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

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Internet Culture. What social network recently surpassed MySpace in US traffic to become the second most-used in the Untied States?

2. Newspaper Headlines. What is the name of the British weekly tabloid newspaper, that began publishing in 1843 and ended its run yesterday?

3. Four for Four. Which one of the following comedians spoke Spanish as a first language? Lenny Bruce, Louis C-K, Chris Rock, Carrot Top.

4. Film. The cast of what 2003 film included, in alphabetical order, Alec Baldwin, Dakota Fanning, Sean Hayes, Mike Myers, and Kelly Preston, as well as the voice of Dan Castellaneta?

5. Founding Fathers. Who famously said that “Those who would give up some of their liberty in order to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety”?

Friends of the Pub Quiz, and those curious about all the fun and fuss associated with the Pub Quiz, should come to de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis (217 E Street), the highly esteemed pub and restaurant that fills up every night because of the superb quality of food, drink and company that can be found there. The de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz takes place every Monday at 7pm, though players are encouraged to arrive early to claim a table. As always, find out more about the Pub Quiz by visiting https://www.yourquizmaster.com. For more on de Vere’s Irish Pub, visit http://deverespub.com/.

The Memory Interregnum Edition of the Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on June 27, 2011

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I recently encountered a passage in Jane Austen’s novel Mansfield Park that reminded me of one of the (many) reasons that I enjoy writing and hosting our Pub Quiz. Austen writes,

If any one faculty of our nature may be called more wonderful than the rest, I do think it is memory. There seems something more speakingly incomprehensible in the powers, the failures, the inequalities of memory, than in any other of our intelligences. The memory is sometimes so retentive, so serviceable, so obedient; at others, so bewildered and so weak; and at others again, so tyrannic, so beyond control! We are, to be sure, a miracle every way; but our powers of recollecting and of forgetting do seem peculiarly past finding out.

Do Austen’s words resonate with you about your own memory? The ubiquity of Google’s services in 2011 has no doubt weakened our memories, and perhaps cheapened them. Why keep all that information in one’s head when one can literally “ask” Google the facts that one would otherwise have to recall? I appreciate the Pub Quiz, by contrast, because it rewards knowledge, schooling and autodidact curiosity, as well as collaborative learning, rather than thumb-speed. How and why is it that a group of six friends in a booth can call up facts that none of the six could produce separately? Pub Quiz participants talk it through, enjoy flashes of brilliance, and even make discoveries. We share our memories at work.

When my daughter Geneva joined me for dinner last night after the family watched the new film Cars 2, I was peppering her with Pixar questions, testing future Pub Quiz questions for their perceived difficulty. Whip-smart, and a bit obsessed with Pixar, Geneva answered my questions even before I could finish my well-crafted sentences. Geneva is only five or so years younger than another memory master, Robert Lipman, the pop culture enthusiast and DHS student who has helped to keep the Pub Quiz team Portraits of Mohammed in the Winners’ Circle for the last three years. Robert is about to venture off to Oxford, England for a number of weeks, so we’ll see how well his team can do without all of his youthful brainpower. Some are predicting that we are about to begin an interregnum in the era of POM dominance. The value of that prediction may depend upon you, your teams, and whether you remember to make reservations early for the typically sold-out Pub Quiz.

In addition to the topic of memory, tonight’s Pub Quiz will cover Starbucks, French clothing, corruption, Nevada, depilation, Halloween, vicious cycles, numbers (what is your favorite song with a number in its title or lyrics?), baseball, classics of American literature, illegal drugs, gay rights heroes, communists, cathedrals, astronomy, Illinois, depreciation and disapproval, Richard Pryor, popular music, isolated incidents, James Bond, living novelists, Stephen Colbert, film quotations, the Pulitzer Prize, Presidents of the United States, common birds, the 15^th century, Star Wars, hockey, and William Shakespeare.

I hope you enjoy the 4th of July with your families. I look forward to seeing you tonight, and on July 11^th for another edition of the Pub Quiz!

Best,

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans. According to the ads, what is “The Happiest Place on Earth”?

2. Internet Culture. What Canadian electronics manufacturer reached its peak in market share at 21% in the third quarter of 2009, but has been eroding market share steadily since then, such that now its products are being abandoned for cooler and flashier-looking alternatives?

3. Newspaper Headlines. Euro zone finance ministers recently gave what country the “austerity for loans” ultimatum?

4. Four for Four. Which of the following, if any, are heptalogies? The Chronicles of Narnia, The Harry Potter books, The Oz books, The Ring of the Nibelung

5. American Cities Anagram. The names of the second and third largest cities in New England can be spelled from the words in the title of the infamous religious horror film CONCEIVED PEW TERRORS. Name both cities.

Friends of the Pub Quiz, and those curious about all the fun and fuss associated with the Pub Quiz, should come to de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis (217 E Street), the highly esteemed pub and restaurant that fills up every night because of the superb quality of food, drink and company that can be found there. The de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz takes place every Monday at 7pm, though players are encouraged to arrive early to claim a table. As always, find out more about the Pub Quiz by visiting https://www.yourquizmaster.com. For more on de Vere’s Irish Pub, visit http://deverespub.com/.

The German Carpenter Edition of the Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on June 20, 2011

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Last Monday a remarkable and unprecedented event happened at the Pub Quiz: a team earned a perfect score on the. The team, Portraits of Mohammed, scored a perfect 30 out of 30, and even answered the tiebreaker correctly. Of course, POM has participated in the Pub Quiz every Monday for the last three years, so they’ve had lots of practice. They also make a point of stacking their team with people with a wide variety of areas and expertise and qualities, including youth. Someone on the POM team last week suggested they should now retire, but I don’t think they will. Congratulate them tonight, if you are so inclined. You’ll find them at table 11.

I don’t know where “my” team will be seated. My wife Kate and her brother will be captaining a team tonight – he just arrived this afternoon from Seattle, and he always enjoys the show. Because I don’t include questions on topics that Kate and I have talked about extensively, the Pub Quiz takes some strange turns when she joins a team. Feel free to stop by and greet us, as well, and tell my Brother-in-Law Paul how much you enjoy the Pub Quiz.

As I am teaching an advanced poetry workshop this summer session, you would think that I would have nothing but poetry on my mind as I free associate, inventing Pub Quiz questions. Of course, like Quizmasters, poets can write on just about any topic. Tonight you should expect mottos for places (rather than shopping-cart consumables), internet culture, Canada, The Wizard of Oz, Europe, conceived pew terrors, comedic actresses who has had the third or fourth lead in some really big movies, songs from the 1970s, basketball, dragons, Hungarians, German carpenters, reality TV, snobs, textiles and clothing, needling heliports, this new X-Men movie that opened a couple weeks ago, two Shakespeare plays, baseball, radio, a City of Davis question (on request), Disney, places that you have heard of (but never visited), popular drugs, obituaries, South America, the Guinness Book of World Records, madcap comedic actors, and Shakespeare.

I hope you can join us tonight. I look forward to projecting over the din of a sold out night!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

10. Great Americans. What 19th century author in his most famous work that “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.” Henry David Thoreau in Walden

11. Unusual Words. What three-syllable adjective beginning with the letter D means “Having a sophisticated charm”? Debonair

12. Another Music Question. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lived and died in the same century that Tristam Shandy author Laurence Sterne lived and died in. Name the century. The 18th century

13. Pop Culture – Television. What is the name of the Amy Poehler American comedy television series that debuted on NBC on April 9, 2009 and was recently picked up for a fourth season? Parks and Recreation

14. Italian Islands. The two largest islands in the Mediterranean are both Italian. Name them. Sicily and Sardinia

Friends of the Pub Quiz, and those curious about all the fun and fuss associated with the Pub Quiz, should come to de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis (217 E Street), the highly esteemed pub and restaurant that fills up every night because of the superb quality of food, drink and company that can be found there. The de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz takes place every Monday at 7pm, though players are encouraged to arrive early to claim a table. As always, find out more about the Pub Quiz by visiting https://www.yourquizmaster.com. For more on de Vere’s Irish Pub, visit http://deverespub.com/.

The Delicate Adventures Edition of the Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on June 14, 2011

The Delicate Adventures Edition of the Pub Quiz Newsletter

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

How do I know that summer has come? Because of news of sellout crowds planning to descend upon the Pub Quiz in Davis tonight. Here’s a message that I received today on the Facebook account for Your Quizmaster.

In Vino Veritas wanted one to come one last time before we move to Oklahoma, but all the tables are full! We’re still going to try to come before the end of the month, but my husband won’t be able to come, so we’d have to be In Vino Veritas Light.

I so appreciate teams like In Vino Veritas, because they attended the Pub Quiz every Monday for about two years, because they brought multiple generations from the same family, and because some of their members (including the author of this message) came all the way from Sacramento.

I’m hoping that all of you will feel inspired to show that sort of loyalty in the coming years of the Pub Quiz. With that goal in mind, I have begun talks today with one of my favorite San Francisco artists, Pete Glanting of the historical celebrity-egg-inspired Delicate Adventures Project, to create a comic book that explains the Pub Quiz, and provides tips and strategies for doing well at our weekly competition. Look for that by the end of the summer.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on The Beatles, Greek mythology, four-syllable words, Republican presidential hopefuls, guys named Stuart, freckled man-beasts, Twitter, $100 billion, Colorado, somnolence, movie stars with hit records (can you sing a song by a movie star with a hit record?), American generals, the NBA playoffs, German words, boats, coenzymes, drummers, American poets, really big whales, crops, the public collapse of Newt Gingrich, charming adjectives, situation comedies (do people watch those anymore?), famous islands, a kitten jihad, backward and forward movement, Rosh Hashana, linguistics, Illinois, trees, American and British holidays, drowsy students, authors whose books you should recognize, baseball, basketball, coffee beans, and antagonists in the plays of William Shakespeare.

I hope you will join us tonight for a raucous edition of the Pub Quiz!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans. The Olympic motto is “Citius, Altius, Fortius.” These three Latin words mean “Swifter, Higher, Stronger.” How many rings are there on the Olympic flag?

2. Internet Culture. Apple, Inc. is now worth more than the combined value of two companies whose names can be spelled with the letters in the words FLIMSIER COTTON. Name the companies.

3. Newspaper Headlines. Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt, whose murder conviction was overturned after he spent 27 years in prison for a crime he maintained he did not commit, died last week at the age of 63. With what organization was Pratt most famously associated?

4. Four for Four. Parts of which of the following Davis streets, if any, are situated within four blocks of the Cranbrook Apartments? Anderson Road, Covell Boulevard, J Street, Oak Avenue.

5. The Final Frontier. Who was the first man in space?

P.S. I’m hosting a poetry reading Thursday night at 8 at the John Natsoulas Gallery (521 1^st Street). You should join us for this special evening featuring the work of two UC Davis graduates who have hit the big time: Briony Gylgayton and Patricia Killelea. Details below and at http://www.poetryindavis.com.

A recent graduate of UC Davis, Briony Gylgayton has won multiple awards for her writing, including placing second for the University of California system-wide 2010 Ina Coolbrith Memorial Poetry Prize, and placing for both creative writing categories in the 2010 Pamela Maus Contest for Creative Writing, winning first in fiction and second in poetry. Her Creative Writing Honors Thesis, a manuscript of poetry about psychological disorders, was awarded the 2010 Elliot Gilbert Memorial Prize for Best Undergraduate Honors Creative Work. Briony Gylgayton will begin her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Iowa Writers Workshop in August, 2011.

Patricia Killelea is the author of the new poetry collection Other Suns, now available from Swan Scythe Press (2011). Originally from the Bay Area, California, Patricia has placed her poems in The Seizure State, The Tule Review, and Suisun Valley Review, among others. She is currently a doctoral student in Native American Studies at the University of California at Davis, and holds an M.A. in English & Creative Writing, also from the University of California at Davis. She has taught the Introduction to Native American Literature course at UCD since Fall 2009.

Attendees are encouraged to arrive early at the John Natsoulas Gallery to secure a seat, and to sign up for a spot on the Open Mic list. The Poetry Night Reading Series occurs on the first and third Thursday of every month at the John Natsoulas Gallery.

Friends of the Pub Quiz, and those curious about all the fun and fuss associated with the Pub Quiz, should come to de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis (217 E Street), the highly esteemed pub and restaurant that fills up every night because of the superb quality of food, drink and company that can be found there. The de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz takes place every Monday at 7pm, though players are encouraged to arrive early to claim a table. As always, find out more about the Pub Quiz by visiting https://www.yourquizmaster.com. For more on de Vere’s Irish Pub, visit http://deverespub.com/.

The Pandas vs. Mutants Edition of the Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on June 7, 2011

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Welcome to the second week of June (almost), and the end of winter in Davis, California! My family and I biked downtown yesterday to catch a movie (or, in our case, two movies). While I got to accompany the three kids at a viewing of Kung Fu Panda II, my wife got to see the latest X-Men movie. Back when I ran the Manly Man Movie Club of Davis, I would see all the superhero movies first, but now with my Pub Quiz, poetry, and parenting responsibilities, I enter theatres (mostly the Varsity) to see date movies. Always alert to possible Pub Quiz question topics, I can promise that you’ll hear a question about pandas, mutants, or Cameron Diaz if you join us tonight, and that I will catch you up on those other two unused topics later in June. Now that Gary Oldman has played a villain (of course) in the latest Kung Fun Panda film, I’ve been able to point him out to my daughter (who would not have an occasion to see most of Mr. Oldman’s villains). So many films, actors, and comedians to keep track of! I will test you on several of film actors and characters this evening. I hope you can join us.

Tonight expect questions on Olympic mottos, flimsier cotton, Geronimo, Davis streets, the final frontier, Bill Clinton, college basketball, songs about places (can you think of one that you would like to sing?), compromises in the US Congress, luminescence, the psychology of exhaustion, televised controversies, Muppets, people who actually shouldn’t be celebrities, people whose parents were born in Egypt, people who might be Chevy Chase or Margaret Cho (but aren’t), policemen with pretty girls, petty things, comedians, baseball, US Naval History, Black English Vernacular, popular authors with the children, France, football, gifted children, gardens, three-syllable cities, snake eyes, assigned biology, firearms, pirates, and Shakespeare’s Hamlet (which you might re-read between now and 9pm).

Reserve a table now so we can call you a “regular” when the crowds arrive after graduation. See you tonight!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans. What company promises that is products are “made from the best stuff on earth”?

2. Internet Culture. What four-letter word appears in the titles of the first and second best-selling video games for the X-Box?

3. Newspaper Headlines. What New England city of 105 thousand people last week was named by Amazon.com to be the “best read city in America”?

4. Four for Four. Which of the following birds, if any, are members of the Phasianidae or pheasant family? The Dove, the Partridge, the Quail, the Snowcock.

5. Food and Drink – Grains. In any order, name the two grains that have the highest worldwide production.

Friends of the Pub Quiz, and those curious about all the fun and fuss associated with the Pub Quiz, should come to de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis (217 E Street), the highly esteemed pub and restaurant that fills up every night because of the superb quality of food, drink and company that can be found there. The de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz takes place every Monday at 7pm, though players are encouraged to arrive early to claim a table. As always, find out more about the Pub Quiz by visiting https://www.yourquizmaster.com. For more on de Vere’s Irish Pub, visit http://deverespub.com/.

The Aspiring Breeze Edition of the Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on May 30, 2011

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Davisites have been spared a triple-digit Memorial Day, but most people that I know seem not to be happy about it. When I check the Twitterverse (@ http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster), I read incredulous comments such as “Weather gods? Memorial Day and 68 degrees? Really?” As someone with no freon, seemingly, in the air conditioning of his QuizMasterMobile, and as someone who almost never uses said vehicle because of my commitment to his 15 minute bike commute, I am loving this weather, even the strong winds that have made my new nightly badminton practice a challenge. I have 15-year-old memories of an April concert at The Delta of Venus that was almost cancelled because of the 105-degree temperatures, and that was at 8 pm. A halo of heat hovered over the asphalt of B Street, warning all of us to be still, and to wish for even the slightest breeze. As the British playwright Sheridan once put it, “When delicate and feeling souls are separated, there is not a feature in the sky, not a movement of the elements, not an aspiration of the breeze, but hints some cause for a lover’s apprehension.” I hope you are not separated from those who you call your “delicate and feeling souls.” On this day devoted to gratitude, we should be thankful to borrow Berkeley’s weather for a couple weeks, and just enjoy our satisfied “aspiration of the breeze.” The heat will come soon enough.

And when the summer heat comes, so will the crowds. Many Davis High grads return to their family homes to summer with their parents, and immediately recall the need to escape on a Monday evening. And many UC Davis students are stuck with apartment leases and a tepid job market, meaning that they can stay out late on a Monday evening without disappointing anyone the next day. As a Pub Quiz Newsletter subscriber, you should know that all this means that the best tables for Pub Quiz will disappear sooner, and if you choose not to reserve a table at all, you may be ordering your evening snacks from DJ Nate at the bar. So reserve your table early – no matter how busy it gets, we don’t want to disappoint anyone.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will cover a number of topics, with a usual mix of questions for every sort of person on your team, as long as your team includes a mix of the young and old, the film buff and the political junkie, the pop culture aficionado and the NPR addict. People who read actual books also make valuable contributions – I can include only so many questions about Harry Potter, Pokémon, and Glee (and none tonight) before I turn to the pesky topics I encountered while earning that PhD. Tonight expect questions on refreshing beverages, video games, New England cities, snowcocks, food and drink, European countries, revolutions, Presidents of the United States, groups that can be tellingly compared to Sade, baseball teams that I have never seen play in person (as far as I remember – there are so many), inorganic chemistry, Michigan, the old joke about the word “gullible” not being in the dictionary, the Tea Party, biracial America, young musicians, a Shakespeare play that you may actually have read, people with the last name of “Seaborn,” respected Academy-Award nominated actors who now appear only in forgettable movies, angry birds, unpopular bodies of water, film class films, the Old Testament, songs of the south, heroic playwrights, “It” girls that I had never heard of, three-letter words that come up frequently in conversation, world capitals, zip codes, Native Americans, and broadband internet. This week we will hear no questions about anyone named “Gretel.”

I look forward to seeing you this evening for another raucous edition of the Pub Quiz!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1.Mottos and Slogans. “Whassup?” was a commercial campaign for a beer company from 1999 to 2002. Name the company or the beer.

2. Internet Culture. What is the eleven-letter name of a single-person video game that has come bundled with versions of the Windows operating system from 3.1 on?

3. Newspaper Headlines – the Sports Section. As of late-May, 2011, which of the following is closest to where Tiger Woods can be found in the world golf rankings? 1, 11, 21, 31.

4.Four for Four. Which of the following current Sacramento Kings, if any, were born outside the United States? Omri Casspi, Samuel Dalembert, Beno Udrih, Hassan Whiteside.

5. Actors and Actresses. What two actors’ names were above the title on the poster of the 2010 film The Other Guys?

P.S. Former Sacramento Poet Laureate Dennis Schmitz will be performing his poetry this coming Wednesday night at 8:30. Dennis Schmitz is the author of several books of poetry, and his work has appeared in some of the best journals that accept poems, including American Poetry Review, The Nation, Paris Review, the Chicago Review and Zyzzyva. Schmitz taught for more than thirty years at California State University in Sacramento, where he now lives. His students have included Raymond Carver, Charlene Ungstad and Gary Short. For more information about this even, please visit http://www.poetryindavis.com.

Friends of the Pub Quiz, and those curious about all the fun and fuss associated with the Pub Quiz, should come to de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis (217 E Street), the highly esteemed pub and restaurant that fills up every night because of the superb quality of food, drink and company that can be found there. The de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz takes place every Monday at 7pm, though players are encouraged to arrive early to claim a table. As always, find out more about the Pub Quiz by visiting https://www.yourquizmaster.com. For more on de Vere’s Irish Pub, visit http://deverespub.com/.

The Fashionable and Funky Edition of the Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on May 23, 2011

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Greetings on a Wednesday afternoon. Do people ever say “Greetings” anymore? Perhaps only geeks say that, quoting comic books and robots in science fiction stories. Someone may correct me, saying that a dork might say that, but that a geek would say something completely different. We have a regular participant in the Pub Quiz – her name is Olivia – who sometimes attends the Quiz dressed fashionably, such that no one would call her a geek. But she also reads comic books, acts in internet-only science fiction dramas, and purchases Geek a Week Cards. Perhaps none who would first meet Olivia would call her a geek, but all who know her well would be quick to do so. Even though she can be found in a bar (sometimes singing) on Monday evenings, none would greet her with that old televised favorite from 1999-2002: Whassup? Some fads blissfully fade from our memories, unless we are forced to recall them at a Pub Quiz.

What’s up with the Pub Quiz tonight is that we will feature questions about ubiquitous video games, golf, Will Ferrell, the Sacramento Kings, musical spices, horses, funky music (if you had to sing a single funky music song, what would it be?), Ukrainian companies, famous assassins, the brain, alternative rock bands, Chernobyl, stand-up comedians, the record industry, pensiveness, Tyler Perry, Camping, the Old Testament, rap music, productivity, lyric poetry, monsters, bears, birds, elephants, guns, basketball, princes, judges, and Shakespeare.

I look forward to seeing you this evening for the Pub Quiz!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

10. Great Americans. Who became President of the United States the year that the Mutiny on the Bounty and the French Revolution took place?

11. Unusual Words. What verb starting with the letter “N” as in “Noelle” means “To cause to be at a loss as to what to think, say, or do; to confound; to perplex; to bewilder”?

12. Another Music Question. Who has a big hit in 2005 with “You’re Beautiful”?

13. Pop Culture – Television. What current CBS sitcom stars Josh Radnor and is narrated by Bob Saget?

14. Guys Named Zubin. Zubin Mehta was born into a Parsi family in Mumbai, India. He is known primarily for his work in what field?

Friends of the Pub Quiz, and those curious about all the fun and fuss associated with the Pub Quiz, should come to de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis (217 E Street), the highly esteemed pub and restaurant that fills up every night because of the superb quality of food, drink and company that can be found there. The de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz takes place every Monday at 7pm, though players are encouraged to arrive early to claim a table. As always, find out more about the Pub Quiz by visiting https://www.yourquizmaster.com. For more on de Vere’s Irish Pub, visit http://deverespub.com/.

The Caesar in the Rain Edition of the Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on May 16, 2011

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

The poet James Dickey once said, “A poet is someone who stands outside in the rain hoping to be struck by lightning.” Like you, I think of that quip as being figurative, with an emphasis on the sudden inspiration or revelation that can strike the receptive poet like a thunderclap. But this past weekend, I actually had the experience of hearing (dramatic) poetry while being rained upon. Saturday night my daughter Geneva and I attended an outdoor performance of Julius Caesar performed by the student-run Studio 301 Productions Theatre Company. UC Davis students are historically famous for creating culture themselves where the city itself did not provide it for them. Consider the long history of student-run projects like KDVS, the Whole Earth Festival, and the California Aggie. Most other universities (and most other UCs) have full-time career employees managing equivalent their operations, but here in Davis the students run the shows themselves. Outfits like Studio 301 Productions and the Davis Shakespeare Ensemble may have the blessing of the UC Davis Department of Theatre and Dance, but they don’t have its funding or faculty. Nevertheless, these two local theatre companies remind us how lucky we are to live in a small town with so much culture, whether it be poetry readings, the 2^nd Friday Art About, or outdoor theatre productions that can be enjoyed during a spring rainstorm. Sitting under the open sky (though warmly dressed, and under a blanket), Geneva and I (and the other audience members) were told that that the show would continue “as long as we have an audience.” As far as I can tell, the entire audience stayed, because we wanted to know how the story ends, and because we were promised swordfights. So with the sounds of a strong wind and clashing swords, we sat in the rain for Shakespeare. If you care about arts, culture and theatre, I wonder what sort of commitment you would be willing to make.

I’m looking forward to barking before a packed house this evening, for I know of a number of old friends who are joining us for the first time. I hope you are planning to attend, too. If so, please call to reserve a table, and plan to join us by 8:45 so you can be in place when the cowbell rings. Tonight expect questions on citizen journalism, finger placement, monetary policies, the Shaolin Temple, museums, basketball, space travel, war, New York drivers, California musicians (which is your favorite, and can you prove it?), a leftover obscure sports question, DNA, the mutiny on the Bounty, bewildering words, love songs, Full House, more famous people from India, willful email, Julius Caesar, piggies, Academy Award-winning films (can you name the first winner of the Best Picture Oscar?), conflicts in Afghanistan, trading partners, gnarly skateboards, geology, princesses, and, of course, Shakespeare. This week the correct answer to no questions will be A Midsummer Night’s Dream, though I will no doubt return to that play when Geneva is acting in it this summer.

Sadly, there will be no superhero questions tonight, unless you count musicians and geologists.

I look forward to seeing you tonight for another edition of the Pub Quiz. If you are trying woo potential participants to join you at the Pub Quiz, remind them to sign up for the Pub Quiz newsletter at https://www.yourquizmaster.com.

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

23. Italian Patriots. What Italian patriot and world explorer who lived from 1807-1882 had first and last names that started with the letter G? Last name only.

24. Countries of the World. One finds four letters in the Irish name for the island of Ireland and the sovereign state of the same name. Two of those letters are the letter “E.” What are the other two letters? The correct answer to this question is two letters long.

25. Film. What 2004 film starred Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, and James Garner?

26. Science. What does an anemometer measure?

27. Books and Authors. The first detective story was published by an American in 1841. Who was the author?

P.S. Poetry Night this coming Thursday at the John Natsoulas Gallery features Sacramento News and Review reporter Josh Fernandez, the Aggie author of the brand new poetry book Spare Parts and Dismemberment. You might have heard him last week on Insight on Capital Public Radio. Josh will be reading with Lawrence Dinkins, author of the 2011 poetry book Sub American. Both poets are alarmingly edgy and engaging. Details at http://www.poetryindavis.com. Now go visit some of the above links.

Friends of the Pub Quiz, and those curious about all the fun and fuss associated with the Pub Quiz, should come to de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis (217 E Street), the highly esteemed pub and restaurant that fills up every night because of the superb quality of food, drink and company that can be found there. The de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz takes place every Monday at 7pm, though players are encouraged to arrive early to claim a table. As always, find out more about the Pub Quiz by visiting https://www.yourquizmaster.com. For more on de Vere’s Irish Pub, visit http://deverespub.com/.

The Two-Wheeled Consumerist Edition of the Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on May 10, 2011

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

My wife bought an electric-assisted bicycle last week, and she just loves it. Push the pedal, and the bike’s electric motor gives it a bit more of a push. Soon the complementary momentum propels you happily and speedily (but not sweatily) to your Davis destination. The price of gas will come down soon, the prognosticators say (do we thank the Navy Seals for that, too?), so it may take longer than she expected for the bike to pay for itself. Almost daily she hauls a ride-along bike with my five-year old, he being part of the justification for the purchase. He loves the speed – he was bravest of the three who visited Disneyland earlier this year – but may wonder why he’ll be biking in slow motion when he finally gets a training-wheel-free bike of his own. Like most of his clothes, his next bike will most likely be a hand-me-down, for now we have about twice as many bicycles in the garage as we have family members (if you count the hamster). My grandfather (whose father worked with Henry Ford) once told me that a successful man bought a new GM car every year. I wouldn’t be comfortable with that, but I do know that B&L Bikes has learned to time their sales for about when we receive our income tax refunds, and we seem never to disappoint them. What is your guilty consumerist pleasure?

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature sports questions. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Also expect questions on soft drink slogans, consumer electronics, Google and other giants of network industry, navy seals, Anchormen, archipelagos, favorite oceans, skin color, Billy Joel (can you sing a Billy Joel song?), Valentine’s Day, people who call themselves “Bobby,” performance-enhancing drugs, isotopes, young governors, five-syllable words that start with the letter C (and which never come up in conversation), aliens, the hope that remains, the Academy Awards, The New York Times, Brazil, Bruce Jenner, American patriots, late Shakespeare sonnets, Giles, breezes that blow, the busts of poets, Freakanomics and other best-selling works of non-fiction, Italians, Ireland, novels that you might be embarrassed to have some people spot on your bookshelf, detectives, birds and sharks, and Shakespeare plays that you haven’t seen on stage (but may have heard of).

I hope you can join us tonight. We have more fun when you do.

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans. What cosmetics company uses the slogan “Because you are worth it”?

2. Internet Culture. The third most visited website is not Google or Facebook; nor is it Yahoo or Blogger, for those are numbers one, two, four and five. Hint: It’s also not Wikipedia, Twitter, or Amazon.com. What is number three?

3. Newspaper Headlines. Last Wednesday we learned that severe storms and tornadoes moved through the U.S. Southeast, and knocked out three TVA nuclear reactors. What do the letters in the acronym TVA stand for?

4. Four for Four. Which of the following, if any, are historical reasons to celebrate Cinqo de Mayo? The Battle of Puebla, The leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín, Mexican independence, A military victory over the French.

5. Food and Drink. What is the name of the second most popular soft drink in the United States in 2011?

Friends of the Pub Quiz, and those curious about all the fun and fuss associated with the Pub Quiz, should come to de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis (217 E Street), the highly esteemed pub and restaurant that fills up every night because of the superb quality of food, drink and company that can be found there. The de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz takes place every Monday at 7pm, though players are encouraged to arrive early to claim a table. As always, find out more about the Pub Quiz by visiting https://www.yourquizmaster.com. For more on de Vere’s Irish Pub, visit http://deverespub.com/.

The Jack Kemp Memorial Edition of the Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on May 3, 2011

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Today I wore my artsy American flag tie. I get it out for special occasions, and to show off that it was autographed by former football star and Vice-Presidential candidate Jack Kemp. I unearthed it a decade ago, when Kemp’s signature was worth a little less than it is now, in a box of ties at a Sacramento thrift store, and was happy to pay $4 for the collector’s item. Kemp once said that “Democracy is not a mathematical deduction proved once and for all time. Democracy is a just faith fervently held, commitment to be tested again and again in the fiery furnace of history.” That’s exactly the sort of sentiment – the faith in everyday people, commitment to democracy, and shared appreciation of justice – that would have made Osama bin Laden really uncomfortable. Kemp died two years ago today, the same year that he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Although always more interested in economic opportunity at home than military might overseas, Kemp would have been proud to wear an American flag tie on this day.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will cover topics in cosmetics, internet videos, Tennessee, military victories over the French, popular beverages, Cassius Clay, comedy duos, reveille songs (what song would you most like to wake up to?), baseball, fruits and vegetables, windows, Presidents of the United States (my wife can name them all in order – a useful skill at a Pub Quiz), opera, Rhode Island, bicycles in Davis, thin items (anagram hint), butterflies and other bugs, superheroes (because that was so popular last time), Friends, Oceana, the King of Lilliput, the ingredients in agricultural fertilizers, Osama bin Laden (who was buried at sea), famous Brits, nefarious villains, journalism, upcoming holidays, and Shakespeare.

If you make a reservation to join us tonight or some other night, remember to arrive by 8:45. See you soon!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans. What Japanese motorcycle company that has produced motorcycles since 1954 has used the commercial slogan “It lets the good times roll”?

2. Internet Culture. You may have heard that Apple profits grew an astounding 95% in the second quarter of 2011. Sales of which of the following provided the driving force behind this profit growth? Computers, iPads, or iPhones.

3. Newspaper Headlines – A Silly Royals Question. According to the 127,000 people surveyed by the website beautifulpeople.com, this coming weekend Kate Middleton will become the third most beautiful royal. Neither the first nor the second most beautiful royals were British. One is still alive, though a widow, and the other died the year Middleton was born. Name either royal that was judged to be more beautiful than Kate Middleton.

4. Four for Four. Which two of the following Charlie Chaplin films were released during the 1930s? City Lights, The Gold Rush, The Great Dictator, Modern Times.

5. Superheroes – The Fantastic Four. What member of the Fantastic Four apparently died earlier this year while fighting a horde of aliens from the otherdimensional Negative Zone?

P.S. Poet Greg Glazner reads on Wednesday night at 8:30. Born in Anson, Texas, Greg Glazner earned a BA from Hardin-Simmons University, and an MA and MFA from the University of Montana. Glazner’s books of poetry include From the Iron Chair, which won the prestigious Walt Whitman Award, and Singularity, both published by W.W. Norton. He has also been awarded the Bess Hokin Award for Poetry and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Currently, Glazner is completing a multi-genre novel, Rag in a Loud Wind. Sections of the novel have appeared in magazines including Seneca Review, Ploughshares, Colorado Review, Idaho Review, and Iron Horse Literary Review. He is currently a visiting writer teaching advanced poetry seminars at UC Davis. More information at http://www.poetryindavis.com.