Soccer Dad

They say it's my birthday

I guess tha October 9, might be best known for being Leif Ericson day. No, he didn't invent the mobile phone, but he might well have been the first really mobile European having discovered the New World nearly 500 years in advance of Columbus.

Actually the most famous person to share my birthday is probably John Lennon. In commemoration of that birthday the Washington Post has had two stories related to his life. One is about his first wife's upcoming book about their life together. Of all the people mentioned in the article, Paul McCartney comes across the best. Unsurprisingly, Yoko Ono isn't portrayed in a flattering light. The profile of Cynthia Lennon concludes sadly:

But not as sad as the last sentence, where Cynthia concludes that if she'd known as a teenager where falling in love with John would lead, she never would have taken the plunge.

"I didn't really mean it as so final as that," she says. "It's such a double-edged feeling. When I say that if I'd known what was ahead of me I'd have walked the other way -- well, obviously I couldn't and wouldn't and didn't. I didn't take the easy path."

The other article "Lennon's Forgotten Album" is about John Lennon's short lived hobby and how it found its way to the Smithsonian.

October 9 is also famous for the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Maybe Mrs. O'Leary's cow didn't really knock over the lantern. But the destruction was real. It's why, at work, they celebrate my birthday with fire drills.

In the world of fiction ...
On this day in 1890 the Red Headed League was dissolved.

And for any Baker Street Irregulars out there, what other case of Sherlock Holmes did the bad guy use a similar to scheme? (I know of at least one, if there are others, I'd be happy to know.)

UPDATE: One thing I forgot. In synagogue, I heard last year that someone had a birthday October 9, and that his Hebrew birthday was also the second intermediate day of the holiday of Sukkos. So I said to him (last year), "Oh, you must be 25."