Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me...

After spending more money than anybody else in last fall's Cincinnati City Council campaign ($293,782, to be exact, or $10.36 pervote), it's little wonder that Councilman Jeff Berding doesn't have two nickels to rub together.

But, like any good Cincinnati politician, Berding doesn't want to miss the St. Patrick's Day and Findlay Market parades, which he says will cost about $1,000 in entrances fees and other expenses.

So, next Thursday, when the freshman Democrat turns 39 years old, he's throwing a birthday party for himself at the Federal Reserve bar downtown. Invitations, which went out via e-mail to friend and supporters, listed a "suggested donation of $25,'' with proceeds going to the Berding campaign account's spring parade fund.

"That's just if you want to,'' Berding said. "I'm not going to throw anybody out of my birthday party if they don't give $25.''

Berding is billing this as his "first annual'' birthday bash. The "first annual'' part would have driven Dru Riley Evarts, our copy editing prof at Ohio University many years ago, absolutely crazy, because she would have barked that an event can't be "annual'' until it has happened at least two years in a row.

But Berding says he intends to do it again next February, when he will be turning 40 and actually running for re-election.

"Next year, we'll probably drop the 'suggseted' part,''' Berding said.