Birthdates

Generally speaking, like, for most of the time, there are only 365 days in a year. Everybody you ever meet will share their birthday with someone famous, also someone noteworthy, someone saintly; someone infamous and someone shockingly depraved. Even the poor souls born Feb 29.

Does it do us any good at all, to look at those little 'Born This Day' lists that turn up in newspapers next to the Horoscopes? Why do we do it?

I doubt its so we can say 'Shit, he/she had the same astrological profile as me, which proves I am an underachiever who has wasted my potential for yet another year'. No, its an -ism or a -ship of some sort, like patriotism and partisanship. We like feeling like part of a club or team that has a couple of winners in it. Even dead ones.

So, I share a birthday with Justin Timberlake. Is that a cause for celebration? Seriously, I'm asking, as the news is inspiring nothing more than a prime wtf moment, for me.

Who else? A whole lot of US politicians I had never heard of, a bunch of Baseball players (ditto) including three marked as being in a Hall of Fame ; then there's Minnie Driver, Zane Grey, Tallulah Bankhead and a couple of kings, it says here. Trust Wikipedia to be the only place listing noteworthy females, bless 'em.

All things considered, given so few days in a year, the list for my birthday is sparse, to say the least. A bit crappy really.

Still, I guess I kind of like Minnie Driver because her name annoys me so much on her behalf, that I cringe for her. What must it have been like to grow up being compared to a mini screwdriver of the plastic coloured kind you get in tiny sets in Christmas crackers, or to have people constantly asking 'Yeah? A Cooper or a Metro?'



Or maybe she just went to a nicer school than I did, and mixed with nicer people.

There is always the chance that she chose it/chose to keep it quite deliberately, so perhaps that's just what I need, a new name, and to hell with astrology.

Any ideas?

Bugger, bugger, bugger, edit, edit! I just found out I share the day with John Lydon (Johnny Rotten)! You HAVE to check out his site :-) Happy Birthday, John!
Now theres a team mate to be bloody proud of. Brains, humour, and no faffing about. Also Carol Channing and Phil Collins, who take 2nd and 3rd place respectively in my personal list of OK birthday sharers. I am back to quite liking the day, again.