Top 10 February 2 Birthdays
Dishonorable Mention: February 2, 1905: Ayn Rand. As screenwriter John Rogers has written, "There are two novels that can change a bookish 14-year-old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged . One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs." Somewhat Honorable Mention: February 2, 1754: Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord . Like a later fictional Frenchman, Captain Renault in Casablanca , he "blew with the prevailing wind," in turn serving, then betraying, the old monarchy (the Ancien Régime ), the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte and the Bourbon Restoration. He was best known as Napoleon's Foreign Minister, but always put (choose one: France, himself) ahead of the little Emperor. The name "Talleyrand" has become a byword for crafty, cynic...