John Hawkins is at it again...
Character's on my submission that made his list were:
13) Merlin (Arthurian legend action hero)
8) The Man With No Name (Clint Eastwood as Sergio Leone's action hero)
5) Jack Ryan (Tom Clancy action hero)
5) Gandalf (J.R.R. Tolkein's action hero)
3) Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthus Conan Doyle's action hero)
2) James Bond (Sir Ian Felming's action hero)
1) Indiana Jones (Steven Spielberg's action hero)
Detecting a theme here? Other's from my list that didn't make the cut:
John Galt, Francisco D'Anconia, Ragnar Danesskjold, Dagney Taggart (sorry Hank, but what's up with the dissing of Ayn Rand? Or was John Galt real?)
William of Baskerville (from Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, a post-precursor to Sherlock Holmes)
King Arthur (why Merlin, but not Arthur?)
Hamlet, Macbeth, Edgar, Son of the Earl of Gloucester, Henry V, and Richard III (perhaps all real, but I'm focused on the fictional portrayals by Shakespeare)
Edmund Blackadder (the best sitcom, ever)
Basil Fawlty (probably the second best sitcom, ever)
Keysor Soze
Hari Seldon (I like Heinlein too, but it's tough to beat Hari)
The Chink (from Tom Robbins' Even Cowgirls Get the Blues)
Harry Potter (honorable mention -- J.K. Rowlings' action hero)
My submission was a quick off the cuff list, so I'm sure I would change seven or eight of them if I were to do it over, and that's assuming most of the Shakespearian characters are valid as "fictional" characters. The one I had on my list that I am most surprised didn't make it was John Galt. The one I'm most disappointed about leaving off was Atticus Finch.
Checking Hawkins' list, the single thing I'm most appalled about would have to be the fact that Dr. Who scored higher than James T. Kirk.
Posted by: Kerry at 10:46 AMThis comment is actually in reference to your post entitles 'Just an observation'. The comments thread there wouldn't work for some reason.
Anyway, I looked up Halliburton as you suggested. They have suffered losses recently as you suggest. Did you read the report though as to why? Lawsuit losses and project losses due to having to can dodgy work involving asbestos. From elsewhere on their investor relations site, you'll see that other revenues are up nicely Revenues were $5.5 billion in the first quarter 2004, up 80% from the first quarter 2003. This increase was largely attributable to additional activity on government services projects in the Middle East in the Engineering and Construction Group (known as KBR).
Dick's not doing too bad for them at all actually.