Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
Thursday night Davis City Council member Lucas Frerichs sent me a message on Facebook indicating that we should “shelter in place.” He knew that my wife Kate and I were finishing dinner at de Vere’s Irish Pub before heading to a film at the Varsity. Four blocks away, a terrible crime had been committed. Two blocks away, the perpetrator had barricaded himself in his rental home. In addition to Facebook, we were scanning the Twitter feeds of local reporters for more information. Meanwhile, the Pub had been closed to incoming traffic, while we were invited to stay to finish our meals and our bottle of wine. Undone by the unfolding story, and unable to finish our meal, we boxed everything up, and, much later that night, ran for our car through the deserted streets of Davis.
The overnight news, the morning news, was almost too much to bear.
Friday evening, Kate and I went to the theatre, seeing House on Haunted Hill – The Comedy. Friends with a few of the actors, we watched the odd adaptation of the 1959 Vincent Price horror film with relish, remarking to each other that the old B Street Theatre would never have been able to pull off the ambitious sets and other stagecraft elements that were part of this new production at the multi-million-dollar Sofia Tsakopoulos Center for the Arts, a new highlight of the Sacramento cultural scene.
While we laughed with the audience and enjoyed watching our favorite member of the company, Dave Pierini, as he locked eyes with us while staying in character, the most striking element of the play came when an unexpected mishap occurred.
At one point, the oldest member of the seven-person cast, Greg Alexander, was coming down the grand staircase when his heel slipped, and he tumbled down about four stairs, coming down hard on his back and rear. We know Greg well from his having taught our son Truman acting classes, so we were immediately concerned, sure that this mishap was not a planned part of the evening’s entertainment.
Actress Tara Sissom, a veteran if improvisational comedy, approached Greg to see if he needed help, even though her character was in conflict with Greg’s character on stage. Greg stated simply, “I’m all right. Keep going,” so Tara picked up right where they left off, and they finished the scene together. Both Greg and Tara proved that evening that they are consummate professionals, unwilling to let an onstage injury from breaking their stride. As my theatre director father used to say, “The Show Must Go On.”
At the end of his life, my dad amended his truism: “All Shows Must Close.”
To take his extended metaphor, we must recognize that some shows close too early. Some shows have great promise, and are loved by the theatre community, but for unforeseen reasons, the show closes.
Saturday night at the candlelight vigil, I learned that officer Natalie Corona entered the Police Academy later than she had originally planned because she had hairline fractured her shins while undergoing the grueling physical training needed to protect and serve a population like ours. Corona could easily have chosen a less difficult profession, but as Natalie’s Aunt was quoted in a recent Sacramento Bee remembrance of the officer, Natalie responded, “I love my job, I am so happy.”
During her training, one can imagine Natalie’s interior voice using the same words as Greg Alexander: “I’m all right. Keep going.”
The people who knew and loved Natalie before her death admired her determination to serve as a police officer. Now thousands in Davis and beyond have taken note of her example, of her sacrifice, so that she could briefly work at a job that she loved.
Our hearts heavy with sorrow, as a community, we are not “all right.” Our communal spirit aches with the untimeliness, the unfairness of this loss. But like Greg Alexander, like Natalie Corona, we must determine how to keep going, despite the obstacles that are strewn before us. Winston Churchill is reported to have said, “When you are going thorough hell, keep going.” Natalie Corona seemed to have lived her life according to this principal, and now her sacrifice on the streets of Davis give us all a reason to test our ability, our willingness, to live by those words.
Tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on topics raised above, as well as the following: Heroes, prime ministers, ship captains, silent movies, short rounds, cities in Northern California, statues, newspaper headlines, siblings taken too early, winning and losing streaks, welcome guides, crowns, better than mediocre basses, apparatuses, California produce, the example of Denmark, Irish sunshine, Oscar-winners, calculus, alphabetical lists, magic words, big cities, chemical acts, staying free when solidly built, self-referentiality, red leather and yellow leather, angelic moves, African missionaries, the topics of a few questions I haven’t written yet, and Shakespeare.
Emily Hughes will be the featured poet at Poetry Night Thursday at the Natsoulas Gallery. Join us that night at 8 for the fun!
See you this evening.
Your Quizmaster
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Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:
- Mottos and Slogans. Starting with the letter B, what company that was launched in 1999 used the slogan “Push Button Publishing”?
- Newspaper Headlines: Pacific Storms Edition. We learned yesterday that a Malibu stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway has been closed because of what nature-made disaster?
- Four for Four. Researchers say that writing was independently invented four times in four different ancient countries. Which of the following, if any, are among those countries? China, Egypt, Greece, Iceland.