Birthday Buddies

As I was starting my day today, I heard Garrison Keillor's "Writers' Almanac" segment on NPR. I always enjoy the segment, but since today is my birthday, I paid special attention.

Keillor had four (or was it five?) people highlighted: William Inge, May Sarton, Machiavelli, and one of the co-writers of the songs in Singin' In the Rain. (James Brown was also mentioned, but I can't remember if that was by Keillor, or at another point in the broadcast.)

The combination of talents born today struck me as rather humorous: from Singin' in the Rain to The Prince. Now that's a breadth of inspiration!

So I did a quick Google search and came up with a few more birthday buddies: Bing Crosby, Golda Meir, Pete Seeger, Frankie Vallie, Richard D'Oyly Carte, and Sugar Ray Robinson. An interesting combination of characters to share my date-of-origin with.

Rather interestingly, I didn't recognize anyone in particular who had died on this day. Which makes me think of the poem "On the Anniversary of My Death" (or something like that - I haven't unpacked my books yet, so I can't give you the exact title...or the author). We celebrate birthdays, but never do know our deathdays. Would we live life differently if we did?