We forego the candles to prevent the buttercream from melting in the heat.

Last year on this day, I reminded you of all the spectacular things that happened on February 17th in history. This year, I'll just remind you of the important one. (hint: it's not the Battle of Rudau)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LSH! One year closer to FREE COFFEE AT McDONALD'S!!

(It's good to have goals.)

Unattainable

Happy birthday to Punkinhead's favorite gentleman, Tim Gunn.

Gunn was born and raised in Washington, D.C. He is the son of Nancy (née Comfort) and George William Gunn, an FBI agent during the administration of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Gunn was a champion swimmer throughout high school, and later attended the Corcoran College of Art and Design, receiving a BFA in sculpture.
Gunn, who is gay, was raised in an intensely homophobic household and viewed homosexuals as predators. According to a video Gunn created for the It Gets Better project, he attempted to commit suicide at the age of 17 by swallowing over 100 pills. He denied his sexual orientation until his early 20s, and did not share it with his family until he came out to his sister when he was 29.

Tim Gunn always makes Punkinhead smile a little bit brighter, so let's celebrate the 62nd birthday of the gay man my 20-something daughter wants to marry. (Anything's possible in America, right?)

Happy Birthday, Tornado! And everyone else.

Another fabulous birthday day:

• 1551 – National University of San Marcos in Lima, Peru. the oldest university in the Americas (USA is not #1)
• 1670 – Augustus II the Strong, Polish king (much more effective than Lucius the Slack)
• 1812 – Edward Lear, English author, poet, and illustrator (advocating for interspecies marriage long before its time)
• 1820 – Florence Nightingale, English social reformer and statistician (yes, we all know Ms. Nightingale as the famous statistician)
• 1907 – Katharine Hepburn, American actress (you know how to whistle, don't you?)
• 1910 – Johan Ferrier, Surinamese politician, 1st President of Suriname (someone had to be first)
• 1925 – Yogi Berra, American baseball player and manager (he "never said most of the things I said.")
•  1937 – George Carlin, American comedian, actor, and author ("Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.")
• 1953 – Neil Astley, English author, poet, and academic (no relation to Rick)
•  1962 – Emilio Estevez, American actor, director, and screenwriter (Martin Sheen's not insane son)
• 1968 – Tony Hawk, American skateboarder and actor (parlayed being a douchey sk8rboy into millions of dollars)
• 19?? --Heather! My best friend (who frequently shares hilarious stories of her kids' embarrassments --just not on her blog.)
• 1998 – Tornado Alicia Black, American tennis player (at least you weren't named Hurric... Oh. Your sister.)

Happy Birthday!

Celebrating a birthday today:

• 1812 – Robert Browning,  Verse-Making Was Least of his Virtues 
• 1833 – Johannes Brahms,  famous composer
• 1840 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky,  more famous composer 
• 1892 – Archibald MacLeish,  Circus poet
• 1919 – Eva Perón,  don't cry for her
• 1937 – Birgit,  claims to have mothered the author of this blog 
• 1955 – Axel Zwingenberger,  this has to be a made-up name
• 1957 – Hercules,  I had no idea he was born in 1957
• 1975 – Nicole Sheridan, American porn actress: doesn't it seem to you Wikipedia is a little too up-to-date with porn star birthdays?
• Also notable on this day in 1992 – Michigan ratifies a 203-year-old proposed amendment to the United States Constitution making the 27th Amendment law. This amendment bars the U.S. Congress from giving itself a mid-term pay raise.

On this day in history (thanks Wikipedia!)

February 17

• 1653 – Arcangelo Corelli, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1713) Who names their kid Archangel?
• 1781 – René Laennec, French physician, invented the stethoscope (d. 1826) Huh. Not something you'd think about, but I suppose someone had to invent it.
• 1844 – Aaron Montgomery Ward, American businessman, founded Montgomery Ward (d. 1913) Who remembers Montgomery Ward? Jesus, we're old.
• 1848 – Albert Gustaf Dahlman, Swedish executioner (d. 1920)  "After being run over by a tram, he never regained health... ."
• 1863 – A group of citizens of Geneva founded an International Committee for Relief to the Wounded, which later became known as the International Committee of the Red Cross. So that's why Switzerland and the Red Cross have similar flags.
• 1904 – Madama Butterfly receives its première at La Scala in Milan. Notable because only one person dies in it.
• 1925 – Hal Holbrook, American actor and director Still pretending to be Mark Twain
• 1934 – Barry Humphries, Australian comedian, actor, and author Still pretending to be Dame Edna Everage
• 1957 – Loreena McKennitt, Canadian singer-songwriter, accordion player, and pianist Has a song on every New Age Celtic album ever.
• 19?? – LSH  is born. A date that will live in infamy. (Just kidding, Honey!)
• 1963 – Michael Jordan, American basketball player and actor Arguably the greatest basketball player of all time.
• 1968 – In Springfield, Massachusetts, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opens. What are the odds that the Basketball Hall of Fame opens on the fifth birthday of Michael Jordan?
• 1977 – Wong Choong Hann, Malaysian badminton player Someone has to be famous for playing badminton

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LSH!

And no one I know

I like running down the birthdays on Wikipedia during my lunch hour. Today was a good one.

• 1863 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (d. 1914) -if only he hadn't died in 1914
• 1870 – Saki, Burmese-English author and playwright (d. 1916) -I like how Wiki has him listed as Saki and not H.H. Munro
• 1878 – Joseph Stalin, Georgian-Russian marshal and politician, 4th Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1953) -Georgian-Russian, like Georgia is all proud of its native son
• 1879 – Paul Klee, Swiss-German painter (d. 1940) -His works are the gateway drug to modernism
• 1886 – Ty Cobb, American baseball player and manager (d. 1961) -Even people who know nothing about baseball recognize this name
• 1912 – Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., American pilot and general (d. 2002) -First black general.
• 1916 – Betty Grable, American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 1973) -I always get her confused with Betty Rubble
• 1917 – Ossie Davis, American actor and activist (d. 2005) -Always did the right thing
• 1935 – Jacques Pépin, French-American chef and author -His stage shows with Julia Child are hilarious
• 1943 – Keith Richards, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor (The Rolling Stones, The Dirty Mac, and The New Barbarians) -How is he still alive?
• 1946 – Steve Biko, South African activist, founded the Black Consciousness Movement (d. 1977) -Martyred in the fight against Apartheid
• 1946 – Steven Spielberg, American director, producer, and screenwriter, co-founded DreamWorks -Keeping Harrison Ford working
• 1963 – Brad Pitt, American actor and producer -adopter of foreign children
• 1964 – Stone Cold Steve Austin, American wrestler, actor, and producer -"wrestler"
• 1980 – Christina Aguilera, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress -Actress? Really?
• 1987 – Miki Ando, Japanese figure skater -quadruple jump

Water highway

Happy birthday to the Suez Canal. 145 years old and just as spry as ever.

hip hip HOORAY!

Happy Independence Day!
Celebrating a birthday today are

• 1790 – George Everest, Welsh surveyor and geographer. just had to have the biggest mountain
• 1804 – Nathaniel Hawthorne, American author. Scarlet A for awful
• 1883 – Rube Goldberg, American sculptor, cartoonist, and author. if he built it, you will laugh
•  1937 – Queen Sonja of Norway She is Norwegian and a queen; how lucky can one gal get?
• 1943 – Geraldo Rivera, American lawyer, journalist, and author. porn-stache champion
• 1954 – Morganna, American model and dancer. Not the one from Arthurian legend
• 1971 – Koko, American gorilla. f*ck yeah! An AMERICAN gorilla, born on the 4th of July who is famous for nothing more than speaking her mind. 'Murica!
• 1992 -- Punkinhead. 

Yea! Punkin! Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to my favorite sister!

Another round of birthdays today:

• 1852 – Antoni Gaudí, Spanish architect. Quite possibly took his name too much to heart
• 1900 – Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, English admiral and politician. Burma = short straw
• 1903 – George Orwell, English author. Some authors are more equal than others
• 1917 – Nils Karlsson, Swedish skier. Not to be confused with Carl Nielsen
• 1925 – June Lockhart, American actress. What's that Lassie? It's Timmy's mom's birthday?
• 1928 – Peyo, Belgian author and illustrator, created The Smurfs. Not sure I'd want that on my epitaph
• 1945 – Carly Simon, American singer-songwriter, actress, and author. You probably think this list is about you
• 1956 – Anthony Bourdain, American chef and author. For his birthday he's eating newt testicles with an undiscovered tribe in the Amazon.
• 1961 – Ricky Gervais, English comedian, actor, director, and producer. Giving atheists a good name; also: worst selfies EVER.

 Rounding out the list is a Busy, a La La, a Rain and an Indigo. Seriously. 

Not quite exalted company for my little sister, but better than Hitler.

By association

Today is the birthday of a lovely woman, who for some unknowable reason, decided to marry my brother. It is also the birthday of

• 1519 – Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1574)  -the original Medici, accept no substitutes
• 1806 – John A. Roebling, German-American engineer, designed the Brooklyn Bridge (d. 1869) -I always hear his name in John McCullough's voice. Thanks, PBS.
•  1899 – Weegee, Ukrainian-American photographer (d. 1968)  -"themes of nudists, circus performers, freaks and street people" aka New Yorkers
• 1924 – George H. W. Bush, American lieutenant and politician, 41st President of the United States  -of "read my lips" fame
• 1941 – Marv Albert, American sportscaster -and rapist
• 1953 – Timothy Duke, British heraldic, Chester Herald of Arms in Ordinary -walking anachronism
• 1965 – Vicky Vette, Norwegian-American porn actress and model -do you think that's her real name?
• 1974 – Kerry Kittles, American basketball player -NOT a porn actress. huh.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESSICA!

Fossilized

In honor of Mary Anning's birthday today (thanks, Google Doodle!) I'm reposting a 4-year-old book blog on a wonderful book about her.

Friday Book Blogging

This was another six book week. My favorite was Tracy Chevalier's Remarkable Creatures, a fictionalized account of the life of Mary Anning and her amazing fossil discoveries on the coast of England in the early 1800s.
The story itself is more about the relationship between Mary and kindred spirit Elizabeth Philpot, but the amazing facts of Mary's discoveries is what drives the book. A girl of little education in a man's world made some of the most amazing contributions to paleontology. Her fossil finds are still in museums today.

Priorities

When my mom was little, her father, who was active in the Norwegian Resistance during WWII, told her that she was going to get the "best birthday present ever" for her 8th birthday.

May 7, 1945 – World War II: General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war.

World peace is NOT a shiny new bicycle.

(Artist's representation of mom as a young girl. It was a long time ago; cameras were barely invented! lol)

Happy Birthday to Me.

When you're old you have to do stuff on your birthday that you might not want to do. I was prepared for this at an early age thanks to my Norwegian mother. (I could not fathom the idea of taking the day off school to have a "me" day with mom, because it would be inexcusable to take a day off of anything unless you were deathly ill.)
When I was little, the coolest thing about my birthday was that it MIGHT be on Easter. (It never was; Easter has fallen on 4/20 in 1919, 1924, 1930 and not again until just 9 years ago, 2003.)
When I was an angst-ridden teen, the coolest thing about my birthday is that I shared it with an evil dictator (not that I thought Hitler was cool).
In college, the coolest thing about my birthday was that it was 420 (although that is wasted --haha-- on me).
I'm in the doldrums of coolness now. I suppose the coolest thing about my birthday now, is that I share it with Internet sensation George Takei.
Soon, the coolest thing about my birthday will be that I'm still around to celebrate it. :)

Something to look forward to

Both Abe Lincoln and Charles Darwin have their birthdays today. Friday is Valentine's Day. We just 10 days ago heard from Punxatawney Phil. President's Day this year coincides with my LSH's birthday.
But, by far the best thing about February is the arrival of the spring gardening catalogs. And the first one came yesterday! The next two months paging through all the seed and plants selections will make the 10 inches of snow on the ground and the temps hovering in the teens much easier to bear.

After all, this cold and snow must be going away someday, otherwise the garden centers wouldn't have sent the catalogs, right?

I can't possibly be that old

Tomorrow is my baby brother's 40th birthday. It seems like only yesterday he was running around the house naked telling all my girlfriends that he wanted to be a gynecologist so he could look at vaginas.
Oh, wait....

Bon Appétit!

Happy birthday to the American woman who became known as the French Chef. 100 years ago today, Julia McWilliams Child was born and after tasting buttered sole at a restaurant in Rouen began her culinary pursuits. Her groundbreaking book Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her groundbreaking television show The French Chef are the benchmark for all cookbooks and cooking shows.
And she was decorated by the OSS (precursor to the CIA) for merit and her "drive and inherent cheerfulness." How many TV chefs can say that?

Not bad company

Celebrating a birthday today:

• 1739 – George Clinton, American politician (d. 1812)
• 1856 – George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer, Nobel laureate (d. 1950)
• 1875 – Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist (d. 1961)
• 1908 – Salvador Allende, Chilean president (d. 1973)
• 1922 – Blake Edwards, American film director (d. 2010)
• 1928 – Stanley Kubrick, American director (d. 1999)
• 1943 – Mick Jagger, English singer (The Rolling Stones)
• 1959 – Kevin Spacey, American actor
• My friend, fellow blogger, playwright, and the first guy who kissed me (thankfully not the last) – David Hansen

Happy birthday!

Friday Book Blogging

Hmm. I read a very disappointing TWO books this week, and frankly, neither one deserves a prize. It's not that they were bad, they weren't. But they were completely mediocre. And while mediocrity plays an important role in my life, I don't think it should play one in my library. Although the reality is most of the books I read are just slightly better than mediocre.
At any rate, I need to blog a book so in honor of his Saturday birthday, and because it's a fantastic book, I'm tapping the not-quite-so-recently read Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.
Its evocative writing and triumphant story still resonate.

Happy birthday

Two decades ago on this day, my Punkinhead was born. (How cool is it to have a birthday on the 4th of July!?)
I have spent the subsequent 20 years teaching her to be an independent, wise, witty, charming, caring person. And in fact, while I don't always say it, I am very proud of her.

Oh, Lou!

Happy birthday to Lou Henry Hoover, who, if she were living, would be 138 years old today.
Despite being married to one of history's most maligned ex-presidents, Lou Hoover was an extraordinary woman.
She was the first woman to major in geology at Stanford University.
Lou Hoover was the only First Lady to speak Chinese and could also speak five other languages.
She was the first First Lady to broadcast on radio.
She and her husband translated Agricola's De Re Metallica, a 16th century encyclopedia of mining and metallurgy from its original Latin.
Mrs. Hoover was instrumental in establishing the Girl Scouts as an American organization. She was a troop leader in D.C. in 1917 for a deliberately racially integrated troop.
Her future husband, Herbert Hoover, proposed to her via telegram when she was studying abroad in Australia. She accepted via reply telegram.