Pepys
It’s the birthday of Samuel Pepys, one of the most remarkable characters in modern history.
Able to work his way up from poverty to a cushy upperclass job as Secretary to the Admiralty, he kept a brutally honest and insightful journal for over ten years. He wrote about the London fire, the plague, food, sleeping with his wife, and just about anything else that one might experience in the span of ten years.
It’s also my dad’s birthday, whose age I won’t give away; but I will tell you that I’m thirty and he’s thirty years older than me.