On a vacation in October 2001, I was thumbing through a pile of dated magazines, and in Time magazine I stopped to read the column called Winners & Losers.

In the "Loser" category in an August 2001 issue was Rudy Giuliani, lame duck New York City mayor, suffering from crumbling health, a crumbling marriage, and a crumbling political career. What a loser, Time suggested. Who would want to be this guy?

In the "Winner" category a month earlier was Ted Olson, rising star as Solicitor General of the United States. What a winner, Time proclaimed. Who wouldn't envy this guy?

How things change. Within a matter of weeks of these two issues, Time would refer to Giuliani as the "Mayor of the World" and a "tower of strength" for his leadership in the aftermath of September 11, and a few months later the magazine would name him "2001 Person of the Year."

By contrast, we ached with Ted Olson as we watched him bury his wife, Barbara, a passenger on American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon. No one envied him at that moment.