Tis the season for shortlists: http://www.kobzarliteraryaward.com/ and it's pretty terrific to be included as part of this Ukrainian-Canadian dialogue. I'm looking forward to reading the other books on this shortlist, I have a feeling I'm in good company here.

Erasure Poems

How much fun is it to erase? To create a poem by slowly cutting away at the text? This website offers an interactive page that allows poems to emerge with the click of a mouse: http://www.wavepoetry.com/erasures/

At my workshop this week we used Shakespeare's sonnets, a great source text because there is a poem between every line, every word.

Result; erasure from sonnet 90

Then hate me. now

while the world is bent.

do not come in

not a windy night, a rainy morrow

leave me. petty griefs.

the very worst

of might. of woe

plans for the pub quiz

This week we may be preempted by a Habs game (go Habs) but if not I'll try the between periods approach I tested out during the IIHF world juniors. We'll see rounds based on theme suggestions I took last week: CanLit, NCAA sports teams, business & economics and the usual double point bonus round. Hope to see you out competing for the whiskey and the money, get points with yer pints.

Also I'm trying to put together a trivia podcast based on the pub quiz, which will hopefully be available soon.

Last weeks best question:

Q: What mythical creature is mentioned 9 times in the King James translation of the Bible?

A: Unicorn

Quizzing for a year

It's been just over a year since I took over hosting and quizmistress duties at Olde Orchard Monkland on Monday nights and I think I have smoothed out a lot of the wrinkles I began with. Wording the questions clearly and providing a wide range of topics is paramount in the success of any pub quiz. Nothing beats spending a monday night with friends pondering with their pints in a friendly neighborhood pub; cheers to 2011 and the trivial that will reveal itself this year.

so Here's a little round up:

Last week's best question:

Q: How many chambers does a camel’s stomach have?

A: 3

best team name: The Sovereign Republic of Triviastan