On the other side of the scale from St. Thomas Becket, we have a scurvy dog named Calico Jack Rackham. He was born on this date in 1682. Arrr, he be a pirate. Until he met his piratical end. But he was the guy who came up with the Jolly Roger, and towards the end of his career, he took his wife and another woman on board his ship... which is apparently bad luck. Or at least it was bad luck for Jack. And for Mary Read, I guess. For Anne Bonny, or "Mrs Calico" as she liked to be called (I think), well she got away with it all, and lived a relatively long life in the Colonies.
Happy birthday also to John Russell, who was an English clergyman, born in 1795. He liked dogs, and helped found The Kennel Club. He also had a terrier dog which he bred, and eventually her descendants (and their ilk) became known as
It's apparently a good day to have a kid and send him off to the priesthood. At least if you're English. In 1811, the Tait family of Edinburgh had a son they named Archibald. Eventually, he grew up to follow Becket's precedent and become Archbishop of Canterbury... Were there any other men with that title born today? Maybe!
Not an archbishop of Canterbury, but born on this date was Werner von Trapp, or "Kurt" as he's more commonly known as. Not sure why the name was changed for a movie, unless "Werner" was too German or too difficult to pronounce. Probably one of those two reasons though. At any rate, Werner served in the US Army during WWII, and then became a dairy farmer. If you are familiar with the current iteration of the Trapp Family Singers (version 2.0, I guess), you'll be awestricken to know that he was their grandfather.
I would have given a much bigger cheer for our next birthday boy, but he's kinda blown his own reputation in the last few months. I think he'll eventually be seen as not quite so bad, but still... Anyway, happy birthday to Joe Paterno, who is having what must be the worst of his 85 birthdays. And I suspect he won't get much past 86, if he even gets that far. I just don't see his physical and emotional health keeping him going. Too bad it ended the way it did.
If you enjoy stupid, arrogant and smarmy TV talk show hosts, then you'll want to give best wishes to Phil Donahue. I don't, so I won't.
Frank Zappa was born on this date in 1940, which is ironic since I was just explaining to somebody earlier today on Facebook that he's similar to Ron Paul in that his fans think he's the Greatest! Thing! Ever! despite the fact that his stuff is objectively crappy. But the argument goes, if you think it's crappy, you just don't understand it because it's too brilliant and awesome for your limited abilities. Which is kind of an impossible stance for anyone to debate against. So why bother, I guess is my new mantra. Anyhow, he did "Valley Girls" which I concede was better than most, and also had an point that one would have to be a moron to not see. But most people didn't see it, and it became his biggest hit. Which I don't think he was thrilled with...
On the other hand, another musician was born on this date in 1946. I don't think that anyone would argue that Carl Wilson was a genius, as that title is reserved for his brother Brian. But he was a decent singer, and was featured on a couple of my favorite Beach Boys tracks "Good Vibrations" and "God Only Knows". Sadly, he developed both brain and lung cancer and left us in 1998.
You might want to have some mother-**ckin' ice cream on a mother-**ckin cake to celebrate the birthday of mother-**ckin Samuel L. Jackson today. Or you might not. I don't think he'll mother-**ckin care, ya know?
Ah, another athletic dream girl of mine- and everyone else- was born on this date in 1954. Chris Evert. Lovely, talented, and charming (at least in public). I've never really heard anything bad about her. In fact, I recall reading a few years ago about a woman who met Evert at some tennis event, and thanked her for being such a wonderful role model for all girls everywhere. And that's really something that can't be topped, so I won't try.
Born on this date in 1957, Ray Romano. Everybody loves Raymond. (Makes wanking motion, so you can guess where I stand on that declaration).
Ah, another fantasy woman was born today. Happy 47th to Fabiana Udenio. She's best known (to me at any rate) from her role in "Summer School" back in the day. She's apparently still kicking around, but I haven't seen her in years.
For basketball fans, it's a big day for them. Happy birthday to Ervin Johnson. Note the missing "A", which means he's best known as "Not That Earvin Johnson". Okay.
And on that anti-climactic note, we'll end!
No comments:
Post a Comment