Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I wrote a poem yesterday while walking the Greenbelt and the sent it to my wife, Kate. She liked it and suggest I use it in today’s newsletter. I thought I could turn it into prose (I did this once with a piece that ran in the Sacramento Bee), but then Kate said people should get over the fact that I’m a poet. So here’s a winter in Davis poem, starring familiar figures whom you know from past newsletters.

 

Winter Sunday on the Greenbelt

 

The most delicious part of my walk with Jukie

occurs when the French Bulldog notices

that we are too far ahead of her charge,

whom she has been taught to think of as

her brother, him seventeen years her senior.

When Margot’s herding instinct kicks in,

she cranes her wrestler’s neck behind us

to the spot where Jukie might have lingered,

amid or behind the municipal hedgerows,

momentarily lost in thought, wondering,

if this slight chill, this refreshing frosty dip

passes for winter in California.

If her quarry, her brother, eludes her,

sometimes she just sits right down, lodestonish,

refusing to budge until he reappears.

Meanwhile, Jukie prunes and preens the trees,

liberating individual leaves.

Removing a choice frond from a Sago palm,

trying its pokey substance upon

the texture of his feather down jacket,

singing a little song as it travels

up his arm and then down his arm,

whereupon he spins the frond unevenly

between his calloused thumb and forefinger:

Tip tap tap tip; tip tap tap tip.

He will never tire of this rhythm.

Everything is fresh – the world belongs to him!

He takes a dozen moments just to

notice: He notices the sky, the tops

of the green belt’s coniferous trees,

the encircling western meadowlark,

his own breath hanging like words in the air.

Sometimes far ahead he spies the distant

figure of his father, himself also

collecting arboreal images,

and holding the taut and unforgiving

leash of Margot, both leader of this pack,

compassion teacher, and patient herder.

 

I feel lucky every time we encounter a friend out on the Greenbelt. Perhaps once this winter break it’ll be you!

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on the following: gratitude, mosquitoes, Japanese stars, Christmas names, painters, car care, Google searches, Catholicism, old books, e-commerce, big countries, tragic figures, border studies, biological discoveries, high school graduation rates, continentals, green Shamrocks, Mona Lisas, the color orange, Peruvians, John Wayne, escapes in red, popular movies, polka, trainloads of flowers in Singapore, heartlessness, fake IDs, somber colors, robots, and Shakespeare.

Thursday night is Poetry Night at the Natsoulas Gallery. The talented local teacher, performance artist, and author Chris Erickson will be performing stories and songs from his annual holiday special. You should join us! We start at 8 at 521 1^st Street.

Best,

 

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

 

P.S. Here is the beginning of last week’s quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans. I’m thinking of a two-word store chain that has more locations than either McDonalds or Starbucks, and its slogan is “Save Time, Save Money, Every Day.” The second word in this store’s name is “General.” What is the first?  
2. Internet Culture. Last week pair of co-founders gave up control of what company? Google / Alphabet  
3. Newspaper Headlines. Caroll Spinney died yesterday at age 85. With what fictional character is Spinney most associated?  
4. Four for Four. Which of the following cities, if any, is closer to Davis than San Jose is to Davis? Fremont, Modesto, Oakland, Reno.  

 

 

P.S. “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” John F. Kennedy

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

My wife Kate wrote an essay last night that is resonating with friends on Facebook, so, with her permission, I’m sharing her writing as the shank of our Pub Quiz newsletter for today, even though posting her reflections might seem self-congratulatory. Her creativity and emotional poignance will free up time for me to focus on grading long features for my journalism class. Thanks, Kate, for your sweet words about our boy Jukie!

Pure Presence

Andy and Jukie have the most purely present relationship I have ever witnessed.

Anyone who has seen these two together has noticed their special connection. Early on, Andy earned the title of Jukie Whisperer, for he can intuit Jukie’s needs and manage his sometimes challenging behavior with gentle, firm direction and greater ease than anyone else. Jukie listens to his daddy. And Jukie adores his daddy. They communicate differently than most fathers and sons as Jukie uses a combination of sign language, PECS, and his iPad to speak for him. But mostly, they communicate through love, laughter, and play. There is a delightful surplus of spontaneous affection in our home.

I often hear reports from friends and acquaintances of Jukie/Andy sightings around town. “I saw them riding down third street on their cargo bike,” they’ll say. “I saw them sharing kettle corn at the Farmers’ Market last Saturday.” “They were at an art gallery for a poetry reading, and Jukie was so well behaved.” People often compliment Andy’s parenting. He’s patient and sweet with our boy. He takes Jukie on adventures all over Northern California, and they are seen in museums, performance venues, and college lecture halls: places one might not think to take a kid with Jukie’s particular differences. What people don’t see is that Jukie is also teaching Daddy. Yes, Daddy works his parenting magic, but Jukie is the master teacher.

While Andy regularly practices Zen meditation, Jukie seems to live with Zen in his heart. Quietly attentive, Jukie’s natural state is peaceful and relaxed. He lives in the present with his attention sometimes focused on the beauty of nature: the wind in the trees, the clouds in the sky, and the French bulldog puppy in his lap. He studies pictures that he loves, pointing to show us what he notices. Sometimes out of context, loudly, and often, Jukie laughs, reminding us not to take life so seriously. He touches our faces when he wonders what we’re thinking. And he climbs in bed at the end of the day, and sometimes before the day has ended; Jukie always knows when he’s had enough.

If I’m being real, I need to add that it’s not always easy being Jukie’s mama. I worry all the time about issues that parents of typical kids don’t imagine. Sometimes his frustration overwhelms him, and he erupts. I fear that he could have an illness we will miss because he cannot tell us he’s in pain. I wonder if he yearns to communicate something more complex than what we understand. And I worry about his future life without the Jukie Whisperer and me.

When these thoughts threaten to overtake me, I think of Jukie’s teaching, and see the boy before me. I laugh with him. As we spin with our eyes closed, walk the greenbelts of Davis, take in the patterns of clouds after a storm, or taste each section of an orange as if it were our first, we are reminded of Jukie’s foremost lesson: We have today – be present.

http://kateduren.blogspot.com/2019/12/pure-presence.html?m=1

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on the following topics, loosely interpreted: ornithology, that which is lost when money is saved, retirements, CNBC, wet bears, Davis boulevards, California cities, famous siblings, accomplished youngsters, gladiators, people who wear ascots, commonalities among colonial cities, Biblical chronologies, interpretations of 50, lifelong smokers who die early, cello music, the science of sound, alphabetical importers, popular religions, unexpected hits, voices in space, lake effects, swamp singing, short lives, GQ health committees, again with the prime numbers, tiny syllables, uneasy verbs, warping and folding, wealthy athletic counselors, and Shakespeare.

One of tonight’s questions is so tricky that I will allow you to ask another team about their impressions. Dress accordingly.

Our next Poetry Night features a holiday show with Davis teacher, author, and performance artist Chris Erickson. Join us on December 19^th at the John Natsoulas Gallery!

Best,

Your Quizmaster
https://www.yourquizmaster.com
yourquizmaster@gmail.com

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

1. Books and Authors. The novella A Christmas Carol was first published by Charles Dickens closest to which of the following years? 1800, 1825, 1850, 1875.  

 

2. Sports. Joe Burrow and the Tigers are at the top of the AP Top Rankings updated for this week in college football. Name the public research university’s football team that is so well this year.  

 

3. Tie-breaker. How many minority-owned firms were there in Montana in 2012?  

P.S. May you be happy. May you be well. May you be peaceful. May you be free.

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

The conversation this morning went something like this: I told my best friend Tito that he shouldn’t weigh more than I do, for I was four inches taller than him. He responded with a smile that he was heavier than me because he is so much more muscular than I am. He always was. I may never catch up to Tito, but I love catching up with him.

Seeing that film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood yesterday, I couldn’t help but think about my late father. The film itself is about loss, but it’s also about an incipient loss, for everyone in the theatre watching knows that Fred Rogers, the televised child therapist we didn’t know we needed, isn’t with us anymore. Some of us remember how Mr. Rogers came out of retirement briefly after the events of September 11th to reassure the children of America, and maybe all of us, that we would be OK. He said, “Thank you for whatever you do, wherever you are, to bring joy and light and hope and faith and pardon and love to your neighbor and to yourself.”

My dad used to talk that way, about the abstract positives that we can bring to bear on any interaction, even though my dad, also a TV personality, was not a fan of Mr. Rogers’ slow and patient delivery. Seeing this movie (and the documentary about Mr. Rogers that was released last year during Father’s Day weekend) made me wonder about the sort of father-son conversations that would result if he had had the chance to see these films. As a film buff and a film critic, my dad probably saw something like 10,000 films during his 71 years, but he did not live long enough to see Mr. Rogers on the big screen. I remember discussing films with my dad, even catching up my dad on new films, in my dreams after he passed away, often realizing before the conversation was over that I was dreaming.

Dreams become more lifelike when we find ourselves acting on decisions in the dreamworld, perhaps the first step into lucid dreaming. In dreams, as in life, we will find stimuli to be positive, neutral, and negative, and we must decide how to respond to such stimuli. Usually we don’t decide, but are swept up by the reported 60,000 thoughts we have a day. And because, some psychologists say, 80% of those thoughts are negative, and 95% of them are repetitive, a life of uncontrolled thoughts might seem like some of the darkest scenes of the film Groundhog Day: futile, dispiriting, and dauntingly familiar.

We tend to repress these negative stimuli and thoughts, to deny them, to pretend they don’t exist, or to run from them as if they were monsters in a nightmare. Doing so, we end up feeding and empowering these hungry monsters, and thus we invite them to accompany us. This morning the Dalai Lama called this process “a source of trouble,” tweeting, “A source of trouble is that our minds are unruly. We need to effect an inner transformation, to understand that love and affection are a real source of joy. It’s important to be warm-hearted rather than selfish. We’ll be less sick, live longer and have more friends here and now.”

The American Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön suggests that we sit determinedly with the distracting thoughts and emotions that gallop up to us, noting that they could be labeled as positive, negative, or neutral. This practice might help us stop from reacting to an unpleasant or even terrifying emotion in an automatic or habitual way. Our habits sometimes numb us to our own experiences, especially when we don’t stop to notice that we are responding without thinking about how or why we do what we do. We have so many seductive and unhelpful habits to choose from!

Meditation can help us to become more mindful, for meditation allows us to step away from the repeated and thus memorized narratives that package up and skillfully present to us our least favorite emotions — perhaps including regret, fear, or grief. When we meditate, returning our attention to the breath or to an object, we give ourselves a means to sit with something other than our anxious narratives.

I’ve been trying to engage in this difficult but necessary process, and it has left me more mindful and aware, but also a little raw. When one is heartbroken or grieving, the heart is tender, maybe even tenderized, and thus more receptive to empathy and compassion. In the theatre yesterday, I was probably not the only one to become emotional when Tom Hanks has Mr. Rogers ask us to spend a moment with our beloveds, reminding us, as Rogers once did in real life, that “All of us have special ones who have loved us into being. Would you just take, along with me, ten seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are?” 

This brings me back to Tito, the constant companion of my entire childhood. For Tito, I have great love and compassion, mixed with the sort of longing that comes with grief. Tito died in a plane crash 26 years ago, and I will always be grieving that loss. Perhaps because his funeral will always be one of my life’s missed opportunities (we didn’t have the money in 1993 to fly me back to DC), in my dreams I still find myself writing up my prepared remarks for a celebration of Tito’s life.

Meanwhile, Tito visits me from time to time, reminding me of our private jokes, and of how strong he is. When I dream of Tito, lucidly or not, I remind him how loved he is. Some bonds, such as those with the people who have “loved us into being,” are so strong, stronger especially than our ephemeral bodies, that they can’t be broken. In our dreams and in our memories, we can revisit these beloveds with warm hearts.

 

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s Pub Quiz will give you an opportunity to reflect upon the following: autodidacts, Star Wars movies, minority-owned firms, short titles, the direction of a life, the Associated Press, dropouts, a time for old men, monkeys, pizza, female artists, sports decades, colorful trees, friendliness, natural disasters, care packages, geometry, college majors, TV psychologists, New York borough exports, cameos, Montana, Christmas timing, third in a trio, countries of the world, majorities of voters, geology, anagrams about friendly fog visors, climate change, avengers, and Shakespeare.

We had a full house last Monday because of the Thanksgiving break. Tonight I suspect that we will have room for you. Join us!

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

 

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

1. Current Events – Names in the News. In 1947, the same year as Jackie Robinson, Wataru Misaka broke the color barrier in what sport?  
2. Sports.  Who did the San Francisco 49ers beat 37-8 yesterday?  
3. Shakespeare. Who provides the prophesy in Macbeth?  

 

P.P.S. Thursday’s Poetry Night at the John Natsoulas Gallery will feature readings by Frank Dixon Graham and Len Germinara. Check out the Facebook event, and plan to join us. We start at 8.

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Melissa Etheridge once said this about parenting: “I think being a parent is knowing how to love. Sometimes love is discipline, sometimes it’s humor, sometimes it’s listening.”

I look forward to practicing different flavors of love and support with my kids over this week’s Thanksgiving break. I was about to start a sentence with the phrase “When I was a kid,” a phrase used by the people who are safeguarding much of the wealth in America. Millennials own just 3.2% of America’s wealth, whereas people from the Silent Generation and the Baby Boomers own closer to 80%. No wonder many young voters, along with Bernie Sanders, harbor suspicions about the millionaires and billionaires running for president, as well as about anyone who is as old as Bernie Sanders.

That said, when I was a kid, we got just Thursday and Friday off from school for Thanksgiving, whereas now my DJUSD and Woodland school-kids get the whole week off. Maybe American families need more time to research Thanksgiving carb-loading strategies and Black Friday purchases?

NaNoWriMo is almost over, and my novel is undrafted. No one is to blame but myself, for I overfill my schedule, only with giving rather than consuming. Last night, for example, something like eight journalism students attended my Sunday evening office hours at Crepeville. And although I didn’t “have time” to go over their drafts with all of them, I delighted in doing so, for I think I teach some of my best lessons one-on-one in office hours. The last of my charges left my 8-10PM office hours at 10:55 PM (hence the late publication time of today’s newsletter).

Earlier in the day yesterday, I agreed to a series of meetings with the organizers of a series of lectures on anti-racist topics at the Davis Shambhala Meditation Center. They need a marketing consultant. This weekend I also booked guests for my Wednesday radio show, and sent out the press releases for the December 5^th reading at the Natsoulas Gallery.

None of this work for our community of culture-lovers equips me to buy more stuff on Black Friday. I guess instead my family and I will have to limit ourselves to long nature walks with the French Bulldog, Mondavi Center shows (we attended two just last week), and tree-lighting. I’m sure that each of these occasions will give me opportunity to follow the advice of Melissa Etheridge, though with a focus on the listening and the humor. I hope your Thanksgiving break is similarly filled with conversation, communion, and joy.

And if you anticipate any difficult conversations over the break, I will leave you with the advice of Robert Frost: “The greatest thing in family life is to take a hint when a hint is intended–and not to take a hint when a hint isn’t intended.”

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on topics raised above, and on the following: chemistry, Latin clouds, bringing balance to the Force, living and dead singers, the letter A, popular and unpopular places to live in the U.S., letter carriers, World War II substitutions, scrying, lopsides, cordial logicians among the horses, analytic geometry, the example of Jackie Robinson, best-sellers, old specimens, the Prince of Wales, talk show hosts, notable rivers, writing about dead people, hard cutbacks, youthful hubris, complaining athletes, common and uncommon words, veterinary anagrams, people named Murphy, Asian nations, centenary battles, Vitamin C, people born in 1963, Guinness World Records, checks, three-letter answers, and Shakespeare.

See you tonight at 7! There may be Star Wars swag tonight.

Your Quizmaster
https://www.yourquizmaster.com
http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster
http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster
yourquizmaster@gmail.com

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:
 

1. Star Wars. The antagonist of the new and the most recent Star Wars movies was named after what famous Star Wars character?  

 

2. Science. The bullfrog breeding season is closest to two weeks, three months, nine months, or year-round?  

 

3. Books and Authors. What four- or five-syllable M word completes the title of this book by Ian Stewart? Significant Figures: The Lives and Work of Great BLANK-BE-BLANK-BLANKS.  

P.S. When Kate read about my Sunday, she texted me her update on her Monday morning: “Well at least I am also working hard: cleaning out the gutters, getting my 10,000 steps in before noon, feeding the kids breakfast and lunch, getting all our medications at the pharmacy, finishing my book, and getting back to those gutters!” She also exhausted the bulldog, always a priority in our house. Peace.

P.P.S. Hat tip to Melissa Skorka, that other Melissa to whom I would always be happy to turn to for advice. We miss you, Melissa!

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

 

Much of my mentoring takes place in the classroom. Every quarter, I am charged to illuminate and instruct one or more classes full of UC Davis undergraduates, and every quarter they come away with stronger writing skills, with an appreciation of (hopefully) relevant stories, and with an understanding about the relationship between clear writing and clear thinking.

 

Some of my mentoring takes place during the more tailored conversations that take place in office hours. My nearly two-decades of radio interviews have taught me how to use a series of questions to discover a student’s foremost goals and his or her plans to complete them. We also talk about what student-written documents will present their authors in the best light to impress future executive audiences, such as graduate committees and interview panels.

 

On occasion, I also get to mentor young adults and graduate students at our very own Irish pub, home of thee Poetry Night after party. As you probably know, the Poetry Night reading series takes place on first and third Thursdays of every month at the John Natsoulas Gallery. We enjoy an hour of the featured poets, an hour of the open mic performers (some with instruments), and at least an hour of the after party in the Snug (“Señor Snug,” they sometimes call me).

 

We observe a certain number of rules at the after-party, including no pronouncements of poems, no baiting Dr. Andy into professing (that can be saved for the classroom), and no making others uncomfortable. Usually that last unspoken rule concerns the treatment of women, for sometimes members of the community see the after party as an opportunity to talk up, say, graduate student poets in ways that make them feel uncomfortable. Through modeling and sometimes choice words, I communicate to everyone present that the Snug on alternate Thursdays is a time of conversation, laughter, mutual respect, and no sexual harassment.

 

One of the ways that I let students know that they are supported is by subsidizing their food bill. If a graduate student has been helping me with publicity, setting up and taking down chairs at the readings, or even making the out-of-town featured poet feel appreciated, then I pay for that young person’s meal. In Korea, I have read, the oldest person at the table picks up the check. We don’t typically go that far, but I do pay attention to which Poetry Night participants could benefit from such largesse. And then sometimes the accomplished or careerist members of the entourage help me in this effort by Venmoing me an outsized portion of the final bill. It all works out at the end.

 

Once a couple years ago I had to miss the after party, either because of another poetry commitment (sometimes I give readings myself), or because of a family responsibility, such as picking up Kate at the airport. On this particular occasion, I gave the de Vere’s gift card to my former student, now a UC Davis alumnus, Joey, and asked him to use it to pay for his food tab and for the food of any of the helpers.

 

Well on this night, two female graduate student helpers and one older member of the community stayed until the very end of the after party, and Joey could tell that this gentleman was making the two younger conversationalists uncomfortable with his choice of topics and in the way he riveted his attention upon them. While he kept insisting that he walk them home, they communicated to Joey with their glances and facial expressions that they prefer he not do so. They were asking for help.

 

As the conversation moved outside, Joey suddenly engaged with the gentleman about an earlier topic that had come up in the Snug, and the man was delighted with the attention. Simultaneously, Joey signaled to one of the graduate students that now was her time to flee without being followed. She did.

 

A few minutes later, when it became clear that a member of the party had absconded, the man turned to Joey and said, “I see what you did there,” and then turned his attention to his second mark. Joey said to his new female friend, “Well, should I walk you to your car?” And then Joey, who can bench press well over 250 lbs, gave the older gentleman a firm look, suggesting that he not follow. The look was received, the parting was quick, and the good deed was done.

 

I myself cannot bench press over 250 lbs, so I focus on using verbal and persuasive means to keep the peace and correct those who need it. I was so pleased that Joey could play that role when I wasn’t present, and that he took my mentoring to heart, years after he was a student in one of my classes.

 

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on the following: Rumors, Italian sculptors, famous couples, repeated numbers, absolute ties, small casts, showcases, Democrats in California, great figures, concussions, the example of Jeremiah, colorful titles, solo artists, civil rights leaders, famous mentors, the effect of Theravada, expeditions, weavers, panic, speakers, Northampton, rock and roll, the 19^th century, branches of government, PA systems, odd numbers, capital Ws, U.S. Presidents, respected authority, big cities, lead appearances, forever and beyond, famous bands, and Shakespeare.

 

Poetry Night Thursday will feature Yolo County poet Katie Peterson. She’s also the chair of creative writing at UC Davis. Join us at 8 at the Natsoulas Gallery, and, if you like, at the after-party.

 

See you this evening!

 

Your Quizmaster

YourQuizmaster.com

 

Three questions from a previous quiz:

 

1. Science: Hydrology. When water condenses, does it cool or warm the environment around it?  
2. Current Events – Names. Tension is high in one particular landlocked South-American country following the resignation of the president, Evo Morales, after weeks of protest over a disputed election. Name the country. 
3. Shakespeare. What Shakespeare play anachronistically has the clock striking three, and has a key character adjust his doublet?  

 

P.S. KDVS is your campus and community radio station. Some of you were confused about that last week. You should listen, especially Wednesdays at 5.

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

My daughter Geneva has school today (at Beloit College), but I don’t, so we are taking our time at home this morning, listening to Joni Mitchell on the kitchen Alexa while Kate makes the boys and me three separate gourmet breakfasts. Her tofu scrambles are so nutritious and momentous that I need only two meals on a Monday: a feast in the morning and a pub feast in the evening.

Happy Veterans Day! We have fewer veterans as a percentage of our population than we did when I was my son Truman’s age. At one point in the 1970s, about 75% of the members of Congress were veterans, while today that percentage is far smaller.

I have had many interactions with local veterans in the last five years because of the topics covered in my third book of poetry, In the Almond Orchard: Coming Home from War. Because this reflection on Yolo County veterans was published during my terms as Davis poet laureate, I was often asked to read from it at Veterans Day and Memorial Day ceremonies, such as the one that takes place this morning at the Davis Cemetery. What an honor! I’m pleased to say that the “let the poet speak” tradition continues.

I learned a number of lessons about public speaking at community ceremonies from my father, a trained actor. He read an original poem at my wedding to Kate back in 1992, prompting memories of all his public pronouncements during my childhood. In Washington DC, he was often asked to give talks about theatre and film, his areas of expertise, but he also hosted auctions for the parent teacher associations of local public schools (as I have done), and was even asked to help as a celebrity “judge” at White House Easter egg hunt ceremonies, which prompted eight years’ worth of Christmas cards from the Reagans throughout the 1980s.

The holiday cards were beautiful and appreciated, but my dad did not care for Reagan’s bellicosity. Both his Quaker upbringing and my own current Eastern-inflected spiritual path have trained me to recognize the basic goodness of all people, even, as my father told me on many occasions, if those people speak an unfamiliar language, live on the other side of the world, or come from a country that is at war with the United States. Military campaigns, by contrast, regrettably necessitate demeaning, diminishing, or otherwise “othering” such people.

American Veterans themselves have made great sacrifices for our country, and I take comfort that on this day we recognize their spirit of service and selflessness. Whether you have today off or not, I hope you will raise a toast to those who have served us all when you join us this evening at de Vere’s Irish Pub.

I approach our time together on Monday evenings the way that my dad approached play rehearsals or the classes he taught at University of Nevada, Las Vegas: Let’s include everyone, let’s recognize the basic goodness of all our participants, and let’s spring a few surprises. I look forward to enjoying a feast at our corner booth, and to creating a feast for your ears starting at 7. Join us!

 

Tonight’s quiz will feature questions on topics raised above, as well as on the following: Anachronisms, independence movements, radio stations, online polls, public transportation, acronyms, baseball elves, zones of contagion, fabrics, Frenchmen, disreputable clans, texting time-savers, zinc ore, fall projects, baseball, hydrology, lead captors, countries of origin, Lears, plenipotentiaries, nice pines, Clinton associates, the glory of the morning, words that begin with A, prairie outputs, soy, Spanish words, football fans, skyrocketing tolerance, the combustion engine, hair, and Shakespeare.

Thanks to any of you who were among the 50 who attended Poetry Night with Alan Williamson this past Thursday. That was such a fun event! Our next one takes place on November 21^st at the Natsoulas Gallery. Mark your calendars now.

Thanks to everyone who is working for the rest of us on this holiday, especially the wait-staff at de Vere’s Irish Pub. See you this evening!

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

 

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Irish Culture. What Limerick rock band formed in 1989 by singer Niall Quinn, guitarist Noel Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan, and drummer Fergal Lawler named itself after a fruit?
2. Countries of the World. When did the island nation of Fiji declare its independence? Was it in 1670, 1770, 1870, or 1970?  
3. Diamonds, graphite, graphene, and fullerenes are all what A-words of carbon?  

 

P.S. “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” Ernest Hemingway

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Today is my wife Kate’s birthday. Happy birthday, Kate!

Like many Americans, Kate is in the middle of a fitness kick right now, though one that is purposefully gentle on her forlorn knees. She walks a lot, usually with Margot, and now that she has an Apple Watch, she has also been known to run up and down the stairs of our home in order to “close her circles.”

An author friend of mine once remarked to me that there is no place to “dine” in south Davis. Nevertheless, yesterday afternoon my son Jukie and my French bulldog Margot and I dined at Dos Coyotes, another restaurant where everyone seems to know my name. Afterwards we strolled home by moonlight at dusk (meaning that it was 5pm). As someone on Twitter said, “Hello darkness, my old friend. Why are you here at 4 PM. That’s not effective satire, but it still made me smile.

The greenbelt that connects our local Tex-Mex restaurant is the same one that Margot knows well from her daily walks with her “mom.” I’m the dog’s dad, and the three kids are her siblings. Does everyone refer to their pets this way? We have such affection for this puppy-sized bulldog that we think of her as a member of the family, and not only because she sleeps on my side of the bed at night.

So the walk home made me think of the route of Kate’s daily walk. And then last week I also thought of Kate when I saw the barest wisp of a slender, sliver moon rising early one evening. I appreciated that that sliver of luminescence helped to light my bike ride home after my evening journalism class adjourned. This is a magical time for me. Having worked a number of jobs over the years that required me to be indoors and even underground at sunset, often on the phone back during an era when people answered their phones, I’m always grateful to be outside and mindfully “present” at dusk.

Speaking of gratitude, I’m grateful that my wife Kate and I met in London when we were so young, and that now I get to see her every day. Reflecting on these two sources of light, Kate and the slender moon, I couldn’t shake the imagery of today’s birthday girl strolling the Arboretum by moonlight. This poem, my birthday gift to her, is the result.

 

Kate Walks the Arboretum at Night

The sliver of the moon

hints at her intentions,

winking wistfully

between the weeping willows.

In strong winds, the willows

personify, dusting the underbrush

with long elastic limbs,

or dancing unreservedly,

fresh and jaunty in the autumn air.

On rare evenings, the slender moon

walks paths among the willows,

noting the other dancers,

the Autumn Purple Ash

offering moon-shade

to a nearby Scarlet Oak,

an Autumn Blaze Maple

in the fleeting glow reaching

an arm out to Bald Cypress,

aching as if offering a bid for love.

The walker is supple,

like the teenage trees,

the ones that bend so easily.

The walker is subtle,

like the tallest branches

during the still hour of midnight,

poignant in their serenity.

The walker is timeless,

like the oak whose tireless roots

dig patiently for the center

with a silver light internal,

not knowing they live in the earth.

On this night, she is a silver

echo of all she surveys.

When no one is about,

she inhabits the trees,

stretching like a dancer.

When no one is about,

she inhabits the prairie grass,

spreading democratic tendrils

of love into the world.

When no one is about,

she renders herself,

inhabiting with sighs

her own ephemeral waning,

remembering suddenly

the hour of her birth,

with whispered hints

of mutual brightness

to everyone that spies

the silver sliver

of the meandering moon.

 

Thanks for reading my poem. The photograph that goes with that poem can be found on Facebook, where you could also wish Kate a happy birthday, if you are so inclined. Here are the hints for tonight’s pub quiz. Tonight expect questions on topics raised above, as well as on the following: cardinal directions, alternative shapes, the locations of walnuts, arresting halts, androids, small mammals, attempted normalcy in small towns, cats, prohibitive costs, flying crows, toughness, the example of diamonds, independence, popular choices, musical fruits, unnerving copies, larger and less famous examples, London greenery, hunting poplin with hermits, grading papers, old textbooks, wirelessness, candidates, current events, internal organs, the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago, hauling capacity, and Shakespeare.

My poetry mentor and the esteemed professor emeritus Alan Williamson will be reading from his first new book of poetry in the last dozen years. Join us Thursday night at 8 at the Natsoulas Gallery. Details at http://www.poetryindavis.com.

See you tonight!

 

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

 

P.S. Here are three questions from a 2013 quiz:

 

1. Science.  What three-syllable word refers to a chemical bond that involves the sharing of electron pairs between atoms? 
2. Books and Authors.   Judy Garland, Frida Kahlo and author Jack Kerouac all died at the same age. Within two years, how old were they? 
3. Shakespeare.   The storm that is battering the British Isles right now is thought to be stronger even than the hurricane that wrecked the English sailing ship The Sea Venture in Bermuda in 1609. Eyewitness accounts of that shipwreck inspired the beginning of what Shakespeare play?  

 

P.P.S. “A man should never be ashamed to own that he is wrong, which is but saying in other words that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.” Alexander Pope

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Many of us had our sleep disturbed by the unruly gusts of wind Saturday night, and now wide swaths of California are on fire, prompting, for example, the largest evacuation on Sonoma County history.

I learned this today from the CalFire website: “CAL FIRE owns and operates over 3,000 fire and emergency response and resource protection vehicles. In support of its ground forces, the CAL FIRE emergency response air program includes 23 Grumman S-2T 1,200 gallon airtankers, 11 UH-1H Super Huey helicopters, and 14 OV-10A airtactical. From 13 air attack and nine helitack bases located statewide, aircraft can reach most fires within 20 minutes.”

Of these resources, currently more than 80 crews with over 4,000 personnel are confronting California fires, including those down south that have flared up just this morning. The Kincade fire alone has already torched more than 66,000 acres, all in Sonoma County. Around 200,000 people have had to evacuate their homes.

Having lived in California in three different counties over the last 30 years, I have friends and family in affected areas in the north and south of the state. I bet you do, too. Barbara Kingsolver once said this: “Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It’s the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else’s pain is as meaningful as your own.”

I’ve seen on Facebook and Twitter that many people in Yolo and Sacramento Counties have offered spare rooms to those escaping fires. I thank and honor such people, the best of our neighbors. Donations and volunteers are needed if you would like to help.

We will keep those escaping the firestorms in mind while gathering with friends tonight for some mindless distraction in the form of a pub quiz.

 

In addition to topics raised above, tonight expect questions on the following topics: Amazing robots, clever cows, California universities, acids, Chico exports, U.S. presidents, forces, Disney movies, Hugos, armed equality, the height of musicians, famous sons, clippers, the World Series, full titles, large scale gasses, reminders, intact medieval buildings, diasporas, odd couples, conversations, weights and measurements, optional footwear, satire, metrics, Joyce Carol Oates, famous albums!, criminal minds, ZIP codes, noses, unfortunate smoking, English noblemen that are relevant in America, final words, and Shakespeare.

Because of the fires, there will be no Halloween questions this evening. Instead, this: Boo!

See you tonight.

 

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster

http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

 

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Countries of the World. What country has the fourth-largest GDP in all of Asia?  
2. Neckties. Neckties originated during the 30 Years War (1618-1648), worn by mercenaries from what C country?      
3. Current Events – Names in the News. What prominent U.S. Senator has been using a secret Twitter account with the name “Pierre Delecto”?  

 

P.S. “If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.” Henry David Thoreau

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

“You can’t always get what you want,” the song says. Sometimes we just might find that we don’t want what we thought we wanted. We might find that we want, and were granted, something better.

Last night at the Davis Shakespeare Festival yearly “Bard-BQ,” I learned that Yolo was once a dry county, even though the campus University Club was technically in Solano County, meaning that faculty could order alcoholic beverages on campus at a “club” that barred non-faculty.

At one point, the one-mile buffer around the Davis city limits for alcohol purchases was lengthened to five miles. Why? Because students at the university “farm” were riding their horses – their HORSES – to the watering holes outside the city, and then ventured back towards town and campus with beverages for their friends. I assumed that the patient and stalwart horses involved drank only water at these watering holes.

Steve Jobs once had horses in mind when quoting Henry Ford:

Some people say, “Give the customers what they want.” But that’s not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, “If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, ‘A faster horse!'” People don’t know what they want until you show it to them. That’s why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.

When a pair of close friends offered us their orchestra section tickets to see Béla Fleck at the Mondavi Center Friday night, Kate and I jumped at the chance. We had seen Fleck perform in the same venue in 2017, with that show called “The Real Nashville: The Del McCoury Band & Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn.” Although I prefer my real Nashville in moderation, both these groups were undeniably talented. And my wife Kate was in heaven. After all, she had given our youngest son the middle name of “Banjo.” The sound of the instrument makes her and most of us happy.

Always ready to support Kate, I had mild qualms that we’d be experiencing similar good ol’ boy twang that we so enjoyed during Fleck’s last visit. Luckily this time Béla Fleck was traveling with Zakir Hussain, one of India’s most celebrated performers of the tabla drum. I have long loved Indian music, probably ever since George Harrison introduced me and other listeners to the sitar more than 50 years ago. I have listened to many Ravi Shankar recordings without knowing that I was also listening to Zakir Hussain, and I loved the soundtrack to the Bernardo Bertolucci film Little Buddha, which I taught earlier this year in my “Buddhism and Film” class, without knowing that Hussain had performed on that, too.

To my mind, Zakir Hussain stole show, and I was grateful for the public act of larceny. Sitting on his elevated platform with four or more hand drums before and around him, this percussionist was witty, graceful, encouraging, and, as a performer, masterful. I’m listening to a record of his as I write this, grateful for the opportunity to broaden (and deepen) my repertoire of favorite musicians.

We discussed the night of music during intermission and during the drive home. Kate wanted more banjo and less of everything else – there was also a stand-up bass player and an Indian flutist, both of whom could keep up with the consummate headliners with whom they shared the stage – but I wanted more of what I discovered, tabla drumming and Indian-inflected music, and I got it.

As my favorite Russian novelist says, “It’s life that matters, nothing but life—the process of discovering, the everlasting and perpetual process, not the discovery itself, at all.” I wish for you many acts of discovery this week.

 

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on the following: visual acuity, Indian solenoids, languages at home, feminists in their fields, actresses whose movies have grossed over a billion dollars, sleepers, royalty, veganism (even outside California), northern and southern idols, new freedoms, Kings with working-class jobs, Chardonnays, Irish settings without dogs, languages, underrated benches, Americans of German heritage, one-word titles, favorite drinks, American obsessions, the hurt of a smoldering burn that finally catches fire, curatorial identities, Pennsylvania, names that end with “O,” cultivated trees, mercenaries, midnight in Belfast, existentialism, and Shakespeare.

I hope you can join us this evening for the Pub Quiz!

 

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster

http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

 

Here are three questions from a 2013 quiz:

1. Science.  According to the website Biology-Online.Org, what H word could be defined as “The disappearance of responsiveness to accustomed stimulation”?  
2. Books and Authors.   Of the 17 novels published by this author, the B novels are titled Breakfast of Champions and Bluebeard. Name the author.  
3. Current Events – Names in the News.     When asked today to comment on the Nobel Peace Prize—which was awarded to the UN group currently working to dismantle chemical weapons arsenals—what Syrian ruler quipped that it “should have been mine”? For this one, I will provide you the answer: Bashar al-Assad

 

P.S. “Part of the problem with the word ‘disabilities’ is that it immediately suggests an inability to see or hear or walk or do other things that many of us take for granted. But what of people who can’t feel? Or talk about their feelings? Or manage their feelings in constructive ways? What of people who aren’t able to form close and strong relationships? And people who cannot find fulfillment in their lives, or those who have lost hope, who live in disappointment and bitterness and find in life no joy, no love? These, it seems to me, are the real disabilities.” Fred Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember