It’s my 24th birthday today. I believe the traditions at this juncture are (A) to bemoan one’s increased decrepitude, (B) to note the increased perceived speed of time, (C) to gloat over one’s presents, or (D) to whine that one hasn’t accomplished enough in one’s lifetime.

So to better facilitate my chosen method, (D), I’d like to note the following.

By the age of 24:

• Mozart had composed 10 operas and had an eleventh commissioned
• Virginia Woolf wrote for the Times Literary Supplement
• Victoria was Queen of England and Empress of India
• Pompey the Great had fought in several wars and begun his first string of unbroken victories
• Victor Hugo had had two novels published

However, in assembling this list, it has not escaped my notice that my father is very nice, I haven’t had a nervous breakdown, I am not the leader of an oppressive colonialist force, I have never killed anyone, and, God willing, I will never be a politician, even in the noble cause of Revolution. So maybe I’m not doing so badly….