Dear Friends,

Today I taught my last writing class of the quarter at UC Davis. 

Using this prompt, I asked my juniors and seniors to reflect upon their writing plans moving forward: 1) How will writing function for you after UC Davis, whether on the job or in graduate school? 2) How might you additionally use writing to reflect upon or plan for other goals, whether they be creative, professional, contemplative?

While I don’t subscribe to the idea that shutting down the Department of Education would solve our educational challenges, I do worry about the diminishing appreciation for writing and literature—especially poetry—among some students. The act of writing, the consumption of writing, and the act of sharing one’s writing are all sustaining joys of mine.

I’m not alone. I’ve been collecting quotations from notable authors about writing and writing processes, and as you will see from the following list, many established writers also focus on the joy of writing.

“I write because writing is fun.” (Dorianne Laux)

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“I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.” (James A. Michener)

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“Writing is a fine thing, because it combines the two pleasures of talking to yourself and talking to a crowd.” (Cesare Pavese)

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“I never feel more myself than when I’m writing; I never enjoy any day more than a good writing day.” (Anthony Minghella)

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“Well, I think it’s extraordinarily fun to write, and I look forward to it every day, but that doesn’t mean I think it’s easy. There’s a difference between the two. It’s fun in the way all worthwhile things are fun – there’s difficulty attached to it.” (David Guterson)

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“I love writing. I never feel really comfortable unless I am either actually writing or have a story going. I could not stop writing.” (P.G. Wodehouse)

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“The books I write because I want to read them, the games because I want to play them, and stories I tell because I find them exciting personally.” (Gary Gygax)

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“I felt that I had to write. Even if I had never been published, I knew that I would go on writing, enjoying it and experiencing the challenge.” (Gwendolyn Brooks)

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“I’m just going to write because I cannot help it.” (Charlotte Bronte C5)

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“I couldn’t wait for success, so I went ahead without it.” (Jonathan Winters)

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“It is the moment I feel anything is possible, and I know the elation of being a writer.” (Patricia Reilly Giff)

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“Writing is its own reward.” (Henry Miller)

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“Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.” (Franklin D. Roosevelt) 

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“The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.” (Walter Bagehot)

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“Enter the writing process with a childlike sense of wonder and discovery. Let it surprise you.” (Charles Ghigna)

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“There is pleasure from learning the simple truth, and there is a pleasure from learning that the truth is not simple.” (Wayne Booth)

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“I love the work: the grind, the dreaming, the distracted not-sleep, all of it. It’s the one thing in the job that will always be there, and the real pleasure in the profession. Everything else is luck.” (Glen Hirshberg)

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“The only joy in the world is to begin.” (Cesar Pavese)

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“One of the pleasant things those of us who write or paint do is to have the daily miracle. It does come.” (Gertrude Stein)

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“A writer should concern himself with whatever absorbs his fancy, stirs his heart, and unlimbers his typewriter.” (E.B. White)

Perhaps inspired by some of these words of wisdom, I invite you to reflect on the questions I asked my students. Do you feel that your life is richer because of your own voluntary writing projects?

There will be a substitute Quizmaster running tonight’s pub quiz (which I wrote). I’m grateful to pub quiz regular James Raasch (and a member of last week’s championship team) for standing in today. A trained actor and singer, James will raise expectations for future quizzes hosted by merely me.

James has brought to life roles in The People in the Picture, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Man of La Mancha, A Spoonful of Sherman, Sunday in the Park With George, A Statue for Ballybunion, and Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, and Sondheim on Sondheim. Impressively, James served in the Navy band as conductor, staff composer/arranger, unit leader, vocalist, and instrumentalist (playing the trumpet, horn, trombone, and keyboards). He has performed around the globe.

Other favorite productions include playing the title role in Sweeney Todd, Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, and Bert in Mary Poppins. Music direction credits include West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, Little Women, Legally Blonde, My Fair Lady, and Annie.

We are lucky to have him sub for me at the Pub Quiz tonight.

The temperatures will be in the 50s this evening, but it will be rainy, so you may want to enjoy the quiz from indoors. James will keep the quiz moving—this week’s questions are succinct, totaling just 787 words.

In addition to topics raised above, expect questions tonight on the art genres, Matt Damon, princes, singer-songwriters, fuel, soccer, biggest hits, dog breeds, automated quotations, college-inspired projects, coffee, runners-up, American authors, Italian men, phantoms, basketball, American comedians, popular songs that are not sung, wetlands, groan worthy jokes, African countries, March happenstances, merry tasks, moles, UC Davis choices, presidential homes, science words that start with C, current events, books and authors, 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 members now! Thanks especially to new subscribers 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 everyone who donated towards the Jukie Duren Endowment at the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation. 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 questions from last week:

1. Science. The fastest animal on the planet is a cosmopolitan bird of prey (raptor) in the family Falconidae. Name it.  

2. Books and Authors. What scientist’s last book, Radioactivity, was published posthumously in 1935? 

3. Sports. What primarily left fielder for the Boston Red Sox from 1939 to 1960 was the last player to bat over .400 in a season?  

P. P.P.S. Today on my 5 PM KDVS radio show I will be interviewing Grant Faulkner (starting at 5:30).

P.P.S. Our next Poetry Night will feature storytelling on National Storytelling Day, March 20^th.  

Dear Friends,

This past Friday, the 28^th of February, sometimes adjacent to what is the rarest day of the year, February 29^th, marks Rare Disease Day, a day when people with rare diseases and genetic conditions can be recognized and celebrated. Our son Jukie is one of few Californians with Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome, so we use this opportunity to inform people about SLO. 

My wife Kate is particularly active in these efforts. As the Director of Family Outreach for the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation, she reaches out several times a month to families who have just discovered Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome in the same week that they are bringing home a new baby from the hospital. Sadly, most of those babies get to know the hospital well.

Published on her social media on this past Friday, Today’s newsletter comes courtesy of my wife Kate. If you are curious about the syndrome or Foundation that has become a big part of our lives, please visit https://www.smithlemliopitz.org. 

Heartfelt thanks to Kate for her admirable advocacy and excellent writing!

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Today we celebrate Rare Disease Day, a global initiative that raises awareness and support for the more than 300 million people worldwide who live with a rare disease, including our son Jukie. This international effort includes participation from 106 countries. This year’s theme is “More Than You Can Imagine.”

Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome is one of the over 7,000 identified rare diseases. A disease is classified as rare if it affects fewer than 1 in 2,000 people globally. Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome (SLO) is more than ten times rarer than that. For example, SLO only affects between 20,000 to 70,000 people born in the U.S. All parents of kids with SLO are carriers of the gene mutation that causes it — almost none of us knew that or had ever heard of Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome before our children were born. 

Reflecting on the words “More Than You Can Imagine,” I think of the overwhelming emotional, physical, and financial costs associated with rare diseases. People with SLO face many significant challenges. Many die at or before birth. Those who survive struggle to eat and to grow. Language comes slowly, if at all. Most fall somewhere on the autism spectrum. The vast majority have intellectual disability. We parents learn early on that we will spend much of our lives advocating for our children. We must often educate the health care providers our kids see, since most medical professionals will never encounter another child with Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome in their entire careers, leaving them unprepared for the unique challenges our children face. We advocate in our local schools for our kids to get the best education possible. All our work advocating for our kids is SO much more than anyone can imagine. 

As children with SLO grow, new challenges emerge — especially behavioral issues, as we see with our nonverbal son, Jukie. We can only imagine the frustration he feels when he cannot communicate his feelings, thoughts, needs and desires. This part of SLO is harder and more than anyone can imagine. 

And speaking of ‘More Than You Can Imagine,’ I cannot overstate the rage I feel toward the current administration and its Republican congressional allies, who are actively harming society’s most vulnerable. Their catastrophic Medicaid cuts will devastate our kids with Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome. Medi-Cal pays for our son Jukie’s regional center services, such as the behavioral intervention program that he participates in every weekday morning; a highly skilled and trained team work with him on decreasing his aggressive behaviors and increasing his functional communication skills. We are more grateful than anyone can imagine that he’s been accepted into this program, and we hope it will help him overcome these frightening outbursts. 

The current occupant(s) of the Oval Office are causing so much more horrific and devastating destruction of our government than anyone could have imagined. Think about an America without the Department of Education, including the loss of civil rights protections against discrimination based on disability (or race or gender). And imagine a world without IEPs (Individualized Education Programs) for our children with disabilities. Our Felon in Chief and the guy in the black hat holding the chainsaw seek to end the federal government’s commitment to ensuring equal educational opportunities for every child.

Many in the Rare Disease community live with compromised health and immune systems. When our family had the flu, only one of us (our sweet Jukie) ended up with pneumonia. While our son is much more vulnerable than most to infectious diseases, we have an antivax and anti-science nutjob running the Department of Health and Human Services, with plans to interfere with or even halt the development of next year’s flu and COVID vaccines, a serious concern for immunocompromised individuals and the rest of us.

And so, what do we DO on this Rare Disease Day, even as we watch our children’s lives becoming so much more difficult, as a result of the current administration’s draconian executive orders and proposed legislation? 

We must harness the power of resilience and connection with others in the Rare Disease community. We must fight for equal educational opportunities for all students. We must speak out, tell our stories, and let everyone know what the administration is doing to our kids and our communities. We must protest, call our legislators, show up at town hall meetings, and organize locally — not just for our rights, but for what is right. 

One thing I know for sure: alone, we are rare; together, we are strong.

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The temperatures will be in the 50s this evening, so I invite you to join me outside at Sudwerk tonight, as so many did last week, filling the patio. On such days, I especially love hosting an outdoor Pub Quiz. I plan to move the quiz along quickly, entirely possible because it is only 880 words long. 

In addition to topics raised above, expect questions tonight on the Academy Awards, keyboards, jazz, American plays, prisms, dad jokes, Oscar wakeup calls, anglophones, quavers, repetitions, global warming, astronauts, the Copper Age, dinosaurs, baseball players, asphalt, posthumous books, cosmopolitan animals, airports, musical villains, teenage monsters, female friendship, European authors, explosions, investigations, ABA and NBA players, ice babies, spices, police officers, gangsters, British naval slang, siblings, mating types, exponential math, current events, books and authors, 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 members now! Thanks especially to new subscribers 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. 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 questions from last week:

1.        Internet Culture. What does one take with Joplin, Notion, or Obsidian?  

2.        German Cities. Starting with the letter S, the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg is the sixth-largest city in Germany by population. Name the city.  

3.        American Rivers. At 444 miles long, the longest river on the East Coast of the United States crosses New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Name the river. 

P.P.S. Our next Poetry Night with new UC Davis poetry professor Cindy Ok is March 6.  

Dear Friends,

I encountered with such an unusual series of mishaps at the San Francisco Hyatt Regency earlier this month that a friend asked me to write about my adventure in this week’s newsletter.

For the last 20 years I have presented at the San Francisco Writers Conference. We did about 14 years at the Mark Hopkins International Hotel, and the last six at the Hyatt Regency. I typically travel with my family, and they prefer the Hyatt because of the proximity to restaurants and small urban parks where we can walk our French bulldog, Margot.

This year when I arrived on a Thursday morning to register at the Hyatt, I saw that an army of employees had been mobilized to attend to an unlikely flood in the lobby. Evidently an electrical short had sabotaged the fountain in the world-famous lobby (the largest in the world), so hundreds of gallons of water were pouring across the floor.

I saw bellhops with mops, maids with cleaning aids, and waiters tossing the nearby restaurant’s tablecloths onto the standing water like so many Indonesian penjala ikan (or net-throwing fishermen). I also saw black-vested employees with huge industrial cleaners that they hoped would soak up all the water before it reached the still-operating escalators and the elevator shafts. Because the staff had no sandbags, some of those tablecloths were also bunched into thick, rolled mounds, forming makeshift sandbags to slow or divert the flow. 

The electrical problems had just begun. Although they could keep the elevators working, a subsequent planned power cut (to repair the electrical problems) lasted not 20 minutes, as we were told, but the rest of the afternoon and evening. Managers with flashlights were handing out business cards and apologies, and a member of the staff handed out those phosphorescent sticks like the ones I used to buy at Rehoboth beach for 50 cents in the late 1970s.

We went to bed early in our dark hotel rooms. As I tried to fall asleep, I heard an impossibly-loud car stereo play “Like a G6” over and over again. I thought to myself that the rhythm (but not the content) of the song could be fruitfully adapted for a Dr. Andy poem.

The next morning, I performed a short breakfast pub quiz in a romantically-lit large ballroom. Like me, all of the attendees who had stayed in the hotel the previous night took cold showers Friday morning. Luckily, both the power and the heat came on later that afternoon in time for me to introduce keynote speaker Tommy Orange.

Saturday the director of the conference joked about the “Domino of Disasters” that had been the experience of the conference attendees, but all of us were in good spirits. Fifty-three people signed up for the marathon open mic Saturday night.

And then Sunday morning, as per the tradition, I performed a just-written occasional poem to close out the conference. I called it “A Domino of Disasters.” Find it below.

A Domino of Disasters –

The Poem for the 2025 San Francisco Writers Conference

By Dr. Andy Jones

Flippin’ pages in the dark, reading thrillers

When the lights flickered out, we got chiller

The dragons in my book, they wield magic

Writers reading in the dark, under glow sticks

Under glow sticks, under glow sticks

I’m practicing my pitch under glow sticks 

Under glow sticks, under glow sticks

I’m choosing stronger verbs under glow sticks 

All the linens in this place, they’ve gone missing

The plumber in the crawl space yells the fountain is a hissing

The lobby is a mire beset by dehumidifiers

There’s a poet on her knees helping with her hair dryer

Fire Drill, Fire Drill

Light it up, glow stick-light it up

When poets start recitin’, they be actin’ like they tough

The jazz night poets all be actin’ like they tough

And all the novelists around me, they be acting like they stuck 

Under glow sticks, under glow sticks

I can’t charge my phone with my glow sticks 

With my glow sticks, with my glow sticks

I’m taking a cold shower with my glow sticks

We have falling dominos of disaster

We need a working mic for the quizmaster

She’s from Ithaca, he’s from Madagascar

The basement engineer is staring up at the plaster

The writing that we do is worth the hardship

We come here for a lift, for the kinship

We’ll make our readers read, we’ll make them click

On our funny stories about writing under glow sticks

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The temperatures will be in the 50s this evening, so I invite you to join me outside at Sudwerk tonight. On such days, I especially love hosting an outdoor Pub Quiz. I plan to move the quiz along quickly, entirely possible because it is only 938 words long. 

In addition to topics raised above, expect questions tonight on the Academy Awards, short verbs, the colors of hip-hop, books about socks, quixotic quests, Olympians, patriotism, employers, popular sports, the English countryside, semiconductors, notions, bodies of water, anarchist fighters, back braces, sunshine, trees, the plurals of genus, basketball stars, younger brothers at the wheel, voters, restful sleeps, rainbows, gravity, biomass, endangered companies, criminals in Davis, exchange non-profits, rivers, cleaned-up lyrics, lagen, second places, trips via horse, current events, books and authors, 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 members now! Thanks especially to new subscribers 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. 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, who keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules and the dropping temperatures and the cost of avocado. Thanks in particular to Ellen. 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 questions from last week:

1.             Mottos and Slogans. Starting with the letter F, what insurance company uses the slogan “We know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two”?   

2.             Internet Culture. At the 2018 Webby Awards, what then new game from Epic Games won the People’s Voice Award for Best Multiplayer/Competitive Game?  

3.             Newspaper Headlines. According to a February, 2025 headline in the New York Times, who has “Scrambled the California Governor’s Race Without Entering It”?  

P.P.S. Our next Poetry Night is March 6.  

Dear Friends,

Discovering new cultures is one of the best reasons to travel. In his travel narrative, The Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain says “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

I love Twain’s use of the word “vegetate” here, especially in light of a conversation that my wife Kate had with a New Orleans shopkeeper this past weekend. When Kate wondered what mementos she should bring home to her kids, the proprietor said that she should purchase some Cajun alligator jerky.

When Kate revealed that (two thirds of) her kids are vegetarian, the vendor’s face soured. “Good luck with that,” she said with a smirk. Kate didn’t appreciate the uninvited derision, as if her family’s vegetarianism was a purposeful rebellion against Kate in particular.

A study reveals that in 2020, Louisiana had 16 vegan or vegetarian restaurants, or about three such restaurants for every million people in the state, tied with Alaska and Oklahoma. By contrast, California has 18 such restaurants for every million people in the state, for a total of 697 vegetarian restaurants.

As someone who has been a vegetarian for almost 45 years (surprise, Mom and Dad!), I frankly doubt that California, with its more than 300,000 restaurants total, has 697 vegetarian-only restaurants. Rather, I suspect that many of those are “vegetarian-friendly” rather than exclusively vegetarian. 

In the early 1980s, finding a “vegetarian-friendly” restaurant was sometimes challenging, even though, as of 2020, my hometown of Washington, D.C. had more vegetarian restaurants per thousand people (54) than any state in the union. When we ventured from DC to central Pennsylvania to visit my grandmother, we had much more trouble. Steak houses expect its customers to eat steak.

If I were to tell that New Orleans shopkeeper that I don’t eat fast food, she might be equally dismissive. I’m grateful for the vegetarian friendly eateries in my hometown of Davis, including Sudwerk, where I get an Impossible Burger with avocado and the delicious scarlet citrus salad. We Californians are lucky to live in the “Salad Bowl of the World,” and I plan to take full advantage of all the agricultural and cultural advantages of home. To use Twain’s verb, this Californian doesn’t have to ‘vegetate’ in one little corner of the culinary world—there’s always something fresh to discover.

The temperatures will be in the 50s at 7, 8, and 9 PM tonight. On such days, I especially love hosting an outdoor Pub Quiz. I plan to move the quiz along quickly, entirely possible because it is only 954 words long. 

In addition to topics raised above, expect questions tonight on daggers, titles with numbers, medieval engines, cabinets, atomic numbers, extensions, Rodney Dangerfield, sculptors, People’s Voice Award winners, farmers, world capitals, expensive art books, surveillance, police procedurals, young British singers, hallucinations, associations, crows, newish myths, intrusive topics, museums, countries of the world, sitcoms and their writers, shipwrecks, the looks of Hope, place names, Davis streets, current events, books and authors, 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 members now! Thanks especially to new subscribers 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. 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, who keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules and the dropping temperatures and the cost of avocado. Thanks in particular to Ellen. 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 questions from last week:

6.             Moana. Starting with the letter P, what is the ancient setting for the 2016 film Moana?  

7.             Pop Culture – Music. Speaking of Moana and its music, Lin-Manuel Miranda has been nominated for nine Grammy Awards, winning five, but he is not an EGOT. Which award does he need to become an EGOT?  

8.             Sports. What is the sport of American Lindsey Vonn? 

P.P.S. Our next Poetry Night is February 20.  

Dear Friends,

I admire Denzel Washington, but not only for the 10 films for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. I also enjoyed following his career in his smaller early films.

My father owned one of the first VCRs in Washington, D.C., back before there were video stores there from which one could rent movies. He would “check out” films from the TV station where he worked. In retrospect, I don’t remember now if those films were taped from TV broadcasts (likely with commercials), or if they were copied from other sources without permission.

Either way, in 1984, we rented and watched the murder mystery A Soldier’s Story, featuring Washington in a supporting role. That film was itself nominated for three Oscars, including Best Picture.

Not nominated for Best Picture, but still fun to watch, was the 1991 psychological thriller Ricochet, with John Lithgow playing the role of the vengeful psychopath, territory he had also explored in Blow Out (1981, with John Travolta) and Cliffhanger (1993, with Sylvester Stallone). My dad delighted in seeing Lithgow’s success, for as the son of one of my father’s acting professors at Antioch College, he was known by my dad when he was but a youth.

My favorite of all these early Denzel films was Mo’ Better Blues (1990), where Denzel played the lead character of Bleek Gilliam, a talented but sometimes self-destructive jazz trumpeter.

That Spike Lee film and other jazz-centered films such as ‘Round Midnight (1986) and Bird (1988), and, much later, the Oscar-winners Whiplash (2014) and La La Land (2016), have inspired my own interest in the quintessentially American form of music.

Since “Life is a lot like jazz… it’s best when you improvise” (as George Gershwin says), and since “Jazz is about being in the moment” (as the Buddhist maestro Herbie Hancock says), then jazz has also infused the work I do as a teacher or as a meditator.

Mostly I agree with the actor and musician Nat Wolff: “Jazz is smooth and cool. Jazz is rage. Jazz flows like water. Jazz never seems to begin or end. Jazz isn’t methodical, but jazz isn’t messy either. Jazz is a conversation, a give and take. Jazz is the connection and communication between musicians. Jazz is abandon.”

As I have written about previously, my favorite jazz critic is Will Layman, who writes for Pop Matters. Back in 1984 when A Soldier’s Story was released, Will was also my high school literature teacher. Because mine was a small private school in Washington D.C., Will also taught me trigonometry and coached a sport. A year later, classmates and I would see him play John Adams in a production of 1776. Will could likely have played all the instruments in the orchestra accompanying this musical.

Every December, Will publishes his list of the best jazz albums of the year, and then I stream all those albums as I grade papers, write newsletters, or sip a NA beer. Will reminds me and all his lucky listeners that jazz is not merely a retrospective art. Like Denzel Washington and John Lithgow, jazz is still alive today and ready to entertain those who would be receptive to their charms.

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The temperatures will be downright chilly at Sudwerk tonight, but I’m sure some of you will bundle up with bonus layers, and perhaps blankets, and join me for the outdoor show on the patio. Even though we expect no rain, some of you will want to head inside. Also, I plan to move the quiz along quickly, entirely possible because it is only 954 words long. 

Congratulations to The Dwingin’ Six for winning last week’s Pub Quiz!

In addition to topics raised above, especially Denzel, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on wallets, mice, Africa, holidays, World War II verbs, literary spiders, Zippos, beverages, French words, surfaces that are difficult to orient, insects, hornets and tomcats, trains, cast members, Drew Barrymore as interlocutor, financial formations, inventors, prognosticators, Mars, World Cups, ancient settings, relatively wealthy countries, different metals and what they mean to musicians, green zones, pay packages, fruits, distant places that can be barely incomplete musical heroism, imagined, umlauts, Oakland, semiaquatic mammals, walkers, Oscar winners, astronomy, current events, books and authors, 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 members now! Thanks especially to new subscribers 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. 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, who keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules and the dropping temperatures and the cost of avocado. Thanks in particular to Ellen. 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 questions from last week:

22.          Film. For what 2024 film was Zoe Saldaña nominated for an acting Oscar?  

23.          Youth Culture. To be released July 25th, the first Phase Six film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has the subtitle “First Steps.” What are the first three words of the films’ title? 

24.          Countries of the World. What was the first country ever to leave The European Union?  

P.P.S. Our next Poetry Night is February 21.  

Dear Friends,

Some kids spent every summer at camp, hatching careers as athletes or photographers, or attempting puppy love romances. I attended camp for only one summer. I came home from the World Community Camp a vegetarian, and my dad refused to have me return. Little did he know that camp would turn me into a vegetarian eco warrior with a penchant for geodesic domes, all of which is still true today, 45 years later.

These days, I don’t get to travel much. Although members of my immediate family will get to see New Orleans, New York City, and Chicago in the coming month, I will get to visit the south fork of Putah Creek, the part of the creek that only has water after the sort of rainstorms that we have been enjoying this week. Jukie and I will walk some familiar paths and dine in favorite Davis restaurants.

But tomorrow, tomorrow I return to camp, or at least the adult equivalent. Tomorrow, as I have for the past 20 years, I return to the San Francisco Writers Conference.

Taking place every February at the Hyatt Regency, home of the largest lobby in America, the San Francisco Writers Conference is a place where over the decades I have made dozens of presentations, counseled hundreds of writers, run many marathon open mics, and, in this decade, hosted a handful of micro pub quizzes, entertainment for the Friday breakfast.

I also get to perform the closing poem of the conference. Here’s the version I performed in 2023, having written it the night before after hosting a looong open mic.

Flights Before Frights

“Poetry will not leave me alone.” Tongo Eisen-Martin

Yesterday the elevator in Coit Tower was broken!

Can you imagine walking all the way up Telegraph Hill to the base of Coit Tower

Only to discover that 13 flights of stairs await you? 

So it is with your writing project – no one will build you an elevator.

Nothing – not the agent you might have snagged, 

Not the new friends you made at SFWC,

Not even Chat GPT – will make this process any easier than it has to be.

Your published book might make you accomplished,

But better than that, it will make you grow.

You must do the thing you cannot do, Eleanor Roosevelt said.

If she had voiced that today, we would never stop retweeting her.

But as it is, on the last day of the San Francisco Writer’s Conference,

You may be paneled out, and thus you have too many voices in your head.

Maybe even last night your writing project visited you during sleep,

Singing to you with plot twists, with images, with transcendent themes.

I’m here to warn you: Those images, they fade quickly.

Keep a notebook at your bedside.

Trace symbols on your foggy mirror like a mad mathematician.

Note the details. Permit yourself to get granular, to narrow down.

When it comes to books, the riches are in the niches.

Tongo Eisen-Martin says “Draw on your psychic landmarks 

to get to the bottom of reality.”

Distribute hot mics around your home. 

Say something nonsensical or scandalous, and then write it down.

Oscar Wilde says that “Everything that is true is inappropriate.”

Create with abandon — social convention doesn’t need any more cheerleaders.

This weekend I talked to a writer whose mother was a librarian 

and whose father was a magician.

Each of us should be so lucky.

Carry with you from this conference a librarian’s faith in books,

Both those of the people around you, and your own.

Also, like a magician, endeavor to traffic in awe and wonder.

“Be ambitious for the work and not for the reward,” Jeannette Winterson said.

My wife’s smartwatch says she climbed more than 40 flights yesterday.

She climbed so high she made it to the Mark Hopkins Hotel!

My goal-oriented son paid $15 to climb a bonus 210 feet to the top of Coit Tower.

These people are my heroes, as are  you.

Before you fly home, resolve to write 

your own Coit Tower’s daily quota worth of words!

Identify all your distractions and then begin your campaign of targeted disregard.

Muhammad Ali said, “It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; 

it’s the pebble in your shoe.”

You know the direction of your own tower,

You have the tools you need,

And you have the inspiration from the accomplished climbers who you’ve seen on this stage.

Rid yourself of all pebbles,

Strap on your shoes, 

And now, with friends here as your witnesses,

Begin to ascend!

I will have some stories to tell next week, some of which might be leveraged as quiz questions, poems, or lessons for my advanced essay writers this quarter.

I hope you are looking forward to your weekend as much as I am mine!

---

The temperatures will be brisk at Sudwerk tonight, but I’m sure some of you will bundle up and join me for the outdoor show on the patio. Even though we expect no rain, some of you will want to head inside. Also, I plan to move the quiz along quickly, entirely possible because it is only 954 words long.

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on travel opportunities, superheroes, Europeans, Quaker philanthropists, trailblazers, cities in Cuba, crossed wires, explorers, birthplaces, civil rights, brave Bruins, Princes of Wales, Super Bowls, cosmetics, stations, Time magazine, one of four states, backwards moves, cowboys, ways Congress is supposed to work, The European Union, controversial movies, changes in pitch, changes for Davis, novels published in 1847, U.S. states, people from Texas, engineering in Japan, people who pass as Greek but who are not Greek, ululations, Oscar winners, current events, books and authors, 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 members now! Thanks especially to new subscribers 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. 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, who keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules and the dropping temperatures and the cost of avocado. 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 questions from last week:

1.             Current Events – Names in the News. Born in 1955, what billionaire tech guru says in his February 2025 memoir titled Source Code that he would have been diagnosed on the autism spectrum if he were growing up today?  

2.             Sports. Born in Venezuela in 1981, what former Marlin and Tiger is one of three players in MLB history to have a career batting average above .300, 500 home runs, and 3,000 hits, joining Hank Aaron and Willie Mays? 

3.             Shakespeare. Which chilly late Shakespeare play that takes place in Sicily and Bohemia includes a statue of Hermione that comes to life?  

P.P.S. Our next Poetry Night is February 7. It’ll be a wide-open mic!

Dear Friends,

In Ernest Hemingway’s first novel, The Sun Also Rises, one character asks, “How did you go bankrupt?” The other responds, “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”

I’ve been noticing a similar phenomenon this month of January as friends of mine leave Facebook in light of changes in its content moderation policies. People who see what appears to be Meta’s willful move loosening restrictions on misinformation and hateful speech will remember what happened to Twitter after Elon Musk bought the company, renamed it X, and then welcomed back all the bad actors who had been previously banned or restricted because of their penchant for spreading hateful content, harassing and abusing other users, inciting violence, or just spamming people with advertisements.

Twitter used to be the place where we engaged with strangers or heard from notable users, while on Facebook we shared pictures of our vacations and our children and stayed connected with friends from our childhoods or college days.   

At one point I had 6,000 followers on Twitter, several hundred of whom I have met. On Facebook I have 2,600 friends, almost all of whom I have met. I used to believe Twitter better represented the world, where Facebook better represented my existing communities.

Several of my Facebook friends have announced their exit from Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. One wrote this as her final post: “I’m done. For my own mental health, I have to step away from platforms that support a racist, misogynistic, [redacted]. And I’m done with the people who support him or his cronies. Not that many people care.”

Another wrote this (in part): “My friends, this is my last Facebook post. I’ll miss you. I’ll miss the pictures of family and friends, the dance, aikido, the animal videos and the ease of staying in touch, but there are much larger and more dangerous issues at work, than my personal comfort and pleasure.

In 2017, Mark Zuckerberg, Amnesty International and the UN came to the same conclusion that META Facebook’s lack of fact monitoring and “hate-spiraling” algorithms were directly related to the violence in Myanmar that resulted in murder, torture, rape and displacement of the Rohinga people. To their credit, Facebook immediately began monitoring online posts for truthfulness having seen firsthand how, in countries with weak institutions, online violence quickly spreads offline. Now in an abrupt about-face, to stay current with Donald Trump’s values (and threats), Mr. Zuckerberg gaslights us by disguising what is actually a “safety” issue as a “free speech” issue.

Another wrote this: “This platform has deteriorated so much that even if I didn’t object to the supplication of Meta’s CEO to T***p, I would be migrating away. Too many ads (not that I’d buy any product advertised here) and an endless stream of new sites with historic photographs, fake alumni groups, cute cat and dog videos, all admonishing me to follow or join.”

Some of these people I know glancingly, and some I know well, having dined with them on multiple occasions. Some will leave Facebook altogether, while others will be discoverable only as placeholders, with their last posts greeting anyone who comes by to reconnect or post a birthday message.

We can all point to examples of the “gradually, then suddenly” phenomena. I think of my late mom’s cognitive decline, the way our climate has changed in my lifetime, the experiences of my friends who have battled addiction (including social media addiction), or recent threats to American democracy.

In an article published yesterday titled “Who Will Stand Up to Trump’s Broligarchs?,” Scott Roxborough points out that “Joe Biden, in his final Oval Office speech on Jan. 15, had warned of [] ‘An oligarchy’ of the ‘tech industrial complex’ whose ‘extreme wealth, power, and influence … threatens our entire democracy.’” Now that the world’s richest 500 people have a net worth of more than ten trillion dollars, and now that many of the world’s richest men have committed themselves to Trump policies, we might wonder what room there is in the democratic process for the rest of us.

How much is ten trillion? Measured in dollars, that’s about 38% of the entire U.S. economy. Measured in seconds, that’s more than 317,000 years, before the emergence of homo sapiens.

The late Senator Paul Wellstone said, “As free citizens in a political democracy, we have a responsibility to be interested and involved in the affairs of the human community, be it at the local or the global level.”

Following Wellstone’s lead, perhaps we become freer when we turn away from Facebook, and instead focus on embodied and interpersonal communities? I can offer no defense against the algorithms of broligarchs, but I’m glad to offer alternative distractions in the form of hosted events where friends can gather with their phones tucked away, taking time to look in the eyes of their compatriots, or to spend time with a poet or an actor who will take the stage and whisk you away from such troubles.

And if you can’t join me, consider a book! As Mason Cooley says, “Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.”

---

The temperatures will be brisk at Sudwerk tonight. Some of you may opt for the indoor space, while others bundle up on the patio. Also, I plan to move the quiz along quickly, even though the quiz tonight will stretch to 1,023 words.

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on exchange traded funds, quirky poets laureate, harsh deserts, movements north, Davis streets, container ports, occasions to discuss soup in a deli, rescue missions, four-syllable words, the constitution of migrants, iconic youths, medical experts, confectionaries, AI, Michigan newspapers, groups of rivers, Ohio cities, Venezuelan exports, drama desks, marine biologists, notable operas, punctuation marks, American musicians who have performed at the Palms in Davis, cold weather heroes, notable birthdays, Canadian sights, The TransAmerica Center for Retirement Studies, World War II foods, disorders that are on the tip of your tongue, the implements of heretics, long states, influencers, land animals, comparisons to Timothée Chalamet, spooky statues, New Mexico imports, allotropes, current events, books and authors, 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 members now! Thanks especially to new subscribers 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. 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, who keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules and the dropping temperatures and the cost of avocado. 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 questions from last week:

1.             Mottos and Slogans and Acronyms. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and what?  

2.             Internet Culture. Influenced significantly by growth in the technology sector, the net worth of the world’s 500 richest people has recently surpassed which of the following: $100 billion, $1 trillion, $10 trillion, or $1 quadrillion?  

3.             Newspaper Headlines: Inauguration Headwear. Melania wore a wide-brimmed navy hat, like Zorro’s. Ivanka wore something on her head that starts with a B. What was it?  

P.P.S. Our next Poetry Night is February 7. It’ll be a wide-open mic!

“Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.” Eric Hoffer

Dear Friends,

I am perpetually grateful for people’s kindness, but especially this week as I consider the names of all the friends, relations, and a few strangers who have made donations to the Jukie Jones Duren Endowment for the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation.

Maybe you know some of these people: Amy Abramson, Jane Beal, Jean Biegun, Christina Blackman, Anita Boone, Sandra Borgerson, Sara Brookman, Katy Brown, Pinar Brummer, Bill Buchanan, Charlie Burks-Martin, Crilly Butler, JP Cahn, Linda Casillas, Agustín Chapa, Joy Cohan, Roxanna Deane, Carl Dekart, Truman Duren, Patrick Fitzgerald, Andy Flores, Lucas Frerichs, Margaret Hitchcock, Eve Imagine, Julia Johnson, Lauren Kahn, Alicia Kinney, Mickey Kish, Kristine Kjellsson, Michael Koltnow, Bill Maul, Gary May, Julie McCall, Manuel Medeiros, Ann Miller, Geoffrey Neill, Jord Nelsen, Donna Neville, William O’Daly, Steve Oerding, Kari Peterson, Sophie Quynn, Jennifer Quynn, Ranger Ralph, Kathryn Ray, Craig Roberton, Brooke Sarkaria, Wrye Sententia, Wendy Silk, Dyson Smith, Peggy Stein, Jennifer Sterling, Dawn Stranne Wright, Ginny VanAckeren Schram, Sara Watterson, Cindy Williams.

I get to see some of these kind people every week or every month, such as at the Sudwerk Pub Quiz (I see a number of regular teams represented) or at the Poetry Night Reading Series. The kindness of poets often reflects in the big-heartedness of their poems. In a rather heteronormative statement, poet Wallace Stevens said that “A poet looks at the world the way a man looks at a woman.” I can assume that Stevens meant with a heart full of love, respect, and appreciation.

I also see friends from the Davis and Sacramento communities, some of them well known for their civic-mindedness and humanity. Public servants, retired professionals, administrators, teachers, professors, and healthcare providers all stepped up to support a small and hard-working organization that supports families who are newly desperate or newly resolved while facing difficult medical challenges. 

I see friends and relatives of Kate from Chicago and Florida, friends of mine from throughout California, as well as from Boston, Washington D.C., and even Savannah, Georgia. I see friends from high school, friends from college, and two friends who attended both my tiny private school and the huge Boston University.

Two of my mom’s favorite coworkers from her time at the Martin Luther King Memorial Library kindly donated. Some of the friends listed above I run into on the greenbelts of Davis, and at least one, my oldest friend on the list, I haven’t seen in more than 45 years, but with whom I caught up on the phone last year, noting that her voice and energy hadn’t changed a bit over the ensuing decades.

I’m lucky to know all (or almost all) of the people who have helped us build the Jukie endowment this year. So far we have raised $3,629 for the Jukie Endowment of the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation, ensuring that this non-profit will benefit from continued support in perpetuity. With your support, we may even discover a cure for Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome by the time Jukie reaches my age.

While the Facebook fundraiser has concluded (just around the time that many people are fleeing Facebook), the need continues, and the Foundation webmaster has created a special page titled “A 2025 endowment fundraiser to provide an eventual annual source of support for the Foundation to help SLOS families.” Perhaps your name could be added to this list? Checks sent to the Foundation will not incur processing fees. 

Because of the matching gifts and such, some friends are waiting for Giving Hearts Day, February 13^th. If you visit the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation webpage before then, a pop-up menu will prompt you to follow their lead. Perhaps the Jukie Endowment will reach our $5,000 goal after all!

With love and gratitude,

Dr. Andy

---

The temperatures will be brisk at Sudwerk tonight, but I’m sure some of you will bundle up and join me for the outdoor show on the patio. Some of you will want to head inside. Also, I plan to move the quiz along quickly, especially as the quiz is but 910 words long, shorter than this newsletter and almost a new record for brevity!

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on attainability, hats, methane, the fitness industry, Vermont, Spaniards, smiles, Russian outposts, asps, announcements, book awards, fresh water, famous houses, hangers-on, looping video, sole survivors, the voices of film stars, candy and crafts, TV shows, therapists, California cities, fasteners, September 7 in history, fast clouds, logicians, odd mop achievements, lyrics, American spellings, reruns, the dearly departed, the technology sector, calculus, islands not named Greenland, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare. 

If you want to see my Christmas quiz for free, 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 members now! Thanks especially to new subscribers 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. 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, who keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules and the dropping temperatures and the cost of avocado. 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! 

P.S. Three questions from last week:

1. Youth Culture. The Marvel actors Ian McKellen, Elizabeth Olsen, and Gwyneth Paltrow have all appeared in the same number of movies over the course of their careers. Is that number 20, 30, or 40?

2. Countries of the World. Found in Central Asia, with a small portion situated in Eastern Europe, the largest landlocked country in the world has seven consonants and three vowels in its name. What country is it?

3. American Cities. Of the 20 cities with the most families per capita under the poverty line, two are found above I-80. One is Walla Walla, Washington, and the other is Elmira. In what state do we find Elmira? 

P.P.S. Our next Poetry Night at the Natsoulas Gallery is February 7. It’ll be a wide-open mic!

Dear Friends,

My father, Davey Marlin-Jones, was an actor, magician, theatre director, film director, drama and film critic, and eventually, drama, directing, and playwriting professor.

Widely recognized in Washington, D.C. because of his movie reviews which aired on the local CBS affiliate just before the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, my dad was larger than life, a convivial, confident, and dynamic performer.

I resolved to chart my own course rather than taking acting classes, learning about broadcast media, or embracing public speaking, the way that my dad had when he was young. I decided to study English literature and psychology.

Today I am a public performer, a public speaker, a radio talk show host, a weekly columnist, and a perpetual master of ceremonies.

Sometimes I feel like heroes such as Oedipus, Macbeth, Paul Atreides, all of whom tried to avoid their destinies, and in that attempted avoidance, fulfilled them. Only my story has much less murdering.

I think of my inherent and inherited gregarious thespianism when I was recently invited to apply to be a Picnic Day Parade announcer. Filling out a form, I was asked if I was qualified for such a job.

The first time I was recruited to announce at the Picnic Day Parade, almost 20 years ago, a fellow KDVS DJ just tapped me on the shoulder and told me where to show up. This most recent time, I was told that the “Duties include, but are not limited to information meetings, run-throughs of the script, being at the event bright and early, and having fun!” I can do that.

Then the form asked me about my skills. I was told that the interview committee “Would like to see the use of organization, flexibility, and  articulation.” Ideally, I “Would need to be outgoing, able to speak in front of a crowd, and able to maintain a high level of energy throughout the event.”

Thanks to my dad and to my having hosted over 2,000 events since graduating from UC Davis with my Ph.D., I feel ready to take up the microphone once again, this time on April 12^th in service to the 111^th Picnic Day.

Maybe I will see you there.

---

The temperatures will be brisk at Sudwerk tonight, but I’m sure some of you will bundle up and join me for the outdoor show on the patio. Some of you will want to head inside. Also, I plan to move the quiz along quickly, especially as the quiz is but 940 words long! 

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on houseboats, San Pedro, echoes that have been vindicated, lines, museums, chess, absences, dropped celebrities, Nielsen numbers, press freedom, islands that neighbor each other, neuroanatomy, cities above I-80, countries with more than twice as many consonants as vowels, Marvel actors, flags, bodies of water, fitness milestones, video game sequels, banks, codes, underworlds, older men, rare words, Massachusetts history, mechanics, captains, calls for help, work, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare. 

If you want to see my Christmas quiz for free, please subscribe via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/yourquizmaster.

Congratulations to The X-Ennial Falcons, winners of last week’s pub quiz!

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 members now! Thanks especially to new subscribers 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. 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, who keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules and the dropping temperatures and the cost of avocado. 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 questions from last week:

26.          Science. What do we call the study of fossils?  

27.          Books and Authors. Maya Angelou was 40 years old when her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, was published. Name the decade.  

28.          Current Events – Names in the News. We were reminded this week that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is grooming which of the following to be his successor: His son, his daughter, or his niece?