FORTY candles for Molly Ringwald!

Actress of stage,television and movies Molly Ringwald,will be turning 40 on Monday.She made her acting debut on stage at the age of five and by age six she had recorded songs with her fathers jazz band.Ringwald starred briefly in TV's "The Facts of Life" and then gained notoriety in the mid 80's for her performances in John Hughes teen angst movies.She and other "Brat Packers" starred in Sixteen Candles,The Breakfast Club & Pretty in Pink and those are my absolute favorite Ringwald roles.She also dated Dweezil Zappa,Anthony Michael Hall and Beastie Boy Adam Horowitz during her Brat Pack years.

She is now the mother of a 5 year old girl and she has been quite busy since her daughters birth juggling motherhood and acting with a national touring company in musical stage shows.She had a brief cameo a few years ago in Not Another Teen Movie,which was a satirical comedy that spoofed the teen angst film genre,and she delightfully made herself the in-joke reference to those movies we loved like Pretty in Pink!Unlike her Sixteen Candles character Samantha Baker,I hope nobody in her family forgets her birthday!

Happy Birthday Michael Jordan!

The legendary Michael Jordan turns 45 today,and I recall back to 1985,when he was named Rookie of the Year by the NBA in his early days as a Chicago Bull.Now the former star"Tarheel "collegian athlete is perhaps one of the most well-known and wealthiest athletes in sports history.If I had to name the 5 best-ever NBA players,MJ would be on the list right along with Bill Walton and select others!Happy Birthday to "Air Jordan"-he is getting old and thats no "Bull"!Sorry,couldn't resist!

Happy Birthday Jimmy Hoffa,wherever you are!

Tomorrow is not only Valentines Day,it is also what would have been the 95th birthday of the infamous James Riddle Hoffa better known as Jimmy Hoffa,former President of the Teamsters,who has been missing and presumed dead since 1975.To this day,references to Hoffa and his whereabouts are made in films,books and Tv shows.Numerous mob affiliates have confessed to being involved with his disappearance and there are all sorts of wild speculation as to where his final resting place is,the most popular theory being that he was buried in the Meadowlands,where the Giants Stadium stands today!The cable TV show "Mythbusters" debunked the Giants Stadium myth in the 13th episode of the first season of the show,when they used ground penetrating radar to search the field area and came up with zilch!
You can say what you want about Hoffa,and many people might think he was a crook but as a former union member I still have alot of respect for a guy who works his way up from unloading produce trucks to presiding over one of the largest labor unions in the country.
In the spring of 1931,fed up with the conditions under which they worked,Hoffa and his coworkers unloading trucks for grocer Krogers fought back by declaring a work stoppage and Kroger,needing the perishable foods unloaded,had no choice but to negotiate with Hoffa-and they subsequently formed a charter as Federal Local 19341 of the American Federation of Labor.
He may have "gotten in with a bad crowd" in his later life,but there isn't a union member out there who does not owe this man a debt of gratitiude.Personally,I think wherever Hoffa's grave is,he must be rolling in it now to see what has become of the labor unions in our country now.Not only are there less unions and members,but the unions that ARE left are driven by greed and are driving business out of our country and helping to put people out of work(General Motors comes to mind).For those of you who only know what the movies like "Hoffa" tell you,educate yourselves and read one of the many books about this labor pioneer.Happy Birthday,Jimmy,wherever you are!

Frederick Douglas

Frederick Douglas was born a slave so there is no accurate record of his date of birth but it is observed on most calenders as February 8,1818 and I wanted to recognize his birthday because he is an Eastern Shore native who made history and overcame his beginnings to achieve great things.He was born near Hillsboro in Talbot County and was seperated from his mother as an infant,and he never knew his father although some sources claim his father was a white man.

As a young boy,he was taken to live at the historic Wye House plantation and shortly thereafter his owners wife taught him some of the alphabet.Douglas then started learning to read from white children in the area and the rest is history.After escaping Maryland and slavery,Douglas went on to become an author and abolitionist and he also held prominent government posts,serving as a US Marshal,a consul for Haiti and bank president.He also worked as a Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia.He invited scrutiny in 1884 when he married a much younger white woman who was active in the very early feminist movement.He died in 1895 and was interred in Rochester,New York.At a time when it was illegal for blacks to learn how to read and write,he saw education as a means of freedom and pursued it against all odds.He is not just a part of black history or Maryland history but American history as well.

Laura Ingalls Wilder(yes,she was a real person!)

Today marks the birthday of one of my personal heroes-Laura Ingalls Wilder,who was born in the "Big Woods" of Wisconsin on this day in 1867.Portrayed by Melissa Gilbert on TV's "Little House on the Prairie",Wilder wrote a series of books telling the story of her life as a pioneer girl because she wanted children to know how things were in the "old days" when she was growing up.As a young girl I must have read each of her books several times and I loved them all!Mrs.Wilder started teaching at age 15 in rural schools and went on to run a farm with her homesteader husband and became a staunch libertarian before she started writing her memoirs with encouragement from her daughter,Rose.She died at home in 1957 at her home in Mansfield,Missouri and subsequently her home,the Rocky Ridge Farm,was designated a National Historic Landmark.Today her books live on and are still popular as ever and translated into other languages.