Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

We all recharge in different ways, if at all, and sometimes we recharge best when the summertime provides us a needed respite from our busy schedules. Although most of us are neither farmers nor schoolchildren, we still vacation as if we were members of one of these two groups, hopefully setting aside part of the summer for our play.

The choice to take a break in mid-July might make sense for those of us who live in Davis or Washington DC, two cities known for their oppressive summer heat, for before air conditioning, people in these cities found that the air did not circulate quickly enough. I assumed that the barriers provided by the heat were on the mind of the wistful checker at Trader Joe’s when she told me yesterday that the evening temperatures dropped quickly during her recent week at Lake Tahoe: “At nighttime, we had to dig out our SWEATERS,” she said. She wished she were back there, and at that moment I felt like checking Airbnb for the availability of an alpine cabin to which my family and I could escape.

Of course, we’d have to find a vacation spot that accepts dogs. I’ve been staying up late at night with our puppy Margot (I wonder at what age I will stop calling our diminutive French bulldog a “puppy”), both to catch up on my writing when everyone else in the family is asleep, and to let the house cool down, the whole house fan circulating the cool night air with a determined velocity that John Adams or the Colonel Joseph Ballinger Chiles could only have dreamed of. The whole house fan also muffles the sounds of I-80, almost convincing my sleep-deprived and hopeful self that the recurrent susurrus of speeding cars, trucks, and motorcycles are in fact the sounds of surf. We will be so close to the geothermic attractions of the mountains and the ocean, we said to ourselves while signing the mortgage on our Davis home.

Sacramento is also close by. Today my 13-year-old son Truman heads off to acting camp at the B Street Theatre in Sacramento. This has become a summer tradition for our little thespian; for five years in a row he has appeared in one-act plays that he has taken part of his summer to help craft and shape, following the lead of the veteran local actors and educators Kurt Johnson (now a UC Davis employee) and Greg Alexander. Thoughtful and considerate, Truman leaves a lasting impression on his teachers at acting camp, even if he is not initially as loud and attention-gathering as some of his more boisterous classmates. I enjoy watching him grow and continue to blossom (do boys blossom?) every summer.

It could be argued that “acting camp” is a metaphor for our ongoing forays into adulthood, where first we try to convince others, and then eventually ourselves, that we can pull off the roles that we have been assigned. Some people continue this sort of thespian experimentation for decades before they are found out to be imposters. But then, because of earned seniority and the incipient retirement opportunities, it’s too late: we just own the role, and look forward to counting down our final years with the help of a gold watch.

We hope to reach our retirement years without what tennis players call “solo mishaps.” Sometimes trauma taxes our ability to maintain our lives’ roles convincingly. I am closest to someone who is recovering from recent (Friday) surgery, and she continues to work remotely on important projects, smile for the kids, and maintain a busy home, when, because of the swelling and the discomfort, she’d rather just curl up with an ice pack and MSNBC for the next several weeks, or months. She is mighty mighty, as Lionel Richie would say, and knows that her family depends upon her strength during this difficult time.

I have another friend who was in a horrific bike accident last week, having been struck and run over by semi-trailer truck on the streets of Davis. Despite multiple bone fractures to both his legs, he sent his other friends and me texts whose tone reflected his typical irreverent alacrity, all while being ambulanced to the UC Davis Medical Center for significant surgery and a week or more of hospitalization thereafter.

Whether formal or informal, our acting classes come in handy during such times, for they provide the training we need to persevere, to step into the spotlight, even when we feel that we are not ready. Substituting habit for heartbreak, or perseverance for panic, we continue the work that needs to be done.

So many people depend upon us to maintain character, whether in the tradition of character that David Brooks explores in his 2015 book The Road to Character, or the ringleader sense of the word that PT Barnum has recently been re-enacted cinematically; we remind ourselves, as my actor and theatre director father used to say, that “The show must go on.” Unaware of our difficulties, somewhere, an audience demands it. As actors, as performers of the selves we wish to project to the world, we pause, reflect for a moment, tap that well of inner strength, and then push on.

Even though we find ourselves in the depths of summer, in need of relief from our jobs and the weather, we might find ourselves repeating the line that we’ve heard in too many movies, from All That Jazz to The Incredibles: “It’s showtime!”

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on topics raised above, as well as the following: balms for sore hearts, evening scents, the last remaining payphones, conservative heroes, tightropes, monosyllabic cities, stumbling consumerism, retired Olympians, responses to mistreatment, famous clubs, sustaining barracudas, cashing in on anthropomorphizing, Bible study, capital banks, notable high school runs, unusual mammals, comedic poles, the elephant not in the room, odd holidays, grey stone categories, expensive pines, bright surfaces, overcoming resistance, lies told to saltcellars, adapted country songs, quick maths, the decade of an earned nickname, shushing one’s critics, little packages, top rankings, missed opportunities, admirable people with their many prizes, apparel, and Shakespeare.

If you enjoy these newsletters, and you think others would, as well, invite them to subscribe, even if they never attend our quizzes. Perhaps the fear of missing out will eventually convince them to join us, as I hope you will do this evening. By the end of the quiz, everyone will wish they were sitting outside.

Dr. Andy

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

 

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz, and different questions than those you might see in the Davis Enterprise every Sunday:

 

1. Science. In the world of physics, what A word do we use for the maximum extent of a vibration or oscillation, measured from the position of equilibrium? 
2. Books and Authors. The books Goals! and Eat That Frog! were written by a man whose first name is Brian. His last name could be the first name of a woman or a man or a police detective created by Chester Gould. What is that last name? 
3. Shakespeare. Speaking of soccer, the only Shakespeare play title that ends with a G sports this quotation: “A victory is twice itself when the achiever brings home full numbers.” Name the play.  

 

P.S. Let’s close with some words from one of my favorite bons vivants: “Good evening, ladies and gentleman. My name is Orson Welles. I am an actor. I am a writer. I am a producer. I am a director. I am a magician. I appear onstage and on the radio. Why are there so many of me and so few of you?” Orson Welles

P.P.S. Speaking of shows, I loved seeing the new Davis Shakespeare Ensemble production of The Tenth Muse last week. And yesterday my daughter, who is not in the habit of seeing historical dramas about Mexican national heroes and poets, saw the play, and she also loved it for its humor and wit. Highly recommended!

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Counting our weekly pub quizzes and my KDVS public affairs radio show, but not counting the classes I teach at UC Davis, I would estimate that I host about 150 events a year. That means that on about three sevenths of the days in any particular year, I’m speaking into a microphone, standing before a crowd, or introducing new content or new performers to an audience.

You’d think that I would take a break from such abundant speaking duties when on vacation, but actually I was back at it in Washington, D.C. last week, sharing with others three different facets of my public personae. On day one of the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation Scientific and Parents Conference, I got to facilitate the self-introductions of all the parents, some visiting from Canada, England, and Wales. A couple days later, I got to present a simplified pub quiz to a crowd that previously thought I was merely a mild-mannered and genial Californian who loves kids. And then on day three of the conference, for my favorite speaking gig of the week, I got to co-present with my wife Kate on the topic of “Self-Care Strategies for Parents of Disabled Children” (that’s my updated title).

Kate had written the entire presentation, but she had asked me to create the Keynote slides and to take the second microphone and share the stage with her as she spoke on a topic that she has been presenting to Davis moms for the last 20 years. I was happy to do so. Rather than rehearsing together, as professionals do, we read over Kate’s notes separately, both preparing the gems and bon mots that we hoped would complement what the other speaker had to say.

I was pleased with the result. If we succeeded with our presentation, it was partly because the audience was hungry for what we had to share. They had sat through a couple days’ worth of scientific presentations, along with a necessary mix of practical talks that provided information crucial to parents who typically knew no one else in their region, or even their state, with their children’s rare syndrome. Kate knew how to connect with these folks, many of whom she had counseled via Facebook for years. She had written a talk that had touched the hearts of the attendees, reminding them that a supportive community of people understood their challenges, and were ready to stand with them as we march together into a sometimes-difficult future.

It’s rare that a talk so inspires me, especially if I am the one holding the microphone. Luckily, I get to support a woman (a social worker, an author, a counselor and friend) who provides a heartfelt balm for exhausted parents of fragile kids. In an age that the television represents as distracted and event heartless, I can think of no more honorable cause.

 

Tonight’s Pub Quiz might take on some of the subjects raised above. Expect also questions about popular music, road trips, American heroes, people named Joss, stains on a nation, iambic four-syllable words, resonant voices, butterflies and moths, G sports, invasive species, the sustainability of radio, vast edifices, universal donors, humanism, the value of a dollar, the times when spelling counts, detectives, frogs, positions of equilibrium, the problems with fireworks, drownings, action movies, canine activities, big questions, prize-winners, associations with stripes, short titles, Indiana, numbers that go with letters, people whose adopted names are Peter, Disney, and Shakespeare.

I enjoyed running into some of you at the 4^th of July celebrations in Community Park. Congratulations to our Davis poet laureate James Lee Jobe for his heartfelt poetic performance just before the fireworks.

See you tonight! It’ll good to be back.

 

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster

http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

 

Here are five questions from the quiz for July 1, 2013:

 

1. One-Hit Wonders. My brother Oliver thinks that of course more than 50% of the teams playing tonight will know who sang the 1981 one-hit wonder “Mickey,” sometimes called “Hey Mickey,” which begins with the repeated assertion that Mickey is, indeed, so fine. I disagreed. Who performed the song? 
2. More on Mickey. Which of us was right, Uncle Oliver or Dr. Andy?
3. People Named Roscoe. The American silent film actor, comedian, and director who mentored Charlie Chaplin, and discovered Buster Keaton and Bob Hope, had the first name of Roscoe. What was his last name? 

 

P.S. I enjoyed learning more about mentorship when I was in DC last week. Here’s what Emerson says about this: “Our chief want in life is somebody who will make us do what we can.”

 

 

 

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I worked as an usher and a cashier at the Tenley Circle Theatre in Washington DC the Friday that the Prince film Purple Rain opened. People lined up early, and we were not anticipating the impressive noontime size of the turnout. As I was getting the theatre ready – setting out the stanchions and the velvet rope barriers for crowd control, counting the till, and popping the popcorn – people kept asking me the same question: What time will the box office open? Eventually I created a sign saying “THE BOX OFFICE WILL OPEN AT 12:30,” but still the questions kept coming. Like me, film-goers were excited to see this film, and ours was one of the few theaters showing it in my hometown of 600,000 people. So the questions kept coming, and I found myself repeating, over and over again, that the box office will open at 12:30.

Fast forward 35 years to yesterday, and we found another Washingtonian in a predicament similar to mine, but requiring much more patience. Yesterday, my wife Kate walked into the National Portrait Gallery and asked the woman at the front desk where one can find the portraits of the Obamas. She was told that President Obama’s portrait is found in the America’s Presidents exhibit on the second floor, and that Michelle Obama’s portrait is found in the 20^th Century Americans exhibit on the third floor.

Ten seconds later, a woman walked up to same employee and asked where the Obamas’ portraits can be found. She was told that President Obama’s portrait is found in the America’s Presidents exhibit on the second floor, and that Michelle Obama’s portrait is found in the 20^th Century Americans exhibit on the third floor. The woman thanked her and left, upon which time a man approached the museum employee to ask the same question. The museum employee looked at him and responded as if she were being asked that question for the first time today, or ever.

And I thought I have it bad when I ask a new Pub Quiz team if they have any questions, and then I hear this response: “Yes. What are the answers? HA HA HA!” Having hosted more than 750 pub quizzes, I smile a prepared smile when I hear this line. As President John Quincy Adams once said, “Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” Repetitive challenges teach us patience, and thus compassion.

Anyway, like milk in the supermarket, the Obamas’ portraits were placed as far away from the museum entrances as possible, thus requiring museum-goers to see as many other portraits while on their quest. These celebrity portraits have their own stanchions and velvet ropes before them to help fans know where to line up for their photo opportunities. And line up we did! Extra guards were present to oversee the frivolity.

(A partisan aside for 2019: I overheard someone say that it will be a shame to see the next presidential portrait added to the Portrait Gallery’s presidential collection, except that it will mean the end of the current era. And then a member of my party commented that at one point during our DC visit the closest Starbucks was in the Trump International Hotel, but that, even though she was thirsty, she refused to go in. These are strange times indeed.)

Tomorrow we fly home from Washington D.C., from one home to another, and reunite with our friends and our French bulldog. Unlike the repetitions of Obama portrait directions that must haunt the dreams of certain museum employees, for us the repetitive sameness of our Davis life – walking the dog on the greenbelts of South Davis, descending the stairs into the basement of Freeborn Hall on Wednesday afternoons, and dining with friends in our favorite Davis restaurant and pub – is a source of comfort. You will have a substitute Quizmaster this evening (thanks, James), but soon I will return to my many posts and provide the cheerful and practiced Monday-night entertainment that you have comes to expect.

 

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on topics raised above, as well as the following: American royalty, the Pew Research Center, musical metaphors, grand avenues, summer songs, American rivers, BAFTAs, research aides, garbled hawk anagrams, the Santos family, famous Pearls, windowpanes, Mandarins, dinner in the lounge, roaring loyals, adaptation on the micro level, the context of fancy cocktails, the New York Yankees, peg-climbers, little women, nature without life, notable governors, women in books, cultural capitals, that which splits, unwelcome heat, words for “intelligent,” articles of clothing, big cities, Roman generals, cells, champions, the Florida Keys, holidays, coffee as fuel, and Shakespeare.

Happy 4^th of July week! This Friday, the state poet of Nebraska, Matt Mason, will be reading at the Natsoulas Gallery at 8 PM. What a fun night that will be. Happy birthday, America!

 

Enjoy yourself at the quiz this evening.

 

Your Quizmaster, Dr. Andy

Three sample pub quiz questions:

1. 1920s Books and Authors. Who wrote To the Lighthouse and Orlando: A Biography?

2. Sports. Little Caesars Arena is home of the Detroit Red Wings and the Detroit WHATs?

3. Shakespeare. The title subject of a history play, under whose reign did the Church of England renounce Papal authority in 1534?

 

P.S. “I can get a better grasp of what is going on in the world from one good Washington dinner party than from all the background information NBC piles on my desk.” Barbara Walters

 

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Probably one of the bravest things I ever did was move to California without any support structure there. This week’s headlines about the 30th anniversary of the release of the film Batman reminded me where I was and what I was doing 30 years ago this week. 

With the help of a traveling buddy and at least one auto repair shop, my 1975 orange Datsun B210 survived the trip from Washington, D.C. to Berkeley, California. I had visited Berkeley just two years previously with my friend Smoker Bob, and had fallen in love with the place, resolving to move back if I didn’t have any better offers upon graduating from Boston University. I knew that I wanted to earn a PhD in English, and that the University of California offered the strongest PhD programs that I could afford. And Berkeley, I decided, was the best place for me to earn my California residency.

Bedraggled and relieved after the cross-country drive, we arrived in Berkeley in this week of 1989, and saw the lines outside the Shattuck Avenue theatre. We didn’t have housing or a plan, but we still locked the “Pumpkin” (as we called the Datsun) and escaped to the magic of Gotham City, eager to see if the guy who played Betelgeuse could also play a superhero.

30 years have passed, and tomorrow I return to my onetime hometown of Washington DC for a medical conference and some time with family. My definition of “family” has changed. My father the film critic passed away halfway between 1989 and today. My DC friends have scattered, as if some centrifugal force compelled us to escape the confines of our childhood dreams, and expectations of our parents. Our children have arrived in the interim decades. As Jerry Seinfeld says, they are here to replace us. 

My hometown has changed radically, sometimes in unwelcome ways, but certain parts, what William Butler Yeats called “monuments to unageing intellect,” remain. On this trip I will introduce my 13-year-old history buff to the some of the same museums that I first entered as a child, slack jawed with awe. We will visit the parks and the streets where I was awakened to joy and wonder. 

And we may pass by movie theatres where people are lined up outside to see superhero movies. I guess that in addition to showing gratitude to those who helped launch me towards the west, I should also be grateful that some things never change.

Tonight’s pub quiz will cover topics alluded to above, and to the following: playthings, cats, the stock market, textiles, first responders, splash damage, recipes, thunder, goodwill, Detroit, aspirational fiats, gasoline, novelists, shape-changers, river walks, Oscar-nominees, bees, Asian-Americans, dreams of stageplay, notable predecessors, breaks with authority, wires from the Avengers, famous moms, famous counties, feet, early American policies, symbols, butterflies, the unemployment rate for you, exits, The Economist, Byzantine examples, and Shakespeare.

I hope you can join us tonight. If so, please be as noisy as possible when appropriate.

 

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

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yourquizmaster@gmail.com

 

Here are three questions from a June, 2013 quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans.    According to Time Magazine, what was the top political campaign slogan of 2008? 
2. Internet Culture: Modern Acronyms. What does the “mp” stand for in the term “mp3”? 
3. Four for Four.      According to the animated series Teen Titans, which of the following are members of the Teen Titans? Beast Boy, Cyborg, Robin, Talon. 

 

P.S. See you tonight!

 

 

 

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

From the point of view of a faculty member at UC Davis, commencement can be a time for emotion and reflection. I attended the Saturday evening graduation ceremonies of the College of Letters and Science (after receiving an email from the L+S Dean asking if I had planned to attend). Seven thoughts came to mind that I’ll share with you today.
 

1. UC Davis is huge. It took three different ceremonies Saturday for all of our Letters and Science students to be given their diplomas, and L+S is only one of the many colleges at our local university (albeit, the largest).
2. The Rec Hall, as we called it in the 1990s, has served commencements ably for decades. For example, I myself graduated twice in that same cavernous arena, the final time with my wife Kate, parents, and brother Oliver in attendance. In those benighted times, people had to take pictures with actual cameras.
3. Commencement makes me proud to work for UC Davis. Our students are so dedicated, hard-working, innovative, and creative. My colleagues and I have prepared the students well for upcoming vocational and life challenges. Also, commencement gives certain students an opportunity to share their humor and their singing of the National Anthem.
4. I wish I could teach even more classes. Because of my administrative duties, I teach just one four-unit class a quarter, and typically a few first-year seminars a year. I loved cheering on some of the students who I had in freshman seminars years ago, as well as the ones who I’ve been working closely with throughout this past school year. They bring so much to every classroom interaction.
5. I loved the opportunity to support the students with whom I have worked the most. My graduating assistant was there with his parents, siblings, grandparents, and a fiancée. He and I texted each other as the ceremonies were about to begin, if only so I could determine where he was sitting among his thousand classmates. Other favorites from past years, including the winner of the UC Davis Medal (who has received a lot of deserved press and praise recently), received texts or emails of congratulations from me right after they crossed the stage.
6. We are getting older. As Shakespeare said in one of his darker moments, “I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.” Cheering all the graduates whom I have gotten to know in ten-week chunks of life, I sometimes felt like I was watching one of the best parts of my professional life pass before my eyes. Whether they are walking across the stage at the Rec Hall or changing the world for the better in Oxford, England (Hello, Melissa Skorka! You make all your former UC Davis professors proud!), my students have often provided me the energy and inspiration to try to do my best work in the classroom, and I am grateful for that gift.
7. One should always bike to commencement.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on topics raised above, as well as the following: Dendrology, macadamia nuts, favorite sultans, greenhouse gasses, new national leaders, musical directives, record streaks, second commandments, contradictions, people named Leonard, meeting the press, medical donors, carrying the weight of a pub quizzer, pharaohs, big purchases, Swedish biking practices, the micronauts, gaunt people, percentages, islands where one can hire an illustrator or a game developer, Judi Dench, aesthetes, jeans, circles, internal caution signs, empirical discoveries, funny place names, new world songs, Mariska Hargitay, and Shakespeare.

Sacramento Poet Laureate Indigo Moor will be reading at the Natsoulas Gallery this coming Thursday at 8. Perhaps you would like to join us?

I hope to see you this evening at 7. Emily and other favorite players will also be graduating, so we should gather with great gusto to send them off!

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. Internet and Video Game Culture. Because of viewers like you, the highest grossing video game movie in North America is instant classic, Pokemon: Detective Pikachu. The dethroned video game film was nominated for the Worst Actress Golden Raspberry Award in 2001. Name that film.  
2. Consumer Goods. What do the words Paperwhite and Oasis have to do with one another?  
3. Sports. The first European player to receive the NBA Most Valuable Player Award is the only player ever to play for a single franchise for 21 seasons. Name him.  

P.S. “A graduation ceremony is an event where the commencement speaker tells thousands of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that ‘individuality’ is the key to success.” Robert Orben

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

 

Sometimes when the temperature tops 100 degrees and I’m late in writing the Pub Quiz newsletter because of my morning-long trip with my son Jukie to the MIND Institute – the yearly review of his health, his demeanor, his medications – I just paste into the template a gecko poem, a love song to summer, such as this one:

 

Gecko at Noon

 

When it is hot –

when the ground sparks like the thought of lightning

and the air is so thin that the birds just wait it out –

that’s when I emerge

 

Hot hot hot hot hot

 

I sample the stunned insects –

big black beetles that scramble in my mouth –

green katydids that jumped too late –

the complacent moth

 

My neck twists like a rope –

my eyes are little suns

driven by absence, by lack, by

 

The sun, it is crushing, crushing

 

We are small and becoming smaller,

bug-eyed in the bush –

we are like mercury underfoot –

just as toxic.

 

Once it was cancer, the slow crab at the end –

Now we are becoming hormonal misfits –

each generation afraid of the next –

We dare not look into their faces

 

The land is like the original bush,

still burning after three thousand years –

still giving orders –

still blanching the locals

 

They are stuck in the book,

but they ache for a cycle

 

 

Tonight’s Pub Quiz might be the last for many UC Davis graduates. I heard that the youthful and enthusiastic team Roy Rogers, for instance, might be joining us for the last time this evening. We will miss them and the others whom shall never again enjoy a June day in Davis. Be well, succeed for all of us, stay subscribed to this newsletter, and send to the pub the friends who now must step up to replace you.

 

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on the following: clubs that welcome everyone, detectives, aeronautics, Disney, Alpine climates, The Oxford Companion to Food, headlines, army pairs, villainous bosses, everyday electricity and chemistry, love songs, coinages, 2013 Gallup polls, children in peril, the Human Rights Campaign, lewd ogres with scalpels, people who are crazy for each other, castles, chartered planes, birds’ nests, agricultural bounty, Purdue University, drowsiness, banned words, Oscar winners, people named Mary, European exports, berries, bonus anagrams, floating syllables, Razzies, and Shakespeare.

 

Our next Poetry Night takes place on June 20^th and will feature Sacramento Poet Laureate Indigo Moor. Mark your calendar now so that there’ll be no chance that you inadvertently miss it.

 

See you tonight!

 

Your Quizmaster

 

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

 

1. Know Your Wars. What was the name of the military conflict that was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 in which the Russian Empire lost to an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, Britain and Sardinia?  
2. Martial Arts. Starting with the letter K, what word or phrase refers to Chinese martial arts?
3. Pop Culture – Music. Who joins Ed Sheeran on the new hit “I Don’t Care”?

 

 

P.S. Richard Nixon  said that “The Cold War isn’t thawing; it is burning with a deadly heat. Communism isn’t sleeping; it is, as always, plotting, scheming, working, fighting.” If not communism, what is burning you with a deadly heat?

 

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

As an unwise teenager, I scheduled my entire college career around geography. Growing up in the cultural Mecca of Washington DC, I resolved not to go to college in a small town like Davis, choosing to spend my undergraduate years at a colleges in big cities. If it were not for all the great friends and professors who I met at Boston University, on some days I wish I could go back in time to have a longer discussion with the college counselor about the sort of undergraduate experience would best suit me.

Perhaps public transportation and bike-riding contributed to my love of cities. While many high school students were looking forward to acquiring their first car, I treasured my bike rides through Rock Creek Park. As a result, today most people are “better at” cars than I am. For example, when my wife Kate drives us to a function or to pick up one of our kids at school, she will often comment on the cars in the parking lot, pointing out which cars belonged to which of our friends. My friend Evan points out the makes and models of fancy and expensive cars that he has encountered on the streets of Davis or San Francisco. I myself don’t have these abilities or enthusiasms.

As these examples about friends and design mastery indicate, cars mean different things to different people. Cars can stand for the ideas of community or status, but I would also argue that they can stand in for ideas themselves. As a writer, I’m always on the lookout for the topic or the angle of my next book or essay, for the image that might appear in my next poem or short story, or for a discovered fact or statistic that would warrant a Pub Quiz question. Sometimes the ideas come to me as often as the cars driving down Tunlaw Road, the busy street where I grew up. As a child, before falling asleep I would watch multi-colored shadows appear on my bedroom wall, cast there by the red, yellow, and green colors of the stop light at the corner of Tunlaw Road and Calvert Street. The Glover Park neighborhood was my haven.

When working on writing projects, some of us take in ideas the way that Tunlaw Road accepted motor vehicles. On some days there are too many to choose from, almost too many to count. One thinks of Russell and Carl Fredricksen counting the red cars and the blue cars in front of the ice cream shop.

I’ve also sampled rural. In addition to living in the small town of Davis in the big city of Washington DC, I have spent many a week of my childhood sitting on the front porch of my grandmother’s cabin in Beavertown, Pennsylvania, a Snyder County township that at the time had a population of about 800, many of them Mennonite and some of them Amish. One would see horse-drawn carriages with a large reflector on the back parked in front of the town’s only grocery store.

The family cabin was the last structure on Reservoir Road, about halfway up Shade Mountain. A car coming all the way to our neighborhood was an usual event, usually one that stopped the conversation or the card game on the porch: we would put down our cards and strain our necks to see who it was. Usually the driver was a visitor to our house, a visitor to Aunt Eunice‘s house next-door (Eunice was born in the 19th century), or a hiker, hunter, or water quality control worker driving farther up the mountain to the reservoir or to an adventure up the mountain.

Back to my extended metaphor, some of us collect ideas the way that the top of Reservoir Road welcomed cars: rarely, and only one at a time. Ideas that infrequent inspire reflection and conversation, rather than mere collection and evaluation.

I’ve been reading a trio of books on writing quickly, books that suggest that any author who limits himself to writing only a book a year is a rank amateur. And indeed when I’m working with some of my undergraduate assistants, imagining the scope and purpose of big writing projects, I consider so many project ideas that I feel like I’m watching cars on Tunlaw Road.

But when I’m taking long walks on the Greenbelt with Jukie and our French Bulldog, something I got to do three times yesterday, I feel like I’m back in Beavertown, wondering what friend or stranger, that is, what fresh, ponderable idea, is approaching Ternes Creek for a visit.

 

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions about the following: insects, Smithsonian magazine, confessed love, renamed streets, love rules, faraway countries, social justice activists, letters of the alphabet, family drama, the example of Lithuania, outdoor comfort in New York State, films with happy endings, the populations of American cities, definitions of luck, the population of Davis and other cities, chips, commercial organizations, the majesty of California, hypodermics lost in bogs, the weather, confidence, frolicking Davis visitors, Olympia, John Goodman projects, ribs, the keeping of secrets, old luxuries, the long shadow of Britain, and Shakespeare.

Our next Poetry Night on June 6th will feature CSUS professor Brad Buchanan. Google this poet to learn more about the story he has to tell!

Happy Memorial Day to you and your families. I look forward to seeing you this evening at 7. If Pub Quiz keeps you up too late on Mondays, perhaps now would be a good time to take a nap so that you are ready.

Dr. Andy

 

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

 

P.S. “Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.” Adlai Stevenson

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Of all the poets who I have worked with at UC Davis, the work of only two of them could be found in my childhood home of Washington, DC, and they are two of the kindest poets I know. Along with prizes, sustained kindness and renown among non-poets would be three of a poets’ three greatest accomplishments.

This past Thursday, I got to introduce both those poets, as well as one of California’s most important Hmong poets, to a standing-room-only auditorium of friends and poetry-lovers. I’m still buzzed from the excitement and the relish of the momentous evening.

The Hmong poet is Pos Moua, a man of about my age who earned an MA in creative writing at UC Davis 20 years ago. He read poets of great emotional richness and insight, as well as with an other-worldly sense of wonder that one might expect from a writer from a culture that has not widely embraced written literacy. I encourage you to pick up a copy of Karst Mountains Will Bloom (Blue Oak Press, 2019) online or at your local bookstore.

The ”poetic mother” of Moua, as he called her, was Sandra McPherson. Both she and my Boston University poetry mentor Robert Pinsky deepened their poetic writing with Elizabeth Bishop, an amazing craftswoman and one of the most important writers of the 20^th century. McPherson read about five poems Thursday night to start the evening, reminding us why she is admired and loved by writers who know her and her work.

The “poetic father” of Moua is Gary Snyder, the 89-year-old Beat-era poet who won the Pulitzer Prize for his book Turtle Island. Born exactly two years before my late father, Snyder amazed me with his cogency and wit. Any of us would be lucky to be so sharp at his age. So many people were amazed to be in the presence of the subject of Jack Kerouac’s 1958 novel The Dharma Bums that I estimate that a thousand pictures were taken that night.

Gary gave me his business card, so I hope to have another opportunity to introduce him. For now, I have completed one more item on my bucket list.

In addition to topics raised above, on tonight’s Pub Quiz, expect questions about the following: everyday objects, the blues, downtown businesses, rhythm and blues, extraordinary empathy, notable animals in hats, fictional characters who fly, communications about transportation, bad boys, river cities, political numbers, departed icons, writing implements, Italians who migrate, agricultural exports, bank accounts, really large numbers, first names of famous people, old Europe, changed names, continental hotels, World War II, digital examples, vertical names, petrochemical-derived materials, broaching the topic of yearly brooches, electrical currents, Spartan warriors, Boston, cars and trucks, islands, and Shakespeare.

Thanks for reading the newsletter, and for inviting your friends to our Monday night events. I feel that everyone is lucky who raises a glass with amiable friends at the start of a work-week.

Best,

Your Quizmaster
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Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Figures of Speech. What is the three-syllable figure of speech in which a word or phrase denoting one kind of object or action is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them?
2. Science.  In plants, what P word is used for transferring haploid male genetic material from the anther of a single flower to the stigma of another in cross-pollination? 
3. Sports: NBA Playoff Basketball.  Yesterday Kawhi Leonard won game 7 in a series with the Philadelphia 76ers with an insane buzzer-beater that bounced four times before going through the basket.” For what team does Leonard play?  

P.S. “Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation.” Oscar Wilde

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

 

It was strange to spend Mother’s Day without a mother in the house. My wife Kate flew to Chicago Saturday morning to catch up with friends and family (notably, her own mom on Mother’s Day), and to pick up our daughter Geneva at college, put her stuff in storage, and return her home. Kate swapped 82° sunny Davis for 42° rainy Chicago, having a arrived at O’Hare in Birkenstocks and a hoodie; she was greeted by her beloveds in down coats and rain boots.

 

In our house, the youngest person in the family seems to set the agenda for our family activities. Thirteen-year-old Truman used to be in charge, arranging for trips to Disneyland and viewing parties of The Andy Griffith Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show (which we rent from Bizarro World). But now that Truman convinced us to adopt Margot, our French bulldog puppy, she is the new youngest, so thus is newly in charge. The transfer of power was peaceful.

 

As a puppy, Margot has boundless energy, demanding multiple walks a day. This dynamic has kept Kate fit (she and Margot end up covering more than four miles a day along South Davis parks and greenbelts), and has kept the rest of us on our toes. Even if I am just taking Margot out for a brief visit to what we call the “Jukie Park” on the other side of our fence, I’ve learned to lock the front door after us, for often our extroverted puppy is unwilling to return right home.

 

Such was the case last night. After my Sunday evening office hours (five students showed up to Crepeville for help with their essays between 9:30 and 11), I came home to find Margot eager to greet me, as if I had been gone a 12 days instead of 120 minutes. Out we went, and out we stayed, for Margot kept spotting different quarry to chase, including a hoot owl and a number of nocturnal bugs that seemed to sacrifice themselves for Margot’s jowly chomping (and, I imagine, eventually for the owl’s evening meal). We also met two other “night owls,” a man and his dog who both recognized our “Frenchie,” as the man kept calling her. Margot makes friends by walking up to other dogs and then falling on her back. Except when taking up space in our bed, she is not what you would call “dominant.”

 

Finally I convinced our  youngest to return to our cul-de-sac. In the half-moonlight, Margot spotted our neighbor Meg, about a half-block in front of us, walking towards her house while sorting her mail. From behind, and from a distance, Meg’s dark hair looked like Kate’s auburn tresses. Tall and slender in her sleeveless shirt, Meg looked a bit like Kate, strolling away from us and into the darkness.

 

Margo started to scamper, wanting to close the distance with her mom. Even just the two days was the longest our youngest family member had been away from her Kate since being adopted. I sighed and had to hold the leash firmly. What words could I offer to convince her not to follow, both of us looking forward to an eventual moonlit reunion?

 

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on the expected topics, including some facts that I learned on National Public Radio this week. Expect also questions about new jobs, unusual parenting techniques, babies, stops, conservationists, silly animations, unwelcome movie sets, local kings, a writer’s final days, opportune bounces, lovers of arches, middle tempests, names in the news, acts of cross-pollination, lies about likenesses, beautiful islands, space stations, categories of bigotry, short stories, government-sponsored news, insiders, peoples named Zachary, more new taxes, gossip, animals and leakers, vodka nerds who love Star Trek, the need to love somebody, things that are pulled, volume, presidential elections, mutants, super bowls, varieties of animals, party problems, really accomplished musicians, and Shakespeare.

 

Gary Snyder will be one of the featured poets at the Natsoulas Gallery on Thursday. He will join Sandra McPherson in introducing Pos Moua so he can read from his new book. You should join us. Meanwhile, though, I will see you tonight at 7!

 

Your Quizmaster.

 

Dr. Andy

 

P.S. Here are three questions from another quiz, this one from 2012:

 

1. Mottos and Slogans.    What Finnish multinational communications and information technology corporation uses as its slogan the phrase “Connecting People”?  
2. World Employers. The largest employer in the world, with 3.23 million employees, was also the largest single consumer of energy in the United States in 2006. Headquartered in Virginia, name the largest employer in the world.  
3. Four for Four.      Which two of the following Steve Martin films were released in 2003? Bringing Down the House, Cheaper by the Dozen, Father of the Bride II, LA Story.  

 

P.S. “When you listen to someone, you should give up all your preconceived ideas and your subjective opinions; you should just listen to him, just observe what his way is. We put very little emphasis on right and wrong or good and bad. We just see things as they are with him, and accept them. This is how we communicate with each other. Usually when you listen to some statement, you hear it as a kind of echo of yourself. You are actually listening to your own opinion. If it agrees with your opinion you may accept it, but if it does not, you will reject it or you may not even really hear it.” Shunryū Suzuki