Our “Times” (Magazine) … Reality Check

Originally posted by Lowell Qualls on May 2, 2008

What is wrong with this picture?

Time Magazine polled you, the public, and reported your picks of who you believe are the most influential people of our time, in order of impact and popularity.

The Number One Person?  Shigeru Miyamoto.  Who’s that, you ask?  Why, he’s the creator of Mario, Donkey King, and the Legend of Zelda … video games.

Surely you jest, you might be saying.  Nay, nay.  The Number Two most influential person on Time Magazine’s list of who’s whos?  Rain.  Not the water droplet rain, which, during drought conditions would easily be numero uno … but the 25-year-old Asian pop singer guy.  I kid you not.

I’ll give you the top ten, and some who made it on the list (with their numerical designation), and you tell me … via comments … how this list strikes you.

3.  Stephen Colbert – whom Time describes as “hands down the nimblist satirist on TV…”

4.  Heidi Klum – actress.

5.  Tyra Banks – supermodel and talk-show hostess.

6.  Tyler Perry – African-American producer/director.

7.  Neil DeGrasse Tyson – Astrophysicist, best selling author (Death By Black Hole), and director of a planetarium.

8.  Al Gore – former Vice President, global warming hope-so, and inventor of the Internet.

9.  Mike Huckabee – The Times editorial staff tried their best to be complimentary … but … well, you know, “Mike catered to fire-eaters and the flying of the ’stars-and-bars’” (an allusion to the Confederate Battle flag). Ha!

10.  George Clooney – Oscar nominated actor and “passionately involved in everything from Hollywood politics to Washington politics to world politics.”  A genius … he’s not.  But he’s a least as smart as Barbara Streisand and Rosie O’Donnell.

And the others??  Well, here goes.  (12) Tiger Woods, (13) Bono, (18.) Nelson Mandela, (25) Bill Gates, (27) Julia Roberts, (29) Chris Rock (I thought he’d be much higher), (38.) Warren Buffett, (49) Nancy Pelosi, and (53) Barack Obama (right there with) (54) Brad Pitt and (55) Vladimir Putin.  John McCain was #57.  (60)  Pope Benedict, (72) Britney Spears, (87) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the nutcase president of Iran, (95) Condoleezza Rice, and (100) Eli Manning, the hero quarterback of this year’s Super Bowl.  (101) is Kim Jong Il, the crazy dictator of North Korea, and he leads (105) troubled Rev. Jeremiah Wright.  (116) Hugo Chavez, the dictator of Venezuela is slightly more popular than Gen. David Petraeus, and a whole lot more popular (150) than Oprah Winfrey!  (That can’t be right!!)  (158.) President George W. Bush.  He’s more popular than Manny Ramirez (the hero of the Boston Red Sox), and look at this! (183) Hilary Clinton.  Oh, there’s got to be a mistake there!  And there’s good news for Hilary.  Coming in last on the list?  NO!  Not Bill.  The Dalai Lama (207).

Now, look at this cover, and tell me if you can’t pick up on who are the favorites of the Times staff.  Hmmm.

Well, you have to give them some credit.  They did put the three contenders for the US Presidency on the cover.  CAN YOU PICK THEM OUT.

(Hints – not the lady in red, or the guy with the glasses.  And it’s not the pretty black lady, or the Asian dude.  And cross the guy off the list that’s holding up the notebook computer.

There’s four left.  To be fair, I thought I’d leave in four, to make it exciting.)

Think about it!