Happy Birthday Chuck

Okay, so we'll start this off by saying that Carlos is always trying to tell me what I should blog about. And I'm always telling him to get his own blog; but then I make a point of reading to him my most favorite quips and quotes from my blog. My new favorite, and with apologies to David, is AssCrackCarlos.

Or AssCrackCharlie, which what I call him when I Americanize him.

Or AssCrackChochis, because Chochis is an old family nickname for him.

So, imagine my surprise when he emailed me--yes, we live in the same house, sleep side-by-side, are around each almost constantly, but Carlos emails me--an article about Chuck Darwin that he wanted me to add to my blog. Again, I was indignant. How dare he tell me what to write about? If he wants to discuss Darwin, let him get his own little niche in blogland.

But then he signed the email like this:

Chochis cracked ass.

Well, I just had to write about Darwin. How could you turn down Chochis Cracked Ass?

So here it is:

The good people of London threw Charles Darwin a 200th birthday party at the Natural History Museum. Old school chums of Darwin, Larry King, Joan Rivers, Regis Philbin, were all in attendance--I believe Joan was Darwin's date the The Spring Fling.

The museum offered Darwin stamps, and the zoo offered free admission to anyone sporting a beard in recognition of his famous facial hair. There were folks with red beards, and black beards, gray beards; all beards get in free, whether real or fake, or married to Tom Cruise.

Katie Holmes. Beard. Get it?

Over 600 events took place, not only in the UK but around the world, yesterday to commemorate "Darwin Day" — the 200th anniversary of scientist Charles Darwin's birth. But it was a particularly special occasion in his native land.

Chuck Darwin enjoys a special place in the pride of Great Britain, where his face is on the 10-pound note, er, bill. Note? Bill? It's on the money.

And yet, amid all the celebration, there a note of skepticism. A recent poll in Great Britain shows that some 43 percent of all Britons believe in "young earth creation" — or the idea that God created the world within the past 10,000 years.

Yes, within the last 10,000 years! Dinosaurs? Pfffft.

Chuck would be pissed if he was still around today.

And an even greater percentage thought "Intelligent Design," or the idea that evolution was not alone enough to explain the origin of some living things, was or might be true.

Not to make Chuck angry, but who's to say this isn't true?

However, none of those blasphemous polls took the wind out to the sails of the celebrants; the Brits love they pomp and circumstance, after all.

At Westminster Abbey, the final resting place for Britain's great and good--does one have to be great and good, or can one be great or good--a solemn ceremony was held at Darwin's tomb with Anglican prayers sung at the simple white headstone. Flowers and foliage picked from Darwin's family home in southern England were lain at the grave.

In Christ's College at Cambridge, where Darwin studied, the Duke of Edinburgh unveiled a bronze statue showing a young, intense-looking Darwin sitting on the arm of a bench. His great-great-granddaughter, botanist Sarah Darwin, posed next to the statue for pictures.

London's Natural History Museum offered up "Darwin's birthday soup" — a pea-based broth based on a recipe from Darwin wife's cook book — along with the traditional birthday cake.

In tribute to Darwin's work in the Pacific, the Royal Mail unveiled six jigsaw-shaped stamps carrying pictures of wildlife from the Galapagos islands — including the giant tortoise and the Floreana Mockingbird.

Britain's Press Association news agency said no other non-Royal has had as many commemorative stamps released in his or her honor.

Those Brits love a shindig, Katie Holmes, pea soup and stamps.

Rock on!