Health & Fitness
The Productive Pomodoro Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter
Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
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I’ve agreed to give a talk at the University of the Pacific Second Annual Conference on Creative Writing. Organized by Davis resident and University of the Pacific professor Scott Evans, this conference features presentations by many of northern California’s most accomplished and innovative writers, including New York Times bestseller James Rollins, local television journalist and devoted dad Sam Shane, and Pub Quiz regular John Lescroart, whose new novel The Keeper will be released tomorrow, May 6. I hope you have reserved your copy, as I have.
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At the Conference I will be speaking on a subject that I’ve researched and practiced often, but presented on rarely: personal productivity. Here’s how it will read in the program:
Productivity Lessons from High-Performing Authors and Thought Leaders
“This session will sample some of the theories and practices of productivity gurus such as David Allen, Seth Godin, and Tim Ferriss. We will discuss maintaining focus, eliminating distractions, and meeting deadlines. Participants in this session will learn the meanings of terms such as GTD, Pomodoro, the Four-Hour Workweek and the 10-Minute Hack.”
Does that sound enticing? The organizers of the conference picked this and a social media platform presentation from the six options that I presented them. Funny that my PhD in English and 25 years of university teaching are evidently less valuable to aspiring writers than what I’ve learned about productivity and social media marketing over the last decade.
Are your most valuable skills the ones you were schooled in, as it were?
Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions about current events, first base jogs, web browsers (again with the web browsers), Romantic poets, Jimmy Stewart, the 1970s, American rivers, human rights (unfair, I realize), divisive holidays, garbage, blondes, Nyle C. Brady & Ray R. Weil’s 2009 book Elements of the Nature and Properties of Soils, Emmy-winning shows, 30 pounds of muscle, moving in a circle, people named Zachary, rooflessness, Semisweet inns (sounds like an anagram), percentage jumps, sequels, big cities, power, divisible integers, independents, Wordsworth, iPods, books about books, mechanical devices, literary prize-winners, American rallying teams, Alan Rickman, salads, the volume of gas, and Shakespeare.
Tomorrow night’s John Lescroart book release party, complete with wine and food and live music, will take place at the Odd Fellow’s Hall at 6:30 p.m. As with the Pub Quiz, I encourage you to come early to reserve a seat. John always puts on a good show, and the critics love his new Dismas Hardy book, The Keeper.
Meanwhile, I hope you will join us tonight for some trivial fun!
Your Quizmaster
- Mottos and Slogans. The only major sportswear brand without a slogan is a German company named after a genus of large cat. Name the brand.
- Newspaper Headlines. A surprising announcement revealed what about George Clooney yesterday?
- Complete the Quotation. The saying that “BLANK is a good walk spoiled” is often attributed to Mark Twain. What one-syllable word completes the quotation?
- Pop Culture – Music. Only four named bands were among the top 15 highest-grossing musical acts of 2013. Name just one of them.
- Sports. Fill in the blank from the FIFA.com website: “A match is played by two teams, each consisting of not more than BLANK players, one of whom is the goalkeeper.” Fill in the blank.
P.S. UC Davis professor Joe Wenderoth is reading at the Black Box Theatre / Lab A at Celeste Turner Wright Hall (the UC Davis Theatre Building) this coming Thursday night at 8. Parental discretion advised.
P.P.S. Did you see that last week’s newsletter appeared later Monday evening in the Sacramento Bee?
