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

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Comic Books and Authors. Donald Duck has appeared in more films than any other Disney character and is the fifth most published comic book character in the world after Batman, Superman, and two Marvel superheroes. Name one of those superheroes.

2. Film. What violent ensemble film starring actors who have been nominated for a total of ten acting Oscars was moved to a January 2013 release out of sensitivity to those shaken by the shootings in Aurora, Colorado?

3. Children’s Literature. Who wrote the 1964 children’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

4. Books and Authors. How did T.S. Eliot famously describe April? You should expect another poetry question tonight, as it is National Poetry Month.

5. Current Events – Names in the News. Wouldn’t it be sad if you received a monkey for your 19th birthday, but then when you traveled on tour to Germany with that monkey, German authorities put your monkey in quarantine because your monkey didn’t have all its papers? This exact thing happened last week to what celebrity?

P.S. If you are wondering what show to see this coming weekend, I hope you might consider Nightingale, an original play presented by The Davis Shakespeare Ensemble. You should also consider April 24^th, the day that Dr. Andy will hold his fundraiser radio show on behalf of KDVS. More to come.

What a life this young man had waiting for him!

The Mystical Traveling Elders Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on April 1, 2013

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

This has been an Easter weekend full of magic. Saturday I taught my first-grader Truman how to ride a bike. No one was more surprised than he was, laughing out loud while pedaling wildly along the greenbelt, yelling “I’m doing it” over and over. As the afternoon skies darkened, two Mormon Elders came by to watch Truman do figure eights in our cul de sac, drawn to the simultaneously precarious and dreamlike quality of what they were watching, as well as to their mission to talk to me about my post-life plans. When I told them that I was a Buddhist, one of them blurted out that that was “awesome.” Evidently these particular Elders were not taught in proselytizing class how to deal with Buddhists, so we just went back to watching Truman. Nice fellows.

And then yesterday afternoon I convinced the kids to pause the DVD they received from the Easter Bunny and instead watch the thunderstorm that I’m sure you also noticed shaking the town od Davis. We think it was Truman’s first daytime thunderstorm, and he kept us all updated on what he was seeing and feeling. At one point, after a flash of lightning lit up the living room, to the delight of the spectators, I asked Truman if he knew what came after lightning. He thought for a beat and then responded, “Frankenstein?” Ours is a home full of stories, new and old.

My outreach and performance adventures next week will keep me from hosting the Pub Quiz (there will be a sub). I will be participating in the Sacramento Poetry Center 4th Annual Autism Benefit Reading: Poetry and Art at the MIND Institute. As some of you know, I’m an advocate for autism research and awareness, and like to support local efforts in any way I can. I will be performing poems with the amazing poets Michelle Bitting, Rebecca Foust, and Connie Post, all of whom have written blurbs for my next book of poetry. If you are inclined, you are invited to join us at 2825 50^th Street in Sacramento next Monday at 7:00 PM. Dennis Hock will be the host.

Our substitute Quizmaster on April 8 will be Nat Sternbergh, the local teacher and regular Pub Quiz participant who likes to dress up like Gandalf and loudly recite Percy Shelley poems at the Louvre (though not necessarily at the same time). He also has a background in theatre, so he should be able to keep up. Expect to learn more about him in next week’s newsletter.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will features questions on sports apparel, books, internet culture, vengefulness, café culture, art, classical music, quarterbacks, American presidents, take-aways, judges, sea battlers, television, avoiding motels, musical honorifics, bike thieves, words that start with the letter G, crusts, comic book characters, pop music, films with Oscar-nominated actors in them, Irish people, constitutions, chocolate, people who love maps, well-worn phrases from poems, Germany, commerce, and Shakespeare.

Joe Wenderoth and Oliver Jones (yes, a blood relative) will be performing adult-themed essays at the John Natsoulas Gallery this coming Thursday. You should join us! We’ll probably visit de Vere’s both before and after this event, because Oliver can’t get enough of the Irish Pub phenomenon.

Last week the Pub Quiz spilled out onto the patio, so I advise you to come early to claim a table tonight. I’m not joking.

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans. If you are told to “Taste the Rainbow,” what are you actually tasting?

2. Internet Culture. The best-selling PC game throughout the 1990s started with the letter M. What was its name? Hint: It’s not “Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing.”

3. US States and Emancipation. The number that is the earliest age in years that the emancipation of minors can occur in the U.S. is also the number of US States that do not have the letter A in their names. What is that number?

4. Sports – Baseball. What baseball player born in 1934 holds the record for the most RBIs, and the most total bases?

5. Science. What chemical element with the atomic number of 27 is also a color and a compact car introduced by Chevrolet?

P.S. I’m listening to KDVS online this week via Soundtap at http://soundtap.com/kdvs. If you sign into the site and keep your virtual radio on KDVS, our beloved local radio station will reap all sorts of benefits. Everyone loves a bracket!

The Grateful Burn Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on March 25, 2013

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Just because you don’t typically do something doesn’t mean that you can’t, and just because you can do something doesn’t mean that you should. These are the nuggets of wisdom that I’m reflecting on this afternoon, several hours before tonight’s Pub Quiz at de Vere’s Irish Pub.

My family lives towards the east side of South Davis, while my son’s elementary school is almost halfway to Winters. As it is pretty far to walk, heretofore we have driven him to school, usually carpooling with friends. This morning, though, Truman and I biked the full 8.5 miles, getting to Fairfield Elementary School at 8:25, enough time for him to add his name to those who bike commute to school, despite its location amid the farmlands that haven’t changed much since the school was first built in 1866. As the lead rider and pedaler on a tandem bike, I am still feeling that commute in my sore legs. It’s a grateful burn, one that I now wish I had felt many times before.

By contrast, last week after Poetry Night and the after-party at de Vere’s, I drove my wife’s minivan home. A 2001 Honda Odyssey. It has the best turning radius of any car I’ve ever driven, and much better than that of the Saturn SL2 that we bought to bring (now 15 year-old) Geneva home from the hospital. I love how that Odyssey allows you to park pointing in one direction, but then exit the street in another direction. But does this mean that I should take full advantage of that turning radius when leaving downtown Davis? No. Or at least that’s what I learned from a very polite police officer who pointed out to me – who knew – that U-turns are not allowed anywhere in the downtown shopping district. I also learned that just because you are friends with an officer who works for the Davis Police Department, that doesn’t mean that bringing that fact up casually in conversation with another policeman is a good idea. At least it won’t get you out of a ticket.

I also learned this week that even though your bulldog is well behaved everywhere she goes, that doesn’t mean she should accompany you into the home of New York Times best-selling author John Lescroart. As Will Rogers once said, “Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.”

This week’s de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz will feature questions on a variety of topics that I don’t know particularly well. Coincidentally, it should also be easier than last week’s Pub Quiz. We’ll see. Expect questions on clothing, hammers, things that must be smashed, computer games, emancipation, US States, agriculture, spelling variations, jazz musicians, countries that are not Indonesia, India, or Eithiopia, baseball and basketball, Chevrolets, great Americans not named Will, restraints, biggest cities, old ladies, American albums, fashion, Gossip Girl, naturism, Africa, pieces of silver, wild beasts, local markets, local cafes, tribalism, nodal nitwits, domesticity, gawking art-goers, Norse Mythology, disentegrations, an iron horse tied to a tree, NCAA, Dutch towns, and Shakespeare.

I hope we can welcome onetime regular Pub Quiz participant Robert Lipman home from Chicago, where it is still winter. He has stories to tell about University of Chicago Library policies, among other things. Just because you can smuggle delicious food into the library, that doesn’t mean that you should.

See you tonight!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Finals Week. Which downtown F Street hotel has invited UC Davis students to study in its Courtyard Lounge, offering free WiFi, Coffee, and breakfast vouchers during Finals Week?

Happy Endings. According to a study involving a staggering 2.4 million people, on which of the following days are you most likely to die? Your birthday, Christmas Day, Mother’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day.

Pop Culture – Music. What 1980s pop band’s song “Don’t You Want Me” begins with the line “You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar”?

Sports. “Webber’s Folly” refers to a decision to call a timeout when his team had none. Name the college basketball team or its college.

Science. What part of the brain, when translated from Latin into English, means “tough body”?

The Bella Merlin and Gail Finney Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on March 18, 2013

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Irrelevantly, this week’s newsletter mentions two of my favorite UC Davis faculty colleagues. As far as I know, neither one is a punk rock pioneer, though you will encounter one of those below, too.

Thanks to all of you who attended my birthday Pub Quiz last Monday, and who signed the giant Shakespeare-themed card. I’m grateful to have a place where I can gather my dearest comrades together, and to have made friends with so many of the staff members at de Vere’s, a restaurant known for its great service. Yesterday my de Vere’s salad was so delicious that even my sons were seen stealing from my plate.

While my family and I were dining at the Pub yesterday evening, I got a sense of how loud it must be when we pack the place on a Monday night, especially with me prattling on so brashly about internet memes and orange juice. Like those celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in the only Irish pub in town, people waiting for the chime to ring at the Pub Quiz will feel, I hope, that the experience and the food and the intensity are all worth the noise. Some of you, I’ve discovered, are not sports fans, so perhaps the Quiz gives you your only chance to cheer. For me, theatre performances and poetry readings also provide such an opportunity.

Speaking of poetry, this coming Thursday evening, March 21^st, two notable creative trailblazers from Nevada City will be coming to perform at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Poet and world traveler Dave Boles is the publisher of Primal Urge Magazine and the driving force behind Cold River Press. Meri St. Mary is a punk rock musician, poet, and radio journalist. Her entry on Wikipedia is nine paragraphs long. I hope you will join us for this Thursday event, details of which can be found at PoetryinDavis.com.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will overflow with questions about viral photographs, reading habits, fresh slogans, Adam Duritz, menaces, finals week at UC Davis, 19^th century stories, final days, viewing habits, cocktail bars, college basketball, tough bodies, Latin words, island nations, prominent generals, gay marriage, clasps and brooches, coastlines, proclivities for synonyms, beer, TV shows that I hear are funny, happy endings, detectives, Norm’s condo, gay marriage, money-making films, moon titles, comic strips, lyrics from the 1930s, mailmen, English-speaking countries, US states, Dr. Gail Finney’s thoughts on trauma theory, pesky vegetarians, and Shakespeare. By the way, did anyone else see Richard III this past weekend? Congratulations to Bella Merlin and her crew.

At least one of those clues is meant to be a distraction. See you tonight at 7!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Mottos, Slogans, and Spokespeople. Stephanie Courtney, who plays insurance saleslady Flo, said in a 2008 interview that the GEICO gecko “puts out more sexual vibes than Flo does.” For what insurance company does Flo work?

2. Newspaper Headlines. Today a judge tossed out the New York City ban on large WHATs?

3. Film. What 2013 film’s title character is to a con artist who woos Midwestern women with purportedly antique music boxes?

4. Four for Four. The Honey Badger is native to which of the following continents, if any? Africa, Australia, North America, South America.

5. Drugs. The name brand of the top pharmaceutical product by sales revenue (7.7 billion) in the US in 2011 started with the letter L. Name it.

P.S. Thanks to Ria de Grassi for bringing scientists to my Pub Quiz. I know you wish for more STEM questions. Tonight we’ll stick with human anatomy. Thanks also to Pat Phillips for Pat’s devotion to the weekly newsletter.

The March Again Birthday Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on March 11, 2013

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Our friends at de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis have invited me to host a separate event after Pub Quiz tonight: a birthday celebration for the Quizmaster. Beginning at about 9:15, a limited spread of Irish cuisine will be displayed like the evening spread out against the sky. I would be pleased if you would join us. I don’t expect the grilled cheese sandwiches, pub salads, and several unsortable meats to last long, for undergraduates may attend, but I myself should last at least until 11. If you are anything like my friends and family, two hours of me will be plenty, but you may wish to stick around to meet some of your weekly Pub Quiz competitors.

I am on an anti-materialist kick these days, so I hope you will consider your presence a present enough at this mild little celebration. Better yet, please consider making a contribution to one of my favorite charities: The Smith Lemli Opitz Syndrome Foundation. All year long the SLO Foundation is raising money for research into the causes and treatments of this rare syndrome that affects children such as my son Jukie. My wife Kate sits on the SLOSF board of directors – see the excellent SLOSF website at http://www.smithlemliopitz.org/ and the donations page at http://www.smithlemliopitz.org/donations/. Some of our friends from KDVS will also be attending tonight, hopeful that you will make an early pledge in anticipation of the 2013 KDVS fundraiser that begins the Monday after Picnic Day. Details can be found at http://www.kdvs.org.

Thanks to de Vere’s for hosting this informal party. I can guarantee that fewer politicians will be making speeches than was the case last year.

Because of my extended celebrations yesterday, the Pub Quiz Newsletter will contain fewer hints than typical. Rest assured that you will see questions on New York City, the indeterminate sexuality of the Geico gecko, drugs, music boxes, con artists, rock and roll hall of fame inductees, baseball, the Periodic Table, martial arts, a St. Louis sports question for Elliott, nouns that start with the letter A, producers in baseball caps, superspies, comic book heroes, working girls, aviators, malice, President Roosevelt, Irish culture, Harry Potter, science guys, people from Kentucky, sports, and Shakespeare.

I hope to see you this evening at least once, and perhaps twice. Come early to claim a table.

Your Quizmaster

P.S. This coming Wednesday afternoon and evening marks the annual celebration of St. Baldrick’s Day at de Vere’s Irish Pub!

The March Again Birthday Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on March 11, 2013

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Thanks to de Vere’s for hosting this informal party. I can guarantee that fewer politicians will be making speeches than was the case last year.

Because of my extended celebrations yesterday, the Pub Quiz Newsletter will contain fewer hints than typical. Rest assured that you will see questions on New York City, the indeterminate sexuality of the Geico gecko, drugs, music boxes, con artists, rock and roll hall of fame inductees, baseball, the Periodic Table, martial arts, nouns that start with the letter A, producers in baseball caps, superspies, comic book heroes, working girls, aviators, malice, President Roosevelt, Irish culture, Harry Potter, science guys, people from Kentucky, sports, and Shakespeare.

I hope to see you this evening at least once, and perhaps twice. Come early to claim a table.

Your Quizmaster

P.S. This coming Wednesday afternoon and evening marks the annual celebration of St. Baldrick’s Day at de Vere’s Irish Pub!

The Baker Street Silhouettes Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on March 4, 2013

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

We’ve been talking about Sherlock Holmes in my house. A generation ago, my wife Kate and I used to take the London Underground to the Baker Street station before emerging for our stroll through Regent’s Park to Regent’s College, where we took classes on poetry, Shakespeare, and psychology. The nearby home of the fictional character Sherlock Holmes was 221B Baker Street, now the address of The Sherlock Holmes Museum. When I lived in London, one could see Holmes placards and flags above ground on Baker Street, and Sherlock Holmes silhouettes painted onto the tiles of the tube stop underground. I wonder if some people found it strange to spend so much time commemorating someone who didn’t exist.

Today Holmes exists in the movies and on television. My daughter Geneva has started watching the acclaimed BBC television series Sherlock, and I couldn’t be happier to have her invest her time in a show with such excellent writing, characterization, and acting. Now, like her father once upon a time, she wants to move to London. That said, she sometimes watches the show with the Roku Box subtitles feature enabled so that she can follow the dialogue despite the accents. Even with subtitles, some parts need explanations, such as why Brits use the words “cheers” and “ta” to express thanks.

Is Hannibal Lector the American Sherlock Holmes? Lector seems like a more patient genius observer and logician, as well as a less (even less) stable one. Ra's Al Ghul calls Batman detective, but I think it’s not primarily Batman’s detective work that draws us to all those sequels. Can you think of other candidates for another master detective in American culture? Clearly we should gather more evidence before assigning the title of “American Sherlock.” As Arthur Conan Doyle’s protagonist says in “A Scandal in Bohemia,” “It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment.” Someday I will ask five questions on Sherlock Holmes, but not today.

Instead, tonight at the Pub Quiz we will cover snack foods, the calendar, dated imperatives, Broadway musicals, happy places, Apple, dance moves, the NBA, threat displays, American Presidents, waterfowl, philosophers, Yiddish words, American comedy-drama TV shows, Beatles lyrics, blurting slanderers, US states, Nate Silver, cheese, people born in India, Academy Award-winning actors, TV hosts, Irish history, lachrymose songs, naming the sport, hounds, and Shakespeare plays that even I have not seen.

Poetry Night in Davis comes Thursday, with insanely popular UC Davis Design lecturer D.R. Wagner giving a reading at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Details below! If I hold a birthday party after Pub Quiz on March 11^th – should I? – I will invite Wagner, so maybe you could meet him then.

You’ve probably noticed that we’ve been packing the Pub on Monday nights. I hope you will join us this evening – come early to claim a table.

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans. Apple called the first iPad “A magical and revolutionary device at an unbeatable price.” Did the first iPad have a camera?

2. Internet Culture. Google has the largest share of the search engine market, at 83%, while Bing is third at almost 5%. What is second, at 7.83%?

3. Newspaper Headlines. Use a four-syllable word that starts with S and that means triggered budget cuts to finish this USA Today headline from today’s newspaper: “Obama enlists governors' help on BLANK.”

4. Music. What was the title of Aretha Franklin’s only Billboard 100 #1 hit?

5. Word Games. What word referring to items of clothing becomes a kind of alloy when you add an “S” to it?

P.S. Poetry Night is Thursday!

The Poetry Night Reading Series is proud to welcome poet D.R. Wagner on Thursday, March 7th at 8:00 p.m. He will be performing at the John Natsoulas Gallery at 521 1st Street.

D.R. Wagner is a visual artist, poet, and musician. He has had over thirty one-person exhibitions, and he has published over twenty books of poetry and letters, including his SpiralChap, A Limited Means of Expression, released in April 2011 (Rattlesnake Press). His most recent books include a chapbook entitled Pentecost (Green Panda Press) released in 2012, and Personal Archeology (Bottle of Smoke Press), set to premiere in 2013.

Wagner has been the recipient of many awards, including the Fibers West Award, and an award for Traditional Technique at the International Textile Competition, Kyoto ’87, Kyoto, Japan. Over the past thirty years he has been a prominent figure in the arts community; amongst his many titles, he is the special Consultant to the California Art Council in Technical Services, Director of the California State Art in Public Buildings Program for Office of the State Architect, and Director State of California Housing and Community Development Art Gallery.

The founder and former editor at Niagara Press and Runciple Spoons Press, Wagner has read with Jim Morrison of the Doors in a legendary reading with Morrison and Michael McClure, amongst many other poets. His visual poetry has been exhibited in venues ranging from The Musee de Arts Decoratifs, Paris, at the Louvre, to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

The Witty Brevity Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on February 25, 2013

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Shakespeare, as we all know, tells us through Polonius that “Brevity is the soul of wit.” The effect is ironic, for Polonius is one of the most garrulous characters in all of Shakespeare, even though he gives some fine advice, such as these words for his son Laertes:

Neither a borrower, nor a lender be;

For loan oft loses both itself and friend,

And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Good advice, no?

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on The Academy Awards. I don’t watch the Grammies or the Golden Globes, but I do watch (and study) the Academy Awards. Expect also questions about Apple and Google, Obama in the news, O Canada, Michael Jackson videos, grammar (fun!), word games, King Lear (rather than Hamlet), alloys, garments, band names that I just learned this morning, science and religion, clean jokes involving priests, space travel, speed, humorous critics, I-80, number one hits, the beginning of belching (anagram), torn bonds, Honda, Hollywood bigwigs, worth its weight in gold, procedures, Dublin, Israel, announced retirements, left turns, blowing winds, and more Shakespeare.

Despite the brevity of this newsletter, I expect a big crowd tonight. You come too.

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Newspaper Headlines. What did Jerry Buss most famously own?

Food and Drink. The honey and malt whiskey liqueur known as DRAMBUIE comes from what country? Canada, Ireland, Scotland, or Wales.

Pop Culture – Music. What is the title of Adele’s best selling album ever?

Sports. Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award winners Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart both attended the same California college or university. Name it.

Science. Starting with the letter U, what is the name of the groups of mammals which use the tips of their toes, usually hoofed, to sustain their whole body weight while moving?

P.S Have you ever seen the great local poet and UC Davis professor D.R. Wagner perform? He will appear as part of the Poetry Night Reading Series on March 7. Details next week!

The Incredulous Enthusiasm of RL Stine Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on February 19, 2013

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Happy Presidents’ Day! I need this day off, for I have spent the weekend participating actively – I served on five panels – at the San Francisco Writers Conference, the foremost such event in the country. This weekend I got to see Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki speak on the topic of his new book APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur-How to Publish a Book. Kawasaki is an excellent speaker – he typically is paid five figures to speak at technology conventions and trade shows – so I was certainly entertained by his remarks, but I think everyone’s favorite keynote was presented by R.L. Stine, whom you probably know as the author of the Goosebumps books, which have sold more than 350 million copies. Telling us the story of how he got started in publishing, Stine informed us that he came to New York from Ohio to write humor. He had been the editor of the humor magazine at Ohio State University, and was hoping to continue such work on a larger scale. Funny and self-deprecating, Stine included choice quotations from some of his favorite letters from children. My favorite was from a boy who wrote, “Dear R.L. Stine. I have read 40 of your books. They are really boring.”

Lucky me, I got to talk with Stine and his wife for about 45 minutes at the VIP party Saturday night. I asked him about the inspiration of his interest in humor. He told me about his love for Burns and Allen, Sid Caesar, Jack Benny, and others. These were all radio comedians that I knew well, for in my childhood home we had records of those old radio shows that I would listen to repeatedly, with the encouragement of my father. I told Stine that my brother and I had grown up hearing routines by these comedic masters, as remembered by my father who had studied their work as a young magician, and then later as a college student when he hosted a live kids puppetry and variety show on Columbus television called Davey Jones’ Locker.

That’s when R.L. Stine revealed to me, with incredulous enthusiasm, that he and his brother Bill watched my Dad’s TV show every week, regaling me with stories of my father’s attempts at humor, and what he used to do with puppets. He couldn’t believe the coincidence. Evidently his love of comedy, and mine, were fostered by the same source: My Dad.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on books not written by R.L. Stine, online education, Wild Watermelon, food and drink, best-selling albums, physics, World War II, football, keeping on your toes, cities that start with the letter A, mammals, wild fruits, gardens of roses, transformations, genetics, scorpions, unusual modes of travel, English novelists, bonus sports topics, basketball, Europe, chickens, macho sheep sweat, security guards, power plants, Americans born overseas, 80s detectives, RJ, science fiction, blind women, Ireland, hometown newspapers, and Shakespeare.

My wife and her brother will be joining us at the Pub Quiz tonight as players (unless too many friends volunteer for the team, in which case they will audit). See you tonight at 7!

Your Quizmaster

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http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

State Parks. Bashful Peak, at 8005 ft., is the tallest mountain in Chugach State Park, the third-largest state park in the United States. In what state is it found?

Film Quotations. The title character of what 2004 film says the following words: “I’m very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany.”

Pop Culture – Music. What is the mononym of the musician who had hits, of sorts, with the songs “Trouble,” “Sober,” “Funhouse,” and, this week, “Try”?

Sports. Michael Vick has agreed to a pay cut, and to continue to work with his coach, Chip Kelly. In what city does Coach Kelly coach?

Science. What is the chemical symbol for GOLD on the periodic table?

P.S. As a special treat, we will be joined at the intermission of tonight’s quiz by The Spokes; I believe they are the best all-female a cappella group in California. They are prepping for Hella Cappella on March 1.

de Vere’s Irish Pub, 217 E Street, Davis, CA 95616

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The Berkeley Bowl Magnet Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on February 11, 2013

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

This coming Friday and Saturday I’ll be giving talks, serving on panels, and hosting performance events at the yearly San Francisco Writers Conference. Having served on the SFWC faculty for the last eight or so years in a row, and I’ve come to look forward to seeing some of the same presenters and participants every year. Almost everyone has a new book to hawk, so every year I return to Davis with book ideas and firmly-held resolutions. While typically such resolutions fade in the face of more immediate deadlines and responsibilities, this year I hope at least a chapbook version of my current collection of books and essays will be ready for Friday. If and when that book is ready, I’ll be sure to let you know, and think of ways to compel you to purchase a copy, especially because all the profits will go to a good cause. Details to come.

Meanwhile, I’m thinking about San Francisco. A cultural and employment magnet hovers over cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle, or so say the students of mine who flee our fine city as soon as they graduate from UC Davis (recently named by Business Insider to be one of the Best Colleges in America). I ran into one such recent graduate this weekend, and she shared that she’s working at The Berkeley Bowl and trying to decide what to do next with her life. If you are too cool or indecisive to adopt a prospective career path early in your undergraduate years, you may end up working at the equivalent of The Berkeley Bowl (as I did). Today my LinkedIn connections list is filled with my former writing and Technocultural Studies students, each hoping that the connections they forged while in Davis will help to secure them better jobs, or really any sort of meaningful employment at all.

Such students teach me to wonder whether it makes more sense to value a job, or a city, even if that city is filled with the closest friends made at UC Davis, and even a future spouse. With that last criterion in mind, I value the city of London the most of all (and I’ll have to save that story for a future newsletter). Did a job bring you to Davis, or do you think that it’ll be a job that will send you on to the next city you call home?

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on the University of California, Indian tribes, mononyms, popular websites, tall mountains, history, fruit, soap, words that start with C, tropical hardwoods, trouble, gold records, Facebook, submarines, airports and seaports, strings, ages, categories of drama, mixed drinks, comedies, televised breakdowns, private jets, borsht and what follows, military ranks, the 1960s, people named Richard, tragedies, intercollegiate sports, popular names, Oscar nominees, thieves, wealthy people, Austrian hardships, and Shakespeare. Should I also ask a question about the Pope?

I hope to see you this evening. Even though the undergraduates should be studying for their midterms, we’ve been filling every table at the Pub Quiz. Come early to claim a favorite spot!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Internet Culture. What’s a LAN?

Newspaper Headlines. The last British king to have been killed in battle was recently found under a parking lot in Leicester, 100 miles north west of London. Name him.

Mathematics. In our American system of mathematical progressions, what denomination come after million, billion and trillion?

Pop Culture – Music. The musical group Earth, Wind and Fire was founded on the last year of what decade?

5. Sports. In 1999, who was crowned "Sportsman of the Century" by Sports Illustrated & "Sports Personality of the Century" by the BBC?

P.S. From this morning's USA Today:

“Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, elevated to cardinal in 2010 and head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, is so smart, says [National Catholic Reporter Vatican specialist John] Allen, ‘if you were picking a quiz bowl team in the College of Cardinals, most people would start with Ravasi.’” I’m sure that if Cardinal Ravasi were to join the other three members of Trivia Newton John, that new team would win the Pub Quiz every week. If that happens, you’ll learn about it in a future newsletter.