Dilbert fans vote on Weasel Awards
Wednesday October 23, 2002
DANVILLE, Calif. (AP) With scandal defining much of 2002, an unlikely character asked readers to rank this year's biggest weasels.
Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, the popular comic strip character who works in an office cubicle and pops off one liners about life in the business world, asked Dilbert.com readers to vote online for the ``weaseliest'' people and organizations of 2002.
``I came to the realization while the stock market bubble was bursting that a weasel bubble was forming,'' Adams told the San Francisco Chronicle. ``You had historians making up history and priests having more sex than you.''
Of the thousands of votes cast over a four-week period, top honors in the Dilbert Weasel Awards went to Martha Stewart as the weaseliest individual with 24 percent of the vote, followed by Congressman Gary Condit with 19 percent. French ice skating judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne got the bronze for her role in a voting scandal at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, resulting in two gold medals being awarded in the pairs competition.
Microsoft was voted as the weaseliest company with 39 percent of the vote, followed by WorldCom with 27 percent, Arthur Andersen with 20 percent and Enron got 18 percent.
The weaseliest organization award went to The Democratic Party with 29 percent of the vote, followed by Major League Baseball with 21 percent and the White House came in third with 19 percent of the vote. The Republican Party received 11.
As for the weaseliest country, France took top honors with 34 percent, followed by Saudi Arabia with 23 percent. Iraq and Pakistan tied for third with 18 percent of the vote.
News reporters got the award for weaseliest profession with 24 percent of the vote, followed by lawyers with 22 percent. Politicians came in third with 18 percent of the vote.
And Islam got it for the weaseliest religion with 32 percent, with Catholicism coming in second with 27 percent and atheism next with 22 percent.
The awards coincide with Adams' newest book, ``Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel.''
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