Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

According to a story I heard on National Public Radio recently, the recent surge in the polls for Democrats has as much to do with science as it does ideology. More specifically, the scientific analysis of elections, also known as psephology, allows analysts to determine how best to encourage potential partisans to vote. Evidently Democrats have a big advantage in this field because of all the academics needed to get results – some of them leave graduate school for Washington think tanks, and they know how to work with data. I’m sure that in a few years the Republicans will catch up, but it may take them longer to build the armies of volunteers willing to walk precincts on behalf of their candidates. Until then, depending on what happens in the world and at the Presidential debates, the TPM Electoral Scoreboard may seem predictive as well as descriptive. What’s your favorite swing state?

 

The competing tool that Republicans are using is the new voting law. A study revealed yesterday by The Advancement Project reveals that “New voting laws in 23 of the 50 states could keep more than 10 million Hispanic U.S. citizens from registering and voting, . . . a number so large it could affect the outcome of the November 6 election.” A recent article in Harvard Magazine points out that “Several states, including Florida (once again, a battleground), have effectively closed down registration drives by organizations like the League of Women Voters, which have traditionally helped to register new voters; some states are shortening early-voting periods or prohibiting voting on the Sunday before election day; several are insisting that registrants provide documentary proof of their citizenship.” Even though “The Republican National Lawyers Association in a study found only 340 cases of voter fraud [in the U.S.] over the course of a decade,” as I learned from an August airing of The Daily Show, Fox News helpfully has a “Voter Fraud Unit” to protect all of us. Bill Clinton must not be watching Fox News, for he calls this obsession with fraud a form of vote suppression, and feels that the vote suppression tactics are targeting black churches and the elderly. Don’t the elderly constitute a large part of Romney’s base?

 

By the way, imagine if after mentioning swing states in the newsletter I were to actually ask you a question tonight about the meaning of the word “psephology.” It comes from the Greek word for “pebble,” which the ancients used to use as ballots. A question about “psephology” is known among quizmasters as a “tomato topic,” in that its obscurity would inspire participants to throw tomatoes (in Italy, pomodoros) in protest (and perhaps accuse me of another sort of voter suppression). One of my jobs is to challenge you intellectually – to tax your memory, logic, and learning – without exasperating you with the unfairness or the straightforwardness of my questions. That way, you can leave the tomatoes to the professionals in the kitchen at de Vere's Irish Pub in Davis.

 

Like out politicians, we expect pub quiz questions to draw us in, but neither to mystify nor condescend to us. It’s a challenging balancing act. As the poet Rumi puts it, “Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds' wings.” Perhaps e. e. cummings had Rumi’s words in mind when he wrote “(i do not know what it is about you that closes / and opens;only something in me understands / the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses).”

 

Tonight’s quiz will include political questions, comfortable movements, the dawn of butterflies and the dusk of marriage, US states, watches and watching, retail sales, rock and roll heroes, teams that start with the letter B, Greek dawns, face cards, bicycle commuting, counties, The Library of Congress, Andy Griffith as Andy Taylor, effective DJs, nabbed fathers, breaking news, the 47%, rodents’ dentition, New England, poverty, employment, mathematics (hi Elaine!), dryer Londons, countries of the world, caterpillars, Irish culture, birth cities, children’s literature, doctor fathers, resignations, “name the sport,” the distance between Davis and DC, and Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In fact, I will go ahead and reveal that if you carefully reread Hamlet between now and 7 pm, you should be able to answer the Shakespeare question correctly. I keep the Collected Works of Shakespeare on my iPhone 4S for just such a literature-related exigency.

 

I’m excited for the students to return. Howabout you? I’m sure they will help to fill the Irish Pub tonight, for their responsibilities don’t begin until Thursday, if even then. As for tonight, come early to claim a table.

 

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster

http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

 

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

 

5.         Celebrity Birthdays. 50 Cent and Drew Barrymore were born the same year that Saturday Night Live premiered. With a one-year margin of error, name the year. 

 

6.         Famous Names. My research reveals that all of the following last names belong to famous people who share a first name. What is that first name? Lopez, Marchand, McKeon, Reagan, Walker, Wilson. 

 

7.         Pop Culture – Music. What are the five letters in the name of the electropop duo that had a big hit in 2011 with "Sexy and I Know It"? 

 

8.         Sports.   How many minutes are there in each quarter of an NBA basketball game? 

 

9.         Science.   Usually found on the underside of a spider's abdomen, to the rear, what three-syllable word do we use for a spider’s silk-spinning organ? 

 

 

P.S. Thanks for making it to the end of a particularly long newsletter. I try to keep these under 1,000 words to leave you some time on a Monday to read some Shakespeare.

Posted via email from yourquizmaster’s posterous

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Last Monday, just before Pub Quiz, I was interviewed by News 10 via Skype. Somehow at News 10 they know they can call me for a quote or a comment whenever there is an internet-related news story. I’m considered an expert on such topics because of my 12-year old radio talk show that covers technology, and because of my long tenure teaching at UC Davis, including seven or so years teaching for the Technocultural Studies Program. I may be in someone’s old Rolodex, for Emmy-winning reporter George Warren from News 10 interviewed me back in 1992 as a follow-up to my appearance (along with my new bride) on a national TV show to talk about the way that we met.

           

As this was my first interview via Skype, I appreciated the coaching from the reporter and producers that contacted me. They suggested, for instance, that I remove the teddy bear from the frame where I was sitting in my son Truman’s room. Once the interview started, I learned to stop checking to see how I looked on camera, and just stared into the eyes of the reporter as I spoke, as if she were in the room with me.

           

That night after Pub Quiz I got to see myself on the news, and found that I had been joined by an unexpected costar. Evidently as I was animatedly gesturing while offering insights about the day’s disastrous GoDaddy outage, I had unknowingly shifted the laptop. During my short clip on the news one could plainly see the top of my head as well as the Winnie the Pooh poster behind me. It looked very professional. Time to invest in a tripod!

 

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on international urban geography, so people who have traveled outside the United States will have a distinct advantage. You might make room for such a person on your team tonight. Expect also questions on internet culture, Korea, cable news, flowers (x2), abductions, TV shows that premiered in the 1970s and are still on the air, people named Lopez, electropop, the NBA, arachnids, famous people born in states where Romney has about a 15% lead in the polls, easy targets, voting blocs, Greek mythology, petroleum, judges, mononyms, poncho clips, popular destinations, existential questions about flight, Jody Foster films, Irishmen, melons, Joe Biden, Diet Coke, anchors, underdogs, new titles in Shakespeare plays, and Swedish exports.

 

I hope to see you this evening. Until school starts next week, we will all have a bit of breathing room at the Pub Quiz. Nevertheless, come early to claim a table.

 

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster

http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

 

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

 

1.         Important-Sounding Brits. Was Thomas Henry Huxley a famous British Actor, Biologist, Novelist, or Politician? 

 

2.         Pop Culture – Music. What are the last two words of the title of the current Taylor Swift hit that begins with the words “We Are Never Ever Getting”?    

 

3.         Sports.   On the 21st of what month this year did the NBA Finals conclude, with a big win for the Miami Heat? 

 

4.         Science.   According to scientists and other thoughtful people, what insect is the most dangerous animal on earth? 

 

5.         Great Americans.  William Penn and the pirate known as Blackbeard both died in the same year. Name the century. 

 

 

 

P.S. This coming Thursday is Poetry Night in the city of Davis, so I hope all of you can join me for a reading by Alice Jones (no relation) at the John Natsoulas Gallery. A poet, physician, and psychoanalyst, Jones has seen her work published in myriad journals, magazines, and anthologies, including Ploughshares, Poetry, The Boston Review, The Denver Quarterly, Antioch Review, and Chelsea. Her honors include fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference and from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1994, her work was included in The Best American Poetry, so she’s a big deal. Her newest book is titled Plunge. The reading starts at 8 Thursday, the open mic at 9, and the after-party at de Vere’s at 10. Join us for any or all of these events, and find details at http://www.poetryindavis.com. I’m trying to convince Joe Biden to call the Poetry Night Reading Series the “most powerful force in American poetry.” I’ll let you know when that happens.

Posted via email from yourquizmaster’s posterous

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

 

            It takes some brass to add 2,300 words to one’s keynote nominating speech at the Democratic National Convention. As someone who speaks from a prepared text every Monday evening, I enjoy adding asides, but I doubt I could ever begin to approximate the flair of Bill Clinton, who has been compared to a jazz musician many times since Wednesday evening. Here’s an example by Nathaniel Stein in The New Yorker: “Clinton is such a master of rhetorical strategy—he commands such innate and reflexive mastery of what makes the spoken word resonate—that he cannot help but improve his speech as he gives it. He doesn’t ad lib in the sense that extras in a movie have a restaurant conversation. He improvises, in the sense that Miles Davis or Beethoven would come up with an enduring work of art on the spot.”

            And unlike the opposition between poetry and prose that I explored in last week’s newsletter, I felt that Bill Clinton was rather using the tools of the story-teller, or the preacher. Not many “zingers” in that speech, just a lot of folksy explaining. And now on the campaign trail President Obama is emulating his predecessor, better “explaining” the flaws he sees in Republican plans and policies (He has also been explaining hip-hop music to the uninitiated). Who knows if Obama will be able to sustain his post-convention momentum, but at least the early polls are encouraging for his supporters.

            George Herbert Walker Bush is the favorite Bush in our house, for he was always kind and jokesy with my Dad when they would run into each other at the same video store in the 1980s. Coincidentally, when the then Vice President asked my Dad for film recommendations (Bush knew my Dad from seeing him review movies on TV), Dad recommended the films of Clint Eastwood. The coincidence comes not only from the prominent Eastwood empty chair speech, but because evidently a few years after his conversation with my Dad, the elder Bush considered choosing Clint Eastwood as his running mate.

            The elder Bush was also president when, 20 years ago this week, I married my dear bride and best friend, Kate. She and I enjoyed an anniversary escape to Lake Tahoe this past weekend. Joining us in that escape were our three kids and the bulldog. Happy anniversary, Kate!

            Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on addictive snacks, Irving Berlin, healthy choices, famous Brits, Microsoft, breakups, the Miami Heat, bugs, pirates, sharpness, superhero movies, zoos, police procedurals, rock and roll icons, solar hernias and other maladies, Nevada, St. Louis, enjoying the scenery, winter Olympics, Wendy’s inventor, Hitchcock films, Irish culture, malfunctions, the iPhone, labor, grandmas, cigarettes, four Richards, apparati, local memoirists, the NFL, and the last lines of Shakespeare’s plays.

 

See you this evening! I hope you can come early to claim a table.

 

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster

http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

 

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

 

1.         Mottos and Slogans.    What six-letter company uses the commercial slogan “Because you’re worth it”? 

 

2.         Internet Culture. The game Angry Birds was first released for Apple's iOS in December of what year? 

 

3.         Four for Four.  At his big speech last week, Clint Eastwood said “We don’t need lawyers in the White House.” Which of the following Americans, if any, have law degrees? Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan. 

 

4.         Food and Drink. Bourbon is a type of American whiskey – a barrel-aged distilled spirit made primarily from what grain? 

 

5.         Pop Culture – Music. Last year’s pop song “On the Floor,” one of the best-selling singles of all time, appeared on the seventh album, Love?, of what singer and actress? 

 

 

 

P.S. What’s older than all of the following?

 

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Lollapalooza

Nirvana’s Nevermind

REM’s Out Of Time

Selena Gomez

Hot Shots!

The Death Of Freddie Mercury

Taylor Lautner

Michael Jackson’s “Black Or White”

Disney’s Beauty & The Beast

Thelma And Louise

 

Answer: My marriage!

Posted via email from yourquizmaster’s posterous

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

 

Mario Cuomo once said, “You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.” I was thinking of that quotation this past week while watching the speeches presented at the Republican National Convention. In his acceptance speech, Romney had an interesting line in which he seemed to confront the poetic magic of President Obama’s campaign rhetoric:

 

Many of you felt that [optimistic] way on Election Day four years ago. Hope and Change had a powerful appeal. But tonight I'd ask a simple question:  If you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn’t you feel that way now that he’s President Obama? You know there’s something wrong with the kind of job he’s done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him.

 

Perhaps one of the strongest points Romney made Thursday night, he suggested that many Americans voted for Barack Obama because we were moved by the great speaker’s rhetoric – the poetic sway of his words – and perhaps because we were appealing to what President Lincoln called “The better angels of our nature” by confronting our racist past with our votes for a post-racist (and for many, a post-Bush) future. As we’ve been told many times, President Obama is also likeable.

 

In some ways, Romney’s emphasis seeks to inoculate us against Democratic rhetorical flourishes in the future, and, more specifically, he raises the bar for President Obama’s speech Thursday night. As a poet, I have been reflecting upon the opposition Romney and the RNC insinuate between that which is rhetorical, poetic, or even artsy, and that which is practical and businesslike. I often find myself trying to confront or ignore those commercial interests that seem to obscure the more substantive pleasures of reading, play-going and concert-going, or writing or performing something myself, even a Pub Quiz. We know, for instance, that Romney has said that he will seek to end federal support for the arts if he is elected, saying in a Fortune Magazine interview that he will seek to eliminate “the Amtrak subsidy, the PBS subsidy, the subsidy for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities.” I wonder if the need for such investments in the artistic souls of future entrepreneurs is not more evident than ever.

 

As an educator, by contrast, I agree with Sir Ken Robinson, who argues the value of imagination and creativity. He says,

 

Imagination is not the same as creativity.  Creativity takes the process of imagination to another level.  My definition of creativity is “the process of having original ideas that have value.”  Imagination can be entirely internal.  You could be imaginative all day long without anyone noticing.  But you never say that someone was creative if that person never did anything.  To be creative you actually have to do something.  It involves putting your imagination to work to make something new, to come up with new solutions to problems, even to think of new problems or questions.

 

You can think of creativity as applied imagination.

 

Imagination is necessary, of course, for the playwright, the opera singer, or even the owner of a small business. Thinking about the musicians that matter to her, a colleague of mine recently opined that the Democrats have a “deeper bench,” and I suppose that deep bench of creativity will be on display this week when delegates enjoy performances by Earth, Wind and Fire, The Foo Fighters, and Mary J. Blige. By contrast, I was amused by the long list of evidently Democratic-leaning lyricists who have objected to the Republicans using their songs: Last week Dee Snider of Twisted Sister said “no” to Paul Ryan who wanted to arrive to rallies to “We’re Not Going to Take It,” Survivor earlier said Newt Gingrich could not have their “Eye of the Tiger,” Tom Petty said that Michele Bachmann was not his kind of “American Girl,” and even Bruce Springsteen told President Reagan that he may not use “Born in the USA” at any of his rallies. Do such public refusals and denials by some of our best-known songwriters suggest some central and unrecognized power that creative people have over all of us? All this makes us wonder if, as Percy Shelley once said, “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.”

 

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions about Republicans, creativity, stand-up comedians, birds (x2), iOS, Clint Eastwood, lawyers, food and drink, August disasters, pop songs that didn’t qualify for my “new energy dance mix,” impressive athletes, the Southern Hemisphere, big boys, New Jersey, things that way as much as five tons, California history, trickery, millennials, Atlanta, tattoos, water, classical music, male sinners, movie taglines, Brown hair, Florida, important books of the 1960s, Norse myths, the Irish economy, lists created by The American Film Institute, big impacts, flowers, faraway countries, a Shakespeare question that’s actually about other countries, fatal mishaps, and hay.

 

Bring a big team or two tonight to compensate for those people with Tuesday night conflicts. See you at 7!

 

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster

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yourquizmaster@gmail.com

 

This week’s quiz will be a cake walk compared to last week’s. Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

 

10.       Great Dutchmen. According to Forbes Magazine, making $25 million a year, Tiësto is the highest paid WHAT in the world?

 

11.       Unusual Words. What five-letter word beginning with the letter L means easily understood; completely intelligible or comprehensible?

 

12.       Books and Authors. What Ayn Rand book most inspired Paul Ryan?

 

13.       Pop Culture – Television.     The name of the current anchor of The CBS Evening News is an anagram for PETTY CELLOS. Name him. Hint (for the newsletter): his first name is Scott.

 

14.       Another Music Question. Who had a big hit in 1965 with “The Tracks of My Tears”?

 

 

P.S. This coming Thursday night is Poetry Night in the City of Davis, and I hope you can join us. We will be welcoming poets Cynthia Linville and Christopher Yu on Thursday, September 6^th at 8:00 PM. They will be performing at the John Natsoulas Gallery at 521 1^st Street in Davis. The after-party will begin Thursday night at about 10 at de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis. People who are up late watching President Obama’s speech may come only to the after-party.

 

A former pupil of prominent Sacramento poet Dennis Schmitz, Cynthia Linville has taught English at California State University, Sacramento, since 2000 and served as editor of both Poetry Now (2008-2012), and Convergence: an online journal of poetry and art. She is a regular contributor to the Sacramento News and Review, Medusa’s Kitchen and WTF. She has also appeared in The Sacramento Bee, The Rattlesnake Review, and Song of the San Joaquin. She periodically hosts readings for The Crocker Art Museum, The Vox, and The Sacramento Poetry Center, as well as performances with the group Poetica Erotica.

 

Christopher Yu is a recent graduate of The University of California, Davis, where he earned degrees in both English and Economics. He was among the winners of the 2012 Pamela Maus Prize for Poetry, and hosted the LLAMA Radio Show on KDVS. He studied with poets Joshua Clover and Joe Wenderoth, and his poetry has appeared in the new literary anthology All the Vegetarians in Texas Have Been Shot (2012), from Absurd Publications. Chris Yu has been an occasional Pub Quiz participant, so he deserves your support. I have not asked him what he thinks about Clint Eastwood.

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Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

 

            The end of August marks a significant transition for most renters in Davis, as well as for the Pub Quiz. One reason (among many) that it is so difficult to find an available table at the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz over the summer is that many renters have few summer responsibilities outside of preparing for moving from their beloved adopted hometown. As a result, July and August provide ideal opportunities for them to relish time with friends, enjoy a beverage, and prove to themselves and to the other teams that they have learned something during their years of instruction at UC Davis. Vibrant people who choose not to subordinate their leisure time to one (shrinking) screen or another often prefer to look their friends in the eyes as they rack their brains for a tip-of-the-tongue response to something they feel they should know. The competition, laughter, element of chance and camaraderie provide many summer Davisites moments of instant nostalgia that they can carry to their next lease or to their next adventure outside of our entirely relevant city.

            Once September rolls around, we will see who has remained. Will the fall months pack our Irish Pub the way the summer months have? Will Dr. Andy choose valuable items of swag from the free-for-all yard sale goods found outside every apartment complex in Davis this week? Find the answers to these and many other questions at the de Vere’s Irish Pub Quiz. To September and beyond!

            And speaking of our obsessions with screens, I’m just as guilty as anyone else when it comes to reaching for a smart phone whenever I am off walking by myself, or when I am taking my children trick-or-treating, as portrayed in a famous October 2009 cover illustration of The New Yorker. Because I have impulsive children, I consider myself especially aware of my surroundings, for my first job is to keep them safe. Nevertheless, after Pub Quiz last Monday I didn’t hear that bicyclist speeding down D Street without a light. I was also distracted, while crossing the street, by my cell phone, for I was texting my wife Kate that I’d be right home to help put the kids to bed after their day at Stinson Beach. When the unapologetic cyclist slammed into me, I was just about to hit “send” – instead, I watched my beloved iPhone skirt down the block, the screen facing upward and clearly visible in the crepuscular evening. Of course, it didn’t help that I wasn’t watching where I was going, and that I was dressed like a ninja. Fortunately, like a ninja, I walked away from my conflict without a scratch. At least I didn’t end up like that woman who stumbled into the mall fountain while texting. Be safe out there, folks! The Pub Quiz is not the only time when you should take a break from your smart phone.

            Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on many of the expected topics, including a great deal of film questions. Expect to be asked about blockbuster films, online films, sequels, and action-adventure films. Expect also to be asked about otters, people of European extraction, bicycles, Republicans, millionaires, the people of Davis, intelligibility, Unitarians, Hannibal, hockey, Boston, caimans, Dutchmen, New York Times bestsellers from the 1950s, petty stringed instruments, tears, geode notches, iMAX, screws, People Magazine, countries that import their fish, final fantasies, botany, great poets, jazz, incredible pitchers, and Shakespeare.

            I hope you will join the capacity audience for tonight’s quiz, and that you will help me in September to recruit new players to replace the departed renters. Thanks for all your attention this summer!

 

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster

http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

 

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz, this time with a few answers.

 

1.         Mottos and Slogans.    What company proclaims that you should “Leave the driving to us”?  

 

2.         Internet Culture. Not adjusted for inflation, what is the most valuable company in history?  

 

3.         Newspaper Headlines.   Swimmer Diana Nyad is currently attempting a swim between what two countries? Cuba and the United States (she didn’t make it)

 

4.         Four for Four.  Which of the following actors, if any, were born in Russia? Yul Brynner, Kirk Douglas, Peter Falk, Natalie Portman. (YNNN) At the end of his life, I got to see Brynner play The King on stage.

 

5.         Sports.   What NFL quarterback holds the record for career completions?

 

 

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Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

 

Recently I ran into a university colleague who had left teaching for a position as a project manager elsewhere at UC Davis. He said that he loves working with “an adult population” on the far west side of campus, far away from undergraduates. I smiled and told him that I was pleased that he was happy with his new position. What I didn’t tell him was that I hold a radically different opinion, for I am sustained and (appropriately) challenged by my classroom interactions with undergraduate and graduate students, I find that the energy of college students feeds my own, and I feel that potentially shaping the choices and futures of Aggies makes my work as a member of the UC Davis faculty important and meaningful. I suppose this is why I teach, and value teaching. As Aristotle tells us (or warns us), “Good habits formed at youth make all the difference.”

 

Speaking of promising youth, this past Saturday night I attended an event hosted by Absurd Publications, a new publishing collective established by UC Davis undergraduates and recent graduates. This impressive group of students, most of whom met in a poetry seminar that I taught a year ago, have published an anthology of poetry and fiction, stated distributing a free experimental journal called The Oddity, and established a workshop series that offers support and critique of the creative output of anyone who cares to attend (free of charge). As a vegetarian, I’m still deciding what I think of the title of their most recent publication (All the Vegetarians in Texas have been Shot), but I totally admire the content. I encourage you to pick up a copy this week at The Avid Reader to see if you agree (and to support local artists and authors).

 

Tonight’s Pub Quiz at de Vere’s will include questions on most of the following topics: transportation, fruit, dogs, jellyfish, Russians, arable land, tall men named Sacha, Natalie Portman, single-digit numbers, tall men, Oscars, country music, football, amateurs, POTUS, short stories, dashes of emotion, stenography, world languages, epistles, Asia, Africa, monocular vision, people named Hawkes, hunting in Ireland, vice presidents, water, six-syllable words that might come up in your biology class, Moroccan women, baseball, and Shakespeare.

 

Even though summer is almost over for the schoolchildren of Davis, I still expect enough parents, energetic UC Davis students, new participants and regulars to effectively “sell out” tonight’s Pub Quiz. Do come early to claim a table.

 

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster

http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

 

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

 

 

1.         Mottos and Slogans.    What US state uses the following as state slogans: “The Greatest Snow on Earth” and “Life Elevated”? 

 

2.         Internet Culture. Which of the following popular news websites uses as its tagline “Read Less. Know More”? Chooser, Loser, Newser, or Snoozer? 

 

3.         Newspaper Headlines.   Helen Gurley Brown, author of the empowered-woman classic Sex and the Single Girl, died today at age 90. She was the longtime editor of what international magazine for women that was first published in 1886? 

 

4.         Actors and Actresses. Who had first billing in the 1999 science-fiction comedy parody film Galaxy Quest? 

 

5.         Local Celebrities. About what UC Davis Nutrition professor has it been said that she teaches more students in person than any professor west of the Mississippi? 

 

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Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

 

I heard a fascinating interview on the radio show To The Best of Our Knowledge while returning from relatively chilly Berkeley hills yesterday evening. Discussing the show’s theme of “Demanding Democracy,” Dr. Cornel West and talk show host and author Tavis Smiley confronted the political establishment, especially President Obama, focusing especially on the problems of poverty that we face as a nation. Smiley noted that while the country as a whole struggles with recovering from the recent recession, many communities of color (and the working poor of all sorts) actually find themselves deep in an economic depression reminiscent of the Great Depression of the 1930s. I saw some evidence of this last week in Santa Monica. My son and I had a spare hour before meeting some former students of mine for dinner, so we parked down by the Santa Monica Pier and walked around a bit. In the beautiful stretch of park between Ocean Avenue and the Pacific Coast Highway we talked to people who were struggling with the poverty that West and Smiley speak of. I read in a study found on the Ocean Park Community Center website that nearly 3,000 homeless people live in Santa Monica; evidently many of them last week were reading, people-watching and sleeping on the soft and manicured public lawns near the sprawling Pacific Ocean.

 

A 2009 head count in Yolo County revealed that Davis was home to 114 homeless people, 23 of them children. Our homeless folks are not as visible or as numerous as they are in Santa Monica, but the ongoing efforts to address the problems associated with homelessness could still benefit from our support. Groups such as HomeBase can share with you more about those efforts. Meanwhile, during this election year we can all think about what it means to “demand” democracy.

 

Thanks to my friend Ted for performing the duties of substitute Quizmaster last week. Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on snow, American states, news websites, highways, science fiction films, ancient colors, local celebrities, spiritual leaders, people with seemingly American names like Smith and Harris, baseball, the periodic table of the elements, US Presidents, never at dusk, gospel music, Iowa, Mexico, zesty atoning, moons, banks, games that are over, Homer, mixed drinks, Olympic medals, foul weeds, title characters of Oscar-winning movies, fine wires, race, running mates, football, Greece, cheese, and Shakespeare.

 

If you have a friend who you think should be subscribed to these weekly newsletters, please direct that person to https://www.yourquizmaster.com so he or she can sign up! I learned this week that the longtime mayor of Beavertown, Pennsylvania, Cloyd Wagner, is a new subscriber. He also edits the Beavertown News.

 

Your Quizmaster

 

P.S. Here are five questions from last week’s Quiz:

 

1.         Mottos and Slogans.    In addition to asking how you spell relief, what antacid product sponsors the yearly “Relief Man of the Year Award” for relief pitchers in baseball? 

 

2.         Internet Culture. According to the websites Kred and Klout, which current Olympian has the greatest social media influence? 

 

3.         Newspaper Headlines.   A blackout in what country last week plunged 600 million people into darkness? 

 

4.         Four for Four.      Which of the following Die Hard movies, if any, were released during the lifetime of Hailee Steinfeld, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her acting work in the 2010 film True Grit? Die Hard, Die Hard 2, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Live Free or Die Hard. 

 

5.         Occupations on the Screen. Alan Napier, Michael Gough, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Ian Abercrombie, and Sir Michael Caine have all played the character Alfred Pennyworth. What is Pennyworth’s job? 

 

 

 

P.S. Yesterday I saw the poet Connie Post perform her work in a deli in Crockett, California, and I am pleased to say that the former Poet Laureate of Livermore is coming to Davis on Thursday to read from her new book at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Occasional Pub Quiz attendee CJ Morello will be opening for Connie, and I bet he will join us for the after-party at de Vere’s. Details at the website Poetry in Davis.

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Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

 

The most famous essay ever written about a summer vacation is probably E.B. White. “Once More to the Lake” tells the story of a man’s return to the vacation spot chosen by his father decades earlier:

 

One summer, along about 1904, my father rented a camp on a lake in Maine and took us all there for the month of August. We all got ringworm from some kittens and had to rub Pond's Extract on our arms and legs night and morning, and my father rolled over in a canoe with all his clothes on; but outside of that the vacation was a success and from then on none of us ever thought there was any place in the world like that lake in Maine. We returned summer after summer–always on August 1st for one month. I have since become a salt-water man, but sometimes in summer there are days when the restlessness of the tides and the fearful cold of the sea water and the incessant wind which blows across the afternoon and into the evening make me wish for the placidity of a lake in the woods. A few weeks ago this feeling got so strong I bought myself a couple of bass hooks and a spinner and returned to the lake where we used to go, for a week's fishing and to revisit old haunts.

 

I’m writing from Disneyland this morning, an annual vacation spot for many, many Americans (and international visitors), but never before for me. More of an E.B. White vacationer, myself, I most appreciated my childhood yearly summer trips to central Pennsylvania, though for us it was always once more to the creek, rather than to the lake. Sometime in the early 1950s my grandmother invested $1,500 in a cabin and a tract of land along the reservoir and creek in Beavertown, a small town that in recent years was known as the American home of Monkee Davy Jones. My Mom would drive my brother and me to that little three-room domicile (four if you count the outhouse) that was free of the distractions of home, such as television, friends, and running water. The creek and the hikes up the mountain provided us with endless (well, sufficient) entertainment. Our Grandmother, just 11 years younger than E.B. White, also told us stories of her own visits to those same mountains and lakes, stories that featured horses, Civil War veterans, and unmet relatives who had predeceased even her by decades. Those unhurried days at the cabin remind of what used to be true of vacations: as Robert Orben says, “A vacation [meant] having nothing to do and all day to do it in.”

 

Have Disney and the other pop cultural foci of America’s children replaced the books, stories, and natural wonders that captivated vacationers of previous generations? Well, an hour ago from Cars Land my son Truman proclaimed “Mommy, this is the whole point of my LIFE!” A few dozen years from now he may write an essay titled “Once More to Cars Land.” I try not to cringe. I hope at least he and all of you will still be reading the essays of E. B. White.

 

Tonight’s de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz will feature a bunch of Olympics questions. Are you surprised? There will even be an Olympics and Social Media question, though not one of the questions I was asked by Beth Ruyak on this topic this past Wednesday. Also expect questions tonight on baseball x2, darkness, young actresses that are nominated for Academy Awards, John McClane, the worth of a penny, skyscrapers, chemistry, pop music, Sir Michael Caine, an anagram that includes the word “implant,” moons, unusual words that start with the letter F, private investigators, memorable eyes, gold medals, Klout, Pennsylvania, Harry Potter and other science fantasy topics, islands, young actors who you have not thought of in years, jerseys retired in 1992, Dover, Stillwater, and Shakespeare.

 

My friend Ted (also a regular Pub Quiz participant) will be the substitute quizmaster this evening. A doctoral candidate in Comparative Literature at UC Davis, Ted teaches in several departments on campus, as well as in the UC Davis Extension international English program. Some of his interests include the environment, British Romantic poetry, film, and expository writing. A long-practicing vegetarian, Ted usually enjoys a delicious grilled cheese sandwich on Monday evenings at de Vere’s Irish Pub. I hope you will enjoy the Quiz tonight!

 

If you have a friend who you think should be subscribed to these weekly newsletters, please direct that person to https://www.yourquizmaster.com to sign up!

 

Your Quizmaster

 

P.S. Here are five questions from last week’s Quiz:

 

5.         US States. The state with the shortest ocean coastline of any state in the United States produced just one US president, Franklin Pierce. Name the state. 

 

6.         Superheroes. Captain America’s shield is made primarily of which of the following fictional metals? Adamantium, Bombastium, Unobtanium, Vibranium. 

 

7.         Pop Culture – Music. “Moves Like Jagger” was a 2011 number one hit for what LA pop rock band with a number in its name? 

 

8.         Sports.   To what football team was Jay Cutler traded in 2009? 

 

9.         Science.   R-snares and s-snares refer to WHAT biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides? 

 

P.P.S. I will return on August 13^th. I can only take so much vacationing.

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The Kevin and Natalie Edition of the de Vere's Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

 

Two of my favorite pub quiz participants (at a previous pub quiz venue) made up a couple: Kevin and Natalie. Kevin had been a student of mine in a Technocultural Studies class that I taught in 2006, and Natalie was one of our favorite babysitters.  They had already been dating for a couple years when I taught Kevin, and everyone agreed that they were adorable together. At Pub Quiz, Natalie was always in charge of asking the clarifying questions, and she did so more purposefully than any other Pub Quiz participant. When I would come by during the break, she would shush the entire table, announce the question by number for my easy reference, and then immediately move on to the next question as soon as I had repeated the previous one, with her expectation being that her other teammates would focus on my restatement while she prepared to ask me something else. So efficient!

 

Recently Kevin and Natalie have been living in Washington DC, less than a mile from my Mom’s apartment there. Kevin has been working as a program coordinator for a desperately-needed non-profit called The Literacy Lab, while Natalie has been working as School, Outreach, and Family Programs Coordinator at The Phillips Collection, one of my favorite modern art museums in the country (along with The John Natsoulas Gallery). What rich and artsy experiences these two Aggies have!

 

I knew they were returning to California for an important occasion, so I was wondering what I could do to show my affection and support for some of my favorite past Pub Quiz participants.

 

Reader, I married them.

 

Rather, I officiated. Recently ordained, on Saturday I had the occasion to use the sort of weighty and well-hewn phrases that one has heard in innumerable television and cinematic weddings, only this time, as a close friend and mentor, rather than as an indifferent deacon or parson.

 

My wife was daughter and later step-daughter to two different ordained clergymen, and, I’m sure vowed never to marry a minister herself. She may have even written it into our vows when we tied the knot, as they say, almost 20 years ago. I will have to look again at our wedding video, pausing during our favorite scenes of the celebrants dancing.

 

Congratulations to Kevin and Natalie! I am confident that their humor and devotion will sustain them for the rest of their lives together.

 

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will inevitably include a couple questions about the Olympics, but perhaps not as many as during next week’s Quiz. Expect also questions about Mitt Romney, the Mississippi River, desserts, baseball teams, coastal states, metals that you have heard of (and at least one that you haven’t), US Presidents, Iranians, pop music, quarterbacks, American gifts, biochemical compounds, Walt Whitman, loud noises, Seinfeld, jazz, not particularly long turbo inferences, big cities, seismic activities, assigned novels, more recent films that did not have me as a target demographic, Irish delicacies, television news, unfortunate choices, words that start with the letter F, and familiar Shakespeare plays.

 

As has been the case all summer, tonight’s Pub Quiz will sell out. I expect next week’s Pub Quiz to sell out, as well, though I will be in Los Angeles that night, enjoying a rare vacation. I will let you know about my sub in next week’s newsletter. As for tonight, come early to claim a table.

 

Your Quizmaster

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yourquizmaster@gmail.com

 

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

 

21.       Voice Actors. Everyone of a certain generation knows who played the voice of the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series. Name the voice actor. 

 

22.       Irish Culture. The name of what Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher is an anagram for the short phrase DEBUNKED RUM? 

 

23.       Countries of the World.  What is the westernmost country in mainland Europe? 

 

24.       Books and Authors.   "’Where's Papa going with that axe?’, said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.” Name the book.     

 

25.       Science.  The deadliest plague in history was eradicated in 1979. Name it. 

 

 

 

P.S. New Davis Poet Laureate Eve West Bessier will be performing jazz and poetry at the John Natsoulas Gallery this coming Thursday evening at 8, her first reading since her new appointment. Details available at the website Poetry in Davis. The after-party will begin at about 10 pm that night at de Vere’s Irish Pub.

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