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Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
Yesterday I got to watch my wife Kate respond with facial expressions and body language to an army of bikers taking control of a small South Dakota town. As you can see, I felt compelled to take a picture. These were not the sort of bikers that take over Davis, ringing an occasional adorable bell. No, these bikers sound like Lear’s thunder. Imagine the main strip of Custer, South Dakota, resonating with the sounds of more than a thousand Harley engines, each of them growling at each other like the largest imaginable pride of lions, all of them preparing for the hunt.
The town of Custer is the oldest town in the Black Hills of South Dakota, having popped up soon after gold was discovered in the area as a result of the Custer expedition of 1874. The town is found just a few miles from the monument to Crazy Horse, the Lakota war leader who with his men was responsible for the death of the aforementioned Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn. Custer’s last stand took place far from everything, but a lot closer to Billings than to this town of 2,000 known as Custer.
As a result of this visit, my son Truman and I became curious about Custer the man, so in addition to doing some reading, we studied a wax likeness (or near-likeness) of the young war hero from the third day cavalry battles of the Battle of Gettysburg at the National Presidential Wax Museum. Situated across the street from the Roosevelt Inn in Keystone, from which I write these words, the museum is comprehensive and well-intentioned, but the artistry does not compare well to Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum in London where Kate and I spent time together in the 1980s. All the presidents in the National Presidential Wax Museum looked a bit off, resembling impersonators of the presidents in question, such that we definitely needed the nameplates to see who was supposed to be who.
Meanwhile, back to that photo of Kate and the Harley Davidson enthusiasts. The picture reveals the traffic cones along Mount Rushmore Road, marking off the additional parking that Custer municipal official arranged as part of the ongoing yearly Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Behind her one sees two of the mounted Rally participants, one of them actually wearing a helmet (an option most disregard in South Dakota). Above the bikers one sees the street sign directing traffic towards both Crazy Horse and Mt Rushmore, where we had spent much of the morning, surrounded by biker tourists. Meanwhile, amid the thunderous roar of the Harleys, Kate has a slight smile on her face, the wind whipping her red hair to the side. Amid the din, amid the wind, and so far from home, and with that wry smile on her face, one can only guess what she might be thinking.
Tonight’s Pub Quiz was edited (and softened a bit) by me, but written by my regular guest-Quizmaster Jason. Jason has prepared questions on many of the following topics, or perhaps “impersonations” of the following topics, so as not to give too much away: NASA, memorable drinking buddies, Greek towns and cities, scalawags, transitions, people named Joyce, Oscar-winning ladies, inspirations for thin-skinned and practically anarchic Trump’s fictional wall, math questions with large answers, river banks, “vulgar” music with no swearing in it, Harry Potter (because you all seem to love Harry Potter), remaining stuck, people who are never confused for George Wallace, music potpourris, whiskey, daggers, bidding cogwheels farewell, questionable identifiers, long coastlines, the importance of bananas, Egypt, a U.S. president whose wax likeness I misrecognized today, teams with cool names, big universities that you have heard of, a command to cease, the impossibility of remembering the names of toys, X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, and Shakespeare. There will be no George Custer questions on tonight’s Quiz. I am saving those.
When it comes to welcoming and encouraging Jason as Quizmaster this evening, I will use the words from Jeb’s last stand: “Please clap.” And remember, although I don’t return until the 22nd, the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz abides.
Your Quizmaster
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Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:
- Mottos and Slogans. The CEO of one company has repeated in interviews that he wishes “to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport.” Founded in 2003, for what company is this phrase the de facto slogan?
- Internet Culture. The iPhone and the Amazon Kindle were released the same year as the last Harry Potter book. Name this year that also saw Barry Bonds (asterisk!) break the home run record.
- Newspaper Headlines. President Obama said in a speech last Wednesday night that his administration has “cut veterans’ homelessness almost in half.” According to NPR yesterday, which U.S. city has the largest number of homeless veterans?