Happy Birthday, Skatje!


She really hasn’t changed a bit.

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Well, maybe a little. Skatje (since everyone asks how it’s pronounced, I’ll spell it out: scot-ya) is turning 17 today, and guess how she’s going to celebrate?

She’s hosting the first ever meeting of the UMM Campus Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists, with free pizza, free discussion, and free thought at the Morris Pizza Hut, at 7:00. She’s a regular little godless debutante, I guess.

Comments

  1. Lynn David says

    I can see the opposite side now claiming child abuse taking your kid to an atheist get-together. Especially if the pizza has anchovies.

  2. syntyche says

    The fact that most incoming college students this year were born in 1990 makes me want to cry.

  3. Niobe says

    FYI Skatje looks very much like a Dutch diminutive for “schat”, or “sweetie” so every time you mention her name it’s like you’re using a pet name.

  4. Hank Fox says

    Still a cute pixie, after all these years. But now apparently with a generous dash of brilliance, and a great deal of inner strength.

  5. says

    Hey, I was a debutante once! 1980, Edwards AFB Officer’s Club, and the special guest was (can you believe it?) the late Christopher Reeve, who was a flying enthusiast.

  6. says

    By a sheer although I suppose not that startling coincidence, my son celebrates his very first birthday today!

    Well, we’ll be celebrating it anyway, he pretty much celebrates every day, it’s just today he’ll be doing it with a fistful of cake.

  7. says

    Well done Doctor. See it doesn’t take a deity to create a precious, intelligent, independent life-form…

    Just a biologist.

    (I hope that comes across the way I intended it to…)

  8. Nix says

    Oh, I’m sure PZ knew about Skatje’s birthday whole hours in advance, so he could line up a nice embarrassing picture for the blog ;)))

    (incredibly sweet pic, btw)

  9. SEF says

    She’s hosting … with free pizza

    Well her taste in food may have changed a little then – unless she’s also going to be demanding chocolate cake with lots of cream this time round (and there was a first course to that photo which left no evidence on her mouth).

  10. says

    Hm, interesting family. I know I’d be embarrassed if my father put baby/kid pictures of me on a blog… you did get Skatje’s permission, right??! :)

  11. Gerrit says

    Being Dutch, the name Skatje has the same effect on me as it has on Niobe (#7): cutie, sweetie, darling (a variation of standard Dutch “schatje”). The photo prompted me to say out loud: is het geen skatje? (Isn’t she a cutie?)

  12. Northern Virginia says

    Ah, to be a child and have a birthday. To be the center of the universe, for a day!

  13. mirshafie says

    Whoa, those are some strong glasses. Let me guess, at least 4 diopters hyperopia?

    Very cute picture, btw. Happy birthday!

  14. says

    Won’t seem but a few days before she is joining you for Drinking Liberally, PZ!

    They grow up so fast, don’t they? My daughter, the one who I carried on my shoulders at the Dallas Science Museum just a few weeks ago, and is now 22, will be taking me out for drinks to celebrate my own birthday this weekend.

  15. Gerdien de Jong says

    Niobe and Gerrit:
    Skatje looks very much like a Dutch diminutive for “schat” – treasure, sweetheart for the uninformed Anglo-Saxons – but I think it is Frisian rather than Dutch (same meaning).

  16. Lana says

    Wow, just turning 17 is young to be in college. She must have skipped a year in school. My son is 17 and a senior in high school. Hey, they’re the same age and he’s an atheist too!

  17. SteveyD says

    Happy Birthday to a fellow August 30th-er. Enjoy your CASH meeting! I’ll be settling for beer, college football (go Utes!) and good times with friends.