h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Today is my birthday.
My 13 year old says it is not the 28th, it is the 30th, and she has been arguing from the evidence of what her teachers have been telling her and other circumstantial bits.
Then, Uvula wished me a Happy 41st...

So, not only did I miss my birthday somehow in the tides of the week's events, but I have to repeat an entire year again...

Pretty much par for the miniature golf course that I live in the midst of.

http://www.famousbirthdays.com/

People whom I share a b'day with;

Alan Alda
Susan Sontag
Jackson Pollock
Colette
Arthur Rubinstein
Sarah McLachlan
Nick Carter
Elijah Wood
Chelsea Brummet
Jose Marti

http://www.wilstar.com/Lookback.htm

this says that today in history:
Barbi Benton was born...


and that in 1855 William Seward Burroughs invented the recording adding machine... oops, no, he was borneded on this day!

and, on the debit side, Jimmy Durante died in 1980...

"Goodnight, Mrs. Calabash, whereever you are!"

It also says that in 1807 Pall Mall in London was the first street lit by gaslight. How strange. I am smoking Pall Mall cigarettes: "Whenever Particular People Congregate" (the Pall Mall cigarette motto, on the front of the packet)... sounds like a perversion of the Christ thing: "Where ever two or more are gathered in my name..."

There's even a latin motto: In Hoc Signo Vinces, whatever that means.
And a motto on the coat of arms (there's a verbal image!): Per Aspera ad Astra ... To reach for the stars?

http://www.kcbq.com/16.asp

This says the birthday people are:

Claes Oldenburg
Acker Bilk
Susan Howard
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Sam Phillips (the lady singer)
Danny Spitz (of Anthrax, the band)
Athina Onasis ( I think this is mispleled, but that's how the site has it.)
John Banner (Oh, My! Sgt. Shultz!)
Sir Henry Morton Stanley

http://www.historyorb.com/today/birthdays.shtml

and this says:
Henry VII
John Barclay
John Baskerville ( the printer and typeface inventor)
Johann Ernst Bach
Peter the Great
Gen. Charles "Chinese" Gordon (!)
Herbert Strudwick
Harry M. Corbett (Sooty, Some People)

and a whole bunch of other people, including astronauts from three countries...

http://www1.excite.com/home/music/music_thisDay/0,16111,thisDay,00.html

And this is just creepy:
John Mosley dies (who?)
Adam and the original Ants break up (who truly cared?)
Brian Poole and the Tremoloes break up (whom?)
"We are the world" is recorded... and Spitting Image gets to have a field day!

http://today.excite.com/history.html

Ford buys Sweden... er, Volvo.
First compact disk played on a radio program...
Challenger disintegrates

The U.S. Coast Guard was created by an act of Congress...

The world's first commercial telephone switchboard was installed in New Haven Connecticut in 1878... with 21 idiots willing to be put on hold when asking for directory assistance...

http://today.excite.com/wordofday.html

and the word of the day:

it be IGNOMINIOUS
whom I thought were a composer...
from Norway...
who wrote notes about fjords and iceburgs...

Traveller in Time < on his head
"So happy birthday, a little late but timeless.
And who is to blame for a day off, he was fiddling on other threads.
Congratulations with Alan Alda, and the others. I hope they did visit your birthday in time, this time.

I would like to see that act the congress played to create a coast guard. Do you have any idea where they are performing the piece or will it be only available on record in the foyer E-Bay?

As any day my universe changed also, however not (jet) as much as yours.

on this extrordinary year in your life, may the keyboards roar and wrinkle at your fingers."

Would a power outage while I was online this morning serve?

Thanks.

I do a bit of time traveling myself.
Which reminds me, what time is it?

sorry, baud rate error...

Never heard of Brian Poole and the Tremeloes?

http://cd.co.za/legends/africashakes/tremeloes_index.htm

My favourite was Someone, Someone.

I have always thought there is truly some deep significance to the three days January 26,27 & 28 or at least that history seems to record an unusual cluster of events having occurred in this deep winter week. Weather conditions may sometimes have been a factor.

Yes even before the Challenger exploded and people started saying "Gee, that's weird, because Apollo One blew up on Jan 27th", I was aware of several other occurances that happened in the 'dark days' of Jabuary.

The sinking of the schooner Bluenose off Haiti in 1947.
My first wife's birthday (year witheld).
And every bloody year at this time we have the celebatory haggis eating in honour of Robbie Burns and the US President's 'State of the Union' address. Those two annual events alone would mark this week as damned if not doomed.

It comes as no surprise that my dear friend and online companion tonsil revenge came into the world in this dark corner of January. While this does strike me as highly appropriate it is not particularly significant or portentious.

If this were not in fact his '42nd', I might not even comment, because the celebration of birthdays has always seemed a very strange thing to do. I can never bring myself to congratulate people for an event in which they had no pro-active participation but were merely re-active victims of greater biological forces.

That said, and because 42 really is a significant anniversary, let me at least extend my best wishes for a continuance of the being known and loved as tonsil revenge, in peace and prosperity.


~jwf~

Amen to that!

as ~jwf~ said!

"Never heard of Brian Poole and the Tremeloes?"

Sorry, even after looking at that link, the name still doesn't ring a bell.

I vaguely remember hearing "Silence Is Golden" somewhere on a compilation tape, but I don't know if it was their version.

"extend my best wishes"
Thanks, all.



It's always nice when Edgar Allen Fulton delivers a eulogy....





particularly if you are still alive to hear it!



Hi, Boss!

>> ..always nice...particularly if you are still alive to hear it! <<

Same time next year then?


~jwf~

Yeah.
But bring Canadian Cognac next time.

Ah, the Trems, they're probably still going somewhere. Brian Poole left them early on and they carried on without him. Silence is Golden was one of theirs, as you say - all falsetto.

42nd year must be a good one for all h2g2 hitchikers, hope so!

Oi vay! And now you're gettink greetinks from a rabbi normal.

How good does it get. Just look at this list of people who have come by to sign your card. Count your blessings, you lucky schlempf.


~jwf~

Traveller in Time on his head
"Card? Oh I am sorry, completely forgot about a card. Will make one ()"

Don't worry about it.
Just by coming around, you have brought me a "card"!