July 15th ought to be a national holiday

Today is the birthday

… of Alex Karras, All-American, Heisman runner-up (and he was a lineman), Outland Award winner, NFL star (1958-1971), Monday Night Football sportscaster, TV sitcom actor and — most notably — Mongo in Blazing Saddles. He’s 73 today.

… of Tucson’s favorite daughter, Linda Ronstadt, 62 today. Miss Ronstadt has sold more than 66 million albums worldwide. The session band behind her on her third album became The Eagles. Linda went to a different high school and was behind me a year or two, but I did sit behind her cousin Margaret in many a class when the nuns had us in alphabetical order.

… of Forest Whitaker, 47. Whitaker has been in more than 60 films and television productions, most notably Good Morning, Vietnam, The Crying Game and as Charlie “Bird” Parker in Bird (which earned him best actor at Cannes). He won the best actor Oscar, of course, for portraying Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland.

Rembrandt Van Rijn was born in Leiden, Netherlands on this date in 1606.