Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

While from most people we want frictionlessness, from some we want friction.

Yesterday I hosted a meeting of a book club among colleagues at UC Davis. 20 or so of us gathered in a Zoom room during our lunch hour. Some of them were old friends. One of them I knew back in the 1990s when he worked on campus as an undergraduate, while another had taken her third class with me 20 years ago this past summer. Others I was meeting for the first time.

Our initial discussion was rather meta, for we were meeting remotely to discuss a book titled Remote, Inc.: How to Thrive at Work . . . Wherever You Are by Robert C. Pozen and Alexandra Samuel. Pozen and Samuel assert that by treating one’s boss like a client, and leaning into the autonomy and isolation that can result from the work that white-collar workers do in the ongoing Covid era, one can take advantage of all the technologies that enable our sustained productivity.

While some colleagues had registered to join us weeks ago, a few decided at the last minute to pop into the room. After teaching challenging texts for the last 31 years at UC Davis, I can tell who hasn’t done the reading, but in this case, everyone had something valuable to contribute. It helped that I set up some Zoom polls that gave folks a chance to answer some probing multiple choice questions (writing questions is another strength of mine), each of which prompted discussion.

45 seconds before our group met, I grabbed myself a Muscle Milk from the refrigerator in my kitchen. 30 seconds after I ended the meeting I was standing with my French Bulldog in the back yard, savoring how quickly I could transition from one segment of my life to another.

Today we are used to such frictionless transitions, but it was not always this way. When I was a kid, we used to call a phone number to find out what time it was. We would call a different phone number to learn the weather. If we had more time, we might wait to confirm the accurate time from the radio, or even wait as long as the next day’s newspaper for the weather reports. Now, of course, I could ask Alexa or Siri to provide me the information I needed. If I had an extra 15 seconds, I would flip on a laptop, a phone, or a watch to discover what I needed.

Not only information comes to us frictionless, but also our entertainments. My daughter is a fan of Spotify, while the rest of us listen to music courtesy of Amazon Prime and YouTube. Pretty much any popular or even niche song you might think of could be playing from a device five seconds after you speak its title. Yesterday when I wanted to try out the speakers of my new MacBook Pro, I asked it to play me “Nights in White Satin” by The Moody Blues. Hearing the tune brought back memories of the time when I thought the “Knights” were “moody” because they had to wear white satin on the battlefield. I could call up the song almost as quickly as the memory!

Despite how immediately and frictionlessly we can summon what we want, sometimes we wish to slow down, and make room for friction. My son Truman and I could stream almost any popular film we choose, but we still prefer to walk the shelves at Bizarro World, the comic book store that promises a larger collection of rentable films than what can be found on Netflix. Why? We don’t always know what we want until we stumble across it (which is also true for libraries and brick and mortar book stores). Also, Bizarro World used to provide swag for me to give away at the building next door that used to hold everyone’s favorite Irish Pub, where family pictures still adorn the walls.

At Safeway, I chat with the checker even though that takes longer than letting the mechanical scanner scan and weigh my purchases. I press zero to talk to an operator. I wait in line at Panera or Dos Coyotes, two of my son Jukie’s favorite restaurants, rather than ordering through a convenient app. Once so impatient, I used to drive everywhere before I switched to my bike. Now I walk.

When on these walks, we encounter friends, I stop for a chat, even if I have someplace to be. My friends’ affection and witticisms root me in place. Under such circumstances, even gravity itself seems heavier, like a favorite blanket on a cold day. As a family pet tries to teach you and perhaps your children, sometimes a little friction can be delicious and rewarding. Try it.

My favorite German pen in hand, sometimes I work on filling a notebook with words. Will I write as many poems at this pace, with this ancient technology? Perhaps now, but as Samuel Johnson said, “Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.” I hope your holiday season is unhurried, and that, like me, you can delight in a bit of friction.

Thanks to all of you who continue to support the pub quiz, especially teams such as Quizimodo, The Original Vincibles, and The Outside Agitators. Agitation can be another sort of welcome friction, especially when the counterfeit peace deserves to be disturbed. If you would like to join us on Patreon, and receive this week’s Pub Quiz, do so at https://www.patreon.com/yourquizmaster. Patrons there will encounter questions on the following topics: lost loves, girl scouts, foreign languages, ancient Romans, CNET, clowns, noble failures, municipal elections, the month of December, traffic mishaps, favorite words, notable athletes, dreams of the Joker, bird watching, superheroes, Irish towns, Anne Frank, times that try men’s souls, assumable progress, metal extraction, sticks and cities, presidential humor, library women, big smiles, The Beatles, best friends, calendars, explorers, conduits, farewell tours, meeting cute, ending repeatedly, current events, and Shakespeare.

Be well, and thanks for reading.

Dr. Andy

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

1. Internet Culture. Jack Dorsey has recently stepped down as the CEO of what social medium?  

2. Lady Godiva. Lady Godiva was an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who, according to a legend, rode naked through the streets of Coventry in what century? Was it the 6th, 11th, 16th, or 20th?  

3. Famous Brothers. What is the last name of the two brothers who directed Fargo and The Big Lebowski?  

P.P.S. “I have seen many storms in my life. Most storms have caught me by surprise, so I had to learn very quickly to look further and understand that I am not capable of controlling the weather, to exercise the art of patience and to respect the fury of nature.” Paulo Coelho

P.P.P.S. Lucas Frerichs and I will be performing Christmas classics (poetry and prose) at the Natsoulas Gallery in Davis on December 16^th at 7. Would you care to join us?

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I received the nicest email today from Carrie Dyer, a City of Davis employee who works tirelessly to put on and support City-sponsored events. When I asked her if there would be a holiday parade this year, she responded that there wouldn’t:

“I hope you are well.  Unfortunately, there is not a parade this year.  When we needed to make the decision a few months ago, it was pre-vaccine availability for kids, and we didn’t want to gather large amounts of people. Hence no large stage, carriage rides, or in person Santa visits. However, we are attempting to do some fun and festive things in lieu of those.”

We will still get to see local notables in downtown Davis tonight. According to the city’s press release: “Mayor Gloria Partida is looking forward to this year’s event and said, ‘While we still are taking precautions with gatherings, we are looking forward for an opportunity to celebrate with modified festivities. If it is safe for you, and you are comfortable to come downtown, there will be local performance groups and the chance to support our favorite stores.’”

I do have favorite stores downtown – one thinks of Newsbeat, The Avid Reader, and Fleet Feet – but I also find that I am not buying as much stuff as I once did. It’ll be interesting to see if the pandemic convinces all of us to purchase less stuff, and what that will do to our local economy. Amazon has made it too easy for Prime members to just expect immediate delivery of bargains from afar, even though we might encounter friends and favorite salespeople if we head downtown.

So even though the parade has been cancelled, holiday excitement will be in the air tonight. The press release continues: “Beginning at 6:00 p.m. musical performances will begin in the plaza and the annual countdown to lighting the tree will take place at 6:30 p.m. Performances will continue throughout the evening both at the plaza and in front of the Hunt Boyer Mansion located at 604 Second Street. Local groups scheduled to perform are: the Davis Children’s Chorale, the Davis High School Jazz Choir, the Davis High School Madrigals and Mariachi Del Valle.”

That Hunt Boyer Mansion seems more like the people’s house now that the familiar names of so many friends and notables have been carved into bricks in front of it. My perpetual valentine to my wife Kate is carved into the very street I walk to get to Mishka’s and The Varsity.

Speaking of the Varsity, our own arthouse cinema, “Free screenings of the short film “Merry Madagascar” will be shown at the Varsity Theatre located at 616 Second Street at 6:00 p.m., 6:40 p.m. and 7:20 p.m.” I bet the Varsity still does well from these free screening from all the popcorn that Davisites will be purchasing. 

And while Santa’s lap will be unoccupiable, the jolly Christmas elf will be waving to children from a safe distance Evidently volunteers will also be protecting themselves in Frosty the Snowman and Grinch costumes, as well, so it might be safe to embrace them, or at least post for a picture.

I’m doing my part, as well. Tonight at 7, right after the tree lighting, I will be introducing two poets: Susie Meserve (from Berkeley) and Mercedes Ibanez (from Peru, via Davis). Maybe you will get to see them perform at the Natsoulas Gallery tonight, December 2^nd at 7 PM.

If you are curious, Susie Meserve’s debut poetry collection, Little Prayers, won a Blue Light Book Award from Blue Light Press and was published in 2018. She is also the author of a chapbook, Faith. A longtime Berkeleyite, she is a 2021 Civic Arts Program grantee writing about ancestry and motherhood. Susie is also one of my preferred collaborators at the San Francisco Writers Conference.

Mercedes Ibanez is a poet and retired psychologist who was born in Peru, but who has lived in Davis since 1976. The author of five books of poetry, Ibanez won the National Award in Literature (Peru) in 1971. Ibanez’s translation of Ezra Pound’s “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” was published in 1973. Her 1977 book Caterpillars/Collective was introduced by Kate Millett. The mother of two daughters, and a grandmother of four, Ibanez is a crowd-favorite at the Poetry Night Reading Series, and of mine in particular.

Dr. Jane Beal will also join us to play some seasonal music on her flute. Beal’s poetry collections include Sanctuary (Finishing Line Press, 2008), Rising: Poems for America (Wipf and Stock, 2015) and Song of the Selkie (Aubade, 2020), as well as three recording projects combining music and poetry: “Songs from the Secret Life,” “Love-Song,” and “The Jazz Bird.” Like very few flutists, Jane has published more than 20 books!

An open mic will follow the two poets. Maybe you would like to perform something? Find details at http://www.poetryindavis.com. Find the Facebook page for this event at https://www.facebook.com/events/631978581569752

And speaking of the holidays, plan now to join us for our holiday show on December 16. A surprise celebrity guest named Lucas Frerichs will read a famous holiday poem, and then I will perform from “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” by Dylan Thomas. This event will be a fundraiser for the Yolo Food Bank, though you need not donate to attend. You can also donate without attending!

I would love to see you in December!

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on topics raised above, as well as on the following: Hanukkah, cavemen, languages, social media, Minnesota, words in the Bible, names, All-American honors, Spotify, slapdashery, fiery paths, Lyndon Johnson, marine mammals, young Roses, unemployment, trips that start in Dublin, Generals, cholesterol, warriors, dog breeds, people who drive, 19^th century phenomena, White House traditions, grand plazas, bambini, the example of Earl, checkers, popular TV shows, Canadian Provinces, southern cities, famous brothers, Godiva chocolates and such, current events, and Shaksepeare.

Thanks to all my regular supporters whose subscriptions on Patreon make my quizzes and these newsletters possible. Please add your name to the list! And speaking of supporters, Catriona McPherson “won” NaNoWriMo, meaning that she contributed 50,000 words to a book project last month. Congratulations to Catriona and to all the other NaNoWriMo winners.

Dr. Andy 

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

1. Books and Authors. What major American-British author wrote novellas with the provocative titles of The Passionate Pilgrim and The Turn of the Screw? Henry James

2. Film. The title of a 2017 Pixar film about Mexican culture, especially the Day of the Dead, comes from the name of which of the following: a city, a dog, a great-grandmother, a song? Answer: The name Cocois that of Miguel’s great-grandmother

3. Job Titles. What three-syllable word do we use for an individual who offers secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as collateral? Pawnbroker

P.P.S. “It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.” Nelson Mandela

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I’m grateful for you, my readers, this Thanksgiving, and for many (well, 50) other things.

1. Covid has slowed me down – I continue to walk now instead of drive or bike.
2. Living in California, I continue to eat outside when I go out to eat.
3. My son Truman has decorated his room so tastefully with his grandfather’s original paintings.
4. I can escape to Truman’s room to grade papers or write a pub quiz.
5. My wife Kate takes amazing photographs, and soon she will have a new phone to practice with.
6. I got to see some of our closest friends in San Diego this year.
7. My dad instilled in my brother and me a love of films, and now Truman has caught that bug.
8. Our French Bulldog Margot greets me with such joy when I enter a room, even though she likely slept on my legs all night.
9. Kate makes me amazing feasts most mornings, tofu egg scrambles with ten different kinds of fresh vegetables.
10. My old friend Joe Mills and I have restarted our games of chess after an almost 30-year hiatus.
11. My old friend Joe Mills attends to our games even though I have won the last six in a row – such patience!
12. I get to meditate with a dozen friends in a park every Sunday morning – Bill brings the meditation cushions, so I no longer have to sit on my hat.
13. My son Jukie joins me for a long walk along the greenbelts of south Davis every day.
14. People in Davis are kind to Jukie despite his being a little unusual.
15. My daughter Geneva has inherited her mom’s intelligence and appreciation for humor – she’s hilarious!
16. Hummingbirds are frolicking outside my window as I write this on Thanksgiving morning.
17. I get to talk to my mom three or more times a week. She still can’t get over the weather in LA.
18. The music of Herbie Hancock continues to fill me with joy.
19. Even though five people live in my house, I can frequently find extended moments of uninterrupted silence.
20. I read more than 30 books this year.
21. I get to deduct the cost of those books from my taxes.
22. The Smartless podcast makes me laugh every Monday. 
23. My friend Roy delivered a bonus saxophone to our house this year.
24. According to yesterday’s Washington Post, “Weekly jobless claims plunge to 199,000, the lowest level in more than 50 years.” Meanwhile, California has a $31 billion surplus.
25. The 500+ year old self-portraits of Albrecht Dürer continue to mesmerize me.
26. I’ve missed no workdays due to (my own) illness since I came to UC Davis 31 years ago. Let the streak continue!
27. I get to congregate in a beautiful art gallery with friends and poets twice a month, and afterwards for the after-party.
28. I’ve made progress on three book projects this year, including a quotable tome of writing wisdom from prominent authors.
29. Some favorite downtown Davis businesses, such as Mishka’s Café and The Varsity Theatre, have reopened for business this year.
30. I have wonderful campus colleagues, and actually look forward to my almost daily Zoom meetings with them.
31. Kate’s Prius makes a telltale sound when it pulls into our driveway after one of her trips to the UC Davis Arboretum.
32. Despite the pandemic, I got to host more than 50 events this year (albeit many of them via Zoom)
33. The Yolo Food Bank strives daily to address food insecurity for the people of Yolo County.
34. I succeeded in watching less of the clock. As Sam Levenson says, “Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” 
35. I restart my KDVS radio show in January.
36. A good friend will be joining us for Christmas dinner.
37. Semiconductors and other modern magic allow me to ask Alexa to play any kind of music I can imagine, such as Ravi Shankar, Oscar Peterson, The Pointer Sisters, or Too Many Zooz.
38. I am repeatedly encouraged by bright and hardworking students at UC Davis.
39. We are saving enough for retirement – someday Kate and I will see places that we have only read about.
40. I achieved my walking goals for 2021.
41. My little town has a healthy newspaper, the only newsstand in the Sacramento Valley, three thriving bookstores, the largest art gallery in the county, innumerable performance spaces, and our own art museum.
42. I used to imbibe several alcoholic drinks a week. Now I average one a week, typically a glass of wine with Kate.
43. Lists are always available to writers without ideas for essays.
44. Disney+ brings my children great joy.
45. With the help of Muscle Milk and many other foods with the word “protein” in their names, I accomplish my macronutritional goals almost every day.
46. Our 2021 home has perhaps 50,000 fewer items in in than our 2020 home.
47. Unknown masked people call out to me with great fondness and recognition on the streets of Davis.
48. Local ginkgo trees inspire wonder and delight at this time of year.
49. My wife Kate thinks of everything.
50. You read all the way to item 50 at the end of this list.

This week’s Pub Quiz includes some topics listed above, as well as the following: California cities, famous sisters, shooting guards, custards, art and art history, pliers, animal skins, family squabbles, hazardous waste, illumination, famous evacuees, malware, movies with “girls,” long tales, coaches, promising candidates, almonds, prison life, bays other than Michael Bay, British monarchs, French verbs, tropical nomads, happy nominees, Greek gods, trippy trips, literary pilgrims, desserts, androids, current events, and Shakespeare.

Thanks to all the friends and teams who sustain these Pub Quizzes, even in the absence of a proper pub for us to discuss them together. You are welcome to join them, courtesy of Patreon. If you want to see me in person, I’m hosting a poetry reading with Susie Meserve on next Thursday, December 2^nd at 7 PM. Imagine my gratitude if you were to join us at the Natsoulas Gallery that night!

Enjoy the holiday.

Dr. Andy 

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

1. Mottos and Slogans. What clothing brand tells us that “Quality never goes out of style”?  

2. Internet Culture. A Pixel Stand is best described as which of the following: A cartoon character, a charger, a phone, or a TV setting?  

3. Newspaper Headlines. Starting with the letter C, what company said today that it is closing 900 stores?  

P.S. I send a special shout out to devoted subscribers Glenn and Julie this Thanksgiving.

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

The recent lecturer strike planned for UC Davis was called off at the last minute because of sudden and last-minute progress made at the bargaining table, with pay raises promised for lecturers, as well as opportunities to take family leave that other sorts of faculty enjoy. 

I remember asking my colleague, perhaps then a graduate student, Roy Kamada to teach my class while I was at the hospital supporting my wife Kate as she gave birth to our first-born child, Geneva. I missed just one class, but I suppose we had Kate’s mom visiting from Chicago to help out. With the help of friends and family, we can always make do.

I told my students about my own family union connections. For example, my grandfather, born in Oklahoma when it was still called “Indian Territory,” was run out of that state by boss-hired thugs and assassins for his union activities. I remember visiting my father when he marched in a picket line in support of other striking workers at WTOP (now WUSA) in the late 1970s when he was a cultural, arts, and entertainment journalist and film reviewer there. He wore a button that stated “The Feeling is Mutual.” My brother Oliver was the shop steward, staying active in his union while at People magazine. My wife Kate was also the shop steward when she worked as a perinatal coordinator at Planned Parenthood in the early 1990s. 

And the aforementioned daughter Geneva has recently joined a bartenders’ union. I imagine that she could also join a culinary workers union, for her hotel workplace has her working two jobs. When reviewing labor history in the 20th century with my onetime professor Howard Zinn, I came to agree with Martin Luther King, Jr. (who also took classes at Boston University). King said, “The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress.”

Most of my students Wednesday morning did not get to participate in these discussions Wednesday, for although all of them had read my late-night announcement that there would be a general strike the next day, few of them encountered the announcement at 7 the next morning that the strike had been called off.

I bet the American Federation of Teachers was successful at the bargaining table not only because of the righteousness of their cause, but because of the political proclivities of the students in the UC Davis system. American history of the last five years, or the last fifty years, gave Americans of all stripes to proclaim and explain what side they were on. Many participants in the January 6^th insurrection who in the moment thought it would be cool to trespass, vandalize, or riot later had to explain to their families, members of their communities, and often district court judges why they acted the way they did.

By contrast, I bet an increasing number of students who learned about the reasons behind the lecturers’ strike sided with the aggrieved workers rather than with their bosses, the UC President and his administration, the ones who some thought were seeking to justify a two-tiered caste system among UC faculty. Many Californian governors, UC presidents, and individual UC chancellors have learned that UC students, united, are unlikely to be defeated.

As someone who loves teaching at UC Davis, I myself have fewer personal gripes than many of my peers, but I recognize my positions of privilege, having bought a reasonably-priced home here with Kate and Geneva in the late 90s, and having relatively simple needs (new walking shoes every year or so, a new book of poetry when I just can’t resist, and an occasional dinner and play out on the town with Kate). I agree with the point that David Foster Wallace made in one of his final interviews: “The people I know who are rebelling meaningfully, you know, don’t buy a lot of stuff and don’t get their view of the world from television and are willing to spend four, five hours researching an election rather than going by commercials.”

I’m grateful for all the meaningful rebels, and I am grateful for you.

Dr. Andy

I wrote a special Pub Quiz for this week – I hope you get to see it! When you do, you will encounter questions about busy days, football heroes, people who sand, Goodwill Industries, Thanksgiving, power throws, Cole Porter, regional names for goofy guys that are hard to find, title characters, American kings, fast mammals, Arabia, the Pew Research Center, juniors, Candice Bergen, goblins and their cousins, Disneyland, challenging travel plans, my microphone, world cities, TV prequels and sequels, literal and figurative windows, little lambs, carbon dioxide, halls of fame, places that start with the letter I, caffeine, broccoli, stands, vintage clothing, current events, and Shakespeare.

Thanks to all the sustaining supporters of this endeavor. Some of these Pub Quiz collectors include Quizimodo, The Outside Agitators, and the incredible Original Vincibles. I would love to include you as one of these sponsors. Find out how you can participate at https://www.patreon.com/yourquizmaster.

Find here three questions from last week’s Pub Quiz. If you are a regular subscriber, you’ve already seen more than three! 

1. Food and Drink. Of the five basic tastes, what S-word is the best synonym for the taste “umami”?   

2. Science. About how many species of orchid are there in the orchid family: 28, 2800, or 28,000?  

3. Books and Authors. Published in 1929, what is the English title of the most famous novel by Erich Maria Remarque? 

P.S. I’m hosting a poetry reading tonight / November 18 at 7 PM at the Natsoulas Gallery. The featured authors will be Chico State professors Troy Jollimore and Heather Altfeld!

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

This week has been so crazy that I am just pasting below this week’s Pub Quiz and calling it my newsletter. If you would like to know the answers, or to subscribe to the weekly Pub Quiz service from Dr. Andy, please support the Pub Quiz on Patreon. I create one of these every week.

Enjoy the Veterans Day holiday (and perhaps the long weekend) with your friends and families!

Pub Quiz for Thursday, November 11, 2021
This Version Has No Answers

1. Mottos and Slogans. What organization uses the slogan “Forged by the Sea”?
2. Internet Culture. Tux the penguin is the mascot of what operating system?
3. Newspaper Headlines. According to today’s Bloomberg headline, “U.S. Warns Europe That Russia May Plan BLANK Invasion.” Fill in the blank.
4. Four for Four. Which of the following composers, if any, were alive when the Wright Brothers flew their first airplane: Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Scott Joplin?
5. 20th Century Americans. Born in 1915, one of America’s most outspoken antiracist celebrities, one who hosted many fundraisers for Martin Luther King and helped to desegregate many prominent hotels and concert halls, changed his political affiliation in 1970, and ended up playing Sun City in South Africa in 1981. Name this musician who has sold over 100 million records.
6. Chinese Rock Pillows. Originating in the Ming dynasty, Chinese rock pillows were believed to translate the energy from the stone to the human brain. Such pillows were made of what kind of mineral?
7. Pop Culture – Music. Living from 1963 to 2012, who is the only artist to have had seven consecutive number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100?
8. Sports. 97-year-old Ukrainian Leonid Stanislavskyi holds the Guinness world record as the world’s oldest tennis player. He recently visited a tennis academy in Spain that is home to a 20-time Grand Slam champion. Name the champion.
9. Science. What continent has more hummingbirds than any other continent?

The Short Round

10. Notable Americans. Donald Trump was the first U.S. president in 152 years to skip his successor’s inauguration. Who was the previous?
11. Unusual Words. What D word refers to careful and persistent work or effort?
12. Critical Roles. “Critical Role” is a livestreamed series concerning what game?
13. Pop Culture – Television Shows with Monosyllabic Titles. What 2018 TV show features a bookstore manager and serial killer named Joe Goldberg?
14. Another Music Question. What Bee Gees song was used in a study to train medical professionals to provide the correct number of chest compressions per minute while performing CPR?

End of The Short Round

15. Anagram. Before he died in San Francisco at age 80, what World War II hero was the United States’ last surviving officer who served in the rank of fleet admiral? Hint: His name is an anagram of the phrase METRIC ZENITHS.

And now five questions on the same topic. This week’s topic is Colonialism.

16. In what century did Britain’s first contact with Australia come courtesy of Captain Cook’s voyage in the ship Endeavour?
17. Current population about 1.4 million, the state of Hawaii is made up of what even number of major islands?
18. Historian Philip Hoffman calculated that by 1800, before the Industrial Revolution, Europeans already controlled at least 35% of the globe, and by 1914, they had gained control of closest to what percent of the globe: 15%, 60%, or 85%?
19. What country is historically known as Siam?
20. What country name that you have spoken out loud more than 50 times was claimed by France in 1535 during the second voyage of Jacques Cartier, when the land was claimed in the name of the French king, Francis I, land that remained a French territory until 1763, when it became a British colony?

And thus ends our round of questions on Colonialism.

21. Books and Authors. According to the author H.A. Rey, what fictional character takes a job, rides a bike, and gets a medal?
22. Film. In Star Wars IV: A New Hope, the character of Luke Skywalker has the most screen time at 37 minutes and 30 seconds. What sentient or robot character has the second-most screen time at 19 minutes and 30 seconds?
23. European Culture. Utrecht is the fourth-largest city in what country?
24. Countries of the World. Chennai, also known as Madras, is the capital city of the state of Tamil Nadu. Name the country.
25. Food and Drink. Of the five basic tastes, what S-word is the best synonym for the taste “umami”?
26. Science. About how many species of orchid are there in the orchid family: 28, 2800, or 28,000?
27. Books and Authors. Published in 1929, what is the English title of the most famous novel by Erich Maria Remarque?
28. Current Events – Obituaries in the News. First name Dean, what Quantum Leap actor had signature roles in the movies Married to the Mob and Blue Velvet?
29. Sports. Collegiate, scholastic, and Greco-Roman are all varieties of what?
30. Shakespeare. As we learn in a Shakespeare play, who defeats the French at Agincourt?

Tie-breaker. What was the US gross of the 1984 film Dune?

If you are looking for something to do Saturday night (November 13), join me for some live jazz, dance, and poetry at the Natsoulas Gallery. According to the Gallery website for this Beat Generation art event, this will be the schedule of events:

6:30 John Natsoulas will read with Tony Passarell Trio
6:40 – Gregory Carter will read poetry with Tony Passarell Trio
7:00 – Dr. Andy Jones will read a poem
7:15 – The Linda Bair Dance Co. – Eight dancers will perform to recordings of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and the music of Charlie Parker and Coleman Hawkins.

And then next Thursday, November 18th, I will be hosting a poetry reading by Troy Jollimore and Heather Altfeld. This video will give you a sense of what to look forward to from these important award-winning poets. I hope to see you in person soon!

Best,

Dr. Andy

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Welcome to November, the subject of one of my favorite nihilist Thomas Hood poems, titled “No!”:

        No sun—no moon!

        No morn—no noon—

No dawn—

        No sky—no earthly view—

        No distance looking blue—

No road—no street—no “t’other side the way”—

        No end to any Row—

        No indications where the Crescents go—

        No top to any steeple—

No recognitions of familiar people—

        No courtesies for showing ’em—

        No knowing ’em!

No traveling at all—no locomotion,

No inkling of the way—no notion—

        “No go”—by land or ocean—

        No mail—no post—

        No news from any foreign coast—

No park—no ring—no afternoon gentility—

        No company—no nobility—

No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,

   No comfortable feel in any member—

No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,

No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds,

        November!

Thomas Hood died in his birthplace of London about 150 years before I spent an entire November (and fall) in that same Sunday, so I remember what would have gotten him down. Despite the darkness, I’m grateful for everything that England and London in particular had to offer me when I lived there. All that rain meant that I got to spend even more time with Kate, my propitious London roommate, who to this day brightens even the shortest and gloomiest days that November has had in store for me.

Rain has a different meaning in drought-stricken California than it did during our London adventures. Ironically, our recent record one-day rainstorm brought many dry parts of Davis to life. Walking from south Davis towards the underpass to get to downtown Davis yesterday, my son Jukie and I noticed that the typically dry field – what in cities we call an “empty lot” – between West Chiles Road and Putah Creek, where local firefighters test their enormous hoses, had turned from brown to green. Imagine all those seedlings waiting for enough hydration to sprout, even though it is so late in the calendar year.

Yesterday I also saw a pair of California Towhees frolicking in our back yard, digging at something among the puddles and the tufts of new grass, as if they were snowy plovers or other shorebirds scouting the beach for morsels of marine worms and crustaceans. Such ornithological excitement and joy a rain shower brings!

We turn to the cycles of nature to bring us comfort when plagued by melancholy, as I am now, thinking of the recent deaths of friends and former students (Goodbye, Rasar. Goodbye, David Kim / DK). Sometimes we turn to poetry when we seek to make sense of the shocking, the unfair, or the unfathomable. The winter poems of Robert Frost leaned into the sort of melancholy that we imagine the poet felt. Consider, for example, the opening stanza of his poem for this time of year, titled “My November Guest”:

My sorrow, when she’s here with me,

     Thinks these dark days of autumn rain

Are beautiful as days can be;

She loves the bare, the withered tree;

     She walks the sodden pasture lane.

How strange not only to gender and to personify one’s sorrow, but also to imagine what she sees as beautiful, as if she were a companion who, like my constant walking buddy, points out with her upward gazes what beauty can be found in the trees after the leaves have parted.

The word “sodden” suggests that Frost’s New England Novembers were wetter than ours, while the word “pasture” suggests that denizens of that part of the world a century ago came home with muddy boots, while my son Jukie and I in our walking shoes enjoy the benefits of paved footpaths that ring our South Davis neighborhood.

In both cases, November is more inviting to the afternoon perambulator than the coming winter months, with their frigid temperatures and soaking rains. Normally I would look forward to autumnal gatherings with friends in local restaurants, and with Jukie in our neighborhood art galleries, bookstores, and movie theatres, but the virus will keep us outside, no matter the weather. Unhampered by the welcome rains, we will continue to walk Davis streets and greenbelts, as Hood or Frost once did, searching for images that reflect our November spirits.

I hope you get to see this week’s pub quiz, an ongoing enterprise sustained by my patrons on Patreon, especially the teams Quizimodo, Original Vincibles, and Outside Agitators. Join their ranks to receive engaging trivia content – the address is https://www.patreon.com/yourquizmaster.

This week’s quiz may touch on topics raised above, as well as the following: running animals, European capitals, roller coasters, Meryl Streep accomplishments, oddly-named parents, aged competitors, the Bureau of Transportation, obduracy, colts, Nobel laureates, mechanisms, famous rebellions, genres of dance, mermaids, superheroes, French things, famous journals, restaurants that have not closed, Popeye, thugs in southern literature, Tuesday voices, time in space, aging bodies, Princeton graduates, tissues, pumpkins, baseball terms, current events, and Shakespeare.

Tomorrow night’s poetry reading at the Natsoulas Gallery with Miles Miniaci should be fun. I will have to miss it, as Kate and I will be celebrating her November birthday! Be well.

Dr. Andy

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

1. Famous Bankruptcies. What investment bank had almost $600 billion in assets when they declared bankruptcy on September 15, 2008?   

2. Pop Culture – Music. A duet sung by Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson remained unfinished because Mercury walked out of the recording. He couldn’t tolerate Jackson bringing his grass-eating pet mammal into the studio. Name the species of animal.  

3. Sports. What former Cuban-American Oakland Athletic was the first foreign-born player to reach the four-hundred home runs plateau?  

P.P.S. “All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.” Anatole France

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I seem to have stumbled into Stoicism.

The most-consumed Stoicism-booster today is Ryan Holiday, author of the books with the titles The Obstacle is the Way, Ego is the Enemy, and, this year, Courage is Calling. Holiday must be working through the  holidays in order to publish a new book every year. This list of “don’ts” gives you a sense of what he means by Stoicism:

7 Stoic DON’Ts:

1. Don’t be overheard complaining…even to yourself

2. Don’t talk more than you listen

3. Don’t tie your identity to things you own

4. Don’t compare yourself to others

5. Don’t suffer imagined troubles

6. Don’t judge others

7. Don’t overindulge in food or drink

As perceptive readers will be able to track from what I write below, I attempt to follow these precepts, though with varying success. The first, about complaining, is my favorite. The poet Randall Jarrell once quipped, “The people who live in a golden age usually go around complaining how yellow everything looks.” This is how Doris Day put it: “Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty.” People who spend their time complaining that they have no friends need not ask why.

My newfound love of audiobooks, the end of my live Pub Quiz, and an extended Covid hiatus from my radio show have helped me adhere to the second precept: “Don’t talk more than you listen.” Just this morning, an absent colleague asked me to chair a meeting he was due to run not because I was the most qualified to do so, but because he knows that I love chairing things (though not departments).

We all have to prioritize. John Lennon said, “If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.” With this quotation in mind, I would love to think of myself only as a peace-loving anti-materialist, but I just noticed that there are items in my Amazon cart. With regard to Holiday’s third precept, I tie my identity in part to my “ownership” of our French bulldog. Her name is Margot, and strangers can’t get over how affectionate she is, and how expressive her face is. I figure that somehow these qualities reflect well on my wife Kate and myself, to have raised such a dog. It helps that French bulldogs come this way.

Although Margot almost never barks, lately as part of my son Truman’s bedtime routine, I have taught Margot how to vocalize. I ask her to “SPEAK,” she does, and then we shower her with affection as if she had just learned how to conjugate the French verb blablater. After playing this game for a few minutes, Margot is always proud of herself, and exhausted. Like a princess who refuses to give up all the trappings of her office, Margot proceeds through life from one nap, from one snuggle, to another. She is our domestic bodhisattva, compassionately privileging our happiness over any other concern.

Speaking of religious concerns, Aretha Franklin is singing the Marvin Gaye song “Wholy Holy” in my ears. Her voice is transcendent. I’m comfortable with the fact that I will never be able to sing like Aretha. Of course, I don’t know that she was particularly talented at writing trivia questions about Ukrainian pumpkin production trends. We all have our strengths.

Check out this paragraph from today’s New York Times: “Battered by a major storm, Sacramento on Sunday logged its wettest day since record-keeping began in the 1800s. Eight days prior, Sacramento broke a different record — the longest dry spell in the city’s history, with 212 days without rain. It’s a study in contrasts playing out across California.” 

When it comes to suffering imagined troubles, I have found that neither the extended drought nor the recent record-breaking deluge was as bad as we could have imagined. Of course, maybe it’s easy for the guy with the new (or “newish,” as the real estate listings sometimes put it) roof to be talking so complacently. This morning, beholding the new lake in our back yard, we turned off our sprinklers.

With my PhD in English, I was trained to judge words – and the sentences, paragraphs, and books that they constitute – but I’ve learned to excuse myself from departmental conversations in which people merely gossip about others. I’d rather sit down with a good book or take a long Arboretum walk with my wife Kate. Life’s too short to track others’ peccadillos, much less spend time faulting them for their various offenses and infringements. If you are willing to listen, Aretha is always calling.

With regard to food and drink, I’ve been tracking my macros and letting my phone count my steps. If I did any of this accurately, I would be losing at least a pound a week. The scale says I have been losing closer half an ounce a week, meaning that I will be reaching my target weight around the time that I drive my current Davis Senior High sophomore off to college. 

This season, this stoic dad won’t be stealing Halloween candy, but I may be eyeing a second piece of pumpkin pie. How about you?

This week’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on topics raised above, as well as the following: American kings, reading experiences, places that start with the letter P, saints, twins, admirable sacrifices, Emperor Palpatine, colors in nature, the best actresses, rabbits, patience at the go-go, Canadians, ghosts, unacknowledged authors, anagrammatical yelps, love songs, BET talk shows, notable summits, ranks, space travel, Cubans, unwelcome mammals, precipitous losses, sunny coves, current events, and Shakspeare.

Thanks to the teams that offer sustaining support of the Pub Quiz and these weekly newsletters, including the Original Vincibles, Quizimodo, and The Outside Agitators. You should form / found / or find a team so that you have a reason to gather with your friends. Memberships that get you the weekly quiz start at just $10 a month. Don’t let only the lucky teams have all the fun! See Patreon for details.

Yours,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Locals will want to see the Davis Senior High production of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors that opens this Friday. The show opens Friday, October 29^th at 7:30. My son Truman plays Antipholus of Ephesus!

Here’s what I found in today’s Blue Devil Bulletin: “DHS theatre’s fall play, The Comedy of Errors, has performances from October 29-30 ,and on November

4-6th at 7:30p.m. **On the 31st there is a matinee at 2:30p.m. Visit the Blue Devil online store for tickets. Prices: Students $8 and Adults $12

* Proof of a negative Covid test in 72 hours before the show is needed in order to attend.”

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

1. Film. What actor appeared in Enemy at the Gates in 2001, Road to Perdition in 2002, Cold Mountain in 2003, and The Aviator in 2004?  

2. Countries of the World. The smallest Asian country is also the lowest-lying country in the world. What do we call this chain of islands?  

3. The Last Presidio. The last and only Presidio in California to have an active military installation is the home of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center. About a three-hour drive from Davis, California, name the city where this Presidio is found.   

Happy Halloween! Slow down and stay safe.

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

The death of Rock and Roll has been lamented for most of my life, but this genre of music still fuels my many moments of lyrical reflection, and my midnight solo dance parties. As the blues cover band The Rolling Stones put in in 1974, “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It).”

Yesterday I was holding Zoom office hours with a student who probably didn’t notice during our consultation that my eyes kept darting to the poster behind her. After I commented helpfully on the short feature article she was about to submit to my journalism class, she shook her head after I asked if she had any more questions for me. She was about to click the red END button when I told her that I had a question for her: Does she know the primary interpretations of the Beatles Abbey Road album cover poster on the wall behind her?

My student summoned her roommate, the owner of the poster in question, and then I regaled the two of them with stories about The Beatles, Abbey Road Studios, and the “Paul is Dead” conspiracy theory that so many of us entertained when the album was released in late September of 1969. The two students listened eagerly, or so I imagined; perhaps they were listening only “politely,” like someone who is stuck on a long flight next to a talkative blowhard who has many lessons to share about irrelevant topics. The roommate said that this fall she is taking “Music 116: Music of the Beatles.” I told her that there was a time when I could have taught that class. She responded, “I believe you. Bye!”

As I write this, my happy ears are filled with my favorite album from the entire 1980s: Graceland by Paul Simon. Back in the late 1980s, before I even knew that I would be moving to California, I enjoyed hearing this album (cassette, really) on perpetual repeat while driving in Washington D.C., Beavertown, Pennsylvania, and many other beloved places in my family’s 1977 Checker Marathon. (See my last mention of this beloved car in my 2004 newsletter, with a remarkable photograph, titled “The Checker Marathon as Status Symbol.”) But the magic of this musical compilation, including the musical stylings of zydeco and mbaqanga, South African street music, sounds all the more magical when every nuance and instrument – the pedal steel guitar, the tin whistle, the backing vocals of The Everly Brothers – come alive in all its “ULTRA HD” complexity and variety courtesy of the sort of headphones that I could never have afforded, or that perhaps didn’t exist, when the album came out in 1986.

I did lots of traveling back east before I moved to California, leaving behind the thick and humid deciduous forests of my youth for the arid scrub and greenbelts of Davis, but I never made it to Graceland. We might wonder, do any of us actually make it to “Graceland”? Paul Simon said that “Graceland” was originally conceived of as just a placeholder word until he thought of something better, the way that Paul McCartney wrote a catchy tune originally called “Scrambled Eggs” (using what in advanced poetry school we learned is an amphimacer, or a three-part rhythm of two strong / long beats sandwiching a weak / short beat). McCartney eventually renamed that song “Yesterday.”

I suspect that much of what I eagerly learned about Rock and Roll and other topics of youthful enthusiasm is fading. In many ways, the album Graceland reflects on that which is lost, or that which we are actively losing. The second verse emphasizes lost love:

She comes back to tell me she’s gone

As if I didn’t know that

As if I didn’t know my own bed

As if I’d never noticed

The way she brushed her hair from her forehead

And she said losing love

Is like a window in your heart

Everybody sees you’re blown apart

Everybody sees the wind blow

But the album also promises the possibility of (a place of) redemption. The idea is familiar to many of us who have read widely, for a “promised land” has inflamed the imaginations of travelers as varied as Moses, Woody Guthrie, or the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Although I have told many people that Jack Kerouac’s On the Road inspired my first trip to California, the end of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn likely also played a part in my leaving the east for the west. You remember that Huck opted at the end of that book (spoiler) to “light out for the territory ahead of the rest,” just as I moved out west before my dad, brother, and, in the last year, my mom did the same. We made the right decision, I think.

So I don’t regret never visiting Graceland. For me, the idea of Graceland drove me to reach for the horizon. As it was for Paul Simon, “Graceland” for me has been a placeholder, a welcome symbol for a place – for me, that place is my family home here in Davis – where we finally find our way. Although I never knew anyone who had “diamonds on the souls of her shoes,” I agree with Paul Simon when he says “I’ve reason to believe / We all will be received in Graceland.”

I hope you get to read tonight’s pub quiz. It’s filled with creativity and discovery and whimsical joy. It will also contain questions about the following: delicacies, garages, musical instruments, transportation challenges, famous stages, the taking of power, snipers, clowns, global media conglomerates, engines, linguistic diversity, places for Roo, archipelagos, waning cow anagrams, women who change their names, total games, civilian offices, essential wisdom, Dodge City, gross leasable areas, low liars, aviators, countrymen, troublemakers, sunshine fish, Soul Train Awards, current events, and Shakespeare.

Thanks to all the sustaining patrons of the Pub Quiz including, as of this last week, Mercedes and Vincent. I love that we still get to connect this way even when we have no pub in which to congregate. Other terrific supporters of the Pub Quiz include Quizimodo, The Outside Agitators, and especially The Original Vincibles. I invite you to join them, especially now that I have lowered the cost of the monthly subscription to a mere 10 bucks. See you on Patreon!

Your Quizmaster, Dr. Andy

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

P.S. Did you know that five Pub Quiz questions appear every week in the Sunday Davis Enterprise? Here are three questions from last week’s quiz.

1. Food and Drink. What kind of salad includes ingredients which have been chopped to be uniform and then either composed or tossed?  

2. Pop Culture – Music. What American band had #1 multi-platinum hits this century with “Makes Me Wonder” and “One More Night”?  

3. Sports. In baseball, what do we call the accomplishment of one batter hitting a single, a double, a triple, and a home run in the same game?   

P.P.S. I acknowledge that Paul Simon’s album Graceland is controversial because of the use of musical traditions outside his own, including his employing Black South African musicians during the time of Apartheid. Nelson Mandela was still in prison as Paul Simon collected his Graceland Grammy Awards. Some have accused Simon of appropriation. For a brief exploration of this controversy by author Brian Kaufman, see his blog entry titled “Paul Simon and Cultural Appropriation.”

Would you like to see the notable Peter Coyote read from his new book in Davis on Thursday? Read to the end for that opportunity.

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Sometimes we wear a message T-shirt to proclaim who we are or what we want to say, while sometimes we wear such a shirt to invite others to tell us who they are.

Take my daughter Geneva, for example. She has a bunch of gay and witty T-shirts. One says, “NO ONE KNOWS I’M A LESBIAN,” which, I suppose, pits the wearer’s introversion against her extroversion, like a modern LGBT version of the logician’s enigma known as the “liar’s paradox” or the “antinomy of the liar.” As someone said to Geneva in a college dining commons one day, while she was trying to enjoy her egg breakfast before rushing off to class, “Actually, now we DO know that you’re a lesbian. Ha ha ha!” Nobody found that guy funny.

Geneva has another shirt that says, “SOUNDS GAY. I’M IN.” I love how this colorful shirt co-opts the standard ignoramus insult that I heard in high school in the early 1980s: That’s so gay. Almost everyone I knew back then wanted not to come off as gay. These days, by contrast, some of my UC Davis students use inclusive pronouns to show an ally’s solidarity with their LGBTQIA+ classmates, saying with love in their hearts that they are all in with anything that is gay.

Like my classmates, I myself was not allowed to wear T-shirts that depicted any images or words in the Washington Waldorf School that I attended in the 1970s. On the one day a year, Field Day, that we were allowed to wear colorful and representational shirts, I remember wearing a fancy shirt that was decked out across the front, back, and sides with panels from a comic book. Amazed at the sight, kids from school would gather around me as if I were a visiting alien, sometimes lifting my arms if I were inadvertently blocking one of the panels they wanted to read.

I’m sure my dad approved of the Waldorf policy on silly T-shirts, for he had high wardrobe standards for himself and, indirectly, for his sons. I believe there are no photographs of my father in a T-shirt. I don’t think he owned a pair of jeans. When everyone started dressing more casually at Antioch College in the early 1950s, my rebel dad made sure to wear a tie and collared shirt to every class. Arriving at my dad’s house on a late Saturday afternoon for some board games and dinner, I remember wanting to ask my dad why he was all dressed up. One thinks of exasperated Liz Lemon asking Jack Donaghy why her 30 Rock boss was wearing a tuxedo. His response, as you can see in this seven-second YouTube clip, is “It’s after six. What am I, a farmer?”

Careful what I advertise, even today I will typically still not wear just a T-shirt out of the house, even on a hot day, choosing instead a collared shirt. My son Truman follows the tradition established by his “Grand-Davey,” for he has also decided that a T-shirt is too informal to be seen in except at bedtime. An avid reader and a film buff with an encyclopedic mind, Truman agrees with Oscar Wilde: “You can never be overdressed or overeducated.” Once I teach him how to tie a tie, there will be no stopping him!

Despite my family’s formal wardrobe proclivities, I’m grateful for two notable times that I wore T-shirts out into the world. About a dozen years ago, I was wearing the well-preserved T-shirt that marked the sesquicentennial (150 years) celebration of Boston University, where I earned my undergraduate degree in English, and where I was studying (abroad) when I met my wife, Kate. Because our graduation speakers included the sitting president of the United States (George H.W. Bush) and the President of France (Francois Mitterrand), we graduates were all given special T-shirts to mark the occasion. (Senator Ted Kennedy, whose politics more closely resemble mine, was also on stage that day.) Anyway, because of that shirt, my favorite baker, Trudy Kalisky, reached out to me at the Davis Farmers Market for the first time to say that her son Lorin also went to BU, and did we know each other. The conversation that started that day has been continuing intermittently ever since, with highlights including my treating Trudy, Lorin, and their entire Pub Quiz team of six to a complimentary meal at our favorite former restaurant. During the time of our fruitful friendship, for Trudy is a great conversationalist, she and the Kalisky family have treated my kids and me to perhaps 1000 chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies from the Upper Crust Baking Company, which gets my vote for the best such bakery on the West Coast.

And then this past Saturday, a prominent Davisite and her mom were walking the UC Davis Arboretum when they noticed a familiar guy walking his French Bulldog with his red-headed wife and son while wearing a black T-shirt with three words written in the largest possible white letters: BLACK LIVES MATTER. That was me! The Davisite, who happened to be LeShelle May, probably resolved to strike up a conversation with the BLM supporter and ally and introduce him to his mom, now a resident at Atria Gardens in north Davis. What a delightful meeting that was – we covered topics such as grandchildren, poetry, and the joys of taking a walk on an October Saturday afternoon! Coincidentally, Kate and I had just talked to LeShelle and UC Davis Chancellor Gary May the night before at Thai Nakorn, one of several restaurants we are trying out as our new weekly haunt. LeShelle joked that she might just run into us the next day while out for her daily run.

Both Kate’s mom and my mom have moved to independent living facilities in recent years, so we have heard how disorienting it can be to be living in new digs after having grown used to living more independently for so many years. It turned out that LeShelle’s mom and I had a good friend (another Atria resident) in common, and that, as her daughter already knew, like Lorin Kalisky, LeShelle and I both attended Boston University at the same time (though we didn’t know each other). I helped to welcome LeShelle’s sharp and loquacious mom to her new hometown, and I was reminded how much I love walking the streets and paths of Davis. You never know who you might meet here, or who might feel compelled to meet you.

—

This week’s Pub Quiz will feature questions raised above and on the following: Cars in California, iPhones, Evanston, Ottomen, Chinese food staples, three-word titles, rogues, Ethiopia, email histories, kitchen paychecks, cycles, nuclei, musical wonderous nights, people who quarreled with their stepfathers, furniture in art galleries, princesses, Oscar-winners, central parks, TV-MA examples, the gardens of Cordoba, Muppet Shows, European countries, Encyclopædia Britannica, pearls without swine, salads, menageries, cowgirls, hosts, statutes for wrenches, midpoint meetings, Saturday Night Live, current events, and Shakespeare.

I send special thanks to everyone who supports the Pub Quiz, and thus subscribes to all the pub quizzes, including the one I finished today. I would love to add your name to this list as a new subscriber. Find out more on Patreon. My deep appreciation goes out to our sustaining patrons, including the Original Vincibles, Quizimodo, The Outside Agitators, and a number of teams that support the Quiz at the $20 monthly level. I can keep this up because of you.

Enjoy this blustery week and the cooler temperatures. Perhaps I will see you out there during one of our overlapping walks!

Best,

Dr. Andy

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

1. Mottos and Slogans and Taglines. What 1978 horror film used the tagline “The Night HE Came Home”? 

2. Newspaper Headlines. The United States recently expressed “concern” about China’s incursion into the defense zone of what country?  

3. California Islands. Avalon is the only incorporated city on what Southern California island found in the Bay of Santa Catalina?  

P.P.S. The great actor, voiceover artist and documentary narrator, activist and poet Peter Coyote is celebrating his 80^th birthday in Davis this coming Thursday night at 7 with a poetry book release party. Tickets are free, but reservations are required. Check out the details at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/peter-coyotes-80th-birthday-party-and-reading-tickets-179279930097 – it would be fun to see you there!