Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
One day last week as I was walking along Harbor Boulevard after a long day with the family at Disneyland, I saw a frightful character. The man’s sleeveless undershirt revealed oversized biceps and skull tattoos, his buzz cut barely protected his pale scalp from sunburn, and his military-style boots and long camouflage pants seemed out of place when all the tourists around us were wearing shorts on that 95-degree day.
Even more concerning than his outfit or his haircut was the determined – almost angry – look on his face as he crossed West Katella Avenue, and the fast clip at which he jogged towards us on the crosswalk. I gripped my son Jukie’s hand a little more tightly as he ran past us, relieved that we were not his objective.
With great concern, I considered the fate of the homeless person we had just passed, a Latino man with a multicolored sign asking for money for food. I wondered if the tattooed runner had chosen him as his target, and if I and others nearby would have to alert the authorities to a hate crime that would soon be taking place just a block from Disneyland. The “Walk / Don’t Walk” timer in front of us was counting down to zero.
And then, a moment later, even before crossing the street, I heard the combat boots behind me again, as the man sprinted to the sidewalk ahead of us, surprising some people who were standing at the corner, but not one little blonde girl who reached her hand up to the man whom I thought was so angry, and perhaps violent. This is the interchange I heard:
“Daddy, how much did you give him?”
“I gave him enough to help.”
Still in Southern California, today I turn the Quiz over to guest-Quizmaster James. He provided a number of questions, and I provided the rest, some of them reflecting my environs and discoveries in Los Angeles and San Diego. Tonight expect questions on infidelity, symbologies, pouches, the importance of mythology, gems, museum directors, people named Stein, French lawyers, inciting incidents, romances, textiles and clothing, completed missions, avant-garde imagineers, what banks do, really strong tables, the names of little girls, ensemble works, renunciants, groups of four, names in the news, depth psychology, videos, Federal agencies, quintets, monkeys, roles to be played, alternatives to irony, anthrax, onetime nitrates, retirements, radio songs, Australia, people born overseas, third generations, space forces, and Shakespeare.
I hope you can join us tonight for the Pub Quiz. Knowing that you are continuing to grapple with the conundra I create will bring me comfort as I walk along the beach this evening.
Your Quizmaster, Dr. Andy
https://www.yourquizmaster.com
P.S. Rilke: “For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks… the work for which all other work is but preparation.”