Author: Jenn Goddu

Jenn Goddu http://www.birthdayarebest.com I am a writer, editor, and writing coach who also blogs about birthdays!

Secret Birthday Bill in Texas

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I have great respect for our elected officials — even the ones I didn’t vote. That said, I have to question whether Cindy Burkett, a Republican in the Texas Legislature, is doing her utmost to look out for her constituents by proposing a Secret Birthday Bill.

Image source: flaglane.com

House Bill 2766 was filed, per columnist Bud Kennedy, in response to a request from the city of Mesquite, TX. Apparently a stalking suspect tried to access women’s birthdays from public records…so they asked Burkett to address the legality of public workers disclosing birth dates.

I used to write about identity theft, so I recognize the use of birthdays in public records is a concern. Nevertheless, Kennedy reports, “As written, the bill would make a schoolroom birthday party a crime with a fine of up to $1,000.”

Fortunately, Kennedy appears to be taking creative license. There’s nothing in the available text of the bill mentioning schoolroom birthday parties or any fines. In fact, the law seems to be looking to rid county clerk officers of liability for disclosing a birthday that is already in the public record. In this litigious time that makes sense.

Making birthdays secret? I would never vote for that. Giving public officials a little more security when they’re doing their job? I could understand voting “yeah.”

Decoration & Decimation = Piñata time!

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I know I’m not alone in having thought the piñata originated in Mexico. Turns out piñatas may instead have come from China. Apparently the Chinese used colored paper to fashion cows, oxen, or buffaloes filled with seeds to mark their New Year.

Wendy Devlin writing about Mexico Culture & Arts tells us Marco Polo brought the idea back to Europe where they incorporated these fragile vessels (“pignatta” is the Italian for fragile pot – I dare you to see the word fragile and not think of A Christmas Story) into Lenten celebrations.

From the 14th to 16th centuries this stayed in Europe until Spanish missionaries headed over to North America, where the indigenous people already had a similar tradition of hanging a colorful clay pot filled with treasures outside the temple and breaking it open with a stick or club.

Piñatas even once had religious meaning. For instance, Devlin points out the seven points on a traditional piñata represented the seven deadly sins. (I’m not sure how letting kids grapple on the ground for a pile of sweets is competing the sins of greed, gluttony, envy or wrath, but that’s a debate for theologians I guess).

I’m amazed the piñata tradition has been around for centuries. Then again, my son begged for another one at his birthday this year.

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Surely, it helps they are so easy to make. Check out this video for a Mexican-style piñata that cost just $8 to make (not sure if she included the candy). Or visit Piñata Boy’s site for more varied instructions.

If you’re truly worried about etiquette for properly pounding the piñata, check out this blogger’s tips on How to Avoid Piñata Event Failure.

Finally, I’d encourage you to check out this awesome art project of a cowering human piñata!

Your birthday as a “horizontal event”

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Many cards imply a birthday is a good time to get horizontal with a significant other, but I recently learned that in marketing terms a birthday is an official “horizontal event.”

According to ZenithOptimedia’s Richard Shotton, a boost in sales can be vertical (linked to events happening at a set time and affecting a large group of consumers, such as Halloween) or horizontal (tied to annual events that happen at different times for each customer, such as birthdays).

The company examined the impact of birthdays on spending by interviewing 1,000 people about buying for themselves and the occasions that prompted the purchase.

The interviewees were far more likely to purchases clothes, watches and jewelry around their birthdays — for themselves. “Happy Birthday to Me!” Right?

Some 60% of survey respondents also specified the gifts they’d like to receive from others. The bigger question, the survey did not discuss, is whether the husbands listened…

Marketers are also learning to send birthday campaigns over email to ramp up revenues, and to use the Facebook birthday information to target advertisements to users, Shotton noted.

He concluded saying that birthdays can mean happy returns for companies that invest in appropriate marketing. I believe him. I remember every birthday going to Baskin-Robbins with my family to enjoy my free scoop of rainbow sherbet. Today I’m happier with my Panera birthday pastry or Starbucks free chai.

Image source: lisabishopfoodstylist.com

Image source: lisabishopfoodstylist.com

Tell me, what’s the best birthday marketing ploy you’ve experienced?

“We Love You Every Day” — Mr. Rogers

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North America’s favorite neighbor, Fred Rogers, would have celebrated his birthday March 20th. Just seeing his picture again made me smile. Especially this one with the make believe trolley.

The pics made me do a little digging. Now, I didn’t remember this from my own avid watching of the show as a child, but check out the lyrics to his birthday song:

“Happy birthday, happy birthday
Dear friend, we sing to you
Happy birthday, happy birthday
Happy birthday to you

We thought we’d try to tell you how we love you on your birthday
We thought we’d try to sing and dance and play today
We wanted to surprise you on your birthday and say
We love you every day, not just today…”

How lovely is that? We love you every day, not just today. What a fantabulous idea. It’s even better to hear him sing it.

Thanks Mr. Rogers for still teaching me how to be a better person decades after your show went off the air.

It’s my special day — mine and some 20M others.

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We’re always talking about a birthday as someone’s special day. Well, while it may be your special day, you’re likely sharing it with about 20 million other people around the world.

Wolfgang Fengler at the Brookings Institute divided the world’s approximate population by 365 days (he doesn’t appear to account for leap year babies) and came up with 20 million. Better yet, he did the math and determined that with an average life expectancy of 72 years some 285,000 people share your actual date of birth. He drills down (as social scientists like to do) and determines you’re at about 200 people who were likely born at the same moment you were.

Me, I didn’t want to get up early even when I was first introduced to the world. But sharing that moment with others around the world, considering time zones, there were some early risers and night owls among us.

Fengler also lets us look at regional demographic shifts around the globe and tells us where in the world our birthday buddies will be at various given times. It’s really cool and almost makes me think I should have stuck out that stats class ages ago. Only almost. I’m better off reading the social scientists’ results, I’m sure.

In the meantime, check out this National Geographic photo gallery capturing our population explosion.

The birthday trump card

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A columnist in Australia was recently disappointed with the attention paid to his birthday. I totally get that. But his solution to the problem is just a tad extreme. He proposes: “So once we hit 21, let’s stop celebrating our birthdays.”

Sure, he’s got this hidden in some bumpf about how we should not need one special day to organize a social gathering with friends. Instead, we should try and do so more often throughout the year. Of course, this is true! Let’s all get together more often to celebrate one another and share some laughs.

Only in reality that’s tough, right? I’ve long been teased for being a “cruise director.” Trying to get people together is one of my ways of making and keeping friends. Yet, as we roll past our 20s (when everyone’s up for a party/get-together/BBQ/movie/game night because they still have time, disposable income and the ability to bounce back) it becomes more difficult to get people together. Birthday or no birthday. The advantage of a birthday celebration is that people work harder to find the babysitter, put the date in their calendar, and get out of pjs to stay up past 10 p.m.

Birthday’s are the trump card of all social planning (other than perhaps a wedding). Planning two coinciding birthdays can cause family strife: witness the family drama when party plans collided. Yet, ultimately, the more cause to celebrate the better. I’d say instead of jettisoning the entire tradition this gentleman in Australia would be better served by planning ahead.

Image source: http://www.highlowfooddrink.com/2011/01/easy-entertaining-pink-and-purple-polka.html

Image source: http://www.highlowfooddrink.com/2011/01/easy-entertaining-pink-and-purple-polka.html

Her 16th was truly a riot.

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Photo courtesy Daily Mail

Photo courtesy Daily Mail

In North America at least, the 16th birthday is monumental. Check out the insanity of “My Super Sweet 16.” The reality shows 15-year-olds and their parents going way overboard for this threshold year party. Kidzworld reports one of the parties cost $203,000 US and that one Florida girl welcomed Ciara to the stage at her big event.

All these kids want to throw the biggest or most memorable party of the year.

Well, they are all trumped by an unfortunate Dutch 16-year-old who posted her birthday party invitation on Facebook and didn’t use privacy settings. The invitation went viral. According to the Daily Mail, her guest list ballooned to 3,000 and that doesn’t include the nearly 600 riot police needed to corral the crowd.

Molly Ringwald’s disastrous 16th aside, I have never before heard of a 16th birthday going as badly as this one did!

Hurting your ears with birthday fervor.

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I recently mortified an undergraduate by having the entire class sing her “Happy Birthday.” The reward? They all could leave class early. I didn’t anticipate, however, how horrific we would all sound. The guy with the lowest voice starting us off didn’t help any. Really. It was awful.

It’s pretty hilarious how poor it can sound when a bunch of us try and sing Happy Birthday to one another. The more the merrier at the party, but don’t count on the serenade to sound so hot.

Have you seen, though, the American Cancer Society’s campaign built around the idea of giving people more birthdays? Their tagline right now is, “The Official Sponsor of Birthdays.” There are several videos available with famous folks singing the Happy Birthday song (ranging from Deborah Harry to Justin Bieber or Weezer to Incubus).

Here’s a particularly soulful version from Jennifer Hudson. Yeah, when I sing in someone’s voicemail, I sound just like this!

A Bolton Birthday for You.

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American Greetings has announced a new “chart-topping birthday experience” featuring Grammy Award winning crooner Michael Bolton. Yes, you can order a video ecard featuring the singer of such hits as “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You?”

The greeting card company has created a customized birthday song where Bolton sings personalized lyrics drawing “over 1,000 pre-recorded names, including endearments and titles like ‘Honey’ and ‘Buddy,’” plus you select from one of 17 messages.

How are we supposed to live without Bolton making a birthday cake, singing with a helium voice and crooning to a cow and chicken. Bolton is clearly willing to be silly (for quite a pay check one can bet).

The company’s creative director is quoted in the release stating, “we thought ‘what could be bigger and more epic than Michael Bolton singing a song just for you?’”

Uhm, I can think of a few things. Bet you can too.

A Birthday Problem? Who knew.

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The Birthday Problem is not about who to invite to your birthday party. Nor is about whether to serve cake or ice cream (answer: both). Rather, it’s something to do with numbers.

Me, I am all about number of presents. Number of parties. Number of people attending said parties. Those numbers I understand. I am not a math person.  I teach writing. I had to get my brother’s help to offer even a semblance of math literacy on the GRE’s.

Image courtesy of http://cdn.cakecentral.com/d/de/de9c8fa3_image.jpeg

Yet, apparently math folks have this probabilities question exploring how many people in the room will share the same birthday. (Of course, if you’ve the chart showing birthday frequencies, you might be ahead of the game). Dr. Math even has several archived probability problems with birthdays involved.

Also for you quantitatively minded, or “birthamathophiles,” here’s Jon Plotkin’s post about roots, squares and other words that make me glaze over. Those who are more patient than me will enjoy (yes, the number of people who qualify as more patient is very, very big). He discusses “The Perfect Birthday” and points to 6 and 28. I was born on the 6th. One more reason my birthday’s perfect? I’ll take it!