Dog Days and Birthdays

One of the things I’ve noticed in passively watching the birthdays of famous people go by is that some days just seem more creatively blessed than others. That is, with 365 days to choose from, you’d think there’d be a pretty even number of famous births distributed throughout the days. But this doesn’t appear to be the case.

Take today, July 3rd, for instance. For the beginning of the Dog Days of summer, the Writer’s Almanac reports that today is the anniversary of the births of crazy Czechoslovakia-born author Franz Kafka (1883), food maven M.F.K. Fisher (1908), another Czech-born writer, the playwright Tom Stoppard (1937) and Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist, Dave Barry (1947). It’s also the birthday of Sleeping With the Enemy author Evelyn Anthony (1928) and Chocolat author Joanne Harris (1964). That’s a whole lot of creative firepower for just one day.

And speaking of firepower, Independence Day brings its own wave of talent for tomorrow’s fourth of July holiday. Notable births for the fourth include Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804), Walt Whitman (1855) and Neil Simon (1927).