Your Quizmaster — Home of the Quizmaster of Sudwerk Brewing Company in Davis

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Chess. The world chess champion and the primary challenger both have last names that start with the same three letters that make a common English word. What are those letters?
Science. What do we call the field of mechanics that deals with the launching, flight, behavior, and effects of projectiles?
Books and Authors. British poet John Milton was born and died in the same century that is considered to be the Dutch Golden Age. Name the century.

P.S. “You may have heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There’s another day you might want to know about: Giving Tuesday. The idea is pretty straightforward. On the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, shoppers take a break from their gift-buying and donate what they can to charity.” Bill Gates

The Holiday Bat-Eared Enmeshments Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on November 20, 2018

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Our new French Bulldog puppy Margot is a remarkable creature. At three and a half months old, she is younger than many of the babies whom my wife Kate supports at her new parent support group at Mother and Baby Source Wednesday mornings. Nevertheless, Margot is a fast learner and a faster sprinter, despite her small size.

The Buddhist term “Ayatana” refers to the “sense-base” of all sentient creatures, and could be better understood by people who don’t speak the Middle Indo-Aryan language Pali as the five senses, only Buddhists add a sixth sense of the mind which perceives mental objects. Awakening to one’s sense impressions is an important part of being alive, the Buddha suggested. Keeping this perspective in mind, I’ve noticed Margot’s seemingly active and perceptive sense-base, as evidenced by our frequent trips to the front yard.

For example, at some point someone dropped a bit of orange peel in our grass, and it might have remained there for years had our perceptive hound not smelled it and brought it out to play with, tossing it high (for her) and then rooting it out again, despite not having a proper snout for rooting. Margot would have smelled so much more during this last week if we had let her spend more time in the unhealthy air, which even we can smell every time we step outside with her.

Margot loves to taste everything, from the roots of the birch tree that to her resemble chewy bones, to her pink leash when she wants to play, to our fingers when she wants to kiss us a bit too aggressively. We, in turn, activate her taste buds by rewarding her for treats when her training regimen warrants it. She has an appetite for life.

Sometimes Margot just plops on her back and rolls, sometimes entangling herself in her leash as she rolls. Like many dogs, Margot approximates a smile when on her back, responding to the pleasing touch of having her belly rubbed. At such time, her pants resemble giggles.

We know her eyes work well, for she spots neighbors walking their own dogs a block or more away. If she had a tail, Margot would wag it at the sight of such neighbors, for often they can’t resist dropping by to become reacquainted. We look forward to introducing Margot to a dog park after the vet administers the last of her vaccinations tomorrow. At the park our pup will see eye to shoulder with a great number of new friends.

Mostly, Margot hears. French bulldogs have enormous bat-like ears that allow her to approach her sensory world like the Stan Lee-created 1960s hero Daredevil, the fearless crimefighter whose heightened senses function almost like radar. Margot immediately heard and tried to make sense of the low surf-like roar of nearby I-80, she froze when a train went by on the other side of town, and she is under the impression that all birds are speaking only to her. Habitually, we rush through life, unaware even of our own perceptions. A creature like Margot can force us to slow, to stop, and to notice.

Scott Fitzgerald once wrote that “The exhilarating ripple of her voice was a wild tonic in the rain.” I feel that way about my wife Kate’s voice, and our huge-eared adorable puppy Margot seems to feel that way about the entire tiny world of our cul-de-sac in south Davis. Like a child with his first radio, or his first stethoscope, I look forward to discovering what new sense experiences await me as I follow the leash and the lead of our delightful new hearing-ear dog, Margot.

Tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on some of the topics raised above, as well as on the following: German expressionism enmeshed in American history, notable roles, questions of flight, the relative truth of con artists, enmeshments in the contemporary, butterflies, states such as Maryland and Texas, pliability as a humorous and repeated synonym for flexibility, famous storms, W. E. B. Du Bois, a poet’s century, mechanics, misunderstandings, automobiles with funny names, crowded places with no beaches, wrestlers in Hollywood, impressive books, logical names, what we can become, Billy Joel songs, soft fabrics, French words that English-speakers have adopted, ants, demonic operas, delicate things, comedic actors, notable spirits, birds, boy scouts, silicates, highly-regarded athletes, the locations of our hopes, your server’s plans for Thanksgiving, features that are actually bugs, and Shakespeare.

I hope you enjoy an opportunity to slow down with family this coming Thursday. I also hope we all can take an opportunity to breathe deeply, as we will do soon because of the expensive new air filter we just bought for the home. Rather than a dog or the smoky air, we look forward to smelling Kate’s delightful cooking.

If you are traveling, travel safely. Happy Thanksgiving!

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

New York Rappers Who Were Born Outside the U.S. What New York rapper became the first female artist in any genre to have 100 entries on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart?
Science. What does the Scoville Heat Unit Scale measure?
Books and Authors. Hans Christian Andersen, writer of the fairy tales Thumbelina, The Snow Queen, and The Emperor’s New Clothes, was born in what country?

The Swinging Hammer of Thor Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on November 12, 2018

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Looking across the crowd braving the thick and smoky air at yesterday’s Veterans Day ceremony at the Davis Cemetery and Arboretum, I remarked to myself that we haven’t many World War II veterans left, the numbers having dwindled even since I first started performing poems at such ceremonies about five years ago. These heroes who fought the Nazis of yesteryear inevitably remind me of my late Uncle Chuck, perhaps one of the youngest World War II-era vets who did not lie about his age to enlist early. Chuck was a boxer and a sailor back then, and later a gentle photographer and the father to three of my favorite cousins.

We lost another even more notable World War II veteran today in Stan Lee, who has just passed away at age 95. Lee created innumerable characters that we know from the movies, even if we never picked up a comic book, as I did often in the 1970s and 1980s. Lee enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942, serving first in the Signal Corps, and then later as a U.S. Army playwright. If my dad had known such a designation was available to him, he might have joined the army during the Korean War, even though he was a Quaker.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Lee created and co-created many featured characters who have been breaking box office records in the last decade, including the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, the X-Men, Daredevil, Dr. Strange, Black Panther, and Spider-Man. Has any other American created so many iconic heroes? Considering especially the panoply of flawed heroes he invented for our amusement, I might even argue that Stan Lee was the Shakespeare of American popular culture, even if Lee was somewhat less ambitious with his language.

Luckily, Lee was a productive creator for decades, having been thanked in 2006 for his 65 years of work for the same company. That will trump even my eventual number of years teaching at UC Davis! Stan Lee’s 2015 memoir was titled Amazing, Fantastic, Incredible. I couldn’t agree more. Thanks to Stan Lee and to all American veterans who have contributed so significantly and inspiringly to American life and culture. They deserve our deep and foul-weather respect and thanks, without regard to the threats provided by winds, smoke, or rain.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will be spiced with international flavor, in recognition of International Education Week at UC Davis. Don’t be daunted, though, for there will still be plenty of questions about films and musicians with whom you are certainly familiar. In addition to topics raise above, expect also questions about captains, anagrams with all the instances of the letter N removed, law school nightmares, esteemed swashbucklers, new holidays, spread slogans, shamanism, doomed relationships, congresses, delightful narratives, spicy food, German expressionism, balloons, piano accomplishments, doctors who also act, people from New York, long rivers, national drinks, kabuki, French ale societies, music genres, unusual reflections, spiritual leaders, adventuring imperatives, liaisons, the summer Olympics, people named Marion, non-royalty, dumplings, and Shakespeare.

Please join us tonight, and join me in raising a toast, high, to Stan Lee. Excelsior!

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Books & Authors. On which of his birthdays did Harry Potter discover his magical heritage?
Sports. What NFC North team plays its home games at U.S. Bank Stadium?
Shakespeare. In Henry IV, Part II, who says “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown”?

P.S. The performance poet Brandon Leake performs in Davis this coming Thursday night at 8 at the Natsoulas Gallery! You should join us.

P.P.S. “Nevermore shall men make slaves of others! Not in Asgard–not on Earth–not any place where the hammer of Thor can be swung–or where men of good faith hold freedom dear!” Stan Lee

The Sleep Deprivation and Emptiness Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on November 6, 2018

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Sometimes when I have no time to write a proper newsletter, I express silent gratitude that I had just written a poem, such as this one celebrating my wife Kate’s birthday taking place on the same day that we set our clocks back an hour. Here it is:

Falling Back – A birthday poem for Kate

“People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.”

Leonardo da Vinci

The 80s dancing, the 90s rollerblades,

the uncountable stairs, the hip-carried children:

when your overtaxed knees finally give way,

Beauty, fall back into my waiting arms.

When facing the three-alarm night shift

with the new French bulldog pup,

fall back into our bed, leaving to me

the couch and bonding time with Margot.

When the tooth marks are numerous

and fresh, and too many decisions loom,

fall back into the ever-ready arms

of the reserved stadium cinema seating,

the cupholder holding as many illicit liquids

as can be surreptitiously smuggled.

When the parents are hungry for late breakfast,

fall back into the delicious old habit:

your cherry tomato spinach tofu scramble,

with olive oil and six other vegetables.

Every night, whether we have one

fewer spring hour together before dawn,

or the November 4^th overnight Kate’s

birthday clock has (bonus!) fallen back,

back up incrementally until you sense

my breath, my warmth, and then,

inch the light, the heat, of your closed

eyes towards me an inch or two more,

even onto my welcoming pillow, so that,

after a kiss, we may fall back to sleep together.

I don’t even think that quotation is by Da Vinci. Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on the following topics: Words that rhyme with “jubilation,” countries that end in vowels, the problem with neutrality, buffalos, uneasy lies, marauders, stocks and bonds, magical discoveries, moon similarities, countries with rich traditions, daredevil hummers, uses for wine, city numbers, Oscar-winning actresses, hot places, Greek letters, useful skills, lovely dogs, people you didn’t know were named David, broken rhymes, sore necks, popular hosts, voting day, deprivations, unusual oceans, rivers and streams, classical music, unusually-named spices, questions of sleep, American states, the absence of unsent wires, and Shakespeare.

Spoken Word Artist Brandon Leake is coming to Davis on November 15^th. Perhaps you will join us at Poetry Night? Either way, join us tonight. See you soon!

Your Quizmaster

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Here are three questions from an October, 2013 quiz:

Great Americans Who Had Our Attention in 1872. Who was the first African American nominated for Vice President of the United States as the running mate of Victoria Woodhull?
Unusual Words. Named after an early Greek sea god, what P word is a synonym of the word “changeable”?
Weights and Measurements. How many teaspoons are there in a tablespoon?

P.S. Happy Birthday, Kate! I hope you are enjoying the new puppy!

P.P.S. “Sleep’s what we need. It produces an emptiness in us into which sooner or later energies flow.” John Cage

The Middle Name Blue (Dog) Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on October 29, 2018

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Joseph Campbell called a hero “someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” Some of the people in the public eye these days see nothing as bigger than themselves, so they see no need for heroism. As Irish poet William Butler Yeats famously put it in his poem “The Second Coming,” “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.”

I was talking with my sons about heroes for three reasons this past weekend. First, we desperately need some heroes. “Amoral pranksters” and others invent conspiracy theories that are picked up and shared by media outlets that are widely-watched, especially in the White House. The decision today to send 5,200 U.S. troops to our southern border suggests (to me) the lack of moral leadership in the three branches of the federal government. If you need another example, Justice Kavanaugh was recently “Hailed as a Hero” when he visited his high school alma mater, Georgetown Prep. Meanwhile, some people are removing “Georgetown Prep” from their LinkedIn pages.

The second reason was our discussion of the response of UC Davis Chancellor Gary May to the awful hate crime in Pittsburgh, which the Anti-Defamation League called “the deadliest attack on Jews in American history.” I did not hear inspiring or unifying words in response to this attack from Washington (except for from President Obama), but I thought May struck the right tone, while also alluding to the pipe bombs sent to former presidents and other media and political figures, saying, “UC Davis is a diverse community comprised of individuals having many perspectives and identities. As I’ve had to state too often recently, intolerance of others is abhorrent. Hate cannot and will not win.” As we drove past the Chancellor’s residence on 5^th Street yesterday, I reminded my son Truman that one can still find heroes, but often one must look in one’s own community.

Finally, we’ve been thinking about heroes because we’ve been thinking about puppy names. For a while, we imagined that our new French Bulldog puppy would be named “Ellie,” short for Eleanor Roosevelt Jones. When we picked her up (in Weed, California, of all places), we weren’t convinced that she looked like an Ellie. Eventually, after throwing around the names of a great number of female heroes, we decided on Margo/Margot, named after Margo Jones, the stage director who launched the regional theatre movement here in the U.S. One of my biggest heroes, my late father, Davey Marlin-Jones, won the Margo Jones Award for the advancement of American theatre in 1968, so we also honor him by choosing Margo/Margot Blue Jones for the name of our new dog.

When she’s old enough, we will bring her for some patio meals at de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis, California, a city full of quiet heroes.

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions about shrieks and squeals, movie characters, robots, battle noises, average point differentials, Nobel Prize nominees, fearsome creatures, outrageous salaries, joyful tunes, geometry, Frankenstein, people named Claire, immaturity, shadow warriors, insurance salesmen, guitarists, notable Brits, heroes and villains, knives, Sonny and Cher, exciting annoyances, anti-Henrys, an atom that can make a difference, current leaders, apologies, saboteurs with vegetarian diets, New York mayors, fish, prickly spines, fewer likes, worldwide automation, current events, bankers, musical anagrams, repeated phrases, and Shakespeare.

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Name the Decade. Charles Ingalls of Little House on the Prairie fame and game developer Milton Bradley were both born the same year as the Battle of the Alamo and the death of Betsy Ross. Name the decade.
Science: Astronomy. What S-word fills in the blank in this astronomical sentence? “The Crab Nebula was the first astronomical object identified with a historical BLANK explosion.”
Books and Authors. Stephen Chbosky wrote a coming-of-age novel titled The Perks of Being a WHAT?

P.S. Speaking of heroes, thanks to EVAN WHITE, the good friend who drove Kate all the way to Weed to pick up our new dog. His name is EVAN. Also, Poetry Night is Thursday at the Natsoulas Gallery. Also, the dog is the reason the newsletter is so late.

by yourquizmaster on October 23, 2018

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Hello! My favorite scene from the 1986 film Crocodile Dundee features the title character walking down a New York City street for the first time, and greeting every single person he encounters, just as he would in the Australian Outback. I tried this when walking around Washington DC this past May, with similar (non-responsive) results. In Los Angeles earlier this month, I asked my sister-in-law if my brother Oliver would also greet people he met on the street, and she said she thought he did that because of his training as a reporter. Also a journalist, my dad, who was legally blind during much the time we lived in DC, would not engage with strangers unless they called out to him first, which they often did.

This morning as I was biking to meet my wife Kate and her dad and stepmom for breakfast, someone waved to me as she made a left turn in front of me in her car. Was she signaling her thanks for my pausing, as I do, so she could make her turn, or did she recognize me, and thus offer a friendly greeting to someone she knows? I don’t know, but these days I do make a habit of greeting people I see in cars as well as those I encounter on bicycle.

I used to have a rule that when I was out walking, I would only greet women walking alone when I was A) with one or more of my children, or B) wearing a tie, as I do on teaching days. I didn’t want anyone to be made to feel uncomfortable, or feel that I was hitting on them. Now I just have a rule that I bike almost everywhere, and that I greet just about everyone, even though I travel fast enough not to know if they respond. Once I heard my youngest son explain to my oldest son that “Daddy does that because he wants everyone to know that Davis is a friendly town.”

At the Pub Quiz, I again greet everyone while I am making my rounds. Even when surprised people get up to go soon after the Pub Quiz starts (so much noise!), I still thank them for coming into the pub that evening, as if it were my restaurant. As the Buddha said, “Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.” Strangers on the street may know nothing of our generosity or lives of service, but each of them may receive the kind word if you remember to offer it.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on topics raised above, and on the following: Japanese words, herbivores, relative circulation, distilled spirits, childhood and boyhood, calculators, popular dishes, inventors, snow people, the Maryland county of Charles County, English-speakers, newspaper headlines, Frenchmen, the rent, Hasbro toys, title colors, sports talk, Ronald Reagan, notable kings, greenbacks, mottos and slogans, The World Series, the cost of cows, flowers for eating, flowers for growing, astronomy, playful developers, founding mothers, horror movies, privatization, the farmers’ almanac, and Shakespeare.

Join us for the fun this evening. Your team needs your insight, your memory, and your generous spirit!

Your Quizmaster
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yourquizmaster@gmail.com

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Books and Authors. What ancient Roman poet of the Augustan era wrote the epic titled The Aeneid? Hint: His birthday is October 15^th.

Film. Dakota Johnson’s mom was nominated for an Academy Award for her work in the film Working Girl. What is her name? Hint: Once she was known for her famous mom, and perhaps now for her famous daughter.

Irish Culture. According to the 1993 study 1993 “Biogeography of Ireland: past, present and future,” how many extant mammal species are native to Ireland? None, two, 26, or 260.

P.S. Do you know the story of the two wolves?

“A fight is going on inside me,” said an old man to his son.

“It is a terrible fight between two wolves. One wolf is evil. He is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other wolf is good. He is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. The same fight is going on inside you.”

The son thought about it for a minute and then asked, “Which wolf will win?”

The old man replied simply, “The one you feed.”

The Narratives of Austrian Mountaineers Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on October 15, 2018

The Narratives of Austrian Mountaineers Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

We live in a physical world that is bespoiled by pollution and neglect, and a televised world that is bespoiled by spoilers. My wife Kate pointed out to me Saturday night that everyone on Twitter was talking about Paul Simon’s performance on Saturday Night Live, so we had better watch it so we could see what the talk was about before someone ruins a surprise. The fact that Twitter can also reveal who has won a game, a fight, or a reality TV show compels people to watch such events in real time, if only to take part in the real-time conversations. Every other year we find ourselves choosing music over National Public Radio because of the cavalier way that NPR reveals the winners in key Olympic competitions. Many viewers appreciate the way that NBC packages these events – the suspense, the backstories – over merely knowing the scores that contribute to the overall medal count.

It’s different with books and movies. In almost every case, the book is better than the cinematic interpretation. The Godfather is perhaps the most famous counterexample. My son Truman was recently gifted the multi-DVD set of the extended version of the Lord of the Rings films for his birthday, but he wants to hold off watching them until he has read the books. Cleaning the garage the week before last, I found my hardback copy of The Hobbit, and now Truman has already finished reading it. That boy may read shorter books than I do (a recent favorite is Who Was Harriet Tubman? at 112 pages), but I think he also reads more books than I do, and I am averaging almost a book a week this year. Sometimes in his 7th-grade English class, they start by just reading for ten minutes. What a great way to instill a lifelong habit!

I try to keep up with Truman’s reading habits as best I can. For example, yesterday I finished the 1952 autobiographical travelogue Seven Years in Tibet, a mere week or so before I show the 1997 Brad Pitt film with the same name to the students in the “Buddhism and Film” class that I am teaching this quarter. Did I “spoil” the experience of the film by first reading its source material? I already knew that its Austrian mountaineer author Heinrich Harrer died about a decade ago, and thus I would have expected that Brad Pitt’s character would not fall to his death while scaling one of the Himalayas. At least now, like many a self-important mansplainer, I can tell my students and anyone else who listens that “the book is much better.”

Let me quickly add that if you were to pick up a paperback copy of my most recent book, Pub Quizzes: Trivia for Smart People, it would definitely NOT ruin your experience of the weekly Pub Quiz at de Vere’s Irish Pub. It would probably help prepare you to win! Find a copy on Amazon or at The Avid Reader here in Davis.

Here are some hints for tonight’s quiz. Expect questions on topics raised above, as well as on fabulously rich people who invest in others, Samuel L. Jackson, castles, early risers, characters with friends, unusual neighbors, songs and paintings, that which is without artifice, reflections on Blue Frisbees, repeated multi-syllable words, basketball teams, domestic animals, linguistics, leaders of movements, jumping girls, wineries, The Guinness Book of World Records, extant mammals, Academy Award nominees, epics, anime, countries of the world, notable Brits, and Shakespeare.

See you tonight. I hear the Hall of Fame team The Penetrators will be making an appearance this evening. Let’s see how they do in this new post-Paul Allen era.

Your Quizmaster
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yourquizmaster@gmail.com

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Pop Culture – Music. The number 7 song in the nation this week is Cardi B’s “I Like It.” What well-known winner of 21 Grammy Awards has the number 9 song in the nation this week, with “I Love It.”

2. Sports. Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees led the American League in home runs during the 2017 MLB season. Divisible by 13, how many home runs did he hit?

3. Science. In what decade did humans send the first unmanned spacecraft to the moon?

P.S. How lucky we all are that Leanne Grabel is coming to Poetry Night at the John Natsoulas Gallery on Thursday! See http://leannegrabel.com for details about this performance poet who seeks to “smash the patriarchy.”

The Enamored Renunciation Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on October 8, 2018

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

People usually impress us with what they do, rather than what they don’t do. Babe Ruth, for example, hit 714 home runs. Quincy Jones has won 27 Grammys. Isaac Asimov published 506 books. Christopher Lee appeared in 275 films, six of which each grossed over $500 million worldwide. These are impressive numbers.

Harder to remember or celebrate would be the choices that people chose not to make. For example, I can’t remember anyone who served in the Obama administration to have been indicted for a felony. If I am wrong, I am sure that someone will correct me. Ruth Bader Ginsberg was confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice by The United States Senate by a vote of 96 to 3, in part because she hadn’t been accused of assaulting anyone. She also assaults no one in the 2018 documentary RBG. I hope she can keep that streak alive.

I became enamored with people who renunciate, and the act of renunciation, when I was a child. I was still in single digits when I vowed never to drink coffee or to smoke a cigarette. In my early teens, I gave up eating meat, and decided not to drink alcohol or take illegal (and most legal) drugs. Of these avowals, I have been able to keep with all but one of them. As I work one night in an Irish Pub, you can probably guess on which vice I changed my mind (with some help). Perhaps because of this abstemious attitude towards health, I’ve been able to keep up my record of never missing teaching a class due to my own health concerns: 28 years and counting!

In the last year, I have begun intermittent fasting and meditating regularly. When I recently had to fast for a surgical procedure, taking a day off from eating was not a problem: Like Kafka’s hunger artist, I was already well-practiced at going without. And meditation came in handy when I found myself in the car returning from Los Angeles yesterday. Whether Kate was driving (and she did the majority of it), or I was behind the wheel, I found myself more alert, less distracted, and just less bored when motoring up the middle of our state. The practice of walking meditation allows one to focus mindfully upon the experience of one’s walk. I’ve delighted in this practice as a bicyclist and as a motorist, as well, discovering that any such insightful travel is relatively “easier” than my meditation practice of sitting alone, eyes closed, accompanied only by my gradually settling thoughts for an hour.

I wish now that I had embraced regular weight-bearing exercise, intermittent fasting, and meditation when I was self-congratulatorily abjuring all those vices. I suppose that sometimes we are better at avoiding than embracing. Shakespeare recommended both, perhaps a middle way, when he wrote, “Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.”

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature versions of the questions I wrote for my son Truman’s 13^th birthday party. The topics should/may include the following: jazz musicians and other guitarists, Democrats in the woods, Africa, crosses, dots, Oprah, #19, books and authors, hotel suites, space travel, popular judges, likes and loves, predecessors, bandages, single people and companion animals, Irish materials, commercial portals, discoveries, University of Minnesota, Star Wars, losing streaks, names in the news, critically-acclaimed foreigners, chemical energy, historical congregations, cats, painted bedrooms, French islands, nighttime meals, inked newer limits, slathering, dynamic duos, important decades, American royalty, big companies, and Shakespeare.

Come see de Vere’s Irish Pub tonight. Some of the seats are nicely reupholstered! Also, stay for the Quiz. We start at 7, and could use your noise.

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from a 2016 quiz:

History. Michelangelo’s statue of David is found in what Italian city?
Science. According to Purdue University, there is one spring vegetable for which only the young shoots are commonly eaten, for once the buds start to open, the shoots quickly turn woody. Native to Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia, name this vegetable that is especially rich in vitamin K.
Unusual Words. What four-syllable noun refers both to faithfulness and to the degree of exactness with which something is copied or reproduced?
Summer Fashion. The first Bikini swimsuit was introduced this month (July 2016) how many years ago? Was it 70, 50, or 30 years ago?
Another Music Question. Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Colin Greenwood, Ed O’Brien, and Phil Selway make up what British rock band?

P.S. Overheard over breakfast today: “Why does anyone think that Hope Hicks has a brain in her head and can do anything?” Evidently she has a new job at FOX.

The Lean and Slipper’d Pantaloon Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on September 25, 2018

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Yesterday I got to greet UC Davis Music Professor David Nutter as he strolled into the matinee showing of the Davis Shakespeare Festival play As You Like It, now at the Veterans Memorial Theatre on 14^th Street here in Davis. Nutter’s emeritus faculty photograph shows him playing a lute, which makes sense for someone who has published scholarly essays in Journal of the Lute Society of America. As my marketing friends tell me, “the riches are in the niches.”

You know the last name Nutter if you have attended any of the poetry readings that I’ve hosted over the last couple years, for Timothy Nutter, David’s son, is the Musical Director of the Poetry Night Reading Series. When you engage in significant volunteer activities, as I do, you get to throw around impressive titles; that sort of power is a nice substitute for a salary. In addition to being a dancer, translator, and founder of the Art Theatre of Davis, Timothy Nutter is a multi-instrumentalist himself, so we’ve enjoyed hearing his performances on the electric and acoustic guitar, and on the keyboard that he hauls into the Natsoulas Gallery himself.

Often laconic until he steps up to the microphone, Timothy wows people with his concerts, mixing instrumental and vocal genres of performance with combinations of choral bravado and original lyrics that you won’t find anywhere else. Or at least you wouldn’t find Timothy regularly singing anywhere else before this production of As You Like It opened last weekend. Walking around the stage, and sometimes stopping for an extended solo under a spotlight, Timothy provides most of the production’s interstitial music, as well as the mood music that works ingeniously to make a 400-year-old play more accessible and successful. He also plays the part of William, a hesitant suitor to Audrey, one of the many sought-after beauties whom one expects to be married by the end of this Shakespeare comedy.

Because Timothy is so adept at playing the part of musical director while spending significant time on stage, the music really ties together this remarkable production. His father David must have been so proud, watching from the back of the house with Timothy’s brother also experiencing the fun. I was there with my son Jukie, perhaps the youngest attendee at yesterday’s production, so Jacques’ famous speech about the ages of man resonated with me and probably other audience members directly, with so many generations of playgoers enjoying the performance.

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players:

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.

And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,

Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,

In fair round belly with good capon lined,

With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances;

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,

His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide

For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

I didn’t see you there at the play, but, luckily, you have a few more weekends to see Timothy Nutter and the other talented actors commanding our attention at the Veterans Memorial Theatre. If you have been in love, are currently in love (as I am), or would like to be, the play will delight you. You will want to experience the play yourself, rather than taking my word for it. As heartsick Orlando says at one point, “Oh, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes!”

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on topics raised above, as well as on the following: Greek mythology, video games, PS foods, music as the food of love, boat adventures, unions that you’ve heard of only if you are a participant, ancient history, flowers that are not known for their blooms, people whose work can be found in The New Yorker, the satisfactions available to the consumer of oranges, a hesitant suitor to Audrey, Buddhists, circulation, winners of the Pulitzer Prize, forest adventures, Vermont pastimes, people named LeBron, uncomfortable bosses, deep dives, public school assignments, plant life, blacklists, favorite squares, Academy Award nominees, outmatched heifers, outerwear, U.S. Presidents, professors that are more famous than your professors, beverages and cosmetics, stadia, hard-working musicians, and, as you will have gathered, Shakespeare.

The students are back in town. Isn’t it exciting? See you tonight.

Your Quizmaster