Man Of The Year

After facing well deserved ridicule for naming You as Person of the Year, the Time Magazine editorial board can breathe easy for the next eleven months. The identity of the most important person in 2006 has become obvious. No man means more to society than David Rafner.

You may not know his name but you certainly know his accomplishment and how much it means to us all. Rafner, while working for Honeywell in 1985, developed the idea for the DVR, better known as TiVo. As a cousin of mine said two years ago, "There are two people in this world-those who have TiVo and those who should have TiVo."

Never has Rafner's technological brainchild been more valuable than today. After a riveting and literally explosive four-hour debut last week, "24" is back for more, tonight at 9:00. That happens to be the same time that the excellent "Heroes" returns from hiatus. Not being one given to hyperbole, I can honestly say that I cannot remember there ever being two such good shows opposing each other.

Tonight, unless he cancels on me once again, I will be learning with Noah Daddy at 8:00, which means I won't get home until a few minutes after 9:00. In the days of yore, pre-2005, that would mean that Mrs. Zwicker and I would have had to run two different video recorders in order to tape both shows. We would then have to wait until the shows ended to start watching them. Thanks to the great David Rafner though, that won't be necessary. We can start watching one and, by skipping commercials, finish one on time and then watch the other. The only question now is which to watch first.