BUMPING CHOW YUN-FAT FROM THE TOP OF THE LIST:

Rummy declined honor as ‘Person of the Year’: The Time cover that didn’t appear (Albert Eisele and Jeff Defour, 1/07/04, The Hill)

It isn’t often that someone turns down an offer to be Time magazine’s “Person of the Year,” especially when that someone is as important as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

But that’s what Rumsfeld did when he learned that Time was planning to honor him in its year-end issue last month.

Rumsfeld told guests at a holiday party that in this year of conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military deserved the honor more than he did, which is why Army Sgts. Marquette Whiteside and Ronald Buxton and Spc. Billie Grimes turned up on Time’s Dec. 29 cover.