Annise Parker Is Almost As Influential As Glenn Beck

Time magazine

Annise Parker's official Time photo, looking stiff but proudly displaying comfortable shoes

​Mayor Annise Parker is the 13th Most Influential or 13th Most Something, person in America, according to Time magazine.

Time's 2010 list of "the people who most affect our world" is out, and features Parker under the "Leaders" section.

"It's not every Democrat who quotes Calvin Coolidge after spending 100 days in office as mayor of Houston," the magazine notes. "But then Annise Parker, 53, has never fit the mold. She's a demure, pearl-wearing lesbian businesswoman with three kids and a longtime partner."

Parker doesn't get the complete star treatment -- there's no celebrity byline to her piece (Ted Nugent wrote the Sarah Palin item; Bob Geldof wrote up the guy who came in right behind Parker at 14th. Don't worry, you've never heard of him.)

Coming in 13th is a pretty impressive achievement, putting Parker in some rarified company. On the other hand, Time has deemed her not quite as influential as Glenn Beck, who came in 12th.

And Sarah Palin wrote the Beck item! ("Who'd have thought a history buff with a quirky sense of humor and a chalkboard could make for such riveting television?" she asks, apparently describing some alternate-reality version of Beck, his sense of humor and TV show.)

Of the 25 "Leaders" named, Parker did beat out such household names as Tidjane Thiam, Jenny Beth Martin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Manmohan Singh, Bo Xilai, Mark Carney, Sister Carol Keehan, Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan and Robin Li. (Your household may vary.)