Dear Friends,

It feels strange to write about anything other than the terrible windstorms and the five wildfires that are ravaging parts of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County at this hour. I wish for the first responders and firefighters to have the strength to continue their work on behalf of those who have been affected by the conflagrations. 

The California Fire Foundation and other organizations are collecting donations for California wildfire and disaster relief.

Amid the challenges of this week, and speaking of donations, I’m grateful to friends on Facebook and Instagram who have donated over $2,000 this week to the Jackson “Jukie” Jones Duren Endowment for the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation. We are making steady progress towards fully funding this endowment at $50,000.

Jukie turned 24 on Saturday, and every year we use the occasion to raise funds for an important cause. Most of you know that my son Jukie was born with the rare genetic syndrome called Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome. His entire family has devoted our lives to supporting Jukie, and my wife Kate has worked to raise awareness about the syndrome and Foundation, and to support families who have just discovered that their newborn was born with this syndrome.

Because of donations to the Foundation from friends such as yourself, the (mostly volunteer) Foundation board and staff have been busy with the following activities:

• Funding SLO research “seed” grants, 

• Raising awareness of SLO to increase the rate of diagnosis, 

• Welcoming new parents with an online parent support group and family mentor program, 

• Supporting grieving parents with a parent loss support group, 

• Distributing welcome packets for newly-diagnosed families,

• Subsidizing the biennial SLO family medical and scientific conferences, 

• Connecting families to researchers and SLO specialists.

Such gifts have also helped to fund the creation of the SLO Foundation website, which we invite you to check out.

All donations are tax-deductible (Fed ID# 23-2635206).

If Jukie cared about recognition, he would love that this endowment bears his name. I think he would mostly care that so many other affected children and their families will benefit from your donation and the amazing work of this non-profit organization.

One can donate via Facebook or via the website giving page that highlights this special endowment. Thank you!

We hope in 2025 to raise $5,000 for the Foundation, and we are already almost halfway there. On behalf of all the families who will benefit from the Foundation’s support, I thank you and hope you can help us reach our goal.

With appreciation,

Dr. Andy

---

There are so many disasters and other regrettable truths in our country and in the world, but I try to keep them out of our pub quiz on Wednesday nights. Expect no questions on fires, plane crashes, terrorist attacks, or attempts to limit Americans from accessing life-saving vaccines.

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on moderators, average wages, superheroes, funeral scenes, nurserymen, diamonds, sidekicks, upright animals, parsnips, mothers of celebrities, Tarzanian aspirants, springs, Presidential names, successors, bird songs, extinct plants and animals, hero jerseys, big numbersBritish troops, The European Union, rapids, the Smithsonian, watches, ghosts, researching hobos, islands, satirical cartoons, the remoteness of Alaska and other states, unusual coats, pioneers, monkeys, Paul McCartney songs, limbs, the names of fondly remembered Senators, 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 Still Here for the Shakesbeer, 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 on Patreon now! Thanks especially to new subscribers Megan, Michael, Janet, Jasmine, Joey, Carly, 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. Science. What three-syllable C word do we use for a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcanic eruption?

2. Books and Authors. Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan once told an interviewer that his lyrics were heavily influenced by the long poem Mexico City Blues that was first published in 1959 by what Beat poet and novelist?

3. Sports. What is the only California-based NHL team to have won multiple Stanley Cups, securing titles in 2012 and 2014?  

P.P.S. Don’t forget the Jukie-themed SLOSF fundraiser!

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year!

Victor Hugo said that “To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” I’ve been lighting a bunch of intellectual and emotional fires in my head and heart, reveling in all the audible sparks.

I believe that I read more books in 2024 – 75 of them – than I did in any year that I was taking classes or conducting research for my PhD in English. 

Also a first in 2024, my ambitious audiobook consumption habit led me to read more works of fiction than non-fiction. In recent years, I’ve read books about Buddhism, positive psychology, and writing, and that trend continued, but this year I read more than 40 novels.

In some ways, I’ve been trying to keep up with my son Truman. We bought him a book of lists about ten years ago, the sort of top ten and top 100 lists that people compile, sometimes at the end of a year. Truman resolved to watch the films and read the books that appeared on various critics’ top 100 lists of all time. I believe he had read more classics of world literature as a high school graduate than I had as a college grad. He is currently finishing Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak.

This year I read The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, Baumgartner by Paul Auster, and all six Audible-available books in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. Those last Dungeon Crawler books do not come up in class.

Nonfiction books that I finished this year include How to Know a Person by David Brooks; Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke; Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change by Maggie Smith; When Harry Met Pablo: Truman, Picasso, and the Cold War Politics of Modern Art by Matthew Algeo; Hello, Habits: A Minimalist’s Guide to a Better Life by Fumio Sasaki, and The Zen of Therapy: Uncovering a Hidden Kindness in Life by Mark Epstein M.D.

I agree with Susan Sontag who said that “Literature can train, and exercise, our ability to weep for those who are not us or ours.” And the end of December has been a time of weeping, with tragic transportation-related deaths in Kazakhstan, South Korea, and last night, New Orleans.

I’m grateful to the doctors, therapists, and first responders who have tended to the affected families. “No one has ever become poor by giving,” Anne Frank said. 

I’m also grateful that my son Jukie agreed to take millions of Davis greenbelt steps with me this year, thus affording me all that time to read 75 books. As people know who spend time along Putah Creek on the greenbelts of south Davis, we live in a beautiful and walkable city, one that provides many opportunities for nature-gazing and peaceful reflection. Wearing simple clothes, we walk with friends or family, noting the passage of beautiful moments.

I will close with a poem by M.S. Merwin:

Another Year Come 

I have nothing new to ask of you,
Future, heaven of the poor.
I am still wearing the same things.
I am still begging the same question
By the same light,
Eating the same stone,
And the hands of the clock still knock without entering.

---

Just about everyone will have recovered by tonight at 7 PM when we will be holding our weekly Wednesday Pub Quiz. I hope you and your team will join us. This year, resolve to invite some new players.

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, even though the quiz is a substantive 1095 words long! 

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on mills, rappers, lost hairpins, the mottos directed at employees, magnitudinous steps, dignified actions, romantic tragedies, notable cups, beauty influencers, Mexico City books, cauldrons, islands, Greek mythology, delicious pastries (I get mine at Upper Crust Bakery), bicyclists, one percenters, lakefronts, addiction experts, nurses, functional teeth, sports outsiders, college graduates, female characters, shades of green, Raspberry Awards, money makeovers, San Francisco, game spots, post-trilogy successes, gold rushes, Asian countries, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare. 

I share the entire Pub Quiz with subscribers via Patreon every Monday. If you would like to see what the Christmas quiz looks like, I released that last week, even though we didn’t meet in person. If you are curious, 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, 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. What American multinational financial services company has used the slogans “Talk to Chuck” and “Own Your Tomorrow”?  

2.             Internet Culture. When Steve Jobs introduced the first iMac in 1998, he explained that the “I” stood for what?  

3.             Newspaper Headlines. On Christmas Day, 2024, Lamar Jackson surpassed Michael Vick as the NFL’s all-time leading rushing quarterback. Name Jackson’s team. 

Dear Friends,

The month of December provides most of us our only opportunity to listen to thematically unified music from multiple decades (or multiple centuries).

When during the year should Christmas music be played on loudspeakers, if at all? Should it be classical only, instrumental, or choral? Can the song “Holly Jolly Christmas” be barred? How about “Little Drummer Boy,” even though David Bowie was involved in one of the versions?

Other favorite singers, from Johnny Cash to Willie Nelson, from The Beach Boys to (even) Bob Dylan, from Louis Armstrong to Ella Fitzgerald, from Nat King Cole (my mom’s favorite) to Stevie Wonder, have all released Christmas albums. Do we listen to any of those? Sometimes some singles sneak into Christmas playlists, but I suspect that most of these did not transition well from vinyl to digital.

Many families amuse themselves with “gag” Christmas albums. We listen to the 1979 classic John Denver and the Muppets – A Christmas Together every year, largely unironically. Denver’s earnest sweetness helps to compensate for the irreverent zany genius of the Muppets. We watched the ABC special when it aired – there were so many Christmas specials in that era – so I was delighted when my wife Kate brought the album to our relationship almost 35 years ago. Ray Charles was a vocal arranger for the album, ensuring the highest quality of the performances.

Perhaps “gag” Christmas hits started with “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth” by Spike Jones (distant cousin). Others in the tradition included “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” by Gayla Peevey in 1953, “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” by The Chipmunks in 1958, “Please Daddy, Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas” by the aforementioned John Denver in 1973, “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” by Elmo & Patsy in 1979, and “What Can You Get a Wookiee for Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb)?” by the Star Wars Intergalactic Droid Choir in 1980.

Like so much Christmas music, any one of these might have been amusing the first time we heard it, or even the first dozen times, but to return to opening these one-hit presents every Christmas season, as well as songs such as McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime” or Wham’s “Last Christmas,” can make one hesitate to turn on the radio or spend any time in a shopping mall or a commercial building at this time of year.

Luckily, we are rarely captive audiences for such songs. We all have our favorite holiday songs, or songs that we love hear during the holidays, or songs that remain our favorites no matter what others are listening to. Many of us who love old winter stories (such as “The Snowman,” “The Fir Tree” (about a Christmas tree), “The Snow Queen,” or “The Ice Maiden” might also remember his famous quotation about music: “Where words fail, music speaks.”

I hope music speaks to you this holiday season. I look forward to speaking with you in 2025.

We are holding the pub quiz tonight at Sudwerk, our last one of the year, as well as on January 1^st. I hope you can start the year off in a festive mood while answering some trivia questions. Saturday will be the shortest day of the year, which means that before you know it, our pub quiz contestants will again enjoy warm temperatures and sunshine on the patio.

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 where Elliott is often the bartender. He’s bright, so sometimes a team at the bar recruits him play on their teams. Also, I plan to move the quiz along quickly — the entire quiz is a mere 959 words long! 

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on continental  changes, wide plains, later modernist classics, energy sources, basketball, martyrs, holiday music, Christians, people pleasers, holiday trees, alliterative titles, soccer, Prussians, American lakes, European discoveries, New York City, contacts that come from inside the Marx Brothers house, Caribbean culture, BART spending, alcoholic drinks, Oscar hunks, collaborative projects ancestors, drakes, people named Doris, the places where east meets west, open fires, toys, passes, friendly people, British borders, Iowa,  current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare. 

I share the entire Pub Quiz with subscribers via Patreon every Monday. Because Christmas falls on a Wednesday this year, next Wednesday, I will video record a pub quiz and publish it by Christmas Eve, making it available to all my paid subscribers, no matter the level. If you enjoy the quiz and would like to share the content with a friend or family member, or if you would like to see what the Christmas quiz looks like, 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. Thanks especially to new subscribers Megan, Michael, Janet, Jasmine, Joey, Carly, 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. Books and Authors. Charles Dickens first published A Christmas Carol in the same year that biologist Camillo Golgi, composer Edvard Grieg, novelist Henry James, and President William McKinley were born. Name the decade. 

2. Film. Which of the following people with the first name of Joan was the only person to win an acting Oscar for work in an Alfred Hitchcock film, that being the film Suspicion: Joan Collins, Joan Crawford, Joan Fontaine, Joan Plowright? 

3. Countries of the World. When one alphabetizes the five countries that border Syria, which comes last? 

Dear Friends,

Having moved from my hometown of Washington D.C. after graduating from Boston University, and leaving behind three parents and two grandparents, I came to California looking for new mentors. At UC Davis, I found a number of people to look up to.

Sandra Gilbert was as confident and ingenious as my favorite BU professors, including Howard Zinn, Elie Wiesel, Derek Walcott, or Sir Christopher Ricks. Offering feminist and psychoanalytic approaches to reading poems, Gilbert opened my eyes to new authors, new discoveries, and new insights that inspired the several sections of my doctoral dissertation (for which she was the first reader on my committee). She was also a richly imaginative poet who explored form and personal reflection in her creative works, each of which had an honored spot on my bookshelf. I enjoyed long conversations about literature and other topics in the two classes Sandra Gilbert taught me, in Washington DC when she hosted the 2000 MLA conference there (as MLA president), at her home in Berkeley, and at a 1996 poetry conference in Stirling, Scotland.

Sandra McPherson, who all of us called “Sandy,” invited me to participate in a directed study of contemporary American poets in schools different from the confessional and formal poets that I studied most closely. A Davis poet, fine art and folk art collector, and independent press founder, as well as a favorite professor of many, McPherson also invited her students to her richly-decorated home. One of the most prolific poets I’ve known, McPherson had a poem in the 1973 collection titled No More Masks! An Anthology of Poems by Women that my mom had on her bedroom bookshelf and which first introduced me to contemporary poetry. McPherson and I kept in touch frequently via Facebook in the years after her retirement.

John Boe was the most accomplished, most dynamic, and most multi-talented of my colleagues in the University Writing Program. He had a great sense of humor that he brought to the classroom, to faculty meetings, and to my radio show. Boe co-founded Writing on the Edge and Prized Writing, two important journals of writing that are still being published today. A past Picnic Day Parade Marshal and an accomplished pianist, Boe participated in both faculty speaker series that I ran and the Poetry Night Reading Series where he performed storytelling and blue comedic bits. I saw Boe’s perpetual energy and irreverence as qualities worth emulating.

As I explored instructional technology and pedagogical excellence at UC Davis, I soon found myself on committees with Physics professor Joe Kiskis. Kiskis cared so deeply about undergraduate education that he would drop in on faculty leadership meetings to learn about the university’s vision for teaching and learning, and to pepper campus leaders with seemingly impertinent questions that always elevated the needs of undergraduates over campus bureaucracy. Because of these concerns, Kiskis took a lead in helping the University Writing Program amiably separate from the Department of English so that it could become one of the best such programs in California. I turned to him so many times for wisdom that reflected concerns outside of the humanities, and thus he helped me widen my perspective on the support that I offer faculty across the disciplines as Academic Director of Academic Technology Services.

After I completed my PhD and started supporting English Department and University Writing Program faculty on the use of emerging technologies in the classroom (and later with remote teaching), one of my favorite and most steadfast attendees at my workshops was Beth Freeman. Via Facebook, we discovered that she was an Oberlin College classmate of a friend from high school, so even though we were in different programs, Freeman always treated me as a peer. I would report to her when our mutual students would rave about her teaching (which was always), and she supported me when she became a dean in Letters and Science, adding personal notes to my official review letters. It feels like just yesterday when Beth lunched with me at Yeti downtown, so full of questions for me and affection expressed for my family.

I dined with all these colleagues, interviewed them all in different forums (on video or on the radio), and welcomed them all to Poetry Night, as performers or as attendees. I looked up to them, admired them, and laughed with them. When I reflect back on my years at UC Davis, I see how all five of these friends made my life richer and more meaningful. Their love and support helped my transition from a time of constant mentorship from my parents back East to a time of discovery of new mentors and friends in Davis. 

As you can discover by investigating them online, all five of these friends and mentors passed away this year. I will miss them profoundly and will always cherish their influence on me.

---

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. Cooler heads will be warmer, for they will head inside. I encourage you to come early to snag a table. Also, I plan to move the quiz along quickly — the entire quiz is a mere 976 words long! 

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on the uses of dirt, subscribers, annulled cowpokes, people whose names start with Q, Spanish exports, Boeing airplanes, bankruptcies, five countries in alphabetical order, video game appearances, German markets, baby boomers, soft fabrics, people named Bailey who are not from Bedford Falls, the birth years of presidents, nameplates, newspapers, the distance between Chicago and LA, bears, river stadiums, still waters that run deep, layers of soil, athletic conferences, the height of favorite celebrities, again with the bats, nudity in nature, Arden Way, digital services, beauty filters, surfing destinations, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare. 

I share the entire Pub Quiz with subscribers via Patreon every Monday. Because Christmas falls on a Wednesday this year, I will video record a pub quiz and publish it by Christmas Eve, making it available to all my paid subscribers, no matter the level. If you enjoy the quiz and would like to share the content with a friend or family member, or if you would like to see the Christmas quiz, 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. Thanks especially to new subscribers Michael, Janet, Jasmine, Joey, Carly, 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, 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. Starting with the letter O, the most disappointingly-popular breakfast cereal in 13 U.S. states uses the slogan “It’s Not a Dream – You’re Next.”  

2. Internet Culture. Social media visibility is fleeting, so some people online use the acronym ICYMI. What does that refer to?  

3. Newspaper Headlines. According to a recent article in the New York Times, in 2024, The United States was the sixth largest exporter of automobiles in the world. With 5.7 million cars exported, what country is first?  

Dear Friends,

Today I have been listening to Charles Mingus (right now: “Boogie Stop Shuffle”) and luxuriating in the relative warmth of the afternoon sun.

In conversation with a friend recently, I meandered through a series of synonyms to describe how we heat our home during the mild Davis winters. I described us as pioneers, as homesteaders, as frontiersmen, comparing us to Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family in the Minnesota sod house that she describes in such rich detail in her book On the Banks of Plum Creek.

All of this is hyperbole, perhaps an expectation from conversations with a poet who traffics in metaphor, amplification, and grandiloquence. What I meant, mostly, is that we keep it cold in the house in the winter and warm in the summer.

If you were to look at our heater or air conditioning unit, you would see why. Both were installed when our Davis home was built in 1992, the same year that we got married. With its odd noises and uneven functionality, our old heater might remind one of the furnace in the McCallister basement in Home Alone. In recent years, we’ve felt cold drafts like an affliction, and not the refining kind that John Adams describes when he says that “The furnace of affliction produces refinement, in states as well as individuals.”

When we recently discovered both warm and cold air coming from the registers in our home, we called Greiner Heating, Air, and Electric so we could get a diagnosis. As with visits to the doctor, diagnoses typically result in expensive treatments, so we agreed to replace the entire unit even though Kate somehow fixed the temperature variance in the interim. 

As replacing an HVAC system typically takes two days or longer, the folks at Greiner kindly delivered us space heaters – one for our room, and one for my son Jukie’s – for us to use overnight when we had access to no heat whatsoever. I wanted to say that we call such days “Tuesday,” by which I meant that we always turn off the heat at night. That’s what layers of blankets are for.  Consider what Melville says in Moby-Dick: “For the height of this sort of deliciousness is to have nothing but the blanket between you and your snugness and the cold of the outer air.”

December temperatures in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, near where Laura Ingalls Wilder once homesteaded with her family in a sod house, range from a low of 16 degrees to a high of 28 degrees. At one point, Wilder wrote that “Snow as fine and grainy as sugar covered the windows in and sifted off to the floor and did not melt.” Sometimes the Wilder family tacked their blankets to the window-frames to protect the home from the ravages of winter.

With our powerful new heating system, seemingly ready to heat a home twice the size of ours, I anticipate that future winters will see me wearing no more than three layers at once. My late mom, who used to read to me from Laura Ingalls Wilder, has indirectly paid for our warmth this winter, providing for my comfort as she always did when I was a boy. 

Like then, I am full of gratitude. And like then, today I am spending a bit of time with some cool jazz, a warm blanket, and a writing project.

---

Thanks to everyone who joined us for Thanksgiving Eve last week. Tonight, we will have clear skies and warmer than average temperatures, but you should still be like Half-Pint and bring an extra layer if you plan to enjoy the Pub Quiz outside amongst the towering heaters. Surely the jollity will be unfiltered as we welcome back former players who have been missing the quiz but can now return to Davis to partake in the fun. As Albert Schweitzer said, “Happiness is the only thing that multiplies when you share it.” I encourage you to come early to snag a table. Also, I plan to move the quiz along quickly — the entire quiz is a mere 983 words long!  

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on hats, people who are next, acronyms, dancers, notable novels, trees, foreign cars, people from Portugal, ghosts, gold rushes, archeologists, sluggers, incipient job hunters, Russians, baby. Animals, UC Davis majors, cities that are unlike Paris or New York, sleepwalking, the example of Clockwork Orange, surfers, relative pasts, musical snakes, Pittsburgh, composites, company founders, pirates, ersatz Japanese cuisine, high school shows, dance moves, calm ushers, Harry Potter, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare. 

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. Thanks especially to new subscribers Michael (welcome!), Janet, Jasmine, Joey, Carly, 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, 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 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. Four for Four. Which two of the following are terms for the phenomenon of a moon having a moon: micromoon, moonmoon, second moon, submoon?  

2. Laundromats. According to Yelp, how many laundromats are there in the city of Davis: Two, five, or ten?  

3. Name the Year. In what single year were the biopics Elvis, The Fabelmans, and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story all released?    

Dear Friends,

As we prepare for Thanksgiving, my mind journeys back to this week 40 years ago when, a high school junior, I took my first international trip. My father took my brother Oliver and me to London, England, so we could explore the city (and a bit of Stratford-upon-Avon) and see eight plays in seven days.

The Davis Joint Unified School District has long excused students from class for the entire week of Thanksgiving (this is likely one reason why school seems to start so early in the fall), but back in my day, as old people say, we just had Thursday and Friday off. As a result, I had to ask all my teachers for my assignments early (I would soon be applying to college, so I needed to stay ahead of expectations), so we could leave guilt-free on a Friday night.

As I look over the hotels near Euston Station to see which one jogs my memory, I keep coming back to “The Suites” at 31 Argyle Street. I remember being fascinated by the imposing iron fences that surrounded so many of the buildings in London, as if each home were its own castle or its inhabitants were still preparing for the next Viking invasion.

Speaking of invasions, one of the most memorable of the eight plays we saw was a production of Shakespeare’s Henry V that featured Kenneth Branagh in the title role, a role he reprised in the notable 1989 film. Famously, Henry V and his “happy few,” his outnumbered “band of brothers,” defeated the French at Agincourt on St. Crispin’s Day:

This day is called the feast of Crispian:

He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,

Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,

And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

He that shall live this day, and see old age,

Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,

And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian:’

Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.

And say, ‘These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.’

Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,

But he’ll remember with advantages

What feats he did that day: then shall our names.

Familiar in his mouth as household words

Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,

Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,

Be in their flowing cups freshly remember’d.

This story shall the good man teach his son;

And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,

From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remember’d;

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition:

And gentlemen in England now a-bed

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

While I loved the play and was impressed with Kenneth Branagh, in 1984, none of us knew who he was. But I did recognize the name of Ian McDiarmid who played Emperor Palpatine in the biggest movie of 1983, Return of the Jedi, and likewise the name of Sebastian Shaw. In this case, Sebastian Shaw was coincidentally not the Marvel supervillain, but the British actor and poet who played the role of the unmasked Anakin Skywalker in that same Star Wars movie.

That week we also saw the premier of The Hired Man, a new musical that won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor (Paul Clarkson) in a Musical, and the premier of Starlight Express, a new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical that featured all the actors performing in roller skates to portray really fast train cars, like a racy and glamourous Thomas the Tank Engine. We listened to the soundtrack for the next year.

40 years later, I am grateful for the time I got to spend with my dad and brother, and for the investment that our dad, Davey Marlin-Jones, made in our theatrical educations. Fast-forward to 2024, and my brother is a film critic whose daughter just starred in a production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, while I put on my own very different shows six times a month.

I also became an Anglophile during that trip and resolved to return to London if I could. Just under three years later I returned to London as a resident. One of the first people I met was the person I initially nicknamed “my beautiful London roommate” to everyone in Boston or DC who would listen to my stories. 

Thirty-seven years later, that woman, Kate, is still my roommate, and even more beautiful. We hold hands while watching new plays in Sacramento and Davis. I look forward to returning with her to the West End where we will again fill our theatre dance cards with wonderful productions and performances.

---

Thanks for your patience as I was finishing that story.

We had a full house at Sudwerk last week as everyone crowded indoors to escape the rain. Tonight we will have clear skies and cool temperatures. Bring an extra layer if you plan to enjoy the Pub Quiz outside amongst the towering heaters. Surely the jollity will be unfiltered as we welcome back former players who have been missing the quiz but can now return to Davis to partake in the fun. As Albert Schweitzer said, “Happiness is the only thing that multiplies when you share it.” I encourage you to come early to snag a table. Also, I plan to move the quiz along quickly — the entire quiz is a mere 964 words long!  

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on cheese, animals, dancing, skiing, to-go food, golf hernia anagrams, rocker medical conditions, threads, The New York Times, greeting cards, namesakes, American stages, cat and mouse games, long-distance calls, speed demons, laundry, weirdnesses, moons, telecasts, Canadians, mountains, schoolchildren aptitudes, typefaces, festivals, helicopters, missed meals, trilogies, Islam, superheroes, hyphenated names, porridges, storytellers, proverbs, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare. 

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. Thanks especially to new subscribers Janet, Jasmine, Joey, Carly, 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, 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. Books and Authors. The Brooklyn Public Library has 163 copies of the Caldecott Medal-winning book of 1963. Starting with the letter W, what is the title of the most checked-out book in the history of the BPL? 
2. Film. What 2005 animated Disney feature film starred Zack Braff, Joan Cusack, and Garry Marshall, and featured supporting roles voiced by Don Knotts and Patrick Stewart, all of them playing animals? 
3. Old Cities. Name one of the two U.S. states that were added to the Union during the U.S. Civil War.  

Dear Friends,

Yesterday I had a 70-minute conversation with a stranger who lives deep in Trump country. Blissfully, we didn’t bring up politics once.

My new friend Karen is the President of the Beavertown Historical Society. As is likely the case of every local historical society, Karen works tirelessly to preserve the history and identity of her home town, in this case a small town in Pennsylvania.

I visited Beavertown every summer from the time I was born until I moved to California. My brother and I own a cabin in the woods right on the creek that provides Beavertown its water. This creek was my childhood playground. I spent hundreds of hours exploring, playing, reading or just sitting between the revetments that were built by the Work Projects Administration.

Born in 1900, my grandmother Vera remembered when, in the 1930s, all those workers descended upon Snyder County to improve its roads, bridges, creek-beds, water systems, and other municipal projects. Millions of people stayed busy and fed during the depression because of the ambitious vision and projects of the WPA.

Nobody from my grandmother’s generation is left to tell those stories, but Karen is preserving other sorts of stories in a new book about the history of Beavertown. I plan to buy a copy for my brother Oliver and me, and I will share one of the photographs in a future newsletter.

---

Speaking of faraway places, I first visited California in June of 1987 by car with my New England friend Bob, a lifelong Red Sox fan. On our way to San Francisco to see the Jerry Garcia Band play in a club, At one point, Bob and I were driving past the Kansas City Royals stadium on I-70 when Bob said he’d turn on the radio to see if there was a game we could listen to. The announcer immediately reminded listeners that the Royals were hosting the Red Sox that night. We got off at the next exit. The Red Sox won, but we were careful not to cheer too loudly.

---

Please plan to partake in the Pub Quiz festivities on this pleasant if chilly evening at Sudwerk in Davis. Bring your team to the beautiful outdoor patio where we have room for everyone amongst the towering heaters. The temperatures are dropping, so you might want to bring an extra layer. Surely the jollity will be unfiltered after sunset tonight. As Albert Schweitzer said, “Happiness is the only thing that multiplies when you share it.” I encourage you to come early to snag a table. Also, I plan to move the quiz along quickly — the entire quiz is a mere 994 words long! Do you ever notice that the word count changes every week? Sometimes I make extra work for myself.

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on silhouettes, generatively, hunks, athletes who return to surprise you, armor classes, progressive records, giants of literature, people from Boston, Brisbane airports, civil wars, more gloves than hands, art, grace and faith, optics, glasses, countries you have heard of but likely not visited, thumb icons, the absence of pandas, populous cities, international flavor, schools where notions are a blast, crosswalks, video games, teeth, troublesome customers, Newtons, professional wrestlers, people people, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare. 

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. Thanks especially to new subscribers Janet, Jasmine, Joey, Carly, 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, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the conversationally entertaining dinner companions 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. Unusual M Words with Four Syllables. What M noun refers to a feeling of pensive sadness?
2. Two Asian Nations. What alternated as the two largest economies in the world from 1 to 1800 CE?
3. Pop Culture – Television. The two of last week’s most- watched non-sports broadcast TV shows have the same American city name in their titles. Name the city.

Dear Friends,

My late mom, Mary Clementine Ternes, was an avid reader. Her mother Vera would read to her until her daughter could read on her own, and thereafter the two of them would just read together, sometimes in my grandmother’s bed, until late into the evening. I’m not sure what my grandfather thought of this practice. A radio, a record player, and eventually even a television came into their Detroit home, but my mom preferred to read.

In the late 1950s, my mom had an entry-level job in a Mad Men style advertising agency in New York City. Her supervisor, during the conversation in which he informed her that she was being fired, told her that she reads so much that she should travel uptown to Columbia University to get a master’s degree in library science. So that’s what she did.

My mom kept reading journals. Also called commonplace books, these are hardback blank books in which one records quotations, responses to book passages, and unfamiliar, mellifluous, or inspirational words. Thus inspired, the keeper of a commonplace book can be like Wordsworth who said you should “Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.”

Sylvia Plath kept such journals. In one of them she wrote, “I have to exercise my memory in little feats just so I can stay in this damn wonderful place which I love and hate with all my heart.” In another, she expressed a sentiment that my mom would have agreed with: “Aloneness and selfness are too important to betray for company.”

Sylvia Plath would also underline words in red in her dictionary, many of which Plath scholars have also found in her poems. One imagines her underlining sharp and biting words, such as “acerbic,” or dark and shadowy words, such as “tenebrous,” “stygian,” or even “atramentous.”

One favorite evening word of mine, “noctivagant,” refers to wandering the streets at night, the way the speaker does in that famous Robert Frost poem:

Acquainted with the Night

I have been one acquainted with the night.

I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.

I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.

I have passed by the watchman on his beat

And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet

When far away an interrupted cry

Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;

And further still at an unearthly height,

One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right. 

I have been one acquainted with the night. 

Today many of us have dropped our eyes, perhaps unable to explain. 

I regretted that my father, a great proponent of civil rights and someone who was optimistic about the promise of America, did not live long enough to see Barack Obama be elected U.S. President.

I regretted, too, that my mom passed away a couple of weeks before we received our mail-in ballots. She was inspired by the feminist movement – maybe this was spurred on by how she was treated at that advertising agency, or by all the books she read – and would have been thrilled to vote (again) for Kamala Harris.

We who are living get to see the best and the worst of America, and still we march on, even when we find ourselves marching on the “saddest city lanes.” We seek to hold our heads up, imagining ourselves to be supported by the investments previous generations of idealists have made in us. Wielding their dreams, we take stock and plan for future campaigns. Rolling up our sleeves, at least eventually, we won’t give up.

If my mom were alive today, I would have texted her another word for her commonplace book: “Recrudescence. (17^th century): the return of something terrible after a time of reprieve.”

I know that more than 51% of American voters think differently, but today I mourn for more than my mom.

---

Please plan to partake in the Pub Quiz festivities on this pleasant if gusty evening at Sudwerk in Davis. Bring your team to the beautiful outdoor patio where we have room for almost everyone. The temperatures are joyfully dropping, so you might want to bring an extra layer. Surely the jollity will be unfiltered. As Albert Schweitzer said, “Happiness is the only thing that multiplies when you share it.” I encourage you to come early to snag a table. Also, tonight I plan to move the quiz along quickly — the entire quiz is a mere 820 words long! Do you ever notice that the word count changes every week? Sometimes I make extra work for myself.

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on unfavorable houses, running times, solo dancers, Oscar-nominated films, flowery hotdogs, sports legends, reclaimed rights, repeated letters, young heroines, ancient rivers, bands of heroes, Pixar films, flowers, psychedelia, Florida and Cuba revenants, layoffs, fast songs, American cities, economic giants, moods, prophesies, bears, specimens, tennis, howls, recognizable leaders, wartime vitamins, three-pointers, legendary singers, closing empires, escaping daughters, varied diets, memoirs, city fires, halls of fame, architecture, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare. 

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. Thanks especially to new subscribers Janet, Jasmine, Joey, Carly, 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, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the conversationally entertaining dinner companions 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. Here are three pub quiz questions from last week:

1. Youth Culture. Who rose to prominence after winning the fourth season of American Idol in 2005, the same year that her single “Inside Your Heaven” (2005) made her the first country artist to debut atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart? Hint: She has the greatest net worth of any American Idol contestant. 
2. Big Ships. Starting with the letter B, in what city was The Titanic built? 
3. Countries of the World. The names of what percentage of African countries end in vowels? Is the number closest to 45%, 60%, 75%, or 90%? 

P.P.S. Tomorrow’s Poetry Night features Julia B. Levine and Murray Silverstein! Join us at 7 PM at the Natsoulas Gallery.

Dear Friends,

In the film Taken, Liam Neeson’s character Bryan Mills tells a kidnapper that he as a “particular set of skills” that will enable him to recover his daughter. The movie then reveals how he uses those skills. Considering that the film has two sequels and a spinoff TV show, we can surmise that Bryan Mills succeeds.

As a faculty member and academic director at Academic Technology Services at UC Davis, I have the skillset that you would expect: I know how to grade papers, speak about writing and literary topics before a room full of students, and sit patiently in long meetings.

All that said, it has come to the attention of leadership that I have an additional particular set of skills that can come in handy on rare and celebratory occasions: I have no fear of microphones, I can lightly roast (almost a “toast”) strangers in front of a large crowd, I can disperse humorous quips on the fly, and I can introduce speakers with the enthusiasm of Bruce Buffer.

This week these two worlds – the genteel and bureaucratic world of academia and the energetic and sometimes edgy showmanship of the pub quiz – collided at the California-wide UC Tech conference at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, where I was the Master of Ceremonies.

Although not as ebullient and irreverent as the Quizmaster, as MC I still brought a lot of optimism and humor to the job. I suggested at the start that I had been recruited for this position because of my poetry skills, that half the tech wonks were there mostly for the polka band, and that one of the keynote speakers I was introducing has been published in the Washington Post so many times that I was considering restarting my subscription. I had to clear that instance of political humor with one of the lead organizers of the conference. I did not have to clear my MC clothing choices, even my paisley shirt.

More than half the 800 conference attendees were still present to fill the first floor of Jackson Hall yesterday afternoon when I closed UC Tech with a poem, one I had offhandedly promised when I introduced myself at the start, and that I had written while the conference was ongoing.

I will close that this newsletter with that same poem. Enjoy.

“The Paisley Poet Closes the Tech Conference with Images Stolen from the Theoretical Physicist”

Thank you to keynote speaker Professor Raissa D’Souza for her work on Explosive Connectivity 

It might be said that we are all percolating.
Socially, intellectually, if we are lucky, also playfully,
We evolve at a comfortable pace;
HR would say, with mild approval, that we are meeting expectations. 
In a remote world of pathways, we are unhurried vertices,
Nodes in a network, for some of us, an obligatory network,
Fingers in contact with mediating keyboards,
Zoom tiles with Zoom tiles,
Rather than eyes in contact with eyes.
The debugging action items don’t care if we are smiling.
Our work from home Covid cocoons curtailed water cooler kinship, 
And since then, our connections have become more economical. 
Without fear of offending, we sometimes cut Slack short
Or respond curtly to the troubleshooting ticket
Without concerns about ourselves making trouble. 

As UC Tech comes to a close, let’s hope time spent
In this grand wine-funded palace for the performing arts
Led you to percolate not like coffee, but like eager volcanos.
Sometimes you have to travel far away to find yourself.
Abrupt phase transitions need catalysts, such as a Crackerjack Polka Band! 
Perhaps Mariachis Bonitas de Dinorah horns and castanets
Have lowered the activation energy needed for your involuntary reaction.
Ice is ice, baby, until suddenly, because of Davis October heat, the ice is broken!
We crafty organizers succeeded if a shared cookie
In the Mondavi courtyard became your critical connection threshold.
Your node is nodding; your point is tipping,
And now, raffle prize or no; Crackerjack Polka Dance Floor dance moves or no; 
Your rapidly evolving network has hot new broken ice nodes!
You have optimized for the timeline of this ephemeral moment.
We see you, eye to eye; we greet you, handshake to handshake.
Let the exploding social network percolations
Remind you, tonight and often, how it feels to step free from your cocoon. 

---

Please plan to partake in the Pub Quiz festivities on this pleasant evening at Sudwerk in Davis. Bring your team to the beautiful outdoor patio where we have room for almost everyone. The temperatures are joyfully dropping, though the rain doesn’t come until tomorrow. Surely the jollity will be unfiltered. As Albert Schweitzer said, “Happiness is the only thing that multiplies when you share it.” I encourage you to come early to snag a table. We filled the restaurant and patio last week, and I expect that we will continue to do so throughout the school year and beyond. Also, tonight I plan to move the quiz along quickly — the entire quiz is only 937 words long! Do you ever notice that the word count changes every week? Sometimes I make extra work for myself.

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on Joe Biden’s pumpkins, detectives, transformations, the loyal opposition, actors, Irish culture, famous sorceresses, grouchy lumberjacks, book genres, heavenly songs, auspicious beginnings (but not endings), country names, going home to Oakland, Miller settings, on-air courtships, adorable teddies, musical chaos, bears who swim, British partial retreads, screams, people who share names with superheroes, March events, captivating people, candy that talks back, Swedes, shoes, the connection between Dickens and Freud, vampires, lineups, fermentable sugars, physical ideas, famous creeks that no one has visited, old studies, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare. 

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. Thanks especially to new subscribers Janet, Jasmine, Joey, Carly, 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, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the conversationally entertaining dinner companions The Mavens who keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules, and others who support the Pub Quiz on Patreon. I would love to add your name or that of your team to the list of supporters. I appreciate your backing this pub quiz project of mine! 

Happy Halloween!

Dr. Andy

P.S. Here are three questions from last week:

1. Mottos and Slogans. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, KFC suspended the use of what slogan out of safety concerns? 
2. Internet Culture. The following video game subtitles have what titular fantasy setting in common: Age of Sigmar, 40,000, Space Marine? 
3. Newspaper Headlines. Which 2024 hurricane caused more power outages, Hélène or Milton?