HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Today is day one hundred and thirteen of the year 2010 and today would have been the birthday of the "Great Bard of Avon", himself, William Shakespeare. I wrote a celebrated musical back in 1982 (I actually began in 1980) in which dear old William was a central character --cousin to my protagonist, Nicholas Atwood. It was called "Skylark" and it was produced locally and in New York and someday I will get it back on its feet. Shakespeare was only fifty-two years old when he died on this very same date in the year 1616. A brief life for such a genius. Such is the way with great minds-- they tend notto have strong bodies to match. On this date in 1969, Sirhan, Sirhan, the assassin of Robert Kennedy was sentenced to death-- later to have his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment. I adored Bobby Kennedy. I really thought our lives would be seriously improved with his election as president. Literature wise, April 23rd is the date we lost the author and Spanish poet Cervantes-- who also gave us Don Quixote. In the category of great mistakes, this was the day that the Coca-Cola company announced it was changing its secret formula. Do you remember the outcry of that poor decision? You never saw anything reversed so quickly! In California on this date the world lost labor leader Caesar Chavez and the sports world lost Howard Cossell who died at age seventy-seven. How well I remember dear old Howard, Today in history George Washington and Martha moved into the first Executive Mansion-- no, not the White House: it was the Franklin House in New York City. Today is also "YOU TUBE'S Fifth birthday-- it uploaded its first video only five years ago. For music fans, this was the day that the Rolling Stones released their hit album "Sticky Fingers". Amazingly today is the 82nd birthday of former child star Shirley Temple. That should make you feel old! Lee Majors, the Six Million Dollar Man turns seventy-one and in music history one of my very favorite composers Sergey Prokofiev, composer of "Peter and The Wolf" was born on this day in 1891. He died at 62. It's a beautifully sunny day here after three days of rain and overcast.