Time Magazine Person of the Year

It is a gross understatement to say that I had a big surprise last week. Time Magazine has named me "Person of the Year". I am honored to be amongst so many notables. The first "Man of the Year" was Charles Lindbergh in 1927. In 1999 the more politically and gender-correct "Person of the Year" was named. Ironically the person that year was a man, Jeff Bezos founder of amazon.com.

I looked over the list and there are some interesting and surprising recipients of this non-academic and non-objective award. F.D.R. was named three times. Hitler and Stalin went back-to-back in '38 and '39. There's been a variety of world leaders, Popes and peacemakers.

I had to do a bit of Wikipedia research to find out about these previous "winners".

Owen D. Young: An American industrialist, businessman, lawyer and diplomat at the Second Reparations Conference (SRC) in 1929, as a member of the German Reparations International Commission. He is best known for his SRC diplomacy and for founding in 1919 of RCA. Young became its first chairman and continued in that position until 1929.

Pierre Laval: Was a French politician and four times Prime Minister of France. For his role in Vichy France during WWII, he was found guilty of high treason and executed after the war. Today, Pierre Laval is generally remembered in France as a traitor.

Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh the prime minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953. He was twice appointed to office by the Shah of Iran. Mossadegh was a nationalist and passionately opposed foreign intervention in Iran. He was also the architect of the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry which was dominated and exploited by the British through BP.

He was later removed from power by the Shah, in a CIA orchestrated coup, supported and funded by the British and the U.S. governments. The coup was led by CIA agent Kermir Roosevelt Jr., the grandson of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.

Interesting tidbits... no? I was intrigued by the number of times that the Person of the Year was actually a group or an abstract. In 1950 it was the American Fighting Man. In 1960 it was U.S. Scientists. 1975 was American Women, and in 1982 it was The Computer. Funny how none of us actually owned computers in 1982. Oh yeah there were a few TRS-80's and Osborne "portables", but not for us regular folk. In 2006 the PC is ubiquitous. This is the year of the PC.

I will gladly give up my Person of the Year honor to my laptop. I still have time to earn it with just my name on it. Oh yeah, congratulations to you too!