The Big Day

Greetings, faithful readers! I hope you've been enjoying the action in the NHL so far. I was intrigued by the Philadelphia Flyers-Calgary Flames tilt last night, and have thoroughly enjoyed watching the Leaf-Nation struggle to come to terms with the fact that their team is still one-line deep, has a swiss cheese-like defense, and somewhat-below-average goaltending. For all the ideas to increase scoring in the NHL, it appears that everything has gone the wayside as well. Nine games have been decided by one goal, and there has only been one team to score five goals thus far this season: the New York Rangers. However, a pile more teams have their first regular season games tonight, so hockey will be back in full-swing once Saturday night arrives.

This weekend, however, will be spent with me celebrating the old birthday. Today was the day I was born, and I am happy to say that I've made it this far. In doing some research for today, I found out a few things. October 5 is the most-popular birthday in the world. There are more people that celebrate a birthday today than any other day on the calendar. This might be due to the fact that the conception date for a baby born today would be New Year's Eve, but I'll leave that one up to speculation.

In any case, here are a list of semi-famous people who are celebrating a birthday today, along with yours truly:

Kate Winslet - Titanic actress
Bernie Mac - comedian, The Bernie Mac Show
Guy Pearce - Momento actor
Clive Barker - horror novel author
Daniel Baldwin - one of the Baldwin brothers
Nicky Hilton - sister of Paris Hilton, hotel heiress
Jesse Palmer - former NY Giants quarterback, TSN football analyst
Scott Weinger - voiced Aladdin for Disney, starred on Full House
Grant Hill - oft-injured NBA star
Terri Runnels - former WWE valet
Bob Geldof - Irish musician, founder of Live Aid
Steve Miller - frontman of the Steve Miller Band
Barry Switzer - former NFL head coach
Rex Champan - former NBA three-point champion
Michael Andretti - CART racecar driver
Ray Kroc - founder of McDonald's
Bill Wirtz - former owner of the Chicago Blackhawks
Fredrik Olausson - former NHL defenseman
Patrick Roy - former NHL superstar goaltender
Mario Lemieux - former NHL superstar scoring machine

I also did some research as to events that happened on this day. Here a few notable happenings that occurred on October 5:

2004 - Tiger Woods marries Elin Nordegren.
1982 - New Jersey Devils play their first game. The Devils and Pittsburgh Penguins battle to a 3-3 tie.
1970 - PBS becomes a network.
1963 - 17th NHL All-Star Game is played. The Toronto Maple Leafs and the NHL All-Stars play to a 3-3 tie in Toronto.
1962 - The Beatles release their first album "Love Me Do".
1957 - 11th NHL All-Star Game is played. The NHL All-Stars defeat the Montreal Canadiens in Montreal 5-3.
1952 - 6th NHL All-Star Game is played. The First-Team All-Stars and Second-Team All-Stars play to a 1-1 tie in Detroit.

As a sidenote, thank you to everyone who has stopped by and read this blog since early January of 2007. Without you guys, this wouldn't be as fun or as rewarding as it is. I really appreciate all the comments, and encourage you all to check out each and every blog to the right as those people do amazing work as well. Thank you, readers, and I look forward to writing as much as a I can after this birthday weekend is over!

Until then, keep your sticks on the ice!