A PERSONAL EXAMINATION
As I studied the two lists of alleged unfortunate birthdays for males and females, and the nature of the misfortunes ascribed to them, I realized two people in my immediate family, a parent and a sister, each had a birthdate which landed on one of the two lists. As I considered the course of life for these two individuals, what I know to have happened to them, and their personal characteristics, I had to concede the point–in their cases, the designation of ‘unfortunate’ and what it meant within the context of these two lists had proved painfully true. Want to hear the absolute capper? The sister in question was once married a man whose birthday landed on the other list of unfortunate birthdates! Oy. Is it any wonder the marriage ended in divorce, and she hasn’t married again. That guy ruined her credit rating with his various schemes. It wasn’t all bad for my sister though—the otherwise-disastrous marriage produced a daughter whom we all love, and I can’t imagine life without T.
All right, anyone could have relatives or friends born on one of the unfortunate days. Purely a coincidence two of my own family members fit the bill. Luck of the draw. It probably happens to everybody. And the unfortunate-birthdays list for males somehow missed my brother M., so it clearly isn’t a perfect list.
I would further note that late POTUS Ronald Reagan’s birthday appears on the list of unfortunate birthdays for males. His father was an alcoholic who once lost a job on Christmas, his first marriage to actress Jane Wyman ended in divorce (her birthday appears on the list of unfortunate birthdays for females, oddly-enough), his testimony before the HUAC in Congress in the 1950s made him unpopular with certain sections of the populace, and he was afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease the last dozen or so years of his life. But he was also elected Governor of California, twice-elected President of the United States, was happily married for decades to his second wife Nancy, who clearly adored him, and is still a highly-regarded president by large chunks of the public. Many things he did in office still have an impact to the current day. So how ‘unfortunate’ can we consider all that?