Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
Just because you don’t typically do something doesn’t mean that you can’t, and just because you can do something doesn’t mean that you should. These are the nuggets of wisdom that I’m reflecting on this afternoon, several hours before tonight’s Pub Quiz at de Vere’s Irish Pub.
My family lives towards the east side of South Davis, while my son’s elementary school is almost halfway to Winters. As it is pretty far to walk, heretofore we have driven him to school, usually carpooling with friends. This morning, though, Truman and I biked the full 8.5 miles, getting to Fairfield Elementary School at 8:25, enough time for him to add his name to those who bike commute to school, despite its location amid the farmlands that haven’t changed much since the school was first built in 1866. As the lead rider and pedaler on a tandem bike, I am still feeling that commute in my sore legs. It’s a grateful burn, one that I now wish I had felt many times before.
By contrast, last week after Poetry Night and the after-party at de Vere’s, I drove my wife’s minivan home. A 2001 Honda Odyssey. It has the best turning radius of any car I’ve ever driven, and much better than that of the Saturn SL2 that we bought to bring (now 15 year-old) Geneva home from the hospital. I love how that Odyssey allows you to park pointing in one direction, but then exit the street in another direction. But does this mean that I should take full advantage of that turning radius when leaving downtown Davis? No. Or at least that’s what I learned from a very polite police officer who pointed out to me – who knew – that U-turns are not allowed anywhere in the downtown shopping district. I also learned that just because you are friends with an officer who works for the Davis Police Department, that doesn’t mean that bringing that fact up casually in conversation with another policeman is a good idea. At least it won’t get you out of a ticket.
I also learned this week that even though your bulldog is well behaved everywhere she goes, that doesn’t mean she should accompany you into the home of New York Times best-selling author John Lescroart. As Will Rogers once said, “Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.”
This week’s de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz will feature questions on a variety of topics that I don’t know particularly well. Coincidentally, it should also be easier than last week’s Pub Quiz. We’ll see. Expect questions on clothing, hammers, things that must be smashed, computer games, emancipation, US States, agriculture, spelling variations, jazz musicians, countries that are not Indonesia, India, or Eithiopia, baseball and basketball, Chevrolets, great Americans not named Will, restraints, biggest cities, old ladies, American albums, fashion, Gossip Girl, naturism, Africa, pieces of silver, wild beasts, local markets, local cafes, tribalism, nodal nitwits, domesticity, gawking art-goers, Norse Mythology, disentegrations, an iron horse tied to a tree, NCAA, Dutch towns, and Shakespeare.
I hope we can welcome onetime regular Pub Quiz participant Robert Lipman home from Chicago, where it is still winter. He has stories to tell about University of Chicago Library policies, among other things. Just because you can smuggle delicious food into the library, that doesn’t mean that you should.
See you tonight!
Your Quizmaster
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Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:
- Finals Week. Which downtown F Street hotel has invited UC Davis students to study in its Courtyard Lounge, offering free WiFi, Coffee, and breakfast vouchers during Finals Week?
- Happy Endings. According to a study involving a staggering 2.4 million people, on which of the following days are you most likely to die? Your birthday, Christmas Day, Mother’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day.
- Pop Culture – Music. What 1980s pop band’s song “Don’t You Want Me” begins with the line “You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar”?
- Sports. “Webber’s Folly” refers to a decision to call a timeout when his team had none. Name the college basketball team or its college.
- Science. What part of the brain, when translated from Latin into English, means “tough body”?