Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
I will be masquerading as a single parent for the next ten days, for my wife Kate is on a business trip to Germany, with my son Truman for company and support.
I’m on solo Jukie duty for almost a fortnight. When we had our third child, I remember joking with friends that Kate and I were moving from man-to-man defense to a zone defense, with one of us always guarding two positions while preparing to set a pick.
The sports fans among my friends understood what I was saying. I used to watch a lot of basketball 18 years ago when Truman was born, but now I have given that up, along with other television programs, to focus on parenting, teaching, administrating, and other work-related gerunds. As Warren Buffet said, “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.”
I would settle for successful, rather than “very successful,” if that means I can make time for my family, my students, and my faculty and staff colleagues at UC Davis. That said, I don’t like disappointing people or animals. No one regrets time spent walking one’s dog.
According to the American Heart Association, dog owners tend to live longer than non-owners. I think we so appreciate a dog’s loyalty that we resolve to live longer to repay the kindness they have shown us. They need us to open cans for them, so we persist.
The walks help. An article in yesterday’s New York Times says that, indeed, people who take walks live longer than those who don’t. The Times also wants us to run, as you might be able to guess from the article’s title: Running vs. Walking: Which Is Better for Lasting Health? I would go for a run if I knew that my son Jukie would keep up with me.
Jukie has already told me in his way that he misses his mom and his brother, but this morning he did pet the dog. As the Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk said, “Dogs do speak, but only to those who know how to listen.”
I will try not neglect the household’s healthy habits while Kate is gone. Married men live longer than unmarried men, according to Harvard Health Publishing, likely because their spouses tell them to eat well and get regular checkups. My wife Kate cooked four platters of a tofu egg scramble for me to eat over the next four day, meaning that I will still be benefitting from her love and care even while she is making connections with Smith-Lemli-Opitz researchers in Lower Saxony.
I look forward to hearing about Kate and Truman’s European adventures. Tomorrow night they are staying overnight in a castle. Meanwhile, I see on the family calendar that Kate has already scheduled my next physical for after her return. I look forward to that and to the patient stories that are best shared during reunions. As Audrey Hepburn said, “The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.”
If you are in Davis tonight, or the night before Thanksgiving, please join us for the Pub Quiz at Sudwerk. Recruit a team, dress warmly for a mid-November sunset, and join us at the beautiful outdoor patio where we have room for almost everyone. Even though it is more work for me, we always have more fun with the bigger crowds and more voices. As Walt Whitman says, “the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”
In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on cosmetics companies, crimes in the news, Broadway theaters, rustlers of the bland variety, patriotism, monthly expenses, Disney+, comedians, birthdays, gypsum, tobacco (shocking!), tourists, the placement of one’s heart, managers, the number 101, bilingual dictionaries, epistles, crossing cerebral isles, uncooperative people, fathers, paintbrushes, summer Olympic events, cars, small and big numbers, explorers, midnight appearances, people who are worth your attention, the exception of grind house, cities that might sound the same if one is a mumbler, savage wrestlers, the far side, physiology, Grammy awards, trailers, Australian horses, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare.
Thanks to The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, Gena Harper, a new guy named Spencer (welcome!), and others who support the Pub Quiz on Patreon. I would love to add your name or that of your team to the list of supporters. I appreciate your backing this pub quiz project of mine!
Best,
Dr. Andy
P.S. Here are three questions from last week’s Pub Quiz:
- Current Events – Names in the News. First name Mike, what is the last name of the Speaker of the House of Representatives?
- Sports. Before moving to the Midwest, what NFL football team played in two Super Bowl games, losing to the New York Jets in Super Bowl III and defeating the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl V?
- Shakespeare. Which Shakespeare comedy follows its heroine Rosalind as she flees persecution in her uncle’s court, accompanied by her cousin Celia to find safety and, eventually, love, in the Forest of Arden?