Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
From the point of view of a faculty member at UC Davis, commencement can be a time for emotion and reflection. I attended the Saturday evening graduation ceremonies of the College of Letters and Science (after receiving an email from the L+S Dean asking if I had planned to attend). Seven thoughts came to mind that I’ll share with you today.
- UC Davis is huge. It took three different ceremonies Saturday for all of our Letters and Science students to be given their diplomas, and L+S is only one of the many colleges at our local university (albeit, the largest).
- The Rec Hall, as we called it in the 1990s, has served commencements ably for decades. For example, I myself graduated twice in that same cavernous arena, the final time with my wife Kate, parents, and brother Oliver in attendance. In those benighted times, people had to take pictures with actual cameras.
- Commencement makes me proud to work for UC Davis. Our students are so dedicated, hard-working, innovative, and creative. My colleagues and I have prepared the students well for upcoming vocational and life challenges. Also, commencement gives certain students an opportunity to share their humor and their singing of the National Anthem.
- I wish I could teach even more classes. Because of my administrative duties, I teach just one four-unit class a quarter, and typically a few first-year seminars a year. I loved cheering on some of the students who I had in freshman seminars years ago, as well as the ones who I’ve been working closely with throughout this past school year. They bring so much to every classroom interaction.
- I loved the opportunity to support the students with whom I have worked the most. My graduating assistant was there with his parents, siblings, grandparents, and a fiancée. He and I texted each other as the ceremonies were about to begin, if only so I could determine where he was sitting among his thousand classmates. Other favorites from past years, including the winner of the UC Davis Medal (who has received a lot of deserved press and praise recently), received texts or emails of congratulations from me right after they crossed the stage.
- We are getting older. As Shakespeare said in one of his darker moments, “I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.” Cheering all the graduates whom I have gotten to know in ten-week chunks of life, I sometimes felt like I was watching one of the best parts of my professional life pass before my eyes. Whether they are walking across the stage at the Rec Hall or changing the world for the better in Oxford, England (Hello, Melissa Skorka! You make all your former UC Davis professors proud!), my students have often provided me the energy and inspiration to try to do my best work in the classroom, and I am grateful for that gift.
- One should always bike to commencement.
Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on topics raised above, as well as the following: Dendrology, macadamia nuts, favorite sultans, greenhouse gasses, new national leaders, musical directives, record streaks, second commandments, contradictions, people named Leonard, meeting the press, medical donors, carrying the weight of a pub quizzer, pharaohs, big purchases, Swedish biking practices, the micronauts, gaunt people, percentages, islands where one can hire an illustrator or a game developer, Judi Dench, aesthetes, jeans, circles, internal caution signs, empirical discoveries, funny place names, new world songs, Mariska Hargitay, and Shakespeare.
Sacramento Poet Laureate Indigo Moor will be reading at the Natsoulas Gallery this coming Thursday at 8. Perhaps you would like to join us?
I hope to see you this evening at 7. Emily and other favorite players will also be graduating, so we should gather with great gusto to send them off!
Your Quizmaster
https://www.yourquizmaster.com
http://www.twitter.com/yourquizmaster
http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster
yourquizmaster@gmail.com
Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:
- Internet and Video Game Culture. Because of viewers like you, the highest grossing video game movie in North America is instant classic, Pokemon: Detective Pikachu. The dethroned video game film was nominated for the Worst Actress Golden Raspberry Award in 2001. Name that film.
- Consumer Goods. What do the words Paperwhite and Oasis have to do with one another?
- Sports. The first European player to receive the NBA Most Valuable Player Award is the only player ever to play for a single franchise for 21 seasons. Name him.
P.S. “A graduation ceremony is an event where the commencement speaker tells thousands of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that ‘individuality’ is the key to success.” Robert Orben