Thursday, August 28, 2008

Keep your thoughts about Miley Cyrus to yourself

It’s days like these, when I feel stifled by my own inadequacy—“Thursdays”—that I like to list people who were older than me when they achieved things:

Age 29 – Oprah Winfrey gets her own T.V. show

Age 30 – Steve Martin first appears on the Tonight Show

Age 30 - Kurt Vonnegut publishes his first novel, "Player Piano" (to be fair he was fighting in WWII and stuff)

Age 31 – Neil Simon writes his first play

Age 31 – Judy Blume publishes her first novel

Age 33 – Virginia Woolf writes her first novel, the Voyage Out

Age 34 – Margaret Edson produces her first and only play, “Wit”

Age 36 – Christopher Guest has his one-season stint on SNL

Age 36 – Dave Barry gets his gig writing a humor column for the Miami Herald

Age 38 – George Saunders publishes first collection of short stories

Age 40 - Eric Carle publishes "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"

Age 45 - Roald Dahl writes "James and the Giant Peach"

Age 46 - E.B. White publishes his first children's novel (never mind that the New Yorker printed his first essay at age 26)

Age 57 – George Washington becomes president

I’m gonna flip out when I turn 40.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

You will be the next Judy Blume.

Julie Hilton Danan said...

I was very inspired to read the autobiography of "Dr Ruth" Westheimer, who became an overnight media success after a fleeing the nazis, making aliyah, suffering from low self esteem as a short immigrant with with a poor education (in 4 countries), struggling for an education in France and the US, working her way up the ladder, and getting older.

Miles said...

i love george saunders. everything i write is an unsuccessful attempt to rip him off.

Scenester said...

yeah he is awesome.

b.s. said...

this is funny because i just started reading player piano...and it's not so great. so that....proves the point? maybe?