Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
I worked as an usher and a cashier at the Tenley Circle Theatre in Washington DC the Friday that the Prince film Purple Rain opened. People lined up early, and we were not anticipating the impressive noontime size of the turnout. As I was getting the theatre ready – setting out the stanchions and the velvet rope barriers for crowd control, counting the till, and popping the popcorn – people kept asking me the same question: What time will the box office open? Eventually I created a sign saying “THE BOX OFFICE WILL OPEN AT 12:30,” but still the questions kept coming. Like me, film-goers were excited to see this film, and ours was one of the few theaters showing it in my hometown of 600,000 people. So the questions kept coming, and I found myself repeating, over and over again, that the box office will open at 12:30.
Fast forward 35 years to yesterday, and we found another Washingtonian in a predicament similar to mine, but requiring much more patience. Yesterday, my wife Kate walked into the National Portrait Gallery and asked the woman at the front desk where one can find the portraits of the Obamas. She was told that President Obama’s portrait is found in the America’s Presidents exhibit on the second floor, and that Michelle Obama’s portrait is found in the 20th Century Americans exhibit on the third floor.
Ten seconds later, a woman walked up to same employee and asked where the Obamas’ portraits can be found. She was told that President Obama’s portrait is found in the America’s Presidents exhibit on the second floor, and that Michelle Obama’s portrait is found in the 20th Century Americans exhibit on the third floor. The woman thanked her and left, upon which time a man approached the museum employee to ask the same question. The museum employee looked at him and responded as if she were being asked that question for the first time today, or ever.
And I thought I have it bad when I ask a new Pub Quiz team if they have any questions, and then I hear this response: “Yes. What are the answers? HA HA HA!” Having hosted more than 750 pub quizzes, I smile a prepared smile when I hear this line. As President John Quincy Adams once said, “Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” Repetitive challenges teach us patience, and thus compassion.
Anyway, like milk in the supermarket, the Obamas’ portraits were placed as far away from the museum entrances as possible, thus requiring museum-goers to see as many other portraits while on their quest. These celebrity portraits have their own stanchions and velvet ropes before them to help fans know where to line up for their photo opportunities. And line up we did! Extra guards were present to oversee the frivolity.
(A partisan aside for 2019: I overheard someone say that it will be a shame to see the next presidential portrait added to the Portrait Gallery’s presidential collection, except that it will mean the end of the current era. And then a member of my party commented that at one point during our DC visit the closest Starbucks was in the Trump International Hotel, but that, even though she was thirsty, she refused to go in. These are strange times indeed.)
Tomorrow we fly home from Washington D.C., from one home to another, and reunite with our friends and our French bulldog. Unlike the repetitions of Obama portrait directions that must haunt the dreams of certain museum employees, for us the repetitive sameness of our Davis life – walking the dog on the greenbelts of South Davis, descending the stairs into the basement of Freeborn Hall on Wednesday afternoons, and dining with friends in our favorite Davis restaurant and pub – is a source of comfort. You will have a substitute Quizmaster this evening (thanks, James), but soon I will return to my many posts and provide the cheerful and practiced Monday-night entertainment that you have comes to expect.
Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on topics raised above, as well as the following: American royalty, the Pew Research Center, musical metaphors, grand avenues, summer songs, American rivers, BAFTAs, research aides, garbled hawk anagrams, the Santos family, famous Pearls, windowpanes, Mandarins, dinner in the lounge, roaring loyals, adaptation on the micro level, the context of fancy cocktails, the New York Yankees, peg-climbers, little women, nature without life, notable governors, women in books, cultural capitals, that which splits, unwelcome heat, words for “intelligent,” articles of clothing, big cities, Roman generals, cells, champions, the Florida Keys, holidays, coffee as fuel, and Shakespeare.
Happy 4th of July week! This Friday, the state poet of Nebraska, Matt Mason, will be reading at the Natsoulas Gallery at 8 PM. What a fun night that will be. Happy birthday, America!
Enjoy yourself at the quiz this evening.
Your Quizmaster, Dr. Andy
Three sample pub quiz questions:
1. 1920s Books and Authors. Who wrote To the Lighthouse and Orlando: A Biography?
2. Sports. Little Caesars Arena is home of the Detroit Red Wings and the Detroit WHATs?
3. Shakespeare. The title subject of a history play, under whose reign did the Church of England renounce Papal authority in 1534?
P.S. “I can get a better grasp of what is going on in the world from one good Washington dinner party than from all the background information NBC piles on my desk.” Barbara Walters