Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
My daughter Geneva has school today (at Beloit College), but I don’t, so we are taking our time at home this morning, listening to Joni Mitchell on the kitchen Alexa while Kate makes the boys and me three separate gourmet breakfasts. Her tofu scrambles are so nutritious and momentous that I need only two meals on a Monday: a feast in the morning and a pub feast in the evening.
Happy Veterans Day! We have fewer veterans as a percentage of our population than we did when I was my son Truman’s age. At one point in the 1970s, about 75% of the members of Congress were veterans, while today that percentage is far smaller.
I have had many interactions with local veterans in the last five years because of the topics covered in my third book of poetry, In the Almond Orchard: Coming Home from War. Because this reflection on Yolo County veterans was published during my terms as Davis poet laureate, I was often asked to read from it at Veterans Day and Memorial Day ceremonies, such as the one that takes place this morning at the Davis Cemetery. What an honor! I’m pleased to say that the “let the poet speak” tradition continues.
I learned a number of lessons about public speaking at community ceremonies from my father, a trained actor. He read an original poem at my wedding to Kate back in 1992, prompting memories of all his public pronouncements during my childhood. In Washington DC, he was often asked to give talks about theatre and film, his areas of expertise, but he also hosted auctions for the parent teacher associations of local public schools (as I have done), and was even asked to help as a celebrity “judge” at White House Easter egg hunt ceremonies, which prompted eight years’ worth of Christmas cards from the Reagans throughout the 1980s.
The holiday cards were beautiful and appreciated, but my dad did not care for Reagan’s bellicosity. Both his Quaker upbringing and my own current Eastern-inflected spiritual path have trained me to recognize the basic goodness of all people, even, as my father told me on many occasions, if those people speak an unfamiliar language, live on the other side of the world, or come from a country that is at war with the United States. Military campaigns, by contrast, regrettably necessitate demeaning, diminishing, or otherwise “othering” such people.
American Veterans themselves have made great sacrifices for our country, and I take comfort that on this day we recognize their spirit of service and selflessness. Whether you have today off or not, I hope you will raise a toast to those who have served us all when you join us this evening at de Vere’s Irish Pub.
I approach our time together on Monday evenings the way that my dad approached play rehearsals or the classes he taught at University of Nevada, Las Vegas: Let’s include everyone, let’s recognize the basic goodness of all our participants, and let’s spring a few surprises. I look forward to enjoying a feast at our corner booth, and to creating a feast for your ears starting at 7. Join us!
Tonight’s quiz will feature questions on topics raised above, as well as on the following: Anachronisms, independence movements, radio stations, online polls, public transportation, acronyms, baseball elves, zones of contagion, fabrics, Frenchmen, disreputable clans, texting time-savers, zinc ore, fall projects, baseball, hydrology, lead captors, countries of origin, Lears, plenipotentiaries, nice pines, Clinton associates, the glory of the morning, words that begin with A, prairie outputs, soy, Spanish words, football fans, skyrocketing tolerance, the combustion engine, hair, and Shakespeare.
Thanks to any of you who were among the 50 who attended Poetry Night with Alan Williamson this past Thursday. That was such a fun event! Our next one takes place on November 21st at the Natsoulas Gallery. Mark your calendars now.
Thanks to everyone who is working for the rest of us on this holiday, especially the wait-staff at de Vere’s Irish Pub. See you this evening!
Your Quizmaster
https://www.yourquizmaster.com
Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:
- Irish Culture. What Limerick rock band formed in 1989 by singer Niall Quinn, guitarist Noel Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan, and drummer Fergal Lawler named itself after a fruit?
- Countries of the World. When did the island nation of Fiji declare its independence? Was it in 1670, 1770, 1870, or 1970?
- Diamonds, graphite, graphene, and fullerenes are all what A-words of carbon?
P.S. “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” Ernest Hemingway