It's the birthday of the humorist and cultural critic Joe Queenan, born in Philadelphia (1950). He's one of the angriest and funniest contemporary critics of popular culture. His working-class background inspired him to become a critic because, he said, "Blue collar people like me have zero tolerance level for the problems of celebrities."

He had been working a series of manual labor jobs, loading trucks and selling tennis racquets, when he decided to become a journalist. The first thing he published was an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal called "Ten Things I Hate about Public Relations." He has gone on to write a series of books criticizing various aspects of American culture, including Imperial Caddy: The Rise of Dan Quayle in America and the Decline and Fall of Practically Everything Else (1992), and Balsamic Dreams: A Short but Selfish History of the Baby Boomer Generation (2001).

Joe Queenan's advice to aspiring writers is, "Don't write until you're 25. Don't write for the high school yearbook. Don't write for the college literary magazine. Don't write that stuff—you never had any experiences, you don't know anything, just shut up."

(from "The Writer's Almanac")