More and more, celebrating birthdays seems the preserve and prerogative of the very young. And astrology–bah, humbug. But why deny my time-waster’s instincts? I love stuff like this. The significance of Ayn Rand and James Joyce sharing a birthday with my ex-boss (a.k.a Rakshasi from Mordor) is the sort of thing out of which someone clever will make a board game–and lots of money.
Today is Samuel Pepys’s birthday. And W.E.B. Du Bois’s. Here’s a link where you can look up the birthdays of authors.
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/calendar.htm
I especially like this Finnish site because a) the word for author’s calendar in Finnish is the delicious Kirjailijakalenteri and b) the main page features a library song. I’m a huge fan of libraries, which, as Germaine Greer said, “are places where you can lose your innocence without losing your virginity.” She’s also said many other nice things about libraries in her article, which you can read here.
All together now: It’s the latest, it’s the greatest, it’s the libra-reee.
