Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
Probably one of the bravest things I ever did was move to California without any support structure there. This week’s headlines about the 30th anniversary of the release of the film Batman reminded me where I was and what I was doing 30 years ago this week.
With the help of a traveling buddy and at least one auto repair shop, my 1975 orange Datsun B210 survived the trip from Washington, D.C. to Berkeley, California. I had visited Berkeley just two years previously with my friend Smoker Bob, and had fallen in love with the place, resolving to move back if I didn’t have any better offers upon graduating from Boston University. I knew that I wanted to earn a PhD in English, and that the University of California offered the strongest PhD programs that I could afford. And Berkeley, I decided, was the best place for me to earn my California residency.
Bedraggled and relieved after the cross-country drive, we arrived in Berkeley in this week of 1989, and saw the lines outside the Shattuck Avenue theatre. We didn’t have housing or a plan, but we still locked the “Pumpkin” (as we called the Datsun) and escaped to the magic of Gotham City, eager to see if the guy who played Betelgeuse could also play a superhero.
30 years have passed, and tomorrow I return to my onetime hometown of Washington DC for a medical conference and some time with family. My definition of “family” has changed. My father the film critic passed away halfway between 1989 and today. My DC friends have scattered, as if some centrifugal force compelled us to escape the confines of our childhood dreams, and expectations of our parents. Our children have arrived in the interim decades. As Jerry Seinfeld says, they are here to replace us.
My hometown has changed radically, sometimes in unwelcome ways, but certain parts, what William Butler Yeats called “monuments to unageing intellect,” remain. On this trip I will introduce my 13-year-old history buff to the some of the same museums that I first entered as a child, slack jawed with awe. We will visit the parks and the streets where I was awakened to joy and wonder.
And we may pass by movie theatres where people are lined up outside to see superhero movies. I guess that in addition to showing gratitude to those who helped launch me towards the west, I should also be grateful that some things never change.
Tonight’s pub quiz will cover topics alluded to above, and to the following: playthings, cats, the stock market, textiles, first responders, splash damage, recipes, thunder, goodwill, Detroit, aspirational fiats, gasoline, novelists, shape-changers, river walks, Oscar-nominees, bees, Asian-Americans, dreams of stageplay, notable predecessors, breaks with authority, wires from the Avengers, famous moms, famous counties, feet, early American policies, symbols, butterflies, the unemployment rate for you, exits, The Economist, Byzantine examples, and Shakespeare.
I hope you can join us tonight. If so, please be as noisy as possible when appropriate.
Your Quizmaster
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Here are three questions from a June, 2013 quiz:
- Mottos and Slogans. According to Time Magazine, what was the top political campaign slogan of 2008?
- Internet Culture: Modern Acronyms. What does the “mp” stand for in the term “mp3”?
- Four for Four. According to the animated series Teen Titans, which of the following are members of the Teen Titans? Beast Boy, Cyborg, Robin, Talon.
P.S. See you tonight!