Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
When I recently told some friends and colleagues who work at Academic Technology Services at UC Davis that I was going to “finish three books this summer,” at first they thought, perhaps reasonably, that I planned only to finish reading three books this summer. I had to reveal that I plan to finish writing them.
This will be the first year that I won’t have taught summer classes for UC Davis in about 20 years. With Kate running the new parent support group at Mother and Baby Source, and other welcome additional income streams, I finally have enough of a buffer to get some serious writing done. And then this past weekend I met via telephone with a new client who needs help from start to finish with an ambitious book project, so my team and I will step in to make sure that that book also will be ready to share in 2015.
As busy as I will be, none of that compares to the incredible dedication to craft, productivity, and talent that we see in some of our Pub Quiz regulars. Some examples: John Lescroart’s book The Fall was just released last Tuesday, and the critics are eating it up, calling it a riveting, engaging, and suspenseful thriller. And then Friday Catriona McPherson shared Come to Harm at a big Avid Reader event that my son Jukie and I got to attend. Catriona plays Pub Quiz on the same team as Eileen Rendahl, author of Veiled Intentions and many other books. And then this August we will see the publication of Landfalls, the 18th-century adventure and discovery novel written by Naomi Williams, who often plays Pub Quiz with the Mavens. Hemingway said “There is no friend as loyal as a book,” but these loyal friends remind us that both books and friendly teammates are worth our time.
Did you know that you were surrounded by such creativity every Monday evening? You should keep attending the Pub Quiz, I think, so that some of it rubs off on you. It has worked for me.
Speaking of which, I myself have two events coming up soon: Thursday night at 7:30 I will be reading original poetry at Logos Books on 2nd Street. And then Sunday at 1:30 I will be reading poetry at the Davis Cemetery and Arboretum’s “Celebration of Life.” Nestled between performances by the Bakuhatsu Taiko Dan Drummers and the Free Range Singers, I am hoping that my poems about the simultaneous ascension of James Brown and Gerald Ford will not be too anticlimactic. The Cemetery is home to the only natural hill in Davis, I believe: definitely worth surmounting.
Are you also working on a book? Tell me more!
Tonight’s Quiz will feature questions on books, vocabulary words, rocks, The Atlantic, topical witches, mad hatters, interest in police, categories of performances, the bad habits of baseball players, air, lawsuits, Ebola, homophobia, the possibility of awards in six categories, foundlings, something that is not owned by Jay-Z, imitation games, people named Benjamin, the tropics, gladiators and their friends, threshing in ruby fedoras (anagram bait), queens, railroads, executive parties, US citizens, seemingly donut organisms, David Letterman, hall of famers, buddies that are not worth watching, ceremonies, current events, popular groups of consumables, and Shakespeare.
I hope that you get to consume part of a good book today. I look forward to seeing you and your team at 7.
Your Quizmaster
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Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:
- Mottos and Slogans. What product available today used the 2009 slogan “Open Happiness” and the 1906 slogan “The Great National Temperance Beverage”?
- Trending on Twitter. What former cast-member of the TV show Cheers was briefly trending on Twitter last week?
- Pop Culture – Music. “Shut up and Dance” is a big hit from a band that derives its name from the song “Walking on the BLANK” by The Police. Fill in the blank.
- Four for Four. Which of the following Americans, if any, were Civil War generals for the Union side? General Ambrose Burnside, General Stonewall Jackson, General George McClellan, General William Tecumseh Sherman.
- Great Americans. What independent US Senator from Vermont announced his candidacy for US President last week?