J. Michael Andresen

2. Groundhog (February 2) Punxatawney Phil is known as the world's most famous prognosticating rodent. On February 2, he emerges from his den and looks about. If he sees his shadow (which he did last year), it means six more weeks of winter. If he sees no shadow, it means an early spring. The number of total times Phil has seen each since the release of the movie  Groundhog Day  is indicated in parentheses. What will Punxatawney Phil see? a. His shadow (16) b. No shadow (6) Punxatawney Phil predicted an early spring this year. That means the answer to Question 2 of the 2016 Prognostication Quiz is b. No shadow . Hooray for early spring, but too bad for the 34 contestants who wanted more winter. Spring Springers Liz K. Grant M. Nadir Y. Ellen Y. Chris M. Dylan S. Zhiqi Q. Rachel F. Stuart P. Ramy Y. Valerie M. Katie M. 3. Football (February 7) The National Football League's Super Bowl is the most-watched television event each year. Will a top seed w

Welcome to the first post of the new Quiz! We have 46 contestants this year, up two from last  year. I look forward to an exciting year, hopefully with more death than the single celebrity nonagenarian we bagged last year. 1. Freedom Freedom House is an international organization that studies democracy and freedom in the world, publishing an annual report on how many countries it calculates to be free, partly free, or not free. The 2015 report calculated that 89 of the world’s 195 nations were free in 2014. Will freedom advance, stay stagnant, or retreat in this year’s report, covering 2014? Note: the nine  worst  free countries (with the highest likelihood of being downgraded) are Botswana, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Lesotho, Montenegro, and Peru. The fifteen  best  partly free countries (with the highest likelihood of being upgraded) are Albania, Bolivia, Ecuador, Georgia, Indonesia, Mexico, Moldova, Paraguay, Philippines, Seychelles, Sierra Leon