Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

If friends of mine would move away from (or to) Davis every weekend, I would be in much better physical shape, for lifting another man’s possessions for a couple hours will strengthen both one’s arms and one’s sense of gratitude.

Such has been the case the last two weekends in a row, for first our closest neighbors, Erik and Nate, and then my favorite Davis pastor, Bill Habicht, have packed up their PODs and their moving trucks and moved to the east coast.

While Boston (Erik and Nate) is right on the water, Raleigh is more than a two-hour drive to the nearest North Carolina beach. Some westerners think of all of those original colonies as being right on the “east coast” in the same way that many people back east think that Californians live along Baywatch beaches. I’m sure that I’m not the only Davisite who doesn’t own a surfboard.

Although I feel more toned after all the boxes that I’ve hauled recently, I’ve certainly lost more than I’ve gained this month. I will miss my neighbors! These three gentlemen greeted me with a smile or a hug, a bit of news or a cheeky remark. When I thanked Erik for the huge box of DVDs that showed up at our door the day before I drove him and Nate to the airport for the last time, he wrote back that they meant to pack them in the POD, but somehow they had been overlooked. “Our fumble is your fortune,” Erik said. 

Now I have a bunch of action films to share with Truman and, after we’ve watched them, to share with lovers of cinematic swag once the in-person pub quizzes restart in downtown Davis. Meanwhile, I look across my driveway wistfully at the empty house, missing the friends who would often give me rides home after the big show on Monday evenings. At least Erik and Nate subscribe to this newsletter and to the quizzes themselves via Patreon. I look forward to continuing to entertain them remotely, while they also find entertainment in Red Sox games and a highly-functional public transportation system. 

I’ve known Bill even longer, and watched with admiration how he was recognized for what he did for our city. Bill had an entire box in the garage marked “awards.” You might know that Bill was the first recipient of the Jay Gerber Young Community Leader Award, created by the Sunrise Rotary Club. He won another award from the City of Davis for “Excellence in Community Involvement” in 2014. You’d think the other friends helping Bill move boxes on moving day would show him more respect, but one of them said that one box is not enough to hold all his awards. The other said that he has had to rent a storage facility for all the awards he has won. Such sass!

Such problem these pillars of the community have. I suppose this ribbing would have been funnier if it weren’t true: each of these gentlemen has won more awards than I have. One thinks of the time that soap opera actress Susan Lucci hosted Saturday Night Live in 1990, and the entire opening monologue was about how everyone had an Emmy but Lucci herself, the poor dear.

As university faculty, we are used to losing people to bigger (if not better) places. My student Melissa left Davis for Oxford, and then took her doctorate to peace-keeping efforts in Afghanistan. I wish her success! My student Lauren recently set up shop in Santa Cruz, where she is conducting her own research. My current protégé Josue hasn’t left town yet, choosing instead to publish articles, such as this one about Yolo County food insecurity in today’s Davis Vanguard. 

Universities and great cities like Davis launch rising stars. Junior astronomers, those of us on the ground wave goodbye to them from the launching pad, all of us wiser and stronger for having known them during their stay.

In addition topics raised above, tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature question on the following: Famous Bostonians, the names of Kings, banks, strings of losses, governors, keeping up with the Jones families, Detroit, hyacinths, Europe, podcasts, the absence of mutants, audiobooks, the stain of slavery, peace prizes, stage names, news shows, wonderful men, camels, cars that need to be filled more, frightening animals, retail stores, headphones, crowns, K as in Kate, Oscar winners, resistances, successful singers, catch phrases, current events, and Shakespeare.

Thursday night the great poet, musician, and retired Design professor DR Wagner will be reading from his new four-volume book of poetry. Join us at the Natsoulas Gallery at 7PM on March 15^th!

Thanks to all my regular supporters, including the teams that contribute the most every week: The Outside Agitators, The Original Vincibles, Quizimodo, and Bono’s Pro Bono Oboe Bonobos. Many other teams also subscribe, meaning that they get to read the entire quiz and all the answers every week! Check us out on Patreon. 

Thanks for reading.

Dr. Andy

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

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

1. Chicago Statues. Last week, a Chicago committee revealed a new statue paying tribute to an anti-lynching and suffrage activist, making it the city’s first sculpture honoring a Black woman. Name the subject of this honor.   

2. Science. Now eradicated, what was the target of the first vaccine?  

3. Books and Authors. Who co-wrote the current best-selling political thriller, The President’s Daughter, with James Patterson?  

4. Sports. First name Dennis, what former Oakland Athletic became the first of two pitchers in MLB history to have both a 20-win season and a 50-save season in a career?

P.P.S. “Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.” Tennessee Williams

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

My wife and kids don’t run much, so I would have to say that my favorite runner is Olympian Kim Conley, who is recuperating from injury and thus must sit out this year’s summer Olympics.

I got to teach Kim English 3: Introduction to Literature about a 20 years ago. Kim always sat along the westernmost wall of our Olson Hall classroom, she always participated when I asked students if they had questions (now I just say to my students, “Ask me questions”), and she always maintained focus on me and the class.

Perhaps once maintaining such focus in a college class would not seem noteworthy, but today, students and faculty alike swim in in a sea of distractions. The smartphone is the most prominent diversion, interrupting students with its notifications. Blessed is the student who remains unnotified. Wherever one is, the smartphone reminds us, something more interesting might be happening someplace else.

UC Davis students are such bright, accomplished, and engaging young people, so I would imagine that most of them want to spend most of their time with their peers. I felt that every day of college was an opportunity to build new connections, whether between neurons in my brain, between images in a poem, or between myself and a new friend. As I remember it, as a college student, I was always eager for new experiences, but also eager to be right where I was at any particular moment. Especially if I was with Kate.

I find it odd, then, to see groups of students sitting together in a restaurant or, before the pandemic, in the UC Davis Coffee House, and notice that they are all on their phones. I am tempted to interrupt their techno-reverie with the news that the joy they seek can be found in the eyes and the laughter of the friends that surround them. The entangling and teasing tedium is the trouble with Twitter. Life tops Facebook.

Such social media thrive by manufacturing desire, by implanting in us the longing for the thing we don’t yet have. The itching and distracting quest to become rich can actually make us poor. As Christopher Manske says in his book, The Prepared Investor, “When you buy a bigger house, another luxury car, or a fancy boat, you are showing people that you used to have money.”

I myself will likely not be a significant investor, prepared or otherwise. Rahter than thinking overmuch about finances, I prefer the perspective of one of my favorite Buddhist thinkers and authors, Pema Chödrön, author of When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times, which I have read perhaps three times since it was published. In that book, Chödrön says, “Hope and fear come from feeling that we lack something; they come from a sense of poverty. We can’t simply relax with ourselves. We hold on to hope, and hope robs us of the present moment. We feel that someone else knows what’s going on, but that there’s something missing in us, and therefore something is lacking in our world.” 

Kim Conley surely feels that sense of lack, that something is missing, as she watches her professional runner competitors at the Olympic trials as she herself recuperates. Knowing Kim as I do, however, I know that this experience will remind her what a blessed life of running, of play, and of mile after meditative mile she has been living. 

Although Simone de Beauvoir famously said that “The body is the instrument of our hold on the world,” for Kim – ever focused, ever present, and ever a UC Davis Aggie – her body has also been an instrument of freedom, of letting go. For that, and for her accomplishments on and off the Olympic track, Kim Conley remains my hero.

***

Happy Independence Day weekend! In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on patriotic topics, as well as candy, rabbits, palm trees, marbles, Brunos, Oscar nominees, parsimonious speakers, dictionaries, sailing trips, unlikely partners, Davis businesses, synonyms for confidence, unpronounceable names, people named Chuck who may or may not have birthdays today (Happy Birthday, Chuck!), German trees, hockey pucks, family weapons, people who made a career of saving a lot of things, famous fictional daughters, vaccinations, anti-racists, places with initials, European culture, famous battles that were won by little girls (with help), contagious sorrow, fireworks, again with the Tom Cruise, dancing stars, current events, and Shakespeare.

Thanks to all our regular teams who support the online Pub Quiz on Patreon. When we return to in-person presentations, subscribers will be able to enjoy the Pub Quiz on one day, and receive the same pub quiz via email or Patreon the next day. Perpetual souvenirs! Thanks specially to The Outside Agitators, The Original Vincibles, Quizimodo, and Bono’s Pro Bono Obo Bonobos for their generous support. Because of these teams and a number of others, I’ve been able to sustain this medium of entertainment throughout the pandemic. If you would like to join these local heroes, then do!

A bonus poetry night takes place this coming Thursday night at 7 via Zoom. How cool!

Be well, and thank for reading.

Dr. Andy

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

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

1. U.S. Presidents. Both found in the second half of the calendar, two months are tied as the birth-months of the most U.S. presidents, including Carter and Biden. Name just one of these months in which six presidents each were born.  

2. Pop Culture – Music. Released in 1985, Brothers in Arms was the first album to sell more than a million copies on compact disk. Name the band, now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  

3. Sports. The man named the best Portuguese player of all time by the Portuguese Football Federation is the first soccer player, AKA footballer, to have earned a billion dollars over the course of his career. Who is this man who was named the world’s most charitable sportsperson in 2015?  

P.P.S. One more gem from Simone de Beauvoir: “One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others.”

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I wonder if all private and public social bonds between strangers and friends begin with the idea of hospitality.

Our first great poet, Homer, communicates the importance of hospitality in the opening stanzas of The Odyssey when the son of Odysseus, Telemachus, receives a lone stranger to his father’s house. “Welcome,” said he, “to our house, and when you have partaken of food you shall tell us what you have come for.” Telemachus doesn’t even ask the visitor’s name before making sure he is fed and comforted.

The ancients called this xenia hospitium, or “guest-friendship.” The hospitality of Telemachus led the stranger – actually the goddess Athena in disguise – to help his father return from his adventures. Such private hospitality bonds laid the foundation for local alliances and even major treaties in ancient Greece and Rome. As the Aeschylus asks in his play The Libation Bearers: “What is there more kindly than the feeling between host and guest?”

Someone close to me recently visited someone’s home and was surprised to be treated inhospitably, even accusingly, by her host. I hear the story through my friend’s tears, and the incivility still stings me.

The cruelty my friend experienced should remind us all of our obligations to one another. For example, this experience has led me to consider my own duty, as the “host” of college classrooms, a radio show, a poetry series, and, of course, a pub quiz, to treat all attendees and participants as honored guests. 

I think of the AAA repair technicians who have visited my driveway to jumpstart my car and of the drivers delivering us packages or meals during the pandemic. Each of these essential workers is an angel in disguise. I think also of international students, honored travelers from afar, who spend part of their education at UC Davis; each of them enriches me with the time, attention, and stories that they bring to my classroom. Each such visitor should be welcomed with friendly questions and compassion.

All of us can recall excellent hosts. I think of the hospitality that my wife Kate shows to parents who have just discovered that their newborn has a rare genetic syndrome. Representing the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation, Kate welcomes them to an online community, an extended family of parents who recognizes their struggles. Strengthened by significant challenges, this community of kind-hearted people appreciates the dignity and humanity of their new far-flung friends, even if just previously they were strangers.

The love Kate shares with struggling parents, whether they be members of the new parent group that she runs here in Davis, or parents coping with their baby’s unwelcome diagnosis, makes me proud to be her husband. I wish that we all might treat our guests with such kindness. 

In the end, our riches and our accomplishments matter less than the compassion we share with those who visit our city or enter our homes. As Maya Angelou said of hosts and guests alike, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s Pub Quiz will include questions about transport, speaker systems, mathematicians, medical centers (the words “hospital” and “hospitality” come from the same root), calendars, big numbers, one-word titles, Russia, nosy summer hammocks, soul, confused passengers (all of us?), goats, lackeys, strange bedfellows when doing right, the needs of a fire, American cities, bank notes, Arizona, Irish influences, Portuguese exports, supposed brothers, double times, birthdays (Happy Birthday to esteemed subscriber Ted!), warm states, marines, current events, and Shakespeare.

I extend special thanks to all the teams who pay extra on Patreon to support the Pub Quiz. I call out especially The Original Vincibles, Quizimodo, The Outside Agitators, and Bono’s Pro Bono Obo Bonobos. Compassionate people may be reincarnated as the especially good-natured bonobos. Also, one team will soon receive a copy of How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith, the author of the best-selling non-fiction book in America.

Emily Hughes will be visiting the John Natsoulas Gallery from Brooklyn this coming Thursday at 7 and will be reading new poems for Poetry Night. You should join us!

Ever thankfully yours,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Here are three questions about China from a 2010 Pub Quiz: 

1. Here in the US, we have the dollar. What is the primary base unit of modern Chinese currencies?  

2. Which of the following is the name of the second largest river in China (by volume)? The Diamond River, The Emerald River, The Jade River, The Pearl River.  

3. Compassion, moderation, and humility are the three “jewels” of what religious practice or philosophical tradition?  

P.P.S. “You cannot do kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

It’s hard to take a vacation when you are not allowed to go anywhere.

Until recently, even those of us who felt comfortable going somewhere dared not post our vacation photographs, lest we incur the disapproval of the same people who don a mask if they see me from afar walking the greenbelt, as if it were still January.

Americans like to frown at other people’s vacations. President Trump had golfed 19 times in his first one hundred days in office. In a corresponding stretch of time, President Biden golfed once. Clearly one of those two presidents cares about his job and his fellow citizens, we say to ourselves. We can tell by the nature and frequency of their vacations.

I myself have too many jobs, it could be argued, but I love them all, so I tend not to take vacations. Currently I have 218.88 vacation hours accrued, the maximum. I will not accrue any more vacation days until I start taking some days off. I think the only time my boss shows disappointment in me is when she revues vacation allotments, and then she is tempted to tell me to go take a hike.

So, this past Friday, Kate and I took Jukie and Truman to the beach (while our daughter Geneva stayed home to hang with the French bulldog and prepare for her afternoon and evening shift at work). We chose Limantour Beach because our friends who lived nearby told us that it would be more spectacular and less crowded than our other Marin County options.

Of course, desperation also informed our decision. The day before had been the hottest of the year, and Friday was predicted to be almost as bad. We were running from oppressive weather as much as running to the beach. As Shakespeare says, “sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines.”

We soon realized that we were unpracticed at these sort of trips. Our sunscreening attempts were uneven, our Kindle books had not been downloaded before we found ourselves out of cell range, and our wardrobes did not accommodate the afternoon dip in temperatures (even though I was wearing two layers).

Despite all these problems, each of the four of us found peace on the beach. Jukie and I, in particular, walked south for miles, finally running out of beach before we ran out of energy. The eventual cliffs and rocks were inhospitable to our feet, but not to our souls, for we walked so far that eventually we could spot no one nearby or even far away. Served a daily portion of isolation over the last 18 months, we hadn’t realized how rewarding it would be not only to be out of the house, but also to be surrounded by the sound of the incessant surf, the imposing cliff faces, and the endless sky.

This is the sort of place that Joseph Campbell had in mind when he imagined the isolation necessary to create. He said, “You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen.” 

I thank my wife Kate, Marin County, and the cool, lovely and more temperate Limatour Beach for the sacred place that we experienced on Friday. I will keep the experience refreshed in my imagination through the help of memory and photographs. Time will tell if the beach destination ends up also functioning as a “place of creative incubation.” 

Speaking of creativity, I stole a few of the questions for tonight’s Pub Quiz from an event that I MCed for a couple days last week, The Information Security Symposium at UC Davis. Many of the 900 attendees suggested words and themes for a poem-on-demand project that we launched at this event. The occasional poem result, which is perhaps too long to include in its entirety here, has a number of inside jokes and clever information security references that a month from now will seem clever only to me. I especially like the Quebecois cuisine stanza that offers internal pea soup rhymes in French. Check it out if you love Civil War hero lighthouse inspector allusions and Viking humor.

OK, because of today’s beach theme, I feel compelled to include a favorite stanza:

Swedish hackers approach IKEA like a smörgåsbord,

Returning to their post-shenanigan dark web homes

with a pickled herring feast of PII numbers and names: 

Johansson, Anderson, Karlson.

So many patronyms! Maybe the daughters can protect us,

Hardening the city’s walls as if those villainous Vikings

Had not long since reached the data: Life’s a breach.

Now the threat actors are measuring the drapes in Gripsholm Castle.

Thanks, as always, to the regular teams that support this online Pub Quiz experiment so generously, especially the Original Vincibles, the Outside Agitators, Quizimodo, and Bono’s Pro Bono Obo Bonobos. I invite you to join them on Patreon!

In addition to topics perhaps raised above, tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on bullies, social media, fancy cars, disease control, Brussels exports, warlords, international games, freedom, brittle metals, action heroes, compensation, Colin Powell, countries with horses, Davis culture, tragic ladies, film and more film, lords of specific birds, hasty exits, write-offs, art history, prisoners of war, California cheers, big shots, unemployment, company ceos, current events, and Shakespeare.

Be well!

Dr. Andy 

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

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

1. Science. What T word do we use for the processes that control the structure and properties of the Earth’s crust and its evolution through time? 
2. Books and Authors. What Stephen King book features primarily Paul Sheldon and Annie Wilkes? 
3. Sports. The Pekingese that won the Westminster dog show yesterday shares a name with Japanese horseradish. Name the dog. 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Even with the pandemic removing so many responsibilities from my day-to-day life, my weekly schedule feels like a top-heavy and unsteady game of Jenga. 

Tomorrow, for example, I start MCing the 2021 Information Security Symposium, with over 700 attendees. As my UC Davis colleague Ahna Heller says, “Next week a record 700+ attendees will attend the virtual Information Security Symposium. The event will present talks, labs, and discussions on topics involving cybersecurity and privacy for UC and other higher education security and compliance professionals. The theme is ‘Adapt’ – a continuing priority as campuses adjust to changes caused by COVID-19.”

As you may know, I usually work smaller crowds than 700 (at de Vere’s Irish Pub, we have maxed out at about 200 participants), and information security was not one of my majors in graduate school. Nevertheless, I jump at opportunities to stand before a microphone, an audience, or even a Zoom camera, for I like to challenge my public speaking skills, and because I always learn something when I do. I think people hire me for such gigs because, like myself, they never know what I might say.

Last Thursday, I got to MC a more somber affair: A Celebration of Life of Mark Rivera, the great ceramic artist and top-notch human being who should have turned 50 on June 10^th. About 150 of Mark’s friends and family (mostly here from Colorado) gathered in Central Park to tell stories and admire his handiwork. One can see a half-dozen of Mark’s pieces downtown, and perhaps 50 others in and around Davis on which he assisted.

When I finally saw the program Thursday morning, next to my name was written “Opening Remarks and Poem.” I had one hour to write a poem that afternoon, but as I had grown used to writing on demand for you fine people, and as I had been thinking about Mark and his artistic contributions to our city since hearing of his passing, I had something to say that was sonnet-sized:

The Work, The Art

A Poem for Mark Rivera (1971-2021)

“He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.” Saint Francis of Assisi

We walk past them, the grandiloquent creations 

That appear as fantastical polychromatic sentinels, 

Modern gargoyles standing guard on Davis street corners,

Artworks that fill our strolls and perhaps our dreams with color.

The creations guard against complacency, against tedium,

Daring even the hurried traveler to imagine something wild.

Reminiscent of an artistic renaissance, the intricacy astounds. 

Each stone, each tile, each precisely chipped luminescent pebble 

Has been imagined, formulated, and then perfectly placed

By a laborer, by a craftsman, by an artist who crafted

By heart and with heart, assembling collections 

That reach towards transcendence, that coalesce into wonder.

A child tries to name what he feels as he gazes upon the work:

A spirit soaring towards sublimity, and then resting upon gratitude.

I was happy to re-connect with close friends whom I have met or seen often at Pub Quiz at that event. As a participant and MC, I was reminded that the extra obligations that our communities ask of us may interrupt and strain the comfortable flow of weekly responsibilities that fill our lives, but when we look back on a lifetime of connections and accomplishments, we will realize that some of our strongest and fondest memories will result from our aspiring and stretching for others, as Mark Rivera did so heroically and artistically throughout his short life.

May he rest in peace, and may compassion and connection fill all of our days.

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on blindfolds, audible mysteries, hotels, fish, long gliders, Katharine Hepburn, solving problems online, imperatives from companies, numbers that are divisible by four, eternal lines, Nantucket, fallen princes, bonus holidays, voodoo slang, 20^th century wars, long retirements, lead singers, home addresses, unlikely winners, complainers, authors named Paul, crusts, vacuums, residues, shrinking organizations, documentaries, big books, houseguests, elderly competitors, musical subgenres, Republicans who know how to govern, peninsulas, current events, and Shakespeare.

Poetry Night this Thursday will take place via Zoom (because of the heat) and will feature the poets Lucille Lang Day and Brian Dempster. Look them up to be impressed, and then plan to join us at 8 PM.

Thanks for reading.

Dr. Andy

https://www.yourquizmaster.com

P.S. A bit of trivia from last week: 

1. Countries of the World.  The reservoir of Three Gorges Dam can retain an amount of water voluminous enough to slow and change the rotation of the Earth. That’s a big dam. Where is it found?  

2. Disasters. What living actor and comedian, the winner of three acting Emmys, all but ended his career on the evening of November 17, 2006?  

3. Science. What do we call the branch of molecular biology concerned with the structure, function, evolution, and mapping of genomes?  

P.P.S. “A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others.” Salvador Dali

This week’s newsletter is devoted to the memory of Davis artist Mark Rivera.

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Nothing was normal last Thursday as we tried to return to normal at the poetry series I run twice a month. 

First of all, Governor Newsom has not yet opened up California for business – that happens a week from tomorrow. As a result, John Natsoulas proposed that Poetry Night return to the roof of his gallery on June 3^rd. I agreed, even though I had grown used to the Zoom poetry readings, appreciating the opportunity virtually to gather far-flung audiences, including especially a number of Sacramento-area poets who prefer not to make the Causeway drive after dark. The increasing number of regulars joining us from New Orleans, Chicago, and New York City brought their own drinks, and I didn’t have to unfold a single folding chair.

The best poetry audiences are local, though, for even in the socially-distanced Zoom age, poets need live audiences, and they depend upon in-person events to sell books. The poet is almost a playwright who performs her own soliloquys, leading us to wonder if the more authentic experience is provided by the author who reveals her own confessional nuggets or the actor who can best embody the breadth and depth of human emotion. Either way, whether embodied by author or actor, a live performance in a shared physical space gives us access to performed artistry, and invites us to be present in our own heads and hearts.

When I proposed that we move the time from 8 PM to 7 PM to give the poets more light to work with (a concern at past rooftop events), I hadn’t anticipated that June 3^rd would be one of the hottest days of 2021. That afternoon, Natsoulas texted me a screenshot of the weather report (91 degrees at 7 PM!), and recommended that we mask up and move the event inside, where he would provide the art-covered walls (some of the paintings mounted by Mark Rivera), the sound system, and the air conditioning. I called one of the poets to propose the change, and she went for it.

That same poet also showed up at 6:20 that evening with enough cupcakes for a classroom full of graduating first graders. The other poet brought beverages. So from the moment I arrived, I was on the job: fetching bottle openers, helping to find napkins, and testing the microphone. John and his staff had already set up the chairs, dispersed at six-foot intervals, as if we were adhering to an earlier round of CDC regulations.

As we approached 7 PM, a steady stream of attendees appeared, marveling like time travelers at the wonder of standing inside a public space with other humans from outside their pods. Everyone was vaccinated, everyone was masked, and everyone had access to all the cupcakes they could eat.

But could the rusty host, Dr. Andy, the poet laureate emeritus of Davis, recapture the magic of 2019 and before, amusing the audience, hyping the poets, and catching his breath while taking in the moment?

The answer to this trivia question is perhaps expected: Yes. Magic was present and presented. The featured poets both astounded us with new poems from their new books, and the open mic featured an Indian dancer (who brought her own music), a couple of the regulars, and an extended and full-throated introduction of venerable poetry scene mainstay Allegra Silberstein that benefitted from my years of my blowhardy Pub Quiz braggadocio. Allegra said that she had left her hearing aids at home, but she could still hear me.

Let’s hope the microphone still works at de Vere’s Irish Pub when I return to Pub Quiz duties there, perhaps at the end of this month. As soon as Gavin Newsom gives us the go-ahead, I plan to let loose with as loud and breathy an 18-month-delayed welcome back as I can muster. Even if you are not there to see it (though I hope you will be), I bet that you will be able to hear it from wherever you spend your evenings in Yolo County. But really, you shouldn’t miss any more of our events ever again. You only live once. 

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will be virtual, with questions written about expected topics (the craziness in the news), as well as unexpected topics, such as San Juan Capistrano, people who bear cups, and people who bathe garishly. Other questions will address the following: soliloquys, corn, Spanish translations, independent contractors, California counties, pop singers, the employment picture, lazy machines, molecular biology, Emmys, the rotation of the earth, Mexican culture, dystopias, pogs, singer / songwriters, royals, gross domestic products, people named George Washington, far-flung countries, and Shakespeare.

Thanks to all my regular supporters on Patreon. I’m able to continue this work because of your support. As a special treat, I have tucked a shout-out to one of you in two contiguous pub quiz questions on tonight’s quiz. I will let you see if you can figure out the implied meta-question.

This Thursday afternoon I will be participating in a celebration of the life and the (very public) work of the local ceramic artist Mark Rivera, who died unexpectedly last month at age 49. If you are a Davisite and you check out the Facebook invitation, you will likely recognize a number of pieces of public art that you didn’t know all came from the same artist. Rest in Peace, Mark.

Be well.

Dr. Andy

http://www.yourquizmaster

https://www.patreon.com/yourquizmaster

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

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

1. Mottos and Slogans. What beverage allegedly “gives you wings”?  

2. Internet Culture. What cross-platform web browser developed by Microsoft was first released for Windows 10 and Xbox One in 2015?  

3. Newspaper Headlines. According to CNN, “A century ago this week, the wealthiest U.S. Black community was burned to the ground.” In what city did this take place?

P.P.S. “Every one of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That’s part of what it means to be alive.” Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Because my father was a stage director, and my brother and I had seen so many of his productions, we knew how to talk to actors after a show.

On this occasion, the show was not a play, but a movie. And ironically, we had not yet even seen the film, even though the event we were attending was a children’s charity event on the day of the film’s world premiere.

The first order of business was to find Billy Dee Williams. My father had directed Williams in William Hanley’s play, Slow Dance On the Killing Ground. Because of the actor’s dyslexia, someone was needed to run his lines with him on a regular basis, and that person was my mom, coincidentally another dyslexic person. My mom described laughing at the ridiculousness of the assignment, and then also laughing with the charismatic Billy Dee as they tried to get the lines right, lodging in Williams’ memory what could not be easily read on the page. 

It was not because of his stage prowess and theatrical connections, but because of his job as the film reviewer for WUSA in Washington DC, that we were invited to the world premiere of Empire Strikes Back, which premiered 41 years ago this month. You can imagine my excitement when my dad told us that we would get to go to the Kennedy Center on May 17, 1980 to meet most of the cast. 

I was a big fan of Star Wars, as was every American boy born in the late 60s. By the time I met the actors from the Empire Strikes Back, I had seen the first film 15 times in the theater. Maybe that was a little excessive, but my mom knew that I would enjoy both the show and the air conditioning during that May and June and July and August of 1977 while she attended to other responsibilities. 

Once we arrived at DC’s equivalent of The Mondavi Center, my brother Oliver and I each grabbed a paper plate that was festooned with Star Wars iconography, got a felt pen from our dad, and then started swarming the cast members with all of the other children. We resolved to meet and get autographs from everyone from the cast.

As you might guess, not everyone was there. Anthony Daniels was ill, which was a shame, for I would have liked to see him interact with Kenny Baker at the event. Sir Alec Guinness did not do press for these films, thinking them rather silly (once calling his lines “mumbo jumbo”), but recognizing all the talk of magic and the Force earned him another Academy Award nomination, and made him a multimillionaire (about $50 million total from the three films).

After Billy Dee Williams. We approach some of the larger (in this case, taller) actors. At seven feet two inches, Peter Mayhew was as tall as a Washington Bullet, but without all the grace of the players on our local basketball team. Back then, almost everyone was tall to me. The man behind (inside?) Chewbacca was friendly, and I enjoyed hearing him speak in his Yorkshire accent. 

Mayhew had been recruited for his elongated and wiry stature, while Dave Prowse, also a towering figure at six feet six inches, was recruited for his athletic physique. Of all the actors that day, Prowse gave me the most time and attention, saying that he would prefer to sign a photograph of himself rather than my paper plate. In block letters, the head shot of himself side by side with the Sith lord said DAVE PROWSE IS DARTH VADER. I did not argue with him, even though in my family we knew all about James Earl Jones, another (Actors Equity Theatre) buddy of my dad from two decades earlier. 

By contrast to those hulking figures, Kenny Baker and I could almost look each other in the eye, in that I was only a foot taller than his three feet, eight inches. I could tell that the diminutive actor relished the opportunity to talk to all the children. I remember feeling bad for him that his shoulders seemed hunched. He did not look particularly comfortable in his own body, and I wondered if he had had enough air while operating R2D2.

You’d think I would have spent much more time with Frank Oz, for he not only voiced Yoda, but also, Bert, Grover, and Cookie Monster, my constant Children’s Television Workshop companions of earlier in that same decade. Because people did not recognize his face, Frank Oz did not have as much of a crowd, assembled around him. He and I had a leisurely conversation, as much as my young self was qualified to do so. I did not request that he “do his Yoda voice.”

Harrison Ford was personable, but he also didn’t look like he was comfortable. He signed the autographs rather quickly, and then looked away. After I finished with him, I knew that there were just two actors left whom I had to summon the courage to approach: Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher.

When I walked up to Luke and Leia, they were deep in conversation, smiling and laughing with each other, obviously enjoying each other’s company, connecting authentically while a constant stream of children came up to visit with them. Mark Hamill signed the paper plate rather carefully while Carrie Fisher had a sloppier autograph. She might have been surprised by my expression of thanks, and that I kept making eye contact instead of moving along as I was supposed to. The Princess took just a moment to bend down to my level, quietly saying “you’re welcome” as if she were sharing a secret message. I will never forget her smile.

Thanks for subscribing to this newsletter. I host a print and video pub quiz every Monday night, and this makes me eager for Mondays. Please subscribe on Patreon if you would like to receive something substantive from me every week (in addition to newsletters like this one). For example, tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on topics raised above, as well as the following: That which is “under,” tears, Kamala Harris, baseball, extra soldiers in the audience, French royalty, oxygen consumption, wings, people who have an edge, pressures, promised lands, rickety alpha dogs in Congress, Wall Street, Indian food, unpleasant armies, seed production, Canadian diamonds, silent Ls, evangelicals, tropical Waldens, law firms, coaches with biscuits, collaborative rivals, rope tricks, membranous wings, singles, salsa, Trojans, securities that come in baskets, current events, and Shakespeare.

Of all the folks who support the Pub Quiz on Patreon, I am especially grateful to those who make significant investments in the Quiz. They get audio, video, and even Dr. Andy’s Book Club books mailed directly to their doors. This month’s book is Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson, and at least one team will receive it tomorrow! Please join me on Patreon if you would like to upgrade your Pub Quiz fun.

Poetry Night is Thursday at 7 at the Natsoulas Gallery. Despite the heat, we will meet on the roof!

Be well.

Dr. Andy

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

1. Cinematic Umbrellas. What does Gene Kelly do with his umbrella at the end of the famous titular Singing in the Rain scene?  

2. Pop Culture – Music. What South-Korean boy band has recently seen its  video for the song “Butter” set a new record for most YouTube views within 24 hours of release?  

3. Science. Recently scientists have discovered the brain connection responsible for misophonia, or super-sensitivity to what? Noise

P.P.S. “Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

When my daughter’s hamsters died, we buried them along a path in a public park just on the outside of our fence, so that we might return to their gravesites even after we sold the house. The grave markers – little signs made by Geneva herself – were positioned on our side of the fence. People visiting our home back then would conclude (correctly) that we were not accomplished gardeners, for no herbs grew under the tiny placards named for “Parsley” and “Sage.”

No such placards mark the back yard graves of two of my childhood animals: “Hubcap” and “Boxhead.” Hubcap was wounded juvenile squirrel that lived briefly in an open box in my basement bedroom. Boxhead was a box turtle that we “rescued” from the middle of Reservoir Road in Beavertown, Pennsylvania. My proficiency raising unusual pets in the 1970s was about equal to my gardening prowess.

That said, when back in DC, I return to 2454 Tunlaw Road to gaze upon the house where I lived from age 1 to 22. I also venture to the back alley to pay my respects to the final resting place of Boxhead and Hubcap, knowing that I was the only person who was present for both their funerals. I loved that house, for, quoting Philip Larkin, I found it was a home “proper to grow wise in, / If only that so many dead lie round.”

I knew the turtle and the squirrel for such a short time that my repeated remembrances of them can be attributed to a poet’s sentimentality. By contrast, today I am thinking of the back yard of a friend of mine who has suffered an incalculable loss, one that likely shades her every interaction and reflection. 

Because of my wife’s board position with the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation, we have become friends with many parents of children with the rare syndrome that challenges the life of our son Jukie. While Jukie is physically healthy, we know from the shared stories of our friends that the Syndrome has taken the lives of many in our SLO community.

Our friends Bonny and Shane once had a beautiful son named Zopher. Born with developmental and metabolic challenges and a silly sense of humor, Zopher smiled, and laughed, and loved his parents like crazy. Shane and his father built a beautiful garden in their large back yard for Zopher to explore, to delight in, and to enjoy the company of his parents and their visitors.

Children born after a miscarriage or death of a child are called “rainbow babies.” As I write this, I am reminded that each of our three children is a rainbow baby, and this makes Kate and me all the more thankful for them. From their earliest days all the way to this morning, we see each moment as a treasure. 

Years after Zopher’s death from Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome, Bonny and Shane told stories to their own rainbow baby, an angelic curly-haired daughter named Wren, now age two. In their home, Wren has seen pictures and video of Zopher, and in response she smiles at the infectious smile of a brother she will never meet in person.

When it came time to sell their house, Bonny and Shane told the new owners about Zopher, about the difficulty of leaving a property that is home to all their favorite Zopher memories, and about the garden that had been built for him to enjoy for many more years than he got to experience. The deed for the property would pass from one family to another, and that would be a necessary loss, but the thought of losing the place of those precious few memories was almost too much to bear. When it comes to my favorite memories of places I have spent with friends, I am reminded of what the Confucian philosopher Mencius said: “The people are the most important element in a nation; the spirits of the land and grain are the next; the sovereign is the least.”

As they prepared to say goodbye to their home with Zopher, Bonny and Shane recognized the wisdom of these words about “the spirits of the land,” and, as they soon found out, so did the new owners. As you can see in the photograph above, a new bench was erected in the garden where Zopher used to play, and on it the new owners of the garden had placed a plaque.

It reads, “Rest and Enjoy Zopher’s Garden. You made them Brave.”

May Zopher’s memory be a blessing to his family and to all who knew him.

If you would like to make a donation to the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation to support medical research into this rare syndrome, do so knowing that none of the leadership or board members are paid for their work on behalf of the affected children and families. I would be moved if you were to make your donation in honor of our son Jukie, or in memory of Zopher (10/06/2015—02/06/18).

Tonight’s Pub Quiz may touch upon topics raised above. Expect also questions on snacks, scooters, land masses, secular educations, masks, cozy mysteries, first scenes, coaches, adorable children, authors who died too young, constitutions, screenplays, nominees, art history, wasps, glorious water, U.S. states, mandibles, notes, great lakes, home improvements, honorary degrees, sensitivities, butter products, umbrellas, buildings, and Shakespeare.

Happy birthday to Eileen Rendahl, sustaining supporter of the Pub Quiz on Patreon, and author of books that captivate and delight. She is a member of The Original Vincibles, a Pub Quiz team to which I am deeply grateful. Others who support the Pub Quiz most generously include Quizimodo, The Outside Agitators, and Bono’s Pro Bono Oboe Bonobos. Won’t it be wonderful when you get to hear these amazing team names resounding in an actual pub again? Please ask your local friends to get vaccinated, if they haven’t already, so that one day we can again participate in crowd efforts. If you would like to support the Pub Quiz on Patreon, and see tonight’s Pub Quiz, please do so. Meanwhile, thanks to the 26 that fund this entire enterprise!

Perhaps I will see you in person next month!

Best,

Dr. Andy

http://www.Yourquizmaster.com

yourquizmaster@gmail.com

P.S. Here are three questions from a 2018 Pub Quiz:

1. Four for Four. Which two of the following four of the best-selling authors of all time was or is a parent to twins? Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, William Shakespeare, Harriet Beecher Stowe.  

2. Voting Trends in Yolo County, California. What was the last year in which the Republican candidate for U.S. President earned more votes than the Democrat candidate in Yolo County? Was it 2016, 1992, 1976, or 1952?  

3. Pop Culture – Music. Aretha Franklin’s first number one hit was originally an Otis Redding track. Name this song that won Aretha her first two Grammy Awards.   

P.P.S. “You forget that the fruits belong to all and that the land belongs to no one.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

During those few times when we are not overencumbered with responsibilities, we rarely look up or around to notice how light and spacious the world is. In such circumstanced, we don’t always realize how lucky we are. 

Last week I was discussing with a friend that people in their 40s and 50s often find themselves attending simultaneously to the needs of both their children and their parents. According to my small sample size, parents in their 40s prioritize the children while eyeing their parents, while parents in their 50s pivot to inevitable parental transitions while eyeing their children. Discussing these challenges, I enjoyed commiserating with my overwhelmed friend, quoting John Lennon: “Nobody told me there’d be days like these!”

Sometimes we turn to gurus and other sage and experienced people for the advice that will help us calm our minds or make better decisions. My wife Kate has been facilitating a new mom support group in downtown Davis for the last 22 years. You might know someone who has benefitted from the advice and fellowship that she has offered during that time. Even though she has three kids at home, one with challenging disabilities, she has been facilitating this group on an unpaid basis over the last two years, telling me recently that our other sources of income allow her to do so. (Finally, she has set up her own Patreon in case those who benefit would want to pitch in.) She learns so much from running “the group” (as we call it), and our friends and our children all benefit from the wisdom shared by my favorite complimentary life coach.

Speaking of advice, Google and the Apple News app both seem to know that I am editing a collection of writing advice, for they keep sending me to websites with advice on other topics. For example, yesterday Google News directed me to an “Ask Amy” advice column titled “Alcoholic wife wants husband’s support to regain sobriety.” In it, a wife discusses the trepidation she feels in approaching her husband for help kicking the secret drinking habit that started six months after he gave her an ultimatum: quit drinking or get divorced. She needed him to forgive her relapse so she could count on her support to make healthier choices. I hope the husband accepts his wife and supports her. As shame researcher Brené Brown says, “What we don’t need in the midst of struggle is shame for being human.”

Reading this column, I also thought of my students. Overwhelmed by what this pandemic hath wrought, they find it difficult (as I do) to find the physical and mental space to engage in the sort of deep work necessary to write a long feature or profile for my journalism class. What’s more, my students know that I evaluate their submissions fairly and dispassionately, meaning that I spend part of my time with them pointing out the inadequacies in their writing.

We can see why this process overwhelms some students. My classes (and most college classes) come with an unspoken ultimatum: Do the necessary work, or you will fail. I keep up my part of this agreement by judging students texts and administering the rules, but, like the husband of the alcoholic wife (we hope), I also focus on the person making the mistakes, and the steps that can be taken to encourage discovery and growth.

The very last quotation in my writing advice collection is by Book Thief author Markus Zusak. He says, “Failure has been my best friend as a writer. It tests you, to see if you have what it takes to see it through.” I agree! I impress upon my students that the mistakes in their essays can be what James Joyce calls “portals of discovery,” that is, if they can free themselves of the feelings of dread and shame that they usually attach to egregious errors. Our mistakes, relapses, and repeated blunders give my students and me topics to discuss in class and office hours: they make learning possible.

But so that I do not become a dour and captious carper who seems preoccupied only with mistakes, I remind myself daily that patience and compassion for my beleaguered students must balance, perhaps overbalance, the implied ultimatum of the classroom. This pandemic has hopefully taught us all lessons about people (and perhaps about writing) that Gautama Buddha shared 25 centuries ago: “As rain falls equally on the just and the unjust, do not burden your heart with judgments but rain your kindness equally on all.”

I send deep thanks to everyone who supports me on Patreon, and who therefore make our pandemic pub quiz possible. Is anyone taking bets on when a pub quiz might return to de Vere’s? Special praise goes to our new Patreon patrons, Michael and Catlyn, and to our sustaining members, represented by the teams Quizimodo, The Outside Agitators, The Original Vincibles, and Bono’s Pro Bono Obo Bonobos. Let me know If you would like me to add you or your team to this list.

In addition to the topics raised above, tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on May 17^th, the names of Kings, clutch play, windows, rangers, Peter Gabriel, jewelry, buzzing insects, Oscar-winners, famous books, onetime choices made by grandfathers, minor gods, baseball, California cities, the chase, chemical elements, the dotted nature of fun, pianos, people named after lemons, flicks, squints, trios, current events, and Shakespeare. 

Poetry Night is Thursday via Zoom. Be sure to join us. We return to the Natsoulas Gallery (rooftop) in June.

Dr. Andy

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

1. Countries of the World. Which of the following is the equivalent in Lichtenstein of an American president? Would that be a king, a prince, a regent, or a viscount? 
2. Popular Acronyms. Originating in the 19th century, what acronym is spoken more than any other? 
3. Science. What is the oldest of the natural sciences? 

P.P.S. One more piece of writing advice: “The perfect ending should take the reader slightly by surprise and yet seem exactly right to him. He didn’t expect the article to end so soon, or so abruptly, or to say what it did. But he knows it when he sees it. Like a good lead, it works.” William Zinsser