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

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Mottos and Slogans. What snack food uses the slogan “Dangerously Cheesy”?

Internet Culture. What company owns the first, third, and eighth most-popular smartphone apps used in 2015?

Current Events – Names in the News. What was the birth name of the musician, artist and actor known as David Bowie?

P.S. This coming Thursday is Poetry Night in the city of Davis, this time featuring Phillip Barron and Karen Terrey. Barron’s new book of poetry, What Comes from a Thing, won the 2015 Michael Rubin Book Award, and was published by Fourteen Hills Press of San Francisco. He also authored the non-fiction book The Outspokin’ Cyclist (Avenida Books, 2010), a collection of his newspaper columns on bicycling. Karen Terrey teaches at Lake Tahoe Community College and Sierra College. Her book Bite and Blood was published by Finishing Line Press. I hope you will join us at the John Natsoulas Gallery on January 21^st at 8 PM.

The David Bowie and Inviting Objections Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on January 11, 2016

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

My favorite John Ciardi poem is “Most Like an Arch This Marriage.” In the 1980s I used to hear Ciardi (1916-1986) comment on words and word histories on Morning Edition on National Public Radio. I’m sure many English majors were inspired by his wit and erudition found in the musings in a writer’s love of language.

Remembering this poem, I have used this idea of “most like an arch” in teaching writing at UC Davis since 1990. For advanced undergraduate writers, successful arguments will embrace necessary complexity and sometimes acknowledge the limitations and contradictions of those arguments. Some theorists believe that through writing we actually construct reality, and thus that challenging writing assignments will give students opportunities to practice constructing new methods of understanding the world, and of creating their own futures and value systems. As they do so, we would hope that their practice of acknowledging distinctions, limitations and contradictions will allow them to clarify and deepen their thinking.

As Ciardi puts it in his poem:

Most like an arch—two weaknesses that lean

into a strength. Two fallings become firm.

Two joined abeyances become a term

naming the fact that teaches fact to mean.
I remind my students often that they are obligated to disagree with me at least once a quarter, for in doing so they give me opportunities to strengthen and clarify my own thinking, as well as my goals for them as learners and writers. Together we can be like Ciardi’s arches, “two weaknesses that lean / into a strength.”

When a version of last week’s Pub Quiz newsletter was published in the Davis Enterprise Wednesday, it elicited a range of opinions, from the entrenched (“’White privilege’ is an overused cliche among white liberals who are doing nothing more than trying to congratulate themselves on their sensitivity”), to the dismissive (“For a place like Davisdorf [sic] to have a ‘poet laureate’ is pretentious, to say the least”), to the thoughtful (responses such as those from Elaine Musser and John Blue that I will encourage you read for yourself by visiting the Davis Enterprise website).

My favorite objection so far came from Tom Camden, a fellow south Davisite who phoned me at work Friday afternoon to discuss his concerns. He pointed out rightly that my article hadn’t represented the motivations of those who had occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Headquarters in eastern Oregon (not southern Oregon, as I had written). Camden pointed out the different ways that the Department of the Interior significantly inconveniences locals in that part of the country, and how the concerns and freedoms of those same locals are not taken into account when the US government makes decisions that affects all of them.

The protest that led to the occupation of the government building also concerned disproportionate sentencing for local ranchers and hunters who had, either inadvertently or advertently, set fire to government land that bordered property that they owned. Minimum sentencing guidelines stipulated that those found guilty of such an offense spend at least five years in prison. During a time of drought, everyone is anxious about wildfires.

Even though we only talked for about 15 minutes, I learned a lot from Tom Camden. I acknowledge the concerns of rural complainants, even though I have much deeper sympathies for residents of those urban neighborhoods who have been subjected to aggressive and sometimes lethal policing. No matter our differences, I appreciate Camden and others who disagree with me in a civil and thoughtful way, and who take the initiative to speak their minds. I try to teach similar rhetorical strategies and executive skills to my students (and my children) so that the next generation can be properly equipped to interconnect and communicate, and thus not be so easily swayed by what conservative columnist David Brooks last week called the “dark and satanic tones” of some of our prominent candidates for U.S. president.

Although in the pub the Quizmaster presents himself as infallible, in the opinion section of your local newspaper, no one has a monopoly on accuracy or the truth. As Walt Whitman says, “the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”

Tonight at the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz we will review a variety of topics with light and cerebral tones. Although the Golden Globes took place last night, I will ask you a number of questions about the Oscars. Expect also questions about snack foods, roads in Davis, Ted Cruz, mathematics (yes, a real math question) carnivorous amphibians, cities that were incorporated in the year 1900, the changing articles of popular music, American leagues, “spout” as a verb, sports writers, princesses and other royalty, acids, rancor, tom toms, how much we miss Jon Stewart, Russian armaments, single digits, missed opportunities, famous dead poets, today’s headlines, fast ships, inversions, fragrances, huge industries, great films that I have only begun to watch, great American novels, wits, meager savings, college dropout criminals, Mount Zion, fighters’ inverted brows, angry percussion techniques, tank engines, and Shakespeare.

I had written this newsletter before learning of the death of David Bowie yesterday at the age of 69. The great music and fashion icon deserves his own newsletter, but for right now I will leave you with these words from our departed courage-teacher, taken from his final album’s first song, “Lazarus”:

Look up here, I’m in heaven

I’ve got scars that can’t be seen

I’ve got drama, can’t be stolen

Everybody knows me now

I hope you can join us this evening as we raise a toast to David Bowie.

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Unusual Words: Three-letter verbs that start with the letter T. What such verb refers to handcrafting a particularly durable lace from a series of knots and loops?

Star Wars Characters. What character in a Star Wars film speaks this famous line? “He’s no good to me dead”?

Name the Band. Dave Grohl, Pat Smear, Nate Mendel, Taylor Hawkins, and Chris Shiflett.

P.S. Congratulations to the Pub Quiz team Portraits – they earned a perfect score last week, the first time that has happened in the history of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz.

The White Privilege in Washington Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on January 4, 2016

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

In the late spring of 2004 I returned to my onetime hometown of Washington DC, fondly remembered because of the the time I got to spend with Marcel Prather and Juan LaBarca, two of my closest friends from high school and the Tenley Circle Theatre. Upon my arrival, the three of us met for a late-late night glass of wine (it was three hours earlier for me), and then I convinced Marcel to drive me to some of our old haunts.

Marcel dutifully drove us through Georgetown, up Wisconsin Avenue, and finally to the North Georgetown neighborhood of my childhood home, a 1,300-foot row house on Tunlaw Road. I love that neighborhood, that street, and that home. Although my parents separated when I was young, and we didn’t have a lot of money, I associate my childhood with creativity, discovery, and joy, all the qualities I try to foster in my adult life today.

Camera in hand, I jumped out of the car and started photographing everything: the huge tree that shaded my lemonade stand when I was six years old, the shrubs that I had to trim at least three times a summer in order to earn an allowance, the brick walk where my brother and I played two-square, and the foreboding iron knocker on the front door, one that to me always resembled the late Jacob Marley.

At one point, my friend Marcel took me aside and asked me if I was familiar with white privilege. Stifling an uneasy laugh, Marcel suggested that if he were snapping photographs, or doing anything suspicious on Tunlaw Road in north Georgetown, the local police would a) be summoned by the locals, and b) not be amused by Marcel at all, and c) probably greet him with unholstered weapons.

As you might guess from his remarks, Marcel is African-American, and I am (as you may have noticed, mostly) Caucasian. Perhaps it was only the wine or the jet lag talking, but I felt no concern about gallivanting about my old neighborhood at two in the morning. Audacious and I’m sure unwelcome, I felt comfortable disturbing the peace the way I was doing in my old neighborhood; perhaps I felt it my birthright.

With some mortification, I have reflected on this episode twice in the last week. The first time came when we learned that the Cleveland officers who shot and killed the 12 year-old African-American boy Tamir Rice would not be indicted by a grand jury. Although Ohio is an “open carry” state that requires no permit or even registration of handguns, Rice was shot within two seconds of being approached by the police cruiser of the two officers involved. The police dispatcher had been told that the gun Rice was playing with was “probably fake” and that Tamir was “probably a juvenile.” Both assumptions turned out to be true.

Also last week we learned that a sizable group of armed men have taken over the Malheur National Wildlife Headquarters in southern Oregon. Backed by the members of local militias, one of the leaders of the armed takeover of government property, Ammon Bundy, said at a news conference that his group “had not heard from law enforcement.”

Had these armed men been African American or Americans of Middle Eastern descent, would they have “heard” from law enforcement by now? Instead, as the Washington Post reported Sunday morning, “Harney County Sheriff David M. Ward said authorities from several law enforcement organizations were monitoring the ongoing incident.” I can think of many violent incidents on the streets of American cities – one thinks of Chicago, Baltimore, or Cleveland – that would have been better remedied through this sort of “monitoring.”

Meanwhile for some guidance on how best to describe the antics of Ammon Bundy and his militia friends, consider the FBI’s “Definitions of Terrorism in the U.S. Code”:

“Domestic terrorism” means activities with the following three characteristics:

Involve acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law;
Appear intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination. or kidnapping; and
Occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S.

In this instance, I would follow the abductive reasoning definition best expressed idiomatically by the American poet James Whitcomb Riley: “When I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck.”

Of course, worldwide there are many species of duck, from the Black East Indian Duck to the Ukrainian White Duck. I wonder which variety of duck would most likely to be hunted here in the U.S., and which sort would enjoy the privilege of flying and alighting on government land, unmolested.

Welcome to 2016! Tonight expect Pub Quiz questions on Point Reyes (which I got to visit yesterday), three-letter verbs, names that start with the letter C, Irish expats, traveling Scots, problem plays, penury, quick thinkers, hit songs with up and coming features, superheroes, successful films, meteors in southern California, the purposes of coffee, famous subjects, books that have sold more than 15 million copies, animation, Goldie Hawn, members of the band, creatures that are as tiny as a can, famous lines, glue, the Crimean War, favorite poets, Star Wars, little knots, senators, George and Johnny’s team, Compton, giants, art and art history, X-Men, AI, funny remarks by little old ladies, film and Shakespeare.

Have you made any resolutions for 2016? Let me know if you have resolved to miss no Pub Quizzes this year. With this bully pulpit, I will provide you some accountability. See you tonight.

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Internet Culture: Instagram. Disneyland, last year’s most Instagrammed place, didn’t make the list this year, perhaps because of the magic kingdom’s ban on selfie sticks. Two California locales were in the top ten, with the Golden Gate Bridge at number 10, and what Los Angeles landmark (1000 Elysian Park Ave, in the Echo Park neighborhood) at number 5?

Flax. The names of the genus of flax, the oil made from flax, and the cloth made from flax all start with the same three letters. What DO we call textiles made from flax?

U.S. States. The capital of the Yellowhammer State starts with M, while the state’s largest city starts with B. Name the state.

P.S. This coming Thursday, January 7^th, is Poetry Night in the city of Davis. A bunch of us will gather at 8 PM at the John Natsoulas Gallery (521 1^st Street) for some creative fun. This time Poetry Night offers an OPEN MIC to whomever would like to join us for poetry, prose, or song. Surely you are adept at one of these three, so plan to share your talents or sample others’ this coming Thursday night. Details to be had at http://www.poetryindavis.com.

Perhaps in one of the poems I present at Poetry Night this week I will REVEAL the ANSWER to one of the following Monday’s quiz questions. Perhaps it will be a hard one, such as the ANAGRAM. Would that be worth it? Also, the after party takes place at our familiar Pub. If you were to join us late Thursday night, you would find me to be much more hospitable and humane than that guy who walks around with the loud microphone Monday nights. Picture it!

The Holiday Interregnum Activities Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on December 28, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

“Christmas is over when I say it is.” A lovely woman said that to me yesterday, turning up the volume of the holiday music. Pandora users, we can listen to Christmas music all year, if we want to. Every genre has its own station. Kate prefers the sort of choral music that she sang in Chicagoland and Japan rather than mid-century pop holiday hits, so our home continues to be filled with beautiful voices, lifted in harmony.

Kate’s Mom left for the Chicago airport early Saturday morning, and she arrived (34 hours later) in Sacramento International Airport well after sundown Sunday evening. The path of her flight aligned precisely with the path of the storm system that was moving slowly across a huge swath of the Midwest yesterday. As the second leg of her four-city plane tour touched down in Dallas, so did deadly tornadoes, tossing cars around like rejected Christmas presents, and damaging hundreds of buildings. Measured in dollars, the freak storms probably did more damage than was earned by The Force Awakens during the same time period, and that is saying a lot. Today, as I write, strong blizzards are descending upon New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, compelling governors to declare states of emergency throughout the southwest. And in Chicago, as a friend recently informed us on Facebook, it is “raining ice.”

We think of those afflicted by this awful weather as we gather for our second post-December 25^th Christmas here in south Davis. My early morning composing time remains calm. Grammy Jo has earned her sleep, and my son Truman is pacing the living room, eyeing the last remaining presents under the tree, those that Jo had sent before her trip, and which she will watch the kids open in a couple hours. I think this time of the year – Boxing Day, and then this peaceful interregnum between Christmas and New Year’s Eve – is one of the most peaceful and anticipated in our house. I need such peace if I am going to keep up with my poetry responsibilities, such as those featured on the front page of last Wednesday’s Davis Enterprise.

Also on this break I get to spend time deep-reading something other than student essays and reports on learning management systems, Kate and I consider whether the extended edition of the Lord of the Rings trilogy on DVD is appropriate for the children, and we greet other recovering families out walking the greenbelts of Davis, happy to have the consumerist intensity of Christmas morning behind us. Perhaps during this unhurried time with the family we will revisit the Arboretum, stop by the Pence Gallery (which celebrates its 40^th anniversary this year), and return to the Irish Pub for a huge salad with eggs and avocados. My email traffic drops to about 10% of normal during the holiday break, indicating that most of the people who need something from me are, as the Steve Miller Band says, “right here, right here, right here, right here at home.” I hope the same is true for you.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on The Golden Gate Bridge, the effect of Donald Trump in New Hampshire, The Labrador Peninsula, baseball, oils, influenza, birds with naming rights, Bruce Springsteen, continents, American potentates, Instagram, the habits of snakes, heroes from Connecticut, varnishes, shadows, horses, yellow hammers, defeats, Los Angeles neighborhoods, masks, remaining territories, unlikely bobsledders, the remaining splendor of departed princes, joyous employers, star-gazing, Polynesia, informal capitals, invented economic headlines, Star Wars, political thrillers, talking bears, stadiums, dark chocolate, the practices of avatar wing sororities, selfie sticks, listening devices, centripetal forces, rejected shadows, mobility in the south, and Shakespeare.

Typically the last Pub Quiz of the year contains “year-end” questions that help us reflect on the ending year. You might remember this one from last year: “What are the five letters in the name of the Russian city where the 2014 Winter Olympics took place?” I’m sure that many great things happened in 2015 – one thinks of marriage equality in the U.S., for example – but with the deaths of B.B. King and Philip Levine, the rise of our national “shock jock” of boorish xenophobia, and acts of terrorism here and abroad, I have forgone this annual tradition. Instead expect five questions on one of the topics mentioned above.

I’ve really enjoyed the time we have spent together this year. I hope you can join us tonight of the last Pub Quiz of 2015!

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Actresses. Born in 1980, what actress and singer played the title roles in Veronica Mars and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, as well as the voice of Anna in the film Frozen?

Sports. Who was the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2004, the NBA scoring champion in 2008, and the AP Athlete of the Year in 2013?

Science. The name of the fifth most common tree in the US is an anagram of the common phrase SQUEAKING PAN. Name the tree.

P.S. Thanks to Senator and Mayor Wolk and their team for joining us at the Pub Quiz last week. When local celebrities join us, whether it be Bob Dunning, John Lescroart, or the Wolk family, I always give them a hard time, joshing with them about their eminent status in the community or bringing up some mild controversy in local politics or public affairs. Does such treatment incentivize their Pub Quiz participation with just the attention that many celebrities crave, or do these mild and incidental roasts make them think twice before returning to de Vere’s on a Monday night? Time will tell.

The Star Wars Redux Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on December 21, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I’ll blame the rain for the late publication of today’s newsletter. Someone left the minivan hatchback open overnight, so we had an opportunity to use the shop-vac, a delightful way to start a holiday-week Monday.

Everyone (also known as “no one”) was wondering if Hillary Clinton would say “happy holidays” or “Merry Christmas” at the end of her final prepared remarks at Saturday’s Democratic debate. Instead, she took the safe route, concluding with “May the Force be with you.”

Some say (in Rolling Stone) that the comment was a nod to Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams, who donated half a million dollars to a pro-Clinton PAC. Others might recognize that the film didn’t need Clinton’s help, having already cleared $525 million worldwide, on its way to joining Avatar and Titanic in the total gross $2 billion club. Rather, one might say that Clinton needs the help of Star Wars. When something is incredibly popular, marketing consultants recommend that you try to link that brand to your brand, whether you are a blog, a company, or a political candidate.

This thirst for exposure, for news coverage, has driven many third-tier Republicans to attack Donald Trump. As is the case with Star Wars, the media cover what everyone’s talking about. As Rand Paul said in an interview yesterday, the constant coverage of the polls becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy, with a regrettable focus on specious candidates who know how to manipulate the news cycle and who, according to Paul, are eager to entangle us in additional costly conflicts overseas.

As you may remember from my May the 4^th newsletter, I have much to say about Star Wars. This week friends and acquaintances have had to hear me re-tell some of my favorite Star Wars stories, such as about seeing the first film before every other child in Washington DC, about seeing the A New Hope 19 times in the theatre (mostly at the Uptown), about meeting the cast of The Empire Strikes Back (including the three stars, though neither Alec Guinness nor James Earl Jones joined us at the Kennedy Center on that day), and about taking the kids I used to babysit to see Return of the Jedi over and over again. By the end of 1983, I had had my fill of Ewoks.

Every other Star Wars film was released in May, but The Force Awakens has been released in late December, and will dominate the theaters throughout the Christmas holiday. I previously asked you if May the 4^th will someday become an actual holiday. If Disney releases the rest of the Star Wars films in December, Star Wars may come close to supplanting a holiday. Every December around the world people will be reflecting on the parentage of a boy born to humble beginnings, or of a future Jedi born to humble beginnings. For many of us, it will be both.

Although I will not see The Force Awakens 19 times in the theatre, I do need to see it again to discover what I had missed. Our shared myths deserve to be reexamined from time to time. May the Force be with you.

In addition to something mentioned above, tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions about Martians, the ends of tragedies, AYSO, strategic withdrawals, uninspiring words, self-regard, gasoline, fireworks, Djibouti, 4000 pixels of Irish green, green spikes, King John’s memorable moment, the topics discussed by women, countries of the world, nine-letter names, four-letter titles, separatists, award nominations, pedaling income, titles with four letters in them, A-E, enlightening synonyms, people who are not boxers, pans that squeak, memorable athletes, platinum rivers, popular bells, John Madden, brand name Sierra, bombing runs, Philippians on Twitter, innovation, Disney, briefings, Forbes, hopelessness and Shakespeare.

No Bothans were harmed in the creation of this newsletter. I hope you can join us tonight.

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Pop Culture – Music. Of the ten Jackson siblings born in Gary, Indiana, which was the youngest?

Sports. Born in Long Beach in 1943, what American former World No. 1 professional tennis player won 39 Grand Slam titles and founded the Women’s Tennis Association and the Women’s Sports Foundation?

Science. Starting with the letter G, what medical condition is caused by elevated levels of uric acid in the blood?

P.S. Congratulations to Portraits for winning the Pub Quiz last week. Soon I will let you know how you can win a copy of my 2016 Pub Quiz book. Happy holidays! I will see you tonight, and at the movies.

The Prescience of Al Gore Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on December 14, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Like many longtime residents of the city of Davis, I saw Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth at the Varsity Theatre on 2^nd Street. The owner of that theater, Sinisa Novakovic, told me that the Gore film was doing better in Davis than in most other cities. Some might consider us a city of scientists. The highly educated and aggressive citizenry of our hometown understood the importance of climate change, and appreciated the vice president’s exhaustively presented evidence that we all needed to be concerned.

Of course, not every city was as receptive to this message. When An Inconvenient Truth was released, we were in the minority. As we approach the 10th anniversary of the release of that film, we can look around and see that many more people agree with Al Gore today than did a decade ago. The wild and sometimes destructive weather that the earth has endured over the last decade has helped to convince many of the precarious state of our planet, and the role our energy policies have in bringing about these climactic causes for concern.

Although climate change talks in Copenhagen in 2009 failed for a variety of reasons, the world still made more progress there than they had with the Kyoto Accords, partially because the United States and other top polluters such as China and India would not agree to ratify any treaty that legally bound them to cut carbon dioxide emissions. According to a recent article in the New York Times, the Paris Accords were successful because of geopolitical changes in attitude about climate change, and because of all of the immediate evidence of coming climate calamities. The Times article also commends French diplomacy for getting the hundreds of participating countries to the table, and keeping us there until there was something for us to sign.

National Public Radio pointed out that the French president commended the early work of Al Gore, who was present for the announcement. When Al Gore stood up to be acknowledged, representatives from many countries cheered and applauded wildly. Many Davis children have added “World Peace” to their Christmas request lists for Santa. Although that possibility seems less and less likely these days, at least we have made some steps to fend off an equally dire threat to our planet. I hope our current and future leaders will have the imagination and fortitude to uphold the Paris Accords and future climate change prevention agreements.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on one of the topics raised above, as well as snow crystals, Olympic gold medals, national teams, starting gate success, Battlestar Galactica, vitamins in unexpected places, longtime allies, Irish heroes, happy countries, popular films, the difference between lightning and the lightning bug, mutant horses, Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters, celebrated rotundity, elfish delineations, high school musicals, rapid-fire questions, mathematics, witty remarks, the legacy of racism, medical conditions, grand slams, Santa Claus, the youngest of nine living siblings, Star Wars, musical problems, Facebook, the effect of black Friday, beloved poems, and Shakespeare. Make sure to have a member of your team reflect on each of these topics.

Speaking of Pub Quiz teams, I ran into one of the members of the perennially contending Moops at the Davis public library on Saturday. Somehow I imagined that he was conducting research for a pub quiz that I had not yet written. Unlike your Quizmaster, that quiz participant was thinking about library fines and a recent trip, rather than conducting research. What is your favorite way to prepare for a trivia contest? It’s important to read ahead, but this is not exactly an exam that one can cram for.

I hope you can join us tonight at the Irish pub.

Your Quizmaster

I hope you enjoyed all the H place questions last week. Some of you had forgotten about Hanoi, but almost all of you remembered Halifax. Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Mexico. Two creatures appear on the Mexican flag. One is an eagle. What is the other?

Pop Culture – Music. What perambulating band’s most popular hit has been the 2014 song “Shut Up + Dance”?

Sports. Born in 1935 and still alive today, Willie O’Ree broke the color barrier in what sport?

P.S. A Pub Quiz book should have questions and answers, certainly, but what else? How might a book best represent the fun we have Monday evenings? Send your ideas to yourquizmaster@gmail.com. Thanks!

The Prism of American History Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on December 7, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

When facing trouble and uncertainty, some people turn to leaders who offer certainties. Through charisma, self-praise, manipulation of the media, and patience for idolatry, the demagogue stirs up people’s fears, and promises himself as the force that can return order to the community.

It’s difficult not to think of Donald Trump when reading these words. A Sacramento Bee editorial from this past Friday, titled “Donald Trump is a demagogue and a danger to democracy,” explores these concerns, opining that “Trump is an accomplished demagogue and a clear and present danger to American democracy.”

The Bee argues that “We underestimate Trump at our peril. He is a master of 21st-century media, yet he must be seen through the prism of American history. He is the latest in a long line of thuggish public figures who incited hatred and sowed division.”

I appreciated that the Bee provided historical context for men like Trump, reminding us that during “the Great Depression, there was Father Charles Coughlin, the first to use the power of radio to promote bigotry. During the Cold War, there was Sen. Joe McCarthy, who recklessly smeared loyal Americans as Communists. During the 1960s civil rights movement, a racist Gov. George Wallace stood as a symbol of segregation.”

All of these American knaves needed perceived outsiders to blame for the uncertainty and threats facing the nation. After the recent senseless slaughter in San Bernardino—a couple killing many of the people who had hosted their baby shower earlier this year—the political rhetoric has become more intense and strident, and the focus of national political discussions has shifted. As many shaken Americans look to Muslims and people from the Middle East with greater distrust and fear, the standing of certain presidential candidates becomes solidified (Trump and Clinton), while others with less experience or braggadocio regarding foreign affairs (such as Carson and Sanders) are seeming to fade. The political discussions provide starkly differing opinions on what makes America exceptional.

Meanwhile, we all have much to learn about the participants in our multicultural society, whether you call America a melting pot (a term made popular by a 1909 play of the same name), or a patchwork quilt, as Jesse Jackson famously put it in a 1988 speech. My dad’s former workplace in Washington DC, TV station WUSA, recently shared footage of an angry man telling people at a community meeting in a Virginia mosque that “Every one of you are terrorists.” How does one respond to such an accusation? He added, “You can smile at me, you can say whatever you want, but every Muslim is a terrorist.”

This past Friday I attended some talks that explored what might be called the other end of the spectrum of political understanding and engagement. Assuming that we will confront terrorism, alienation, and isolating religious extremism with something other than merely sorties in Syria, we might wonder what approach we should take instead. One that focuses on education, suggests Keith David Watenpaugh, Director of Human Rights Studies at UC Davis. In his keynote address at a UC Davis conference titled “Syria’s Lost Generation: A Human Rights Challenge to American Higher Education,” Watenpaugh posited that young Syrian refugees are eager to seek out higher education in neighboring countries, in Europe, and in the United States.

With Watenpaugh and other cognizant and conscientious faculty here, UC Davis is well situated to shoulder our part of what I see as a universal responsibility to offer refuge to those escaping war, terror, and oppressive regimes. Insofar as ISIS wishes to foment dissension, seclusion, and animosity among American Muslims, I feel we can best defeat ISIS by challenging prejudice and inhospitality. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Pit race against race, religion against religion, prejudice against prejudice. Divide and conquer! We must not let that happen here.”

Meanwhile, as has happened too often, today we are given reason to reflect on the curtailed lives cut short by the gun of a madman or a misdirected fanatic. In silence or out loud, we read the names in the newspaper, or on memorial stones. A shadow has darkened the holidays. Rather than being swayed by demagoguery during this challenging time, let such occasions remind us of our shared values and fill us with resolve to be what Abraham Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature.”

Tonight’s pub quiz will feature a number of questions on geography, a perennial gap in the educations of Americans. In fact, Mark Twain once said, “God created war so that Americans would learn geography.” Expect also questions on sports teams named after animals, pollution, popular clubs from the late 1980s, faraway flags, Greek adhesives, speeches given by the newly-announced California Poet Laureate Dana Gioia, international courts, countries even less populous than Ireland, Horace Greeley, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, race relations, California cities, gold stars, countries that are not Hungary, misfit stranglers, music genres, Star Wars, high-value Scrabble letters, posthumous votes, visible light, color barriers, inspiration provided by The Police, Mexico, Netflix, welcome assessments, popular oils, presidential elections, and Shakespeare.

My first book of trivia will be published in 2016. If you have enjoyed the Pub Quiz and would like to say something nice about the questions I ask, or the Pub Quiz experience at de Vere’s Irish Pub, please drop me an email filled with quotable acclaim at yourquizmaster@gmail.com. I will be including some blurbs from local notables inside and even on the back cover of the new book, and perhaps I can include you. Thanks, and see you tonight!

Your Quizmaster

I hope you enjoyed all the Will Ferrell questions last week. Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Mottos and Slogans. Starting with the letter A, what company calls itself “The Company for Women”?

Internet Culture. The Raspberry Pi foundation has just released the latest in its series of credit card–sized single-board computers, the Raspberry Pi Zero. How much does it cost? $500, $50, or $5?

California Colleges and Universities. According to Google maps, the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California is a Jesuit university that is just over 100 miles from Davis if one takes 80 west and then 680 south. Name the university.

The Colorado Heartache Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on November 30, 2015

Colorado’s Garden of the Gods

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Like everyone, I am shocked and anguished by the shootings at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Although I haven’t spent more than a week of my life in Colorado, to me the attack felt personal.

I should say up front that I am a big fan of free or affordable health care. I know from choices made by my family and friends that preventative care can save us not only from aches, but from heartaches, and that choosing to neglect a nagging pain or discomfort can lead to diagnoses that are shocking to everyone except the person who concealed his ailment. For a society to add or event accept financial barriers to health care seems unscrupulous, and, in the long term, fiscally unwise.

Over the decades Planned Parenthood has stepped in to help many women and some men catch and treat a variety of ailments, often setting up clinics in neighborhoods that could benefit the most from additional medical and counseling personnel. Here’s how one of my university colleagues wrote about her experience on Facebook: “[Planned Parenthood] was there for me when I needed basic female care but could not afford it. If I had [had] cancer, thyroid disease, or any other illness, PP would have caught it through the important screening that they do. I was 27 before I had access to a health insurance plan. I too stand with PP.”

In the interest of full disclosure, I should quickly add that my wife (and hero) Kate worked for Planned Parenthood in Sacramento for many years. At her clinic she drew blood, gave test results, and counseled women on a variety of concerns and ailments, including treatments for cervical cancer. Later she came to coordinate the prenatal program at her clinic, counseling women on health, nutrition, and psychosocial topics, all in an effort to make sure that her patients gave birth to healthy babies. As someone who scheduled many Cesarean sections, she also ended up choosing the birthdays of many Sacramento babies, including some who are probably graduating from UC Davis this coming spring.

While Kate and her patients adored one another, there were also harrowing elements of working in a women’s health clinic. The view out her office window was partially obscured by a bullet hole. She and her colleagues regularly underwent precautionary trainings on suspicious packages and live shooters. Protesters have screamed awful things to her on the way to work, one of them nicknaming Kate “the baby-faced baby killer.” No abortions were performed in her particular clinic, but everyone there believed in and supported the right and freedom of a woman being able to make decisions about her own body. And in this way, they agreed with half of Americans (according to a May 2015 Gallup poll), and a majority of Californians.

People are free to disagree, and different political and faith traditions will ensure a variety of opinions on controversial topics of the day (immigration, the death penalty, gun control, as well as abortion). I am troubled, though, by the heated, inflammatory, and jingoistic rhetoric that we are hearing from some candidates for president, and I don’t just mean Donald Trump. Senator Lindsay Graham once said that as president he would unilaterally execute any American who he believes is “thinking about joining al-Qaeda or ISIL.” Due process? Speaking of the late racist from North Carolina, Ted Cruz once said, “We need a hundred more like Jesse Helms in the U.S. Senate.” Perhaps most famously, at the September Republican debate Carly Fiorina made up grisly narratives that could not even be found in the creatively edited secret illegal surveillance videos created by the misleadingly titled “Center for Medical Progress.” One wonders if such rhetoric inspires or justifies in some a violent response.

I disagree politically with Ted Cruz, but of all the Republicans running for president, he was the first and for a while the only leading Republican who shared a message of concern about the Colorado clinic attack, in which one police officer and two Planned Parenthood clients were gunned down with an AK-47. Ted Cruz said, “Praying for the loved ones of those killed, those injured & first responders who bravely got the situation under control in Colorado Springs.” As I read this, I wondered for a moment if Cruz deserved admiration and respect on this matter. I remember thinking that maybe he is a maverick who is willing to break substantively with his fellow candidates, if a mere expression of empathy and prayer can be considered a significant risk.

And then this afternoon, CNN reported this: “When a reporter told [Ted] Cruz that the suspect in the Colorado Springs killings is alleged to have mentioned ‘baby parts’ after his arrest, the Texas senator responded, ‘Well, it’s also been reported that he was registered as an independent and a woman and transgendered leftist activist, if that’s what he is.’” The political stridency once again obscures humanity, to the disappointment of us all.

Add me to the long list of people who today mourn the deaths of Jennifer Markovsky, mother of two; Ke’Arre M. Stewart, an Iraq War veteran and father to one; and Garrett Swasey, the police officer who had once won a gold medal in ice dancing in the U.S. junior national championships. Swasey was the father of two young children. Let’s all consider what we can learn from their lives, and the way they ended.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on companies with female CEOs, berries of various sorts (two questions), The Beatles, people named Henry, furious anger, baseball stories, metric measurements, sugar, The Louvin Brothers, navigable rivers, communication technologies indicators, sequel extravaganzas, the ocelot of words, the man upstairs, spoof actors, wailer grannies, people who have forgotten rule #5 and will be reminded of it this evening, Nielsen, musical theatre, complex words that start with the letter D, active cautioning, prominent Native Americans, frequencies, people who we think of as Americans but who were actually born in foreign countries (such as Ted Cruz), Jesuits, newspaper headlines, and Shakespeare.

I hope you can join us this evening for the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz!

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Pop Culture – Music. “(I Get Knocked Down)” is the subtitle of Chumbawumba’s biggest hit back in 1997. What is the one-word T title of this song?

Sports. What shooting guard had 53 points against the Pelicans on Halloween this year (2015)?

Science. Using its Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, the company SpaceX has recently won a NASA contract to fly astronauts to what?

P.S. It’s Poetry Night this coming Thursday night at 8 at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Will you join us?

The Jealous Nancy Pelosi Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on November 23, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

For the first time ever, I have relinquished my newsletter duty, handing it over to a Pub Quiz regular, Allie Rubin, a PhD student in Geology who is the team captain of that perpetually contending team known as Trivia Newton John. Let’s see what she has to say.
I have been granted one of the highest honors in the land! Dr. Andy has invited me to write a Pub Quiz newsletter. President Obama called this morning with his congratulations. “Not now, Obama!” I shouted into my phone. “I am very busy writing the Pub Quiz newsletter!” He said he understood, and we made a date to get brunch next week, which we will not be Instagramming because Nancy Pelosi always gets upset when we don’t invite her. Because I am a benevolent genius, I’ve decided to give you a quick rundown of some recent current events in case they’re the subject of any questions at the Pub Quiz this week:

Donald Trump: Mr. Trump is running for President in 2016. He is doing exceptionally well in the polls given that 1) he may actually just be a latex weather balloon filled with wig scraps and 2) his proposed policies are so fascist that he has already been cast as the villain in the next Indiana Jones movie. You should vote for Donald Trump if you think Mr. Potter is the true hero of It’s a Wonderful Life, or if you have ever burned a child’s lemonade stand to the ground.

Jimmy Iovine: Apple executive Jimmy Iovine recently said that Apple Music makes it easy to find new music, especially for women, because “women find it very difficult at times… to find music.” Mr. Iovine’s comments were denounced as sexist and insulting, but I found them insightful because I am a lady, and whenever I search for things on iTunes I always end up having to pull over and ask someone for directions. Once, I tried to download Adele and I ended up purchasing an actual Dell! I can’t buy the new Drake song even though I’ve sent multiple handwritten requests to both Drake and my computer! It is very hard to “have it all”!

Basketball: Basketball is possibly still happening. (I don’t know. I’m generally not prepared for the basketball questions. Like any true indoor kid, I prefer to sit quietly and wait for the Shakespeare question.)

Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching! Here are some things for which you should give thanks this year: coffee, the fact that George Lucas is not in charge of the new Star Wars movie, the rise of industrialism that has made it possible for me to buy clothes instead of weaving them from coarse natural fibers, One Direction, sleepy puppies, and olive oil.

Now that you have been armed with these exciting and 100% accurate facts, I hope you will join us at the Pub Quiz tonight. I’ve been attending the Pub Quiz for about four years, and as a scientist and an overly competitive person (no one wants to play Monopoly with me anymore unless a real estate lawyer is present), I’ve spent a lot of time trying to analyze why trivia is something I enjoy. Why do I experience genuine frustration and rage when I can’t remember the name of a Nicki Minaj song? Isn’t the fact that there are over 300 billion stars in the Milky Way enough to make my very existence, to say nothing of the amount of time it takes me to unscramble an anagram, seem meaningless? Why did de Veres’ decision to remove the pulled pork sandwich from their menu feel like a personal betrayal, when in fact a) it decidedly was not and b) I could make my own pulled pork sandwiches at home with just a modicum of effort?

As it turns out, there is no grand spiritual reason why I go to trivia each Monday. Sometimes it’s just fun to go to a crowded restaurant and turn off your phone and drink beer surrounded by your friends and fellow Davisites. It’s fun to participate in events that foster a strong sense of community, even if it is kind of bizarrely Ayn Rand-y that the prime objective of the Pub Quiz is for one small group to triumph over the rest of said community. And it’s fun to spend precious time and money glaring at your friends for two hours in the hope of winning a used DVD copy of Spy Game, something my team has done.

I hope to see you all at the Pub Quiz tonight, where the topics will range from hummus to famous Italian traitors to overrated shellfish. Also expect questions on barley, toe socks that cut off your circulation because they shrunk in the wash, and the rule of threes. As always, the winners will receive a $50 gift card to a defunct Borders in Newark; the losers will be tied to a chair and forced to moderate the comments on an NPR article about gun control.

Thanks to Allie for filling in admirably!

Here are the actual hints for tonight’s Quiz. Expect questions on Leslie Nielsen movies, injured superheroes, lilies, a rung Bel, Roman guides, ragtime music, taxi drivers, people named York, American inventors, funny ladies, populous cities, big farms, men who have won acting’s highest honor, nuns with funny accents, people named Harry, villains, wet and windy landscapes, Baptists, leftover rockers, money for nothing, comparing a month to a moth, rich people’s sports, space travel, Halloween pelicans, getting back up, respect, the difficulty of saying “thank you,” bard adaptations, places that start with B, football records, people who need no “haircut help,” styles of styli, imaginative slogans, and Shakespeare. Find other hints via social media.

Because Davis schools and other colleges now take the entire week of Thanksgiving off, tonight I anticipate our being awash with teachers and visiting alumni from Davis High and other schools. As a result, I encourage you to join us early to claim a table. My perambulating wife Kate and I will arrive around 6 to enjoy a Dr. Andy Salad, soon to be added to the Pub Quiz menu.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Sequels. This year in 2015 we saw the release of a sequel whose May 15–17 $69M opening weekend gross set a record for a first-time director, in this case Elizabeth Banks. Name the film.

Food and Drink. In South Africa, what T substance is used to give boiled white rice a golden color?

Pop Culture – Music. In what decade did the band New Order release the most albums and have the most hits on the US dance charts?

P.S. Have I told you that I am working on a Pub Quiz book? I hope the E-book will come out before the holidays, and the paperback in 2016.

The Golden City of Our Soul Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on November 16, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

As a child I found myself practicing grief in Paris, a city I have yet to visit.

At one time the saddest film I was allowed to see, and perhaps at times the most playful, was The Red Balloon by Albert Lamorisse. It presents a boy named Pascal who, at about the age I was when I first watched the film at summer camp, finds his only friend, a magical red balloon with a mind of its own. For 34 minutes of this short Oscar-winning 1956 film the red balloon follows Pascal through the Belleville neighborhood of Paris. Seemingly the boy’s only friend, the balloon joins the boy on many adventures before encountering a willful and violent end, as happens to many of our playthings. Sensitive and heartbroken for Pascal, I practiced grief while watching that film, exploring the pity and fear that Aristotle would come to warn me about.

Paris remained for me a city of beauty and magic that was marked by loss. An American in Paris, which I saw a year or two later, explored similar themes as the Lamorisse short, but with more dancing, and with kinder children. These films, and books with Paris settings that I had devoured during those years – I’m thinking of the Babar and Madeline book series – froze Paris for me at the mid-century, as if the city’s ancient cathedrals and majestic bridges would render it immune, and perhaps haughtily superior, to the noisy technologies of later eras. As was the case with my childhood hometown of Washington DC (which was modeled on Paris), citywide caps of tall buildings in the French capital would ensure that one could see the central Eiffel Tower, the sustaining symbol of an earlier age, from many distant Paris arrondissements.

Today the City of Lights, the city of cafes and art museums, of bridges and bookshops, this European mecca of culture, is wounded and reeling. We see the city and all of Europe just as we see our friends on social media, through our tears, and through the tricoleur flag of France. I remain grateful for the lessons our oldest ally taught our country’s founders about liberty, equality, and fraternity. In the spirit of all three, let us stand in solidarité with Paris during this dark hour. With candles in our windows, let every city be a city of lights.

At times of grief, we sometimes turn to the poets, those practiced at representing emotions deep and mixed. Here is a poem by the English poet and writer Wilfrid Scawen Blunt. It is titled “A New Pilgrimage: Sonnet VI”:

Away from sorrow! Yes, indeed, away!

Who said that care behind the horseman sits?

The train to Paris, as it flies to–day,

Whirls its bold rider clear of ague fits.

Who stops for sorrows? Who for his lost wits,

His vanished gold, his loves of yesterday,

His vexed ambitions? See, the landscape flits

Bright in his face, and fleeter far than they.

Away! away! Our mother Earth is wide;

And our poor lives and loves of what avail?

All life is here; and here we sit astride

On her broad back, with Hope’s white wings for sail,

In search of fortune and that glorious goal,

Paris, the golden city of our soul.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions about honey, comedy, bank notes, towns in Kansas, second rounds, presidents on trains, our happier cousins, Avenger rankings, cinematic typecasting, protagonists of notable books, foreign languages, transportation (five questions), unsanctioned joy rides, the ends of kings and doctors, bicycling alternatives, mononyms, California’s Central Valley, ballroom dancing, lists that end with shrubbery, wallet stalwarts, Twitter followers, musical numbers, silver and gold, sequels, South African cooking, the dance charts, iPhone sales, Scrabble scores of 21, current events and Shakespeare. There will be no questions on Charlie Sheen.

Do come join us tonight at the Irish Pub. If you come early, you and your team will be given a table where you can sit to tell stories over a refreshing beverage. Raise a toast to the people of Paris.

Your Quizmaster