Birthday Bugs

For a reason I was never able to fully understand I had this insatiable interest in Bugs Bunny when I was a child. Back then (the 1960s) I had the benefit of Bugs every Saturday morning in the form of the Warner Brothers television show featuring his old cartoons. I never really warmed to Daffy Duck, and the rest of the characters left me cold. They might have been funny, but none of them were Bugs.

Fast forward about 30 years to a Warner Brothers store in some mall in Scottsdale. Matt wanted to go in and mill around and so I went to be cooperative. (I am no fan of malls and even less a fan of milling around in stores that shill garbage).

Desperately resisting the urge to slit my wrists, I wandered over to a collection of Bugs Bunny crap merchandise. I noticed a pair of dog tags with Bugs' image on it. I was appalled. When I picked them up and looked at the second tag I got the shock of my life: it said right there that Bugs' birthday was 7/27/40 -- the same month and day as me!

Well, of course, this explained everything. Bugs was a smart aleck, so was I; he was clever and witty just like me; he engaged in bright repartee just like I did. We were so much alike! (We part ways when it comes to cross dressing.)

Knowing that Bugs and I share a birthday has always been special to me. I share a birthday with a lot of famous people -- including Alexandre Dumas, Leo Durocher, Peggy Fleming, Alex Rodriguez, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers; but none of them hold such a special place in my heart as Bugs Bunny.

[And to be clear, the Bugs I like is the earlier incarnation (pictured) with the elongated head, yellow gloves and slight paunch. THIS was Bugs as he was meant to be. He was fun when he was rough and unpolished, but became little more than a common boor as he got cleaned up and "refined." Yet another example of tampering with perfection.]

You can read more about the famous rabbit here.