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

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 21st, 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, 19th 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

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yourquizmaster@gmail.com

 

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.