Now that it's 2007, maybe all the fuss about me being selected Time's Person of the Year will slow up.  Not that it hasn't been fun, but there's always a down side.  For one thing, I don't care for the cover photo at all.

I do feel the need to reciprocate, though, in my small way, so here are my picks for 2006.  Sure, I could have made my list a few weeks ago, like everyone else did, but look at the stuff they missed.  Saddam hanging.  Gerald Ford dying.  All sorts of bad weather.  The Seattle-Tampa Bay game.  Dumb, if you ask me.

So, here's my list, my personal, my-opinion-only choices for people who got my attention, one way or the other.

SHOW BUSINESS.  I was tempted to choose Brittany Spears as my loser in this category, simply by virtue of her questionable parenting class attendance and those public pelvic exams, but frankly I'm not really sure who she is.  I think maybe she sings.

So the award goes to Tom Cruise, who apparently felt the need to fill the huge vacuum left by the self-imposed absence of Michael Jackson.  From the couch jumping to the Brooke Shields bashing, from marathon wedding kisses to veiled threats again a cartoon show, Tom seemed to be trying to make the case against his own Scientology-inspired philosophy.  That is, maybe medication, for some people, isn't such a bad idea. 

The winner?  "Dreamgirls" didn't arrive in theaters until Christmas Day, but buzz had already started about Eddie Murphy's performance, and an Oscar nomination seems a shoe-in.  Note to Tom: This is an example of what some of us call "talent."  Go Eddie.

POLITICS.  The loser here is John McCain, the Republican that Democrats loved to like.  The Straight Talk Express got a little derailed this year, as the distinguished Arizona senator lowered his own bar, or so it seemed to some of us.  In fairness, maybe he really IS buddies with Jerry Falwell.  Maybe he really DID think John Kerry (loser runner-up, by the way) insulted the troops.  Maybe he really DOES want to be President.  You think?

The winner (big surprise) has to be the junior senator from Illinois, Barack "Middle Name Deleted" Obama.  He doesn't exactly have Clinton's style, Gore's resume, Kerry's record or Bush's connections, and it looks like this is all a good thing.  He's young, smart, charming and not Hillary, and so far he's been pretty impressive.  We'll know sooner or later whether Mr. Obama has ambition, but in a year of big elections and lots of new names, this was his.

RELIGION.  He had the ear of the President of the United States, and the phone number of a male prostitute.  Ted Haggard was a rising star in the evangelical Christian world, or at least the part of it that likes to get on TV, and his fall from grace was about as painful a public moment as I've seen in recent years.  Watching this man graciously lie to an intrusive TV reporter while his wife and kids looked on was a sad sight.  Hypocrisy is a fault many of us suffer from and deal with, but thankfully we manage to keep it off the evening news.

In contrast, Jay Bakker, the 31-year-old son of Tammy Faye and Jim, those icons of 80s Christian corruption, is a breath of fresh air.  Featured in the Sundance Channel's documentary, "One Punk Under God," Bakker's Revolution Church and outreach ministry stresses reconciliation, tolerance, non-judgmental Christian love, and a rejection of the easy alliance of politics and religion.  Did I mention something about a breath of fresh air?

COMMENTARY:  Rush Limbaugh is the premiere radio talk show host in the country, like him or not, and he should have known better.  Michael J. Fox's campaign ad for Missouri senatorial candidate Claire McCaskill was striking, sad and perhaps to some theatrical, but it wasn't "purely an act" as Limbaugh stated (and proceeded to demonstrate for the camera).  Ten minutes with Mr. Google would have introduced him to the term "dyskinesia."  McCaskill won a close race, and noted that contributions increased dramatically after the rush to judgment.

Donald Trump annoys me, so Rosie O'Donnell was an easy winner for me in this category.  She found it ironic, shall we say, that The Donald would set himself up as a moral compass for a beauty contest winner on her first trip to New York, and with a quick hair flip and some nice Brooklynese, Ro gave a spot-on imitation on "The View" that didn't sit well with Mr. T.  I almost pity the fool. 

Which prompted, by the way, my quote of the year, coming from Ms. O'Donnell's 7-year-old son.  "Mama," he said, "Kyle heard on the radio that you are in a fight with a dump truck!"

Actually, I think I'll call Kyle a winner, too.