Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
“Do They Know It’s Christmas?” is the name of the 1984 song orchestrated by Bob Geldof and others in order to raise funds to provide relief to those suffering from a famine in Ethiopia. The song title asks a question that we might pose today. Back in 1984, I remember, one would only see convenience stores and Chinese restaurants open on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Today a great number of retailers and restaurants are calling employees in for a shift rather than sending them home to spend time with their families.
One thinks of Ebenezer Scrooge, who was described with a “frosty rime … on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin.” Dickens wrote that Scrooger “carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas.” Despite his famously sour outlook on Christmas, even Scrooge gives Bob Cratchit Christmas Day off, agreeing begrudgingly to “pay a day’s wages for no work!”
Sacramento political satirist John Marcotte, a “Proud Dad of Two Geek Girls” who has appeared many times on my KDVS radio show, has begun a movement to shine a light on those among us who are asked to work on national holidays by sharing homemade cookies with non-essential employees (and, I’m sure, some essential ones) on Christmas Day. Here’s how Marcotte put talked about his “Cookie Project” in an interview published in the December 20th Sacramento Bee:
“Nobody should be forced to work on Christmas . . . . We realize there are exceptions: Police, firefighters, drugstores in case you have a sick child. But do we need Church’s Fried Chicken and Sizzler open, too? We put our idea out on Facebook and it spread virally. This Christmas, we’ll have volunteers distributing cookies in Los Angeles, San Francisco and St. Louis, too. People are joining at such a rapid clip, the project has gone nationwide.”
Some Davis restaurants are opening their doors on Christmas Eve and even Christmas Day this year, but de Vere’s Irish Pub will not be one of them. The de Vere White family has made a point of giving their employees both days off so they can all spend time with their loved ones, and I hope you will do the same. I also hope you can join us for tonight’s festive Pub Quiz, and that you might consider showing some extra appreciation to the servers and barkeeps who have helped to ensure the success of our weekly entertainment every Monday for the past year.
Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on the following topics: the Christmas season, elves, Muppets, and candy; celebrities from Pittsburgh, baby names, Spielberg projects, elevated places, fish, comedians, the aforementioned Paul Ryan, vanguards, ex-cons, ethereal hikes, atypical sports, Germans, nuptials, piccolo purveyors, cheery words, kinds of hats, not eggnog, Emmy-winning actresses, monosyllables, singing loudly, weight, humorists, Europe, radioactive decay, booksellers, title characters, materialism, current events, and Shakespeare.
I’ve been contacted by a several of you, including by local dignitaries, asking if indeed we will be holding the Pub Quiz tonight. We sure will! Bring those family members who are visiting from out of town. Tonight’s quiz will be easier than usual (I think!), and have no questions about Benedict Cumberbatch.
I wish you a Merry Christmas, or whatever holiday you observe in December. See you tonight!
Your Quizmaster
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Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:
- Twitter in 2013. The most retweeted photograph of 2013 included the caption “Cory will forever be in my heart.” What was the first or last name of the woman who shared the photograph?
- Sports. The first public baseball game between all-black teams, The Brooklyn Uniques and the Philadelphia Excelsiors, was played in what year? 1835, 1865, 1895, 1925. Baseball began sooner than usually understood.
- Science. Granite consists mainly of quartz, feldspar, and what four-letter mineral? Thanks for all the geology suggestions!
- Unusual Words. What ten-letter adjective starting with A means “promising success, favored by fortune; prosperous”?
- Pop Culture – Television. What kind of animal is Arthur of the TV show Arthur and Friends?
P.S. Thanks to those of you who came to Poetry Night last week (and to the after-party).