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.

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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.” 

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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.

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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.

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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! 

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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.

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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.

Dear Friends,

Today’s newsletter comes from two of my favorite writers: My wife Kate and my daughter Geneva. Both are writing about dropping off my son Truman off at Ithaca College.

First let’s hear from Kate:

We parents all know what’s coming. From the day we first look into our newborn’s eyes, we know our assignment. We are to spend 18 years – or 6570 days – nurturing, feeding, encouraging, teaching, watching, and loving our child. And then we let them go.

As we spend these long days of their childhood playing with, caring for, and doting on our kid, we are sometimes told by our elders that these years go fast. We acknowledge this truth in our heads, but our hearts sometimes can’t absorb that eventually childhood ends and kids launch. Our last 18 years with Truman passed by in a blink.

This push–pull of our hearts and minds looms above all that we do with our kids. We know that we parents are tasked with fostering our kids’ independence in every stage of development. It’s in our job description: we aim to do such a good job as parents that one day our children won’t need us. And when that day arrives, we step back as they step forward. This week I learned that the mama grief that comes with this transition is not any less or easier the second time around. 

With long hugs and teary goodbyes, Geneva and I have dropped Truman off on the other side of the country in Ithaca, New York. He’s attending the Park School at Ithaca College, and we couldn’t feel more excited for him. Over the days we spent in Ithaca, Geneva and I commented to each other that Truman had found the perfect college fit. As they say, “Ithaca is gorges,” nestled in the natural beauty of the Finger Lakes in New York, with hills and trails and waterfalls everywhere (150 waterfalls within 10 miles!). Truman’s dorm room windows overlook the beautiful, hilly IC campus below and Cayuga Lake in the distance. 

And so while I am feeling so sad to say goodbye, Truman’s confident smile as he walked away told me that he is ready. And while I am really gonna miss our boy, I couldn’t feel more proud of him and excited for all of his adventures ahead.

Have a great year, Truman — we love you! ❤️

Second, let’s hear from Geneva:

Having a sibling is pretty perfect. You get a built-in friend with a parallel sense of humor. You have your own language that nobody—not even your parents—can understand. One shared smirk across the dinner table can send you into conniptions. When you fight, it’s always with the knowledge that your friendship will survive—because it has to.

But for as much as you and your sibling have in common, the two of you are just as different. Maybe you are a homebody and he is a world traveler. Maybe you show your fears on your face while he buries his deep in his stomach. Maybe you are impulsive and excitable; he is reserved and thoughtful. Maybe you stumbled into your college years backwards and blindfolded—letting parents college-search on your behalf and committing to the first school you toured—while he meets his eagerly, finding the perfect campus to actualize his career ambitions and nourish his artistic spirit.

I say this not in self-deprecation or resentment, but in awe. At eighteen, Truman understands things I am still trying to figure out at twenty-six. His successes are his own, but his joy is my joy. Today I hugged him goodbye at @ithacacollege, and as I watched him walk away, it was with total confidence that he will thrive here. I can’t wait to see what he does next.

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Please plan to partake in the Pub Quiz festivities this 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 more quickly — I know that for many of us, it’s a school night!

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on mountains, tech giants, football players, distribution rights, flavors, nights that are so hot that they hit you like a slap in the face, stages, PGA tours, justice systems, early sunrises, bone covers, rivers in the Midwest, Buddhist borders, bringing home the blues, sloths, polarization, birth states, kings, shots, explanations, things that you wouldn’t think could be fired, college towns, fictional hazelnuts, podcasts, people born in Ohio, pits of naive asps, card games, Japanese special effects, alternatives to French frisbees, viruses, big birds, 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. 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). Thanks again to Toby. 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 read by Toby last week:

1. Mottos and Slogans. Sammy the Owl is the official mascot for the largest private research university in Houston, Texas, famous for its slogan: “Letters, Science, Art.” Name the university.  

2. Internet Culture. Which viral challenge, starting in 2014, saw participants dumping buckets of ice water on themselves to raise awareness for ALS?  

3. Newspaper Headlines. Authorities have directed citizens living in the Kursk region of what country to stop revealing personal information on dating apps?   

Dear Friends,

I’m looking forward to welcoming my wife Kate home from her extended trip to Chicago (last week) and Ithaca (this week). Having spent much of this week on or around the campus of Ithaca College, she is looking forward to returning home tomorrow.

Speaking of Ithaca, I feel like Odysseus’s wife Penelope at home with our son Telemachus, waiting for my venturing hero to return to our hall, even though it’s a small hall. Luckily I don’t have to feed or fend off any suitors. Rather than weaving the burial shroud of Laertes, I’ve been weaving together lines of poetry.

The most famous 20^th century poem about Ithaca was written by the Greek poet C.P. Cavafy. After it was read at the 1994 funeral of Jackie Onassis, interest in Cavafy’s work skyrocketed in poetry communities. Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard, the poem begins this way:

Ithaka

By C. P. Cavafy

As you set out for Ithaka

hope your road is a long one,

full of adventure, full of discovery.

Laistrygonians, Cyclops,

angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:

you’ll never find things like that on your way

as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,

as long as a rare excitement

stirs your spirit and your body.

Laistrygonians, Cyclops,

wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them

unless you bring them along inside your soul,

unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

When Kate returns, we will have two parents at home in charge of one kid, something we remember from before our son Jukie was born, 23 years ago. Jukie is rather headstrong, like Cavafy’s wild Poseidon or like Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew, so at times Kate and I will feel like that play’s Gremio and Hortensio.

Because either a Gremio or a Hortensio is necessary for handling our charge, I’ve asked a Pub Quiz friend and regular participant, Toby, to guest-host tonight’s Pub Quiz. As you will be able to tell, I’ve still written the quiz. For once I try not to include any difficult to pronounce words, such as “Gremio” or “Hortensio.”

Apprentice Quizmaster Toby has a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Pittsburgh with minors in Religious Studies and Studio Art. An inveterate traveler, he has lived in New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, New Mexico and Arizona before settling in California 15 years ago. At least one of those states will be a topic of conversation during the quiz tonight.

Toby has been coming to Sudwerk since the Dock Store opened back in 2011, so he is a known quantity to the staff, and still they keep welcoming him back.

Impressively, Toby was a DJ for five years at a dance club in Pittsburgh. His high school and college classes in drama and public speaking prepared him to be a teacher on various technical subjects. 

He looks forward to trying his hand tonight as a substitute Quizmaster. Despite his Bachelor of Arts in English degree, he will likely make fewer unexplained literary allusions than I do. I hope you will stop by to see how he does.

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Please plan to partake in the Pub Quiz festivities this 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.

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on dating apps, innocuous conspiracy theories bass players, Olympic games, no smoking signs, ice chases, fictional councilors, allotropes, dams, academies, odes, Canadian-Americans, latitude measurements, Hawaii exports, notable Americans, southern singles, Californians, Hams, supervisors districts, princes, letter carriers, alliterative commands, early sport heroes, human body parts, letters and science, buckets, people pleasers, people named Tim, hammers, 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. 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). Thanks again to Toby.  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:

1. Robin Williams. When the father of the female lead of the film Mrs. Doubtfire suddenly passed away, Robin Williams kindly arranged for the filming to focus on scenes in which she did not appear so she could go be with her family. Name the actress.  

2. Federal Services. According to a Pew Research Center survey, the least popular federal agency and the most popular federal agency have three words in their names, with the first word ending in the letters NAL and the third word being “service.” One of the two is the Internal Revenue Service. With a 76% favorability rating, what is the other?    

3. Pop Culture – Music. Born with the last name of “Duckworth,” what 5’5” tall rapper and songwriter won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his 2017 album Damn, making him the first non-classical or jazz artist to receive the award?  

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

When Kate and our bookend kids leave town for one of their summer trips, Jukie and I listen to a lot of jazz and eat a bunch of pistachios.

My son Jukie, who will be attending the entire pub quiz this evening, is a young man with autism, intellectual disabilities, and the inability to speak. My constant companion, he likes to hang back on our long walks on the greenbelts of Davis, sometimes strolling 100 yards behind me in areas that are well removed from car traffic. Just this morning a mom who passed us stopped to make sure that someone was watching out for this unusual seemingly solo walker. 

Because of his OCD, if I ever want Jukie to catch up with me, I just wear my backpack on one shoulder, instead of two, and then he will sprint up (or, like Simone Biles, “spring” up) to my position to help me wear my backpack properly. He doesn’t like things to be out of place. Earlier this week at Dos Coyotes he noticed that someone’s laptop wasn’t closed all the way, so he walked right up to the table and slowly pushed down on the laptop lid until he heard that satisfying click. People in Davis typically smile at me when Jukie engages in such behavior. Everyone accepts my apologies.

We will see what sort of village it will take to corral or redirect Jukie at tonight’s pub quiz. I’m especially grateful to my friend Don, who will be arriving tonight with newly-purchased comic books and a willingness to intercept Jukie is he heads for the parking lot while I am busy being Quizmaster.

To give you a better understanding of Jukie’s lively and curious spirit, I will share here a poem I wrote a decade ago that continues to reflect his sense of wonder.

Sunday in the Back Yard      

                      

A blur of a boy in new clothes,

superhero-themed, sent by grandparents,

races round and round the backyard,

shaded by fences eight feet tall.                                            

Far above, the lichens and birds’ nests call to him.                                 

Next to the picnic table, our boy baptizes the bulldog,

his unwilling and unsturdy steed.

The praise he sings with gospel lungs

rings sympathetic with the morning’s 

distant soccer-game cheers, 

and nearby yellow-billed magpies.

Our pale angel brandishing wooden spoons              

knocks doggedly on the garden gates, dark cedar, 

with crossbeams resembling ladder rungs.                                                     

Wishing for someplace more remote,

a place beyond the memorized and mangy lawn, 

he imagines a jubilee where dragonflies

and honey are their own reward:                         

a celebration of unremembered sunshine,

sublime and jaunty in the gallops of air

that gleam beyond ego, beyond experience.                                 

Who’s to say that this boy, unworded and noisy mystic,

keeper of everyone’s secrets, chronicled unlearner,

does not commune hourly with an aspect of God?

I look forward to seeing you this evening. Should you attend this event, whether you are a village elder or a village leader, you may see an opportunity to see that it sometimes takes a village to prevent an elopement. How exciting!

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I hope you can join us on this warm evening for a pub quiz 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; that way, we won’t have a line out the door as I first ring the cowbell. We filled the restaurant and patio last week, and I expect that we will continue to do so throughout August.

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on Paula Poundstone, sunshine, dashikis, big thoughts, declining Americans, San Antonio, magical island spirits, USA teams, flight opportunities, sets of books, continental facts, ranked countries, cute dogs, again with the Wolverine, hypocrites, global warming, songs that might even have been hits before your mother was born (if you are young), levees, supportive machines, friends indeed, U.S. states, inevitability, Nobel Prizes, non-jazz albums, agencies, kindly costars, red blood cells, lifetime achievement awards, 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. 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

Find here three sample questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Books and Authors. Bill and Ted stars Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are making their Broadway debut together in 2025 in what Samuel Beckett play? 

2. Film. What 2024 animated film recently kicked The Avengers out of the worldwide all-time box office top 10? 

3. Youth Culture. Speaking of Marvel movies, is the Deadpool and Wolverine film the first, fifth, or 11^th R-rated Marvel (not MCU) movie? 

P.S. Tomorrow is Poetry Night in Davis, and 21 people have already responded to the Facebook event pagefor this reading by Mercedes Ibáñez and Jean Biegun at 7 PM on Thursday, August 15th, 2024 at the John Natsoulas Gallery. I hope you can join us!

Dear Friends,

I am just tickled that a teacher has been chosen as a candidate for Vice President of the United States. Like many of us who have recently discovered Tim Walz, I admire his character, his eloquence, and his authenticity. I hope these qualities matter in the coming months of debates, discussions, and deliberations.

Another teacher who eventually went into politics, Lyndon Baines Johnson taught speech and debate at Sam Houston High School in Houston, Texas. One 1931 photograph shows the future president with members of his debate team. Just as Walz did with football, Johnson led a statewide championship in debating.

A great storyteller, Johnson told an interviewer in 1965 how he was offered a much-coveted teaching job at one of the state’s best high schools (in Houston) even though he had already promised to serve as principal at a much smaller rural school. Johnson turned down the plum job via wire, an indication of the sort of moral strength that would serve him well later in life. I will include here an entire paragraph of his reminiscing: it gives you a sense of President Johnson’s speaking style:

That night, I guess it must have been about a Friday, I had a date with one of the teachers and in the course of the conversation she asked me what had happened in Houston and I told her. Saturday night she had a date with the coach. The coach lived with the superintendent. I swore her to secrecy but it didn’t matter, she told the coach, and the coach Sunday morning told the superintendent. So Monday morning the superintendent called me in. I thought he was going to lecture me about it. He said that he understood I had an offer and I said, “Yes.” He said, “Do you remember our conversation when you told me that you would stay?” And I said, “Yes.” He said, “What have you done about it?” I pulled out a copy of the wire I had sent to the superintendent. And he said, “Well, I thank you and I appreciate it.” [He said] he thought that that was what I would do, that the coach had told him that he had heard from this lady teacher that I had told her that I had been offered a job, and it had troubled him over the weekend. [He said] that he had a young boy and that if some man in subsequent years happened to be superintendent and refused to release his boy when he had a chance to go into Houston and have the chance to move up, why, he would never forgive him. And [he said] he had thought about it so much that he thought that I ought to go take it. I told him that I couldn’t do it, I had turned it down and I was going to stay with him. He said, “I just feel like a criminal tying you here. I will be both superintendent and principal if I have to. But this is such a wonderful opportunity that I want to urge you to take it.”

Just as I can recount stories about favorite teachers like Jack Petrash, Marcia Clemmitt, Will Layman, Sir Christopher Ricks, or Sandra Gilbert, Johnson had all the details of his story about admired teachers ready for the interviewer. Like these heroes, Walz has inspired many young people, and he will likely continue to do so. As Henry Adams said, “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”

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I hope you can join us on an especially warm evening for a pub quiz 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.

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on shoes, layoffs, automobiles, big houses in California, detectives, Doja Cats, early Britain, vertebrates, dumb moves, delightful flowers, literature Nobel Prize winners, gold mines, punishers, dudes, people no longer named Eugene, AI, motorcycles, rain storms, crossover hits, mythical places, human body specialties, rappers and riders, 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. 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). Congratulations to the team with a future Jeopardy! player among them — they have won two in a row! 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’s Pub Quiz:

1. Charades. Living from 1904 to 1986, what actor starred in the films Notorious, To Catch a Thief, Operation Petticoat, and Charade? 

2. Science. On July 31^st, 2023, at Brights Zoo, in Limehouse, Tennessee, a distinctive giraffe was born, the only one in the known world with a certain trait. What makes this giraffe special? 

3. Current Events – Names in the News. We recently learned that a New Jersey elementary school will remove a home state senator’s name from its building after his conviction on federal bribery charges. Name the U.S. Senator from New Jersey who is not Cory Booker.