Trivia Advent Calendar

[L Verge]

Wonderful - we have a clear winner tonight, three first places, and six winners altogether - to me every participant is a winner (as "dabeisein ist alles" - "it's the taking part that counts"!)

Laurie 9
Joe 9
Roger 9
Gene 8
Thomas 3
Rogerm 2

Kudos, Roger is correct - this was the Bushes' tree (and I took the liberty to make the color a bit more neutral):

"George and Barbara Bush invited their children and grandchildren to celebrate Christmas in the White House in 1990. The special theme for Christmas that year was the "Nutcracker Suite." There were nearly fifty trees in the White House, but the tree that featured the Nutcracker was special - it was decorated with 50 pairs of ballet slippers and 40 dancers along with assorted ornaments from the White House collection."
http://www.hoover.archives.gov/exhibits/...index.html
(Please click on Bush!)

Finally I'd like to learn which questions you liked/enjoyed the most. Please decide on two and let me know (if possible plus a brief "why") - thanks!

A merry Xmas to you and yours, and perhaps this wonderful, brilliantly presented pas des deux from the nutcracker, featuring the great Rudolf Nureyew as the Prince, will make an atmospherical beginning:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CWVU-eZx6ZE

What a wonderful way to end the contest - sharing first place with two of my best friends - and courtesy of a dear friend, Eva. If I had been smart enough to enlarge the photo, I would have seen the ballerinas and had another clue to search for. A very fitting ending, Eva, since I suspect that you have danced in the Nutcracker in earlier years.

P.S. I don't think I have ever told you that one of my daughter's ballet teachers had danced under Mikhail Baryschnikov after he came to America.