Dear Friends,
Thanks to the almost 400 friends on Facebook who congratulated my son Truman for graduating Davis Senior High School last Friday. He will be starting at Ithaca College in August. His mom and sister will be delivering him (via a plane this time, instead of a massive road trip). He will study film, communication, and creative writing.
At 18, Truman has read more classic works of literature than many adults I know. In fact, I did some mental calculations in my head, and I think that he had finished more books on the 1990 UC Davis Department of English Master’s Degree Exam Reading List as a high school student than I had as a college graduate.
When UC Davis offered me a spot in its PhD program in April of 1990, as well as a job, I asked them what I should read to prepare for graduate school, and they sent me a list of the 80 or so books for which I would be responsible in order to earn my interim recognition of a Master of Arts in English. It started with Chaucer and ended with Toni Morrison. I wonder who would be the last (living) authors on the list today. Perhaps Jhumpa Lahiri or Zadie Smith.
I earned a high pass on that master’s exam, as we called it, because the passage I was asked to identify and analyze concerned a speech from King Lear that I knew well. I had read the play for three classes at Boston University, and I had seen Anthony Hopkins in the title role on stage. In my essay, I channeled interpretations I remembered well from a Shakespeare class taught by Sir Christopher Ricks.
When King Lear came up in my son Truman’s AP Comp Lit class, he had already read the play on his own (he just told me it was December of 2022, when we were getting the kitchen remodeled). We had also seen a production of the play in Sacramento.
Ithaca, New York is about as far as you can get from Davis and remain in the lower 48 states. It takes three planes to get there. One could probably fly to London faster.
Ithaca may also be the topographical opposite of Davis. While our beloved hometown is dry and flat, Ithaca is hilly and fed generously by the Finger Lakes. Using the slogan “Ithaca is Gorge-Ous,” the area is famous for its waterfalls. I’m sure you want examples:
1. Located within the city itself, Ithaca Falls stands at 150 feet tall.
2. Buttermilk Falls, found in nearby Buttermilk Falls State Park, cascades down 165 feet.
3. Taughannock Falls is located in Taughannock Falls State Park, this is one of the tallest single-drop waterfalls east of the Rocky Mountains, with a drop of 215 feet.
4. Situated in Cascadilla Gorge, the Cascadilla Falls are a series of waterfalls totaling around 400 feet in height. I would want to take pictures there all day.
5. Located at Cornell University, Triphammer Falls is part of the aforementioned Cascadilla Gorge. The name seems Asgardian.
6. Lucifer Falls is found in Robert H. Treman State Park. During his solo visit to Ithaca College, Truman’s future dean recommended he visit this park, which he did, because of the name (the name Treman, not the name Lucifer).
7. Enfield Falls features several smaller waterfalls. Sticking with the undead theme, I thought this place should have been named Renfield Falls.
In total, there are over 150 waterfalls within a 10-mile radius of Ithaca. I wonder what the closest waterfall to Davis is. Probably Kim Stanley Robinson knows.
Congratulations, Truman! We will buy you some hiking boots with strong treads so that you feel empowered to visit all those falls without falling. You can bring a book with you on your hike.
I hope you can join us on an especially warm evening for a pub quiz at Sudwerk. Bring your team to the beautiful outdoor patio where we have room for everyone. The the jollity and the misters will be on high. As Saint Augustine allegedly said, “Good times and crazy friends make the best memories.” Tonight some will want to play indoors. Understandable!
In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on salted foods, the names of boats, successful pyramid schemes, movies with one-word titles, cell phones, restaurant chains, California employers, presidents, San Francisco, lakes, unalike sisters, tennis stars, American bands, Siberian sites, productions that are so large that they require two parts, stars, champions, alternative rock bands, child actors, butter, sea monsters, captives, Steve Jobs, little people, changes to Minneapolis, displays, high rents and related birds, Antarctica, dystopias, jobs for women, German words, godmothers, trees, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare. Sometimes a question is substituted at the last minutes 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 also to Brooke, Jeannie, Becky, Franklin, and More Cow Bell. 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 dependable Mavens, and others who support the Pub Quiz on Patreon (where I am also now 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. Three questions from last week:
- Dungeons and Dragons. If your D&D character is a Tabaxi, it resembles which species of animal of which there are more than 100 million in the United States?
- Pop Culture – Television. Now age 90 (in 2024), name either the actor or the character who is the lone survivor of Gilligan’s Island, so to speak.
- Another Music Question. What was the one-word title of the 2017 longest-running number-one on the Hot Latin Songs chart with 56 weeks?
P.P.S. Congratulations to a favorite Pub Quiz participant, and this week still a current champion, Lillian Jones, now Dr. Lillian Jones. I’ve enjoyed working alongside her on multiple projects.