Fifty-seven arrives for me at 10:35 p.m. on September 14. I don’t recall much anything, truth be told. But I’ve studied up.

I was born in 1957, the bulge year during the baby boom, with 4,308,000 live births. More interesting, maybe? Through 2009 the United States of America has never had more live births than it had in 1957. There’s also evidence that mid-September has the most births in a typical year, so I may have been among the biggest 24-hour cohort ever. As it happens, I don’t think I know any 9/14/1957 people. (I do share my birthday with six FB Friends, but don’t think any of them are 1957 babies. Happy Birthday to y’all!)

When I was born I had a life expectancy of about 67 years. “Ruh-roh,” as the Jetsons’ dog might say. And the good news? The Social Security Administration Life Expectancy Calculator says I should live to be 83. Much better. And the difference? Lots of 0-5 deaths, even as recently as 1957, and I avoided some of the lifestyle deaths common among young men. (I did avoid Vietnam because of my age, although the first number selected in the first draft lottery was 258, which equals 9/14, including 2/29 for leap years. And, for Richard North Patterson fans, ball #258 plays a lead role in Loss of Innocence, which is a pretty good read.)

I share my birthday/year with professional baseball player Tim Wallach, and with Steven Jay Russell, a criminal whose story was told in I Love You Phillip Morris. Plain old 9/14 people include the late, great Clayton Moore aka the Lone Ranger, the late great Amy Winehouse, basketball coach Larry Brown, Russian Prime Minister (and former President) Dmitry Medvedev (who should not be confused with the current Russian President, Vladimir Putin, who is also the former Russian President and Prime Minister), and several others. Oh, among the others is Mary Crosby, who is my junior by two years and the woman who shot JR!

Big events on September 14? In 1990 Ken Griffey Sr. and his son hit back-to-back home runs for the Seattle Mariners in Anaheim Stadium. In 1964 President Lyndon Johnson awarded the Medal of Freedom to Walt Disney. In 1957 the government tested a nuclear bomb in Nevada. (Praise be the prevailing Westerlies!) And in 1901 Theodore Roosevelt became the youngest President of the United States, succeeding William McKinley, who died after being shot by Leon Czolgosz six days earlier.

Looking at 57, I learned a bit about numerology. Basically, it looks like a website can be found which will say almost anything. I rather liked this one, which says 57 means intelligent and inventive. I’ll take it and not go there anymore, but I can’t leave numbers completely. I’m alive for 20,818 days, so far, and just shy of 500,000 hours. Time to catch up on billings!

I don’t think I can squeeze anything else out of this occasion, except for two things. First, I’m grateful for what I have, including, first and foremost, wonderful people around me. There are my family and friends. (My mom was actually there when everything happened, and I’ll be celebrating with her.) My law partners and co-workers. (Among my co-workers my secretary, Lorinda Wheeler, deserves special notice, for this March she and I will celebrate 25 years of her putting up with me!) My Monday mates on the E-Penguins trivia team. My old non-profit pals. FB Friends. Readers. (Lots of overlapping there, by the way, and if I left out a big category, please let me know.) Paraphrasing an old Greek dude called Aesop, if people are judged by the company they keep, I’m more than alright!

Second, I planned to be out-of-town this weekend. Plans changed on account of a sick dog, so I had time and desire and baked an heirloom tomato pizza pie!

Heirloom Tomato Pizza Pie

Note:  the tomato slices were in a very nice 12-8-4 pattern. Really pretty! Then there was air, in the form of bubbles, and ain’t that just the way life is!