Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
Part I: The Numbers
With your help, my fundraiser for the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation surpassed all my expectations. At the end of this newsletter, I will finally reveal how many walkathon miles I walked in 2021. I’m sure you are eager to know.
I have an ambivalent relationship with Facebook. The company has monetized our relationships, manipulated our attentions, made many of us into grudging stalkers, and sparked many jealousies and bouts of depression. As Mark Twain says, “Comparison is the death of joy.”
On the other hand, like an address book, Facebook keeps a record of who we know. I’ve always had an address book, and at one point in my life considered it to be one of my most valuable possessions. I remember that when I left London after studying abroad in 1987, I accidentally left my address book behind in the bedroom that I shared with my future wife, Kate. She put a bow on it and mailed it to me as a Christmas present, and that bow still sits on it today in the cabinet next to me as I write this.
Paul Simon famously asserted that “I know what I know,” and that was certainly true for me in 1987, but over the subsequent decades, Facebook has communicated to me that I actually don’t know what (or who) I know. Facebook reminds us of all the people who would otherwise have silently slipped from our lives. We’ve all had the realization that we haven’t seen or heard from an acquaintance who we used to incidentally encounter all the time. While sometimes such friends appear in the obituary pages of the Davis Enterprise, we know that if we have connected with such an acquaintance on Facebook, and if like Mamá Coco we keep in our hearts a secret picture of that otherwise forgotten person, we might still be able to summon them up on Facebook and, if we choose, review their vacation pictures.
This week I have another reason to appreciate Facebook: It has reminded me of the kindness and generosity of the people in my virtual community. Last week I announced that my son Jukie and I were raising money for the foundation that supports medical research into Jukie’s rare genetic syndrome: Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome. I set a modest goal of a couple thousand dollars, chose one of Kate’s more touching Jukie-Daddy photographs, announced that it was Jukie’s 21st birthday, and invited anyone to participate who felt compelled.
The response was astounding. Roughly in chronological order, I heard from friends of my parents, friends I made in elementary school, friends from high school (with about ten percent of my graduating class participating, including a gift of $500 from a kind woman now living in San Diego), friends from college (including a donation from someone from the all-male floor of my freshman dorm), friends from graduate school, friends among my fellow UC Davis Writing Program faculty colleagues, former students from my writing and literature classes, first noble citizens of the City of Davis, friends made at the San Francisco Writers Conference, friends from Academic Technology Services at UC Davis, friends from the local poetry community, and friends made at community events that I’ve hosted over the last 15 years, such as pub quizzes. I also heard from a few representatives of campus leadership (thanks, Chancellor!).
I will name the 115 Facebook-using supporters of and numerous other donors to the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation, below, but for right now, I’d like to update you on the current totals. Via the Andy’s Fundraiser Facebook donation page, people like you have donated over seven thousand dollars, in fact, $7,260. (The amount actually just went up while I was writing this post.) In response to my earlier invitation, people also donated over $650 to the Foundation via the Giving Hearts Day webpage (taking advantage of some matching grants). Furthermore, some people just sent checks to the Foundation via its webpage. Others told me of their plans to give.
As the grand total raised in recognition of Jukie’s birthday continues to inch up towards $10,000, I am grateful for the support of the many medical researchers who are investigating treatments and potential cures of this rare syndrome, as well as the offered support of the families of children with SLO who don’t have the resources that Jukie’s family does. At a time like this, I almost feel like George Bailey, a man who has committed various forms of support to his community, and in reward is named (spoiler alert) “the richest man in Bedford Falls.” As my brother Oliver pointed out to me on my radio show this past Wednesday, George was rich because he had so many friends, rather than having so much money. You and Facebook reminded me this week that those are the sort of riches that matter.
Part II: More Numbers
As I wrote about last week, Jukie and I survived 2021 by taking long walks. Now I am ready to share how long.
Not counting any walking I did when I didn’t have my phone in my pocket, in 2021 I averaged seven miles a day, and thus I walked 2,555 miles from January 1 to December 31, 2021. If you count steps instead of miles, that’s 16,186 steps a day, or 5,907,890 steps.
Seven miles a day is a feat I didn’t realize I could accomplish until the fall when I started walking back and forth to the UC Davis campus on most weekdays. As you can see from the attached image, I averaged closer to a mere six or six and a half miles a day for most of the year, but then when I walked 7.5 miles a day in September and 8.7 miles a day in October, I knew that if I pushed it (to 9.2 miles a day in November), I could reach my new goal.
The more I walked, the more I developed other unreasonable goals, such as 2,600 miles last year, so that I could say that I walked 50 miles a week. You can also see, above, how the number 5,907,890 is tantalizingly close to six million steps. Even though I tapped the brakes a bit in December, I’m pleased with the result. If you are curious about the benefits of this consistent regimen of ultra-low-impact exercise, I can tell that my legs and core are stronger. In addition to keeping from going crazy, I also lost about five pounds last year, though I attribute much of that to the enormous and healthy egg and tofu vegetable scrambles that Kate makes me for brunch every day. If it’s the right meal (like the right spouse), sometimes one meal a day is all you need.
Part III: The Donors
I’m going to thank here everyone who supported the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation in celebration of my son Jukie’s 21st birthday. Unless you are looking for additional candidates for prayers, silent thanks, or other forms of private celebration and merit, or if you want to make sure that I didn’t forget you, you are invited to skip this next paragraph.
Andrew Newman, Ann Michaele Miller, Anne Seitz Da Vigo, Barbara Saunders, Ben Robideaux, Bill Roe, Brad Harding, Brian Sway, Brooke Sarkaria, Brooke Tabs, Cass Sylvia, Catherine Olvera, Cathy Haskell, Charlie Alpers, Chris Reynolds, Christina Hopkins Hooke, Cindy Katz Williams, Claire Tauzer, Crilly Butler, Dana Ferris, Dana Topousis, Danny Fisher, Dave Pierini, David Webb, Dominic Triglia, Don Saylor, Don Yee, Douglas DeSalles, Eavan Leigh, Elizabeth Freeman, Erika Kreger, Chancellor Gary May, Gretchen Noah, Guneet Bajwa, Isabel Ward, Jacqueline Dabadie Radin, Jan Coss, Jane Beal, Janet Sivori Berry, Jared Hippler, Jean Gruss, Jeff Smithson, Jeffrey Day, Jenae Cohn, Jennifer Larsen, Jesse Drew, Jim Grellas, John Boe, John Lescroart, John Mounier, Jonathan London, Joseph Zeccola, Josh Chapman, Josh Livni, Joy Cohan, JP Cahn, Julia Levine, Julian Elias, June Augusta Gillam, Karen Pulasky Karoly, Kathleen Holder, Kathryn Ray, Katrina Knighton, Katy Brown, Keith David Watenpaugh, Laura Lacy, Lauren Holzgrafe Kahn, Lauren Liz (who came up with the idea of yelling “Science!”), Laurie Downing Loving, Laurie San Martin, Linda Scheller, Lisa Goldberg, Lorin Kalisky, Lucas Frerichs, Lynda Morlan Jones, Lynette Hart, Lyra Halprin, Manuel Medeiros, Marisa Stoller Brandt, Mark Edry, Martha Kight, Mary Zeppa, Meggan Levitt, Merissa Leamy, Michael Bisch, Michelle McKim, Mike Coleman, Miles Miniaci, Mimi Kusch, Minh Huy Ly, Mitchell Mysliwiec, Mo Lynn Stoycoff, Monique van den Berg, Patricia Turner, Peter Dudley, Peter G Blando, Rebecca Calisi Rodriguez, Rita Parisi, Rob Heckman, Rochelle Swanson, Roger White, Roxanna Deane, Roy Bridgman, Sadia Adnan, Sally Madden, Samantha Tate, Sandra Borgerson, Sara Ashley Watterson, Sasha Slocombe, Shannon Henry Kleiber, Stanley Zumbiel, Stephen Briggs, Stephen Magagnini, Susan Browne, Susan Kelly-DeWitt, Teri Thorpe Greenfield, Todd Van Zandt, Vanessa Rapatz, Vicki Smith, Wayne Ginsburg, Wendy Silk. Wow!
Some of these people gave with their spouses or significant others, so I also thank those unnamed people. Some sent a check to the SLO Foundation, so I also thank them. Some will be inspired by seeing the names of all these amazing people I hold all these people in my heart. Because the global SLO Foundation is run by volunteers, and the syndrome is so rare, donations to fundraisers like this one make up a significant part of the budget of the entire enterprise. These donors are funding new scientific studies, spreading awareness of this rare syndrome, and making possible the biennial conference. If you would still like to donate to this ongoing fundraiser, I will add your name to this pantheon of benefactors!
This week’s Pub Quiz is filled with intrigue and delightful challenges. I hope you will get to see it. Expect questions on diets, kingdoms, internet users, baseball players, unions, northern Europe, fancy restaurants, Nobel laureates, classical music, Tanzania, alcoholic beverages, memberships, countries whose names start with S, Idaho, dragons, famous schools, big movies, proper names, people who famously wore one glove, Oscars, lanterns made of oak, infamous lakes, balls, country music awards, broken records, digits, earnest requests, people named Stanley, sugar beets, Revolutionary War heroes, current events, and Shakespeare.
Thanks to my subscribers on Patreon. If you need more joy and intellectual challenge in your life, I hope you, too, will consider subscribing. Thanks especially to the teams Quizimodo, The Outside Agitators, and The Original Vincibles. Until next week, stay safe!
Dr. Andy
P.S. Here are three questions from last week’s Pub Quiz:
- Film. At the end of Toy Story 2, Jessie finds herself needing to be rescued from a plane bound for what country?
- Countries of the World. Now with a robust economy and a population of 126 million, what Asian country joined the First World War on the side of Britain and her allies, gaining some Pacific islands from Germany?
- Amazon Films. What 1954 American black-and-white 3D monster horror film depicts a group of scientists who encounter a piscine amphibious humanoid in the waters of the Amazon?
P.P.S. “Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.” Albert Camus.