Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
For me, summer weekends are less fraught, for my workweek presents me less that I need to recover from. For instance, after bike rides to the farmers’ market, Saturday afternoon my sons and I attended a neighbor and colleague’s birthday party. Hung from an awning, the backyard mister was malfunctioning slightly, dripping occasional artificial raindrops on the children who would yell “HEY,” as if someone had just squirted them. The constant dripping reminded me of the aftermath of summer storms from my childhood back east, where rainy days were often so warm that we would be given permission to frolic in the rain, the air rich with humid, smogless oxygen. What a delight.
Anyway, when I wasn’t recalling rainstorms, I spent most of my time at our neighbor’s party chatting with new friends in the back yard, but at one point, I ventured back into the dining room for seconds on the catered Mexican food. There I encountered an ongoing discussion of the impact of technology on education, distance education, and responsible teaching. I was tempted to jump in, for in my capacity as Academic Director of Academic Technology Services at UC Davis, I’ve lectured, presented, and published on all these topics, and could easily have impressed everyone there with my knowledge and perspectives. Instead I smiled to myself, created a couple more vegetarian soft tacos, and headed back out to play with the kids.
I think we’ve all dined with (or been cornered by) people who seek to impress us. Such people remind us often of their accomplishments (as I suppose I did in the previous paragraph), and like us to know that they matter to many important people. I once lived next door to a physician who used to remind us often of the gratitude of his patients, and of the inattentiveness of his hospital’s nurses. The more insistent and exasperated his comments became, the less plausible or relevant they seemed to his dinner guests (who were left checking their watches and trying to change the subject). I’ve tried often not to be that guy, choosing instead to impress people with my kindness rather than with my status. Believe it or not, some of my friends don’t even know that I host our Pub Quiz.
We all have to chart our own paths, and remember the Yiddish proverb: “Too humble is half proud.”
Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on breakfast cereal, significant fees, creativity tools, strong women, superheroes, African-American culture, AIDS, sports heroes, natives, great Americans, slacks, fashion, The Avengers, fictional planets, US Presidents, Irish culture, bands that my students seem to like, 13 year-old explorers, murder mysteries, basketball, islands in the (gulf) stream, acting awards, games people play, seas, Russians, hit dice, children’s literature, women who are not Julia Roberts, big cities, baseball, plants, Stan Lee, words that start with the letter H, observant detectives, the Olympics, and title characters in Shakespeare.
Tonight’s Pub Quiz will sell out. If you attended last week, yours was one of 46 teams, the de Vere’s record (and perhaps a City of Davis record). Come early to claim a table.
Also consider coming to see the storyteller, educator and comedian Chris “Whitey” Erickson as he performs original work this coming Thursday night at 8 at the John Natsoulas Gallery. The after party will start at about 10 at de Vere’s, where there is always a party going on. Details on the Erickson event can be found at the website PoetryInDavis.Com.
Your Quizmaster
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Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:
6. American States. The number of American states that Georgia borders is larger than you might think. What is that number?
7. Pop Culture – Music. Cee Lo Green and Danger Mouse make up what American Soul Duo?
8. Sports. Known as "Mr. Clutch," what quarterback who died in 2002 holds the record for consecutive games with a touchdown pass at 47, and is ranked by some sports columnists as the greatest quarterback ever?
9. Science. Avogadro’s number reveals to us the number of molecules in a WHAT?
10. Living Americans. Not adjusted for inflation, who is the richest man ever to run for the White House?
P.S. Congratulations to the team known as The Penetrators: they earned a score of 29 of 30 last week.