Re: When Censorship Works Too Well

1

That's awesome. In a tragic kind of way.


Posted by: cerebrocrat | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:09 AM
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If someone were to place an ad in a major U.S. newspaper paying tribute to the victims of August 6, I wonder how many people, in the absence of any accompanying news coverage, would have any idea what happened on that date.


Posted by: My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:13 AM
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Soberingly true, MAE, but you'd have to be 70 to really remember that. Tienanmen Square was only 18 years ago. She was certainly alive at the time, and still has never heard of it.


Posted by: OneFatEnglishman | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:25 AM
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Censorship has worked well enough on me that "August 6" is not ringing any bells.


Posted by: Clownaesthesiologist | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:29 AM
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4: Hiroshima.


Posted by: Matt F | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:31 AM
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4: Think, BOOM!


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:31 AM
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Was "August 6th" how dropping the bomb was referred, the way we say "9/11"? Or is it like saying "February 3rd", equally important but not usually referenced without context?


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:32 AM
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BOOM! on you, Matt F.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:32 AM
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Heebie, the birth of Morgan Fairchild is too dreadful to speak of directly.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:36 AM
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7: The two A-bomb attacks on Japan were always called "Hiroshima" and "Nagasaki" just like "Pearl Harbor" usually meant the Dec 7th attack, not the place.


Posted by: Biohazard | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:43 AM
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7: It most likely never was referred to simply as "August 6th." The reason the comparison (not an analogy, Analogy Police) came to mind was that the classified ad read "Paying tribute to the strong(-willed) mothers of June 4 victims." I would have no idea what happened on June 4, absent some clues or context. If you asked me what date the Tiananmen Square crackdown happened on, I would guess late May or early June, but I wouldn't have remembered the exact date.

I was about to wonder how the Tiananmen Square crackdown is referred to in China, but as the article says, it's not referred to at all.


Posted by: My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:44 AM
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August 6th wouldn't have meant anything to me if I hadn't read Gravity's Rainbow recently. Feb 3rd still doesn't. Browsing wikipedia suggests 15th amendment, Us entry into WWI and the first commercial cheese factory.


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:45 AM
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12: February 3rd.... 1978? Does that help?


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:49 AM
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I believe that in China (and Taiwan, for that matter) important events are often referred to by number. May 4th, 2-28


Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:51 AM
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13: Yes, it was a black day for Samoa when their representative signed the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes Between States and Nationals of Other States.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:54 AM
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"February 3rd", equally important

Yes, the day the music died was a tragic one.


Posted by: Matt F | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:55 AM
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Must be your birthday, because the internets say that fuck all happened that day, aside from that momentous event.


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:58 AM
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14: Which makes it more likely they'd use a date for something when it's risky to speak of it openly.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:59 AM
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And what a birthday it is!


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:59 AM
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Which makes heebie exactly one year younger than daddy yankee, the artist tragically scarred for life by the oil crisis of that time.


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 12:01 PM
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i lurk here and was wonderin why yalls was talkin bout my 1st b-day, HOLLA


Posted by: daddy-yankee | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 12:02 PM
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13: Roman Polansky unpacks and checks out locations of local schools?


Posted by: Biohazard | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 12:04 PM
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"Sa-i-gu" is the name Koreans use to describe the Los Angeles Very Civil Unrest aka Rodney King Riots. It means "4-29".

I hereby imply that Korea is the same as China.

Reaching back around, did anyone ever see the Michael Moore TV Nation outtakes where he got a group of Civil War reenactors to reenact The Battle of Hiroshima (bunch of guys in civil war uniforms standing around, flash of light, all fall down), The Battle of Nagasaki (same), and The Battle of Rodney King (bunch of guys in civil war uniforms beating on one guy in civil war uniform)?


Posted by: Wrongshore | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 12:08 PM
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2: Unlike some people, I knew exactly what August 6 meant, because I was born that day. This blog has been bad for my self-esteem for some time now.


Posted by: Cyrus | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 12:34 PM
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No one knew my birthday either, Cy. We all walk alone.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 12:35 PM
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I knew exactly what August 6 meant, because I was born that day

Mere coincidence? What does astrology have to say?


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 12:36 PM
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26: well, I've never met anyone named Enola in my life and I'm not gay, so that seems to disprove the "science" of astrology.


Posted by: Cyrus | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 12:48 PM
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Not that there's anything wrong with that.


Posted by: Cyrus | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 12:49 PM
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27: My mom was born on Mao's birthday, I was born on Stalin's birthday and my daughters were born on Kim Jong-Il's birthday. We may be iron-fisted tyrants, but we haven't killed anyone yet, so I'd have to agree.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 12:54 PM
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24: My father was born on that day as well, which is one reason that example sprang to mind.

When I was growing up, I thought it interesting that his birthday, my birthday, and my sister's birthday all happened to be dates of well-known significance. My mother was the odd-one-out, because nothing really significant had happened on September 11th.



Posted by: My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:06 PM
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24: Ha! I was born on Nagasaki Day (Aug 9th), so I feel like I've been cosmically pwned all my life.


Posted by: OneFatEnglishman | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:10 PM
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Wow. When is your birthday and your sister's birthday? Are they important in the same way as your father's, or in some generic (i.e., non-horrible) way, like March 17 or October 31 or something? If they were all days like August 6, did you grow up feeling guilty to celebrate birthdays?

Then again, maybe not. I didn't know the significance of my birthday until middle school or high school, and even then, some sources said that Hiroshima was bombed on August 5.


Posted by: Cyrus | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:18 PM
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My mom was born on Mao's birthday, I was born on Stalin's birthday and my daughters were born on Kim Jong-Il's birthday.

I share a birthday with Frederick Engels and Anna Nicole Smith.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:19 PM
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My nephew was born on 9/11. He finds that depressing. No one forgets his B-day though.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:21 PM
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32: My sister's birthday and mine are of the generic, non-horrible variety. Seems to be a generational thing.

33: Now that's a trio for the ages.


Posted by: My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:26 PM
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My birthday fellows: Omar Khayyam, Bertrand Russell, Walter Gropius, Ezio Pinza, Margot Fonteyn, Reggie Jackson, Chow Yun-Fat. Envy me!


Posted by: Clownaesthesiologist | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:28 PM
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Envy me NOOOOOWWWW!


Posted by: Clownaesthesiologist | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:28 PM
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Congress adopted the Great Seal on my birthday. I'm lucky, it could have been a carp.


Posted by: Biohazard | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:32 PM
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I understand Ben Franklin advocated for the carp over the bald eagle.


Posted by: Clownaesthesiologist | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:38 PM
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"For the Truth the Carp is in Comparison a much more respectable Creature, and withal a true original Native of America . . . He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Fish of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Pond with a red Coat on."


Posted by: Clownaesthesiologist | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:39 PM
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I knew what August 6 meant too, but I'm old, and was very into the Air Force growing up—Civil Air Patrol and all that—Curtis LeMay was from Columbus, and many Air Force Celebrities seemed to come through town. Almost like Omaha.


Posted by: I don't pay | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:39 PM
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I once was looking at microfilms of the Times for my birth year, and checked my birthday. As I recall it, the big headline was along the lines of "Still Warmer Today; May Cool Off Soon". I don't know of anything interesting that's ever happened then.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:40 PM
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My birthday fellows

My list also includes William Blake, Jose Iturbi, Berry Gordy, Gary Hart, Randy Newman, Paul Shaffer, Alexander Godunov, Ed Harris, Judd Nelson, and Jon Stewart.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:44 PM
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Is there some website you're getting all these b-day fellows from? I know a president sharing mine, but that's about it.


Posted by: I don't pay | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:46 PM
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There are many such websites; I got my list here.


Posted by: Clownaesthesiologist | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:47 PM
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46

More Hollywood-oriented results here.


Posted by: Clownaesthesiologist | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:48 PM
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I also share a birthday with a Flophouse resident. And a wedding anniversary with a rosy-toesied goddess of the East.


Posted by: Clownaesthesiologist | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:50 PM
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42: This is the most fascinating article I could find.

Death Stalks Cult Of Hawaii Gliders; HONOLULU, June 19 At certain seasons the north east trade winds beating steadily at about 20 knots against the 1,200-foot sheer cliffs at the east end of the island of Oahu create a superb hang-glider range, but for a group that followed a middle-aged guru, it has been an ill wind that brought sorrow and death.


Posted by: Biohazard | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:52 PM
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Clearly the Chinese need to work toward an American standard of historical literacy.

36 / 43: I was born on the same day as cricket star Kabir Khan, obscure rapper Mellow Man Ace, petty criminal Patrick Meehan, Tiny Tim of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" fame, the 18th Early of Derby and philologist Joachim Camerarius. I do believe the kids call this "maximum win."


Posted by: DS | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:55 PM
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U.S. Grant, Mary Wollstonecroft, Samuel F. B. Morse, Cecil Day Lewis, Coretta Scott King, August Wilson.


Posted by: I don't pay | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:55 PM
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All I've got is baseball players and voltaire, and I hate candide. What crap.


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:56 PM
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the 18th Early of Derby

Successor, if you're wondering, to the 17 1/2th Tardy of Derby.


Posted by: DS | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:56 PM
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Edmund Halley, Bram Stoker, Margaret Mitchell, Martha Gellhorn, Christiaan Barnard, Bonnie Raitt, Parker Posey. Also Edgardo Alfonzo, a very likeable washed up New York Met. Underwhelming.

Also the anniversary of Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch.

My wedding anniversary is the same date that the 14th amendment was ratified by enough states to take effect; the day that Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia in 1914; and the day that Robespierre was guillotined.


Posted by: Katherine | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:57 PM
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48: What year does that article date from? Is it available online?

I ask, because I wonder if it might possibly be about the guy whose death inspired this song.


Posted by: My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 1:59 PM
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Heebie, you are 16 days older than my wife. Neat! Ish!

I've got Alan Turing, Clarence Thomas, Bob Fosse, Joss Whedon, Zinedine Zidane, and Ptolemy XV.


Posted by: mrh | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:00 PM
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Oh, I also have Bjork. Which is something, I guess.

53: Anniversaries don't count. You get to choose those, so cheating is possible.


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:02 PM
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56:

I'm dorky enough to be happy about the 14th amendment thing, but not dorky enough to choose the date on those grounds. Strictly "Sunday in summer when the venue is available".


Posted by: Katherine | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:04 PM
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Herbert Hoover.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:05 PM
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Marcel Marceau and Pat Robertson. There's a pair to draw to.

CA, you probably know this, but May 18 is also the day of the first big eruption of Mt. St. Helens.


Posted by: DaveL | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:07 PM
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LB did not choose presidential anonymity, but had it thrust upon her.


Posted by: Clownaesthesiologist | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:07 PM
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54: It's from Sunday, June 20, 1976, with a dateline of 6/19. Names mentioned are:

Douglas Geiger (AKA Mercury)
"Yakowa" (The guru, James Edward Baker))
Isis ,Ahom, Lovely,Makushia (some of the 13 assorted hippie chicks)
Mike Dorn (6th grade teacher)
William Harris, MD



Posted by: Biohazard | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:11 PM
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Bond Chapel availability gave us an anniversary of: Battle of Bunker Hill, Arrival of Statue of Liberty, Amelia Earhart's takeoff, the Watergate Burglary, and O.J. Simpson's low-speed car chase.

Maybe, instead of "Dance of the Blessed Spirits," we ought to have played "The Stars and Stripes Forever."


Posted by: I don't pay | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:12 PM
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54: My bad. It's available from the NYTimes archives in PDF form but I guess you have to have a subscription.


Posted by: Biohazard | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:12 PM
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I share my birthday with, among others, Elinor Glyn, Arthur Miller, Rita Hayworth, Evel Knievel, Ziggy Marley, and Eminem. That'd be a great party until Eminem got drunk and maudlin and Evel started trying to jump over the furniture.


Posted by: Populuxe | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:12 PM
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57:
Or you could have been signaling the beginning of a bitter conflict that will end 4 years later after one party withdraws and another intervenes.


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:15 PM
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This is the most interesting today-in-history site I have found so far.


Posted by: Clownaesthesiologist | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:16 PM
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61: Not the same guy, methinks.


Posted by: My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:18 PM
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Nah, I think the assassination of the archduke is the real date you want for that. (and we're actually about to hit 5 years).


Posted by: Katherine | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:19 PM
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Oh hey, I also get Herbie Hancock and David Letterman. That's not so bad.


Posted by: DS | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:20 PM
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Johnny Appleseed, Martin Heidegger, Andrea Dworkin.


Posted by: neil | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:22 PM
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Wow! It's a good thing I took the BP meds, my b'day was so exciting!


Posted by: Biohazard | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:24 PM
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I have one of the least flashy groups of birthday-sharers imaginable. I think only one of the people is a name that the average American college graduate my age would be familiar with (Macho Man Randy Savage).

A good crop of TV actors, though - Yaphet Kotto, Ed Asner, AND Sam Waterston.

Two I'm proud of are William Pitt the Elder and Daniel Manus Pinkwater. Not so much Erwin Rommel or Curtis LeMay.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:25 PM
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Nobody of note died on the exact day I was born, so I must not be the reincarnation of anyone famous. It was apparently the day of Leonid Brezhnev's funeral, though.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:31 PM
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I share my birthday with Prince, Paul Gaugin, Liam Neeson, Dave Navarro, Dean Martin, Nikki Giovanni, Anna Kournikova, and Hitler's daddy.


Posted by: Magpie | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:32 PM
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(Would that be.. today? Why, yes. Yes, it would.)


Posted by: Magpie | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:35 PM
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One of the major memory dates in my life was yesterday. No one around here ever wants to have an anniversary on June 6th.


Posted by: Austro | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:36 PM
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Happy birthday, Mags.


Posted by: mrh | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:41 PM
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Happy birthday, Magpie!


Posted by: Clownaesthesiologist | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:43 PM
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76, meet 47. Should I and our hostess rue our dates?


Posted by: Clownaesthesiologist | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:45 PM
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Happy Birthday Mags!...Happy Belated Clown.


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:48 PM
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The Belated Clown is never happy.


Posted by: Clownaesthesiologist | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:49 PM
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80...twas ich.


Posted by: Austro | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:49 PM
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(But thanx.)


Posted by: Clownaesthesiologist | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:50 PM
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Hope dies last, Clown.


Posted by: Austro | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 2:50 PM
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In addition to Stalin, I've got Frank Zappa. There are several other notables besides, but really, Stalin and Zappa -- who else do you need?


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 3:05 PM
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"Uncle Joe goes down"


Posted by: Austro | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 3:09 PM
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Steve Guttenberg, Yasir Arafat, Jorge Luis Borges. There are others, but those three satisfy me.


Posted by: Wrongshore | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 3:24 PM
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Sadly, either Jesus McQueen was born on two different dates (quite possible) or he is born on 18 December or 21 December. Zappa and I were born on the latter. Stalin was born on the 18th Gregorian or the 6th Julian.


Posted by: Willy Voet | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 3:58 PM
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It's my birthday tomorrow. Do I get some sort of consolation prize?

The Prophet Mohammed, blessings and peace be upon him, died on my birthday, and it's also the anniversary of the first recorded Viking raid on Britain, although for that to mean anything, you have to be pretty specific in your definition of what constituted a Viking raid, not to mention what constituted Britain, not to mention reconciling Gregorian and Julian calendars.


Posted by: minneapolitan | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 4:05 PM
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Dammit, calendar-pwned.


Posted by: minneapolitan | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 4:06 PM
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88: Jesus McQueen was still-born. But three days later, he rose again.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 4:09 PM
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Apparently, there's some dispute about Stalin's birthdate (as you can see if you Google the name and each date). But even if he were born December 18, I'd still have Zappa. And Willy Voet.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 4:09 PM
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It's always fun to look in the paper on your birthday, see who among the famous shares your birthday, realize that no one famous under 50 does, and realize your hometown paper hasn't updated its lists since 1970.


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 4:23 PM
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My mother was born on September 11th. I was born on April 19th, which, for those of you who don't follow terrorist events, later went on to become the day of the Oklahoma City Bombing.

The good news is that this trends in the right direction. My future spawn's birthday will presumeably later turn out to be the day in which terrorists killed, you know, a few dozen people, and n generations later, my hypothetical descendents may share their birthdays with the day in which terrorists caused stubbed toes or killed a few chipmunks or something.


Posted by: Epoch | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 4:38 PM
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Thanks, all. And happy birthday a day early, minneapolitan.


Posted by: Magpie | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 4:47 PM
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Well, it's good to know two Unfoggedarians share a birthdate, and it only took 88 posters in the "room!" Yeah Birthday Paradox!

I have a feeling Jesus is older than me.


Posted by: Willy Voet | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 5:41 PM
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Jesus is eternally 32 years old.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 6:01 PM
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Dunno about my birthdaymates offhand, but my bday is a big date in German history: it's the day that Napoleon seized power (important to German history because it inspired Hitler's timing), it's the ending of the Beer Hall Putsch *waves at Katherine*, it's the first day of Kristallnacht and the day the Berlin Wall came down. It's also the day that the Japanese invaded Shanghai, causing my grandparents to flee back to the US.


Posted by: Anarch | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 6:14 PM
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Willy and I will be expecting baked goods from the rest of you on December 21.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 6:20 PM
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The Japanese government certainly doesn't censor references to Hiroshima. Official memorial ceremonies take place every year. But the younger generation seems pretty much unaware of it (or at least unconcerned about it) anyway.

China is going about this all wrong. Make rememberance of Tiananmen an official obligation, and no one will want anything to do with it.


Posted by: Gaijin Biker | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 7:07 PM
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rememberance s/b remembrance


Posted by: Gaijin Biker | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 7:09 PM
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Encumbrance of things past.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 7:10 PM
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Happy Birthday Magpie!

I share my birthday with Voltaire, and the US Embassy to Pakistan was destroyed by an angry mob on the day I was born.


Posted by: Ile | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 8:13 PM
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Second Birthday In A Row Ruined By Terrorism


Posted by: Gaijin Biker | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 8:26 PM
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97: Yeah, I'm worried about turning 32 -- I think it will motivate people to traduce me.


Posted by: minneapolitan | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 8:29 PM
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Ile, your birthday also coincides with bloody sunday.


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 8:40 PM
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Also, happy birthday to you too, Magpie.


Posted by: minneapolitan | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 8:45 PM
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103 -- you've also got several baseball players to your name.


Posted by: Clownaesthesiologist | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 9:31 PM
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My first half-birthday was the fifth anniversary of Elvis' death. Which means. Which means.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 9:42 PM
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Happy bday Magpie and Minneapolitan.

IDP has enviable co-birthdayists. My best co-birthday person (and the only one I remember) is Mozart. I think maybe Alan Alda too, but I'm not sure.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 9:43 PM
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Lies. Wrongshore wins, followed by clown and then jesus if he ever gets his facts straight.


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 9:47 PM
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Ooh, also the liberation of Auschwitz, the signing of the Vietnam War peace accords, the bday of Lewis Carroll, *and* the Papal reaffirmation of a ban on women priests.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 9:49 PM
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And I have the same bday as Chief Justice Roberts.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 9:50 PM
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Oo! I got Picasso, Strauss (Johann, unfortunately), Bizet, and Bernhard.

The events are a little less lucky, I'm afraid: the death of Chaucer, the Battle of Agincourt, the Charge of the Light Brigade, and the US invasion of Grenada. Yikes.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 9:50 PM
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Events are a different category. Cyrus wins that hands down I think. (As in junior high basketball, my showing is so poor I am assuming the role of ref to maintain my dignity)


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 9:59 PM
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Hiroshima? Okay, I'll grant that as a a very bitter anniversary for mankind---brightened only, of course, by the birth of Cyrus.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 10:34 PM
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Birthday. Nobody has my birthday, it is unique, really, August 31st!

Alright: Maria Montessori

I'm down with that.

I could search further for more celebrity-oriented results, but I think not.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 10:34 PM
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Which happens to be my firstborn nephew's name! He was utterly uninterested when I tried to tell him about Cyrus the Great, even though I know his parents have taught him about the Biblical version of same.


Posted by: JM | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 10:36 PM
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In my capacity as paranoid grump, I propose we have a thread for noting the famous events with which we share a social security number.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 10:40 PM
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Oh, come on, parsimon. Richard Gere, Van Morrison, William Saroyan. Claim your people.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 10:40 PM
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Chris Tucker! Itzhak Perlman! Who the hell wasn't born on August 31??


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 10:41 PM
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Your mom.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 10:42 PM
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I had a feeling you would worry about this thread, Standpipe.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 10:45 PM
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111. Look, who are you going to trust, Wikipedia or Stalin himself?


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 10:45 PM
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116:
OK, my choice has been influenced by the aforementioned reading of GR, but still, 8/6 was fucking momentous. It was on this date that mankind served notice that it could, if it so chose, destroy itself and everything else. No other date uncelebrated by a holiday can compare.


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 10:47 PM
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I had a feeling you would worry about this thread, Standpipe.

I tried not to say anything, but after the third misbegotten personal loan I had to start channeling the guilt somehow.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 10:50 PM
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Ill-gotten.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 10:51 PM
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I BE GOTTEN UR PRSNL LONZE


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 10:56 PM
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Van Morrison, William Saroyan

Itzhak Perlman

I elided certain ones. Maybe I shouldn't. I don't believe in that astrology shit. August 31 is special, not just anyone can claim it.

But really? Where are you getting this from? I didn't check all the links to see those things. I guess I could scroll up.

pardon, I mutter for a minute.

Aren't you supposed to be at a meetup?


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 10:56 PM
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Meetup is a month from today.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:02 PM
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129 has the amazing property that permuting its sentences at random results in an equally sensible comment.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:06 PM
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Isn't that true of most of parsimon's comments?


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:07 PM
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IM IN UR COMMENTZ, PARSIN UR MOMZ


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:08 PM
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132 has the same property.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:08 PM
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I was about to say that most identity thieves either crack info-rich databases or steal mail, but then my parents recently discovered that someone had tried to set up a secondary mailing address for one of their accounts (credit card, I think). They have no idea how they got on the thief's radar, and it was only by carefully monitoring their accounts that they caught the addition before the other party got everything handed to them USPS. So I really shouldn't be too flippant about this shit.

Still, I do tend to think that piecing together bits of identifying data from a wordy, arcane website would probably be too annoying for any hacker without a personal vendetta.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:10 PM
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Oh.

So hey! I tried one of the links provided above to check for more celebrity-oriented birthdays, and it showed me some woman's big lipsticked red lips and said I had to sign in, so that wasn't going to work.

So just now I googled 'birthdays famous' or something like that, and the link I went to, because I just enjoy being this way, was:

http://www.worldalmanacforkids.com/

(sorry, man, sorry, no embed)

The topmost right-hand link is to: "Why is biodiversity important?"

I didn't look at it, but it seems good overall. Still don't know where to see all the other incredible Aug. 31 people of my own speciation, though.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:12 PM
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Just type your day into Wikipedia and it gives you a list of stuff that happened on that day in history, including famous (and not-so-famous) people's birthdays.


Posted by: Gaijin Biker | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:16 PM
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birthdays august 31


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:17 PM
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If it wouldn't upset Standpipe so, I'd note that one of my parents was born on the same month and day as the attack on pearl harbor, and I was born on the same month and day as V-J day.


Posted by: washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:18 PM
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Isn't that true of most of parsimon's comments?

I wouldn't say that. Most of them are modernist. A charming few of those are aleatory.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:20 PM
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138: nndb has good lists, too.

I was born 1/2 of the way through the month 2/3 of the way through the year 3/4 of the way through the century, which incidentally means absolutely nothing.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:24 PM
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Gaijin Biker's Wikipedia method informs me that I share a birthday with Mahavira. Letterman was okay, but I feel much better now.

It's also kind of amusing to discover that Wikipedia regards the recent Libertines reunion as an event on par in historic importance with the Battle of Vimy Ridge.


Posted by: DS | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:25 PM
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142: Hedi Slimane has his tentacles in everywhere.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:28 PM
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My student loans are paid off, suckers.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:34 PM
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I just finished watching season 3 of The Wire, and I am very sad. Also, the little person who played R2-D2 was born on my birthday. Kenny Baker. I think he was also in Time Bandits. Not to gild the lily or nothing. I realize I already won.


Posted by: Wrongshore | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:35 PM
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Paint the lily, dammit.

Believe it or not, season 4 is just as good, if not better, than 3.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:37 PM
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Congratulations, B! Drinks on you. Hell, mortgages.


Posted by: Wrongshore | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:38 PM
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It only took 26 years. And yep, new mortgage soon. Hurrah.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:40 PM
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A new mortgage for everyone?! B is the new Oprah! Hooray!


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:43 PM
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143: No doubt. Skinny, geeby little tentacles.

Congrats to B!


Posted by: DS | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:44 PM
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Most of them are modernist

That has to do with the spacing, I imagine. I can do paragraphs when I so choose. (Standpipe, fuck ya, I might actually think about this -- modernist??)

The link to a google search for Aug. 31 birthdays -- thanks for indulging my stupidity, ogged. I just assumed the results would be numerous and insane, and indeed they are.

Fact is, I do sorta believe in that astrology shit to the extent that I'm Virgo, no doubt about it, and knowing who else is a Virgo of my sort can be a little weird. I don't meet many of us. I resist knowing about it, the oddest thing really, but a feature of our race.

Meanwhile I'm listening to John Fahey.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:44 PM
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149: Yeah, I fucking wish.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:45 PM
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My student loans are paid off, suckers.

Yeah. Congratulations!


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 06- 7-07 11:48 PM
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26 years? B is either a much different age than I thought, or some kind of super-genius.

I choose not to assume which it is.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 12:03 AM
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Also, congratulations, to turn off the ol' sarcastic asshole hose for a minute.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 12:04 AM
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26 years? B is either a much different age than I thought, or some kind of super-genius.

B had to pay her parents to keep her.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 12:10 AM
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And congratulations!


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 12:10 AM
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Thanks, y'all.

Only a standard-issue genius, Sifu. And they were just undergrad loans. But I kept deferring them while I took forever to wend my way through grad school.

Also I meant 16 years.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 12:18 AM
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Congratulations to B!

Also, word on the street is that Virgos are like totally big whores.


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 12:19 AM
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Congratulations!


Posted by: Jake | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 12:20 AM
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re: my 153: My "yeah" was not a misspelling of yea. More like, yeah, suckers.

It's late, but I'll float this to B. or anyone who has a thought about it: I've been thinking about this for a couple of years now. I could pay off the rest of my student loans in two years or so, but it would wipe out, or close enough, my bank account.

I keep thinking that while this would save me quite a bit in interest payments, it's a bad idea in terms of money in the bank. I wouldn't mind buying a house in the next few years. My credit rating is supposedly quite good, but I'm not so stupid as to think that I can trade just on that.

Question, then: throw a few $10,000 at the loans for a while, pay them off and deplete the bank account, or sit tight, wait, and play this weird game of interest payments for no clear gain?

Forgive me if this is totally indiscreet. Write me off-blog if need be if anyone has any thoughts about this. Apparently I have no financial management savvy.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 12:22 AM
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God Jake, and I though I was pwnd.


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 12:22 AM
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161: I paid mine pretty slowly, but I did try to pay a li'l over the minimum payment every month--like $200 instead of $176. Chomping down that principal is a good way to go.

If you want to buy a house, forget the bank account: open yourself a Roth IRA. You can cash it in when you buy a house. Surprisingly, though, you really *can* buy houses with like almost nothing down--though I don't think it's a great idea, and will be a worse one if/when interest rates go up.

I paid off the loans with the proceeds from the house we sold when we moved. Right now we've got a few thou in savings, which'll go for a teensy down payment, and I've got about bupkis for retirement, which I should really start rectifying.

Being a grownup is lame.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 12:27 AM
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163: You're saying you were paying Undergrad loans over 16 years. $200 instead $176. Sweetheart, my loan payments are currently about $650/month. Yeah, I suck, it was called grad school, loans, bad financial something or other, one reason I left actually.

Nonetheless, Roth IRA, okay. I truly am dumb about all this, but whenever I go in to my bank, they're like, You sure you don't want to talk, because we see your accounts are like this and that? and I say, Yes, I should probably come in and talk, I should rearrange that.

Being a grownup is surely a drag, but I think there may be friends who can advise. shoutout.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 12:38 AM
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You were pwned! Pwned badly, even. But there's something satisfying about making the last payment on a debt and washing your hands of the thing, so congratulations are in order.

Also, California is a non-recourse state, which means that while buying houses with no money down is a bad idea, it's not nearly as bad of an idea as loaning money to someone to buy a house with no money down. Still not a great idea, but as long as you don't get some toxic I/O or Option ARM loan that'll blow up in two years...


Posted by: Jake | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 12:41 AM
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Maybe I'll do a post on this tomorrow and turn it over to the whole crew. But probably you should talk with someone at the bank, who will know the principle amounts and interest rates.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 12:42 AM
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164: No. Most of that time they were in remission, and not accruing interest.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 12:49 AM
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But in your case, with payments like that? I'd seriously think of just paying the shit off in a big chunk and then putting the same amount away for a down payment. At that rate, it'll accrue pretty quick.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 12:50 AM
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Roth IRAs are very good deals. Especially if you are making less now than you expect to later.

Hmm... regarding loans vs. house, most people who will loan you money at non-exorbitant rates look at total debt-to-income ratios, so loans + cash vs. no debt + no cash is more or less a wash. On the other hand, if something bad happens, loans + cash is much more useful than no debt + no cash, since borrowing money on short notice is likely to be expensive. I'd say think about how much money you need as a cushion (couple months rent + expenses? something like that) and dump the rest on the student loans.

FWIW.


Posted by: Jake | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 12:52 AM
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I agree with Jake; for a while there we had zero savings (everything was tied up in the house and my salary sucked) and every time the fucking car broke down it went on a credit card. Bad, bad, bad. A cash cushion of some kind is important.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 12:54 AM
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O, the bank won't know the principal amounts and interest rates unless I tell them. They just see my checking & savings accounts and say that I should be doing something more productive with what's there. They're right.

I don't necessarily trust them to advise me on my best course of action overall. They want me to invest through them, take out a mortgage through them or something - certainly an IRA of some kind would be swell, I do know that. Am I being overly paranoid about them?

The student loans are with two different, other organizations; I've whittled it down to that, at least. Please do say what you might. At least tell me who is the most reliable person I might talk to, because I don't think it's the people at my bank.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 12:57 AM
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Also, for all that it seems like obvious advice, making up rudimentary excel spreadsheets for this kind of stuff really helps. If you're at all inclined that way, spending even twenty or thirty minutes can really clear things up.


Posted by: Jake | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 12:58 AM
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The people at your bank might not be so bad. Just don't let them tell you to buy their shitty mutual funds. If you have tens of thousands of dollars available, you could do a lot worse than opening up an Ameritrade/Schwab/ETrade/Whatever account (your bank might have something similar), putting your cash cushion in a money market account getting 4-5%, and putting the rest in one of the Vanguard total market index funds. It's hard to do a lot better.


Posted by: Jake | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 1:04 AM
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Oh, Suze Orman gives pretty sound advice, from what I can tell.


Posted by: Jake | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 1:08 AM
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Jake, thanks. I do not have tens of thousands of dollars available. $15.000 at best. I don't consider that much of a cash cushion given my monthly bills.

I hope Ogged can give some general advice tomorrow. Otherwise this probably needs to go off-blog. Thanks to you all for your patience in hearing this kind of thing.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 1:17 AM
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Glad it was at least sort of useful. We'll see what Ogged has to say tomorrow.


Posted by: Jake | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 1:28 AM
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Basic advice:

If the interest rate of your student loans is Pay the minimum per month and start an IRA with Vanguard and put the rest in a MM account.

If the interest rate is >6%:
Try to pay off as quickly as possible

If rate is somewhere in between 4 and 6, then it can be a toss up. Depends on how much more money you can make by investing the money.

Read www.diehards.org


Posted by: Willy Voet | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 5:30 AM
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That comment got fucked up.

If the interest rate of your student loans is Pay the minimum...


Posted by: Willy Voet | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 5:32 AM
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If you want to use a greater than sign, you have to write out the ampersand entity, like so:

>

Otherwise your browser will think you're starting an HTML tag, and render things oddly under that assumption. Or, of course, you can just write "greater than".


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 5:40 AM
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Does anyone else think that the lady has come up with a truly brilliant excuse? "Oh, I'm sorry, I had no idea they were banned - the ban is so effective I'd never even heard of them!"

By the way, my birthday is the same day that Papa Doc declared to be "National Tontons Macoute Day".


Posted by: Alex | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 5:44 AM
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It seems I was born on the same day as William Henry Fox Talbot [photography pioneer], Thomas Edison, Leslie Nielson, Gene Vincent and General Noriega.

There are a shit load of dictators around: everyone seems to be born on the same day as some dictatorial bastard, or other.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 7:16 AM
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$15.000 at best

Ah, for some reason I thought it was more than that. I wouldn't go much below that for a cushion; Jake is totally right about the fact that having some cash on hand is more important than not having any debt. Maybe you could put it somewhere easily accessible but earning more. I don't know what money market accounts are earning nowadays, but they're usually a good conservative option.

And you should talk to the people at the bank; just don't commit to anything when you do. You'll be able to ask questions and you'll also have better, more focused questions afterwards. I know there are good books on personal finance. I'll put up a post...


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 7:36 AM
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180,181:

My birthday is Sunday (mostly); the best I can do for dictators is Gordon B. Hinckley, President of the Mormon Church--unless I should count Robert Maxwell. I've always gotten more enjoyment out of sharing a birthday with Saul Bellow, Judy Garland, Hattie McDaniel and Maurice Sendak.

This comment, however, was inspired by fellow June 10th-ian John Edwards, who has made our birthday the occasion of a reasonably clever attempt to encourage small contributions, as well as a fundraiser I can actually afford.


Posted by: Rah | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 8:02 AM
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94: Unfortunately, it seems to be trending in the opposite direction if anything. I mean, I assume your mother wasn't both on 9/11/2001 and you weren't born on 4/19/1996 (or whatever year the Oklahoma City bombing was.) So if you look up that half-baked plot to blow up an airplane with explosives in liquid form, you'll probably find that they were arrested on your grandmother's birthday. But your child will be born on the day that some milestone level of killing was reached in Darfur, and your great grandchild will be born on, well, August 6.

115, 116: Awww, thanks guys!


Posted by: Cyrus | Link to this comment | 06- 8-07 8:40 AM
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