The global HQ of Certification Magazine is in the United States, so our crack team will be absent today and tomorrow as we celebrate Thanksgiving. Among other things, all of us will be giving thanks for all of you, because we wouldn't be here without our loyal readers. We're especially grateful to everyone who took the time to weigh in during the soon-to-conclude Salary Survey.

As a token of our gratitude, we offer the following Thanksgiving Day quiz on the vitally important Thanksgiving topic of (drum roll, please) ... pie. (Yum!) We hope you enjoy a safe, fulfilling (naturally) and satisfying holiday weekend. Happy Thanksgiving!

Note: There will be no new content on Friday. Normal operations will resume on Monday.

1) The filling of what pie is made from the following list of ingredients? Ingredients: butter, sugar, cream, eggs, smidge of flour, dab of vanilla.

2) How many blackbirds are baked into the pie which becomes "a dainty dish to set before the king" in the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence?"

3) Which pie, according to legend, was brought back to Europe from China by the Venetian explorer Marco Polo?

4) Who wrote the savory couplet, "What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye, / What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?"

5) What noted Los Angeleno invented both the chiffon pie and the black bottom pie?

6) As noted in the regional anthem "Song of the South," what kind of pie "shut the mouth" of songwriter Bob McDill?

7) Where is the unincorporated community of Pie Town? Bonus: What type of pie is it named for?

8) What is the earliest known historical reference to pie?

9) What pie inspired the song written by John Kennedy Oswald of which he later declared, "I'm happy as a clam to have written a song that is still being played and still dug by so many people. It's hard enough to write a song, let alone one that sticks around."

10) How many pounds of canned pumpkin were needed to create the largest pumpkin pie ever made, a gargantuan creation 20 feet in diameter that weighed 3,699 pounds?



ANSWERS

1) Transparent pie. A regional delicacy from the heartland of the United States — Kentucky is believed to be where it originated — this delectable dessert is a favorite of actor (and Kentuckian) George Clooney.

2) 24. It it not known how the king's pastry chef was able to bake the pie without killing the blackbirds, which begin to sing after the pie is served to His Majesty.

3) Rhubarb pie. Rhubarb was widely cultivated by Chinese horticulturists for medicinal purposes; in China, rhubard is known as "the great yellow."

4) John Greenleaf Whittier. The lines are from Whittier's 1850 poem "The Pumpkin."

5) Monroe Boston Strause. Strause became known in his lifetime as The Pie King, and is also credited with having invented the graham cracker crust.

6) Sweet potato pie. Southern rockers Alabama turned McDill's ditty in a Billboard No. 1 (on the country music chart) in 1988.

7) New Mexico. Pie Town is located on U.S. Highway 60 in New Mexico's Catron County, and had a population of 186 in 2010. Pie Town takes its name from a popular (now defunct) bakery noted for its dried-apple pie.

8) A Sumerian tablet dated prior to 2000 B.C. contains what is believed to be a recipe for chicken pie.

9) Cherry pie. The late Oswald, known during his rock career as Jani Lane, wrote the song "Cherry Pie" for his band, Warrant, in just 15 minutes.

10) 1,212. In addition to more than a half-ton of canned pumpkin, the pie required 109 gallons of evaporated milk, 2,796 eggs, 7 pounds of salt, 14.5 pounds of cinnamon, and 525 pounds of sugar. It was created Sept. 25, 2010, at the New Bremen Pumpkinfest in New Bremen, Ohio.