Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
I have a friend in Wales who has never visited Scotland or Ireland. I have a friend in Citrus Heights who doesn’t leave the house. Immanuel Kant was also a homebody. The philosopher was born in Königsberg, then in the Kingdom of Prussia, and attended college there before earning a chair in metaphysics at that same University of Königsberg in that same city where he eventually died. It is said of Kant that he never traveled more than 10 miles beyond Königsberg, which would be the equivalent of living in Davis your entire life, and never visiting Sacramento. For Immanuel Kant, his small town was the set of a Truman Show, but without the cameras.
We stick with what we know. Here’s how science fiction writer Aldous Huxley put it: “The vast majority of human beings dislike and even actually dread all notions with which they are not familiar… Hence it comes about that at their first appearance innovators have generally been persecuted, and always derided as fools and madmen.”
Although I have traveled widely, I, too, could be accused of such parochialism. When I last returned to my childhood hometown of Washington DC, I beheld a large DC map that my Mom had tacked on the wall of her Waterfront neighborhood apartment, I was amazed to see that in all my explorations of the city as a youth, I had actually stayed largely within about three blocks of Wisconsin Avenue as a youngster, and then largely within three blocks of Connecticut and Massachusetts Avenues as a teenager.
I never visited the neighborhoods that today are associated with much of the city’s cultural energy, partly because when I was a teenager we heard stories of what our foolhardy classmates encountered when they went to such places to buy illegal drugs. Things have changed, for DC has been rebounding for a while. One formerly dangerous neighborhood, at 14th and U Streets, is today home to the cultural hotspot and restaurant Busboys and Poets which, according to the restaurant’s website, offers “a space for art, culture and politics to intentionally collide.”
Like Busboys and Poets, the best restaurants offer books on public shelves, such as those in the library of our city’s de Vere’s Irish Pub. In such a place we are invited to purchase a beer or a pot of tea and curl up with a book, the sort of entertainment that Stephen King believes to be ideal: “no commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent. What I wonder is why everybody doesn’t carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life.” Of course, a counter-narrative exists, that being that we should bravely venture out into the world without regard to how much we have read. As St. Augustine famously said, “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.”
I received a letter from a Pub Quiz regular last week suggesting that, like the man who does not travel, I have been limiting the topics of my questions to my favorite topics; that I, too, stick with what I know. Some have suggested that my quirky personal topics, such as quotations from Dr. Andy’s Heroes, or Famous People Who Have Lived in Dr. Andy’s Basement, unfairly advantage those who know me well, such as my wife when she plays. My wife reminded me this week that no team on which she has played has won a prize at the de Vere’s Irish Pub Quiz, so Pub Quiz nepotism hasn’t worked out for her thus far, but she will keep trying.
A fairer accusation would be that teams who attend the Pub Quiz every week gain a certain advantage from learning how the Quiz works. It might be assumed that the Pub Quiz resembles every one of life’s endeavors: we become experts with practice. A team of six that attends the Pub Quiz every week for five years accumulates almost half the 10,000 hours that Malcolm Gladwell contends we must invest to become experts. Of course, that hypothetical team would also spend some of its time outside the pub learning about subjects that might come up on a quiz. Some of us have impressive memories, pay attention to the week’s news, or work jobs that necessitate the accumulation of otherwise impractical facts.
Nevertheless, the accusation against me has merit. Like Immanuel Kant, I travel the small town of my brain, my reading, and my experiences, returning to the same streets week after week. Those of you who have walked those streets with me on a Monday evening will sometimes encounter a familiar shopkeeper named Benedict Cumberbatch (who has appeared in two questions, as a correct and an incorrect answer, in this history of the quiz), or come across a recognizable motto or slogan at a fork in the road. Such are the advantages and travails of attending a Pub Quiz hosted by a Quizmaster who writes his own questions, and who treasures our intentional collisions at de Vere’s Irish Pub. One would hope that, like Königsberg, this small town we travel together has enough intellectual, cultural, and social attractions for you. If it does not, other attractions await you, and I hope you will experience them all.
To make up for lost Cumberbatch opportunities, tonight’s quiz will include the word “Cumberbatch” three times! Expect also questions about switches, blood, Cyberdine Systems, smiles for Republicans, Norway, The LA Times, a dog’s life, Julian Barnes, words that start with A and with M, great years in film, fortune and men’s eyes, President John F. Kennedy, polymers, short persons with big challenges, screwy transports, biological maracas, queen consorts, synthesis, an expected person, principles of math, biology, South Africans who come to the US, geology, baseball and football, no soccer this week, gossip, tragic deaths, more science than usual, cinematic heroes, Eugene O’Neill, and Shakespeare. Also, Cumberbatch.
Please tell your family visiting for the holidays that new teams are especially welcome at the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz!
Your Quizmaster
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Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:
- Film. Gal Gadot has been cast as what storied character in one of the most anticipated films of 2015? Name the character.
- Irish Culture. Niall, Zayn, Liam, Harry, and Louis make up what English-Irish musical group?
- Countries of the World. Three countries have Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines. Two are Spain and France. Name the third.
- Syndromes. According to pages 22-25 of the July 1999 FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, the FBI’s Hostage Barricade Database System shows that roughly 27% of victims show evidence of a syndrome named after what city?
- Science. What W word do we use to refer to the flow of gasses on a large scale?
P.S. This coming Thursday the year-end Poetry Night will feature authors published in the most recent edition of The Blue Moon Literary and Art Review. The fun will start Thursday the 19th at 8. There should be some food and drink, an open mic at 9, and then an after-party right back home at de Vere’s. You should join us for this free event.