Happy Birthday, Joss and Johannes!

Today (Friday, June 23rd), we celebrate a couple of notable birthdays: first, we have Johannes Gutenberg, who developed the very first printing press (so he could print a Bible, probably an abridged one). He'd be 606 years old.

Currently making fine use of Gutenberg's device (well, the descendents of Gutenberg's device--otherwise we'd still be waiting for Astonishing X-Men #2 instead of #16) is another notable birthday boy, Joss Whedon. The creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly is a relative spring chicken at 42.

Happy Birthday to both; Thanks for the press, Johannes, and thanks for doing something fancy with the printed word, Mr. Whedon. And Joss, when you're done blowing out yours, it'd be decent of you to help Old Gutenberg blow out the remaining 400 or so candles on his cake.

And in your honor, guys: I implore anyone reading this to:

1. Write something. Write something fun, with people interacting with other people. And with people talking to each other. And with vampires. Or with co-workers who live on a spaceship. Or with Kitty Pryde. Or all of the above. (Extra credit if it includes vampires spanking Johannes Gutenberg 606 times)

2. Print it. I know it's not the same thing (unless you're printing with handheld rubber stamps of individual letters), but Johannes won't care. He's as dead as the battery on the rusted-out '74 Vega on blocks around the corner from your house. The one missing all of it's mirrors, not the one with the Keep On Truckin' bumper sticker.

I'm not going to insist that you share your tributes with me (and the literally pairs of other people reading this shit), but you'll feel better than ever if you do.