Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
Happy Independence Day! I hope you enjoyed the holiday festivities you’re your families yesterday. We had a spot so close to the Community Park fireworks that, once they began, we all had to lie down rather than crane our necks. We were too far from the grandstand to hear our Davis Poet Laureate, Allegra Silberstein, read a poem, but I was thinking about a Langston Hughes poem called “Let America Be America Again” that could be appropriate for the day. Here’s how the poem concludes:
O, let America be America again–
The land that never has been yet–
And yet must be–the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine–the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME–
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose–
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath–
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain–
All, all the stretch of these great green states–
And make America again!
Inspired by this poem, I’ve written a few questions for tonight that reflect upon this theme. You will also encounter questions on manly men, the internet, British royalty, Art Tatum (do you know his music? You might go download “Cocktails for Two”), tires, Star Trek, clever rhymesters, hormones, Broadway, objects worthy of pursuit, fireworks, fictional magazines, The Wall Street Journal, the filthy rich, the US Constitution, American Presidents, American films, Iraq, shipping, a white dwarf star, Spider-Man, Afghanistan, France, and Shakespeare, who once asked this famous question in Sonnet 65:
O, how shall summer’s honey breath hold out
Against the wreckful siege of battering days,
When rocks impregnable are not so stout,
Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays?
Before signing off I would like to acknowledge the contributions to the Pub Quiz of UC Davis Professor Ben Orlove, his family, and his friends. Ben attended his last Davis Pub Quiz this past week, and is now headed to a new teaching gig in Columbia. Congratulations, Ben. You and your team will be deeply missed by me, and somewhat less deeply by all the teams you would beat at the Pub Quiz every week. I hope you enjoy your memories as much as I have appreciated the memories of you and your teammates!
Your Quizmaster
P.S. Poetry Night returns to this coming Wednesday with Chris “Whitey” Erickson and his wife Mischa Erickson, about who poet Joe Wenderoth has said the following: “Chris Erickson and Mischa Kuczynski Erickson are tremendously talented writers.to have the chance to hear them read is to have the chance to be shaken and seized by the shape of where we are.or by the rushing veins of whatever it echoes with.it is a chance to free yourself, literally, from the delusion of on-going communication.it is a chance to feel the houses that you’ve slept in.” Wednesday at 8pm at . See http://www.poetryindavis.com or http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=136812969677861&ref=ts for details.
P.P.S. Here are four questions from last week’s Quiz. How many did/could you get right?
10.Know Your Historical Figures (taken from the “A” chapter of the World Book encyclopedia). How many years older was Aristotle than Attila the Hun? They were born around the same time, Aristotle was about 400 years older, he was about 800 years older, or he was about 1600 years older.
11.Unusual Words. What two-syllable, six-letter word starting with the letter “H” means “relating to the sense of touch; tactile”?
12.Another Music Question.Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, Mick Mars and lead singer Vince Neil, who yesterday was arrested on suspicion of a DUI one week after publicly declaring his sobriety, together make up what American rock band that was formed in Los Angeles in 1981?
13.Pop Culture – Television. What rotund comedian beat out Dolly Parton for the gig of host of the 1999 revival of the TV game show Family Feud? Hint: He stayed on the game show until 2002.
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/.