Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
One of my favorite Davis Enterprise columnists is Debra DeAngelo because of her engaging prose and the seeming reckless abandon with which she reveals whatever is on her mind. Like many of us, she holds multiple jobs and thus is overworked. In addition to her Enterprise gig, she has made a career of encouraging many other talented columnists. Here is part of her bio at iPinion: “Debra is a columnist with McNaughton Newspapers, editor of the Winters Express newspaper, and is co-founder, co-editor and CEO for iPinion Syndicate. She has five First Place awards from the National Newspaper Association for column writing, two Seconds and two Thirds, and four Firsts and three Seconds from the California Newspaper Publishers Association.” How impressive!
As you can see in yesterday’s Enterprise, last weekend Debra attended a talk I gave at the University of the Pacific Writers Conference on the morning routines that will make practitioners more focused and productive, titled “Productivity Lessons from High-Performing Authors and Thought Leaders.” Here’s what Debra said in her column titled “Writing conference a necessary and enlightening indulgence”:
Of all the classes I attended (each one top notch — hats off to UoP professor Scott Evans for putting this conference together!), the real takeaway gem was led by UC Davis professor/Poet Laureate Andy Jones.
No, it wasn’t about poetry. I hate to break anyone’s heart here, but I just don’t have the patience for poetry. Poetry usually leaves me fighting the urge to plunge my fingers into my eyes and slowly dig. Get to the damn point already!
Anyway.
Jones’ focus was “productivity,” something I supremely suck at. (We’re allowed to end sentences in prepositions now. I read it on the internets.) That may seem odd, given that I manage to produce a column every week. But that’s work, not my “real” writing: books, novels and screenplays I’ve mapped out in my head, and in some cases even started, and then abandoned after three chapters because they weren’t perfect.
“Perfectionism and How to Overcome It.” Scott Evans, please add that workshop to next year’s conference.
Jones offered all sorts of productivity tips, and gave examples of two “daily writing rituals” from highly productive authors. I liked the “ritual” concept, because it implies a practical method of accomplishing something, and accomplishing “something,” or “anything,” would be a vast improvement over what I’m accomplishing now.
Although I appreciated that my talk was so helpful, one of my favorite parts of this story took place later on Facebook. A Pub Quiz regular asked if Debra was referring to “Andy Jones the Quizmaster?” Debra wrote back, “No, professor and Poet Laureate at UC Davis!”
My wife has often questioned the odd division I have imposed between two of my different selves: that scholar who gives talks, publishes essays, and has taught at UC Davis for 25 years, and the imperious entertainer who asks Monday night questions about 50 Cent and igneous rocks. Debra DeAngelo stays pretty current with current events (such as the ongoing controversy about what chemicals may be found in the fabric of Chinese-made Victoria Secret brassieres), but somehow I was able to conceal my secret identity from this esteemed local writer who has been a Facebook friend since 2011.
Thanks for mentioning me in your most recent published essay, Debra! Turnabout is fair play. We will see if the editor of the Winters Express adds herself to the Your Quizmaster mailing list, or even joins us some Monday night for the fun at de Vere’s Irish Pub.
Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on U.S. states, flying cars, schools releasing their students, protocols, heat flares, attentive doctors, the difference between Bilbo and Bilbao, French dudes who are not named Debussy, homelessness, heavy lifting, famous raisins, animal titles, trilogies, interactive history exhibits, five-syllable words that start with the letter I, long roads ahead, bringing the heat, out of left field, short chains, colors other than optic yellow, marginal comments, faraway capitals, Tonys, famous neighborhoods, marijuana, famous feathers, courthouses, silly debuts, adding an E, and Shakespeare.
Congratulations to all our graduating Pub Quiz competitors, and welcome back to all the Blue Devil alumni who will be filling the packed pub this summer for the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz!
See you tonight.
Your Quizmaster
https://www.yourquizmaster.com
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Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:
- Mottos and Slogans. What N product has used the slogan “Spread the happy”?
- Internet Culture. Which Microsoft Windows operating system will arrive July 29 of this year? I’m looking for a number.
- Newspaper Headlines. Divisible by 5, how much older is Hillary Clinton than her new Democratic primary opponent, former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley?
- Four for Four. Which of the following Presidents of the United States, if any, attended the funeral of Eleanor Roosevelt? Calvin Coolidge, Dwight David Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Harry Truman.
- Famous Actresses. What actress and singer whom you have heard of but have unlikely seen in a film dated all of the following people? Humphrey Bogart, Ernest Hemingway, Greta Garbo, George S. Patton, Edith Piaf, Frank Sinatra, Adlai Stevenson, John Wayne, Joe Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and President John F. Kennedy. In some of these cases, “dated” is a euphemism. Name the actress and singer.
P.S. My UC Davis colleague Laurie Glover will be one of the featured poets at the June 18 Poetry Night. Joining her will be La Quinta (Coachella Valley) poet and teacher Laura Johnson-Bickford. In the late 1970s, Johnson-Bickford edited the book No Where Else in Town: The Davis Poetry Anthology. Anyone have a copy I could borrow?