Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
This update will be brief, as it is coming late, and I know that you are eager for some hints. I have been working on far too many projects, including a TEDx Davis talk that I gave Saturday called “Loki in the Nursery: Unexpected Paths to Tranquility.” The title reminded me that I should ask more Norse mythology questions. And the load of responsibilities reminded me that one should always be engaged with beloved activities. As William Butler Yeats said, “Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.”
Tonight’s quiz will feature questions on poetry, Texas, Latinos, again Apple, superheroes, motorcycles, royal families (but not always the royals you think of first, if, as an American, you care to think of royals at all), dictators, fish, pregnancies, gold, newspapers, famous spouses, country music (forgive me), winter sports, probability (upon request from the math majors who never miss a Pub Quiz), words that start with “H” (as in “heroic”), great jazz musicians, somnambulism, Atlanta, medical dramas, lakes and rivers, poets, Latinos, female novelists who are now Californians, Henry V, faraway island nations, the color yellow, roe, sesquicentennials, French people (but not Napoleon), city lights, Brooklyn, and Shakespeare.
We have a little extra room and, this being National Poetry Month, I am going to close with a poem about John Keats and Spring, neither of which appear explicitly in this week’s Pub Quiz.
TO JOHN KEATS, POET, AT SPRING TIME
by Countee Cullen
I cannot hold my peace, John Keats;
There never was a spring like this;
It is an echo, that repeats
My last year’s song and next year’s bliss.
I know, in spite of all men say
Of Beauty, you have felt her most.
Yea, even in your grave her way
Is laid. Poor, troubled, lyric ghost,
Spring never was so fair and dear
As Beauty makes her seem this year.
I cannot hold my peace, John Keats,
I am as helpless in the toil
Of Spring as any lamb that bleats
To feel the solid earth recoil
Beneath his puny legs. Spring beats
her tocsin call to those who love her,
And lo! the dogwood petals cover
Her breast with drifts of snow, and sleek
White gulls fly screaming to her, and hover
About her shoulders, and kiss her cheek,
While white and purple lilacs muster
A strength that bears them to a cluster
Of color and odor; for her sake
All things that slept are now awake.
And you and I, shall we lie still,
John Keats, while Beauty summons us?
Somehow I feel your sensitive will
Is pulsing up some tremulous
Sap road of a maple tree, whose leaves
Grow music as they grow, since your
Wild voice is in them, a harp that grieves
For life that opens death’s dark door.
Though dust, your fingers still can push
The Vision Splendid to a birth,
Though now they work as grass in the hush
Of the night on the broad sweet page of the earth.
“John Keats is dead,” they say, but I
Who hear your full insistent cry
In bud and blossom, leaf and tree,
Know John Keats still writes poetry.
And while my head is earthward bowed
To read new life sprung from your shroud,
Folks seeing me must think it strange
That merely spring should so derange
My mind. They do not know that you,
John Keats, keep revel with me, too.
I hope I get to see you tonight!
Your Quizmaster
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Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:
10. Great Americans. What is the last name of our current Attorney General of the United States?
11. Unusual Words. What three-syllable noun starting with the letter L comes from the Latin word “to wash” and means “the act or an instance of washing or cleansing”?
12. Another Music Question. What was the one-syllable title of the Flo Rida song that spent ten weeks at number one in 2008?
13. Pop Culture – Television. Two long-running soap operas have recently been cancelled by ABC. Name one of them.
14. Books and Magazines. The world’s best-selling monthly magazine is published in 35 languages, in 52 editions, and is sold in more than 100 countries. The first issue came out in 1922. Name the monthly magazine.
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/.