Today I lament the passing of Thích Nhất Hạnh, the Vietnamese monk and author of more than 50 books, at least a half-dozen of which I have read. He founded what he coined “Engaged Buddhism,” as well as Plum Village in France, the largest Buddhist monastery in the west. When he nominated Hạnh for the Nobel Prize in 1967, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called him “an Apostle of Peace and Nonviolence.”
Today the Dalai Lama of Tibet said this about Thích Nhất Hạnh: “In his peaceful opposition to the Vietnam war, his support for Martin Luther King and most of all his dedication to sharing with others not only how mindfulness and compassion contribute to inner peace, but also how individuals cultivating peace of mind contributes to genuine world peace, the Venerable lived a truly meaningful life.
“I have no doubt the best way we can pay tribute to him is to continue his work to promote peace in the world.”
In one of Thích Nhất Hạnh’s most famous books, titled Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life, he teaches readers how to infuse everything we do with mindfulness and compassion, whether it is taking a walk – “Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet” – or planting lettuce:
“When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don’t blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change.”
I have thought about this quotation often as a parent of a child with autism, a child who doesn’t always make wise choices. As Hạnh points out, it makes no more sense for me to blame my son Jukie for some odd or chancy behavior any more than it does to blame lettuce for not growing well. Perhaps there are some gardeners who swear at their harvests.
Whether we are people or lettuce leaves, during these winter months, we could probably all use more water and more sun. As Hạnh says, we could also use more understanding (for and from others) and more love. With regard to persuasion, I have often wondered how my own expressions (or personal example) of love might help people in my inner circles come to agree with me about some personal or political topic (such as the wisdom of protecting ourselves and our loved ones by vaccinating against harmful viruses, or the need to uphold just and democratic values) more so than any ingenious or self-righteous argument.
On this beautiful sunny Saturday, I am grateful for compassion-teachers such as Thích Nhất Hạnh. His teachings and philosophies have helped me weather adversities with greater equanimity and hope. As Hạnh says, “Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.”
I hope that taking a moment to reflect on Hạnh’s kind words and his life of service helps to lighten some of your own burdens today.
Thanks to all my Pub Quiz subscribers, especially those who make significant investments in this enterprise, such as Quizimodo, The Outside agitators, and The Original Vincibles. I appreciate your support of my weekly trivia composition habit, and for these newsletters, and I’m glad to keep sharing the wealth with you on Patreon. This week’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on topics hinted at above, and on the following: gardening, cooking, tiny creatures, newspapers, six attempts, censures, California fruits, New Zealand monkey sanctuaries, histories, divisional opponents, short-term occupations, correspondents, world capitals, Star Wars facts, mysteries, cats, party blenders, fine mesh, cores, French inventors, uses, sisters, exasperations, launderers, gelato, weak tears, weather reports, seven seas, bat wielders, African nicknames, hospitals, stars who didn’t return, kiwifruits, web applications, current events, and Shakespeare.
Be well!
Dr. Andy
P.S. Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:
Mottos and Slogans. Starting with the letter H, what is the name of the rowing machine company that uses the slogan “Live Outdoor Reality”?
Internet Culture. In what decade did the video game character Mario first appear?
Four for Four. Which three of the following are actual kinds of mint: American wild mint, corn mint, fox mint, watermint?
P.S. “The wave does not need to die to become water. She is already water.” Thích Nhất Hạnh
The nation’s attention seems to be directed at our hospitals, though perhaps not enough of us are attending to the precautions we should take to stay out of hospitals.
A friend of mine had a heart attack this week. Younger even than me, he and his wife were surprised by his sudden heart pains. The paramedics wisely transported him to a hospital in Sacramento that had the sophisticated equipment necessary for doctors to diagnose and treat his heart.
I’m grateful that my friend’s medical procedures were successful, and now I have deepened my understanding of angioplasty and stents, miraculous technologies that save and lengthen lives. As I write this, my friend is already back at home resting comfortably. He said tonight that it was strange not to have buttons on the side of his bed. His sweet and enormous dog, with whom I got to spend several hours on Wednesday, is happy to have him home.
Any of us could imagine much worse outcomes for my friend. The New York Times revealed this week that the omicron variant of the coronavirus is so contagious that many people who go to the hospital for unrelated reasons, such as to set a broken bone or to have a baby, are testing positive for the virus. Hospitals in wealthy and in economically depressed areas of the country are overrun, with the staff shortages causing even more problems than the overflow of covid patients.
I’m no health educator or epidemiologist, but I believe that it is time again to flatten the curve, primarily by staying out of buildings where people can be found. A friend re-shared this dark poem online today:
2019: avoid negative people
2020: avoid positive people
2021: avoid people
2022: a void
Another friend reminded me of a statement by the Canadian health educator Joyce Sunada: “If you don’t take time for your wellness, you will be forced to take time for your illness.”
Do such memes console us in a time of such widespread anxiety and grief? Even the healthiest among us who attend to the best wellness advice (typically that means eat lots of greens and healthy fats, exercise and sleep regularly, and avoid even the most popular toxins) will one day have to take time to attend to our illnesses.
We grow the most from mistakes and mishaps, either our own, or those that we see or read are being experienced by others. But for that growth to take place, we have to take important first courageous steps. As Maya Angelou said, “Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.”
I hope that 2022 is more an opportunity for courage, rather than a void, for all of us. January is a time of resolutions. I hope the results of your wellness resolutions include you staying out of crowded buildings, and staying healthy enough to support the people in your circles and in our community who need it most.
This week’s Pub Quiz will feature some topics raised above, as well as questions on the following: Snakes, quarters, illegal drugs, Nobel Prize winners, peninsulas, American cities, seeds, furtive words, McDonald’s, ersatz boats, big gorillas, mints, state history, jotters, messengers, champions, spoons, backup dancers, people born in Canada, babies, speeches, caps, important books, Oscar winners, somewhat recognizable flags, kilograms, assists, fairies, current events, and Shakespeare.
Poetry Night Thursday at 7 will feature Gabrielle Myers. Join us via Zoom. Find details at the website Poetry in Davis.
Be well!
Dr. Andy
P.S. Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:
Internet Culture. Divisible by eight, what is the number of bits in a byte?
Newspaper Headlines. What restaurant this week announced its $10 a month daily taco membership?
Four for Four. Which of the following countries is among the top ten countries with the most comprehensive mobile network coverage in the world: Senegal, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden?
Know Your States. How many US states does Idaho border?
U.S. Presidents. When he was Secretary of State, the future sixth U.S. president negotiated the treaty which provided for the American acquisition of Florida. Name him.
With your help, my fundraiser for the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation surpassed all my expectations. At the end of this newsletter, I will finally reveal how many walkathon miles I walked in 2021. I’m sure you are eager to know.
I have an ambivalent relationship with Facebook. The company has monetized our relationships, manipulated our attentions, made many of us into grudging stalkers, and sparked many jealousies and bouts of depression. As Mark Twain says, “Comparison is the death of joy.”
On the other hand, like an address book, Facebook keeps a record of who we know. I’ve always had an address book, and at one point in my life considered it to be one of my most valuable possessions. I remember that when I left London after studying abroad in 1987, I accidentally left my address book behind in the bedroom that I shared with my future wife, Kate. She put a bow on it and mailed it to me as a Christmas present, and that bow still sits on it today in the cabinet next to me as I write this.
Paul Simon famously asserted that “I know what I know,” and that was certainly true for me in 1987, but over the subsequent decades, Facebook has communicated to me that I actually don’t know what (or who) I know. Facebook reminds us of all the people who would otherwise have silently slipped from our lives. We’ve all had the realization that we haven’t seen or heard from an acquaintance who we used to incidentally encounter all the time. While sometimes such friends appear in the obituary pages of the Davis Enterprise, we know that if we have connected with such an acquaintance on Facebook, and if like Mamá Coco we keep in our hearts a secret picture of that otherwise forgotten person, we might still be able to summon them up on Facebook and, if we choose, review their vacation pictures.
This week I have another reason to appreciate Facebook: It has reminded me of the kindness and generosity of the people in my virtual community. Last week I announced that my son Jukie and I were raising money for the foundation that supports medical research into Jukie’s rare genetic syndrome: Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome. I set a modest goal of a couple thousand dollars, chose one of Kate’s more touching Jukie-Daddy photographs, announced that it was Jukie’s 21st birthday, and invited anyone to participate who felt compelled.
The response was astounding. Roughly in chronological order, I heard from friends of my parents, friends I made in elementary school, friends from high school (with about ten percent of my graduating class participating, including a gift of $500 from a kind woman now living in San Diego), friends from college (including a donation from someone from the all-male floor of my freshman dorm), friends from graduate school, friends among my fellow UC Davis Writing Program faculty colleagues, former students from my writing and literature classes, first noble citizens of the City of Davis, friends made at the San Francisco Writers Conference, friends from Academic Technology Services at UC Davis, friends from the local poetry community, and friends made at community events that I’ve hosted over the last 15 years, such as pub quizzes. I also heard from a few representatives of campus leadership (thanks, Chancellor!).
I will name the 115 Facebook-using supporters of and numerous other donors to the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation, below, but for right now, I’d like to update you on the current totals. Via the Andy’s Fundraiser Facebook donation page, people like you have donated over seven thousand dollars, in fact, $7,260. (The amount actually just went up while I was writing this post.) In response to my earlier invitation, people also donated over $650 to the Foundation via the Giving Hearts Day webpage (taking advantage of some matching grants). Furthermore, some people just sent checks to the Foundation via its webpage. Others told me of their plans to give.
As the grand total raised in recognition of Jukie’s birthday continues to inch up towards $10,000, I am grateful for the support of the many medical researchers who are investigating treatments and potential cures of this rare syndrome, as well as the offered support of the families of children with SLO who don’t have the resources that Jukie’s family does. At a time like this, I almost feel like George Bailey, a man who has committed various forms of support to his community, and in reward is named (spoiler alert) “the richest man in Bedford Falls.” As my brother Oliver pointed out to me on my radio show this past Wednesday, George was rich because he had so many friends, rather than having so much money. You and Facebook reminded me this week that those are the sort of riches that matter.
Part II: More Numbers
As I wrote about last week, Jukie and I survived 2021 by taking long walks. Now I am ready to share how long.
Not counting any walking I did when I didn’t have my phone in my pocket, in 2021 I averaged seven miles a day, and thus I walked 2,555 miles from January 1 to December 31, 2021. If you count steps instead of miles, that’s 16,186 steps a day, or 5,907,890 steps.
Seven miles a day is a feat I didn’t realize I could accomplish until the fall when I started walking back and forth to the UC Davis campus on most weekdays. As you can see from the attached image, I averaged closer to a mere six or six and a half miles a day for most of the year, but then when I walked 7.5 miles a day in September and 8.7 miles a day in October, I knew that if I pushed it (to 9.2 miles a day in November), I could reach my new goal.
The more I walked, the more I developed other unreasonable goals, such as 2,600 miles last year, so that I could say that I walked 50 miles a week. You can also see, above, how the number 5,907,890 is tantalizingly close to six million steps. Even though I tapped the brakes a bit in December, I’m pleased with the result. If you are curious about the benefits of this consistent regimen of ultra-low-impact exercise, I can tell that my legs and core are stronger. In addition to keeping from going crazy, I also lost about five pounds last year, though I attribute much of that to the enormous and healthy egg and tofu vegetable scrambles that Kate makes me for brunch every day. If it’s the right meal (like the right spouse), sometimes one meal a day is all you need.
Part III: The Donors
I’m going to thank here everyone who supported the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation in celebration of my son Jukie’s 21st birthday. Unless you are looking for additional candidates for prayers, silent thanks, or other forms of private celebration and merit, or if you want to make sure that I didn’t forget you, you are invited to skip this next paragraph.
Andrew Newman, Ann Michaele Miller, Anne Seitz Da Vigo, Barbara Saunders, Ben Robideaux, Bill Roe, Brad Harding, Brian Sway, Brooke Sarkaria, Brooke Tabs, Cass Sylvia, Catherine Olvera, Cathy Haskell, Charlie Alpers, Chris Reynolds, Christina Hopkins Hooke, Cindy Katz Williams, Claire Tauzer, Crilly Butler, Dana Ferris, Dana Topousis, Danny Fisher, Dave Pierini, David Webb, Dominic Triglia, Don Saylor, Don Yee, Douglas DeSalles, Eavan Leigh, Elizabeth Freeman, Erika Kreger, Chancellor Gary May, Gretchen Noah, Guneet Bajwa, Isabel Ward, Jacqueline Dabadie Radin, Jan Coss, Jane Beal, Janet Sivori Berry, Jared Hippler, Jean Gruss, Jeff Smithson, Jeffrey Day, Jenae Cohn, Jennifer Larsen, Jesse Drew, Jim Grellas, John Boe, John Lescroart, John Mounier, Jonathan London, Joseph Zeccola, Josh Chapman, Josh Livni, Joy Cohan, JP Cahn, Julia Levine, Julian Elias, June Augusta Gillam, Karen Pulasky Karoly, Kathleen Holder, Kathryn Ray, Katrina Knighton, Katy Brown, Keith David Watenpaugh, Laura Lacy, Lauren Holzgrafe Kahn, Lauren Liz (who came up with the idea of yelling “Science!”), Laurie Downing Loving, Laurie San Martin, Linda Scheller, Lisa Goldberg, Lorin Kalisky, Lucas Frerichs, Lynda Morlan Jones, Lynette Hart, Lyra Halprin, Manuel Medeiros, Marisa Stoller Brandt, Mark Edry, Martha Kight, Mary Zeppa, Meggan Levitt, Merissa Leamy, Michael Bisch, Michelle McKim, Mike Coleman, Miles Miniaci, Mimi Kusch, Minh Huy Ly, Mitchell Mysliwiec, Mo Lynn Stoycoff, Monique van den Berg, Patricia Turner, Peter Dudley, Peter G Blando, Rebecca Calisi Rodriguez, Rita Parisi, Rob Heckman, Rochelle Swanson, Roger White, Roxanna Deane, Roy Bridgman, Sadia Adnan, Sally Madden, Samantha Tate, Sandra Borgerson, Sara Ashley Watterson, Sasha Slocombe, Shannon Henry Kleiber, Stanley Zumbiel, Stephen Briggs, Stephen Magagnini, Susan Browne, Susan Kelly-DeWitt, Teri Thorpe Greenfield, Todd Van Zandt, Vanessa Rapatz, Vicki Smith, Wayne Ginsburg, Wendy Silk. Wow!
Some of these people gave with their spouses or significant others, so I also thank those unnamed people. Some sent a check to the SLO Foundation, so I also thank them. Some will be inspired by seeing the names of all these amazing people I hold all these people in my heart. Because the global SLO Foundation is run by volunteers, and the syndrome is so rare, donations to fundraisers like this one make up a significant part of the budget of the entire enterprise. These donors are funding new scientific studies, spreading awareness of this rare syndrome, and making possible the biennial conference. If you would still like to donate to this ongoing fundraiser, I will add your name to this pantheon of benefactors!
This week’s Pub Quiz is filled with intrigue and delightful challenges. I hope you will get to see it. Expect questions on diets, kingdoms, internet users, baseball players, unions, northern Europe, fancy restaurants, Nobel laureates, classical music, Tanzania, alcoholic beverages, memberships, countries whose names start with S, Idaho, dragons, famous schools, big movies, proper names, people who famously wore one glove, Oscars, lanterns made of oak, infamous lakes, balls, country music awards, broken records, digits, earnest requests, people named Stanley, sugar beets, Revolutionary War heroes, current events, and Shakespeare.
Thanks to my subscribers on Patreon. If you need more joy and intellectual challenge in your life, I hope you, too, will consider subscribing. Thanks especially to the teams Quizimodo, The Outside Agitators, and The Original Vincibles. Until next week, stay safe!
Dr. Andy
P.S. Here are three questions from last week’s Pub Quiz:
Film. At the end of Toy Story 2, Jessie finds herself needing to be rescued from a plane bound for what country?
Countries of the World. Now with a robust economy and a population of 126 million, what Asian country joined the First World War on the side of Britain and her allies, gaining some Pacific islands from Germany?
Amazon Films. What 1954 American black-and-white 3D monster horror film depicts a group of scientists who encounter a piscine amphibious humanoid in the waters of the Amazon?
P.P.S. “Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.” Albert Camus.
TL;DR: I am raising money for the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation, and I could use your help.
We are all familiar with walkathons. Devotees to a (typically medical) charity will explain the need, set up a course, and then hope that all the participants will harass their friends into pledging to the cause, either in the form of a lump sum or a dollar amount donation per mile walked.
I’ve been running a low-key walkathon in 2021, and I hope you will participate in helping me raise money for a worthy cause. As you may know, my son and frequent walking partner Jukie has a rare metabolic disorder called Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome (or SLO). Individuals with SLO cannot metabolize cholesterol properly, a deficiency that affects every system of their bodies, including brain health and development. SLO has a high mortality rate (80% at or before birth), and the children born with it wrestle with a series of maladies for the entirety of their lives. For example, my son Jukie, who turns 21 on Tuesday, has cognitive and developmental delays and is non-verbal.
Jukie has participated in research into SLO at both Oregon Health & Science University and at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C. We would take our boy to the ends of the earth to improve his health and quality of life, as well as the lives others like him. Sadly, because SLO is relatively rare, fewer researchers than we would hope actually devote the time and resources necessary to understand this unusual syndrome.
Of course, “treating” SLO is a daily concern in our family. During the pandemic, I was charged with getting our stir-crazy boy out of the house. Not understanding coronavirus, and generally unable to mask, at first Jukie appreciated the Pixar film festival, but soon, he had to venture out. So we started taking long walks, mostly in the afternoons. First we explored the circuit of South Davis greenbelts on which we live, and then eventually we ventured to other neighborhoods.
Because of a medication change at the start of the pandemic, Jukie had put on some extra weight, but a few months of a healthy diet and a regimen of daily, low-impact exercise helped him trim down. Over our last year of walking, Jukie will often slow down, but he has rarely taken a rest. Like most of us during this pandemic, he has just kept going.
In 2020, Jukie joined me for most of my walks. According to my phone, I averaged 4.6 miles a day, for a total of 1,679 miles. In 2021, I resolved to walk even farther. Was it 15,00 miles? 1,750? 2,000? How do you think we did? No, really, I want you to guess.
I hereby invite you to pledge to the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation in support of our year-long walkathon in honor of Jukie and others like him and medical research into his syndrome. If you think I walked 2,000 miles this year, and you wanted to pledge a penny a mile, that would be 20 bucks. If you think we averaged five miles a day this year, and wanted to pledge a dollar a daily mile, that would be five bucks. If you wanted pledge a dime for every thousand steps that I averaged in 2021, and if I walked a few more (instead of a lot more) steps this year compared to last, you might end up pledging $12 (for an average of 12,000 steps).
In my next newsletter, and on Jukie’s birthday of January 4 via Facebook, I will reveal the grand total of miles, average miles, and steps that I walked (and sometimes ran) in 2021, and then invite you to pledge a tax-deductible gift to the SLO Foundation, or to adjust your pledge if your gift represented an underestimation of our 2021 walking prowess. I hope to raise $1000, but I bet I could do even more with your help.
For this fundraiser, we are using the Giving Hearts Day giving portal. Gretchen Noah, President and Treasurer of the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation, has already convinced businesses and other organizations to pledge more than $10,000 in matching funds, thus doubling any donations raised through this fundraiser. My wife Kate also volunteers as the Director of Family Support and Communication for the Foundation, so I hear many stories about the families of newly-diagnosed babies – they would benefit significantly from our support.
So please pledge, either today or, even more helpfully, starting on January 3rd to take advantage of the matching pledges. With your help, we could improve the lives of people who are born every day with the rare Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome.
Thanks!
This week’s pub quiz is highly topical, and a little funereal, as perhaps you might expect for this last day of a difficult year. Expect questions on diamonds, online video, isolation, Iceland, people named Maradona, invented sandwiches, James Bond, hedonism, computer engineers, music collectives, California cities, important scientists, our friend Freud, calligraphy, male actors, pirates on TV, people who lament, fighter pilots, painting sins, searchlights, miners, dope monarchs, nuns, quizmasters, dreams of togetherness, years ending in zero, international flights, the US Census, loquacious villains, beloved departures, hate crimes, scientific nomenclature, Amazonian monsters, onetime American allies, French phrases, current events, and Shakespeare.
Thanks to everyone who supported the Pub Quiz and these newsletters throughout the year, especially those teams who support these efforts at premium levels, including Quizimodo, The Outside Agitators, and, especially, The Original Vincibles. Your support and kindness will be long remembered. If your resolutions include supporting Dr. Andy’s Pub Quiz, please visit me on Patreon.
Happy New Year to you and your families. I hope you remain sane and healthy!
Fondly,
Dr. Andy
P.S. And here are three questions from last week’s Pub Quiz:
Internet Culture. What company with a “duck” in its name is promising to release a desktop browser that’s as fast and as straightforward as a smartphone app?
Newspaper Headlines. The county surroundingChicago is joining the Windy City in requiring vaccine proof for people wanting to enter bars, restaurants, and gyms. Name the county.
Four for Four. Surprisingly, which two of the following people were born in New York City: Harry Belafonte, Yo-Yo Ma, Saoirse Ronan, Ravi Shankar?
P.P.S. “It is always important to know when something has reached its end. Closing circles, shutting doors, finishing chapters, it doesn’t matter what we call it; what matters is to leave in the past those moments in life that are over.” Paulo Coelho
P.P.P.S. My next Poetry Night takes place via ZOOM on November 6 at 7 PM. We are featuring the Poet Laureate of Sacramento and a poet from New York (via Kentucky). Great fun!
We are facing a darker Christmas than most. Inflation and omicron infection numbers are up. We look to legislators to come up with policies to address the problems we face as a nation, and as a world, but the stultifying conflicts continue, both within and between our political parties. The media coverage perseverates insatiably on scandal, conflict, and other forms of bad news.
Meanwhile, families are focusing on negotiating travel, visits, and potential covid exposure. The nationwide infighting about health education concerns has spilled into conversations at grandma’s house, where political differences are reflected in the political slogans affixed to the masks we wear, if we wear masks at all. I have heard it said that people with only two shots are not really vaccinated at all – some won’t let distant cousins in for Christmas dinner unless they have three stickers on their vaccination cards. I know a number of Davisites who “haven’t gotten around” to getting their booster shots, and now omicron a resulting better chance to take hold in our community. We have learned that this new variant, an expert at breakthroughs, will actually send more of us to our beleaguered hospitals, but at least it will kill a smaller percentage of us while we are there.
This is cold comfort, as Shakespeare’s Grumio says in The Taming of the Shrew when discussing hearths and fireplaces: “But wilt thou make a fire, or shall I complain on thee to our mistress, whose hand, she being now at hand, thou shalt soon feel, to thy cold comfort, for being slow in thy hot office?” On this, the darkest week of the year in the northern hemisphere, cold comfort is the only sort of comfort we can look forward to. Although Cleopatra spoke fluent Greek (to Antony, among others), Shakespeare likely knew almost no Greek. Meanwhile, as Shakespeare will do if you give him a chance, the pandemic has updated our vocabularies. Before this is done, even people outside fraternities and sororities will have learned all the letters of the Greek alphabet.
Of course, we don’t know when this will be done. We learned this week that what was once called an epidemic, and which we know as the ongoing pandemic, may soon be classified as an endemic, that is, with no end date predicted. As NBC News said this morning, “Covid is here for good, scientists say.” I wonder when lawyers, detectives, and gangsters on TV shows, and superheroes and couples on first dates in our movies, will be touching elbows and masking up, if only in an attempt for verisimilitude. Ours is a Zoom era.
Who knows if the topic of the coronavirus will be barred from holiday table conversations this week, as is sometimes the case with religion and politics. If you have read thus far, and were looking for something bright and cheery for my holiday newsletter, you might have wished that I banned the topic myself.
Consider this consolation. Maybe it’s easy for me to say this, for I have already seen the new Spider-Man movie (and which my brother Oliver reviewed with zero spoilers), but the simpler joys that await us this holiday season often end up being more meaningful and memorable than those that depend upon big screens and frenetic schedules. Go for a walk outside. Read a new book of poetry. Play a game (perhaps this week’s trivia game courtesy of Dr. Andy) with the people in your home. If omicron remains an obstacle, friends and family will forgive you for breaking your plans.
Broken plans may mean a moment of reflection, a feeling of freedom, and a sigh of relief. As the comedian John Mulaney said to a pre-covid crowd that gathered for one of this shows, it’s easy not to do things: “I really do appreciate you coming to a thing because you didn’t have to, and it’s really easy not to go to things. It is so much easier not to do things than to do them, that you would do anything is totally remarkable. Percentage-wise, it is 100% easier not to do things than to do them. And so much fun not to do them, especially when you are supposed to do them. In terms of, like, instant relief, cancelling plans is like heroin. It is an amazing feeling. Such instant joy.”
The weather forecasters promised cold rain all through the week, but I see that the sun has come out, and that the temperature is in the mid-50s. Depending on your attitude, and if you can step away from the (bad) news for a little while, today’s warmer temperatures might be a metaphor for the last week of our year. As Emily Brontë once said, “And from the midst of cheerless gloom / I passed to bright unclouded day.” To all of you who celebrate, Merry Christmas.
The people who support the Pub Quiz every month are a great gift to me, for they make these newsletters and the trivia contests possible. Please consider a Patreon sponsorship of the Pub Quiz as a last-minute gift for someone who loves trivia. $10 a month gets you 52 quizzes a year, over 1500 new questions about topics that are worth thinking about. Thanks especially to the members of Quizimodo, The Outside Agitators, and The Original Vincibles.
This week’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on topics raised above, and on the following: Days to read books, Tom Cruise, famous parks, supervillains, unusual holidays, enclosures, big data, winter starts, the Super Bowl era, non-fiction breakthroughs, literary sons, eardrums, little rivers, inconvenient oil wells, areas south of Mexico, languages, Sondheim compositions, the homes of hermit actresses, Cuban-Americans, look-alike wars, anti-racists, people named Stephen, figs, deans with lines, surprising natives, American counties, ducks, big companies, current events, and Shakespeare.
Be well.
Dr. Andy
P.S. Here are three question’s from last week’s quiz:
Four for Four. Which two of the following four books were published in 1922: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Little House in the Big Woods (Little House, #1) by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot?
Islands of the World. The third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia starts with the letter B. Name it.
Baby Names. Of all the baby names chosen in 2020, almost twice as many began with the letter A, the most common baby name letter, as the letter J, the second most common. Next came M, E, and L. What letter came last, meaning that the fewest 2020 baby names started with this letter?
Last night I hosted a special fundraiser for the Yolo Food Bank that featured Davis vice-mayor Lucas Frerichs reading the holiday classic “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by Clement Clarke Moore. I myself performed “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” by Dylan Thomas. Yolo Food Bank executive director Michael Bisch spoke about the work of his organization to address food insecurity throughout the year, but especially during the holidays, when many of us eat with gusto and abandon.
Michael also referenced a poem I wrote that appeared in the holiday card sent by the Food Bank to all its supporters (a great honor to me). With the hopes that I might inspire you to make a donation (or an additional donation) to the Yolo Food Bank this month, I am reprinting the poem here.
Hunger
By Dr. Andy Jones, UC Davis
“A hungry man is not a free man.” Adlai E. Stevenson
Practiced at gauging want, slender Pablo
has attuned to everyday aches,
the ways his parents’ eyes turn downward
in weary increments, like little frowns.
It makes no sense, his father working so hard,
To have so little. Wiry and strong from incessant labors,
Guillermo finds that his wage neglects
To provide his family even the minimum.
The people Guillermo serves couldn’t imagine that he
And his wife and son all sleep in the same room,
Also the kitchen: So much happening in the one room,
But also not enough. Pablo eats at school.
Pablo would like to lean into growing, his only job,
But he carries a simple sack filled with absence
The way that his classmates carry backpacks
Filled with permission slips and packed lunches.
Pablo feels unauthorized, that he has no permission.
His hunger, punishment for transgressions
He has not yet lived long enough to make,
Is inscrutable, like the weight of negative numbers.
The freeform unfairness of the absence distracts,
Gnaws at him the way his stomach gnaws on itself.
Every thought he starts, it stumbles,
Like his own bisabuela, too weary to walk.
The refrigerator light reveals a bag of tortillas,
But no ingredients for them to enfold and deliver.
The tortillas are the walls of the overexposed grocery store:
They contain everything, but to him, provide nothing.
This poem was prompted by my encountering a haunting photo from a photo essay on poverty, and by the beautiful word “bisabuela,” meaning “great-grandmother.” As Michael Bisch pointed out, many of the farm workers who have been called “essential” worked throughout the pandemic and are now finding that they themselves don’t have enough healthy food to eat. Many feel that society fails to reward them for their essential work. If you believe ironic injustices like that should be addressed locally (as well as nationally), please consider giving a donation to the Yolo Food Bank before the end of 2021.
This week’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on the following topics: Google searches, childhood friends, anthropology, famous artists, guest musicians on holiday, dreary words, gratitude, mankind, Renaissance men on the move, future kings, Oklahoma City notables, old friends, vampire encounters, the wonders of agronomy, inventiveness, thick liquids, electric vehicles, world wars, Mary Tyler Moore, Aramaic among the nine languages, wool cereal in Chicago, physics, sports options, working-class heroes, unpopular baby names, Hermann Hesse, wired counties, missed marines, holiday marketing campaigns, current events, and Shakespeare.
Thanks all year to the Patreon sponsors of the Pub Quiz, including Quizimodo, The Outside Agitators, and The Original Vincibles. If you would like to sign on as a new sponsor on Patreon, even at the lowest level, I will be sure to send you all my December Pub Quizzes.
Thanks, and I hope you get to spend some time with your loved ones in the coming weeks. That said, stay safe.
Best,
Dr. Andy
P.S. Here are three questions from last week’s pub quiz:
Mottos and Slogans and Sayings. “Fortune favors the bold” is
spoken by a chief antagonist in The Aeneid. Name the author.
Internet Culture. Starting with the letter D, what best app or service of 2021 did CNET call a “fun, functional approach to learning a language”?
Newspaper Headlines. As we recently learned, what city became the largest municipality in the U.S. to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections?
P.P.S. “A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you’ve been taking.” Earl Wilson
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:
Internet Culture. Jack Dorsey has recently stepped down as the CEO of what social medium?
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?
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 16th at 7. Would you care to join us?
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 2nd 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!
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, 19th 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:
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
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
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
I’m grateful for you, my readers, this Thanksgiving, and for many (well, 50) other things.
Covid has slowed me down – I continue to walk now instead of drive or bike.
Living in California, I continue to eat outside when I go out to eat.
My son Truman has decorated his room so tastefully with his grandfather’s original paintings.
I can escape to Truman’s room to grade papers or write a pub quiz.
My wife Kate takes amazing photographs, and soon she will have a new phone to practice with.
I got to see some of our closest friends in San Diego this year.
My dad instilled in my brother and me a love of films, and now Truman has caught that bug.
Our French Bulldog Margot greets me with such joy when I enter a room, even though she likely slept on my legs all night.
Kate makes me amazing feasts most mornings, tofu egg scrambles with ten different kinds of fresh vegetables.
My old friend Joe Mills and I have restarted our games of chess after an almost 30-year hiatus.
My old friend Joe Mills attends to our games even though I have won the last six in a row – such patience!
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.
My son Jukie joins me for a long walk along the greenbelts of south Davis every day.
People in Davis are kind to Jukie despite his being a little unusual.
My daughter Geneva has inherited her mom’s intelligence and appreciation for humor – she’s hilarious!
Hummingbirds are frolicking outside my window as I write this on Thanksgiving morning.
I get to talk to my mom three or more times a week. She still can’t get over the weather in LA.
The music of Herbie Hancock continues to fill me with joy.
Even though five people live in my house, I can frequently find extended moments of uninterrupted silence.
I read more than 30 books this year.
I get to deduct the cost of those books from my taxes.
The Smartless podcast makes me laugh every Monday.
My friend Roy delivered a bonus saxophone to our house this year.
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.
The 500+ year old self-portraits of Albrecht Dürer continue to mesmerize me.
I’ve missed no workdays due to (my own) illness since I came to UC Davis 31 years ago. Let the streak continue!
I get to congregate in a beautiful art gallery with friends and poets twice a month, and afterwards for the after-party.
I’ve made progress on three book projects this year, including a quotable tome of writing wisdom from prominent authors.
Some favorite downtown Davis businesses, such as Mishka’s Café and The Varsity Theatre, have reopened for business this year.
I have wonderful campus colleagues, and actually look forward to my almost daily Zoom meetings with them.
Kate’s Prius makes a telltale sound when it pulls into our driveway after one of her trips to the UC Davis Arboretum.
Despite the pandemic, I got to host more than 50 events this year (albeit many of them via Zoom)
The Yolo Food Bank strives daily to address food insecurity for the people of Yolo County.
I succeeded in watching less of the clock. As Sam Levenson says, “Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.”
I restart my KDVS radio show in January.
A good friend will be joining us for Christmas dinner.
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.
I am repeatedly encouraged by bright and hardworking students at UC Davis.
We are saving enough for retirement – someday Kate and I will see places that we have only read about.
I achieved my walking goals for 2021.
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.
I used to imbibe several alcoholic drinks a week. Now I average one a week, typically a glass of wine with Kate.
Lists are always available to writers without ideas for essays.
Disney+ brings my children great joy.
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.
Our 2021 home has perhaps 50,000 fewer items in in than our 2020 home.
Unknown masked people call out to me with great fondness and recognition on the streets of Davis.
Local ginkgo trees inspire wonder and delight at this time of year.
My wife Kate thinks of everything.
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 2nd 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:
Mottos and Slogans. What clothing brand tells us that “Quality never goes out of style”?
Internet Culture. A Pixel Stand is best described as which of the following: A cartoon character, a charger, a phone, or a TV setting?
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.
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 6th 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!
Food and Drink. Of the five basic tastes, what S-word is the best synonym for the taste “umami”?
Science. About how many species of orchid are there in the orchid family: 28, 2800, or 28,000?
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!
Location: 2001 2nd Street
Launch Time: Wednesdays at 7pm Recommended time to claim a table: 6:30 pm or earlier Team size: Up to six Questions: 30 and a tie-breaker Fun: Guaranteed!
