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

P.S. Did you know that your Quizmaster is also a campus expert on textese? See http://bit.ly/andyontvagain.

Friends of the Pub Quiz, and those curious about all the fun and fuss associated with the Pub Quiz, should come to de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis (217 E Street), the highly esteemed pub and restaurant that fills up every night because of the superb quality of food, drink and company that can be found there. The de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz takes place every Monday at 7pm, though players are encouraged to arrive early to claim a table. As always, find out more about the Pub Quiz by visiting https://www.yourquizmaster.com. For more on de Vere’s Irish Pub, visit http://deverespub.com/.

The Surfeit of Holidays Edition of the Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on February 7, 2011

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I hope by now that you have recovered from the Super Bowl, America’s second Thanksgiving. I followed the game peripherally from the tweets I was receiving, commentary on the half-time show and the commercials, but spent most of our warmest day of the year so far bicycling with my son, enjoying having the deserted city streets and downtown shops to ourselves. I stopped by a favorite South Davis restaurant where typically we are greeted by name only to find that all our favorite employees had the day off. The second-stringers were left to watch over the empty eatery, and to get our food order wrong. Other special occasions, like Reagan’s 100^th birthday celebrations, or the televised funeral of Ted Kennedy, distract us for a while, and invite us to think about national trends, values, and heroes. Perhaps informal national holidays such as Superbowl Sunday and Black Friday are meant to help us compensate for missed shopping opportunities on “bank holidays.” As Dave Barry says, “Once again, we come to the Holiday Season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice.” Even more cynical is George Bernhard Shaw; he opined that “A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell.” Perhaps Shaw didn’t care to spend time with his family. Another important Superbowl attraction for many Americans, I suppose, is that we spend Superbowl Sunday with the friends whom we seek out, and Thanksgiving with family with whom we are stuck.

I will be spending the entirety of Valentine’s Day evening dining with my beloved, and I encourage you to do the same. It’s one of the most important days on the calendar, and I’m sure the hardworking staff would be happy to welcome you and your date. Because Valentine’s Day happens on a Monday this year, we will have to take a one-week break from the Pub Quiz so that the Valentine’s Day crowds can be accommodated. If you are desperate for trivial fun, I will be hosting a Pub Quiz-themed fundraiser for Sunrise Rotary Club at International House on Thursday the 17^th. Last year at this event the participating teams raised over $1,000 for Haiti Disaster Relief. Visit www.davisrotary.org/ to find out more about this fine civic organization and the February 17^th event (which by now may be sold out).

Even though I have not yet watched this year’s Superbowl (I have it Tivo-ed), you can be sure that I’ll be asking Superbowl-related questions tonight, so feel free to bring at least one person who watched the game. Other questions will concern the letter K, Shakespearean geography, internet culture, supermodels, animated comedies, grouchy former Senators from Wyoming, superheroes (x2), spectacles, football, insects, hellcats, underwear, the automotive industry, the vocabulary of flame wars, Nobel laureates, prayers, telegraphy, Afghanistan, trendy books from last decade, unrest in the Middle East, organic compounds, blockbuster movie stars, gay marriage, and classical composers.

If you have friends who would benefit from receiving this newsletter, please refer them to the yourquizmaster.com website so they can sign up. I hope you can join us tonight for your last Pub Quiz fix until February 21!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans. According to the company’s commercials, what kind of beer “Tastes great” and is “less filling”?

2. Internet Culture. Last week’s Viral Video. In a 1994 episode of what morning show did a host ask this now-famous question: “Alison, could you explain what internet is?”

3. Newspaper Headlines. What is the name of the current President of Egypt?

4. Four for Four. Which of the following American cities, if any, are south of Los Angeles? Memphis, Tennessee; Mobile, Alabama; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Tulsa, Oklahoma

5. Mine Disasters. In what US state did the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster take place?

Friends of the Pub Quiz, and those curious about all the fun and fuss associated with the Pub Quiz, should come to de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis (217 E Street), the highly esteemed pub and restaurant that fills up every night because of the superb quality of food, drink and company that can be found there. The de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz takes place every Monday at 7pm, though players are encouraged to arrive early to claim a table. As always, find out more about the Pub Quiz by visiting https://www.yourquizmaster.com. For more on de Vere’s Irish Pub, visit http://deverespub.com/.

The Poetry for Autism Edition of the Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on February 1, 2011

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

As many of you know, while I get to play Quizmaster every Monday night, I wear a great number of other hats. This week I’ve been wearing my poet hat, and have had an opportunity to give readings in support of the causes support. Friday, for instance, the PTA at the Two Rivers Elementary School invited me to perform before 600 of its students at a morning assembly. I was charged with helping to inspire the collected students and their parents read for one million minutes during the month of February. Poems are more fun to read than most other choices students had, I argued, as well as being short, and usually free. I recited and rapped some examples, and then read them my famous rubber duck poem before reminding them to start drafting poems for the Two Rivers Elementary poetry contest, and to keep up with their minutes. You can track their progress, and discover reasons to consider supporting the Two Rivers Elementary PTA by visiting http://www.natomas.k12.ca.us/15172011702238840/blank/browse.asp?A=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=60356.

And tonight before rushing over to the Pub Quiz, I get to participate in an evening of poetry in support of Autism research and treatment. At the Sacramento Poetry Center tonight I’ll be reading with three terrific poets: Rebecca Foust, Connie Post, Michelle Bitting. All of their lives have been touched by loved ones with autism. The UC Davis Mind Institute and the Odyssey Learning Center will benefit from this evening of food and poetry. Although I don’t expect you to join us in Sacramento tonight at 7, I invite you to find out more about the work of the UC Davis Mind Institute at http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/mindinstitute/. We are lucky to have such a local resource to support research into autism, the fastest growing developmental disability in the U.S. today.

Tonight at the Pub Quiz we will hear questions about film and more film, beer, Katie Couric, Tulsa and Memphis, film sequels you may have seen, coal, southern states, baseball, insects, Thomas Jefferson, one of Shakespeare’s more famous sonnets, debt, being blunt, the Academy Awards, muskrats, superheroes, Canadian performers, Batman, the rickshaw, colors that are also foods, favorite actresses, languages and letters (x3), literary villains, chemistry, Republican statesmen, football and Shakespeare.

If all this talk of poetry has left you craving an event for you to enjoy, I invite you to return this coming Wednesday night at 8 to see Chana Bloch read. The subject of an entire panel at the most recent meeting of the Modern Language Association, Chana Bloch is the author of four books of poems: The Secrets of the Tribe, The Past Keeps Changing, Mrs. Dumpty, and Blood Honey. She is co-translator of the biblical Song of Songs and six books of contemporary Israeli poetry, including The Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai and his magnum opus, Open Closed Open, and Hovering at a Low Altitude: The Collected Poetry of Dahlia Ravikovitch. Find out more at http://www.poetryindavis.com.

When last I talked to Bistro 33, 14 tables had been reserved for tonight’s Pub Quiz, which means that we still have room for your team if you call now. I hope you will join us tonight for the Pub Quiz!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

22. Film. What actress who played a leading role in the HBO television series Big Love, for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in 2010, also appeared in the films Boys Don’t Cry, American Psycho, and Zodiac?

23. Zookeepers. What is the name of the American zookeeper who is the Director Emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium?

24. Mountains of the World. The highest mountain in the Alps, covered with snow at almost 16 thousand feet, is found on the Italian–French border. What is its name?

25. Actors and Actresses. Anne Hathaway has been cast to play Selina Kyle in one of the most anticipated films of 2012. By what name do fans of this film franchise better know Selina Kyle?

26. Science. Pangaea was the name of the supercontinent that existed during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras, before the component continents were separated into their current configuration. Which of the following numbers of years is closest to the dating of that era? 2,500 years, 250,000 years, 250 million years, or 250 billion years?

Friends of the Pub Quiz, and those curious about all the fun and fuss associated with the Pub Quiz, should come to de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis (217 E Street), the highly esteemed pub and restaurant that fills up every night because of the superb quality of food, drink and company that can be found there. The de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz takes place every Monday at 7pm, though players are encouraged to arrive early to claim a table. As always, find out more about the Pub Quiz by visiting https://www.yourquizmaster.com. For more on de Vere’s Irish Pub, visit http://deverespub.com/.

The Inspiring Quotations Edition of the Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on January 25, 2011

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

In class today we discussed the quotation “Be afraid to die until you have won some small victory for humanity.” Horace Mann, founder of Antioch College, spoke these words sometime in the late 19^th century, and every day as a college student my father walked past a statue of Mann with the words at its base. It inspired my father to heed Mann’s words as an educator himself, as well as a theatre and film director, journalist, playwright and magician. Have you located the quotation or quotations that sustain and inspire you? Feel free to email them to me, or post them on the blog, and I will feature one or more of them in a Pub Quiz this year. Someone today has already reminded me of these wise words by Eleanor Roosevelt: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” This weekend I saw the Davis Shakespeare Ensemble’s production of Twelfth Night and was reminded that “some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” Do you have a sense of what that quotation means to you?

Tonight greatness awaits those who can answer questions about the following topics: internet fads, Florida, other southern states, world wars, the French language, film music (what’s your favorite film song to sing in the shower?), basketball, Mormons, Minneapolis, wildebeest stampedes, autographed documents, a tunnel anagram, Native American terminology, broken flowers, Glee, taxis, British movies, music and more music, John F. Kennedy, American poets, zoos, storied mountains, geology, illustrations, tigers, football, Shakespeare, and jazz.

Although we won’t be holding Pub Quiz on Valentine’s Day, we will hold it tonight, and the last time I checked, we’ll have room for you and your team. I hope you can join us.

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

2. Internet Culture. The almost 48 year-old founder, president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Amazon.com has a Z somewhere in his five-letter last name. What is that name?

3. Newspaper Headlines. World Leaders. Run out of town by an angry crowd, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali left the country he formerly ruled with 1.6 metric tons of gold, or about 1.6% his country’s gross domestic product. Name the African country.

4. Four for Four. Which of the following recognitions were awarded to Martin Luther King Jr., either during his life or in the two decades after his assassination? The Congressional Gold Medal, The Nobel Peace Prize, The Presidential Medal of Freedom, A Pulitzer Prize.

5. Art and Art History. What is the one-syllable last name of the man who painted the 1930 painting American Gothic?

6. Actors and Actresses. What actress starred in the 2004 American remake of Japanese horror film The Grudge?

P.S. The recent Modern Language Association conference devoted an entire panel to the poetry of Chana Bloch. She’ll be appearing atPoetry night on February 2^nd. Mark your calendars now!

Friends of the Pub Quiz, and those curious about all the fun and fuss associated with the Pub Quiz, should come to de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis (217 E Street), the highly esteemed pub and restaurant that fills up every night because of the superb quality of food, drink and company that can be found there. The de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz takes place every Monday at 7pm, though players are encouraged to arrive early to claim a table. As always, find out more about the Pub Quiz by visiting https://www.yourquizmaster.com. For more on de Vere’s Irish Pub, visit http://deverespub.com/.

The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Edition of the Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on January 18, 2011

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Longtime participants in the Pub Quiz have come to expect questions this holiday Monday that address the legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. King was a hero in my Washington DC home, his picture found in our dining room amid the family portraits. As a child I often visited my mother at her workplace, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, where I beheld a huge mural that presented Dr. King’s life and accomplishments. I remember a Reverend King quotation (From his final book, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community) that I read many times in that library, one that is especially relevant today:

“Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars…. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

What would Pub Quiz regulars not expect? Essay questions. Questions that would allow for and welcome a wide variety of answers, such as those I ask in my writing and literature classes. Here’s a topical sports and Hollywood question that I won’t ask tonight: Explain the allusions and humor behind the following Tweet from my favorite People Magazine writer:

“If Ricky Gervais finds himself short on job offers after this, I am sure the New York Jets can give him a job on their sidelines.”

If you are reading this at https://www.yourquizmaster.com, feel free to leave your answers to this Gervais/Jets question in the comments section of this blog entry!

As for tonight’s quiz, we had only one or two tables still available this afternoon. I hope you will grab one of them. Here are the topics to expect, so choose your team’s members accordingly: Government agencies, the CEOs of big tech companies, a metric ton of gold, Martin Luther King, Jr., American art, horror movies, Berlin, golf, Chinese leaders, medical breakthroughs, the Grand Canyon, five-letter verbs with just one vowel, musical colors (again), New Jersey, war poems, American presidents, Harvard academics, novels you have actually read, George Bernard Shaw, Pakistan, Chicago, world heroes, troubled leaders, piano movies, and Shakespeare. You’ve been warned.

Speaking of entertainments, Christian Kiefer and Michael Spurgeon are going to be performing at the John Natsoulas Gallery Thursday night, and I get to introduce them. I have known Christian for many years, and you may have heard him interviewed on NPR’sAll Things Considered. As a musician, Christian Kiefer has performed, collaborated, and recorded with some of the leading lights of the American independent rock and avant-garde sound communities and has been featured twice on NPR’s All Things Considered. As a poet, Kiefer has seen his work appear in Santa Monica Review, The Antioch Review, andBlackbird. He holds a Ph.D. in American Literature from University of California Davis and teaches English at American River College. The result of Kiefer’s collaboration on a triple CD, Of Great and Mortal Men: 43 Songs for 43 U.S. Presidencies, has been used as a teaching aid in many American history classes, and I have grabbed a few Pub Quiz topics from it, too. His new novel, The Infinite Tides, is making the rounds. Find out more about Christian Kiefer at http://xiankiefer.wordpress.com/. A tenured professor at American River College, Michael Spurgeon is the faculty adviser to the American River Review, the nation’s most highly acclaimed undergraduate literary and art magazine. Like Kiefer, Spurgeon is also an established poet. You are heartily invited to join us to that event, too. Seehttp://www.poetryindavis.com for details.

See you tonight for the Pub Quiz!

Your Quizmaster

P.S. Here are five questions from last week’s Pub Quiz:

8. Sports. The current third baseman for the New York Yankees is the youngest player ever to hit both 500 and 600 home runs. What is his name?

9. Science. New Subcategory – Science Vocabulary Anagrams. What two-syllable adjective meaning “Resembling, branching like, or shaped like a tree” is an anagram for the common phrase DROID DEN?

10. Food and Drink. What are the three primary ingredients found in a Caffe Mocha?

11. Unusual Words. What three-syllable verb starting with the letter T means to be “born anew in another body after death”? (Only a couple teams answered this question correctly)

12. Another Music Question. The music video of what new one-word Katy Perry hit shows insecure people in Budapest finding the courage to confront their fears amid multicolored pyrotechnics?

Friends of the Pub Quiz, and those curious about all the fun and fuss associated with the Pub Quiz, should come to de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis (217 E Street), the highly esteemed pub and restaurant that fills up every night because of the superb quality of food, drink and company that can be found there. The de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz takes place every Monday at 7pm, though players are encouraged to arrive early to claim a table. As always, find out more about the Pub Quiz by visiting https://www.yourquizmaster.com. For more on de Vere’s Irish Pub, visit http://deverespub.com/.

The Seeing Red and Singing the Blues Edition of the Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on January 11, 2011

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

It’s with a sad heart that I’ve been preparing for tonight’s Pub Quiz, thinking as all of us have about the tragic events in Tucson. A friend of mine and former Davisite who goes by the name Fang Bastardson wrote yesterday that as a society we should be careful not to let notoriety reward the mentally ill people who commit acts of mass violence. Here’s how he put it:

I think all responsible broadcasters should get together—of their own accord—and conspire to never to let the name, or any personal information, of assassins or attempted assassins pass their lips or appear in their publications ever again. Take away the spotlight and you take away a lot of the motivation. Most of these idiots leave notes behind, elucidating how much they’re looking forward to their names becoming household words after their atrocities.

For this reason and in the name of good taste I am not going pose questions about Representative Gabrielle Giffords or the other events of January 8^th. If you would like to read more about the thoughts and photographs of my friend Fang, visit http://fangsforum.blogspot.com. If you would like to support the California Chapter of NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, visit http://www.namicalifornia.org/.

On tonight’s Quiz we will feature questions on Japanese consumer products, Star Wars, Tom Cruise, an actual country music star (as I try to do at least once a year), Chile, the Royal Family, British singer-songwriters, the color red, baseball, Art and Art History, Cats, Androids that live in dens, cocoa powder, reincarnation, bottle rockets and other pyrotechnics, ABC shows, NBC shows, really long snakes, songs about colors (such as the blues), censorship (x2), Presidents of the United States (more than one), prolific authors, cars with names, foreign leaders, Frenchmen, wireless telegraphy, famous Republicans, mathematics, and Shakespeare.

We do have tables available for tonight’s Pub Quiz. If you haven’t yet made a reservation, call now at 530 756-4556. And just so you are warned, management wanted to make sure that I had some time with my wife Kate on Monday, February 14^th, so we won’t be holding Pub Quiz that night. I bet you will find some other diversions to distract you that night.

And remember that if you are a new team, or if you recruit a new team, additional bonus rewards await you. All you have to do is let me know on the evening of a Pub Quiz! I will be the guy with the microphone, wearing black.

See you tonight.

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans. What company with about 5,000 locations has as its commercial slogan the phrase “We try harder?”

2. Newspaper Headlines. United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wrote an op-ed that appeared in today’s Washington Post that NCLB provides “A chance for bipartisan governing.” What does NCLB stand for?

3. Four for Four. In which of the following films nominated for a Best Picture Oscar did Martin Sheen appear? Apocalypse Now, Avatar, The Departed, Gandhi.

4. Actors and Actresses. What somewhat overweight American actor, producer and screenwriter has appeared in the films Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Funny People and Megamind?

5. Know Your American Cities. In alphabetical order, what are the first letters of the names of the five boroughs of New York City?

Friends of the Pub Quiz, and those curious about all the fun and fuss associated with the Pub Quiz, should come to de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis (217 E Street), the highly esteemed pub and restaurant that fills up every night because of the superb quality of food, drink and company that can be found there. The de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz takes place every Monday at 7pm, though players are encouraged to arrive early to claim a table. As always, find out more about the Pub Quiz by visiting https://www.yourquizmaster.com. For more on de Vere’s Irish Pub, visit http://deverespub.com/.

The Pete Postlethwaite Memorial Edition of the Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on January 4, 2011

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Happy New Year! I hope 2011 will be a prosperous year for you. In my family we would always see films on New Year’s Eve, and often on Christmas Day. We did this not only because the best films are released at the end of the year, when the short attention spans of members of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences were not yet too taxed, but because you can sit around reading your Christmas presents and staring at the people who gave them to you for only so long. As Antoine de Saint-Exupery once said, “Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction,” and we often chose to gaze at the big screen.

And these were not just a metaphorical big screen, but actual big screens. The Tenley Circle Theatre, where I worked as a teenager, had three auditoria, the largest of which held almost 500 people. And larger theatres like the Circle Theatre or the Avalon held even more. All of these places are gone now, but the Uptown Theatre still stands. This theatre where I saw Star Wars has been called “the best place to see event movies for several decades” by the website Cinema Treasures (see http://cinematreasures.org/theater/70/). According to this same site, “The theater opened with a seating capacity of 1,364 (914 seats in the orchestra and 450 in the stadium seated balcony). The Uptown Theater was designed by theater architect John Zink, a top designer of Art Deco and Art Moderne style movie houses.” In 1968 2001-A Space Odyssey showed at the Uptown for 51 weeks. Can you imagine?

So in recognition of such traditions, and such grand theatres of the past, tonight’s Pub Quiz will focus at least partly on film, most of them released in the last 20 years, films that could be seen at our own domestic movie palace, The Varsity, or one of the smaller auditoria in town. We will also feature questions on automobile companies, internet time-wasters, Arne Duncan’s thoughts on education policies, great films (Apocalypse Now, Avatar, The Departed, Gandhi, and other award-winning usual suspects), less-great films, New York City, the music of New Jersey, Canadian athletes, POTUS, favorite primates, forgeries, starlets, New Year’s Eve, oaf topics, fudge, onetime superpowers, Obama’s cabinet, Western Asia, shaking your money maker, physics, mythology, epics, young actresses that I have not heard of, the Sacramento Kings, Shakespeare, and Chinese boys.

If you call right now, you might grab our last table for tonight’s Quiz. I expect us to sell out again this evening, though you are still welcome to drop by. As I will discuss more fully in a later newsletter, Daniel Goleman’s new book, Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships, suggests that we need collaborative social events like the Pub Quiz to stay healthy and intellectually active, no matter how old we are. So if connecting with friends, keeping healthy, and challenging yourself intellectually were among your New Year’s resolutions, you owe it to yourself to join us tonight for the Pub Quiz. See you at 9!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Mottos and Slogans. The company that used to be known for its slogan “All Day I Dream About Sports” is now using “Impossible is Nothing.” Name the Company.

2. Internet Culture – Viral Videos. What 54 year-old American stand-up comedian, television host, social critic, political commentator, author, and actor published a Christmas video to Oprah called “Enough With the Materialism”?

3. Newspaper Headlines. What is the only US state to have lost population between 2000 and 2010? Note that a number of states will have lost representatives in the US House of Representatives. I’m looking for the only state that actually lost citizens over the last decade.

4. Four for Four. According to a recent survey, Americans of which of the following ages are 50% or more likely to live in households with cell phones but no traditional landline telephones? 20-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39.

5. Ron Howard Movies. What year 2000 movie was the highest grossing film for that year, as well as the career box office records for both director Ron Howard and actor Jim Carrey?

Friends of the Pub Quiz, and those curious about all the fun and fuss associated with the Pub Quiz, should come to de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis (217 E Street), the highly esteemed pub and restaurant that fills up every night because of the superb quality of food, drink and company that can be found there. The de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz takes place every Monday at 7pm, though players are encouraged to arrive early to claim a table. As always, find out more about the Pub Quiz by visiting https://www.yourquizmaster.com. For more on de Vere’s Irish Pub, visit http://deverespub.com/.

The Ersatz Journalism Edition of the Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on December 27, 2010

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Welcome to the final Pub Quiz Newsletter of 2010! Over the course of the past several months, I have enjoyed sharing with you my sidebar thoughts about a variety of topics as they occur to me on Monday afternoons. Despite some of your wry comments about their inscrutability, I will continue to offer you hints about upcoming Pub Quiz comments on a weekly basis, as well as invite your questions and comments about the Quiz. I’ve been trying to think like a journalist in the last couple weeks, for I will be teaching the UC Davis University Writing Program’s journalism class for the first time next quarter. I’ve been debating with my friends whether my decade of work as a radio talk show host on KDVS counts as journalism, or just an opportunity for me to talk to new and favorite poets and other creative professionals on a weekly basis. The Pub Quiz has forced me to be a researcher of journalism, for I’ve tried my best to review with you (Socratically, one might say) some of the most important and compelling news stories from the previous week. I also include some fluff, the sort of news stories that my brother scoops as a reporter at People Magazine, for not everyone spends time reading The New Yorker and The Economist.

The year’s last Pub Quiz will include questions about sports dreams, materialism, the US Census, young people and their cell phones, holiday films, Kentucky, Christmas tourism, Lisa Marie Presley, baseball, sound energy, African American actors, chivalry, ABC, famous Russians, the Grammys, Spain, football (x2), Martin Luther King, Great Britain, Rolling Stone, famous novelists, big budget flops, Africa, American wars, migration, ballet, American Samurais, famous aviators, and Shakespeare.

I appreciate your subscribing to this newsletter, and your participation in the Pub Quiz in 2010. I look forward to bringing you another year of thought-provoking entertainment and opportunities for camaraderie in 2011. Happy New Year to you and your friends!

Best,

Your Quizmaster

P.S. Here are five questions from last week’s Quiz:

21. Books and Authors of the Year. The title of Jonathan Franzen’s latest novel is a one-word abstract noun beginning with the letter F. What’s the title?

22. Film. Who plays the title role in the 2011 film The Green Hornet?

23. Name the State. What US state is known as the “Volunteer State,” a nickname earned during the War of 1812 because of the prominent role played by volunteer soldiers from this state, especially during the Battle of New Orleans?

24. Countries of the World. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, there were 13,421,000 Jews worldwide in 2010. What country is home to the largest percentage of them?

25. Obituaries. What director of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and the original Pink Panther movies died this past Thursday at the age of 88?

P.P.S. To see the web site that I am building for my weekly radio show on KDVS, visit http://www.poetrytechnology.com.

Friends of the Pub Quiz, and those curious about all the fun and fuss associated with the Pub Quiz, should come to de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis (217 E Street), the highly esteemed pub and restaurant that fills up every night because of the superb quality of food, drink and company that can be found there. The de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz takes place every Monday at 7pm, though players are encouraged to arrive early to claim a table. As always, find out more about the Pub Quiz by visiting https://www.yourquizmaster.com. For more on de Vere’s Irish Pub, visit http://deverespub.com/.

The Candy Cane Christmas Jazz Edition of the Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on December 21, 2010

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

As a Quizmaster, I always appreciate this time of year, for most of our irregular Pub Quiz participants (and I suppose that would be most of us) have a decreased workload at work or school this week, and thus can (ir)responsibly packed for the Pub Quiz, spreading noisy good cheer in anticipation of the winter solstice, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s celebrations. Tonight’s Pub Quiz will sell out, so you should plan to come early tonight, even if you have to wrestle others for a barstool or a spot for your team on the floor near the Christmas tree. When my family and I stopped by yesterday for some dinner, my youngest son Truman was excited to see mini Christmas trees on each of the tables. The youngest eyes are always the widest. On the way home, the family minivan parked in front of author and movie critic Derrick Bang’s house to see his award-winning decorations, and to listen to his low-energy pirate FM radio station whose signal can be heard only within about 10 yards of his Cowell Street home. He plays Christmas jazz, a topic that he knows well, and delights cartoon-loving children with displays that use far less electricity than those on Candy Cane Court in Wildhorse. Impressively, one of the Candy Cane / Henri Court homes is collecting canned goods for STEAC, or the Short Term Emergency Aid Committee, for not everyone in Yolo County will be eating as well as the Cratchit family does on Christmas Day. For more on STEAC, visit http://www.steac.org/, and for more on the displays on Candy Cane Court (including a map), see http://www.lightsofthevalley.com/Properties/Detail.asp?i=513.

At the Farmers Market Saturday I discovered from one favorite Pub Quiz participant that, according to the hit TV show 30 Rock, “Happy Holidays” is what the terrorists say. Do you agree?

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature Christmas questions. Always in the past I have made a point of reflecting a diverse array of cultural and religious practices at the Pub Quiz (for example, this evening you will hear two Israel-related questions), but tonight we shall focus a bit more closely on the culturally-dominant practice of celebrating Christmas. Of course, the extent to which the crass commercialism of current rushed holiday practices should actually represent the Christian holiday has been long debated, famously on television every year by Charlie Brown and his friend Linus:

Charlie Brown: I guess you were right, Linus. I shouldn’t have picked this little tree. Everything I do turns into a disaster. I guess I really don’t know what Christmas is all about.

[shouting in desperation]

Charlie Brown: Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?

Linus Van Pelt: Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about.

[moves toward the center of the stage]

Linus Van Pelt: Lights, please.

[a spotlight shines on Linus]

Linus Van Pelt: “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, ‘Fear not: for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.'”

[Linus picks up his blanket and walks back towards Charlie Brown]

Linus Van Pelt: That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

I’m sure Derrick Bang would appreciate some Peanuts questions, but instead tonight you should expect questions about sugarplums (well, candy), viral videos, s’mores, Benjamin Franklin, celebrity gossip, volunteers, funny horror movies, funny caper films, staggerish synonyms for drunkenness, ballet, female athletes, phobias, Bill Clinton, Robert De Niro, liberal vocabulary words, Sesame Street, reindeer, dogs, business partners, oceans, winter wonderlands, Israel, big books, superheroes, Truman Capote, poems that you’ve actually heard of, football, Shakespeare, and France.

I send you and your families holiday cheer, I look forward to seeing you tonight for the pre-Christmas edition of the Pub Quiz!

Your Quizmaster

P.S. Here are five questions from last week’s Quiz:

10. Great American Cities. What one-word east coast city of about 100,000 that U.S. News and World Report called one of “America’s 10 Best Places to Grow Up” has as its city nickname “Birthplace of the Modern World”? Hint: Like most of you, I have never visited this city.

11. Unusual Words. What four-syllable adjective starting with the letter V as in victory means “marked by or given to vehement insistent outcry”?

12. Another Music Question. Which four-word title Abbey Road song has been downloaded on iTunes more than any other Beatles song?

13. Pop Culture – Television. Tuvok and Neelix were characters on what specific TV show?

14. Know Your Attorney Generals. Who did Alberto Gonzalez succeed as Attorney General in 2005?

Friends of the Pub Quiz, and those curious about all the fun and fuss associated with the Pub Quiz, should come to de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis (217 E Street), the highly esteemed pub and restaurant that fills up every night because of the superb quality of food, drink and company that can be found there. The de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz takes place every Monday at 7pm, though players are encouraged to arrive early to claim a table. As always, find out more about the Pub Quiz by visiting https://www.yourquizmaster.com. For more on de Vere’s Irish Pub, visit http://deverespub.com/.

The Motorized Shriners Edition of the Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on December 14, 2010

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

It’s almost mid-December, a time in my childhood home of Washington DC when we would rush through storms and the frigid wind to see friends in cafes or in their homes, anyplace where a warm drink could be found. Bundled like double-cones, sometimes we would need minutes to disentangle ourselves from scarves and sweaters and other various layers, only to huddle around radiators, space-heaters and an occasional fireplace. Contrast that with our attendance at Saturday’s holiday / Christmas parade in Woodland. After walking half a block with our winter coats, my boys and I returned all those layers to the car so we could watch the drummers, the cantering horses, and the motorized Shriners in our shirtsleeves. If our globe continues to warm, my future grandchildren will enjoy tropical Mexican weather when they bring their kids to that same parade in 50 years, all of them wearing layers of sunscreen instead of sweaters. When I tweeted to a Woodlander music professor I know that we were enjoying seeing the American Legion march down Main Street on a warm Saturday morning, he wrote back that in Woodland “the American Legion parades past the corner of 3rd and Main EVERY DAY at 10am.” Obviously we should venture out of town more often.

Topics on tonight’s Pub Quiz will include board games, California’s favorite technology company, dangerous New York drivers, someone with an unironic name of “Billy,” grandparents, people who appear in Vogue, Michael Bolton (really!), ballet, Usher, the NFL, human anatomy, Carrie Fisher, New Jersey, Scotland, The Beatles, Star Trek, Sober Vikings, Irish industry, Mice, world capitals, children’s literature, Jim Carey, Oscar-winning actresses, executions, short stories, French Canadians, Shakespeare, and the history of Christmas.

At publication time, more than a dozen tables have been claimed for tonight’s Pub Quiz. I hope you will grab one of the remaining ones and join us tonight. Teams of first-time players get special holiday treats, so tell your friends who have returned to Davis for a long winter’s visit to bring the reunion to everyone’s favorite pub quiz. The cowbell will sound at 9 PM.

Your Quizmaster

@yourquizmaster

PubQuiz Quizmaster on Facebook (friend me!)

P.S. Here are five questions from last week’s quiz.

9. Science. What chemical element that has the symbol As, atomic number 33 and relative atomic mass 74.92?

10. Great Americans. The square where one finds the Oakland Amtrak station is named after what great American author?

11. Unusual Words. What two-syllable word beginning with the letter I and has a G can be defined as “To arouse or excite feelings and passions”?

12. Another Music Question. Released in October of this year, the song “Raise Your Glass” peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming what singer-songwriter’s second solo number-one single and her third overall?

13. Pop Culture – Television. What Canadian-born actor plays the voice of the title character in the animated PBS television show “The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!”?

P.S. Anara Guard and Bill Gainer will be performing their poetry at the John Natsoulas Gallery Thursday night. Join us! http://bit.ly/guardgainer

Friends of the Pub Quiz, and those curious about all the fun and fuss associated with the Pub Quiz, should come to de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis (217 E Street), the highly esteemed pub and restaurant that fills up every night because of the superb quality of food, drink and company that can be found there. The de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz takes place every Monday at 7pm, though players are encouraged to arrive early to claim a table. As always, find out more about the Pub Quiz by visiting https://www.yourquizmaster.com. For more on de Vere’s Irish Pub, visit http://deverespub.com/.