Favorable circumstances can make any day of the week feel like a Friday.
For instance, a week ago Tuesday one of my heroes, David Page, visited me in Davis for the first time in 25 years, and our long conversation brought me back to similar exuberant and carefree conversations that we had as high school students in Washington, D.C. in the 1980s. All of us were less beset and distracted back then, so we could focus on the friendships that meant everything to us.
Even in high school, Dave was working as an emergency medical technician and paramedic, a path he continued while studying at Brandeis University (where I visited him and met his college cohort) and later at Macalester College, where he met his wife Liz and near which the Pages and their three sons live today.
Today Dave is the Director of the Prehospital Care Research Forum at the UCLA Center for Prehospital Care as well as the Chair of the International Paramedic Registry. He expressed enthusiasm about a program he created that sends him to different locales in California where he teaches local instructors how to recruit EMT trainees from historically underserved and under-represented populations, including former foster children. A Trendsetter, Dave Page has likely saved more lives than anyone else I know.
Dave and I resolved to put on a mini-reunion for the other Trendsetters from our high school. Every time I see such friends, I am reminded what Cicero said: “Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.”
And then this past Monday my son Truman flew into Sacramento Airport. To arrive at the Ithaca Airport by 4 AM, he set his alarm at about 11:30 PM Sunday night, California time. He was bumped to first class for one of his three flights that day, and then by Monday night he was dining outdoors with us at one of our favorite downtown Mexican restaurants, telling us hilarious stories about his classes, his peers, and the Ithaca College graduation ceremony that he attended as an event manager. Disney CEO Bob Iger was the keynote speaker, and special guest David Muir, the anchor of ABC World News Tonight, also an Ithaca College graduate, surprised everyone by showing up to introduce his boss and mentor.
Truman was full of energy at dinner. Young people seemingly need far less sleep than the rest of us. In preparation for a radio interview, today I was messaging with Kevin Smokler, author of Break The Frame: Conversations with Women Filmmakers. Kevin tells me that he is an early riser and that he has dinner early, enjoying those early bird specials. No wonder he is such a productive “Hustler of Culture.”
Walking to that Monday dinner with Truman, Geneva, and my wife Kate, Jukie and I ran into our favorite Crepeville employee, Courtney, whom we have known for more than a decade. After catching up a bit, I told her that we had to press on to participate in the family reunion downtown.
Then I yelled this to Courtney: “Enjoy your weekend!” She laughed and told me she would try. I guess every Monday feels like the weekend when you spend it with the friends and family you love.
The weather tonight will be warm for May, so I invite you to join me outside at Sudwerk tonight, perhaps in the shade. On such days, I especially love hosting an outdoor Pub Quiz at sunset. Others feel the same way, for we had almost 40 teams compete last week. I plan to move the quiz along quickly, likely possible because the quiz is 873 words long, if you include the answers.
In addition to topics raised above and below, expect questions tonight on the following: low incomes, Santa competitors, the letter I, cities in England, adventure boys, Eastern Europe, notable smiles, regrettable bruising, separatists, UCLA accomplishments, mispronunciations for beautiful, unlikely winners, new names, California housing markets, jazz singers, stolen words, entomologists, expelled cities, seriousness, hello Dwingers, The American Film Institute, challenging locations, neurologists, German dishes, notable gangsters, rising oceans, ambitious mayors, former rulers, tabletop games, visor demands, percussion instruments, U.S. cities, geography, current events, and Shakespeare.
For more Pub Quiz fun, please subscribe via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/yourquizmaster.
Thanks to all the new players joining us at the live quizzes and to all the patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. We have over 60 Patreon members now! Thanks especially to new subscribers Bill and Diane, Tamara, Megan, Michael, Janet, Jasmine, Joey, Carly, The X-Ennial Falcons, and The Nevergiveruppers! Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. Maybe next week it will be you! I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, Still Here for the Shakesbeer, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the conversationally entertaining dinner companions and bakers of marvelous and healthy treats, The Mavens, whose players or substitutes keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules and the cost of avocado. Thanks in particular to Ellen and to my paid subscribers on Substack. Thanks to everyone who supports the Pub Quiz on Patreon. I would love to add your name or that of your team to the list of pub quiz boosters. I appreciate your backing this pub quiz project of mine!
Best,
Dr. Andy
P.S. Three duo questions from last week:
16. Who was the American member of the comedy duo Laurel or Hardy?
17. Ike and Tina Turner were both born in America, but Tina Turner later became a citizen of what country?
18. Who moved to Brooklyn at age nine: Shakira or her musical partner, Wyclef Jean?
P.P.S. “I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.” Vincent van Gogh
P.P.S. Our next Poetry Night on May 1 will feature Oswaldo Vargas and Patrick Grizzle, President of the Sacramento Poetry Center! Oswaldo was proposed by one of our Pub Quiz regulars! Plan to join us at the Natsoulas Gallery!