Today is Calvin Trillin’s birthday. Trillin is a prolific writer, whose work spans several disparate genres, and he’s one of my favorite authors.

• Trillin is an avid eater and food writer: The Tummy Trilogy brings together three of his best works on the subject.
• He’s a wicked political poet: besides being the “Deadline Poet” for The Nation where he contributes topical, satirical poems each and every week, his poetry has been collected in Obliviously on He Sails: The Bush Administration in Rhyme and A Heckuva Job: More of the Bush Administration in Rhyme.
• He’s a novelist: Tepper Isn’t Going Out chronicles one New Yorker’s affair with the perfect parking spot.
• And he’s powerful memoirist: his recent paean to his late wife About Alice is as moving a tribute to love as you can hope to find.

I don’t know where he found the time to turn 72. Many happy returns of the day, Mr. Trillin.–David E