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

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Internet Culture. What does the acronym IoT stand for, where the O is lower case?

Feeling Prideful. In what year did the United States Supreme Court rule in that state-level bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional?

Pop Culture – Music. What is the mononym of the rapper and actor who had a role in the film for which he won an Academy Award for Best Song, titled “Glory”?

P.S. Poetry Night this coming Thursday features Lawrence Dinkins, one of my favorite Sacramento poets. He will be taking a train to Davis to perform for you, but only if you show up to the John Natsoulas Gallery on June 1 at 8!

The Viral Snark Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on May 22, 2017

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

In his film To Rome With Love, Woody Allen presents a vignette about an Italian clerk named Leopoldo who wakes to find himself inexplicably famous, with paparazzi tracking his movements on the streets of Rome, and reporters asking what he had had for breakfast.

I had this film in mind Friday afternoon when one of my tweets about that day’s Trump administration scandal (this once concerning Jared Kushner being named a person of interest in a criminal investigation by the FBI) started to go viral. For some reason, dozens of people I didn’t know were liking my insight, and others were retweeting me, including actual celebrities such as Bill Prady, co-creator and producer of The Big Bang Theory.

When I got home Friday, people on Facebook and via Twitter message had alerted me as to what was going on. My 25-word tweet had been shared in the lead article on the top story by British newspaper The Independent, and thus I was drawing a lot of attention from both people who agreed with me (more than 375 retweets and more than 600 likes) and people who objected. When I asked “Who’s the nut job now?” some of the more than 40 people who responded to the tweet answered that in fact I was the nut job. People throughout Davis will agree.

It is not too late for you to comment upon or object to my tweeted snark. Find out more at https://twitter.com/andyojones/status/865680298939367424, and if you would like to see the original article in The Independent, please visit http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/jared-kushner-russia-investigation-trump-song-in-law-probe-person-interest-a7745916.html.

Now I am left to wonder if the number of people who saw that tweet — more than 32,000 people – will forever trump the number of people who see every poem I publish in every media over the course of my lifetime. If you have a Twitter account, remember that you can follow Your Quizmaster at http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster, and that you can follow Dr. Andy, snarky commentator, at http://www.twitter.com/andyojones.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on the topics you have come to expect, as well as the following: Closed theatres, unclose elections, Tenleytown, Kings of Brooklyn, paychecks, elections, rushed scientists, organ binders, exalted songs, seats, poets named Michael, public playhouses, prominent scientists, questions of Christianity, enthusiasm, where we love, small hills and tall, larceny, estimated revenues, temporary appetite, software, rainfall drinks, DNA, three dimes, Emmy winners, video games, the jobs of notable people, the music of the spheres, beer blanks, Italian heroes, baseball, collateral, the internet, and Shakespeare.

I hope you can join us this evening. I will ask the staff to monitor temperatures in the Pub tonight. Your comfort is our priority. See you at 7!

Dr. Andy

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Books and Authors. Author Maya Angelou was born the same year that the book The House at Pooh Corner introduced us to Tigger. Name the decade.

Sports. For what NFL team is two-time league MVP Aaron Rodgers the quarterback?

Shakespeare. Which of the following is closest to the number of lines that are spoken by court jester Yorick in the play Hamlet? 0, 10, 100, or 1000?

P.S. Poetry Night is coming up on June 1!

The My Daughter Needs a Summer Job Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on May 15, 2017

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Happy Mother’s Day! Just as a grocery store near a hospital knows to stock ample flowers for people who wish to bring a gift during visiting hours, so do Whole Earth Festival retailers know to stock extra earrings before traveling to Davis for Mother’s Day Weekend. I bought Kate some gorgeous purple recycled glass earrings from aan artisan jeweler named Maggie George.

May 15^th is also important in the echoing recesses of my poetry-reciting subconscious for my favorite stanza, stanza five, of my favorite ode, John Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale.” Here’s the stanza:

I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,

Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,

But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet

Wherewith the seasonable month endows

The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;

White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;

Fast fading violets cover’d up in leaves;

And mid-May’s eldest child,

The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,

The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.

Writing this newsletter on Sunday evening, I find it difficult to maintain the delightful enjambed rhythm of Keats perfect lines while enduring the aggressive grunge in the café speakers above my head. Luckily, I once memorized these (and the rest of the) lines of Keats’ ode while walking though Boston and Cambridge about 30 years ago. Just as some things cannot be unseen, some things remain in our memories, ready to be called up for poetic emergencies, or for pub quizzes and newsletters that must be written when the café WiFi fails, as was the case this time. It’s always something.

In addition to grading essays, preparing entertainments for my pub-crawling friends, and checking in on my convalescing wife Kate, I also have to consider strategies for finding summer employment for my freshman daughter, home Friday from her first year at the oldest college in Wisconsin. If you have suggestions or a position for a peanut-allergic liberal arts student with excellent writing, teaching, and art-studio skills, please drop me a line. I know that she doesn’t want to be stuck writing Pub Quiz questions all summer.

In addition to issues raised above, tonight expect questions about the following topics: the Russians, geography, cyber politics, American states, Quinnipiac polls, dreams, punctuation, people who first needed help, jesters, Wisconsin, inaugurations, famous corners, cells that eventually differentiate, big prizes, Canada, film geography, the Russians, symbolic flowers, lead singers, hymns, mothers, the Russians, varieties of okra in Oklahoma, Lil Wayne, boats, surviving crewmates, comparisons to Watergate, astronomy, Serbs and Croats coming together, party time, and Shakespeare.

If you recruit a brand new Pub Quiz team of four or more all first-time players to join us this evening, I will arrange for them to dine on some delightful and complimentary pub chips. You could also tell them Poetry Night is Thursday.

See you this evening!

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Countries of the World. Katmandu is the capital of what country?

Star Wars. Starting with the letter D, to what planet does Yoda flee during his self-exile?

Science. Of the two large bones in the human forearm, one is the radius. What is the other?

P.S. The founder of Copper Canyon Press, William O’Daly, will be our featured poet at Poetry Night Thursday at the John Natsoulas Gallery. O’Daly is also the foremost translator of Pablo Neruda’s (adorable pun!) late poetry. We start at 8, and you are invited. Here are the details:

The Poetry Reading Series is proud to feature the poet, essayist, and novelist William O’Daly on Thursday, May 18^th at 8 P.M. Opening for O’Daly will be widely-published poet and fiction writer Madeline Gobbo. They will be performing at the John Natsoulas Gallery at 521 1^st Street in Davis.

William O’Daly is a poet, essayist, novelist, professor, editor, and translator whose work has been widely published and honored. His novel, This Earthly Life, was selected as a finalist in Narrative magazine’s 2009 Fall Story Contest. O’Daly was also selected as a finalist for the 2006 Quill Award in Poetry. His other published works include the poetry chapbook The Whale in the Web, The Road to Isla Negra, and eight books of translations of the poetry of Pablo Neruda. A longtime proponent of creativity and literary excellence, William O’Daly is the co-founder of Copper Canyon Press.

Madeline Gobbo is a poet, fiction writer, and widely-acclaimed artist and illustrator. Originally from Hood River, Oregon, Gobbo has worked recently as the store artist at The Booksmith in San Francisco. Her stories have appeared in Queen Mob’s Teahouse and Black Candies: Gross and Unlikeable, for which she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is the illustrator of Loose Lips, an anthology of erotic fanfiction, and her collaborative fiction with Miles Klee has appeared in Joyland, Hexus, Another Chicago, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.
An open mic will follow the readings by our featured poets. Please bring your poems, short stories, and songs. Participants will be asked to limit their performances to five minutes or two items, whichever is shorter. The Poetry Night Reading Series is hosted by Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate of Davis, and is run by his assiduous army of interns.

Upcoming Poets include Wendy Williams, Indigo Moor, and Mary Moore.

The Herminio the Hero Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on May 8, 2017

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

This morning my wife and I met with the man who last month saved her life. An accomplished surgeon, the man in question is exceedingly humble, thanking Kate repeatedly for letting him serve her by removing her ruptured appendix. Dr. Herminio Ojeda of Sutter Davis Hospital is a personal hero of mine. Kate spent a week in the hospital, having come home this past Tuesday, and is now resting comfortably. She has been forbidden from lifting anything over 15 lbs, including our children.

On the same day that she came home from the hospital, our beloved Auntie Merlyn passed away. Merlyn Potters was a longtime staff employee at UC Davis, a mother and grandmother, a friend and an artist. She knew the work of my Dad and step-mom from her days in Las Vegas (where my Dad taught at UNLV and my step-mother was a DJ at KNPR), so Merlyn and I had many long conversations about family and other topics. She was also unaccountably devoted to our daughter Geneva, born just a couple days before Merlyn’s granddaughter, Haley. Never before had Kate or I met someone who was so instantly in love with a tiny baby, a love for and obsession with Geneva that we heartily shared. Merlyn will long be loved and missed, for she brightened the worlds of everyone who had the pleasure to know her.

Treasure and hug the people who are close to you.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on the following topics: Getting in trouble for what you like, European leaders, people named Nancy, knives, welcoming guests to America, big boxes, histories, executive advice, spooky bonnets, bones, exile, world capitals, buddy films, library science, American cities, opera, mendacity, games of chance, metrics, Palin imitations, Chinese trees, the Joshua who did not fit the battle of Jericho, church sayings, the down under, and Shakespeare. I haven’t yet written the anagram question.

I hope you can join us tonight. I sat outside at the Pub twice this past weekend, and found it to be refreshing and lovely. All of us should try to spend more time outside doing the things we love.

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Unusual Words for X-rays that take detailed pictures of structures inside a patient’s body. The C in CT scan stands for “Computed.” What does the T stand for?

British History. With a two-decade margin of error, in what year was slavery abolished throughout the majority of the British Empire?

Pop Culture – Television. As announced this morning, who is Kelly Ripa’s new co-host on her TV show Live?

P.S. Happy Birthday to the late Davey Marlin-Jones!

The IV-Dripping with Gratitude Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on May 2, 2017

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

The Pub Quiz is ready for tonight, and the Quizmaster himself is filled with gratitude. Here are a few of my favorite gratitude quotations:

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” Marcel Proust

“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.” Thich Nhat Hanh

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorns have roses.” Alphonse Karr

“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.” Maya Angelou

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.” Marcus Tullius Cicero

“Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.” Voltaire

Tonight’s quiz will include questions on the following topics: tennis, tall pinnacles, attempted unseatings, small couriers, elegant sorrow, electronics, vast educated expanses, peas, flaps, nuisances, not lions, chanteurs, concrete roses, lightnesses, springtime, opera (finally!), tilted axes, an untold dirtiness, humility, slavery, x-rays, complex molecules, DNA, Venice, Oh Clark, U.S. presidents, foolish adverbs, T words, British honor returned, and a couple other topics that are yet to be determined.

I look forward to benefiting from all the community and camaraderie that you can muster this evening. See you at 7!

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Science. We use what T word for a large, herbivorous mammal, shaped like a pig, with a short, prehensile snout?

Books and Authors. The author of the best-selling book on Amazon.com is a British novelist born with the name of Erika Mitchell. What is her pen name?

Current Events – Names in the News. What notable musician, upon having been asked if he then still lived in Minnesota, responded, “I live inside my own heart, Matt Damon”?

P.S. Thanks to everyone who donated during the KDVS Fundraiser! With your help, we raised over $800 for the station during the hour of my show.

P.P.S. This coming Thursday is Poetry Night. We will feature a one-time substitute Quizmaster named Chris Erickson. A strong storyteller, Erickson is also the best absurdist comedian in Yolo County. Join us Thursday night at 8 at the John Natsoulas Gallery.

The Obligatory KDVS Donation Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on April 25, 2017

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I ran into two Pub Quiz regulars late last night at one of my favorite coffee shops. Admitting that they’ve never known the winners’ circle, they asked for any help I could offer. I told them that the Pub Quiz had been written, and that they could expect five questions on actors and actresses. Bug eyed, they expressed their gratitude. I smiled, wondering how much help I had really just given them.

When the barista brought me my large orange-carrot juice, he told me how cool he thought it was that I run the Pub Quiz at de Vere’s, but that he wasn’t sure that he approves of my collusion with the Pub Quiz regulars whom I had just encountered on a Sunday evening. I told him that my “hint” would not make a difference in the final score, and he said that he was just “busting my chops.” “I’m not even 21,” he confessed, “so I won’t be there.” I informed him that we have teams of high school students who join us most weeks, and that de Vere’s doesn’t become a bar until 10 PM. He seemed intrigued, and told me he would start work on forming a team.

Here’s another hint that I didn’t offer this purveyor of juices: this week’s newsletter would reveal question #3, word for word:

Newspaper Headlines: Events Coming Up Wednesday. This coming Wednesday at 5 PM marks the 17^th annual fundraiser show for “Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour.” Do you plan to make a tax-deductible donation to KDVS of $5 or more Wednesday at 5 by calling 530 754-KDVS or visiting fundraiser.ucdavis.edu?

If your team’s answer is yes, you get the point. If it’s no, you don’t.

Is that fair? It’s all for a good cause, your local campus and community radio station that has been offering underground, youth, and non-mainstream musical culture for more than 50 years. Home to one of the largest vinyl collections in the country, KDVS could keep me busy for the next few decades if I were to focus on hosting a jazz show, with no songs repeated from now until retirement. And because the station is run primarily by volunteers, some of our best community DJs join the station after retirement. It’s a sweet gig.

With tightening budgets at ASUCD, and a potential move from Lower Freeborn, the station is facing some financial challenges. Changes in media consumption also mean that the station is trying new ways to reach its audience at fundraiser time. If you value independent, free-form, community radio, consider making a pledge this coming Wednesday at 5 (set a reminder on your calendar now), or anytime this week. The station hopes to raise $55,000 during the weeklong fundraiser, and I myself hope to raise $1,000 between 5 and 6 on Wednesday. Care to help? Operators are standing by now!

Tonight’s Quiz will feature questions on topics raised above, as well as the following: gratitude to Shakespeare on his birthday, dragons and eyes, Ryan’s hope, immersion, blue devils, shoes and tails, minute additions, old pals, pyramids, colorful whips, assists, elemental names, conflict in Virginia, common languages, eclipses, fallen captains, chambers of the heart, pen names, unusual snouts, the film Pinocchio, housing in Montreal, marvelous kisses, KDVS, countries of the world, sons and daughters, reconsidering earth on Earth Day, trees that sway in the wind, show business jobs, moms and dads, the letter K, poets named Bhopla, the noodling of anthems, Cleopatra, compositions, favorite Sacramentans, revolutions, Hollywood legacies, and, as has been stated, Shakespeare.

We will have fun tonight, and teams will score even higher than they did last week! I’m hoping KDVS will also score.

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Science. How often do sexually active scorpions lay eggs? Once a year, twice a year, once a quarter, or never?

Books and Authors. Born on this day in 1897, what American playwright and novelist won three Pulitzer Prizes—for the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and for the two plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth?

Sports. The most valuable soccer team in Spain is also the most valuable soccer team in the world. Name it.

P.S. May the 4^th is around the corner, and this year it will also be a Poetry Night with Davis avant-garde novelist, performance artist, and comedian, Chris Erickson, the pride of Decatur, Illinois. Are you ready for Star Wars Day? There is so much to commemorate. Happy National Poetry Month.

The Vegan Marathoners Are Leaving Us Behind Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on April 18, 2017

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Hollywood screenplay author Brian Koppelman once said, “Resilience is a writer’s best friend. Train like a marathon runner. Move a little further each day, despite the pain.” Abraham Lincoln likewise said, “I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.” I think of these accomplished writers on Patriots’ Day, the holiday set aside for Bostonians to cheer those who participate in the Boston Marathon.

I used to watch the Marathon go by from my Warren Towers dorm room during my freshman year at Boston University. In later years, I would stand along the route with the other impressed fans, cheering as people would race past us, faded from a few hours’ intense effort. A runner myself, I enjoyed exploring Boston and Cambridge neighborhoods, alone with my thoughts or with my running mixtape on the Walkman. For me it was more meditation than competition.

Now that I bike every day, I feel like I am doing my part, that I needn’t run in the evenings and on weekends as I used to do when I was younger. But of course, that’s a lame excuse. What Koppelman and Lincoln say running and walking, above, need not be merely metaphorical.

Take, for instance, my friend and former student Josh Fernandez. Less than a decade younger than I am, Josh flew to his once-native Boston this week to compete in the Boston Marathon. A review of the searchable results reveals that he ran at about a 7.5-minute mile for more than 26 miles, finishing with a time of three hours, 20 minutes, and eight seconds. Now-vegan Professor Josh teaches us all that intense training, patience, and an exploration of the relationship between discomfort and accomplishment could help any of us realize our athletic and creative dreams. Do you have any lame excuses that you would like to re-evaluate?

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on some of the topics raised above, as well as on Studs Terkel, the ways a crow flies, the great cities of London and Dublin, a morning coffee, second to social media, Welsh exports, bards, the great depression, Julius Caesar, futball, Easter memories, navy jobs, precarious bridges, sexually active arachnids, people who want their money, elegies, Phillip Larrea and Barbara West, the first practical lead-acid battery, hilarious and scary, aquatic transformations, the good of notebooks, international poetry, really old carbine anagrams, plagiarism, more than Oprah, shells, high angles, geological speaking, waiting for a move to be made, shaking with what might be called ageism, Bismarck and Jamaica, international poetry and poets during National Poetry Month, and Shakespeare.

As is the case with the Boston Marathon, the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz pushes us to our best performance when more competitors bring their game. See you tonight.

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Countries of the World. What is the name of the sovereign and unitary monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula?

American Rivers. 156 miles long, The Big Muddy River joins the Mississippi River south of the town of Murphysboro. Furthermore, the Big Muddy River drains areas of the following counties, all in the same state: Franklin County, Jackson County, Jefferson County, Marion County, Perry County, Union County, Washington County, and Williamson County. Name the state.

Science. Tabasco peppers start out green. What color do they become when become fully mature?

P.S. Poetry Night is Thursday, and you should join us. Phillip Larrea and Barbara West will be our featured performers.

The Forlorn and Angry Trees Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on April 10, 2017

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Some see this as a dark time, a time when the trees are wreaking their revenge upon us for what we have done to them.

Perhaps that’s overstated, but to me, if feels that way. I don’t know if you have been reading the news, but the trees of Davis seem to be hurling their branches at innocent Davisites like the Ents taking on Saruman and the Orcs during the attack on Isengard. This past Wednesday, April 5^th, outside of the Student Community Center, a 32-foot tree branch fell 40 feet from a eucalyptus tree upon four of my colleagues in the University Writing Program. All were hospitalized and had to take some time off from teaching, but we believe that all will recover fully.

And then this past Friday night a 400-pound oak tree branch crashed through the patio of the beloved Pence Gallery, 212 D Street, right behind our Irish Pub. This happened during a fundraiser for Third Space, the artistic collective that has seen its rent skyrocket and its space contracted. People were standing outside in the path of the branch just a few minutes before it came down, but then came inside to hear some of the live music. I myself was standing on the now-destroyed patio just an hour before the mishap. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

Are the trees angry at us? As I was telling these stories in the back yard of one of the foremost art advocates in Davis during a Davis Shakespeare Ensemble donors’ event yesterday, people were looking up to the canopy of trees with concern. One told me that during one windy day last week she drove her car rather than riding her bike, for fear of the trees. Some people at the DSE event opted to stand a greater distance from me, as seemingly I am the only connection between the University Writing Program, Third Space, and the Pence Gallery.

Having participated in Redwood Summer 27 years ago, and having raised tens of thousands of dollars for organizations such as The Sierra Club and The Nature Conservancy, I would hope that the trees would see me as a friend. Perhaps the trees do not discriminate.

As April is National Poetry Month, let’s conclude with a poem. One of my favorite 20^th century British poets, Philip Larkin, expressed a somewhat forlorn attitude towards our leafy brethren in his springtime poem “The Trees”:

The Trees

The trees are coming into leaf

Like something almost being said;

The recent buds relax and spread,

Their greenness is a kind of grief.

Is it that they are born again

And we grow old? No, they die too,

Their yearly trick of looking new

Is written down in rings of grain.

Yet still the unresting castles thresh

In fullgrown thickness every May.

Last year is dead, they seem to say,

Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.

I hope you find inspiration to begin afresh this spring. Start by joining us tonight at the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz!

In addition to topics raised above, expect questions about counties that have a river in common, slight cultures, epistolary imperatives, Latino men, golden ages, organ transplants, broken records, the absence of tongues, peppers, specific executions, monarchies we can stand, Irish products, bosses who are not babies, unwelcome flowers, Ancient Greece, religious customs, calabash dorks, yellow diamonds, W.C. Fields associates, slave ships, exchangeability, really platinum, the gold rush, Sylvester Stallone, sound responses, storms of germs in Nevada, the plural of hypotenuse, the iPhones of big brothers, and Shakespeare.

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

Internet Culture. No longer Windows, what is now the world’s most popular OS in terms of internet usage?

Bonus Anagram. What word is both an anagram and often a synonym of the phrase “dirty room”?

Another Music Question, this time about 67-year-old Songwriters Who Were Born in Tuskegee, Alabama. What winner of the Johnny Mercer Award has written three of Billboard’s Top 100 Hits of All-Time?

P.S. Thanks to everyone from Pub Quiz who attended Poetry Night last Thursday, especially Cara and John.

The Prospecting in California Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on April 4, 2017

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

On the Myers-Briggs personality test, I used to be an INFP, but now I am an ENFP. Perhaps all my time working with a microphone has changed me into an extrovert. While I have become louder since I first took the test 17 years ago, when it comes to my improvisational nature, I’m still a “P” for “prospector” rather than “J” for “judge.” This might be seen as ironic, because of how much time I spend evaluating, whether it be student essays or your submitted pub quizzes. The judging also refers to planning, and while as a poet I favor discovery, serendipity, and improvisation, I also recognize the benefits of having a plan, something I impress upon my students when helping them determine direction (and even velocity) as they prepare to graduate from UC Davis.

At Disneyland last week, I was reminded of this Tony Gaskins quotation: “If you don’t build your dream, someone will hire you to help build theirs.” This speaks to the importance of having a plan. In his book Living Forward, purposeful living mentor Michael Hyatt talks about the necessity of avoiding drift, or letting the prevailing tides or someone else’s plan determine what you do and how you spend your time.

In the context of these thought leaders, let’s recognize that if you don’t come up with a plan, you will spend most of your time at Disneyland standing in a really expensive line. Last week we noted that the wait times for some lines were more than an hour, and that the Disney architects in some instances craftily conceal the length of the line, leading us to believe at one point that it couldn’t possibly be a 40-minute wait for the Little Mermaid ride, when actually we crept along for close to an hour.

With a Disney trademarked fast pass, however, one can stop by a ride early, register one’s intent to participate at a later time, and then go enjoy other parts of the park instead of queueing endlessly. When one arrives with one’s pass, one skips right past the hundreds of people who hadn’t planned as well, feeling for them a mix of sympathy and pity. Don’t we all realize that a little planning and delayed gratification can pay off rich dividends later on? As it is in Anaheim, so it is in life.

Meanwhile, a friend of mine has become the Executive Director of the Mendocino County Tourism Commission. As one who prospects rather than judges, I don’t like to plan too much, but I do see in my future a family picnic in an uncrowded redwood grove, and a visit to an unpretentious Ukiah winery. Although they were both kind to me this past week, I will not miss my time with I-5 and cast members at Disneyland. Perhaps I will return to them both on some future date, but only after some restorative time spent with the quieter treasures that can be found on the Lost Coast. I will save my drifting for the Pacific.

In addition to topics mentioned above, tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions about topics raised above, as well as the following: Orange County, the potentially deleterious effects of early retirement, lost universities, refused prizes, favorite queens, varieties of oceans, Billy Graham, college life, fated explorations, Steven Spielberg, what we know about pirates, closed off-ramps, swagger, Reader’s Digest, big houses, proposals, the declination of windows, hermits in low “mountains,” Portland as part of a crowd of accomplishments, rearranged dirty rooms, five Santas, pinched turtle toys on jungle cruises, Alabama, coming out to the Emmys, Disney ubiquities, losing and finding one’s family, blue eyed benefactors, bicycle safety, and Shakespeare.

Come join us for some fun this evening. We start at 7.

Your Quizmaster

Here are three questions from a Pub Quiz I hosted in 2012:

Pop Culture – Music. In the world of music fandom, the word “stan” is a portmanteau of stalker and fan. The word originated when what musician released a song with the title “Stan”?

Sports. Three members of the 500 Home Run Club played primarily for the San Francisco Giants. Name two of them.

Science. H Words in Biology. What H word is an organic nitrogen compound that triggers an inflammatory response?

P.S. Poetry Night takes place at 8 on this coming Thursday, the 6^th of April at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Julia Levine and Gillian Wegener will be our featured poets. You should come!

The Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on March 27, 2017

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

In his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, author Daniel Pink explores the three motivations that most drive employees (and perhaps all of us) in a knowledge economy: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. This past quarter I shared this lesson and many others with the artists, designers, actors, musicians, and film-makers in my Writing in Fine Arts class. While every student in the arts should follow her passion, such a student should also have a plan for success. Mentors are especially important to students striking out into the world, as my students will do soon, as are deliberate practice and immersion in the books and ideas presented by thought leaders in one’s field.

That deliberate practice in my UC Davis writing classes comes from iterative work on multiple assignments totaling 6,000 or more words, submitted to me for evaluation and guidance. The most enterprising and assiduous of my students also take advantage of office hours. In addition to the two office hours I offer during the week in Voorhies Hall, I also offer many appointments and standing Sunday evening office hours at a café downtown. In such places students benefit from the sort of individualized instruction that is more likely internalized by the aspirational writer as she considers how she will soon be making a living.

Yesterday I received this note from a student who might have worked the hardest in Writing in Fine Arts this quarter:

Dear Dr. Andy,

I wanted to thank you for all of the time you took with me during your office hours to work on my papers. I really appreciated your assistance and have never had a professor take so much time to do what you did for me. You truly care about your students’ success and for that, I thank you. I learned a great deal in your class in regards to improving my writing and really enjoyed the topics we had.

I was wondering if I needed any assistance with any future papers that I had, if I could come to your office hours?

Again, thank you so much. Enjoy your break!

Notice how kind and crafty this student is, to share the praise before sharing the ask, more office hour visits in the spring. The answer will be yes, of course, though one must always prioritize the needs of current students. All of us in Davis are lucky to be exposed to the energy and ingenuity that UC Davis students bring to our town and our university. As I help such students approach autonomy and mastery as writers, they help me reconnect with my own sense of purpose. I wish the same for all of you.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on topics raised above as well as the following: that which you like, MGM, people who are upset, African beasts, packing imperatives, impressive parks, Saturday jollies, Irish mysticism, emojis, cruel fruits, Grammys, long-delayed reunions, the moon, revelatory thread, Africa, famous albums, familiar nicknames, becoming what we want, pictures that are the best of them all, solo ventures, science fiction, famous magazines, words like “vitrify” that are perfect for anagrams, different sorts of vision, animated mutants, the delights of the unorthodox, superheroes, basketball memories, a Magoo do, the pleasures of youth, smartphone apps, and Shakespeare.

I hope you can join us tonight for the Pub Quiz. We always have more fun when you are there.

Your Quizmaster