Forty Looks Just Like Thirty-Nine, Only Rounder
Posted March 1st, 2008 by Howard TaylerThanks for all the kind Birthday wishes, everybody. I’ve gotten tons of email and postcards, and had a fine birthday.
I don’t have time to put up an updated postcard-wall picture. I need to get back to work today. This Bonus Story isn’t writing itself.
I posted my thoughts on turning Forty over in my Live Journal. This morning my thoughts are the same, only tempered with “I shouldn’t have eaten that much sushi last night.”
Explore posts in the same categories: Home & Family
March 1st, 2008 at 9:44 am
I’m glad you had a good day. That’s what matters, after all – the rest of us should be taking care of our own happiness! I know I was, and it was the best day of my life; I guess wedding days are like that!
March 1st, 2008 at 11:33 am
Since I’m pretty confident it hasn’t arrived yet, I’m sorry that the postcard is late. I really ought to keep a few US stamps around the house.
March 1st, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Happy birthday! I didn’t send a postcard. :-( But I thought good things about you!
March 1st, 2008 at 8:40 pm
zenkitty: So THAT’s what the happy tingling was yesterday. Thanks!
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:28 am
May I just say: Thank you for leaving aside the “leap year” jokes.
Ever since I was forcibly introduced to _The Pirates of Penzance_,
“people who insist on telling people who were born on a leap day
that they’re actually 25% of their actual age” have been near the
top of the List Of People Who Need A Close Encounter With One Of
Mad Mike’s Wood Chippers. :)
Right up there with “people who assume that because one’s birthday
falls within a week either side of Christmas, they can get one a single
present and say ‘It’s For *Both* Days’”. Fine — let me pull the same
stunt on *your* birthday, and see how much FlAK I catch. And
“people who assume that because one is born on Dec. 31 or Jan 1,
one should in some way be representative of the particular year one
was born in”. Oh, really — you *really* want me to wear a diaper, or
dress as a geriatric? Fine — either gives me an excuse to soil myself
in public. Is *that* what you had in mind?
Can you guess what two phenomena I had to put up with every year
until I finally managed to escape the land of my birth? :)
Happy Birthday. Now get out there and find a name for Book 10
already! :)
March 2nd, 2008 at 6:09 pm
I missed voting the year I turned 18 by a matter of one day. It may not be an anual stiffing or a joke in pour taste, but it was cruel.
Ona
March 2nd, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Happy Belated Birthday Howard. I made a post card in Print Shop of the most distant galaxy that has been found and photographed to date, behind the cluster of galaxies known as Abell 2218. It looks pretty good on the screen but when I printed it I found my color cartridge was used up. I finally got a new cartridge installed on Saturday, so I missed sending the post card with the picture of the most distant object or place. I did try.
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Federal voting age was dropped from 21 to 18 the year I turned 18; the cutoff was 4 days before my birthday, so I had to wait four whole years to vote for a President. I would have voted against Nixon, after the Kent State debacle, and I voted against Ford, because I felt he was wrong to pardon Nixon. I do have to thank Nixon for suspending the draft when he did. My birthday was in the top ten; I’d have gotten the “Greetings” letter if the draft had occurred.
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:52 pm
csadn: The trick in Pirates of Penzance was that the contract said “21st birthday”, not “until he turns 21″. Depending on the interpretation, his age at his 21st birthday could be 12, 21 or (as in the story) 84.
Hey, I was born on Christmas day. (As was Isaac Newton – and it’s been suggested that cheap relatives may have been the reason he was so cranky.) I seem to have had a better time of it, though, in that the only times I got one gift for both was when it was twice as expensive a gift as I would have got for either. Yay for honest consolidation!
“complete blithering idiots who assume that because one is born on Dec. 31 or Jan 1, one should in some way be representative of the particular year one was born in”
Fixed it for you. Seriously, I can understand the first group having a stupid sense of humour, and the second group being cheap, but the third… guh?
Oh, and WARNING: Your response to them could potentially result in learning things about other people that you’d (I hope) rather not know…
AmbassadorOna: No matter where they draw the line, someone’s going to miss out by an absurdly tiny margin. I hope when you did finally get to vote it was on something good. The first time I got to vote was a referendum on two questions. One was carefully designed *not* to give the people what most of us wanted, and the other was just really stupid.
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:59 am
AmbassadorOna: For me, it was school-related; my older brother
and I are three years and two months apart in age — but that two-
month period contains the cut-off date for admissions into the
school district I was in. Result: We shared very little in terms of
experiences — and we barely talk, even today.
richv: I looked up my birthday on a list showing the order in which
draft notices were sent out; I think except for one year the only way
I’d have been called up (assuming I’d been of age then) was if
Charlie was at the St. Louis Arch….
Sam: However it works, _Pirates of Penzance_ is still Bloody
Annoying. Even when Kevin Kline is playing the Pirate King. :)
I will give a pass to “honest consolidation” — the rare occasions
someone in my family wanted to pull that on me, they asked first.
In a way, it helped ramp up the tension — what could it be, that’s
it’s big enough to warrant consolidation? It’s the out-of-the-blue
stuff which makes me want to tattoo “SCHLOCK SNACK” on the
offender’s forehead. >:)
And yes, those people are CBIs — however, in deference to the
Proprietor’s wishes to keep the Major Psychotic Hatred to a dull roar,
I toned it down. :)
And I already knew all too well the things you’d think I’d as soon not
have known. Actually, I preferred knowing them — it allowed me to
*justify* my complete and utter contempt for, and hatred of, them.
There’s a reason “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “Happy Birthday” remains
one of my favorite songs. :)