Birthday Cakes - Cakes Delivered

Today's Birthday - Dave Brubeck

nospam@example.com (Cake Meister) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 08:00:13 -0700

1920–, American jazz pianist and composer.

Born in Concord, Calif. Brubeck began studying piano at the age of four and later studied composition with Milhaud and Schoenberg. In 1951 he organized a jazz quartet with alto saxaphonist Paul Desmond. His music, influenced by modern classical composers, is distinguished by complex harmony and the use of meters not typical in jazz.

Birthday Traditions - England

nospam@example.com (Cake Meister) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 07:41:10 -0700

Fortune Telling Cakes and Bumps. Certain symbolic objects are mixed into the birthday cake as it being prepared. If your piece of cake has a coin in it, then you will be rich. Also, when its your birthday your friends give you the "bumps" they lift you in the air by your hands and feet and raise you up and down to the floor, one for each year then one for luck, two for luck and three for the old man's coconut!

Today's Birthday - Robert F. Kennedy

nospam@example.com (Cake Meister) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 07:37:25 -0700

1925–1968, American Politician

Born in Brookline, Mass., younger brother of President John F. Kennedy. A graduate of Harvard (1948) and the Univ. of Virginia law school (1951), he managed John F. Kennedy's successful campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1952. From 1953 to 1956 he was counsel to the Senate subcommittee chaired by Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy. He then became (1957) chief counsel to the Senate subcommittee investigating labor rackets and there gained a reputation for toughness by exposing corruption in the Teamsters union. In 1960 he was manager of his older brother's presidential campaign. His inclusion in President Kennedy's cabinet gave rise to charges of nepotism, but he proved a vigorous Attorney General, especially in prosecuting cases relating to civil rights. He was also his brother's closest adviser.

After John Kennedy's assassination, Robert Kennedy continued for a time to serve in President Lyndon Johnson's cabinet, but in 1964 he resigned to run for election as Senator from New York. Despite criticism that he was a carpetbagger from Massachusetts, he won the election. In the Senate he was a vigorous advocate of social reform and became identified particularly as a spokesperson for the rights of minorities. Although Kennedy had supported his brother's intensification of American aid to the South Vietnamese government, he became increasingly critical of Johnson's escalation of the Vietnam War and by 1968 was advocating that the Viet Cong be included in a South Vietnamese coalition government.

Urged to run against President Johnson for the Democratic nomination in 1968, Kennedy appeared reluctant until Sen. Eugene McCarthy's showing in the New Hampshire Democratic primary convinced him that a challenge to Johnson could be successful. Kennedy announced his candidacy on March 16, 1968. Although Johnson withdrew (March 31) from the race, the administration's standard passed to Vice President Hubert Humphrey, while Senator McCarthy retained the support of many opponents of the Vietnam War, who accused Kennedy of opportunism.

Kennedy conducted an energetic campaign and won a series of primary victories, culminating in the one in California on June 4. At the end of that day he gave a victory speech to his supporters in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, and then, while leaving by a rear exit, was shot. He died a day later (June 6, 1968). The gunman, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, was captured at the scene of the crime and later convicted of first degree murder. Like his brother John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He wrote The Enemy Within (1960), Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis (1969), and To Seek a Newer World (1969).

Bibliography:

See Penn Kimball, Bobby Kennedy and the New Politics (1968); David Halberstam, The Unfinished Odyssey of Robert Kennedy (1968); Douglas Ross, ed., Robert Kennedy: Apostle of Change (1968); Jack Newfield, Robert Kennedy: A Memoir (1969); Jules Witcover, Eighty-Five Days (1969); Victor Navasky, Kennedy Justice (1971). See also Edwin O. Guthman and Jeffrey Shulman, Robert Kennedy: In His Own Words (1988).

Birthday Facts from India

nospam@example.com (Cake Meister) — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 07:35:00 -0700

14th November - the Birthday of Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India is celebrated as Children's Day in India in memory of his love of children.

Today's Birthday - Elizabeth Stanton

nospam@example.com (Cake Meister) — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 07:39:00 -0700

1815–1902, American reformer

A leader of the woman suffrage movement, born in Johnstown, N.Y. She was educated at the Troy Female Seminary (now Emma Willard School) in Troy, N.Y. In 1840 she married Henry Brewster Stanton, a journalist and abolitionist, and attended with him the international slavery convention in London. The woman delegates were excluded from the floor of the convention; the indignation this aroused in Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott was an important factor in their efforts to organize women to win greater equality. With several others they called the first woman's rights convention in the United States in 1848 at Seneca Falls, N.Y. Stanton insisted that a suffrage clause be included in the bill of rights for women that was drawn up at the convention. From 1852, despite occasional disagreements, she was intimately associated with Susan B. Anthony in leading the woman's movement. She was president of the National Woman Suffrage Association (1869-90) and of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (1890-92). With Anthony as publisher she and Parker Pillsbury edited (1868-70) the Revolution, a militant feminist magazine. Elizabeth Stanton was a brilliant orator and an able journalist, and as a writer and lecturer she strove for legal, political, and industrial equality of women and for liberal divorce laws. She compiled with Susan B. Anthony and Matilda Joslyn Gage the first three volumes of History of Woman Suffrage (1881-86) and wrote Eighty Years and More (1898).
Bibliography:

See Elizabeth Cady Stanton as Revealed in Her Letters, Diary and Reminiscences (ed. by Theodore Stanton and Harriot Stanton Blatch, 1922); biographies by W. E. Wise (1960) and Elizabeth Griffith (1985).

Birthday Trivia

nospam@example.com (Cake Meister) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 08:09:10 -0600

--More people celebrate their birthdays in August than in any other month (about 9% of all people). The two other months that rate high for birthdays are July and September.

--Close to 2 billion Birthday Cards are sent each year in the U.S. alone, accounting for nearly 58 percent of all cards sent.

--The world's largest birthday cake was created in 1989 for the 100th Birthday of the city of Fort Payne, Alabama. The cake weighed 128,238 pounds, 8 oz. and used 16,209 pounds of icing.

--The most famous rendition of "Happy Birthday" is when Marilyn Monroe sang to "Happy Birthday, Mr President" to President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden on 19 May 1962.

--Paul McCartney's Birth Certificate was auctioned in March 1997, for US $84,146. It is believed to be the world's most expensive Birth Certificate.

--The Sultan of Brunei hosted the world's most expensive Birthday Party to celebrate his 50th Birthday on 13 July, 1996. The cost was a whopping US $27.2 million. Three concerts featuring Michael Jackson costs US $16 million of the total amounts.

--Anne Frank's world famous diary was given to her as a present for her 13th birthday.

--William Shakespeare's died on his 52nd birthday: 23 April 1616.

--A recent survey suggests that more people are born on October 5 in the United States than any other day. October 5 holds a not-so-surprising significance, as conception would have fallen on New Year's Eve.

--The least common birth date in the U.S. is May 22nd.

Strange Birthday Facts

nospam@example.com (Cake Meister) — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 08:39:04 -0600

--Since your last birthday 31,536,000 seconds have passed.
--In the past year your hair will most likely have grown 12 cm and your nail about 4 cm.
--Your heart beats at a rate of around of 72 to 80 beats per minute - since your last birthday it will have beat about 42,075,900 times.
--You breath at a rate of about 30 breaths per minute so, since your last birthday you have taken approximately 15,768,000 breaths.
--The volume of blood in your body is approximately 5 liters. The heart pumps about 280 litres of blood around your body every hour - that’s 2,688,000 liters per year!
--The average garden snail (not one that has entered the Olympics 100 meters race) moves at around 0.03 mph. If one set out on your last birthday, and walked non-stop it would have traveled 263 miles. If you walked this distance non-stop you would complete it in around three days.
--Since your last birthday you will have had about 1,460 dreams.
--World population has grown by around 76,570,430 since your last birthday. In the time it takes you to read this another five babies will have been born.
--During the past year there have been more than 50,000 earthquakes throughout the world.
--The Earth is zooming around the sun at around 66,780 miles per hour! Since your last birthday the Earth has completed one journey around the sun travelling about 584,337,600 miles.
--If you counted 24 hours a day, you would be over 31,000 years old when you reach one trillion!

Today's Birthday - Pele

nospam@example.com (Cake Meister) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 07:26:26 -0600

1940–, Brazilian soccer (football) player.

His real name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento. Perhaps the greatest player in the history of soccer, Pelé began playing at the age of 5 and joined the Santos team at 16. Playing inside left forward, he led his team to numerous championships and the Brazilian national team to world championships in 1958, 1962, and 1970. He held every scoring record in Brazil, and in international matches he scored an average of one goal per game. His playing style was marked by superb ball control and great tactical ability. In 1971 he retired from the Brazilian national team but continued to play with Santos. He retired (1974) from the Santos team and played in the United States with the New York Cosmos (1975–77). He scored 1,281 goals during his career. Pelé became Brazil's minister of sports in 1995, serving until 1998.

Also born today, October 23:

Adlai Ewing Stevenson - Vice President (1835)
John Heisman - football coach (1869)
William D. Coolidge - inventor (1873)
Gertrude Ederle - swimmer (1905)
Johnny Carson - entertainer (1925)
Michael Crichton - novelist (1942)
Ang Lee - director, writer (1954)
Dwight Yoakam - singer and actor (1956)
Sam Raimi - filmmaker (1959)
Ryan Reynolds - actor (1976)

Personality Traits Attributed to Birth Months

nospam@example.com (Cake Meister) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 07:52:03 -0600

In the year 1912, the American National Association of Jewelers officially adopted a list of birth stone gemstone based on ancient lore. Specific personality traits have been attributed to individuals according to their Birth month.

January - Garnet, Steadiness
February - Amethyst, Truthfulness
March - Bloodstone (Aquamarine), Bravery
April - Diamond, Ethics
May - Emerald, Love
June - Pearl (Alexandrite), Well-being
July - Ruby, Happiness
August -Sardonyx (Peridot), Marital bliss
September - Sapphire, Logic
October - Opal (Tourmaline), Optimism
November - Topaz, Loyalty
December - Turquise (Lapis Lazuli), Prosperity

Today's Birthday - Noah Webster

nospam@example.com (Cake Meister) — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 07:21:59 -0600

1758–1843, American lexicographer and philologist, born in West Hartford, Conn., graduated Yale, 1778.

After serving in the American Revolution, Webster practiced law in Hartford. His Grammatical Institute of the English Language, in three parts, speller, grammar, and reader (1783-85), was the first of a list of publications which made him for many years the chief American authority on English. The first part, often revised, was his famous Elementary Spelling Book, or "Blue-backed Speller," with which he helped to standardize American spelling. Pioneer families on the frontiers taught their children to read from it; in the schools it was a basic textbook, and in settlements and villages its lists were read out for lively spelling matches. By 1850, when the total population of the United States was less than 23,200,000, the annual sales of Webster's spelling book were about 1,000,000 copies, and the figures increased yearly. The difficulty of copyrighting his works in 13 states led Webster to agitate for many years for a national copyright law; it was passed in 1790. An active Federalist, he became a pamphleteer for centralized government and wrote his Sketches of American Policy (1785), proposing the adoption of a constitution. In 1793 he left Hartford to support Washington's administration by editing the newspaper American Minerva (later the Commercial Advertiser) in New York; he was also editor, at various times, of several magazines. Webster wrote scholarly studies on a great diversity of subjects, including epidemic diseases, mythology, meteors, and the relationship of European and Asian languages. During most of his later life he lived in New Haven, Conn., and Amherst, Mass., and was a member of the first board of trustees of Amherst College. Deriving his income from his schoolbooks, he devoted most of the rest of his life to compiling dictionaries. After his Compendious Dictionary was published in 1806, he worked on another, The American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), which included definitions of 70,000 words, of which 12,000 had not appeared in such a work before. Its definitions were excellent, and the dictionary's sales reached 300,000 annually. This work, Webster's foremost achievement, helped to standardize American pronunciation. Webster completed the revision of 1840, and the dictionary, revised many times, has retained its popularity. See also dictionary.

Bibliography:

See his letters, ed. by H. R. Warfel (1953); biography by H. E. Scudder (6th ed. 1971); Emily Skeel, A Bibliography of the Writings of Noah Webster (ed. by E. H. Carpenter, Jr., 1958); E. J. Monaghan, A Common Heritage: Noah Webster and His Blue-Black Speller (1982).

Birthday Traditions - Ecuador

nospam@example.com (Cake Meister) — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 07:19:29 -0600

Pink Dress. When a girl turns 15 there is a great celebration and the girl wears a pink dress. The father puts on the birthday girls first pair of high heels and dances the waltz with her while 14 maids and 14 boys also dance the waltz.

Birthday Facts

nospam@example.com (Cake Meister) — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 07:13:57 -0600

According to Hallmark, more people are born in August than any other month (9.07%). About 21 million Americans have birthdays in August.

And, in recent years, July ranks number two in birthdays (8.80% of births) and February is last (7.55%).

Google's 9th Birthday

nospam@example.com (Cake Meister) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 15:29:38 -0600

Posted on Google System, 09/27/2007

Two weeks ago, AFP informed us that "Google, at age 10, is the official heart of the Internet. Born 10 years ago, the Google Internet search engine has grown into the electronic center of human knowledge by indexing billions of web pages as well as images, books and videos." That's true, except that Google is 9 years old. Even if Larry Page and Sergey Brin registered the google.com domain in 1997, Google was officially launched one year later.

"Google opened its doors in September 1998. The exact date when we celebrate our birthday has moved around over the years, depending on when people feel like having cake," says Google's help center. You can read more about it directly from Google. In the recent years, Google's birthday has been celebrated on September 27th with a doodle displayed on the homepage.

Happy Birthday, Google!

GoCakeGo.com

Helvetica font turns 50!

nospam@example.com (Cake Meister) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 08:27:21 -0600

The Helvetica font is celebrating its 50th birthday.
You've probably seen it a thousand times today. Why?
By Finlo Rohrer, BBC News Magazine

The Helvetica font is celebrating its 50th birthday. You've probably seen it a thousand times today. Why?
At this moment in boardrooms across the globe, captains of industry are leafing through sheet after sheet of typefaces. There are hundreds of choices, but many of these movers and shakers don't take a lot of leafing before plumping for Helvetica.

We live in a world where we are surrounded 24 hours a day by adverts and corporate communications, many in typefaces chosen to subliminally complement the message.

Helvetica's message is this: you are going to get to your destination on time; your plane will not crash; your money is safe in our vault; we will not break the package; the paperwork has been filled in; everything is going to be OK.

It is sans serif. There are no wiggly bits at the end of the letters. It has smooth, clean lines, and an unobtrusive geometry that almost suggests it was designed not to stand out.

Lars Mueller is a Helvetica devotee. He has published a book, Helvetica: Homage to a Typeface, and recently donated an original set of lead lettering to a Helvetica exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

"It has a modern attitude which lines up with the aesthetic premises of the 1950s and 60s. Helvetica is a corporate typeface, but on the other hand it's the favourite of hairdressers and kebab shops. It is the butter on the bread."

Gap, Orange, Currys, Hoover, Lufthansa, Panasonic, Royal Bank of Scotland, Tupperware, Zanussi. The list of brands that use the Swiss typeface - celebrating its 50th anniversary this year - would fill this page.

"It's durable. It comes from natural design forms. It doesn't have an expression of fashion. It has very clear lines and characters, it looks like a very serious typeface," says Frank Wildenberg, managing director of Linotype, the German firm that owns the font.

The typeface, inspired by the 1896 font Akzidenz Grotesk, was designed by Max Miedinger in 1957 in conjunction with Eduard Hoffmann for the Haas Type Foundry, in Muenchenstein, Switzerland.

As Wildenberg notes, its Swissness is part of the appeal. The land where clocks run meticulously and the streets are spotless carries the kind of cultural resonance that the logo makers and brand masters of the major corporations might like a bit of. For others, its neutrality is a platform for daring design.

The typeface's dominance over the past half-century, cemented by the release of Neue Helvetica in the 1980s, has now inspired a documentary, Helvetica, and exhibitions on both sides of the Atlantic.

Bland uniformity

But not everyone is a Helvetica lover. Type "I hate Helvetica" into Google and there are forums for people who rage at the mindless "corporate chic" of this dominant font. They see it as a vehicle for social conformity through consumerism, shifting product with a great big steam-roller of neutrality.

Leading graphic designer and typographer Neville Brody, who sparked a spate of Helvetica use with his design for Arena magazine in the 80s, says the typeface represents a safe choice for businesses.

"When people choose Helvetica they want to fit in and look normal. They use Helvetica because they want to be a member of the efficiency club. They want to be a member of modernism. They want to be a member of no personality. It also says bland, unadventurous, unambitious.

"Typefaces control the message. Choice of font dictates what you think about something before you even read the first word. Imagine Shakespeare in large capital drop shadow. Our response would be quite different towards the content."

It's perhaps understandable that corporations don't want to take any typographic risks, bound as they are by the bottom line. Choose a wacky typeface in your logos or advertising, and turnover may suffer. Helvetica, on the other hand, offers clarity and neutrality. When used in adverts, it is a platform for other parts of the message.

Nadine Chahine, who works in sales and marketing for Linotype, advises companies on what font to use.

"If you take a script typeface [with a handwriting-like appearance] and use it as the logo for a bank, there's a problem. You need something reliable - it's where you keep your money. It is not about a fun, personal message.

"It uses subliminal messages so that you get a feeling. All of these different meanings are implied within typefaces."

Hence the font Frutiger is used for airports and European motorway signs, New Johnston is the choice of London Underground, Cooper Black for Easyjet, and Dunkin Donuts bears the unmistakable Frankfurter font.

Default setting

But away from the boardroom, many ordinary computer users follow the same path of choosing fonts that say something about themselves when they send an e-mail or write a letter or CV.

You've probably endorsed Helvetica yourself by using one of its digital clones, the Arial typeface, to write e-mails - perhaps because it's easy to read, because it looks reassuring familiar or because it may be the default font on your system.

Others might use a Courier or a Times New Roman to impart their authority, or choose the cartoonish Comic Sans to go with their Mickey Mouse tie.

And just as with the hegemonic Helvetica, these choices arouse strong feelings. There is a "ban Comic Sans" campaign, which has attempted to get legislation enacted in Canada. In Germany, the battle between typefaces ran alongside the country's turbulent history and struggle for national identity in the 19th and 20th Century.

Black letter Gothic typefaces like Fraktur were alternately endorsed and then banned by the Nazis. Now, despite being most associated outside Germany with footballers' tattoos and covers of heavy metal albums, there is still a group dedicated to its return to common usage.

Helvetica may be the most dominant of the fonts, but it has not squashed the opposition in either advertising or the e-mail. And whether you use it, or choose not to, you are sending out a message.

Happy Birthday to You

nospam@example.com (Cake Meister) — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:24:09 -0600

Happy Birthday to You, the four-line ditty was written as a classroom greeting in 1893 by two Louisville teachers, Mildred J. Hill, an authority on Negro spirituals, and Dr. Patty Smith Hill, professor emeritus of education at Columbia University. The melody of the song Happy Birthday to You was composed by Mildred J. Hill, a schoolteacher born in Louisville, KY, on June 27, 1859. The song was first published in 1893, with the lyrics written by her sister, Patty Smith Hill, as "Good Morning To All."

Happy Birthday to You was copyrighted in 1935 and renewed in 1963. The song was apparently written in 1893, but first copyrighted in 1935 after a lawsuit (reported in the New York Times of August 15, 1934, p.19 col. 6)

In 1988, Birch Tree Group, Ltd. sold the rights of the song to Warner Communications (along with all other assets) for an estimated $25 million (considerably more than a song). (reported in Time, Jan 2, 1989 v133 n1 p88(1)

In the 80s, the song Happy Birthday to You was believed to generate about $1 million in royalties annually. With Auld Lang Syne and For He's a Jolly Good Fellow, it is among the three most popular songs in the English language. (reported in Time, Jan 2, 1989 v133 n1 p88(1)

Happy Birthday to You continues to bring in approximately 2 million dollars in licensing revenue each year, at least as of 1996 accounting, according to Warner Chappell and a Forbes magazine article.