Tom Waits and Me

Well today is, as it happens, my birthday. Here at NigeCorp, the traditional ox roast is getting under way, and the finest vintages are being brought up from the ancestral cellars. The workers are lined up in their best culluloid collars, hair slicked down, nervously fingering the rims of their doffed caps as they rehearse this year's birthday ode...
As historians will need no reminding, this day is also the anniversary of the regrettable Tumult of Thorn - but, more to the point, I share my birthday exactly (day and year) with the great Tom Waits. Our careers have followed slightly different paths, though, with enough booze and baccy on board, I can manage a passable (to me anyway) imitation. Happy birthday Tom! I am sure that, like me, you rejoice at being one year nearer to your narrow home...