JANUARY 13 - A QUIET DAY TO BE BORN

January 13 is a weird day to have a birthday. 

Not much happens on January 13. Some people have gone back to work. Some haven’t. 

It’s also a bit dicey, birthday party-wise. There are always a couple of friends who still haven’t returned from Bali and a few more who’ve decided now would be a good time to quit drinking. 

World events-wise, it’s quiet. Most houses of power aren’t sitting and the celebs who are going to die during this period did so during Christmas and New Year. In fact, I can’t recall anything of national or international significance happening on my birthday.

But I wanted to be sure. So I asked Google to read out the scroll for January 13. 

Google: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah… Trump was impeached for a second time on January 13, 2021?

Me: That’s the best you’ve got?

Google: In 2003, Tony Blair said he believed "passionately" that Saddam Hussein must be stripped of his weapons of mass destruction. And the year before that, George Bush fainted after swallowing a pretzel.

Me: I guess the pretzel’s something. 

Google: Sir Joh Bjelke Petersen was born in 1911. 

Me: I share a birthday with Sir Joh?

Google: Also with Paul Kelly – the musician, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and Orlando Bloom.

Me: That’s a strong case against astrology. 

Google: You need to take into account their rising sign as well, Adam. 

Me: I know that! You know I know that!! What about actual events?

Google: In 1962 an outbreak of smallpox spread throughout Britain and 20 years after that a Boeing 737 crashed into a bridge, hitting five ships and killing 78 people, on the Potomac River in Washington DC. 

Me: That’s terrible. 

Google: In 1942, James Joyce passed away during an eye operation in Zurich, Switzerland.

Me: Has anything good ever happened? 

Google: Henry Ford patented the plastic car in ‘42.

Me: Wasn’t Henry Ford a Nazi?

Google: It’s Saint Hilary's Day, traditionally the coldest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. 

Me: You’ve run out of puff haven’t you. 

Google: How dare you! Sunrise will be at 6.12am. 

So there it is. January 13 – a great festival of nothingness.