Top 10 Birthdays

Dishonorable Mention: January 31, 1923: Norman Mailer.  He tried to be Ernest Hemingway for a new generation. He tried too hard: While he was able to match "Papa" for writing talent, and sometimes for writing style, he treated women like crap. Including Norris Church Mailer, the last of his 6 wives, born on January 31, 1948. Come to think of it, he even tried to kill Adele Morales, his 2nd wife, while his 6th survived him. Maybe his real role model was King Henry VIII. Dishonorable Mention: January 31, 1938: James G. Watt.  President Ronald Reagan's 1st Secretary of the Interior, he was an evangelical who thought that letting energy companies wreck the environment was God's will. And he was a terrible bigot.  After being caught in his bigotry forced him to resign, he was charged with several felonies. He pleaded guilty to one, and only got probation, a fine, and community service. I hope that service was on back-to-back days in women's centers in Harlem and Boroug...

Dishonorable Mention: January 30, 1941: Dick Cheney.  I'd call him America's greatest living war criminal, but you have to go back to 1865 to find a bigger one that's dead. Dishonorable Mention: January 30, 1951: Phil Collins.  "I can feel it coming in the air tonight." So can I: It's nausea. 10.  January 30, 1980: Wilmer Valderrama.  Lots of actors have played 2 (or even more) well-remembered characters on television. Few have played 2 characters as different as Wilmer has. He was high school exchange student Fez (the joke being that his home country was never mentioned) on  That '70s Show , and now he's Special Agent Nick Torres on  NCIS . 9. January 30, 1943: Davey Johnson.  He was there for both of the New York Mets' World Series clinchings. On October 16, 1969, he made the last out for the Baltimore Orioles. On October 27, 1986, he was the Mets' manager. He is the only living human being to manage the Mets to a World Championship. Usually ...

Honorable Mention: January 29, 1754: Moses Cleaveland.  An officer in the War of the American Revolution, he became a General in the Connecticut militia, and in 1796 he founded the Ohio city that almost bears his name. A few years after his death, a newspaper was founded, but they couldn't get its entire name on the masthead for the printing press, so the 1st A was dropped: The paper became the  Cleveland Advertiser , and the city became "Cleveland." Honorable Mention: January 29, 1937: Bobby Scott.  Like Sam Cooke, he was a singer, a songwriter, a music producer, and a man who had a hit song titled "Chain Gang." His was in 1956, 4 years before Sam's, and it wasn't as good, but it did hit Number 13 on the pop charts. (Sam's made it to Number 2.) He won a Grammy Award for writing "A Taste of Honey," and he should have won another for co-writing "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother." Dishonorable Mention: January 29, 1970: Paul ...

Honorable Mention: January 28, 1981: Elijah Wood.  He'll forever be Frodo Baggins in the  Lord of the Rings  trilogy. But he's also played Tom Thumb, Percy Shelley, Jack "the Artful Dodger" Dawkins, Huckleberry Finn, and novelist Jonathan Safran Foer. And, if you're an American soccer fan, he played Matt Buckner in  Green Street . All together now: "Arsenal: Great football, shit firm. Tottenham: Shit football and shit firm!" Dishonorable Mention: January 28, 1972: Amy Coney Barrett.  The 1st Justice confirmed to the Supreme Court of the United States who was born after I was. I take no comfort in that fact: Putting her in Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat was much like putting Clarence Thomas in Thurgood Marshall's seat. It would be like replacing Derek Jeter as Yankee shortstop with Joe Shlabotnik. 10. January 28, 1912: Jackson Pollock.  He was not a nice guy, but "Jack the Dripper" was the king of American abstract art. 9. January 28, 1457: ...

Honorable Mention: January 27, 1931: Mordecai Richler.  His writing has examined the question of what it means to be Jewish in a country that wasn't made for him; and what it means to live in Canada, Quebec and Montreal at at time when many people want to separate and form their own country. Somewhat Honorable Mention: January 27, 1832: Lewis Carroll.  The author of  Alice's Adventures in Wonderland  and similar works has had his reputation tainted by presumptions about his private life. Apparently, his own family suppressed the evidence that he was interested in women after they grew up, in order to save him from the judgment of history. But they didn't consider how his interest in the women before they grew up might be judged by later audiences. What was considered "okay" in Victorian times is not necessarily considered "okay" today. Dishonorable Mention: January 27, 1859: Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.  Let's not kid ourselves: If Archduke Franz Fe...

And they called Sinatra "Old Blue Eyes." Somewhat Honorable Mention: January 26, 1905:  Maria von Trapp. Yes, the lead character of  The Sound of Music  was a real person. But, apparently, she wasn't nearly as nice as the character played by Julie Andrews in the movie. Dishonorable Mention: January 26, 1891: Frank Costello.  One of New York's biggest Mob bosses from 1931 to 1957. A nearly successful assassination attempt scared him into "retiring" and fleeing the country. Dishonorable Mention: January 26, 1944: Jerry Sandusky.  He could have done nothing wrong, and Joe Paterno would still have had a corrupt football program at Pennsylvania State University. But what Sandusky did do made it far worse. Dishonorable Mention: January 26, 1963: José Mourinho.  With cheating, the soccer teams he has managed have won 8 national league titles (in 4 different countries), 4 national cups, the UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League twice, and the UEFA Champions League with 2 dif...

10. January 25, 1783: William Colgate.  The native Kent moved to Baltimore, and built a soap factory into what became the Colgate-Palmolive corporate empire. 9. January 25, 1882: Virginia Woolf.  She might not be the highest-ranking British writer on this list -- or even the 2nd-highest -- but she wrote  Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando , and  A Room of One's Own . 8. January 25, 1927:  Antônio Carlos Jobim .  The guitarist and composer, "The Father of Bossa Nova," is probably the most famous native of Brazil other than soccer players. But he is not the highest-ranking Portuguese speaker on this list. 7. January 25, 1874: W. Somerset Maugham.  He might not be the highest-ranking British writer on this list, but he wrote  Of Human Bondage, The Moon and Sixpence, Cakes and Ale  and  The Razor's Edge . In their 1965 obituary of him,  The Times  of London wrote ,  "no writer of his generation... graced the world of English letters with ...

"Find us a dream that won't ask no questions." Honorable Mention: January 24, AD 76: Emperor Hadrian of Rome.  He was better at building walls than Donald Trump or East Germany. Honorable Mention: January 24, 1943: Sharon Tate.  We only got to see her scratch the surface of what she could do before the Manson Family took her from us. Dishonorable Mention: January 24, 1918: Oral Roberts.  In 1987, the "prosperity gospel" televangelist told his audience that unless he reached $8 million over the next few weeks, "God will call me home." He got the money in time, and lived another 22 years. 10. January 24, 1961: Nastassja Kinski.  The daughter of the German-Polish actor-director Klaus Kinski, she was one of the hottest actresses on the planet in the 1980s. 9. January 24, 1705: Farinelli.  This was the stage name of  Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi , the premier opera singer of his time. He was considered so good, people in heavily Catholic Italy sa...

Honorable Mention: January 23, 1957: Caroline Grimaldi.  Oldest child of Prince Rainier III of Monaco and Princess Grace Kelly, and sister of the current monarch, Prince Albert II, she is one of the biggest charity fundraisers who has ever lived. She is also a Princess twice over: Not only is she Princess Caroline of Monaco, she is also the Princess of Hanover, as she is married to Prince Ernst August of Hanover. He is a great-grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm II, and thus a great-great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria. Honorable Mention: January 23, 1951: Chesley Sullenberger.  In 2009, "Captain Sully" landed the damaged US Airways Airbus A320 he was flying in the middle of the Hudson River, saving all 155 people onboard. President Joe Biden appointed him U.S. Ambassador to the International Civil Aviation Organization. In a gesture we almost never see anymore, the Senate confirmed this appointment unanimously. Dishonorable Mention: January 23, 1984: Arjen Robben.  The good: Th...

Honorable Mention: January 22, 1890: Fred Vinson.  He served 14 years in Congress from a district in his native Kentucky, as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury right after World War II, and then 7 years as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Honorable Mention: January 22, 1893: Conrad Veidt.  His role as a tragic figure in the 1928 German silent film  The Man Who Laughs  was, along with an American silent film titled  The Bat,  an inspiration for the characters of Batman and the Joker. Ironically from our perspective, The Bat was a villain, while The Man Who Laughs was a reluctant hero. When the Nazis came to power in his homeland, Veidt and his Jewish wife fled to America. He chose to accept roles as Nazis to show how evil they were. His best-known role is that of SS officer Major Heinrich Strasser in  Casablanca .  He did not live to see the Nazis fall, but it wasn't war that killed him: He died of a heart attack mere months aft...

Honorable Mention: January 21, 1951: Eric Holder.  U.S. Attorney General for the 1st 6 years of the Obama Administration, he was the 1st black person to hold the job. Since the 1960s, no one has fought harder for voting rights than he has. Somewhat Honorable Mention: January 21, 1813: John C.  Frémont .  Yes, "the Pathfinder" was one of the great explorers of the American West, secured California during the Mexican-American War, made a lot of money in the State's Gold Rush, served as one of the State's 1st 2 U.S. Senators, and was opposed to slavery. In 1856, he was the Republican Party's 1st nominee for President, losing because the anti-slavery vote was split and the pro-slavery vote was united behind James Buchanan. He closed his career by serving as Governor of the Arizona Territory. On the other hand, he and his men -- first as civilians, and then in the U.S. Army -- massacred Native Americans along the way west. He didn't take California from Mexico, he ...