First on our list is Captain James Cook, English explorer. He spent a lot of years in the Pacific Ocean, sailing, sailing, over the bounding main. He discovered the Hawaiian Islands, to the amazement of the inhabitants. He visited a few times, and ultimately wore out his welcome, with the expected results. But not on this date.... Or was it? Stay tuned to find out!
Another celebrant is Madame Maria Sklodowska. You know her better by her married name, Curie. She won a Nobel Prize and all sorts of things! Pretty cool!
Leon Trotsky was also born on this date. He was a bastard, but in fairness, he was less of a bastard than his rival Stalin, who had an axe shoved into Trotsky's head. Sucked to be him!
Albert Camus has a birthday today too, speaking of Nobel Prize winners. Apparently, despite his work being taught in classes on Existentialism (I speak from experience here) he denied being a believer. Ironically, while he was a kinda sorta Communist, he was expelled from the Party for being... A Trotskyite. Ironic, no? He wrote "the Myth of Sisyphus" which is the- ahem- Existentialist book I read in my class on that topic.
The most important birthday of all came in 1914, when Archie Campbell was born. He died in 1987, causing many people to suffer "gloom, despair, and agony... deep dark depression, excessive misery". That's right- he was a writer and star of Hee-friggin-Haw! That's bad! No, that's good!
Billy Graham was also born on this date. He's not really that funny, so I won't make fun of him.
Al Hirt was born in NOLA on this date. He was a great musician, and worked closely with his lifetime friend Pete Fountain. I mostly recall him from the Andy Williams Show in the 1970s.
There is nothing like a Dame (Joan Sutherland). Her birthday is also today. Can you imagine trying to sing "happy birthday" to her? Man, I'd be scared to death. Don't think I'd make a sound! Ditto for Dame Gwyneth Jones, who was born much later. And is still alive. Somebody should put my theory to the test.
Johnny Rivers has a birthday today, but probably not "on the poor side of town". Some great stuff in his collection, but also some less than stellar. He had an easy time getting gigs though, once he bought his own nightclub. More musicians ought to try that approach!
A mere 12 months later, Joni Mitchell was born. She had an easy time getting gigs too. Though it was mostly due to her talent, not to imply Johnny Rivers isn't gifted.
Joe Niekro has a birthday today, though he's not really doing much to celebrate, what with being dead and all. He played for the Tigers, so he's cool. Wish he'd worked on his knuckleball while he was in Detroit, instead of later though. That's life!
General (now retired) David Petraeus is celebrating his birthday today. Good on him. He did a great job in Iraq, not so much in Afghanistan; though it's debatable how much of the fiasco there was due to him, and how much to his boss. Given the rules of engagement imposed on our forces there, sadly he must bear some of the blame. Bummer.
Remember Judy Tenuta? Yeah, me neither. All I remember was the loud annoying voice and the accordion. But that's more than I can remember about, say, Dane Cook. So that's a plus.
In 1957, two icons of the entertainment industry were born: John "Jellybean" Benitez, and Christopher "Peter Brady" Knight. Benitez worked with Madonna (when she was hot) and Knight worked with some (hot) bimbo whose name I find too uninteresting to look up. They got married too. I know they've split up, but I have no idea if they're still officially married. Again, not interesting enough.
A tragic birthday today: Dana Plato. What a sad life she had. I guess she proved that childhood fame can be a train wreck. Also proved that drugs and alcohol aren't really that cool. Sigh. Nobody with her talent and looks should OD at the age of 35. On Mother's Day, no less, though I doubt her child(ren) were gonna be doing much with her that day.
Baseball player Kris Benson has a birthday today. He also has a wife who's a hot mess. One of these things could have contributed to his difficulties keeping a job in MLB. Guess which one?
Mike Commodore turns 32 today. All I know of him is that he plays now for the Red Wings. So he's cool. However, he turned down suggestions he take the uniform number 64 (for the slow witted or non-computer geek, that would have made him Commodore 64). Is that a good or a bad thing? It's not the Stanley Cup Finals yet, so I don't care enough about hockey to think too much on it.
And on that note....
We're done.
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