And I call myself an English major… “You scored 4 out of a possible 15. ‘[Your] wit’s as thick as Tewsksbury mustard’, and your answers a veritable comedy of errors.” Well, happy birthday anyway, Billy boy.

It’s also the birthday of novelist Vladamir Nabokov. I heartily recommend Pale Fire and Pnin, two wonderful books. And I wonder, as I once did here, is it possible that, Nabokov created the smiley emoticon even though he died in 1977? He wrote: “I often think there should exist a special typographical sign for a smile — some sort of concave mark, a supine round bracket, which I would now like to trace in reply to your question.” 🙂