Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz, 

As someone who has been performing in front of audiences for a couple decades, I don’t usually get embarrassed or flustered when speaking before large crowds. In addition to running our Pub Quiz, I’ve been teaching before large and small audiences for the last 22 years, hosting a radio show with many Central Valley listeners, and perhaps even more via the web and iTunes, and hosting and featuring at poetry events in California and Japan. My largest in-person speaking opportunity was a poetry talk and reading that I gave in a public school before 1,000 schoolchildren. Perhaps more daunting was a talk before 200 senior faculty at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology, where I made an unfortunate off-the-cuff allusion to wise words from Harry S Truman, a hero of mine who is not a hero, I expect, to many Japanese people.

This past weekend, though, I actually did become momentarily flummoxed, and hot under the collar, while performing an original poem on stage at the Pamela Trokanski Performing Arts Center here in Davis. Just as I was about to read my poem a second time, this time interpreted by a member of Trokanski’s troupe, my delightfully uninhibited 11 year-old son Jukie had finally decided that he could sit in his seat no longer, and thought instead that he should join the dancer on stage to help interpret my poem. I wondered if I should keep reading, or interrupt myself to shoo Jukie off stage. He eventually left of his own accord, stomping up the cheap seats, where he could watch the show without everyone watching him. Here’s how my friend the poet Katy Brown put it on a post on my Facebook wall:

Andy, Jukie was the best part of the dance/poetry event today! I was so stunned and deeply moved by how he "got it" — the relating to and dancing with another dancer — the expressive use of your arms and posing — the just-letting-go that dance requires . . . my regret is that I didn't get up and help him take off his Crocs so he could dance on the hardwood floor. He was wonderful — the best part of improv! Thank you for bringing him. I'll always remember his natural grace and spontaneity.

What’s more, the highly-esteemed Davis Enterprise columnist Bob Dunning was in the audience to see his daughter, the beautiful dancer and Bikram Yoga owner Erin Dunning. Usually I encourage Jukie to act up and out when members of the local press corps are not there to record him. We’ll see if the new City Council candidate (and de Vere’s Pub Quiz fan) Lucas Frerichs ("Fr-air-icks") will keep Bob’s Tuesday afternoon column occupied this week.

On tonight’s Pub Quiz, you’d be wise to expect questions on The Grammys, and on Whitney Houston. Look also for questions about beverages, Afghanistan, apples, Massachusetts, short poems and long poems, Prometheus, South Africa, mountain lions, bears, condors and other monsters, wards, trees, NATO, pilfering, late night talk show hosts, European countries, birth dates, pets, Eddie Murphy, basketball, ghosts, Disney, hum-vees, Irish culture, pests, borders, festivals, the changing book industry, candidates for the Presidency of the United States, actual presidents thereof, football, basketball, love and chocolates.

Welcome to new readers of this weekly blog who are finding it at Davis Patch, the local online newspaper edited by Justin Cox.

See you tonight at 7 or before at de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis.

 

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:

 

3.         Newspaper Headlines.  We found out today from CNN the size of the trust fund that stands ready to support Mitt Romney's five sons – Matt, Tagg, Craig, Ben and Josh. Is that trust fund $10 million, $100 million, $1 billion, or $10 billion? 

 

4.         Four for Four.   Which of the following foods, if any, are mentioned specifically in the 2001 blockbuster film Shrek? Broccoli, Onions, Parfait, Veal. 

 

5.         Actors and Actresses. What actor appeared in the following films in the early 1980s? Nine to Five, On Golden Pond, Tootsie, Wargames. 

 

6.         The American Man.  With a half-inch margin of error, what is the average height of a Caucasian American man as reported by the CDC’s "National Health Statistics Reports, Number 10, (October 22, 2008)"? 

 

7.         Pop Culture – Music.  What two-letter word starts the first two lines of the repeated refrain of the new song “Young Wild & Free” by Wiz Khalifa?

  

P.S. Looking for more culture in your life? Check out Jessica Kristie and Nora Bergamino as the featured performers at this coming Thursday’s Poetry Night reading at the John Natsoulas Gallery. See PoetryinDavis.com for more details.

Posted via email from yourquizmaster’s posterous

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz, 

Congratulations to The Penetrators, the longtime Pub Quiz team who won our first-ever monthly contest at de Vere’s Davis. Having come in first or second place more than any other team last month, they have earned themselves a generous bonus of $100 in Irish food and drink. In some ways, their win is a bittersweet occasion, for I received a text from the team’s co-captain last week saying that some of life’s other responsibilities have precluded The Penetrators from attending the Quiz this week, and that they may have to attend less often in the coming months. Childcare, academic responsibilities, and the choice to spend some time with one’s spouse are often factors cited by even the diehards who need to take breaks from the Pub Quiz. Or so they say. But soon, they again feel that itch, that jones, that nagging urge to compete, to collaborate, to challenge themselves, and to put to work all that knowledge that has been gained through a lifetime of schooling, reading, listening, conversing, and NPR monitoring. “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it,” said the philosopher, but rarely are thoughts themselves so entertaining, especially when such thoughts represent a correct answer, than when we depend upon them at the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz. We’ll see to what extent, if any, January quiz champions The Penetrators can stay away from the place where everybody knows their (team’s) name.

Now it will be your team’s turn. As of tonight, the first prize team will earn three points, the second prize team two points, and the third prize team will earn a point. The fourth prize team will win swag (Dr. Mo’s favorite kind of prize).

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will be more philosophical than a typical quiz. Of course, who can predict what might be typical? As Francis Bacon says, “A sudden bold and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man and lay him open.” All I’m saying is that English and Philosophy majors should have their day of social relevance and celebration at least a few times in this life, and I aim to increase the frequency of such days. Tonight’s quiz will also feature questions about South Korea, boys named Tagg, brutishness, African and African-American history, Italy, baby cows, wargames, cross-dressing actors, CDC statistics, the American man, British poets, youth and freedom, 9-5 jobs, California sports, acid, only one space after a period in the post-typewriter age, famous secretaries, ancient Greeks, cinematic food choices, rudeness, rappers, sleeplessness in Europe and the Middle East, organic chemistry, Frenchmen who lived in the Netherlands, contemporary feminism, animated films, science fiction, uncanny powers, Irish culture, Egypt, physics, Crimea, Brits, yesterday’s Superbowl, Broccoli, Greenland, and Shakespeare.

 

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:

  

6.         Liam Neeson Movies. What’s the title of that new Liam Neeson film where Neeson’s character battles wolves? 

7.         Pop Culture – Music. The name of the only artist with Grammy Award wins in Pop, Rap, Gospel, and R&B is an anagram for the common musical command BLARE MY JIG. Name the artist. 

8.         Sports.   What American tennis player spent 286 weeks at no. 1, the most of any player? 

9.         Science.   What color is the part of the human brain that coordinates communication between different brain regions? 

10.       Great Americans.  With a two-year margin of error, in what year did Franklin Delano Roosevelt die? 

 

P.S. Please forward this newsletter to a friend who might be tempted to join us some Monday night. All are welcome to subscribe at https://www.yourquizmaster.com. 

Posted via email from yourquizmaster’s posterous

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

 

As most of you know by now, tonight’s Pub Quiz at de Vere’s Irish Pub will begin late. I will be attending The Sacramento Poetry Reading for Autism III at the Sacramento Poetry Center. At that event, I will probably read this poem of mine, the comical (until the last line) “My Entropy Elephant”:

 

My Entropy Elephant

 

He is my entropy elephant, my kangaroo of chaos.

The contents of all drawers will be revealed!

All the shirts become T-shirts! All the gowns strapless!

Water seeks its own level, and this boy is a guide!

If a tree falls in the forest, run to take the axe from his hands.

If the water main has broken, then he has taken a break.

Left-handed people are sinister and clumsy, they say.

Well our little lefty hoorays the lightning strike, the wind shear.

We get no rest from this tempest. The nanny cries.

It’s not their stuff, so the neighbors just sit back and watch,

Thinking “With that arm he could pitch for the Reds.”

“I never knew that pliers could be used in that way.”

We can find no matches for his socks, his shoes, his mittens.

He plays with matches; how will we ever find him a match?

 

As is the case with my Pub Quiz persona, my Featured Poet Persona actually doesn’t talk much about himself. What’s the opposite of a confessional poet? Maybe an obscurational poet? Microsoft Word doesn’t care for that coinage, but I will leave it in. If you would like to join me at the reading tonight, then I will see you at 1719 25^th Street in Sacramento at 7pm. I will be rushing back to Davis after I perform, and expect to start the Pub Quiz around 8:30 tonight. I hope you can join us.

 

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions about mid-western states, billion-dollar companies, Davis buildings, modern Christianity, blades, canines, blaring your jig, people who spend more than 280 weeks at #1, matter, grouchy royals, colors, great presidents, jeans, Dublin, NASA, Annie, wastelands, hooky, Mars, successful sequels that none of my friends have seen, Nazis, kingfishers, wells, friends of Obama, dragonflies, Africa, textiles, gold records, late novels, heads of state, football, Autism, and Shakespeare.

 

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.    “It’s Time to Fly” is the commercial slogan of an airline that merged with Continental in 2010. Name it. 

 

2.         Internet Culture. What does SOPA stand for? 

 

3.         Newspaper Headlines.   We learned today that supermodel Heidi Klum is separating from her husband. What is his name? 

 

4.         Four for Four.  Which two of the four surviving Republican candidates for President, surprisingly, were born in Pennsylvania? Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum. 

 

5.         Film Quotations. In what film does Bruce Willis say “I love the music of the 20th century”? 

 

 

P.S. Alan Williamson reads his poetry this Thursday night at 8 at the John Natsoulas Gallery. See http://www.poetryindavis.com for details. He directed Dr. Andy's dissertation, so the gratitude from the Quizmaster will be palpable at this event.

 

 

Posted via email from yourquizmaster’s posterous

 

Dear Friends of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz,

 

            This past weekend, after a long hiatus, I held a meeting of the Manly Man’s Movie Club of Davis. At Regal Holiday Theatres at 101 F Street we saw the new Gina Carano film Haywire, a Bourne-like action thriller with a number of realistic mixed-martial arts-style fight scenes. The film also featured a number of past and future Oscar nominees, including Antonia Banderas, Michael Fassbender, and Michael Douglas. According to Metacritic, it’s the best-reviewed widely-released feature film released this year, but of course that’s not yet saying much. As six of us gathered at de Vere’s Saturday night to discuss the film and other matters, I fondly recalled the foundational Ralph Waldo Emerson quotation that helped to inspire the group when it was formed a dozen years ago: “Great men, great nations, have not been boasters and buffoons, but perceivers of the terror of life, and have manned themselves to face it.” And I was left wondering if large groups of men gathering together in the absence of women can be construed somehow as being more sexist or exclusionary than a large group of women meeting in the explicit absence of men, as my wife does with her many book groups and GNOs (“girls’ night out”) several times a month.

            Speaking of my wife, she and I support a number of charities, and chief among these are organizations such as Autism Speaks that, as its website says, is “dedicated to increasing awareness of the growing autism epidemic and to raising money to fund scientists who are searching for a cure.” Every January I participate in the Sacramento Poetry Center’s Reading for Autism, an event that raises funds and awareness for this important cause. This year’s event takes place at 1719 25^th Street (25^th and R Streets) next Monday beginning at 7:30. As a result, next week’s Pub Quiz will start about 90 minutes later than usual, but I hope you will still join us on January 30^th for some raucous and noisy fun at our favorite Irish pub. If you’d like to learn more about the event in Sacramento, please visit the website for the Sacramento Poetry Center, or the event page on Facebook.

            Tonight’s Pub Quiz will start at 7pm, as always, and cover a mix of the sort of subjects that you have come to expect. Tonight we will review air travel, intellectual properties, Bruce Willis, elderly women, Baltimore, doctors, fun facts about Republicans, globes, French verbs, London, no apologies, inaugurations, baseball, West Virginia, numbers instead of letters, faddish musicians, monkeys, storm clouds, trees, libraries, relinquishments, sword fights, crime, art and art history, France, British pseudohistory, Pennsylvania, nude toes, drama, welfare reform, multiple sclerosis, laughter and forgetting, American novels, classic films, Irish culture, universities, the Mesozoic Era, 40-book authors, football, foodies, Asia, and Shakespeare.

            See you tonight! Don’t let the possibility of rain dissuade you!

 

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:

 

 

5.         Muppets. Who starred in the documentary Being Elmo? 

 

6.         Architecture. Rounded off to the nearest 200 feet, how tall is the Washington Monument? 

 

7.         Pop Culture – Music. “The Queen of Gospel” sang at the 1963 March on Washington, and had a name that is an anagram of the common phrase KOALAS JAM CHINA. What is her name? 

 

8.         Sports.   The Boston Bruins are the current reigning Stanley Cup champions, and have been hockey champions six different times. Only one American team has more Stanley Cups, at eleven. Name the city and team. 

 

9.         Science – Ornithology.   Which of the following numbers is closest to the number of cervical vertebrae found in the neck of an owl? Is it 7, 14, 21, or 28?  

 

 

P.S. My mentor Alan Williamson will be giving a poetry reading at the Natsoulas Gallery on February 2^nd. Mark your calendar now!

 

P.P.S. If you know a Pub Quiz participant who hasn’t yet signed up for this newsletter, tell that person to sign up at https://www.yourquizmaster.com. 

Posted via email from yourquizmaster’s posterous

"An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity."

– Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

 

            One of the great joys of performing as your Quizmaster on Monday nights is the practice of immediate friendship, or at least of the manifestation of friendship, with so many of the Pub Quiz regulars. For instance, when I hear a remark or a quip as I pass by a table, I might echo that remark, or lightly satirize that person or that remark before the Irish Pub crowd of almost 200 people. Those of us not named Don Rickles usually reserve such light-hearted ridicule for our friends (or for public figures), so I feel privileged to good-naturedly mock you all in this way. I think you can take it.

            This practice of “instant friendship” reminded me of one of my closest friends from my college days, Kevin, someone I thought about often during my recent weekend trip to Boston. During my first moments as a college student, before I had taken my first class, before I had even unpacked my first bag, I met a man in Boston who would become a friend, a guide, an inspiration, and a delight, and that man was Kevin Quinn. Throughout our friendship, Kevin communicated these qualities to me in the same easeful, guileless, engaging, joyful, and gracious way that he welcomed me to Boston University, and to this foundational learning experience of Kevin upon which I have built so much since. His offer of friendship was immediate, warm, and absolute. He took risks in the way that he revealed himself to me and to others, treating us straightaway as if we were old friends, close friends. He treated us as if we were all worth the investment in us of his elated wonder, that we would be receptive to the evidence of his practiced belief in discovery and adventure.

            What was the result of this investment? Within ten months of that first meeting, on the Fourth of July, Schmevin (as he had come to be called) had joined a group of friends and me in a Washington DC stadium as we danced and swayed and harmonized (attemptedly) to the largest concert I had ever attended, one featuring Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Just over a year after that he was visiting my apartment in London, England. A few years after that, he sat in on one of the first classes that I taught as a graduate student, and explored northern California with my new fiancée and me. A year after that, he stood up in a grassy clearing outside Chicago on a misty day in September to speak at our wedding. And in the coming years he would play goofily on the floor of our homes with our children, my daughter being one of many to call him “Uncle Schmevin.” In the years after hosting my wife, daughter, and mom in a 2008 conference in Boston, he would phone the house and ask to talk to my daughter Geneva about school and her stuffed animals. Presents would be mailed to us on birthdays and at Christmas.

            Who was this man who enriched our lives so immeasurably? A man who approached me on that first day in Boston as he approached all new friends and adventures in his rich, rich life. Kevin Quinn was a man without guile, or pretense, or dishonesty, or selfishness. He was the personification of eagerness. He helped to create a community and a life that rewarded him for his selflessness and engaging generosity, a community in turn that celebrated him this past weekend to observe the end of his incredible life, and a community of adoring friends and family that continues to share lessons, and stories, and goofy vivacity with all who might be moved anew by the wide-eyed exultation that was, and forever will be, my friend Schmevin.

            In honor of Schmevin, you should expect a Boston question or two on tonight’s Pub Quiz, as well as questions about other things that Schmevin loved, such as baked goods, movies, Martin Luther King, Jr., architecture, gospel music, and sports. We’ll also review questions about Republicans, Muppets, mountains, ornithology, vests, legumes, African-American comedians, a merry jig, Prince, famous Greeks, Persian Muslims, Sailors born in 1932, famous BU professors, taking the T for tea, requests for a motorcycle, Saturday Night Live actors, vans, South America, endangered species, 19^th century novels, college sports, same-sex marriage, patricians, and Shakespeare.

            Happy Martin Luther King Day to you! I look forward to seeing you this evening.

 

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:

 

4.         Four for Four.      Which of the following Davis streets, if any, intersect both Russell Boulevard / 5th Street and Covell Boulevard? Anderson Road, Eureka Ave, K Street, Oak Avenue.  

 

5.         Food and Drink. Bourbon is a distilled spirit made primarily from what grain? 

 

6.         The Mafia. The two words that make up the long name of a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy each has an O and an A as its only vowels. What are these two words? 

 

7.         Pop Culture – Music. What band made history in Scotland when two of their tracks, "Sunshine on Leith" and "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" were featured on Scotland's Greatest Album (2011)? 

 

8.         Sports.   Charles Barkley played for three basketball teams, the most recent being the Houston Rockets. What were the other two? 

 

Two Postscripts:

 

1)   Congratulations to the three winners from last week’s Pub Quiz. Outside Agitators came in first with 24 points, Portraits O' Muhammad came in second with 23 points, and The Whiskey Bonders came in third with 22 points. Hooray! I’ll be awarding a bonus prize at the end of the month to the team that did the best overall.

 

2)   I will be hosting a poetry reading with local writing teacher and poet Rae Gouirand this coming Thursday night at 8 at the John Natsoulas Gallery (521 First Street). We will be returning to de Vere’s for the after party, if you would care to join us. Details on the reading can be found at https://www.facebook.com/events/224734354260430/

 

Posted via email from yourquizmaster’s posterous

"An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity."

– Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

 

            One of the great joys of performing as your Quizmaster on Monday nights is the practice of immediate friendship, or at least of the manifestation of friendship, with so many of the Pub Quiz regulars. For instance, when I hear a remark or a quip as I pass by a table, I might echo that remark, or lightly satirize that person or that remark before the Irish Pub crowd of almost 200 people. Those of us not named Don Rickles usually reserve such light-hearted ridicule for our friends (or for public figures), so I feel privileged to good-naturedly mock you all in this way. I think you can take it.

            This practice of “instant friendship” reminded me of one of my closest friends from my college days, Kevin, someone I thought about often during my recent weekend trip to Boston. During my first moments as a college student, before I had taken my first class, before I had even unpacked my first bag, I met a man in Boston who would become a friend, a guide, an inspiration, and a delight, and that man was Kevin Quinn. Throughout our friendship, Kevin communicated these qualities to me in the same easeful, guileless, engaging, joyful, and gracious way that he welcomed me to Boston University, and to this foundational learning experience of Kevin upon which I have built so much since. His offer of friendship was immediate, warm, and absolute. He took risks in the way that he revealed himself to me and to others, treating us straightaway as if we were old friends, close friends. He treated us as if we were all worth the investment in us of his elated wonder, that we would be receptive to the evidence of his practiced belief in discovery and adventure.

            What was the result of this investment? Within ten months of that first meeting, on the Fourth of July, Schmevin (as he had come to be called) had joined a group of friends and me in a Washington DC stadium as we danced and swayed and harmonized (attemptedly) to the largest concert I had ever attended, one featuring Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Just over a year after that he was visiting my apartment in London, England. A few years after that, he sat in on one of the first classes that I taught as a graduate student, and explored northern California with my new fiancée and me. A year after that, he stood up in a grassy clearing outside Chicago on a misty day in September to speak at our wedding. And in the coming years he would play goofily on the floor of our homes with our children, my daughter being one of many to call him “Uncle Schmevin.” In the years after hosting my wife, daughter, and mom in a 2008 conference in Boston, he would phone the house and ask to talk to my daughter Geneva about school and her stuffed animals. Presents would be mailed to us on birthdays and at Christmas.

            Who was this man who enriched our lives so immeasurably? A man who approached me on that first day in Boston as he approached all new friends and adventures in his rich, rich life. Kevin Quinn was a man without guile, or pretense, or dishonesty, or selfishness. He was the personification of eagerness. He helped to create a community and a life that rewarded him for his selflessness and engaging generosity, a community in turn that celebrated him this past weekend to observe the end of his incredible life, and a community of adoring friends and family that continues to share lessons, and stories, and goofy vivacity with all who might be moved anew by the wide-eyed exultation that was, and forever will be, my friend Schmevin.

            In honor of Schmevin, you should expect a Boston question or two on tonight’s Pub Quiz, as well as questions about other things that Schmevin loved, such as baked goods, movies, Martin Luther King, Jr., architecture, gospel music, and sports. We’ll also review questions about Republicans, Muppets, mountains, ornithology, vests, legumes, African-American comedians, a merry jig, Prince, famous Greeks, Persian Muslims, Sailors born in 1932, famous BU professors, taking the T for tea, requests for a motorcycle, Saturday Night Live actors, vans, South America, endangered species, 19^th century novels, college sports, same-sex marriage, patricians, and Shakespeare.

            Happy Martin Luther King Day to you! I look forward to seeing you this evening.

 

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:

 

4.         Four for Four.      Which of the following Davis streets, if any, intersect both Russell Boulevard / 5th Street and Covell Boulevard? Anderson Road, Eureka Ave, K Street, Oak Avenue.  

 

5.         Food and Drink. Bourbon is a distilled spirit made primarily from what grain? 

 

6.         The Mafia. The two words that make up the long name of a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy each has an O and an A as its only vowels. What are these two words? 

 

7.         Pop Culture – Music. What band made history in Scotland when two of their tracks, "Sunshine on Leith" and "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" were featured on Scotland's Greatest Album (2011)? 

 

8.         Sports.   Charles Barkley played for three basketball teams, the most recent being the Houston Rockets. What were the other two? 

 

Two Postscripts:

 

1)   Congratulations to the three winners from last week’s Pub Quiz. Outside Agitators came in first with 24 points, Portraits O' Muhammad came in second with 23 points, and The Whiskey Bonders came in third with 22 points. Hooray! I’ll be awarding a bonus prize at the end of the month to the team that did the best overall.

 

2)   I will be hosting a poetry reading with local writing teacher and poet Rae Gouirand this coming Thursday night at 8 at the John Natsoulas Gallery (521 First Street). We will be returning to de Vere’s for the after party, if you would care to join us. Details on the reading can be found at https://www.facebook.com/events/224734354260430/

 

Posted via email from yourquizmaster’s posterous

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

 

            Today, of course, is the birthday of J. K. Simmons, the character actor perhaps best known for playing J. Jonah Jameson and Juno’s dad. I was thinking that today would be a fine day to ask five questions about J.K. Simmons, but then I remembered that one team recently accused me of fixating on the film Juno, because of all the questions I’ve asked about that film. Another team once accused me of being obsessed with Carla Bruni, the First Lady who has appeared in a number of questions about the most visited country in the world. Sometimes we need friends to point out the incessant patterns of reflection that might otherwise go unnoticed. “The tongue returns to the aching tooth,” Chaucer taught us six hundred years ago, just as our brains diligently loop back to the images, films, experiences and conversations that resonate with us most deeply. One of the pleasures of quizmastering is the compulsory reflection this job requires, as I take stock of what I have read and remembered over the course of a week, or a lifetime, and then force all of you to grapple with those same matters in a noisy pub. If I were a solipsist, this last part would give me great pleasure, knowing that I was controlling your attention and concerns, if only for a couple hours. As my students would tell you, however, I am much more intent on fostering independent thought, rather than to have them heed what Dylan Thomas, a Welsh (not Irish) poet called “my craft or sullen art / Exercised in the still night / When only the moon rages.”

            Tonight expect five questions on books, instead of movies. Also anticipate cause to reflect upon special effects, Davis streets, recovery from tragedy, the great southwest, spirits, criminals, two companies with life, the Pledge of Allegiance, Scottish culture, Irish culture, Rockets, songs with numbers in them, glaciers, American Presidents, children’s literature, psychological challenges, books and more books, a life of sloth and disobedience, architecture, pot smokers, Modernist literature, John Lescroart’s new book The Hunter, rock anthems, Men in Black, a nude twirling an azalea, Africa, nuclei, people named after colors, those Republicans, football, basketball, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. There will be no questions on J.K. Simmons, Carla Bruni, Dylan Thomas, or Chaucer. Those were red herrings (at least this week).

            Thanks to all of you who attended last week’s Quiz with patience. Our favorite Irish Pub has instituted some new regulations regarding how soon you can arrive to claim a table (5:30), and how much of your team you’ll need to claim that table (half). This means that some of you may have to loiter suspiciously while our hostesses work extra hard to accommodate everyone. Have a drink while you wait!

            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 last week’s quiz:

 

10.       Great Americans.  In 1996, the U.S. Congress honored what American by declaring him the "first and only honorary veteran of the U.S. armed forces”? 

 

11.       Unusual Words that Start with the letter V. What three-syllable word that starts with the letter V means “Relating to deep inward feelings rather than to the intellect”? 

 

12.       Art and Art History. “Girl With a Pearl Earring” is the most famous 17th century painting by what Dutch Painter? 

 

13.       Pop Culture – Television.  Name one of the two hosts of the New Year’s Eve television program that attracted the most viewers Saturday night. 

 

14.       Another Music Question. Three body parts are mentioned in the Simon and Garfunkel song “Cecilia”: name two of them. 

            

Posted via email from yourquizmaster’s posterous

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Each age has deemed the new-born year

The fittest time for festal cheer.

~Walter Scott

Happy New Year! A new year brings new opportunities and sometimes new regulations. Let it be so with the Pub Quiz. First, the opportunity! Starting with tonight's Pub Quiz I will be tracking what teams spend the most time in the de Vere's Irish Pub Pub Quiz Winner's Circle (five points for first place, three for second, and one for third), and awarding a generous monthly prize (in the form of a bonus de Vere's gift certificate) to the team with the most points. The name of this team will also appear prominently in the de Vere's Irish Pub Pub Quiz blog, the newsletter, and on YourQuizmaster.com. We may even include pictures.

Because the Pub Quiz has been so popular, a number of you have been coming to claim tables extraordinarily early (4pm, anyone?), thus making it difficult for de Vere's patrons to come by for an early dinner, even if they plan (irrationally, I admit) not to stay for the Quiz. In order to serve the greatest number of patrons, de Vere's ask that Pub Quiz competitors claim tables no sooner than 5:30, and that at least half the members of a participating team be present. This way, Davisites hoping to take advantage of Happy Hour fare can still enjoy the mahogany interior, classic tile floors, and bread pudding of our favorite pub.

Tonight you can expect a question about John Lescroart, the New York Times best-selling author who frequently attends the Pub Quiz. Tomorrow his new novel The Hunter will be released, and he will be celebrating that fact by hosting a free event (with refreshments and music) at 6:30 at the Davis Odd Fellows Lodge (415 2^nd Street). To read more about Lescroart, see the recent article in the Davis Enterprise.

In addition toe the Lescroart question, expect pub quiz questions tonight on telegraphy, Australia, Republican hopefuls, California history, buildings in Davis, faraway buildings, British music, baseball, favorite flowers, apes, the US armed forces, inward feelings, Bruce Willis, words that start with the letter V, famous paintings, new year's eve, body parts, Simon and Garfunkel, cork, urchins, oxen and other animals, film (I seem always to ask film questions, and often five questions about film), hedges, sequels, Irish culture, fresh water, astronomy, UC Davis students, matrimony, Shakespeare spoiler alerts, football, and Facebook.

See you tonight, and Happy New Year!

 

Your Quizmaster

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

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yourquizmaster@gmail.com

 

Here are five questions from last week's quiz:

  

16.           According to Yale University, the most notable quotation or catchphrase of 2011 was "We Are The BLANK." Fill in the blank.  

 

17.          According to an AP poll released last week, what was the top news story of 2011?   

 

18.       What six-letter word was the most searched term on Yahoo this year?  

 

19.       The 2011 film Bridesmaids was the highest grossing R-rated female comedy of all time, edging out what 2008 film that takes place in New York City?  

 

20.       What former US President candidate was indicted with four felonies in 2011?  

 

 

P.S. Thanks for reading to the end of the newsletter. This Thursday night at the John Natsoulas Gallery I will be hosting a reading that will feature a Pub Quiz diehard: Melanie Madden. I hope you can join us.

Posted via email from yourquizmaster’s posterous