Happy Birthday Paris (not Hilton) ... and David

Paris was founded on this day in 951. I’m not exactly sure what that means in this context: founded. Like some dudes sat down and said, “Let’s have a city here. And we’ll have great cheese and maybe at some point add a large, pointy structure that almost touches the sky.”

And his friend is all, like, “Dude! Cool! And we’ll have fresh vegetables available all the time, plus a good supply of passable red wine and it should be someplace near a steady supply of lavender, sage and thyme.” (French people may not be crazy about the gross generalizations I’ve made here. I can deal with it.)

Paris and my partner David have the same birthday. I’m pretty sure David wasn’t founded, though there have been days I’d swear he was hatched. (Or at least landed here from some distant -- albeit pleasant -- planet.)

Also adding a year today, Kim Darby, Anjelica Huston, Kevin Bacon and Beck.

And on this day in 1932, the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed out at 41.22, the low mark of the Great Depression. (I always think it's ironic and not such a big coincidence that Prohibition ended before the Depression did. But that’s a thought for a different day.)

Oh, and guess what? There are only 176 days left in the year. You know what that means? We have to start thinking about holiday shopping soon.

And, on that happy note, I think I’ll go and eat cake.