Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
Happy holidays! Thanks to all of you who have written to ask if I am taking time off for the holidays, and thus won’t be around to host tonight’s Pub Quiz. Of course not! If our Irish Pub is open on a Monday night, I will be here. The two exceptions will be Valentine’s Day (and we are safe until 2022), and January 30th of next year, when I will be participating in a poetry reading fundraiser for The Mind Institute called “The Sacramento Poetry Reading for Autism,” a cause that is important to me. As someone who hasn’t missed a day of teaching due to illness in the 21 years that I have worked for UC Davis, I don’t expect to take a day off this year just because it’s Darryl Hannah’s birthday.
Speaking of the holidays, during this time of year, many of us experience the magic of anticipation and togetherness by gauging and stoking the enthusiasm of the children in our lives. Already this weekend I have taken one or more of my three kids on a variety of adventures during which time we talked about the decorations we saw, the beauty of South Davis greenbelts, and our eagerness to spend time with visiting grandparents. We’ve also read some Newbery Award-winning children’s books and watched some children’s films, some of them animated; at least some of these experiences will appear on tonight’s Pub Quiz. I’ve had to be careful not to share too much of what we were viewing and reading, however, because my wife will also be joining us for the first time at de Vere’s tonight, and I have a rule that I don’t ask questions that I know she knows the answers to (and she’s very smart). To make up for the potential increased difficulty that this entails (for me, and for you if you join us tonight), I’ve avoided discussing current events with her this week (such as the death of the great poet and playwright Václav Havel), and I added an extra sports question. If you bring the right team, you will do well.
Speaking of which, congratulations to the three first-time winners who played last week’s Quiz. In 2012, I will be establishing a monthly competition whereby we’ll recognize, photograph and reward the most successful team of each month. Here’s an action item for you to consider to ensure the competition is spirited: over this coming break, please write “Pub Quiz with Dr. Andy” on all the Mondays in all your new calendars.
In addition to a few of the topics that I mentioned above, tonight’s Quiz will feature questions on adult beverages, basketball, internet memes and acronyms, Scandinavia, world leaders, venerable Republicans, birds, famous people with short names, hip-hop hits, baseball, butchers, rodents, Las Vegas, inappropriate humor, songs to which many now croon in American fraternity houses, TV hosts, mythological creatures, chemical elements, Oscar-winning actors, James Bond, estranged sisters, 19th century British poetry, languages, Europe, people who are famous for reasons that I still don’t understand, football, jewelry, and Shakespeare.
See you tonight, and thanks for your support during this holiday season!
Your Quizmaster
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Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:
1. Mottos and Slogans. The Ultimate Driving Machine offers Sheer Driving Pleasure. Name the car company.
2. Internet Culture. What became the 2nd-most-used web browser for the first time last month?
3. Newspaper Headlines. How many presidential hopefuls were on stage at Saturday’s debate on ABC?
4. Four for Four. Which of the following have been locations of the Bravo reality television series Real Housewives? Atlanta, Chicago, New Jersey, Orange County. (Almost every team answered this question correctly)
5. Film. What 2011 legal drama starred Matthew McConaughey, Marisa Tomei & Ryan Philippe? (When will Hollywood make a film based on one of John Lescroart’s books?)