I was cleaning out my picture files, and came across this year old picture of the water heater anode from a TM we had just purchased. Wasn't sure what I'd find, but when I removed the old anode, I was surprised to see that there wasn't much left of the original (so it was doing its job!) Anyway, if you've never seen one before, this is what the anode looks like. The new replacement was about $9 as I recall.
I need to check the replacement to see how its fared after a year of use.
Nick