Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
On the afternoon of September 11th, 2001, I spent some time remembering how in the early 1980s, alone and at dusk, I stood between the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan and beheld their unfathomable height. On June 12th, we will note the one-year anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack in the United States since September 11, the mass shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando. When I heard the news, I remembered the night in 1992 that my then fiancée Kate and I spent with her brothers in a gay nightclub in Houston. Inspired by our discovery of the new song “I’m Too Sexy,” we danced with abandon.
Kate and I met in London, a city whose resolve is famous, whether it be the determined responses to the Blitz bombings during World War II, to the Republican attacks during the Troubles, to the fire at the Kings Cross tube station (while we were living two miles away), the transportation bombings of July 7, 2005, or the attack Saturday night on London Bridge. There is some discussion in the press now as to whether Britain is “reeling.” Mostly the Brits just seem ticked off, and have shown an unwillingness to give in to panic, or to refrain from favorite activities, such as enjoying a pint at one’s local pub.
I feel the same way about our Pub Quiz. You might notice that I don’t share a lot of “bad news” on the Quiz, unless you discount inevitable questions about electoral and federal politics. We need our own respite from terrorism, domestic or foreign, and from alarmist (some would say “catastrophist”) responses to terrorism, whether via television broadcast, newspaper headline, or tweet.
I invite you to join me tonight, and to raise a wine glass or a pint to first responders everywhere. Their everyday bravery ensures us the (public) space, physically and psychologically, to go about our daily business, and to spend time with our dearest friends. Those of us not on the front lines can confront terrorism daily with our free expressions of resiliency, democracy, camaraderie, and comedy, all allies in the ongoing elevation of humanity.
In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on penguins and other little animals, John Cleese, one film per decade, black vs. blue, China, renewable energy, legal documents, glory, slams, unfinished final novels, The Great Wall, comedians, continental crust, Pixar movies, world capitals, deplorable containers, liars, Agents of Shield, television studios, bonus pythons, Horace, twins who overhear trivia contests, Lawrence of Arabia, dangerous minds, redheads, homophones, Japanese animation, climate, avatars, all the single ladies, cuckoo’s nests, groups of balloons, friends of Captain America, bones, old people, England, Irish pubs, and Shakespeare.
See you tonight!
Your Quizmaster
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Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:
- Food and Drink. Which typically has more liquid, soup or stew?
- Pop Culture – Music. Starting with the letter B, what was the last name of the composer of the lullaby sung most often by parents of babies?
- Science. Copra is the dried meat, or dried kernel, of what C fruit?