(FORTUNE Magazine) – Some of the biggest turkeys won't be found on the Thanksgiving table. As our latest edition of the Hype Index proves, the business world has more than its fair share of them.

--Jason Tanz

James McCall Merrill Lynch paid top dollar for this fund manager in 1999, only to watch his portfolios crash. Officially McCall took a voluntary severance package, but some suspect he was Lynched.

Jonathan Franzen If The Corrections scribe wrote "I will not dis Oprah" once for each sale he lost, he'd have another 500-pager.

Bayer For the love of God, just give us the Cipro already!

United Memo to new CEO Jack Creighton: If you want us to believe that flying is safe, stop letting people through security checkpoints with seven knives, a stun gun, and a can of Mace. Just a thought.