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? 

Dear Friends,

Today, for the first time, I listened to Beethoven’s Tenth Symphony.

You probably haven’t heard of this symphony. Nor had I until I started casting about for an archives-related topic to explore.

There are only nine symphonies by Beethoven, you might say, just as a baseball game has only nine innings and a pregnancy only nine months. 

Of course, we know these limits don’t always hold. Baseball fans know that in 2016, the Chicago Cubs ended their 108-year World Series championship drought with a dramatic 10-inning victory over the Cleveland Indians. This moment secured their first title since 1908 and is one of the most historic games in baseball history. This was also the only televised sporting event that my wife Kate has ever watched, outside the Olympics.

And if pregnancies lasted only nine months, we might be celebrating my daughter Geneva’s birthday today, instead of waiting until November 7^th. She would not be enticed to come out to play back in the late 1990s, just as today she sometimes has trouble waking up from a Sunday afternoon nap.

Scholars knew that notes about Beethoven’s Tenth were found among the Maestro’s records. Fragmentary sketches gave scholars hope that the work could be completed, even hundreds of years after composition had begun.

Beethoven’s later-years secretary, the violinist Karl Holz, had taken some notes after hearing the first movement being played, and these notes corroborated the approach to assembling the symphony by British musicologist Barry Cooper, editor of the Beethoven Compendium.

In 2019, the third and fourth movements of the symphony were reconstructed (extrapolated) by artificial intelligence. Beethoven X: The AI Project premiered on October,  2021.

We writing professors have learned to be suspicious of generative AI, but as I write these paragraphs, I’ve been pleased in this case with what AI has generated. I’m no music professor, but I can hear echoes of the genius of Beethoven’s recognizable works in the different movements of “new” music that I’ve heard today.

I also recognize that such compositions would not be possible but for the archives and archivists who gather, safeguard, organize, catalogue, and make available to scholars and sometimes even laypeople such as myself the physical (or digital) works by artistic masters or important historical figures whose work has come to matter to so many of us.

In the Archives and Special Collections at Shields Library one can find 41.2 linear feet of recordings and transcripts from the “Oral History Office.” One can also find there the papers of two men who I know (or knew) a bit: Gary Snyder and Wayne Thiebaud. There you can also find the papers of Isao Fujimoto, who was a good friend. All of us who appreciate the Davis Food Co-op or the Davis Farmers Market owe Isao our thanks.

The National Archives is celebrating American Archives Month throughout October, so tonight at the Pub Quiz you can expect a few questions about archives and libraries. It’s an appropriate topic if you consider how much time  you spend in the dusty archives of your own brain’s library every time I ask you an obscure question about Beethoven’s symphonies or Roman emperors.

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, and 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 908 words long! Do you ever notice that the pub quiz 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 hammers, diamonds, Harvard University, umbrellas, Greek and Roman colors, British monarchs, special family moments, Spider-Man, southern history, scriptures, writing habits, multiclassers, mermaids, cliff faces and such, Ws. groupings of birds, ownership questions, island chains, horses, mealtimes with strangers, roses, Italian attractions, conversions, random audits, People Magazine, Buddhism, unusual fish, chicken strategies, strong winds, fantasy settings, mountains, kilometers, 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, such as Sophie. 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! 

Best,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Here are three questions from last week’s quiz: 

1. Books and Authors. Sharing a name with the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the Southern United States, which Virginia Woolf novel is a fictional biography of an English nobleman who changes sex and lives for several centuries? 

2. Film. Which “Terrifier” movie topped the box office this past weekend: Terrifier, Terrifier 2, or Terrifier 3?  

3. Youth Culture. What might be a three-letter synonym for “cap” in the slang phrase “no cap”? 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Earlier this month I hosted a DOLCE meeting that made me want to return to my study of German, a study that concluded when my German teacher retired in about 1978. 

DOLCE stands for “Discussing Online Learning and Collaborative Education.” I’ve been hosting this particular series of faculty talks for about a dozen years. Held in person until the pandemic lockdown, now DOLCEs take place via Zoom, thus making it easy for us to record the speakers.

On October 4^th, we heard from Brie Tripp, an NPB professor who talked about “Formative Feedback increases Instructor Immediacy for Students.” Tripp uses QR codes to collect anonymous survey responses at the end of every lecture.

Second was Kirsten Harjes, a faculty member in German, who presented on “Ideas for writing assignments in the foreign languages in the age of Google Translate and ChatGPT.” 

Like many faculty, Harjes has come up with ingenious ways to harness ChatGPT as a helper, almost a virtual TA, so the act of “translating” that second-language learners will always be assisted in some way by generative AI. As Harjes puts it in her recorded talk, faculty in German and the other languages have been “battling and welcoming” AI for years.

I love seeing how my faculty colleagues innovate. Seeing the Harjes approaches made me want to return to learning German, a language I “abandoned” when my German teacher retired from her work at the Washington Waldorf School, where I was also learning French and Latin. My elementary French classes prepared me for high school, my high school classes prepared me for my last formal French class in college, and all of the above prepared me to teach the French translation exam during my first year of graduate school here at UC Davis.

Since my time at Waldorf, I have studied poetry by Goethe, Rilke, Hölderlin, Heine, Brecht, and Celan, all in English. Friedrich Schiller was an ancestor of ours, my Grandmother Vera taught us, though I haven’t independently confirmed this via FamilySearch.org.

Mostly I would like to visit Germany, as my wife Kate and my son Truman got to do last fall, retracing some of the steps of our ancestors on both sides of our family. The Ternes family crest of arms surely has the seabird “terns” upon it, for that is the derivation of my Mom’s maiden name.

Do you have a language or a land that you would like to return to, even if you’ve never been there? Do share.

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 rain has stopped and 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 748 words long!

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on credit concerns, approximations, jumbled memories, recent boat travel destinations, unforgiving weather, salesmen, sequels, electric vehicles, legends who switch jobs, NPR, members of halls of fame, Scrabble, primates, significant walks, platoons, the absence of mendacity, beautiful words, jazz fans, debit cards, state nicknames, playlists, familiar moons, Rite Aid, the consternation of bakers, naming rights in Los Angeles, schoolboys, caps, Germans who speak Polish, 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, such as Sophie. I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the conversationally entertaining Mavens who keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules, and others who support the Pub Quiz on Patreon (where I am also sometimes sharing drafts of poems, including one this week about my move to California in 1989). 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! 

Best,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Three questions from last week:

1. Science: The Measuring of Horses. Starting with the letter W, what do we call the highest part of a horse’s back, located at the base of the neck between the shoulder blades?  

2. Great Americans. First name Samuel, who developed the standard for the rhythmic transmission of data?  

3. Unusual Words. What five-letter T words means “understood or implied without being stated”?  

P.P.S. Tomorrow’s Poetry Night features readings by Tim Hunt and Michael Gallowglas. Find the details at Poetry in Davis.

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Of all the enjoyable duties that Chancellor May of UC Davis gets to perform, I imagine that one of his favorites must be helping the freshmen move into dorms every September. 

No matter how digitized we become, with the huge record collections and book collections that we transport in our phones, and no matter how much easier our lives might be made with the help of AI, we are still physical beings. Although often encumbered with too many possessions, we are still delighted to be moving bodily through the world.

Dancers know this. Martha Graham said, “Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul’s weather to all who can read it.” Philosophers know this. Friedrich Nietzsche said, “Sit as little as possible; give no credence to any thought that was not born outdoors while one moved about freely — in which the muscles are not celebrating a feast, too: all prejudices come from the intestines. The sedentary life — as I have said once before — is the real sin against the holy spirit.”

Walkers like me know this, too. I saw Rebecca Solnit give a talk on campus the day after my father died 20 years ago, and I have been reading her essays ever since. In her book Wanderlust: A History of Walking, Rebecca Solnit writes, “Exploring the world is one of the best ways of exploring the mind, and walking travels both terrains.”

Just over a week ago, I got to help a friend move out of her Woodland condo and into a new home in West Sacramento. I was not my friend Margaret’s strongest helper, but I was one of the most energetic, arriving early to get my steps in and loads carried before running off to host a charity event. I climbed 38 flights of stairs that day, more than three times my average of 11, and got a significant workout in the form of what trainers call “functional fitness.”

I was feeling rather dysfunctional when I was asked to help carry a full size upright piano down two flights of stairs. Trained to love old films by my father, I immediately envisioned scenes from the 1932 Academy Award-winning short Laurel and Hardy film The Music Box, which we can watch in its entirety on YouTube.

Luckily, I was one of three movers, chosen because my lithe frame could squeeze between the piano and the stairwell as we rounded corners. I’m happy to report that our trip to and on the stairs was far less musical than that of Laurel and Hardy. One wonders what the Three Stooges would do with such an assignment.

On my walks, I’ve passed many a family moving endless boxes into a new home, often a student apartment, and wanted to offer to help, but as a longtime faculty member, I have an obligation not to come off as creepy, so we keep walking by, preferring walked miles over climbed flights.

But the Chancellor, he dons his gloves and perhaps his nametag and gets to walk right up to strangers who quickly become friends, or at least fans, and he gets to substitute a functional workout for another trip to the Rec Hall. And I bet that so far he has not dropped a single piano.

If you are curious to know how my wife Kate’s foot is doing, please read the long postscript at the end of this week’s newsletter.

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 the misters will be misting and where we have room for almost everyone. 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 859 words long!

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on angels and their counterparts, billionaires, old nippers, Benedictine creatures, printed errors, liberties, guards, horses, large cities, people named Pierre, adopted fathers, early balls, hours, French women, John Malkovich, forgotten roles, hackles of sorrow, people born in Oakland, Mars, spruces and pines, places that start with the letter M, presidential trivia, John Lennon’s birthday, the roles of rolls, Saturday Night Live, young legs in the never garden, rhythmic communications, original teams, race cars, aces, unusual measurements, painters who changed jobs, implications, French commonalities, understudies, bodies, devoted players, T leaders, valuable minerals, oceans, roses, basketball players,  beloved animals, unbelted books, scientific units, capitals,  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, such as Sophie. I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the conversationally entertaining Mavens who keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules, and others who support the Pub Quiz on Patreon (where I am also sometimes sharing drafts of poems, including one this week about my move to California in 1989). 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! 

Also, my friend Leslie is visiting from Oregon this week. I wonder which team will get to add her as a ringer!

Best,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Find here three questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Youth Culture. Born in July of 2024, Moo Deng is a really cute example of what sort of animal?  

2. World Cities. What European city has the nicknames “The City of Counts,” “The Catalan Capital,” and BCN?  

3. Video Games. Which multiplayer online game exploded in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, one where colorful and armless players try to identify imposters? 

P.P.S. And here is Kate’s update:

Six months ago, I walked into the hospital to get a bionic hip and left a few days later with a paralyzed foot. Of all of the possible outcomes of surgery, the surgeon accidentally crushing my sciatic nerve (which controls movement of the foot) was not on my list of concerns. Welcome to the story of my recovery. 

If you know me well, you know that I like to walk. Because walking is integral to my sense of wellbeing, I had built walking into my daily life: walking and processing life with friends, walking my dog while listening to music and podcasts, and hiking with my husband and kids to sustain and center me. I loved running into people all over town on my walks. On most days I would end up walking many miles, rarely sitting down until the end of the day.

Waking up from surgery unable to feel or move my foot made me feel as if I had been suddenly thrust into my own terrifying disaster film. I had entered the land of disability, and as the months passed, I came to learn how much I had taken my able-bodied status for granted. None of us is promised health and strength. 

The doctors all said that the chance of recovery from my injured nerve was unknown and that I needed to practice patience because nerves heal slowly — my recovery might take one to two years, they told me. The sciatic nerve is the biggest nerve in our bodies, starting in our back and traveling all the way down our legs into our heels. That’s a long way for nerve impulses to travel when the nerve itself heals so slowly. Not only did the injury prevent me from lifting or feeling any sensation in my foot, but it also caused numbness from my thigh down to my toes. With a numb leg and foot and my new hip, I felt as though I were learning to walk on a prosthetic leg. 

Facing many medical challenges at once, I found that even getting in and out of bed required practice and help. I also had to sleep with my newly-dropped foot in a boot to protect it and to keep it in a 90° position. Manually turning my immobile foot in its big and heavy boot while I tried to sleep at night made me feel as if I were disconnected from my own body.

A few nights after I returned home, a new burning pain in my foot and ankle woke me. It turns out that this sciatic injury causes intense nerve pain, pain that had just begun. Take it as a good sign, my medical team said, for the pain was evidence that my nerve was trying to heal. Over the months, I tried to make peace with the pain as part of my healing process, so when a sudden stabbing pain would grip my ankle, I thought: heal me. When burning enveloped my foot, I thought: heal me.

Convalescing slowly at home, I found it disorienting not to trust what I was feeling. Was my foot burning up, or cold to the touch? Would a light massage comfort me, or trigger gasps of discomfort? Sometimes the leg sensations felt less like pain, and more like water was being slowly poured on my foot, a sensation that seemed so real that I needed to check that my foot was actually dry. 

I knew that attitude would be important in my recovery and for my mental health, so I adjusted my mindset to “positive.” I needed to believe that my foot could and would recover. However, maintaining that positive mindset proved difficult as I started feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of the challenges. The pain, my paralyzed foot, my inadequate sleep, and the glacial pace of surgery recovery together led to my first ever panic attacks. I am so grateful to friends who came over and sat with me, took me to doctor appointments, and coaxed me to go out to lunch. I cried throughout more than one Crepeville lunch with friends. I have no sisters, but my friends are all sisters to me. I couldn’t have gotten through any of it without them. 

In physical therapy (with a wonderful neuro PT named Laura), I found hope and encouragement. Determined to regain use of my foot, I sought to become an overachiever with my assigned exercises. In the early weeks when I couldn’t move my foot at all, Andy lifted it for me as I focused on sending the correct “MOVE” signal from my brain to my foot. I looked forward to those times with Andy, as he so tenderly held and moved my foot for me. After a few weeks of these exercises, I began to feel sensation on my sole, and his healing touch gave me comfort. 

And then, after a couple months of this, I could lift my foot enough to do my own exercises without direct enabling assistance. But trying repeatedly to move your foot when it barely responds still felt demoralizing and depressing. Needing inspiration, I turned to music, to my old friends like The Boss, The Chicks, and sometimes, solely for comfort, to Joni. I spent hours every night listening to music and lifting my foot to the beat of whatever tempo I could manage. I saw this discovery of music to accompany and facilitate my exercises as a turning point. With this musical support, I began to feel joyful, thinking less about the strain of my PT exercises, and instead tapping (and laboriously raising) my foot to the beat. 

Over the summer, I resumed long walks, now with an AFO (ankle-foot orthosis) brace in my shoe. How great it felt to encounter friends on the greenbelt again! I said to myself that if I had to, I could live the rest of my life with this level of functioning. But AFOs kind of suck. They feel uncomfortable and awkward and can even cause pain, as all four of mine did. My ultimate dream was to shed the carbon fiber and Velcro straps of such devices and walk barefoot on the beach with my husband. 

Although my foot and ankle still have more strength to recover, and although I still have nerve pain and a numb leg and foot, I am pleased to report that six months after my injury, I have ditched my AFO brace and have walked barefoot on the beach with Andy. I no longer have drop foot! I can even wear my Birkenstocks, which had been another goal. After so many tears, so much work and therapy, and so many attempted and then successful walks, I feel like me again.

I am so grateful for everyone’s love and support. I didn’t need to live through the last six months to learn what a lovely community of friends I have, but I’m thankful for the reminder: I love you guys. 

Dear Friends,

Welcome to fall in a college town. I always love meeting a new crop of students at UC Davis. 

Do students come in “crops”? Perhaps Aggies do, reflecting our agricultural roots as a former farm school for UC Berkeley. We first started offering courses in 1908, raised the Farm School admissions age to 18 in 1913 (when we had 123 undergraduates here – where did they all sleep?), and started admitting women farmers in 1918.

By 1924, 100 years ago, we had 2,000 volumes in our library. Coincidentally, that was about the size of my library when I moved to Davis to start graduate studies in 1990. During my first of many book purges, I inscribed a different book to each of my introduction to literature students, and presented them their presents on the final day of class. 

Years later, one of those former literature students named Chris came by to say how much he appreciated owning a copy of the experimental 1959 William S. Burroughs novel The Naked Lunch, but that he appreciated the message I had written to him even more.

The Burroughs book was banned in the United States in 1962, and likely again more recently in Florida. I inferred from my student Chris that he hadn’t actually read past my inscription, so in this case I could not be accused of corrupting this particular youth with an assigned, recommended, or gifted work of literature.

Back to UC Davis, in 1928, the year our yearbook was renamed El Rodeo, Celeste Turner Wright became the first tenured woman faculty member and the first Ph.D. in humanities at what would become UC Davis. I knew Professor Wright, then an emerita, back when I had 2,000 books in my library, a few of them hers. She funded the Celeste Turner Wright Poetry Prize, won by my classmate Jan Van Stavern. In addition to cash, back then the winner also received a tea with Celeste.

Fast-forwarding a few decades, Stanley Freeborn became our first Chancellor in 1958, and then UC Davis was named our seventh University of California in 1959, the year Freeborn retired. He died the next year, so the retirement was short, but the new UC Davis named is gathering hall after him in 1960.

I’ve gathered there many times over the decades, for concerts, events, and talks, in Freeborn Hall. Now it stands empty above ground, with just a couple campus units left in the basement, including KDVS. I suspect that the building hasn’t been razed yet because KDVS objected to leaving its 50+ year home at 14 Lower Freeborn until an equivalent space could be found. See this 2018 California Aggie article about the announced demolition.

Former Davis Enterprise columnist Bob Dunning has spent many more years in Davis than almost anyone, and this means he can provide context on the obituaries of all the old-timers. But after 24 years of hosting a weekly radio show at KDVS, I have likely spent more time in (or under) Freeborn Hall than he has.

I bet that neither Freeborn nor Wright nor Dunning experienced many triple-digit October afternoons during the time that they were affiliated with UC Davis, but now the heat is on. Luckily, I have found the basement of Freeborn Hall to be subterraneanly cool, a perfect place for underground radio. Certainly I never feel cooler, in temperature and in spirit, than when I am hosting conversations with poets on KDVS.

I hope you find your own ways of remaining cool and connected during our overheated start to October.

Please plan to partake in the Pub Quiz festivities on this overheated evening at Sudwerk in Davis. Bring your team to the beautiful outdoor patio where the misters will be misting and where we have room for almost everyone. 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 888 words long!

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on ice cream, tattoos, civil rights, blades, famous rural studies, surreal ornithology, acids, colorful travelers and workers, city nicknames, hospitals, muscular hearts, humanitarians, area codes, bad math jokes, counts, internet memes, halls of fame, censorship, heights, hit songs, lucky protagonists, stickiness, connectivity technologies, U.S. states, unbreakable records, cheese, troubling performances, deflated team leaders, people whose first names start with the letter J, emperors, musical interruptions, Barry Goldwater, words with three T’s in them, provinciality, prime numbers, actor/singers, shoes, Star Wars, large lakes, 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, such as Sophie. I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the conversationally entertaining and politically astute Mavens who keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules, and others who support the Pub Quiz on Patreon (where I am also sometimes sharing drafts of poems, including one this week about my move to California in 1989). 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! 

Best,

Dr. Andy

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

1. Great Americans. Who voiced both Yoda and Ms. Piggy?  

2. Unusual Words. What five-syllable noun do we use for something appearing in a time period where it does not belong?  

3. The US Army. Jeff Monken is the highest-paid employee in the U.S. Army. What is his job title?  

P.P.S. The Poetry Night Reading Series is excited to feature an evening with renowned Polish poet Kacper Bartczakat 7 PM on Thursday, October 3rd, 2024, on the first floor of the John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1^st Street in Davis.

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I dedicate this week’s newsletter to my late mom who passed away peacefully this past Thursday with my brother Oliver and his family by her side.

Mary Clementine Ternes (1936-2024)

The family of Mary Clementine Ternes is sad to announce her passing on September 19, 2024 at the age of 88 in Beverly Hills, California from the effects of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Mary Ternes was born February 22nd, 1936 in Detroit, Michigan to Peter Ignatius Ternes and Vera Rosina (Boush) Ternes. She was welcomed home by her brothers Charles (Chuck) Lewis Ternes and Alan Paul Ternes.

Mary is survived by her sons, Andrew (Andy) Marlin Jones of Davis, California, as well as Andy’s wife, Kate, and their three children, Geneva, Jackson (Jukie), and Truman; and Oliver Marlin Jones of Los Angeles, California, as well as Oliver’s wife Sarah and their daughter, Clementine. Oliver, Sarah, and Clementine hosted Mary through the Coronavirus lockdown in 2020 before she moved to Sunrise Assisted Living of Beverly Hills.

An independent spirit from her earliest years, Mary spent much of her childhood reading with and next to her mother, Vera; taking long drives with her father, Pete; and swimming and socializing at the Turnverein Center in Detroit, Michigan. Starting in the 1950s, Mary took yearly trips to the family ancestral home of Beavertown, Pennsylvania to spend time at the Lazy Bones cabin that her mom bought for $1,500. There she got to spend time on adventures with her beloved Aunt Lilah, as well as with her Aunt Eunice, Uncle Anson, and Aunt Lucile, and her many cousins, including Lilah’s daughters Honey and Susie.

Mary attended Wayne State University and Stephens College and majored in Anthropology at  Michigan State University, where President Harry S Truman was her commencement speaker. She then traveled to Nigeria and Senegal where she worked on water, sanitation, and community development projects, a trip that had a profound impact on the rest of her life.

Mary moved to New York City where she lived with her brother, Alan, while earning her Master’s Degree in Library Science from Columbia University, and met her future husband, Davey Marlin-Jones. Mary and Davey married in December, 1962, opting to watch the David Lean epic film Lawrence of Arabia on their wedding day.

Mary and Davey moved to Washington, D.C. in 1965 where Davey became the artistic director of the Washington Theatre Club, and where Mary began work at the Central Public Library, moving with the library’s collection to The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, the central facility of the District of Columbia Public Library, in 1972. For the next 30 years, Mary served the readers of Washington, D.C. as a children’s librarian, an art librarian, and a Washingtoniana librarian. She helped to organize and curate the donated Washington Star collection, maintaining a remarkable memory of the location of the millions of images in the Washington Star photo morgue. After retiring from the downtown library, Mary worked as a florist and as a librarian for the National School Boards Association.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Mary and her Glover Park friend Ginger MacKaye helped to host literary and political salons with large groups of connected women in Washington, D.C. While forming many close friendships, Mary welcomed authors such as Anais Nin, Nikki Giovanni, and Alice Walker. During this time, she also pursued her hobbies of writing poetry, creating abstract textile art creations, and painting. (Mary considered Ginger’s youngest child, Amanda MacKaye of Alexandria, Virginia to be like a daughter.)

A spiritual seeker since the nuns kicked out of Communion class at age 10 for asking too many questions, Mary attended St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, a center for civil rights and protest, in the 1960s and 1970s. Later becoming a Buddhist, Mary learned to meditate and to chant in India, working and praying alongside Buddhist nuns who attended to the dying and the dead.

Mary’s marriage to Davey Marlin-Jones ended in divorce in 1977. She sold their Glover Park home in 1989, subsequently sampling D.C. art, music, and restaurant culture in the Adams Morgan and Waterfront neighborhoods, where over the last decade she was a vibrant part of the social scene from the bar at Station Four to water yoga classes at the Y. 

Mary Ternes traveled to Europe on the ill-fated SS Andrea Doria in the 1950s; practiced lines with Billy Dee Williams, John Hillerman, and many other actors in the 1960s; dined at the Ford White House in the 1970s; served on the board of Independent Living for the Handicapped in the 1980s through the 2020s; had an audience with The Dalai Lama in India in the 2000s; and then returned to her love of theatre as a volunteer at Arena Stage in the 2010s.

As one might expect from a librarian, Mary read thousands of books, filling notebooks with the names of authors, the ideas, and the words that she looked forward to investigating further. Mary agreed with James Baldwin who said, “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.”

A private family ceremony to celebrate Mary Clementine Ternes has been planned in Los Angeles, followed by a later ceremony in Beavertown, where her remains will be buried in the family plot next to her mother. Gifts in Mary’s memory are encouraged to The Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation of Fargo, North Dakota.

Mary was an excellent cook and an avid collector of cookbooks; she loved nothing more than drinking beer and coffee with friends and family, finished off (or more likely, started off) by dessert— preferably Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey. Towards to end of her life, as her words began to fail her, the staff at Sunrise Beverly Hills, to whom her family remains incredibly grateful, would ask her if she wanted some ice cream, to which she would inevitably reply, “Always.” 

Please plan to partake in the Pub Quiz festivities this pleasant and not overheated evening at Sudwerk in Davis. Bring your team to the beautiful outdoor patio where the misters are misting and where we have room for almost everyone. 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 867 words long!

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on data centers, long nouns, emperors, U.S. states, chocolate, oceans, combined teams, petty fools, tennis stars, swing states, characters named Jason, genetics,  breakfast cereals, oxygen, parts of populous countries, European philosophers, Tik-Tok coinages, the exception to apes, religious questions, Pennsylvania, GenAI, population declines, neon piñatas, eras, flight pioneers, poets named Juna, South Korean challenges, the U.S. Army, time travel evidence, natural objects, catchy musicals, California cities, retailers, nerd accomplishments, 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, Joey, Carly, and The Nevergiveruppers! Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank, such as Sophie. I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the conversationally entertaining Mavens who keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules, and others who support the Pub Quiz on Patreon (where I am also sometimes sharing drafts of poems). 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! 

Best,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Here are three questions from last week’s Pub Quiz:

1. Broadway Musicals. The first musical written by Rodgers and Hammerstein shares a name with what U.S. state? 
2. State Capitals. What is the odd number of states whose state capitals start with the letter A? 
3. Pop Culture – Music. What LA-based alternative rock band is canceling the remainder of its tour after lead singer Perry Farrell was seen punching guitarist Dave Navarro at a Boston concert on Friday? 

This week’s anxious newsletter comes from my wife, Kate, from an essay that she posted on Facebook yesterday.

While Andy and I typically don’t write or post about the most challenging parts of
parenting a child (now young adult) with Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome and profound autism, some days are particularly difficult. We believe it’s important to be open about the realities of life for families like ours.

These days, autism is often represented in the media as if it were a neurodivergent superpower. While TV characters on the spectrum can perform surgery or practice law, for example, the profound end of the spectrum is rarely represented or discussed. Families like ours recognize that profoundly affected individuals desperately need services such as appropriate classrooms, therapies, day programs, and housing, all of which are significantly underfunded.

And so we are on a mission to spread awareness about the challenges and realities that come with profound autism, and about Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome, which caused Jukie’s autism.

Sometimes I wonder if Andy is so good at caring for our boy that he almost makes it look easy. He and Jukie walk many miles a day together, every day. Typically, they cover at least seven or eight miles of greenbelt. On some weekend days, they will walk 15 miles or more. People often tell me that they have spotted Jukie and Andy walking in far west or north Davis, miles from our South Davis home. Jukie enjoys these daily outings and knows the greenbelts of Davis and the arboretum paths better than most Davisites. Andy often lets Jukie choose the direction and length of their walks, as well as the restaurant where they inevitably end up for a well-earned dinner.

As Jukie is nonverbal, we rely mostly on sign language (and a fair amount of mind reading) for Jukie to communicate his wishes. This approach lacks specificity and nuance. Imagine having to rely on your parents and everyone else in your life to understand your complex thoughts, desires and feelings by intuiting and interpreting the best they can. Sometimes I think we do pretty well knowing what’s in Jukie’s mind. And on days like today, I realize that we sometimes have no idea what he’s thinking.

Today Jukie went missing and was lost in the UC Davis Arboretum for what felt like forever. We had last seen him at the shovels sculpture at the Davis Commons entrance. By the time the campus police finally located him, he had made it nearly all the way to the back of the arboretum, over a mile and a half. (He is just fine, by the way.) While he usually stays near us, constantly checking over his shoulder that we are with him, today he made a break for it and took off on a solo adventure.

I wish I could thank everyone in the UC Davis Arboretum this morning, for nearly every person on the path was looking for him. A kind arboretum employee had me ride with him on his little green vehicle, telling me to hold on tight; I had no idea those utility vehicles could go that fast as we sped along the path, stopping to speak with everyone we encountered. Folks were so concerned and caring, and I am so grateful for their efforts. Helping with the search, the UC Davis police spotted him multiple times on various cameras near the Mondavi Center and later caught up with him near the Putah Creek Lodge.

We and Jukie experienced this event in radically different ways. When we reached Jukie with hugs and tears, he seemed entirely calm and unafraid. HE knew where he was and seemed to be filled with satisfaction. On the other hand, of all the stunts Jukie has pulled, we found this one the most terrifying.

Today we share thanks with the arboretum volunteers, the UC Davis police officers, and the police detective who dropped everything to look for our much-loved red-headed wanderer. We feel fortunate to live in such a supportive community and are grateful to everyone in town who helps to look out for vulnerable people like our Jukie.

If you are curious about Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome, or would like to support the non-profit organization that funds medical research into the syndrome, please visit https://www.smithlemliopitz.org. You might even find images therein of Jukie and the rest of his family (back when Jukie’s younger brother was closer to 5’1” than his current 6’1” height).

Please plan to partake in the Pub Quiz festivities this pleasant and not overheated evening at Sudwerk in Davis (the heat returns next week). Bring your team to the beautiful outdoor patio where the misters are misting and where we have room for almost everyone. The jollity will be unfiltered. As Ralph Waldo Emerson allegedly said, “It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.” 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 September and beyond. Also, tonight I plan to move the quiz along quickly — the entire quiz is only 875 words long! Questions 16-20, about films, are rather short.

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on U.S. states, colors that are in and out of the rainbow, fears, yellow hues, important numbers, adoption results, South America, desserts, the Minnesota Star Tribune, bird-brained songs, market caps, pickles, wives, sporting statistics, Arizona voters, apologies, vaporous vapors, the Middle East, locomotives, teenage restrictions, biological sons, trilogies, American presidents, judges, Queens, taxis, glorious battles, flip-flopping, anecdotal evidence, popular dog breeds, rock bands, places that start with A, cringe dad jokes, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare. Sometimes a question is substituted at the last minute because of the day’s news, such as that recent Fed rate cut.

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 subscriber Sophie! Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank, such as Janet, Carly, and Joey. I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the scintillating Mavens who carefully take note of casual adjectives and precise pronunciations, and others who support the Pub Quiz on Patreon(where I am also sometimes sharing drafts of poems). 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! 

Best,

Dr. Andy

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Books and Authors. In her new memoir Lovely One, a Supreme Court Justice tells the story behind her first name and credits the mentors who lifted her up. Name the Justice.  

2. Cinematic Stories Set in Philadelphia. Jimmy Stewart won his only Oscar as Best Actor for a film for which he had third billing behind Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. Name this 1940 romantic comedy that earned 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. 

3. Countries of the World. Which country is home to the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa?  

P.S. Tomorrow is Poetry Night in Davis, and we are featuring a poet visiting from Florida! Check out https://poetryindavis.com/archive/2024/09/an-evening-with-florida-poet-tana-jean-welch-and-local-favorite-tim-kahl/ to find out more.

Dear Friends,

If there were a trivia community in the city of Davis, the members would be grappling with this question: Has Mark Palmere been attending Dr. Andy’s pub quizzes for so many years so that he would qualify to do well onJeopardy!, or has Mark been readying himself to do well on Jeopardy! on September 12 in order to do well on the Sudwerk Pub Quiz?

We may never know, but we will find out more about the Palmere Prowess if we tune in to see him compete. In the Sacramento area, Jeopardy! airs on ABC10 (KXTV) weeknights at 7:00 p.m., unless it is pre-empted by another debate.

Donald Trump may have participated in his last debate, or so some are hoping, on his way to participating in his last election. According to Rolling Stone, “By early Wednesday morning, multiple Trump aides were telling Rolling Stone that their boss did not perform as well as they wished, that Harris had exceeded expectations, or simply that — in the words of one of the sources — getting Trump onstage for another debate against Harris is ‘not a priority’ for the campaign and its candidate right now.”

This is how The New Republic’s Michael Tomasky put it today: “Kamala Harris was really good Tuesday night—really, really good. She accomplished everything she needed to accomplish. She sliced and diced him. She dangled bait and he leapt at the hook. But as good as she was, Trump was more bad than Harris was good. Or maybe he was bad because she was good: That is to say, she wrong-footed him time after time after time in ways that President Joe Biden did not, throwing him off his game, staring him down, speaking directly to him, challenging him, saying ‘you’ and pointing right at him. She spanked him. Said Stephanie Ruhle, in a judgment Trump would consider crushing: ‘She beat him at the business of television.’”

Perhaps not since President George Herbert Walker Bush checked his watch repeatedly did an older president seem so distracted, exhausted, and out of touch. That three-way debate with Clinton and Perot took place on October 15, 1992, just over a month after I got married. My new bride and I watched the watch-checking with interest. Remember when checking your timepiece or wearing a tan suit was considered a scandal or a major faux pas? Nowadays being a 34-time felon will still earn a certain candidate more than 45% of the votes in the seven swing states.

Speaking of 1992, happy 32^nd wedding anniversary to my lovely wife Kate! She took me out to dinner Saturday night. We saw the rare date as a sneak preview of what retirement might be like (years from now when we can afford to retire).

I, in turn, presented her with an anniversary poem. It started in my poet’s notebook with a line about her eyes and then was assembled backwards from there:

Thirty-Two Years with Kate: A Sonnet

We’ve organized our lives around family ties.

You customize meals that vitalize and energize.

When I write, you revise; when I fall, you empathize.

My gorgeous wife, muscular, framed by California blue skies,

You are recognized, prioritized, and frequently visualized.

When I hold your hand, our interlocking fingers harmonize.

All the contours of your face have been memorized.

I languidly appraise your long and lithe form: first prize.

Even though you’d rather cocoon with me than socialize,

Sometimes you propose that we improvise.

When we walk or swim, or any exercise, we synchronize.

Every day when I hold and behold you, I realize 

How your every touch never fails to galvanize,

That after 32 years, your eyes, they still hypnotize.

I’m a lucky husband. If you are trying to figure out the rhyme scheme, it is AAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

Good luck to us lasting for another 32 years, and good luck to Mark Palmere tomorrow on Jeopardy! 

Please plan to partake in the Pub Quiz festivities this pleasant and not overheated evening at Sudwerk in Davis. Bring your team to the beautiful outdoor patio where the misters are misting and where we have room for almost everyone. The jollity will be unfiltered. As Ralph Waldo Emerson allegedly said, “It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.” 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 September and beyond. Also, tonight I plan to move the quiz along quickly — the entire quiz is only 989 words long!

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on U.S. states, Jessica Lange, forgotten rockets, adorable horses, point guards, California towns north of Davis, wolves, first names, siblings, Pythagoras, questions of ownership, stalling after takeoff, Taylor Swift, famous stories, enlistees, religious figures, counties, handshakes, higher education, scientific branches, the U.S. Census, nice views, population discrepancies, health reasons, machines, multiple retirements, people without slogans, halls of fame, expensive children, bar dropouts, American centuries, Native Americans, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare. Sometimes a question is substituted at the last minute because of the day’s news.

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 subscriber Sophie! Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank, such as Janet, Carly, and Joey. I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the scintillating Mavens who carefully take note of casual adjectives and precise pronunciations, and others who support the Pub Quiz on Patreon(where I am also sometimes sharing drafts of poems). 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! 

Best,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Find here three questions from last week!

1. Pop Culture – Music. In 1969, who famously interrupted The Beatles’ final live performance on the rooftop of Apple Corps headquarters in London?  

2. Sports. What Eastern Time Zone city’s professional teams have won four Major League Baseball championships, three NBA championships in three different decades, four NFL championships in the pre-Super Bowl era, and 11 NHL championships spread over 72 years?  

3. Science. What is the most common bird of any type in the United States?  

P.P.S. “This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it.” Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861.

Dear Friends,

I recently attended the strangest party. 

The guest of honor looked just like the elderly and diminutive character actor William Hickey as he looked in Prizzi’s Honor (for which he was Oscar-nominated), but I only knew this from the invitation. His face was upon it, so I walked around the banquet hall seeking to know which face matched the picture. I thought he was a big shot in the world of Berkeley poetry.

An unexpected collection of people attended this party. My actress friend Bethiah was there, even though she stopped working for our mutual friend, Chad the realtor, years ago. I learned that Bethiah is now living in San Francisco; we had our longest ever conversation, but I don’t remember the topic.

Sean Scully, who I have not chatted with since he left the Washington Waldorf School more than 40 years ago, was there, looking oddly like his 1970s self. He has worked as a newspaper writer and editor for a couple decades, and lives just an hour from Davis, but I haven’t reconnected with him in person, regrettably. Hi Sean!

Ben Sontheimer was there from Boston University. He’s now a world traveler. Musician Amanda MacKaye was talking to some old friends near the appetizers. I thought I saw Barbara Neu on the other side of the room, but I couldn’t be sure. I miss talking about parenting and teaching with that Fairfield School icon.

This party was like visiting Facebook, but in person, and I came away from the event thinking that I was grateful to have all these people in my life, but regretful that I didn’t spend more time with them outside of this party.

We in Davis are surrounded by fascinating people who are worth our time and attention, but too often we pass them by or keep to ourselves, imagining, perhaps, that someday we will enjoy the dinner party of our dreams, and that we should save our catching up for then.

Many of us our set in our ways and wedded to our routines. When it comes to making or strengthening connections with others, I say we should always be breaking the ice, or, on a day like today, encouraging the ice to thaw and then to melt away to nothing.

Please plan to partake in the Pub Quiz festivities this overheated evening at Sudwerk in Davis. Bring your team to the beautiful outdoor patio where the misters are misting and where we have room for almost everyone. The jollity will be unfiltered. As Ralph Waldo Emerson allegedly said, “It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.” Tonight some will want to play indoors. 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 August and beyond. Also, tonight I plan to move the quiz along quickly — the entire quiz is only 859 words long!

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on peace and love, people who are “testing” the waters and finding them to be red hot, titles that have words and two sets of numbers, valorous statements, actual cancellations, Republican guerrillas, healthy keto plans, people named after digable planets, visiting princes, continental cities, silly songs, palaces, existentialism, something Thor does, stylish improvements, extinguished cell phones and other flames, the rules of scowlers, Weird Al, AI and our future, cities that changed meanings, excellent examples, winning tickets, multiple championships, noise complaints, London incidents, islands, blue skies, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare. Sometimes a question is substituted at the last minute because of the day’s news.

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 subscriber Sophie! Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank, such as Janet and Joey. I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the scintillating Mavens who carefully take note of casual adjectives and precise pronunciations, and others who support the Pub Quiz on Patreon (where I am also sometimes sharing drafts of poems). 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! 

Best,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Poetry Night returns to the Natsoulas Gallery September 5^th with Joshua McKinney and Susan Kelly-DeWitt. And then season 11 of Stories on Stage comes to our own Sudwerk this coming Monday afternoon at 5 PM. Check out the lineup. I will be hosting both of these events.

P. P.S. Trivia from last week:

1. Ohio Cities that Start with the Letter C. The main campus of The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) has grown into the fifth-largest university campus by enrollment in the United States. In what city is the main campus of OSU found?  

2. English Franciscan Friars. The name of what English Franciscan friar appears in the name of the principle that suggests that the simplest explanation—meaning the one that requires the fewest assumptions—is usually the best one?   

3. Pop Culture – Music. At the 2024 Democratic National Convention, the Georgia delegation introduction song, sung by Lil Jon, began with these lines: “Fire up that loud / Another round of shots.” Name the song.