Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
How lucky are we to have independent bookstores in our city of Davis! When I first moved to Davis in 1990, I reveled in my visits to the half-dozen or so independent bookstores we had to choose from. As I biked from store to store 25 years ago, I was reminded of why I had previously chosen to study in Boston, London, and Berkeley: the intellectual stimulation of bookstores!
Back then I was also a bit of a book hoarder. As a graduate student, I displayed a superfluity of stocked bookshelves in every home where I lived, and many more books boxed away in the garage or closets. Having recently read about “The Private Book Collections of 10 Famous Readers,” I feel that tinge of desire to start collecting all over again, especially when I discover that Charles Darwin owned intriguing titles such as The Physiology or Mechanism of Blushing by Thomas Henry Burgess and The American Beaver and his Works by Lewis H. Morgan. Imagine the illustrations!
Eventually the floorboards of our various homes creaked with the weight of all that learning, the commodification of the world’s ideas. And then came Jukie, our son who as a toddler had the same attitude towards books as the Emperor Aurelian had towards the now lost library at Alexandria. The most precious books, many of them signed, were boxed up, and gradually I gave the rest away to my undergraduates and friends, as well as to the Davis Branch of the Yolo Public Library and the Sacramento Poetry Center. My wife Kate reminded me that if I ever wanted a book in the future, I could just buy it.
My favorite place to purchase books in Davis is The Avid Reader, the bookstore on 617 2nd Street that stocks so many fresh titles, hosts a number of readings and talks by local and traveling authors, and co-sponsors so many literary events in town. Although I have seen literati speak in bookstores in all the aforementioned cities, as well as DC and New York, by now I have seen the most live book events at our own Avid Reader.
One upcoming event that the Avid Reader is cosponsoring has been organized by Shelley Dunning, and the beneficiaries include all of us who read local authors, and especially the Hattie Webber Museum. To quote a recent article in the Davis Enterprise about the October 15th “Battle of the Books,” the books to have been read will include the following: “’The Fall’ by New York Times bestselling author John Lescroart; ‘Aurora’ by acclaimed science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson; ‘Indelibly Davis’ by UC Davis Chancellor Emeritus Larry Vanderhoef; ‘Landfalls’ by first-time author Naomi Williams; and ‘Where’s Jukie?’ by popular husband-and-wife authors Andy Jones and Kate Duren.” Of these books, I have read and enjoyed The Fall and am now reading and loving Landfalls. Both are highly recommended.
Landfalls author Naomi Williams is a regular substitute on the Pub Quiz team The Mavens, while John Lescroart has attended a number of pub quizzes with his friend Glenn and their wives. Kate Duren attends every week, and of course I follow her wherever she goes. Bob Dunning will be MCing this Battle of the Books event, with all the authors present, and a number of “softball” questions to be asked about the books and authors, and about the city of Davis. You should visit http://thedavisstore.com/events/battle-of-the-books-2015/ to register your intent to participate in this event. The entrance fee is a mere $10, and I think all of us who participate plan to consume more than $10 worth of food and drink at the event. Local businesses such as The Davis Store and The Avid Reader will be donating prizes, and all the money raised will support the Hattie Webber Museum.
Speaking of which, I hear that Avid Reader owner Alzada Knickerbocker and a team of book-lovers and bookstore employees will be attending tonight’s Pub Quiz. As one can discover at Davis Wiki, in 2006 “Alzada Knickerbocker was named state Small-Business Champion of the Year by the National Federation of Independent Business,” so she sticks up for all us who would prefer to shop locally in stores by local business owners. She also runs a number of contests and outreach events to encourage a broader knowledge and understanding of the U.S. Constitution. Schoolchildren across the United States are pleased that our constitution is the shortest of just about any country’s in the world. Nevertheless, much can be learned from its momentous words, originally penned on parchment.
I hope you will also join us tonight. Expect questions on the following topics: animal lovers, people who say “Bravo,” lunchbox favorites, impudence, associated with The Great Gatsby, trials, furry animals who are never spotted in tea stores, Germany, conservative and progressive rock, fiction, candidates for U.S. president, hailing Romeo, cities in California, the nicknames of buildings, relief, book collecting, competition for Cleopatra, questionable sports, dinosaurs, bookstores, whiskey, actors who are also dancers, castles, Greek philosophers, first words, founding fathers, numbers that are divisible by 9, parchment, menu items, and Shakespeare.
In addition to our friends from The Avid Reader, we will be joined tonight by one of the all-star teams of yesteryear, The Penetrators, named thus because of their penetrating stares and their minds. Will you score better than the Penetrators? Bring your team by tonight to find out.
Your Quizmaster
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Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:
- Internet Culture. As of 2014, which of the following top-ranked colleges has the most alumni working for Apple, Inc.? Harvard, Princeton, Yale, UC Davis.
- Film. The new Whitey Bulger biopic titled Black Mass takes place primarily in what U.S. State?
- Pop Culture – Music. In 2003 Rolling Stone named what 71 year-old Canadian singer-songwriter and painter the 72nd greatest guitarist of all time, the highest-ranked woman on the list?
- Four for Four. Which two of the following are among the top three banana exporters in the world? China, Costa Rica, Ecuador, India.
- Sports. Among the general population of the United States, the most popular competitive sport (and fifth most popular recreational sport) is a pastime of more than 43 million people. Name the sport.
P.S. This coming Thursday the musician, poet and fiction writer Christian Kiefer will be joined at Poetry Night by San Francisco novelist Janis Cooke Newman. You should Google them both and then plan to join us Thursday at 8 at the Natsoulas Gallery.