Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
We enjoyed watching the Academy Awards with a few friends last night, though my wife mentioned that she didn’t hear as many belly laughs from our guests as she had in years past. The young actors who hosted this year’s Oscarcast are young and charismatic, and maybe they did attract some of those valuable younger viewers, but they didn’t please everyone. Here’s what Roger Ebert had to say:
Despite the many worthy nominated films, the Oscarcast was painfully dull, slow, witless, and hosted by the ill-matched James Franco and Anne Hathaway. She might have made a delightful foil for another partner, but Franco had a deer-in-the-headlights manner and read his lines robotically.
Incredibly, when former host Billy Crystal came onstage about two hours into the show, he got the first laughs all evening. This was the worst Oscarcast I’ve ever endured. It’s time for the Board of Governors to have a long, sad talk with itself.
I guess I was enjoying my guests too much to concern myself that the rest of America and Roger Ebert were not having as much fun. I’ve been a fan of Billy Crystal since watching him on the TV show Soap back in the day, and agree that he was funny again last night. I wonder if the Oscar folks will bring him back to host or co-host. It’s not fair to the others for him to get the only laughs. And even though James Franco looked tired, I chalked that up to his studies. A curious polymath, he has been known to take an incredible number of units at Columbia and NYU while keeping up with all his acting duties; the day that he heard that he was nominated for the Best Leading Actor Award he still showed up to his creative writing class at Yale immediately after appearing on the Today Show. He has also taken classes at the Warren Wilson graduate creative writing program with my dissertation director, Alan Williamson, and Alan is a big fan of Franco (though I don’t know that he has seen any of his movies). Franco should have a PhD by the time my 13 year old daughter starts college. Imagine how much more substantive a place Hollywood would be if more of our celebrities had MFAs in creative writing! Imagine all the extra reading assignments that would await the staff at People Magazine!
You won’t need graduate degrees to win tonight’s Pub Quiz (depending on who else is on your team). Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions about cars, Madonna, capital punishment, Kim Basinger, DNA, Lake Superior, Courtney Love, Prince, football, metals, US Presidents, martial arts, the Country Music Awards, blood, animation, fashion, rats, Paris Hilton (is she in rehab?), doves and other birds, the Indian Ocean, the Academy Awards, famous beauties, retired actors, admirers of Henry David Thoreau, the City of Davis, imports and exports, J.R.R. Tolkein, chemistry, biology, unquotable novels, professional basketball, shoes, current events, and Shakespeare.
Speaking of creativity and poetry, a Sammie Award-Winning poet and MC will be headlining Poetry night at 8 this coming Wednesday night. Random Abiladeze will be supporting his latest CD release with a well-attended performance of incredible hip-hop poetry. The last time he appeared, a large and impressed crowd, as well as the musician Butterscotch, were there to applaud him. Come see why Random Abiladeze is such a big deal. Details can be found at http://www.poetryindavis.com.
We have room for you and your team tonight. Drop on by around 8:30 to grab yourself a table. I’m looking forward to sharing a drink with you (or at least drinking a drink while you happen also to be drinking in the same restaurant). See you then!
Your Quizmaster
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Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:
22. Film. What is the title of the 2005 film in which Keanu Reeves plays a chain-smoking cynical exorcist with the ability to discern half-angels and half-demons in their true form?
23. The British Royal Family. William III of England, also known as William of Orange, married a member of the British royal family in 1677. What was the first name of the wife of William III?
24. Countries of the World. What island nation in South Asia was known as Ceylon until 1972?
25. Greek Terms. “Skolios” is the Greek word for which of the following adjectives? Cheery, Crooked, Fragrant, or Smoky.
26. Science. According to the website PestGuide.Org, what is “the largest order of marsupials in the Western Hemisphere”?
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/.