I declare: waiting a national pastime;
The folding and snipping of paper humans into a chain a hobby;
The congregation of claggy floating islands of dead leaves
Sliding into the drains in autumn showers as a Sunday spectator sport.

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Thomas Jefferson, 3rd U.S. President, was born today in 1743.

Samuel Beckett, Irish novelist and playwright, was born on this day in 1906.

Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and playwright, was born on this day in 1939.