Fading stars

Well, we can all pause and take a moment to celebrate the birthday of Gustave Flaubert. Gustave, as you probably know, wrote, "Madam Bovary", a story about a wife who is disatisfied with her marriage and works to find happiness elsewhere.

I have never read "Madam Bovary". Most of the foreign literature I have read in my time has been either German or Russian. I can't think of much in the way of French writing that I have read. I read some Camus and Sarte in Philosophy class. I am familiar with some of the classics, like "Cyrano DeBergerac", "Les Miserables", "The Man in the Iron Mask", "The Phantom of the Opera" and "The Three Musketeers." However, most of my knowledge of those works comes from movies and television.

I must confess that I read some of the Dumas classics in 'Classic Comics' when I was a kid.

At any rate, I suppose we should all raise a glass of wine and toast our wives in honor of Mssr. Flaubert today.

This is also Bob Petit's birthday, a college and pro basketball player, who played for LSU and the St. Louis Hawks. Mr. Petit was a great basketball player, and held all kinds of records at LSU until Pete Maravich came along. Unfortunately, he came along a year or two before another great basketball player who was also from Louisiana: Bill Russell. As a result, the Hawks played in a lot of NBA championships in the 50's and 60's but only won one of them. Boston won the rest.

Since the Hawks and the Celtics have always been my two favorite NBA teams, I'll take a shot for Mr. Petit's birthday.

I think its Tracy Austin's birthday as well. She was a child tennis star when I was in high school and college, who faded away as she got older, like most stars.

Many stars fade as their lives progress. That is the nature of stars.