The Birthday Meme -- Tagged this time by Patti -- but first a word about Technorati

Patti, of Late Bloomer Boomer tagged me with this "birthday meme"... a week ago today.

I didn't see it until last evening.

When Patti tagged me, she inserted my link. That's usually sufficient to get my attention.

Raging egotist that I am, no matter how badly I'm pressed for time on a given day, I will click on the "« Blogs That Link Here" button in my sidebar. Most of the time, if somebody has tagged me -- or linked to me for some other reason -- I can find out about it that way. Sometimes it's good -- somebody liked something I wrote and mentioned it -- sometimes it's bad (once I discovered that a post had been 'scraped' for a teenage porn site). But sometimes Technorati does not pick up the links... and it didn't pick up Patti's tag.

I'm struggling to discern a pattern here, to figure out when Technorati will or won't pick up a link. It does not appear to be as clear cut as whether your blog has a Technorati button on it. However, Patti's does not, and her link did not pop up. On the other hand, I have 'favorited' "Late Bloomer Boomer" (using the ungrammatical Technorati word) -- and her new posts do come up on that. But that's something I check when I have a little more time -- and it's supposedly not as reliable as a Google Reader (something else that I've not yet been brave enough to attempt).

Anyway, enough prologue. On with the meme.

Patti says, "We are supposed to look up our date of birth on Wikipedia and find three events, two births and a holiday that happened on that date."

Well, let's see... I was born on March 29 in a log cabin. I had to walk 10 miles to school each day. Uphill. Both ways. Barefoot. And in the snow. Even in May....

Oh, wait. Sorry.

I just automatically launch into that routine with my kids. It's become a habit.

Three Events

It turns out that March 29 was a relatively quiet day in the history of the world. On March 29, 537 Vigilius was consecrated and enthroned as Pope, replacing Silverius, whom he deposed. Silverius had reigned less than a year at the time he was booted out and busted down to monk. However, Pope Silverius became a saint in the Catholic Church -- not canonized by the church hierarchy, but acclaimed by the people -- which may be considered a consolation prize since St. Silverius died, a prisoner, only a few months after his ouster.

During the Mexican-American War, on March 29, 1847, Veracruz fell to American forces led by General Winfield Scott. Two of the officers serving under General Scott were Robert E. Lee and U.S. Grant.


Grant and Lee would meet again after the Battle of Appomattox Court House... which began on March 29, 1865.

Two Births

There are a lot of famous people born on March 29, as it turns out.

Take Cy Young, for instance. He had 511 career wins -- and probably didn't make in his career what Roger Clemens spends on tips in a month.

Or how about the last 30 game winner in the majors, Denny McLain?

McLain was a Chicago guy -- a graduate of Mt. Carmel. (In Chicago, where a local athlete went to high school is at least as important as where he or she went to college. For example, in Chicago, everyone knows that Donovan McNabb also went to Mt. Carmel. Four years later, he showed up on the Eagles. We figure he probably went somewhere else in between.)

McLain married the daughter of longtime Cub broadcaster (and Hall of Famer) Lou Boudreau (the 'boy wonder' manager of Bill Veeck's 1948 Cleveland Indians). McLain won 31 games for the Detroit Tigers in 1968 -- and then got in trouble for gambling and was out of baseball within four years. He has since done a couple of prison stretches. I understand things are better for him now and that he's getting some mileage out of the success of the current incarnation of the Detroit Tigers.

That's two. So I suppose I can't mention Eric Idle of Monty Python fame or Mr. Sam Walton or....

One Holiday

According to Wikipedia, March 29 is the "Feast of Ishtar."

Now, I know you're probably wondering why a feast would be dedicated to a famous movie flop.

Actually, says Wikipedia, Ishtar was the Babylonian "goddess of fertility, sexual love, and war." (War? Maybe this is where the phrase "All's fair in..." comes from.)

But Wikipedia says that Ishtar was more associated with sexuality than anything else.

Hmmmmmm. A reason, perhaps, to celebrate my next birthday.....

This "birthday meme" comes with one other string attached: Five links were provided in Patti's original post on the subject. I was told to delete the top name, which I have done, and add my link at the end.

Sort of like a chain letter:

Starrlight

Big Leather Couch

Mimi Writes

Late Bloomer Boomer

Second Effort

Then, I'm supposed to tag five more people or I'll be forced to sit through Ishtar, the movie. Or Waterworld. Or maybe even Heaven's Gate.

Now, I don't respond well to threats... even to ones I make up myself.

And I know I've seen this meme up on a lot of the blogs that I visit. But, just for grins, and just this once, I'll tag Shelby, Dave, Momma's World, RDL, and Hilda (who actually volunteered to do yesterday's Moaning Meme without being tagged).