Birthday: "There's something about most phobias where there's a tiny, tiny corner where you think this really actually could happen."

A member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, holder of honorary degrees and prizes, author of 19 books, contributor to The New Yorker, Scientific American and the Harvard Business Review, Rosalind Chast is 62 today.

She grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn, graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design, and got her start placing her work with the New York City publications Christopher Street and The Village Voice.

In 1978 she sold a piece to The New Yorker, and 38 years later she remains one of the magazine's mainstays.

Roz Chast is a cartoonist. I think of her in the same constellation of stars as Lynda Barry and John Callahan, and, several light years on out, Gahan Wilson.

The best way to tell you of her genius is to show it to you.