Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
Last night at office hours I met with a student who intended to squeeze every moment out of her 25-hour Sunday. Buoyed by the extra hour presented by the “fall back” in our clocks, she resolved, quixotically, to do 25 different things in her 25 hours, though she had to admit that sleep made this really difficult. When asked for evidence of her activities, she said that she was training for a half marathon (and she showed me a map of her morning run out to rural west Davis), that she has been practicing the piano – a new instrument for her – every day, and that this week she had plans to take the test for her driver’s license.
She repeatedly communicated her amazement and delight over all the freedoms that she enjoys as a 20 year-old woman in Davis. She told me with some relish that she can stay up as late as she likes, she can go wherever she wants in town, and she can make friends with any sort of person she wishes.
Back home in Saudi Arabia, she finds her natural introversion to be codified by local customs. When she returned home to Saudi Arabia last summer, she found herself quietly perturbed that one of her older brothers would have to escort her if she wanted to go to the library, the grocery store, or on a walk. Even with an escort, she has to ask her father’s permission to do such things, “and he can always say ‘no.’”
She told me that some of her friends’ parents do not let their daughters have electronic devices or access to the internet, “just as it is in your American prisons.” I reflected for a moment on my own unthinking freedoms and nodded as she told me, “I have it better than many.”
These visits home to Saudi Arabia have reminded my student that here in the United States she is like a prisoner on furlough. She beholds the grand cork oak trees on campus, the undergraduates racing around on bicycles, and the odd and sometimes shocking costumes women wear at night, even when it’s not Halloween. A student “sponsored” by a generous scholarship, she is expected to return home as soon as she graduates. She reflected out loud about her activities in Davis – two-hour runs along our greenbelts, extended laughter over coffee at Mishka’s Café, and her interactions with supportive peers and faculty – and told me that she hopes memories of these experiences will sustain her for decades into the future.
In a way, we are all on furlough. Shouldn’t we all try to fill our weekends – and our lives – as eagerly?
Tonight’s Pub Quiz will appear to scientists more than is typical. I am a film and book man, myself, but I like to appear wide-ranging and ecumenical when it comes to the variety of topics we cover on the quiz. Expect also questions about the Internet Movie Database, rivals who die too young, Italian vacations, equine studies, the question of invented horizontality, Canadian centres, middling football teams, wild things, really big creatures found in Louisiana, death in America, foreign provinces, War and Peace, surface collapses, the sixteen letters found in the answer to question 17, rock and roll without the roll, love letters, princesses, colorful targets, rocks and garbage, manifest destiny, fruits with angry sequins, the sports equinox, fame at 17, Beatles’ songs in German, Malcolm X, video games, unlikely fragrances, and Shakespeare.
Today’s rain is refreshing, and should be interpreted as an opportunity to join friends tonight in frivolous fun. See you at 7 at de Vere’s Irish Pub!
Your Quizmaster
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Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:
- Internet Culture. Recently Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook gave an overseas 30-minute speech in a language other than English. What was that language?
- Newspaper Headlines. People this week are talking about a newly released song, “Hello,” from someone who is not named Lionel Ritchie. Name the singer-songwriter.
- Norwegian Slang. What U.S. state with a lower case first letter is now a slang term in Norway for “crazy” or “out of control”?
P.S. Lynn Freed, twice winner of the O. Henry Award, our nation’s highest honor presented to writers of the short story, will be reading from recent work at the John Natsoulas Gallery this coming Thursday evening. Find details at http://www.poetryindavis.com.