Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
This newsletter contains a beginning, two sustaining middles, and an ending. Keep reading to see what I mean.
After sitting in the first two of five campus executive interviews this morning, I was released into the bright California air to write and send you this newsletter. Walking to my office, I encountered two large wagons fitted with a half-dozen occupied toddler seats each. The young ones in their floppy sun hats were facing outward so they could watch the scrub jays and the undergraduates racing by on their bicycles. The college-aged women in charge of this daycare field trip were singing songs in unison and pointing out the wonders of the day.
Mounting my bike early this morning, I felt a similar kind of exuberance after a speedy reunion. My fast bike had been in the shop for what felt like two months (with parts having been ordered from China). After meandering around town in a lugubrious rental for the last several weeks, I got my bike back for today’s commute and felt the way that Wall-E must have felt when, in one of the opening scenes of his film, he replaces his treads with those salvaged from one of his fallen comrades. With access to the necessary technology, he rebuilt himself, and his joy could be gleaned from his tone of voice! That’s how I felt today. Having hit all the lights, and pedaling hard on my favorite noble steed, I made it to campus from our south Davis home in the time it took to play a single Black Eyed Peas extended dance mix.
I’ve come to depend upon my bike (thanks, B&L Bike Shop – I prefer the word “and” to an ampersand, but I realize that “&” is part of your branding), just like the community of Davis, and many nichy communities outside of Davis, depend upon radio station KDVS, a campus resource that turns 50 years old this year. For the last 18+ of those years, I have hosted Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour on Wednesday afternoons at 5, a favorite unpaid gig that allows me to interview all sorts of thought leaders and creative professionals.
Well, the spring KDVS fundraiser takes place this week, and I am hoping that you will phone in a tax-deductible pledge this coming Wednesday afternoon at 5 or 5:30 at the phone number 530-754-KDVS. With your help, I hope to raise a thousand dollars for the station. Small gifts matter significantly, for they will give my co-hosts and me a chance to ring the bell and thank a donor over the air. Your gift will help me sustain my energy, and together we will help to sustain one of the last free-form radio stations left in the United States. It’s the only place outside of the Pub Quiz where you can hear me talk about compute electronics, space programs, architecture, and Sherlock Holmes, as well as introduce a bunch of local and faraway poets. If you decide to donate online, make sure to check out the premiums, and to direct your donation to support Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour. But mostly I hope you can phone in Wednesday between 5 and 6. Perhaps you should tell your phone or home speaker to set an alarm now.
Tonight at the Pub Quiz I will fête and bid farewell to my longtime work friend Steve, an amazing artist, illustrator, and cartoonist who will both be celebrating a momentous birthday today, and will be working his last day, after 29 years, at Academic Technology Services. I admire Steve highly, and am touched that his goodbye party will overlap with the Pub Quiz. As a result, tonight’s quiz will be a bit easier than typical, for I want my work friends to feel especially prepared to participate in Dr. Andy’s Monday night hobby. If you wish, feel free to stop by Steve’s table tonight to wish him well.
Speaking of questions, tonight expect questions on topics raised above, as well as on rural purges, Yukon adventures, famous pairings, words that start with vowels, scandal anniversaries, successful comedians, musical instruments, chemistry softballs, global events, domestic magic, adrenaline junkies, ambitious Americans, inventive doctors, Oscar nominees, privacy enthusiasts, long lists, TV shows I actually watched, withdrawals, integrated circuits, immigration statistics, flautists, nearby frontiers, people who are full of love, fuel and fiber, California powerhouses, empty storefronts, Steves not named Rick, the finest of shrapnel, famous daughters, people who name things after themselves, people whose names are mispronounced, common sense, bio-engineering projects, musical talk, and Shakespeare.
Thanks to the almost 50 people who came to Thursday’s poetry reading, including some new folks visiting from Pub Quiz. As with all things, we are building momentum. Happy National Poetry Month!
See you tonight, and I look forward to hearing from you Wednesday at 5.
Your Quizmaster
https://www.yourquizmaster.com
http://www.facebook.com/yourquizmaster
yourquizmaster@gmail.com
Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:
- Books and Authors. What word did the first line of T.S. Eliot’s most famous poem “The Waste Land” use to describe April?
- Film. What actor appeared in films with the titles Black Panther, Fantastic Four, and Fruitvale Station?
- Taxes. As of 2019, what is the standard deduction for single tax filers in the United States? Is it $6,000, $12,000, $18,000, or $24,000?
P.S. “You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late.” Ralph Waldo Emerson