EXTRA CHOCOLATE, PLEASE 🧁

Happy National Chocolate Cupcake Day! This is very exciting news, as I happen to love both chocolate AND single-serve miniaturized foodstuffs. A match made in gastronomical heaven!

Nor should you be, Mr. Tribbiani!

If you're one of the 10-20% of humans that doesn't find chocolate appealing, don't worry — the vanilla cupcake's time to shine is coming up next month! Your patience and delicate tastebuds will be justly rewarded in due time.

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Alright, birthday time! Let's all have a chocolate (or other-flavored) cupcake in honor of:

• Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry, born this day in 1926! Mr. Berry was a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and bandleader who was nicknamed "The Father of Rock 'n' Roll" and a profound influence on the development of the genre, impacting a who's who of 20th century popular music, from Elvis Presley and Jimi Hendrix to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, David Bowie, and countless others.

• German actor Klaus Kinski, also born this day in 1926! Mr. Kinski was a favorite of director Werner Herzog, which is topical given his casting as Nosferatu in Herzog's 1979 film Nosferatu the Vampyre and its 1988 follow-up Vampire in Venice. He was also a regular in "spaghetti Westerns" of the 1960s.

• Actress Dawn Wells, born this day in 1938! Famous for her role as Mary Ann Summers on Gilligan's Island, Ms Wells was also a delightful interview guest on Space Ghost Coast to Coast.

• Novelist Terry McMillan, born this day in 1951! Ms McMillan shot to national attention in 1992 following the publication of her third novel Waiting to Exhale, which was soon followed by another hit in 1996, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, both of which were adapted into hit feature-length films.

Today is also the birthday of tennis legend Martina Navratilova (1956), actor/martial artist Jean-Claude Van Damme (1960), and actor Zac Efron (1987).

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OK! Unfortunately no one has volunteered to be featured in our regular Monday Q&A segment, so that's it for this email. If YOU'D like to be featured in this space next Monday, reply to this and let me know! I'll send you some questions and my eternal gratitude!

In the meantime, we'll be back in your inbox on Wednesday morning with links to fun distractions! If you're in a shopping mood, be sure to use the code YAY10 at checkout to save 10% on orders of $100 or more! Until next time...

Peace, love, and cupcakes,

Matt