She saved the world. A lot.

There are still fine geekly people in my life who have never watched "Buffy," and while I love them dearly I cannot pretend to understand this one thing about them. The show kicked so many shapes and forms of ass: It had snarkiness and real story, foreshadowings and haunting consequences, sneaky little moments that incrementally changed how we see the world (back then, nobody but Joss would have made the show's first girl-on-girl kiss part of the background noise), and a lot of really fantastic writing delivered by a cast who clearly loved the job. Once I got past my first "ew, her name is Buffy?" twitch and the memory of the cinematic debacle of the same name, I was hooked but good. "The Body," "Hush," and, of course, "Once More With Feeling" rank as some of the best TV out there.

In NPR's innovative twist on the "Top 100 Importantest Wankers"-type lists, Iraq reporter Jamie Tarabay talks about how BtVS helped her handle life in a war zone. Giles' lie about how adulthood gets easier—"Yes, it's terribly simple. The good guys are always stalwart and true, the bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and, uh, we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies, and everybody lives happily ever after"—has rarely seemed so apt.

Inspired by the story, I have taken up the dark arts for fun and profit. Anya would be very proud.

Thanks to GirlCuz for the pic.