Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Are you standing on a platform? If not, people may have trouble hearing you.

Once upon a time you did well to know some journalists if you had a message to share. There were limited media – newspapers, radio, television – and only people with a lot of money, or who were friends with journalists, could access the audiences who depended upon those media.

The media were an important part of my life as a child in Washington DC. My father appeared on local television most weeknights just before Walter Cronkite. TV station WUSA and radio station WTOP were his platforms. Looking for the most trusted man on television, Washingtonians tuning into CBS every night would incidentally encounter my dad as he reviewed a movie or play, and they would often be perplexed or amazed at his uniquely energetic yet substantive approach to discussing the cinematic and performing arts. No one else on TV incorporated magic tricks or torn up index cards into their movies reviews.

One devoted follower of Davey Marlin-Jones told me years later that he thought my dad must have owned the station, for why else would he be allowed to carry on like that at the end of Eyewitness News? His movie reviews were the primary reasons we owned a TV. Although he didn’t write a book during those years, my dad benefited from his platform of followers in DC and Detroit, the vast majority of whom he didn’t know.

Today people with platforms are expected to connect more personally and individually with their online friends, fans, and followers. And today those platforms have to be built, plank by plank, by the performing talents themselves, rather than being bestowed to a lucky few by the corporations who owned the media, or by who financed the media through commercial advertising. As my Austin friend Rusty Shelton explains in his March, 2016 book, Mastering the New Media Landscape: Embrace the Micromedia Mindset, each of us who has a message, service, or product needs to start thinking like media moguls, and hatch plans to control our small media empires. Costs and other barriers to participation have been lowered dramatically, for most of us could access the tools we need from home, though building a successful platform requires planning, consistency, investments of time and energy, and attention to detail.

But is every creative professional with a message or a product willing to do all that work? Not usually. I sometimes help authors and other creative thought-leaders with platform-building strategies. But like any of us, I also appreciate the attention of those older consumers of information that embody the occasional blessing of traditional media. Such was the case Friday (online) and yesterday (in print), for none other than the San Francisco Chronicle recognized and shared kind words about our de Vere’s Davis Pub Quiz. Here’s the final paragraph of the article titled “Davis a town of understated genius” by Peter Fish:

Evening entertainment? The Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, on the UC Davis campus, is a world-class venue for world-class musicians. This spring’s headliners include Aimee Mann (with poet Billy Collins) and Yo-Yo Ma. For a lower-key night out, hit the Varsity Theater, which boasts cool Midcentury Modern architecture and a neon pink marquee and shows art-house and indie films. Or test your mental acuity in a popular Davis evening event: the bar trivia contest. Numerous downtown watering holes run these, but the pinnacle is probably the Monday night contest at De Vere’s Irish Pub, led by UC Davis English prof Andy Jones. The good news is that if you lose, you can always find solace in a pint of Guinness.

I would have appreciated some mention of the highest-quality ingredients in the food at de Vere’s, the excellent wait staff, or the scintillating newsletter available via https://www.yourquizmaster.com, but perhaps someone will mention those excellent parts of our Mondays together online in the comments section. I enjoyed reading online newspaper comments that sought to celebrate local resources rather than inflaming anger with a flame war. Check out the entire San Francisco Chronicle review of our hometown at http://www.sfchronicle.com/travel/article/Davis-a-town-of-understated-genius-6921943.php, and thanks for helping me make our Pub Quiz noteworthy to that little newspaper with the big circulation to the southwest of our town of understated genius.

Speaking of generating buzz, I hope you will consider attending my Avid Reader book release party on Friday, April 8. My book In the Almond Orchard: Coming Home from War can already be found at The Avid Reader, and soon will be purchasable in paperback and online form for a mere $10. Money from book sales will fund The Charles Ternes Prize, a creativity award for Veteran Students at UC Davis.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on spectator sports, video games, trips to Cuba, NPR, cynicism on stage, people named “Ryne,” metric measurements, summer hits, people who move to California to write books, understanding metals, the EU, doctor distinctions, unknown beasts, peaks and valleys, Pulitzer Prizes, circulation, green zones, local attractions, mathematics, Legos, Star Wars, vibrating pouches, ambitious rebuilding projects, the British spelling of “Baptise,” previous batches of TV shows that I have never watched, the ways that we talk about the word, missing youths, crime tales, Kris and Ernie, embassies, lightning strikes, living to 80, America’s sweethearts, percentages, odd takes on The Wizard of Oz, New England, shoes, and Shakespeare.

Attracted by the newspaper, will we have a bunch of newbies join us tonight? Or back for spring break, will we have former Blue Devils filling our booths and tables? And when will we see the return of Bob Dunning or Lucas Frerichs? These and many other important questions will be answered tonight at the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz!

See you at 7. Bring an extra $10 if you want a signed copy of my new book.

 

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster

http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

 

Here are four questions from last week’s quiz:

 

1. Four for Four.      Which of the following, if any, are among the California’s top-three most valued agricultural commodities for 2014? Almonds, Macadamia nuts, Pistachios, Walnuts.

 

1. Pop Culture – Music. According to Billboard Magazine, Michael Jackson’s biggest hit of all time was a duet with Sir Paul McCartney. Name the song.

 

1. Sports: Baseball. What switch-hitting all-time Major League leader in outs (10,328) recently signed a baseball to Donald Trump, inscribing the words “Please make America great again”?

 

1. Science.   The section of the brain called the hippocampus was named after its resemblance to what small marine fish?

 

P.S. Enjoy your spring break. For those of you who are struggling, know that people care about you, and are willing to help.

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Thanks to everyone who came to my birthday party after the Pub Quiz last Monday. I collected a significant number of thoughtful birthday cards, including several from players that I get to see most Monday nights. I also enjoyed catching up with a bevy of friends from many different parts of my California life, including friends representing (directly or indirectly) five different continents. The 9 o’clock start time was too late for most of my academic colleagues, but totally appropriate for people I know in the poetry community. We closed the Pub down!

Speaking of poetry, I got to have lunch on my actual birthday with New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl, author of many books of poetry and criticism. When I shared an anecdote about a piano player with a long memory, he said, “That’s brilliant,” so of course I asked if I could quote him on the cover of my next book. And then we all laughed the knowing laugh of people who have been friends of W.H. Auden and the Beastie Boys, and who live on St. Marks Place in the East Village. Or at least one of us did. And then we enjoyed some pie.

Schjeldahl said that he was supporting Hillary Clinton because, unlike young Bernie Sanders supporters, Peter doesn’t anticipate surviving the fallout of the Sanders revolution, should the Vermont senator become president. Schjeldahl said that he appreciates the stability and competence that he anticipates from a Hillary Clinton presidency. Others might feel that stability is overrated during desperate times. Another high-level administrator at UC Davis told me that while her husband is “feeling the Bern,” she herself is “feeling the c(H)ill,” a phrase I hadn’t yet heard. Not so many people I encounter are “feeling the Trump.” I suspect that Trump will not carry California, should he be given that opportunity. But nobody knows for sure. Schwarzenegger did well here.

I wonder if intellectuals and poets such as Peter Schjeldahl consider the literary acumen of the different candidates for president. In college, Barack Obama was thoroughly knowledgeable on the poetry and philosophies of T.S. Eliot, or so we learned from a recent article in the New York Review of Books. And we know that Bill Clinton was a fan of Walt Whitman, giving a copy of Leaves of Grass to a “friend.” But what of today’s candidates – have any of them made room for poetry in their lives? We know that Allen Ginsberg wrote a poem for Bernie Sanders in 1986 when Sanders was Mayor of Burlington:

 

Socialist snow on the streets

Socialist talk in the Maverick bookstore

Socialist kids sucking socialist lollipops

Socialist poetry in socialist mouths

—aren’t the birds frozen socialists?

Aren’t the snowclouds blocking the airfield

Social Democratic Appeasement?

Isn’t the socialist sky owned by

the socialist sun?

Earth itself socialist, forests, rivers, lakes

furry mountains, socialist salt

in oceans?

Isn’t this poem socialist? It doesn’t

belong to me anymore.

 

Hillary Clinton recently quoted Mario Cuomo: “You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.” From a strictly literary point of view, I would say that Donald Trump campaigns in neither poetry nor prose. He campaigns in crayon.

Speaking of poetry, my new book of poetry is now out (though the formal launch will take place in April, National Poetry Month). If you would like me to sign you a copy of In the Almond Orchard: Coming Home from War, I will have some on hand this evening before and after the Pub Quiz. The books are a mere $10, and the funds support the Charles Ternes Creativity Prize for veteran students at UC Davis. This prize is another way we can thank veterans for their service.

In addition to one or more topics raised above, tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on the following: felines, collaboration tools, newspaper headlines, Japanese trains, famous daughters, hermits with odd servants nursing grudges, sports of choice, the Ten Commandments, Shelley, views from mountains, astrology, romantic comedies, significant Sacramento commutes, chiefs of staff, cities of more than one million people in countries neither of us has visited, the brain, screenplays, the OED, military terms, pastry, ancient Greeks, Gages, mathematical sets, adorable puns, counting digits, getting to work, duets, Romantic Thunderdomes, under my foreign thumb, somewhat great Americans who spend most (but not all) of their time outside of prison, fish, Stonehenge, polygons, and Shakespeare.

I hope to see you tonight. There may be an extra table available, so you should convince an extra team to join us. In addition to buying my book, if they are there tonight, you should also congratulate The Outside Agitators. That team came in first at Saturday night’s Rotary Trivia Challenge, winning $2,000 for Communicare Health Centers. What a terrific event, and a noble cause!

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. Mottos and Slogans.    Starting with the letter I, what calls itself “The Last Great Race on Earth”?

1. Animated Film. Flynn Rider is an antagonist and then love interest in what Disney film?  

1. Pop Culture – Music. Born in 1962, Anthony Kiedis is the lead singer of what American rock band that has sold more than 80 million albums?

 

P.S. March 17^th is Poetry Night. Come by the Natsoulas Gallery at 8 before heading to the Irish Pub thereafter (or before and after). Ta.

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Saturday I got to visit a 5,000 square foot four+ story home in north Berkeley owned by a gracious woman who told me that she loves to entertain. She and her husband evidently throw parties often, using their expansive darkwood-paneled home with a view of the San Francisco Bay as a gathering place for followers of their progressive causes, as well as potential future alumni of the small liberal arts college that helped her launch the sort of career that might lead to the purchase of such a vertical mansion.

Our decidedly more modest Davis home doesn’t accommodate large parties, but I still send out many invitations. The “parties” I host take place in other people’s buildings, whether it be meeting rooms at UC Davis, the John Natsoulas Gallery, or our own beloved Irish Pub. When I worry that I may send out too many invitations, I remind myself that people are encouraged to turn me down. Both the Poetry in Davis and de Vere’s Irish Pub mailing lists have hundreds of subscribers, but typically less than 10% of those on the list actually come to any particular event. The same is (even more true) for events that I host for UC Davis faculty interested in improving their teaching to learning about new instructional technologies. We all have competing obligations and responsibilities. A friend’s presence is a gift, and one’s absence merely extends the pause between chances to catch up.

Some parties represent a last hurrah. I can think of a number of people last seen at my 1992 wedding to Kate or at my last visit to my Mom’s Washington DC apartment who can no longer receive my invitations or smile at my Facebook updates. At least I reached out, I say to myself. At least they accepted that one last invitation. We are all getting older, but before they checked out, at least my invitees knew they were wanted. So whether the event is a pub quiz or a poetry reading, I keep inviting, excited to see what new combination of friends will gather to meet at my next event.

Tonight, this coming Saturday, and Sunday afternoon are times of three atypical events that I hope you will consider attending.

In order, then. Tonight after Pub Quiz I will be holding my annual de Vere’s Irish Pub birthday party. Because the kitchen closes at 9 on Mondays, and because I am expecting a bunch of friends to show up at 9:15, tonight’s Pub Quiz will be speedy. The sound check will begin a few minutes before 7, the introductions will be brief, and the questions will be shorter and even more clear than usual. I hope to be assessing completed quizzes by 8:45 and reading correct answers before 9. I will need your help tonight to pull that off. I won’t need any presents, though, except perhaps a donation to KDVS, our Davis campus and community radio station that starts its April fundraiser right after Picnic Day.

Saturday night (March 12) I am hosting a bonus Pub Quiz for Davis Rotary at the Davis Senior Center. This one benefits a number of non-partisan and non-sectarian local non-profit organizations. Past winners have included healthcare organizations in Woodland, environmental organizations in Davis, and even a local theatre troupe. The participation fee is $50 per person or $400 for a table of eight, but that includes dinner, entertainment, and time spent with some of the most philanthropic and fun-loving people in Davis. Also, babysitting will be provided (though not this year by my daughter Geneva, who will be participating in the penultimate performance of The Eden Project at the Brunelle Theatre at Davis Senior High School). See the Davis Enterprise article for details on the Rotary Pub Quiz Saturday — I believe tickets are still available, and can be had from Chuck Snipes, a Pub Quiz regular.

And finally Sunday, March 13th at 1 PM at the Davis Cemetery I will be performing poems from my just-published book, In the Almond Orchard: Coming Home from War. The book grew out of a commission I earned from Yolo Arts to write a poem about war veterans re-acclimating to life in California after serving overseas. Funds from book sales will fund the Charles Ternes Prize, a creativity prize named after my Uncle Chuck, a World War II vet and photographer. The award will benefit veteran students at UC Davis. For sale for the first time on March 13th, the book contains some of Chuck’s photographs from the 1950s and 60s, and almost 100 pages of my poems. I’m excited.

I extend to you an invitation to all three of these events. These won’t be my last invitations to you, for I have significantly more hosting to do, and books to write.

Tonight’s Dr. Andy’s Birthday Pub Quiz will feature questions on the following topics: great races, relevant symbols, transformative jesters, three-pointers, Halls with financial security, the National Book Award, rodents, sylvan locales, Africa, bodies of water with unsurprising names, thin white dukes, tides, Oscar nominees with attractive names, supermodels, smile leaders, rock and roll HOF inductees, people who are younger than you would think, asterisks, popular prejudices (and ways to confront them), words that start with the letter D, baseball players, antagonists who become love interests, Ben Carson’s new habits, people named Zellweger, old and young people, pests, and Shakespeare.

So I hope to see you tonight at 7 or at 9, and preferably for both. Come judge me by the company I keep!

 

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. Mottos and Slogans, or their Absence.    What brand of high end clothing whose logo is a polo player astride a horse does not use slogans to advertise?

 

1. Internet Culture. What is the last name of the American computer programmer, 2016 Libertarian Party presidential candidate, and developer of the first commercial anti-virus program which once bore his name?

 

1. Newspaper Headlines.   Donald Trump recently blamed a “lousy earpiece” for his unwillingness to denounce what white nationalist leader on CNN?

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I’m no politician, but, like just about all of my students, I have heard of David Duke. If someone were to ask me if I would be willing to disavow the support of David Duke or the Ku Klux Klan, I wouldn’t have to do any research. No matter how faulty my earpiece, my disavowal would be assumed, and I would still reiterate.

Chris Rock at the Academy Awards last night brought up the sort of systematic racism and hate-inspired violence that we associate with the Klan. In case you were not watching last night, this is what Rock said:

“Why are we protesting? The big question: Why this Oscars?

It’s the 88th Academy Awards. It’s the 88th Academy Awards, which means this whole no black nominees thing has happened at least 71 other times. O.K.?

You gotta figure that it happened in the 50s, in the 60s — you know, in the 60s, one of those years Sidney didn’t put out a movie. I’m sure there were no black nominees some of those years. Say ‘62 or ‘63, and black people did not protest.

Why? Because we had real things to protest at the time, you know? We had real things to protest; you know, we’re too busy being raped and lynched to care about who won best cinematographer.

You know, when your grandmother’s swinging from a tree, it’s really hard to care about Best Documentary Foreign Short.”

The day after the event, some Hollywood-watchers are saying that best supporting actor favorite Sylvester Stallone did not win his expected award because of the nomination history of his film Creed. As a journalism and diversity professor told me on my radio show Wednesday, Creed is a film about an African-American boxer that was directed by an African-American director and produced by African-American producers, but the only people nominated for the film were its white writers and its white co-star, Stallone.

Marlon James, author of the 2015 Man Booker prize-winning Brief History of Seven Killings, has recently published a video arguing that responsible citizens should actively confront racism as anti-racists, rather than merely congratulating ourselves for declaring ourselves to be non-racists. One thinks of John McCain’s campaign-trail correction of a supporter who was saying nutty things about President Obama’s religious preferences, while this past November one-time candidate Carly Fiorina chose not to correct a New Hampshire voter who called President Obama a “Black Muslim.”

Will cooler heads prevail in the Republican party? It seems not, judging by Donald Trump’s momentum going into Super Tuesday tomorrow. That said, today Mitt Romney tweeted this about Trump’s relationship with some of his biggest fans in the white nationalist community: “A disqualifying & disgusting response by @realDonaldTrump to the KKK. His coddling of repugnant bigotry is not in the character of America.” When it comes to the endorsement race, we will see if opportunists and Trump supporters such as Chris Christie will win the day, or if the endorsement tipping point for Marco Rubio will ever be reached (and if it will matter in time). Ironically, GOP establishment favorite Rubio has yet to win a state, and seems unlikely to win any future state, even his home state of Florida, during this contest. We will know much more by the end of tomorrow.

I consider all of you winners at the Pub Quiz. In addition to topics raised above, tonight expect questions about football, libertarians, polo, tomato frogs, favorite destinations, depth, little buttercups, actors and actresses, players not named Dave Krieg, Italian names, broken silences, kid books, saturated fats, birthday parties, noble dogs, spits, company for Harper Lee, Oscar-winning films, thornberries, Golden Globes, jeans that are crumbly, things which are filled beyond capacity, assets, great Brits, genera, and Shakespeare.

Speaking of birthday parties, mine will be held at 9:30 on March 7^th. You are invited. And my next book will be released at a Davis Cemetery event on March 13^th. More on that next week.

I expect also to see 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. Mottos and Slogans.    Former football player and actor Terry Crews starred in the TV commercials about “the man your man could smell like.” Name the brand of body wash he was advertising.

1. Internet Culture. Mark Zuckerberg gave a presentation on VR in Barcelona today. What does VR stand for?

1. Newspaper Headlines.   As we learned today, a 2016 film is set to surpass Passion of the Christ for highest grossing R-rated movie released to date. Name the 2016 film.  

 

P.S. Thursday is Poetry Night! They come so often. Lucky.

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

 

I have time only for two sets of nouns. The first would have been the topics that should have appeared in this newsletter.

Power tools, trucks over the side of the Causeway, three-hour delays on i-80, Lake Tahoe, Martians, four speaking gigs in one day, the Beat Generation, Sasha Abramsky, peanut allergic reactions, school nurses, Benadryl, sleeping beauties, Republicans, elevation, bulldogs on the loose, hobos, Russians, cords that have no purpose, land lines, returns, and reunions.

And now the hints: Danish princes, French anger management, weight concerns, crooners who sing about strangers, Barbara Norrander, worms Roxanne, duels, people who died with $10 million to their names, countries that once started with the letter B, owners of diners, prime numbers, fiery redheads, fictional loner makers, fifth in a series, websites with short URLs, Hillary Clinton, actual mathematics, secretaries, presidential politics, people who live in tawny places, Shia LaBeouf, people named Josh, where the magic happens, tricks and deceptions, one of Truman’s favorite presidents, 11-letter words that start with T, Paris, chimpanzees and their friends, the ideal man, and Shakespeare.

Now I want you to imagine how great this newsletter might have been.

 

See you tonight.

 

Your Quizmaster

 

Here are three questions from last week:

 

1. Mottos and Slogans.    What County’s fair uses the slogan “the longest running free gate fair in northern California”?

 

1. Internet Culture. What is the max duration for Instagram videos? Is it six, 15, 30, or 90 seconds?

 

1. Newspaper Headlines.   Last week Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill met for more than two hours and signed a joint declaration, marking the first meeting between the heads of the Roman Catholic and the Russian Orthodox churches in nearly 1,000 years. In what country did the two religious leaders meet?

 

P.S. The next Poetry Night is March 3. My birthday party, to which you are invited, will be March 7^th, right after our weekly get-together. My new poetry book comes out on March 13, in a cemetery. Details to come.

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

During a long and exhilarating concert in Wooster, Massachusetts, in 1986, I got to see Billy Joel play many of his best hits, including his first, “Piano Man.” My favorite sections from this song details the variety of characters that the fictional piano player would encounter at the Executive Room bar in Los Angeles.

 

Now Paul is a real estate novelist

Who never had time for a wife

And he’s talkin’ with Davy, who’s still in the Navy

And probably will be for life

 

And the waitress is practicing politics

As the businessmen slowly get stoned

Yes, they’re sharing a drink they call loneliness

But it’s better than drinkin’ alone

 

Sometimes the lyrics of this song return to me as I walk the hallways of the International Mark Hopkins Hotel for a weekend every February. Having presented and participated in the San Francisco Writers Conference in the same hotel every year for the last 12 years, I’ve become friends and collaborators with most of the regulars.

Vicki is a retired lieutenant colonel novelist, who finally did make time for her wife. She and her wife just celebrated their anniversary (as so many do) on Valentine’s Day, and are doing a great job parenting their two children. Brian is a CEO poet who ensures that everyone is having a good time at the after party. Saima is a mystical poet who has a black belt in Brazilian ju-jitsu, while Dawn is a Canadian born now Baja surfer who volunteers at the conference while finishing a memoir. Retired professor Mary publishes a book of poetry or fiction every other year, and should be out with her 22^nd book at next year’s conference. A leader in social media and content marketing, Rusty is taking a break from the conference this year to welcome home his third child and first daughter, sharing photos with all of us of a wife who looked remarkably composed and fit while loading their little one into the SUV for the first ride home. Lissa has written a book about using book fairs as fundraisers, and has been selling out copies of her illustrated chapbook about her children.

Unlike the barflies that congregated around Billy Joel’s Piano Man, these folks are creative, vibrant, evolving, and full of direction and projects. When I first started attending this conference in 2005, I most looked forward to my presentations and talks (and over that time I have given over 50 talks at the conference alone). Soon thereafter I most anticipated learning about writing, publishing, and publicity from the other speakers. While all of these still sustain me, now I most anticipate the reunions with my friends, and getting them to sign the books that seemed lofty and impractical dreams when we first started sharing at the Mark Hopkins Hotel. And this year and last, my wife Kate joined me at the top of Nob Hill, an added Valentine’s Day bonus. February is always a highlight of my year, as I hope is the case for you.

Today is Presidents’ Day! Today I overheard some of the following dialogue between my ten-year-old Truman and his mom.

 

Truman: Hey, Mommy, I thought of a good Pub Quiz question for Daddy to use for Presidents’ Day: what was John F. Kennedy’s mother’s father’s nickname? Is that too easy?

Kate: Uh, definitely not too easy….

Truman: And here’s another one: how many square feet was the schoolhouse where President James K. Polk sent his children?

Kate: So, I don’t know if many people…

Truman: The answer is this: trick question! James K. Polk didn’t have any children.

Kate: Haha – that would stump the entire pub!

Truman: Yeah, you’re right. Maybe he should ask about the First Ladies. I read that Betty Ford once admitted she drank too much.

 

I don’t know if you could consider these suggested questions from Truman to be hints, but they might trigger some relevant research.

Expect also questions on the following: Reptiles and amphibians of southern Africa, the pastoral, members of the Football Hall of Fame, reclusive novelists, cute nicknames for people that are otherwise not cute, villains, benzodiazepines, Solano County and other counties, Oscars, the example of Job, embryonic stem cell research, bachelors, prolific authors, people with the same last name, big audiences, free gate fairs, Africa, speakers of the House, the hose, thumbing, unpronounceable names, the place of joy, the Olympics, knights, the act of understanding, Texas laws, things that should be said, congressmen, things that start with K, lotion, and Shakespeare.

We have some guests visiting from out of state tonight, so our table may be even louder than usual. I hope you can also join us this evening for the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz. Some of the Swag will come from the San Francisco Writers Conference!

 

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. Mottos and Slogans.    Starting with the letter R, what website uses the slogan “The Front Page of the Internet”?

 

1. Internet Culture. Steve Ballmer was the CEO for what tech company for more than 14 years?

 

1. Newspaper Headlines.  Yesterday in an interview, President and Michelle Obama said that their daughters are annoyed with something about the White House, and that Obama hopes to have it fixed before his successor takes over. What’s annoying the first daughters?

 

P.S. Thursday night at 7, we will celebrate the life of Francisco X. Alarcon. Join us at the Natsoulas Gallery on February 18^th for this important event.

 

 

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

The first class I ever taught took place in the first week of October, 1990. Before walking into the classroom, I had to find a quiet and remote place on campus to sit by myself and convince myself that I could do what must be done. An introvert in my early 20s, as I got up to head towards Everson Hall, I noticed that my legs were shaking.

A decade later, I prepared to do my first radio show on KDVS. Although I had an audio engineer to help me run the board of sliders and dials, and coordinate the intro and outro music, I was still nervous and unprepared, droning on and on as if the entire show could be an impromptu Scott Simon NPR monologue. The next day I ran into my Medieval Studies colleague Kevin Roddy and expressed concern about the quality of my “news and comment” show about the world of poetry (Gwendolyn Brooks had just passed away, so there was plenty to discuss). Kevin shared my concerns and helpfully offered that “it will get better.” At least I knew I had had one listener!

A few years later I hosted my first poetry reading before a crowd of 100 in the E Street Plaza. A few years after that, I released my first book of poetry, and promoted it on Sacramento TV during Valentine’s Day week. Soon thereafter I started hosting a pub quiz, and didn’t do a very good job, asking unfairly difficult questions about Donny and Marie and Billy Preston. Luckily, as with the first radio show, only friends were participating. Soon after that I gave my first series of teaching talks in Japan.

For each of these experiences, I was wholly unqualified, I stumbled awkwardly, and I was subsequently mortified. But the mortification lessened with each new involvement, and I taught myself not to be cowed by my inevitable fear and discomfort. Often in such situations I would recall a (now famous) Eleanor Roosevelt quotation that my wife Kate sent me, taken from the Roosevelt book You Learn by Living:

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, “I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” … You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

I’ve used these wise words in class, and some of my most talented and accomplished former students have sent them back to me, with evidence of their ongoing bravery and determination. When it comes to our various illustrations of bravery, such as public speaking, the rewards are always worth the risks.

This past Friday I had another wrestling match with imposter syndrome, though not for the reasons recounted above. Friday night I gave the first of four readings of a commissioned poem about active-duty servicemen and veterans re-acclimating to life in California after serving overseas. Attended by 100 or more people, the event at the Gallery 625 on Court Street in Woodland highlighted the artistic accomplishments of veterans, and featured a poem by the Poet Laureate of Davis.

As the son of a Quaker, I had never considered military service. But while talking to the many artists and musicians who had so sacrificed for their country, for the first time I felt pangs of regret over this choice. Talking with such noble volunteers, I felt insufficient, inadequate. Fortunately, the commissioned poem resonated with the audience, as did a few of the others I performed for those gathered. People shared kind remarks afterwards, I got to chat with current students and treasured friends, such as the first couple of public service and the arts, Lucas and Stacie Frerichs. I also made some new friends among local veterans’ groups and the hoi polloi of the Yolo County arts scene.

During and after my poems, I was still left wondering how I might speak for these men and women who have sacrificed so much at the same time that I was merely struggling through my bonus decade of schooling as I marched steadily towards earning a PhD. In the end, I realized that I cannot speak for these heroes, but only to them and with them, and with an open heart and imagination, hoping to expose and honor some of their concerns and their ongoing resolution to serve.

Having invested so much in researching the concerns of re-acclimating veterans, as I struggled with ways that I might approach that one commissioned poem, I ended up writing so many other poems that now I have enough for a small book, one that will be published before my next “Positive Reflections: From Combat to Community” event at the Davis Cemetery and Arboretum on March 13. I might even have copies to share at my March 7 birthday party, to which you will be invited. I plan to use proceeds from book sales to set up a “Creativity Prize” for veteran students at UC Davis, and thus continue to honor in my way those young people who have made sacrifices that I continue to respect and admire.

This paragraph contains the hints. Harry S Truman once said, “America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.” Tonight’s Pub Quiz will include a few questions about America, but none about Harry Truman. Expect also questions about dramatic hunger, The Beatles, names in the news, art and art history, food and drink in Latin America, same-sex marriage, the future, author and humorist David Sedaris, populated areas, Republicans, US states, buff dudes on TV, outworn wickets, blockbuster films, unwelcome amnesia, unpleasant invitations, medical science, what football coaches and painters have in common, eponymous companies, internet culture, and Shakespeare. I haven’t written all the questions yet. Evidently some sporting event was going on yesterday, so I decided to finish the quiz on game day (our game, not Cam Newton’s).

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to seeing you tonight. Soon it will be warm enough to sit outside again, so feel free to grab your noisiest friends, and make plans to join us for the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz!

 

Your Quizmaster

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yourquizmaster@gmail.com

 

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

 

1. Hollywood Gossip. Miley Cyrus reportedly has been re-engaged to what actor over the weekend?   

 

1. Pop Culture – Music. The stage name of the musician George Alan O’Dowd is an anagram of the phrase BOGEY OGRE. Name him.

 

1. Sports.   Was Rugby primarily named after an animal, a city, a person, or a school?

 

 

P.S. There will be a remembrance of Francisco X. Alarcón at Poetry Night at 7pm (new time) on February 18^th. I hope you can attend.

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Although I try to keep the Pub Quiz and these newsletters light, sometimes a question or two will cover a substantive or darker subject. Tonight’s pub quiz, for instance, will ask a question about obesity, a topic of concern, especially for everyone who is not among the 31.2% of American adults age 20 or older who are normal weight or underweight.

That exception aside, I prefer for the Pub Quiz to be a blithe and casual affair. I see the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz as an escape just as much as I hope you do. My plan is to provide you the right sort of challenge, an opportunity to put your phones away for a couple hours, and enough humor and discovery sprinkled in to help you connect with your teammates and reflect upon what we all understand about the world.

Sometimes we desperately need such an escape, or so my son Jukie reminded me recently. As you may know from my book Where’s Jukie? and from seeing me on the streets of Davis, I have a son with a significant disability, one that is manifested in Jukie’s unusual appearance, his excitable behavior, and his extreme laconism: He hasn’t spoken a word in more than a decade.

As Kate has written about recently, we see Jukie as a blessing, as our reminder of how brave, compassionate, and loving we should try to be. The challenges that Jukie faces, and those he brings to our family, have strengthened our familiar unit, and taught our “bookend” kids some of those same lessons about humanity and empathy. As is the case with everyone in our home, we also love him like crazy.

Because I usually focus on Jukie while Kate attends to the needs of the other two kids, and because I have taken him on all his medical trips (to the NIH and Oregon Health and Science University, for example), Jukie usually behaves better for me than he does for anyone else. After years of interpreting his needs and providing him the right kinds of rewards, I have come to expect excellent behavior when I take Jukie out on adventures, such as to poetry readings, movies, and even plays. He usually obliges both his parents with excellent behavior.

This past Friday, however, Jukie was having none of it. Puberty has been strengthening the boy’s frame, his will, and his excitability. As Jukie became more and more agitated over dinner at our favorite Davis restaurant, I took it upon myself to take him out for a walk so he could calm down and not disturb the meal of the other six of us who were enjoying our veggie burgers, Dr. Andy salads, and other de Vere’s delicacies.

I’m glad I trusted my instincts. Jukie did need to be removed, for as soon as we got to the parking lot across the street, he tried to bite me, he scratched up my arms, scratched up my face while ripping my glasses off, and then purposefully broke the glasses in half. In such a situation, my job is to keep Jukie from hurting me, himself, or others, while also restraining him in such a way that he remains unharmed from our tussle. I must have done a good job, for my unscathed beloved boy eventually calmed down, choosing to clap his hands together as loud as he could, instead of continuing to clap me with his furious blows.

One of Jukie’s teachers happened to be walking by, asked if I needed any help, and then asked if she could fetch me some napkins at Baskin Robbins to help absorb the blood that was running down my face. Isn’t that a nice way to start the weekend?

I thanked the kind woman and told her that I would be fine, but that it was time for Jukie and me to walk home. Like almost everyone else, Jukie doesn’t get enough exercise, and I knew that a three mile walk home would ensure that he would be too fatigued to attack anyone else at the end of the day.

The moral of the story was actually explored back at the Pub during my blind hike home. Kate pointed out to one of our favorite servers, Pedro, that I had to leave because I was helping Jukie deal with his aggression and pent-up energy. With more candor than she usually shares with a server in a restaurant, Kate explained that our many visits to de Vere’s Irish Pub represent a respite from our chaotic and challenging life with an unpredictable kid with special needs. We appreciate the chance to step away from our responsibilities, to have someone take care of us, and to converse over healthy and delicious salads, and a glass of wine.

Shakespeare’s King Henry in Henry VI, part 3 says, “Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.” We have followed the king’s advice, even though our life with Jukie has always been more sweet than sour. But sometimes one wishes for an escape from such adversity, an interval of liquid culture and gustatory delight such as what one can enjoy at the Irish Pub.

And our regular server Pedro makes this reprieve possible. Perhaps it is because we are such regulars, but never before have I met a restaurant employee who does such an expert and prescient job of anticipating our needs, noticing empty glasses that need refills, or suggesting exactly the new food or beverage that would delight Kate’s palate. What’s more, Pedro always approaches us with the sort of humor, patience, and attentiveness that we might expect from a close friend. A patient and smiling listener, Pedro was the perfect audience for Kate’s unloading of the heavy story of this newsletter.

I’m deeply grateful to the exemplary service that we receive from all the servers and barkeeps at de Vere’s Irish Pub, Davis, but I hope that tonight you will join me in following the imperative espoused by Napoleon Dynamite: Vote for Pedro.

In addition to something mentioned above, tonight’s Pub Quiz will include questions on the following topics: office furniture, tofu, names other than Raphael or Clarence, penguins, old pipes, alleles, stadia, a long trip to China (sp?), fishermen, Greek singles, Iowa, international transparency, dense tropical foliage, hunger, U.S. presidents, short conversations with mountains, Chicago, disavowing racism, people born with a bell, uniting with do-gooders, nuns that are uncharted, African-American culture, celebrities whom I would not recognize in a police lineup, televised hats, films that are unwatchable (if not unwatched), mirrors and waterskis, Sacramento heroes, old sports, ogres that score bogeys in bonus anagrams, Davis, shades, changing minds back, cannabis, little angels, gardens, people not known by the middle name of Alan, football, and Shakespeare.

Speaking of shades, shades come up in a poem I published this morning titled “The Polls” in the People’s Vanguard of Davis. Indirectly, one can find a clue there, as well. Tomorrow night I get to read an original love poem / blues lyric at the Davis City Council. What fun!

I hope you can join us this evening for the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz. We will have one New York Times best-selling author there, and perhaps more than one.

 

Your Quizmaster

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yourquizmaster@gmail.com

 

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

 

1. World Deserts. The Atacama Desert is the driest non-polar desert in the world. On what continent is it found?

 

1. American Cities that Share a Name with Streets in East Davis. About a ten-hour drive from Davis, California, the city of Layton is found in Davis County. Name the state.

 

1. Pop Culture – Music. Who had big hits in 2015 with the songs “Cool for the Summer” and “Confident”?

 

P.S. This coming Thursday is Poetry Night in the city of Davis. I hope you will join me at 8 that night for Marit MacArthur and Matthew Woodman. Find details at http://www.poetryindavis.com. The after-party will take place Thursday at 10 at the Pub, the “third space” of Davis.

 

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

People are talking about America again. I don’t mean the country, though I’m sure that’s true, but rather the song “America” by Simon and Garfunkel. The Bernie Sanders campaign has used the beginning and end of the song, expertly edited, as the backdrop of his new political advertisement, also titled “America,” in which he highlights Sanders’ supporters: Iowans who walk though their fields, carrying hay or a calf, and the huge crowds who have come to Sanders’ rallies. Like the song, the ad says that all these (predominantly white and rural) Iowans have “come to look for America.” At the end of the ad that skillfully communicates many people’s enthusiasm for the Sanders campaign, we hear Bernie say, “I’m Bernie Sanders, and I approve this message.” As the ad is what we in poetry class would call a “paean” to America, I think that everyone from Marco Rubio to Hillary Clinton would “approve” the uplifting message of the ad.

Piqued by this engaging video, and especially by my wife Kate’s support for Sanders and love for Simon and Garfunkel, I have been listening anew to the duo’s music. Interestingly, as is the case with many of Simon’s great lyrics, the words to the actual song “America” are more complex and even dark than would be appropriate for a political campaign. Just before one of the lines that the Sanders ad quotes, about “Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike,” Simon’s speaker expressed existential anguish:

 

“Kathy, I’m lost,” I said, though I knew she was sleeping.

“I’m empty and aching and I don’t know why.”

 

One can guess why the Sanders audio editors left that bit out.

I left in some of the darkness, and added some of my own, when I recently wrote a satirical take on that poem. Some of you know that I have been assigned to write about the hopes and concerns of war veterans returning to Yolo County. Having previously written a book about 20^th century poetry called Mad Men (and this was long before the AMC TV show), I found myself writing poems about veterans’ struggles with posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. How different is the alienation of Paul Simon’s speaker, who like me is always pursuing his “Kathy,” from that of the young recruit serving overseas?

Well that is what I explored in a poem that I wrote and performed yesterday in Sacramento, “The Recruiting Station.”

 

“The Recruiting Station” (With apologies to Simon and Garfunkel)

 

“Let us be soldiers, we’ll invade some small countries together

I’ve got some armaments here in my bag”

So we bought some hand grenades, and meals ready to eat

And walked off to look for the recruiting station.

 

“Martin,” I said, as we boarded a Greyhound in Augusta

“The Georgia Dome seems like a dream to me now

It took us four hours to hitch-hike from Valdosta

I’ve come to look for the recruiting station”

 

Laughing in the tank,

Playing games with the knobs and dials

Martin said the captain in fatigues was a Bolshevik

I said, “Be careful, He’s friends with Boris Yeltsin”

 

“Toss me a needle, I keep an extra there in my holster”

“We used the last one an artery ago”

So I looked at the barbed wire, as Martin reviewed the field manual

And the coordinates came in over the radio

 

“Martin, I’ve lost my drone”, I said, though I know he was unconscious

“I keep pulling the trigger and I don’t know why”

Counting the boys who used to play football in high school

They’ve all come to look for the recruiting station

All come to look for the recruiting station

All come to look for the recruiting station

 

I hope you find what you are looking for. Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature a bunch of music questions. Expect also questions about cars, things that are purple, Cloners and Clonees, inline skates, kings and queens, warriors, book awards, halogens, California cities, the WWE, Irish air, Star Wars, young adult fiction, clashing princes, the ghostly noises made by the wealthy, Iowa, eponyms, birds, food and drink, refined polishing, three-syllable names of warriors, the extent to which no means no, confidence, continents, street names in east Davis, desiccation, sports, Irish culture, and Shakespeare.

Please join us tonight for the last Pub Quiz of January. As Hawthorne says, “Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind.”

 

Your Quizmaster

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http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

 

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

 

 

1. Mottos and Slogans.  What U company founded in 2009 uses the slogan “Where lifestyle meets logistics”?

 

1. Internet Culture. January 15 marks the birthday of Wikipedia. A number divisible by 5, how old is Wikipedia this year?

 

1. Jason Sudekis Films. The highest grossing Jason Sudekis and Emma Roberts film is the second-highest-grossing Jennifer Anniston film and the top-grossing Mexico travelogue film. Name this 2013 film.  

 

 

P.S. A remembrance of Francisco Alarcon has been planned for February 18^th at the John Natsoulas Gallery. I hope you can join us.