Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Celebrate the fucking wins.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

The words do not have to be perfect.

FFS people, this was a good thing. take the win.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Books are my comfort food!

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

When they say they’re pro-life, they don’t mean yours.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

He really is that stupid.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

You are here: Home / Medium Cool / Medium Cool with BGinCHI – 13 Going On 30!

Medium Cool with BGinCHI – 13 Going On 30!

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Tonight we kick off Episode 20 of the weekly Guest Post series: Medium Cool with BGinCHI.

In case you missed the introduction to the series:  Culture as a Hedge Against this Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We’re Living In

You can find the whole series here:  Medium Cool with BGinCHI

Tonight’s Topic:  BG’s Birthday – 13 Going on 30

Take it away, BG!

Today’s Medium Cool falls on my birthday. I know, another year older, another year closer to death. But at least everyone’s nice to you, and you can eat anything you want. I usually go to a movie by myself, but this year, I can’t, so I’ve decided that instead of spending part of it with some beautiful, talented people on the silver screen, I’ll spend it with you guys.

Continuing with the birthday theme, let’s talk about the coincidence of your birthday with either someone else’s (a cultural figure), or some (cultural) event that happened on that day.

I’ll take mine from today’s LitHub:  Today, in 1822, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley drowns in the Ligurian Sea. His body, washed up ten days later on the beach near Viareggio, is cremated in the presence of Lord Byron and Edward John Trelawny, who claims to have seized Shelley’s heart from the flames.

Reader Interactions

237Comments

  4. 4.

    WaterGirl

    It was looking kinda grim re: finding anyone good who was born on my birthday (besides me!) but then I found Dorothy Sayers.  I’ll take it!

  6. 6.

    Benw

    Happy birthday! Mine is 2 days before Halloween so I could pretty much have a costume party every year, which is nice.

  11. 11.

    zhena gogolia

    I’m still so old-fashioned I don’t want to reveal my birthday on BJ. Suffice it to say I don’t share it with anyone too interesting.

  12. 12.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    13 going on 30 is a funny movie, but I kinda wish they would’ve done more fish out of water type jokes. Like Jenna not knowing what a cell phone is, nor the internet, or wondering wtf happened to the Soviet Union. Also, too, it was a 2004 movie, so way too soon, but there’s a “War on Terror” joke about the US supporting Afghanistan in the 80s somewhere in there

  13. 13.

    RSA

    Looking online, I discover that I share a birthday with an artist and a musician (19th century) each famous enough to be known just by their last names.

  14. 14.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WaterGirl:

    You are lucky to share with DLS. I share a birthday with P. D. James, another fine writer of detective fiction. And with Edward Petherbridge, who was a memorable Lord Peter Wimsey in three BBC productions.

    Also Martha Stewart and Tony Bennett.

    Columbus set sail on his first voyage to the Indies on the date of my birthday, and La Scala opera house opened on that date.

  15. 15.

    WaterGirl

    BG told me he didn’t care what image we used in the post, so I chose 13 going on 30 to be funny.  Perhaps BG is a young boy who made a wish on his birthday and then woke up in a whole new life as a teacher and an author.

  16. 16.

    MattF

    My birthday is Aug. 9. which is the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki, but also Nixon’s resignation. My sister’s birthday is Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Day. She was born the following year, so the hospital cheated and made her ‘official’ birthday on the 6th. And… my father’s birthday was Nov. 22. My mother’s birthday, oddly enough, was not the anniversary of any notable event.

  18. 18.

    hueyplong

    Frank Sinatra birthday here.

    On my 11th birthday Arthur Ashe became the first African American to be ranked #1 in tennis.

    Not much else going down on that date to my knowledge.

  19. 19.

    WaterGirl

    @SiubhanDuinne: Wow, you share your birthday with a lot of interesting people.  Didn’t you also share with efgoldman, or am I making that up?

    I read all things Dorothy Sayers around the same time that I read all things P.D. James.  I loved the PBS productions with Adam Dalgliesh!

  22. 22.

    CaseyL

    Happy Birthday, BG!  We’re happy to have you in our community, and doing these wonderful posts!

    I share my birthday with Claire Foy, which is very cool.

  23. 23.

    hueyplong

    @WaterGirl: Nobody, but nobody wants me to sing.

    On this you can rely.

    Also once went to a party at Frank Sinatra’s condo in NYC.  He lay dying in LA at the time.  I assume it was rented out for the event.

  24. 24.

    gene108

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    “13 Going on 30” stressed me out. I could never finish watching it.

    I think it’s like the way some people are with horror movies, and cannot watch them.

    I find all the problems the protagonist has as kid thrust into being an adult just nerve racking. I cannot really explain why.

  26. 26.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    James Cagney, David Hasselhoff, Angela Merkel, Camilla (Duchess of Cornwall), and Erle Stanley Gardner share my birthday. Who knew?

  30. 30.

    dexwood

    Happy Birthday, BG! I share my birthday, April 28, with Harper Lee and Terry Pratchett. The mutiny on the Bounty and the execution of Mussolini happened on that date, too.

  31. 31.

    Kropacetic

    I share my birthday with Dave Chappelle and the anniversary of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.

  32. 32.

    Mary G

    I was due on Valentine’s Day and came on Christmas Eve instead. I know valued commenter Zinsky also has that birthday, and looking online we share with Ava Gardner, Ricky Martin, and Nostradamus.

  33. 33.

    BGinCHI

    Hi All!

    Thanks for coming to my party. Feel free to use the pool, but don’t bug the DJ to play Little Feat.

  35. 35.

    Barry

    As a kid, many years ago, I was thrilled that I shared a birthday with George Washington, mostly because I never had to go to school that day. Now I have some mixed feelings.

  39. 39.

    hueyplong

    @BGinCHI: Hope you find joyful amusement this evening, though tying yourself to this mast might not be the best way to get there.

  42. 42.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mary G:

    Apparently (according to a little research I did for Yutsano in the Doug Jones thread) you also share with Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III. But I promise I think none the worse of you.

    :-)

  43. 43.

    Salty Sam

    His body, washed up ten days later on the beach near Viareggio, is cremated in the presence of Lord Byron and Edward John Trelawny, who claims to have seized Shelley’s heart from the flames.

    That’s just gross…

  48. 48.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @gene108:

    Yeah, I can understand why. I think it all depends on how it’s played. The concept can’t be played too straight or else it would literally be a horror movie or at least a scary, bizarre situation to go through. It has to be somewhat lighthearted.

    Big (1988) is a movie with a similar plot. It’s a comedy, too

  49. 49.

    prostratedragon

    Happy Birthday, BG!

    I’ve got a dividing line date, Jan.30. Both FDR and Fred Korematsu. Good day for actors –Christian Bale, Charles Dutton, Gene Hackman, Vanessa Redgrave. Barbara Tuchman and, alas, Dick Cheney. Also alas, the assassination of Ghandi and the installment of a certain Chancellor of Germany. The final day of the 47 ronin.

  51. 51.

    Miss Bianca

    I share my birthday with Greta Garbo and Dr. Johnson. Not exactly certain what that means, but I’ve always enjoyed the knowledge.

  53. 53.

    Delk

    Happy Birthday BG!
    Everyone hide your envy because I share my birthday with Peggy Noonan!

  54. 54.

    WaterGirl

    @Mary G:

    I was due on Valentine’s Day and came on Christmas Eve instead.

    How does that work, exactly?

    I am good at math, but that one leaves me perplexed!

  56. 56.

    Miss Bianca

    @CaseyL: I just saw Claire Foy in “The Girl in the Spider Web”, and she was so awesome in that that I think I’m going to have to watch “The Crown” if only for her!

  60. 60.

    raven

    My birthday is November 10 and so it is also the Marine Corps birthday. Because I was a small time hood the judge gave me the choice between the Army and juvie (St Charles for you Chicago people) and made it the first day I was eligible to go in so I joined the Army on my 17th birthday. It’s always a mixed day for me because of that. They also were drafting into the Corps so they went down the line Army, Marines, Army, Marines. . .since I joined they didn’t get me.

  70. 70.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @BGinCHI:

    How nice! It’s your birthday!
    We’ve all gathered here
    (The Jackals of BJ)
    With many a cheer!
    We toast you with bubbly
    Champagne, wine, and beer —
    We’re madly for Bradley
    Each day of the year!

  71. 71.

    raven

    @MattF: One of my best friends was killed in Vietnam on Nov 22, 1968. Have you heard the new 17 minute Dylan song, Murder So Foul?

  72. 72.

    zhena gogolia

    BGinChi, I’m enjoying a glass of white wine in your honor. My husband is practicing his lectures for the fall right next to me (he doesn’t drink, that’s why I need BJ).

  76. 76.

    zhena gogolia

    Totally OT, but I randomly started watching Daniel Deronda on Amazon Prime while doing my daily exercises, and I am riveted by Hugh Bonneville (Lord Grantham on Downton) as a VILLAIN. He is a superb actor!

  79. 79.

    Mo Salad

    I was born the week The Beatles had the top FIVE songs on the US Billboard chart.

  81. 81.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @WaterGirl: When I came to this thread, I intended to note that I shared a b-day with Subaru Diane and leave the mundane details to others.  She obviously sees things differently.  It has been noted.

  83. 83.

    zhena gogolia

    @BGinCHI:

    Have you seen The Six Wives of Henry VIII from the 1960s? I realized it’s on Prime (or Britbox or something I signed up for). I loved it when it was first aired, but I’m a little afraid to try to watch it again. Dorothy Tutin plays Anne Boleyn.

  85. 85.

    zhena gogolia

    @raven:

    I haven’t seen that one. I’ll have to see if it’s on Prime.

    I tried reading the novel and got through about what seemed like 600 pages, halfway through, before I gave up.

    I adored Dickens when I was a teenager, but now I can’t read him at all.

  87. 87.

    BGinCHI

    @zhena gogolia: I have not. I have a mild allergy to bio-pic style films.

    I have been keen to re-watch A Man For All Seasons. But mostly for Robert Shaw.

  91. 91.

    Brachiator

    Big (1988) is a movie with a similar plot. It’s a comedy, too

    I enjoyed both Big and 13 Going on 30, but I remember that they both had to tread lightly around the issue of sex.

    Some think that the Tom Hanks character in big and the character played by Elizabeth Perkins get it on, but it is ambiguous. I think that the issue was largely avoided in 13.

    Has the theme of a kid inhabiting an adult body been played out fully in any sci Fi work?

     

  93. 93.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    Johannes Kepler, Louis Pasteur, Marlene Dietrich, and Gérard Depardieu. And the completion of the Hagia Sofia, which I have visited, but not on my (or its) birthday.

  94. 94.

    zhena gogolia

    @raven:

    He’s a great actor.

    I’m going to have to start cooking in a minute . . . I hope to check in later and see if Little Feat has been played yet.

  95. 95.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @SiubhanDuinne: Go ahead. Dance on the tattered remains of my self-esteem like you haven’t a care in the world.  I’ll get you, my pretty.

  97. 97.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @BGinCHI:

    Is that a reference to that “A Letter on Justice and Open Debate” that was published at Harper’s? To me, it reads like a big whinefest about how MEAN everybody is being to them and how they DESERVE to be listened to, no matter what they say or do. So much for the “Marketplace of Ideas”, eh?

    I mean, JK TERFling is a signatory! I was disappointed to see Jeet Heer, Fareed Zakira, and Margaret Atwood on that list. Though, didn’t Zakira declare Trump had “finally become president” when he dropped a MOAB in the middle of the Afghan desert?  a fired missiles into Syria

  99. 99.

    BGinCHI

    It just dawned on me that it’s Trelawny who seizes Shelley’s burning heart!

    I always remembering it being Byron, which just goes to show you that if you write intolerable poetry and are a giant show-off, people will remember you even when you didn’t fish a heart out of the flames.

  101. 101.

    Bruuuuce

    I was today years old when I looked up anything other than the few co-birthdays I knew of, and found this excellent event on the date:

    1870 – Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, is sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in Congress.

    And looking deeper into my co-birthday cohort, I found some I knew, and some I had not: Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841), Enrico Caruso (1873), Meher Baba (1894), Millicent Fenwick (1910), and George Harrison (1943) (among others)

  102. 102.

    Salty Sam

    @BGinCHI: Thanks for coming to my party. Feel free to use the pool, but don’t bug the DJ to play Little Feat.

    Happy Birthday dood,  but if the DJ won’t play Little Feat, I’m outa here…

  103. 103.

    Uncle Cosmo

    You Jackals amaze me.

    When one of you posts a geography-dependent comment like “It’s raining really hard here,” & someone then asks roughly whereabouts “here” is (generally within a 10-20 mile radius would be more than adequate), you’re odds-on to scream like a stuck hog that you’re being asked for privileged information. As if the questioner was hovering over a drone controller waiting to call in an airstrike.

    And yet here you are, almost trampling one another to reveal your birthdays – which in combination with a little side information (or a bit of semi-educated guessing) re your relative geezerhoods hands any malevolent lurker your birthdates – & sets you up quite nicely for identity theft.

    This much more drastic risk is, apparently, fine & dandy.

    Y’know, anyone who isn’t at least a little paranoid these days probably isn’t paying enough attention. But I invite, even urge you, to try husbanding your paranoid for things that are actually worth being paranoid about.

  104. 104.

    BGinCHI

    Since it’s my birthday, and I’ll cry if I want to, fun fact:

    taught my first college class (as a TA) in 1989.

  107. 107.

    misterpuff

    Growing up I shared my birthday with no one of note. Then suddenly, I shared it with Tiger Woods and then Bam, LeBron James. So I’ve got that going for me.

     

    Looking at the lists: Love that Caity Lotz, Eliza Dushku and Davy Jones share with me.

     

    Majorly bummed that I share the actual birth date with Matt Lauer, no he was born a year later. Relief!

  110. 110.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    I certainly have one of the worst modern birthdays. Let me set this up with a story.

    My marriage was clearly unhealthy, and in trouble. And how do you fix something like that? Well… my birthday is coming up. That means we have to go out to dinner, maybe a movie, and sex before bed. Maybe… maybe I can use this day to change the course, to turn things around, or, at least, realize that I can’t. So that’s what I thought about when I went to about 3am on my birthday.

    When I woke up, planes had crashed into the twin towers….

    Well, thousands of people had a worse day than me, but I do feel I get to stand at the end of a very long line, to spit on a few graves-equivalent.

  112. 112.

    Alison Rose

    My birthday is this Saturday (7/11, so no excuse for anyone who forgets!), and apparently on the day I was borned:

    Richard Queen, one of the 53 remaining U.S. Embassy personnel held captive during the Iran hostage crisis, was released on humanitarian grounds after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

    I guess that’s good? I mean…MS isn’t, but not being a hostage is.

    Other folks who share my birthday:

    • Robert the Bruce, Scottish King from 1306 – 1329
    • Frederick I, King of Prussia from 1701-1713
    • John Quincy Adams, our illustrious (?) 6th president
    • E.B. White of Charlotte’s Web fame
    • And just to put the tune in your head, Suzanne Vega
  115. 115.

    Salty Sam

    @Uncle Cosmo: you’re odds-on to scream like a stuck hog that you’re being asked for privileged information.

    Dang! I’ve been here for at least a decade, daily, and I too have wondered where folks are from when they post “here”, but not once have I seen this scenario you described played out.

    Maybe switch to decaf?

  116. 116.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Big-ass thunder and lightning in my north Atlanta suburb. The first crack was right overhead, and far more startling than the recent fireworks!

  117. 117.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @BGinCHI:

    It’s sad.

    As for the contents of the letter, the best response to their so-called “concerns” about “intolerance of opposing views” is to ask them, “And what what would those ‘opposing views’ be? That trans women somehow threaten “real” women, eh Rowling? Or that the left has been ‘captured by identity politicians, political correctness police, and social justice warriors’, Pinker? By the way, did you cry for your pedophile buddy Epstein?”

    That’s how you respond to their “concerns”

  118. 118.

    Dan B

    My birthday is Chinese National Day.  I was born the day the PRC was officially founded.  It was not common knowledge growing up in small town Ohio.  I didn’t know this until I was in my 30’s. To be clear it’s the same day and the same year.  It’s odd reading the headlines when they cover significant anniversaries.  The last was the 70th.

    On the same date, but not year, are: Jimmy Carter, Julie Andrews, and Gus Kenworthy.  They’re a contrast with the PRC.*

    *I promise not to give you malware, or grant you dazzling perfect smiles like the other three.

  120. 120.

    Kropacetic

    I’ve talked about my Congressional district a few times, that should narrow it down.

    God knows how many people I’ve handed my license to.

  122. 122.

    CAinCA

    @LongHairedWeirdo: My husband’s birthday is also on 9/11. In 2001, it was his 40th.

    The night before, a couple of his co-workers decorated his cube with black balloons and streamers, because, you know, 40th birthday.

    it was not appreciated when everyone went into work on that day…

    ETA: happy birthday BG!

  124. 124.

    Salty Sam

    @raven:  it’s comments like these I wish we had likes or upvotes here…

    ETA- Lowell George is a God…

  130. 130.

    geg6

    OMG, my birthday is quite the day.  Born on November 24: Ted Bundy, Zachary Taylor and Pete Best.  Notable events that day: the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, Freddie Mercury passed away, the bombing of Tokyo and advance to the Rhine in WWII, and the discovery of Lucy the Australopithecus.

  131. 131.

    debbie

    I am ashamed to say I share a birth date with Gordon Liddy.

    On the other, back when I was a kid and before they started moving holidays to Mondays, my half-birthday was on Memorial Day which was also a day of from school. I felt significant.

  132. 132.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus: Perhaps if she lets you know that it was a momentary oversight, you can find it in your heart to forgive her?

    Everybody deserves a second chance.  Well, most everybody! :-)

  134. 134.

    Matt McIrvin

    I have the same birthday as Vincent Price AND Christopher Lee.

    And Harlan Ellison, and Hubert Humphrey (he and Vincent Price were born on literally the same day), and, um, Henry Kissinger. We can’t win ’em all.

  135. 135.

    VeniceRiley

    Happy natal day, BG!
    Let’s see… On mine,
    Ohhh were we looking at global warming already?

    – Antarctic Ice Melting
    1955 : It was believed possible that the icy Antarctica could melt at a faster rate than most people would think. If this were possible, ocean levels would rise 90 to 150 feet. An Antarctic ice survey and corresponding studies were expected to be completed between now and some time shortly after 1957.

    This one is horrible!
    South Africa Sharpeville Massacre
    1960 : Afrikaner police open fire on a group of unarmed black South African demonstrators in the black township of Sharpeville, near Johannesburg, South Africa, killing 69 people and wounding 180 in a hail of submachine-gun fire.

    The only event of note that happened within my lifetime:
    1963 – U.S.A. Alcatraz Closes
    1963 : Alcatraz federal penitentiary known as “The Rock” was a prison based on a small island located in the middle of San Francisco Bay in California, United States. It was designed to be the most secure prison in the world and in its 29 years of operation from 1934 – 1963, the penitentiary logged no prisoners as having ever successfully escaped.

    And I share my day with Rosie O’Donnell

  139. 139.

    BGinCHI

    Summer birthdays are the best when you’re a kid.

    You think you’re missing out, because you can’t have one of those parties at school that net you 20 minutes of fame, but the summer BBQ with family and friends stays in my mind more than anything.

  141. 141.

    James E Powell

    I turned 9 the day of the Good Friday Earthquake in Alaska. My concern at the time was, with us being good Catholics, my birthday celebration was delayed till Saturday

    Famous people who share that date include Gloria Swanson, Robert Lockwood, Cale Yarborough, Quentin Tarantino, Mariah Carey, and Nathan Fillion. I’ve only met one of those people.

  144. 144.

    Martin

    I share a birthday with Suleiman the Magnificent, so y’all can just bow the fuck down right now. I don’t care what achievements your folks did, they pale next to my boi’s head attire.

  146. 146.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Belafon:

    Wow. That sure answers the question folks were asking a few threads down about the long-term trustworthiness of the Lincoln Project.

  149. 149.

    Don K

    Okay, I was born Jan 26, and have known for some time I share my birthday with Douglas MacArthur, Paul Newman, and Wayne Gretzky. Now that the jackals have forced me to do some research, I’ve found out also born on my day were Andrew Ridgeley, Ellen DeGeneres, Eddie Van Halen, Gene Siskel, Jerry Sandusky (ewww!!), Angela Davis (yay!), Jules Feiffer, and Nicolae Ceausescu (quadruple ewww!!). Died on that day were Edward Jenner, Lucky Luciano, Edward G Robinson, Nelson Rockefeller, and Bear Bryant. Notable event? Bill Clinton said on TV he didn’t have sex with Monica. Oh yeah, it’s Australia Day, and Republic Day in India.

    Interesting to know, I guess.

  150. 150.

    Martin

    Notable events on my birthday include the start of the Bolshevik revolution and Hawaii getting its first fire engine. Torn on how to rank them.

  151. 151.

    NotMax

    Couldn’t go with an earlier male version?

    :)

    As to the question –

    Chang & Eng Bunker
    Harriet Quimby
    Irving Berlin
    Salvador Dali
    Doodles Weaver
    Phil Silvers
    Eric Burdon
    .

  152. 152.

    Dan B

    For highles I went looking for more October 1’s.  Henry III, Charles VI Holy Roman Emperor, Walter Matthau, Richard Harris, Bonnie Parker (Bonnie and Clyde), Theresa May, William Rehnquist, and William Boeing.

    I wouldn’t invite them all to a party but Harris could sing and Matthau entertain with Harris.  The rest seem like mostly stinkers.

    P.S. Happy Birthday BG!

  153. 153.

    Don K

    @BGinCHI:

    I enjoyed my 1/26 birthday, because it was far enough from Christmas that I actually had a birthday, but soon enough that every item on my Christmas list I didn’t get automatically went on my birthday list.

  154. 154.

    debbie

    @raven:

    Huh. I thought his whole thing was to keep her from knowing, like removing his shoes so she wouldn’t know where he was.

  157. 157.

    NotMax

    @zhena gogolia

    Give Dickensian on Prime a look-see. It has its problems, however the attentive effort put into it shows and is praiseworthy.

    It’s a mash-up including characters from all of Dickens in what could be alternately be titled Who Killed Jacob Marley?

  158. 158.

    MomSense

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Hey I have a video for you.  It is a local band with footage from Portland Maine.  Band members are friends of my son and in a worlds collide situation several of the people in the videos are friends of mine.
    This video is wicked feeling but I think you will like St. Endo and This is Your Disco Song more.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ICYCjJhjThw

  159. 159.

    japa21

    I share my birthday with Prince William. We have another thing in common in that we both are in the line of succession to the throne.  I believe, however, that I am something like 37,429th.

    And in positive events, the SC on my natal day declared that burning the American flag was protected under the First Amendment.  Somehow, I’m not sure the current court would have come to the same conclusion.

  160. 160.

    Dan B

    @James E Powell:  OMG my second cousin moved to Anchorage a few weeks after the quake.  His wife set out to find a house and was by the hillside that slid, Turnagin Arm?.  I believe they ended up in a house nearby.  She noted that the best place to be was in the tub because she could see all the plumbing held the bathrooms together in almost every house.  She had a well developed wry sense of humor.  Her stories about Alaska were epic.

  161. 161.

    Benw

    @BGinCHI: my third kid’s is Dec 28. On one hand, sucks to be so close to Xmas; other hand, we got a whole year’s extra tax break for only 3 days of actual baby!

    :)

  162. 162.

    Steeplejack

    I was born on Australia Day, along with a nice raft of celebrities, including Paul Newman, Stéphane Grappelli, Lucinda Williams, Wayne Gretzky, Ellen DeGeneres and William Hopper of beloved Perry Mason memory (Paul Drake).

    I was surprised to find at one site the name of Roy Chapman Andrews (1884-1960). (Wikipedia didn’t have him in their list.) He was an “explorer, adventurer and naturalist” back in the days when “explorer” was a bona fide occupation. He led expeditions in Mongolia and the Gobi Desert and found the first known fossil dinosaur eggs. I knew his name as a kid because I read a couple of his books, All About Dinosaurs (1953) and All About Strange Beasts of the Past (1956).

    Random House had a subscription plan where every month you got an All About book and a Landmark book (mostly history). My parents signed me up for it around 1960 or so, for which I am eternally grateful, not only for fueling my voracious reading habit at a crucial age (8-12) but also for contributing to my lifelong habit of book collecting. The books were cheap but attractive hardbacks, and it was satisfying to read them and then own them.

    As an adult, on the few occasions when Roy Chapman Andrews came to mind, I always wondered about his back-story and whether it was shady. “Stole dinosaur fossils from Indiana Jones.” “‘Interference’ with native porters.” I didn’t read too far in his Wikipedia article.

  168. 168.

    Alison Rose

    @Dan B: Okay, that’s amusing. My mom’s birthday is October 1, our last name is Parker, and she had always thought of Bonnie as a possible name for a daughter if she had one. I would have been Bonnie Parker! I mean, she was not a good person, but, you know. So then my mom would have shared her birthday and I would have shared her name.

    (It didn’t happen because my Dad’s previous wife was named Bonnie, and she was still working in the same place as my parents when they got together. So…yeah. That wasn’t gonna happen, even 7 years later :P )

  170. 170.

    MomSense

    @zhena gogolia:

    Many years ago when I was a little kid, my grandmother was watching it and I pretended to be asleep so I could watch it.
    NIGHTMARES for months after that movie.

  171. 171.

    NotMax

    OT.

    Establishing shot in an old movie seen yesterday made me think “Now that’s a small town!”

    Guy walked past a narrow storefront. All that could fit on the display window was the abbreviation:

    DEPT.
    STORE
    .

  172. 172.

    Yutsano

    @Steeplejack: I trust in you for keeping me honest. That event was possibly the harbinger of what’s happening now. I’ve heard some fringe economists (like Larry Kramer) talking about China possibly blowing up but watching them repeat 2008 in real time is surreal.

  173. 173.

    Scott Alloway

    April 14. Lincoln was shot, the Titanic hit the iceberg and sank, Pete Rose was born. Three tragedies are enough.

  174. 174.

    Craig

    Happy Birthday. I got Christopher Lee, who played a vampire, and Henry Kissinger, who is a vampire. The Royal Navy sank the Bismarck too.

  175. 175.

    Mo Salad

    @Belafon: I’m a little pissed with their editing. At :53, you have My Senator, Debbie Stabenow center frame in one of her brightly colored outfits. I had to scroll and pause to see that they were supposedly showing Susan Collins from the left with a handshake. Without pausing, all that registers is Stabenow.

  176. 176.

    oclib

    among names that I recognized, Matt LeBlanc, Emmett Till, Walter Payton and Henry Knox

    and on this day July 25th…..nothing noteworthy…..my life in a capsule  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  177. 177.

    aliasofwestgate

    I share my birthday with Mcauley Culkin, Chris Pine, Dylan O’Brien of the younger actors out there. Also women’s sufferage day is the ‘holiday’ it is. Uncelebrated because of course it is, Also the fact that it’s so close to the school year that i always got school clothes in addition to all the cool presents.  But Shirley Manson (Garbage lead singer)? awesome. Because Garbage remains one of my fave bands. ^^;

     

    On the other hand, i graduated at 17 years of age because i slipped in just under the wire for my age group when i started school as a kidlet. *shrugs* No being held back or jumped ahead. Just a birthday falling in that weird part of the year.

  179. 179.

    svendsen

    It said “Classic Trailer”, but for some reason I thought it said “Honest Trailer” and waited FAR too long for it to be funny before I realized my mistake.

  185. 185.

    Mo Salad

    Down the birthday rabbit hole: On the history front, Lee surrenders at Appomattox.

    For birthdays I get a weird list: Hugh Hefner, Jenna Jameson, Joe Scarborough, Paulina Porizkova, Lil Nas X, Jeff Zucker, and Robbie Fowler for Amir. YNWA, bro.

    Then I found a good list and struck paydirt: Tom Lehrer. That made me very happy.

  187. 187.

    Zelma

    I share a birthday with Queen Elizabeth and Charlotte Bronte.  My becoming an English historian was preordained.

  188. 188.

    Miss Bianca

    @Steeplejack: I remember that name! I read All About Dinosaurs!

    The “All About” books were great. I credit All About Snakes with helping me to overcome my childhood phobia about them.

  189. 189.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    A bit late to the party, but I’ve always been proud I share my September 22 birthday with Bilbo and Frodo Baggins.

  190. 190.

    trollhattan

    @CaseyL:

    Loved “First Man” and decided that every Trumper who complained it lacked sufficient Freedom Worship needs keelhauling.

    With Trump’s big Navy we have plenty of keels.

  192. 192.

    JMG

    The Lincoln Project is very well funded by Republicans like my two younger brothers — very very well off people who want low taxes, but also low static. They both loved GW, but neither voted for Trump on the well-founded suspicion he’d be bad for both business and their party.

  194. 194.

    Shana

    I share my birthday with Mozart, but play no instruments and can’t carry a tune.

    My brother unfortunately shares his with Hitler.

    My mother shared hers with Washington and hated it because she never got birthday cards on her birthday because they used to celebrate it on the day and there was no mail.

  195. 195.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    my co-birthday-ers include Bill Murray, Stephen King and last but not least, Miss Ricki Lake.

    and Earth, Wind and Fire gave me a birthday song

  196. 196.

    HRA

    My birthday has Alfred Nobel, Pele, Carrie Fisher and 236 others born on the same date.

  198. 198.

    Amir Khalid

    My birthday next week coincides with David Hasselhoff’s, and with the anniversary of the TWA 800 crash and the MH17 shootdown. ☹️

    ETA: ,,, and apparently with young Goku, plus a few other famous people.

  199. 199.

    Eunicecycle

    @MattF: My birthday is also Dec. 7, but 14 years later. My brother’s is May 4, the date of the Kent State killings. Also, I had a baby on my brother’s birthday, and my brother’s wife had a baby on my birthday. So that’s kind of odd!

  200. 200.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @Benw: my mother’s birthday was January 3, and you better believe she wanted separate b.day presents apart from her Xmas presents. And they had better have been wrapped in birthday paper, not Xmas paper!

  201. 201.

    hueyplong

    @Scott Alloway: Hilarious.  My brother’s birthday is also April 14 and we, too, toss in Pete Rose’s birthday as part of the Troika of Terror (with Lincoln and Titanic).

  202. 202.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @Steeplejack: I loved Landmark books when I was a kid. They covered everything historical, and I grew up to be a history major in college.

  204. 204.

    Steeplejack

    @Miss Bianca:

    For a long time as a kid I wanted to be an archaeologist when I grew up. Of course, there were only six kinds of dinosaurs back then: T-rex, brontosaurus, stegosaurus, triceratops, pterodactyl and pleiseosaur (sic). Might have missed one.

  206. 206.

    Matt McIrvin

    @trollhattan: That whole episode was ridiculous. How dare a historical space movie be a character study of a human being, instead of a patriotic devotional pageant!

  207. 207.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Steeplejack: One of the old standard dinosaurs was always Dimetrodon, which is also not a dinosaur (it pre-dated dinosaurs and was more closely related to mammals).

  210. 210.

    Matt McIrvin

    Looked it up again and realized that the old lists I’d used to find famous people sharing my birthday were far too limited: other interesting people born on May 27 include Ibn Khaldun, Julia Ward Howe, Rachel Carson, Lee Meriwether and Lou Gossett, Jr.

  212. 212.

    dnfree

    @Steeplejack: I have purchased a few of the Landmark books I remember in the past few years. I want the ones with the picture covers or dust jackets!  The ones I have bought have held up pretty well in terms of content— the one on Osceola, the one on Toussaint l’Overteur, and Lincoln.

  217. 217.

    NotMax

    @BGinCHI

    Hope you’ve got the space for the mariachi band that comes with the 6-pack.

    :)

    (Not a fan of tequila, BTW. So – more for you!)

  218. 218.

    Barbara

    It turns out I share a birthday with one of my favorite actors, Vincent D’Onofrio. Also Lena Horne and Mike Tyson.

  219. 219.

    dnfree

    @Zelma: I share queen Elizabeth’s real birthday. And you have the  same name as one of my great-aunts. I never have known anyone else with that name.

  222. 222.

    Steeplejack

    @dnfree:

    I seem to remember picture covers but not dust jackets. Maybe what would now be called “library binding”?

  223. 223.

    Tom Levenson

    Dropping in late to wish the protagonist a very happy birthday!

    As for my birthday, lots to choose from: a Wall St. bombing, a devastating hurricane in Florida, Owain Glyndŵr is declared Prince of Wales by his followers, and, my favorite: British Post Office Savings Banks opens.

    Postal banking! An idea never out of its time…

  225. 225.

    James E Powell

    @BGinCHI:

    @zhena gogolia:

    I was born in and spent 2/3s of my life in Cleveland. Robert Lockwood was a fixture in the city’s blues scene. Many encounters, some of them quite memorable.

  226. 226.

    Delk

    @BGinCHI: the Binny’s on Wellington used to be the Ivanhoe Theater.  I almost hit Loretta Swit on my bike when she ran out to grab a cab.

  228. 228.

    Salty Sam

    @japa21: I share my birthday with Prince William. We have another thing in common in that we both are in the line of succession to the throne.  I believe, however, that I am something like 37,429th

    In the COVID era, that might be an attainable goal. Be ready for your coronation!

  231. 231.

    Tehanu

    I share my birthday with the great poet John Milton and with Donny Osmond … proof yet again that the universe has a sense of humor.  Or something.

  232. 232.

    dnfree

    @Steeplejack:  No, honest-to-God dust jackets with a plain cover under it. Without the picture, it doesn’t carry the memory for me. I think it depended on the era. I’m a little older than you and my books arrived in the mid to late 50s.  I think the later ones had pictures on the cover.

  233. 233.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @hueyplong: I almost got run over by Frank Sinatra’s limo once.

    Hey, you take your celebrity sightings where you can get them.

    OK, the birthday game… Vlad the Impaler, but he’s offset by Julian of Norwich and Edmond Halley. Also Bram Stoker (is there a theme going here?). More recently Esther Rolle and Ben Bova.

  234. 234.

    billcinsd

    Dec 9 — My father died the day before my 24th birthday

    people I share my b-day with

    Kirsten Gillibrand, Tip O’Neill, Tom Daschle

    Kirk Douglas, Judy Dench, Donny Osmond, John Cassavetes, Broderick Crawford, Redd Foxx, John Malkovich, Beau Bridges, Margaret Hamilton, BuckHenry, Dalton Trumbo, Emmett Kelly, Neil Innes

    Dick Butkus, Billy Bremner, Deacon Jones, Steve Owens, Bubba Baker

    Grace Hopper, Fritz hopper

    FamousBirthdays.com was quite the trip for this

  237. 237.

    BGinCHI

    @Delk: Loretta Swit.

    I haven’t thought about her in forever. I literally ran into Dan Ackroyd in Toronto. He was quite thick.

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