"Sometimes I grow so tired, but I know I've got one thing I got to do..."

There have been some pretty famous speeches made throughout history: Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address", Churchill's "Iron Curtain", Nixon's "Checkers", or JFK's "Pax Americana", to name a few.

None, however, has been as personally meaningful to me as Edward R. Murrow's 1958 speech to the Radio and Television News Director Association and Foundation. I have read parts or all of that speech at least once a week for the past year. In our current culture of spin, misinformation, and outright ignorance, it's one of the few things I classify as truly enlightening.

Anyway, I believe that Aaron Sorkin's talent for script writing would make Murrow proud.

I can't think of anything Sorkin has written that isn't just phenomenal.

Granted, I don't exactly remember the dialogue of Malice, but c'mon - A Few Good Men, The American President, Sports Night, The West Wing, and now Studio 60? Fughitaboutit.

From sports to politics to comedy, the man can do it all - make you laugh while making you think.

And I fully appreciate his appreciation for Gilbert & Sullivan. ________________________________________________________________

My situational insomnia has reared its head again.

Flipping through the channels at 3:30 the other morning, I happened upon a re-run of Newsradio. I can't even begin to describe how happy it made me.

Unfortunately, the past few days, I've woken up at 4:30 and have been disappointed. Not at not being able to sleep, but at missing one of my favorite shows. __________________________________________________________________

In 1798, Thomas Malthus published a gloomy essay predicting the eminent extinction of mankind. He theorized that finite land and limited food supply would effectuate a low birth rate and a declining rate of mortality; the midpoint would somewhere meet on the horizontal and vertical axes and that convergence hypothetically represented the last living human being.

Malthus severely miscalculated several occurrences: the Industrial Revolution which allowed for improved agricultural productivity which resulted in a better-fed and healthier population; medical advancements which eradicated several mortal diseases and quickly cured or prevented others; general social reform that made hygienics a governmental priority.

Point is, the world's population has grown exponentially since Malthus published his junk science thesis. More people are living and they're living longer.

Each day, Wikipedia publishes a list of individuals who have either died or were born on that particular day. It's one of my favorite web pages and looking at those anniversaries each day has become habit over the past year or so.

A little game I like to play with myself is counting how many names I am familiar with on each list. Without exception, the list of births is always longer than the list of deaths.

As such, my quota for births is about 3 times higher than my quota for deaths. ___________________________________________________________________

Without doubt, I am absolutely the world's worst with birthdays.

I love celebrating children's birthdays; it's a time to be genuinely festive. After a certain age, I'll continue to acknowledge that special day (if I remember) but the magic of that day, to me, just loses its luster over time.

I'll start with my own.

The other day, I was driving home and thinking that I need to ask Melissa for some new socks. Yes, I can buy some for myself, but her buying them gives her one less present she has to think about.

The obvious - socks are either a birthday or Christmas present.

However, I had to think for about 5 seconds as to which came first - Christmas or my own birthday.

So, if I forget your birthday or don't stop the world for you, I don't even do it for myself. _________________________________________________________________

Thanks for letting me Ramble On, and now's the time, the time is now, to sing my song.