Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I was “outed” in the newspaper last week. It’s true. It may be an “open secret” in many circles that I host a weekly trivia contest in an Irish pub in downtown Davis, but many of my colleagues at the University don’t know that I spend my time thus. On many an occasion I have encountered professional workmates at the Pub who impressed upon me how much respect they once had for me as a scholar and teacher. Perhaps this is why you won’t find my last name on my website or in the signature file of emails that I send out as your quizmaster. My lovely wife Kate has often questioned whether my attempts to maintain these two identities, and really, it should be said, a number of other identities as well, were at all practical or practicable. During my 14 years of hosting “Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour” on local radio station KDVS, and in my professional resume which now stretches to an unwieldy 27 pages, you won’t find me mentioning the words “pub quiz.”

That said, this is how a Davis Enterprise recent article begins, ostensibly on the topic of my elevation to Davis Poet Laureate: “It’s hard not to run into UC Davis professor Andy Jones. On Monday nights, the English prof becomes the quiz master at de Vere’s Irish Pub, where he circles the crowded bar, microphone in hand, issuing questions to trivia fans.”

The article continues in this way: “On Wednesdays from 5 to 6 p.m., Jones broadcasts his long-standing radio show, “Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour,” for which he’s interviewed everyone from novelist and poet Margaret Atwood to the late political cartoonist Rex Babin.”

“And on the first and third Thursdays, you’ll find him at the John Natsoulas Gallery, hosting a poetry reading, which he’s done for the past eight years.”

“Now as the city of Davis’ third poet laureate, Jones will be even more prominent as the city’s most well-known advocate for the arts.”

I feel like I am writing a Bob Dunning column, insofar as I am quoting others to fill my quota! Thanks to Enterprise reporter Rachel Uda, for getting the facts right. That’s refreshing.

So, how should I change my life and practices now that people know that Dr. Andy Jones is the Quizmaster at de Vere’s Irish Pub? Stay tuned.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on men’s jobs, famous Brits. The United Nations, hammers, The New York Times and other newspapers, YouTube, rude people, shoes, dogs, abs, protocols, poisons, science and technology, dissolution, the stature of great senators, movies that launched superstars, timeless sins of distraction, the death of John F. Kennedy, being in time, international cities, films without aliens, basketball, Tolkien, great novels, and Shakespeare.

Kate is out of town, so I have shared the quiz with her already, and will hear back if it is too difficult. Adjustments may be made. I hope you can join us tonight!

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster

http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Here’s the first sentence of this week’s newsletter: This week one of my Academic Technology Services colleagues came to guest-lecture on storyboarding in my “Writing Across Media” class. No one else gets to write a sentence such as that one. (I should ask you: What is the one sentence about your vocation or avocation that no one else can write?)

As I was helping my colleague to connect his laptop to the projector, he remarked that he had been reading my new book to his daughter. And then he added this key phrase: “Well, the stories.”

I knew immediately what he meant. My new book, titled Where’s Jukie?, is made up of my poems, and my wife Kate’s essays. And of course everyone loves the essays. In them Kate tells some of our favorite stories about challenges we have faced as a family, about the many things in the house that our curious boy Jukie has inadvertently destroyed, and about a mom’s heartfelt responses to parenting a child with special needs.

My poems explore some of the same topics, but often glancingly. They explore the topics of our book through presentations of seemingly disconnected tangents, as some poets do. Emily Dickinson presented the poet’s purpose this way:

Tell all the truth but tell it slant —

Success in Circuit lies

Too bright for our infirm Delight

The Truth’s superb surprise

As Lightning to the Children eased

With explanation kind

The Truth must dazzle gradually

Or every man be blind —

Reading this, I am left to ask this question: Should every lighting bolt be explained? The scientist might think so, helping us to become better informed on electrostatic discharges, but the poet might consider other approaches and topics, such as the anger of unworshipped Zeus, the agony of misfiring jumper cables, or the inchoate anger of a cloud with Tourette’s syndrome. Maybe a worthy new heroine is trying out the powers of Thor, to the dismay of certain Marvel fanboys.

As the next poet Laureate of Davis, I have to figure out how best to introduce or reintroduce poetry to the people of our city. Should I present and publicize only the highest-quality poetry, the canonical texts of verse, what Matthew Arnold calls “the best that has been thought and known in the world current everywhere”? Or should I present the best work of Davis poets, repeatedly handing the microphone, for example, to the gently curious Hannah Stein, to the heartening courage-teacher Francisco X. Alarcón, or to the deadpan and shocking Joe Wenderoth? And when, if at all, should I draw attention to my own poetry?

I look forward to coming up with provisional answers to questions such as these.

Speaking of questions and answers, tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on Canadians, Adam Levine (now off the market, sadly), words with zeroes in them, Bob Seger, bikini bottoms (hello!), medical procedures, tough cars and trucks, people named Sandy and Ian, people born in 1952, chromosomes, people not named Brutus, developers of the inactivated, words that appear in this very newsletter, the temperature in Cleveland, Publishers Weekly, again with the mononyms, Taylor-made, the UC Davis Alumni Ski Team, Mourned Cows (sounds like anagrams), popular Republicans, people named Davis, Russia and its problems, Sheila Lee, poetry (see above), odd syntax in green, official portraits, the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, landlocked countries beloved by Jared Hippler. Pecs, names that are colors, defenders, claiming momentum, unfortunate names, and Shakespeare.

Inchoate Clouds and a Tree

I hope you can join us this week. Come early, for last week some of our favorite teams couldn’t be accommodated. It pays to arrive before  your competitors.

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster

http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans.    What retail chain [with four letters in its name] that is responsible for 1% of the world’s entire commercial wood supply has used the commercial slogan “Change Begins at Home”?

1. Internet Culture. Evidently Apple will be making its new iPhone screens from the third-hardest mineral on earth, a substance that starts with the letter S. Name it.

1. Newspaper Headlines.   After five years in captivity and six weeks of freedom, Sergeant Bergdahl is set to resume life as an Army soldier this week. What is Sergeant Bergdahl’s first name?

1. Four for Four.      As you may know, Lil Wayne is but 5’6” tall. Which of the following male celebrities, if any, is taller than Lil Wayne? Dustin Hoffman, Billy Joel, Ryan Seacrest, Usher.

1. Pestilence. Acc. to the biblical Book of Exodus, and mentioned in the Quran, how many plagues were inflicted upon Egypt to persuade Pharaoh to release the ill-treated Israelites from slavery?   

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

On July 10 I attended the commemoration and launch of a new universally accessible play area at the north end of Central Park. The event was hosted by city councilmember Rochelle Swanson, and supported by other city dignitaries such as Davis School Board member and onetime Pub Quiz champion Gina Daleiden, and former competing quizmaster Will Arnold, a field representative for Senator Lois Wolk, and longtime supporter of Summer House, the nonprofit that supports Yolo County adults with developmental disabilities. I was really touched by the words of the community activists and government officials who inspired and oversaw the construction of this new playground at our first civic park, and not only because I knew that my family would immediately benefit.

As the parent of a son with special needs, I really appreciate the convivial feeling of inclusion that I and other such parents felt when entering this welcoming gated community of exploration and fun. The “Sway Fun” seesaw, for example, features a small table, long seating areas for groups of friends, and room for a wheelchair or two. Even more fun for us, a sizeable adult such as myself can make the entire apparatus sway vigorously back and forth while those seated enjoy the ride. “This reminds me of Disneyland,” my son Truman exclaimed generously, recognizing that the city has become a lot more fun, safe, and inclusive for all the children of Davis.

While Truman most appreciates the working water pump that allows him to fill the concrete sluice and thus send water down to the sand pit, my son Jukie loves the swings and the oddly-shaped balance bar, a mostly vertical structure that invites climbing and lounging, as well as spinning. The built-in xylophone, suspended climbing islands, and edgeless “omnispinner” will all reward the curiosity of eager children. When Jukie cooled down on a hot day by lying down in the sluice that other kids had just filled with water, he reminded us that kids with special needs will often find unexpected ways to take advantage a public play-spot. One need no longer visit Napa to enjoy some water spa time!

I went on a different sort of adventure yesterday, visiting The Academy of Sciences, which evidently is the top ticketed attraction in San Francisco. I could see why, with the four-story self-contained Amazon rainforest (with butterflies and tropical birds flying about), the dynamic earthquake simulation, and the exhibition of just about every imaginable bird and animal skull available for close inspection. Traveling with a party of seven, I splurged on the family membership, which will work out financially only if we return at least once more in the next calendar year. So expect at least one Pub Quiz question about what I learned at the Academy yesterday, and a few more after my next visit with Jukie. I will give you many future reasons to yell out the de Vere’s greeting of “Science!”

I practiced several questions on 16 year-old Geneva and her cousin this morning, and they did quite well, so we may have a high-scoring quiz this evening. I hope that compels you to join us. Tonight will feature questions about actors, precious stones, the optimism that comes from change, conspicuous consumption, South Africa, people named after staves, Ireland, African countries, sustainers, luck, Ryan Seacrest, what Moses supposes, pianists, birds, first basemen, arguably our greatest Americans, risk, time travel, mammals, people who (unlike your Quizmaster) who are inaccurate from time to time, oppressors and the oppressed, forests, seahorses, heroes who are not superheroes, famous Sacramentans, hungry insects, and Shakespeare.

I hope to see you soon at the newest playground in Davis, and tonight for the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz!

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster

http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Mathematics. I remember that once my daughter Geneva took an algebra test with twenty questions worth 100 points.  The test consisted of True/False questions worth 3 points each and short answer questions worth 11 points each.  How many short answer questions were on the test?

1. Newspaper Headlines.   October of this year will mark the release of Pink Floyd’s new album The Endless River. This will be the British rock group’s first album in how many years? Is it 10, 20, 30, or 40?

1. Blameworthy Habits of Bill Clinton. According to Bill Clinton, all of his poor decisions can be blamed on what? Hint: the correct answer is an anagram fro the common phrase A RELIEVED TOPSPIN.

1. Pop Culture – Music. Opening August 1, the film Get On Up chronicles an American musician’s rise from extreme poverty to become one of the most influential musicians in history. What musician is the subject of this film?

1. Sports.   Coors Field is the home stadium of what MLB baseball team?

P.S. This coming Thursday night at 8 Eve West Bessier, our current Poet Laureate, will be unveiling a new project titled Poet Tree, featuring videos of some of the most prominent poets of Davis reading and reciting a representative poem. The selection committee even included me reading one of my poems “The Time of the Rubber Duck.” I hope you can join us Thursday night at the John Natsoulas Gallery. The Open Mic starts at 9, and the after-party at 10 at our own beloved de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis.

The Edgeless Omnispinner

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I’m pleased to announce that the Davis City Council has confirmed me as our city’s next Poet Laureate. I begin that important work in September, and will let you know, should you be interested, when I am sworn in and when I will be holding my first Poet Laureate events. I’m sure that by the end of my reign, in 2016, skittish schoolchildren and Davis politicos will cross to the other side of the street when they see me coming, lest I impose upon them yet another self-important poem about our fair city of Davis.

One might wonder how I would have time to take on yet another honorary role. Regular readers of this weekly newsletter know that my unpaid public service to Davis already includes a 14-year radio show on KDVS, the poetry series that I run at the John Natsoulas Gallery, my work as Chair of the Cultural Action Committee of Davis, and my hosting of various fundraisers for Davis causes. How exhausting! As Sartre said, “Commitment is an act, not a word.”

But what about over-commitment? I’m reading a book now titled Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. In it, McKeown argues that “Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done. It doesn’t mean just doing less for the sake of less either. It is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at our highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential.” Non-essentialists say yes to everything (an accusation that has been leveled at me), while Essentialists say no to most things, even attractive opportunities, so they can focus on core avocations and the best opportunities.

The Pub Quiz is, by its nature, an inclusive and varied enterprise, and therefore one might wonder if it is indeed necessary: “trivial” and “essential” certainly qualify as antonyms. Yet I’ve decided that it is essential for me to spend time with friends such as yourselves, and for me to dine out with my wife, Kate. And our Pub Quiz gives me those opportunities. What’s the tradeoff? For me, I’ve given up watching television and collecting material goods. It’s liberating, really, to shed one’s needless habits. My bookend kids are both collectors, so I wonder to what extent it is my duty to help them find joy in this world without bringing home mementos of that joy. As Kate keeps telling me, the best swag is the swag you can give away.

Pub Quiz questions about starlets, cable TV shows, and Harry Potter may seem non-essential at first, but they provide an excellent balance to the trickier questions that I will ask tonight about Constitutional amendments, John Milton, and the beginning of the Cold War (all weighty and important topics). I call our weekly competition a “Pub Quiz” rather than merely “trivia” for many reasons, chief among them that one needs a Pub for a Pub Quiz, and because spending time with friends and teammates qualifies as essential. Expect also questions about big tech companies, connectors, football, people born the same year that Jay Silverheels passed away, fictional professors, great American authors, elasticity, alleged allergens, Canada, coinages, legendary creatures, recent films, recognized geniuses, Neanderthals, sleep, Capital cities that start with P and that none of us will ever visit, the United States of America, crossover albums, processed metal, retired presidents, the little things that hide in our soil, conservative beer, hot rhythm and blues, inflatables, relieved topspins, really long rivers, algebra tests (that is, a real math question), and Shakespeare.

Last Monday we filled every seat in the Pub, and with your help, we will do that again tonight. I hope you can join us in this effort.

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster

http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Internet Culture. A recent marketing study revealed that “YouTube’s mobile ads are three times more effective if people are given the option to BLANK them.” Fill in the blank.

1. Newspaper Headlines.   A new study reveals that the most religious state in the U.S. is also the most corrupt. Name the state.

1. Celebrity Birth-Years. Anne Frank, Martin Luther King Jr., and Barbara Walters were all born the same year. Within one year, name it.

1. Four for Four.     Which of the following colleges, if any, are found in New Hampshire? Dartmouth, Franklin Pierce College , Northeastern University, St. Olaf College.

1. Celebrity Assaults in Elevators. Last month Jay-Z was assaulted by his sister-in-law in an elevator. Starting with the letter S, what is the name of the Knowles in question?   

P.S. On July 17^th, our current Davis Poet Laureate, the extremely talented Eve West Bessier, will be performing at the John Natsoulas Gallery as part of the Poetry Night Reading Series. The show starts at 8, with an open mic at 9, and then the after party at everyone’s favorite Irish Pub starting at 10. Please add this event to your calendar.

Jay Silverheels

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

For many, vacations have finally begun in the City of Davis. As the school-year bicyclists retreat to their hometowns and cities, the percentage of helmet-wearers shoots up to new records. Last week a close friend was visiting Davis, and it took us a full five minutes of talking and walking Davis streets before someone came up to us to greet me by name. I think that’s also a record.

Our city becomes lighter, and our Pub Quiz has become even more crowded and raucous (both welcome developments). Perhaps subletters (who some Brits call “underletters”) love trivia questions. More likely, many of us who are left in the city find ourselves with fewer responsibilities, and more parking spaces downtown. The breathing room effect reminds me of a visit to Davis in 1989 (the first year that I drove through town). I hope time travel appeals to you!

Speaking of time travel, tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions about a few of the most famous people who lived in the last century, as well as questions about unusual words that you are more likely to encounter in the drawing room than the war room (no scimitars or claymores this time). Expect also questions about gasoline, air travel, long states, that which is gleefully avoided, Olaf, Oscar-winners, elevators, cups, redundancy, misspellings of the best possible owls, short words that pack in the syllables, herbaceous plants, feuds, flags, colors, celebrated actors, US Presidents, big companies, women who grew up, Snakes, dancers who love to crank their lower hips, verbs that accompany annoyance, fabrics, dark tan moles, glue, mutants, politic speech, Ireland, isolation, peninsulas (not peninsulae?), Senators, badly-reviewed films, Vogue, and Shakespeare.

My marketer friends remind me to mention my newly-published book with every newsletter, but then they express disappointment that Kate and I are giving away all the book proceeds to charity. You can’t please everyone.

I hatched a new book idea this last week, so I may be sharing sections from future chapters right here, even though it is not (purposefully) a book on trivia. Seth Godin, who appears in the new book, says this about regular blogging: “Habits like blogging often and regularly, writing down the way you think, being clear about what you think are effective tactics, ignoring the burbling crowd and not eating bacon. All of these are useful habits.” Some useful habits are more easily accomplished in crowded pubs than others.

You should expect a crowd tonight. I do!

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster

http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans.    “The choice of a new generation” is an advertising slogan of what product?  Ironically, people of an older generation were more likely to answer this correctly than those of a new generation.
2. Internet Culture. On the entertainment and news website Reddit, what does the acronym AMA mean?  No barriers to web-speech!
3. World Leaders. With almost 1.5 million followers on Google+, what country’s 15^th and current prime minister is named Narenda Modi?  I didn’t know Google+ had that many followers total.
4. Name the Category. Blackhawk, Apache, and Comanche are all Native American tribes and, one might say, victims of genocide. But they are also examples of what H word? All words that once (and perhaps still do) cause fear in those who hear them, or hear from them.
5. Pop Culture – Music. The number of piano concertos written by Ludwig van Beethoven is the same as the atomic number of boron and the category of the most destructive hurricanes. What is that number?  We pretended that this was also a math question.

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

The Pub Quiz is back tonight after a brief hiatus to give the Pub waitstaff an opportunity to recover from the rush of graduation revelers. If I were graduating from UC Davis (again), I would make sure to invite my parents and other supporters to celebrate me at the most authentic pub in Davis (so I can see why de Vere’s has been so busy).

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature a special guest, the political consultant, guitarist, and rock historian Bobby Nord. Bob and his wife, Susi, a former Democratic member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, have been working tirelessly for progressive causes in the Granite State for many years. I would love to ask some pub quiz questions about New Hampshire tonight, such as about its State Wildflower (The Pink Ladyslipper), but that wouldn’t be fair to everyone else, for Bob and Susi will actually compete in the Quiz tonight.

One could say that Bob is partly responsible for the entire Pub Quiz, for during our freshman and sophomore years in college, Bob shared my wanderlust and love of the novels of Jack Kerouac, and helped me act on it. He agreed with Seneca, who believed that “Voyage, travel, and change of place impart vigor.” We loved that term “wanderlust,” but today in Germany some use the term “Fernweh,” a word that was coined as an antonym to Heimweh (or “homesickness”).  Fernweh means “farsickness,” or a fondness for a place one has never seen. Bob and I decided that we shared a fondness for the unseen California, so one summer we drove here for a car deliver service, I found a “climate [that] suits my clothes,” and I resolved to return as soon as I was set free as a college-educated scholar and poet. And here I’ve stayed.

Speaking of travel, I’ve traveled to another country since I saw you last, by which of course I mean Utah. Situated in Park City, Utah, home to June snowstorms with significant accumulation, InstructureCon featured extensive discussions about teaching, instructional technology, and decentered learning. While at this august and serious scholarly event, I collected action figure swag for my children, and got to meet heroes such as Captain America, Wonder Woman, and Wolverine. Even more impressive a hero was Robert Reich, former U.S. Labor Secretary and the InstructureCon keynote speaker. The UC Berkeley professor and intellectual powerhouse shared these thoughts on education: “I teach because it’s the best way to have a positive impact on the future. As historian Henry Adams once wrote, ‘A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.’”

Eternity will stop for a couple hours at de Vere’s Irish Pub tonight at 7, and I hope you will be there to see it. Expect questions on a wide variety of topics, including geography, television, twins, Africa, shipwrecks, special correspondents, the dreams of animals, zoology, hilly towns and cities, ports, entrepreneurs, men, mononyms, congresses of electricity, the NFL, HBO, fictional restaurants where one can “enjoy” nachos with Mel Gibson, great musicians, not Volvo, articles in the LA Times, sesquipedalian and underprepared flashes of insight and discovery, famous people who were born and who died in Maryland, Hercules, Houston, Beethoven, Native American outrage, impressive Google+ numbers, tech-niche acronyms, and the power of choice, and Shakespeare.

If you were there, you know that our last Pub Quiz filled every chair in the Irish Pub. Should that happen again tonight, I hope my newsletter readers will come early enough to claim favorite tables. See you tonight at 7. And feel free to greet Bob Nord tonight, the diminutive man with the increasingly silver ponytail who (indirectly) made all of this happen. See you tonight!

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster

http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

Here are five questions from the last quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans: US States. What “Garden State” has the motto “Liberty and Prosperity”?

1. Revolutions. The Hungarian Revolution was the name of a spontaneous nationwide revolt against the government of the Hungarian People’s Republic and its Soviet-imposed policies. In what decade did it take place?   

1. Pop Culture – Music. According to the book Smogtown: The Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles, in 1967 one of the most famous singers in the world moved from Los Angeles to Palm Springs, California, to avoid the smog. Name this singer who moved from LA at the age of 52.

1. Sports. The four Olympic disciplines in Figure Skating are men’s singles, ladies’ singles, pair skating, and ice WHAT?

1. Great Americans Who Have Been Nominated for Five Oscars.  Born in 1930, what retired actor and former Marine famous for playing villains won acting Academy Awards in 1971 and 1992?
   

   Pink Lady Slipper

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I have a rare treat in store for those of you who can attend this evening’s Pub Quiz. The flamenco guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Aaron Gilmartin will be performing a song during the intermission of tonight’s Quiz, and then a few more songs while I am grading your answers. I have known Aaron for about 40 years, and have been impressed with his work as a musician in recent years, much of which can be enjoyed online. As you can find out at http://www.aarongilmartin.com, Aaron is supremely talented and accomplished.

In addition to grading essays and seeing films with my wife Kate, I spent much of this weekend reviewing European and American history flash cards with my daughter, Geneva, a sophomore (for another week) at Davis Senior High School. At one point Geneva expressed surprise at my understanding of former French President Charles de Gaulle. Little did she know that during World War II, de Gaulle lived at 99 Frognal in Hampstead, about a mile from where I first met Kate (at 45 England’s Lane). Without regard to the years between us, de Gaulle was my former neighbor! Despite England offering him a friendly location for his temporary exile from France during the war, de Gaulle didn’t always feel obliged to return the favor to Britain, as we see in this paragraph from his Time Magazine obituary in 1970:

“Like most crusaders, de Gaulle was extraordinarily farsighted but sometimes, maddeningly, his imperious manner and fragile sensibilities infuriated his nation’s closest allies. In a vain effort to force French leadership on Europe, he twice vetoed Britain’s entry into the continent’s first economic cooperative, the Common Market. At home, he stinted on public welfare in the form of new roads, telephones and a thousand other needed improvements, to pay for symbolically important but ultimately hollow shows of prestige, like the nuclear Force de Frappe.”

De Gaulle also featured prominently in an Adam Gopnik essay in this week’s New Yorker titled “What de Gaulle Won on D-Day,” in which we discover the difference between self-congratulation, and self-regard. Our weekend discussions of American and European conflicts reminded me that I needed to write something about our weekly Monday evening competition, the one that we enjoy on Monday evenings. I look forward to seeing you tonight, and to enjoying the free concert by Aaron Gilmartin. Invite some new friends to join us, and I will see you at the Quiz!

Oh, did you want some hints? Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on wizards, an odd mix of celebrities (Arnaz, Freeman, Griffith and Quinto), universities, instruments, things that are big and little, world capitals, Dublin, repeat assignments, suspected antagonists, U.S. Presidents, drowned emus, pot-smokers, France, the triumph of the good, The Rolling Stones, preemptive apologies, nuclear physics, the portrayal of villains, burdens, famous Italians, unexpected dancers, the daunted and undaunted, award-winning retirees, bacteria and mold, ice, WebMD, Palm Springs, Soviets, Smogtown, commodities, Ray Charles, cord-cutting, liberty, prosperity, and Shakespeare. Tonight we also welcome back one of my favorite teams, In Vino Veritas.

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster

http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans.    “Is It In You?” is the slogan of a beverage currently manufactured by PepsiCo and distributed in over 80 countries. Name the beverage.

1. Internet Culture. According to this morning’s Apple developers’ conference keynote, which iOS app is used the most often on the iPhone?

1. Pop Culture – Music. According to the American Film Institute, what is the most important song sung in the film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs?

1. Four for Four: Megalodon Edition.  Which of the following assertions about the giant extinct shark, the Megalodon, are true? Megalodon had the most powerful bite of any creature that ever lived; Megalodon ate mostly prehistoric krill; Megalodon’s closest living relative is the Great White Shark; Megalodon’s teeth were up to 20 inches long.

1. Sports.   Born in 1941, what living baseball player made 17 All-Star appearances at an unequaled five different positions (2B, LF, RF, 3B, & 1B)?

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Kate and I got to see former Poet Laureate Rita Dove perform her poetry Friday night. Here’s a favorite Rita Dove poem, titled “Exit”:

Just when hope withers, the visa is granted.

The door opens to a street like in the movies,

clean of people, of cats; except it is your street

you are leaving. A visa has been granted,

‘provisionally’-a fretful word.

The windows you have closed behind

you are turning pink, doing what they do

every dawn. Here it’s gray. The door

to the taxicab waits. This suitcase,

the saddest object in the world.

Well, the world’s open. And now through

the windshield the sky begins to blush

as you did when your mother told you

what it took to be a woman in this life.

And then Saturday night, we saw a play at the B Street Theatre: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Here’s what the LA Times said about this inventive play: “Rarely has middle-aged despair over dashed dreams and squandered hopes been put to more hilarious effect than in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Christopher Durang’s giddy farce on Chekhovian themes that won the Tony for best play last year.

One of the best parts was running into my old friends Bruce and Diane, two members of the Pub Quiz team The Ice Cream Socialists who ruled the Quiz for an entire summer. Bruce and Diane were ushering, and they seemed to be having more fun than anyone else in the theatre, at least until the play began. I encourage you to go see it.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature no Chekov questions tonight. Instead, think Megalodon. Also expect questions about repeated words, beverages, Apple, Germany, Sam’s date, Spain numbers, Prince, astronomy, freed slaves, musical notes, simple jewelry, art history, big films, story time, colors, TV shows that I don’t watch, oases, Brazil, actors who were also soldiers, words lacking an I (such as “team”), a hero’s enthusiasm for couches, famous authors, young adults, little creatures, dead Brits, current events, Chicago, Juan Carlos, and Shakespeare. Also, Lupita Nyong’o has joined the recently announced cast of Star Wars: Episode VII – that won’t be on the Quiz, but I just wanted to be the first one to tell you.

Thursday night at 8 the great Design professor D.R. Wagner will be performing his poetry at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Wagner has written more than 20 books, and has won many important prizes. He also looks great when dressed as a wizard (but then don’t we all?). I hope you can join us.

But first, contact your team for tonight’s de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz!

Your Quizmaster

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Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans. What beverage is known as “The Uncola”?

1. Internet Culture. You would think that with its 250 million users Pandora would be the top source of streaming music, but it’s not. What is the #1 source of streaming music?

1. Pop Culture – Music. The singer who has a big hit this week with the song “Fancy,” and who features on the hit “Problem” shares a first name with one of my favorite punk rockers. Tell me the singer’s first or last name.

1. Sports.   A three-time world champion, Elvis Stojko competed in what sport?

1. Science.   By what monosyllabic word do we know the fluid that circulates throughout the lymphatic system?

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

When I lived in London in the 1980s, I noted that remembering World War I, and the British soldiers who died in that war, was still a national preoccupation. Many knew of family members (almost all of them young men) who had died in that war, and occasionally Kate and I would see a televised interview with an actual World War I veteran. Seemingly, a generation of youths was lost. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission had listed 888,246 war dead for the U.K and Colonies, or about 2% of the British population at the time.

As I was studying poetry at the time, I noticed on Remembrance Day (November 11^th) when this particular poem was posted in the Underground and on telephone poles to commemorate the Second Battle of Ypres (in western Belgium):

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

Inspired by this poem authored by Canadian physician John McCrae, more people are wearing poppies on November 11^th and on other remembrance days this year as we approach the 100^th anniversary of the beginning of World War I.

Happy Memorial Day to you and your families.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on one or more of the topics raised above, as well as on beverages, favorite sources of music, long-standing conflicts, something rich and strange, team accomplishments, the ivy league, 13 letters in common, smiley people, a lot of nerve, reruns, multi-syllabic country names, babbles and snorts, Irish waiters, Doctors who make poor choices, fraternities, U.S. states, the evils of tobacco, unusual languages, lead characters, the idea of Switzerland, breakfast staples, colorful M words with many meanings, captains, the U.S. Supreme Court, monosyllabic liquids, Elvis, fancy problems, deans, people named after Greek heroes, spiky-haired reporters, and Shakespeare.

Tonight’s anagram contains the hint of sex, violence, and off-color language; nevertheless, it is still safe for family hearing. How will I pull this off? You and your team will have to join us tonight to find out. See you at 7!

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster

http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans.    What motto on the crest of what famous boarding school is “Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus” which of course translates as “Never tickle a sleeping dragon”?  I wasn’t even going to translate the Latin, but someone suggested that the first question of the Pub Quiz shouldn’t require conjugating.

2. Actors and Actresses. What English-born Australian actor’s second, third, and fourth highest-grossing films were Clash of the Titans, Terminator Salvation, and Wrath of the Titans, which he later apologized for making?  Somehow I missed all three of these movies.

3. Pop Culture – Music. What 33 year-old American singer-songwriter and actor has a hit this week with the song “Not a Bad Thing”?  Some critics disagree.

4. Sports.   According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, basketball and WHAT cause the most sports-related eye injuries?  Hint: Boxing and MMA matches only endanger two people at a time.

5. Science: Flora.   Oak woodlands, pine woodlands, and, in California, walnut woodlands can all be described with what six-syllable adjective that begins with the letter M?  I learned the answer to this question from Elaine Fingerett in the Davis Arboretum.