Dear Friends,

Some months are so full or so painful that we have trouble forgetting them.

For example, 35 years ago yesterday I graduated from college. Like a wedding, a momentous graduation can root our memories in a particular time and place. I remember donning a red cap and gown and then filing with several others into Dickerson Field with the thousands of other Boston University graduates. 1989 was the sesquicentennial year for BU (150 years), so to mark the occasion, we had the sitting President of the United States, George H.W. Bush as our commencement speaker. You can read his remarks from that day here.

My dad knew George Bush a bit from earlier in that decade, for he and Bush rented movies from the same video store (Video Unlimited) in Georgetown. They would talk about favorite films while making their VHS selections.

I was also excited to see French President Mitterrand and Michael Dukakis up on stage, as well as a couple heroes of mine, Ted Kennedy and Elie Wiesel. Later that day (future) Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott was the speaker for the English Department graduation. Still later that day my mom and I ran into my good friend and onetime pen pal Maggie Drolet in front of the BU Bookstore. I introduced them, and then we stood around awkwardly, taking in the moment. I’m grateful to call many of those sesquicentennial graduates my friends today, including Julie, Teresa, Bob (Hi Bob!), Mark, Mark, Robyn, Ben, Scott, Eva, and Maggie. If Facebook existed 35 years ago, I would likely know about five times as many people from my BU days. I should reconnect with Paul Fram and Mark Hartstein, wherever they are (actually, I just found Paul in South Carolina). 

I experienced a similar month many years later, but this one was full of challenges. My father died on March 2^nd of 2004, my son Jukie got double ptosis repair eye surgery on March 26 (and subsequently stopped talking), and then on March 31^st I was told that my position of Coordinator of Computer-Aided Instruction for English and the UWP would soon be ending.

I miss my dad terribly, my son Jukie can see forward without lifting his head, and I have moved on and up to much more rewarding technology-adjacent positions at UC Davis. As one of my dad’s favorite playwrights, Tom Stoppard, says, “Every exit is an entry somewhere else.”

I am thinking of UC Davis Chancellor May this month as he is experiencing a memorable week. Last week he turned 60, he attended the wedding of one of his daughters and, the next day, his mother passed away. Many of us who follow Gary May on social media know of Gloria Hunter May and his son’s devotion to her.

If you look at the UC Davis webpage of Chancellor May’s remarks on the occasion of his investiture as UC Davis Chancellor, you can see me right behind him, clapping eagerly. I’m grateful that he chose me to be his MC that day.

Also on that day, he thanked his mom:

“I’ve dreamed for a long time of standing on a stage like this, all decked out in full academic regalia — the robe, the hood, the tam and, the bling — and saying out loud, “Hi, mom! It’s me up here, your son. Can you believe this? Did you ever imagine me becoming the leader of a major university?”

Well, I no longer have to dream, and she doesn’t need to imagine. My mother is right here in the audience, and you just heard me tell her what I’ve always wanted to say.  

‘Thank you, mom’

I also have to say this: Thank you, mom. Thank you for all those nights you spent helping me with my homework, after spending the whole day in school, teaching other kids. 

Thanks for getting me those jigsaw puzzles, Legos and Erector sets. I didn’t know it then, of course, but looking back now I can see how assembling blocks and beams and puzzles taught me the joy of building and creating. My low-tech creations became the seeds of my academic career in engineering.

Thanks, mom, for putting me in good schools and making college a priority for me in the May family. And, most of all, thank you for believing in me.”

Chancellor May is in my thoughts this week. May her memory be a blessing to him and to those who knew her. All of us can collect keepsakes and souvenirs, but in the end, after momentous events or losses in our lives, we have only our memories. As Oscar Wilde said, “Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.” 

The weather will be delightfully warm tonight! If you are in Davis this evening, please join us at Sudwerk. Recruit a team and join us at the beautiful outdoor patio where we have room for everyone. As Saint Augustine allegedly said, “Good times and crazy friends make the best memories.”

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on metaphorical stars, window decals, bosses, CEOs, state capitals, falcons, Irish directors, numbers of competitors, notable siblings, job losses in Japan, Disney films, rappers, moonshots, South American countries, Nickelodeon TV shows, stage names, the poetic responsibilities of flowers, taco stands, romances, people with common names, gossip columnists, agricultural science, bones, the month of May, hounds, pianists, recognizable kings with no clothes, movie remake decades, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare. Sometimes a question is substituted at the last minutes because of the day’s news.

Thanks to all the new players joining us at the live quizzes and to all the patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. Thanks also to Brooke, Jeannie, Becky, Franklin, and More Cow Bell. Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the dependable Mavens, 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:

1. People Named Gates. As announced recently, who is stepping down as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation? 

2. Pop Culture – Music. Miles Davis, Benny Goodman, Burl Ives, Quincy Jones, Ludacris, Patti Smith and Eddie Vedder were all born in the same state. Name it. 

3. Sports. In what city will for The Oakland Athletics play their home games for the 2025–2027 seasons (with an option for the 2028 season), prior to their permanent move to Las Vegas?  

Dear Friends,

Of course, columnists read columns. We look to see how they introduce their pieces, how they turn phrases, and what sources they depend upon for their information they uncover and comment upon.

Every columnist is also a reporter, responsible for breaking the smaller news stories that matter to their sources and their readers. Longtime Washington Post columnist Allan Sloan put it this way:

“Don’t commit to being a columnist unless you’re willing to do it right. Report your behind off, so you have something original and useful to say. Say it in a way that will interest someone other than you, your family and your sources.”

Liberal-turned-conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer believed that the best columnists keep at it: “Longevity, for a columnist, is a simple proposition: Once you start, you don’t stop. You do it until you die or can no longer put a sentence together. It has always been my intention to die at my desk, although my most cherished ambition is to outlive the estate tax.”

I feel that way about my KDVS radio show. Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour is now 24 years old, older than most of my UC Davis students. I’ve hosted more than a thousand episodes, and interviewed perhaps twice that number of guests. Many listeners visiting 90.3 FM while driving down I-80 will call in to share their delight.

My guest this afternoon at 5 PM will be Bob Dunning, the daily columnist who has been read by generations of Davisites during his 54+ years at The Davis Enterprise. I invite you to tune in, or catch thepodcast from our conversation which will likely drop on the morning of Thursday, May 16^th.

Dunning’s new home is Substack. The Wary One publishes often. For example, while writing an earlier paragraph in this update, Bob published an essay titled “Davis, California has a street for every season and every reason.” Lucky locals get mentioned by Bob Dunning!

Today at 5:30 there will be a launch party for this new enterprise downtown in that magical alleyway between Peet’s Coffee and Chipotle. Fresh from his hard-hitting grilling on KDVS, Bob will speak around 6 PM.

You could see Bob and still make it to Sudwerk by 7 for the Pub Quiz!

The weather will be delightfully warm tonight! If you are in Davis this evening, please join us at Sudwerk. Recruit a team and join us at the beautiful outdoor patio where we have room for everyone. As Saint Augustine allegedly said, “Good times and crazy friends make the best memories.”

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on poets laureate, deep water ports, peace prizes, startup losses, wings, ruptures, magic talisman, scripted primitive TV series, DEI concerns, gold values, GOATs, prohibitions, mixes of boos and cheers, decibels, birthplaces, political actions, drinkers, robot overlords and competitors, X-Men, people in the valley, people who asked Alice, categorized gods, populous countries, earthquakes, free worlds, common names, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare. Sometimes a question is substituted at the last minutes because of the day’s news.

Thanks to all the new players joining us at the live quizzes and to all the patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. Thanks also to Brooke, Jeannie, Becky, Franklin, and More Cow Bell. Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the dependable Mavens, 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:

1. Great Americans. Living from 1914 to 1995, what medical researcher developed the first successful polio vaccine? 

2. Unusual Words That Actually Have Nothing to Do with Monster Trucks. Starting and ending with a T, what three-syllable word means “Defiantly aggressive or belligerent; eager to fight or quarrel”?  

3. The Hundred Years War. Lasting from 1337–1453, The Hundred Years War was fought primarily between what two powers? 

P.P.S. May 16^th is Poetry Night! Join us at 7 at the Natsoulas Gallery.

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

My father loved to play games. He taught me how to play backgammon, how to play poker, how to play gin rummy, and, famously, how to play chess.

I say “famously” because, for whatever reason, I was a strong chess player at a young age, much stronger, relative to other players my age, than I am now. My father and I discovered my chess aptitude together when I first beat him at chess around the age of four. Or at least that’s how I remember it. My dad summoned my pregnant mom to see the result of the game, the captured marble pieces littering the side of the fancy chess board. She stared in disbelief while Dad and I just smiled.

I had at least three unfair advantages that he and I both recognized. First, he was functionally blind. Not as blind as he would become after he entered his 50s and had a serious eye operation when he was 56, but my dad still had trouble with the “vision” necessary to see the entire board at once, the way a chess player was supposed to do. Secondly, my mom would often bring my dad a Scotch (In St. Louis in 1987 a best family friend told me the story about my dad’s decision to stop drinking hard liquor) and bring me a Schweppes Bitter Lemon, which I guess was what fancy people drank instead of soda. The Schweppes drinks had no negative effect on my cognition. 

Thirdly, we received many phone calls, and they were never for me. 

Decades before email was popular (and while he surely had opportunities before he died in 2004, my father never wrote an email nor owned a cell phone), people used the phone to reach out to one another, even when just communicating a bit of information, such as asking a quick question or confirming an appointment. Even though my dad was notable in Washington, D.C., he name could be easily found in the phone book, so people who had requests or offers to share would try to catch him at home.

On a number of occasions, such as when a heated game of chess was interrupted for the third time by a ringing phone, my theatrical father would exclaim, “It just doesn’t stop!” I didn’t mind the interruptions, but he was right to complain if he wanted to beat me in chess. This HR website at UC Berkeley highlights UC Irvine research that reveals the impact of interruptions on deep work. For instance, the “Length of interruption required to cause subjects to commit twice the number of computer errors” is 2.8 seconds. 

In his book The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Douglas Adams writes that “The only thing nicer than a phone that didn’t ring all the time (or indeed at all) was six phones that didn’t ring all the time (or indeed at all).”

Perhaps I had those interruptions in mind when, about 20 years ago, I wrote and performed in a play (titled Ephemera) that quoted the Ted Hughes poem “Do not Pick up the Telephone.” The poem ends this way:

Do not pick up the detonator of the telephone

A flame from the last day will come lashing out of the telephone

A dead body will fall out of the telephone

Do not pick up the telephone

Anyway, back to the game of chess. Rather than 2.8 seconds, Dad’s phone calls almost always lasted more than 2.8 minutes, and during that time, his diminutive Beatle-haired son would study the board, computing the results of different combinations of moves. The best move was waiting for my distracted dad when he returned from the telephone.

Today, on what would have been my dad’s 92^nd birthday, I again celebrate Davey Marlin-Jones. I have played more games of cards, of backgammon, and of chess with my dad than with any other person.  

Davey Marlin-Jones was the child checkers champion of Winchester, Indiana; he was a magician who knew dozens of card tricks, some of which he did on the air when reviewing movies with index cards; and he was a dad who patiently taught me chess throughout the 1970s. As we played, we both knew that the growth in his fame meant a corresponding growth in incoming phone calls as we played chess at 2454 Tunlaw Road, both of us sipping fancy drinks. As I grew more confident, he encouraged my obsession, once sitting on the floor with me to build figures of American chess champion Bobby Fischer out of pipe cleaners.

I’m sure my dad winced a little every time I beat him at chess, but he also knew that he was fostering my curiosity, playfulness, and problem-solving skills, all of which would go on to serve me as an educator, as a poet, and, once a week, as a quizmaster.

Thanks, Dad, and happy birthday.

The evening will be a bit breezy, so I will bring bonus paperweights to assist in the grading of submitted scorecards. If you are in Davis this evening, please join us at Sudwerk. Recruit a team and join us at the beautiful outdoor patio where we have room for everyone. As Saint Augustine allegedly said, “Good times and crazy friends make the best memories.”

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on welcome gifts, tech companies, doctor visits, New Hampshire attractions, wickedness, blacksmiths, Carnegie Hall success stories, the question of naughts, British born people who move to America, second languages, spiders, it girls and the records they release, struggling teenagers, long conflicts, belligerent trucks, Michael Keaton films, nicknames, unwelcome guests, folklorists, smart technologies for aging, multinational rivers, adorable bugs, dungeon denizens, daytime soap operas, nominated producers, Charlie Brown, vaccine politics, circumpolarity, Scotland contributions, famous Places, the webs we weave, youthful opinions, the State of Oregon, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare. Sometimes q question is substituted at the last minutes because of the day’s news.

Thanks to all the new players joining us at the live quizzes and to all the patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. Thanks also to Brooke, Jeannie, Becky, Franklin, and More Cow Bell. Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the dependable Mavens, 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!  See you tonight!

Best,

Dr. Andy

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

1. Mottos and Slogans. What Public Service and Youth Service organization uses the slogan “To make the best better”? Hint. The organization’s name is made up of a number, a hyphen, and a letter. 

2. Internet Culture. Starting with the letter F, what is the name of the website where people can ask for or offer services or advice for a $5 fee?  

3. Newspaper Headlines. The House Minority Leader (D., N.Y.) recently announced that he and other Democrats would protect the job of Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. What is the name of the House Minority Leader? 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I was honored this past Monday to present an original poem at an event commemorating the life of a UC Davis student, Karim Abou Najm, who was killed a year ago at age 20. Everyone local knows the story of Karim and David Breaux, two original and visionary Davisites who shared messages of compassion, curiosity, and uplift.

Rather than sharing a long newsletter on the many other topics that I’ve been thinking about this week, I will just share the poem and ask you to keep their memories in your heart.

Binary Stars – a poem in honor of Karim Abou Najm

“Najm” is the Arabic word for “star.”

Our first stargazers beheld the brightest stars with wonder,

not knowing until handed the eventual telescope 

that sometimes twin stars depended upon each other, 

gravitational forces keeping them in mutual orbit.

Such it is with our children. 

They ply and test and challenge 

the familial gravitational pull, 

the parent star loosening and tightening the cosmic tether, 

knowing that at some point the stellar companion 

must find his own orbit.

Oh but how the universe is vast 

when the tether is cut too soon! 

We look to the skies, 

imagining the form, 

the face, 

the smile, 

the brilliant eyes of our bright star. 

We look for signs, imagining wonders.

The corona remains. 

Behold now the halo of light around the absence. 

Sailors can still guide their ships from the celestial ring,

this exoplanetary symbol of eternity, 

this steadfast corona.

To this day, the companion star’s light enlightens our eyes. 

The captain gives a nod of thanks 

to the supernova first mate 

who keeps watch while the captain sleeps, 

sometimes visiting dreams with a smile and a salute.

We know the light of that companion star. 

The corona does not fade. 

We still feel the gravitational tug.

The weather will be pleasant on this Wednesday night, and the wind will have died down by 7 PM. If you are in Davis this evening, please recruit a team and join us at the beautiful outdoor patio at Sudwerk where we have room for everyone. Even though it is more work for me, we always have more fun with the bigger crowds and more voices. As Saint Augustine allegedly said, “Good times and crazy friends make the best memories.” This may also be true of crazy times and good friends.

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on constant improvement, inexpensive assistance, compromising leaders, American places named after American places, memorable pairings, soccer stars who leave the field, crypto (hello crypto-bros!), American theatre, frightening underwater encounters, gin, eastern countries, expensive hobbies, people who try, Pennsylvania exports, Oscar-winning actors, people who sit at the captain’s table, Lake Michigan, Arizona happenstances, the sort of food that New York novelists enjoy at final luaus, recognizable people with many names, liberal bias, platinum albums, Apple interfaces, human anatomy, unlikely VIPs, soul trains, plans for discouraging litigation, animal species, cities that start with a single letter and where  you likely have never lived, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare. Because Lois Wolk may join us tonight, there will be no questions about NFL football.

Thanks to all the new patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. Thanks also to Brooke, Jeannie, Becky, Franklin, and More Cow Bell. Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the dependable Mavens, 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. Three questions from last week:

1. Books and Authors. Born in Indianapolis in 1977, who authored books that have sold more than 50 million copies in print worldwide, including The Fault in Our Stars, one of the best-selling books of all time? 

2. Current Events – Names in the News. People Magazine revealed recently that the actress who won an Oscar for 1983’s Terms of Endearment and has starred in classic films such as The Apartment, Postcards from the Edge and Steel Magnolias, will be coming out with a new memoir titled The Wall of Life, to be published October 22. What is her name? 

3. Sports. Nicknamed “Prime Time,” what head football coach at the University of Colorado Boulder is the only athlete to play in both a Super Bowl and a World Series? 

P.P.S. May 2 is Poetry Night at the Natsoulas Gallery. Join us at 7 for dynamic Sacramento performance poets Mario Hill and Bill Carr.

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Pressed for time, today I write in bullets.

• Delaine Eastin (pictured above) died yesterday at the age of 76. She has been a hero to Davisites for many years, having represented two different districts in the California State Assembly in the 1990s. Just a few weeks ago she added her name to the membership of the Davis Facebook group Events in Davis, so I sent her a note saying that I’d love to have her back on my radio show.

• Today is the day of my KDVS fundraiser show. Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour” airs every Wednesday from 5-6 PM and has been on the air for more than a third of KDVS’s 60-year history. No matter when you pledge, please mention my show: https://kdvs.org/fundraiser/ — you could also call 530 752-2777. You could also try this link.

• Yesterday we also lost Helen Vendler, perhaps America’s best close reader of poetry. She has written textbooks that I have assigned or quoted in all my  poetry classes. I also learned a lot from a long lunchtime conversation with her at a poetry conference in Stirling, Scotland in 1996. She was a fan of opera.

• I got to announce the Picnic Day Parade again this year. One of my favorite parts of that experience is meeting the older UC Davis alumni who want to chat after the event, telling me how many such celebrations they have attended over the decades.

• I’m grateful to my daughter Geneva who stayed with her recuperating mom while I was practicing my announcer voice as the floats and bands marched by. On Patreon, I posted some video of the UC Davis Marching Band playing a bit of Dolly Parton’s song “9 to 5.” Her first two lines rhyme “tumble” with “stumble.”

• I’m grateful that Dolly Parton is pro-vaccine and that Willie Nelson is an ally of the LGBT community. People who represent certain demographics will sometimes surprise you. Parton has also given away over 200 million books. There’s a reason she’s not a billionaire.

• This Monday, April 29^th, I will be reading a poem to honor UC Davis student Karim Abou Najm. Emotionally, I shared the poem with his parents this past weekend. I feel honored to participate in this event:

• It has two parts: Readings, a Q&A about mental health and a lecture by Andrés Sciolla, a professor emeritus of clinical psychiatry, will take place at 5:30 p.m. at Willett Elementary School, 1207 Sycamore Lane. Secondly, the unveiling of a bike path, bench and memorial sculpture, all named in honor of Abou Najm, will take place at 7 p.m. at Sycamore Park, adjacent to Willett. Perhaps I will see you at one of these events.

• I send fond regards to the Najm family, and to yours.

Dr. Andy

The weather will be pleasant on this Wednesday night, though cooler than last week because of the gentle clouds. If you are in Davis this evening, please join us at Sudwerk. Recruit a team and join us at the beautiful outdoor patio where we have room for everyone. Even though it is more work for me, we always have more fun with the bigger crowds and more voices. As Saint Augustine allegedly said, “Good times and crazy friends make the best memories.”

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on California notables, corporate headquarters, the coasts of Africa, areas of focus, electric vehicles, drug users, long films, banned books, Beverly Hills, final words, tall judges, Pulitzer Prizes, bookends, famous tribes, kidnappings, unwelcome jumps, cherry blossoms, Indiana exports, domesticated birds, gentlemen, super bowls, Oscar-winners, meteorology, security councils, guitarists, U.S. states, film critics, great Americans, environmental degradation, goats, droning textures, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare. 

Thanks to all the new patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. Thanks also to Brooke, Jeannie, Becky, Franklin, and More Cow Bell. Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the dependable Mavens, 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. Find below three questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Internet Culture. In what 1982 video arcade game do players assume the role of knights armed with lances and mounted on large birds (an ostrich for Player 1, a stork for Player 2), who must fly around the screen and defeat enemy knights riding buzzards? 

2. Newspaper Headlines: Earnings and Area Codes. President Biden and Jill Biden reported how many thousands of dollars in 2023 earnings on their joint tax return? Was it closest to 213, like Los Angeles, 530, like Davis, or 619, like San Diego?  

3. Four for Four. Which two of the following singers were born in California: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Janis Joplin, Olivia Rodrigo? 

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” Chinese Proverb

The trees are coming into leaf

Like something almost being said;

The recent buds relax and spread,

Their greenness is a kind of grief.

Phillip Larkin

In 1989, not long before I graduated from Boston University, I had the pleasure of seeing a talk by the great literary critic Frank Kermode. My professor Christopher Ricks, the towering intellectual whom the author John Carey called “our greatest living critic,” introduced Kermode, and paid homage to the elder intellect.

In his seminal work The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction, Kermode writes a sentence that has informed my thinking about the work I do, or would like to do: “It is not expected of critics that they should help us to make sense of our lives; they are bound only to attempt the lesser feat of making sense of the ways we try to make sense of our lives.”

In a similar vein, and backing my students into a theoretical understanding of writing tasks, I recently quoted Mortimer Adler’s book Dialectic when I helped my Writing in Fine Arts students distinguish “statements of fact“ from “statements about facts” and “statements about statements,” the final of the three making up the best thesis statements.

Sometimes, thinking deductively, we know the thesis in the beginning and then seek specifics to support the claim. Sometimes, thinking inductively, we have only evidence so we move towards an insightful conclusion. In that case, the argument and the sense of the ending are realized around the same time.

Many books written since Kermode’s remind us how difficult it is to “end”  projects. I think about this when I consider my unfinished books. Clearly I should read or reread books such as Start Finishing: How to Go from Idea to Done by Charlie Gilkey, Finish What You Start: The Art of Following Through, Taking Action, Executing, & Self-Discipline by Peter Hollins, and Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done by Jon Acuff, all three of which are in my Audible library.

As I haven’t yet read those books, I should recognize that I might be better at starting projects than finishing them. I’ve been inspired by the sort of pithy quotations that typically fill these newsletters:

• “The beginning is the most important part of the work.” Plato
• “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” Walt Disney
• “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” Mark Twain
• “Do not wait; the time will never be ‘just right.’ Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.” Napoleon Hill
• “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” Harriet Tubman
• “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” Lao Tzu
• “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” Arthur Ashe
• “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” Amelia Earhart

Speaking of beginnings, about ten years ago, on a whim, I founded a Facebook group called “Events in Davis.”I thought it could send more traffic to my poetry readings and pub quizzes. 

Like a tree planted in one’s youth, that group has been growing steadily. During this coming week, the third week of National Poetry Month in 2024, that Facebook group will reach my decade goal of 10,000 members, a great number of people, including the Davis musician Joan Ogden, who added her name to the group this morning. I’m glad I started this group! As Zig Ziglar said, “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” 

What great and patient project will you start this week?

The weather will be downright pleasant on this Wednesday night. If you are in Davis this evening, please join us at Sudwerk. Recruit a team and join us at the beautiful outdoor patio where we have room for everyone. Even though it is more work for me, we always have more fun with the bigger crowds and more voices. As Saint Augustine allegedly said, “Good times and crazy friends make the best memories.”

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on satellites, last names, million dollar homes, shipwrecks, eastern conferences, sanctions, illustrated books, pines, Oscar winners, disputed countries, celebrities, famous dancers, Samuel L. Jackson, California zip codes, classroom occupations, knighted survivors, time-traveling comedic narrators, notable Germans, Tunisian favorites, National Poetry Month, technology milestones, white flowers, ostriches and storks, credit cards, extended contracts, nights and days, faraway universities, rock stars after who one of my cats was named in 1980 or so, California notables, U.S. states, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare. 

Thanks to all the new patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. Thanks also to Brooke, Jeannie, Becky, Franklin, and More Cow Bell. Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the dependable Mavens, and others who support the Pub Quiz on Patreon. I so enjoyed running into members on Quizimodo on Tax Day near H&R Block. 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 PQ questions from last week:

1. Countries of the World. What country is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south and east, Iraq to the northeast, Syria to the north, and the Palestinian West Bank and Israel to the west? 

2. Major Polluters. Starting with the letter E, what are the ten letters in the name of the investor-owned company that emits 1.4% of the world’s Co2 emissions, more than any other private company? 

3. Science. What is the name of the largest coral reef system in the world? 

P.P.S. The April 18^th Poetry Night will be a Wide Open Mic. Bring something by to perform without having to worry about clapping politely for featured poets.

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

This week’s newsletter comes courtesy of my wife, the writer Kate Duren.

The Big Update 

Where to begin? Many of you know that I went into the hospital for a total hip replacement last Monday. I was quite anxious about this procedure, as I’ve had way too many surgeries in the last few years, and they don’t typically go well. But because every step I walked, whether around the house or around the UC Davis Arboretum, was accompanied by pain up and down my left leg, I knew I had to address the problem of my left hip. I did my research, chose to be brave, trusted my surgeon and health care system and went for it! I was so ready to put constant and increasing discomfort behind me. 

Almost nothing went as planned. When I woke up from surgery, I could not feel my foot. At first I thought it normal to be numb right after surgery. Then I realized I couldn’t move my foot or ankle, and that my leg was also numb. Also, unable to think straight, I couldn’t sit up or focus my eyes. My surgeon came in and told us that she had no idea why I couldn’t feel my leg or move my foot. When she said she had never seen this before, I began to panic. 

(The long version of this story includes shockingly poor treatment from UC Davis Health, and from my surgeon. I am in the middle of a battle to get the treatment I need from a team that refuses to acknowledge the severity of my injury.)

Later that Monday, we learned that my sciatic nerve had been stretched or crushed during surgery. Physical therapists quickly put my foot in a boot to protect it and my ankle, and they wanted to get me up walking to test my hip. Two nurses had to pick me up out of bed as I thought to myself I have never been so tired in my life. I felt like the Earth had somehow tripled its gravity. I took a few steps, dragging my paralyzed foot along, said, “I feel dizzy,” and they got me right back to bed. 

What we have since learned is that my damaged nerve could slowly heal from such an injury, but the condition can also be permanent. There is no way to know which camp I’m in. Hoping that my attitude matters, I am choosing to be positive and hoping, hoping, hoping to regain the use of my foot. Still, I’ve shed many tears this week. When it comes to imagined recoveries, this is the scariest mountain I’ve hoped to climb. I should say that I am trying to climb it!

I wish someone told me that the reason I felt so sick and anxious and confused and weak was that I had lost so much blood during the surgery. Instead, everyone who entered my room commented that I looked extremely pale. I needed a blood transfusion. Watching the blood drip down the tiny tube and into the needle in my hand, going the reverse direction that it always had was a surreal feeling. Having donated a lot of blood in my life, I never thought I’d be on the receiving end. I’m grateful for whomever provided me that A negative. 

With the addition of new blood, I had enough strength to begin learning to walk with my new hip and my foot and leg in an AFO (ankle foot orthosis) brace to stabilize it. My PT named Joel taught me to get in and out of bed, and to climb stairs using the railing and a crutch. We practiced getting in and out of a fake car, which he adjusted to match the height of my Prius. 

One night in the hospital, I was wakened several times by strong jolts that felt like electricity to my left leg. Each time, my leg JUMPED as if I were surrounded by people activating all of my reflexes at once. Could this be my nerve trying to wake up, I wondered? I may have to wait many months to find out. 

While in the hospital, I found a few people around the world who have experienced this rare injury. We have become fast friends, and they’ve helped me tremendously. 

Of course I worry about the Davis New Parent Support Group I lead each week. Lovely mamas have raised their hands to offer to cover facilitating the group until I can return. One new mom offered to organize a meal train. How thrilled I was to see her today when she dropped off a delicious dinner. I cannot wait to return to my group!

I’m now home from the hospital and happy to be falling asleep with Andy’s arms around me and waking up to Margot sniffing my hair. Instead of antiseptic cleaners, I smell the jasmine growing along our fence. Truman has been doing the grocery shopping and cleaning the house. Jukie looks at my walker in puzzlement, and I tell him, “Mommy needs help with walking right now.” Geneva knew I needed my girl and a dose of Gene Wilder, so she came over and we all watched Blazing Saddles.

I’ve started home health OT and PT. In a week or so, I will start neuro PT. Meanwhile, Andy has learned how to hold my foot and gently lift it as I try to move it. While my left foot has little sensation and won’t yet respond to my directed thoughts, it still feels good to be in Andy’s warm hands. Surely his loving touch will help me heal. 

As I begin a long and uncertain road of recovery and rehabilitation, I have been reflecting not only on the challenges I face, but also on the many blessings I have already experienced. 

Nurses are heroes. I felt like I made a 12-hour friendship with each nurse I had. Two stood out. I will always remember the way Claudia saw my fear and vulnerability and took the time to reassure me and go out of her way to help me in ways I didn’t even know I needed.

Patricia told me she immigrated to the US from Poland, first moving to Chicago. We talked about how hard it is to live far from our moms. She fluffed my pillows, said I looked cold, and tucked me in with warm blankets. When I woke up the next morning, she greeted me with, “guess what I learned about last night?… Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome!” She had studied the SLO Foundation website. The love, kindness, and empathy that nurses bring to their jobs every day is so appreciated by their patients. It brings me to tears. 

I am surrounded by an army of loving friends. Word got out that my surgery came with serious complications, and the cavalry arrived. My fierce advocates sat with me in the hospital by day and then researched my injury after visiting hours. When my PT couldn’t fit my new brace in my shoe, one friend immediately said, “take mine!” She knew that her shoes were one size bigger. (She went home wearing my too-small left shoe. ) Knowing my extreme claustrophobia, one friend stayed with me when I had to get a late night MRI. She cradled my head in her hands during the long, noisy procedure, and sang to me in my ear the entire time. Everyone brought something special, whether it was a shoulder for me to sob onto or a deck of tarot that instructed me to receive the love around me and to give that love to myself. I do not know how I would have survived those days without my posse of loving friends. 

I still can’t even keep up with the messages I am receiving. That’s okay — keep them coming! You all are helping me so much. 

And so the update is that I walked into the hospital an able-bodied woman in the prime of life, and I left with a new hip and a paralyzed foot. While I am terrified that I’ll never be able to move my foot again, I am also going to do everything humanly possible to help that nerve heal. Along the way, I imagine that I will learn huge lessons in patience and hope. 

Thank you all for your love and kindness. I feel your positive juju, and it means the world to me. 

Kate Duren

The weather will be comfortable on this Wednesday night. If you are in Davis this evening, please join us at Sudwerk. Recruit a team and join us at the beautiful outdoor patio where we have room for everyone. Even though it is more work for me, we always have more fun with the bigger crowds and more voices. As Saint Augustine allegedly said, “Good times and crazy friends make the best memories.”

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on cofounders, farms, history lessons, driving distances, Winnipeg, villains named Ralph, Best Actress nominees, tigers, National Poetry Month heroes, entire overcrowded towns where they leave the lights on for you, mulligans, impressive women pioneers, theatrical devices, holidays, people who roam, TV actors, vegetables, leading edges, statisticians, baths, polluters, unfortunate public remarks, U.S. states, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare. 

Thanks to my new patron Adam who has been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. Thanks also to Brooke, Jeannie, Becky, Franklin, and More Cow Bell. Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the dependable Mavens, 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 quiz:

1. Newspaper Headlines. Kirsten Dunst revealed today that she is open to starring in a remake of her most famous 2000 cheerleading movie. Name the film. 

2. Economic Entomology. Born in 1857, which of the following is the full name of the Leland who helped establish economic entomology as a profession in the United States: Leland Ossian Howard, Leland Stanford, or Leland Yee? Just for fun, for this question, I will provide the answer: Leland Ossian Howard (the other two were Californians who founded Stanford University and who served as a California State Senator until he was sentenced to prison for gun trafficking and other charges)

3. Pop Culture – Music. Living from 1926 to 1967, what saxophonist received numerous posthumous awards, including a special Pulitzer Prize? Hint: he was also canonized by the African Orthodox Church. 

P.P.S. Thanks for reading to the end of the newsletter. Have you considered becoming a patron?

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

An act of kindness sends ripples out into the universe that benefits people outside our circle, our town, and even our ever-expanding networks of friends.

Thirty-three years ago this March my Hemingway and Fitzgerald professor Peter Hays invited our entire graduate class to his home for a dinner (what Hemingway would have called a “feast”) at our final class meeting. Living on my own in a rented room in a new home on Elk Place in north Davis, I had not enjoyed many home-cooked meals with actual distinguishable ingredients. Sometimes a newcomer doesn’t realize that he belongs in his new hometown until someone invites him over for dinner.

In subsequent years, Professor Hays talked frequently and informally about books and about my progress as a graduate student. He also observed me giving a guest lecture on Emerson and wrote it up his assessment for my teaching file. He told his wife Myrna that “this young man is going places.”

Ironically, I did not go places. The same university that trained me also hired me, so a few years after that Emerson lecture I got to call Pete an English Department colleague right here at UC Davis. For a few years, his emeriti office was next to mine in Voorhies Hall. He stopped by on a number of occasions to tell me how much he enjoyed overhearing my one-on-one office hour sessions with students as we discussed writing, poetry, and creativity.

When Peter passed away unexpectedly in 2022, I reached out to his (and everyone’s) star student from the 1990s, Carl Eby, to commiserate. Like Pete, Carl is a leading Hemingway scholar, and I have heard both of them speak about the master stylist and novelist on many occasions. Carl and I also used to participate in a literary theory study group that took place at Sudwerk just a few years after the brewery and restaurant opened in 1989. Believe it or not, that was back before I drank beer. The Sudwerk waitresses would bring me cranberry juice.

Fast forward to 2024, and the widow of Peter Hays, Myrna, yesterday introduced me to a crowd of almost 50 residents in the large auditorium at the University Retirement Community. I gave a poetry reading, I talked about Gerard Manley Hopkins and other famous poets, I mixed in funny stories about my wife Kate and our kids, and I answered some questions.

At one point, in my response to a question about the writing process, I mentioned that I could offer substantive exegesis on one of my poems, but nobody wants Dr. Andy to put on his professor hat at a poetry reading. Then next questioner averred that she actually did want to hear from Professor Dr. Andy, so please start analyzing the poem. Of course, I complied.

As much as I enjoyed momentously intoning my poems, my favorite part of the entire event was thanking Myrna Hays for inviting me to join the retirees for the evening, and then telling the crowd about the hospitality of Myrna and Pete 33 years and two weeks previously. 

If we turn to the Muses during National Poetry Month, and if the Muses are the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory, then this poet was pleased to share his memories of Myrna’s long-ago act of generosity and care. As Oscar Wilde says, “The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.” In the era in which we live, marked by challenges and division, such gestures of goodwill and benevolence weave together and strengthen the fabric of our community.

I think that you know that I run a pub quiz every Wednesday night. If you are in Davis this evening at 7, please join us at Sudwerk. Recruit a team and join us at the beautiful outdoor patio where we have room for everyone. There will be no rain this evening. Even though it is more work for me, we always have more fun with the bigger crowds and more voices. As Saint Augustine allegedly said, “Good times and crazy friends make the best memories.” The Muses also want you to attend.

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on people who belong, college towns, cheerleading moves, leaves of grass, Manga, bills, Pulitzers, entomology, hilarious happiness, devices, philosophers, holders, best friends, unexpected revelations, occupations, loyal singers, heavy metals, iron ores, maritime borders, literary nicknames, reach weapons, alcoholic scientists, appoints above and below, heavy lights, beetles, assists, it girls, posthumous awards, sequels, unlikely heroes, compelling shapes, unstoppable singers, place names, hombres with leaflets, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare. 

Thanks to my new patron Adam who has been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. Thanks also to Brooke, Jeannie, Becky, Franklin, and More Cow Bell. Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, 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. Three questions from last week’s quiz, hosted by Don Lipper:

1. Internet Culture. What does the acronym IoT stand for, where the O is lower case? Internet of Things

2. Newspaper Headlines. Recently-fired NBC political commentator Ronna McDaniel is the niece of what prominent, living Republican? Mitt Romney

3. Feeling Prideful. In June of what year during the Obama administration did the US Supreme Court rule that a fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by the Fourteenth Amendment. Hint: It was the same year that the Climate Peace Accords were adopted. 2015

P.P.S. Davis poet laureate Julia Levine reads new poems tomorrow / Thursday night at the Natsoulas Gallery. Will any Mavens make an appearance?

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

“Laws of nature are human inventions, like ghosts. Laws of logic, of mathematics are also human inventions, like ghosts. The whole blessed thing is a human invention, including the idea that it isn’t a human invention. The world has no existence whatsoever outside the human imagination. It’s all a ghost, and in antiquity was so recognized as a ghost, the whole blessed world we live in.…Your common sense is nothing more than the voices of thousands and thousands of these ghosts from the past.”

Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

I’m grateful to Don Lipper for guest-hosting tonight’s Pub Quiz. 

I pride myself on my professional attitude towards work responsibilities. For example, I have yet to miss a day of work because of my own illness, but has only been 34 years so far. Who knows what the coming years will bring?

Even when I caught Covid in February of 2022, I was able to teach my writing students from the back yard via Zoom. I got to eat a number of meals in the back yard that February.

With my wife Kate and our bookend kids visiting Chicago this week, I considered bringing my disabled son Jukie with me to Sudwerk for the Pub Quiz. Because of the aforementioned Covid, Jukie hasn’t eaten inside a restaurant for the last four years, and it will rain this evening. He and I will spend this Wednesday as if it were just another weekday, probably with a long walk before the rains come.

On Wednesday, March 18^th, 2020, I texted Don Lipper’s Portraits teammate Keith David Watenpaugh a photo of my walk with the dog. I wrote him “This is the first Wednesday afternoon at 5 o’clock in 20 years that I’ve been out for a walk in the city of Davis. KDVS has gone dark!”

Back then my radio show was only 20 years old. This was Keith’s response: “Savor it.”

I did, and I do.

This morning, for example, while Jukie slept, I arose early and started work on my clothes. I culled about 15% of both my dress shirts and my shorts, filling two boxes of clothes to donate. Some of the shirts had belonged to my dad, who passed away 20 years ago this month, and he himself had held onto some of his shirts for more than 20 years back then. 

I will still be hearing my dad’s voice even while no longer wearing his shirts.

I sent a picture of my progress to Kate, and she wrote back “I thought you like that pink one for Poetry Night.” She was right. I’ve always been grateful for Kate’s wise counsel. Imagine all the boneheaded decisions I’ve avoided since 1987!

My best decision was deciding to study abroad in London that fall. My second-best was convincing her to move to California a few years later.

As I reread those last two sentences, I realize that I should now switch from prose to poetry and get to work on something for Kate. Meanwhile, I will send you this newsletter with my good wishes for a fun Pub Quiz tonight. I look forward to hearing back from Don, and perhaps from you, how it went.

Happy spring break, if you get one!

Dr. Andy

 —

If you are in Davis this evening, please join the fun at Sudwerk, despite the blustery weather. 

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on Sydney, internet acronyms, famous families, Reno reservoirs, public playhouses people who were caught stealing, misguided vetoes, works of literature that ask questions, climate change, county seats, famous scuba divers, big octaves, research centers, video games, pellets, people who laugh out loud, ranting voices, Emmy-winners, three dimes, economists, notable cities back east, bald people,  accords, big places, place names, superheroes, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare. 

Thanks to my new patron Adam who has been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. Thanks also to Brooke, Jeannie, Becky, Franklin, and More Cow Bell. Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, 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 a past pub quiz:

1. Current Events – Names in the News. What is the job title of Rishi Sunak?  

2. Sports. What do the greatest Swiss tennis player of all time and the first runner to break the four-minute mile have in common?  

3. Shakespeare. Which Shakespeare play has secondary characters with the names Balthasar, Benvolio, Paris, and Tybalt? 

P.P.S. Davis Poet Laureate Julia B. Levine reads with Rebecca Foust on the roof of the Natsoulas Gallery on April 4^th at 7.