Your Quizmaster — Home of the Quizmaster of Sudwerk Brewing Company in Davis

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Popes Named Gregory. Which of the most famous popes named Gregory introduced the Gregorian calendar, the most widely-used calendar in the world? Was it Gregory I (590–604), Gregory VII (1073-1085), or Gregory XIII (1572–1585)?

Science. Starting with the letter S, what kind of fruits are found on apricot, cherry, and peach trees?

Shakespeare. In which 1606 Shakespeare tragedy do we learn that Life is “a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing?”

The Incident in the Arboretum Edition of the De Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on February 12, 2019

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

When your beloved French Bulldog puppy is mauled in the UC Davis Arboretum, the community of Davis is quick to offer its concern and support. Such was the case for us this past Thursday, when my wife Kate was taking our new puppy Margot on her daily walk. She had no reason to expect that the owner of the much larger and decidedly ferocious dog would walk her dog right up to Kate and Margot to initiate the attack. Over the course of a minute or more, Kate tried a variety of strategies to get the dog to let our puppy go, finally reaching down to pry the jaws apart, and bloodying up her hands in the process. A visit to the vet immediately afterwards revealed that it was probably Margot’s puffy sweater that saved her life, for it took the brunt of the damage. We continue to monitor her to see if there are signs of internal damage.

Kate posted two Facebook posts about the ordeal. In the first, she highlighted a picture of the dog’s owner and the dog itself, both to determine their identity, and to warn other walkers of dogs and children on the greenbelts of Davis to take extreme care if they see the two. This post garnered more than 400 expressions of concern in the form of emojis: 277 angry faces, 82 sad faces, 37 looks of surprise, 20 likes, and one laughing face. People left 386 comments (more on that in a moment), and the post was shared 472 times, a record for either of us on Facebook.

Kate’s post attracted so much attention in part because Kate mentioned the breed of the dog that had attacked Margot. A great number of defenders of the breed shared their opinions, as did an even greater number of people who were not fans of the breed. While still nursing her wounds, Kate had to spend much of Thursday and Friday deleting comments from strangers who shared aggressive, maligning, malevolent, racist, and even violent posts directed at a number of targets, including the dog, the breed of the dog, the owner of the dog, people who were the perceived race of the owner of the dog, and even Kate herself.

When Kate stopped by Trader Joes Friday, the friendly banter with the woman who was scanning all of Kate’s purchases turned to weekend plans; Kate admitted that she was just going to spend her weekend snuggling to her French Bulldog, for she had been attacked in the Arboretum the day before. The woman responded, “That was you?” Word had spread. A kind neighbor of ours stopped by the house yesterday to see how Margot was doing, even though she is not a Facebook friend and hadn’t talked to Kate about the ordeal. If you are active in Davis social media, chances are you have heard this story, as well.

Margot continues to heal, and Kate is asleep this morning as I write this. As we continue to grapple with the physical trauma, and the psychological distress (Kate hasn’t been back to her daily walking route along the Arboretum’s Putah Creek since the attack), we will most remember the hundreds of expressions of love for our dog, many from Davisites whom we have never met. Such words of support gives people overcoming an awful incident an alternative narrative to focus upon. The benevolent voices fill our ears while we wait for other echoes to subside.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on the following topics: canine companions, sad stories, firefighters in Alabama, midwestern sports, prisoners, landed gentry, chefs, spices, public duels, names in the news, arboreal obsessions, people named Greg, breathing room, flattery, funny names, distinguishing between Mikes and Mickeys, transferred channels, Vegas residency, math topics, title characters of TV shows, iconic Grammy nominees, members of Congress, formidable Greeks, first ladies, the Dalai Lama on Twitter, DNA, newspaper headlines, quenchers, and Shakespeare.

I hope you can join us this evening. If you recruit too many, bring two teams!

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from a 2013 quiz:

Internet Culture. What’s a LAN?
Newspaper Headlines. The last British king to have been killed in battle was recently found under a parking lot in Leicester, 100 miles north west of London. Name him.
Mathematics. In our American system of mathematical progressions, what denomination come after million, billion and trillion?

The Pumpkin-Orange Datsun B210-Flavored Memories Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on February 4, 2019

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

For some reason, I was thinking this morning that I know what I was doing 30 years ago this month, but not necessarily 20 years or ten years ago this month. Regular Facebook users get reminders as to what they were posting on this date in years past, and I suppose some of us keep diaries or really detailed calendars. Unless you have the eidetic memory of Marilu Henner, only a big change will remind you definitively of the details surrounding a particular time in your distant past.

For example, I remember well my first week wearing a polyester tuxedo to my usher job at the Tenley Circle Theatre (at 16), my first week exploring Boston as a new college student (18), my first trip driving with my friend smoker Bob from Washington DC to the coastal redwoods of California (20), or my first week living with my future wife Kate at 45 England’s Lane, NW3 (also 20). We pay such close attention during times of change, times of novelty, times of discovery.

Sometimes remembering a particular month so clearly is no blessing. In the same month that my father passed away, my son Jukie underwent double eyelid reconstruction surgery, and I was told that one of my positions on campus was coming to an end. I remember the details of particular days during that month too well, but I also recognize that often we learn and grow the most during time of great difficulty. While no one could ever replace my dad, or erase the heartache I feel from his loss, at least Jukie’s eyes haven’t needed touch-up surgery (as we told would be the case for his ptosis repair). And I have accepted a succession of even more rewarding positions at UC Davis since that fateful month in 2004.

30 years ago this month I was beginning my final semester as an undergraduate at Boston University, and as I told myself and anyone who would listen, it would also be the first semester that I would approach with the intensity of a graduate student. I was taking four classes for credit, and four others, including a graduate course, for my own edification. I remember being so enamored with what I was learning from the books I was reading then. As Fahrenheit 451 teaches us, “The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.”

Thirty years ago this month, I would head to the library every night to read the books that would appear on the GRE Literature in English Test (I eventually earned a score in the 99th percentile, and I still remember some of the questions I was asked). And every day I took some time to write Kate a letter, an even more important investment in my future than the GREs. In May of 1989, Presidents Bush and Mitterrand spoke at my graduation ceremony, and then I filled my pumpkin-orange Datsun B210 with books, pointed it west, and stopped only when I reached North Berkeley, my new home.

Mark Twain says that an education is what you have left over after you’ve forgotten everything you learned in school. I am grateful for everything I learned in school, for I find it still to be relevant today, either on the job, or Monday evenings with friends and a microphone. I’m also grateful for the education provided by memorable moments, and the friends and now family members who have filled them. A life is made not from the details of what we remember, though as a poet I am grateful for all the imagery that I can continue to call upon, but from the intensity of the love and the laughter we can spark, and participate in. For you, I wish that your February turns out to be intense and memorable for all the right reasons.

Tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on some topics raised above, as well as the following: women with brothers and fathers, the backstroke, dragons, made-up slogans, liberators, small margins, televised simulcasts, blowhards, cell phone addicts, eye doctors, state capitals, Scottish exports, the state of our union, Canadian imports, an expected topic, esteemed British poets, opening ceremonies, odds and chances, fetched sandwiches that allow one to keep writing, firework finales, the names of popular musical groups, destination bridges, traditional meals, George Takei, finding water, ship captains, truths and falsities coming from Donald Trump, CNN scoops, squares with four corners, scientific patent holders who are pitchers in Arabia, elopements, too many zoos, prejudicial support, final quartiles, early aspirin, baseball, and Shakespeare.

See you tonight!

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Books and Authors. In his most important essay, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” What is the title of this essay?
Sports. Recently elected unanimously to the Baseball Hall of Fame, what New York Yankee pitcher’s 652 career saves is considered by baseball statisticians to be an unbreakable record?
Shakespeare. What proper name appears in the largest number of Shakespeare plays, at six?

And here’s a question that was recommended by a friend of the Pub Quiz, but which I decided was too hard: “Of the people who claim Assyrian heritage, a majority live in Syria and what other country?” Answer: Iraq

P.S. Poetry Night is Thursday. You should attend! 8 PM at the Natsoulas Gallery.

The Adventures in Light Therapy Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on January 29, 2019

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

In Sweden, Gloria Steinem once said, both parents take care of the children. This is also true in Davis. Also in Davis, both parents take care of the dog.

Our puppy, Margot, can now sleep seven hours at night between visits to our front yard. Her ability to sleep at night has done wonders for her “parents’” ability to do the same. That said, something usually wakes me before the seven-hour chime rings on my iPhone. Sometimes, as was the case this morning, our son Jukie visits the bathroom before 6 AM and leaves the light on, like an unwelcome light therapy alarm clock. On other mornings, Margot decides that she wants to engage with Kate and me, even if the bedroom is not even remotely illuminated by the dawn’s early light. Sometimes Margot will hear Jukie before we do, and share a tentative bark, to let us know what an excellent watchdog she is. These interruptions of sound and light are not easily reconciled with our last dreams of the evening, and soon we are both awake, attending to the household creatures that desire our attention.

This morning, I attended to the mouths to feed as best I could before leaving the house at 6:45, 30 minutes before the official sunrise. Typically an indication of coming storms, the eastern sky was filled with red light, refractions upon the winter fog that we enjoy at this time of year. Driving north and west over Richards Boulevard from south Davis, I saw red lights in my rear-view mirror that reminded me of a description of dawn over the chaparral in Larry McMurtry’s best-known novel, Lonesome Dove:

“The eastern sky was red as coals in a forge, lighting up the flats along the river. Dew had wet the million needles of the chaparral, and when the rim of the sun edged over the horizon the chaparral seemed to be spotted with diamonds. A bush in the backyard was filled with little rainbows as the sun touched the dew.

It was tribute enough to sunup that it could make even chaparral bushes look beautiful, Augustus thought, and he watched the process happily, knowing it would only last a few minutes. The sun spread reddish-gold light through the shining bushes, among which a few goats wandered, bleating. Even when the sun rose above the low bluffs to the south, a layer of light lingered for a bit at the level of the chaparral, as if independent of its source.”

The vermillion sky shared its orange glow with the meditating sitters who had gathered at the Davis Shambhala Center at 7 AM, reminding us to be mindful of our environment, and how we respond to it. The warm welcome of my friends at the Center filled the room with bonhomie as we took our seats (in chairs or on zafu meditation cushions) and our minds started to settle. I reflected on how lucky I was to be present in that moment, and how right Alan Watts was when he said that “Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment.”

The sky had lightened dramatically as I headed home, and the morning was almost warm by the time I stepped outside with Margot again, both of us deeply breathing the morning air. Always in touch with the joy that eludes many of the humans that she meets on her daily walks with Kate, Margot was communicating with her spry vertical leaps that she was already ready to play. As I handed the puppy back to her mom at 8, I realized that I had lived a “day” rich in discovery and gratitude, all before turning to the computer on a Monday morning, curious to know what I would share with my friends in today’s Pub Quiz newsletter.

In addition to topics raised above, tonight expect questions on unbreakable records, showhorse senators, proper names, marathoners, the question of brotherhood, square predictions, drinks and beverages, post-revolutionaries, Good Friday, cell biology, Taiwan, gross domestic products, invisible walls, terminals, blood disorders, saviors, happy families, work days, exports and imports, rushing horses, international hitmakers, Stan Lee, crosshairs over Wisconsin, lovely lakes, hard math, acronyms, causes and effects of anxiety, numbers that define, departed birds, four-letter annoyances, fractions of control, aspiring geniuses, oversleeping hankies, tax revenues, the Forbes Global 500, and Shakespeare.

Our next poetry night takes place on February 7^th, and will feature UC Davis English Department professor Margaret Ronda, and the poet laureate emerita of Napa, Leonore Wilson. Mark your calendar now, and plan to join us at the Natsoulas Gallery that night at 8.

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Books and Authors. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, what best-selling poet in America died last week at the age of 83?
Current Events – Names in the News. Founded in Macon, Georgia, what airline’s foundation provided the grant needed to keep open Martin Luther King National Park?
Shakespeare. Least likely to be performed in high school, the title of Shakespeare’s bloodiest and most violent work starts with the letter T. What is it?

P.S. Do you know the work of essayist and novelist James Baldwin? This writing-centric introduction may intrigue you: https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/02/08/james-baldwin-advice-on-writing/.

P.P.S. Congratulations to our own John Lescroart, whose new novel The Rule of Law was named the top-selling legal thriller on Amazon last week.

The Day of Service Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on January 21, 2019

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Sometimes life is overwhelming, especially if you turn on the news. A local hero gives up her life so that we may all be safer on the streets of Davis. Teenagers in red baseball caps appear to be intimidating a Native American elder as he plays a drum at a protest. The President of the United States has no public activities scheduled on the holiday celebrating the legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Onetime Davis Mayor Robb Davis once told a crowd and me that in times of national turmoil, and in the face of acts of gun violence nearby and in faraway states, we must consider ways to invest in our communities, to act locally even when the causes and effects of what ails us are felt most profoundly in, say, North Carolina or Florida.

Some believe that Friends of the Earth founder David Brower first came up with the phrase “Think Globally, Act Locally,” but certainly the phrase has been widely and variously adopted since Brower’s days of environmental activism, starting at the Sierra Club in the 1940s. Whether our local acts entail tidying up the Arboretum, as I see volunteers do every Tuesday while biking to campus, or marching with others who are commemorating Martin Luther King Day, we are all given opportunities to contribute to our communities.

For example, this coming Wednesday I will be deploying my Quizmaster persona to support the Davis School for Independent Study, the local K-12 public school that fills an important niche for Davis parents who use home-schooling and independent study approaches to teach their children who have specific or relevant needs. Wednesday evening starting at 6 I will be hosting a Harry Potter trivia contest with 30 questions on a variety of Potter topics. Normally schools, clubs, and other organizations pay me for such a service, but the DSIS has no PTA or booster club, so if all the school’s students want to participate in an overnight field trip to Sutter’s Fort this spring, they will need some support from the community.

Here is the short press release found in a recent edition of the Davis Enterprise:

All Gryffindors, Slytherins, Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws are invited to participate in Harry Potter Trivia Night from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 23, at Davis School for Independent Study, 526 B St. in Davis.

Participants can enjoy the company of friends, a little sustenance and Andy Jones, trivia master, as he tests the teams’ knowledge of all things Harry Potter.

To sign up, create a team of a maximum of five people and come up with a name. Fill out a registration form, available in the front office at DSIS, and pay the $20 entry fee ($25 at the door). Checks may be made out to DSIS.

Costumes are welcome but are optional.

Pizza and drinks will be available for sale. Proceeds from the event will support the DSIS Sutter’s Fort field trip in the spring.

For more information, call DSIS at 530-757-5333 or visit https://dsis.djusd.net.

I’m glad the costume is optional. Maybe I will see you there Wednesday night? Even if you can’t join us, consider making a donation to a local public school that could use your help.

If you can’t wait until Wednesday for some communal fun, consider coming to the book release party for John Lescroart’s 29^th book, “The Rule of Law.” Everyone in Davis is invited to meet John Lescroart, who has been known to attend a Pub Quiz or two with his team of all-star players, tomorrow evening, Tuesday, January 22^nd, at 6:30 PM at Odd Fellows Hall, 415 Second Street in downtown Davis. Lescroart will provide refreshments and live music at the event at which he will be reading from his new Dismas Hardy book. Thanks to John for decades of great storytelling.

Finally, Facebook tells me that at least 95 people are going to a Natalie Corona Memorial Fund fundraiser this coming Saturday afternoon from 2-9PM at the Sudwerk Brewing Company. The legacy of Dr. King reminds us how senseless acts of violence can rip a community apart, but that each of us can take active steps to sew back up the fabric of that community, and communicate meaningfully to the better world in which we would all act locally to bring about.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will touch on some issues raised above, and also include questions about popular sporting events, NC superstars, best-selling musicians who nevertheless do not benefit from universal appeal, high school productions, best-selling authors, jazz, the wetness of water, jobless benefits, the largest city the people can think of at the moment, birthplaces of our heroes, good mornings, musical franchises, Planned Parenthood, original knights, people born in 1980, engineering, penitence, the relevant legacy of Franklin Pierce, reverence, the end of pertinence, long words, Oscar-winners, animated movies, spheres, models for some but not for all, J.K. Simmons, famous stitches, a couple questions that I haven’t written yet, and Shakespeare.

Enjoy the holiday. See you tonight!

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from a six-year old quiz:

Pop Culture – Music. What first great American songwriter wrote “O Susannah” and “My Old Kentucky Home”?
Sports. What single baseball player holds the career records for stolen bases and runs scored?
Science – Recognizable Dinosaurs. A distinctive double row of kite-shaped plates rose vertically along the rounded back of what kind of herbivore dinosaur?

P.S. I wrote a poem WHILE at a poetry reading yesterday. Check it out if you are interested: https://www.facebook.com/drandyevents/posts/2040188866095695?__tn__=K-R

The Keep Going with Natalie Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on January 14, 2019

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Thursday night Davis City Council member Lucas Frerichs sent me a message on Facebook indicating that we should “shelter in place.” He knew that my wife Kate and I were finishing dinner at de Vere’s Irish Pub before heading to a film at the Varsity. Four blocks away, a terrible crime had been committed. Two blocks away, the perpetrator had barricaded himself in his rental home. In addition to Facebook, we were scanning the Twitter feeds of local reporters for more information. Meanwhile, the Pub had been closed to incoming traffic, while we were invited to stay to finish our meals and our bottle of wine. Undone by the unfolding story, and unable to finish our meal, we boxed everything up, and, much later that night, ran for our car through the deserted streets of Davis.

The overnight news, the morning news, was almost too much to bear.

Friday evening, Kate and I went to the theatre, seeing House on Haunted Hill – The Comedy. Friends with a few of the actors, we watched the odd adaptation of the 1959 Vincent Price horror film with relish, remarking to each other that the old B Street Theatre would never have been able to pull off the ambitious sets and other stagecraft elements that were part of this new production at the multi-million-dollar Sofia Tsakopoulos Center for the Arts, a new highlight of the Sacramento cultural scene.

While we laughed with the audience and enjoyed watching our favorite member of the company, Dave Pierini, as he locked eyes with us while staying in character, the most striking element of the play came when an unexpected mishap occurred.

At one point, the oldest member of the seven-person cast, Greg Alexander, was coming down the grand staircase when his heel slipped, and he tumbled down about four stairs, coming down hard on his back and rear. We know Greg well from his having taught our son Truman acting classes, so we were immediately concerned, sure that this mishap was not a planned part of the evening’s entertainment.

Actress Tara Sissom, a veteran if improvisational comedy, approached Greg to see if he needed help, even though her character was in conflict with Greg’s character on stage. Greg stated simply, “I’m all right. Keep going,” so Tara picked up right where they left off, and they finished the scene together. Both Greg and Tara proved that evening that they are consummate professionals, unwilling to let an onstage injury from breaking their stride. As my theatre director father used to say, “The Show Must Go On.”

At the end of his life, my dad amended his truism: “All Shows Must Close.”

To take his extended metaphor, we must recognize that some shows close too early. Some shows have great promise, and are loved by the theatre community, but for unforeseen reasons, the show closes.

Saturday night at the candlelight vigil, I learned that officer Natalie Corona entered the Police Academy later than she had originally planned because she had hairline fractured her shins while undergoing the grueling physical training needed to protect and serve a population like ours. Corona could easily have chosen a less difficult profession, but as Natalie’s Aunt was quoted in a recent Sacramento Bee remembrance of the officer, Natalie responded, “I love my job, I am so happy.”

During her training, one can imagine Natalie’s interior voice using the same words as Greg Alexander: “I’m all right. Keep going.”

The people who knew and loved Natalie before her death admired her determination to serve as a police officer. Now thousands in Davis and beyond have taken note of her example, of her sacrifice, so that she could briefly work at a job that she loved.

Our hearts heavy with sorrow, as a community, we are not “all right.” Our communal spirit aches with the untimeliness, the unfairness of this loss. But like Greg Alexander, like Natalie Corona, we must determine how to keep going, despite the obstacles that are strewn before us. Winston Churchill is reported to have said, “When you are going thorough hell, keep going.” Natalie Corona seemed to have lived her life according to this principal, and now her sacrifice on the streets of Davis give us all a reason to test our ability, our willingness, to live by those words.

Tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on topics raised above, as well as the following: Heroes, prime ministers, ship captains, silent movies, short rounds, cities in Northern California, statues, newspaper headlines, siblings taken too early, winning and losing streaks, welcome guides, crowns, better than mediocre basses, apparatuses, California produce, the example of Denmark, Irish sunshine, Oscar-winners, calculus, alphabetical lists, magic words, big cities, chemical acts, staying free when solidly built, self-referentiality, red leather and yellow leather, angelic moves, African missionaries, the topics of a few questions I haven’t written yet, and Shakespeare.

Emily Hughes will be the featured poet at Poetry Night Thursday at the Natsoulas Gallery. Join us that night at 8 for the fun!

See you this evening.

Your Quizmaster