My own personal Pantheon - people and things hereby inducted

Matt Taibbi - The greatest political columnist alive. He tells things with humor, and cuts straight through the BS. See my review of Spanking the Donkey. This guy's work is what I hoped I'd be doing if I stayed in journalism.

Victor Wooten - His bass chops are absolutely sick. His solo on Dave Matthew's Band #41 Live in Chicago is almost beyond the known limits of the instrument.

John Chatterton - The greatest scuba diver on the planet. Read Shadow Divers to get the full lowdown on this guy, or check him out on the Deep Sea Detectives. He has done it all in the world of diving.

Noam Chomsky - A living Aristotle. The smartest, and most ballsy, person I've ever seen. He simply has more facts and global awareness than anyone I've ever seen.

Mariano Rivera - The greatest relief pitcher who ever lived, and the most dominant New York Yankee I've ever seen. Watching this guy has always been a joy. Apologies to Jim Leyritz, as that homerun off Mark Wohlers was my favorite moment in sports history.

Emmitt Smith - As a Cowboy fan, no one was better on those glory days teams than Emmitt. He is the all time NFL rushing leader, and the best player on the best team I ever saw.

Mitch Hedberg - One of the greatest comedians who ever lived.

Bill Maher - The funniest, most relentless critic of Bush and annoying hyper-religious people.

James Marshall Hendrix - The coolest man who ever walked the Earth.

U2 - All of these guys are incredibly cool, and haven't even lost it over time. Plus, The Edge slightly outdoes Magic, as in Magic Johnson, as the coolest nickname in history. Bad is probably the best song of the eighties. On top of that, Bono does the right thing with his prodigious money, power and influence.

Pierre Franey - One of the great French chefs, and French cooking educators, of all time.

Anthony Bourdain - for his scathing critique of vegetarians, and general humor imbibed food writing. Check out Kitchen Confidential for a great read on being a New York chef.

Alicia Witt - that little redhead from Mr. Holland's Opus grew up to be the hottest chick around.

Redheaded women - The world is awash in blondes, and that is "the standard" most women cling to. I say bollocks -- give me Ginger, though Maryanne wasn't so bad, either. I prefer an average redhead to a hot blonde. Some stellar examples of the genre other than Alicia Witt above: Julianne Moore, Angie Everhart, Lolita Davidovich and Karen Klaver (said with complete and utter respect from one married guy to one sorta married guy, Mark.)

Palau - The whole place. Just about the coolest place you can hang out on the whole planet. Cool people, gorgeous islands and the world's best scuba diving.

The Margarita - I'm one of those people who never understood the popularity of beer. In fact, the love of beer mystifies me in a way similar to people's initial love of George W. Bush (back before the rest of America caught on to this fraud). The limes here make for some fine Margaritas, so with apologies to the Mojito, my second favorite, and white Sangria, let me induct the Margarita into my personal Pantheon.

French Roast Coffee - Marianas Coffee right here in Saipan makes a great French Roast. This is my favorite bean across the board.

Portuguese Cuisine - We hear plenty about Italian and French food, and those things are great, but few things are better than a great Portuguese restaurant. If you find yourself on a layover at Newark Airport, escape that pit and head to one of the many great Portuguese restaurants around.