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

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Twitter in 2013. The most retweeted photograph of 2013 included the caption “Cory will forever be in my heart.” What was the first or last name of the woman who shared the photograph?

Sports. The first public baseball game between all-black teams, The Brooklyn Uniques and the Philadelphia Excelsiors, was played in what year? 1835, 1865, 1895, 1925. Baseball began sooner than usually understood.

Science. Granite consists mainly of quartz, feldspar, and what four-letter mineral? Thanks for all the geology suggestions!

Unusual Words. What ten-letter adjective starting with A means “promising success, favored by fortune; prosperous”?

Pop Culture – Television. What kind of animal is Arthur of the TV show Arthur and Friends?

P.S. Thanks to those of you who came to Poetry Night last week (and to the after-party).

The Intentional Collision Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on December 16, 2013

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I have a friend in Wales who has never visited Scotland or Ireland. I have a friend in Citrus Heights who doesn’t leave the house. Immanuel Kant was also a homebody. The philosopher was born in Königsberg, then in the Kingdom of Prussia, and attended college there before earning a chair in metaphysics at that same University of Königsberg in that same city where he eventually died. It is said of Kant that he never traveled more than 10 miles beyond Königsberg, which would be the equivalent of living in Davis your entire life, and never visiting Sacramento. For Immanuel Kant, his small town was the set of a Truman Show, but without the cameras.

We stick with what we know. Here’s how science fiction writer Aldous Huxley put it: “The vast majority of human beings dislike and even actually dread all notions with which they are not familiar… Hence it comes about that at their first appearance innovators have generally been persecuted, and always derided as fools and madmen.”

Although I have traveled widely, I, too, could be accused of such parochialism. When I last returned to my childhood hometown of Washington DC, I beheld a large DC map that my Mom had tacked on the wall of her Waterfront neighborhood apartment, I was amazed to see that in all my explorations of the city as a youth, I had actually stayed largely within about three blocks of Wisconsin Avenue as a youngster, and then largely within three blocks of Connecticut and Massachusetts Avenues as a teenager.

I never visited the neighborhoods that today are associated with much of the city’s cultural energy, partly because when I was a teenager we heard stories of what our foolhardy classmates encountered when they went to such places to buy illegal drugs. Things have changed, for DC has been rebounding for a while. One formerly dangerous neighborhood, at 14^th and U Streets, is today home to the cultural hotspot and restaurant Busboys and Poets which, according to the restaurant’s website, offers “a space for art, culture and politics to intentionally collide.”

Like Busboys and Poets, the best restaurants offer books on public shelves, such as those in the library of our city’s de Vere’s Irish Pub. In such a place we are invited to purchase a beer or a pot of tea and curl up with a book, the sort of entertainment that Stephen King believes to be ideal: “no commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent. What I wonder is why everybody doesn’t carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life.” Of course, a counter-narrative exists, that being that we should bravely venture out into the world without regard to how much we have read. As St. Augustine famously said, “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.”

I received a letter from a Pub Quiz regular last week suggesting that, like the man who does not travel, I have been limiting the topics of my questions to my favorite topics; that I, too, stick with what I know. Some have suggested that my quirky personal topics, such as quotations from Dr. Andy’s Heroes, or Famous People Who Have Lived in Dr. Andy’s Basement, unfairly advantage those who know me well, such as my wife when she plays. My wife reminded me this week that no team on which she has played has won a prize at the de Vere’s Irish Pub Quiz, so Pub Quiz nepotism hasn’t worked out for her thus far, but she will keep trying.

A fairer accusation would be that teams who attend the Pub Quiz every week gain a certain advantage from learning how the Quiz works. It might be assumed that the Pub Quiz resembles every one of life’s endeavors: we become experts with practice. A team of six that attends the Pub Quiz every week for five years accumulates almost half the 10,000 hours that Malcolm Gladwell contends we must invest to become experts. Of course, that hypothetical team would also spend some of its time outside the pub learning about subjects that might come up on a quiz. Some of us have impressive memories, pay attention to the week’s news, or work jobs that necessitate the accumulation of otherwise impractical facts.

Nevertheless, the accusation against me has merit. Like Immanuel Kant, I travel the small town of my brain, my reading, and my experiences, returning to the same streets week after week. Those of you who have walked those streets with me on a Monday evening will sometimes encounter a familiar shopkeeper named Benedict Cumberbatch (who has appeared in two questions, as a correct and an incorrect answer, in this history of the quiz), or come across a recognizable motto or slogan at a fork in the road. Such are the advantages and travails of attending a Pub Quiz hosted by a Quizmaster who writes his own questions, and who treasures our intentional collisions at de Vere’s Irish Pub. One would hope that, like Königsberg, this small town we travel together has enough intellectual, cultural, and social attractions for you. If it does not, other attractions await you, and I hope you will experience them all.

To make up for lost Cumberbatch opportunities, tonight’s quiz will include the word “Cumberbatch” three times! Expect also questions about switches, blood, Cyberdine Systems, smiles for Republicans, Norway, The LA Times, a dog’s life, Julian Barnes, words that start with A and with M, great years in film, fortune and men’s eyes, President John F. Kennedy, polymers, short persons with big challenges, screwy transports, biological maracas, queen consorts, synthesis, an expected person, principles of math, biology, South Africans who come to the US, geology, baseball and football, no soccer this week, gossip, tragic deaths, more science than usual, cinematic heroes, Eugene O’Neill, and Shakespeare. Also, Cumberbatch.

Please tell your family visiting for the holidays that new teams are especially welcome at the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Film. Gal Gadot has been cast as what storied character in one of the most anticipated films of 2015? Name the character.

Irish Culture. Niall, Zayn, Liam, Harry, and Louis make up what English-Irish musical group?

Countries of the World. Three countries have Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines. Two are Spain and France. Name the third.

Syndromes. According to pages 22-25 of the July 1999 FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, the FBI’s Hostage Barricade Database System shows that roughly 27% of victims show evidence of a syndrome named after what city?

Science. What W word do we use to refer to the flow of gasses on a large scale?

P.S. This coming Thursday the year-end Poetry Night will feature authors published in the most recent edition of The Blue Moon Literary and Art Review. The fun will start Thursday the 19^th at 8. There should be some food and drink, an open mic at 9, and then an after-party right back home at de Vere’s. You should join us for this free event.

The Single Candle in the Cell Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on December 9, 2013

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Imagine that President Obama became so fed up with the antics of the Tea Party that he decreed that anyone who challenged the policies of the Obama administration would be labeled a “fascist.” Imagine that Obama would then declare that fascist activities and organizations were illegal, and that organized protest against the Obama administration would be prosecuted a federal offense. I bet that many of us would consider ways that we might challenge such an administration.

Such was the challenge that Nelson Mandela faced in 1948 when the white supremacist Nationalist party came to party, decreed that anyone who opposed its policies were communists, and then passed the Suppression of Communism Act. As a result of such legislation, Mandela and many other ANC leaders were arrested in 1952 and many times thereafter for their opposition to white supremacy in South Africa. As Newt Gingrich recently wrote on his website, “Mandela was faced with a vicious apartheid regime that eliminated all rights for blacks and gave them no hope for the future. This was a regime which used secret police, prisons and military force to crush all efforts at seeking freedom by blacks.” I invite you to view Gingrich’s videotaped remarks showing that he has broken with many conservatives by showing respect for Nelson Mandela.

Even though the Republican-controlled US Senate eventually overrode President Reagan’s veto of The Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 (which imposed strict sanctions on the apartheid regime), some in the House of Representatives agreed with the South African government that Nelson Mandela was a terrorist. Future US (Vice-)President Dick Cheney was one of them, also voting later against a simple House Resolution stating that Mandela should be freed from prison.

When Mandela was freed, in 1990, he made a point of coming to northern California to thank his most ardent congressional supporter, Ron Dellums, for the congressman’s 18+ year campaign to spring Mandela from Robben Island Prison. Today in Mandela’s eight by seven foot prison cell one can see a single candle lit to represent Mandela’s hope, and his triumph over adversity. Like so many other Californians who were optimistic about a free South Africa, I got to see Mandela speak at Oakland Coliseum Stadium on June 30^th, 1990. The South-African leader finished his speech that day with these words:

“IN THE MEANTIME, I want to tell you that Oakland is the last city that I am visiting in the course of my tour. Let me assure you that, despite my 71 years, at the end of this visit I feel like a young man of 35. I feel like an old battery that has been recharged. And, if I feel so young, if I feel like an old battery that has been recharged, it is the people of the United States of America that are responsible for this. It is you, the people of Oakland, the people of the Bay Area, who have given me and my delegation strength and hope to go back and continue the struggle. You must remember that you are our blood brothers and sisters. You are our comrades in the struggle. Remember that we respect you. We admire you, and above all, we love you all.”

In this the week of the passing of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, I’ve enjoyed reading all the ways that that love he showed us has been returned.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions about Nelson Mandela. Expect also questions about automobiles, currency, hostages, the Irish town of Granard, geometry, rivers, alcoholic drinks, people who wear funny hats, US presidents, maximum absolute values, dragons, generosity and forgiveness, winter sports, singers on stage, foreign variance drains, drafts, happiness, domes, British poets, education, hell-raisers, that which we serve, dictionaries, Israeli combat troops, musical groups, the Mediterranean, ghost writers, large scale gasses, vengeful people with tiny dogs, Wales, football, and Shakespeare.

See you tonight!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Rich People. If he were alive today, Walt Disney would be the richest Oscar-winner of all time, with a net worth of about $5 billion. Today only two living Oscar-winners (not counting honorary prizes, such as the one Oprah won) are billionaires, and one of them is a composer. Name either man.

Food and Drink. What is the first ingredient in gazpacho?

Pop Culture – Music. What 22 year-old red-headed English singer-songwriter saw his song “The A Team” nominated for Song of the Year at the 2013 Grammy Awards, and spent 2013 touring as the opening act for Taylor Swift? I like one team’s answer, “Boy Ginger,” but that’s not correct.

Sports. The name Vincent Edward Scully is most associated with what professional sports team?

Science. What alkali metal has an atomic number of 3, and occurs in nature only in compounds?

Nelson Mandela in the cell that was once his only home.

The Shoplifted Grape Nuts Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on December 2, 2013

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Happy Thanksgiving Recovery Day! Actually, I just made up that holiday. Friday I was biking with my son Truman to downtown Davis when I was passed by Davis bearded inventor Peter Wagner, creator of those delightful Whymcycle vehicles that one sees on Picnic Day and sometimes at Central Park on Saturday mornings. Riding a two-story bike that would be jaw-dropping in any other city, Peter yelled out to us “Happy Digestion Day!” He also honked what looked like a homemade horn made of a funnel and a long tube. The man invents holidays and delightful toys – maybe he’s our Kris Kringle.

Peter wasn’t the only stranger who yelled something at me over the break. While I tried to do as little shopping as possible, last Wednesday I did a small bit of grocery shopping at a time when a number of anxious shoppers were picking up last-minute items. Hank, the guy who barely seemed old enough to ring our groceries at Safeway, seemed surprised that I did indeed want a bag for my single box of cereal. No doubt he knows how people in Davis feel about plastic grocery bags. I told Hank that my boy Jukie and I were heading to Rite Aid pharmacy next, and we didn’t want to be accused of shoplifting our Grape Nuts. He smiled.

Ten minutes later, we walked past Hank as he was maneuvering an electric wheelchair shopping cart back towards the store. “Hey Hank,” I yelled, “do you need a push?” “No, I got it,” he said. Then, after a pause, he shouted, “Hey Jukie, did you pay for those Grape Nuts?”

I appreciate people like Hank just as I appreciate Pub Quiz participants like Chuck, Jason, and Denise who actually interact with my bombastic welcoming message on Pub Quiz night, choosing to answer, loudly, my rhetorical questions. If you value our Davis community, as I do, consider in what humorous and positive ways you might interact with your fellow citizens.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature five questions about films that came up in conversation over Thanksgiving (at least in my house). Expect also questions about office supplies, famous websites, sequels, North Korea, Walt Disney and other rich people, soup, sex education, jerks, boxing, baseball teams, silvery metals, Superman, stupefaction, villains, morning television, Academy Award nominees, young women, basketball, famous agreements, tourist attractions, news headlines, Thanksgiving aftermath (new category), and Hamlet, the play by Shakespeare.

You might re-read Hamlet before 7 PM, when the chime will ring to begin the Thanksgiving recovery edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Great Americans. Fill in the Blank. John F. Kennedy was the only U.S. president whose BLANK outlived him.

Unusual Words. Q, the initial of the man who provides James Bond with those delightful gadgets, stands for what four-syllable word?

Davis Driving. Is the distance between this pub and the Sacramento International Airport closest to 10, 20, 30, or 40 miles?

Pop Culture – 50 Year-Old Television Programs. What British TV drama this year won an Institutional Peabody “for evolving with technology and the times like nothing else in the known television universe”?

Another Music Question. In 2010, what rapper had his only #1 hit with “Black and Yellow”? I hope you appreciate the precise wording of this question.

This coming Thursday, The Poetry Night Reading Series will be featuring a performance by Columbia College Professor David Lazar. Please join us Thursday night at 8 at the John Natsoulas Gallery (521 1^st Street).

According to his website, “David Lazar’s books include Essaying the Essay (Welcome Table Press), The Body of Brooklyn and Truth in Nonfiction (both Iowa), Powder Town (Pecan Grove); Michael Powell: Interviews and Conversations with M.F.K. Fisher (both Mississippi). Forthcoming is Occasional Desire: Personal Essays, from the University of Nebraska Press. His essays and prose poems have appeared widely in anthologies such as Bending Genre, Understanding the Essay, Metawritings: Toward a Theory of Nonfiction, An Introduction to the Prose Poem (Sentence), and Like Thunder: Poets Respond to Violence in America, and magazines such as Gulf Coast, Black Clock, Sentence, Denver Quarterly, Best of the Prose Poem, Southwest Review. Five of his essays have been “Notable Essays of the Year” according to Best American Essays. He created the undergraduate and Ph.D. programs in Nonfiction writing at Ohio University, and directed the creation of the undergraduate and M.F.A. programs in Nonfiction Writing at Columbia College Chicago. He is the founding editor of the literary magazine Hotel Amerika, now in its thirteenth year, which has featured groundbreaking issues in transgeneric writing and the aphorism.”

The Intellectual Blood Bank Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on November 25, 2013

A bust at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Sad anniversaries have inspired a number of weighty questions this week. What is the sustaining importance of John F. Kennedy? Why do his presidency and his truncated life still inspire us? Although the books on my parents’ floor-to-ceiling bookshelves have long-since been dispersed, somehow I can still remember their smell, and remember the titles. William Manchester’s The Death of a President and Arthur M. Schlesinger’s A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House were books that I consulted as a young reader. I suppose most DC homes in the 1960s and 70s had such books, for the mysteries surrounding Kennedy’s death had yet to be understood conclusively.

Kennedy mattered the most to me because of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. I remember my parents dressing up to attend the opening of the Center in September of 1971, and I remember examining that huge bust of Kennedy in the great hall during intermissions of the many shows my father the theatre critic took me to over the years. If I am remembering correctly, my father was working as a stage director and as a staff member for the Actors Equity Association during the Kennedy administration, and therefore he so appreciated our country being led by an advocate for the arts.

Less than a month before he was killed, President Kennedy gave stirring remarks about the arts at Amherst College in Massachusetts. The occasion for his speech was the death in January of that year of Robert Frost, who has read an inaugural poem for Kennedy just a couple years previously. In addition to praising Frost, Kennedy said this:
If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him. We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth. And as Mr. MacLeish once remarked of poets, there is nothing worse for our trade than to be in style. In free society art is not a weapon and it does not belong to the spheres of polemic and ideology. Artists are not engineers of the soul. It may be different elsewhere. But democratic society–in it, the highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself and to let the chips fall where they may. In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation. And the nation which disdains the mission of art invites the fate of Robert Frost’s hired man, the fate of having “nothing to look backward to with pride, and nothing to look forward to with hope.”

I look forward to a great future for America, a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose. I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty, which will protect the beauty of our natural environment, which will preserve the great old American houses and squares and parks of our national past, and which will build handsome and balanced cities for our future.

Considering these words, we might wonder anew if the importance of our greatest presidents is established not merely by what they accomplish during their presidencies, but also by how they were able to focus our attentions and inspire our spirits. A president does this with the written word. On this occasion of the sesquicentennial of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, we might remember our greatest presidents for what they (and their speechwriters) wrote. Lincoln inspired us all with his rhetoric, and rhetoricians such as Ted Sorensen (for Kennedy) and Peggy Noonan (for Reagan) helped Americans believe in the hopes and visions of their bosses. The late Ted Sorensen, whom Kennedy called his “intellectual blood bank,” even helped President Obama with his first inaugural address, which perhaps helps to account for some of the elated optimism that so many Americans felt during that time.

Tonight expect questions on explorers, web-based e-learning, presidential elections, painters who love France, fun with prime numbers, two anagrams, US Presidents, bookstores, music genres, mistakes, friends of Imelda, iconic films, the seven seas, magazines, baseball numbers, John F. Kennedy, knees, comedy, British letters, Minnesota, jungles, Sacramento travel, TV shows that evolve with technology, rappers, tanning salons, Saturday Night Live, negotiated exits, khaki dramas, self-reliant film heroes, big-budget films, hydronium, and Shakespeare.

I hope that you enjoy the Thanksgiving break with your families, and that some of those family members can join you soon at the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Mottos, Slogans, and Ad Campaigns. What action star does the splits between two Volvo trucks in a new ad that went up on YouTube on Wednesday and already has been viewed more than 17 million times?

Newspaper Headlines – The Art World. At Christie’s in New York City, Three Studies of Lucian Freud sold for US$142.4 million, a record price for a work of art sold at auction. The painter, who died in 1992, shares a last name with what kind of food, and shares a first and last name with what English “creator of Empiricism”?

US Cities. What state capital is 1976 miles from Seattle, 1782 miles from Los Angeles, 1023 miles from Denver, 943 miles from Boston, 814 miles from Miami, and 759 miles from New York City?

Food and Drink. An “aubergine” in British English is called what in American English?

Pop Culture – Music. People Magazine paid $6 million for the first photos of the twins of Marc Anthony and what singer and actress?

The Spates of Practiced Receptivity Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on November 18, 2013

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I wrote the entire Pub Quiz this morning, playing the free association game that leads me to potential topics, picking up ideas from overheard conversations, and from the constant stream of titles, names, places, events, and news stories that flows through my head during these spates of practiced receptivity and creativity on which an original quizmaster depends. I have read that some quizmasters buy banks of questions and then just spend a few minutes cutting and pasting. How dull! How irresponsible! I take as my guide Henry James, whose advice in The Art of Fiction (1884) has been inspiring novelists for more than a century. James wrote:

The power to guess the unseen from the seen, to trace the implication of things, to judge the whole piece by the pattern, the condition of feeling life, in general, so completely that you are well on your way to knowing any particular corner of it — this cluster of gifts may almost be said to constitute experience, and they occur in country and in town, and in the most differing stages of education. If experience consists of impressions, it may be said that impressions are experience, just as (have we not seen it?) they are the very air we breathe. Therefore, if I should certainly say to a novice, “Write from experience, and experience only,” I should feel that this was a rather tantalizing monition if I were not careful immediately to add, “Try to be one of the people on whom nothing is lost!”

I saw two plays this weekend, Schoolhouse Rock Live at the Davis Musical Theatre Company, and the final show of Detroit at the B Street Theatre in Sacramento with one of our favorite Sacramento actors, Dave Pierini. As I watched both plays, thinking of what passing phrase or enacted conflict could become a pub quiz topic, I recalled James’ words: “Try to be one of the people on whom nothing is lost!”

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions about trucks, superheroes, food products that I haven’t sampled since 1981, Nancy Cartwright, state capitals, silly names for British foods, hard-skinned creatures, celebrities (to make up for the harder questions on other topic), basketball players whose names are not LeBron, 2013 films, Napoleon’s plans, people who take a bath, Israel, eulogies, nutrition, marriage equality, seven-letter one-syllable words, religion, absurdity, local acronyms, super-villains, astronomy, vials of oregano, offspring, archaeologists and metal-detecting hobbyists, coverings, Frenchmen, Catholics, knotted things, contemporary actors about whom much ink is spilled in the pages of People magazine, old guys, US Presidents, Nobel Laureates who have recently passed away, questionable sports, fond memories, and Shakespeare.

I hope you can join us this evening.

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Internet Culture. Will the new Sony Playstation soon to be released be the Playstation 2, 4, 6, or 8?

Film. With 4 words in its title, what film distributed by Disney earned $86 million, and dominated the weekend box office, according to studio estimates yesterday?

Diamonds in China. According to a new study from Citigroup, what percentage of Chinese couples use diamond engagement rings? Is it closest to 0%, 10%, 33% or 67%?

Pop Culture – Music. The first rap artist ever to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song has a new single titled “The Monster.” Name him.

Sports. Anthony Davis finished Friday’s NBA game with career-highs of 32 points and six blocks, leading his New Orleans NBA team over the Los Angeles Lakers 96-85 on Friday night. What is the name of his team?

The Dangers of Sitting Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on November 11, 2013

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

We have in-laws visiting from Chicago this weekend, so I’ve been focusing on family rather than the Pub Quiz. As I write this, we are discussing the dangers of sitting, the delightful discoveries that await listeners of KDVS (I was a guest on “Honey Badger Radio” at 8:30 this morning), and the characters in the Davis High School production of Pippin.

Last night I was holding office hours at Crepeville until 10, often typing up my advice for students as they work on drafts of their (mostly theatrical and musical) performance reviews. When I published on Tumblr a top-ten list of revision advice for one of my students, one of my work colleagues (qbnscholar) made the following comment: “You should share this w/ all IORs [Instructors of Record]. It took me years to piece together what you succinctly delineate here.” Pressed for time, I will share that advice with you here:

1) Clarify the point of each paragraph.

2) Don’t include evidence / facts / narratives / memories unless they support a point you wish to make. Your reader will wonder why you are sharing those facts.

3) Emphasize insights and assertions.

4) Revise ruthlessly for wordiness and needless repetition.

5) Don’t let any part of a previous draft survive if it doesn’t contribute.

6) Carefully review transitions between sentences, especially when you are quoting Sirc (an assigned theoretical text).

7) Introduce and integrate quotations, especially those from Sirc.

8) Define terms when necessary, especially, again, when you are quoting Sirc.

9) Watch out for weak verbs that emphasize stasis instead of shown action that substantiates your claims and value judgments.

10) Have your bits of evidence and bits of quoted Sirc passages grow organically from the strong assertions found in each topic sentence and paragraph.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on candy, Sony, 31 hits by the same artist, superheroes, diamonds, China, professional basketball, hammers, birds and not birds, US Presidents who were veterans, problematic Republicans, action-adventure TV shows, holidays, blows, India, brie that is not precise, the City of Davis, tea, Irish pubs, science fiction films, relatives of goblins, Irish heroes, international education, astronomy, Hudsons, American authors, banned books, football, Russia, and Shakespeare.

Your Quizmaster

Visit https://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster to find five questions from last week’s Quiz. Happy Veterans Day!

P.S. It was gratifying to hear the names of Pub Quiz irregulars Val Dolcini and Dan Wolk mentioned at this morning’s Veterans Day ceremony at the Davis Cemetery. I look forward to seeing these two Davis citizens at a de Vere’s Pub Quiz again soon.

P.P.S. Irish Songwriter Mick Flannery will his Central Valley debut this coming Friday, November 15^th at 8 at Third Space here in Davis. See https://www.facebook.com/events/702411206453427/ for more details.

The “You’re a Shmoopy” Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on November 4, 2013

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I can think of at least two kinds of intimate conversations that good friends would rather not be present to see. Good friends want neither to hear one speak ill of one’s spouse – to complain unduly about the one to whom one has committed a life – nor to hear one proclaim repeatedly on the subject of one’s unadulterated love, for such cloying sweetness can make a listener uncomfortable.

Having attended a funeral service over the weekend, I realize that we speak in such strong and loving terms during the one time they know that the beloved can’t be there to hear it. Is that fair? Shouldn’t we be more transparent and ready with our expressions of fondness, and as often as possible? Many of us remain taciturn, or at least circumspect.

When it comes to publicly shared expressions of romantic love, one thinks of ridiculous celebrities who contact the media before proposing to their girlfriends in AT&T Park, or of fictional characters who are presented as sappy and ludicrous in their silly affections. You might remember this bit of dialogue from the “Soup Nazi” episode of Seinfeld:

GEORGE: Well, I gotta go back there [to the Soup Nazi’s soup shop] and try again. Hi Sheila.

SHEILA: Hi. Hi shmoopy.

JERRY: Hi shmoopy.

SHEILA: No, you’re a shmoopy!

JERRY: You’re a shmoopy!

GEORGE: I’m going.

After Sheila and Jerry break up, the truth comes out:

GEORGE: All right. I am happy, and I’ll tell ya why — because the two of you were making me and every one of your friends sick! Right, Elaine?

(Elaine sneaks out of Jerry’s apartment)

JERRY: Is that so?

GEORGE: Yeah. Yeah. With all that kissing and the shmoopy, shmoopy, shmoopy, shmoopy, shmoopy out in public like that. It’s disgusting!

JERRY: Disgusting?

GEORGE: People who do that should be arrested.

Indeed, people rightfully clear the room when lovers start talking like that. Boundaries of decorum and privacy and public displays of affection must be respected, we think.

That said, my wife Kate’s birthday is today, and I brim with affection for her. I’ve written long poems on the subject, poems which I am wisely choosing not to share here. Nevertheless, Facebook has taught me to over-share, and my son with special needs has taught me not to be embarrassed. The result is my proclivity to proclaim my deep affection for Kate to whomever would listen, and to many who would choose not to. In addition to a lifetime of commitment, what better birthday present can I offer her than that?

If you are reading this, Kate, notice how I am making all the readers of the newsletter endure proclamations such as this one: Happy birthday! I love you. Expect to be embarrassed yourself by one or two of my questions tonight at the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz. I hope your table for six enjoys the spectacle.

The rest of you can look forward to enjoying Pub Quiz questions on the following topics. Celebrities in their 30s, numbers that are rounded off to the nearest billion, royal families, people named Jackson, unique visitors, philosophers, apprentices, women on the dance floor, unusually long careers, people who call each other “Bro,” great presidents and their families, commercial ports, hospitals, weekdaily shows, total wrecks, Norwegians, cheese contests, nebulae, that steamy car on the Titanic, beloved wives, classic British novels, deserted islands, coming of age, the Irish diaspora, American place names that are stolen from European place names, what we can do with faraway planets, people whose initials are the same as those of their home states, endurance, comparative literature, reptiles, and Shakespeare.

See you tonight at 7 at 217 E Street in Davis! And I hope to see you Thursday night for Kim Stanley Robinson performance at the John Natsoulas Gallery.

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans: Candy. According to its commercial slogan, “At work, rest and play, you get three great tastes in” what specific kind of candy bar? Bill Murray knew the answer on the classic album That’s Not Funny, That’s Sick!

2. Internet Culture. What is the name of the most popular mobile app that lets people take videos or pictures and send them to friends for a short period of time?

3. Newspaper Headlines. What country’s citizens were voting over the weekend in presidential elections that will bring to an end a decade in power for pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili, who once said, “Solidarity was the best thing which happened in the 20th century”?

4. Four for Four. Which of the following statements, if any, are true about Steve Lonegan, the Republican whom Cory Booker defeated to become the new Senator-elect from New Jersey? He’s legally blind, he’s a former Olympian; he was born in Bogotá, Colombia; he’s over seven feet tall. I have a hint for you if you didn’t score in the top ten last week. Hint provided to some tables: Only one of these is true.

6. Pop Culture – Classical Music. There is one French composer and pianist whose pieces are so light that to listen to them is like raising a kite on the back of a gentle zephyr. Name the composer whose name is an anagram of the common phrase RAISE KITE. Like Socrates, he provided this advice: Postulez en vous-même.

P.S. This coming Thursday at 8 PM at the John Natsoulas Gallery lovers of fine prose will be in for a treat. The multi award-winning science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson will be reading from his new book, Shaman. About this book, Robinson has said this: “[Shaman] has been part of the project all along for me — this science fictional project of what is humanity. What are we? What can we expect to become? How do we use technology? Is there a utopian future possible for us? In all of these questions, it becomes really important [to understand] how we evolved to what we are now and what we were when we were living the life that grew us as human beings in the evolutionary sense.”

Robinson will be reading with occasional de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz participant Andy Stewart, the Davis author whose “Wormwood is Also a Star” appeared as the cover story in a recent issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Starting off the Open Mic at 9 PM Thursday will be a performance by The Spokes, the incredibly talented a cappella group that has previously performed during halftime of the Pub Quiz. Culture abounds in this city of Davis, and you really should participate.

P.P.S. Happy Birthday also to Shakuntala Devi, the mathematician who wrote one of the first substantive arguments that India should decriminalize homosexuality. She died this year at 83.

The Precise and Knowledgeable Back-Scratching edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on October 28, 2013

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Every Monday my second-grader Truman is given a writing assignment: he must recount what he did over the weekend. The anxiety that this expectation has contributed to the household comes not from any concerns about writing, but rather from his repeated insistence that we actually “do something!” on both Saturday and Sunday. Yesterday, for instance, our family of six (counting the dog) walked over to the new pet food store in South Davis to meet and behold Tillman, the handsome bulldog who holds the Guinness World Record for “Fastest 100 m on a skateboard by a dog.” Tillman had to be dissuaded by his owner from expressing his interest in our bulldog, Dilly, too ardently. Dilly, meanwhile, was much more interested in Tillman’s owner’s organic dog treats and precise and knowledgeable back-scratching than in his celebrity dog. Like my brother Oliver who writes for People Magazine, some of us are just not that impressed with celebrities. At least Truman will have something to write about in school this morning.

Friday night I met a teacher who told the story of a student who her family “adopted” for a semester so that he could finish his school year while his family moved to a city with a somewhat less stellar school district. After a few weeks with the family, Jose remarked that he was impressed with his temporary adopted brothers, and that they were really smart. Without taking direct credit, their mother agreed, and listened for Jose’s next question. “Is it fun to be smart?” he asked. His host insisted that it is fun to be smart, and then started explaining why, with lots of examples from family outings and discoveries. She might have used our Pub Quiz as an example. From all the laughter I hear, especially from teams that don’t take their scores too seriously, I conclude that my job is too remind all of you how much fun it is to be smart. Our little weekly show won’t compete well with a World Series game or with a skateboarding bulldog, but at least you can enjoy a couple uninterrupted hours with your friends and apply what you have learned. As the German Romantic philosopher and poet Novalis told us, “Learning is pleasurable, but doing is the height of enjoyment.”

Before I jump to the clues, I want to recognize two heroes of mine who passed away over the weekend. My uncle Chuck Ternes was a World War II veteran, a boxer, a photographer, and the dad to three incredible kids who inspired me all through the 1970s and 80s. I will remember him fondly.

As you know, Lou Reed was the lead singer of the Velvet Underground. In a 1982 interview, musician Brian Eno remarked that the Velvet Underground’s first album only sold 30,000 copies during its first five years but that “everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band.” This morning the aforementioned Oliver introduced me to Reed’s 1989 song about AIDS in New York City titled “Halloween Parade” that is worth a listen.

Speaking of Halloween, I will be coming in costume tonight, and I recommend that you do the same. Here’s the wording of Question #6: “What is the evident and recognizable (or at least interpretable) costume worn by one of the members of your Pub Quiz team? Is that costume impressive, or lame?” I’m sure that you will earn a point for that question. I like it when everyone scores in double digits. Teams with all members in costume will earn extra kudos. Remember to take pictures.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on Halloween topics, including costumes, pumpkins, and candy. Expect also questions on presidential elections, impressive Republicans, macroeconomics, mobile apps, change-ups, classical composers, measuring one’s life with coffee spoons, professional basketball, the Kennedys, big cities, mountains that can be seen from far away, Charles not in charge of his own drinking, Futureshock author Alvin Toffler, Americans who have been nominated to be VPOTUS, Greek mythology, weights and measurements, baseball heroes, uncles, fictional band names made up by Dr. Andy, growing actresses, the genes of orioles, stories that begin “once upon a time,” aliens, countries by the numbers, rumble snouts, dry locales, the letter Z, Irish ancestors, Bermuda mishaps, whether or not the good die young, incredible acreage, and Shakespeare. The answers to the science questions will be five and three syllables long.

Next week’s quiz takes place on Kate’s birthday. Should there be cake? See you tonight, and in costume! The TVs will be on, so you’ll be able to multitask, if you care to.

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans. Starting with the letter T, what magazine has as its slogan “For People Who Love to Sew”?

2. Internet Culture. According to a new study, 61 percent of teenagers cite BLANK as their favorite social media site, ahead of Facebook (55 percent) and Twitter (22 percent). Fill in the blank.

3. Newspaper Headlines. Evidently the single “Do What you Want (with My Body)” will be released tomorrow. Name the artist.

4. Sandra Bullock. Bullock and Tom Hanks have been battling for box office primacy for the last couple weeks. In what 2011 Oscar-nominated film did the two both appear?

5. Pop Culture – Music. In the Kenny Rogers song “The Gambler,” what does the title character request in exchange for the advice that makes up the song’s chorus?

P.S. Kim Stanley Robinson and Andy Stewart, two masters of science fiction, will be reading at the Natsoulas Gallery on November 7^th at 8 PM. You should join us.

The world’s smallest waterfall edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on October 21, 2013

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

When I asked a friend what we should see at Apple Hill, he warned us to bypass the first and most popular orchard, the one with the train and the huge crowds. But once we spent an unexpected extra hour in slow-moving traffic, the children impressed upon us their hunger for apples, or the experiential gratification that they represent on an October Saturday, so that first orchard was right where we stopped. Of course, my friend was right: the train ride was underwhelming, and the crowds smothering. We found too many things to buy, none of them of any value. Somehow the “redneck wind chimes” made up of Budweiser cans hanging from twine and banging against one another did not appeal to us. Having overdressed for a natural walk in the foothills, we found the October heat oppressive, and before long we hurried away from the commercial throng.

Down the road we found smaller crowds at an orchard that was less initially impressive; thankfully, it had no train. We bought a freshly-made pie there that our “party” of five divided up and devoured. The dog pulled at her leash as we were finishing, so we took her down to the “nature walk” with low expectations, wondering if this experience might be as prefabricated as the “lake” that the expensive little train encircled earlier in the day. Instead we found hilly paths through deep forests, a quiet brook with what Truman called “the world’s smallest waterfall,” and clean and cooler air. We slowed our pace, delighted in that green sensory data, and reflected on our good fortune. Pictures were taken, the dog imagined herself in heaven, and laughter echoed among the Douglas Fir trees. Sometimes one must leave the beaten path in order to find the right path.

I’m sure you plan to beat a path to de Vere’s before 7 tonight for tonight’s Pub Quiz. In addition to geography, trees, and apples, tonight’s Quiz will feature questions about sewing with needles, monkeys, Lake Yosemite, Facebook and other social media, the habits of teenagers, specific kinds of rings, barges, fossils, the first names of friendly people, American geography, lively water, predilections, advice that you might receive on a train, left-handed people. Petroleum, voting rights, beer, Beatles history, people born to prattle, aridity, potent potables, literature of the 1820s, primates, wrenches, snowmen, geometry, Frenchmen, missing appendages, silver oars, beauties (hello, Kate), and Shakespeare.

See you tonight!

Your Quizmaster