Time Magazine Person of the Year:

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2003-12-22 05:54am

Joe wrote:As far as the American soldier not being a singular person, this isn't the first time this has been done. In 1951 (or 50? I forget) the American Fighting Man was given the distinction; later on, the Scientist, the Middle American, the American Women, the Computer, and even the Planet itself were all named Person of the Year. So this is something TIME has been doing for years.

I wonder if The Stereotypical Grey Alien also got the award.

Companion Cube · Post by **Companion Cube** » 2003-12-22 01:37pm

Joe wrote:
As far as the American soldier not being a singular person, this isn't the first time this has been done. In 1951 (or 50? I forget) the American Fighting Man was given the distinction; later on, the Scientist, the Middle American, the American Women, the Computer, and even the Planet itself were all named Person of the Year. So this is something TIME has been doing for years.

The planet got an award?

I mean, it's nice to have gravity and a breathable atmosphere, but isn't that a bit much?

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2003-12-22 02:17pm

Last year it was three whistleblowing women. I forget who they are, but they shouldn't have been on a magazine cover.

Mayabird · Post by **Mayabird** » 2003-12-23 11:59am

CaptainChewbacca wrote:Last year it was three whistleblowing women. I forget who they are, but they shouldn't have been on a magazine cover.

They were the whistleblowers from Enron and I think Tyco. I'm not quite sure how that worked, since nobody listened to them until AFTER everybody knew what was going on.

But I do know that a few years ago Time had an online vote for Person of the Year, and the person who was by far in the lead (with over 35% of the vote) was a "student" named George P. Burdell. Probably the reason why they don't do online polls anymore.

(PS if anybody wants the full story on George P. let me know. It's really funny.

)

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2003-12-23 01:02pm

It was the FBI Whistleblower, Colleen Rowley, and the whistleblowers from Enron and WorldCom, whose names I do not recall.

The Cleric · Post by **The Cleric** » 2003-12-23 02:54pm

Mayabird wrote:
CaptainChewbacca wrote:Last year it was three whistleblowing women. I forget who they are, but they shouldn't have been on a magazine cover.
They were the whistleblowers from Enron and I think Tyco. I'm not quite sure how that worked, since nobody listened to them until AFTER everybody knew what was going on.

But I do know that a few years ago Time had an online vote for Person of the Year, and the person who was by far in the lead (with over 35% of the vote) was a "student" named George P. Burdell. Probably the reason why they don't do online polls anymore.

(PS if anybody wants the full story on George P. let me know. It's really funny. )

I want to know!!!

And horray for American soldiers!!!

Mayabird · Post by **Mayabird** » 2003-12-24 04:03pm

StormTrooperTR889 wrote:
Mayabird wrote:
But I do know that a few years ago Time had an online vote for Person of the Year, and the person who was by far in the lead (with over 35% of the vote) was a "student" named George P. Burdell. Probably the reason why they don't do online polls anymore.

(PS if anybody wants the full story on George P. let me know. It's really funny. )
I want to know!!!

And horray for American soldiers!!!

George P. Burdell is the epitome of the career student; he has been a "student" at Georgia Tech since 1927. He's a huge insider joke and prank. The marching band pages him at football games and anywhere else we happen to be (I paged him at Hartsfield Airport once). We also order magazine subscriptions, credit cards, priesthood certificates (yes, one of the seniors last year made him Rev. Burdell), and all kinds of freebies in his name.

For the official story:
George's Story

I have a link for a good screenshot of the vote for Burdell, but I'm not on my computer right now so I don't have it. This is the best I could find (and I apologize for the lack of quality):
Really Small Crappy Picture

As for the story of that rigged online poll, the same guy who made him Rev. Burdell saw the poll and thought, "We can vote for it?" So he wrote in "George P. Burdell" and kept voting until the last person on the list (who happened to be Jesus of Nazareth) was knocked off the list. Then he informed the band header, and many auto-vote scripts were written.

Rumor has it that the Time Magazine people who set up the online poll were so pissed that they sent an angry letter to Tech to find the people who wrote the scripts and punish them. However, since some of the Computer Science profs had gotten involved in the vote-rigging by the time the letter was written, the letter was simply ignored. Don't know if the part about the profs is true, but that's what I've heard.