Things You Don't Talk About in Polite Company

40. Milken Institute's Best Performing Cities--This annual list gives the best performing U.S. cities in terms of job creation and economic health.

No. 1: Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, Arkansas (in 2003)

39. Craig's List--Founded in 1995 by Craig Newmark, this website started out as a listing of cool events in the San Francisco area. A non-commercial site, it includes areas for jobs, housing, and stuff for sale and has expanded to include cities across the U.S., in the U.K., and in Canada.

No.1: n/a

38. Science magazine's Breakthrough of the Year issue--Published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, this weekly science publication takes an annual look at the big stories in the world of science in the past twelve months in the last issue of each year.

No. 1: Small RNA molecules

37. --George Carlin's "Seven Words You Can Never Say on TelevisionGeorge Carlin has since said there are more words that could be on his list, including three that he mentioned in a sequel routine "Filthy Words": fart, turd, and twat. Appearing on Carlin's 1973 comedy album Class Clown, it was played on a New York radio station, leading to the case F.C.C. v Pacifica Foundation.

No. 1: "Shit" is the first word on the list.

36. The disabled list. Fantasy baseball is all about keeping track of who's on the DL. And the DL gives us some funny stories. Who can forget pitcher Steve Sparks injuring himself trying to tear a phone book in half or Glenallen Hill dreaming that he was being attacked by spiders and injuring himself by crashing through a glass table? How about Kevin Mitchell straining himself while eating a cupcake, Tom Glavine breaking a rib after throwing up due to bad food on a flight?

No. 1: n/a

35. Democratic Underground's Top Ten Conservative Idiots--Hey, guess what, I'm a liberal.

No. 1: Ann Coulter (this week)

34. Index of Forbidden Books--The Index librorum prohibitorum was first compiled at the behest of Paul IV in 1559, although similar lists had been put together locally. Works were put on the Index for several reasons, mainly for containing heresy, superstition, or immorality.

No. 1: n/a

33. Entertainment Weekly's It List--Every June, this pop culture periodical comes out with what's hot and what's not.

No. 1: n/a, although Hugh Jackman is 2003's IT Leading Man, Elisa Zuritsky is the IT "Sex" Goddess, Snoop Dogg the ITzzle Fo' Shizzle, and Orlando Bloom the IT elf.

32. Seven Wonders of the Ancient World--There are several formulations of this list, and some have more than seven.

No. 1:The Great Pyramid at Giza was the first one built and the last one left standing.

31. The Lycos 50--A once popular search engine, Lycos has since been supplanted by Yahoo and then Google. Still, the Lycos 50 gives an eye into what people are looking for on the internet.

No. 1: Federal Do Not Call List (for the week ending in June 28, 2003), edging out Harry Potter, American Idol's Clay Aiken, and KaZaA.