THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY
By Matthew Temme

“The Last Judgment,” the tympanum at the entrance of Fribourg’s St. Nicholas Cathedral
« The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly »
When Ollie North went before the joint Congressional committee which was investigating the Iran-contra affair, he promised that he would reveal everything about “the good, the bad, and the ugly.” (July 7, 1987) In the same way, the following biographical entries portray a diversity of characters who are either good or bad, and sometimes even ugly. A number of these characters are quite famous. Four of them have graced the cover of Time magazine: Ivan Boesky and Raymond Loewy, once; Ferdinand Marcos twice; and Oliver North, six times. Agents for Rupert Murdoch (on Time’s cover 3 times), and Saddam Hussein (a whopping 14 times on the cover of Time) set up companies in Fribourg (see: nos. 21 and 36). Roman Abramovich (no. 1), Charles and David Koch (no. 44), and François Pinault (no. 74) have figured on Time’s annual “Most Influential People” list. Some of the characters on my list are illustrious: no. 6 was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize last year, and no. 61 won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2008.