You may scoff at the phenomenon, but Honorius wrote the same thing about children born on Aug 24 in 410, after the Sack of Rome.

It's my bday too. I hate that it is called Patriot Day now - which just reminds me of Bush. I was pissed for a few years after but got over it. no one wants to be overshadowed on their bday (those with Christmas birthdays understand). But yeah, beats dying in such a horrific manner.

My friend's 21st birthday was also on THE 9/11, and while that was possibly the most depressing birthday party ever (birthday girl wanted to cancel it, but we all insisted it be carried through, cuz you know, otherwise the terrorists win), she never felt the entitlement to think, let alone claim, that her day was forever hijacked. Jesus.

jeesh, you're up early...

My son was born on 9/13, and I remember it seeming unfair to him nine years ago when there was a sad pall over his party. He was turning four years old then, though.

Once you're past your teens, who cares about mentioning, never mind celebrating their own birthdays anymore?

This is excellent, as usual for your literary criticism, Mr. Frizzelle: I love it when you have time for it. In particular, I love the fact that you are grateful for the reminder of such awesome death on your birthday, as I think that is the secret to happiness in general. The older I get, the more I feel grateful for still kicking around at all, enjoying the day, not immediately scrambling for safety as so many are around the world. I'm not gloating about it, just blown away that things are peaceful for this moment, this particular day. And that I'm not stressing and worrying about what people see when they look at the date on my ID.

It's not difficult to pinpoint at all - what's annoying about this article is that is yet another piece of "news" about 9/11 that we have to endure in the endless media rehashing and shoving down our throat in every way possible 9/11. There are people born every day - which means someone was born on (and this is by no means an exhaustive list): the day Pearl Harbor was attacked, the day President Kennedy was murdered, the day Martin Luther King was murdered, the day Malcolm X was murdered, the day Timothy McVeigh bombed the building in OK, etc.

I personally feel that the relentless media assault about 9/11 is more traumatic than the trauma I experienced on that day and the months after that day, living in Brooklyn, NY. I moved to Seattle in 10/02 and I distinctly remember the first 9/11 where I didn't even realize it was 9/11 until about half way into the day. I was in my apartment, hadn't been watching any TV that week for whatever reason I guess, who knows how escaped the media assault that year, and when I finally realized what day it was there was some sadness, of course, but I was able to spend the day doing something other than wanting to lie in bed all day.

Now just scrolling through the cable menu it's unbelievable all of the shows and specials and news reports on 9/11. I don't need to see footage of those planes flying into those buildings EVER AGAIN. I remember being extremely thankful that Michael Moore did not use that imagery in Fahrenheit 9/11. I will never forget what happened on that day, nor do I expect anyone who was affected (however they were affected, even if it ruined their birthday) will ever forget. I simply wish we could find a better way to remember than all of the rehash - it's like a scar being sliced open again every year and then needing to be stitched up again. It's sick. And here we are NINE years after the fact and Ground Zero is still an empty hole in the ground. And we have spent trillions of dollars on a war in the name of 9/11 in a country which had nothing to do with 9/11 all because our hayseed President and his cronies steamrolled a traumatized America that it was the right thing to do. In the end the war has cost more lives and more money than 9/11 did and has resolved nothing.

I have two adult friends born on 9/11. One did say that on the actual day nobody showed up at the bar for his party and so he took himself to a movie instead. The other had a party as normal, and neither since 2001 has reported any change in their birthday celebrations. The benefit is that fewer people forget their birthdays now that the day has taken on extra significance.

I took ownership of my home on 9/11 4 years ago. Fuck this...September 11th is a happy day for me. I'm taking it back. Those with birthdays (especially those born before 2001) should do the same.

Will there be many weddings this Saturday? Might be a great day for a deal on a swank venue.

Happy birthday, Chris.

Do people born on December 7th have to constantly morn Pearl Harbor? Most people don't even remember the dates of most major tragedies or celebrations. Give it another decade and it will be the same as being born on Veterans Day.

@2 Who the hell calls it patriot day?

I know how you 9-11 birthday people feel. My poor son was born on March 5th . And who can forget that fateful March 5th in 1461 when Henry VI was deposed by the Duke of York during the War of the Roses. So unfair.

The problem with this "phenomenon" is that it is attempting to extend the tragedy of the events on that day to other people who did not suffer them. "Oh, it happened to me too". NO IT DID NOT. Having your birthday on a particular day is not a catastrophe FOR YOU, and you are not suffering, no matter how many "looks" you get or imagine you get.

It's also another example of the infantilization of modern America, and in many ways of New York in particular. Nobody gives a shit about your goo-goo birthday party or your cupcakes or your birthday presents. Oh, and "gift bag designer"? Gift bag designer, I swear to God. What has happened to the city of Walt Whitman, Weegee, Warhol, and the Ramones? Gift bag designer. Those planes should have crashed into YOU.

That stock photo of the frowny chick looking at the birthday cake makes me want to smash someone's $1600 lens as well.

Yet I can't help being glad NYT still has room to publish an overreaching dud amid the millions of their daily pieces. Few papers give their feature writers so much rope any more. I don't like to dwell on it, but how much more fun to be the worst writer at the NYT, stuck doing another goddam 9/11 piece, than whatever it is I'll be doing today...

P.S. Canuck @1 that's a lovely detail!

Happy birthday!

That was an oft discussed date at my house, Gus, as my father loved to tell the story of wearing a burlap sack with "410" written across the front to a Halloween party...heh.

Gift-bag designer shouldn't be a job.

Thank you so much, Christopher and commenters, for this antidote to the garbage out there. I'm going to stay the hell away from the NYT article, which sounds like anything but a useful contribution to our thinking about that day. It's my daughter's birthday, too (she turned 7 then, and now she'll be 16). I leave the radio and TV off for one day and just celebrate her being alive.

@14 --- totally excellent rant this time.

9-11 will also hang around longer because it is referred to by date, not by a name. Someone born in the 90s will likely not know the date of the bombing of pearl harbor. But 9/11? It's fairly easy to remember that one.

@22, I think that's the seed of the overblown point that the NY Times article gets at. September 11th is called September 11th, not "World Trade Center Attack Day". For those of us with a birthday that day, when we hear people talking about the attacks refer to "September 11th" we hear "my birthday" in its place. Does it "ruin" my birthday? No, I'm a grownup - so long as someone shows up to have a drink with me, that's enough birthday for me. But, it's a thing that happens, and it is related to September 11th, so it's going to come up so long as the media sees fit to create page hits by publishing multiple, derivative stories about that day on or near its anniversary.

We're writing gossip columns about a national tragedy? But the French are in the wrong for cracking jokes. Alrighty then. And it's not a "phenomenon" it's a coincidence.

On what day was President Obama elected? MY BIRTHDAY. How dare he steal my thunder.

@10, I'm getting married on Saturday! we had a month long trip to Europe planned and we thought, hey that might make a fun honeymoon so let's gets married the Saturday before we leave! I checked the date, realized it was Sept. 11th and said fuck it, at least we'll never forget our anniversary!

That said, @14/19, gift bags have saved my lazy ass on all kinds of birthdays and other occasions scattered throughout the year, when I don't have any brown paper bags or Sunday funnies lying around to use instead.

@12: Original Monique's birthday is Pearl Harbor Day, and mine is 9/11. Sure, it was a strange 21st, but life goes on, you know? We got my first legal drink at Charlie's and watched CNN in the quietest bar ever.

And Christopher, I get comments on my birthday once a week. You need to buy more booze from idiots.

@28, Jessica, they're hitting on you.

not defending the whiners in the article, but maybe people get more intense "looks" etc if they live in the NYC area. certainly feeling run stronger there than here.

I hope that other parent made up the story about being in the first tower just to teach that whiny fucker a lesson.

@16,

The NYT is turning into NPR wherein 90 percent of what they do is completely useless, frivolous garbage.

I hate when my birthday falls on Mother's Day.

A point of contention: it might be a point of pride to share a birthday with Moby? Really?

That aside, the article is appalling. Wishing for an act of Congress to move your birthday? And the post in the comments stating, unequivocally, that "no one in this country should never ever have party on september 11"? It's whiny, entitled bullshit from people who are old enough to know better.

@ 32 -- Oh come now, that's not true. Most of what the NYT does (let's say 90 percent) is original, expensive, easy-to-take-for-granted-but-hard-to-produce journalism.

#31, I kind of called bullshit on that, too.

Oh, woe is me. My birthday is the anniversary of John Paul I's death, and Richard II's abdication. If anyone paid any attention to those things, and if I were like 4 years old and still made a big to-do about my birthday, that would just really suck, wouldn't it?

I agree with Fnarf. Infantilization of society, indeed. Bah!

C'mon, don't be a bunch of Douches...birthdays are the only holiday that no one can take away from us. It's not self pity, you just don't get it

I also have a birthday on 9/11 and that horrific day was my 30th birthday, so I will always celebrate a decade milestone with a decade memorial about that day. But, a person's birthday should be celebrated no matter what happened in history. I feel sorry for the woman in the article who feels as if she has to go to a memorial and be saddened about the event before celebrating her birthday....that's unhealthy!