The Anchoress ( http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/theanchoress/2009/06/26/jackson-was-an-idol-not-an-icon/ ) might take exception to the “icon” thing, but I’m not going to address that, she does a splendid job. I want to address the aversion to his negatives.

Yes, he brought the world some very popular music. Thriller was THE thing when I was in 8th grade, and I celebrated when I figured out the “moonwalk” and did it myself. He was a pop culture phenomenon exactly when I began to pay attention to those things – when he went off the deep end it was a bit of my childhood that died. But the WHOLE must be acknowledged, warts and all, and the last 15 years seem to be largely ignored in the retrospective, and that is a shame. It’s as if he died at 35 instead of 50, and these latest years illuminated the true person more than when he was famous and well, managed.

It was an absolute pleasure to make your acquaintance, I hope you had a much fun as I had, watching you and Stacy go back and forth.

And Portsmouth really isn’t THAT bad a town (but the best restaurant in town is really in another city, seriously)…don’t mind the Navy D-bags.

That photo reminds me of a formerly-five year old niece’s question, “Why do they keep calling it his Bad album?”