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

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Countries of the World. When combining active, reserve, and paramilitary forces, what country has the second-largest army, at about 7.7 million soldiers, as well as the largest ratio of soldiers per citizen, at over 305 soldiers per 1,000 citizens?
Dr. Andy’s Driving Trip to San Diego. The four words in our favorite sign on the way to San Diego started with the letters LLCO. You too have probably seen this sign. Name it.
Science. What F word refers to “the ripened ovaries of flowers containing one or more seeds”?

P.S. You might remember the newsletter I wrote two weeks ago about my family’s trip to a San Diego beach. If you’d like to read a version of that again, find it in yesterday’s Sacramento Bee, now retitled “For Californians from all over, a walk on a beach in a gem of a state.” If you are curious or would like to leave a comment, see http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/california-forum/article169238542.html#storylink=cpy.

P.P.S. If you haven’t already done so, please follow Dr. Andy or Your Quizmaster on Twitter! See you there!

The Midday Safety for Vampires Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on August 21, 2017

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

My favorite line from Jennifer Egan’s award-winning novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad, is this one: “Sure, everything is ending,” Jules said, “but not yet.”

A huge fan of vampire movies that I watched obsessively with my best friend Tito, I used to play a thought game when I was a child. If I were a vampire, how would I safely negotiate traveling around my mom’s workplace, the huge public library downtown, during the daytime? The sun’s rays must be avoided, I told myself. I became an expert at a needless skill, knowing which sections of a four-story block-large public building were the darkest.

Fast forward a few decades, and I realize that my wife and I often discuss how to adjust the shades in our south Davis home so that we protect the interior of our home from the summer sun at every hour, and thus save on our air conditioning bills. My daughter Geneva’s room faces due north, so as a vampire she could safely read and sleep in without our even having to buy her room-darkening shades.

As I write this, I am sitting in the direct morning sunlight of my son Jukie’s room, situated over the garage on the east side of our home. Despite the season and the warm morning, Jukie’s curtains have been thrown open, and his room is bathed in light.

While this setup would be unsafe for vampires, I am enjoying the light knowing that it is a finite resource this morning, for today is the day of the solar eclipse. I hear there are certain areas of Oregon where Hotel 6 rooms were rented for $500 or more last night, because of the relative scarcity of space for eclipse-watchers. The camp grounds were awash with tents this morning. Some people are sitting in stadiums today, so they can watch the midday shadows engulf the others like a wave at a baseball game. Others have found perches atop ridges, so that the magic of darkness can be beheld in a valley below before it engulfs the viewer. Today scientists expect animals and even some plants to “freak out.”

Today is the first day of school for my son Jukie, who attends Greengate School in Woodland. With our San Diego vacation behind us, today is the first step in an inexorable countdown towards the end of summer. First the back to school sales, then the five days of vacation, then the “paper parade” at Patwin Elementary where all the students learn the names of their new teachers, then the last weekend of summer (did you enjoy it?), then Jukie’s school-bus arriving at 7 AM on eclipse day, then the newsletter hurriedly typed in direct morning sunshine, then the spooky partial darkness, then the last day of summer for Truman (tomorrow), then the first day of school at DJUSD (Wednesday), and then Geneva flying back to college (Thursday).

Alice walker once wrote, “Time moves slowly, but passes quickly.” Indeed, when one is older, the years pass by so quickly that it almost seems unfair. However, if one is both self-reflective and pays close attention, sometimes one can watch the days, the hours, or even the minutes go by at an unhurried, almost dawdling, pace, much like watching the moments of daylight extinguish during the uncanny, creeping midday darkness on the day of a solar eclipse.

In addition to topics raised above, tonight expect questions on the following topics: the mottos of pubs, particular favorite months, notable antagonists, World War II, Venezuela, end-of-career renunciations, slim people, football, public villains, historians, ovaries, travel opportunities, cities that are bigger than Davis, science fiction romantic comedies, Latino culture, millionaires and billionaires, audited media, Oscar-winners in Sacramento, aimless and boldly impudent women, the nothing that can come of nothing, nighttime, people in low regard, improbable prisoners, Italian words, Science articles from 1990 (the year I moved to Davis), a city of hills, Oscar nominees, Troy Garrity, faraway assassins, and Shakespeare.

Thanks to my colleague Dr. Ted for hosting last week’s Pub Quiz. I will be hosting this evening, and forever more. I hope to see you.

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Irish Culture. The flag of India and the flag of Ireland both feature the same three colors. What are they?

Textiles That Start with L. What word do we use for a delicate fabric made of yarn or thread in an open web-like pattern?

Science. What kind of acid gives lemon its sour taste?

P.S. Cecil Day Lewis, no vampire, says that “Summer has filled her veins with light and her heart is washed with noon.”

The Sandy Diamonds Edition of de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on August 14, 2017

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

As Jukie and I walked south along Coronado Beach, we could see Tijuana, Mexico on the horizon. Called the best beach in the world in 2012, Coronado Beach is home to the famous Hotel del Coronado, filming location for arguably the best film comedy, Some Like It Hot.

During our walk, Jukie and I passed a family of Frenchmen – a dad and three sons – who had made soccer goal markers out of the abundant seaweed. One of them had overshot the goal, sending the ball ten meters into the Pacific, which promptly gave it back. I could almost decipher some of their French exclamations. Perhaps ten years older than me and with a look of concentration, the father had better soccer skills but less gusto than his sons. He had opportunities to hone his skills when each new son came of age, perhaps preparing for this afternoon on Coronado Beach.

Soon we encountered three middle-aged Americans – a man and two women – digging ever deeper with juice pitchers. They were determined, but not frantic. Soon the man got out his metal detector again, and accepted the advice of the women as to where to place and how to angle the cumbersome machine. “We will just have to dig deeper,” one said. I expected that eventually they would find a metal bolt rather than a diamond ring.

Farther along the beach a Middle-Eastern couple in their 50s were walking with their daughter in her 20’s. Thinking of racial tensions in Charlottesville, I offered a friendly greeting, and they returned it. They might have been locals, or they might have been visiting from 8,000 miles away. I’m about as far from Davis as one can be and still be in California, but I still want people to know that we love and welcome strangers here. The most diverse state in the union, we depend upon the great mix of thinkers, inventors, and workers to power our state, and keep the ongoing dialogue lively and engaging.

The Middle-Eastern family had paused to take pictures, and I could see why. Well after 7 PM last night, we had reached that “magic time” for photographers when the sun’s light is diffused by the rising marine layer. It makes us all feel and look beautiful, especially on film. At that hour Jukie and I could see an engagement photographer, a family photographer, and many amateurs who wanted to take advantage of the incredible light.

Jukie lead the two of us for a mile or more on the wide beach. If it were not getting darker, we might have walked for a few more miles until we heard the actual sounds of Tijuana nightclubs. We soon received a text from my wife Kate – I’m freezing, she said – so we started walking back, the setting sun filling our faces with light. By the time we returned to Kate, we saw the photographers packing up their equipment and nodding optimistically to their clients, we saw the French dad walking arm and arm towards the del Coronado Hotel, and we saw the middle-aged Americans climbing out of their hole to exchange a high five.

Perhaps, like Kate with her photography of Truman jumping over waves, and like Jukie and me on our walk, these three prospectors had finally found their diamond ring in the sand.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will be hosted by my colleague Dr. Ted, heroically filling in for me while I continue to vacate. I will be back next Monday, and, before then, I will be hosting Poetry Night on Thursday the 17^th at the Natsoulas Gallery. I’ve written tonight’s quiz, so I know that you should expect questions tonight on topics raised above as well as the following: textiles, championships, smiling doctors, foreign and domestic kings, strange citizens, that Black guy, Aggie standouts, calendar quandaries, favorite acids, Europe of yesteryear, that which is webly, C cities, meal locations, California history, newspaper headlines, trade colonies, lip hair, pomposity, three-word titles, church leaders, virtuosi, store brand bargains, not Jefferson, people named Ted, frightening ratios, meta-films, Dr. Andy’s summer vacations, and Shakespeare.

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Mottos and Slogans. In what decade did Yahoo start using the slogan “Do you…Yahoo!?”

Internet Culture. CEO Ben Silbermann summarized his “P” company, founded in 2010, as a “catalog of ideas,” rather than as a social network. Name the company.

Newspaper Headlines. In what U.S. state did the governor recently welcome President Trump with the news that he, the governor, had switched from being a Democrat to being a Republican?

P.S. I appreciate your continuing to support the Pub Quiz when I am on vacation. I have also been working on my Pub Quiz book, out by Christmas and selling for $15 a copy. Unlike (perhaps) my poetry books, this one will make a great gift, even for people who know nothing about the Quiz. How many can I put you down for?

The Cat’s Out of the Cradle Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on August 7, 2017

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

As I write this newsletter, I am struck again by the most famous lines of poetry of former U.S. poet laureate Robert Hass:

All the new thinking is about loss.

In this it resembles all the old thinking.

This past weekend I was waiting for a coffee and a tea at Philz Coffee in North Berkeley. The tea was for me – it came with so much mint that we joked that the barista had drowned a small salad in my cup – while the coffee was for an old friend visiting from back east.

I lived in Berkeley for more than a year after I first moved to California, so I was not entirely surprised when a stranger greeted me by name. As I shook his hand, I scanned my mental Rolodex. This young man named Tyler might have known me from my decades of teaching at UC Davis, or from my years of hosting poetry events locally, or from the radio show. Which was it? He reminded me that years ago he regularly attended the Pub Quiz, an experience that he evidently treasured and misses very much.

I half-jokingly asked if we could pause and then relive this interaction when my friend, visiting from Rhode Island, returned from the bathroom. I wanted her to see that I’ve made friends with an admirer, and that my celebrity, such as it is, stretches all the way to the East Bay. Tyler obliged, acting out his excitement about our “trivial” reunion a second time for my friend’s benefit. I was grateful for Tyler’s performance, and for the opportunity to reconnect.

Later over dinner at Chez Panisse (my first time!), my friend told this story to her former roommate, another of my closest college friends who, thankfully, eventually moved to California from our far-flung corners of the globe (she from Micronesia, me from Washington, DC). At one point my Rhode Island friend paused in the narrative to jokingly refer to me as “A STAR,” and smiled knowingly as she traced a five-pointed star in the air.

This was an allusion to my Dad’s 1980s DC license plate, “A STAR” in capital letters, something I hadn’t thought about in years. My brother Oliver and I thought the vanity plate on my dad’s Cadillac Cimarron to be somewhat boastful, but we knew that my dad took relish in being recognized in our hometown, the nation’s capital, because of his years on TV reviewing movies for the local CBS affiliate. Today Davey Marlin-Jones’ license plate can be seen resting on the lintel in Oliver’s living room.

Now, of course celebrity itself is rather silly. As Elvis said, “The image is one thing and the human being is another.” Some of us have a bit of notoriety in our field, niche, or region; perhaps it helps us consider how we present ourselves in public or with our peers. Such distractions mean that an outsider can see patterns about our lives that we can’t often see from the inside, such as two generations of journalist-performers taking disproportionate delight in their own local celebrity.

This “Cats in the Cradle” moment for me made me miss my dad, who passed away more than a dozen years ago, and made me wish I could share my current life with him, whether it be my literary accomplishments, the weekly fun we have at the Pub Quiz, or the grandson he never got to meet. Sometimes I overhear Kate telling stories to that grandson Truman about his “Grand-Davey.” Sometimes on special occasions Truman will wear my dad’s trademark bowler hat.

While I reflected on the ways that our lives are shaped by loss, or by what Hass in that poem “Meditation on Lagunitas” calls the “endless distances” of “longing,” I knew that at least at Pub Quiz tonight I would get to introduce all of you to two of my closest college friends (both staying in Oakland with family and friends for the long weekend), and I would introduce these college buddies to the decidedly vainglorious and cheeky showman known as Your Quizmaster. Friends who had spent time with my dad, and watched him on TV, and visited my homes in DC, Boston, Berkeley, and London, would get see me perform as my dad once did.

Sadly, as I learned last night, the stars misaligned again, and these friends that I associate with a happy, stumbling time in my young adulthood will not get to join us tonight, and thus will not hear the deafening introduction to the quiz. Along with death and separation, missed opportunity is another kind of loss. As Harry Chapin would say, “When you coming home, dad? / I don’t know when / But we’ll get together then / You know we’ll have a good time then.”

Filled with inside jokes and allusions to Beatles’ songs, children’s books, blackberries, and buoys, the secret messages and allusions that were hidden in tonight’s pub quiz will not be heard by its secondary intended audience, at least not in our pub. Instead, I emailed my friends a copy of tonight’s quiz, something for them to enjoy communally before they fly back to their disparate and far-flung homes, separated by growing distance. Moving always in different directions, the three of us shall remain connected by the echoes of our shared laughter, and by fond memories of fallen stars.

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on the following: New England, Pixar films, the circus, olives, Mr. Rogers, reconstruction plans, famous trees, bonobos, agriculture, kleptocracy, holidays, metascores, famous poets, Toni Morrison, the magnetosphere, tempos, rampant vowels, liberty bells, the loss of the whole, potatoes, John Lennon, Hollywood favorites, protuberances, songs with names in them, people named Karen, art history, taxes, social networks, and Shakespeare.

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Newspaper Headlines. Caracas is in turmoil at this hour. Caracas is the capital of what country?

New Jersey Cities. Starting with the letter P, what New Jersey city is one of two American cities with a greater population density than that of San Francisco?

The Films of 2017 – Dunkirk. Dunkirk held the top spot in domestic grosses for two weekends in a row. What 2017 film most previously did the same?

P.S. Davis poet Lauren Swift will open for poet, novelist, and musician William Greene at Poetry Night on August 17^th at the John Natsoulas Gallery. You are invited!

The Delights of Local Theatre Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on July 31, 2017

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Something magical happens when a play comes together as it should. What may seem miraculous to the director and cast just seems like a collection of wonders to the audience member who is willing to suspend disbelief for a couple hours.

I know this feeling of a project “coming together” from teaching a class that depends upon the insightful participation of my students, and they come through for me. I’ve known this feeling when hosting fundraisers, coming up with quips and jokes on the fly that show I am paying attention and that I care about the cause. On the radio, a promotional interview can sometimes turn into a real conversation, one where I forget to remind listeners of the name and book title of my guest. These moments of linguistic, participatory tightrope-walking must be what inspire and attract improv comedians, freestyle poets, contact jugglers, and certain con artists, those whose flirtations with danger, with failure, are fun to watch.

The Davis Shakespeare Ensemble has put on another terrific show as part of their Davis Shakespeare Festival. And although the plays do not offer as many improvisational elements as 2015’s The Mystery of Edwin Drood (for which the audience got to vote for the ending of this play based on Charles Dickens’ last and unfinished novel), many times while watching the plays of the current season, I asked myself, “Now how did they pull THAT off?” I’ve seen a lot of plays, but I rarely do I come away amazed at what I’ve seen.

As a fan of martial arts, I’ve always admired daring fight choreography involving athletic masters like Jackie Chan or Donnie Yen. I’ve also enjoyed watching my daughter Geneva confidently spar with larger opponents as she was earning her second degree black belt with Steve Rodness here in town. But rarely does one get to see fight choreography in person, especially with the sort of rapiers once wielded by musketeers serving the King of France. Such is the case with The Three Musketeers, one of the two shows being staged now by our own Davis Shakespeare Ensemble. You will also love the characters, sets, and acting of the troupe of actors, which grows larger and more talented every year.

Playing in repertory with The Three Musketeers is a play I saw Friday night, Wonderful Town, a Leonard Bernstein musical that features the charismatic acting and virtuoso singing of the Battista sisters, Gia and Gabby Battista. They play sisters in this musical, as well, and joyfully interact with a host of eccentric and hilarious characters in Greenwich Village. The set changes in this play amazed me, reminding me that grand spectacle and top-notch shows can be enjoyed here in Davis, as well as in Sacramento, San Francisco, and New York City.

This coming weekend is your LAST opportunity to enjoy these two productions. Visit http://www.shakespearedavis.org/plays/ to find out more about the Davis Shakespeare Ensemble. Tell them that Dr. Andy sent you for VIP treatment (though everyone gets VIP treatment).

Need some hints for tonight’s Pub Quiz? In addition to topics raised above, tonight expect questions on urban turmoil, repeated cinematic success, Smokey Mountain towns, threads, gold, comedies and tragedies, biographies in India, repeals, blood vessels, ballet, French benefits, ladies named Eileen who turn out not to be Irish, unusual berries, sergeants, science fiction, farmers, famous clocks, unusual words, flood waters, first children, shrubs, queens and presidents, numbers that are divisible by 20, birth states, the unusual word “oeuvre,” passing of the musical torch, zombies, Spanish phrases, unbelievable in North America, ruggedness, Fred Perry, oddly-spelled silhouette, New Jersey, dancing, mergers and acquisitions, insurance policies, and Shakespeare.

Poetry Night is Thursday the 3^rd at 8. Details below.

See you this evening!

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Mottos and Slogans. What retail chain uses the slogan “Dress for Less”?

Internet Culture. What animated destructive protagonist is returning in a film sequel in which he supposedly “breaks the internet”?

Newspaper Headlines. We learned from the New York Times today that what percentage of law school graduates are women? Is it closest to 12, 25, 37, or 50%?

P.S. The Poetry Reading Series is proud to feature two outstanding poets: Mary Barbara Moore (visiting from West Virginia), and Susan Kelly-DeWitt. Both will read on Thursday, August 3rd at 8 P.M. They will be performing at the John Natsoulas Gallery at 521 1^st Street in Davis.

Mary Barbara Moore began giving poetry readings in Sacramento and Davis in the late 1980s, and returns to us after a multi-decade hiatus. For many years Mary Moore taught literature classes (poetry, Renaissance literature, women’s literature, modernism), and expository writing at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. She has published three books of poetry. She’s a delightful person.

Opening for Mary Moore will be Susan Kelly-DeWitt. Kelly-DeWitt is the author of many books, most recently Spider Season from Cold River Press (2016).

Find details about this event at the Poetry in Davis website.

The Stronger and Stranger Monterey Memories Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on July 24, 2017

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

The Russian poet and novelist Vladimir Nabokov once said, “I think it is all a matter of love; the more you love a memory the stronger and stranger it becomes.” A complementary corollary might also be true: Our typical days of routine and repetition are destined to be forgotten.

This is why vacations are so important. They give us a chance to unwind, to detach, and to recharge. They also give us a chance to create new permanent memories. An image, an unexpected experience, a long look into someone’s eyes: each of these might create something permanent, something tucked away in the hippocampus for repeated and welcome retrieval.

We don’t always realize these opportunities when they are set before us, for we are often in a hurry. We rush through time without considering where we are, what we might see, or how we might express our adoration of the nearby people who love us. We spend our time distracted, or focused on incidental objectives, not realizing that the grains of sand are slipping from our fingers. As Wordsworth put it in one of my favorite sonnets, “Little we see in Nature that is ours; / We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!”

Vacations can interrupt this cycle of rudimentary memory loss. This past Saturday, for instance, my wife Kate and I packed the minivan with our children and their amusements and drove off to Monterey. We parked the van at our hotel hours before check-in, and then strolled the mile down the hill past 100-year-old homes, parks filled with Monterey pines, and an increasing number of bed and breakfast inns before we arrived at Monterey’s thriving downtown. After lunch we walked towards the ocean and discovered that vendors had set up their wares in huge booths in the plaza between the history museum (which we toured) and the art museum (which we saved for our next visit). Our favorite vendor had created insects, aliens, and superheroes out of recycled scrap metal. Another, a gun dealer, insisted that my children needed rubber band revolvers in order to enjoy our trip. They declined.

That afternoon we watched sea lions from afar, laughed at the names of boats in the marina, and did backstrokes in out hotel’s heated pool. The next day we explored more of Monterey, walking for miles along the same seaside bike path that Kate and I once traversed via tandem bike when we rode the 17 Mile Drive as youthful honeymooners. Our waitress at the Carmel restaurant where we had a late lunch of Italian food remarked that she didn’t miss the wall of heat that awaited her when her shift at the Sacramento Whole Foods had concluded. My daughter Geneva, now a Wisconsin college student, later told me privately that she loves that wall of heat. We ended our Carmel adventure at the beach, whose fine-grain sand my son Truman much preferred to the climbing rocks of Monterey.

I hope Kate and the kids will long remember our weekend of adventure, and not the bouts of traffic that awaited us on the way home. Last night before falling asleep, we remarked that we couldn’t believe that we had left just the day before, and that we seemingly had fit a week’s worth of experiences into those 36 hours. California has so much to offer us, and we are lucky to call such a place home, if we take advantage of it. I hope all of you can similarly expand your understanding of a weekend or a week away, and thus create memories that will continue to become stronger and stranger because of the love you invest in them.

Today’s Pub Quiz was largely written in the car on the way back from the coast, but the answers have since been fact-checked. Expect questions on chain stores I would have seen from the highway, rascally children, notable multitasking inventors, the cover of The New York Times Book Review, Australians, fathers and sons who play baseball, books for children written in German, cows, tough guys, finding the doctor in the family, reddish foreheads, Paula Poundstone, southern countries, unusual protagonists, centuries for authors, Star Wars, prominent birthdays today, time travel, fennel in the kitchen, English football hooligan brothers, people named Kate, phenomenal women, geologic highlands, categories of chair, uptown and downtown, unusual splits, Academy Awards, law school, the state of the future internet, and Shakespeare.

I love how busy the summer has been in everyone’s favorite eatery. Come early to claim a table tonight!

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Science. The hyacinth macaw is native to which continent?

Books and Authors. The sharpest wit of the Algonquin Round Table was nominated for an Academy Award for her work writing the screenplay of A Star is Born. Always a progressive, when she died she left her estate to Martin Luther King Jr. What was her name?

Current Events – Names in the News. Film director George A. Romero died recently at the age of 77. For what horror film is he best known?

by yourquizmaster on July 17, 2017

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I only met Martin Landau once, but it was memorable. In 1984, the Paramount Theatre National Tour of Dracula, with the tall and seemingly-ghastly Martin Landau in the title role, had come to the Kennedy Center for the month of December, 1984. My father had already (favorably) reviewed the production on TV, lavishing praise on Landau himself as well as on the costumes and set designed by the author and illustrator Edward Gorey. As a result, I knew Landau was in town, even though I never got to see him on stage.

Like many great American cities, Washington DC was known for its repertory movie houses and second-run movie houses. Founded in 1967, The Biograph was a movie theatre that exclusively showed old second-run films, and thus offered a cinematic education to film lovers in the pre-VHS era. The Biograph was less than a mile walk to the Circle Theatre, which showed a different double feature every day ($1 matinees). The Circle was less than a mile from the White House, and both these theaters were less than a mile from the Columbia Hospital for Women, where I was born.

Soon after our 1984 holiday break began, I joined my high school friend Moose (now a senior environmental planner and member of the city council of Morristown, New Jersey) at a showing of the 1972 absurdist comedy titled Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask). The film was inspired by California psychiatrist David Reuben’s best-selling book of the same name. Moose and I had spotted Landau in the lobby before the film began – he was wearing a dark jacket, but not a cape – and had said hello to him. He greeted us kindly.

One vignette in the film is titled “Are the Findings of Doctors and Clinics Who Do Sexual Research and Experiments Accurate?” In it Woody Allen plays a researcher who visits mad scientist John Carradine’s sexual research lab, and barely escapes before he and the reporter with him become unwilling subjects of his insane experiments. This scene was in part a parody of Ed Wood’s Bride of the Monster, which provided Bela Lugosi his final speaking role. Because of the gothic elements of this part of the film, Moose helpfully and loudly pointed out that the mad scientist’s castle seemed like a place one would find Dracula! Afterwards as we were filing out of The Biograph, Martin Landau pretended to be amused by us, commenting, “Very funny, fellows,” or something to that effect.

Five years later, Martin Landau would be nominated for his first Academy Award for acting in a Woody Allen film, Crimes and Misdemeanors. Ten years later, he would win an Oscar for playing Bela Lugosi in the film Ed Wood. I have often wondered if Martin Landau would have taken those projects had he not so enjoyed his December evening in The Biograph Theatre in Washington, D.C., with two obstreperous but well-meaning teenage film-lovers nearby.

Martin Landau died this past weekend at the age of 89. I wonder if, as was the case with Belosi, he will be buried wearing a cape. I’m grateful to him for the decades of entertainment he provided in film, on TV, and on stage, and for the momentary kindness he showed me in 1984.

In addition to topics raised above, tonight expect questions about relatively old men, monsters, Disney, Martin Luther King, people who are born stars, continental hyacinths, retirements, prominent islands, Zacharys, prominent theatres, franchises, the move away from cash and credit cards, science fiction possibilities, Delaware and New Jersey, matriarchs, prominent American poets of yesteryear, slavery in America, peninsulas, wrists and posteriors, rich doctors, sergeants missing their middles, camels, George Carlin, U.S. states, modern medicine, catch phrases, Katy Perry, mobsters, firearms, Costco and others, smartphones, current events, and Shakespeare.

Speaking of Shakespeare, have you yet checked out the offerings of the Davis Shakespeare Festival? Check out the calendar here: http://www.shakespearedavis.org/buy-tickets/

Also, Sacramento Poet Laureate Indigo Moor is coming to town Thursday night at 8 to read at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Please join us for this fantastic opportunity to see one of California’s best poets perform.

Summers are busy at the Pub Quiz. Come early to claim a table! See you tonight.

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Irish Culture. What Irishman is the reigning UFC Lightweight Champion?

Fresno. In what California county does one find the city of Fresno?

Books and Authors. Whose book Treasure Island provides most of our misconceptions about pirates?

P.S. I will be reading a poem about marijuana tomorrow night around 6:30 at the Davis City Council meeting. You are invited to join us.

The Lucy Comes to Davis Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on July 10, 2017

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

The weather reports yesterday revealed that San Francisco was 40 degrees cooler than Davis, so we packed ourselves into the minivan and headed right over to the Presidio. Somehow we found a parking space directly in front of The Walt Disney Family Museum. By the time we stepped out of the museum after our tour, the Presidio’s main parade grounds were filled with a huge community picnic, complete with food trucks, loud and happy music, and even cocktail tents. Many families brought their own semicircular half-tents to protect themselves from the elements. At 2 PM we sat on the chilly grass to watch the sailboats out on the Bay near the fog-enveloped Golden Gate Bridge. After that, we enjoyed some Indian soul food that seemed just a bit too spicy for all of us. It was magical.

Soon we started our afternoon-long hike, walking past the pet cemetery on our way to Chrissy Field. The San Francisco Bay trail kept us close to the ocean. We could see Anita Rock, and imagined the swim from Alcatraz, a topic on which our 11-year-old Truman is an expert. He recounted a story that I remembered vaguely from a Clint Eastwood film while we zippered up our hoodies against the cold leeward winds. Finally, at the Palace of Fine Arts, we took pictures amid the fake ruins, as people do.

When we got home late last night, a friend had written me to say that we should drop in on her the next time we are in that neighborhood, saying that she had cookies for the kids and cocktails for the parents. Writers are always looking out for each other. Kate and I and the kids will take her up on that the next time weekend temperatures reach triple digits. When feeling overheated, why not visit winter in the middle of summer?

Meanwhile, today’s newsletter arrives late because of another writing project for me. On the 4^th of July, our mayor Robb Davis asked if I would read an original poem at the July 18^th City Council meeting, a meeting largely devoted to a discussion of city cannabis dispensary policies. With that in mind, I have adapted the John Lennon-penned lyric “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” I hope you will join me at 6:30 that evening for the parodic fun. I always love it when a bunch of Davisites march out of the City Chambers as soon as I am done performing, stating with their feet what so many of us are thinking at such events: “I am only here for the poetry.”

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will touch upon topics raised above, as well as the following: TV shows that may be cultural touchstones but which I just don’t watch, that which is difficult to measure, associates, the utility known as the internet, pop stars, places where people dance, eight letters, embattled scions, the need of floss, 20 somethings, obscure sports, the remarkable survival of Dylan, pirates, algorithms, zombies and such, amateur singing contests, peninsulas, reigning champions, Frank Rich is now on Instagram, frogs and toads, talent, Batman, Neptune, rude motormen, pies, overtures, the language of yes, blamelessness, departed people named Patrick, organic compounds, spuds, “reality,” Canadians, people named Betty, Republicans in the Bible, The Washington Post, and Shakespeare.

Sacramento poet laureate Indigo Moor reads on July 20^th at 8. Mark your calendars and arrange for babysitters!

See you tonight for the Pub Quiz.

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Unusual Words. What three-syllable T word, means “cruel, unreasonable, or arbitrary use of power or control”?

Pop Culture – Television. What forensic anthropology and forensic archaeology crime procedural TV show finished its 12-season run on Fox this year?

Another Music Question. What are the three numbers in the title of Jay Z’s new album?

The Conversations with Patsy Jefferson Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on July 3, 2017

Patsy Martha_Jefferson_Randolph_portrait

Patsy Jefferson

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Thomas Jefferson and his daughter Patsy shall feature prominently in the 4^th of July poem that I present to you and all your friends tomorrow, assuming that you come out to Community Park for the Davis fireworks. My Independence Day poems always have the largest audiences, and cause me the most concern, for they must be less whimsical and interior than my typical poems. “Keep it short,” one passerby said to me on the street yesterday. I love living in a city where people offer unsolicited opinions to poets. It means that they care, and even that poetry can matter to everyday citizens.

Howard Zinn taught me in history class that patriotism for the historian is fraught, for, as Zinn said, “human history is a history . . . of cruelty.” Set in 1776, my poem is too short to effectively complicate or comment upon the phrase “all men are created equal.” Neither Patsy Jefferson, nor Jefferson’s paramour Sally Hemmings, nor Tom and Sally’s children knew equality. I’m still figuring out how to acknowledge slavery and sexism in a poem that is meant to evoke the ideals of America.

Speaking of ideals, the comedian George Carlin once said, “Scratch any cynic and you will find a disappointed idealist.” Conservatives and progressives alike have elevated few practicing idealists among their ranks during this dark era, while evidence of cynicism is widespread. Donald Trump’s second most-shared tweet ever portrays him physically assaulting a person with a CNN logo standing in for his head. As a journalist myself, I’m concerned about what violence might be inspired by the president’s message. Trump’s focus on violence, on the blood of women, and on petty vengefulness would make any of us skeptical about his interest in making America great again.

Thomas Jefferson knew that the First Amendment was first for a reason, saying, “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” I hope Independence Day will give all Americans an opportunity to reflect on our individual and collective freedoms and responsibilities. And I hope you can stand close enough to the stage to hear my short poem just before the fireworks tomorrow!

In addition to the topics raised above, expect questions tonight on the following topics: American heroes, lion tamers, ferrets, Patrick Ewing, the talk of Fresno, Prague and LA, country music themes, elusive lions, antagonists, arbitrary cruelty, the color yellow, musical instruments, London newspapers, corralling horses, Paris, European hotspots, many kilometer trip from Ireland, confident billionaires, white tigers, masterpieces, inconvenient business trips, American positions that no longer exist, prim clothing during the Revolutionary War, forensics, dactyls, runoff, documents, the current administration, and Shakespeare.

See you tonight at 7!

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Bonus Anagram. I’m thinking of a country whose one-word common name (or short name) is an anagram for word ACRIMONIES. Name it.
Frederick Douglass. In the 1840s, Frederick Douglass founded and published an abolitionist newspaper that has this as its slogan: “Right is of no Sex—Truth is of no Color—God is the Father of us all, and we are all Brethren.” The name of the newspaper was THE BLANK STAR. Fill in the blank with the logical monosyllabic word.
Pop Culture – Music. Over their lifetimes, which of the following three has sold the most records, at 145 million? Adele, Katy Perry, or Barbra Streisand?

P.S. Poetry Night Thursday at the Natsoulas Gallery will feature poetry by Jane Beal, author of 25 books! I hope you will join us at 8 PM on July 6^th for this free event.

The Cincinnati Riverfront Anthems Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on June 27, 2017

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Yesterday my wife Kate, my son Jukie, and I spent about 15 minutes on a large metal porch-style swing beneath a shade pergola on the north bank of the Ohio River. Behind and around us was the $100 million dollar Smale Riverfront Park, while across the river from us we could see picturesque General James Taylor Mansion and General James Taylor Park, both named after the founder of the city across the river from Cincinnati, Newport, Kentucky. The temperature was around 80 degrees, with pleasant breezes coming off the Ohio and Licking Rivers.

Over our left shoulder we could see Great American Ball Park, Where the Cincinnati Reds (once called the Cincinnati Red Stockings) were playing the Washington Nationals. Farther west up the river one could see Paul Brown Stadium, where the Bengals play. From our Embassy Suites hotel on the south side of the majestic John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge, one could see both stadia, all of Smale Riverfront Park, and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, where we spent much of the day this past Wednesday, learning more about the history of Slavery and Civil Rights in the U.S. While there we also completed interactive exhibits on Nelson Mandela and Rosa Parks. Because my youngest son Truman is such a history buff, we haven’t been talking too much about that incredible experience since, for the jealousy would be too much for him. He’s already read a few books about Harriet Tubman.

My son Jukie’s favorite feature of the trip was the 19-foot-long outdoor piano, complete with 32 keys and huge chimes above that resounded with the notes chosen by the stomping feet of children frolicking below. Jukie loves wind chimes, both ours at home and those at the entrance of the south Davis Rite Aid. He smacks them all every time we enter or exit our community pharmacy, sounding a discordant fanfare that might befit the King of the Surrealist Poets every time he would step on stage or enter the reception room of his imbalanced palace.

We heard discordant sounds at the outdoor piano, as well, for the keys were too spread apart for one to make much of a song; most of the young kids were just thrilled, as Jukie was, by the powerful cause and effect of the deep sonorous reverberations resulting from uninhibited dancing! But then one Reds fan stepped forward. Some of the parents had seen him there before, and knew to gather their children so he could have room to perform. Wearing his Reds baseball cap and a team jersey, he was able to pick out – perhaps I should say “leap” out – the notes of our National Anthem. After he finished, the gathered crowd had cheered, and Jukie looked up at me and smiled, indicating to me that the magic of our trip, of the Ohio River breezes, and of a song with an intensified and almost melancholy poignancy, had formed some summertime memories that will not be soon forgotten.

In addition to some of the topics raised above, tonight expect clues on the following: blondes, brethren, pregnancies, accomplishments under 25, tequila, unseasonably warm weather, nuns, fuel efficiency, cross bodies, differentiated binary categories, fibers, telephone repair engineers, Oceana, abolitionists, the conflation of a language and the people who speak it, sword alternatives, candidates for Governor, blood, air travel, unwelcome suits, cabin pressure, retied at Google, late resolutions, Kentucky, acids, front men, humidity, Emmy-winners, Columbia University’s Department of Medicine, Academy Award nominees, bonus anagrams, ornamental leather, domesticity, Katy Perry, large gatherings, particular stars, acrimony, Senators, realistic firearms, slogans for chemicals, and Shakespeare.

Are you planning to join the City of Davis at Community Park on the 4^th of July? There will be poetry.

I hope you can join us tonight for Pub Quiz. We sold out last week, but tonight, more teams will probably be willing to sit outside. I recommend that you arrive by 6:30. We start at 7.

Your Quizmaster