Who's Who News Review

Sooo...
As promissed here's the quiz we used for "table topics" at our Holiday party for the Gazette gang. See if you can work through it without cheating and googling the answers. It's ok to make up answers if you just don't know, matter of fact that was a BIG part of the fun, we had with this thing!!! (No pressure - this is more about fun than facts!)
=)
I'll post the real answers, along with the site I got them from, in a couple days:

Working at a newspaper, we work in an information industry, during a time that's been labeled the 'information age' - how much do we really absorb / pay attention to?

Here are some personalities that may not have been universally famous before the year 2006, but which, nonetheless, became famous by making national and international headlines last year. (For an example: Barbaro - The 2006 Kentucky Derby winner who broke his leg in the Preakness)

Here are the names - what was the story?

1. Claude Allen: President Bush's fromer top domestic adviser, arrested in March - charged with stealing around $5000 worth of merchandise, (ranging from $2.50 items up to home-theater systems) from stores & then returning the products. Plead guilty (in August to a plea agreement) to a misdemeanor count of theft. Allen is to pay $500 fine and $850 restitution to Target.

2. Michelle Bachelet: Chilean doctor and public official, was elected president January 06, becoming Chile's first woman leader. She is a survivor of the Pinochet dictatorship, which was responsible for her father's death & subjected her to prison, torture, and exile.

3. Jill Carroll: Freelance reporter for the Christian Science Monitor, was kidnapped at gun point in January in Baghdad, held for 82 days by a group demanding the United States release all Iraqi women prisoners. She was freed in late March.

4. Sacha Baron Cohen: Actor/Comedian - Best known as Comical fake TV interviewer "Borat". As Borat he starred in the movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006).

5. Isabelle Dinoire: Frenchwoman who received the world's first place transplant, appeared at a news conference in February; answering questions about her injuries, explaining that after passing out from taking drugs, her dog chewed her lips, nose, and chin...

6. Taylor Hicks: Singer/Talent Show Contestant Best known as the "Soul Patrol" winner of American Idol 2006.

7. Rev. Ted Haggard: Evangelical minister from Colorado, resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals in November, after Michael Jones, a gay escort, said he had a 3 year affair with him and gave him drugs. Haggard, who has been a liaison to the White House, initally denied the allegations, but later said he had hired Jones ot give him a massage. He also said he bought methamphetamine from Jones, but never used the drug.

8. John Mark Karr: Schoolteacher, was arrested in Bangkok in August in connection with the 1996 murder of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey. The case against Karr was dismissed 2 weeks later when test results revealed that his DNA did not match the sample taken from Ramsey.

9. Princess Kiko: Wife of the younger son of Japan's emperor, gave birth to a boy in September; sparing Japan a controversial debate over whether women should be allowed to ascend to the throne. The child is 3rd in line to become emperor.

10. Alexander Litvinenko: Former KGB spy, died in London in November after being contaminated with the radioactive isotope polonium 210.

11. Kaavya Viswanathan: College student, admitted in April that she copied several passages from 2 books by Megan McCafferty for her own novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life. The Harvard sophomore received wide attention when she was paid $500,000 in a 2-book deal with publisher Little, Brown. Her star dimmed quickly as Little,Brown recalled all copies of the book. Viswanathan, said the plagiarism was "unitentional and unconscious."

12. Harry Whittington: Texas Lawyer, was accidentally shot by Vice President Dick Cheney in February during a hunting trip. His face, neck, and torso were sprayed with dozens of pellets. Cheney - and the entire Bush administration - faced resounding criticism for not publicizing the incidnet for nearly 24 hours, for placing the blame on Whittington rather than Cheney, and for joking about the accident. (after which time the rest of the nation, it seems, went on to joke about the incident as well!)

Bonus: Zinedine Zidane: Kicked out of Soccor's World Cup, for loosing his cool with 'the headbutt heard 'round the world'