Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
Once when my daughter Geneva was about three, we mentioned that she was due to see her pediatrician the next day, and she did not take the news well. Rather than wanting to get a check-up from the beloved and highly-respected Dr. Michael Reinhart, Geneva insisted that she be distracted by our telling her about the time we went to Fairytale Town. Geneva had imagined a safe space, sometimes called a “happy place,” where she could escape her fears, such as necessary vaccines and inoculations.
I was reminded of this 17-year-old conversation this morning when my 12-year-old son Truman was getting a blood draw this morning, not his favorite activity. Anticipating our August trip to Disneyland, Truman closed his eyes as the needle went in and explained to us what attractions we would visit, and in what order, when we first arrive at the theme park. His evocation of a happy place was somewhat more sophisticated, in that it benefited from his more complex understanding of architecture and theme-park strategies. For instance, evidently Americans automatically go right towards Tomorrowland when entering the attractions of Disneyland, meaning that early arrivers who amble in a counter-clockwise direction can have the westerly sections of the park to themselves, at least for a while.
When it comes to the frenetic crowds and lengthy lines of Disneyland, I myself am a fan of Café Orleans, where one can sometimes hear live jazz performed while looking across the “Rivers of America” to Tom Sawyer’s Island. In his book European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, German Romanticism scholar Ernst Robert Curtius posits that a true locus amoenus(Latin for “pleasant place”) must have trees, grass, and water. It seems odd to visit one of the most bustling cultural icons of America to find trees, grass, and water, but sometime one has to satisfy multiple audiences, the man who loves jazz and a locus amoenus, and the children of America who can’t wait to visit Marvel Landin 2020, a place to be known by many parents as the most crowded place on earth.
I hope you get to visit your happy place this summer!
Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on topics raised above, as well as on bonds, composers, football, Kim Jong Un, islands, magical heritage, Canadian alcohol, prime numbers, controversial films, big and little Dippers, the answer to everything, soy, plans, aisles, Darwin, adult contemporaries, wily people, phantoms, unusual animals, exclamation marks, California cities, Wayne Thiebaud, unusual gifts, spies, economics, presidents, movie stars, Pulitzer Prizes, and Shakespeare.
See you tonight at 7. Summer is here, so I expect a crowd.
Your Quizmaster
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Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:
- Another Music Question.What current Post Malone hit song shares a title with a Hitchcock film?
- Anagram. What actor’s name is an anagram for the phrase “He’s a rich TV person”?
- Annas.Which House Bunny Anna has a starring role in the 2018 film Overboard?
P.S. Speaking of people named Anna, our own Anna Fenerty, a Pub Quiz regular who turned 21 last week, will be featured at Poetry Night Thursday. Come out to support here! Details at https://poetryindavis.com/archive/2018/06/poets-anna-fenerty-and-nick-leforce-will-read-in-davis-on-june-21st/