- Seeking to piggyback on the success of Nike and LeBron James, Reebok signs young hoops phenom Mark Walker to an endorsement deal, even though Walker is only three years old.

- Red Sox manager Grady Little leaves Pedro Martinez in to pitch to five batters in the eighth inning of Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, costing the team the game and Little his job.

- In the recall campaign, 12,263 Californians vote for Gary Coleman to represent them as governor.

- John Madden appears in a commercial in which an NFL player looks to be paralyzed, but then makes a miraculous recovery when served on the field with food from Outback Steakhouse.

- After Bob Hope dies, an obituary is published in the New York Times by film critic Vincent Canby- who himself preceded Hope in death by more than three years.

- Sharon Stone stars in a commercial in which she's seen in bed with the animated AOL logo.

- Brandeis Justice columnist Daniel Passner calls Cubs manager Dusty Baker by a racial slur, leading to a near-race riot and the resignation of six editors from the paper.

- Fox News Channel sues Al Franken- and tries to stop the publication of his book- because he misappropriated their catchphrase "fair and balanced."

- The website Evite.com is forced to apologize for including Yom Kippur in a list of "reasons to party" for the fall.

- The Staten Island Ferry crashes into a dock, killing 11 people; because it happens 2 hours before a Yankees-Red Sox playoff game, nobody notices.

- The rapper C-Murder is convicted- of murder.

- Rush Limbaugh, during a short-lived stint as a commentator on ESPN, accuses Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb of being overrated by the media because he's black. Limbaugh is fired, later goes to rehab and is under investigation for violating federal drug laws; McNabb subsequently leads Philadelphia to nine consecutive victories.

- Rutgers student and Israel-hating Jew Abe Greenhouse is arrested after throwing a pie at Israeli politician Natan Sharansky; this follows a months-long drama in which a national pro-Palestinian organization withdraws their annual conference from Rutgers to protest the extremism of organizer Charlotte Kates.

- The Kermit the Frog character falls into the public domain, leading to such abominations as "Vomiting Kermit" on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" and Kermit calling Justin Timberlake a "douchebag" on "Saturday Night Live."

- And as the year ends, American pop culture is ruled by- Paris Hilton, the most undeserving person to ever hold the zeitgeist.