Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
Although I try to keep the Pub Quiz and these newsletters light, sometimes a question or two will cover a substantive or darker subject. Tonight’s pub quiz, for instance, will ask a question about obesity, a topic of concern, especially for everyone who is not among the 31.2% of American adults age 20 or older who are normal weight or underweight.
That exception aside, I prefer for the Pub Quiz to be a blithe and casual affair. I see the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz as an escape just as much as I hope you do. My plan is to provide you the right sort of challenge, an opportunity to put your phones away for a couple hours, and enough humor and discovery sprinkled in to help you connect with your teammates and reflect upon what we all understand about the world.
Sometimes we desperately need such an escape, or so my son Jukie reminded me recently. As you may know from my book Where’s Jukie? and from seeing me on the streets of Davis, I have a son with a significant disability, one that is manifested in Jukie’s unusual appearance, his excitable behavior, and his extreme laconism: He hasn’t spoken a word in more than a decade.
As Kate has written about recently, we see Jukie as a blessing, as our reminder of how brave, compassionate, and loving we should try to be. The challenges that Jukie faces, and those he brings to our family, have strengthened our familiar unit, and taught our “bookend” kids some of those same lessons about humanity and empathy. As is the case with everyone in our home, we also love him like crazy.
Because I usually focus on Jukie while Kate attends to the needs of the other two kids, and because I have taken him on all his medical trips (to the NIH and Oregon Health and Science University, for example), Jukie usually behaves better for me than he does for anyone else. After years of interpreting his needs and providing him the right kinds of rewards, I have come to expect excellent behavior when I take Jukie out on adventures, such as to poetry readings, movies, and even plays. He usually obliges both his parents with excellent behavior.
This past Friday, however, Jukie was having none of it. Puberty has been strengthening the boy’s frame, his will, and his excitability. As Jukie became more and more agitated over dinner at our favorite Davis restaurant, I took it upon myself to take him out for a walk so he could calm down and not disturb the meal of the other six of us who were enjoying our veggie burgers, Dr. Andy salads, and other de Vere’s delicacies.
I’m glad I trusted my instincts. Jukie did need to be removed, for as soon as we got to the parking lot across the street, he tried to bite me, he scratched up my arms, scratched up my face while ripping my glasses off, and then purposefully broke the glasses in half. In such a situation, my job is to keep Jukie from hurting me, himself, or others, while also restraining him in such a way that he remains unharmed from our tussle. I must have done a good job, for my unscathed beloved boy eventually calmed down, choosing to clap his hands together as loud as he could, instead of continuing to clap me with his furious blows.
One of Jukie’s teachers happened to be walking by, asked if I needed any help, and then asked if she could fetch me some napkins at Baskin Robbins to help absorb the blood that was running down my face. Isn’t that a nice way to start the weekend?
I thanked the kind woman and told her that I would be fine, but that it was time for Jukie and me to walk home. Like almost everyone else, Jukie doesn’t get enough exercise, and I knew that a three mile walk home would ensure that he would be too fatigued to attack anyone else at the end of the day.
The moral of the story was actually explored back at the Pub during my blind hike home. Kate pointed out to one of our favorite servers, Pedro, that I had to leave because I was helping Jukie deal with his aggression and pent-up energy. With more candor than she usually shares with a server in a restaurant, Kate explained that our many visits to de Vere’s Irish Pub represent a respite from our chaotic and challenging life with an unpredictable kid with special needs. We appreciate the chance to step away from our responsibilities, to have someone take care of us, and to converse over healthy and delicious salads, and a glass of wine.
Shakespeare’s King Henry in Henry VI, part 3 says, “Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.” We have followed the king’s advice, even though our life with Jukie has always been more sweet than sour. But sometimes one wishes for an escape from such adversity, an interval of liquid culture and gustatory delight such as what one can enjoy at the Irish Pub.
And our regular server Pedro makes this reprieve possible. Perhaps it is because we are such regulars, but never before have I met a restaurant employee who does such an expert and prescient job of anticipating our needs, noticing empty glasses that need refills, or suggesting exactly the new food or beverage that would delight Kate’s palate. What’s more, Pedro always approaches us with the sort of humor, patience, and attentiveness that we might expect from a close friend. A patient and smiling listener, Pedro was the perfect audience for Kate’s unloading of the heavy story of this newsletter.
I’m deeply grateful to the exemplary service that we receive from all the servers and barkeeps at de Vere’s Irish Pub, Davis, but I hope that tonight you will join me in following the imperative espoused by Napoleon Dynamite: Vote for Pedro.
In addition to something mentioned above, tonight’s Pub Quiz will include questions on the following topics: office furniture, tofu, names other than Raphael or Clarence, penguins, old pipes, alleles, stadia, a long trip to China (sp?), fishermen, Greek singles, Iowa, international transparency, dense tropical foliage, hunger, U.S. presidents, short conversations with mountains, Chicago, disavowing racism, people born with a bell, uniting with do-gooders, nuns that are uncharted, African-American culture, celebrities whom I would not recognize in a police lineup, televised hats, films that are unwatchable (if not unwatched), mirrors and waterskis, Sacramento heroes, old sports, ogres that score bogeys in bonus anagrams, Davis, shades, changing minds back, cannabis, little angels, gardens, people not known by the middle name of Alan, football, and Shakespeare.
Speaking of shades, shades come up in a poem I published this morning titled “The Polls” in the People’s Vanguard of Davis. Indirectly, one can find a clue there, as well. Tomorrow night I get to read an original love poem / blues lyric at the Davis City Council. What fun!
I hope you can join us this evening for the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz. We will have one New York Times best-selling author there, and perhaps more than one.
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Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:
- World Deserts. The Atacama Desert is the driest non-polar desert in the world. On what continent is it found?
- American Cities that Share a Name with Streets in East Davis. About a ten-hour drive from Davis, California, the city of Layton is found in Davis County. Name the state.
- Pop Culture – Music. Who had big hits in 2015 with the songs “Cool for the Summer” and “Confident”?
P.S. This coming Thursday is Poetry Night in the city of Davis. I hope you will join me at 8 that night for Marit MacArthur and Matthew Woodman. Find details at http://www.poetryindavis.com. The after-party will take place Thursday at 10 at the Pub, the “third space” of Davis.