Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
I can think of at least two kinds of intimate conversations that good friends would rather not be present to see. Good friends want neither to hear one speak ill of one’s spouse – to complain unduly about the one to whom one has committed a life – nor to hear one proclaim repeatedly on the subject of one’s unadulterated love, for such cloying sweetness can make a listener uncomfortable.
Having attended a funeral service over the weekend, I realize that we speak in such strong and loving terms during the one time they know that the beloved can’t be there to hear it. Is that fair? Shouldn’t we be more transparent and ready with our expressions of fondness, and as often as possible? Many of us remain taciturn, or at least circumspect.
When it comes to publicly shared expressions of romantic love, one thinks of ridiculous celebrities who contact the media before proposing to their girlfriends in AT&T Park, or of fictional characters who are presented as sappy and ludicrous in their silly affections. You might remember this bit of dialogue from the “Soup Nazi” episode of Seinfeld:
GEORGE: Well, I gotta go back there [to the Soup Nazi’s soup shop] and try again. Hi Sheila.
SHEILA: Hi. Hi shmoopy.
JERRY: Hi shmoopy.
SHEILA: No, you’re a shmoopy!
JERRY: You’re a shmoopy!
GEORGE: I’m going.
After Sheila and Jerry break up, the truth comes out:
GEORGE: All right. I am happy, and I’ll tell ya why — because the two of you were making me and every one of your friends sick! Right, Elaine?
(Elaine sneaks out of Jerry’s apartment)
JERRY: Is that so?
GEORGE: Yeah. Yeah. With all that kissing and the shmoopy, shmoopy, shmoopy, shmoopy, shmoopy out in public like that. It’s disgusting!
JERRY: Disgusting?
GEORGE: People who do that should be arrested.
Indeed, people rightfully clear the room when lovers start talking like that. Boundaries of decorum and privacy and public displays of affection must be respected, we think.
That said, my wife Kate’s birthday is today, and I brim with affection for her. I’ve written long poems on the subject, poems which I am wisely choosing not to share here. Nevertheless, Facebook has taught me to over-share, and my son with special needs has taught me not to be embarrassed. The result is my proclivity to proclaim my deep affection for Kate to whomever would listen, and to many who would choose not to. In addition to a lifetime of commitment, what better birthday present can I offer her than that?
If you are reading this, Kate, notice how I am making all the readers of the newsletter endure proclamations such as this one: Happy birthday! I love you. Expect to be embarrassed yourself by one or two of my questions tonight at the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz. I hope your table for six enjoys the spectacle.
The rest of you can look forward to enjoying Pub Quiz questions on the following topics. Celebrities in their 30s, numbers that are rounded off to the nearest billion, royal families, people named Jackson, unique visitors, philosophers, apprentices, women on the dance floor, unusually long careers, people who call each other “Bro,” great presidents and their families, commercial ports, hospitals, weekdaily shows, total wrecks, Norwegians, cheese contests, nebulae, that steamy car on the Titanic, beloved wives, classic British novels, deserted islands, coming of age, the Irish diaspora, American place names that are stolen from European place names, what we can do with faraway planets, people whose initials are the same as those of their home states, endurance, comparative literature, reptiles, and Shakespeare.
See you tonight at 7 at 217 E Street in Davis! And I hope to see you Thursday night for Kim Stanley Robinson performance at the John Natsoulas Gallery.
Your Quizmaster
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Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:
1. Mottos and Slogans: Candy. According to its commercial slogan, “At work, rest and play, you get three great tastes in” what specific kind of candy bar? Bill Murray knew the answer on the classic album That’s Not Funny, That’s Sick!
2. Internet Culture. What is the name of the most popular mobile app that lets people take videos or pictures and send them to friends for a short period of time?
3. Newspaper Headlines. What country’s citizens were voting over the weekend in presidential elections that will bring to an end a decade in power for pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili, who once said, “Solidarity was the best thing which happened in the 20th century”?
4. Four for Four. Which of the following statements, if any, are true about Steve Lonegan, the Republican whom Cory Booker defeated to become the new Senator-elect from New Jersey? He’s legally blind, he’s a former Olympian; he was born in Bogotá, Colombia; he’s over seven feet tall. I have a hint for you if you didn’t score in the top ten last week. Hint provided to some tables: Only one of these is true.
6. Pop Culture – Classical Music. There is one French composer and pianist whose pieces are so light that to listen to them is like raising a kite on the back of a gentle zephyr. Name the composer whose name is an anagram of the common phrase RAISE KITE. Like Socrates, he provided this advice: Postulez en vous-même.
P.S. This coming Thursday at 8 PM at the John Natsoulas Gallery lovers of fine prose will be in for a treat. The multi award-winning science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson will be reading from his new book, Shaman. About this book, Robinson has said this: “[Shaman] has been part of the project all along for me — this science fictional project of what is humanity. What are we? What can we expect to become? How do we use technology? Is there a utopian future possible for us? In all of these questions, it becomes really important [to understand] how we evolved to what we are now and what we were when we were living the life that grew us as human beings in the evolutionary sense.”
Robinson will be reading with occasional de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz participant Andy Stewart, the Davis author whose “Wormwood is Also a Star” appeared as the cover story in a recent issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Starting off the Open Mic at 9 PM Thursday will be a performance by The Spokes, the incredibly talented a cappella group that has previously performed during halftime of the Pub Quiz. Culture abounds in this city of Davis, and you really should participate.
P.P.S. Happy Birthday also to Shakuntala Devi, the mathematician who wrote one of the first substantive arguments that India should decriminalize homosexuality. She died this year at 83.