Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I have stuck exclusively to non-fiction, but I’m trying something new with this week’s newsletter.

We loved that our Bikram hot yoga class was taught by a husband and wife team. She was tall and impossibly flexible with her long dark hair packed into a bun, while he was short and muscular with a blond mustache that I overheard one of the women in class call “unfortunate.” 

She led the class, but he was able to keep up, certainly more easily than the rest of us. He told me once that his wife let him film her as she worked through the specific Bikram sequence of 26 poses and two breathing exercises in their living room. In the heat of the studio, he would quietly name each pose just before she assumed the relevant position, as if proving to the rest of us that he had memorized his lines.

Sometimes he would comment out loud. When she would say “Dandayamana-Bibhaktapada-Paschimotthanasana,” pronouncing the words as if she had spent the day studying Sanskrit, he would sometimes inspire polite laughter with his translations: “This is the ‘Standing Separate Leg Stretching Pose.’ When I first learned it, I called this the ‘Collapsing on the Floor Separate Leg Stretching Pose.’”

She once told us that they could bring their daughter in a car seat because the heat in the yoga studio would ease her to sleep, providing the two parents their only opportunity to do some “adulting” in public. The moms and I would check on little Luna sometimes, smiling at the beads of sweat on her brow, as if she had been working hard on growing and on inspiring her parents’ smiles.

* * *

The pandemic changed us. When I first returned for hot yoga, as my bones creaked, I noticed across the prescribed social distance that our instructors’ smiles were gone, first obscured behind masks, and then still absent after they had taken steps taken towards unmasking. Luna sat at a little table in the corner, herself wearing an aquamarine surgeon’s mask, coloring in COVID-19 symptom list fliers.

Hoping to protect themselves, the instructors kept their distance even from one another, as if they weren’t breathing the apartment air they shared with little Luna every day. The yoga studio seemed hotter than it had been before.

One of the moms gave our yogis a welcome back card that was taped open on the mirrored wall above Luna’s coloring station. It shared a haunting Rumi verse: 

Moonlight floods the whole sky from horizon to horizon;

How much it can fill your room depends on its windows.

Luna’s mom increasingly seemed fixated on her own horizon. Soon she would stop making eye contact with any of us, or with her husband. Then one week, Luna and her mom stopped attending, leaving only the dad to teach our classes. He had shaved his mustache.

Last week, maskless Luna, seemingly having grown twice her previous size, was back in our studio, wearing earbuds and fixating on her phone. The little table and the moonlight card were gone from her corner.

We were surprised to see Luna’s mom arrive in civilian clothes and a fresh manicure. Luna removed her earbuds and insisted to her mom that the session wasn’t over. 

“Let’s go.”

“But they miss you. They want you to lead them. We all do.”

After they left, our instructor said, “Let’s try Supta-Vajrasana, also known as the “fixed firm pose.” 

All of us had trouble. It was so hot in that room.

---

Poetry Night takes place on Thursday, October 5^th at 7 at the Natsoulas Gallery. We have a famous physicist who is also a poet in Lisa Rosenberg as well as a poet whose work has appeared in Best American Poetry in Amy Glynn. Find details at the website Poetry in Davis.

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on the following: perfect fruits, the definitions of a furlong, moon rings, ekphrastic novels, Kurt Russell, empty squares, Oscar-winners from four different decades, unlucky shots, posthumous film appearances, uses for wool, animated film favorites, famous channels, microbes, seven-letter H words, memories, long place names, sports stories, badgers, California colleges, cathedrals, conspiracies, billboards, standard issues, unexpected vacations, seasonings, notable edicts, California cities, drink choices, mayors, taxi choices, Chinese proverbs, singer-songwriters, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare.

Thanks to the far-flung Original Vincibles, as well as to Quizimodo, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, Gena Harper and others who support the Pub Quiz on Patreon. Sometimes I will share a bonus Pub Quiz question there, such as a bonus question last week about Dianne Feinstein, whom Kate and I saw with Barbara Boxer in Sacramento in 1992, the Year of the Woman, the year we got married. I appreciate your considering supporting this Patreon endeavor! 

Best,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Here are four questions from last week’s pub quiz:

1. California Lakes. California’s largest man-made lake, covering a total surface area of 47 square miles, and which sits on the upper Sacramento River, was established to generate hydroelectricity. Name the lake.  

2. Superfans. Mariann from Brooklyn is evidently the number one superfan of what media personality?  

3. Pop Culture – Music: Female Artists. What singer-songwriter who has earned 15 Grammy Awards (about half as many as Beyoncé) was named by Billboard as the R&B/Hip-Hop Artist of the Decade (2000s)?  

4. Sports. Born in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania in 1943, what NFL quarterback led the Jets to win one AFL championship and one Super Bowl, their only championships?  

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

For today’s newsletter, I am stealing wholesale from my wife Kate, the author in our family who best represents our children and our love for our children. As of this week, our children are all adults. Our kids are no longer kids. 

This is what Kate wrote:

18 years ago, just after midnight, you made a peaceful entrance into the world. Looking into your eyes, I felt that we already knew each other. We immediately sensed that the nickname your sister had given you in utero fit you perfectly; you were our Cool Guy, right from the start. 

A few years later, a friend noticed your remarkable compassion and concern for others and started affectionately calling you “Mr. Empathy.” Challenges early in your life sensitized you to the needs and feelings of others, and your sustaining emotional intelligence is one of our favorite things about you. 

18 years have FLOWN by. For 6570 days (so far!), we have enjoyed your company, your humor, and your sweet Truman-ness. You plan our vacations, pick our movies, and loan us books to read. You decorate our home for every holiday and fill it with the soulful sounds of your dramatic monologues, and especially your saxophone. 

As Cool as we thought you were on Day One, you are exponentially cooler on Day 6570. We declare it a pleasure and a joy to be your lucky parents. Happy, happy birthday, Truman! ❤️

As you can from the attached, Kate also takes better pictures than I do. Happy birthday to our youngest!

This week’s pub quiz will contain questions about computer ownership, divided centuries, defunct professional sport team names, jackets, seemingly haughty people, fast mammals, attorney generals, slides, socks, ulcers, capital letters, slow empires, record appearances, required reading, bell ringing, Olympic medalists, recovering supervisors, hydroelectricity, spices, dance moves, series starters, all the magazines, hammers, quant blogs, third billing actresses, unwelcome famous residents of small towns, repetitive cities, famous Kennedys, generous people, an average of just under four, cities near Pittsburgh, singer-songwriters, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare.

Thanks to The far-flung Original Vincibles, as well as to Quizimodo, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators,  Gena Harper and others who support the Pub Quiz on Patreon. I appreciate your supporting this endeavor! 

Best,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Here are five Pub Quiz questions, most of them from last week:

1. Mottos and Slogans. “First in Flight” is the most popular license plate motto for what U.S. state?  

• Sports. Who is the greatest-ever soccer player who had three instances of the letter A in his last name?  

• Pop Culture: Music. What American rock band implored us to stop making sense?  

• Science. After the discovery of the neutron, models for a nucleus composed of protons and neutrons were quickly developed by Dmitri Ivanenko and Werner Heisenberg. Was the neutron discovered around the time of the birth of Jakob Cash, Rosanne Cash’s son; around the time of the birth of Rosanne Cash; around the time of the birth of her father, Johnny Cash; or around the time of the birth of her grandfather, Ray Cash?  

• Great Americans. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries recently traveled to Detroit in support of the auto workers strike. Leader Jeffries’ district is found in what state?  

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Every year I get to host the Summer Institute of Teaching and Technology (SITT), a showcase of innovative teaching and faculty at UC Davis. We meet for two days at the end of the second summer session via Zoom.

One year we opted not to have me perform a SITT poem, and we heard about the absence in the SITT evaluations.

Inspired by a question I asked at the Pub Quiz the previous week, this year the SITT poem tried to echo Eminem’s famous song, but talked about my presenter name pronunciation concerns rather than my crashing and burning at a freestyle rap contest.

Lose Yourself at SITT

If you had only one chance a year to attend SITT, 

would you grab that opportunity, or let it slip?

OK. Dr. Andy

We’ve come to the peak of the week,

So try not to freak your freak or

Succumb to internal critique or

Be your typical too tongue-in-cheek 

as you rushedly pressure our next presenter.

Tech don’t fail me now;

Just smile and somehow

Learn how to pronounce all the proper nouns:

We’ve got Delmar Larsen, Margaret and Mark and

Cecilia Giulivi.

Oh brain, don’t leave me.

Oh good, my son Jukie has come by to prove he 

needs me once again to switch out his movie. 

Ope, no burrito

Ope, it’s nice to meet you

Ope, no toasters

It’s a teaching roller coaster

I’m so grateful for the spate-full

Of the frequently heard but difficult words 

I get to use when I introduce

You digital formidable summer institute people.

I tell ya, when ya got your agenda

You learn the entire production turns on whether 

I can string together cogent introductions 

to Talitha van der Meulen and to Heather Hether. 

And now we turn to Butner and to Bwalya Lungu;

If you have extra time, fill some with talk of Tor Cross or Janine Wilson.

Dr. Kenji Quides was happy to meet us, 

but you know the drill; we’ve spun the wheel:

and we still have to appeal to Professors Jane Beal and Walter Leal.

All of SITT depends on the wit 

Of that namby-pamby cotton candy Dr Andy. 

I have my doubts, but let’s find out 

if our engrossed host with the checklist can persist, 

that is, can he stick to our Modus operandi.

Take some final advice, 

now that you’ve broken the ice,

Try to preserve your tact, 

maintain Zoom room eye to eye contact, 

try not to wax, 

As a matter-of-fact, if your little pronunciation acts don’t detract, 

Then this packed SITT will be on track all year to enact 

the advertised roller coaster absent toaster droplet poster 

promised thematic big impacts.

Tech don’t fail me now

Just smile and somehow

Learn how to pronounce all the proper nouns.

We’ve got Delmar Larsen, Margaret and Mark and

Cecilia Giulivi

Oh brain, don’t leave me

Now at the end of our day one fun conference debut, as if right on cue, 

Jukie has chosen The Emperor’s New Groove, he

Insists that I once again switch out his movie.

Day one of SITT, that’s it.

If you would like to see the video of me performing this work before some of the SITT attendees, visit this page on The Wheel.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz may feature some of the content from above, as well as questions about the following: famous beaches, technological developments, surprising conflicts, people named Linus, big cities where English is spoken, the Pacific Ocean, alphabetical lists, approaching 100, Paris, devastating hurricanes, slow exits, isolated islands, lovely gardens, home-cooked meals, what banks do, five-syllable adjectives that rarely come up in conversation, travelers to Detroit, country music dynasties, soccer, female friendships, felines that inspire films, actors and actresses, brave people, AI concerns, varieties of necks, townships, the examples of Finland and Italy, native expressions, vanishing souls, your memory of recent years, soccer coaches, current events, and Shakespeare.

Thanks to The far-flung Original Vincibles, as well as to Quizimodo, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, Gena Harper, Dr. Doug, and others who have embraced the Pub Quiz on Patreon. I appreciate your supporting this endeavor! 

Best,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Here are three questions from our last quiz:

1. Current Events – Names in the News. What prominent 76-year old U.S. Senator recently indicated that he is too old to run for a second term?  

2. Sports. According to The Wall Street Journal, Coco Gauff’s triumph at a sporting event last Saturday “felt like a thunderbolt of joy.” Name the event.  

3. Shakespeare. What ill-fated friend of Romeo speaks the line “A plague o’ both your houses!” in Act III, Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet?  

P.P.S. Two Bay area poets and the phenomenal Tony Passarell will perform atop the Natsoulas Gallery roof as part of Poetry Night this week. Join us September 21^st at 7 PM for the fun. Details here: https://poetryindavis.com/archive/2023/09/tony-passarell-richard-loranger-and-greg-carter-perform-on-the-natsoulas-gallery-roof-on-september-21-2023/

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Tomorrow and Friday mornings (September 14 and 15) I get to host The Summer Institute of Teaching and Technology at UC Davis. I’ve been attending this yearly event for the last 28 of its 29 years, and I’ve been the host for more than 15 of those years.

As you can see from the page of on-demand content, this year I recorded interviews with ten colleagues, a few have which have participated in my pub quizzes over the years. Most people come for the synchronous presentations and the chance to engage with colleagues, even via Zoom. Faculty love to learn from their peer instructors about their plans for effective teaching in fall classes and throughout the school year at UC Davis.

If you know a faculty member who would be interested in “Small Acts, Big Impacts” (our theme this year), then please invite them to join us for this free event. At about 12:50 on Thursday, September 14^th, attendees will also get to see me read the annual SITT Poem. This year’s poem playfully rhymes “Dr. Andy” with “namby-pamby” (a word which is sure to be an answer to a future pub quiz question).

Speaking of people who step up to participate, I want to send a special shout-out and thanks to Gena Harper, known on YouTube as Gena Harper, Blind Woman of Action. A remarkable Davisite, Gena has used her circumstances to inspire sighted and visually impaired people alike with the way she rushes with brisk and cheerful readiness towards any sort of challenge. Gena has supported me and our pub quiz at the Platinum Tier on Patreon. Gena’s participation may obligate me to record some audio quizzes in the future.

I will be interviewing Gena and another blind friend on my KDVS radio show this afternoon at 5. Tune in then or check out the podcast recording tomorrow morning.

Please join us tonight at 7 at Sudwerk for the Pub Quiz. As you compete, you will encounter questions about entities that go, archaeologists, tree names, Live Aid, shovels, chocolate bars, thunderbolts of joy, famous binders, notable roads, clay particles, circuses, paydays, big smiles, wolves, ice skating, the work of nuns, separate bathrooms, people who wield spears, famous Danes, androids, space rangers, superheroes, unfortunate drifts, hearing loss concerns, horror shows, Yorkshire exports, scopes, amateur emptiness, frogs and monarchs, odd elements, polar bears, red towns, French people, big cities, current events, and Shakespeare.

Thanks to The far-flung Original Vincibles, as well as to Quizimodo, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, the aforementioned Gena Harper and others who support the Pub Quiz on Patreon. One member of one of those team, Catriona McPherson, was recently announced as the winner of the Anthony Award for Best Humorous Novel. Anyone who gets to talk to Catriona in person can attest to her humor. Congratulations, Catriona, and thanks to you for reading to the end of the newsletter.

Best,

Dr. Andy

Here are three questions from our last quiz.

1. Gangsters. Born in Italy with the name Salvatore, and later taking the name Charles, who is considered the father of modern organized crime in the United States and was the first official boss of the modern Genovese crime family?  

2. Pop Culture – Music. What singer and actress had a number one hit in 2019 with “Lose You to Love Me” and a number three hit in 2022 with “Calm Down”?  

3. Sports. What former Baltimore Oriole holds the record for consecutive games played (2,632), having surpassed Lou Gehrig’s streak of 2,130 that had stood for 56 years and that many deemed unbreakable?  

P.S. Congratulations to the team Portraits for scoring 28 of 30 questions correctly on last week’s quiz. One of the captains of Portraits will be (uncharacteristically) absent tonight, so we will see if the team can keep up with the leaders without this figurehead.

P.P.S. Thanks to all the people that reached out to Kate and me on the occasion of our 31^st wedding anniversary. I feel lucky to have held Kate’s interest (and hand) for so long.  

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Sometimes when we are celebrating a special day around my house I just substitute whatever poem I have written for the occasion for a long newsletter. September 7^th, for instance, is my wedding anniversary with my wife Kate.

Whereas last year, on our 30^th anniversary, I presented her a hardback original book of 100 poems, almost all of them written in secret for that one occasion, this year I wrote a little poem about the fact that 31 years is equal to about a billion seconds. In a world where so much of the news is about what Wordsworth in his famous sonnet called “getting and spending,” I wanted to focus more on the time I have spent with Kate. I value that.

So here is my own poem, one that started with the last line, then the rest was retrofit, in rhymes and themes, to match the ending.

Billion Second Sonnet (on our 31st anniversary) 

Kate, I courted you with a tape deck 

rather than one of those newfangled CD players.

I would rather see silver around your neck 

than to own gold, stocks, or shares.

I would rather see your name on my personal check 

than see it printed elsewhere.

I would rather see you in a turtleneck 

than to date some starlet in formalwear.

I would rather shuffle that diaphanous cabin deck 

of hearts with you than to dine on chinaware.

I would rather cherish a midnight moment to check 

in with you than own a mansion in Delaware.

I would rather have lived a billion sec-

onds with you than to retire a billionaire.

Happy anniversary, Kate!

I hope you can join us for tonight’s Pub Quiz at Sudwerk. If you do, you will encounter questions about the following: blockchain, funny wallets, Bible words, treatises, Pakistan, midfielders, tragedies, thieves, quanta, long wars, foreign countries, famous roads, Africa firsts, notable visits, public security, Sacramento exports, jars of cosmetics, cookies, rearranged Kiwis, Detroit, decades, sequels, famous sons of more famous parents, unbreakability, given name Charles, calmness, big cities, current events, and Shakespeare.

Thanks to The far-flung Original Vincibles, as well as to Quizimodo, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators and others who support the Pub Quiz on Patreon. It’s wonderful to see so many of you in person! Thanks especially to Ellen for the email and the charming photograph!

Best,

Dr. Andy

Here are three trivia questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Science. Found on the limbs of many vertebrates, what do we call muscles having three points of attachment at one end?    

2. Great Americans. Sam Altman is admired for his work in what specific field?  

3. Unusual Words. What word refers to a strongly worded critical attack, a nearly simultaneous firing of all the guns from one side of a warship, a single poem published on quality paper, or the act of colliding with the side of a vehicle?  

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

When we arrived at the Sudwerk Brewing Company for the Pub Quiz last Wednesday, my wife Kate, my son Truman and I were delighted to discover that a table had been reserved for us at the front near the Quizmaster’s station, right under a mister.

Misting systems can quickly cool affected areas by dozens of degrees Fahrenheit through the magic of flash evaporation. The fine mist presented by the misters cools the air without soaking those nearby. If  you close your eyes, you can imagine the spray from a waterfall or a seaside leeward gust on a cloudy day.

Some people who blow-dry their hair do so to preclude the follicle chaos caused by a shower or a humid bathroom, so some such people might choose not to perch right under a mister. I told Kate Wednesday evening that her hair looked great, but I also fondly remember how curly her hair became when she and I lived in the same room in a London apartment in 1987. She noted with some concern that it rained almost every day that we lived in England together, but I had no complaints. Looking at Kate, I thought of a quotation by Julia Roberts, another curly-haired beauty who was getting her start in Hollywood around then: “My hair is naturally curly, and I have a whole lot of it.” 

I typically am still wearing my sun hat when my son Jukie and I venture over to the misters cooling the Delta of Venus patio (122 B Street) on Sunday afternoons. A longtime favorite haunting place of Humanities majors because of its closeness to Voorhies and Sproul Halls, Delta of Venus has been showcasing local jazz musicians at 2 o’clock on Sundays, and has been keeping the jazz fans cool with recently-installed misters.

Today I enjoy jazz at Delta, but on July 6, 1986, I ventured to RFK stadium in Washington D.C. to see one of my favorite concerts ever: Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, as well as Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. It was so warm down on the field that the stadium staff hosed down the grateful concertgoers who were closest to the stage, those who waited the longest to be close to their musical heroes. My friends Bob (Hi Bob!), Russ, Kevin and I watched the entire spectacle from the nosebleed seats opposite the performers. The sound was good, and we had room to dance up there, but we didn’t have the benefit of hoses or misters.

Some visitors to Disneyland this week will get soaked while strapped into their boats on the Grizzly River Run, and “Tiana’s Bayou Adventure” will (rightly) replace Splash Mountain in 2024, promising riders a soaking good time with splashes that will evaporate quickly in the summer heat, tonight we will depend upon the Sudwerk misters (or, for some, the indoor air conditioning) to keep cool.

“Water is the driving force of all nature,” Da Vinci said. Tonight I hope you will gather with us to enjoy some flash evaporation, a tall glass of cold water, or some other beverage at the Sudwerk Pub Quiz.

---

If you do, you will hear questions about topics raised above, and the following: favorite and beloved libraries, starters, vowels, villains that travel together, bicycles, debut novels, word counts, glucose, big horns, things named after swans, Oakland, other Leonardos, fictional authors, lifetime changes, lists of four, equivalencies, urban dances, belches, bridges, individual poems, muscles, free men, guts, sharks, Texas counties, Led Zeppelin songs, hackers, fruits, colleges east of the Mississippi, examples of the undead, people who are difficult to be caught, openers, current events, and Shakespeare. 

Thanks to The far-flung Original Vincibles, as well as to Quizimodo, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators and others who support the Pub Quiz on Patreon. It’s wonderful to see so many of you in person!

Be well,

Dr. Andy

Find here three questions from the first Sudwerk Pub Quiz:

1. Books and Authors. Born in Columbus, Ohio, what author who has sold more than 400 million books has been referred to as the “Stephen King of children’s literature”?  

2. Current Events – Names in the News. One of our country’s least competent lawyers recently turned himself over to police in Atlanta. What is his name?  

3. Sports. 30 NFL writers at the sports journalism website The Athletic’s recently ranked their top five favorite stadiums. The average top choice by a wide margin was U.S. Bank Stadium. What NFL team plays its home games at this stadium with a seating capacity of 66,000?  

P.S. I’ve added some video to Patreon if you would like to hear a sample of the content from last week’s quiz. Check it out at https://www.patreon.com/yourquizmaster.

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I’ve been creating weekly trivia contests for Patreon supporters since March of 2020. I approach writing trivia questions the way that other people complete crossword puzzles or solve the daily Wordle. I wonder to myself how a scientific fact or a dramatic news story, such as the unsurprising plane crash today of vocal Putin thorn Yevgeny Prigozhin, could be refashioned as a puzzle for pub quiz participants. I challenge myself by challenging others. I also treasure the opportunity to keep learning. As Ben Franklin said, “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”

While I appreciate the intellectual engagement, I also recognize how mediated this work can be. I’ve been creating quiz questions in the peace of my own home with my French bulldog sitting in my lap (during colder months) or a tower fan blowing upon me (during warmer months). I prefer not to stay sedentary for very long, and I do miss the dust of the arena, the din of competition, the carnival barker’s use of a microphone. I’ve exercised my legs every day since I saw you last, but I’ve rarely exercised my lungs. After all my lungs went through in 2022, I should see how they are faring.

In a piece titled “Optimism: An Essay,” Helen Keller wrote “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” While I have been creating “trials” of sorts for the supporters who have supported my virtual pub quiz on Patreon, I have longed for an opportunity to quiet a crowd by introducing myself and the pub quiz, and with gusto.

Ladies and gentlemen, that day has come. The live pub quiz is back!

This evening at 7, in the renovated beer garden of the Sudwerk Brewing Company (2001 2^nd Street), protected by a panoply of sun shades, cooled by gentle misters, and surrounded by old friends and new, I am reviving Dr. Andy’s Pub Quiz.

If you live in or near Davis, California, and if you also yearn for time with old and new friends, for entertainment, and for playful competition that might yield you bragging rights and fabulous prizes, I invite you to join me Wednesday nights this season and for the foreseeable future for The Sudwerk Brewing Company Pub Quiz.

The Sudwerk chef is talented and resourceful, the brew-master has won awards for his brews, the wait staff is affable and attentive, and the sound system is new, tested, and ready. The questions are revised and fresh (though one comes from the published quiz from this week in 2022), and the quizmaster will be eager. I hope that you can join us for the fun!

Tonight expect questions on topics raised above, as well as on lawyers, best-selling authors, disasters, ranked alumni, short selections, founding fathers, people named Charles, land masses, rabbits, football stars, seemingly American queens, Oscar-nominated films, pals, the Hapsburg Empire, Robin Williams, teens, innovative technologists, young active rosters, space travel, cheesy occasions, volcanic activity, cowboys, books that sold many tickets, Spotify, Emmy-winners, cooks that like to name things, newspaper headlines, Shakespeare, and science!

Seating for the pub quiz will be first come, first served, so participants should arrive early to claim a table. As ever, prizes will include gift cards and swag. I will be coming from my KDVS radio show, so I will have only enough time before the event to eat and test the mic, though I look forward to chatting with friends after the Pub Quiz.

Speaking of friends, I would like to thank all the people who supported the Pub Quiz since the closure of de Vere’s Irish Pub in downtown Davis. I send my heart out to the following people and teams: The Original Vincibles, Carol Lynne Conrad-Forrest and Quizimodo, Jennifer Newell and The Outside Agitators, Amy Abramson and The Mavens, The Wallace-Everitt Family, The Inkelas Family, Greg Miller and Bono’s Pro Bono Obo Bonobos, The Vocal Art Ensemble Team, Meaghan Likes, Kristin Kameen, Dana Ferris, Glenn and Julie Nedwin, Lois and Bruce Wolk, Doug Desalles, Michael Koltnow, Kari Peterson, Portraits, Faith, Brooke, Vincent Block, Mercedes Ibanez, Jasmine, Josh, Anli Zhang, Catlyn LeGault, Charles Davis, Lori Raineri, Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis, Alex Hovan, Thomas Pomroy, the Inkelas family, Brook Ostrom, Keltie Jones, Sally Madden, Craig Lowe, June Gillam, Richard Deneault, and Gadi. Many of these people pledged on behalf of their teams, and many are still subscribed to the weekly pub quiz, to be shared Thursdays via Patreon.

I hope to see you soon at the Pub Quiz!

Dr. Andy

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

1. Four for Four. Which of the following circa 1995 films were nominated for Academy Awards: Babe, Heat, Jade, Nell?  

2. Big Cities. What city is the main core of the largest metropolitan area in the Southern United States and the largest inland metropolitan area in the U.S. that lacks any navigable link to the sea?  

3. Pop Culture – Music. Living from 1919 to 2014, what folk singer wrote songs that became hits for The Kingston Trio; Peter, Paul, and Mary; and The Byrds?  

Dr. Andy Jones, former quizmaster at Bistro 33 and de Vere’s Irish Pub, has moved his popular pub quiz to Sudwerk Brewing Company, the renovated restaurant and brewery at 2001 2^nd Street in Davis. The pub quiz will take place Wednesday evenings at 7 beginning on August 23.

The pub quiz will be held primarily in the Sudwerk beer garden. This modernized south-facing patio features dozens of tables, comfortable seats, multiple fire pits, sun shades, and an excellent sound system. Misters will help to keep the patio cool during warm Davis nights.

Seating for the pub quiz will be first come, first served, so participants should arrive early to claim a table. Dr. Andy will be asking questions about a variety of topics, including history, literature, current events, popular culture, geography, books and authors, sports, and science. Up to six players can compete on a team. Prizes include gift cards and swag.

A longtime writing program faculty member at UC Davis, Dr. Andy Jones served two terms as poet laureate of Davis, he hosts the Poetry Night Reading Series at the John Natsoulas Gallery, and he is the host of the radio show and podcast Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour on KDVS. The author of four books, including the 2018 compendium Pub Quizzes: Trivia for Smart People, Dr. Andy has been a professional quizmaster since 2007. He is now finishing the second book in the Pub Quizzes series.

Everyone willing to put away a smartphone for 90 minutes is welcome to participate. Those wishing to subscribe to the pub quiz, and receive 31 questions every Thursday, can do so at https://www.patreon.com/yourquizmaster.

“I think that the Pub Quiz is probably the most fun interactive evening out that one can find in all of Davis. Great, challenging questions, an intelligent and terrific vibe, super food and drinks. An all-around winner.” John Lescroart, New York Times bestselling author

Dear Friends,

Thanks for your patience.

I’ve let my grief silence me for a couple weeks. After the sudden death of my friend David Breaux, I knew I would have to write about him before I wrote about anything else, but I didn’t feel ready to write about David.

Many of us try to live lives guided by compassion, but David made this his life’s work. To the extent that David elevated kindness (or inspiring thoughts about kindness) above every other concern, such as his own housing and safety, he didn’t match our expectations of a fellow citizen. Seeing David standing on a street corner in all kinds of weather, asking for definitions of compassion, some people thought he was crazy.

A comparative religion class would reveal that contemporaries of Moses, The Buddha, Jesus and Mohammed also thought they were crazy. Now we venerate those people. They recognized something that we were not ready to see, and now on weekends many of us repeat, chant, or sing what they told us.

All four of those religious figures lived in authoritarian eras (one could argue that the poet King David was himself a despot), and so they made proclamations, handing us ready-made precepts to live by.

David Breaux, by contrast, lived in a democracy, so he invited us to participate in the process of reflecting on, defining, and facilitating compassion. Sharing with David something that he could add to his notebook or his YouTube channel made me feel like I was contributing to a positive definition of the city of Davis.

I think of the last lines of one of my favorite short sections of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass:

O Me! O Life!

Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,

Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,

Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)

Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,

Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,

Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,

The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

                                       Answer.

That you are here—that life exists and identity,

That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

David Breaux asked us each to contribute a verse.

One of Walt Whitman’s contemporaries, Ralph Waldo Emerson, said that “You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.” David shared kindnesses often, and we in the City of Davis also supported him in his journey. A friend of mine who volunteers in the Night Market in Central Park says that David was usually first in line when they started serving food that had been donated from local restaurants.

Nevertheless, I am haunted by that sentiment that “you never know how soon it will be too late.”

I had many conversations with David over the years, I introduced him to and had him give impromptu guest lectures to students in three of my first-year seminars, and I had him talk about his compassion project on my KDVS radio show.

At the funeral service of Karim Abou Najm, his father voiced regrets that he had not told his son more often that he loved him. Then he asked us to call a parent or a child or another beloved and tell them right then that we loved them. And then he waited for us to do so.

Grieving alone multiplies the grief, Professor Majdi Abou Najm told us, but grieving with others divides the grief.

It is too late in this world for me to connect with David Breaux (or my father or my best friend Tito) just one more time. Instead, I share these words with you with the hope that, together, we might divide our feeling of sadness and thus make them more bearable.

David Breaux gave us perhaps only one commandment: “Forgive.” Many will find his directive easy to understand and difficult to put into practice.

As I reflect on the garden of flowers that adorns David’s Compassion Bench, I think he would have appreciated this quotation by Rumi:

“Grief can be the garden of compassion. If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become your greatest ally in your life’s search for love and wisdom.”

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Thanks for reading, and thanks to everyone who has been supporting me on Patreon. I’ve enjoyed creating 31 fresh Pub Quiz questions for subscribers every week, and I’m also making significant progress on a new Pub Quiz book, due out later this year.

Teams such as Quizimodo, The Original Vincibles, and The Outside Agitators have paid for a quiz every week for more than a year. Thanks! Would you care to join them?

Here are four questions from a recent quiz:

1. Internet Culture. Players are not happy that you cannot pet the dog in a new video game with the subtitle “Tears of the Kingdom.” What is the title? 

2. Big Mountains. Recognized as the tallest mountain in North America, “Mount McKinley” was the official name recognized by the federal government of the United States from 1917 until 2015. What is its name today? 

3. Science. The largest gland in the human body is a spongy mass of wedge-shaped lobes. Name it. 

4. Unusual Words. What F verb means “Surprise Someone Greatly”? 

Be well.

Dr. Andy

P.S. Poetry Night is Thursday at the John Natsoulas Gallery. We start at 7. Care for some rooftop poetry under the stars?