Yesterday, the 8th, was Thomas Pynchon’s birthday. I spent all day scouting the local candle shops hoping to run into him, but…. You’ll be the first to know if I ever get lucky. May 9th is the anniversary of the FDA approving the Pill in 1960…which is related to the Nick Drake and Vera Drake article we’ll be posting here shortly. It’s also the ‘95 anniversary of Clinton embracing Yeltsin in Moscow… following a longstanding U.S. policy of treading very lightly around his dangerous antics and authoritarian rule…whereby zero is said in public that’s critical (that means anything or has any impact). More importantly,…on this day…John Brown was born in 1800. He was executed in 1859 (Dec. 2)…and I urge all readers to remind everyone they meet of the importance of observing all anniversaries related to Brown…if we’re going to observe any at all in relation to African-American history. Happy B-Day to Glenda Jackson…if she’s reading this, and James M. Barrie… who is not.