Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
Today is the last day of the school year that I have to wear a tie. My favorite professor of medieval studies, Kevin Roddy, used to teach in his full academic robes, as faculty evidently once did several hundred years ago in the original universities of Europe. Not quite that much of a traditionalist, I nevertheless teach my UC Davis classes wearing a tie out of respect for my students and for the profession. I think I originally started wearing ties in order to further legitimize my standing in the eyes of my students and my colleagues. I earned my PhD at the age of 29, and at least one of my friends endearingly called me “Professor Doogie.” Today people I know still feel compelled to comment on my age and my relative youthfulness. Yesterday I ran into one of my former professors in the park, and he expressed surprise that, as a middle-aged person, I didn’t have more gray in my beard. I wanted to ask him the obvious question: “Who are you calling middle-aged?” I did not point out to him that my two boys and I had just come from the Rocknasium where all three of us did some impressively childish rock climbing. I also neglected to tell him that I walk around an Irish pub on Monday nights entertaining really smart people in as goofy away as I can muster. I guess he could tell (or remember) how old I am, even though I wasn’t wearing a tie.
Chancellor emeritus Larry Vanderhoef had a summer rule about ties. Relevant administrators in Mrak Hall were to remove their neckties after commencement ceremonies, and were not to re-adorn themselves until the fall convocation. I have followed Larry’s rule with my own summer activities, such as with the T.S. Eliot class but I will be teaching this summer. Like Eliot, I have spent some time in St. Louis, Cambridge Massachusetts, and London, but unlike the great poet, I have ended up, as the Grateful Dead say, “where the climate suits my clothes.” All that said, for tonight’s pub quiz I will be wearing my standard black attire, out of respect for you, and out of my respect for the profession. I hope you will join us, perhaps a bit early because of the summer throngs, and because you wouldn’t want to miss me mixing my memory of Eliot and The Grateful Dead again.
Tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on one or more topics raised above, as well as Spanish slogans, Apple Inc., international cities, meteorological terms, rainbows, Advice columns, hard rock, NBA basketball, skateboarding, blind heroes, lanky people, film directors, big families, rhythm and blues, the American Civil War, nutritious vegetables, the state of California, de Vere’s manager Josey, Martin Luther King Jr., Maurice Sendak, snakes, marble, Asia, comedians, changes, rushing, frontrunners, Disney, and Shakespeare. I believe my wife will playing this evening, so that changes the quiz a little bit. She is especially smart and “media-aware, so sometimes a few of my questions are a little trickier to keep things fair. And tonight I will not be wearing a tie, for, as Ted Williams once said, “I’ve found that you don’t need to wear a necktie if you can hit.”
Thanks for reading.
Your Quizmaster
YourQuizmaster.com
@yourquizmaster
Here are five questions from last week’s Quiz, which was won by The Penetrators:
1. Mottos and Slogans. What trademark motto of the Texas Department of Transportation has radically diminished littering in the Lone Start State?
2. Internet Culture. What blender company is notable for its “Will It Blend?” viral marketing campaign?
3. Characters Named Jones. What actor played Ralph Hampton Gainesworth Jones in King Ralph, Detective Jones in Fallen, and Roland Jones in What Planet Are You From?
4. Four for Four. Which of the people whose last names start with H died as naturalized American citizens? George Harrison, Phil Hartman, Alfred Hitchcock, Christopher Hitchens.
5. Science. About the size of a domestic cat, what North American mammal has the most teeth, at 50? One team that got this right drew a picture of what a mammal with 50 teeth would look like, and then noticed that their drawing resembled an opossum (the correct answer).