If they were alive today...

...these notables would be singing "Happy Birthday to Me":



Deadpan comic Jack Benny would be 117.


Nearly everyone's favorite character actress, Thelma Ritter, would be 106 today. Perhaps best-remembered for her wonderful performance as Bette Davis's long-suffering assistant, "Birdie" in All About Eve.

Jimmy Hoffa would be 98 if he were still alive...or maybe he IS still alive??  And legendary Ohio State football coach, Woody Hayes, would also be 98, and he is most assuredly dead.



"Gone-too-soon" tap dancing great, Gregory Hines would be 65.  One of the first Broadway shows I ever saw was Sophisticated Ladies, starring Gregory, and he was unforgettably great...he was a fantastic singer as well.




1930's film sidekick, Stu Erwin would be 108.


Handsome Brian Kelly, the dad on Flipper, was born in Detroit 80 years ago today.

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And in the "living happy birthday" department, eternally likeable television presenter, Hugh Downs turns 90 today.  And increasingly un-likeable New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg turns 69.

Bloomberg steps in it again...

And this time, it's the Irish who are fightin' mad.  You see, today Bloomberg was the key speaker at an event at the Irish American Society for a launch of the new book, "Celebrating 250 Years of the New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade" by Irish American historian, John Ridge.  Thing got off to a bumpy start when apparently Bloomberg mentioned, jocularly (he thought) that he lived near the Society's building on Fifth Avenue and was accustomed to seeing "inebriated Irish hanging out the windows" at the Society. It did not go over very well.  He was met with several vocal boo-ers, though he continued on with his speech.  Clearly, he had lost his crowd, though.  The Irish don't like to be reminded of their stereotypical representation as an overly-happy people who like to drink, drink, drink.  A few hours later, he issued an official apology.  I wonder if Bloomberg is rethinking his hard-fought battle to change the term-limit regulations in order to serve this, his third term.  He's had nothing but a string of snafus, boo-boos and..er..."booze boos".

Thank you for not smoking.... ANYWHERE!

For such an all-encompassing bill, there wasn't much uproar this week when the New York City Council passed a resolution,  wherein smoking will now be banned in all 1,700 city parks and 14 miles of city beaches.  The bill will go into effect 90 days after Mayor Bloomberg--the bill's strongest proponent and New York's most vocal anti-smoking advocate--signs it, which he is expected to do within the next few weeks.  Violators of the new ordinance face a $50 summons for their first violation, and upward from there for subsequent offenses.  Apparently, the bill will also apply to pedestrian malls and plazas, too--though how they plan to delineate exactly what constitutes a "pedestrian mall" is where it's all going to get very complicated.  Will it work?  Well, in 2002, when smoking was banned in all bars, restaurants and offices, "they" said it would never be abided by....and yet, by and large, New Yorkers fell into step and nearly all restaurants and bars in the City remain smoke-free (the exceptions being the "fuck you" bars you can find in some of the fringier areas of the city).  Bloomberg has made anti-smoking his #1 crusade as mayor, and it would be surprising indeed if he were to stop here.  The one point I'm certain he will stop at is banning the sales of tobacco in New York City.  Some (me) see it as the height of hypocrisy that while the city (and state) vilifies smokers and now bans public smoking nearly everywhere, they continue to hike the taxes on packs of cigarettes, to a level that now an average pack of cigarettes in Manhattan will run you around 12 bucks, with roughly half of that price being city/state taxes.  The state is also vigorously pursuing the various Indian "reservations" in the state that sell tax-free, cut-rate cigarettes.  Well paleface New York wants their cut of the action, too.  Yes, they pay lip service that the taxes they collect are earmarked for cancer research, smoking cessation programs, health care programs, blah blah blah....can someone show us those figures, please?  I'm not coming to the defense of smoking in public, or smoking, period.  What gets me riled up is the fact that Bloomberg wants to have it both ways:  Demonize the smoker, but happily take their money for smoking.  Hypocrisy should be banned in pedestrian malls and plazas, too.