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

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans. What General Mills cereal calls itself “Magically Delicious”?

2. Internet Culture. The collection of graphic design, video editing, and web development applications known as the Creative Suite is made by what software company?

3. Newspaper Headlines. This past Thursday the Romney campaign folks suggested to Matt Drudge that a certain Republican woman was at the top of their list of contenders for the running mate spot on the ticket. Name the woman.

4. Fictional Characters. Mabel Simmons, commonly known as Madea, is a comedic fictional character created and portrayed by whom?

5. Film. What 1991 Disney film was the first ever animated film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture?

The Humid Smogless Oxygen Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on July 16, 2012

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

For me, summer weekends are less fraught, for my workweek presents me less that I need to recover from. For instance, after bike rides to the farmers’ market, Saturday afternoon my sons and I attended a neighbor and colleague’s birthday party. Hung from an awning, the backyard mister was malfunctioning slightly, dripping occasional artificial raindrops on the children who would yell “HEY,” as if someone had just squirted them. The constant dripping reminded me of the aftermath of summer storms from my childhood back east, where rainy days were often so warm that we would be given permission to frolic in the rain, the air rich with humid, smogless oxygen. What a delight.

Anyway, when I wasn’t recalling rainstorms, I spent most of my time at our neighbor’s party chatting with new friends in the back yard, but at one point, I ventured back into the dining room for seconds on the catered Mexican food. There I encountered an ongoing discussion of the impact of technology on education, distance education, and responsible teaching. I was tempted to jump in, for in my capacity as Academic Director of Academic Technology Services at UC Davis, I’ve lectured, presented, and published on all these topics, and could easily have impressed everyone there with my knowledge and perspectives. Instead I smiled to myself, created a couple more vegetarian soft tacos, and headed back out to play with the kids.

I think we’ve all dined with (or been cornered by) people who seek to impress us. Such people remind us often of their accomplishments (as I suppose I did in the previous paragraph), and like us to know that they matter to many important people. I once lived next door to a physician who used to remind us often of the gratitude of his patients, and of the inattentiveness of his hospital’s nurses. The more insistent and exasperated his comments became, the less plausible or relevant they seemed to his dinner guests (who were left checking their watches and trying to change the subject). I’ve tried often not to be that guy, choosing instead to impress people with my kindness rather than with my status. Believe it or not, some of my friends don’t even know that I host our Pub Quiz.

We all have to chart our own paths, and remember the Yiddish proverb: “Too humble is half proud.”

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on breakfast cereal, significant fees, creativity tools, strong women, superheroes, African-American culture, AIDS, sports heroes, natives, great Americans, slacks, fashion, The Avengers, fictional planets, US Presidents, Irish culture, bands that my students seem to like, 13 year-old explorers, murder mysteries, basketball, islands in the (gulf) stream, acting awards, games people play, seas, Russians, hit dice, children’s literature, women who are not Julia Roberts, big cities, baseball, plants, Stan Lee, words that start with the letter H, observant detectives, the Olympics, and title characters in Shakespeare.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will sell out. If you attended last week, yours was one of 46 teams, the de Vere’s record (and perhaps a City of Davis record). Come early to claim a table.

Also consider coming to see the storyteller, educator and comedian Chris “Whitey” Erickson as he performs original work this coming Thursday night at 8 at the John Natsoulas Gallery. The after party will start at about 10 at de Vere’s, where there is always a party going on. Details on the Erickson event can be found at the website PoetryInDavis.Com.

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

6. American States. The number of American states that Georgia borders is larger than you might think. What is that number?

7. Pop Culture – Music. Cee Lo Green and Danger Mouse make up what American Soul Duo?

8. Sports. Known as "Mr. Clutch," what quarterback who died in 2002 holds the record for consecutive games with a touchdown pass at 47, and is ranked by some sports columnists as the greatest quarterback ever?

9. Science. Avogadro’s number reveals to us the number of molecules in a WHAT?

10. Living Americans. Not adjusted for inflation, who is the richest man ever to run for the White House?

P.S. Congratulations to the team known as The Penetrators: they earned a score of 29 of 30 last week.

The Heeded Summer Anniversaries Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on July 9, 2012

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

As you may have read in the current issue of UC Davis Magazine, I hold extra office hours for my students on Sunday evenings at a local restaurant. The bike ride home from this welcome duty is especially enjoyable because of the cool temperatures, the peaceful and shady greenbelts, and the absent traffic. One sees far fewer cars and fewer bicycles in the summer in Davis, though, as my wife Kate points out, one also sees far more bike helmets on the (townie) bicyclists who remain. So many sights await us in the summer, as Aldo Leopold reminds us: “In June, as many as a dozen species may burst their buds on a single day. No man can heed all of these anniversaries; no man can ignore all of them.”

Inspired by Olympian Kim Conley, this summer I have begun an ambitious exercise regimen that might not be possible during the busier school year, when there are so many more people in the meetings I attend. As I learned recently, health concerns actually helped to determine the generous break that American schoolchildren enjoy (the same break that shapes the UC Davis academic calendar). Here’s how Juliet Lapidos explained the choice in a 2007 article in Slate:

Gradually, [public school administrators] shortened the school year by about 60 days and eliminated the summer quarter. Reformers could have instituted a long break in winter, or spring, but they picked summer for three main reasons. 1) Poorly ventilated school buildings were nearly unbearable during heat waves. 2) Community leaders fretted that hot, crowded environments facilitated the spread of disease. 3) Wealthy urbanites traditionally vacationed during the hottest months, and middle-class school administrators were following in their footsteps.

For many of us, the summer break provides an opportunity to see summer films. My wife is a huge move fan (she even watched that Vampire Hunter film), and I treasure the opportunity to spend time with her, so in the last 10 days I’ve seen four films on the big screen, two of them in the large auditorium at our fabulous art-house theatre, The Varsity. And while watching those films by Woody Allen and Wes Anderson, I was reminded that directors matter. In the film class that I taught for the English Department 11 years ago, we would have called Allen and Anderson auteurs.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature plenty of film questions, as well as questions about other summer adventures. Expect questions about Liv Tyler, wallets, Italian words, presidents, Lindsay Lohan, Euros, animated characters, people portrayed by Stanley Tucci, states that border Tennessee, soul(s), mice, football legends, Oscar nominees, bunchbacked toads, numbers you would have learned in school, rich men, lucky men, the grand old Duke of York, fruit, people who are sometimes confused with fish, pop stars, buildings, hurling belches, film quotations, Lynyrd Skynyrd, magic skills, gymnasia, galactic villains, depressed authors, Native Americans, the green island known as Ireland, Santa Claus, shiny objects, privileged radicals, legislators, and Shakespeare.

I hope to see you this evening. In the summer time, for every team that goes on vacation, two or more teams stand ready to claim the extra table.

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans. According to the updated commercial slogan, choosy dads also choose what kind of peanut butter?

2. Internet Culture. What is the Twitter handle of Your Quizmaster?

3. Newspaper Headlines. What three-syllable word completes this first sentence from a story in today’s Agence France-Presse? “Every year in Japan people are hospitalised after eating BLANK; sometimes the result is fatal. But despite apparent dangers, strict rules on serving the toxic delicacy in Tokyo are to be relaxed.”

4. Four for Four. The terrible storm on the east coast has hobbled which of the following cloud-based companies, if any? Facebook, Instagram, Netflix, Pinterest.

5. California. The three first-incorporated cities in California (in the winter and spring of 1850) all start with the letter S, and the three different counties where they are found ALSO start with the letter S. One city is Sacramento. Name one of the other two cities.

P.S. Congratulations to Jennifer, the Pub Quiz enthusiast who has been regularly assisting me with tallying votes, even last week, when she was more than 40 weeks pregnant. She and Mark have been joined by Owen, and all are well.

P.P.S. Happy birthday to Oliver Jones, my favorite writer.

The Kim Conley Celebration Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on July 2, 2012

The Kim Conley Celebration Edition of the de Vere's Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

One of the greatest pleasures of my life is the time I spend in the classroom and in office hours with UC Davis students. Selected from the brightest and hardest-working students in California, and now increasingly from other states and even other countries, our students regularly impress me with their creativity, their ingenuity, and their thirst for knowledge and accomplishment. My impression is reinforced in unexpected ways. For example, this weekend I received a text from a former student who wrote “OMG!! I’M ON THE DEAN’S HONORS LIST!! We both knew the significance of that achievement, for he had struggled academically earlier in his college career. Another student bravely read some original poetry at the poetry reading that I hosted Friday night, even though he had been in my summer advanced poetry workshop for only three days.

As heartening as these achievements are, none of them was televised live on NBC. That honor went only to the Aggie assistant coach and former student of mine, Kim Conley, who competed in Olympic trials for the 5000 meters (5K) race. Amazingly, Kim came from behind in the final seconds of the race to come in third, beating the pace-setter, Julia Lucas, by .04 seconds. I heard Kim talking on Capital Public Radio the week before about using her training as a sprinter as well as a distance runner to do well in this event, and indeed it was a sprinter’s push that allowed her to “break the tape” just milliseconds before her competition to earn herself a spot on the US Olympic team to represent all of us, as well as the university that had supported her as a student and as a coach. You might already have read about Kim in the Davis Enterprise or the Sacramento Bee (which had the best photographs). You can also read a new interview with Kim in Runner’s World, or view the video if you wish to be impressed with Kim, as I am.

I thought of asking five questions about runners and running to further celebrate Kim Conley, but other news from this past week caught my eye, instead. No doubt we will return to running and other sports when the eyes of the world focus on summer events in London. Tonight’s quiz will instead touch upon topics such as Twitter, Japan, Pinterest, screenplays, discriminating (that is, particular) dads, jackets, shoes, dancing, fish (x2), unusual words, marathons, garlic, bicycles, rainbows, flowery nonacids, people named Joel, Oscar-nominated roles, villains, things that some people would like to outlaw, marriage, classic novels, conventions, presidents, elements, capitals, baseball, grams of fat, and Shakespeare.

I hope you can join us this evening. Summer nights mean a full and rowdy de Vere’s Irish Pub, brimming with the sort of fun that you won’t want to miss. De Vere’s could use a player like you.

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans. What Johnson and Johnson product promises to “get the red out”?

2. Internet Culture. What is the name or the three-word-acronym of the company that makes the Blackberry?

3. Newspaper Headlines. This past Saturday a music festival took place in the city of Davis. What was the name of that music festival?

4. Four for Four. Which of the following Grace Kelly films, if any, were directed by Alfred Hitchcock? Dial M for Murder, High Noon, Rear Window, To Catch a Thief.

5. Film Profanity. What is the name of the film that opened this past weekend in which one hears the following examples of profanity? You little rascal, wee devil, meaty mongrels, goggly old hag, gnarly witch, scared simpering jackanapes, gump old train, you big topship, sorry bunch of inepts.

P.S. If you are not already following me on Twitter, I encourage you to do so. Sometimes I let additional hints slip: http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster

The Endless Civil Rights Rant Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on June 25, 2012

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Growing up in Washington DC, I often looked up to the wall of our dining room where someone had posted a quotation by Martin Luther King that will be familiar to some of you: "Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals." I understood the context for this quotation to be the ongoing struggle for civil rights in this country, and we subsequently had many occasions in my home to discuss race relations and racism, conversations that helped me consider how I might confront racism, given the opportunity.

Today I had that opportunity, and I wonder if I acted as my Mom or as Dr. King might have wanted me to. My sons and I were attending a poetry reading at a faraway city (that is, not Davis, not Sacramento), when during the open mic an elderly man announced that he was going to recite from memory a poem by Rudyard Kipling. Having read Kipling, I knew that this was a fraught choice, for I was familiar with the racist nature of much of Kipling’s work, including the poem “The White Man’s Burden,” written for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1899. Then the man told us that the poem he was about to recite included language that some would find objectionable today, but that was typical of the 19^th century. When he said that the poem, in fact, included uses of the N word, I asked my sons to start packing up (we had already been there for more than an hour, and they had previously indicated their readiness to depart). We almost made it out of the room before I heard the repeated word in question, as well as its context, and both to me seemed derogatory and insulting in ways that I was familiar with from certain particularly Eurocentric passages of Kipling I had read when I was a graduate student.

Afterwards I wondered if my walking out was enough of a statement. I didn’t wish to be rude to the gracious hosts who had invited me, and in fact I don’t know that they noticed my exit. I later wondered during the long drive home if I had neglected a moral responsibility to confront, publicly, the racism that this man was sharing in a public place, perhaps by stopping him even before he started reciting the work. Perhaps this man was a regular participant in the poetic community where I found myself, while I was an outsider. Did I not verbally object because of the man’s age (he was about 80)? Because I wasn’t the host? Because my children were present? Because of cowardice? I don’t know for sure.

To some, Kipling’s racism seems ancient and therefore irrelevant, especially when considering the concerns we must address today. We know, for instance, that in many parts of our country, people feel more socially justified to share homophobic slurs or sentiments than they do racist slurs and sentiments. And many of us feel that we have new calling to confront injustice, believing with Dr. King that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” During LGBT Pride month (so declared by President Obama), many who were raised to emulate the courage of civil rights pioneers and leaders today stand in solidarity with our gay and lesbian friends as we seek to widen further the circle of full participation in our democracy. I believe, for example, that the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution indicates that equal treatment under the law must extend to everyone.

With a tip of the hat to a Pub Quiz regular who shared some thorough research with me, and reminded me that June is Pride month (thanks, John), I’m including in tonight’s quiz questions about a number of gay and lesbian political and aesthetic heroes of mine. You will also find questions about Johnson and Johnson, Santa, Spanish words, smartphones, great movies, simpering and scared jackanapes, canines, South Africa, world sporting competitions, eyes, French lawyers, Cervantes, preparing for the figurative crops, pomology, royal families, omnivores, famous generals, famous diaries, Dante, charged potential, transportation, soap operas, associations with alligators, musicians that your grandparents would not have head of, refusing gridlocks, agitation, pre-Christian authors, Irish math, Homer, suicide prevention, Americans in France, baseball, Italy, failed candidates, the Tea Party, Dublin, the obesity problem, geographic distances, new names and old names, baseball, and Shakespeare.

See you tonight for another sold-out Pub Quiz! Come early.

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

5. Tiki Culture Drinks and Elvis. What rum-based cocktail featured prominently in the Elvis Presley film Blue Hawaii?

6. British Monarchs. Mary, Queen of Scots was executed during the reign of what British monarch?

7. Pop Culture – Music. Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor for solo piano is one of Ludwig van Beethoven's most popular compositions. By what name is it commonly known?

8. Sports Math. Michael Jordan was the NBA scoring champion four more times than he was the NBA Finals MVP. How many times was he the NBA scoring champion?

9. Science. What word refers to the branch of science concerned with the forces that occur between electrically charged particles?

The Fathers Day Creative Consumerism Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on June 11, 2012

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Summer is here, and the youth of America need something to do. The May unemployment rate for teenagers is 24.6%, and for the first time I am receiving uninvited applications from Davis High students who wish to provide internship support for the Poetry Night Reading Series. These are not the students who Thomas Edison spoke of when he said “Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work,” though I think most of us in the poetry trenches are absolved from having to wear overalls. Rather, often people ask me why I am “so dressed up,” on some occasions even wearing a tie in the summertime. Some days I feel like responding as Jack Donaghy would: “It’s after 6. What am I, a farmer?” Somehow that joke goes over less well in Davis than it does at 30 Rock.

Although I can’t offer you an internship, I can offer you and all your friends a couple hours of entertainment tonight. Because of the summer’s return to Davis of many hundreds of unemployed Davis High grads, I expect de Vere’s Irish Pub again to be overrun with Pub Quiz participants. Last week even some of the regular teams weren’t seated until after 7. With that in mind, tonight and every night this summer I encourage you to come early with half your team so you can claim your lucky table. Speaking of lucky, congratulations to Mary Stewart and Andy Stewart, co-captains of a Pub Quiz team called something like “Andys and Not Andys,” for they and their team of regulars and irregulars won the Pub Quiz outright for the first time last Monday, and are even considering returning to defend their title. I’m linking to their Twitter accounts, for they haven’t yet friended Your Quizmaster on Facebook. Some people are understandably careful about if and how they present themselves on social networks, for, like those aforementioned teenagers, all of us would like a secure job someday.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on some of my favorite ungulates, my favorite computer hardware company, Art and Art history, an inordinate number of television questions, summer music, escape artists, Euros, construction-themed art, stalwarts, theories of science, Publisher’s Weekly, American presidents and their previous job qualifications, bone marrow, Hollywood power couples, unusual words, the art of the album, vapor arie /arias, Africa under the stars, famous sisters, mammals in funny costumes, letting go, Irish music, candy for your thoughts, Scientific American, books you have actually read, marsupials, basketball, and Shakespeare.

You will hear one question with a Fathers Day theme – have you made appropriate plans for that “holiday”? Speaking for a moment on behalf of all fathers, we don’t need any more stuff, though I must admit that my sons helped me pick out some dress socks at JC Penney over the weekend. And with regard to that shopping experience, no matter how hot it gets, let’s all do what we can to support and preserve our downtown Davis merchants so that Davis never becomes known for its three-quarters-empty (of stores) shopping malls. Investing in a pint, or a movie ticket at the Varsity, or a cute blouse at Haute Again is a great way of voting with your wallet for character, art, and vibrancy in our fair city.

See you tonight!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans. What soft drink billed itself as The Uncola?

2. Internet Culture. A new version of the Xbox video game Halo will be available this coming November 6. What number Halo will it be? Hint: It’s not Halo I.

3. Newspaper Headlines. John Edwards was found not guilty on one count, and the jury was hung on the others. How many charges, total, was Edwards facing?

4. Four for Four. Which of the following pop songs, if any, rhyme the word “swagger” with the name “Jagger”? Black Eyed Peas’ “The Time “ (sometimes called “Dirty Bit”); Cher Lloyd’s “Swagger Jagger,” Kesha’s “Tick Tock,” Maroon 5’s “Moves Like Jagger.”

5. College Towns that Start with the Letter A. What largest city in eastern Alabama was named by US News and World Report to be among its top ten list of best places to live in United States for the year 2009?

The Rebuked Poet Laureate Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on June 4, 2012

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Feeling brave, this past weekend I took my son Jukie to see and meet the US Poet Laureate, Philip Levine. America’s working-man’s poet came to American River College to participate in a reading and a day of workshops as one of his final acts as Poet Laureate. Levine is a genial and self-effacing man. In fact, the only people he will efface more than himself would be his former faculty colleagues and, evidently, the US Congress. We discovered this when Levine told the story of the time he responded to a reporter by comparing a public meeting of Congress unfavorably to the self-importance and pettiness that Levine had seen at faculty meetings. Evidently word of Levine’s remarks traveled quickly, for someone from the Library of Congress (which appoints the Poet Laureate) called Levine within the hour to ask for corroboration and further comment and explanation. At 84, Levine was not used to being rebuked, so he opted for just a single term in his honorary position.

Here is one of the poems Levine read Saturday night, a Central Valley poem called “Our Valley”:

Our Valley

by Philip Levine

We don't see the ocean, not ever, but in July and August

when the worst heat seems to rise from the hard clay

of this valley, you could be walking through a fig orchard

when suddenly the wind cools and for a moment

you get a whiff of salt, and in that moment you can almost

believe something is waiting beyond the Pacheco Pass,

something massive, irrational, and so powerful even

the mountains that rise east of here have no word for it.

You probably think I'm nuts saying the mountains

have no word for ocean, but if you live here

you begin to believe they know everything.

They maintain that huge silence we think of as divine,

a silence that grows in autumn when snow falls

slowly between the pines and the wind dies

to less than a whisper and you can barely catch

your breath because you're thrilled and terrified.

You have to remember this isn't your land.

It belongs to no one, like the sea you once lived beside

and thought was yours. Remember the small boats

that bobbed out as the waves rode in, and the men

who carved a living from it only to find themselves

carved down to nothing. Now you say this is home,

so go ahead, worship the mountains as they dissolve in dust,

wait on the wind, catch a scent of salt, call it our life.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions about soft drinks, video games, Mick Jagger, unpopular people, Cher Lloyd, the best places to live in the US, new Davis institutions, tall women, college football, astronomy, UC Davis, famous doctors who have not yet begun to practice, slopes and snakes and blood, gladiators, classical composers, teens who have been moonshot, fictional characters, figurative cradles, correct pronunciations, unusual morning traditions, famous transporters, secretaries and neighbors, beautiful futures, Irish literature, underperforming films, Brits, the institution of marriage, human anatomy, election day, baseball, and Shakespeare. There will be some simple math on tonight’s Pub Quiz (addition).

Rumor has it that a couple of my in-laws will be accompanying my lovely wife to this evening’s Pub Quiz, so I should apologize ahead of time about the additional raucous noise tonight. Rumor also has it that schools and colleges everywhere will be letting out soon for the summer, and that scads of former Davis High grads will be descending upon our fair city, looking for entertainment on a Monday evening. If you know such people, please invite them to join us.

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s rare Tuesday-evening quiz:

2. Internet Culture. Starting with the letter “S”, what is the name of the Swedish music streaming service offering selected music from a range of major and independent record labels?

3. Newspaper Headlines. We learned recently that the first woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of State (before Clinton or Rice) will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Name her.

4. Four for Four. The first episode of which of the following TV shows, if any, premiered in the 1990s? Alf, Dragon Tales, Power Rangers Teletubbies.

5. Three of These Things are Just Like the Others. The comic book character Jugghead, the second greatest hero of all time according to the American Film Institute, and the cat from the film Alien all share a last name. What is that name?

6. California. What storied California city of 35 thousand people is the most musical city in America, with 3.14 musicians per thousand people (of the 50,000 top musical artists in the country). Name the city. Hint: San Francisco and Nashville are the second and third cities on this list.

P.S. Speaking of poets, As you can see at the website Poetry in Davis, Troy Jollimore will be the featured reader at the Thursday night edition of the Poetry Night Reading Series. Widely published and regarded, Jollimore will join us from CSU Chico.

P.P.S. Don’t forget to vote tomorrow!

The Brimming with Musicians Micro-Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on May 29, 2012

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I really hope you can join us tonight for the Tuesday evening Pub Quiz experiment. Tuesdays at work are much busier for me than Mondays, so I will abscond from my regular newsletter duties (fascinating stories, plugs for upcoming cultural events, apt quotations, and sustaining words of wisdom), and inform you instead that tonight’s Pub Quiz at de Vere’s Irish Pub will feature questions on companies with nationwide appeal, Swedish streams, accomplished women, Teletubbies, freedom, American heroes, aliens, romances, children’s books, crosses, the American Film Institute, storied California cities, prominent Republicans, unexpected wins by the underdog, musicians, the NBA, indie music, favorite trees, people born in Mexico, words that repeat themselves, disasters, Tina Fey, fabrics and textiles, Pacifists that make you say “ouch,” showtunes, Elton John, Sesame Street, Celtic culture, South America, people who are older than Melissa Etheridge, seismology, first novels, famous battles, and even more musicians. Really, tonight’s quiz will literally BRIM with musicians!

I’m thinking of ways to reward Pub Quiz competitors who retweet and otherwise share my updates and newsletters via Facebook and other media. Would it be fair to provide a single answer to a question to members of our Pub Quiz community who spread the word in various ways. Let me know what you think.

See you tonight for a special Tuesday night Pub Quiz!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Great Americans. Denzel Washington and John Travolta were born the same year as the Brown v. Board of Education decision. Name the year.

2. Unusual Words. What verb beginning with the letter B means “to explain, worry about, or work more than is necessary”?

3. UFOs. The Roswell UFO Incident took place during what decade?

4. Pop Culture – Television. What former cast-member of the TV show Taxi has a rare mental condition that allows her never to forget any moment of her life?

5. Film. In the film Despicable Me, what are the little bright yellow guys called?

P.S. I’d like to recognize the efforts of the Davis Shakespeare Ensemble, and thank the DSE leaders for what they do in the city of Davis.

The Irrelevant City Council Handicapping Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on May 21, 2012

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

The Davis City Council election is right around the corner, so I think it’s my duty to inform you the extent to which, if any the candidates for election or re-election have participated in the de Vere’s Irish Pub Quiz. I don’t see why this information would have any bearing on the choices that you make in the voting booth, but I did want to publicly thank the public officials who spend time solving anagrams and arguing about Australian species of lizard with their teammates.

1) Lucas Frerichs. Lucas Frerichs has the second most difficult name to pronounce of all the regulars at the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz (after New York Times best-selling author John Lescroart). Not only has Lucas attended the Pub Quiz more than other candidates for the Davis City Council, combined, but he also did so long before considering a run for elected office. I should add that Lucas has a delightful wife named Stacie who, like Lucas, appreciates art in downtown Davis (or so I learned at Flourish Davis this past Saturday night).

2) Dan Wolk. Dan has attended the Pub Quiz on occasion, and he was also an active participant in this year’s Pub Quiz-themed fundraiser for local Rotary Clubs. He joined his mom on the winning team this year, thus raising sizeable bank for local charities. He plans to attend more often after the election. Many people think he will make it to the winners’ circle this election cycle.

3) Sue Greenwald. I remember Sue attending a Pub Quiz a few years’ back. She also stayed latest at my March 12 post-Quiz birthday celebration, which I appreciate, for she spent at least a few of those hours entertaining my Mom. Rather than trivia, Sue’s game of choice is Scrabble, and she can often be seen playing with her Scrabble buddies Wednesday nights at another restaurant. Especially well-read, Sue would make a great addition to any team.

4) Stephen Souza. Steve Souza also attended my birthday party, and he has also been spotted in de Vere’s after the Quiz, sharing a brew with friends. I look forward to a regular team recruiting Steve to participate in the Quiz. He’s a hard worker, so perhaps 7pm is too early for him?

5) Brett Lee. When I wrote Brett to inform him that I’d be talking about City Council candidates in today’s newsletter, he responded immediately with regrets that he works in the Bay Area on Monday nights. He offered to make amends, so I recommended Poetry Nights. I was impressed with the quality of his writing, and look forward to see how Brett does in the coming election.

While I especially appreciate Lucas Frerichs’ ongoing participation in the Quiz, as an impartial Quizmaster (and a journalist), I won’t be formally endorsing anyone in this election, though I’d be curious to know which candidates you support.

Tonight’s de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz will feature questions about cleansers, mythical creatures, musicians, seadragons, annoying people, Ohio cities, spinners and spitters, the music of 2011 (remember 2011?), stadia, kitchens, oblate spheroids, The Taking of Pelham 123, long explanations, unfair math problems, Revolutionary War heroes, the SCOTUS, aliens, taxicabs, humorous helpers, gnawing pugs, David Letterman, men in black, ferocious dogs, A-List actors, cable TV shows that I don’t watch, Ashton Kutcher films, people born at Times Square, The Avengers, Columbus, Europe, Texas, anatomy, Republicans, the letter “T,” the San Francisco Giants, and Shakespeare!

See you tonight.

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Internet Culture. Today is the birthday of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. With a one year margin of error, how old is he today?

2. Newspaper Headlines. It was announced today by the BBC that Americans consume what percentage of the world’s painkillers? Is it 20, 40, 60, 80, or 100%?

3. Four for Four. Which of the following countries, if any, are found within the area called “The Fertile Crescent”? Bulgaria, France, Iraq, The United States.

4. Film. In the 2011 film Colombiana, a young woman, after witnessing her parents' murder as a child in Bogota, grows up to be a stone-cold assassin. What actress played the title role?

5. Unfair Math Problems Involving Sheep. Why do white sheep eat more than black sheep?

P.S. Congratulations to Fred Wood of UC Davis. Fred has just been named the new Chancellor of University of Minnesota, Crookston!

The Shakespeare as Professional Development Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on May 7, 2012

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I got to play the roles of both parents today, the one who gets to attend meetings on topics as diverse as SmartSite, social media policies for UC Davis, and supporting the arts in our home town; as well as the parent who gets to feed the three kids, prepare them for the trip to school, and then collect them again at the end of their school days. And then, this afternoon, I get to attend more meetings! This diversity of parental experience is made possible, in part, by my wife Kate attending a conference all day in Sacramento. Ironically, while I sometimes question the purpose (and especially the number) of the meetings I attend, as does anyone who attends many of them, I love attending conferences, especially if they support a cause I believe in (as will be the case of the Flourish Davis event that I linked to earlier), or if they offer some sort of professional development. With regard to professional development, UC Davis has named “Preparation for Lifelong Learning” as one of the seven Educational Objectives for Students decided upon by a large group of faculty (including myself) at the 2001 Chancellor’s Fall Retreat, and since then I’ve made a point of modeling curiosity and discovery for the students I teach. I suppose the Pub Quiz allows me to extend that practice, to enact a practice of lifelong learning that might appeal to a broad range of locals, without regard to how many years it has been since they sat in a formal classroom.

Tonight, for instance, we will share and learn microlessons on a variety of substantive and trivial topics, topics such as cold remedies, online communities, political change in France, The Avengers, large margins of victory, well-stocked libraries, museums, basketball, the tongue as razor, home states, bugs, the SCOTUS, making things undecipherable, Latino culture and heroes, auteurs, party music, solid footing, names of cities that you have seen but never visited, William McKinley, jays, non-fiction novels, Oscar-nominated actors, Irish culture, faraway capitals, favorite continents, Ron Paul and his minions, CEOs, breakfast cereal, and Shakespeare.

Speaking of Shakespeare, the man responsible for the largest Shakespeare tour in American history, Dana Gioia, will be coming to Davis on May 17^th for a noon reading and Q+A at the John Natsoulas Gallery as part of the Poetry Night Reading Series. I keep plugging these events because I create and organize them, and because you feel compelled to read these bonus paragraphs, looking for stray Pub Quiz clues. Gioia is former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, and current Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California. His new book of poetry is called Pity the Beautiful.

See you tonight at 7 for the Pub Quiz!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans. What company whose five-letter name begins with L uses the slogan “The relentless pursuit of perfection”?

2. Internet Culture. What is the name of the electronic-book reader developed by American book retailer Barnes & Noble?

3. Newspaper Headlines. The same film topped the box office for the second weekend in a row. It has four words in its title, which is one more than The Hunger Games. Name the film.

4. Four for Four. Which of the following animals, if any, are members of the weasel family? Ermine, Polecat, Skink, Stoat.

5. Mitt Romney’s BFFs. With which 62 year-old current world leader is Mitt Romney closest friends? Hint: Back to the 1970s, both were young hotshots at the Boston Consulting Group.