Not you, silly. Me! Well actually…my birthday isn’t until 25 August, but I was reminded of it this morning.

In my Boston University doctoral class, I had to make some comments about Leonard Bernstein, likely the most prolific and famous of all American composers of the 20th century, having written music not only for choirs and orchestras, but for the movies as well (West Side Story, On the Town, and others). Anyway, I remembered that Bernstein and I share a birthday, and it got me to wondering something of extreme import:

Who else has a birthday on 25 August? I must know. So I looked, and found an interesting mix of the ridiculous and the sublime…

Well, to start with, there’s Sean Connery. Not bad. Bernstein and Connery – and Rat Fink. Nice.

Then there’s Tim Burton, director of Sweeney Todd, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (see a pattern here? Heh.) and others.

Then there are the obligatory non-descripts I must mention: model Claudia Schiffer, actor Blair Underwood, and singer Elvis Costello (Did you know he was married to jazz singer Diana Krall? She reminds me somewhat of a young Lauren Bacall.).

Rounding out the list is celebrity cook Rachael Ray, talk show host Regis Philbin, singer Billy Ray Cyrus, and yay – how about this?

Monty Hall from Let’s Make a Deal! My sister and I always watched this show back in the olden days. I loved it. After earning his/her way to the final scene, a player would choose “door number one, door number two, or door number three.” Do you get a trip to Las Vegas, or a plastic piggy bank with 10 cents in it? Did you win a new car, or a goat for your back yard mowing? It was also the subject of endless scrutiny and arguments by mathematical statisticians on what the element of “randomness” suggested. I just thought it was good entertainment. Apparently, the producers of today’s Deal or No Deal agreed, because its premise is almost identical.

Then there’s the baddy. Gene Simmons of Kiss fame. Ugh. He gets no love from the Fink, because he’s an arrogant, misogynistic bag of pretentious, ugly slop. Barf.

Anyway, now you try it. Who’s got yer birthday?