear, The Penetrators, named thus because of their penetrating stares and their minds. Will you score better than the Penetrators? Bring your team by tonight to find out.

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Internet Culture. As of 2014, which of the following top-ranked colleges has the most alumni working for Apple, Inc.? Harvard, Princeton, Yale, UC Davis.

Film. The new Whitey Bulger biopic titled Black Mass takes place primarily in what U.S. State?

Pop Culture – Music. In 2003 Rolling Stone named what 71 year-old Canadian singer-songwriter and painter the 72nd greatest guitarist of all time, the highest-ranked woman on the list?

Four for Four. Which two of the following are among the top three banana exporters in the world? China, Costa Rica, Ecuador, India.

Sports. Among the general population of the United States, the most popular competitive sport (and fifth most popular recreational sport) is a pastime of more than 43 million people. Name the sport.

P.S. This coming Thursday the musician, poet and fiction writer Christian Kiefer will be joined at Poetry Night by San Francisco novelist Janis Cooke Newman. You should Google them both and then plan to join us Thursday at 8 at the Natsoulas Gallery.

The Autumnal Merriment Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on September 21, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

What an exciting time of change we are experiencing. The new and returning UC Davis students have arrived, Davis Enterprise columnist Bob Dunning is heading to the east coast to cover the current Pope’s first ever visit to the United States, and this Wednesday is the Autumn Equinox.

Some people face Autumn with regret for the lost summer. The musician Nick Cave once said, “If you look around, complacency is the great disease of your autumn years, and I work hard to prevent that.” Similarly, the poet Robert Browning once said that, “Autumn wins you best by this its mute appeal to sympathy for its decay.”

I myself prefer the attitude of the Paul Laurence Dunbar, who at Pub Quiz we recently discovered authored “Sympathy,” the poem that begins with these recognizable lines:

I know what the caged bird feels, alas!

When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;

When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,

And the river flows like a stream of glass;

When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,

And the faint perfume from its chalice steals—

I know what the caged bird feels!

I favor the far less well-known Dunbar poem celebrates the Autumn of temperate Davis rather than, say, the mountainous and rainy Lake District of northwest England, a poem titled “Merry Autumn.” Here it is, in its entirety:

Merry Autumn by Paul Laurence Dunbar

It’s all a farce, — these tales they tell

About the breezes sighing,

And moans astir o’er field and dell,

Because the year is dying.

Such principles are most absurd, —

I care not who first taught ’em;

There’s nothing known to beast or bird

To make a solemn autumn.

In solemn times, when grief holds sway

With countenance distressing,

You’ll note the more of black and gray

Will then be used in dressing.

Now purple tints are all around;

The sky is blue and mellow;

And e’en the grasses turn the ground

From modest green to yellow.

The seed burrs all with laughter crack

On featherweed and jimson;

And leaves that should be dressed in black

Are all decked out in crimson.

A butterfly goes winging by;

A singing bird comes after;

And Nature, all from earth to sky,

Is bubbling o’er with laughter.

The ripples wimple on the rills,

Like sparkling little lasses;

The sunlight runs along the hills,

And laughs among the grasses.

The earth is just so full of fun

It really can’t contain it;

And streams of mirth so freely run

The heavens seem to rain it.

Don’t talk to me of solemn days

In autumn’s time of splendor,

Because the sun shows fewer rays,

And these grow slant and slender.

Why, it’s the climax of the year,—

The highest time of living!—

Till naturally its bursting cheer

Just melts into thanksgiving.

It will be a while before our days melt into thanksgiving. Today students moving into the dorms will do a different sort of melting. Perhaps they will join us tonight as we all cool off with a refreshing beverage and the company of good friends at the Pub Quiz. See you then.

And were you expecting hints for tonight’s quiz? Tonight on the Pub Quiz expect questions about female standouts, criminal masterminds, China and Costa Rica, alliterative names, representing war, UC Davis competing with the Ivies, hairs, Donald Trump, Canadians in show business, competitive sports, the three layers, horses, the Aggies, winners and losers, Ernest Hemingway, reservoirs, 1970 studies on Rhesus monkeys, memories of Austria, lovely places, notable visitors, kingpins, democratic push-back, men and women (five questions), biographies, insoles made of wheat, Marvel comics, record-breakers, the arts and such, space travel, science, and Shakespeare.

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Mottos and Slogans. “Must-see TV” referred to shows on what TV network?

Internet Culture. What company has the largest market share in the streaming media box industry, accounting for 34% of all streaming devices sold in the United States in 2014?

Gargoyles. Grotesque beasts perched on the sides of old buildings should technically only be called gargoyles if they perform what function?

Glenn Close. Oscar nominated actress Glenn Close plays Nova Prime in what 2014 film?

Great Americans. Who was born in 1786 in Tennessee and died March 6, 1836 in San Antonio, Texas?

P.S. Happy birthday today to Bobby Nord, the New Hampshire musician and philosopher who inspires autumnal merriment wherever he goes.

P.P.S. If you attend the 50% off sale at Logos Books on 2^nd Street today, consider purchasing something fancy that could be given away as swag at a future pub quiz. At some point swag-winners will tire of going home with my Bruce Willis DVDs.

The “what do we make of the wind?” edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on September 14, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

The strong winds from this morning suggest change, most immediately a welcome change to fall-like temperatures.

With two raging and destructive fires burning homes and forcing evacuations in northern California, we think of what the winds mean to the firefighters, scrambling to dowse the tinder-dry fuel that our desiccated state has become. To many, favorite places are burning. Lake County’s Harbin Hot Springs, for example, a clothing-optional resort and workshop center, was known for its tranquil pools and wooded pathways. It was a place to escape the noise and rush of work responsibilities.

But no more. Today’s SFGate presents evidence of the worst-possible news for fans of this retreat: “the classic 19th-century springs and New Age healing retreat was leveled when the fast-moving Valley Fire tore through here Saturday.” The accompanying photographs are dispiriting.

Examine the fickle wind. Every birthday we blow out candles, but we also know that a blacksmith uses bellows to grow intensify his fire. As Roger de Bussy-Rabutin once said in a different context, “Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it inflames the great.”

Each of us must decide how to face the winds of change. Some of us might consider ourselves modern Elizabeths. Elizabeth I said, “Though the sex to which I belong is considered weak, you will nevertheless find me a rock that bends to no wind.” Soon thereafter a storm helped destroy the threat of the Spanish Armada, as if Elizabeth herself could wield the winds, Storm-style.

Bruce Lee looked at the wind differently, saying, “Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.” Bruce Lee believed that we should train ourselves to have a “mind like water.”

As a poet and a rapid bicyclist who finds myself inspired by a cool breeze on a September morning, I stand instead with William Butler Yeats: “Come Fairies, take me out of this dull world, for I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame!”

There’s that flame again. Like our brave firefighters, that thin red line standing between us and new and ever more destructive conflagrations, we have trouble escaping the wind, and the symbiotic flames that accompany them. I invite you to choose your own metaphor: what sort of wind are you, or do you face, on this squally day?

Although it will not include the word “squally,” tonight’s Pub Quiz will touch on one of the topics raised above, as well as the state of being among schoolchildren, Sacramento, common greetings, boxes, UC Davis, grotesque beasts, streams, snow days without snow, people born in Greenwich, attributes of old buildings, Corinth, automobiles, MVPs, names that many prefer not to speak, starters, patient wives, metaphorical trains, astronomy, former Episcopals, archipelagos, famous rear admirals, the west (to some), castaways, big cities, Oscar-winning actresses, blarney softeners, three-letter acronyms (or TLAs), robots, world leaders, cathedrals, journeys from Tennessee to Texas, apparati, Kanye, blockbusters, early novelists, Irish culture, geography, and Shakespeare.

Come out of the wind, escape the smoke, and join us tonight at the Pub Quiz. At times of change, we need rituals to keep us centered, and our Monday night ritual works best when you participate.

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Mottos and Slogans. The company Smashbox has used the slogan “We Only Test on Party Animals.” What C word best describes the product or industry of Smashbox?

Internet Culture. The iPad was first released the same year as the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Name the (even) year.

Newspaper Headlines. Sarah Palin said in a recent interview that immigrants to the U.S. should learn to speak what “language” that starts with the letter A?

Penguins. Dreamworks is responsible for penguins that are most associated with what country?

Sports. Klay Thompson scored a record 37 points in the 3rd quarter of a game against the Sacramento Kings on January 23, 2015. For what team was Thompson playing?

P.S. Please come join us at Poetry Night Thursday. We will feature poet Josh Fernandez and storyteller Jodi Angel, both with recent books, and both with outrageous and meaningful stories to tell. Esquire Magazine called Angel’s book You Only Get Letters from Jail a “book of the summer.” And people who don’t know him follow Josh Fernandez on Facebook to take delight in his outrageous posts.

Poetry Night meets on first and third Thursdays at 521 First Street, the John Natsoulas Gallery, at 8 PM. The after party returns to the Irish Pub at 10 that night.

The Labor Day Wedding Anniversary Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on September 7, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Kate and I got married on a Monday, a Labor Day, way back in 1992, at the beginning of a new political era in our country, and a new and particularly lucky era in my personal life, one that has lasted 23 years so far (and one that will surely outlive one of us). We chose Labor Day because of our progressive roots and inclinations, and because we wanted to spend as much of that long weekend as possible with our far-flung friends and family. They descended by car and plane (one of them self-piloted) upon the tiny Illinois village of Hinsdale, 20 miles outside Chicago, most of them to meet those from the other side of the wedding aisle for the first time.

Kate’s father officiated. My brother Oliver was my best man. My uncle Chuck was our back-up photographer. Run like a Quaker meeting, the ceremony featured short speeches and poems (and one epic poem) by members of the congregation, including five of our seven parents, Kate’s grandmother, and about half-dozen friends. The momentousness of that day hung in the air like the low storm clouds, threatening rain above Katherine Legge Memorial Park, and those assembled knew that this was their one chance.

It was also my one and only chance. Never in high school, and never in my first years of college, had I found cause to hope to date, live with, and/or marry someone so beautiful, or so disarmingly funny and kind. A chance encounter in London, where we regrettably never attended a pub quiz, dramatically improved everything about my life, and a mere five years later, I was dancing to the music of the B-52s in a Hinsdale lodge like a madman with joy, or slow-dancing with Kate with relief and devotion, surrounded by all who were important to us.

I am grateful to have had Kate beside me, and usually in my arms, during the challenges that life has thrown our way, and to have had her inhabit our continually shared discovery and laughter. My best decision ever was to marry Kate, and our second-best was to have our children. Beyond that, as I look into Kate’s eyes, the rest of my decisions fast-fade into history. For me, on September 7^th, this yearly day of celebration and remembrance is a benchmark of my life’s joy and gratitude.

Happy anniversary, Kate!

Tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on one of the topics I raised above, as well as party animals, languages, beavers, spilled oil, flightless birds, machetes, the British Royal Nancy, sweet showers, former Harvard professors, cracking eggs, an inspector named Columbo, sluggers, important visits, Hogwarts, snakes amid the rocks, the Olympics, Ptolemy, productivity, tamability, my soul that has grown deep like the rivers, New Year’s Eve, unrealized promise, Academy Award nominees, carbohydrates, reality TV, state capitals, davenports, commercial law, Ireland, world cities, and Shakespeare.

I hope you can join us tonight. September marks a new season of the Pub Quiz, and you really shouldn’t miss a single Monday.

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Mottos and Slogans. Starting with the letter C, what Danish brewing company, now the fifth largest brewing group in the world, abandoned the slogan “Probably the Best Beer in the World” for its original, “That Calls for a BLANK”?

Newspaper Headlines. President Obama formally announced today that the tallest mountain in North America is being renamed “Denali.” What has been the official name of the mountain since 1917?

Actors and Actresses. The man who had second billing in Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, considered by many to be the greatest American film ever, had first billing in The Third Man, considered by many to be the greatest British film ever. Name this American actor whose last name starts with C.

Our Border with Canada. The U.S. Border with Canada is the longest in the world. Is it closest to 1,500 miles, 3,500 miles, 5,500, or 7,500 miles?

Math. Counting the driver, there are seven people in a Greyhound bus traveling at 67 miles per hour from Davis to Portland. Each of the people in the bus, including the driver, has seven cages. In each cage, there are seven large cats. For each large cat, there are seven kittens. Here’s your question: How many legs are there in the bus?

The Whimsy and Bicycling Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on August 31, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Although he grew up in Indiana, and thus played lots of basketball as a youth, bicycling was my father’s “sport” of choice in the 1970s. He owned a black, steel Raleigh bicycle with a raised seat to account for his unusually long legs. There was a leather bike bag attached to the back of his seat, and, behind that, a tiny bike seat. I’m sure that seat would not be legal today, and frankly now that I think of it, I don’t remember my dad or me wearing a helmet during those years. Despite the fact that the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) would have taken away my dad’s bicycling license if they were to see us rumbling down 35^th Street, past one of former president Kennedy’s Georgetown mansions, we spent many weekend mornings on that route, the best way to Fletcher’s Boathouse. That’s where we would catch the towpath along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, a vestige from an earlier age before locomotives when mules would tow freight boats along the canal.

Just today I learned that “Most freight boats on the C&O Canal were approximately 95 feet long and 14.5 feet wide while most locks were 100 feet long and 15 feet wide. This left boat captains little margin for error as they steered their boats into the locks, trying to avoid the $5.00 fine for damaging lock masonry.” The National Park Service website with this important information also reminds us that “All hikers and bikers must yield the right of way to horses and mules.” (Our bike paths in Davis can sometimes get crowded, but usually mules are not among the hazards we face.)

My dad and I spent hundreds of hours together biking along those 185 miles of Maryland and Virginia towpaths, which is still one of the largest biking trails in the country. Towards the end of his life dad would tell the story of how, towards the conclusion of an overly-ambitious ride, I would reach out my four or five-year-old hand and rest it on his back, giving him a bit of comfort and strength just at the moment when he strength was flagging. If I still lived in DC, I would investigate how I might arrange for a brick or plaque to be put up along one of those paths: “Davey Marlin-Jones biked past everything you see here, and his son was grateful for every mile.”

Fast forward more than 40 years, and today everyone in my “new” hometown Davis is riding a bicycle, or should be. The city has been named the most bicycle friendly town in the United States by the League of American Bicyclists, and we are home to the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame. Obviously this is the city for me, for I have adopted my father’s sport (though with his casual attention to recreation, rather than, say, competition).

Our city’s most dynamic proponent of bicycling, Peter Wagner, was celebrated by the Davis City Council on the occasion of his 60^th birthday (in 2012), and Wagner’s Whymcycles are to be seem in every important Davis parade or event, most famously in the Picnic Day Parade. I find it strange, then, that the same City of Davis that celebrated Peter Wagner’s bicycles just a few years ago has now sent him a formal request to remove those bikes from his property. Doesn’t this local inventor, substitute teacher, and celebrated Davis bicycling champion deserve some consideration in this matter? I left a message with Code Enforcement Office Amy Juarez this morning, asking that some accommodation could be found. Certainly we as Davisites should consider how we might come to Peter Wagner’s defense. I invite you to review some of the primary documents in this unfortunate matter on the Peter Wagner page on Davis Wiki.

I almost approached Peter Wagner to ask him for some help with a particular biking challenge. My 14 year old son Jukie, now 115 pounds heavy, has been busting the tires on the ride-along bikes that we have attached to mine so that he could join the family on bike rides. Ken of Ken’s Bike and Ski correctly called Jukie “differently-abled”: he’s a kid who loves bicycling but doesn’t have the wherewithal to pedal, much less steer, a bike. And he’s too big now to sit on a “third wheel” behind my two wheels. So far this year, we have taken family bike rides in shifts, with Jukie watching wistfully from the window.

Well, this past weekend we stopped by one of our city’s many bike stores to check out a cargo bike fitted with a soft seat behind mine, and a securely-fastened steel ring to hold on to (I never had a steel ring on my Dad’s old Raleigh). As soon as Jukie figured out what we were considering, Jukie ran into the bike store and came out with a helmet, his way of saying that he wanted again to feel the freedom and exhilaration of a bike ride in Davis.

We bought a bright red Yuba Boda Boda 8 cargo bike, and I spent much of the weekend riding that boy around town. Saturday we explored South Davis, and Sunday we rode it out to the Unitarian Universalist Church to see my colleague Dr. Karma Waltonen provide the sermon: “The Sacrilicious Spirituality of the Simpsons.” For this family of bicyclists, all sorts of adventures are again available to us, and I am getting just the (intense) workout I need, especially hauling Jukie up to the top of the Pole Line Road Overpass, one of the best places in Davis to watch a summer sunset from the seat of your bicycle.

Tonight expect questions on the Statistic Brain Research Institute, maidservants, gridiron standouts, elective office, regrettable transitions, magma, China, ocean cities, Northern Irishmen, the Olympics, distinctive hats, SportsNet, shows I’ve never watched, small maritime disasters, the uncanny, high-power nachos, beer choices, blogging, the major, southwestern states, math problems involving animals on Greyhounds, basketball, pretty flowers, presidents, marine life, U.S. Geography, movies about toys, makeup cabinets, Oscar nominees, instant classics, hot topics, Maya Angelou, sports, Star Wars, and Shakespeare.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz comes at a time of transition. Many leases end tonight, and about an equal number of new ones start tomorrow. The beginning of the new Pub Quiz “season,” tonight we can start work together to find new teams and new players to replace those who, regrettably, are moving away from Davis.

I hope to see you this evening!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Mottos and Slogans. “Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal” is the current commercial slogan for Cheerios. Which has been the best selling variety for years now: regular Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, or Multi-Grain Cheerios?

U.S. States. In 1918, what was the last state to enact a compulsory school attendance law? Hint: The state produces the majority of farm-raised catfish consumed in the United States.

Birthright Citizenship. What infamous Supreme Court decision, authored by Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, a former pro-slavery Attorney General under President Andrew Jackson, concluded that African Americans could not be U.S. citizens even if they were born free on American soil?

Four for Four. The headquarters of which of the following branches of the U.S. military, if any, is found in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia? The U.S. Air Force, The U.S. Army, The U.S. Marine Corps, The U.S. Navy.

Pop Culture – Music. Born in 1958, what recording artist who has appeared in 21 films and has sold over 250 million records worldwide was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, 2008?

The Patriot Games on French Trains Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on August 24, 2015

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Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Near the start of the 1992 film Patriot Games, retired CIA agent Jack Ryan is vacationing with his family in London when he encounters members of a radical IRA splinter group attacking and attempting to kidnap members of the British royal family. An American, Ryan charges into the gunfight, tackles and disarms one of the terrorists, shoots another, and disrupts the plot before the authorities arrive to restore order. The result of this heroism? The Queen of England makes him a member of The Royal Victorian Order, which I found a strange honor for an American, and a number of armed and vengeful Irishmen seek to have a word with him back in the states. As I recently discovered, Patriot Games is available for streaming on Netflix.

Saving royals is typical for an American in Europe, the Tom Clancy film seems to tell us. This self-congratulatory idea of “American exceptionalism” comes up in high school AP American history classes, and in Republican debates. The President whose party brought us birthright citizenship, Abraham Lincoln, asserted in his Gettysburg Address that our country was “conceived in liberty,” and since then (and before, as we can see in the writings of Alexis de Tocqueville), pundits have asserted that our country is like that “city upon a hill” whose light cannot be hidden.

Of course, doesn’t every country think it is special, and perhaps the most special? History has presented us with (some) haughty Parisians who scoffed at all others, (some) bellicose Germans who believed that a master race of proto-Aryans came were descended from residents of Atlantis, and (some) citizens of homogeneous Japan who believe that outsider visitors cannot act with sufficient decorum and respect. Our pop culture favorites have commented upon such nationalistic chauvinism, as well. The national anthem sung by Borat reminds us that “Kazakhstan [is the] number one exporter of potassium! / Other countries have inferior potassium.” We smile as we agree with Geoff Mulgan, the Chief Executive of the (British) National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts, who once said that “All of nationalism can be understood as a kind of collective narcissism.”

That said, I found myself swelling with nationalistic pride this past weekend when reading about the young men from Sacramento who, like Jack Ryan in Patriot Games, stepped up to stop the terrorists when Europeans needed them to. As you no doubt have heard, three locals are being celebrated by the heads of the U.S. and French governments because of their quick thinking. This is how the story began in Saturday’s Sacramento Bee:

Three childhood friends from the Sacramento area were hailed as international heroes Saturday after thwarting a gunman armed with an assault rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. French officials said the man was planning mass murder on a high-speed train bound from Amsterdam to Paris.

Anthony Sadler, Spencer Stone and Alek Skarlatos, who had known each other since middle school, said they first heard shattering glass, then realized a man was brandishing an assault rifle in the train aisle. They jumped into action.

“My friend Alek just told Spencer, ‘Go get him,’” and “Spencer gets up in a split second and runs down the car and arrests the guy before he can shoot,” Sadler told reporters Saturday.

The three men, with help from another passenger, tackled the gunman, wrestled him to the ground, then hogtied him, saving themselves and other passengers.

This morning those three young American men were awarded the Legion d’honneur (Legion of Honor), France’s highest decoration, by French President François Hollande. As I said to my wife yesterday, it was a good thing that some Americans were nearby when a terrorist was loading his guns and looking for trouble. Peggy Noonan once wrote in The Wall Street Journal that “America is not exceptional because it has long attempted to be a force for good in the world; it attempts to be a force for good because it is exceptional.”

It’s not every day that I agree with Peggy Noonan or the Wall Street Journal, but when it comes to heroic and exceptional young men from the Central Valley of California, I find myself swelling with patriotic pride and gratitude.

Thanks to local reporter and editor David Greenwald for publishing a slightly different version of today’s newsletter in today’s People’s Vanguard of Davis. You might check out that version to see how locals have commented on my musings.

Tonight’s pub quiz will touch upon one or more topics that I have raised above, as well as foreign princes, the live-ball era, critiques from Angelinos, sleepy rabbits, periodic mathematics, cities in the news, Oscar Wilde, popular TV shows, King Tut, superheroes, musicals, tick tock Clarice, George McGovern’s nuked owl toy, Barney & Friends, famous alumni, praising that which is praiseworthy, common symptoms, that which is razor-thin, birthright citizenship, school attendance, expected and unexpected sports, winners of Academy Awards, what films make, women in film, the Commonwealth of Virginia, reprehensible slogans, breakfast cereal, and Shakespeare.

Thanks to all of you who attend our Pub Quiz every week. Last time some teams were told at 6:15 that all the tables had been claimed, so I encourage you to arrive earlier than usual. For some, tonight will be the last chance to participate under their current lease, so I expect a bit more calmness next week. And as the poet Josiah Gilbert Holland teaches us, “Calmness is the cradle of power.” See you tonight!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Internet Culture. What is the last name of the CEO of Amazon.com?

Southern Generals. What did Robert E. Lee do after the Civil War? A) He fled the U.S. for England, B) he moved to a large estate in Atlanta, C) he became the president of Washington University, or D) he spent two years in prison for treason.

Great American Cities. Bicycling magazine ranked the top 50 bicycling cities of 100,000 or more people. Name one of the top three.

Four for Four. Which of the following cities, if any, are found in El Dorado County? Placerville, Roseville, South Lake Tahoe, Truckee.

Unusual Words. The phrase “Ta Moko” refers to tattoos worn by what indigenous people whose name starts with M?

P.S. Thanks for reading to the end. Here is a welcome comment from a favorite Pub Quiz regular: “I too felt a moment of irrational pride when the three bros got their medals and a kiss from President Hollande – I also hope they’ll get some kisses from Les Demoiselles, too. However, I have seen far too much of the terror American Exceptionalism has wrought on this continent and beyond our shores to celebrate what they and few older gentlemen did on this train as its example. From the press accounts the French, British and American travelers did what they did as a manifestation of a human and humane instinct to protect their friends and total strangers from a criminal intent on mass murder. We should instead celebrate this moment as one in which shared humanity and cosmopolitain citizenship defeated barbarism and a hateful ideology. Our side – civilization and humanity – won this one, not America.”

The Julian Bond and Confronting Transphobia Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on August 17, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I was really touched by what Barack Obama said in a speech to the President at the NAACP Conference at Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia last month. This long excerpt is worth a read:

What the marchers on Washington knew, what the marchers in Selma knew, what folks like Julian Bond knew, what the marchers in this room still know, is that justice is not only the absence of oppression, it is the presence of opportunity. Justice is giving every child a shot at a great education no matter what zip code they’re born into. Justice is giving everyone willing to work hard the chance at a good job with good wages, no matter what their name is, what their skin color is, where they live. Justice is living up to the common creed that says, I am my brother’s keeper and my sister’s keeper. Justice is making sure every young person knows they are special and they are important and that their lives matter — not because they heard it in a hashtag, but because of the love they feel every single day not just love from their parents, not just love from their neighborhood, but love from police, love from politicians. Love from somebody who lives on the other side of the country, but says, that young person is still important to me. That’s what justice is.

The Julian Bond that President Obama mentioned here came to speak to a history class that Howard Zinn taught me and about 200 of my Boston University classmates back in 1986. Bond spoke of his work as the first president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and as an activist who was the first African American to be nominated as a major-party candidate for Vice President of the United States (which he declined, being merely 28 years old in 1968). Bond inspired me and many others that day, and with his work later in life as President of the NAACP. Jesse Jackson once said that when Bond was sworn into the Georgia legislature, despite his opposition to the war in Vietnam, “He became our version of (Nelson) Mandela.” He passed away Saturday at the age of 75 after a lifetime of struggle for justice.

I wrote in a previous pub quiz newsletter about the logic and yet the ongoing tension inherent in linking the LGBT rights movement to the civil rights movement. Many of us who were too young to march for civil rights in the 1960s haven’t been too young or too old to march for gay rights in the 2010s, and before. Offering context for these struggles, I’ve heard pundits on political talk shows and students in UC Davis classrooms point out that in the 1960s Americans practiced a sort of casual racism that manifested itself in racist jokes, incidental discrimination, and police harassment. We might point out that although this sort of racism is still widespread today, most of us would be brave enough to confront it forcefully should we be given a chance.

But what about homophobia and transphobia? (I should stop to point out that although we all know what transphobia is, and that it can be found in Oxford dictionaries, Microsoft Word still tells me that the word doesn’t exist, that I need to add it to my dictionary. Done.) Would we all be as comfortable confronting the buffoon telling a homophobic joke or transphobic joke as we would the buffoon telling a racist joke?

With these questions in mind, last night Kate and I had an opportunity to act on our principles. As two members of my family suffer from asthma, with my daughter actually wheezing yesterday, we found ourselves driving east to escape the Davis air and heat, and found ourselves at Lake Tahoe. As Harvey’s Lake Tahoe Casino was only about three blocks from our hotel, Kate and I strolled over last night to catch the comedy show. Following two hilarious comedians who made all sorts of outrageous and edgy jokes, including good-naturedly insulting people in the audience (but not us, regrettably), the third “headliner” comedian stumbled over his opening, and then told a number of jokes that surprised us with the ferocity of his homophobia and transphobia.

Caitlin Jenner jokes are commonplace in some circles, I suppose, but this comedian used the occasion to present an extended argument that transgender people are not entitled to their feelings, to self-identification, and, by extension, to a community of supporters. He went so far as to suggest that transgender people in effect do not exist. As Kate and I sat in the middle of the front row, we searched this performer’s routine for relevance, for humanity, or for comedy. Having found none of these three, we walked out.

Since then the comedian in question has responded to my statement on Twitter that “transphobia is not funny,” saying, “The crowd couldn’t wait for you leave! We had GREAT TIME:) Please walk out of all my shows!:).”

Some might say that Kate and I were merely being multi-culturally over-sensitive, that we were trying to impose some sort of Davis political correctness upon comedians whose job it is to provoke and to offend. Jerry Seinfeld has recently expressed concern that “political correctness will destroy comedy.” And director Lars Van Trier has said that, “Political correctness kills discussion.” As someone whose life as a poet, professor, and broadcaster benefits daily from the First Amendment to the Constitution, I wonder if our own political concerns and sensitivities function to limit the absolutely free expression of the full spectrum of ideas, including those that challenge our primary values of inclusivity and compassion.

Nevertheless, I’m glad we walked out. One of the best ways to confront hatred and intolerance is to remove the audience of those who present such feelings as normal or funny. In Davis we pride ourselves on being ahead of the times when it comes to confronting institutionalized racism (in our response to Apartheid South Africa), and, in other arenas, to widespread sexism, homophobia, and transphobia. I look forward to the rest of the country catching up with us!

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions about cameras, explosions, indigenous peoples, El Dorado County, WJLA interviews, famous pictures, Jarzabkowski, nautical characters, strips, countries in Europe, Irish shades, bow ties, warcraft, paid digital downloads, strategies for avoiding biting insects, The Fantasticks, rendering, The Ugly Duckling by A. A. Milne, harmony, comedic spinoffs, an endless journey, tattoos, cities with more than 100,000 people in them, Muhammad Ali, Virginia heroes, real estate, Irish culture, and Shakespeare.

I hope to see you this evening, no matter the temperature nor the air quality. Let’s pack the house!

Your Quizmaster