You say it's your birthday?

It's my birthday too.

UPDATE: Meade brings me a glass of coffee and says "Here you are, Lincoln, Nebraska."

How should we celebrate the 100th birthday of Richard M. Nixon?

It's today.

Ideas:

1. Tell us your favorite thing about Richard Nixon. (It's his birthday. No need to trot out all the usual hatred.)

2. When you encounter someone today, instead of saying "hi," do that 2-arms-raised-with-V-for-victory-fingers gesture.



3. For lunch: Ketchup on your cottage cheese.

4. Work Nixon phrases into conversations, e.g. "the lift of a driving dream."

5. When you put on your coat, call attention to the fact that it's a "cloth coat," as if that's remarkable, as if anyone would ever expect anyone these days to have a fur. If people look at you funny, double down by calling it "a respectable Republican cloth coat." If somebody gets the jump on you and calls their coat a "cloth coat" first, show that you get it by saying, "As I always say, you'd look good in anything."

6. At some point today, when you're with someone who never kneels to pray, insist that they get down on their knees and pray with you.

7. Wearing a dark suit and wingtips, take a walk on the beach.

8. Secretly record all your conversations. (Or is everyone already doing that?)

9. If anyone happens to say "pardon me," say: "Pursuant to the pardon power conferred upon me by Article II, Section II, I grant a full, free, and absolute pardon unto you for all offenses."

10. When you leave a room, turn to anyone who remains in it — or even to an empty room — and proclaim: "I leave you gentlemen now. But as I leave you I want you to know, you won't have [your name] to kick around any more."

11. This is special for lawprofs and other law folk. If anyone mentions Rehnquist, act like they got the name wrong, and faux-correct them with "Renchburg."

12. From Ron in the comments: Play ping pong. Watch Dr. StrangeKissinger. Just for the hell of it say, "Sock it to me?" Just for today call your closest friend "Spiro." Play Checkers.

13. If you find yourself in the kitchen with somebody, strike up a debate and at some point, start needling them about being a Communist.

"An’ for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe... we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing..."

One more Bob Dylan quote... one more post about freedom...

... because I just asked Meade what his favorite Bob Dylan song was, and he hadn't read my theme-of-the-day freedom posts yet, but he said "Chimes of Freedom".

I could expatiate about the connection to freedom, but I'll just say it simply: It's Meade's birthday. We're not big on special occasions. We love normal, everyday life. It's hard to stop and say something distinctive about a birthday, when every day is a beautiful gift.

Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind
Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind

"8% Rate St. Patrick’s Day As An Important Holiday."

Says Rasmussen.

Chez Meadhouse, we rate St. Patrick's Day as in important birthday.

Happy birthday, John.

You say it's your birthday?

It's my birthday too!

A Christmas poll.

Please read the previous post before answering.

Should we celebrate Christmas?
	Yes, because it's a traditional holiday in our culture.
	Yes, because it's the day Christ was born (or so they say).
	Yes, but we should celebrate on a different day, like maybe December 17th.
	No, because it's not good Christianity to celebrate birthdays.
	No, because Christians should concentrate on Easter and other days.
	No, because Christmas has been degraded by paganism and commercialism.
	No, because Christianity is not true.
pollcode.com free polls

"Ann — Every day, I see Barack make choices he knows will affect every American family."

"That's no small task for anyone — and more proof that he's earning every last one of those gray hairs. This has been a busy week in Washington, but today happens to be Barack's 50th birthday...."

Michelle emails me. The subject line is "Gray hairs." Don't you see? That gray hair? He's gone gray for us.

Anybody who runs for President is committing to working extremely hard and getting old at a faster rate than they would if they'd refrained from volunteering to work on all our problems all the time for 4 years. We the people are more concerned with whether we like your work product. You can't really get any pity for pointing to your graying hair. We're a pitiless bunch, because you stepped up to the big job and there's too much at stake.

But happy birthday, anyway, Mr. President.

"Did you hear a click?"

Happy birthday to the 2 people in our family who have birthdays on the same day.

Do you have a co-birthdayist in your immediate circle? What's that like for you?

Of course, everyone has celebrities born on their birthday. For example, born today, were the Marquis de Sade... and Cornel West!

Bob Dylan turns 70.

Thanks for staying alive, Bob!

IN THE COMMENTS: Shouting Thomas said: "Well, shit, Althouse, I was expecting a more expansive Dylan Hullabaloo."

I don't find birthdays and aging that interesting. I write about Dylan all the time, and most of the people here don't even appreciate it. I'm supposed to hold a birthday party? Does Dylan care about birthdays? The word "birthday" appears but twice in all the Dylan songs.  One is in "Desolation Row":

Now Ophelia, she’s ’neath the window
For her I feel so afraid
On her twenty-second birthday
She already is an old maid
To her, death is quite romantic...

That's not about celebrating birthdays. "Birthday" is just there to say the woman is 22. She's old at 22. Being older when younger is a theme in at least 2 Dylan songs that spring instantly to my mind. If they don't spring instantly to your mind, then you probably don't care what they are anyway.

The other Dylan song with the word "birthday" tells us something about what he thinks of birthdays. It's "She Belongs to Me":

She’s got everything she needs
She’s an artist, she don’t look back...
You will start out standing
Proud to steal her anything she sees
You will start out standing
Proud to steal her anything she sees
But you will wind up peeking through her keyhole
Down upon your knees... 
Bow down to her on Sunday
Salute her when her birthday comes...

I don't think Dylan likes getting down on his knees or bowing down, and I think we can infer that he scorns birthday celebrations. That's what I think, and I've been interpreting Dylan songs for 45 years.

It's my birthday. I'm 60!

Don't worry, young people. The view looks great from here.

Tomorrow is my birthday.

I will be 60.

Any ideas?

Roxanna Green said Christina was patriotic and proud to have a September 11, 2001 birthday.

"It was very special to her. She would tell people she was born on a holiday. She would always try to the see the positive in it. She said it was a holiday because it gave hope and everyone came together."

Christina Green died in the Tuscon shootings yesterday.

AND:

Christina was an A student and was interested in politics, so her mother accepted the offer by her friend Susan Hileman to take Christina to the congresswoman’s town hall meeting. John Green told the Arizona Star-News that Christina was such a good speaker, “I could have easily seen her as a politician.”

But Christina also seems to have inherited her family’s baseball genes. She was on the Little League baseball team, its only girl, her mother said.

“She was an athlete, a good dancer, a good gymnast, a good swimmer,” her mother said. “She belonged to Kids Helping Kids charity and tried to help children less fortunate.”

Christina, a slender girl with brownish blonde hair, brown eyes and a gentle smile, also sang in the choir at St. Odilia Roman Catholic Church. At home she took care of pet geckos, but loved frolicking with the dogs and cats of neighbors and friends. In the big-dreams way of children, she told her mother she wanted to be a veterinarian and study at an eastern school like New York University.

What do you think of Ron Reagan's "My Father at 100"?

I'm noticing this book because Instapundit did one of his "IN THE MAIL" posts that acknowledge the receipt of a free book but express no opinion. Sending one free book is a frightfully cheap way to buy publicity. I get free books, but I wouldn't post about them unless I took the time to form some kind of opinion about them, and sending me a free book is a frightfully cheap way to buy my time, the time it would take to form an opinion of a book.

But I don't even need to look beyond the author and title of Ron Reagan's "My Father at 100" to form an opinion. It annoys me. I've seen too much — not all that much — TV commentary by Ron Reagan to want to read a book he wrote about the iconic conservative President. Example:

Reagan: My father knew what he stood for, you can agree with it or disagree with it, he knew how -- what he stood for, he could explain what he stood for. He was conversant in domestic and foreign policy -- [Sarah Palin is] neither! She can't explain where she stands on anything!

Geller: Your father would love her, and frankly I don't think you can speak for your father, because you -- you don't even espouse --

Reagan: No, Pam, actually, have you ever met my father, Pam? Pam, did you ever meet my father?... Did you ever meet my father? I'm asking you a simple question. You can't answer that because the answer is no. So why don't you rely on someone who knew him very well to tell you what he would think of Sarah Palin.

Yes, the 100th anniversary of his birth is an occasion, an excuse, but the birthdayness of it also says: twaddle.

John Lennon is 70.

There's a nice tribute to Lennon in today's Google logo. An animated line drawing, with exactly what you'd expect in the audio track. Must it always be "Imagine"?

Imagine no "Imagine"
What song would they use
For every Lennon tribute
In the annual Lennon news
Imagine all the people
Freed from that old song...

You may say I'm a dreamer
Like some crazy peacenik dove
I hope someday you'll join me
And the new song would be Love.

It's the President's birthday!

He's 49, and having dinner with friends — no family — at a restaurant in Chicago.

Oh, hi!

Happy birthday!

(And extra happy birthday to the new family member with the same birthday.)

Today, Google redoes its logo to celebrate...

... no, not Teddy Kennedy — how would you do that? — Michael Jackson!



It's his birthday, you know.

He was murdered.

Teddy wasn't murdered. Teddy Kennedy died of cancer at the age of 77.

"Tia Carmen is ever haunted by the grim specter of death, and her single slice of birthday pie cannot make her forget the creeping dread."

These comics are making me very uncomfortable.

It's St. Patrick's Day, so....

... chez Althouse, we say: Happy Birthday, John!