Can a larger, historical meaning be made out of the fact that Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born on the same day, February 12, 1809? Can this accident be converted into its complete opposite, necessity? That is my question of the day.

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...

32 replies on “The Question of the Day”

  2. Can a larger, historical meaning be made out of the fact that both ‘crackers’ and ‘chips’ begin with a ‘c’? Can this accident be converted into its complete opposite, necessity? That is my question of the day.

  4. Chuckles, thank you for the inspiration you provide to all the people out there who, like you, can’t write but won’t let their lack of talent hold them back.

    This piece was just ridiculous.

  7. That makes it “Super” holiday. The day the southern U.S. would live to regret. And the day everyone else should celebrate as a wondrous and lucky coincidence. Very lucky.

  8. Can anything be made of the fact that Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and Soviet composer Sergei Prokofiev died on the same day (March 5, 1953)? No, except that it sucked for Prokofiev to not at least enjoy the ensuing thaw like Shostakovich did.

  9. Can a larger, historical meaning be made out of the fact that both this post and rape are both atrocious? Can this accident be converted into its complete opposite, necessity? That is my question of the day.

  10. The question of the day should be retooled: is it necessity or accident that three men who changed the world were born April 16 1889, April 18 1889 and April 20 1889, and two of them had the same kind of mustache?

  12. Can a larger, historical meaning be made out of the fact that Charles Mudede and the Allende meteorite both arrive on Earth the same day, February 8, 1969? Can this accident be converted into its complete opposite, necessity? That is my question of the day.

  13. Obviously, it’s coincidence, but one CAN note that both men were shaped by the events of their time…and their time was the same, so in that way, yes, they can be linked, historically. Both were members or western societies, living in a time when scientific and social inquiry were being promoted. Both men had a love of nature and of books. Neither was exceptionally religious, relative to the time, and both supported rather revolutionary ideas about the world, though in entirely different ways.

    All the other commenters are taking this exercise too literally.

  15. 7
    This Southerner is grateful Lincoln was such a great President and able to hold the nation together.
    Southerners, more than anyone else, are fortunate for that fact.

  19. Why is this post about 2 months late? Didn’t I already hear far too many middlebrow NPR treatments of the Darwin and/or Lincoln legacies back in Feb at the actual bicentennial mark?

  20. I don’t want to get all freshman lit on everyone here, but…

    “Without realizing it, the individual composes his life according to the laws of beauty even in times of greatest distress. It is wrong then, to chide the novel for being fascinated by mysterious coincidences, but it is right to chide man for being blind to such coincidences in his daily life. For he thereby deprives his life of a dimension of beauty.” — Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

  22. I really wonder sometimes whether you were dropped on your head as a baby, Chuckles, or if it’s just the drugs/booze talking.

    I sincerely hope it’s the latter, cuz then you could dry out for a while and it would get better.

    Of course, if it’s the former, maybe you ought to think really hard about shooting yourself.

  24. Lighten up people, it’s not like there’s a 1/366 chance that you’re going to share a birthday with someone famous. There were never more than 364 famous people ever.

  29. In the same way that astrology is true, this and all coincidences have meaning.

    Which is to say, it’s a fucking coincidence and lets focus on not bullshit?

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