Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
I’m continually impressed with the energy and activism of our Pub Quiz participants. You might remember that one of our favorite long-time players, Meg, has left Davis to join Teach for America. She’s now inspiring young minds in towns and hamlets of the Mississippi Delta rather than the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Now another one of our Pub Quiz regulars has heeded the call to service, this time in Vietnam. Melissa Chordas has traveled to the Ba Vi Orphanage in rural northern Vietnam to provide desperately-needed support for the staff and orphans there. As she put it in a recent letter to the Davis Enterprise, the orphanage “is home to more than 35 infants and more than 40 school-aged children” and it “provides shelter and care for orphans who have lost one or both parents.” Melissa is working overseas because “Many orphanages in Vietnam are understaffed and the children are badly in need of attention and supplies. We have created [a] group to spread awareness about our outreach effort, gain support and share information about our fundraising efforts and our travels.” If you would like to find out more, and how you can help, visit http://bit.ly/baviorphanage. Congratulations to Melissa and her team for their humanitarian work on behalf of the neediest among us (and a special personal thanks to local teachers and caregivers who support Americans with disabilities).
This week’s Pub Quiz newsletter is a bit shorter and a bit later than I had planned, for I was called home to take care of our latest pet, a mouse that we unwillingly adopted some time last week. My four-year old, Truman, named the house mouse “Dolly,” and was not at all concerned that the mouse was recently spotted scampering beneath his bed just before bedtime. Although we had set out a number of small plastic “have-a-heart” traps, this mouse would somehow trigger them without ever stepping inside. The debate began about what more expeditious means we might use to find Dolly a new home (and perhaps a celestial one). Finally today I bought a deluxe, complex metal trap that not only immobilized Dolly within hours of setup, but also gave the kids a chance to see her continue to dine on the peanut butter that we had set out for her. And just now Truman and I drove Dolly out to a field where Dolly could be released and, the story goes, be reunited with her family. I may add a picture of proud animal lover Truman to the web version of this newsletter, so check yourquizmaster.com later for visual evidence of our adventure.
Speaking of adventure, what fun we will have tonight at the Pub Quiz! You can expect two questions about baked goods and desserts, at least two on ancient civilizations, and one or more apiece on topics such as favorite candy bars, Linda McCartney, the subject of one of my favorite Hoagy Carmichael songs, Star Trek, Chelsea Clinton, Lady Gaga and other four-syllable musicians, fatter verbs, human anatomy, countries separated by a common language (as George Bernard Shaw put it), platinum records, NBC, famous people with limited income potential, Yul Brynner (who I once saw perform in The King and I at the Kennedy Center), confederacies, loyalty and honor, going rogue, scary movies, famous dogs, mountain ranges, erotic thrillers, healthcare reforms, skipping to my lou, Sean Astin, John Coltrane, and Shakespeare. As far as we know, Shakespeare did not declare himself to be a vegetarian – that might have been impractical.
I hope you can join us tonight at 8 pm at 226 F Street for the Pub Quiz!
Your Quizmaster
P.S. You are also invited to attend Wednesday’s poetry reading with Nevada City Molly Fisk in the banquet room. We start at 8, with the open mic beginning at 9. See http://www.poetryindavis.com for more information.
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/.