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December 14, 2005
Time Magazine's Person Of The Year: Mudge's Nominee
It's about that time of year again - when Time magazine announces its Person of the Year. We were talking at lunch the other day at the office about who it might be for 2005. (I could have sworn I'd already seen Time's Man of the Year cover... but then I realized it was just Ann Coulter.)
Anyway, as the discussion progressed, at least one end of the table quickly came to something of a consensus. So I'm not being entirely original in my nomination here -- to those Mudge readers who were at the table, don't go gettin' all uppity and snarking that I stole your idea, because I'm giving credit now that it's not entirely my thought (though I did come up with the original idea that led to our consensus). But in my mind, there's only one real choice for Time's Person of the Year for 2005:
Mother Nature.
The overwhelming thread that ties the biggest news stories of 2005 together is natural disasters. We began the year reeling from the impact of a devastating earthquake and the resulting tsunami in the Indian Ocean. More than 200,000 lost their lives, and we may never know exactly how many died. In late August, Hurricane Katrina -- one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico -- wiped a major American city of half a million people virtually completely off the map; New Orleans may never recover, and the US Gulf Coast along Mississippi and Alabama has been similarly devastated. A few weeks later, the fourth largest city in America, Houston (with a metropolitan area of about 4 million people), was virtually entirely evacuated in anticipation of similarly powerful Hurricane Rita. And in late October, a massive earthquake leveled areas of Pakistan and India, with estimates suggestion more than 100,000 lives lost.
One year. Millions of lives ended or forever changed. Four of the biggest stories of the entire decade. All related to weather or nature. Yeah, Mother Nature had herself quite a 2005. If the Person of the Year award goes to the individual who, for well or ill, impacted the news the most in the course of the preceding year, then Time has no choice but to designate Mother Nature as the 2005 "Person" of the Year.
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Comments
Well, I don't know who offered up this thought and called it their own, BUT the newsies and poopsmiths were already saying they thought that Katrina should be person of the year. And I wanted to vomit. Yes yes, I know they're trying to be all unique in making it not nec someone you like, it's just someone with influence and notoriety. But like, didn't they do that last year? With like... Saddam or something? How insensitive to say Katrina. We all know it happened, we all know it was devastating. People are still living with nothing but their grundles and a bucket of bacon, so why keep rubbing it in our buttholes?
Yeah, so mother nature I might actually not be so bristly about. Because, there is more breadth to that. Maybe instead of Mother Nature it should actually be "Global Warming" because really, I think all of this shit is happening because Mother Nature has a fever. And then next year the person of the year can be a collective "all you buttstamps who don't believe in Glabal Warming".
annnnnnn SCENE!
Posted by: thebeav at December 14, 2005 09:44 AM
Dang, I was hoping you'd nominate me. Oh well, maybe next year. I guess I'll have to end/alter millions of lives. That's going to be quite a hurdle for me to overcome considering I'm a pacifist.
Posted by: Ethan McCarty at December 14, 2005 10:28 AM
Or would they term it "God?"
I prefer "Mother Nature" myself but you never know what might sell more copies ;)
Posted by: eden at December 14, 2005 12:49 PM
so the group think of lunch the other day is suddenly "Mudge's Person of the Year"?
I verified that your nomination was Katrina......
:-)
Posted by: Marquette Hoops at December 14, 2005 12:57 PM
Yes, where were you last year when three Hurricanes ran through my neighborhood in a MONTH!.
Posted by: Corey at December 14, 2005 03:53 PM
Great post.
I agree, but I think that Time bases their selection on individuals who create influence, not a slew of natural occurrances. Not that I really have any idea how they vote, just a rumor mill spawning.
Isnt Philly the 4th largest city in the US?
Posted by: Cuzin Jose at December 15, 2005 07:19 AM
