Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
I hosted a bonus Pub Quiz last night online last night, and it was a hoot. I asked a bunch of questions that would have appealed to people who knew the night’s honoree, Sheila Allen, candidate for Yolo County Supervisor. The answer to one question the name of the Will Ferrell character in the film Elf, and Sheila’s dog is named Buddy. The answer to another question, one that you will find on tonight’s in-person pub quiz, was the title of a book that Sheila is reading right now. Another asked about the Guggenheim architect from Wisconsin, the home state of Sheila Allen. Most teams knew the answer was Frank Lloyd Wright.
You probably also knew that. I had to figure out how to adjust the difficulty of a quiz for people who were not trivia regulars. It turns out that everyone knows that Budweiser calls itself the “King of Beers,” though not everyone yet knows that beers from Sudwerk taste better than Budweiser. Other questions matched the difficulty of the questions I typically ask. Here’s an example:
“Countries of the World. The names of four of the ten most populous countries in Africa start with three different vowels, including Ethiopia and Egypt as numbers two and three on this list. Name both of the other two.”
Most teams, including Brooke’s team, figured out that the correct answers were Uganda and Algeria. That said, I think no teams answered a question that I repurposed from a quiz ten years ago at the defunct de Vere’s Irish Pub: “What proper name occurs most often in The Bible?” Someone asked if that includes the Old and the New Testament. It does. I think the answer is the same in either Testament.
I set up each team with its own Google Doc scorecard, a place where participants could propose answers and discuss their ideas. I’ve read that some junior high students have turned to Google Docs comments on their Chromebooks to text with their friends during class without using their forbidden smartphones. Rather than mocking teachers, these comments were mostly mutually supportive of teammates and their answers, including “Yup!” and “Seconded!” and “You rock!” and “Amazing that you knew that!”
Most of the teams included team-mates who didn’t know each other, including one that had students of mine from 2001, 2018, and 2023. I wonder if such teams had more fun getting to know each other during the two Zoom breakout room sessions than they did while actually taking the quiz. Either way, we could all benefit from meeting and problem solving with other fascinating thinkers.
The stakes were low – bragging rights – but the enjoyment was high. Congratulations to the winning team that answered 25 of 30 questions correctly. “Frisky Wombats” included Cami R, Lori W, Ian W, Brad B (a favorite retired professor living in Sacramento), and Geneva J, though I think she typically goes by Geneva D.
And here were some of the comments that were texted to me afterward:
Okay that was TOO MUCH FUN
[My teammates] were so awesome. If we ever do remote trivia again, I’m going to ask to be on their team 🙂
That was indeed fun, Andy
Thanks for thinking of me
Will 100% do again
And I met some really nice people. Davis is full of them
Engaging in fun stuff is a really pure way of not staring off into the distance and thinking about [my troubles]
This was a fantastic rendition of your classic pub quiz, and I always love participating and indulging in the Davis nostalgia.
[My team] was delightful!
And we even won!
Yeah!
Sorry for all of the exclamation marks professor, but I am simultaneously excited and tired.
What wonderful comments! That last one reminded of something that Gillian Flynn writes in her novel Gone Girl: “Sleep is like a cat: It only comes to you if you ignore it.” To that I would add that sleep comes when we earn our exhaustion with a full day of activities. The pub quizzes I host always conclude with smiles, and help to guarantee my readiness for sleep.
Speaking of sleep, Shakespeare describes sleep best: I will finish with words from what superstitious actors call The Scottish Play:
“Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care,
The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
Chief nourisher in life’s feast.”
If you support these efforts on Patreon, you will receive the entirety of last night’s bonus quiz, including the anagram question about a prominent Davisite – nobody got it! I will post it this weekend rather than now because two of its questions will be asked this evening.
Speaking of which, if you are in Davis tonight, and you don’t mind hearing the sounds of a torrential downpour as you huddle inside with teammates, please join us for the Pub Quiz at Sudwerk. As Saint Augustine allegedly said, “Good times and crazy friends make the best memories.”
In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on newspapers, Asian countries, pint-sized beer glasses, answering services, award nominations, splatter experts, Michael Jackson songs, edible oils, the courts, notable outlaws, nursery rhymes, hills that are not alive, rich journalists, famous fellowships, roses that suppose, rubber cities, confirmed Luddites, debut novels, trending weather phenomena, empires that grow slowly (and then all of a sudden), West Hollywood, dialing conventions, elf culture, spiders, trans-species conversations, fractions, strong views, major orchestral works, Chicago allusions, French exports, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare.
Thanks to the new supporters Brooke, Jeannie, and More Cow Bell, which is a great team name. I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, 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:
- Mottos and Slogans About Products That Hold Your Hair Like a NET. Starting with the letter A, which hairspray claimed to “Hold your style like hairspray, but smell like roses”?
- Internet Culture. Chat GPT 3.5 and GPT 4 exemplify AI, while some say that Chat GPT5 will achieve AGI. What does the G stand for? Hint: It’s a shorter word “generative.”
- Newspaper Headlines. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said today that he supports Sweden’s admission to NATO. Of what country is Orbán prime minister?
P.P.S. Poetry Night is tomorrow night, and Alan Williamson is one of the features! See https://poetryindavis.com/archive/2024/01/alan-williamson-and-jeanne-foster-perform-at-7-pm-on-thursday-february-1st-2024-in-davis/ for details.