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
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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.