By Michael Grunwald
Sunday, November 26, 2006; B02
GO FIGURE Last week: 1 Weeks on list: 22
[No Change]
1.Iraq. In the throes of another disastrously violent week, the Bush administration considers three new strategies for Iraq: Go Big, Go Long or Go Home. Hmm. Let's think about this. The Zeitgeist was never good at multiple choice, but with 140,000 troops in country since 2003, two of those strategies don't sound very new.
SYRIA KILLER? Last week: -- Weeks on list: 1[Back]
2.Middle East. The assassination of Christian cabinet member Pierre Gemayel, a prominent anti-Syria politician in Lebanon, sparks a new crisis in Beirut. Syria denies responsibility, but President Bashar al-Assad quickly releases a book titled, "If I Did It."
START UNMEASURING THE DRAPES Last week: 1 Weeks on list: 9[Down]
3.Democrats. After spending 12 years in the minority, some House Democrats plan to use their newfound power to hold hearings on reinstating the draft and allowing gays into the military. Then they plan to spend another 12 years in the minority.
BIZARRO KRAMER Last week: -- Weeks on list: 1[Back]
4.Celebrities. Michael Richards, who starred in "Seinfeld" and nothing else you've ever heard of, unleashes a racist tirade at a comedy club. Some industry analysts predict the meltdown will kill his career, while others say that's a physical impossibility, like killing Spiro Agnew. Still, Richards apologizes, and hires Jackie Chiles to sue YouTube for destroying his career as a diversity trainer.
STUPID LIKE A FOX Last week: 7 Weeks on list: 2[Up]
5.Crime. Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch pulls the plug on "ill-considered" plans for O.J. Simpson's snuff book and Fox interview. But he says Fox will still air "Standoff," " 'Til Death," "Stacked" and the rest of its fall lineup, no matter how ill-considered.
MAYBE NEXT TIME, DUKE CUNNINGHAM Last week: 4 Weeks on list: 3[Down]
6.White House. Continuing a Thanksgiving tradition, President Bush pardons two turkeys, Flyer and Fryer, a major disappointment for Leaker, Liar, Salacious E-Mailer and other turkeys hoping for holiday reprieves. In other turkey-related news, Bush's new choice to oversee America's family planning programs apparently believes contraception is bad. America's families may want to plan a few extra place settings for next Thanksgiving.
MACACA, GET YOUR CAMERA Last week: 6 Weeks on list: 3[Down]
7.2008. Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) start positioning themselves to be the true conservative in the presidential campaign. Hey, it worked for George Allen and Rick Santorum. On the Democratic side, Wal-Mart basher John Edwards is embarrassed after his staff tries to score him a PlayStation at a local Wal-Mart. Edwards says his heart goes out to unfortunate families who will have to settle for Xboxes this holiday season.
MAYBE THEY WANTED MORE PEANUTS Last week: -- Weeks on list: 1[New]
8.Airlines. On the busiest day of the year in America's airports, six Muslim clerics are pulled off a U.S. Airways flight in Minneapolis for praying. The clerics say they were just praying that their flight wouldn't be canceled for no apparent reason, that their luggage wouldn't get rerouted to Albuquerque and that their airline wouldn't declare bankruptcy while they were flying over the Great Lakes.
TORO! TORO! TORO! Last week: -- Weeks on list: 1[New]
9.Russia. On his deathbed, a former KGB spy accuses Russian President Vladimir Putin of hiring someone to poison his sushi. Putin says that's ridiculous; anyone who's ever seen a Bond movie knows that if the spy had really tried to reveal his killer, he would have been silenced at the last possible moment by a dart or a flying hat.
FOLLOW THE MONEY Last week: -- Weeks on list: 1[Back]
10.Media. Following the footsteps of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and Equatorial Guinean dictator Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Washington Post political aces John Harris and Jim VandeHei decide to do business with the Allbritton family, the former owners of the scandal-ridden Riggs Bank. After accepting a lucrative deal to run Allbritton's new Web site, VandeHei publicly predicts that it will be even better than The Post and the New York Times, and will last almost as long as Inside.com.
* RESURFACES IN ZEITGEIST AFTER AN ABSENCE.
THE ZEITGEIST CHECKLIST ALSO APPEARS IN SLATE, THE ONLINE MAGAZINE AT WWW.SLATE.COM.