It's not at all related to this Viewmaster image of hungry bears, but tomorrow's my birthday! Some friends and I will be going to this restaurant Public, which I'm really looking forward to. They've got kangaroo on the menu, and I am curious about that (my guess is that maybe it tastes like rabbit, but I think that is mostly based on their shared love of hopping). Oh, this reminds me that I'd meant to share an article I came across on an upscale London restaurant which has roast and braised grey squirrel with redcurrant jus and garlic mash on its menu earlier in the week but got preoccupied and forgot. Anyhow, back to my birth. Last year I listed a few other people who were born on May 28th, like Wendy O. Williams and the Dionne Quintuplets (and, of course, Kylie Minogue) so this year I'll post a few links to people who died on my birthday: Unity Mitford, Audie Murphy, and Phil Hartman. Additionally, tomorrow will be one of two days during the year on which sunrise and sunset occur along Manhattan's street grid centerline. Most exciting, though, is a shared birthday that I'd somehow overlooked in the past: the Chrysler Building officially opened on May 28, 1930. This being the 75th anniversary of that event, today's Times has a bunch of interesting articles about the best-looking skyscraper in this or any other city (and this now reminds me - when the hell is the Cremaster Cycle coming out on DVD? It was supposed to be over a year ago). And finally, I've gotten a few gifts already from my mom that I'm very happy about, the second and third volumes of Fantagraphics' Complete Peanuts series. Anyone with any interest in Peanuts is definitely encouraged to check these volumes out, they are beautifully designed and many of the strips were never republished before (even though there are 20 gazillion Peanuts collections out there, they overlap and especially in these early years only some of the strips ever got collected). Another nice thing about these first 3 books is the ubiquity of Patty and Violet, who had largely disappeared from the strip by the late 60's - I really like they way they're drawn (except in some background scenes Patty completely disappeared once Peppermint Patty showed up; Shermy vanished too, but I don't care so much about Shermy). Also got the Found book, finally. Not that you read this, but thanks mom!