Etc...

Mine's in physics. Yours?

If asked for the meaning of the term "air guitar," how would you answer? Well, Webster's New Millennium Dictionary defines it as an imaginary stringed instrument "that one pretends to play." But perhaps Amanda Griffiths could offer a more complete description ... since she's working toward a PhD in it. Really. The University of Salford (England) graduate student accepted that challenge when she and the head of the school's Popular Music Department appeared together on a national radio program . In fact, Amanda has so mastered her subject that she's registered to compete in the world championships later this month in Finland. (No word yet on what numbers she's planning to - ah - perform.) Oh, the theme of her doctoral dissertation? It will be "codes of performance within the air guitar phenomenon."

Oprah Winfrey, the former Nashville, Tenn., newscaster who has become the doyenne of daytime talk-show TV, has regularly ranked near the top of the Celebrity 100. This year, Forbes magazine has named her No. 1 on an entertainer-laden list sprinkled with the occasional superstar athlete, such as Tiger Woods and pro basketball's Shaquille O'Neal. In compiling its list, Forbes looks at a celebrity's entertainment income and attempts to measure his or her fame. The latter is determined by calculating the number of online mentions (on the Google search engine), press clippings (compiled by LexisNexis), TV/radio mentions (compiled by Factiva), and how many times the celebrity's face appears on the covers of 17 major consumer magazines. The top celebrities from Forbes's latest ranking:

1. Oprah Winfrey
2. Tiger Woods
3. Mel Gibson
4. George Lucas
5. Shaquille O'Neal
6. Steven Spielberg
7. Johnny Depp
8. Madonna
9. Elton John
10. Tom Cruise