Happy Birthday Kurt Vonnegut!

[klook]

Eighty-four years old today!! Some people celebrate Veterans' Day on Nov. 11, but for me it's always a day to celebrate one very special veteran: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

[crikkett]

1. two things I know about him;

he thinks semicolons should be outlawed and he wasn't happy to be alive, last year anyway. Maybe this year he feels differently.

Blessings on you, old man.

BTW for the rest of the world today is Armistice Day, the end of WWI when peace broke out all over the place. Only the US turns it into a celebration of war.

[longship]

2. Beat the drum for Kurt.

Rented-a-tent
Rented-a-tent
Rented-a-Rented-a-Rented-a-Tent

:-)

[ovidsen]

3. So it goes

I wonder how many people think it was Linda Ellerbee and not Kurt who came up with that?

Billy Pilgrim lives. Happy birthday.

[Sweet Freedom]

4. One of my favorite authors. Happy B-day Mr. Vonnegut. /nt

[Rageneau]

5. I actually dreamed about him last night.

Didn't know it was his birthday.

Saw him on Park Av in NYC one day. I seemed to be the only one who recognized him. Or maybe that's just how blase' New Yorkers are to celebrity. Anyway, I said "Hey, and thanks" and he saluted me with his umbrella.

Kurt is the closest-looking person to Mark Twain, and the closest-writing one, too.

[klook]

6. Twain is one of my other faves

and I agree with you that there are similarities between them not only visually but also literarily.

That's a cool story about seeing KV on the street (and dreaming about him last night). Apparently he often walks among us like a regular guy. I remember reading a piece he wrote in which he mentioned being infatuated with a clerk at the post office where he goes (although he never let her know about his crush). As I read that, I thought, "Wow--imagine being in line to buy stamps at the P.O., and standing in front of you there's Kurt Vonnegut!"

I saw him in person only once. He was giving a talk at Emory University (I live in Atlanta). This was probably 12 years ago. He walked out with a cane, because he was recovering from a badly sprained ankle suffered in a game of stickball with a young boy in his neighborhood. I bet he's fun in a stickball game, too.

[bemildred]

7. Second that. A national treasure. nt

[Vert]

8. So it goes.

Happy birthday to one of my favorite authors.

[Bonobo]

9. Happy Birthday. And so on....

One of my favorite KV lines. I think it's from "Slapstick".

"Saying 'I love you' to someone is like pointing a gun at their head. What else can they say back but 'I love you too'?