2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 1

Boys, and Girls, Ladies, and Gentlemen, and Anyone in Transition,

I know that a great many of you have no doubt been waiting in breathless anticipation for the start of this year’s second annual Advent Calendar Quiz (ha!). With a mere 340 days since our last quiz question, I am sure you are all well rested and ready to roll.

So in the

words of big John McCarthy, “Let’s get it on”.

Firstly, an overview:

· For each of the first 25 days of December, I will email out a quiz question for you to ponder.

· The first correct response that I receive via email for a given question will yield a prize/goodie. As with last year, each correct answer will give a person a free drink of their choice, paid for by yours truly. I will make every effort to buy said drink(s) in 2010, even for those for those of you who are far afield. So, in essence, you may be helping to govern my travel plans for 2010.

o 2010 Update: In 2009, drinks were cashed in in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Toronto, and Vancouver, but opportunities were missed for Bali and Singapore.

o 2010 Update #2: This year I am also offering a $50 gift certificate from a book retailer in your country of residence.

· If no correct answers are received for a given day’s question, the prize will carry over to the next day and will be added to that day’s prize. In short, the longer we go without a correct answer, more drinks to be awarded when a correct answer is ultimately provided.

· I will announce the previous day’s winner when the next question goes out. If you want to submit a pic and/or description of yourself to gloat and/or amuse the rest of the participants, feel free to do so. It will help bring about competition, so naturally, self-deprecating versions are preferred.

o 2010 Update – I may create fake bios if so inclined J

· The field again varies wildly in terms of education, ethnicity, age, and background, I have tried to build questions from a variety of subject areas, and have also tried to create questions that are not easily Googled.

o 2010 Update – Google is becoming more and more powerful, so this will be harder for me!

· Questions will be sent out at all times of the day to avoid Blackberry users in Vancouver from having a leg up.

· If you don’t want to receive the remainder of the Advent Calendar Quiz questions, just let me know, and don’t worry, I will take no offence.

· If you have an alternate email address that you would prefer that I use, please let me know.

· If you want someone added to the list, just let me know.

And with that covered, here we go with Question #1, an easy one to get things started.

What is pictured in the attached image?