Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I learned from a 2014 article in Variety that “U.S. teenagers are more enamored with YouTube stars than they are the biggest celebrities in film, TV and music.” Does that make any sense to you? When I read that, I feel like the parents of the first Beatles fans might have felt, wondering what all the fuss is about.

We are lucky to live in a city where our celebrities are thinkers, such as the professors at UC Davis or the authors of popular novels, such as John Lescroart and Kim Stanley Robinson. Once here in a Davis restaurant I ran into Henry Louis Gates. I called out to him, “Professor Skip Gates!” I didn’t know if he was more surprised to be recognized in Davis, or that someone in Davis knew his nickname.

Sometimes the airport is the only place you can run into celebrities. I had a conversation with personal hero Paula Poundstone in the Sacramento Airport once, and another time I encountered Marilu Henner at LAX. She probably remembers that encounter.

My favorite airport celebrity story takes place at O’Hare airport in 1992. About to get married, I was dispatched to O’Hare Airport to pick up some of my high school friends a couple days before the ceremony. Because the plane was late, I spent much more time than expected in Chicago’s O’Hare airport, finishing my book, and then wondering if I would see any celebrities. Walking the huge corridors of the O’Hare terminals, at first, the only celebrities I saw were those posing on the huge Gap “Individuals of Style” posters on the walls of the cavernous terminal. We saw Luke Perry, Naomi Campbell (remember her?), Spike Lee, Evander Holyfield, and Lenny Kravitz.

Because I was waiting for friends from high school, I decided to make some trouble, just like we used to do back in the day. We were often scallywags. I got a piece of paper from the airport bookstore, and then wrote in huge, block letters the name of the most famous of the Chicago celebrities. Can you guess who it was? No, not Al Capone, but Oprah Winfrey. My sign said simply “OPRAH W.”

I was not dressed like a chauffeur. Nevertheless, the arrival time of the late flight neared, a large crowd of people who also wanted to see Oprah gathered around us. When the plane finally landed, I recognized the first person off the plane because I had seen him recently. It wasn’t Oprah.

You know that phenomenon that occurs when you meet someone famous and only realize later what witty thing you should have said? For instance, when I met Stevie Wonder, all I could say was this: “Stevie, I would like to introduce you to my wife, Kate.” Evidently, Stevie Wonder hears all the time that couples danced to his music at their weddings. Clearly, I should have said something about that.

Using my Pub Quiz Quizmaster Voice, this is what I wanted to say when I saw the first person off the plane: “Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Main Event of the Evening. From Atlanta, Georgia, appearing in gate A-17, wearing a three-piece suit that he probably got at the Gap, standing at 6’2” tall, weighing in at 205- and one-half pounds, with a professional boxing record of 28 wins and no losses, he is the reigning, defending, Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the world: Evander, “The Real Deal” Holyfield!”

Instead, I said nothing, for I wanted to see how long I could sustain my Oprah gag for the huge audience that had assembled around me. Seeing my silly sign, Evander Holyfield spoke first, sharing with me a kind of a warning against investing too heavily in the lives of the accomplished, rather than finding our own answers to life’s most important questions.

Evander Holyfield said these six words to me: “Oprah ain’t on that plane, man.”

Thanks, Evander.

 

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on final films, bad storms, indigenous peoples, focal actresses, Stanford University professors, differences in density, everyday Italians, notable hairdos, difficult topics to explain, fonts, population differences, football, gender differences among the accomplished, the things that mirrors do, fast-growers, shipping matters, ways that Germans no longer speak, things named after dogs, an unexpected place to encounter Florida, Victorian hazier flatbeds, voices,  places many would hope to visit, overzealotry, people seemingly named after weapons, changing waves, panthers, Richardsons, protein, dead heats, troubling announcements (for some), volunteer helpers for those needing it most, and Shakespeare.

Dozens of people say they are interested in the book release party Thursday night for Jackie Carroll’s first full-length poetry book, titled KUBABA! There will be wine and cheese, and performances by actors and musicians. You should join us at 8 at the John Natsoulas Gallery to be part of the fun!

Meanwhile, I hope to see you this evening. We start at 7, but come early to secure a table.

 

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. Space Programs. Which of the following lasted the longest? The Apollo program, The Space Shuttle program, The International Space Station. 
2. Pop Culture – Music. Born in 1998, Melissa Viviane Jefferson is an American rapper, singer, actor, flautist, and songwriter whose albums include Lizzobangers and, released last week, Cuz I love You. What is Jefferson’s stage name? 
3. Science. What A word do we use for the science and technology of producing and using plants for food, fuel, fiber, and land reclamation? 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

 

This newsletter contains a beginning, two sustaining middles, and an ending. Keep reading to see what I mean.

After sitting in the first two of five campus executive interviews this morning, I was released into the bright California air to write and send you this newsletter. Walking to my office, I encountered two large wagons fitted with a half-dozen occupied toddler seats each. The young ones in their floppy sun hats were facing outward so they could watch the scrub jays and the undergraduates racing by on their bicycles. The college-aged women in charge of this daycare field trip were singing songs in unison and pointing out the wonders of the day.

Mounting my bike early this morning, I felt a similar kind of exuberance after a speedy reunion. My fast bike had been in the shop for what felt like two months (with parts having been ordered from China). After meandering around town in a lugubrious rental for the last several weeks, I got my bike back for today’s commute and felt the way that Wall-E must have felt when, in one of the opening scenes of his film, he replaces his treads with those salvaged from one of his fallen comrades. With access to the necessary technology, he rebuilt himself, and his joy could be gleaned from his tone of voice! That’s how I felt today. Having hit all the lights, and pedaling hard on my favorite noble steed, I made it to campus from our south Davis home in the time it took to play a single Black Eyed Peas extended dance mix.

I’ve come to depend upon my bike (thanks, B&L Bike Shop – I prefer the word “and” to an ampersand, but I realize that “&” is part of your branding), just like the community of Davis, and many nichy communities outside of Davis, depend upon radio station KDVS, a campus resource that turns 50 years old this year. For the last 18+ of those years, I have hosted Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour on Wednesday afternoons at 5, a favorite unpaid gig that allows me to interview all sorts of thought leaders and creative professionals.

Well, the spring KDVS fundraiser takes place this week, and I am hoping that you will phone in a tax-deductible pledge this coming Wednesday afternoon at 5 or 5:30 at the phone number 530-754-KDVS. With your help, I hope to raise a thousand dollars for the station. Small gifts matter significantly, for they will give my co-hosts and me a chance to ring the bell and thank a donor over the air. Your gift will help me sustain my energy, and together we will help to sustain one of the last free-form radio stations left in the United States. It’s the only place outside of the Pub Quiz where you can hear me talk about compute electronics, space programs, architecture, and Sherlock Holmes, as well as introduce a bunch of local and faraway poets. If you decide to donate online, make sure to check out the premiums, and to direct your donation to support Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour. But mostly I hope you can phone in Wednesday between 5 and 6. Perhaps you should tell your phone or home speaker to set an alarm now.

Tonight at the Pub Quiz I will fête and bid farewell to my longtime work friend Steve, an amazing artist, illustrator, and cartoonist who will both be celebrating a momentous birthday today, and will be working his last day, after 29 years, at Academic Technology Services. I admire Steve highly, and am touched that his goodbye party will overlap with the Pub Quiz. As a result, tonight’s quiz will be a bit easier than typical, for I want my work friends to feel especially prepared to participate in Dr. Andy’s Monday night hobby. If you wish, feel free to stop by Steve’s table tonight to wish him well.

Speaking of questions, tonight expect questions on topics raised above, as well as on rural purges, Yukon adventures, famous pairings, words that start with vowels, scandal anniversaries, successful comedians, musical instruments, chemistry softballs, global events, domestic magic, adrenaline junkies, ambitious Americans,  inventive doctors, Oscar nominees, privacy enthusiasts, long lists, TV shows I actually watched, withdrawals, integrated circuits, immigration statistics, flautists, nearby frontiers, people who are full of love, fuel and fiber, California powerhouses, empty storefronts, Steves not named Rick, the finest of shrapnel, famous daughters, people who name things after themselves, people whose names are mispronounced, common sense, bio-engineering projects, musical talk, and Shakespeare.

Thanks to the almost 50 people who came to Thursday’s poetry reading, including some new folks visiting from Pub Quiz. As with all things, we are building momentum. Happy National Poetry Month!

See you tonight, and I look forward to hearing from you Wednesday at 5.

 

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

Tweets by yourquizmaster

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yourquizmaster@gmail.com

 

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Books and Authors. What word did the first line of T.S. Eliot’s most famous poem “The Waste Land” use to describe April? 
2. Film. What actor appeared in films with the titles Black Panther, Fantastic Four, and Fruitvale Station?  
3.  Taxes. As of 2019, what is the standard deduction for single tax filers in the United States? Is it $6,000, $12,000, $18,000, or $24,000? 

 

P.S. “You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

 

I woke this morning to an email from someone letting me know that a link had died on an article I had written for an online resource almost 20 years ago. The article was so old and likely neglected for so long that I was surprised that any of the links worked.

 

How sad that the Librarians Index to the Internet had been discontinued, but I suppose that makes sense. How can librarians keep up? Following the Yahoo! model, once upon a time a number of university librarians established a place where student researchers could find vetted sources and resources to support their writing and research projects. In the intervening years, Google has exercised increasing dominance in the search market, and now almost no one turns to Yahoo! first when trying to find information about what’s available on the web. Everything in “indexed” by Google, so we no longer depend upon indexes.

 

As I was walking the dog at 5:30 this morning, it occurred to me that many of us are like that outdated article on deterring plagiarism that I had written all those years ago. We keep alive old narratives about how the world works without always checking in to see if our impression of the world actually reflects reality.

 

Rather than organizing our thoughts according to logical and organized taxonomies that librarians depend upon, we humans tend to depend upon narratives to create, process, and access meaning. Sometimes these narratives loop inside our brains, often unspoken or unwritten. As productivity guru Michael Hyatt says, “Thoughts disentangle themselves passing over the lips and through pencil tips.” Unexamined, unchecked, or unexpressed, though, such narratives run the risk of becoming obsessions. 

 

In my journalism class this quarter, my students and I have been discussing the ways that what passes for news is often actually unhelpful and irrelevant posturing and gossip that distract us from the substantive matters that deserves our attention. Those who recognize these American patterns of distraction, our obsession with the relatively meaningless, can manipulate those of us who are glued to our cable news programs and social media feeds, but without gaining anything that feeds our souls. As Warren Buffet says, “The most dangerous distractions are the ones you love, but that don’t love you back.”

 

Speaking of people like Buffet, any of us would benefit from spending more time with the sort of mentors and thought leaders who can guide us towards a more principled and mindful approach to the consumption of facts, “facts,” and ideas. On this Tax Day (Happy April 15^th!), we should all take a moment to consider the extent to which our national investments reflect our highest principles and our top priorities. 

 

Today’s Pub Quiz will feature questions suggested by the abstractions shared above, as well as on the following: games, philosophers, songs that you can’t get out of your head, taxes, ports,  toys created by immigrants, faraway countries, dangerous stations, blood cells, the significance of the number 18,700, slandered music, homelessness in America, dog breeds, government criminals, high definitions, major newspapers, PQ words, cheesy loving with no tears, technological complexities, equestrians who are also cabaret singers, charges, poetry that might be read during National Poetry Month, record holders, sports predictions, political disappointments, Oscar nominated actresses, and Shakespeare. 

 

Poetry Night this coming Thursday will feature three Sacramento-Valley female poets with a touring show called “Poetry Unturned.” If you can join us Thursday night at 8 at the Natsoulas Gallery, add your name to the Facebook event. Because of the help of a new crop of interns, I am expecting a crowd of 40 or more this week, with many of them staying for the open mic.

 

Thanks, and I look forward to seeing you this evening at 7.

 

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. Pop Culture – Television. What is the name of the American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss?  Not all the questions are supposed to be stumpers.
2. Another Music Question: Fill in the Blank in a Quotation by Billy Joel. “This may sound like sacrilege, but I think BLANK BLANK was more important than Elvis Presley.” If Vienna waits for you, you will probably know the answer.
3. Anagram.     Saskatchewan’s 100,000 lakes provide a great opportunity to enjoy a resonating soak. What are the names of the two most populous cities in Saskatchewan? Hint: The letters in both city names together can be rearranged to spell the three-word phrase A RESONATING SOAK. 

 

 

P.S. “I like to pay taxes. With them, I buy civilization.” Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

 

P.P.S. We are all thinking about the Cathedral at Notre-Dame. Devastating.

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Biking past Voorhies Hall on my way to my office on the west side of the UC Davis campus, I just ran into two faculty friends of mine. One of them regretted spending so much time in high school lifting weights and wrestling, and not using better strategies to talk to women. The other one said that there’s a psychological phenomenon by which we always prefer the current era / week / moment over moments in the past, and that he suffers from this unnamed phenomenon. He also said that he resents his future self for downplaying the moment that he finds himself in right now, when he gets to encounter his faculty friends and colleagues on the streets of Davis, and engage them in witty banter about high school and our conceptions of time. Once I went all the way to London to watch a production of The Glass Menagerie. In that play, one of Tennessee Williams’s characters says, “Time is the longest distance between two places.”

Meanwhile, this morning both the instructional designers who report to me have added me as connections on LinkedIn. I love my team of professionals, so I really hope they are not refreshing their resumes because they are considering other job offers. In one of the three books I am reading right now, The Road to Character by conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks, a distinction is made between our resume qualities and our eulogy qualities, and that, as Americans, we often emphasize the first over the second. Where do you invest your efforts, or spend your time? I think of Zig Ziglar: “There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.”

You know whose character totally impresses me? That of Katie Peterson. She’s an English Professor and, as of this year, a Chancellor’s Fellow, at UC Davis who ran an amazing workshop at the Sacramento Poetry Center’s yearly spring conference. Now the Director of the new MFA Program in Creative Writing at UC Davis, Peterson has always impressed me as a person and as a conversationalist, but now I see why our mutual students rave about her so. In the classroom, Professor Peterson is generous, witty, and notably insightful, especially when mapping out possible moments of discovery and wisdom with a varied audience of 30 workshop attendees. What’s more, I learned a lot about poetry, beginnings and endings, and narrative from Katie. If you attend another of her public forums, you will probably see me in the audience.

I couldn’t decide which of those three topics to make the subject of this week’s newsletter, so, instead, I offer you a sample of all three. You can just imagine where I would have gone with each had I left myself the time to do so.

 

In addition to topics possibly raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions about the following: what we know about America, farmland settings, women named Susanna, Irish-born paramours, Spanish words, Whoopi Goldberg roles, resonating soaks, cosmetics, platforms, Florida announcements, lifetime assists and such, home runs, cold openings, matrimony, National Poetry Month, WWI, delightful cavities, basketball, a connection to France, personal chauffeurs, DVD boxes with no human actors on them, maps, progress, lean toads in California, old cities, alphabetized lists, Canada, notable votes, Kentucky great-grandfathers (my kids have one), Kaisers, loud noises, nicknames, food and drink, apparel, and Shakespeare.

 

The spring KDVS fundraiser is coming up next week. If you plan to give, please time it for my 5 PM radio show on April 17^th. I shall be trying to raise $1,000 in tax-deductible gifts during that hour, and I could use your help. You could tell your calendar to remind you to call 530 754-KDVS at that time, and then listen in as we reach our goal!

Meanwhile, see you tonight. We start at 7, but you and your team should arrive early to secure a table.

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

Tweets by yourquizmaster

http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

 

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Countries of the World.  Hun Sen, the longest serving non-royal leader in Southeast Asia, has ruled what country since 1985?  
2. Science: Ornithology. Later eggs in a clutch are more spotted than early ones as the female bird’s store of WHAT is depleted?  
3. Books and Authors. An American poet who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1923 was famous for her sonnets and her feminism, as well as for her short poem “First Fig”:

My candle burns at both ends;

It will not last the night;

But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—

It gives a lovely light!

 

            Name the poet.  

 

P.S. “Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love!” Sitting Bull

 

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I am preparing for the first day of my journalism class, so I will hand the shank of this week’s newsletter to my wife Kate. I will post the relevant picture on the Quizmaster website. Happy National Poetry Month!

One of the blessings of having three kids is that by the time I got to my third, I acquired a sense of perspective taught to me by the older siblings. And there’s nothing like launching a kid out into the world to cause us to reflect on what we did well, and also what we screwed up. Until my firstborn left for college, I’m not sure I quite got that childhood is finite. The days are long but the years are short, as the saying goes. So, I want to squeeze all the fun out of my kids’ remaining kid years. 

Last weekend, after Andy had turned in the last of his students’ grades, I asked him this inevitable question: What good is living in California if you can’t just pick up and go to Disneyland whenever you want? Anyone who knows Truman knows that he ✨loves💫 Disneyland. He knows all the Disney facts and has even written a guide to Disneyland. Honestly, I love it too. And Margot had never been to SoCal, so why not take a spontaneous trip?

Here are the highlights of our spring break:

💙 Introducing Margot to her Uncle Oliver, Aunt Sarah, and cousin Clementine. Margot greeted them like long lost relatives, and I was happy they could meet her in her puppy stage of life. They threatened to cause a family rift by dognapping her, but I kept a close eye. 

🧡 Watching Jukie meet Chewbacca, gently grabbing his fingers and looking straight up, into Chewie’s eyes. Normally characters freak Jukie out, but he and Chewie seemed to bond wordlessly and instantly. I thought about how Truman used to explain Jukie’s disability to his friends: “It’s like my dad is Han Solo and Jukie is Chewbacca.” It’s still my favorite explanation. 

❤️ Meeting up with Davis friends who surprised Andy with Mickey ears with his professional name “Dr. Andy” stitched on the back. Never in my life did I think I would see Andy wearing such headwear, but he got in the spirit, further endearing himself to me every time I looked over and saw him in those ears. 

💜 Feeling a gentle tap on my shoulder by two mom strangers as I was managing Jukie by myself over lunch at a chaotic Disneyland restaurant. One of them said, “We just want to tell you that you’re doing a great job, Mom.” They had no children in tow, but I recognized that these were members of my tribe (parents of kids with disabilities). With their kind act of recognition, they were saying, “We see you.” Moments of connection like that feel more magical than anything Disney ever created, and I wanted to throw my arms around both of them. Instead I simply thanked them as we exchanged knowing smiles. Their acknowledgement fueled me throughout the rest of the day. 

💚 Spending one entire day at Disneyland with just Truman. While Andy, Jukie, and Margot attended an outdoor birthday party with family, Truman and I spent 14 hours of uninterrupted fun together. Throughout the day, I kept noticing how often my increasingly tall boy and I made each other laugh. Fortunately, the food and wine festival was going on, so we ate well as we rode all of our favorite rides multiple times (Guardians of the Galaxy? Four times). I texted one friend a picture of my cocktail in hand with the iconic Mickey Ferris wheel in the background. He replied, “NOW it’s the happiest place on earth.” I agree!

 

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on fools, really big closets, island nations, Kings and other rulers, a broken internet, an accusatory finger pointing southwest, midwestern states, centennial jokes, short poems, the occupants of clutches, petitions gaining traction, state economies, civilian leaders, pen names that are also dictionary words, fun in college, Israel, heroes, Dartmouth, postponements, the wait for affection, keeping up with the Jones families, precocious performers, columnist memoranda shifts, actor and musician spouses, islands worth exploring, regionality, specific plans for actresses, almonds as a metaphor, jerseys, and Shakespeare.

 

The Poets Quartet will be performing at the Natsoulas Gallery this coming Thursday, April 4^th, at 8 PM. You should join us!

 

See you tonight.

 

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

Tweets by yourquizmaster

http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

 

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

 

1. Irish Culture. What kind of musical instrument appears on Irish coins and the Irish coat of arms? 
2. Science.  Albanian, American Warmblood, and Azteca all refer to breeds of what? 
3. Books and Authors. What 1937 children’s fantasy novel has “There and Back Again” as its subtitle?  

 

P.S. “Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.” Audre Lorde

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I got to meet the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet W.S. Merwin only once, about 15 years ago, when he came to UC Davis to give a talk about the practice of translation. I knew Merwin’s poetry well, for he had appeared in just about every important anthology of American poetry published in the previous 40 years, and one of my English Department colleagues had chosen Merwin as the single-author subject of his dissertation. He was a prodigious author. Perhaps inspired by his early friendships with poets such as Robert Graves, Ted Hughes, and Sylvia Plath, Merwin had published more than 50 books of poetry and prose, averaging a book a year for most of his adult life.

I also knew Merwin as a nature and conservation activist, rooted especially in the beauty and biodiversity of his adopted home state of Hawaii. To this day, the Merwin Conservancy “maintains the [Merwin] house and palm forest [that he planted] as a place of stillness and reflection for retreat, study, and contemplation through a residency program for creative visionaries and thought leaders from Hawaii and across the world.

Friday at a pub quiz fundraiser for Davis Sunrise Rotary, on the day W.S. Merwin died, March 15^th, I unleashed a particularly difficult anagram. Here it is.

“One of America’s greatest poets, W.S. Merwin, died today at the age of 91. The three-word title of Merwin’s second book featured animals, and was an anagram of the unusual phrase BAD INTERCHANGES. What was the title of that book?” 

One team bought a hint to the anagram question, learning that the animals in questions were BEARS. Can you figure out the answer?

Two poems come to mind first when I think of Merwin. One was perhaps his shortest, a verse that I sent to Kate in 1989 when she lived a great distance from me. It is titled “Separation.”

 

Your absence has gone through me

Like thread through a needle.

Everything I do is stitched with its color.

 

The second poem is perhaps Merwin’s most anthologized, the one that many had prepared to share on social media when his last day was finally announced. It is titled “For the Anniversary of My Death”:

 

Every year without knowing it I have passed the day  

When the last fires will wave to me

And the silence will set out

Tireless traveler

Like the beam of a lightless star

 

Then I will no longer

Find myself in life as in a strange garment

Surprised at the earth

And the love of one woman

And the shamelessness of men

As today writing after three days of rain

Hearing the wren sing and the falling cease

And bowing not knowing to what

 

I tip my hat to the great poet, the second of the world’s most famous poets writing in English to have died in the last six months (the other being Mary Oliver). Please consider spending some time with the work of this mindful and accomplished writer.

 

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on issues raised above, and on the following: rides, spring break plans, hunky princes, people named Spiegel, cups, the slow absence of oxygen, successful musicians, starting and finishing with the letter A, valuations, urban development, plural nouns, famous boulevards, billionaire siblings, sports awards, frontmen, Davis businesses, seeds, Florida vacation homes, bird songs, big books, syndromes in the news, servers, Howard and Stanford, islands, three meanings of a single date, trains that are out of control, Scandinavia, piranha that travel via jet aircraft, spelling for a long time, weapons, soft-offs, peace in name only, American royalty, little dancers, southern states, and Shakespeare.

 

Poetry Night is Thursday night at 8 at the Natsoulas Gallery. I hope you will join us!

 

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

Tweets by yourquizmaster

http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

 

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

 

1. Famous Ships. What was the name of Ernest Shackleton’s ship which became stuck in Antarctic ice in 1915?   
2. Pioneers in the mass production of tires. In what year was the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company founded? Was it 1880, 1900, 1920, or 1940?  
3. Sports. Two NBA basketball teams currently have a better record than the Golden State Warriors. Name one of them. 

 

P.S. “Poetry and beauty are always making peace. When you read something beautiful you find coexistence; it breaks walls down.” —Mahmoud Darwish

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

For my birthday yesterday, I took a break from my laptop, and now I am paying for it. The end of the quarter entails a significant grading load. Not writing from time to time also comes with its own psychic load. I agree with Gloria Steinem when she says, “Writing is the only thing that when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.”

This morning at a meeting I talked about how rich I am, just not monetarily. I have a healthy family, a ton of friends here in Davis and elsewhere, and many cultural activities to partake in. Thursday night I got to host Poetry Night, Friday I got to attend an avant-garde jazz concert titled “Citizen X” (two of the Broun Felinis performed with master guitarist Jean-Paul Bourelly and inspirational poet Sadiq Bey), Saturday night I got to attend Stories on Stage, Davis, and yesterday I saw Captain Marvel, which earned a PG-13 for anti-alien violence and some saucy language. What a full extended-weekend!

In addition to tonight, I would love to see you this coming weekend at a fundraiser Friday night. Starting at 6:30 at the Davis Senior Center, 646 A Street, more than a dozen pub quiz teams will gather together to win large sums of money for their favorite local charities. Tickets cost $30, dinner included. Come hang out with the charitable all-stars of Davis, and compete to be named, by the Davis City Council, the “smartest people in Davis.” All the money goes to good causes. Find details on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/371974176945919/or just search for “Trivia for a Cause 2019.”

At tonight’s Pub Quiz, you will also be playing for bragging rights, as well as for restaurant credit. In addition to something mentioned above, the topics to be covered include Saturday Night Live, marijuana possession, places that sound French, endings of a wave, bongos, staplers, missing mandated meetings, places that opened in 2010, godlessness, contiguous states, Sunset Boulevard, American novelists, hosts, building clay, rabbits, seemingly inter-galactic substances, the acronym BHMC, personal rules that are followed and public rules that are not, film titles that are distasteful in retrospect, eight years on probation, women who sculpt grails, medical mishaps, shades of face, Chicago activities, ceaselessness, unusual uses for wheat, scamming, long marriages, $7.5 billion, the compulsion to dance, faraway winners, welcome brain stains, rubber, states in play, the shocks that continue and the shocks that cease, and Shakespeare.

Thanks to all of you for your birthday greetings. One of these years I will be older than either Shakespeare or Houdini, two of my heroes. I hope to see you this evening.

 

Your Quizmaster

 

Here are three trivia questions about March 10^thfrom yesterday’s Davis Enterprise:

 

1. Only one U.S. president applied for a patent, this one for a device to lift a boat over shoals and obstructions. Name the president. Hint: He applied for the patent on March 10^th. 
2. What former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation declined the position of baseball commissioner on March 10^th, 1951? 
3. On March 10^th, 1963, who scored 70 points in a game between the San Francisco Warriors and the Syracuse Nationals? 

 

P.S. “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.” Amelia Earhart

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I once saw a comedian whose name you know perform a long routine about all the investments he and other dads had made in their sons’ love for and accomplishments in sports, only to see those sons become, say, NFL stars and then smile while sharing an inevitable message when first confronted with TV cameras: “Hi Mom!”

My Dad took me to see that comedian, one of maybe 100 times that he took my brother Oliver or me to see a show at the Kennedy Center, the performing arts arena whose opening my parents attended together. Even though this opening gala, with a new opera written for the occasion by Leonard Bernstein, also the conductor that evening, took place on September 8^th, 1971, I still remember it. I suppose this is one of my earliest memories. My brother Oliver was only two months old.

I had such memories in mind when I called my Mom yesterday, for my father had passed away 15 years and a day ago, and the long walk that Jukie and I took from our south Davis home to the Pub for an early afternoon dinner gave me an opportunity to reminisce, and to mourn. On the phone, my mom reminded me that she and my Dad did not play all the manipulative games that other recently-divorced couples play, such as using the children as pawn in their game of cutthroat chess. Neither one of my parents had what evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins called The Selfish Gene.

We come to depend upon our parents and our best friends from childhood (such as my best friend Tito, who, speaking of March 2^nd, was always eight days older than me, at least until he died suddenly on August 4^th, 1993). And later, if we are lucky, they come to depend on us.

Some parents continue to bankroll their children, as I learned from an article in the March 2^nd New York Times titled “The New 30-Something.” The subtitle asks this pertinent question: “Have you or haven’t you cut the financial cord with your family?” Although we enjoyed their visits, and the help they offered with the down-payment on our first Davis home in 1998, we largely have cut that financial cord, perhaps a necessity because of our choice to live so far away from the nearest parent.

But the need to belong, to be connected, to lift up others and, at times, to be uplifted ourselves never really goes away. We are grateful to our local friends in Davis. I think offhand about our friend “Uncle” Evan who brings us supplies or provides a ride when hospital visits interrupt our plans. I think of current and former members of our Davis City Council who greet me with a hug and words of affection. But despite our appreciation of such friends, one sometimes would seek also to adopt a readymade family.

That’s how I feel about the delightful Kalisky family. You probably know Trudy and Mo Kalisky from having visited their Upper Crust Baking Company booths at local farmers’ markets. Now they have a storefront at 634 G Street in the old Radio Shack building. Jukie and I visited there yesterday and were delighted to find both Trudy and Mo on location. Our conversations were repeatedly interrupted by Davisites dropping by to purchase examples of the hand-made and small-batch goodies. And I can see why. My kids just love the triple-chocolate and oatmeal cookies, while Kate hankers after the apple tarts. And the birdseed and multigrain whole wheat breads make any sandwich or toast seem like a gourmet experience. Now, more than ever, we have resolved to eat local bread.

As much as I love their baked confections, I am even more grateful to the love and friendship that the Kalisky clan has offered my family and me. These friends and I have voted together, dined together, visited photographic exhibits together, and even seen classical music performances in Sacramento together. I knew Trudy’s dad when he used to give away samples at the farmers market in the 1990s, Trudy and Mo have become like a beloved aunt and uncle, and their son Lorin (Happy Birthday Lorin!) and his family, and that of Lorin’s sister Gillian and her family, have become like our cousins.

With our own original families separated by distance (such as the distance between Davis and Chicago, or Davis and Washington DC), by time, and by death, Kate and my kids and I are grateful to adopt some bonus family members here in our home town. To know a Kalisky is to be richly rewarded, indeed.

Also, Hi Mom!

 

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on some of the topics raised above, as well as on the following: sustainability, shareability, names that are unlikely to be spelled correctly, mountains, early leaders, the numbers in Mexico, final birthdays, power rankings, disingenuous ratings, cradles, non-vowels, friends in name only, famous books, conducting solutions, powerful women, fiery places, cardinal directions, people who may love sports, people who are neither Cher nor Madonna, reasonable safeguards, prison escapes, unfair disruptions, Nobel Prizes, polkas, unsound ovations, unusual superheroes, Hawaiian exports, big berries, beauties, even more than Bill Clinton, beer flavorings, and Shakespeare.

Poetry Night takes place on March 7^th at 8 at the Natsoulas Gallery. Join us to see Joshua McKinney and Randy White astound us with new work. Also, take a siesta if you have to, but plan to join us at the Pub tonight at 7!

 

Your Quizmaster

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Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

 

1. Science. The capybara, the largest living rodent in the world, is native to what continent?    
2. Books and Authors. Honored in the In-Memoriam segment at the Academy Awards last night, what playwright authored the plays Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple?  
3. Sports.  Johnny Bench, Yogi Berra, and Carlton Fisk all played what position on their baseball teams?    

 

P.S. “A happy family is but an earlier heaven.” George Bernard Shaw

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Today’s newsletter was GENIUS! It quoted Tolkien, Archibald MacLeish, and Lady Gaga. It delighted with its bon mots, its clever phrases, and with its puns. I could have used it the next time I performed standup. I could have included it as an appendix to my next book of poetry. John Lescroart, a regular reader, would have shaken his head in appreciation.

And then, just as I was about to add a title to and save the newsletter, my computer froze. I photographed the screen just before it went black, saving part of the lightning in a cracked bottle before it was lost forever, and then it was gone. Pity!

Then I discovered that five of the recently-written pub quiz questions were also gone. Now I know why my students keep trying to submit their essays on Google Docs.

All that said, I am not one to harbor regrets (though I’ve had a few). Writing is the poor person’s art in part because the paper always waits. The cursor always blinks, waiting for more.

 

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on the birthday of John Iacovelli, a few topics that I will have to rediscover, benches, numbers in North America, what to wear to the park, prime numbers, creatures that live on continents, the journal of nutrition, monosyllabic countries, outstanding plays, early films, repeated letters, African-American History Month, stamps, approval ratings, names as punctuation, mathematics, people named Kendi, 44 entires, the Academy Awards, metals, famous dinners, seven-letter adjectives, legal dramas, unplugged albums, weaklings that must be hailed, mega-published authors, conversations about slavery, founders, award-winning sports stars, and Shakespeare.

See you tonight!

 

Your Quizmaster

 

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

 

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Musical Instruments. What is the most common word that we use for a musical instrument that has both a drumhead and zills? Also known as metal jingles, “zills” are found on a tambourine
2. Another Music Question. “Thank You, Next” was a big hit for whom in 2019?  
3. Anagram.  Born in 1894, the 33^rd Mayor of San Francisco, a Republican, was known for his many eccentricities, especially his fondness for linen sombreros. What was his name? Hint: His name is an anagram for LINEN SOMBRERO.