birthday buddies: T-6 days

One week to my birthday! woohoo!
Since, as previously discussed (ad nauseum), the week after my birthday isn't that fun, I thought I'd make the week before my birthday a fun blog series where I contemplate my birthday buddies. You know, people who are born on the same day (regardless of the year). Everyone has really interesting birthday buddies, of course. What I think is fun about the ones I've chosen to think about this week is how they are related to the last 32 years of my life.

So, each day I'll be posting a little about one of my birthday buddies. In addition to the zillions of people born on October 21 who don't make the internet lists, there are dozens of famous people born on October 21--athletes, musicians, actors, players on the world stage (Benjamin Netanyahu and I share a birthday), and people who are famous (or infamous) for unknown reasons--Kim Kardashian was born not just the same day, but the same year as me, even. I picked the people for this week because they either represent some aspect of my life or are just super interesting to share a birthday with.

So, for today...

I bet Alfred would get a kick out of these on his cake

Alfred Nobel (1833)

That's right, I share a birthday with the scientist who founded the Nobel prizes. Isn't that cool?
By itself, that's cool enough for a mention.

But there's also the part where the various Nobel prizes are being announced/awarded just now, so there's lots of attention on this tradition of awarding prizes to people who are doing outstanding work in their field, and lots of discussion about whether the Peace prize has "jumped the shark" (lots of people disagree with awarding the Nobel Peace prize to Obama and to the EU, and there are plenty of valid disagreements to be had for probably every recipient of the prize).
And, of course Alfred Nobel invented things, including dynamite...and my personality is pretty explosive. (hahahaha. okay, maybe not!)

I think one of the most interesting things about the Nobel prizes is that Alfred explicitly stated in his will that the prizes should be given "without regard to nationality." Remember this is late 19th century Europe--nationalism was on the rise and recognizing the achievement or worth of others was low on the list of priorities. I love that I share a birthday with someone who had a vision of a world community that could seek, learn, and celebrate together.