Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

As a child charged with attending to the front walk at 2454 Tunlaw Road in the Glover Park neighborhood of Washington, DC, I found myself using our powerful hose to “carve out” the grout of moss that had grown between the bricks of our front stoop. This activity was not particularly productive, but it did give me something to do when the air conditioner was not doing its job. One August the Washington Post referred to the meteorological conditions in DC as “a deep plume of tropical moisture.” That seemed accurate.

I knew Henry Rollins by reputation – he was a friend of the nearby MacKayes – but I didn’t know he shared such insights about DC humidity. He once wrote, “August used to be a sad month for me. As the days went on, the thought of school starting weighed heavily upon my young frame. That, coupled with the oppressive heat and humidity of my native Washington, D.C., only seemed to heighten the misery.”

In this way, the weather of DC is almost the opposite of that of arid Davis, a place where our one creek diminishes in water over the course of the long dry season. Most of our responsible neighbors have opted for xeriscape.

All that said, this misty morning as I was walking our dog Margo, I delighted to encounter actual moss in our driveway. I thought of DC, and of a poetic representation of at least one of the 12,000 varieties of Bryophyta. In a poem titled “Moss,” Bruce Guernsey called it “that slipcover of rocks” that is “longing for north” “in a dank place / and never a cough.”

Late December finds many of us “longing for north,” and for northern imagery of the winter solstice and other holidays. Soon I will be joining you in longing for something else: the Pub Quiz itself, for we are taking a seasonal break this month.  Next Monday is Christmas Eve, and the following Monday is New Year’s Eve. We and the employees at de Vere’s will be gathering around disparate tables, celebrating with uncustomary friends and family.

In case you will find yourself missing our Monday talk of trivia, and in case you are missing presents for some of the people on your list, I will be bringing with me tonight copies of my most recent book, Pub Quizzes: Trivia for Smart People. You could buy a copy from Amazon, but if you get a signed copy from me this evening, I will throw in a first-edition copy of my second book, Where’s Jukie? In addition to my poetry, it contains poignant essays by my wife Kate. A future edition may contain the touching essay that she published on her blog last week. Bring your 20 dollar bills tonight, and your friends, for our last pub quiz of 2018. We will return with regular offerings on January 7^th.

In addition to topics raised above, tonight expect questions on hearty creatures, Pittsburgh, the lost who are found, 40-year waits, fish, mid-west stalwarts, protection during war, emergency exclamations, coveted holiday gifts, popular ladies, medical devices, pilgrims, lunar missions, polls, radium, prominent pre-Christian birthdays, sampled Police, Oscar-winners, Urban dictionary, Mr. Rogers, oddball consumerist lyrics that might appeal to one’s brother, acoustics, spirituality in America, holiday beasts, demonyms, Russian rankings, Euro millionaires, hyphens, experts surveyed by National Public Radio, quintessence, subscribers, obese algae, and Shakespeare.

Thursday night at 8 we will welcome Chris Erickson as our featured performer at Poetry Night at the Natsoulas Gallery. Here’s what he says about the show: “Have you ever noticed that Christmas is the most wonderful time of year? Well, time to put the CHRIS back in Christmas! Chris Erickson’s holiday program promises to be old-fashioned, heartwarming, and soul-saving. He will, in fact, invoke the spirit of the Christmas holiday using performance of original literature pieces old & new, songs, and dance. The fires of enthusiasm are being enkindled throughout the entire state. Get your hat and come!”

See you tonight!

Your Quizmaster
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Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:
 

1. Mottos and Slogans.  A Utah concrete company changed one letter in a famous slogan that it plagiarized from Avis Car Rental. What was the new slogan? 
2. Internet Culture: Four-Letter Answers. What 3D computer graphics software named after the Sanskrit word for illusion is used to create video games, animated film, and visual effects? 
3. Newspaper Headlines. What color are the vests worn by protesters on the streets of Paris recently? 

P.S. Happy holidays!

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Once my gutsy friend Bob was taking a midterm exam in his Eastern Religions class. Although he was well-prepared to answer all the questions, after a moment of contemplation, he wrote only the following:

“Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.” Lao Tzu, Tao Teh Ching

And then he submitted his exam. He earned a B.

Was it deserved?

Thanks for the inspiration, Bob.

 

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on the following topics: concrete in Utah, the second-best, approaches to making change, Davis trailblazers, happy spouses, outsiders, ambulances, unlikely winners, exposed data, famous archers, unexpected eggs, Oscar Wilde, genetics, proud counties, unwelcome allies, Sanskrit, angry costumes, Santa Claus, forgettable Greeks, forgettable kings, alternatives to English, famous bands, attention getters, cinematic history, administrations, American cities, downtown Davis, humility, KDVS, folk music, famous novelists, regrettable losses, and Shakespeare.

I hope you can join us at 7. I hear the Hall of Fame team The Penetrators will be reconvening at de Vere’s this evening.

Your Quizmaster

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Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Current Events – Names in the News.     What thrice-Academy Award nominated minimalist composer was honored at the Kennedy Center Awards last night?  
2. Sports.  Mike McCarthy was fired by what NFL football team over the weekend?  
3. Shakespeare.   The title character of what Shakespeare history play King Henry V of England led his troops into battle and participated in hand-to-hand fighting at the Battle of Agincourt in the year 1415?  

 

P.S. “I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter.” (Letter 16, 1657) Blaise Pascal, The Provincial Letters

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Kate and Truman have a post-Thanksgiving Day tradition of assembling and decorating our Christmas tree while listening to and half-watching both Miracle on 34th Streetand Elf. In our home, Christmas ornaments are the family antiques that are both hearty and, as they brighten our home, periodically useful.

The two films suggest that Christmas togetherness can be had despite the obvious obstacles presented by New York City: people living in small apartments or enduring long commutes to faraway suburban homes, the widespread capitulation to crass corporate culture, the gruff and cynical exterior of the city’s secretly lovable citizens, and those citizens’ lack of interest or belief in magic of any sort, despite what F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby calls “the racy, adventurous feel of [New York City] at night.” Part of the success of the stories of both Miracle on 34th Streetand Elfis made possible by people who still believe in the magic of Santa Claus and who must convince others that Christmas spirit is still possible and actionable in an otherwise bleak world.

In Davis, California, I feel that obstacles to togetherness and joy are actually coming down. This week the air quality has improved dramatically, meaning that the widespread self-enforced quarantine could be broken at the same moment that the storm-clouds were breaking over Yolo County. With hope that the precipitation has provided relief to the heroic firefighters battling record-setting blazes in Butte County, in our family, we took a break from our earlier film festival (Dead Poets Society, Mr. Holland’s Opus, and Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid), and stepped out into our front yard and looked to the heavens with gratitude.

For some, the break in the smoke meant an opportunity to return to the gem of Davis, the UC Davis Arboretum. Having experienced rain for the first time early Thursday morning, our new French bulldog puppy Margot subsequently took her longest trip in the “puppy bjorn” (a carrier that looped over Kate’s shoulder during the 3.5-mile Arboretum loop), as well as our dog’s longest-ever walk. At the beginning of the voyage, she was shaking in anticipation and fear at the novelty of the new experience (still getting her vaccinations, she has yet to meet another Davis dog), but by the end of the trip, she was pulling at the leash, showing energy and perseverance that are uncustomary for a small lap dog.

Still recovering from our trip to the Arboretum, the next afternoon Margot spent a couple hours sleeping on my outstretched legs while Kate and Truman did all the decorating work, and I took a nap that was long enough to threaten that night’s sleep. Except to bring the decorations in from the garage and to walk the dog, we didn’t leave the house today Friday. Reflecting on our day of enjoying leftovers, favorite holiday films, and each other’s company, I consider this the best possible boycott of Black Friday.

We hope you, too, have been enjoying the fresh air and time with family over the Thanksgiving break. Now, let’s welcome back Monday with gusto, and get to work!

In addition to topics raised above and in last week’s newsletter, tonight expect questions about American movies, late-night TV show writers, numbers of relatives, director pairs, superheroes, Christian singer-actresses, war narratives, tequila, again with the France, returning opponents, hilltops, bond-trading, unwelcome third parties, notable Midwest scientists, Soviet jumps, birds, Irish-Americans, continental pairings of letters, Oscar-winning movies, insurance, holidays, villainous voice actors, escalations of soy at a local restaurant, alarm clocks, door signs, redheads, U.S. Senators, cellos, tugboats, favorite novels, U.S. presidents, Paul Simon, Hawaii, flowers, sharpshooters, automobile culture, and Shakespeare. I hope these hints help.

Our next Poetry Night is December 6^th, and will feature the poet and novelist Mary Mackey, author of more than 20 books. Details on that later. For today, just focus on clearing your schedule for 7 o’clock tonight so that you can join us for the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz!

 

Your Quizmaster

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Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

 

1. Chess. The world chess champion and the primary challenger both have last names that start with the same three letters that make a common English word. What are those letters? 
2. Science.  What do we call the field of mechanics that deals with the launching, flight, behavior, and effects of projectiles?  
3. Books and Authors. British poet John Milton was born and died in the same century that is considered to be the Dutch Golden Age. Name the century. 

 

P.S. “You may have heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There’s another day you might want to know about: Giving Tuesday. The idea is pretty straightforward. On the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, shoppers take a break from their gift-buying and donate what they can to charity.” Bill Gates

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Our new French Bulldog puppy Margot is a remarkable creature. At three and a half months old, she is younger than many of the babies whom my wife Kate supports at her new parent support group at Mother and Baby Source Wednesday mornings. Nevertheless, Margot is a fast learner and a faster sprinter, despite her small size.

The Buddhist term “Ayatana” refers to the “sense-base” of all sentient creatures, and could be better understood by people who don’t speak the Middle Indo-Aryan language Pali as the five senses, only Buddhists add a sixth sense of the mind which perceives mental objects. Awakening to one’s sense impressions is an important part of being alive, the Buddha suggested. Keeping this perspective in mind, I’ve noticed Margot’s seemingly active and perceptive sense-base, as evidenced by our frequent trips to the front yard.

For example, at some point someone dropped a bit of orange peel in our grass, and it might have remained there for years had our perceptive hound not smelled it and brought it out to play with, tossing it high (for her) and then rooting it out again, despite not having a proper snout for rooting. Margot would have smelled so much more during this last week if we had let her spend more time in the unhealthy air, which even we can smell every time we step outside with her.

Margot loves to taste everything, from the roots of the birch tree that to her resemble chewy bones, to her pink leash when she wants to play, to our fingers when she wants to kiss us a bit too aggressively. We, in turn, activate her taste buds by rewarding her for treats when her training regimen warrants it. She has an appetite for life.

Sometimes Margot just plops on her back and rolls, sometimes entangling herself in her leash as she rolls. Like many dogs, Margot approximates a smile when on her back, responding to the pleasing touch of having her belly rubbed. At such time, her pants resemble giggles.

We know her eyes work well, for she spots neighbors walking their own dogs a block or more away. If she had a tail, Margot would wag it at the sight of such neighbors, for often they can’t resist dropping by to become reacquainted. We look forward to introducing Margot to a dog park after the vet administers the last of her vaccinations tomorrow. At the park our pup will see eye to shoulder with a great number of new friends.

Mostly, Margot hears. French bulldogs have enormous bat-like ears that allow her to approach her sensory world like the Stan Lee-created 1960s hero Daredevil, the fearless crimefighter whose heightened senses function almost like radar. Margot immediately heard and tried to make sense of the low surf-like roar of nearby I-80, she froze when a train went by on the other side of town, and she is under the impression that all birds are speaking only to her. Habitually, we rush through life, unaware even of our own perceptions. A creature like Margot can force us to slow, to stop, and to notice.

Scott Fitzgerald once wrote that “The exhilarating ripple of her voice was a wild tonic in the rain.” I feel that way about my wife Kate’s voice, and our huge-eared adorable puppy Margot seems to feel that way about the entire tiny world of our cul-de-sac in south Davis. Like a child with his first radio, or his first stethoscope, I look forward to discovering what new sense experiences await me as I follow the leash and the lead of our delightful new hearing-ear dog, Margot.

 

Tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on some of the topics raised above, as well as on the following: German expressionism enmeshed in American history, notable roles, questions of flight, the relative truth of con artists, enmeshments in the contemporary, butterflies, states such as Maryland and Texas, pliability as a humorous and repeated synonym for flexibility, famous storms, W. E. B. Du Bois, a poet’s century, mechanics, misunderstandings, automobiles with funny names, crowded places with no beaches, wrestlers in Hollywood, impressive books, logical names, what we can become, Billy Joel songs, soft fabrics, French words that English-speakers have adopted, ants, demonic operas, delicate things, comedic actors, notable spirits, birds, boy scouts, silicates, highly-regarded athletes, the locations of our hopes, your server’s plans for Thanksgiving, features that are actually bugs, and Shakespeare.

I hope you enjoy an opportunity to slow down with family this coming Thursday. I also hope we all can take an opportunity to breathe deeply, as we will do soon because of the expensive new air filter we just bought for the home. Rather than a dog or the smoky air, we look forward to smelling Kate’s delightful cooking.

If you are traveling, travel safely. Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Your Quizmaster

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Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

 

1. New York Rappers Who Were Born Outside the U.S.    What New York rapper became the first female artist in any genre to have 100 entries on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart?  
2. Science.  What does the Scoville Heat Unit Scale measure?  
3. Books and Authors.   Hans Christian Andersen, writer of the fairy tales Thumbelina, The Snow Queen, and The Emperor’s New Clothes, was born in what country?  

 

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Looking across the crowd braving the thick and smoky air at yesterday’s Veterans Day ceremony at the Davis Cemetery and Arboretum, I remarked to myself that we haven’t many World War II veterans left, the numbers having dwindled even since I first started performing poems at such ceremonies about five years ago. These heroes who fought the Nazis of yesteryear inevitably remind me of my late Uncle Chuck, perhaps one of the youngest World War II-era vets who did not lie about his age to enlist early. Chuck was a boxer and a sailor back then, and later a gentle photographer and the father to three of my favorite cousins.

We lost another even more notable World War II veteran today in Stan Lee, who has just passed away at age 95. Lee created innumerable characters that we know from the movies, even if we never picked up a comic book, as I did often in the 1970s and 1980s. Lee enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942, serving first in the Signal Corps, and then later as a U.S. Army playwright. If my dad had known such a designation was available to him, he might have joined the army during the Korean War, even though he was a Quaker.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Lee created and co-created many featured characters who have been breaking box office records in the last decade, including the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, the X-Men, Daredevil, Dr. Strange, Black Panther, and Spider-Man. Has any other American created so many iconic heroes? Considering especially the panoply of flawed heroes he invented for our amusement, I might even argue that Stan Lee was the Shakespeare of American popular culture, even if Lee was somewhat less ambitious with his language.

Luckily, Lee was a productive creator for decades, having been thanked in 2006 for his 65 years of work for the same company. That will trump even my eventual number of years teaching at UC Davis! Stan Lee’s 2015 memoir was titled Amazing, Fantastic, Incredible. I couldn’t agree more. Thanks to Stan Lee and to all American veterans who have contributed so significantly and inspiringly to American life and culture. They deserve our deep and foul-weather respect and thanks, without regard to the threats provided by winds, smoke, or rain.

 

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will be spiced with international flavor, in recognition of International Education Week at UC Davis. Don’t be daunted, though, for there will still be plenty of questions about films and musicians with whom you are certainly familiar. In addition to topics raise above, expect also questions about captains, anagrams with all the instances of the letter N removed, law school nightmares, esteemed swashbucklers, new holidays, spread slogans, shamanism, doomed relationships, congresses, delightful narratives, spicy food, German expressionism, balloons, piano accomplishments, doctors who also act, people from New York, long rivers, national drinks, kabuki, French ale societies, music genres, unusual reflections, spiritual leaders, adventuring imperatives, liaisons, the summer Olympics, people named Marion, non-royalty, dumplings, and Shakespeare.

Please join us tonight, and join me in raising a toast, high, to Stan Lee. Excelsior!

 

Your Quizmaster

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yourquizmaster@gmail.com 

 

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

 

1. Books & Authors. On which of his birthdays did Harry Potter discover his magical heritage?  
2. Sports.  What NFC North team plays its home games at U.S. Bank Stadium?  
3. Shakespeare.   In Henry IV, Part II, who says “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown”?  

 

P.S. The performance poet Brandon Leake performs in Davis this coming Thursday night at 8 at the Natsoulas Gallery! You should join us.

 

P.P.S. “Nevermore shall men make slaves of others! Not in Asgard–not on Earth–not any place where the hammer of Thor can be swung–or where men of good faith hold freedom dear!” Stan Lee

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

 

Sometimes when I have no time to write a proper newsletter, I express silent gratitude that I had just written a poem, such as this one celebrating my wife Kate’s birthday taking place on the same day that we set our clocks back an hour. Here it is:

 

Falling Back – A birthday poem for Kate

 

“People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.”

Leonardo da Vinci

 

The 80s dancing, the 90s rollerblades,

the uncountable stairs, the hip-carried children:

when your overtaxed knees finally give way,

Beauty, fall back into my waiting arms.

 

When facing the three-alarm night shift

with the new French bulldog pup,

fall back into our bed, leaving to me

the couch and bonding time with Margot.

 

When the tooth marks are numerous

and fresh, and too many decisions loom,

fall back into the ever-ready arms

of the reserved stadium cinema seating,

the cupholder holding as many illicit liquids

as can be surreptitiously smuggled.

 

When the parents are hungry for late breakfast,

fall back into the delicious old habit:

your cherry tomato spinach tofu scramble,

with olive oil and six other vegetables.

 

Every night, whether we have one

fewer spring hour together before dawn,

or the November 4^th overnight Kate’s

birthday clock has (bonus!) fallen back,

back up incrementally until you sense

my breath, my warmth, and then,

 

inch the light, the heat, of your closed

eyes towards me an inch or two more,

even onto my welcoming pillow, so that,

after a kiss, we may fall back to sleep together.

 

 

I don’t even think that quotation is by Da Vinci. Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on the following topics: Words that rhyme with “jubilation,” countries that end in vowels, the problem with neutrality, buffalos, uneasy lies, marauders, stocks and bonds, magical discoveries, moon similarities, countries with rich traditions, daredevil hummers, uses for wine, city numbers, Oscar-winning actresses, hot places, Greek letters, useful skills, lovely dogs, people you didn’t know were named David, broken rhymes, sore necks, popular hosts, voting day, deprivations, unusual oceans, rivers and streams, classical music, unusually-named spices, questions of sleep, American states, the absence of unsent wires, and Shakespeare.

 

Spoken Word Artist Brandon Leake is coming to Davis on November 15^th. Perhaps you will join us at Poetry Night? Either way, join us tonight. See you soon!

 

Your Quizmaster

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Here are three questions from an October, 2013 quiz:

 

1. Great Americans Who Had Our Attention in 1872.  Who was the first African American nominated for Vice President of the United States as the running mate of Victoria Woodhull? 
2. Unusual Words. Named after an early Greek sea god, what P word is a synonym of the word “changeable”? 
3. Weights and Measurements. How many teaspoons are there in a tablespoon? 

 

 

P.S. Happy Birthday, Kate! I hope you are enjoying the new puppy!

 

P.P.S. “Sleep’s what we need. It produces an emptiness in us into which sooner or later energies flow.” John Cage

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Joseph Campbell called a hero “someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.”  Some of the people in the public eye these days see nothing as bigger than themselves, so they see no need for heroism. As Irish poet William Butler Yeats famously put it in his poem “The Second Coming,” “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.”

I was talking with my sons about heroes for three reasons this past weekend. First, we desperately need some heroes. “Amoral pranksters” and others invent conspiracy theories that are picked up and shared by media outlets that are widely-watched, especially in the White House. The decision today to send 5,200 U.S. troops to our southern border suggests (to me) the lack of moral leadership in the three branches of the federal government. If you need another example, Justice Kavanaugh was recently “Hailed as a Hero” when he visited his high school alma mater, Georgetown Prep. Meanwhile, some people are removing “Georgetown Prep” from their LinkedIn pages.

The second reason was our discussion of the response of UC Davis Chancellor Gary May to the awful hate crime in Pittsburgh, which the Anti-Defamation League called “the deadliest attack on Jews in American history.” I did not hear inspiring or unifying words in response to this attack from Washington (except for from President Obama), but I thought May struck the right tone, while also alluding to the pipe bombs sent to former presidents and other media and political figures, saying, “UC Davis is a diverse community comprised of individuals having many perspectives and identities. As I’ve had to state too often recently, intolerance of others is abhorrent. Hate cannot and will not win.” As we drove past the Chancellor’s residence on 5^th Street yesterday, I reminded my son Truman that one can still find heroes, but often one must look in one’s own community.

Finally, we’ve been thinking about heroes because we’ve been thinking about puppy names. For a while, we imagined that our new French Bulldog puppy would be named “Ellie,” short for Eleanor Roosevelt Jones. When we picked her up (in Weed, California, of all places), we weren’t convinced that she looked like an Ellie. Eventually, after throwing around the names of a great number of female heroes, we decided on Margo/Margot, named after Margo Jones, the stage director who launched the regional theatre movement here in the U.S. One of my biggest heroes, my late father, Davey Marlin-Jones, won the Margo Jones Award for the advancement of American theatre in 1968, so we also honor him by choosing Margo/Margot Blue Jones for the name of our new dog.

When she’s old enough, we will bring her for some patio meals at de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis, California, a city full of quiet heroes.

In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions about shrieks and squeals, movie characters, robots, battle noises, average point differentials, Nobel Prize nominees, fearsome creatures, outrageous salaries, joyful tunes, geometry, Frankenstein, people named Claire, immaturity, shadow warriors, insurance salesmen, guitarists, notable Brits, heroes and villains, knives, Sonny and Cher, exciting annoyances, anti-Henrys, an atom that can make a difference, current leaders, apologies, saboteurs with vegetarian diets, New York mayors, fish, prickly spines, fewer likes, worldwide automation, current events, bankers, musical anagrams, repeated phrases, and Shakespeare.

 

Your Quizmaster

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yourquizmaster@gmail.com

 

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Name the Decade. Charles Ingalls of Little House on the Prairie fame and game developer Milton Bradley were both born the same year as the Battle of the Alamo and the death of Betsy Ross. Name the decade.     
2. Science: Astronomy.  What S-word fills in the blank in this astronomical sentence? “The Crab Nebula was the first astronomical object identified with a historical BLANK explosion.”  
3. Books and Authors.   Stephen Chbosky wrote a coming-of-age novel titled The Perks of Being a WHAT?  

 

P.S. Speaking of heroes, thanks to EVAN WHITE, the good friend who drove Kate all the way to Weed to pick up our new dog. His name is EVAN. Also, Poetry Night is Thursday at the Natsoulas Gallery. Also, the dog is the reason the newsletter is so late.

 

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Hello! My favorite scene from the 1986 film Crocodile Dundee features the title character walking down a New York City street for the first time, and greeting every single person he encounters, just as he would in the Australian Outback. I tried this when walking around Washington DC this past May, with similar (non-responsive) results. In Los Angeles earlier this month, I asked my sister-in-law if my brother Oliver would also greet people he met on the street, and she said she thought he did that because of his training as a reporter. Also a journalist, my dad, who was legally blind during much the time we lived in DC, would not engage with strangers unless they called out to him first, which they often did.

This morning as I was biking to meet my wife Kate and her dad and stepmom for breakfast, someone waved to me as she made a left turn in front of me in her car. Was she signaling her thanks for my pausing, as I do, so she could make her turn, or did she recognize me, and thus offer a friendly greeting to someone she knows? I don’t know, but these days I do make a habit of greeting people I see in cars as well as those I encounter on bicycle.

I used to have a rule that when I was out walking, I would only greet women walking alone when I was A) with one or more of my children, or B) wearing a tie, as I do on teaching days. I didn’t want anyone to be made to feel uncomfortable, or feel that I was hitting on them. Now I just have a rule that I bike almost everywhere, and that I greet just about everyone, even though I travel fast enough not to know if they respond. Once I heard my youngest son explain to my oldest son that “Daddy does that because he wants everyone to know that Davis is a friendly town.”

At the Pub Quiz, I again greet everyone while I am making my rounds. Even when surprised people get up to go soon after the Pub Quiz starts (so much noise!), I still thank them for coming into the pub that evening, as if it were my restaurant. As the Buddha said, “Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.” Strangers on the street may know nothing of our generosity or lives of service, but each of them may receive the kind word if you remember to offer it.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on topics raised above, and on the following: Japanese words, herbivores, relative circulation, distilled spirits, childhood and boyhood, calculators, popular dishes, inventors, snow people, the Maryland county of Charles County, English-speakers, newspaper headlines, Frenchmen, the rent, Hasbro toys, title colors, sports talk, Ronald Reagan, notable kings, greenbacks, mottos and slogans, The World Series, the cost of cows, flowers for eating, flowers for growing, astronomy, playful developers, founding mothers, horror movies, privatization, the farmers’ almanac, and Shakespeare.

Join us for the fun this evening. Your team needs your insight, your memory, and your generous spirit!

Your Quizmaster
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Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:
 

1. Books and Authors.   What ancient Roman poet of the Augustan era wrote the epic titled The Aeneid?  Hint: His birthday is October 15^th.

 

2. Film.   Dakota Johnson’s mom was nominated for an Academy Award for her work in the film Working Girl. What is her name?  Hint: Once she was known for her famous mom, and perhaps now for her famous daughter.

 

3. Irish Culture. According to the 1993 study 1993 “Biogeography of Ireland: past, present and future,” how many extant mammal species are native to Ireland? None, two, 26, or 260.  

P.S. Do you know the story of the two wolves?

 “A fight is going on inside me,” said an old man to his son. 

“It is a terrible fight between two wolves. One wolf is evil. He is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. 

The other wolf is good. He is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. The same fight is going on inside you.”

The son thought about it for a minute and then asked, “Which wolf will win?”

The old man replied simply, “The one you feed.”