Thanks to Patrick Kurp at his excellent Anecdotal Evidence blog for reminding us that today's the birthday of several men in one, that one having started off on Oct. 5, 1911 as Brian O'Nolan and later morphing into Brother Barnabus, Flann O'Brien, and Myles na gCopaleen. Along the way these gentlemen gave the world the comic masterpieces At Swim-Two-Birds and The Third Policeman, the latter aptly described by Kurp as being something like an amalgam of Dante and Chuck Jones .O'Nolan died at 55, sodden with drink and eaten up by pessimism and Irish eschatological fear. Here's my take.

La-breithe mhaith agat, boyo. You'd only be 99. Sure, that's no age at all for an immortal like yerself.