Megalomaniacs Inc.

Sometimes, as I travel through the blogosphere, I wonder whether every blogger is a Taurus. Of course, they’re not, but it does seem that an inordinate number of the blogs I read are authored by people who are born in the late April to May part of the year. Or possibly it’s because that’s when my birthday is, so I’m more aware of other people who are celebrating at the same time.

Quite often, over the years, my birthday has coincided with the long weekend created by the celebration of Labour Day in Queensland on the first Monday of the month. Like everybody, I suppose, whose birthday falls on a public holiday, I have liked to joke that the holiday is in honour of me. More recently, other public celebrations around the time of my birthday have only encouraged my megalomaniacal tendencies.

Take this past weekend for example. It was Buddha’s birthday, and the whole of the South Bank Precinct in Brisbane celebrated.

There were banners lining the streets.

There were red lanterns across the cityscape.

There were images of Buddha everywhere. They even broke out a Ferris Wheel.


For a long time, I was quite content to know that I shared a birthday with Audrey Hepburn.

I was convinced that I shared her iconic beauty and grace, even if it was imperceptible to others. Philistines!

But now that I know I share a similar planet alignment to a deity... Oh, now you can identify the physical similarities? To the fat, laughing Buddha, you say?

FYI, there are some Christian astrologers who have calculated the birthday of Jesus Christ as falling on the 7th of May.

That’s two deities. Keep laughing and I may have to use my clearly not inconsiderable powers to strike you down.

Other early May birthdays:

5 May: Karl Marx
6 May: Sigmund Freud